I don't own ranma /12 or DBZ.

Honestly, Ryoga didn't realize what he had gotten himself into. The man named Vegeta had a worse temper than he did, so he thought best to not anger him. Plus the short, bald man thought that Ryoga was insane for agreeing to help fight Cell so readily. Situation aside, the enviroment he was in was very strange. Normal people, upon seeing two green people, one being a child no less, and several more named after food or vegetables, would have thought they'd lost it completely. Ryoga however, was used to the bizzare. He figured that if he could handle a 10 ft. platipuss, this would be a breeze. And for the most part he was right.

As he walked around the area, trying to find something. The bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, ANYTHING to try to familiarize himelf with so that he didn't get stuck wandering the same halls for several days. He came upon a young boy around 11 or 12 lying on the ground, scribbling in a notebook and humming to himself. Within a moment or two the child slammed the notebook shut and shouted gleefully, "Finally, my homework's done." He looked in Ryoga's direction and saw the newcomer. The child jumped to his feet and Ryoga was able to see him better. The young boy had spikey-blonde, and the same type of outfit the green man was wearing, even down to the cape.

The boy seemed to recognize Ryoga, as he spoke, "Hey, Dad told me about you. You're Ryoga, right? Where've you been? Dad said you just wandered off about an hour ago. You get lost or something?"

Although it was only meant to be a joke, to Ryoga it was life kicking him in the teeth again. However, he knew that the boy didn't know or was trying to be cruel about his directional curse. The boy even realized his mistake and quickly apologized, "Oops! You are lost. Sorry about that." In a change of subject, the boy announced, "I'm Gohan. You want me to show you where we're practicing for the Cell games?"

This was quite a suprise to Ryoga, "You're fighting too!"

Gohan responded, "Yeah." He then took hold of one of Ryoga's sleaves, "Like I said. Let me show you where we train." He then began leading Ryoga off in a completely different direction.

When they arrived, Ryoga saw Vegeta sparing with a young man about his own age. The young man had shoulder length, lavender hair and resembled Vegeta quite a bit in the face. Both were doing really well, then something weird happened, they took their fighting to the air. Ryoga's jaw fell to the floor. Krillin, who was next to him made a correct assumption, "Can't fly huh? Don't sweat it kid. Not many can. Don't worry I 'llteach you."

Ryoga imediately imagined himself lost in low orbit and quickly dismissed the offer, "No thanks. If I need to fly, I'll catch a plane."

Krillin shrugged. Goku finally realized Ryoga was here. He gave Ryoga his usual grin as he spoke, "Hey look who's here? Ready to show us us what you got?" He signaled for Krillin to come to the center, "You spar with him."

Ryoga looked up at the airborne combatants and realized that they weren't coming down for a while. He simply shrugged and stepped forward. Krillin assured him, "Don't worry, I'm not going to start flying on you." Ryoga shrugged his shoulders once again and got into his fighting stance.

Krillin made the initial attack. He started off with a mixture of various punches and kicks. Each attack was either quite easily blocked or easily withstood. It was now time for Ryoga to retaliate, but he was not going to go easy.

Ryoga quickly mangaged to get two quick punches and an uppercut off of Krillin before the short man jumped back. Using his weight as leverage, Krillin thrust himself at Ryoga and the two began exchanging blows. This went on for a while, before Ryoga recieved a hard punch to his cheek. This had gone on for nearly ten minutes and he wanted to be done with it. He thrust his hands to his chest, and formed a ball with them. He concetrated his sadness to form a red ball of energy and threw it at Krillin screaming, "SHISHI HOKODAN!"

This was quite unexpected. Krillin quickly jumped out of the way and returned fire with a Kamehameha. This time, Ryoga didnt have enough time to dodge. The blast hit him head on, but all it really managed to do is singe his clothing and hair. The only other thing it managed to do is piss Ryoga off. He ran at Krillin and thrust his finger into the ground at Krillin's feet. The ground at Krillin's feet exploded, causing him to unwillingly go flying backwards, into a tree. This was Ryoga's chance. Using a staggering amount of strength, he slammed his fist into Krillin's gut. This caused the tree to break from the force.

Finally, Goku said, "That's enough, Ryoga." Ryoga did stop attacking and went to help Krillin up.

