Chapter 3: Solar Plans

Ranma ½ belongs To Rumiko Takahashi, Viz video and others. Any other works belong to their respective people as well. I don't own any of this so just sit back and enjoy the tale, oh and don't sue me please that would be bad.

Suggesting that Ranma was upset about finding out his new role in the upcoming coup would be an understatement. The accurate word would be royally pissed off and even then it just doesn't have the oomph required. Suffice it to say Ranma was angry and he continued to be angry even as he agreed to help Coronis and Beryl defeat the Lunar forces. His consolation in all of this came when Coronis said, "You see milady"

Ranma interrupted him and said, "Last time! It's Ranma, not princess, not milady, and not sol, just Ranma or if you like you can call me Hibiki san okay"

Coronis nodded and said, "You see Mi uhm Ranma San you have a number of attack forms available to you. There is the solar flare which is a superheated plasma attack; there is a solar storm which is hot globules of plasma which rain down from above; there is a sun spots technique which makes it extremely bright for a brief instant and blind your foes; in addition you will have an enhanced speed and increased endurance as well as the ability to teleport. Finally there is your final attack which requires the assistance of your guardian beast."

Ranma looked perplexed and said, "Guardian beast? Is this some stupid shoujo manga where a rabbit with long ears is gonna come up to me and start saying,' You can do it pretty Ranma we all have faith in you'" Ranma ended his statement with a disgusted look on his face and stared at Coronis.

Coronis replied hesitantly, "While some of the princess' do have cat guardians"

"No no Ca, ca, furry things with claws" Stammered Ranma.

Coronis continued, "Sol has usually had a bird companion called an Archaeopteryx, however this companion died a long time ago and she had not replaced it. In hindsight this would have behooved her greatly for if the companion had lived she might have been able to call upon the power of Supernova and wiped out the ones confronting her. As it is the position of guardian beast is unfilled and you will be able to imprint any creator you like for the position. It will be given enhanced intelligence, a modicum of increased durability, immunity to fire, and with it assistance you will be able to summon the power of Supernova."

Ranma then grinned evilly at Ryouga who was sweating quite a bit under that malicious gaze. Ryouga then said, "Uhm I think there's got to be a bird around here somewhere right? The Lunar Aviary's only two or so blocks from here right?" Seeing Ranma's grin increase Ryouga said, "C'mon man I didn't mean to laugh at your outfit or anything"

Ranma stopped grinning looked at his Neo brother with regret and said, "Alright Ryouga you don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Ryouga grunted and said, "What and let you have all the fun in saving the solar system from evil Ranma? I'd never live it down. I'll do it, but I don't have to like it right?"

Ranma said, "No you don't have to like it at all, but let's do it."

Coronis then brought the boys back towards the shrine room and under the rays of the sun. He had them transform into their cursed selves and began instructing Ranma in the process of creating her magical guardian.

"Solar Strength Makeup" said Ranma as she was garbed in elbow length white gloves and a bright yellow leotard with a red skirt, a spectacular yellow diamond tiara rested on her head and she was suddenly wearing a pair of red high heels. Suddenly in her hands was a red and yellow quarterstaff and she ended the dressing in a battle pose. Ranma then looked at the picture on the wall and asked, "Hey Coronis why do I have a staff and the previous person have a double sword?"

He answered saying, "The staff will become a sword at you command in addition to a multitude of other martial weapons that you might require. The activation is 'Solar Rod Change' and then the name of the weapon you require."

Ranma nodded and said, "Okay so how do we turn Ryouga here into a guardian beast?"

The grey haired man answered by saying, "You must hold him up in your arms and repeat after me."

Ranma look at a bit more than a half a ton of wild boar and said, "Hold him in my arms?"

Coronis said, "Yes, you must hold your guardian beast in your arms. To be honest milady Ranma all previous guardians have been much smaller."

Ranma sighed and walked towards Ryouga. She then picked him up with a great effort and strained to say, "Alright hurry it up and I'll repeat it."

