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 was early morning when a dishevelled shape, yet oddly enough nothing was out of place, stumbled out of a room at the tavern.
Ranma had barely gotten any sleep during the night … he didn't want to think about it for fear of becoming apparent, but he had enjoyed it greatly, even if he had not asked anyone to initiate the event he would not forget … or rather, as a man, was unable to forget … it would probably remain etched into his mind's eye until he'd been dead for a century.
He had only had Beebee and Sheila with him when he awoke, but the other three were still on the same large bed … cuddled together unconsciously on the side Ranma hadn't slept on.
Enough reminiscence about his bedroom activities … he was hungry, and thirsty.
Entering the main part of the tavern, Ranma spotted Dr Diggers having breakfast, and tentatively joined him, not being certain if he wanted privacy or would welcome company … luckily, he didn't need privacy and nearly told Ranma to sit with him.
Julia was missing from breakfast. Dr Diggers informed Ranma that she had departed early to prepare for her battle with G'Nolga, which would be later that morning.
The two men ate in silence, not knowing what to say to each other. Ranma didn't know, because he had just gotten out of his room, a room he shared with two of his Sensei's daughters who were in love with him. Dr Diggers didn't know, because the noise from Ranma's room had kept half the occupants of the building awake … only half, because the other half was in a drunken state of unconsciousness that would take a nuclear explosion directly by their ears to make them respond.
They both knew that the other knew of the night's activities, but didn't want to say much for fear of bringing the up the embarrassing subject.
In an effort to end the uncomfortable silence, Ranma finished his breakfast, and excused himself to go for his morning workout.
As he exited the tavern, Ranma remained in human form to avoid being spotted by any roaming women out to get him for some reason.
There were several places he could have gone to train, but that would take him away far enough away to be out of reach, should he forget the time for Julia's final Tournament battle.
The ideal solution presented itself as a bird took flight from the roof above him.
The rooftops … it was perfect!
He would be able to train balance at the same time as the exercises he had planned!
Quickly bending down, Ranma picked up a handful of loose pebbles from the ground.
With a controlled leap, Ranma hit the rooftop adjacent to the tavern softly, hardly even making a tap on the tiles.
Spinning slowly, Ranma checked the distances between the rooftops, the angles and heights before doing another spin, this time throwing the pebbles to the rooftops, continuing to spin and toss until he had spent his load … so to speak.
When he was done, Ranma stopped for a moment to compose himself.
As one, the pebbles rose into the air, and started pelting themselves at him while he dodged and weaved through them, doing an intricate, yet of a simple choreography, kata to warm up.
Had anyone been watching, they would have been impressed with the nearly unseen movements, the nimbleness, the power he radiated through his training.
Suddenly, Ranma disappeared in a shimmer from the roof, the telltale signs of a teleportation.
A moment later, he reappeared on a neighbouring rooftop, and continued his kata without missing a beat, while dodging the airborne pebbles.
This process was repeated until he had visited every rooftop surrounding the tavern, at which point, he landed on the tavern and started swatting away the pebbles instead of avoiding them, making it look like he was swatting at mosquitoes instead of rock.
As though this was not enough, larger stones or pieces of wood floated up to certain rooftops, and started moving around. Ranma aimed his swatted pebbles at those targets to train precision aim.
Moving targets always made the best practice for the skilled.
As luck would have it, his "harem" emerged from the tavern just as Ranma's training was winding down, signifying that it was time to go if they wanted tickets for the battle.
"Why didn't you wake us?" demanded a pouting Sheila the moment Ranma touched down in front of them.
"Because I wouldn't get any training done if you were there," Ranma explained as carefully as possible. "I'd be too focused on the five of you to pay attention to what I'm doing, and could end up hurting myself and any possible bystander, would you want that?"
"At least leave a note, next time," purred Gina before Lydia or Sheila could act insulted at having their skill put down to the level of bystander. The blonde archaeologist hopped onto Ranma's back, wrapping her limbs around him and started nuzzling against him with a satisfied grin … living with Britanny all her life must have made her adopt a couple of feline traits, because she looked like the cat that ate the canary, drank the milk, scratched up the curtains and managed to frame the dog for it.
Not about to be outdone, Lydia latched onto Ranma's right side, Sheila the left, Brianna his right arm, and Beebee his left, effectively trapping him between them … however, after last night, Ranma didn't mind the close contact … he actually liked it.
