Sudden Burst of Speed

by CRose

Ranma gets a chance to experiance the fabled Speed Force first hand, this is the story of his first adventure.

2. Chapter 01

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Sudden Burst of Speed

Chapter 01

Cory D. Rose - ertle2@msn.com

BlindmanX - blindmanx@hotmail.com

(c) 2003

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Rain pounded down on Keystone city as the huge storm once again tried to cleanse the city of its modern day coating of pollution and filth. It was a valiant fight to be sure, but after years of being built up, the rain and wind just wasn't enough to make much of a difference. On this night, for the first time in close to over forty years a ghost was beginning stir and it had plans to set in motion. His form was hard to make, just a heavy trenchcoat and a wide brimmed hat to cover his head as he stalked down the street. He moved through the shadows along the dirty streets with practiced ease and let the rain wash away every sign that he had returned to the one place in his past that represented his greatest failure, but that was about to change.

He knew that after all this time that to suddenly get revenge for what had happened to him was out of the question. Glancing up into the sky as lightning cascaded through the clouds and lit up a portion of the city with flickers of light he could have sworn he saw an almost invisible wave of energy radiating out from the clouds to greet his return. He was like a forsaken wraith with one last task to accomplish before he could finally rest. His life would not end with a failure committed over four decades ago and destroyed his life almost completely. No, he had changed over the years, learned how to do things properly and there was a chance that he could again find the kind of happiness that he'd once had back when he was a teacher.

The rain was still coming down heavily when he turned to slowly walk up a driveway hidden among a grove of trees. This led to a large single story house built among the trees, it was a bit run down, but sound enough to work with his specialized needs. Bright light washes over him as he opens the front door and reveals for the first time just how old the man is and one has to be amazed how an eighty year old man could move as well as he did. He took his coat off and hung it on the coat tree just to the side of the door as a young teenaged girl walked into the room from the kitchen and glared at him. She was wearing a pair of cut off shorts, boots, a half shirt, gloves, and a pair of large glasses that accented her short and wild green hair.

"Grandpa, you shouldn't be out in this weather." She chided him in a soft voice.

"Humph, I needed to look around the area. It's been a long time since I left this city and needed to see how much things had changed." He said. "What the heck are you wearing?"

"Like it?!"

"You look ridiculous! Go put on a dress!"

"Yuck! No way! I have to go out tonight you know and driving that thing in a dress would be impossible."

The old man sighed and ran a hand through his white hair and adjusted his glasses. "Where did you get this odd sense of fashion? It's not like you ever went to school with other kids or anything like that."

"Humph! I like the way this looks on me, it's just like what some of the kids wear in TV shows these days."

"Bah! TV is a waste of time and if you didn't steal it on your own we never would have it in this house."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Now see here...?!"

"Get with the times Grandpa, things do change you know."

"Maybe for you, but I..." The old man started.

"Have been living in the past for far too long." The girl stated and rolled her eyes.

The old man glared at her. "Charlie, you will do as you're told."

She blew a Raspberry at him and stalked out of the room.

For the first time he noticed that she had a weapon hooked onto the backside of her shorts at the ready for easy access and use. At least she was following the normal rules he'd failed to drill into his son over the years, just look what had happened to that failure. Now if only she would show him a bit of respect, then maybe things would be good again and he could return to the good ol'days. He sighed as he placed his hat next to his coat and headed for the kitchen table and waited for his grand daughter to set out dinner. The girl was his greatest creation yet, but there were times when he wondered just what the hell she was thinking.

In the last twenty-four hours over half the city had been leveled due to The Flash getting into yet another fight. Even worse was the fact that it wasn't the Flash that he had fought in his early days, but the third generation Flash. He was going to have to track down the location of the one he wanted, Jay Garrick the first Flash. The second generation flash was the only one known to have given his life to defend the Earth in a battle that had taken place some years before where even Superman and all the other powerhouses hadn't been able to stop some evil monster or something. The clink of dishes brought him back to reality as he saw his grand daughter setting the table.

"So grandpa, what do you plan to do while we're back in Keystone?" Charlie asked as she served them a few pieces of chicken.

"I need some supplies and this will be a good opportunity for you to test out some of the equipment I've been building for you."

Charlie's eyes lit up. "You finally finished some of the things I asked for?"

The old man nodded as he ate. "I should have everything ready here in a few days and you can go and get some of the other things we need."

"What kind of equipment will I have to use?"

"Nothing much at the moment, just the usual stuff until you can get your hands on the items I need to complete your gadgets."

Charlie sighed and nodded.

**********

Wally glared down at the boy as he finished dressing him in a pair of shorts and tying some rope around him. He didn't remember much of anything from when he had been in the speed force, but he had the nagging feeling that he did something to the boy while he was there. Something in the back of his mind was nagging at him about an incident that had occurred a few weeks before. He wasn't sure what it was and Linda didn't recall him telling her anything either. Most of the images that flashed through his mind were of a sea of pure lightning rippling and cresting all around him as he ran, his mind and body filled with a longing to stay and be one with such a beautiful force of nature. As far as he could tell he'd never met the boy before, but that nagging feeling that he should know the kid wouldn't go away.

Wally wasn't all that certain what to think about the boy tied to the chair in front of him. After knocking him out he had picked the kid up and taken him over to what was left of a nearby building and found a pair of shorts to dress him in and a place to lay him out on the ground while he slept.

"So what do we do with him now?" Linda asks as she walks up.

"I figure we can take him back to the house or wake him up and talk to him."

"Sounds like a good plan." Max Mercury added as he ran up and noticed Ranma for the first time.

"Where's Jay?" Wally asked as he turned to look over the aging speedster.

"Right here." Jay Garrick said as he ran up from the opposite direction and looked around. "Who's the kid?"

Wally sighed. "I don't know who he is. He appeared just after I pulled myself back from the brink for Linda and he decked me."

"He seems familiar." Looking the kid over for a few seconds Max looked wondered out what he was thinking. "He looks like he's about sixteen or so, but I don't remember ever seeing him before."

"I've never seen him before." Jay pointed out.

"He was using the super speed to attack me Jay." Wally pointed out. "He used it like I've never even thought of before.

"Really? We'll have figure out how he learned how to use it then. Even today with all of us running around there aren't really that many people that can tap into that kind of speed and we don't know everything that is possible."

Max nodded absently. He had met more than one speedster over the years so he knew that it was possible for a normal human to learn by accident. "Let's get this kid back to Wally's house and let him sleep himself out and we can talk to him when he wakes up."

"Do you have any idea what he just tried Max?" Muttered Wally.

"Yeah, he got mad at you for some reason." Max grinned. "Seems to happen all the time for some reason, no matter who you are dealing with."

"Hey!" Wally yelled and made Linda giggle.

Jay just grinned.

"I'll carry him, where do you want him in your house Wally?"

Wally glared at the aging Speedster for a second before shaking his head. "I just got back from a near death experience. Me and Linda are going to spend some time together and that kid isn't going to be anywhere near for at least twenty four hours."

Max blinked in surprise, unused to having his ideas overruled in such a blunt way.

"We can take him to my place old friend." Jay Garrick said. "Joan won't mind and extra guest or two, it'll give her a chance to make dinner for more than just the two of us."

Ranma groaned.

"Looks like he's coming around."

Jay nodded. "I've got an idea, let's go grab some pizza and let him wake up too. We can explain what we think might have happened."

"Sounds good to me." Wally said as he picked Linda up and ran off in blur of speed. "I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

"How can you just follow that guy around like this?" Max muttered. "He's so undisciplined."

Jay just laughed. "He took over the mantel of The Flash and has earned it. At the moment he's just stressed out from his ordeal, let him calm down a bit. Things will be different tomorrow."

"I hope so." Max said. "What are we going to do about getting him some clothing?"

Rubbing his chin, Jay Garrick thought about it for a second. "Lets take him to my place first, let him sleep himself out and we can explain things to him in the morning."

"I'll go and pick us up some Pizzas, give me half an hour or so and I'll meet you at your place."

"Done, see you then." Jay said as Max vanished into the distance, then he looked down at the sleeping kid and prayed that he wasn't anything like Bart Allen. They did not need another Impulse to deal with.

**********

Wearing only her underwear, Charlie stood in front of her floor length mirror and held a skirt and shirt up to see what they would look like together. Her short spiky green hair made the combination look a little weird, but she had way to work around that. So for the last hour she found herself standing here looking for the perfect thing to wear for her upcoming mission. The only question that had to be answered was weather or not she needed to show more skin or less. She just couldn't decide which would work better to pull her mission off in quickest way possible.

Hmm?

"Charlie, hurry up, it's going to be midnight here pretty soon and you still haven't left!" Her grandpa yelled as he pounded on the door.

"You know this would be a lot easier if you just gave me the Stuff." Charlie called back. "Instead I'm forced pick out the best way to catch the security guard off guard if I get caught."

The old man snorted. "I've told you that I still haven't perfected that stuff and that the current version is too unstable for anyone to use."

"Yeah right! You stingy old goat, you just want to keep it all for yourself because its worked like a fountain of youth."

He glared at the door. "Get dressed and head out to get supplies so I finish building your toys."

