1/2: Ranma of Grayskull Crossover: Masters of the Universe By: Dani Yanega yanega@mindspring.com (please respond to this e-mail address) Chapter Two Ranma stands on the Tendo roof watching the Tendos and his father look for him, he then watches while they all pile back into the house. His shoulders slump and Ranma takes off for his secret training ground. Ranma stays to the roofs in an effort to avoid being seen. When he hears the familiar sound of a bicycle bell. He doesn't know where she is but he quickly jumps to the street and dashes into the nearest building. He looks around and sees he is in a computer store and decides to look around for a few minutes to make sure Shampoo didn't see him and is gone before he continues on his way. Taking time to look at some of the laptops he decides he might get one before he starts college. It could help him with his schoolwork. Ranma goes to the window and looks around he doesn't see any sigh of Shampoo, he checks with his senses and they also say the purple- hair Amazon is no where to seen. Ranma exits the building but decides to stay on the ground since he is past all his usual haunts, he doesn't want to call attention to himself. He _jogs_ through the streets, a blur to the people he passes. When he stops to get his bearings, he feels the cold wetness of water as it hits him. He turns but doesn't see anyone, then hears. "OH MY, I am sorry I didn't see you. Do you need a towel?" Ranma- chan looks up at an apartment building and sees a young woman in her early twenties staring down at her. "No thank you I will be alright." Ranma-chan tells her then heads off in a new direction. Ranma-chan reaches the woods at the outskirts of the business district and ventures in. She will have to hurry if she wants to reach her destination before dark. Ranma-chan jumps up into the trees and runs across the top of them in an effort to speed up her travel time. About an hour or so after the sun has set Ranma-chan reaches the base of a mountain. She contemplates whether she should continue or wait till morning, but with her luck someone will find her and she doesn't need that aggravation right now. She decides to climb as far as she can before resting for the night. Ranma-chan climbs slowly since she is climbing blind. She wants to make it as far up the mountain as she can. When she finally stops on a small plateau it is nearly 11:00pm. She pulls out her sleeping bag and crawls in. She is hungry and doesn't want to stay a girl, but she doesn't want to light a fire this late at night and call attention to herself. /*\*/*\ Ryoga stumbles around the woods in the dark not knowing where he is or where he is going only that when he finds Ranma he is going to make him pay for hurting Akane the way he did. He has no right to use that technique on her, then call off their engagement and leave her alone. [When I find you Saotome I will make you suffer as Akane has suffered!] Ryoga thinks to himself. He looks up to see where he is and notices he is on a dock looking out on a bay at a statue of a lady with a spiked crown. She is holding a book in one hand and a lighted torch in another. "WHERE THE HELL AM I NOW! RANMA THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Ryoga screams shaking a fist at the sky, the people around him move a way from him with indignant stares. Ryoga looks sheepishly at them then begins to start walking again. He tries to watch where he is going but soon his mind turns to two young women who he has feelings for, if only he could choose one and end his loneliness. Ryoga turns a corner as the police come up behind him. He disappears from their view for only a second when they round the corner, he is gone completely. The police search the area but can find no trace of the strange young man. /*\*/*\ "Its got to be here somewhere I know I must still have it!" A shriveled up old man mumbles to himself while tearing through his belongings. Happosai throws ladies' under garments from one end of the room to the other. He finally cleans away the clothing to reach an ancient strong box with sealing wards and locks on it. Happosai sits down on a pile of his little darlings and begins to break the wards, once he has done that he brings out a key that he wears around his neck. He uses this key to unlock the box. When it is unlocked he sets the box on the floor in front of him and opens it. The contents are stuffed to overflowing in the small box, and Happi starts pulling out items one at a time to determine if it will help him get the revenge he seeks. The little troll pulls out each item and examines it closely then puts in a pile next to him. He firsts pulls out a ruby ring, trying to remember what it does. When it comes to him he decides it is not what he wants and puts it down next to him. The next item is an amulet he looks at it closely remembering that his little treasure will give him flight, but since it won't help in his revenge he sets it aside. He spends the rest of his day going through his box of magical treasures. Then he finds what he wants, an ancient scroll which he was able to partially decipher. It will send Ranma to another dimension and away from him. He looks over the scroll and tries to figure out the parts he couldn't read when he first _found_ this scroll in the Shaman Temple over hundred years ago. He studies it for another hour then decides