Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the clothes on my back and the shoes on my feet. Simply put, don't sue me!

Author's Notes: Are you ready for more? Cuz I'm ready to deliver! I'm a little hyper right now. If anyone's wondering, yes this story is also a Ryoga/Kasumi pairing. Then again, I'm not telling you anything new am I? Ah well, might as well get on with the show!

Ranma the Mighty

Chapter 6

Rise to Battle

People under the impression that Ranma is the sole source of chaos in Nerima would be sadly mistaken. It's really not Ranma's own chaos magnet that draws in the strange activity, but also the ward itself attracts the stranger elements. This time, the wonderful place this all happens in decided to pick a new avatar, simply to give itself a break. Poor Ryoga is about to discover what it's like to be the Kami's whipping boy. As the three traveled down the street, blissfully unaware that something was going to happen, a sinister figure was stalking them. The girl trailing them had been told not to allow any of them to escape and she did enjoy following orders. Without a sound, she rushed forward to take out the strongest of the three. Her lips pulled back in a feral grin before her forward motion was arrested by an immovable object. Ryoga Hibiki a.k.a. Immovable Object Personified, felt a terrible slam in the small of his back, but the Breaking Point training had made him all but unstoppable except by a handful of people.

"What the hell?" he said to no one in particular as he spun around, only to be nailed in the face by a powerful metal fist that drove him backwards before he got his feet in place. Kasumi and Nabiki were huddling in a doorway and doing what anyone in Nerima should do when a fight breaks out. Take cover and pray for deliverance.

"Miss Revi wants you dead and I always follow orders." The woman said. Her face was strangely colored; her eyes definitely weren't human. Her figure was female, but no one would mistake her for a woman. The "woman" grinned crookedly at the Lost Boy.

"You won't get by me." Ryoga growled.

"Let's see about that! Feel the force of Undine!" the woman cried as she rushed forward, fist cocked back to deliver a terrific haymaker. With a loud "Kiyaa!" she threw her fist forward, aiming for his face, before a dull slap was heard. Her grin slid off her face as she noticed that her fist had been caught by the Lost Boy's powerful hand.

"Not good enough." Was all she heard before a devastating right tore the breath from her artificial lungs. Another vicious right plowed into her metal skull, tearing her synthetic flesh off before with an almost negligent flip, he released her captured hand and threw her back several yards.

"Wh-what kind of monster are you?" she asked in a frightened voice.

"Tch! I'm the monster here, huh? Fine then… Can you slay this beast?" he said before arrogantly tapping his chest. The humanoid knew she was in trouble as a low rumble started in his chest. The primal sound signified the beginning of the end of Undine as the powerfully built boy charged her at full speed. She flinched away from what she knew was coming before a startled "Bwee!" was heard and something small slapped into her.

The ladle lady had struck again.

"Well! I forgot about your curse! Good thing for me that you didn't plan for this. Time to fry me up some bacon." She gloated before chasing the scared piglet.

'Role reversals are a bitch.' Ryoga thought despairingly as he ran from his now unstoppable foe.

/-

Across town, Birdy was enjoying the freedom of roof hopping. She could leap up maybe two or three stories and fall roughly double that before, but with Ranma, she was leaping to the tops of twenty story office buildings. The chief probably hadn't anticipated the two of them making it across town as fast as they did. Azuretech was just recently built by a giant corporation from overseas that dealt in next level technology. The perfect place for Gomez to strike to gain the equipment they might need for their schemes.

'Be ready for anything.' Birdy told Ranma as they neared their destination.

'I'm always ready!' he thought back excitedly before almost shouting 'What the hell is that?'

Their gaze fell upon a monstrosity of technical genius and biological nightmare. Birdy could easily identify Revi's standard Arkazoid design, but she couldn't figure out what the green gel was that was oozing out of it. It began to laugh maniacally.

"Officer Birdy! So nice to see you again!" its horribly distorted voice seemed to emphasize the wrong words. The creature sounded like it was talking from underwater.

"I don't know you." She replied as she slipped into a loose stance.

"Hmm! Learned a few things, eh? For those of you who don't remember me, I am Rauvalumingo!" it laughed again as Birdy paled.