Coronis said, "Henshin override lambda delta three"

"Henshin override lambda delta three" Repeated Ranma and the quarterstaff opened on one side revealing a column of plasma and magical energy.

"Guardian creation sequence"

"Guardian creation sequence" The quarter staff began to pool out yellow and red light into the room.

"Creature within my hands become one with the aethyr henshin staff"

Ranma grunted under the strain some more and said, "Creature within my hands become one with the aethyr henshin staff" then as he finished his load was lightened as Ryouga was transformed into a beam of energy that then collected within the staff.

Ranma was about to yell out, but Coronis said, "Wait do not interrupt or all will be lost!"

Ranma calmed down and glared at Coronis who said, "Aethyr Henshin Staff release the new guardian of Sol."

Ranma then repeated, "Aethyr Henshin Staff release the new guardian of Sol." The staff then went back to its quarterstaff configuration and Ryouga was transformed back into a large razorback boar. The only noticeable difference was that Ryouga had minor modification on him, emblazoned on his forehead was a symbol of the sun.

Ranma went to Ryoga and said, "Are you okay?"

The large boar answered, "I think so, but I feel different Ranma. I'm not sure how, but I feel even more connected to you than I did before. It's like I can feel your mood and senses you somehow, but I also know how to help you train to beat that Serenity lady and take down this moon empire. So why don't we do that and hopefully we can get out of this place.

Ranma looked down at her outfit and said, "Do you think this will help?"

Ryouga replied, "By my calculations there is a 70 likelihood that defeating the empress of the moon is what will create the parameters for dimensional locale change. In addition there is a 50 likelihood that the dimensional flux chain created by the warp vortex of our Direction 'blessing' will terminate our current powers unless reinforced by a nodal harmonic in the new dimension."

Ranma gaped at Ryouga and said, "Could you maybe say that in Japanese?"

Ryouga realized what he had said and replied with a bit of chagrin, "I guess I did get an intelligence boost. Anyway what it boils down to is if we help take out Queen Serenity we'll probably be on our way to a new world where there's a decent chance that I won't be a magical guardian and you won't be Princess Sol."

Ranma said, "Okay I get it. Does that new intelligence of yours tell you how we might get back to our own earth and remove the Direction?"

Ryouga answered, "Not as far as I can tell and I think I've got the accumulated knowledge of the entire Solar System library in my head."

Ranma said, "Okay then if you didn't get an idea of how to remove this stupid Direction blessing at least we know how to get out of our current situation." Then Ranma looked at Coronis and said, "Hey, Coronis where can the two of us go to practice these magical attacks and stuff? The training area we were in before didn't look like it could take much more."

"The Solar training arena is equipped with regenerating terrain and should be able to handle any of your abilities except the Supernova" Replied the man and started to lead the way until the two teens rushed on in their exuberance to train. "Hmm" he thought, "now how did they know where the arena was. No matter I will follow along and try and assist them."

The two Hibiki boys trained in the arena for most of the day and then true to form they tried to determine the limits of their new powers in the normal fashion. In the end a charred and half cooked razorback was facing off against a bruised and disheveled red-haired girl. Quarter was neither given nor asked for. Ranma zigged to the right posed and shouted "Solar Flare", but Ryouga was able to doge it for the third time in a row and he slammed into Ranma knocking her into a far wall and cracking some ribs in the process. Ranma stood up cursed and said, "That's it! That's the third time you've dodged that one and you've been avoiding the rest of these stupid attacks for quite some time. It's not normal for me what am I doing wrong."

Ryouga grinned a piggy smile and said, "That pose you always do just gives it away. I finally noticed it from your other attacks and even though it's abbreviated for the Solar flare it's still there."

Ranma cursed again and gritted her teeth against the pain then said, "Alright man you are going down this time."

The charred Ryouga smiled back and said, "Alright let's go for it."