Choosing to ignore the jealous stares of passing men, and the annoyed one on his sensei, Ranma started off to the edge of town, where the Grand Arena lay, and subsequently the next and final battle would take place.
Ranma and his girlfriends, as they had declared they were even if they hinted that they wanted titles of higher rank, sat in their relatively good seats just as the two combatants entered the Arena.
And the Grand Arena was indeed deserving of its name, towering over every building in the town, and easily being as big as several taverns in radius, because it was still a round construction, with a dome roof.
The countless faces blended into a palette of colours from the sheer size of the Arena and the number of people watching.
Julia was dressed in a black one-piece bathing suit with sleeves to mid-bicep length, and a red cloth that acted as a partial toga, covering her backside and the left side of her outfit. Straps in brown leather crossed hither and thither across her body, holding her sword to her left hip, and holding the red toga cloth in place, allowing the back part to flare out behind her down to her ankles without any danger of it sliding out of place or exposing anything better left covered.
G'Nolga wore a white dress with green trimming and a split to her upper left thigh, a golden necklace with a round ruby in it, and her brown hair up in a ponytail with a similar trinket to her necklace holding it, and as soon as she was out on the sandy platform, raised her staff behind her neck, and rested her hands on it confidently.
Ranma couldn't hear what was being said between the two combatants because of the noise of a crowd of more than a thousand gathered in one place, but he could tell the gist of it because he had been informed of the history between Julia and G'Nolga.
With a swift movement, G'Nolga unfastened the top section of her staff, and got ready for combat.
A few words were spoken by Julia, and if looks could kill, Julia would have won the battle simply with the stern glare she levelled on her opponent before she drew her own weapon with a flourish.
"Oh, this is gonna be good!" squealed Sheila excitedly from her seat, which was two seats from Ranma … only two of them could be next to him, so they had drawn straws for those seats, and she had lost. "Go Julia!"
The werejaguar was really supposed to be on the clock, with the rest of the active Northern Edge Guard, but they had met Gar on the way to the Arena, and he had promised to cover for her, giving her the day off … in a way. Officially speaking, Sheila was Ranma's guard, seeing as he was the only member of his werecat species and thus needed protection from the various lowlife of this world while attending a public event. Realistically speaking, Ranma could probably take out more than half the entire Arena uninjured before someone more challenging, like a Weapons-Master, intervened, so he was more than likely her bodyguard instead of the other way around.
The battle as joined so quickly, most watching this would not have been able to tell who initiated it, or what damage they did, but the more trained eyes, such as Ranma's, Lydia's, Dr Diggers, and every other Weapons-Master that was witnessing this, could tell that Julia had started the fight, and G'Nolga was on the defensive, while trying to remain cool and unaffected as she parried and blocked the thrusts and hacks directed at her.
Julia continued with a powerful kick with her knee, which G'Nolga bent under, while blocking a thrust with her sword.
While Julia kicked, G'Nolga kicked Julia's supporting leg out from under her, and slammed a section of her staff into her belly, sending Julia crashing into the ground, skidding several feet on her face.
Ranma could feel Julia's anger as she pushed herself back up, and rushed G'Nolga with a feint, which G'Nolga easily blocked.
What the dwarven woman had not expected, was a second feint immediately following the first, giving Julia the opportunity to step on the bottom section of G'Nolga's staff, severely restricting its use as Julia's blade once more slashed at her from above, an attack G'Nolga had no other choice but to block, leaving herself wide open.
Julia didn't hesitate to take advantage of this opening, and slammed her elbow into the sternum of her opponent, sending G'Nolga flying in a similar manner to how she had been thrown around, with the directional difference of G'Nolga flying backwards, as opposed to Julia, who had been sent face first.
This was when the fight started getting heated as G'Nolga was no more a fan of this punishment than Julia, and was equally as enraged, which led to the two rushing at each other.
Their weapons clashed in a fierce stalemate, and they both realised that they could not win a contest of pure strength, which made them withdraw their weapons and kick out, Julia with her knee, and G'Nolga with her entire leg.
The results were not what they had expected, because as chance would have it, they were placed in such a manner that Julia's knee could easily reach G'Nolga's face, and G'Nolga's foot was extended far enough to reach Julia's … simultaneously … which resulted in the two flying in opposite directions, equally injured … both physically and in pride.
Up in the stands, Gina and Brianna were very worried for their mother, because they had not seen her in such a serious battle before, nor had they seen her using as much skill against someone else.