"You're the bastard who killed all those people on Excterra-7!" she grated out in fury as she remembered what he had done. He had convinced a large group of locals he was a child caught in a sump tank before devouring them with his blob-like body. Ranma instantly saw red.

"That was the case you were on, wasn't it? Too bad I couldn't devour you as well, but I'll be sure to rectify that!" the abomination cried as it leapt forward with fluid speed and power that no mere human could match, but a quick blow to the metal face and a lightning fast kick to the chest reminded the enhanced menace that she wasn't human. All she had managed to do, however, was dent the metal body, but the gel kept it all together. What would have flung a lesser being, merely made him quiver like jell-o.

"This time it's gonna be different." she said confidently as the two proceeded to trade blows at speeds exceeding the sound barrier, the crack of the sonic booms causing the roof to crack slightly. Birdy was pleased to note how much more durable she was with Ranma, but the constant strikes were wearing on her.

'Put some distance between you two! He's not taking the damage that you are!' Ranma tried to reason with her just moments before a particularly brutal blow sent them flying off the roof into the alley below. Their uncontrolled fall would have been cushioned by the dumpster below, if it had been open. The squeal of tortured metal was heard; the injured body barely able to move.

'I'm...sorry...' she thought weakly.

'Relax Birdy, just relax... It'll be okay.' he soothed as he began dumping ki into their already enhanced healing. The wounded police woman saw, just before she felt, the monster's descent as she felt herself driven into the empty dumpster.

"Ahhhh!" she screamed as tortured ribs snapped and tendons ripped. It took all of Ranma's ki control to keep them alive and healing. The metal monster picked her up by her throat, slowly crushing her larynx. Bringing her up eye to eye with him.

"So delectable...I wonder how you taste, you certainly look delicious." a green gel tongue came out and trailed along her face suggestively. The captured girl shuddered away instinctively from the lewd action, infuriating Ranma. Her aura was fading rapidly; the beast could feel her strength diminishing.

"Time to eat!" it cackled before oozing out from the Arkazoid, slipping over her, capturing her as if she was stuck in taffy. Birdy couldn't even struggle as it tried to force her mouth open to better drain her life force.

'Ran-ma...I'm so-rry...' she thought weakly as darkness began slipping over her.

'I won't let you die! C'mon, hold on!' he thought frantically to her as he felt her slip away. 'This bastard has a lot to answer for! Don't die, Birdy!' he roared in their mind just before taking over the body and drawing in his ki. The alien criminal was stunned at the amount of power he could suddenly feel from the broken woman.

"No matter what you try, you're almost dead and nothing can change that." he said confidently just as he felt the cold seeping into his 'body'. The swirling cold was coming from Birdy! If he knew what the Soul of Ice was capable of then he would have spit her out right there and went to find someone less capable of fighting back, like Happosai, but there was no time. Ice began growing outward from Birdy, freezing his gel body into immobility. After another several seconds, her body weakening rapidly, he was solid.

'Just...gotta...break out...' Ranma felt his own consciousness fading before using one last burst of strength to use the Breaking Point, shattering the sphere of goo into a thousand pieces. The life force of the monster destroyed by the intense cold.

'We're out...' he thought, satisfied, just as he finally succumbed to the darkness.

/-

"Come on out lil' piggy! I just wanna burn you, maim you, kill you, and desecrate your grave... Nothing too bad!" she was starting to sound even more insane then when she first began the assault. Ryoga had somehow managed to vanish into thin air, but that didn't stop her from trying to hunt him down.

"What are we going to do Nabiki? She's going to kill Ryoga!" Kasumi was definitely panicking, but Nabiki couldn't think of anything to calm her down. With an exclamation of triumph, the evil machine held P – chan aloft, laughing maniacally.

"Finally got you! So many things that I can do to you..." she cradled the terrified pig almost lovingly before clenching her hand on him and slowly turned him over.

"First! Let's try neutering you!" the pig's terrified squeals could be heard all up and down the street before her action was stopped by a powerful mallet strike to the head. She dropped the relieved porker to look in fury at the whoever would dare hit her. What she found was the terrified elder girl holding a huge mallet. With a negligent backhand she tossed the girl into a parked car, crumpling the door and watching with satisfaction as she slid off in a boneless heap.

