Chapter 5:

Ranma VS Slade

Dis: I don't own these series just the idea

Ranma stretched as he got up for breakfast with the Teen Titan's. He could never have thought of this as his life, after having to deal with so much. He was sleeping in till 8am with no interruptions except the usual nightmare he had at night and was hanging out with super powerful; yet normal kids his age and had started to relax and enjoy a life he had only dreamed of during his time on the Tendo roof.

As time past Ranma found that with not having to fight all the time; and actually relaxing Ranma felt himself getting stronger as the days went by. With the chaos gone from his life; his body was reenergizing the power he didn't ever get the chance to heal since he had no rest. Now he felt even more powerful than when he fought Saffron.

He considered this a vacation at times and did only relaxing exercises. Like doing 3 hour long katas to stay loose, obliterating giant rocks within a second with his fists and walking on eggshells; easy stuff. Though he did wonder why the Titans were always wide-eyed at him doing these exercises. It was like they never saw someone hit a rock 500 times in one second.

When he finished breakfast; Ranma walked down to the lower level of the place to the island that they usually trained for more dangerous attacks. In just a black tank top and his usual pants and slippers he started his exercising. Half way through it, he saw Raven lifting several rocks nearby and spinning them around her. He stopped and walked over to her and smiled at the amount of power she was controlling to lift several tons and move them so easily.

"Very impressive Rae-chan!" Ranma yelled up to her thinking she wouldn't hear him in her focus.

"Huh?" Was all she said as she lost her focus on the rocks and they fell toward Ranma. "Look out!"

Ranma couldn't dodge in time, but justshattered the rocks coming at him with his Chest nut fist speed. Once he was safe he looked up at Raven who was slightly flushed.

'Dammit! I've been able to focus through Beast boys and Cyborgs games and burping contests without braking focus once! But the moment Ranchan says one thing to me; I lose it! What is it about him that makes me lose focus so fast? And why is my heart always beating so fast whenever I see him shirtless or with just a tank top! I mean sure he has muscles…and tone…and a nice butt…ARRGH! I do not need this!' Though these thoughts were going through Ravens head, it was commendable that she managed to keep her face neutral through all her thoughts at the moment. As she floated down to Ranma's level she felt like she was going to have a heart attack when he gave her the 'sorry look'.

"Umm sorry about that Rae-chan, I really need to remember not to bother you when you're meditating."

'Oh my god! He is so adorable when he does that. What am I thinking? I never felt like this even when I first met Aqualad.' Raven soon had to hide her face under her hood to hide her blushing.

Fortunately for her, nature decided to help her out of her akward situation, a large wave came up from the shore and splashed Ranma with cold water. When it was over; Ranma stood with his eye's half closed with annoyance at the situation. For in front of Raven stood now a short, busty, wet Ranma-chan shaking the excess water from her hair.

"I guess the curse had to get used to the America's time zone before it started being annoying again." Ranma sighed as she looked at Raven whose mouth twitched upward like she was trying not to laugh. "It's not funny." Ranma muttered, which stopped Ravens quivering mouth.

Raven stopped herself from laughing at Ranma by just a tiny bit. She could never think of how it must feel to have this curse. She like all the other Titans found out about Ranma's curse a few days ago after Beast boy dropped some lemonade on Ranma's head.

Flashback few days ago:

Beast boy and Cyborg were at it again, trying to out prank the other. Beast boy got Cyborg with his motor oil water balloon; but Cyborg would get him back at breakfast. Cyborg decided to go for a classic, by putting a banana peel where Beast boy would slip and fall right on his tofu eggs.

When he was just getting something to drink Beast boy slipped on the peel and smashed right into his eggs, therefore dropping his lemonade on Ranma. As Cyborg finished his laughing at his prank and was about to laugh at Ranma, he along with everyone else gasped as they saw Ranma-chan. When Beast boy got up and saw Ranma; he started drooling more than when he was hypnotized as he saw the very beautiful girl.

"Dude…"

"Ranma…is that you?" Robin asked.

"Man this is weird." Cyborg got out.

"Ranma?" Raven asked.

"Friend Ranma?" Starfire asked

As Ranma looked at the people in front of him he did what he usually did at this time. "Hehe, yeah, I'm Ranma sorry about this." He completed the vision by scratching the back of his head; causing the other Titans to face fault.

As he got some hot water and poured it on himself returning to normal; the Titans got their wits back.

"Uh Ranma I think you owe us an explanation." Robin stated.

"That's an understatement." Raven muttered as she looked at her friend.