"Yeah. yeah!" Charlie said and stuck her tongue out at him again as she decided on the outfit she was designing to use when she was finally able to go out and attack a super hero. A black leather outfit hand made to fit her snuggly, tight leather pants, shiny black boots, and a short leather shirt that ended just below he breasts. This way her mid riff was visible enough to distract anyone attacking her. It was a version that showed off the smallest amount of skin and yet would allow her to pull her mission off.

Then she walked over to her vanity and grabbed a blond wig off of a stand and fit it to her head. It was normally shoulder length, but since she used it in her various missions she had lengthened it with a couple of add ons that could be pulled out and hidden with little effort. Grinning at her self in the mirror she applied a bit of makeup and did a bit of stretching to make sure she could really move around in her outfit and nodded in satisfaction.

The door slammed open and her grandpa stomped in with a scowl on his face. "It's about time! Come on, you have three places to go and only a few hours to do it."

Charlie nodded as she grabbed up an altered bomber jacket that hugged he form, shortened a bit to make it fall to just below her ribs. There were a series of holsters built into the jacket and she spent a moment checking her equipment to make sure it was all there. It had been several weeks since she had a chance to wear her weapons for a mission and she didn't want to make a mistake with her grandpa looking on, after all he'd taught her everything she knew about breaking and entering. A lesson her father never had a chance to learn and look how much it had cost them in the long run?

"Now remember what I told you. If The Flash or some other super hero shows up I want you to use that little surprise."

"They don't even know we're in town grandpa."

"Super hero's have this annoying tendency to show up when you least expect it."

Charlie nodded again, that was what had happened to her father. "Don't worry, I know what to do."

"Then get going."

"Right!" She said with a mocking salute and marched out of the room looking kind of silly in a mini skirt as she tried to do a parade march.

The old man sighed and wondered when she would grow out of her rebellious nature and into the mature woman he knew she could some day become. At the moment all he really wanted was for her to stop playing those silly games of hers and concentrate on the mission at hand, but she was too young to really understand things like that. He knew what it was like to have one's dreams shattered and would not put his grand daughter through the kind of pain he endured all those years ago. The time for him to make up for his sins was at hand and he would do everything in his power to make sure he did it right this time. Nothing would get in his way, not Jay Garrick, not Wally West, or anyone else that might come along. His eyes lit up with electricity and his form blurred for a second as lightning arched across his body and lit up the hallway around him.

No one would stop him.

**********

The midnight hour was about fifteen minutes away when Charlie, on her bicycle, rode up beside a chain link fence and looked through it the huge parking lot on the other side. Beyond that was a large building that had Wesside Technologies all across the front of the structure in glowing neon green lettering. The place didn't look all that impressive to her, but she had to be careful because she knew this place was funded by Wayne Technologies and would have top of the line security available. Reaching into her jacket she pulled out a small list that detailed everything she would need to bring back to her grandfather. She was doing this one first because it would take the longest in her opinion. There were five items she needed to find hidden throughout the building.

It would take most of the day under the best of conditions to find what she needed out of the huge place, even with its hidden underground labs and manufacturing plants. Unfortunately she only had two hours to get them and get out of the place before anyone got wise that she was there. Five years of training had gone made her into an accomplished thief so she wasn't worried, but this would be only her third official job and one of the biggest so far. She grinned in anticipation as she put the list back and peddled her bicycle over to the shadowed side of a tree and laid it in the tall grass where she hoped no one would notice it. Grabbing a pair of what looked like small swimming goggles, she activated the hidden on switch and let the low light technology warm up and turned the world a pale green, white, and gray. With this she didn't need to worry about carrying a flashlight to give her position away.

She pulled a sophisticated looking watch out and strapped it to her left wrist and clicked a couple of buttons to activate the two hour countdown and set it to broadcast silent jamming signal that would keep things like motion, heat, and pressure sensors from detecting her presence if they sensed her. Where her grandpa had come up with the idea she didn't know, but it had to be making him millions. Using the tree for a brace she jumped six feet into the air and bounced off the trunk of the tree and calmly flipped over the electrified fence to land in a crouch among the shadows. The goggles scanned the area and didn't seem to be detecting anybody. There was nothing within range that might catch her. Just like her grandpa had figured.

After the recent earthquakes the place had weakened security and it would make it easy to find what she was after. Sticking to the shadows she made her way around the parking lot and behind the building where a guard wasn't likely to be paying as much attention as they would the front. Her watch gave a quick buzz to let her know that a camera had just passed over her and been jammed for a brief second. She dashed to the edge of the building where there were a series of tinted windows and edged he way along. Using the goggles to see through into the offices and scan each room that she came across for a guard. There were supposed to be two of them walking around this huge place and she had no clue where they were.

Then about halfway down the backside of the building she stumbled across something she hadn't expected. A door. A standing wide, propped open with a rock door that would allow her to get inside without any trouble. Was the security at this place this stupid or cunning enough to actually set a trap for anyone that might come along and just walk in? Then she spotted the first guard taking a leak in the bushes about forty yards from where she was kneeling in the shadows. "They're moronic idiots."

Grinning at her good luck she breezed into the building tapped another button on her goggles to bring up the floor plans of this place with the probable locations of the items she needed to find. How her grandpa got the info, no amount of needling had gotten him to tell her, but if these guys were this stupid she might be out of her within the hour. Then her watch gave the little buzz again and spotted a motion sensor just down the corridor to the first room she needed to get to. Edging down the wall of the darkened hallway she pulled out a small can of spray paint, white to match the walls, and let the electronic jammer take care of the detector as she carefully painted the thing over in a thick coating of white paint. According to grandpa the paint was a special blend of chemicals that would cause the detector to burn out.

The door was locked, but she didn't care as she pulled a small finger sized laser out of her coat and sliced the dead bolt in half to open the door. Inside were several racks of equipment and it took just a few seconds to find five boxes of computer chips and place them in a small carry sack that she strapped to her back. With that the first of two down she carefully moved out of the room and shut the door and used a special glue to shut it tight again. From the outside it would look like normal, but be nearly impossible to open now and keep anyone that tried busy for hours.

She was just slipping down a long corridor when she heard the guard that had been outside come back in whistling to himself. Rent-a-cops had to be every thief's best friend; they were so inept at doing their jobs that she sometimes wondered if they were just criminals posing as guards to help get certain places robbed more efficiently. Shrugging, she stuck to the shadow as the guy walked the away from where she was standing so as not to set off the motion detector she'd trashed a few minutes before. Now she needed to get up the 'Clean Room' and remove some items from there. That big sign at the end of the corridor that pointed her in the right direction was so helpful.

The Clean Room was designed to keep as many contaminants out of a room as physically possible, exchanging the air in the room once an hour with purified air and venting the bad through some scrubbers before exiting the building from the roof. Getting inside was as easy as pulling open a couple of doors and walking in. Normally a person would be wearing a clean suit that had been specially treated, but she planned on messing the place up anyway, so it was just a matter of walking in. There was a motion detector on the far side of the room and she quickly dispatched it with the paint before heading over to a small dais in the center of the room holding the second item she needed to get. The dais was about three feet high and had a thick plastic covering over the top of the dais.

She was surprised when she found that no one had bothered to alarm the lid to the thing and rolled her eyes. These people needed to be fired for being to stupid, but it made her job a lot easier so who was she to complain? Lifting the lid proved to be a chore of several minutes and she was gasping for air by the time she had it open. Inside were a series of small containers that held the controlled chemicals that they needed inside the clean room along with that days production of a special chip. Quickly grabbing the small containers she put them in her leg pack and grabbed a tray with ten small computer chips on it and put them in her bag as well as a gift for her grandpa to sell.

Then it was time to leave and she took the most direct rout through the back door and across the parking lot. Not once encountering any more sensors or guards along the way. The whole thing had taken her just over an hour and a half. She vaulted the fence with ease and landed next to her bicycle, put her goggles away and turned off the watch before she hopped on and headed down the road. After she transferred all her stolen goods into a larger bag hanging off her handle bars she pulled out a small cell phone and called her grandpa to let him know that the first one was out of the way. She had a feeling that the rest of the night was going to be interesting indeed.

With a grin she made her way towards a small military controlled compound at the edge of the city for the second of her three stops. After that she would head towards the business district to a warehouse that was held the last item on her list and getting that bulky thing home was going to be a challenge. She was small and petite; it was the same size as her and weighed about three times as much as she did. If her grandpa hadn't given her bicycle an overhaul she would never have been able to pull it off, though it did mean she would have to take two of the things for balance, but that was just a bonus for her. And so she peddled off into the darkness with a grin on her face and larceny in the air.

This was Keystone City, the home of The Flash and a few other super heroes and not once during the course of the whole trip did she even see a hint of the fast moving family. It confused the hell out of her and she hadn't gotten a chance to use her special weapon for when one of them would show up. After calling her grandpa and telling him what happened he had told her to come home with the parts right then and there, the rest could wait a day or two anyway. She had argued a little bit, but by the time she got home, gasping for air as she pulled out a remote and opened the garage, she had decided that he might have had the right idea after all. No need to take on more than she really could in one night. So as the garage opened up she rode her bicycle in and carefully placed it in the brace her grandpa had constructed to hold the bicycle. Her grandpa had been there to meet her and helped her unload all the things she'd gotten and complimented her on doing such a good job as he examined the chips with a grin on his old face. After that she staggered off to take a shower and catch a few hours sleep before the sun rose.

