Disclaimer; This fanfiction uses existing ideas, characters and or worlds, but is an independent work of art. I own nothing, hence the reason for publishing my writings here instead of in real books where I could make some money.
It had been nearly a week since the "government suits" had been to visit Ranma, and in that time, Ranma had returned to manhood as well as put together a huge tent which he stretched across the entire property he had gotten as part of his reward.
The garbage on the property had been carefully handled and destroyed, though one or two items could be recycled after a thorough cleaning and disinfection … the motorcycle parts were among the few things that survived.
The old house had been levelled with the ground in less than a minute, by use of the most destructive of the Yama-Ken-Sen from the inside, causing the entire building to collapse in on itself in countless pieces.
During this process, Nodoka and the others were still trying to find the property.
Ranma had deliberately hidden the address from them so they would not get in his way, or get harmed if he misjudged his strength and power while working.
None of the women were pleased about this, but kept searching … meanwhile, Ranma had to pull several tricks out of his proverbial hat to manage his narrow escapes each morning.
It was during the final stages of the foundation laying that Nabiki managed to track down the address in the public records, and the very next day after the foundation had set, Ranma found Nabiki, Nodoka, Kasumi, Lydia and Beebee at the gate of his property, dressed in shabby clothes that they wouldn't mind dirtying, ready to help in any way they could.
The neighbours of the property were naturally curious, but every time someone tried to lift the canvas covering the entire property like a tent, an alarm would sound from that area, and Ranma would have to go turn it off. There was little need to chase someone off, as the alarm did that … apparently, curious as the neighbours may have been, they didn't want to get caught being nosy.
It was actually a good thing that Ranma had managed to lay the foundation for the buildings before the others arrived, as they were then ignorant of the lower levels he had built in under the house -most of which spanned the entirety of the property- and the passage leading from the house to the dojo, and the escape passages leading from the house and dojo to the nearest canal. This last part was of course not approved by the city, but Ranma doubted anyone would notice unless they actually looked for it. He had been very careful in avoiding water-lines, sewers and underground power-lines, so these would not be a problem.
Though the lower levels of the house were not decorated or put to use yet, Ranma had plans.
The upper level of the lower levels was for storage. This was for the simple reason that if anyone were to find the entrance to the lower levels, they would find this room, which was the same size as the house above it, in all except height, which was about nine feet. The entrance to the next level was across the room from the first, hidden in the wall and would only open to recognised aura readings from a certain spot. Non-lethal inventions and bric-a-brac would be stored down there.
The middle level would act as a sort of garage, covering the entirety of the property in width and length. Here Ranma could store and tinker with vehicles of transportation and not be heard through the ceiling, as there was an entire level between them, including soundproofing and several feet of concrete for each level. This was also where the passage to the dojo and canal was situated.
The lowest level was the lab, which also covered the entire property in width and length. The height was about twenty feet, allowing Ranma some space to work on secret techniques … the ones he did not want the world to see, as a dojo would be the first place anyone would normally look for him. This was also where he set the chi-batteries that powered the house. The chi would be brought down there through solar panels on the roof, small vents that caught the wind and small droplets of rainwater, which would be transformed into energy. These vents were designed to look very inconspicuous … the support pillars that kept the outer walls up. Ranma had carved designs into the entire wall for this to be possible. No one would be able to spot the vents unless they were consciously looking for them, and knew to feel for a draft on the stones to detect them.
The arrival of his friends and family was the time when Ranma decided to start using shadow clones, earth clones or water clones to hurry the construction. The clones would remain at the property and keep the women out of trouble while doing their task, and Ranma himself would run around to find building materials.
However, the construction aside, Ranma had managed to squeeze in a few brief lessons with Dr Diggers, who used a technique called Teleport to arrive. Due to the fourteen hour time difference, the man could not remain for long, or he'd suffer from jetlag … but he still managed to tell Ranma about the techniques and demonstrate once or twice before leaving again.
Over the span of four days, Ranma had learned as many techniques.
The very first one he was taught since returning to Japan, was Teleport. It was a very draining technique, but it had its uses. Being able to confuse one's opponent by disappearing and reappearing at random places during a fight was one … the other was the more obvious use, transportation. The disadvantage was that the power needed for the teleport was doubled for every extra passenger the user brought.
The second technique was the Aura Shield, which created an energy shield around the user, which would be able to withstand anything from mild to strong energy attacks … the disadvantage was of course that it couldn't stop material threats such as swords, arrows, fists or feet, so Ranma decided to use that one if he ever came up against Saffron or Herb again, as they seemed to rely more on energy than physical attacks.
The third technique was that of Presence Mask, a technique very similar to his own illusion techniques, only this one lasted for an hour instead of as long as he wanted it to. It was a very expensive technique, as far as energy went, but required little concentration on his part once it was initiated.