"Hehe, well I guess it was inevitable that you guys would have found out the truth about my curse."

"Curse?" They all asked at once.

"Yeah you see along with a few other stupid 'training' programs my pop did, he also took me to the place called Jusenkyo. It's a place with more than a hundred springs that are curse. When you fall into one, you take the form of the last being that drowned in that particular spring." Ranma then walked to the kitchen to get two glasses filled with hot and cold water. "The curse is triggered by water; if it's cold I change into my cursed form." This said Ranma dumps the cold water on himself changing him into girl form.

Most of the team gasped, while Beast boy drooled. He stopped and shuddered in disgust that he was leering at a guy; even when the guy was currently a sexy girl, he was still a guy. Starfire noticed Ranma's girl body had bigger…assets than her; she wondered what this emotion she was feeling right now. It was like the feeling she had when Robin was forced on a date with that bug girl. Only not so strong, it just felt like a twinge. Cyborg and Robin understood why Ranma kept it a secret; to have this as a guy must have had a lot of people calling him freak and pervert where he last was. Raven, like Starfire, was slightly miffed about Ranma's better figure, but understood his reason for secrecy of this. She of all people knew what it was like to keep a secret from friends. After a brief moment to let this sink in, Ranma splashed himself with hot water.

"Wow that was…interesting to say the least." Raven said in sympathy.

"I can see why you'd wanna not tell anyone about that, I bet people called you a lot things back at your last place." Cyborg said sympathetically.

"Yeah people did not take it well when I showed them the curse. One little bitch in particular constantly called me freak and pervert just because I changed. She always thought I was doing something perverted even when I wasn't doing anything at all." Ranma growled.

"Dude does it piss you off when guys hit on you?"

"Definitely, though it doesn't bother me as much as the guys that used to grope me back at Nerima." Ranma shuddered at the memories of those perverts. "Thank you guys for taking this so easily, usually people hate me after they find out the way you guys did."

"No prob man." Cyborged waved off

"It's not so weird." Raven said simply

"Dude I'm a shape-shifter, gender changing ante weird to me." Beast boy gave Ranma the peace sign

"True friend Ranma, while space travel I have seen stranger cases than this."Starfire said as she tried to look noble.

"Yeah we fight guys who are much weirder than this." Robin shrugged.

Ranma couldn't be happier now that not only did these guys treat him as nothing but a friend. They also accepted the curse; something that only Uc-chan ever did when she found out. If he wasn't such a mochosist, he would be crying right now.

"By the way Ranma you said that there was other training exercises you did that were dangerous and stupid what were they?" Robin asked

Ranma became silent as he got up to leave the room. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"But…"

"Robin, I 'don't' wanna talk about it okay?" The look in Ranma's eyes told Robin to drop it so he did.

END FLASHBACK:

Raven wondered what was it that Ranma didn't want to talk about. He was one of the bravest guys she knew. What could have happened that he was too afraid to talk about it to even her? She after all, was a very good listener, and his best friend right? She didn't say anything because she knew that a person's past was their own. People, especially her, had no right to delve into a person's past. She was brought out of her thoughts by Ranma again.

"At least I can heat up water with my Ki." Ranma muttered as he splashed himself with some heated water in a puddle. "Heh, you really are incredible Rave."

"What do you mean?"

"I've met people who could destroy buildings with their bare hands and people who knew techniques that could have shattered steel with a touch, but I never met someone as special as you. You have so much power that you don't know what to do with it. Yet, you use it for the betterment of mankind. People abuse power; but you decided to help people weaker than you. I've always liked that about you; you know what great responsibilities your powers have. Anyway I just felt like saying that. Now I gotta go and start helping Robin with his art." With this Ranma left Raven who was hiding her face under her hood as her face glowed red from her blush.

'He has to stop saying stuff like that or I'm going to fall for him.' Raven sighed as she teleported back into the house.

Few hours later:

Robin was thrown across the room, andcrashed into the ground face first. He was in a white gi and his body was covered with sweat. Looking behind him he saw Ranma, with his utilitybelt around his neck. Getting up from another failed attempt Robin tried a new strategy and zigzagged across the gym hoping to confuse him and tried to snatch his belt back. But as quick as Robin was Ranma was just faster. Both opponents' arms blurred, as they battle to get the belt. But Ranma knocked his hands away and tossed something in the air.

"Think fast Rob! Catch the weights before they hit you!"

"HAI! HAI! HAI!" Robin teetered on one leg as he caught the weights in his mouth, hands, foot and back.

