Chapter 1

Welcome to the World of the Benders

Gasping for breath holding his right side Ranma Saotome was staring down one of his latest rivals. A product of another one of his father's stupid engagement ideas, seems his father hadn't taken into account that someone would track him down, like in the past. Leaping away from another strike, the other individual getting increasingly dangerous, unlike Ryoga, Mousse, and Kuno this was a far superior fighter in regards to temperament. Round house kicked Ranma ducked followed closely up with a quick jab dodged out of the way. Ranma's opponent was getting frustrated but not heatedly, He's not putting out any battle heat and won't let up enough so I can use my Moko Takabishya, Ranma was getting desperate it only been a few short weeks since he reunited with his mother and he desperately was trying to get to China to rescue Akane when this guy showed up with his sister. "Look man I ain't interested in yer sister. Pops swindled ya like he's done with a dozen others, he never had any attention of honoring the engagement."

The man stood rigid a few moments before taking a deep breath, eyes closed for a moment before opening his strange missed matched eyes. "Very well, then the old fool will pay for his digression and the kindness we showed him," the man drew his hands up cupping them in front of him. "I will then deny him his retirement, by sending his lone heir from this world as atonement."

Ranma's eyes widen feeling himself locked up by some invisible force, "Ya can't I need ta go too China to rescue somebody."

"Your father should of thought of that before screwing with my family, now his friend will no doubt be without his heir as well," the figure said coolly. With that the man began chanting something while Ranma struggled against his invisible prison, as his world suddenly grew brighter.

AKANE! Ranma screamed in his mind as the bright suddenly went pitch black and thought of Akane in danger and he being unable to safe her was the thing Ranma thought as he lost consciousness.

XXX

"We got to do something before he knocks us clear off the mountain," a young man shouted.

"I'll try talking to him," a female voice replied a lovely young dark skinned tried her hardest to push her way through a huge windstorm. "Aang, I know what you're going through the Fire nation killed my mother, it hurt. But you're not alone anymore, Sokka and I are your family now," the winds began to die down and the last of the Airbenders slowly began descend the strange blank glow emanating, from Aang's face. Just as he finished from his descent and the wind dying to a point something dropped from the sky after a bright flash. That something was a strange body of a young man who slammed down onto Aang and Katara.

"Katara, Aang!" Sokka ran up to them then gently pulled the figure off of them. "You guys alright?"

"Yeah," Katara winced rubbing her shoulder. "Aang?"

"I'm a little weak but okay, sorry guys," the young monk replied looking down at the pig-tailed figure apologizing for his actions with the windstorm. "Who's he?"

The two Water tribe members looked at Aang with equal puzzlement then back down at the pig-tailed boy. Aang bent down and listened for breath, it came out shallow but stable. "He could be a Fire Nation soldier, look at the strange red shirt."

Aang looked at it and frowned, "I don't think so, that shirt kind of resembles something the Air Nomads wore a couple of centuries ago."

Katara looked up at the sky, "He appeared out of thin air, think the spirits sent him to help us?"

Sokka snorts he couldn't understand his sister sometimes holding such strange ideals, "I doubt it."

The pig-tailed boy suddenly shot up into a defensive crouch; that made him famous against in Nerima. "W-W-Who are you?"

"Hey, you're awake, I'm Aang," the airbender stated a broad smile on his face. "That's Katara and Sokka," introducing his friends.

The pig-tailed boy looked at each carefully judging them; with a sigh he dropped his stance. "Name's Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything goes Martial Arts," he stated puffing out his chest slightly.

"Wow, that's some title um, what's it mean?" Aang asked.

Ranma face faulted crashing to the ground before standing up again, "Ya mean you don't know what Martial arts is," feeling a sense of doom flowing over him. He knew he was in a different place the ki was different than his original world and as much as it pained him probably couldn't return home except by some miracle.

Aang crossed his arms trying to figure out what Ranma meant then went back to the stance his new companion had taken when he woke up. "Oh you must mean bending yeah we do."

Unsure what bending was at that moment was left to ponder them as Aang, Sokka, and Katara headed toward the temple. He himself walked toward one of the wall scrolls next to the dead monk he saw and bent down to exam the scroll. It was showing fighting technique to Ranma however the waves represented air currents. "Hey I recognize that move, it's a Ba Gau technique," he moved along this one showing a man in a horse stance flowed by a step a rock being shown in mid-air followed kick out with the rock sailing, "Hung Gar," he whispered the next showed a figure in a crane stance, "Tai Chi," the last wall scroll almost made Ranma smile except the fact that directly underneath the scroll was a set of armor and bones, "Northern Shaolin, four Chinese styles of martial arts and four elemental style ki attacks based on those styles," crossing his arms looking at each scroll, "The path of the Avatar," the pig-tailed martial artist said aloud. Ranma doubted he could do the Hung Gar styles, he was never very good at those stances however the other three he were right up his alley, heck he did Tai-Chi for morning kata when he was on the road with his father. And Northern Shaolin had been one of his favorite styles growing up, it's why he concentrated more on his speed than his power, as for Ba Gau it was one of his central defensive styles. "I could do three out of four of these."

"You can?" Ranma nearly jumped at the sound spinning around staring at Aang and Katara.

"Yeah I don't what ya call these moves, but ta me it's Ba Gau, Hung Gar, Northern Shaolin, and Tai-Chi," Ranma explained with a bright smile. "Four forms of Martial Arts, like ya said Aang."

Aang smile changed a bit, "Um, so which of these you think you can do?"

Ranma points to each one, "The one using wind is Ba Gau, I'm pretty good at it, use it a lot when I'm on the defensive. The water thing is Tai Chi, I use ta do when I was traveling with my pops, every morning I'd use as a warm up kata. But it's da fire thing that would be considered my specialty, it's based on the techniques in Northern Shaolin a style that I use because of its speed."

"So your primarily a Fire Bender," Katara asked.

"If that's what Northern Shaolin is called, then yeah that be my preferred style, but I'm sure I could use two of the others if I met masters in those styles," Ranma replied turning to them the oldest of the group looked distrustful while the girl and the monk seemed to think thoughtfully. "Um, did I say something wrong?"

"Not sure how did you appear out of thin air like that?" Sokka asked.

A pained look appeared on Ranma's face. "My pops is a moron, and engaged me ta like a dozen girls for things like food ta room and board then the idiot would skip out. Well one of those engagements came ta collect and well her brother was really pissed. Well we fought bout midway through da fight he froze me in place then started chanting something the next thing I know I'm here staring at you three."

"Kind of sounds unbelievable if you ask me," Sokka replied.

Ranma chuckled lightly, "Yeah it does and if I hadn't been in da middle of it I wouldn't believe it either."

"Hey you can travel with us to the Northern Water tribe I'm sure you can train to become a water bender, and if you want I can teach you air bending, but as for fire bending I'm not sure who could teach you that," Aang replied.

"Thanks Aang I appreciate it," Ranma smiled. A few minutes later the group piled aboard Appa and made their way away from the Southern Air Temple. Ranma watch Aang look back eyes troubled. "Hard comin' home and find it trashed huh?"

"Yeah," Aang replied watching the temple fade in the fog.