Finally, Ranma was taught Telepathy. This was the most demanding of him, mostly because he was reluctant about rummaging through someone else's mind. However, even he could see the benefit of catching a sneak-peek at what attacks his opponent considered using next so he could counter them with greater ease … this would of course not mean the end of reading body-language, but it was another thing he could use to anticipate his opponent's moves. It still felt like cheating to the Martial Artist, but in mortal combat, normal rules did not apply, and any edge was meant to be used to win and ultimately survive.
Incorporating the techniques into his fighting style had not become a complete process yet, as he had not had the time to merge them in, what with all the work he had to do. It was in other words a work in progress, but he aimed to finish the merger before he joined Mrs Diggers and her daughters on their return to Jade. He had said, though not promised, that he would come with them … he was very curious about this Tournament of Arms … Jade seemed to hold many skilled fighters, if Kara was anything to judge by, and if the Tournament of Arms was for skilled fighters to have the honour of fighting the Arms-Master, it was bound to get very interesting.
"No, Mom!" Ranma heard one of his clones shout. "Don't try to lift that on your own! It's too heavy!"
The item in question was one of the supporting beams for the Dojo. Ranma sighed … if his mother was such a great swordswoman, and was as smart as she claimed to be, why would she think she could lift a thousand pound slab of wood?
Looking around, he saw one of his water clones approaching his mother.
Okay, the situation wasn't entirely as stupid as first assumed … his mother had apparently seen her son and Beebee separately lifting the things with apparent ease, and thought they were lighter than they looked … but they weren't. The clone needed to remind his mother that Beebee was not human, and as such did not operate within the limits of normal humans … true, she wasn't as strong as Ranma, but she was still a lot stronger than most people.
On the other end of the dojo foundation, Beebee was also lifting a beam, but she while did it on her own Lydia was giving support and guiding the beam as visibility was greatly reduced by having a big piece of wood held tightly in ones grasp.
Kasumi and Nabiki were cleaning out the algae, dead leaves and other nasty, slimy things from the artificial hot-spring pools.
Nabiki did not look happy, and would no doubt have been happier managing Ranma's budget for the construction, maybe snap a few photos of him at work with his mage suit deactivated which left him with a bare torso that glistened in sweat from the heat inside the tent … but that was not to be.
Kasumi looked longingly at the areas Ranma had marked off for the flowerbeds or fruit trees, and was clearly longing to fill them with beautiful flowers, vegetables and saplings, all of which would smell sweetly in the evening when the sun set. The eldest Tendo daughter, however, seemed a tad more content in her current task than her sister. The two were simply not fit enough for the manual labour required to erect buildings. Decorate, clean and maintain, most definitely, but not construct.
When Ranma had met with Kasumi again, the woman had been very emotional, and had come close to suffocating him in her generous, yet modestly concealed bosom. She was very grateful for the Bag of Holding, but underlined that she would have been happy just to have him come back … he could have brought her a piece of petrified faecal matter, and she'd be happy … the thought was disgusting, so it was not pursued any further.
Nothing bad had happened to him in the past few days, and he was no nearer to discovering the reason why the property came so cheap. This was making him slightly on edge. He rarely ever went as long as a day without something happening … how much would then happen if the chaos got a week to accumulate?
"There he comes again," commented Cologne to her fellow Amazons as she sat atop the outer wall of the Diggers Mansion.
After their resounding failure at the other Diggers' home, the Amazons had agreed that they should spy on the two properties to see if Ranma returned, having gotten the information out of the newest Amazon male that one house was the home of Ranma's teacher, and the other was where he had lived. Oh, how easy it was to get that information … all it took was a day of pleasure for his wives and he caved into their every demand for information … it had to be one of the better forms of interrogation in existence.
For the past few days, Arch Mage Diggers had teleported in and out of the property at least once a day for only a few minutes before returning.
It was theorised that he was visiting Ranma, but they could not figure out where he was from the snippets of conversations they could hear or read from their lips without being detected by the residents. For all they knew, Ranma could be back on Jade, in the Undead Realm or any other place on Earth … if he had returned to Nerima, they were certain the news would have reached them somehow … after all, the boy couldn't stay out of trouble for long, and given his increased skills and power, the level of destructions caused by his adventures would be of large enough proportions to be featured in international news.
However, there was some news they had gathered. Ranma was studying to be an Aura Mage, like Dr Diggers, and was actually excelling at it, and at a pace that left the Arch Mage feeling insecure about his own talents.
It also seemed that he would return in time for the family to return to Jade for the Tournament of Arms, which they had understood the disgraced former Arms-Master would return to compete in, in an attempt to regain her status and honour.
They would have to wait until then, and grab him when he arrived.