**********

Ranma's eyes snapped open and he had to resist the urge to jump to his feet and defend his life against an unknown foe as he did every time he woke up. Then he nervously sat up and shook off a slight dizzy spell as his eyes crossed. His head hurt quite a bit and no amount of rubbing would lesson the pain as it throbbed just behind his eyes. Tossing the bedding to the side he rolled to a sitting position and placed his feet on the floor and nearly fell over in pain. As far as he could remember he hadn't felt this bad in years. He spent a few minutes fighting off the need to throw up. Lifting his head up he slowly looked around and noticed the he was in a room he didn't recognize. For the first time he started to realize that something was seriously wrong.

He didn't recognize the room at all. It wasn't even of Japanese design, but obviously American with its large bed, thick mattress, and a small table with a mirror attached to the wall. Where the hell was he? He gritted his teeth and staggered over to the bathroom to use the sink and splashed some water on his face. There was a quick knock at the door and Ranma only had time to peak his head out of the bathroom before an old woman with white hair stepped into the room. She was holding a bundle of clothing in her arm. She stopped in surprise when she noticed that the bed was empty and turned to look at him as he stepped out of the bathroom.

"Good morning!"

"Ah, good morning." Ranma said. He wasn't sure who she was, but had a vague feeling that his father had sold him again.

"How are you feeling?"

"Huge headache. Where am I?"

"You're in Keystone City. My husband brought you here last night when you had passed out."

Ranma sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed his forehead again. "Keystone City? Should be Japan, if ...remember right."

"Japan? No, you are in America right now."

"That explain little bit. Don't remember much."

"What's your name and are you hungry?"

"My name is Ranma...something." Ranma said and suddenly realized that there were great big holes in his memory.

"Hmm..."

"Can't remember full name, seem to be blank spots..." He sighed and slumped over. "No need this now."

"Cheer up! Lets get you dressed and some breakfast in you, there are a few people downstairs that want to meet you."

Ranma glanced up at her and looked confused and thought to himself. 'Did the old man really sell him again?'

"You may not remember it, but you did something yesterday that was quite surprising and some friends wanted to explain what happened to you. They spent most of the night tracking down some answers to figure it out."

"What will wear, shorts don't fit well and seems that clothes missing." Ranma complained as he stood up again, this time it was little easier than the last time.

"Here you go." She said as she handed him the bundle of clothes.

There seemed to be a pair of blue jeans, socks, a weird looking pair of red shoes with thick soles, and a gray t-shirt. "What with shoes?"

"Oh! I forgot you don't know about them, they are specially made for people with abilities like yours." Joan said with a grin and refused to say any more.

"Huh...?" Ranma just shrugged and started getting dressed. He was kind of used to working through things without much information. How he knew this was a complete mystery just that it had something to do with a demon that'd spent some time hurting him in some way he couldn't recall.

Then a voice called from outside the room. "Joan!?"

The old woman turned and yelled back out the door. "He's up, just getting dressed. He'll be down in a few minutes!"

"Alright, make sure he's fully dressed so we can leave!" Yelled the mysterious voice.

From the tone Ranma could tell that it was from an old man as well. After taking a few minutes to pull the clothes on the last and final thing he picked up were the oddly shaped shoes. He was quite surprised at how snug and comfortable they were as he stood up to test the fit, as if they had been formed to fit his feet exactly. Then his stomach decided to growl loud enough to grab the old woman's attention and she smiled at him as he blushed. "Um..."

"Just follow me Ramna, you must be hungry enough to eat a horse."

"Ranma." He corrected, then his stomach growled again. "Eh...heheheh." He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head and followed her out of the room.

**********

Wally didn't remember much of any thing about his time within the Speed Force as Max Mercury liked to call it, it had all just kind of faded when he came back out for Linda, but he had the nagging feeling that he did something to the boy. No matter how much he thought about it he just seemed to know the kid from somewhere and it was driving him crazy trying to figure out from when. Most of the images he had for his little run beyond the veil, if he could call it that, was… lightning and the face of that boy being pulled behind him as he left. Then nothing more, but those two images seemed to be permanently etched into his mind. Wally wasn't certain where he came from either, but after seeing the fear, anger and loneliness in the boy's eyes during their confrontation. He had to know their connection.

All these thoughts were flying around his brain as he sat at his kitchen table finishing off his fifth plate of bacon and eggs. Linda was just doing the dishes and watching him as he ate, but she had been like this since he returned and he didn't mind. She had a good reason to be a little hesitant about him leaving, but kept it to herself. He was going to meet Jay Garrick and the others at a local diner that had survived the battle. Jay was going to bring the boy along so that all of them, including Max Mercury could sit down and have a little chat about recent events. He stood up and helped Linda do the dishes in about two point five seconds, kissed her good by as he grabbed up his coat and was halfway to the diner a fifth of a second after that.

The diner still stood even after all the damage those Kobra terrorists had caused this part of the city. There were some cracks in the walls and looked as if the sidewalk was a total write off, but so was half the city at the moment. It was a tiny place and had a relatively small amount of room to maneuver around in, but he only had to worry about that if the kid decided to attack them again. They had also chosen it because of the fact that it was still standing in one piece after what had happened to rest of the city. He wanted to get there somewhat early so that he could reserve a table for four in the back corner. Where they could have some relative privacy and a chance to talk to each other without everyone in the diner knowing what was going on. Not that he was really worried about that, but he just figured that meeting in a public place would be a better idea in the long run. He cruised through traffic in a blur of motion and came to a halt near the front door of the place as he looked in the window.

Then he spotted Jay Garrick and Max Mercury sitting in a booth in back corner chatting with each other. They seemed to be getting along fine and there was no sign that they were nervous or anything. Sitting next to them was the boy that had attacked him eating enough food for several people at once. He walked over and pulled up a chair between Max and Jay and continued to watch as the kid ate. It was quite apparent that the kid was either a very fast eater or unconsciously channeling the speed to move faster. Wally was pretty sure it was the second option because he'd never seen a normal human eat like this kid.

Then he noticed that the boy was dressed this time. In a pair of loose blue jeans, a shirt, jacket, and a pair of the special shoes they wore when they were running. To keep the friction from burning a normal pair to ashes within a few hours. "Hey Jay, Max."

"Wally, get things patched up with Linda?"

"A little, though we still need to talk about a few things. She's still trying to deal with the fact that I almost died yesterday." Wally explained.

"Joan used to have that problem."

"How did she deal with it?" Wally asked. "Maybe she could talk to Linda."

"I'll ask, but I think it's something you have to come to terms with on your own." Jay explained.

"How about you Max?" Wally asked as he turned to other speedster.

"Never had a girlfriend last long enough to find out." Max explained, his face turning to stone as he turned away.

"Ah, okay." Wally muttered and tried to figure out what he'd done to make the guy mad. They really didn't know each other that well really. "Hey kid that's quite a talent you have there." Wally said to the kid that had attacked him.

Ranma ignored him and finished off yet another plate of pancakes and sat it with growing pile beside him and reached for more.

"Right."

With a grin Jay took a bit of pity on Wally. "The kid's name is Ranma."

"He's from Japan right?"

"We think so, his English as good as it can be. But we had an early morning run this morning and he can tap into his speed easily. He's seems to be a natural at using the stuff either from is emersion in the speed field or just physical ability. We haven't been able to figure out which one it could be yet."

Max Mercury stayed quiet as he watched the kid eat. He was quite shocked at the kid's total lack of even the most rudimentary table manors though. Then the kid belched and reached for more and he had to shake his head. He had to fight to keep a grin off his face as he watched yet another stack of pancakes vanish in a matter of seconds. Max tried to figure out where it was all going or if the kid was going to explode. Then he suddenly realized that Ranma was almost instantly converting the food into energy. His time within the speed force must have sped things up quite a bit and given him some special abilities.

Maybe along the same lines as the fact that Wally didn't need to eat every ten minutes like he used to. By mainlining the Speed Force he seemed to have an inexhaustible amount available to use whenever he wanted to and didn't need to worry about keeping his body in top shape anymore. There was a possibility that Ranma might have similar abilities or had to keep up with Wally in certain areas for them to work.

Then he noticed as the boy finally stopped eating and looked up from his plate. This allowed Wally to get the first decent look at his face since he had arrived at the diner. He really was Japanese, with gray blue eyes, and looked to be around Bart's age or a bit younger. It was a bit hard to tell. When dealing with the Speed Force it was hard to judge a person's age at times. Impulse was a living example of that, the kid was barely a few years old, but the speed force had aged him into a teenager's body in just a few short years. The boy's eyes locked him in and Wally got a brief glimpse into a world of pain, loss, and depression before a will of iron clamped down on them and everything about him returned to normal.

Wally broke away and turned towards Jay who had managed to get his hands on some coffee while he was thinking about Ranma. "Well now son, are you full yet or do you need even more food?" Jay asked. "If you keep this up you might just eat everything they have available on your own."