Like all children have a tendency to do, they had forgotten that their mother, powerful though she may be, was still only mortal, and there would always be someone out there, somewhere, that was easily her equal or better.
Ranma did his best to calm the women down … but he himself was starting to worry when Dr Diggers pointed something out.
"This is just the beginning," Dr Diggers stated sagely, looking intently on the stationary fighters, who were preparing for the next bout. "G'Nolga is Julia's equal in every way, and in opposite ways. Because of this, Julia's battles against G'Nolga are the most brutal and punishing I've ever witnessed Julia participate in.
"Even I am afraid as I watch, Gina, Brianna … but the worst is still to come!
"Soon, their passion, skill and anger will reach a crescendo, and when they are pushing themselves past the limits of physical endurance … beyond pain … beyond fatigue … is when I am most afraid … because that is when both G'Nolga and Julia begin to enjoy it …"
Ranma paused at this … that sounded nearly like him and Ryoga … apart from a few things, like gender, species, age and history. Ryoga had for the longest of times hunted for him, and when he found him, Ryoga had tried to kill him, or at least claimed he did. Those fights could have done a lot more damage, both to bystanders and property, if he hadn't actively been trying to avoid that, and what scared him, was that he had looked forward to his only worthy opponent showing up again … at least before he was transformed and transported away.
Did he really thrive on destruction and violence like it sounded?
Impossible.
Ranma shook those thoughts from his mind. He didn't like hurting people, he only trained and fought for the betterment of the Art, and to protect those incapable of defending themselves. He wasn't violent.
Once more, the battle was joined on the Arena platform, and the tides shifted too much to enable Ranma to determine who was winning of the two.
G'Nolga would fling the ends of her staff at Julia, which would be blocked.
Julia would slash and stab at G'Nolga, which G'Nolga would mostly sidestep.
However, in one such instance, G'Nolga elbowed Julia's sword quillion, setting Julia off balance and allowing the dwarven woman to slam the end of her sectioned staff in Julia's face, reattach the ends, and slam it again into Julia's chest without losing momentum.
This attack sent Julia crashing into the ground, hard enough for blood to spurt from her mouth, and for her to lose the grip on her sword.
As Julia struggled to compose herself, the audience gasped in awed surprise, and Gina cried out in sympathy, G'Nolga stepped on the sword, trapping it between her foot and the ground and proving that Julia was disarmed.
This was where Ranma really started recognising the similarities between Ryoga and G'Nolga … They both took their victory in advance when it looked like they had the upper hand, and weren't shy about gloating, like Ranma was sure G'Nolga was doing if her facial expressions were anything to go by.
Julia, Ranma saw, recognised that she had been dealt a bad hand this round, and instead of giving a snappy retort like Ranma had against Ryoga and all his opponents before he had physically changed, Julia remained silent as she got back to her feet.
G'Nolga was not going to let Julia have the time to recover too much, and rushed in, her weapon twirling dangerously.
For several minutes, Julia was on the receiving end of a beating, looking to the Arena like she was giving up, just as she was supposed to have done the last time she fought G'Nolga and lost. Ranma, however, recognised the signs of a fighter that was biding their time, waiting through the punishment for the perfect opportunity to turn the tides.
And there it was.
The perfect opportunity.
And Julia was not one to let it go.
G'Nolga's staff was snagged by the attacking end, and trapped under Julia's shoulder, while Julia kicked through the middle section, showering G'Nolga with the shattered fragments of her weapon.
Ranma managed to catch a single message uttered from Julia before the crowds started cheering again.
"You're always forgetting! It is not the weapon that makes the warrior dangerous … it is the warrior that makes the weapon dangerous!"
This was a sentiment Ranma could not help but agree with … in the right hands, even something as harmless as a few specks of dust could be lethal, while in the wrong hands, even the most accurate weapon of mass destruction could harm no one, even the wielder.
What happened next, was so fast, even Ranma had trouble following it … somehow, G'Nolga ended up in a choke hold, with Julia kneeling on her back, leaving G'Nolga no way to gain leverage or hold over her.
For all intents and purposes, Julia was winning.
As G'Nolga was turning red from injuries, straining muscles and slight asphyxiation, Ranma felt another presence in the Arena … only a few feet from the battling pair.
But this presence wasn't visible, and none of the others in the Arena seemed to notice it.
G'Nolga, however, reacted and focused her attention on the approximate location Ranma felt it.