The arms of the Amazon Laws were long, and would capture even their most elusive targets, eventually.
It would be another couple of days before something noteworthy happened.
This is of course on the Ranma scale of events … the super-powered construction of an estate in only a matter of days was not very big in his views, and he had not been visited any more by his sensei to give him time to absorb the teachings.
The house had been completed after a week of work, and the group had just returned to Nodoka's apartment to start packing what would be brought to Ranma's new house. Ranma had of course offered his mother and unofficial "sisters" to stay at his house, and they had accepted.
Not more than a few seconds had passed since Beebee closed the door before the telephone rang. Beebee answered, being the only woman not out of breath.
"Ranma," she called. "It's for you, something's happened at the bank!"
Knowing his bad luck had caught up with him, Ranma sighed and got the phone from Beebee.
"Yah?" he answered. "This is Koki Ranma, what's happened?"
" Um, " a stuttering man squeaked in the other end. " M-mr Koki, s-so-something s-serious has ha-happened at this ban-k, and I would rather explain in p-pers-son than over the ph-ph-phone, if you wo-wouldn't m-mind … as soon as p-possible … "
"Sure," replied Ranma. "I'll be there in a few minutes."
Hanging up the phone, Ranma didn't have to explain much to his mother and the others before leaving in a flash of light. Teleport was, as previously stated, expensive in energy-consumption, but if he was needed as quickly as possible, then he would just have to suffer it, and subtly recover the loss by converting some surrounding chi into ki.
In another flash of light, Ranma reappeared in the alley next to the bank, and saw that a police car had been discreetly parked in front of it. Discreetly meaning that the black-and-white coloured car stuck out like a sore thumb … at least the lights weren't flashing … Whatever had happened was apparently serious enough to involve the police, but not serious enough to seal off the area. Ranma knew he hadn't broken any laws, that the government knew of, since he got back, so there was really no need to worry about being arrested for something … this only left the question of what had happened.
Upon entering the bank, Ranma was greeted by a short, fat, balding man in a cheap suit and coke-bottle glasses … the resemblance to Genma was uncanny, and it didn't really ingratiate him to Ranma when he started stuttering in fear.
"M-mr Koki," he greeted, giving a shaky bow. The sweat was practically pouring off the man, a sure sign that he was nervous. "I-if you would p-please f-f-f-follow me."
As he followed the nervous man through the doors and into the basement where the security boxes were, Ranma couldn't help but wonder what made the bank manager, which the man's nametag indicated he was, so nervous … normally it was the customer that had to be worried, so what had caused the change?
As soon as he entered the vault, Ranma saw why.
The bars that were to close in front of the exit of the vault had been torn apart, the edges of the detached bars were still glowing a faint green. One of the safety deposit boxes had been torn out, and green claw marks could be seen along the edges of the hole, just as with the bars of the additional gate for the vault.
A police officer was examining the green marks along the claw marks, and another was sitting next to a bank employee in front of a monitor that played the security camera recording of the event.
Ranma briefly looked on the screen and saw a woman with long hair, in a jumpsuit enter by slashing at the closed bars, before the manager attracted his attention to the hole in the rows of safety deposit boxes.
"This is the reason we called you, Mr Koki," explained a woman Ranma had not noticed earlier. The manager kept quiet, evidently having realised that his stuttering was not helping the situation. "As you can see by the neighbouring numbers of the missing box, it was your box that was stolen. Whoever took this knew exactly where to find it, because I've seen the security tapes, and the woman did not wait around or search any other boxes … I know that what you keep in the box is none of our concern, and it would be impolite to-"
"Blueprints," replied Ranma, already guessing what she was trying to ask. "The box contained the hardcopy blueprints for some of my inventions, and I had better get them back because in the wrong hands … well … it would make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like they had been pelted with mini firecrackers instead of nuclear bombs."
For some odd reason, this seemed to make the woman nervous as well.
"No need to worry," assured Ranma. "To even attempt making some of that stuff, one would need a firm grasp on the concept of internal and external energies … that woman on the security tape seems to have that, but she appears to be the muscle of whomever was stupid enough to steal my things, she doesn't have the technological knowledge needed to make those things," I hope, Ranma added to himself. After all, no one would think he was any genius, so what was stopping anyone else from looking like that was well?
"I hope you aren't considering changing banks because of this little incident, are you?" asked the woman, obviously reluctantly, but the insistent nudging from her superior got her to ask anyway.
"You have one more chance before I consider it," replied Ranma sternly, deciding to take a page out of Nabiki's book of business negotiations. "If your security measures have not improved in the next month, I will take my business and money elsewhere …"
"You can't!" exclaimed the stuttering manager, now speaking cleanly from shock, or outrage … there was so little distinction between the two emotions on the man …
"Oh?"