he has time since the _boy_ is on a training trip. With a sardonic grin, he goes to sleep dreaming of a life where _no one_ can stop him. /*\*/*\ Akane sits on her desk chair her head leaning on the window seal, as she stares out at the night sky. Tomorrow is not going to be a good day, she will have to tell the others Ranma has left for training. She hates when he does this, Kuno gets pushier in trying to date her, and Ukyo and Shampoo get angry with her because they will only believe that she made him leave. She lays her head sideways on her hands and looks to her bed, she is not really sleepy and she wishes P-chan wasn't lost again she needs to talk to someone that won't sell her inner most secrets for profit. Akane sighs deeply then slowly rises and gets into bed, playing over Ranma's exit from the Tendo home. She is sure he didn't mean what he said, he'll come back and things will be as they were before. It always is. He does something stupid and she pounds him, him says something stupid she pounds him. Akane sits up quickly with a look of fear on her face, replaying the last three years over in her mind she realizes that she actually looks for reasons to pound on Ranma and the main reason is because she could not pound on the ones she really wants to. Akane lowers her head into her hands and begins to cry, she may have lost him for good this time, and because she couldn't stop beating on him. Akane's tears flow while she lay in bed staring at the ceiling, eventually she falls to a fitful sleep. Her dreams are of all the times she tormented Ranma about his curse, or beats on him for someone else's mistake. Akane's night was not a restful one. /*\*/*\ Ranma-chan wakes before dawn, she eats some of the dried fruit out of her pack for breakfast. Then continues her climb, she is amazed she got as far as she did last night in the dark. She climbs more quickly since she has more light as the sun rises. By mid morning she is where she wants to be. Ranma-chan climbs onto a large plateau a little bit smaller then the park in Nerima. She heads toward the center of the ledge through the grove of trees and bushes. She reaches a small lakeside with a waterfall and sets up camp. She smiles as she has claimed this as her private training ground. She found it one day after Akane was really mad at her and knocked her onto a plateau higher up. She found this one when she was climbing down. When her campsite is complete she leaves the campgrounds. She decides to stay female for the day and will change back when she makes dinner that night. Ranma-chan climbs up the mountain a little higher then takes a narrow ledge around to the other side of the mountain. She knows her training ground thoroughly since she has been coming here for the past year and a half. To her though it is more of a haven away from all the pain and chaos of her life. While her mind wonders she doesn't see the two- foot gap in the ledge and slips. She loses her grip and falls backward off the ledge and plummets to the ground below. /*\*/*\ Happosai wakes when the sun shines in on his ancient face, he slowly opens his eyes, and sitting up he looks around his room in confusion. His eyes then alight on the ancient chest and the artifacts laying around it. He scampers over and returns all his treasures to the box and reseals it. Then he picks up the old yellow scroll and spreads it out and begins to read. Making notes on a small note pad. He laughs uproariously while holding up the scroll to the sky. Then he rolls it up and places it and the notepad in an inside pocket of his gi. Next he begins to pack his backpack for a long journey. Most of his backpack is full of his little darlings, when he finishes he jumps out the window with a maniacal laugh. "BWHAHAHAHAHA! When I return _boy_ my revenge will be complete! BWHAHAHAHAHA!" Happi takes of for parts unknown in search of his revenge. On the roof a shadow watches the old pervert leave, its eyes flashing red with fire, then a twinkle can be seen as if the shadow is smiling. It turns to leave and a ray of sun strikes its back and highlights the visitors long black hair. Then the visitor is gone. /*\*/*\ Akane slowly walks to school Nabiki next to her, her head bowed her mind in turmoil. She wonders how Ranma can be so insensitive as to leave her to face the hordes of questions from the students. When she woke this morning, she decides it is not her fault. It is Ranma's and always will be Ranma's fault. ***Flashback*** The knocking on her door slowly brings Akane to groggy wakefulness. She sits up and stretches she hears her bones pop back into alignment. Then she turns to face the intruder into her peaceful sleep. "Come in." She tells the person on the other side of the door, the door opens slowly and Kasumi pokes her head into the room, with a sad smile on her face. "Akane breakfast is ready and you better hurry or you'll be late for school." She tells her little sister. "Ok, Kasumi I will be right down." She tells her while getting up and getting ready for school. Kasumi watches her, the small sad smile turning ever so slightly into a frown. Kasumi then enters the room completely and shuts the door behind her. Akane turns at the sound of the closing door and sees her older sister looking at her with what looks like a frown. "Is something wrong Kasumi?" She asks nervously of her older sister, Kasumi