Ryoga offered his hand and apologized, "Sorry about that."

Krillin grumbled, "What are you made of? Rock?"

Vegeta, still in midair, began laughing, "The shimp got his ass handed to him!"

Goku, however, was impressed, "Wow! That move. It's really similar to the Kamehameha. Where'd you learn it?"

Ryoga responded, "It doesn't matter where I learned any of it. You wouldn't recognize them anyway."

Trunks thought the boy was a bit rude, but he guessed it wasn't their business if Ryoga didn't want it to be. Still, no matter. Ryoga fought his battles with passion, and definately had a good reason to fight as hard as he could in this coming battle. With a little work Ryoga might be able to stand a chance of coming out of the Cell Games alive. But then, there was no assurance that any of them could preform such a feet. Still, an idea came to him. He sank to the ground, turned to Goku and asked, "What do you think about letting him train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?"

This idea never seemed to even occur to the sayian, but the thought of this human trying to face the harsh conditions displeased him, "You think that Ryoga can withstand the gravity or the near sub-zero temperatures? You know that's difficult, even for us."

They argued their points for a few minutes, then Ryoga interrupted them, "You're forgetting something. You're discussing what you want ME to do, but you're not ecen asking me. Plus, you're saying that I can't do something and I haven't even tried doing it."

Goku seemed suprised. He had no idea that this young man was this serious about this. Still, it was only right that he warned Ryoga about the hazards of the Time Chamber, "If that's what you want, then fine. But you must know that it's vey dangerous.

Ryoga answered, "Look, I appriciate your concern, but I have got to get a lot stronger than I already am. Not just because of Cell, but so I can protect Kayley."

Vegita overheard. It was meant to be an observation, not sarcasm, but he spoke, "You act like someone is trying to kill this woman of yours."

Ryoga turned his head up toward Vegita, glaring. Eventually, he realized it was useless to try and start a fight with him. It wouldn't do any good and it wouldn't make him feel any better. He was nothing like Ranma. Ryoga just gave him a dissmissive gesture and asked Trunks, "Just show me to this Chamber, would you?

On the way there, Trunks was explaining about the time span anomally and about not straying too far. This made Ryoga mentally pray to God for him not to get lost. As the arrived at the Chamber door, Trunks asked, "What got you so angry, Ryoga? I don't think Father was trying to be mean on purpose. Is this girl in danger?

Ryoga opend the door, but managed to be polite enough to answer his question, "It's quite possible. Look, I'm sorry to concern you with my problems." With that said, Ryoga entered life-threatening trial.

Ryoga immediately began feeling the effects of the heavy gravity, and fell straight to his knees. His muscles strained just to keep him on his hands and knees. Slowly, very slowly, He began building his endurance to this heavy gravity and just moving around. Eventually, he could begin his actual training. At this point in time, outside the living quarters, it was blisteringly hot. Apparently, this was something Trunks neglected to mention this and was only getting hotter. Ryoga removed his thick, yellow shirt and dug out his black, sleeveless shirt from his hiking pack. The rest of the day was spent practicing his martial arts.

Ryoga learned several things. He learned that during the times that the gravity was at it's peek, it was perfect for his martial arts and building up his strength even further. If it was particularlly cold, that was even better. He would stay warm. He got lost on a few occasions when he did get lost, but that, in those desperate times, his Shishi Hokodan technique have reached their peek. He couldn't tell if it was night or day, he just slept when he was tired and ate when he was hungry. Eventually, after managing to find his way back for the third time, he forced himself to learn to not leave eyesight of the living quarters. Through the entire year, Ryoga's motivation was always the same. To get back to Kayley and protect her.

The year was finally up. Vegita half-way thought they would either find him dead or ready to give up and go home. He was suprised to find that Ryoga had done neither and emerged somewhat changed. The most obvious change in him was his hair. As had happened with Gohan and Trunks, Ryoga's hair had grown out quite a bit. It now flowed past his shoulders. He had somehow managed to make his bandana continue to keep his bangs out of his eyes. He was now 17 years old, and much stronger than before. He even figued out a new technique to fight Cell with.




Well things are starting to pick up and Kyote's plan will be set into motion. Enjoy and review.