Ranma ½: Hell Bound

Disclaimer: All the stuff that isn't mine belongs to the people who own it. You know what I'm talking about. The Ranma character(s), the Mega Man X character(s), all that.

Speech " "

Thoughts :

Sounds

Signs

Any form of electric communication

English " "

Chapter 3

Intermission

After a few minutes of chasing down Ryoga and convincing him that the base was in another direction, Zero and X started the long walk back to the base, during which the Reploids explained their occupation. As they came into view of the base in question, Ryoga noted the large neon sign that read "Maverick Hunter Main Headquarters." Ryoga found this to be quite counterproductive.

"Why doesn't Sigma or any other Maverick attack this place?" he asked. His red companion shrugged his response.

"I dunno. Maybe they're afraid of neon signs? Could be some crazy superstition caused by the Sigma virus. 'Beyond the glowing sign lies the door to hell' or some such nonsense."

"Evil robots bent on the Earth's destruction don't strike me as things to have such a superstition," Ryoga returned.

"Maybe Sigma just hasn't thought of it. Don't think he'll be doing much thinking any time soon after what you did to him, though."

"True."

As they got closer, Ryoga was awestruck by the immensity of the place. The door itself must have been twenty feet high and thirty feet wide. Stationed at the door and in sniper towers were several sentries, and a few patrols were walking about as well. The door sentries saluted the two high-class hunters. X returned the salute sharply. Zero, ready to get inside and get his report over with, paid them no heed.

"Excuse me, sir," said the guard on the left. Zero turned around.

"What?"

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Permission granted."

"Why didn't you just use your teleporter, sir? It's not damaged, is it?" Zero pointed a thumb at Ryoga.

"Guest."

"Couldn't you have just given him the coordinates, sir?"

"A) We don't hand out the coordinates to whomever we please. B) Take a closer look, dumb ass. He's human."

"Zero…" mumbled X at the insult. All present chose to ignore this as the guard gained a look of understanding quickly followed by a look of confusion.

"Why bring a human here, sir? Does he have technical knowledge or information that we need?"

"He's stronger than both X and I. Possibly combined," he added. This just furthered the guard's confusion.

"But sir, that's quite impossible. We've done research on humans; their fighting capacity maxes out at-"

"Look, kid." said Zero coldly, cutting off the sentry. "Don't second guess me. I saw this guy destroy Sigma with one attack. Turned the bastard into dust. With his finger." With that Zero left, the guard still puzzling the information thrown at him.

Ryoga had never seen a building so big, let alone been in one. There were labs for chemistry, labs for research, labs for development, and labs for just about anything you could think of that you'd maybe want a lab for. There were generator rooms, aircraft hangers, ground vehicle hangers, conference rooms, teleportation pads… the place just seemed to go on forever. A lesser man from the past might have passed out under the bombardment of technology, but Ryoga, who had little knowledge of the subject in the first place, took it in stride. They continued down the maze of hallways, elevators, and corridors and eventually they came upon a pair of very decorated large doors. Zero turned to Ryoga, his face stern.

"This is the office of Signas. He's the one who runs the show. You know what that means?" Ryoga shook his head.

"No, not particu-"

"It means," said Zero, once again cutting to the chase, "that if you fuck up in here, that's it, we can't help you. We're here to report what happened and ask for permission to run some tests on you to find your source of power. All I need you to do is answer questions that might be given to you. You can ask questions some other time. Clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good." Zero opened the doors and strode in, his two companions following in a triangle formation, though Ryoga was the furthest in the back. Signas briefly looked up before looking back at what looked to be a hologram of a laptop computer, yet seemed fully functional. After a few moments he pressed a few buttons and the hologram thingy disappeared. Signas stood and saluted Zero and X, the Hunters returning the gesture.

"Report."

"Mission accomplished. Sigma has been eliminated. We did not have time to check if the virus escaped before the body was destroyed because this human, Ryoga," Zero gestured at the man in question, "was, ah, injured. A scan of Sector 6a is advisable." Signas nodded.

