Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or the TV show Knight Rider. I do however share ownership on the new car I'll be designing called K2 with, well, that part is a secret that will be explained at the end of the story.
Author's Notes One: This story is not meant to insult the fine members in the law enforcement community. It is purely fiction and not in any way shape or form meant to insult all these officers hard work. Any names used are fictional and purely coincidence if they are real. Thank you for your time.
"" Speaking
Thoughts
# # KITT or K2 speaking
( ) K-Pun or K-Comment to break the fourth wall and connect to my readers
And now, let the tale begin…
Knight Rider ½Chapter One: A Hero Arises
Four Years after the failed wedding attemptRanma sat in his vehicle watching for the opportunity to do what he'd come here to do. It had been a three and a half years since he'd left Nerima and come to live in America but he never regretted the decision. Since the day of the failed wedding, Ranma had tried to sort his life out. However that became impossible to do, since his so-called fiancées decided that it was time to step up their efforts in claiming him for themselves. To make matters worse, the woman he was in love with, Akane Tendo, changed on that day.
She seemed to trust him even less and pounded on him for even the littlest infraction. His father and Akane's weren't much help either, always demanding he apologize to her when it wasn't even his fault. But despite all that, he was determined to work it out with her. Then, came the day that changed his life forever. He came home after making up his mind to forget about the so-called honor of the other girls and follow his heart. He took several odd jobs so he could buy a ring and was going to propose to Akane. When he arrived at the Tendo household, no one was there so he figured he'd relax and watch some TV.
That was when he heard a strange sound.
A low soft moan that was followed by a squeak of some sort. Curious, he followed it until it led him upstairs. He continued to track it and found it came from Akane's room. The door was partially ajar and he had a direct view of the inside. What he saw made his blood run cold. There was the woman he loved, having sex with of all people, Ryoga Hibiki. She moaned Ryoga's name and told him she loved him to which he responded he loved her.
Cold and dead inside, Ranma walked away and went back downstairs. He passed Kasumi and Nabiki, who'd just returned from a shopping trip. Kasumi asked if he was all right, after seeing the cold dead look in his eyes. This bothered her, since he'd always seemed to be quite the lively fellow. Ranma simply told Kasumi he wouldn't be home for dinner and left the house to think. He went to sit under the bridge he always sat under and cried as he looked at the ring in his hand. Thousands of questions ran through his mind, but no answers came. Then he slowly filled with rage as he squeezed his hand and crushed the diamond on the ring into dust.
He finally returned to the Tendo's late in the evening. The second he walked in the door, Akane accused him of cheating on her. The father's appeared and yelled at him while Nodoka cried out what a manly son she had. This moment in time became known as, the Breaking Point. (Not Ryoga's technique.) Akane took his silence for guilt and was about to mallet him into the ground, when he slapped her right across the face.
Everyone looked on in shock at what just occurred. Ranma Saotome, mister I can't hit a girl, just struck one. The fathers were enraged and demanded he apologize to Akane right now. Nodoka didn't help matters by stating it wasn't manly to strike a woman. To there surprise, Ranma ignored them and walked right past them. He went upstairs and came back down moments later with his backpack draped over his shoulder.
He told everyone he was leaving. Kasumi was the only one to ask when he was returning, to which he replied 'When hell freeze's over and Lord Enma gives free sleighing, skiing, snowboarding and ice skating lessons, there upon after he declared the worlds largest snowball fight in history.'
The father's were outraged, as they demanded he stay as honor demanded and marry Akane. He responded if they wanted the schools joined so badly, Genma could adopt Ryoga. The look of shock in Akane's eyes was enough. She knew right away that he knew what she'd been doing. While she prayed Ranma would say anything else, Nabiki asked why he'd said what he did.
Ranma then coldly said right then and there that he'd caught Akane doing the nasty with the lost boy. He also commented how surprised he was Ryoga didn't get lost on the in-stroke. (Sorry, this scene was getting more serious them I'm used to writing.) Everyone was shocked at this. Soun exclaimed his daughter would never do that, but upon seeing the look in her eyes, knew it to be true.
Genma tried to diffuse the situation by saying it didn't matter if she was experienced. And even if it did, Soun had two more daughters. Nodoka pushed the issue even further by agreeing with her husband.
Ranma at that point exploded in rage. He told them that he didn't give a flying fuck about family honor anymore and renounced the Saotome name on the spot. He then told Kasumi thanks for putting up with him as well as giving Nabiki all the money he owed her on the spot. He then left Nerima that night and never looked back.