"Yeah, this enough for now." Ranma said. His English was a bit rough, but he'd learned enough to understand people. He couldn't read a word of it, but he could speak it relatively well and it had come in handy a time or two.

"Wait a second, he can speak English?" Wally asked with an incredulous look on his face. Last night all he could remember was the boy trying to rip his head off, all the while shouting in some foreign language that he suspected was Japanese. But he wasn't certain what the boy was saying at the time, it all happened so fast. Add in the fact that Wally just hadn't been in the mood to put up with any crap at that particular moment and you were a little closer to understanding things.

"Yea… me… can…you… BAKA!" Ranma yelled.

The rest was lost on Wally as the boy grumbled to himself for several seconds before shrugging and hunching down in his seat. Wally was just happy that a fight hadn't broken out the moment he walked in the dinner, putting up with insults would be easy enough to do. But Mister Zen the walking encyclopedia for the speed force, as he liked to call it, decided to explain what he knew of the boy to Wally. Not that Wally wasn't curious, it was just that Max Mercury tended to get on his nerves at times with his secretive ways and need to know information dolled out in tiny little bits of wisdom that were never explained.

"Last night I finally remembered why this kid was so familiar to me." Max said.

"Oh?"

"A few weeks ago, I was trying to stop someone who had just gotten access to the Speed Force through an unknown means. I chased after him and attempted to stop him from crossing the light speed barrier and entering the Speed Force. But I noticed him just a few seconds to late and just couldn't get close enough to him in order to catch him." Max explained before he looked back at Wally. "You remember when I told you I had failed to save someone? I think this kid might be the one that crossed the barrier, while there he somehow kept himself from surrendering to the Lightning completely and you accidentally pulled him along with you when you left the Speed Force to reunite with Linda Parks."

"Ah..." Wally said as he edged away from the glare Ranma was suddenly giving him.

Max waved a hand toward Wally and with a smooth motion he introduced them. "Ranma I'd like you to meet the Flash, Flash this is Ranma. He's planning to kick your butt for what you did to him… how did he put it a little while ago… ah yeah. Because of that jerk, I've returned to hell." Max was trying to keep from smirking and failing slightly. The look on Wally's face was almost worth putting on this show.

"I know English, so, I understand what you saying to jerk here." Ranma said with a shrug and stopped glaring at Wally. He'd been listening to the people around him talk to each other and already started to adapt his speech to talk like they did. He figured, if he had few weeks, he could pick the language up if he needed to. "I'll kick ass later."

"Your English is good enough and you'll get better with practice if you stick around long enough." Max said to distract him from beating up Wally.

"We still need to figure out just how he became trapped in the Speed Force." Wally pointed out with a glance at Max.

"There have been Speedsters throughout history Wally. I told you my story and that I certainly wasn't the first one to ever get the power." Max explained as he ate a little of his own breakfast.

"Just how did you end up stuck inside the Speed Force Ranma? As we understand it just getting there requires traveling beyond the speed of light and turning to pure energy."

Ranma had to sift through some rather spotty memories before he remembered. "It martial arts technique."

"Martial Arts?" Max asked in surprise.

Nodding, Ranma described the process about focusing his Ki and running through the thunderstorm. "Memory is a bit spotty after that until I wake up in pain."

"How much lightning was there Ranma?" Max asked.

"Lots."

"What are you thinking Max?" Jay asked from the other side of the table.

"Just an idea that I've been thinking about for a long time now." Max muttered and waved off any other questions. "Just how much control do you have over your speed Ranma?"

"Just learned technique when end up in heaven." Ranma muttered with another glare at Wally.

"So not much. I'm still impressed that you could even move as fast as you did that day."

Ranma smirked. "Am Best!"

Jay laughed, that confidence reminded him of a young Barry Allen after he first got his powers in that chemical accident. "We need to teach him how to control his powers before he does something that might hurt someone. He has some skill though, he picked up running the first time we tried it this morning."

Max and Wally both nodded.

"More techniques?" Ranma asked, though he did ignore Wally as he glanced at Max and Jay for them to confirm it.

"Correct." Max said. "I think I might have the best way to do it too."

"What do you have in mind Max?" Wally asked. He was somewhat relieved actually. With Bart Allen running around he wasn't sure he could take on yet another teenage speedster.

"Let's have Bart show him a few things." Max suggested and Wally started coughing, completely surprised.

"Who?" Ranma asked.

"You might remember him from last night Ranma, the teenager wearing the red and white body suit." Jay explained.

"I don't remember much last night." Ranma said slowly as he worked his way through the rudimentary English.

"Um, Max, do you think that is such a good idea." Wally asked a bit nervously. Batman hadn't come up with the name Impulse for Bart Allen's super hero name for the fun of it, more like a warning of what was to come.

"The kid has a lot of potential Wally and even if Bart is impulsive he's got a lot of things he could show Ranma."

"I don't know..."

"I think it might be a good idea as well." Jay said.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Wally snapped as he stood up. There was no way the kid could learn anything from Impulse. On top of that the kid seemed to instantly dislike him and he didn't feel like playing peace keeper just to get on his good side. He turned around and walked out of the diner, only to run into Jay just outside the door. "I'll let you two deal with this, I need to go and take care of something and there is a bit of rebuilding to do."

"Wally..." Jay started; he was a bit worried about his friend. Ranma was adapting to the situation better than he expected, but there did seem to be a few problems that had to be dealt with. Like the fact that he seemed to have memory problems of some sort because of the time he's spent inside the Speed Force. Things like his family name were already gone and his memories of certain people seemed to be missing as well.

"I can't deal with this right now. Having Impulse train him is like asking a stick of dynamite play with matches." Wally snapped as he dug his hand into his pocket and handed something to Jay. "If he proves to be an asset or an ally then give him this, but for now leave me out of it."

Looking at the object in his hand, Jay was mildly surprised to see that it was a Flash Ring like all of them wore. It stored their costume for when it was needed in an emergency and allowed them to pop it out and use their speed to get dressed before anyone was aware that anything had happened. It was a strange looking one though, made of silver with a flash signet done on a black background with a silver lightning bolt instead of the usual red. "I don't think I've ever seen this one before."

"It's a costume I designed some time ago. Back before we lost Barry." Wally explained.

"So what does it look like?"

"It's a basic costume. Though I was in a dark mood the day I created it and never had a chance to wear it. It's got a different color scheme than what we usually wear, I had a feeling that it might be needed so I brought it along just in case. I'm willing to give him a chance since you two want to train him, but for now leave me out of it."

"Alright." Jay nodded and pocketed the ring.

Back in the diner Ranma watched Wally and Jay talk to each other through the window they were standing in front of and wondered what they were talking about and if should be worried about it. He was still a bit uncertain on how to react to this man who he knew as The Flash. A part of him wanted to hit him till the feeling of loss when a way and he could go back to normal again. On the other hand he was still a bit pissed at what had happened to him because he wanted to learn a new technique. It had led to him literally running so fast that he died and ended up in some kind of heaven. Only to be pulled out a little while later and brought back here to experience things all over again.

To be back in the real world after all this time was hard to adjust to and after being ripped from his home it just wasn't right. No matter how he looked at it he just couldn't seem to get his mind around the concept enough to accept it and move on. Didn't he deserve to be happy? Hadn't he earned it after all the crap he'd been through over the years? Even with his spotty memory he could remember lots and lots of pain and suffering, all of which had been alleviated when he ended up inside the Speed Force. Then he'd been brought back into the living world and forced to endure more pain and suffering.



He was constantly frustrated now and hadn't had a chance to work out his stress. The only thing that seemed to make up for all the aggravation was the fact that he had been given a second chance. Earlier when he had come downstairs with Joan he had been greeted by Jay Garrick. The old man had been wearing his usual outfit, a pair of jeans, a red shirt, and his trademark helmet of mercury with its wings. He stopped to stare at the guy and wondered what it was with Americans and this strange need to wear weird clothes everywhere they went.

"Morning kid." Jay said.

"Hello." Ranma said nervously and looked around the room. He noticed that the downstairs area was wide open. On one side was the dining room, next to that was a large living room and this small area at the bottom of the stairs right in the middle of the two.

"We are meeting a couple friends of mine at a local diner and they want to meet you." Jay said. "I need to show you a couple of things before we go though."

"Huh?" Ranma muttered as they stepped outside.

"By the way, what is your name?"

"Ranma."

"It's nice to meet you Ranma, I'm Jay Garrick. The Original Flash." He said.

Ranma gave him a blank look. "Who?"

"You've never heard of me?"

"Nope." Shrugging he looked around the yard and saw that it was well kept. Then he noticed the old woman stepping outside and walking over to the guy.

"How rare." She said.

"Yeah, I've gotten used to people knowing who I am at least." Jay grumbled.

Joan laughed.

"Hey kid, let me show you something." Jay said to get Ranma's attention again. Then he ran across the yard and left a stream of color behind him.

Amazed Ranma watched as he did this several times, going to all corners of the yard and even circling him a couple of times. He realized that the old guy was using the same technique he'd just learned before he 'died'. "You know same technique?"

"Yes, I've been using it for years and I can go much, much faster than that. I want to see what you can do."