"We'll be ruined!" the manager exclaimed. "You are the biggest customer of this bank, if you decide to leave, it might give our other customers ideas!"
"Aside from the bank not being secure, what ideas do you not want me to give your customers?" asked Ranma, using his best glare. "Perhaps that you almost threaten them into remaining with you? Keep them from reporting you to the Main Office so you can't get demoted or fired? Let me assure you, if I do not find the security measures satisfactory within one month, I will see to it that every yen of my money is withdrawn from this bank, and I will sell the story to every media organisation in the country about how my box got stolen without resistance or hindrance!
"And let me tell you, my current standards for security are very high, so if as much as a gnat manages to crawl in without someone in security knowing about it, it is not good enough!" Ranma calmed down before he lost his temper, which was bound to happen if he kept lecturing this fool. "Now, if you would excuse me, I have a criminal to track down."
Ranma ignored the suddenly indignant ranting of the formerly stuttering manager … apparently, the man had been more afraid of physical punishment than anything else, and was not going to tolerate threats to his job. Instead, Ranma focused on the slowly fading energy signature left in the cuts and gashes left in the vault … memorising it, and seeing a fading trail of it leading in and out of the vault.
Nearly like the stereotypic Sherlock Holmes, Ranma followed the trail of energy that had settled along the ground like a scent, or footprints, until it got outside where it was joined by a sickly man's. The trail rapidly thinned down after that, indicating high speed … but the buildings in the way of the trail indicated that they had gone over them instead of following the roads. This, in turn, led Ranma to the conclusion that the thief was in possession of some form of aircraft to be able to get through the city this fast.
Not wanting to let the thief get away, Ranma did the only thing he could to follow the trail and not lose track of it … he brought out his car and got in and triggered the hovering sequence.
Following the trail was not all that difficult, even at great altitudes, because he was, after all, the best. When he accelerated to near sonic speeds, it got a little more difficult, but not impossible. It was not as if he could let the thief get away with his blueprints, anyway … the consequences of a failed attempt at replicating the technology could be lethal to the one working on it at best … the worst case scenario involved turning the planet into a black hole in an instant, a black hole that would grow in strength for every planet and star devoured and would eventually swallow the entire universe. Something similar to the worst scenario could also occur if the production was a success … because with this technology, the chi battery, without limitations set into it, would absorb energy from anything, living or dead, and would bleed the planet so dry that it would implode, which would create a black hole of some sort, in theory. This was the reason why Ranma was so strict about what sources his chi batteries was allowed to take from, and how much they were allowed to absorb before stopping.
These thoughts were not something Ranma liked to dwell on, so he instead sped up, while keeping below a hundred metres off the ground, to avoid radar detection, which would have fighter pilots sent after him if he didn't do. The trail seemed to follow the coast northeast for a while before heading out to sea, and Ranma was not about to let a little water frighten him out of pursuing his prey, so he steered out after them.
Ranma was slightly surprised, something that didn't happen much. Sure, he got very surprised or not at all, but only slight surprised was somewhat of an anomaly.
He had suspected that the aircraft he had been trailing would land on a boat of some kind, as he doubted a craft small enough to land on a Tokyo street without a big commotion would not have enough fuel to travel over greater distances … with the exception of his car … he was right, but he had not expected an airplane carrier modified to be a floating fortress.
Missile launchers were perched on either end of the long ship, each of the sixteen slots in each, and each were filled with gleaming white missiles capable of taking out targets in the air, land and sea. Gun turrets were erected along the middle, three in total, placed to leave no blind spots, and mounted with four 380 mm barrels each to enable near-continuous firing. Torpedo launchers were barely visible along the sides of the ship, due to the gun turrets. Notably absent were the airplanes that were usually parked on the flight deck.
How could something as large as that thing had not been approached by the coast guard?
Not bothering to wonder, he turned on the shielding around the car, cloaking it from view and detection by the bridge.
If that thing was half as dangerous as it appeared, an all-out attack from it was not something he really wanted. Not that he'd be injured by it, inside or outside the car, but it would be most uncomfortable.
As he got closer, Ranma spotted something else that was somewhat out of the ordinary.
A cargo plane was flying over head.
This in and of itself was not the strange part, but that it dropped off two persons in mid-flight over an ocean, was.
Ranma's trained eyes followed the fall of the two, detecting no distress from them about their current situation. The one hanging to the back, the boy by the feel of his aura, was a little distressed, but not for any present problem. There was also a small animal in his pant pocket, but he was not trained well enough to read what kind of animal it was at these speeds and out of sight … true, he could get a sonar-like image of it, but at these speeds it would be difficult to discern between a mouse and a boa constrictor.
Halfway to the surface of the water, the two deployed their parachutes and homed in on the floating fortress.