sits in Akane's desk chair and pats the bed that she wants her to join her. "Come I wish to ask you something, and I don't want you to answer right away. I want you to think about what your answer is before you say it, alright." Kasumi tells a worried Akane, she nods her consent and sits on the bed facing her older sister. "Akane I heard that fight last night with Ranma-chan, he never said a word to you that should have caused you to get angry. Yet you did, over the past year since the wedding attempt you have been increasingly angrier and always at Ranma. Akane do you truly love Ranma or is it the idea of having someone that you love?" Kasumi asks her, Akane's mouth opens with a ready retort but shuts at the look from Kasumi. Akane mulls over in her mind the things Kasumi has said to her, has her anger been more frequent, she thinks back over the past year and doesn't see anything different then from before, Ranma acts like a jerk and she smashes him. That is all there is to that. Then she gets to the question Kasumi has asked. Does she love Ranma or like Kasumi said in love with the fact she has a fiancé. Kasumi watches her little sister ponder her question. When Akane finally looks up at Kasumi, her eyes flashing with her ever present anger. Kasumi's heart falls when she realizes that Akane is going to deny her own feelings. "I _don't_ love that pervert, I only stay engaged to him because of father. If I can find a way to get out of it I would!" Akane snarls at her sister, a little voice in the back of her mind tells her 'be careful what you wish for, it might come true!". "I see, then it doesn't bother you that when Ranma returns he will move out and _leave_ you, never to see you again?" Kasumi asks her with unshed tears shimmering in her soft brown eyes. "NO IT WON'T!" Akane shouts, while standing to finish getting dressed for school. Kasumi rises and slowly leaves the room, before closing the door she turns to watch her sister. She shakes her head slightly when she sees Akane's body trembling with silent sobs. She turns closing the door behind her, leaving Akane to deal with her own words. ***End Flashback*** When Furinkan High comes into view Akane stops and turns to her older sister. She smiles slightly, then taking a deep breath, looks at the school gate with dread. "Thanks for walking with me Nabiki but you better get going or you will miss your bus." She hugs her sister then turns toward the school with slumped shoulders. Nabiki watches her sister walk toward the school her eyes narrow and flash with anger. She watches as Akane's friends meet her at the gate she then sees Ukyo walk toward her sister and knows Akane is going to have a hard time today. [Ranma I am going to get you for doing this to my sister!] Nabiki vows, then turns and leaves to catch her bus back to college. /*\*/*\ Yuka and Sayuri watch as Akane enters the schoolyard, they can tell by her face that something is wrong. They can also tell as Ranma is not with her, they head over to her. Before they can find out what is happening Ukyo shows up a false smile on her face. "Mornin' sugar where is Ran-chan I brought him his favorite okonomiyaki." She tells the younger Tendo with a bright smile. "Ranma left on a training trip last night, I don't know where he is or when he will be back." With that Akane pushes past the chief and heads into the school with her two friends behind her. Akane goes to her classroom and sits at her desk, a blank look covering her face. Her friends sit on either side of her daring anyone to try and bother their friend. The class went slowly for Akane, she goes through it as if she is on autopilot. When the lunch bell rings she gets up and leaves the room Yuka and Sayuri close behind her. The three friends head for a tree on campus and begin to eat lunch. They hear the ding, ding of a bicycle bell and look up to see Shampoo land her bike in the school campus. Shampoo seductively walks toward Akane, hoping her husband is near by to she how sexy she is compared to violent-girl. She is carrying Ranma's favorite ramen dish with a special sauce that will make him love only her. "Violent-girl tell Shampoo where husband at?" Shampoo asks making it sound more like a demand, Akane looks at her blankly. "He left on a training trip, I don't know where or when he will be back." Akane tells her then goes back to eating her lunch. "YOU LIE VIOLENT-GIRL DID SOEMTHING TO SHAMPOO'S HUSBAND!" Shampoo yells pulling out her bonari ready to strike. "CLANG!" Shampoo looks to see the haft of Ukyo's fighting spatula keeping her from eliminating her obstacle. The Amazon glares at the chief who returns an icy stare of her own. Then Ukyo lifts her spatula and with a jerk pulls the bonari from Shampoo's hands. Shampoo is caught off guard by the maneuver and loses her grip on her weapon which lands embedded in the wall of the school. "Akane told you Ran-chan is on a training mission until we learn otherwise that is where he is!" She tells the warrior with the sharp edge of her spatula pointing at Shampoo's throat. "_IF_ she did do something to make him leave you will have to stand in line until I am through with her!" Ukyo snarls her eyes narrowing. Akane is oblivious to all this as her mind keeps going over the events of last night and this morning, her heart sinking when each time she remembers what she told Kasumi. Akane