He moved to America after changing his name to Ranma Kobashi. Once there he decided to live in one of the largest cities he could find, in case the NWC came looking for him. He settled on New York City. At first, he did small jobs as a delivery boy while he took the test to become an American Citizen legally. A week after passing the test he was sitting in Central Park, trying to decide what to do with his life now when he heard gunfire. Ranma hurried towards the sound and found several cops pinned down by some men who were shooting at them with AK-47's.
Several people in the park were running for cover, while the officers hid behind some trees pinned down. Ranma may have abandoned Nerima, but he still believed in protecting the weak, so he quickly jumped in. Using his superior martial art skills, he quickly took out the two gunmen.
Everyone around cheered him for his heroism and the officers thanked him for his help. He'd even received an award from the Mayor for his bravery and during the ceremony, he'd overheard the police commissioner state he wished he had more men on the force like Ranma. That moment, Ranma decided what he wanted to do with his life. He would follow the code of the martial arts and protect the innocent. He would become a police officer.
The training in the police academy was hard work but he endured and after a year of extensive training, he became Officer Ranma Kobashi. He had been a little worried about whether or not they would do a background check, and discover he didn't exist before coming to America, but after a private conversation with the Police Commissioner and his Captain, they agreed to let it slide, although there was now a shoot on site order for someone matching Genma's description if he ever appeared in New York.
Ranma became the best officer he could be and rose quickly through the ranks, until he was soon being called Detective Ranma Kobashi. Several cases came his way, and he put as much effort as he could into them in order to protect the people he'd sworn to protect. He had however run into the bad side of the law. That was Dirty Cops. They abused the authority they were given and Ranma despised them all. Since taking them down would put them against him, he used his training in the Umi-sen-ken to gather evidence and deliver it anonymously to Internal Affairs. Thanks to his help, several different dirty cops were locked up or removed from the force.
Tonight was another case of this, but it was also personal. About a year ago, Ranma had befriended a young nineteen-year-old girl named Caitlin. Caitlin was a prostitute and Ranma made it his personal mission to help her. After months of talking to her, he convinced her to change her life for the better. She gave up standing on street corners and he'd used his connections in the department to help her get back into school. Everything was going good, until her pimp decided he wouldn't leave her alone.
What had shocked Ranma was that her pimp was Detective Amelio Castanara from his precinct. A man Ranma had been a friend with for over two years. He had no idea that he was dirty. Caitlin told him how Amelio found young women who came to the big city to become famous and forced them to become prostitutes by drugging them and then taking pictures of them having sex while unconscious. Since he had their identities he swore to send the pictures home to their families if they didn't co-operate. He also ran a protection racket on several small businesses in his neighborhood and unfortunate accidents happened to those who didn't pay up. With the help of several other officers, he kept it secret, and made a fortune.
Ranma decided to blow the lid off of this thing and was waiting to do that right now. Caitlin told him how he and his buddies in the force offered protection to several different mobsters who conducted business in an old abandoned warehouse. A warehouse, Ranma was watching right now. Thanks to his techniques, he found out Amelio and several dirty cops were providing muscle for a drug shipment coming in tonight. As usual, Ranma would sneak in, gather the evidence, and deliver it to Internal Affairs.
He waited until he saw Amelio and his partners entered the warehouse before he quickly and quietly snuck inside. He made his way to the rafters of the building and began taking pictures. He got several of Amelio checking the drug shipment as well as him accepting money from some well-known mob henchmen. When he used up all his film, he was preparing to leave, when he heard a familiar voice cry out. He looked back down and saw that two cops on Amelio's payroll were dragging in Caitlin. He saw Amelio slap her and say no whore could ever escape from him.
Angered at what he saw, Ranma leapt from the rafters to save her. He landed in the middle of several of the dirty cops as well as some of the mob muscle on the scene and began attacking. Compared to his battles in Nerima, this was nothing. He was about to run to Caitlin, when he heard the click of a gun trigger. He turned around and found Amelio pointing a gun to Caitlin's head.
"Don't move or the girl dies!" Amelio ordered.
Looking into Caitlin's scared eyes, Ranma quickly evaluated the situation. He knew he could easily take out Amelio, but could he do it without the gun going off and killing Caitlin. He wasn't sure if he could pull it off. So, against his better judgment, he surrendered. The officers and mob muscle he'd subdued eventually woke up and soon, Ranma found himself on the end of a serious beating. Every single officer as well as the mob muscle hit him and beat him down with anything they could find. Every time he tried to defend himself, Amelio would say cough and point the gun at Caitlin's head.
Soon, Ranma found himself lying on the warehouse floor, badly beaten and coughing up blood. He felt like he's gone fourteen rounds with Pantyhose Taro, Ryoga, Mousse, Kuno, and Happosai all at the same time after getting beaten by Akane's mallet. With what little voice he could use, he asked Amelio to spare Caitlin and let her go. What happened next shocked him as much as the day he found Akane with Ryoga.