No activity was detected on the deck of the ship as the two kids, who could only have been a little younger than him, landed, which led Ranma to two possible conclusions. The first possibility was that the two were part of whoever ran the ship and stole his blueprints, making them the enemy, or the thing was dangerously understaffed and no one had been manning the radar or weapons to spot them.
The two kids shed their parachutes and entered the interior of the ship.
Seeing this, Ranma decided it was no more dangerous for him to land as well.
His deduction was correct, and there was no sign that his landing an invisible car on deck had been noticed.
Once out of the car, he stowed it away again before following the two kids inside.
The insides did not differ all that much from other ships, apart from slightly bigger doorways and wider passages, so one was not forced to duck, or raise ones legs too much to enter, and three people could easily pass one another without having to halt for the others. It was obvious that the one who ordered these changes was somewhat clumsy, or else he would not have had much problem doing the manoeuvres required in normal ships. Either that or they used the corridors for moving heavy objects that were too small and light to bother using the cargo ramps on deck, but heavy enough to keep them on wheels.
Again, the insides of the ship were conspicuously devoid of staff, until he came to the internal hangar in the belly of the ship. This was also completely devoid of staff, or aircraft recognised as planes or choppers … there was what looked like a convertible U.F.O. hovercraft parked in the lift designed to bring aircrafts to the flight deck, but that was it.
In the hangar, a sickly blue man with a scar under his left eye was using his abnormally small hands to try and pry a locked safety deposit box open. Ranma's box. He did not seem to possess the same energy manipulation skills his associate did, nor did he have sufficient strength to do the job.
Lounging around a poker table was a group of men in various states of health and fitness, all wearing red jumpsuits and goggles, while playing the card game the table was made for. The various snacks soiling the green felt top simply made for an interesting array of crisp colours to the bland ones on the well-used chips used as money.
Lounging casually in a chair, filing the metal claws on her gloves, was a woman with a green hue to her skin, wearing a black and green jumpsuit. This was the woman that stole his blueprints from the bank. All grudges aside, Ranma could not help but notice how well she was formed … had the suit been any tighter, it would look like she had painted it on with a very thin layer of latex. At the moment, there was very little slack, but then, it did not seem to hinder her mobility any.
"Grrrk!" grunted the blue man as he tried to pry the lid of the box open. "Open, damn you!" he added in a whiny tone and tried placing the box on the ground and standing on it so he would have greater leverage to pry open the lid … it was not helping.
"What's the matter, Dr D?" asked the green woman smugly. "Can't get it up?"
"Ha ha, very funny, Shego!" whined the man angrily. "How about you do something other than making snide remarks at me, for a change?"
"You mean, like breaking into a high security bank vault to steal the blueprints of some doomsday device you don't know how to build or work?" retorted the woman, Shego. "Or, how about saving your stupid behind from getting arrested by a certain redhead, whom shall remain nameless?"
The man growled in frustration and threw the box across the hangar. It slid to a stop near the wall.
"Where did I put my blowtorch?" he asked in a huff and started rooting through the drawers of the nearest tool table.
"Planning on torching the blueprints, Drew?" asked Shego patronisingly, blowing away the metal shavings from her filing.
The man, Drew, had seemingly forgotten that paper tends to be flammable even in metal boxes, and started cursing up a storm while searching for something to break the locking mechanism in the box to he could access the blueprints he so desired.
"So," drawled Shego, stretching her arms and back while remaining seated. "How did you hear about these things, anyway?"
"Ah," replied Drew, pleased to have been asked, almost as though he had been waiting for someone to ask. "I found out through this!"
In a dramatic motion, the man withdrew a magazine from within his blue lab coat and held it on display to his companion.
"Teen Girl Weekly?" asked Shego after seeing the cover.
"Ooops, wrong one … here!"
"Business Quarterly … Nominated Scientist of the Year …" read Shego. "This guy doesn't look all that old, Dr D … how good could his inventions be?"
"Bah," Dr Drew scoffed. "They must not have gotten a recent photo of him and only got one from the archives … but that doesn't matter! The manager of the bank you robbed came out in the article and proudly announced that this man had a safety deposit box being kept in the vaults! And what does an inventor keep in safety deposit boxes? Blueprints!"
Ranma swore he would make that manager pay, possibly by getting him fired and blackballed from anything dealing with money … maybe he'd choose his words more carefully when he was put out on the street and with no way of supporting himself or his family, if he even had one …
"I had you kidnap that hacker kid, and he in turn hacked his way into the bank's computer files to figure out which box number the blueprints were stored in!" finished the apparent mad scientist. "And now, I shall build whatever doomsday device I can out of those files, and hold the world for ransom! Nothing can stop me now! Mwahahahahaha!"
"Except the lock on that box …" concluded Shego, putting a damper on the mood of her apparent employer by pointing out his faults.