All of a sudden, when G'Nolga looked to be giving up the struggle, she was flooded with power.
G'Nolga impossibly managed to pry Julia's arms from her person, and the battle was once more joined, this time with her dominating the field.
Julia, knowing that something was wrong, avoided getting hit as best she could, but because of the sudden increase in power, and her own exhaustion, G'Nolga was not as easy to avoid as before, and soon, Julia found herself flattened against the wall, cracks in it, and blood trickling slowly from her body.
"Jinkies!" Gina exclaimed. "What's going on here?"
"Someone's tampering with the fight," stated Ranma. "There was an unseen presence in the Arena with them a moment ago, but it vanished shortly after G'Nolga suddenly recovered."
"And I know why she recovered! She's glowing!" added Gina frantically.
"What?" asked Dr Diggers seriously.
"G'Nolga's glowing!" repeated Gina. "At least on the Ultraviolet spectrum … she looks almost like a Christmas tree!"
Brianna made a noise of realisation. "Oh, that's right! Gina's specs can scan into the Ultraviolet spectrum!"
"What do you mean by "Christmas tree"?" asked Sheila.
"I mean, she's surrounded by lights!" explained Gina. "But the pattern is matrix-like … originating from some point above her …"
Ranma checked G'Nolga once more with all his senses and could feel the energy being pumped into her, confirming Gina's statement of the energy not being produced organically.
"There … about three- no, ten … wait," started Gina slowly, uncertainly. "It's coming from orbit!"
"You mean like from a satellite, or a space ship?" asked Brianna.
"Definitely a satellite!" clarified Gina. "The energy is only being bounced off it!"
"Then why is it working?" asked Sheila. "I mean, magic is as much worth as fertiliser in the ocean with the boundaries of an Arena …"
"It's working because it isn't magic!" gasped Gina. "Let's go end this cheating!"
"You're durn tootin'!" exclaimed Brianna in agreement, and started pulling at Ranma.
"Dad, you stay here for mom, this is our area of expertise!" added Gina as she started making her way down the seats, past drunken and excited people, sloshing their drinks or jolting them from their entertainment.
Ranma, Hanza, Brianna, Sheila, Lydia and Beebee immediately followed, leaving Dr Diggers and Julia's newest students to show Julia support during her fight.
As they made it to a hallway leading out of the Arena, Brianna started asking Gina for comparison to their current crisis with those they had encountered in the past, all of which turned up less severe than what they would now be facing.
"Brianna!" Gina finally snapped, "Call your toughest armour from Hyperspace! We gotta fly!"
"Now you're talking'!" cheered Brianna evilly, no doubt looking to take her frustrations of watching her mother getting beaten out on someone.
" Hyperspace Gate Charge 100 percent. " stated a monotone voice from Brianna's wrist watch.
Pressing her wrist watch, Brianna spoke into it, dramatically drawing out the word. "Transmute!"
In a bright flash of energy, Brianna was wearing a thick, purple armour, more heavily fortified than what she wore when she fought at the Arms-Master's Palace, but with weapons in her hands instead of on her shoulders. Covering her head was what looked like a dirt-bike helmet of a futuristic design, and hovering a few feet above and behind her, was a purple peebo with vertical wings as purple as Brianna's entire armour.
Ranma didn't pay attention to the confident bragging Brianna did about the armour, as he was more focused on figuring out how they were going to get all of them to the origin of the energy at the same time … he could pull out the car, but after what happened the last time he drove that thing in this place, he was reluctant to use it.
"Peebo-Mag!" yelled Brianna excitedly. "Activate tractor-beam for my party!"
" Mass of that quantity would overload the system, " informed the hovering peebo.
"Take as many as safety allows, and I'll take care of the rest," responded Ranma, having gotten an idea.
" Tractor-beam engaged, " stated the peebo-mag, and immediately, Gina, Hanza and Beebee lifted into the air.
Ranma spread his arms for Lydia and Sheila to cling to him, and the women weren't about to pass up that offer.
"BLASTOFF!" screamed Brianna, and her booster rockets blasted on, sending her flying, along with Gina and Beebee.
Ranma crouched for better bounce, and leapt with Lydia and Sheila clinging to his sides.
Contrary to the laws of Newton, the trio didn't plummet back down, but remained airborne, and accelerating in pursuit of the rapidly moving quartet of women.
As they were flying, Ranma couldn't help but grin at the possibilities of this new application of telekinesis.