"Good, good. Not the best you've ever done, but still good. Why was it so important that this one live?"

"He was the one that defeated Sigma, sir." The Signas' eyebrows rose.

"HE defeated Sigma? A human?" Signas eyed the human in question. "Impossible."

"I would have said the same had I not witnessed it myself. The man says he is a practicing martial artist, but I still do not know where his power comes from. I would like to request permission to conduct tests on him to find the source." Signas nodded slowly.

"Yes… yes, that would be best. Anything else?"

Zero thought for a few moments. He had to put this delicately and in the best light, so as to keep Ryoga from some kind of penalty involving eventual death. "Yes… as a result of the battle between Sigma and Ryoga, Sector 9 was destroyed." Signas, as Zero had expected, did not look happy.

"Destroyed?" Signas donned a frown. "What do you mean?"

"That Sector has been leveled, sir. All that remains is a large crater."

Signas was not happy about this. "I'm not happy about this, Zero."

"I understand, sir."

"You did nothing to stop this? Couldn't you have prevented it? Hell, you could have killed the man if it meant saving thousands of lives!" Signas' voice was raising without him knowing it.

"No sir. There was nothing we could possibly do about it. It was all we could do to get away with our lives. As for those thousands you spoke of, that sector was, for the most part, emptied when Sigma took control of the area. A few hundred died, at most."

Signas grumbled under his breath at this. He looked Ryoga in the eyes. "What have you to say for yourself?" Ryoga was momentarily taken aback at how suddenly he was addressed.

"I-," he started. He thought of what Zero had said before they entered, and decided to say the truth in a way that didn't sound so bad. "I lost control of my power. I'm not really sure what happened. One minute I'm fighting this guy Sigma and the next the city's leveled." Ryoga started sweating. "I, I'm really sorry…"

Signas massaged his temple with his hand. "Test him, make sure he isn't dangerous, then do what you want with him. I don't want to see him again for a while. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir." The three in front of the desk left, closing the doors behind them. X sighed in relief.

"Whew! I though for sure he wasn't gonna let us help Ryoga!"

"Yeah," said Ryoga as he nodded in agreement. "After he was told that I leveled that city, I thought for sure he was gonna have me killed or something. I started freakin' out mentally."

"I wasn't sure how he'd take it, either," said Zero. "But we've gotta do what he told us to do first. We're gonna test you to satisfy Signas, maybe do something with what we find. Then we can figure out how we can get our hands on time travel technology. You'd better stay out of his way for a while, though." Ryoga got a sad look on his face. Zero put his hand on the lost boy's shoulder. "Don't sweat it, we'll figure something out."

Ryoga blocked an oncoming strike with one hand and literally knocked the block off his opponent's body with the other. As the robotic corpse hit the ground, he turned around in a sweep kick, taking the legs out from under a robot that had been advancing on him from behind, followed up by an axe kick to its chest, shattering the comparatively weak torso. He rolled backward from this and did a handspring into another robot, landing on its head. He promptly made its head and the floor one entity with his fist. As he picked his fist back up, a laser-like weapon fired just in front of his face, signaling the fact that this fight was no longer just melee. Ryoga turned toward the offender and cracked his knuckles.

"So that's how it's gonna be, eh? Shishi Hokodan!"

Above the chaos resided a female Reploid, watching the scene below and scanning various readouts on the test subject.

"How's the test going, Sandra?" he asked. The Reploid in question did not respond.

"Sandra?" Zero repeated. "I asked you a question."

"I'm… speechless," she replied. "I've never seen anything like this."

"Like what?" The female Reploid shook her head in puzzlement, eyebrows furrowed, but still watching Ryoga.

"He's been at this for hours, and he's showing no sign of fatigue." Zero pondered this.

"That doesn't make any sense. Even I start slowing down after an hour or so. How could he be at this for so long?"