Ranma nodded at what he saw in him. "You're getting better buddy. Your style is mostly Kung-fu mixed with street fighting. Your main weakness is your defense and speed. I've already showed you some techniques for your defense, but your speed needs more work. Remember, when you can get your belt back from me, then you'll be fast enough to open more doors for yourself." After he said this, Robin fell down from his position causing Starfire to rush over to him.

"Robin, are you all right?" Starfire asked in worry.

"Yeah I'm fine Star, just really wiped right now." Robin replied as he got up and stretched.

Ranma smiled as he looked at the couple and wished his love life was like that. "Well that's all for today man. We'll pick it up tomorrow, in case a villain attacks today." With this Ranma tossed Robin back his belt and the two left for different activities.

Later that Evening:

"Oh yeah! I rule! Oh yeah!" Beast boy cheered as he looked at his downed opponent.

Ranma groaned as he lost the 50th time to beast boy at video games. Fighting martial artists was one thing, playing video games was quite another. In fact, he thought he was even worse at videogames than at playing card games; which was scary. But the lose didn't hurt as much as Beast boys victory dance. Beast boy was delighted because Cyborg always beat him at these games, but could win against Ranma. He now understood why Cyborg did a victory dance, it was fun. Before he could continue, the alarm went off.

"Titans trouble, its Slade again." Robin growled as the Titans ran down followed by Ranma.

"I'm comin too. After what I saw how he torturing Raven, I've been meaning to give him some pay back." Ranma growled as he cracked his knuckles.

"Alright, just be careful he's a tough opponent." Robin stated as they left for the city.

In the city Slade was destroying buildings and carving a symbol on the ground while he worked. He didn't have to destroy the buildings, because the symbol he was carving would have done it anyway, he just decided to have fun while he waited for the Titans to show up. As he got up on some rubble he created, and saw the fire, all he could was sigh.

"Ah I gotta admit I love my job. Arrgh" Slade yelled as he was hit in the back by a Robins disks.

Getting up, Slade saw the people he was waiting for. "Ah the Titans, its been a while. I've been expecting you." He looked at Ranma. "And who's this? A new titan for me to burn?"

"No I'm not a Titan yet, still haven't gone through initiation. I'm just a friend who's come ta kick your ass."

"Oh really? Well I think you'll find it harder than you think to 'kick my ass' as you say." Slade fired a giant fire ball at the Titans causing them to scatter. He raced off so the Titans would follow him.

"This is weird that guy is running now? After he went through all this trouble?" Ranma asked as the team went after him.

"Yeah I know, but we have to follow him, he could do immense damage with his powers." Robin growled as they ran after him.

After a few blocks of running Slade stopped and the Titans got ready to attack. "We are where I want you to be." Slade ignited his finger and shot a fire blast at the ground igniting the symbol he had carved earlier.
"Shit!" Ranma yelled as fire chains sprung from the ground and latched onto his hands and feet. He looked at his friends and found they too had the same shackles. He had to close his eyes as a bright fire cage surrounded him. All the Titans except Raven were now trapped in individual cages.

"You know I wasn't planning on your new friend to be here. That 5th inferno cage was for you Raven. But that is all right, I like this situation better. I suggest you Titans not move; for if you do the chains on you will burn your limbs off."

"What do you want Slade?" Raven growled.

"I just came here to give you one last chance to come with me peacefully. It will save your friends lives in the end if you just come with me."

"Like I'd be stupid enough to go with you! I told you before; I'll stop this prophecy from coming true even if it kills me!" Raven yelled.

Slade teleported and grabbed Raven from behind; causing her to gasp in surprise from how she couldn't detect it. "Don't fool yourself little girl. Don't make this any harder for your friends. Accept your destiny." WHAM! Before Slade or even Raven could sense it, Ranma appeared and hit Slade across the street with a fist powered in an orb of energy.

"Ranma how'd you…"

He smirked at her as he held up his glowing hand. "Heh, its atechnique Imade that covers my hands or any limb I want in energy. It increases my strength or speed by ten fold. It also protects those limbs from nearly anything, including fire. I call them Tiger claws." Ranma got into a stance and was ready for Slade's next attack.

After a minute Slade got up with his headbent to his shoulder; he reset his head back to normal with a free hand and looked calmly at the new kid. "So, the Titan's friend has some skills after all. I should have known. They wouldn't have brought if you could defend yourself. That was your only free hit boy, before you; burn!" Slade fired a strong attack that made Ranma grab Raven and jump out of the way.