"I don't know." Amelio muttered as he released her. "Do you want to leave?"
"Actually…" Caitlin said in a loving tone of voice. "I'd rather stay and see how this turns out baby."
Ranma looked at the girl he'd spent all this time getting to know, and realized what was going on.
"No…" Ranma quietly muttered in disbelief as he realized he'd been betrayed again.
"Don't look so surprised Ranma." Amelio stated with an evil laugh. "I figured out a long time ago you were the mysterious person putting several of my buddies behind bars. I just had to be sure."
"Why?" Ranma coughed out.
"Because you weeded out the competition for me." Amelio stated. "Thanks to you, I'm making more money then I ever hoped to make. Now it was a simple matter of getting rid of you. Which I owe to sweet innocent Caitlin here."
"Aww, your so sweet baby." Cailtin said in an evil way as the two of them kissed. "I can't believe you bought all that bullshit. You really are stupid you know that. No wonder that girl Akane cheated on you."
"Now we must be going." Amelio said as he used his gloved hand to pass a gun to Cailtin. "If you would do the honors my dear?"
"Sure." Cailtin replied as she took the gun and shot Ranma point blank in the chest with three bullets. "Like that baby?"
"Perfect my dear." Amelio said as Ranma watched during what seemed to be his last minutes on earth.
Caitlin handed the gun back to Amelio whom then proceeded to shoot Caitlin in the head. As Caitlin's lifeless body fell to the floor, Amelio laughed at the expression on Ranma's face.
"Don't look so surprised stupid. I needed a scapegoat after all. Young Caitlin will do nicely." Amelio stated as he put the gun back in Caitlin's dead hand. "Nothing like a murder/suicide to make a convincing story for the newspapers. Now I must be going."
"Go…to…hell…" Ranma exclaimed with the last breath he could hold.
"You first." Amelio said as he walked away as Ranma lay there.
While he wasn't breathing, Ranma was still by some miracle conscious. He lay there and prayed to Kami-sama for some sort of a miracle.
He wasn't sure how much time had gone by when suddenly there was a loud crash within the warehouse. Ranma used his last ounce of strength to look in the direction of the sound and saw a sleek, black Pontiac Trans-Am with a strange red light under the hood come crashing through the wall. Seconds later the driver side door opened and a man dressed in brown cowboy boots, blues jeans, a blue button up shirt and a leather jacket got out. He was fairly good looking and had curly brown hair.
"We're too late." The man exclaimed in frustration. He looked at the two bodies in front of him and shook his head. "Dammit! Amelio did it again!"
#Michael. I picking up life signs from the young man in front of us.# A voice that came from inside the car stated.
"What?" The man he guessed was Michael said as he hurried to Ranma's side. "Hey man, you still with us?"
Not finding the strength to answer, he simply nodded.
"Hold on, I'll get you to a hospital." Michael said as he picked up Ranma's prone form. "KITT, get me the fastest course to the nearest hospital."
#Already done Michael.# The voice responded. #I estimate it will take us about five point three minutes if we use pursuit mode.#
"No!" Ranma choked out finding the strength to speak. "No hospitals. They'll…find me and…finish the job."
"Damn it! He's right." Michael agreed as he placed Ranma's body across the back seat after the passenger side door opened all on it's own. "KITT, call Devon. Tell him were bringing home a guest. Then plot the fastest course to the foundation."
#Right away Michael.# The voice said.
The last thought Ranma had before finally passing out, was where the heck was that voice was coming from if no one else was in the car.
Author's Notes Two: Well, that's it for Chapter one. In Chapter Two: An offer you can't refuse, Ranma awakes in a bed at the foundation headquarters. Upon meeting Devon Miles and officially meeting Michael Knight, he also meets the foundations new vice chairperson. Who is this person who offers Ranma the chance to fight for justice in the new Knight Industries Two Thousand Mark Two, or K2? Be here and find out. Until then, See-ya, Ciao, Hasta la Vista, Sayonara, Adios and Bye-bye.
Request for the readers of this story: As mentioned at the beginning of this story, I will share the ownership of K2, but I didn't say with whom. The reason for that is because I don't know whom that person is yet. I'm asking all my fans to help in making K2. Give me a car and a description of how it should look. If you want, you can e-mail me pictures of your designs. I'll choose the one I like best, and in Chapter Three, when K2 arrives, I'll announce whose design I used and thank them personally. So help a man out and send in those designs. After all, it took more then one technician to build KITT, so why not have more then one to help design K2. Thank you for your time.