"Kasumi-chan!" Nabiki cried as she rushed over to check on her sister. Ryoga just stood and stared, already mentally seeing the injuries, even injuries that weren't even there. The hairs on his little body stood on end in rage, his aura so powerful it buckled the pavement.

"Two for one... I guess this will do..." she laughed as long blades suddenly shot out from her fingertips.

'If Ranma could do it... Why can't I at least try?' with a low sound that seemed ridiculous coming from a baby pig, he began bringing his aura to bear on the problem of his curse. Ryoga knew he didn't have much time, but it kept slipping away from him. With a despairing cry he lunged forward, intent on doing something besides standing there uselessly. 'Kasumi! Nabiki!' he thought furiously before a loud roar was torn from his throat "I won't let anyone hurt you!" the suddenly vocal outburst went unnoticed by the enraged Lost Boy, but the effect on Undine was electrifying.

"Wh-what is this?" she cried out in shock just before her body was torn asunder by an empowered right, her arms exploded out from her body as her suddenly caved in chest imploded, simulated bodily fluids flying out from her mouth and nose. Her ruined vocal unit could only make a weird squealing sound before the left fist blew her head away. Undine's total destruction took mere seconds, but to the witnesses it seemed to take forever. A drop of synthetic blood splashed Kasumi's face and time resumed.

"Kasumi..." the Lost Boy said as he fell to his knees beside her, taking her hand, just before feeling the squeeze.

"...I am a martial artist's daughter..." she said with a weak grin before nearly getting plowed under by her relieved sister and the fanged martial artist. All three laughing in relief.

/-

Revi woke up shortly before lunch, feeling as if she had not slept a wink. The dreams wouldn't leave her alone and she couldn't figure out why.

"Knew I should have wiped her memories before integration." she muttered as she felt a headache starting from lack of sleep. These dreams had been the worst to date. It was all her thoughts and feelings about the boy that the alien woman was having fun tormenting. All the love, trust, and hope he filled her with. Also how sad she was knowing that because of her own strange actions they would never be anything more then friends.

"Dammit. I knew reading that Shoujo manga was a mistake." she muttered peevishly before her communicator beeped, providing a much needed distraction.

"Gomez report." she ordered.

"Birdy has been neutralized. I detected her life signature extinguish five minutes ago." he said.

"Excellent news! What about Undine?"

"She has been terminated. Salamander requests permission to take over the job." that shook Revi. How could three mere humans stop Undine?

"Tell him to terminate with extreme prejudice. They should be sufficiently weakened. Anything else to report?"

"Nothing at this time. Over and out." the connection was terminated, but Revi was cheered considerably by the news. The ruse had worked and Birdy was dead which meant that Ranma was dead as well. She giggled in delight before catching herself.

"Akane no Baka." she muttered, unconsciously saying it. Inside of her mind, Akane was panicking. Ranma? Dead? Impossible! She almost gave up until she thought about Saffron and then she began the evil laughter.

'What about the cry to the heavens that awakened me? I was dead, but Ranma brought me back with a ki-enhanced yell. What about that?' she planted the seeds of doubt in the alien's mind as the woman made her way back downstairs to cook lunch, badly.

/-

Ranma felt the world intrude upon his awareness as he gradually came back to the land of the living. He noticed he was male again as he sat up, but felt curiously hollow. When he tried to ask Birdy what was going on, only silence greeted him.

'Birdy? C'mon Birdy! Don't play with me like this! Please wake up!' he thought frantically. There was no time to check out the building, he had to get back to the ship immediately. With weak legs, he stood up. His ki was practically gone which surprised him until he realized whose body this was. If Birdy dies then he'd die too. Without her, his ki was drying up. He forced himself to the bus stop and climbed aboard for the ride. Thankful that he still had some money left. He went into a semi-meditative state, using their waning ki to keep her alive.

'I don't care if I die, just don't take her down with me.' he prayed.

A few bus changes later, he was stumbling wearily towards the hatch of the ship. The junkyard seemed to grow further and further away as his wobbly legs gave out beneath him.

'Kuso! C'mon! Ya can't fail now! Ranma Saotome don't lose!' he repeated it like a mantra, crawling towards perceived salvation. He was almost there.

"Ranma? What are you doing here? You're being a delinquent! I better drag you back to school." it was the most feared voice in all of Furinkan. Miss Hinako. She pulled out a fifty-yen piece and aimed it at him.