Ranma landed20 feet awayand put her down. "Listen Raven see if you can help the others, I'll take care Cyclops here."

"Be careful." Raven whispered as she went to help her friends.

Ranma narrowed his eyes at Slade. "Listen up Cyclops, I don't know what your deal is with Raven and I don't care. No one and I mean no one touches her! Rest assured buddy you may have started this fight, but I'm gonna finish it!" He cracked his knuckle as his aura powered up.

"Impressive power, but I think I'm going to be harder to deal with than you think." With this said Slade shot a fireball at Ranma and the fight was on.

Ranma dodge the attack and went after Slade. Slade shot several more attacks at Ranma, but Ranma zigzagged across the distance to Slade. At five meters away from him, Slade raised a giant firewall to stop Ranma. Ranma jumped and cut a hole in the wall with his energy, allowing him to fight Slade.

The two went at it as they both used their skills at each other. Slade attacked with several deadly combinations of kicks and punches, but Ranma countered them with better combinations that got through Slades defenses and since he still had his Tiger Claws in play, they caused more damage to him. Slade was a better fighter than Robin so he was able to hold his own better, but soon he started losing at Ranma's higher skill in martial arts. Dodging a flaming fist; Ranma upper-cutted him across the area into the rubble of a destroyed building.

Ranma waited to see if he had won, but to his amazement Slade walked out of the rubble unhurt. Ranma didn't have time to think as Slade jumped high and used a flaming drop kick. Ranma jumped to the side to avoid it and attacked him before he could recuperate. He punched and kicked him in the face and chest using his Tiger Claws for extra pain. But Slade was tough and with stood it and struck back, but he was unable to hit Ranma. After a round house kick that sent Slade smashing into a wall and causing it to collapse, Ranma thought he had won. Until he saw Slade get back up again, he fired a bigger fire blast at Ranma. Ranma barely dodged the attack as he jumped back to get some thinking room in.

'Dammit this guys tough! Why is he that tough, it doesn't make sense? I gave him hits that would have even knocked outSaffron for a few minetes. Why is he still standing; something's wrong here, I better use stronger moves to see if it's true.'

Ranma dodged several more attacks until he was close enough to Slade for more hand to hand fighting. Slade used his powers to increase his speed to and strength making Ranma work harder to dodge. After a failed side kick by Slade, Ranma did a back flip double kick sending him air borne again. But as Slade made it to the apex of his flight, Ranma met him and cupped his hand together, right at Slade's chest.

"Raging Tiger Rush!" Ranma yelled as he fired an advanced beam version of his Moko Takabisha.

Slade yelled as he was sent down by the attack. After a few seconds of being smashed into the ground, Ranma's attack ended and he landed near where he had sent Slade. Waiting to see what happened. He was unpreparedas he wasalmostkilled by a giant column of fire that erupted in front of him burning the front of his shirt off and even burned his skin. Flipping away Slade came out of the hole that the column of fire came from. His body bent and twisted in several places, but he didn't show an ounce of pain. He only grunted as he fixed himself; snapping sounds and crunches could be heard as he reset and mended his bones.

'Okay that settles it, this guy is not normal. But what is he? He shouldn't be even walking after all I've done to him, but he just keeps getting up after all I do to him.' Ranma then looked at his face and saw the symbol he didn't notice because he was too wrapped up in beating this jerk. Now that he had stopped he noticed. 'Wait a minute that mark!'

"Slade where'd you get the Mark of Skath!" Ranma demanded.

"Ah so you know what this is? It's about time you noticed it, but tell me how do you know what it is?"

"I know enough about it that only high ranking demons can give it to a minion, so tell me, who gave it to you!" Ranma yelled.

"Why don't you ask your friends they know."

"So you won't tell straight out huh? Well I'm willing to beat it out of you." 'The problem is how 'do' I beat it out of him. He's shruggin off some of my best hits. Calm down Ranma remember what you know. He uses the Mark of Skath for his powers, so he's being controlled. How is he using the Mark though? Only demons have enough darkness in them to use it, and I'm sure he's human. Unless…' Ranma narrowed his eyes to sense Slades aura, but he got a big surprise.

'What the hell! He doesn't have an aura! He just has a thin layer of demon ki, but he's not a demon because even demons have flowing auras not thin ones like this guy has. There's only one reason for this.' "You're not alive anymore are you?" Ranma stated only loud enough for Slade to hear.

Slade stiffened causing Ranma to smile. "I thought so, so that's why you only have a thin layer of demon energy around you. You're nothing but an empty shell with a demon master controlling you. Like a little puppet."