With a shrug Ranma figured it wouldn't hurt and took up the stance he'd started with and started to concentrate. He flared his aura around him and reached out to the energy that was always just out of reach and let it fill him. As lightning started to flare around him he didn't see the odd look that Joan and Jay gave him or the shocked look as he exploded into motion. Like Jay he ran to each corner of the yard, circled them a few times and then decided to go around the block.

He glanced over as he ran and saw that Jay was keeping up with him and increased his speed a little. "How this?"

"Kinda slow." Jay said and seemed to just pull away form him. "Keep up with me, we can go and meet my friends."

"You can't beat me old man!" Ranma yelled and concentrated even more, barely able to keep the guy in sight.

"Hah!"

Ranma sat back in his chair and shook his head a little. He still wasn't to sure about what was going on, but he knew he could learn things from these people that he couldn't learn from anyone else. Even the run here this morning, close to fifteen miles from Jay's house had taken only a few minutes and he had been forced to increase his speed to amazing levels. Dodging traffic that looked like it was standing still, reading the wind currents, and how to use air pressure to slow down. Jay had decade's worth of experience and Ranma wanted to know every bit of it.

When they arrived at the diner he had met Max Mercury and found yet another speedster that could teach him things. The run had one side effect that he hadn't expected though. It had pushed him to his limits and used up all his energy and made him hungry as hell. He'd also noticed that the two old men had this aura of power about them that they seemed unaware of. It reminded him of a storm that swirled around them as if it was on the verge of turning into a hurricane of rage. He wasn't sure, but he was assuming that is what a speedster's aura was supposed to look like and his wasn't even close.

It would take a bit of work, but he was sure he could learn to go from a stand still to moving at full speed like they did. He glanced up as Jay came back into the diner and walked over to their table and sat down again. "What going on?"

"Wally had something to take care of." Jay said. "What can you tell us about yourself Ranma? Do you remember anything that might help us figure out where your parents are for instance."

A flash of memory hit Ranma like a sledge hammer and he nearly fell out of his chair as he envisioned a monster standing above him, cloaked in shadows, and with a pair of evil looking eyes shining brightly. It was laughing at him as it kicked him over and over again for some reason. He shuddered and noticed that Jay was standing behind him with a hand on his shoulder to keep him from falling to the floor. "Ow…"

"Ranma, what happened? Are you alright?" Max asked.

"Yeah, just remembered being kicked unconscious by someone." Ranma muttered as he sat up and shivered a bit. "I'm fine."

Glancing over at Max, Jay and him seemed to come to a decision and nodded. "Ranma, you can mope around all you want later, but for right now we have to help rebuild the city if you're up to it. And I think it would do some good for you to help out the people. I will also allow you to get your mind off your lack of certain memories. So let's start teaching you how to use your new abilities." Jay said, trying to keep Ranma from thinking about what he had just remembered.

"Indeed, let's head out back and see what Ranma can and can not do with the Speed Force." Max suggested with a look of anticipation.

"Ranma, you will be amazed at how much you can do in one day with the speed to help you out." Jay nodded in agreement. "I have a few things in mind to help you get started, though we won't push you to hard."

"Push as hard as you want." Ranma said. "I can take on any kind of training and come out on top."

"Well in that case." Max said with a grin. "I have an idea."

*************

Sitting in the middle of the garage was a masterpiece of engineering as far as Charlie was concerned. A little while ago her Grandpa had decided that going to all three of the places she needed to in one night was pushing things a little. They would have a few more days to break into the other two places with most of the town still trying to recover from the destruction of a third of the city. He had been delighted with the computer chips she had brought back with her, saying that she might have sped up his time table a bit. It turned out they did something very interesting when installed in a motorized vehicle and he wanted to take a little time to look them over before sending her out again.

In the mean time he had spent the last six hours working on the piece of engineering sitting in front of her. Her Ride, the one thing she had been looking forward to for the last year and a half. A vehicle so hard to describe that it was simply called a Hover bicycle, though that barely came close to describing what it really was. Her Grandpa had been building and designing the technology used in it for years. Now all that work was sitting in front of her within hours of being completed. She had to resist stepping forward and running her hand over it just to see what it was like.

The best way to even describe it was as a sleek shark moving in for the kill. For it was a sight to behold no matter how she looked at it. A streamlined predator of the sky, made with the most modern equipment available to criminal science. It almost seemed to be begging her to ride it as she stood there. Besides it was sexy as hell and there was no way she would give that up after waiting over all this time for it to be built. She walked around the bicycle and saw that it rested on three curved metal fins instead of the wheels she had been expecting. Two of the fins were jutting out from its rear at an angle to help balance the craft downward and came to a couple dangerous looking points. Then the fin on the front was a retractable short studded point that would help the bicycle stand up on its own when she finally came down.

It was more like a rocket with sharp angles to accentuate everything about it. Something built for speed, power, and danger. The seat was near the rear of the bicycle and was sculpted for her contours so when she got on the thing it she would be like a high speed racer. The most important feature of the bicycle was its weapons system. Which was designed to fight Meta powered humans like The Flash. It was one of the things she had been stealing the parts for. One of the things that seemed to stand out on the bicycle was the control panel that looked like it had been taken off of a Goldwing Motorcycle and adapted. There were small screens, dozens of buttons, and lots and lots of her grandfather's specially designed equipment. Everything on the bicycle worked perfectly now that some of the final pieces had been put in place with a bit of reprogramming.

As she walked around the back of the thing she sighed as her grandpa looked up from where he was kneeling. Beside one of the side hatches with a whole mess of wires strung out all over the floor as he installed an updated gyro stabilizer. She shrugged and ignored him as she admired the streamlined edges and graceful look of the machine and couldn't wait to take out and give it a shake down flight. Then she spotted another change to the bicycle as she knelt down across from her grandpa and examined a mini gun turret of some kind that she hadn't noticed before. It was jutting out from the belly of the thing gleaming in the light. She grinned as she examined it. The two of them had been planning for years and she knew that this upcoming theft wouldn't be one of those random attacks that the Rogues Gallery villains that used to attack the city every few weeks. No, she was an all new threat and she would do everything in her power to make sure that no one got in her way.

"How much longer grandpa?"

"About six hours or so to get it ready to fly, except for the weapons system of course. The main part I need get the whole thing working wasn't at the place you went to last night. It's at the military base you are heading to next and you'll need the hover bicycle here to get in and out safely. A bit of a problem, but I have some other weapons that I've set up for you to use. When you get back from the base the bicycle will be upgraded to its full potential."

"Ah, I was wondering what you had in mind when you mentioned it earlier." She said.

"I had to revise my original plan when I realized that sneaking in was impossible now that the earthquake has put everyone on edge. I thought they would be busy helping around the city, but there will be a small group of soldiers at the base and they will be on guard in case something happens. Getting in and out will be tricky."

Charlie nodded. "I'm up for it."

"Excellent, I was also able to get your guns ready so you can be armed when you get off the bicycle at least."

"Cool! Which ones?"

He pointed over towards the bench on the other side of the room and she spotted a pair of larger than normal handguns. They are sitting on a small foam pad as a small computer runs a check on them from a cord plugged into their pistol grips. She ran over and picked one up carefully and was amazed at how lightweight the thing is. It's shaped basically like a berretta, but with a longer nose and has a slot in the handle that can hold the battery for it. With the flip of a switch she was able to see that it had a full charge and could fire about two hundred shots before it ran out on low power. The only problem she saw with them was that they were more of a taser gun than anything dangerous, but was enough to drop someone that wasn't expecting them. Then she noticed that there was indeed some dangerous setting on there that could reduce its shots down to around 6. Or even a single shot that could blow a hole through a building, but they were very dangerous. "These look great, but why did you make them matte black?"

"You need that weapon to be a surprise and they can be hidden on the hover bicycle here or under your jacket with a bit of adjustment to the holster. When we have all the parts I need I have another set of guns that will be your main ones and they will be a lot more powerful than those things. It's just bad luck that the parts I need are only allowed to the military."

Nodding, Charlie turned the gun off and placed it back on the pad. "What is the computer doing to them?"

"The notepad is programming the triggering mechanism to respond faster and to adding a set of commands that will allow it to function with your goggles. Oh, I also want you to go and check out your next target today, before you head out tonight that way you won't get lost."

"How will I be doing that?"

"The base took quite a beating in the earthquake and they are rebuilding, I was thinking you could volunteer for the day and get a look around the place at the same time."

"W-work! Oh come on!" Charlie yelled. She had more important things to do.

The old man stood up and glared down at her with lightning arching from his eyes and around his body. It made him look absolutely evil. "Charlie."

"Yes sir." She squeaked and nodded hurriedly.

"If you want your hover bicycle finished, then you need to do this."

Charlie cringed as she nodded some more and slowly backed her way out of the garage, nearly tripping over the back fin of her bicycle as she did so. The old man just kept a frown on his face as he watched her disappear into the house. He didn't like having to scare her, but this project needed to be finished as soon as possible if he was to set the next step in his plan in motion. He had hinged so much of his revenge on his son and had to sit back and watch as the fool destroyed everything that had been set in motion all those years ago. There was no way he would fail this time; he had raised his grand daughter to obey him like his son should have. She would succeed where her father had failed and paid the ultimate price. Maybe it was also time for him to give her that other thing as well. He checked the date on the calendar and nodded to himself.