"It's impossible to get it to open, I tell you!" yelled Dr Drew angrily. How on earth was he to open a box without using a blowtorch and without destroying the blueprints he had based his whole scheme around?
"Like the childproof caps on aspirin bottles?" retorted Shego smugly.
"Grrr, I'll have you know it's very difficult to push down and twist at the same time!"
"Well, you won't have to worry about that where you're going, Dr Drakken!" called a female voice from along the rafters.
Everyone looked up and saw the redheaded girl Ranma had seen land on the ship, along with her blonde friend. She was dressed in a black top that did little to hide her stomach, and accented her modest talents. Covering her lower half was a pair of loose cargo pants in kaki-olive colours, and about her waist was a utility belt. Her friend was clad similarly, only his top covered his entire upper half, his head not included.
"Kim Possible!" shrieked the man, Dr Drakken, apparently. He must have known her very well. "And … er, what's-his-name … the buffoon! How did you find us here? I was very careful this time!"
"Ron – Stoppable!" complained the blonde boy in an annoyed tone. "How hard is that to remember? We've met, like, a million times, and you still can't remember it!"
"Not now, Ron!" interrupted the girl, Kim, and jumped down from the rafter. Immediately after jumping, she pulled a hairdryer from her utility belt and fired a grappling hook at another rafter, making her swing down instead of plummet the thirty feet down. "That hacker kid you napped sent an encrypted message to my website, Dr Drakken, not very smart …"
"Just sayin', 's all!" grumbled the blonde boy about the situation with his name as he too fired a grappling hook and jumped … only to have his pants get caught on something and tear off in an embarrassing display. "Oh, come on! Why does this keep happening to me?"
"Ron!" exclaimed Kim, who had by now engaged in a fight with Shego. "Less chatter, more help! Keep Dr Drakken from getting away!"
"Sure thing, Kaypee," called Ron, and focused on the blue man, only to have the red-clad men step in between them holding staves glowing with stunning or explosive properties at the ends. "Kaypee! Trouble with the plan!"
Ranma thought the boy was pathetic … those were six guys, hardly any muscle on them at all, and no fighting skills … what was the big deal? Why did he want to have a girl fight for him when he was faced with such a minimal threat?
While the two teens fought the henchmen, Ranma noticed that Dr Drakken, as he was called, was running for the box.
Not wanting the man to get away with his blueprints, Ranma dropped down from the catwalk to the hangar floor, between the dumb doctor and the box.
"You're not getting those blueprints," stated Ranma coolly.
The man looked dumbfounded for a moment, trying to place his face before giving up.
"Shego!" he bellowed. "Get this buffoon out of my way!"
"Kinda busy over here Dr D," grunted Shego as she blocked a kick at her midsection. "Deal with it yourself!"
"Argh!" growled the blue doctor. "Very well … eat hot plasma … um … whoever you are!"
From within his lab coat, Dr Drakken pulled a very surreal-looking gun … it looked like a toy, and pulled the trigger at Ranma.
A green bolt of energy discharged from the saucer-shaped nozzle of the thing, and headed in the direction it was fired, shrieking in a high pitched tone.
Acting on instinct faster than anyone could see, though since there were so many distractions not many did, Ranma pulled his sword from stuff space and activated it, using the glowing blue energy blade to bat the ball of energy back at the blue man.
Dr Drakken of course squeaked and fell over and was therefore not hit … the large collection of super computers along the wall behind him, however, was. A nice, big hole opened up in the wall, giving a good view of the ocean and the rising stars on the darkening canvas that was the sky.
The big explosion was enough of a distraction for everyone to stop fighting to see what had happened.
"Oh, fer cryin' out loud!" growled Shego. "Can't you go five seconds without blowing something up? Do you really want me to hire you a nanny to keep you out of trouble?"
"I'm sure they can make arrangements for you in prison," quipped Kim and landed a kick to the green woman's jaw, sending her rolling towards Dr Drakken.
Not missing a beat, Shego kicked off when her feet next hit the ground and launched towards the new menace to her pay-check, her fists aglow from the strange energy she could manipulate.
"Let's see how tough you are without that glow-stick, Jedi-wannabe," she challenged as she rushed in, aiming her attacks at the hand Ranma held the sword in.
For his own amusement's sake, Ranma accidentally let go of it, turning it off, and watched as Dr Drakken intercepted it.
"Ha-Ha! Who's the toughest now?" crowed the blue man triumphantly, pressing the only button on the cylinder.
Nothing happened.
"Argh, why won't it work?" whined the mad scientist.
For good measure, he shook it and looked up the end the energy had come out of earlier.