"No! Please don't do it! If you drain me then I'll die!" he tried to shout, but only a dull sounding whisper came out. The child teacher quirked an eyebrow.

"Now I'm beginning to think it might be something perverted too. Why are you making sucking faces?" the now deadly looking coin pointed at him again before it was struck away with a shuriken. The stunned teacher stared in shock at a figure in a white robe, leveling an angry glare upon her.

"Leave Saotome alone, vampire. In case you haven't noticed, he's weak enough right now to die or are you trying to kill him?" Mousse asked in a puzzled voice. Ranma was wondering when the Apocalypse was going to happen. If Mousse was defending him then the end of the world would be happening soon. He lamented that he was still a virgin.

'Whoa! Where'd that come from?' he thought just as he felt a resonating spark. The spark made him feel almost whole again, but his ki was still dangerously weak. He managed to get to his feet with care and decided to leave the two to their fight. The pigtailed boy had a life to save.

Mousse noticed Saotome get up and start walking like a zombie towards the car door with curiosity. What was he looking for? Whatever it was, the Chinese boy decided to buy him some time.

"He's moving! You said he was almost dead. I think you're a delinquent too." she pulled out two coins and pointed them in two directions. The implications were clear.

"Oh well, you got me I suppose..." the boy said as he pushed his glasses up before tossing two, large round shields at Miss Hinako. The two defensive items knocked the coins from her hands before spiraling chains ensnared the startled child. She fell to the ground crying.

"You big meanie! I'm telling!" she wailed like a fire truck as Mousse began frantically untying her, thinking he'd bound her too tight. She still wouldn't stop crying so he began producing teddy bears, dolls, but the only thing that got a response was a huge jar of pocky. She quite happily sat down and began eating the chocolate covered treats, scooting into Mousse's lap. The Chinese boy looked towards Saotome and noticed he was gone. With a sweatdrop, he also realized the child teacher wasn't about to move anytime soon. That was a big jar of pocky.

/-

'If I live through this... Someone remind me to thank Mousse... A band to hold his glasses on should do nicely...' Ranma thought as he trudged towards the med bay. He felt the returning energy begin to ebb away as quickly as it came, but he deliberately forced it into his legs to at least keep going. With one last heave, he made it to the healing pod. His fingers tapped weakly at random buttons, not even knowing how it worked. The last time he was here, he was dead. Apparently he did something right as a strange crane-like thing came down and hauled him up like a UFO catcher before dumping him into the healing liquid.

'That's a relief...' he thought as he felt Birdy's ki returning. She was still too weak to talk to him, but he could feel her mental hands reaching out to him. The two floated in companionable silence, words were meaningless.

'I hope we can stay together even after we're separated. What would I do without you?' he remembered the dream he had that Birdy saw and felt not only him, but also her as well yearn for it. He hugged himself tight, wishing he could hug her, and fell asleep.

/-

"Why are you protecting him?" Hinako asked as she nibbled on another stick of pocky.

"I may not be the most respectful Amazon, but I certainly am not disloyal. He saved Cologne yesterday from possession by some sort of demon. I've been looking for him to apologize for my behavior and also to tell him that the old bat dissolved the marriage contract." he said, absently holding the child in his lap. The little girl was looking upward in thought.

"That's as good a reason as any, I suppose, but one thing troubles me. How did he just disappear like that?" she asked.

"Good question." he said in reply as they two of them sat there next to the red car in the junkyard. Little did they know that their answers lay there.

/-

The Tendo sisters looked as if some strange alien monster was following them. It looked as if it was wearing a rain coat and a rain hat with a rain poncho over it, a plastic bag with hold cut out for the eyes, nose, and mouth. A scuba mask covered the face entirely. Duct tape was used to seal a pair of rubber gloves and rubber boots on him. Curiously, they addressed this strange apparition of yellow rubber as Ryoga.

"You look silly." Kasumi said in between giggles.

"Sis has got a point. Why are you wearing that?" Nabiki asked as the figure suddenly manifested a sign.

If another alien attacks I will not turn into a pig again! The figure seemed adamant on this.

"There's nothing to worry about. I don't see any water any water anywhere." no sooner had she said that then a fire hydrant suddenly erupted with a deluge of water that struck Ryoga and strangely missing the girls.