It was time.

**********

The last couple of hours had been quite interesting as far as Ranma was concerned. He hadn't really remembered anything of his past, but he had found out a few things. The biggest was that he seemed to have a talent for picking up new ideas. Max had taken him around the city a couple of times, making him reach faster and faster speeds by using what he called the Speed Force. Hours of work and practice could be done in a matter of seconds according to Max and one of the first things that had to be learned was how to manage this ability. A normal human could build a wall in a few hours at normal speed, but with the speed force Max said had shown him that kind of job could be done in a matter of seconds.

Speeding across the city from one end to the other, Ranma had studied how Max worked and followed his instructions. Building the entire wall at once using the was impossible because the mortar didn't have time to set, but if took it on small levels and allowed each one to set and dry he could finish ten to twenty walls in just a few hours. Taking materials from all the downed and collapsed buildings and rebuilding walls and fences faster than the most of the normal work crews could think. In real time it took them about two hours, but Max believed that they had accomplished about two months worth of work after they had finished the final wall. After that Max had had them taking bags of cement to the work crews throughout the city. According to Max this would help to build up his speed and control as he adjusted to the speed force. Ranma had to admit that after a few hours of this, charged with the speed force, that he was moving faster than ever.

They did have to take the occasional break though because Ranma kept getting hungry and stealing peoples lunches. Ranma hadn't thought much of it at the time and asked Max why he was so hungry, without admitting that he had stolen it from the construction crews of course.

"Ranma, as you move at these high speeds your body burns a hundred thousand calories during these runs. You need to keep up your strength to use the speed force and that means a healthy appetite."

"I guess a flaw in new technique." Ranma said with a shrug.

"Jay and I also have to eat quite a bit to continue what we are doing, you'll get used to it in time and you are making good progress learning all this stuff."

"Heh."

"It's all quite simple really, but there are limits to what you can do with super speed as well. You can move so fast that it's possible to do several things at once, but every now and then that kind of habit will cause you problems. Making you forget things and getting impatient when you are used to doing things almost instantly."

Ranma nodded, though he had no idea what the guy was talking about.

"Now our next job is a bit different, we need to help repair some of the buildings." Max said as they came to a stop in front of a slightly damaged office building.

"What going do exactly? Can fix holes easily, unless want done certain way." Ranma said.

Wincing, Max decided that he would have to do something about the kids horrible English. "We aren't fixing holes, but playing clean up crew instead. We need to clean up all the fallen and broken bits and pile them at a rock quarry just outside of town. This will take several hours of real time running at your current speed, but I think if you learn to move faster you will get done a lot sooner than you think."

"No problem." Ranma said, showing off his new slang.

"He'ssoslow!" Impulse yelled as he suddenly appeared beside Max. "Gofasterwegottagetallthissoneandhe'sjuststanding around!"

"Impulse, he needs to learn all the basics before he can on to the advanced stuff." Max said.

"Whocaresjustmakehimgofaster!"

Ranma had a feeling that while Impulse was here complaining that he was also doing about five or six other things at the same time. He glared as the ghost image of Impulse seemed to just fade away. Again he noticed the strange way that everyone's aura seemed to react when they tapped into their speed. "Is possible doing this wrong?"

"Not at all Ranma, it just takes time to learn this sometimes. I think by the tomorrow you will be well versed in using your speed and we can move onto something else." Max said. "There are several advanced moves that we use to fight people and escape dangerous situations that you need to know. At the moment you are working on just tapping the speed force and using it to move around. You are also learning how to move objects with you at super speed without breaking them."

Then Ranma's stomach growled loudly. "Hungry."

Max grinned. The kid was beginning to remind him of another speedster he knew a while back. "Then let's go and eat. We'll do it at normal speed that way you don't burn it off right away."

"No care lets just eat lots." Ranma muttered.

Later on that after going back to the diner and eating enough food for ten people Ranma spent an hour moving from building to building cleaning out rubble. It was boring work, but he had a blast just moving so fast that he could create images of himself hanging in mid air. At the quarry the rubble started to pile up quite a bit and he had to build several piles just to hold it all, but one of the foremen thanked him for clearing the buildings out and saving his crew a lot of time and allowing them to get right to work.

Ranma also noticed that as the day went on he was starting to see glimpses of The Flash moving all over the city in a red blur of motion. He had not clue how fast the guy was going, but he was leaving an incredible amount of completed work in his wake that astounded him. It wasn't even noon yet and Ranma was pretty sure that between The Flash, Max, and Jay Garrick that over a third of the city had been rebuilt or cleaned up enough for the normal construction crews to move in a do the complicated bits. There was another aspect that Ranma found a bit puzzling as well, but one that he wasn't all that surprised about.

To the residents of the city these actions were what they expected from The Flash and his friends whenever a crisis of this magnitude happened. They didn't really blame it on him like they used to, according to Jay, and instead were welcomed with cheers every time one of them made an appearance. They hadn't really said anything about Ranma yet, but they were starting to notice him every time he completed a job and vanished before anyone could talk to him. He hadn't really noticed because he was so intent on finishing the job a learning more of his new technique that it never crossed his mind to stick around after he got done. Though he did get caught once when he was feeling really hungry at one point and taking a break.

"Hi." Said a voice.

He looked over and saw that there was a girl looking at him. "Hello?" He said, unsure if he was using the right word.

"I'm Susan and I think you look tired." She said with a grin and handed him a cup of some red liquid.

He just nodded, unsure what to say as he took the cup.

"I'm helping out and saw that you were about to collapse over here and figured I'd help out a little."

"Just hungry." Ranma explained.

"I've seen you running around with The Flash right?" She asked a gleam in her eye.

Taking the question literally he shook his head. "Nope, Max Mercury."

She gave him a blank look. "Who?"

"Max Mercury, teaching...um, me about Speed Force."

"Not The Flash?"

"No, Max Mercury show lots techniques." He said with a grin that she seemed to take in completely the wrong way.

"Pervert!" She yelled, slapped him, and stalked off after pouring the drink over his head.

"What say?" He muttered to himself as he shook the stuff out of his head.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Impulse's image, rolling around in the ground laughing at him, faded away a few seconds later.

Grumbling, Ranma concentrated and dashed off down the road and decided to go to his next project now that Max trusted him enough to work on his own. A few milliseconds later he entered the military base and headed for the small housing area on the other side of the large field where he'd already dropped off at least ten other bags of concrete earlier in the day, helped clear some rubble, and painted over twenty houses. It had been a busy few minutes as far as he was concerned, but it had helped make him understand that a lot could be accomplished in a few minutes.

The military base had seen a lot of him today. He had passed through the place close to a hundred times or more doing his various jobs, like rebuilding walls, cleaning out rubble, and helping with small things like painting houses. So he cruised though the base and took a few milliseconds to check out some of the tanks set up out in the field, the Hummers, and lots of other equipment he couldn't even identify. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a blue and white blur passing by the base and knew that Max was around. It made him feel a little better. Then something happened that caught his attention as he was speeding passed one of the larger buildings.

Scaffolding had been set up against the side of a three story building where a wall had collapsed part of an upper floor. He wasn't sure what, but something caught his attention and he curved back around to get a better look. His cruising speed made everything around him appear as if it was happening in slow motion and he only increased his speed when he needed to do something really fast. So the sight of a soldier hanging mid air after falling off the top of the scaffolding only shocked him a little. With a flare of energy he poured the speed on and shot forward thinking to catch the man.

Then the world just came to a stop and Ranma found that he had been stopped in mid step with arcs of lighting flaring around him. The sound filling his ears as he seemed to almost stand there in a position that would have made him fall over normally. Wally West was right there beside him dressed in his deep red outfit with a weird look in his eyes. "Kid, if you run at that guy at your current speed you will kill him the instant you touch him."

"I know you can't move right now, this entire conversation is taking place at one billionth of a second. I'm the only one that can move at this speed and still explain something to you. You need to consider your actions before you do them. Normally I would just save him myself, but I've been changing lately so talking to you is the better option at the moment and it will allow you to learn a bit about the Speed. Reach out to grab that guy as you were going to do, but send out a wave of the speed around you as well and for a brief second he will be moving at the same speed as you are. In that instant grab him and take him to safety." The Flash said as he vanished.

The world seemed to blur into motion again and Ranma did as he said as he reached out to grab him. A wave of speed seemed to touch him a fraction of a second before he touched him and Ranma grabbed him. He didn't hear the sonic boom that rocked the area behind him as he grabbed the guy, dodged around some houses and circled back to the house. Sliding to a stop he sat the soldier down, who was out cold, and looked around to see if everybody was alright. Instead he saw that several of the soldiers were just noticing that he had saved the soldier and came running over.

Gasping for air and suddenly feeling dizzy, Ranma dropped to one knee and tried to stay upright. A pair of hands grabbed him and he realized that Max had shown up to help him out. He handed him two large candy bars. "Here kid, eat these, they will help you out quite a bit."

"Thanks." He gasped out and devoured the two bars instantly.