Faster than any helicopter could travel, the group approached a small mountain with a structure built into it.
Following Brianna, Ranma made directly for the roof of the structure, which suddenly exploded after Brianna screamed out an enthused battle cry, immediately followed by her tearing into the hole she had created, guns drawn and ready for action.
-Sniff!- "Ah! Doncha' just love the smell of cordite and photon and ozone and nitro?" Brianna asked dramatically as she descended into the room under the hole she had made. "Now, who is the bad guy that is helping G'Nolga cheat at the Arena?"
A man with slim glasses, dark hair and moustache muttered something under his breath as a tiny piece of the roof bounced off his head.
"Brianna!" called Gina as she, Hanza and Beebee floated in with the peebo. "The energy matrix is originating from the big bald guy's octahedron! Deploy your weapons in a destructive manner so that we can save mom!"
Ranma and his passengers touched down along a large, nearly horse-shoe shaped desk, behind which the bespecktacled man stood, and the other three touched down as well.
"Wait a sec!" exclaimed Brianna suddenly. "That's Tirant! That nasty supervillain we fought a few years ago on Earth!" she yelled, pointing at the bald man Gina had pointed out as the bearer of the energy source that helped G'Nolga cheat. "And Array?" asked Brianna, pointing at the woman Ranma seemed to recall being the one who freed Brianna from jail, and had tried to free him, by depositing the pair of them and some other guy in the path of a giant, walking Elvis statue that Ranma had broken shortly after by blowing off one of its knees.
The pink-haired woman was sweating with nerves, and seemed to hold an internal argument with herself before yelling out "Tirant! Use the power of Bain on them! The transport beam!"
"I'm afraid it's not that simple, dearest," stated Tirant, and cast around for a solution. "Bain's transport beam is still charging …" he spotted Hanza, and failed to notice that she was standing with the people that had shown aggression towards his plans. "But don't worry, it has other defence systems that could keep our friends busy until the charge is complete and we can imprison them forever inside Bain!
"Think of it as a more powerful, but a more obvious enhancement than the one I gave G'Nolga. Hanza! Prepare to receive the power!"
Hanza was very surprised, but realised that Tirant must not have noticed that she was no longer on his team. G'Nolga had, after all, sent her on a mission, and had probably not told her associate what that mission was, and the man was more concerned with Brianna and Gina than the others, and thus must have failed to notice that she arrived with them.
About to protest, Hanza was not prepared for what happened next.
In a swirl of power, she was covered in a more revealing version of what Brianna was wearing. Armour on her head, shoulders, arms, forearms, hips and shins. The head protector looked like Penny's "bunny ears", without covering anything more than around the forehead and ears, the shoulders were completely covered, and the arms and forearms were only covered on the outer side, as with the hip guards in the shape of a skirt only covering the back and sides nearly down to the knees. Hovering a couple of feet from her shoulders, was a pair of spheres, surrounded by a horizontal triangle band of energy
Still shocked about the sudden turn of events, Hanza did nothing but stare at her new armour.
This response was apparently not what Tirant had expected.
"What're you waiting for, Hanza? Get to work! Attack!"
"No."
"What?" Tirant demanded.
"I said no," repeated Hanza in a more assured tone. "I will not take orders from you again. Multiplicto! Initiate Protection Protocols!"
" Engaging Protocols … "
"Great! … Wait … Who's Multiplicto?" asked Hanza, suddenly wondering where she got the voice and instructions from.
" … Delay Previous Order? "
"No!"
" … Protocols Engaged … "
Hanza who had been surprised at both her armour and the fact that it spoke to her aloud, was nearly knocked down in shock as the two orbs hovering slightly away from her lowered to waist height, and the triangle energy surrounding them started spinning dangerously fast, looking like spinning chakram of yellow energy.
With a mocking grin, Brianna settled into a defensive stance next to Hanza, clearly amused at how surprised the supervillain was at the unexpected turn of events.
Not about to be outdone in front of Ranma, Beebee took Hanza's other side, and called forth her cannons and gun.
The trio put on a truly intimidating display … Ranma absently realised that they also looked slightly arousing … three well endowed, well put together women, striking poses in tight or revealing clothes.
Lydia and Sheila drew their own weapons, and took up protective flanking around Gina, who had not drawn any weapons, but as she saw everyone else seemed to, she opened her jacket to take out her pocket-sub-nuclear-electro-magnetic-pulse-caster, since the Bain seemed to be technology, not magic, and the best way to disable technology, was an EMP, but since most of her allies used some form of technology as well, a controlled blast was the only solution.