You were saying? Somehow the sign seemed smug. The eldest girl continued to giggle at the look on Nabiki's face.

"How unusual! I expected to find you ladies, but not the yellow blunder following you." a voice called out from behind them before a manhole cover flew at Ryoga, spinning like a discus. A sudden back fist bent the flying object in half on impact. The Lost Boy turned around. The warped metal hit the street with a deafening clang. Ryoga turned his head slowly to fix the young man behind him with a glare that could easily be felt even if he couldn't see the Lost Boy's eyes. The girls unconsciously backed away from the irate boy as he turned to fully engage his opponent.

That was stupid. his sign read. The young man was startled to say the least.

"Well! You are the one I was looking for. I'll kill you for destroying my sister! I am Salamander, brother of Undine." Without further ado, he charged the Yellow Wonder with intent to kill.

One thought was going through his mind. 'This is the brother of the one who almost made my life a true hell.' The pavement cracked beneath his feet, tiny pieces of debris began to float up and take up orbit around his glowing figure. Twin balls of red ki formed in his palms, holding them at his sides. With a cry of absolute rage, he flung his hands forward, sending two streams of anger ki into the rapidly approaching form of Salamander. The humanoid took both blasts head on with a look of shock on his face a second before the attack tore through him, blowing him into chunks of synthetic material and false blood. With the humanoid's death, his anger died as well. The Lost Boy dropped to his knees, weakly trying to yank the hot rain gear off of himself with Kasumi and Nabiki's help. Once freed, he slumped into unconsciousness.

"Ryoga-kun!" Kasumi called softly to him as she examined him.

"Is he okay?"

"He should be, he's just overheated. We need to get him someplace cool." the eldest girl concluded. When they looked around, the first thing they saw was the Nekohanten.

"Go get Shampoo, I'll stay with him." Kasumi said, her younger sister nodded before bolting into the restaurant. The Tendo girl merely cradled Ryoga's head in her lap.

/-

"What is it this time, Gomez?" Revi asked with a sense of misgiving.

"Salamander has been neutralized."

"Dammit! Since your incompetence is what caused this then you will go after them and kill them!" she stormed.

"When would you like it done?" her subordinate asked.

"Do it tomorrow night around midnight. We need to hit them when they least expect it. Now leave me be." she snapped waspishly.

Gomez heard the link cut out. That Tendo girl was a poor vessel to use, judging by her temperamental nature. Tonight would be the best time to attack, but perhaps she knows something he doesn't know. It would be just like her, he thought.

"Tomorrow night then. All resistance must be killed." he said grimly before sitting down. One thing just didn't add up, but he couldn't figure out what it was. It could wait.

/-

"Why did I say tomorrow night? I meant tonight. What's going on? Maybe this body just needs more sleep." the alien woman thought as she slipped off into dreamland. 'No more memories... please no more memories...' she thought as her own memories came to the surface of a little girl, years ago, who cried about her friend dying. She remembered it all in vivid detail, right down to the name. Violeen. A sharp stabbing pain throbbed through her cold heart, making it beat with remorse. Once it ended, she thought that was it. Then came other memories flooding back. Most from her own childhood.

'Daddy! Don't do it, please! I love Mommy! Don't kill Mommy! Please!' Revi, barely six years old, watching in terrified comprehension as her father brutally murdered her mother with the instruments of his trade. Since he was a doctor on a slightly rural planet, the methods were gruesome.

'Run honey! Don't stay! Run away! Run awa-AHHHHHH!' there was a hideous screech of metal meeting bone and sickening crunch as things that weren't meant to be removed were. As he turned towards her with the blood implement, a terrible looking electric bone saw, she woke up screaming.

"Mommy! Please don't die Mommy! Please!" the most feared criminal in the galaxy found herself suddenly in the grips of the same terror she'd put countless other victims through. Her pride in tatters, she drew her knees to her chest and wept.

'I hated doing that to you, but you deserved it. You needed to see it and hopefully learn from it. If you want my body then we're going to get to know each other. Whether you like it or not.' Akane thought grimly.

The End

Author's Notes: They never went into Revi's past so I'm allowed some license. Also, will Akane's influences help or hinder our heroes? Hopefully your questions will be answered in the next installment of RtM. Until next time, Ja ne!