This time the two ran at each other and circled then they clashed and there was an explosion of punches and tusk attacks. The punches were absorbed and tusks were avoided. The frenzy of final energy cut off for one moment as Ranma jumped high in the air and with a force of great will said nothing and avoided posing as she fired off a Solar Flare right into a stunned Ryouga. The large Razorback fell to the ground unconscious and the red head landed on her feet next to him. She savored a moment of victory before black spots danced before her eyes and unconsciousness claimed her as well.

The two woke up in the medical center under the care of Coronis. The elderly man said with concern, "It's a good thing I had some advanced healing gel packets here for the two of you. What were you thinking you almost killed each other?"

The two looked at each other and grinned. Ranma pointed at the recovering Ryouga and said, "Hey we were just finding out the limits of magical guardian P-Chan here." Then Ranma started to laugh noticing that his previously cracked ribs didn't hurt.

Ryouga smirked at Ranma and said, "Hey don't forget Princess Ranma protector of the Solar system needed to test her limits too." The Ryouga started to laugh as well. The two boys went on with a short war of small insults until Coronis interrupted with a stern look and said, "As clever as Cutey Bunny Heart Princess Sol and Magical Guardian Fuzzy Cuddles P-Chan may be we still have a few things to discuss and more training to come. So if you are feeling well enough let us acquire nourishment."

The three men wandered down towards dinner with the two Hibiki boys still laughing and smirking in the background as they tried to come up with even more ingenious names. At lunch the three discussed upcoming strategy and Coronis expanded on the plan to eliminate to lunar defense shield. The field surrounding the shield generator wouldn't let a being of Princess Sol's power level through, but it would easily allow the two young boys entrance in their natural state. Then the two would sneak in to the plant and head towards the main power source. If they could get to the magnetic shield doors they would then transform into their new forms and destroy them. Ryouga had suggested that they might be able to destroy the magnetic doors in their natural state, but Coronis doubted the possibility. Still the Hibiki boy was determined to try the Baksai Tenkets on the door.

After opening the magnetic doors the two would have to destroy the magical field generating the energy. This would be accomplished by physically removing the runes which were inlaid on the floor. Coronis felt that the removal would take at least three minutes of solar storm use and that Ryouga would have to distract the guards while Ranma was working on it.

Coronis then finished by re-telling the boys the rest of the plan as had been detailed between himself and Beryl. The group then finished dinner, both of the Hibiki boys transformed back into their natural forms and they all retired for the night.

During the night the two boys dreamed. They were back in the hut of Baba Yaga sitting on their toadstool chars and in front of them were the witch herself. The crone was still as thin as a skeleton with dull iron teeth and a gigantic wart filled nose. The only difference seemed to be that she was somewhat insubstantial.

Ranma said, "What have you done to us you evil witch?"

Baba Yaga said, "Come now boy did you truly expect that a gift from someone such as me would be free? That I would fix everything that had gone wrong in your lives and let you be? What foolish little Japanese bones you are. Mind you, Russian bones are no more intelligent in my dealings with them. Come now you came to me with a problem and I fixed it correct? No longer do the two of you have to worry about a powerful spell that will make everything go wrong in your lives, no longer will young Ranma have to worry about multiple fiancées, and no longer will young Ryouga worry about getting lost or being a small defenseless pig. I have fixed all of your petty problems and you ask me 'what have I done' and call me 'evil'? What do you know of evil young ones look around at the place where you are and tell me if you are needed here?"

The two considered it for a moment and realized the enormity of what had been done to the place that they had come to. They realized that they and their enhanced powers were indeed needed in this world and yet they still wanted to know and so they asked again

Ryouga said, "Why us?"

Ranma said, "Will we ever return to our own dimension?"

Baba Yaga just looked at them and said, "You will come to know the answers to your questions in the fullness of time."

Then suddenly she was gone and the two were waking up. They looked at each other as they woke up and said in concert, "I had the weirdest dream last night." Then it hit them and they realized it had not been a dream. Somehow they were contacted by their powerful benefactress and they were left with two important questions unanswered.