"You went to fast and over taxed your body. The whole city had to have heard you break the sound barrier too. I'm quite surprised you were able to reach that level of speed this soon." Max said as the rest of the soldiers finally arrived to check on the guy Ranma had just saved.

"Flash appeared and told...me what to do." Ranma muttered as the world stopped spinning a little.

"Wally?" Max asked.

Ranma nodded and repeated. "Told what to do."

"I didn't even see him in the area." Max said thoughtfully.

"He moving very, very fast he said."

"Did he say anything else?"

"No, just explain move and vanish."

They looked up as Jay arrived on the scene and looked around for a second. "Heard a sonic boom and came running. What happened?"

"Ranma here seems to have broken the sound barrier." Max explained.

"What, he's gotten that fast already?"

"Yeah, I thought was bit surprising as well. Usually takes most people a few weeks to make it that far."

Grinning, Ranma pointed to himself. "Am Best!"

"Hey kid, looks like someone wants to talk to you." Max said as one of the soldiers came over.

After talking to the guys for a while and getting a lot of thanks they left and Ranma turned back to Max and Jay. "What next, need food, then more work?"

"Hmm, it's still pretty early yet and we have lots of work left to do. I think you are pushing your limits though, and the human body can only take so much punishment at these speeds." Jay said.

"Not tired like that." Ranma said. "Recover fast, just need lot of food to keep up."

"Max?"

"I've had him on rubble duty for the last few hours." Max said. "Did you finish that up?"

Ranma nodded. "This last place."

"Then finish up here, and then come find us or practice some of the things you've learned today." Max said. "After that we can decide what to do next, though I already have something in mind and we can spend most of the morning doing that tomorrow."

"Okay." Ranma said, focused on the speed and let it envelop him as he took off in a stream of color.

"Amazing." Jay muttered as they watched Ranma run. "I've never seen anyone learn so quick."

"That kid has a lot of natural talent." Max said. "He has a few flaws though, like the inability to think for himself."

"I had noticed that. He follows instructions perfectly, but doesn't seem to want to do anything on his own."

"What do you think of the library tomorrow? Keystone Public Library withstood the quake with no damage."

"You want him to read some books? I don't think he will do that." Jay said.

"Not some, all of them, starting with the children's section on how to read and write."

"Why not, it shouldn't take him to long to go through everything in there. I wonder if we could get Impulse to do the same thing?"

They burst out laughing. "Yeah right!"

**********

After finishing up for the day Ranma decided it was time for a much needed break and headed back for Jay's house. He'd crisscrossed the city at least four or five hundred times in the last eight hours. During that time he had passed Jay's house about a dozen times for various reasons and finding his way back would be easy enough. He streaked across the base heading for the main gate. Blew by the guard and let his wake drag a bunch of wind along behind him to ruffle the guard with a grin and turned onto the main road. He headed down the block dodging various vehicles at high speed and thought about grabbing something to eat at the diner again when he all of a sudden he noticed something weird.

Then he nearly ran into something a couple of blocks from the base. He was suddenly forced to dodge a white, blue and red blur that caught him completely by surprise. One of the first things Max had taught him was how to avoid running into things, so he was a bit surprised that this had happened at all. Cursing he grabbed the blur and tried to keep the two of them from running into a wall as he skidded to a stop. Well it wasn't so much a blur now that the sunlight was out of his eyes and was able to get a better look at what he had almost run into. There was a girl riding towards him as fast as she could on a bicycle and she wasn't paying attention either. She had a large pack strapped to the bicycle and he figured he'd just missed causing her some serious injury.

"Hi?" Ranma started to say, and then she rode over him with the bicycle a second later. Leaving a tire stripe across his chest and face as he went down.

Ranma blinked a few times as the girl's bicycle wheel passed over him and left him mildly concussed, then she suddenly slipped on a bit of broken concrete from the earthquake. Sending her flying off the bicycle and crashing towards the ground with a curse. He reacted before he realized what he was doing, again, and was up and after her in an instant. Half a millisecond later he plucked her from the air before she landed and hurt herself. Which would have been a good thing if the broken street that had caught her by surprise hadn't gotten him as well. Sending them to the ground in a tumbling heap.

Instinctive skill took over and he rolled with the fall and placed himself on the bottom so that his back hit the ground before she did and they ended up several yards down the street where they slammed into a brick wall and came to a stop. Dull pain that had been aggravating him for the last few hours suddenly flared to new life as he tried to shake off. He groaned as he saw that he had taken some scrapes along his arms where they had protected the girl. Groaning he sat up and cradled the girl in his lap and shook his head. It was still spinning from being run over by her bicycle.

"Ow!" He groaned. "What next?

It was official now; Ranma was having a very bad day. Portions of his body just didn't want to stop hurting and now he was injured from slamming into the wall hard enough to crack it. The only thing that he was thankful for was that the girl didn't seem to be hurt. Even her long blond hair seemed to be in relatively decent condition after what happened and there was no sign of blood anywhere. He sighed as he moved to sit her down on the ground beside him when his bad luck seemed to decide that he hadn't suffered enough already.

The girl's eyes snapped open, blinked a few times before turning to him, and suddenly focused in on his and opening wide in shock. Somewhere in the back of Charlie's mind she wondered what the hell had just happened. She could recall accidentally running over some guy who had appeared right in front of her while she was plot...thinking about her next mission when she suddenly crashed her bicycle. After that was a blur of motion as something strange happened.

Then her mind cleared enough to realize that she was being held in the arms of a relatively well muscled guy. She looked down and confirmed that it was more than just being held by him, she was straddling the guy like some slut. Her eyes lit up with flames as he cringed back and brought her arm back to slap the boy for presuming to take advantage of her like this. "How dare you… PERVERT!"

"Huh?" Ranma gasped suddenly. What had he done?

"SLAP!"

Growling, Ranma ignored the slap as he suddenly got angry and dumped the girl on the ground at his feet and stood up. "Why, ugly girl hit me for?!" Ranma yelled.

"UGLY!!! ME?!!" Charlie screamed and lost all control.

"WHAM!"

"HOW!"

"SMACK!"

"DARE!"

"CRACK!"

"YOU!"

"CALL...ME...UGLY!!!!" Charlie yelled as she kicked the crap out of Ranma right then and there.

Four hits was about all that Ranma could stand as the dizziness that had been slowing him down since she ran over him finally cleared enough for him to start and dodge. "Ha-ha can do better than that!" He taunted and bounced out of the way.

Charlie ground her teeth as she suddenly found it impossible to lay a finger on the boy. Every punch and kick she threw his way wasn't anywhere near him by the time it should have connected. Instead he was almost absently stepping out of the way and grinning at her every time she tried something. "Stand still and take your punishment like good pervert should!"

"Ha! Like do something stupid like that!" Ranma laughed as he stepped to the side and gave her a little shove with his foot and sent her stumbling. "Got do better that to get me again."

Charlie screamed, held her hands out as claws and lashed out at the boy only to have him dodge around her like the wind itself. Swing his body around like a snake and tapped her side with a finger before snapping back and sending her off balance a few steps later. She cursed him as she attacked and didn't care who heard her. All she wanted was to punish the pervert for touching her when shouldn't have.

**********

About half a block away, Max Mercury looked around a corner and winced, a little as he watched the girl do her best to maim the boy in some odd fashion. "I've never seen anyone have that kind of effect on a girl before, though I would say it looks like quite a case of love at first sight. Just look at them go."

Jay, who was standing next to his friend shook his head and gave Max a weird look. "You're kidding, right? If we don't stop this that girl is going to continue to try and hit him, though from the looks of it Ranma is pretty good at dodging at least."

Max nodded.

They both cringed as Ranma failed to fend off a punch that turned out to be a feint and ended up taking a savage kick to family jewels. Or at least tried to, Ranma just jumped out of the way the moment her leg shot forward to kick him and he started to laugh. He flipped over her head with a casual ease born from years of practice using her head as a pivot point as he taunted her. Then he bounced up and down a couple of times wanting to know who she was looking at him like that.

The show of agility and dexterity pulled Charlie out of her anger and into a state of shock directed at the boy beside her.

Max and Jay had to blink in surprise. This was the first time they had actually seen Ranma do any kind of high level martial arts and they realized they had completely under estimated his level because of his young age. They watched as the girl turned to gape at him and wondered what was going to happen now. Watching Ranma was like watching a TV show; it was hard to figure out what in the world was going on at times.

"The road to proper mastery of Speed is fraught with pain old friend." Max said as he nodded sagely. "But I'm not sure whose pain."

"What sort of an idiot would say some thing like that?" Jay muttered as he looked at Max like he was a mad man.

"In my defense it sounded like the right thing to say." Max said turning back to the rather painful introduction in progress just down the street.

**********

To be continued...

End Notes - This turned out pretty good after rewriting over half of it in four days. I have been playing round with some things that may or may not stand out in the story. Like small clues to Ranma as he was before he lost a good portion of his memory. Like his strange appetite and the ability to eat constantly and not get full. He has no clue why, but he isn't about to pass up a meal just because he's eaten enough. His time with Genma is showing through in this and several other areas. I'm really not sure if they stand out enough, but I didn't want to make them to blatant either.