Tirant, seeing the entire thing, panicked.
"Array! Summon someone who can take care of this!" he yelled frantically. "And focus on the one with glasses! Hurry, before it gets out of control!"
"Too late …"
Ranma looked over his shoulder at the source of the voice … it was his sensei.
"I'm afraid the situation is completely out of your hand, now!"
"Dad!" exclaimed Brianna and Gina sugary, knowing they were in trouble.
"Gina," answered Dr Diggers sternly. "I assumed you knew how to use a cell-phone … was I incorrect?"
Tirant looked at Dr Diggers, and discovered Ranma as well, as though he only just realised Ranma was there, most likely only having seen the group as just that, not as individuals … this probably made him think that he came with his sensei. He then suddenly gained a manic expression, alerting Ranma to bad news ahead.
"Magic users!" Tirant laughed. "Perfect timing!"
The unknown, bespectacled man who had thus far remained quiet, widened his eyes in fear, clearly also noticing Ranma's garb for the first time.
"Oh no … NO!" exclaimed the man. "THEO! For the love of Jade! I'm begging you, take your student and leave! Your daughters and their friends have everything under control!"
"We do?" asked Gina and Brianna, surprised that their father was being yelled at for coming to the rescue, even if they didn't need it.
"Bain …" stated Tirant smugly. "Activate Power Drain!"
A high pitch whining sound, not all that different from the sound of a flash bulb charging, started reverberating throughout the room, until Dr Diggers became enveloped in a pale blue aura of energy.
Ranma noted that Dr Diggers was rapidly losing energy, and couldn't really do anything about it at the time, but that didn't mean he didn't try.
Very quickly, Ranma crossed the distance between his former position and that of his sensei, and slapped a pair of bracers, similar to the ones he put on his father, onto his sensei's arm. Another few movements later, Ranma had programmed the bracers to feed environmental energy into Dr Diggers, like the ones he gave Gina to put on "Mumsey". However, the effect wasn't as fast as the draining, so all he did, was slowing the drain down.
"I shouldn't have come …" muttered Dr Diggers tiredly as he dropped to his knees. The bracers were the only things keeping him awake at the time, and even the bracers wouldn't be able to fight the drain much longer.
The pale aura enveloped Ranma as well for a moment … Ranma feared he would lose power as well, but the aura faded away without doing anything to him. Had he had the time, Ranma would have wondered why.
"DAD!"
The obvious distress in the Diggers women made Ranma forget about the aura that had enveloped him, and look to Dr Diggers, who had lost consciousness, and lay where he had knelt.
"Bain!" yelled Tirant in angry amusement, "Take them all! Transport Beam!"
Without much of a show, the entire group vanished, leaving Array, Tirant and the bespectacled man behind.
The sensation of being instantly, and mechanically, transported to another location in an instant was a disorienting one. Sort of like being spun in a rapid pirouette for ten minutes, then set to walk a straight line, without the nausea.
Ranma knew better than to attempt walking, and instead sat down to conserve his energy instead of wasting it trying to stay up. Perhaps the effects would gradually diminish with repeated use of the transport … Instead of focusing on his disorientation and its effects, he started looking around the place he had been transported to.
The place was big, metallic and sterile. This was the brief description of the place.
There was a big window, or opening, showing what looked like an entire hyper-modern city with a tower reaching up to a ceiling, which looked to be an entire upside-down city of its own as well. There were no lights, or even signs of a light source that would allow him to see the city or the room. The room he was in seemed more like a corridor, stretching and curving, possibly surrounding the city or sections of it.
The bad news was that Ranma had no idea where this place was.
The good news was that he wasn't alone. The rest of his party and Dr Diggers were there as well. Hanza even had on her new armour … and most of them seemed to be getting better from the unexpected transport. The one who seemed the worst off, was Dr Diggers, who was unconscious on the ground as a result of the drain, but he would recover quicker with the help of the bracers.
"Are there any injuries?" asked Ranma generally, quickly scanning their surroundings when his eyes caught sight of a flicker of light. Around the corner of the corridor, shadows painted themselves onto the wall, revealing the cause of the disruption in the lighting.
"No injuries, but dad-"
"Will be fine in a moment," interrupted Ranma, before Brianna could start to panic … the two sisters still knelt around their father to check on his vital signs. "But for now, we have company."