"Well… I'm not sure I'd be able to tell you accurately enough. Take a look at these readouts." As she said this she handed her superior several sheets of paper. On them included statistics on Ryoga's offensive and defensive capabilities, his lung capacity, muscle strength, recoverability, and so on, all compared to the previously highest known numbers in each category.. Zero scanned the papers several times. He opened his mouth several times to speak, but each time his puzzlement prevented such communication. Finally he managed to get out a…

"What?" Sandra walked over to his side, reviewing the papers with him.

"I know. It doesn't seem possible, but there it is. Our machines haven't lied to us yet."

"But…" stammered the red-clad robot, "these numbers… they're so high… Look at that, his offensive strength is ranked in the 400's! Last we checked the highest was in the 90's. It doesn't make any sense. The only thing it looks like I could outclass him in is speed and… leadership." He looked up at the lady Reploid. "I'm not used to being outclassed." Sandra shrugged.

"Get used to it, I guess. I did." As Sandra went back to the machine to start ending the test, Zero looked back at the papers and looked at the Potential Fighting Capacity of the subject at hand. He looked for almost a full minute.

"That… that's impossible… that simply can't be correct…" The only female in the room turned around and looked over his shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"Fighting Capacity of… 8640…" Sandra went back to the console.

"Yup." She turned on the PA system to the test room. "Hey, Ryoga." The lost boy stopped maiming the robots around him. "Could you wrap it up? The test is over."

"Sure thing!" he yelled back. Though he was having a lot of fun, he was getting kind of tired of it. As such, he Shishi Hokodaned or Bakusaitenketsued the remaineder of the robots, and he was quickly the only being left in the room.

Zero turned to Sandra. "You know… even I max out at 5300… and X at 4000 even… Do you know what this means?" Sandra raised her eyebrows. "That man… he's almost as powerful as X and I combined!"

"Mm-hmm," was her response, along with a head nod. "The tests also show that the majority of his power comes from his overwhelming reserves of ki."

"Ki?"

"Ki is to humans as electricity is to us, more or less. They need it to live. However, they can increase their ki capacity through training, and then can use it for constructive or destructive force, and can emulate the elements with it." She gestured to herself and Zero. "Again, sort of like us." Zero nodded.

"I see." He looked out the window at Ryoga, who had sprawled himself on the floor, waiting to be called out or something. "So this man is a master of ki." Sandra shook her head.

"Not by a long shot." Zero looked up, one eyebrow raised. "He may have ungodly reserves of the stuff, but he doesn't really know how to tap into it. He only knows a few ways of manifesting it: he can surround articles of clothing with ki, making them razor sharp and stiff, making them a rough sword equivalent; he can channel ki into his finger, which allows him to penetrate nearly anything, and then the ki explodes inside the object, effectively shattering it; and lastly, he can concentrate a subclass of ki caused by depression into a tangible ball, which he hurls at things. Other than that, he can't use it." Again, Zero nodded.
"I see," was again his reply, as he looked out the window to the lost boy below. "What a waste of power." He turned back to Sandra. "I want you to research any kind of training programs we have on ki. If we have none, research through our database about training techniques, and make programs from what you find. I want him learning how to tap into his ki in two days." Sandra saluted sharply.

"Yes sir!"

Ryooogaa… Ryooooogaaaa…

Ryoga turned over. "Mm, just five more minutes…"

"RYOGA!"

"Gah!" Ryoga sat straight up, landing him in the crotch area of Sandra. "Ow." She's made of metal, you know.

"About time you woke up." Ryoga rubbed his eyes and nose.

"How long was I out?" Sandra stepped a few feet back to allow him get-up room.

"Long enough." Ryoga made use of the get-up room, and got up.

"Oh." He yawned, and did a series of stretches. "Mm, nothing like a good nap after exercising." He stood up straight and looked at Sandra with an expectant smile. "So, what next?"

"Follow me." The pair left the large room littered with robots, both dead and cleaning up the dead. They walked down the hall and into the elevator. Inside the elevator, annoying elevator music played softly.