"It won't work because it's not me holding it," replied Ranma casually. "A little something I came up with after seeing that movie … um, what was it called … Judge … Judge Judy, no, Judge Amy … no, Judge Fear, something like that … all my destructive inventions have been installed with a form of recognition device. If the current user was not in the data bank, it will not operate. The best you could do with it at this moment is using it as a thrown weapon."
"Blast it!" cursed Dr Drakken.
"I think not," interrupted Ranma. "And I'll have that back now," he added, and made a come-hither motion with his finger at the weapon.
The cylinder suddenly ripped from Dr Drakken's hands and flew at Ranma, activating in mid air.
For show, Ranma did some impressive spins, twirls and slashes with the blade once it returned to his grip. The display was made more impressive because of the pale blue glow of the energy blade.
"Great, you just had to egg on a freakin' JEDI, didn't you, Drew?" growled Shego once she managed to scrape her jaw from the floor. And now she had to fight him in addition to little-miss-cheerleader and her idiot sidekick … it was high time she asked for a raise.
"A Jedi might be a slight exaggeration," admitted Ranma. "sure, I might be able to predict your every move, read your surface thoughts, react and move faster than normal, detect the presence of living beings, move objects without touching them and fire off and deflect energy attacks, but that just makes me one of the best martial artists on Earth, not a Jedi … or does it?"
To be honest, this was the first time he had really drawn connections between his skills and those of a Jedi, and he was surprised how close they came … but then, he could do a couple of things the Jedi couldn't … he could teleport, crush boulders with his finger, lift several tons with minimal train, store several tons of stuff in folded space around his person and possibly never really run out of energy because he was so in tune with the energies around him. He could also change form and gender … now, how many Jedi could do that? If there had been any, he was certain they would at least have been mentioned in the movies …
Leaning back on instinct, Ranma narrowly avoided getting his face kicked in by the green woman.
"No need to get prissy, missy," scolded Ranma. "Is it that time for you, or something?"
"None of your bee's wax, bozo," snarled Shego. "Now stay still so I can crush you like a bug against a windshield!"
"Fat chance," snorted Ranma and back flipped away from the incoming glowing claw. "I didn't become one of the best by letting amateurs like you get to me!"
"What did you call me?" snapped Shego and stopped to glare at the dark-clad martial artist.
"An amateur," repeated Ranma. "Granted, you could probably whoop half the world's Masters, but I'm still out of your league by so much that with your current training regime, you'd never be able to catch up in a thousand years!"
Shego was not about to have some punk kid, no matter how handsome or built, insult her hard earned skills, and lunged at him with an inarticulate scream.
Halfway there the girl, Kim, dropped down between them and started fighting her again, even if Shego tried to get by her and attack Ranma, who was giving Dr Drakken a hard stare to discourage him from trying to get the box back again.
The half a dozen thugs in red had been rendered unconscious while Ranma fought Shego, and the blonde kid, Ron, was shouting encouragements at Kim, while conversing with a pink animal on his shoulder … a naked mole rat, who seemed to understand what it was told, and replied in monosyllabic words … Smart pet.
After shoving the blue scientist back from trying to get by him, Ranma suddenly connected the boy to something he heard before.
This guy could almost be the warrior Master Sensei talked about … if he wasn't so clumsy … no, Master Sensei said he was … but if he has these Mystical Monkey Powers, why doesn't he use them? The only fighting he's done so far, was the fight against embarrassment from having to stand around in his boxers. And from the way he was fighting the blushing, and his comment as he lost his pants, this kind of thing happened a lot. What kind of fighting wonder was that?
What amazed Ranma more about the guy, was that he didn't seem to get distracted with the two well-arranged women bouncing around the room in semi-mortal combat. It was only through very strenuous control that Ranma himself kept his interest from showing, as he also did when Beebee, Gina, Brianna or Lydia tried to seduce him … he often regretted not taking advantage of the offers, as all men in his situation would, but he knew he wouldn't respect himself in the morning if he had given in …
After about ten minutes of no progress in the fight, Ranma decided it was time to end it.
"Okay, Time out!" called Ranma, and made the appropriate hand gesture, which was to form his hands into a T shape.
As he did, everyone froze … although none of them seemed to want to.
"I've had enough of this," lectured Ranma sternly. "I'm going to take the box, and return home. You guys can fight amongst yourselves once I'm gone, because this is just too childish!"
"You're not going anywhere!" exclaimed Kim, clearly not aware of that he was the rightful owner of the box. "That box is going back to the bank that Shego stole it from, and they are going to jail! You'll just share their punishment if you walk away with something that doesn't belong to you!"
" Hold it, Kim! " interrupted a voice from the girl's pocket. " Let me get a look at this guy. "
"I can't move, Wade," grunted Kim, annoyed at her predicament. "Something's holding us all in place."
"That would be me," interrupted Ranma. "Wouldn't want you to do something stupid, like trying to fight me. But if you really only need to pick that communication gadget out of your pocket, I'll allow it."