Ah well, time will tell.

Max here at the end is making that 'fraught with pain' saying and this is just a bit of fun I tossed in to give the story more of a Ranma 1/2 feel than anything Max would ever say. Charlie is also, if you hadn't noticed a bit like Akane and I'm sure people will point this out. I ask you, name one girl that hasn't decked Ranma at one point in time or another? Hmm? Every girl in Ranma's life has hit Ranma baring Kasumi, but she's never been after him as a potential fiancé anyway. I liked the idea of Charlie losing it and beating him up, it was so Ranma 1/2 like really. There is more to her than what you have seen in this chapter and that will be revealed in the next chapter when we find out a bit more about her grandpa and what he's done to her over the years.

Ah, must mention Wally. This is a bit complicated, but at this time Wally is having a hard time with Linda. In the comics she's on the verge of leaving him and he's a bit irritable because he knows it subconsciously. The ring he gave to Jay is a costume that thought would fit Ranma to a 'T' and when he does get a chance to put it one I hope everyone likes it.

Finally Ranma's training. He learns quick and with access to the speed he can learn more in a day than he ever could. That is why he's been able to do so much so soon. I still have a few things to detail training wise, but once those are out of the way Ranma will be given a chance to show his true abilities. Perhaps in chapter four.

***

Omake 2; Nothing good is ever on TV

By BlindmanX

Their eyes meet for the first time, blue gray faced dark green, and somewhere in the background on the top of a building a guy with wings and a bow took aim and drew back his string notched with an arrow. Biting his tongue as he took careful aim at the pair.

"How dare you… " The girl started to yell.

"SLAP!"

Growling, Ranma ignored the slap as he suddenly got angry and dumped the girl on the ground at his feet and stood up. "Why, ugly girl hit for?!" Ranma yelled.

"UGLY!!! ME?!!" Charlie screamed and lost all control.

"WHAM!"

"HOW!"

"SMACK!"

"DARE!"

"CRACK!"

"YOU!"

"CALL...ME...UGLY!!!!" Charlie yelled as she kicked the crap out of Ranma right then and there.

"….." Cupid said to himself as he un-notched the arrow that he had placed in his golden bow and reread his list of clients for today. Right there at the top was Charlie, the girl down below suplexing the boy into the street. Reading the list slowly as he un-rolled it a ways and spotting just how many girls names were on it was a bit of a surprise. Attached to Ranma's file (with a few stapled onto the bottom of the page) was the list of all the girls that would eventually attach themselves to the boy. Cupid did the only thing he could think of he shrugged his shoulders, pulled his golden bow and arrow notched the bow with another arrow. All the while taking aim from his spot on one of the last standing buildings in Keystone. With a quick tug he fired the golden arrow at the couple. All the while singing "Another one bits the dust."

** Somewhere Else Entirely**

It wasn't hard to replace the scrying pool with a big screen 60' inch TV, nor was it hard to fill all the sparse office of DEATH with eight lazy boy chairs sitting in a semicircle around DEATH'S giant TV. But what Death wanted to know was where all these people came from and why were they eating all the Pringles from his private stock. With that in mind DEATH asked the only thing he could think of at the time, "UH, WHO ARE ALL YOU PEOPLE AND WHY ARE YOU EATTING ALL MY POTATO CHIPS???"

"Ask Loki, he's the one who give us the invite, Dude. Hey, is that girl doing what I think she's doing?" Rosewood asked as he reached for some more popcorn from the bowl that DEATH was holding.

"LOKI, YOUR KIDDING PLEASE TELL ME YOUR KIDDING." DEATH said as he looked at the person that was eating his popcorn while not looking up from the TV.

"Ok, where in the hell did she pull that mallet from?" Michael asked as he watched the carnage unfold on the TV. After seeing that Michael made up his mind never to eat jello again. With one sudden hand movement Michael grabbed some of the Pringles and chucked a couple into his mouth.

"Yeah, first it was just missing punches and then out of nowhere... WHAM... kick to the nuts and a mallet to the head and he's completely at her mercy." Will said with his own can of Pringles in his lap, though they seemed to be mostly untouched.

"Ah yeah, classic Ranma, one of these days I got to find out where that mallet comes from and who is the guy wearing the toga and aiming that arrow?" Black Dragon asked as he snatched a bowl of popcorn from DEATH'S lap and began munching on it just as his host was reaching for some.

"HEY! GIVE THAT BACK!" DEATH snapped.

"Oh him? That just cupid, look at the weirdo in those winged shoes... they were so last season." Loki added in as he popped back in with four new cans of Pringles and a tray of drinks that was floating along beside him like a small UFO.

"Well I guess that he isn't killing them, that's good, but what is that arrow doing to that girl? She's acting really strange all of a sudden, or is it just me?" Michael asked as he grabbed one of the cans of Pringles out of Loki's hands.

Matdeception looked at Michael and then at the TV which was showing a now blushing girl walk towards Ranma's KO'ed form "Its you, its all you. And pass me one of those cans or I'll kick your ass." In an instant the second can Loki had brought in with him was tossed to Matdeception. It was opened with a pop and everyone looked around to see if they would all start dancing and singing like in the commercial. It'd happened three times already.

"WILL YOU PEOPLE STOP GRABBING THE PRINGLES I WANT SOME TOO................ OH, MY WHAT IS THAT GIRL DOING!!!" Death asked as he watch the TV.

"You mean after all these centuries you don't know?" Loki asked looking a bit shocked at the TV himself. "Boy, she's pretty flexible."

"Some one better be taping this..." Will said as the song 'In the jungle the mighty jungle' started to play from the speakers.

DEATH blushed; don't even begin to try and understand how a skeleton in a hood can blush, but he pulled it off just the same.

"I didn't think people could bend like that." Black Dragon said as he finished off the can of Pringles without taking his eyes off the TV. "She must be related to Plastic man."

"SHE MUST DO YOGA... ADVANCE YOGA..." DEATH said as he turned his head to the side so he could see what was going on a bit better.

"Okay, okay I'll add this to the list of 'jokes that fell threw' like the fake Neko-ken manuals, the home alone movies, the laws of physics, Microsoft windows, taxes, life insurance, etc." Loki said as he ate the last can of Pringles while checking to see if his hidden VCR was still recording.

"I figure that one of them has got to get a really bad case of friction burn." Rosewood said as he polished off a beer. "If you guys ate all the Pringles there is going to be some serious ass to kick."

"Damn, that's just looks so wrong... is she double jointed?" Will said as he looked for something to take his mind of what he was watching. "Hey, have you guys ever seen that Pringles commercial where those two hot girls and a guy were on that flat raft playing the Pringles theme song?"

"Yea I saw it but compared to this... Good lord, is she using what I think she's using?" Black Dragon asked as his mouth hung open from the shock of it.

A lightning bolt hit the ground just before the TV it read: "Stop using my name when you watch this stuff and send up a can of Pringles. Signed Kami-sama. But every one in the room was glued to the TV so they didn't notice.



"A BANANA.... SHE USED A BANANA... CAN I MEET THIS GIRL???" DEATH asked in a awed voice but then when a light bulb popped into existence before his head. "I JUST REMEMBERED SHE HAS AN APPONTMENT."

'That's gross totally gross... you got issues...." Matdeception said still watching the TV.

With that the second lighting bolt came down dead smack on the TV and with a small smoky poof it went black leaving DEATH staring at a blank TV.

"NO... IT CAN BE TRUE... ITS IMPOSSABLE." DEATH cried out and with a look of despair... or as much despair a guy dressed in a black cloak can pull off DEATH slowly moved over to his former still smoking TV and hugged it.

"Uh, DEATH... you all right." Rosewood asked as he watched the odd display while finish off his drink.

"YOU COME TO MY HOME EAT MY FOOD... ALL MY FOOD AND RECK MY DVD PLAYER BY SUSING IT AS A DRINK TRAY AND YOU ASK IF I'M ALRIGHT... WELL NO I'M NOT... ALRIGHT." DEATH said in a voice that seem to promise pain as he turned the formless guy in a cloak changed to a seven foot bad to the bone reaper had taken his place. "GET OUT."

With those words all heck broke loose and the next thing the small group sitting down in font of DEATH found themselves air born, chairs and all.

"Okay, could some one tell me where he get the mallet from?" Will asked as he flew backwards threw the air still in a sitting position. "I thought only girls could pull those things."

Black Dragon nodded sagely and still in a sitting position stated "Takahashi's third law. Perhaps DEATH has a female skeleton."

Everyone groaned.

"What the heck are you talking about......" Michael was interrupted by the hard cold solid ground. "Ouchie."

"Oh my. Did you get the Pringles for Urd like she asked?" Belldandy asked as she stood at the front of the temple.

"Could some one just say THE END and put us out of our missery?

***

Special Thanks to:

Master Yume

BlackDragon

Matdeception

and of course DEATH!

"OH MY, I'VE NEVER BEEN HONORED WITH AN AWARD BEFORE." Death said as he held up the little glowing statue and held up up to the light. "WHAT IS THE NATIONAL BOWLERS LEAGUE FOUTH PLACE MEAN?"

And there you have it.

_