The group looked in the same direction as Ranma, and settled into a defensive pattern as the shadows grew bigger and closer.
A golden head came into view, revealing Onoli's curious face.
And he was not alone … following Onoli, was a group of people in varying sizes and races.
This was the time when Dr Diggers started coming to.
"Dad?" asked Gina carefully. "Are you okay?"
"W-where are we?" asked the mage tiredly.
"We're inside Bain, Dr Diggers," Onoli explained as he approached. "And so is everyone who has ever been taken by its transport beam."
"What?"
"Calm down," interrupted Ms Nali, the healer. "You appear to have experienced a severe energy drain."
"As near as we can tell, Bain contains …" Onoli paused, searching for a good way to describe it. "Ruins …" he finally decided. "Miles and miles of them … well, from our perspective that is."
"Everyone is out there now, exploring," continued Nali. "Trying to make some kind of sense of this place … it's been slow and frustrating … although we are all magic-users, with the exception of you recent arrivals, we can't make heads or tails of the strange writings and cryptic images here … despite our intellects … I suppose we simply lack the experience in dealing with this sort of thing. " –sigh- "What we really need, is an archaeologist."
Ranma saw Gina smirk in response.
"Really?" she purred confidently.
Oh, the joys of being in the wrong place at the wrong time …
Author's Notes; I know, it's been an eternity since the last update, but the computer crashed unexpectedly … ironically nearly simultaneously with the second computer, leaving me without a computer for days … I was about ready to start climbing the walls, if I hadn't contracted a cold that kept me docile enough not to really have the focus needed to do so, and then the internet didn't want to work for several days, but, now I'm back!
By the way, I am now at chapter 23 in the rereading process … I managed to reread five chapters since the last update, and might match that number for the next chapter as well. Though I cannot make any promises, I will try to crank out a chapter or two a month until I'm off. If it should come to it, although I feel is unlikely at this point, I may write a sequel story to this one, but with how I plan on rounding things up this will not happen.
I've decided not to include Pokémon as a crossover, but, in order to get it out of my system for this story, I have written an Omake about a brief encounter. This Omake will have no impact on the story itself, it's just for fun.
Credits: Omake inspired by review by Shadow Life
Small writing tip; Affirmed by Lyronix; "Their", "There" and "They're". "There" is used as the subject of the verb "Be" to say that something exists or does not exist, or to draw attention to it … You use "There" in front of certain verbs when you are saying that something exists, develops, or can be seen. Whether the verb is plural or singular depends on the noun which follows the verb. You use "Their" to indicate that something belongs or relates to the group of people, animals, or things that you are talking about. "They're" is the usual spoken form of "They Are" in past or present tense.
Second writing tip; "Now" and "Know". If you "Know" a fact, piece of information, or an answer, you have it correctly in your mind … if you "Know" someone, you are familiar with them because you have met them and talked to them before … if you "Know" a language, you have learned it and can understand it. You use "Now" to refer to the present time, often in contrast to a time in the past or the future.
OMAKE
It was the first day of the Indigo League tournament, and all the registered trainers for this event were marching into the arena where the final battles would take place.
It was a very large, square field, marked by white lines in a rectangle, with a circle in the centre. On each short side, a smaller rectangle was marked, displaying where the competitors were to stand.
Along one of the long sides of the stadium, on the opposite side of where the trainers entered the arena, a set of stairs were leading up to the wall, and on top of that wall was something that looked like a satellite dish, pointing back inwards and upwards.
Excited crowds were cheering and calling for their favourite trainer, or simply because these trainers had enough gusto to travel all over the region, and collect all of the eight badges required to be allowed entry into the tournament by defeating the Gym Leaders that were set to test the trainers' skills and strategies.
As the trainers all lined up, facing the dish at the top of the stairs, a girl ran out from one of the back corners, carrying a torch with a white-hot flame blazing in it.
At the middle of the large group, there was a wide gap between trainers, set aside for just the purpose of access, allowing the bearer of the torch to reach the stairs without accidentally setting any of the trainers on fire.
At the top of the stairs to the Central Torch, the girl was stopped by two figures, one male and one female, donned in clothes that were all the rage in Rome during the rule of Julius Caesar.
Just as the confused girl was about to hand over the flame, a bright flash of light erupted above the stadium, and a black figure pummelled towards the ground.
Mere inches from impact, the figure ceased its descent, and remained stationary, hovering above ground.