"Why do they still play this stupid elevator music?" Ryoga asked.

"Humans are often stressful when they come to our headquarters, especially for the first time, and this music is said to help calm them down."

"I hate to break it to you, but it often has the opposite effect. It makes people edgy and want to kill stuff."

"Oh… I see…" Sandra didn't particularly care to talk about such things when in the company of a human capable of leveling an entire Sector. "I guess I'll have somebody turn it off or something."

"Would be a good idea." They came to their floor.
Out of the elevator and into the big freakin hallways.

"Why are these halls so big?" he asked upon stepping out.

Sandra looked sort of surprised at such a silly question. "The Reploids and machines here come in a large array of shapes and sizes. The halls are built to accommodate our largest members."

"Ah." Ryoga thought for a few moments. "How did technology get so advanced? I mean, I'm no expert, but this place looks nothing like anything I've ever seen."

"It's a long story, so I will spare you the details. Around the year 2012, a scientific genius known as 'Dr. Light' came into the limelight. With the help of his apprentice, Dr. Wily, he quickly advanced technology in the world. Dr. Wily went insane and frequently tried to take over the world. All of his attempts were foiled by a creation of Dr. Light, Mega Man. Dr. Light's final creation was X. Dr. Wily was known to be working on his ultimate creation before he died, but no evidence of said creation has been found to date."

"Ah huh." Ryoga partially absorbed this, but most of it bounced right off him, simple as it was. He also wondered what the long version was. "So why is this place so big in general? If technology is so good, shouldn't it be all compact 'n' stuff?"

"While our technology is compact, there are certain limits. A plane must always be able to harbor people, for instance. And it will always take something rather large to move large objects. Et cetera."

"I see." He didn't get it. "Oh hey, earlier I heard someone mention teleporting. How the hell do you people teleport?"

"The teleporter was one of the first creations of Dr. Light. It functions by creating a warp field encoded with certain worldwide coordinates around you. The warp field then opens a worm hole, which you travel through. At the other end, another warp field is created and you are deposited on at your destination. There are limits, but most of them involve the amount of power behind it." Ryoga just blinked. The entire thing went right over his head. Sandra sighed and pressed a button next to a room they had just arrived at, and the door slid open. "I probably could have saved some time by telling you it works by magic, huh?" Without waiting for a reply, she continued. "This is your room. In the room is a cooling unit and heating unit for your food, as well as a food dispenser. Also, because some of our members are unusually heavy, there is a gravity control in the room so they don't break anything when they walk. Get some rest, you'll be working hard tomorrow." She turned to walk out.

"Wait!" Ryoga stopped her. "The gravitational controls. How do they work?" Sandra was slightly taken aback that such a light person asked about the gravity control, but quickly composed herself. She walked over to a small control panel on the wall.

"Come and look." Ryoga walked over and watched intently as she showed him how it worked and told him how to operate it, Ryoga muttering some "Ah's" and some "I see's" throughout. Sandra turned and looked at Ryoga. "Is that all?" Ryoga couldn't help but smirk.

"That's all."

"Then I have more business to attend to. If you'll excuse me." With that Sandra left the room to do whatever it is female Reploids do.

Ryoga stood in the middle of the room, contemplating his luck. "Sleep?" he said to himself. "Sleep will not come so easy tonight. Not when I have the perfect basic training environment." Ryoga let out an almost evil laugh. He stopped and realized what happened. "Well now, that was rather uncharacteristic of me. I'd better keep that in check."

AN: Yay! Another chapter done! Another wave of laziness felled with multiple blows! Surely this NEXT chapter won't take so long! shifty eyes

Also, you may be asking, "Why doesn't he update his other story?" Well, the answer is simple. I like this one better. I also didn't really put much thought into plot for the other one.

By the way, X is NOT gay, he just has a childish/naïve state of mind, but he's very capable of going into 'battle mode,' if you will, and kicking ass.