"Arrgh!" Slade growled as he tried to blast Ranma again; for the first time since the fight started he was angry.

"What's a matter? Is being called lifeless puppet a sore spot?" Ranma grinned.

"You'll die!" Slade yelled.

"I don't think so, since I now know what I'm dealing with, I can stop you." Ranma jumped at Slade his Tiger claws colorchanging from blue to pure white.

"This again? I thought you said you knew how to deal with me now?"

"You'll see." Ranma grinned as he hit Slade hard in the chin.

"AAAARRRRRRRRRRGH!" Slade yelled as his face and his body convulsed in pain while white lighting went around him. He stopped convulsingonce he fell on all fours.

"What…was…that?" Slade gasped in pain for the first time since he got his powers.

"These aren't my Tiger claws anymore; these are called my Serenity Touch. I could only create these when I got here, because I was able to have a peace that I never had back in Japan. This is spirit energy I'm using now, more precisely serenity. It works the best against demons and creatures of darkness. Of course since you are just a demon puppet, even one hit hurts you like no tomorrow."

Slade growled as he tried to hit Ranma. But Ranma dodged and hit him in his ribs causing him to yell in pain. Slade tried to hit him again, but this time Ranma hit him in the face again.This continued for a few more minutes.Soon Slade was so weak he couldn't defend anymore as Ranma pounded on his body.

Meanwhile:

Raven had finally managed to break the spell Slade made for her friends freeing them. Telling them what happened to Ranma all the Titans raced toward where they heard screaming thinking it was Ranma and that he was in trouble. When they got to the ruined area; they all were wide eyed as they saw Ranma tear Slade apart. The fight was almost over as Ranma hit across the street; Ranma walked over to him and lifted Slade up enough so that he could face him.

"Who are you? How did you get so strong?" Slade weakly asked.

Ranma grinned this fight was over. "Tell your master this, I'm Ranma Soatome and I don't care what you or your master wants with Raven, but I'll say this. You or your master even touch Raven again or use her, I will kill you." Hearing this Raven blushed at what he said.

Ranma then threw Slade to the ground. "Now return to your master and give him that message!" Ranma yelled.

Slade went into the ground to where his master was. All the Titans were frozen in shock at the power Ranma had. As he walked to them they could only stare at him.

Later that night:
Dude that was awesome! You tore Slade apart like he was nothing!" Yelled Beast boy.

Everyone decided that they should congratulate Ranma for pounding Slade. Cyborg was busy making some food while everyone else was slapping Ranma's back or just cheering him at his victory. After they celebrated, Ranma had to ask a few questions.

"Guys I wanna know, how did Slade get the Mark of Skath? He said that you guys also knew who his master is. I gotta know who he is."

Everyone went silent at this as they all turned to the person who could best answer the question; Raven. "Umm…I'm sorry Ranma I don't want to talkabout it."

Ranma frowned at this as he thought she still had a hard time trusting him. He heard Robin ask a question. "How do you know about the Mark of Skath Ranma?"

Ranma got up and walked to his room. "If Raven is aloud to keep secrets from her friends then so do I." With this he left the room making Raven feel like the biggest heel in the world.

Trigons Prison:
Slade coughed and clenched his body in pain as he got to the place he would be reporting to Trigon. As he looked at the four slits,Trigon spoke to Slade.

"What happened Slade. Your mission was a failure."

"Forgive me Trigon…there was another person I didn't count on being there. He wasn't a Titan, but he knew how to hurt meand use spirit energy." Slade had to stop as he collapsed to the ground, his healing abilities had yet to heal him from the brutal beating he had.

"That is not possible, very few humans know of how to use spirit energy against demons."

"Well master this human did." Slade groaned

"What was his name?"

"His name was Ranma Soatome master."

"Say that again."

"Ranma Soatome."

There was a silence in the room for a few minutes until Slade heard Trigon start to laugh.

"HAHAHAHA! So destiny has decided we would meet again. How interesting thathe has aligned himself with the ones who defy me."

"Who is he master?"

"He, Slade, is the only mortal who has ever defied my power and lived. Heal yourself Slade soon, for I want you to create a mind possession circle so that I could 'talk' to an old friend in his mind."

"Yes sir." With this Slade went to rest for his next assignment.

To be continued:

AN(How does Trigon know Ranma?And whatdid he mean by the only one to defy him.You'll have to find out.Next time Ranma's Neko ken comes and we'll se what's goingon in Nerima.)