Ranma, who had just recovered from his fall, took a quick glance around the stadium he had somehow ended up in.
For some reason, he was in hybrid form, when he clearly remembered being in human form when he was practicing on the rooftops around the tavern he and his girlfriends were staying at.
Touching down, Ranma looked at where he was, between two large groups of people mostly in their teens in the middle of the stadium.
Upon further inspection, he noticed that he was the subject of intense scrutiny in more than one way.
A kid to the left of the stadium pulled out what looked like a little, red book, and opened it, revealing that it was not a book, but made of plastic, and having no sheets of paper between the two connected halves.
" Pokémon species unknown, " said a digitalised male voice mechanically. " Please capture, and send the unknown pokémon to a qualified pokémon researcher for further study. "
A cheer broke out from the female teens that heard this message, having spent the time before the message staring at the form of the unknown entity before them, and suddenly a barrage of small, red and white balls were hurtling for Ranma.
Because Ranma had not only heard the message, but also seen the feral, lusty glint in the young women's eyes, he wasn't about to stand still and let himself get captured, however that was done, by those balls so he used this as an opportunity for further training, and slapped the balls out of the air using telekinesis, or evaded those he didn't have the time to move.
"It's a psychic type!" called a voice from somewhere in the crowds, the gender of the owner was uncertain, because of its young age.
"Well, the best thing to weaken a psychic type would be a ghost type!" reasoned a teenage male from somewhere in the group on Ranma's right. "Haunter, go!"
Another ball sailed through the air, and Ranma got ready to slap it away, when it opened in mid air.
A red, jagged beam of light shot out, and left behind what looked like a gaseous, black head and disembodied hands, floating in relatively close proximity to the head.
Confused about this new creature, Ranma wasn't prepared for it to shoot a black beam of … something at him, so he couldn't avoid it.
The beam struck him head-on, sending him careening towards the foot of the stairs, where he made a sizable dent in the masonry.
Still disoriented from his light injury, Ranma would have gotten hit by at least one of the dozens of red and white balls thrown at him, had not a giant machine that looked like a grasshopper with a bowl of fire on its back, stepped in and fired a net at him, pulling him away from the hail of gadgets.
" Ahahahaha! " laughed a female voice over an intercom emanating from the flaming grasshopper, making Ranma shudder, as it reminded him of Kodachi … but it couldn't be her, right? " You didn't really think we'd allow this rare pokémon to be captured by the likes of you? "
" That's right! " agreed an effeminate male voice over the same intercom. " When we give this rare pokémon to our Boss, we'll get a promotion for sure! "
" An' den we'll be da fat-cats! " laughed a weasel-like squeaky voice.
"You won't get away with this, Team Rocket!" yelled an angry boy from the group of kids in the stadium. "Not with the sacred flame, or the unknown pokémon!"
" Hey, look, it's the twerp, " commented the feminine man.
" Back off, kid, dis pokémon is ours now! " threatened the voice that sounded like a cartoon parody of a gangster from the nineteen-twenties.
"Okay, that's it!" snapped Ranma loudly, unconsciously magnifying his voice with his ki, causing all glass within the nearest hundred metres to shatter.
Using his claws, Ranma slashed through the ropes that made the net, and leapt at the robot, delivering a mighty punch to where a jaw might have been.
A resounding groan was heard for miles, as the metal gave way to Ranma's fist.
However, for every action, there must be an equal or opposite reaction. It was pure physics.
The force of Ranma's punch was too powerful for the weight of the robot to withstand, and anyone who has ever played billiards will know that when the cue stick hits the ball, it will move, not necessarily because the ball is round, but because it is unable to find enough friction for its weight to oppose the force delivered by the stick … here, the results were similar.
Because the robot's weight found no friction, mostly because little friction could be found from the angle of the strike, it was sent flying until it was nothing more than a twinkle on the horizon.
The flaming bowl on its back was torn off, and landed with a crash where it had been standing when Ranma first arrived.
Not wanting to endure more of this, Ranma did the only thing he could think of … he teleported away, hoping he'd get back in one piece, and that he would never have to meet any of these insane people ever again.
In the wake of Ranma's departure, the tournament went back on schedule, but everyone present couldn't help but feel that they had witnessed history, the makings of a future legend … and only trainers were disappointed at not being able to capture the pokémon. The parents of these trainers, and some researchers, knew that the legend would be even greater now that there were no signs of it ever having existed, except for tapes and pictures that would fade in time or get discredited as doctored.