"Hey, guy, could you, like, float my pants down?" asked the boy, Ron. "I'm in the mood for some snackage and there are some mini-corndogs in my pockets."
Ignoring the asinine question, Ranma allowed one of Kim's arms to move to lift the item from her pant pocket.
" Just a little more to the right, " directed the boy on the other end of the communications device. " Perfect! Scanning his image onto the net … "
"And?" asked Kim, "Who is he, and how is he holding us in place?"
"He's a Jedi! Weren't you paying attention?" stated Ron, as though it was obvious. "George Lucas was right! They do exist! But, wait … he's stealing that box … Jedi are good guys, and good guys don't steal … Gaaah! He's a Sith! Look at his clothes! Jedi wear lighter colours!"
"Ron! The guy's not a Jedi or a Sith!" interrupted Kim, not prepared to listen to more of this ranting. "What's the deal, Wade?"
" Well, his file exists, but it's highly classified for some reason, " stated the boy on the other end, Wade. " It would take some really mad skills to hack into those computers unnoticed – done! " exclaimed Wade. " His name is Ranma Koki, formerly Ranma Saotome. He's an extremely talented fighter, according to this file. "
"Talented, how?" asked Kim. Everyone seemed very disgruntled at being held in place like this.
" Talented, like Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee combined and multiplied infinitely! " explained Wade. " This guy's been responsible for levelling two mountains in Asia alone, using no modern tools, and both times while fighting some magical guys. He makes the Mystical Monkey Powers seem very tame, and is the son of one of Japan's most notorious criminals. "
"So he is a Sith!" exclaimed Ron in fearful triumph.
" Not really, Ron, " corrected Wade. " According to these files, he holds honour above all, and wouldn't be caught dead doing something really bad. He is also responsible for putting his own father back in jail only a week ago. He was rewarded by the Emperor for his actions, but the files do not say what his was … "
"Then why is he here, stealing this box?" asked Kim, giving Ranma a glare for good measure for holding them all there, and for being so contradictory to the government files.
"It's my box," interrupted Ranma, before this conversation could go any further. "I'm here to retrieve it."
"That's a load of bull," argued Ron. "We heard Dr D say what the box contained … blueprints, and you don't exactly look like the scientist type, dude. You're only, what, a year older than I am?"
"Appearances can be deceiving," countered Ranma. "I'm not saying I'm the greatest scientist, but what I do, I do very well … I know only a handful of people on this planet better than me in any of my skills, but then, I've hardly met everyone on the planet."
" He's right, Ron, " agreed Wade. " He has been nominated for the award of Scientist of the Year for his invention of the Stuff-Space generator, a small device that is capable of folding space within a container so it can fit twenty times as much as it normally would. It's small, nearly invisible when attached to the container, and best of all, it doesn't pollute at all … the only energy source it requires is the body heat your body casts off to its surroundings. "
"Sooo, this guy's a super genius fighter?" concluded Kim, not really all that interested in the how and why of this situation.
" In short, yes, " conceded Wade.
"What now, then?"
"Simple," replied Ranma. "I beat the crap out of these two for stealing from me and endangering the universe, then we hand them over to the authorities."
"Okay …" said Ron slowly. "Soooo, could you let us go now? I'm starting to get really hungry and the mini-corndogs' expiration date runs out tomo- OW! Stop that! My face is not a laundry-basket!"
Author's Notes; As mentioned in the disclaimer, I earn no money from writing this story, but (and do not take this seriously) I will not say no to donations … just keep in mind that I don't smoke alcohol, or drink cigarettes …
Another chapter reread, and as before, only superficial changes were made, such as rearranging a sentence or two to make better sense of them, or adding italics to some words for emphasis.
The part where I wrote "The two were simply not fit enough for the manual labour required to erect buildings. Decorate, clean and maintain, most definitely, but not construction" was not meant to be a sexist remark, and if any women or girls out there felt slighted at this remark, I apologise. It was not meant in that manner, but simply a statement of their physical strength being inadequate for the labour needed to build the house.
If anyone feels I am being too apologetic, (hehehe) I apologise. I realise that people can get offended easily, and I simply wish to "cover my bases" by apologising in advance or for a previous act. I don't want people to abandon reading this story only because something I wrote offended them. I guess this stems from not getting much recognition in real life … not that I desire it, but I don't really like rejection.
Credits; The idea for the User Recognition device was given by Neon King 4. I toned down the device used in Judge Dredd, because it could be potentially dangerous to innocents if the weapon blew up or delivered a shock, Ranma would of course recognise the dangers in having exploding devices, and would of course try to prevent that. Changes were made to the explanation of the disadvantages of teleportation, on the suggestion by AzureSky123.