rises ignoring the two fighting girls and walks away from the school compound leaving her friends and the fighting girls to watch in stunned silence. She heads for the park deep in thought. /*\*/*\ Ranma-chan begins to fall from more then two thirds the way up the mountain. She debates if she should just let herself fall and be done with it. She however can't, she knows she is going to be needed, especially if she decides to follow her dreams instead of everyone else's. Ranma-chan flips righting herself, then shouts. "PHOENIX WINGS OF FIRE!" Then a golden pair of fiery bird wings appear on her back and begin to flap. Her decent begins to slow, and soon instead of falling she is flying up the side of the mountain. She returns to the ledge where she fell from and while suspended in mid air examines it. She sees the gap that caused her fall. She shrugs her shoulders and lands on the ledge just past the gap. [Oh, well something new to remember next time.] She thinks to herself making her wings vanish. Ranma-chan then continues her trek to her training ground. What the martial artists of Nerima don't know is that Ranma-chan has been using this training ground to learn their techniques. She may not use them the way they do but they are techniques she wants to learn. She has taught herself Cologne's 'Splitting Cat Hairs' which has been the cause of some trouble for her. In learning the technique she also learns a way to counter it most of the time. She also taught herself Ryoga's 'Bakusai Teknetsu' and how he infuses he chi into cloth, but she has taken it a step further to be able to infuse other organic materials. Finally the last technique she taught herself is Mousse's hidden weapons, she trained herself in that first as it is a good place to store her valuables away from greedy panda and mercenary fingers. She has been working on expanding these techniques and finding other uses and more advance applications, but today's training is going to be quiet compared to her other ones. Today she is going to work on gaining control of her c..c..cat. She hopes if she controls the Neko-ken she won't be as frighten of the real ones and then she won't lose her mind to him. She reaches the training ground on the other side of the mountain about an hour later. The training ground is loaded with boulders, tree stumps, piles of pebbles and sand. It is slightly larger then where she camps but not by much. She goes to a tree stump and sits down leaning against it. She gets into the lotus position, and clears her mind. She begins to focus inward look again for the illusive cat inside her. She doesn't understand the need but for the past year since the failed wedding something has been driving her to learn all she can as to the others techniques. She is learning shiatsu points from Dr. Tofu along with herbal medicines. He even gave her copies of some of his older herbal books and training manuals for her to keep and study. She finds she likes being able to heal as well as to fight. It also makes it easier on her when she can heal herself after Akane bashes her. Ranma-chan shakes her head to clear the past from it. She then travels within herself looking for her alter ego. It doesn't take her long, it seems the cat wants to find her as much as she wants to find him. Ranma-chan's aura flares around her it strobes between her new golden Phoenix aura and her blue confidence aura. In her mind Ranma-chan meets the Neko-ken his form shifting between his male and female shapes. The Neko-ken faces him in the shape of a sleek black satiny panther. To Ranma-chan's surprise she is not as afraid of this visage of a cat before her. She does still feel the fear trying to push forward though, but she is able to hold it down. Her shifting body slowly moves toward the panther as it moves toward her. When they touch a bright flash of golden, blue and black surround them. This also displays itself around her entranced body. As the light fades Ranma-chan's mental body now shifts between her male and female persona and that of the panther. She gasps when she feels the power of the Neko-ken, while it surges through her. The cat's dark feral power trying to overwhelm her and take control. Ranma-chan is not going to give up the control of her body to a power as malevolent as the Neko-ken she has gone through to much to become something inhuman. She struggles with the cat fighting it and the rising fear it generates. Ranma-chan realizing if she loses this battle, she will never become a human again. The struggle for supremacy is a lengthy one with each never getting full control. Finally Ranma-chan calls upon the surge of power she gets when she fights to save the life of those she loves. The hidden reserves that she uses when the battle is going bad. The same reserves she used against Herb, Kirin, Toma, and Saffron. The golden blue aura flares even brighter and Ranma-chan calls upon her new techniques to bring her battle with the Neko- ken to a close. "PHOENIX SOUL DRAIN!" The cat howls in anger as it knows it has lost the battle. It continues to struggle to control the body it now inhabits, but the power of the 'Phoenix Soul Drain' is too much and it and it can not stop its energy from being sucked into Ranma-chan. Ranma-chan's still form flares brightly with a bright golden-blue aura. Then begins to darken to a darker shade. The aura then takes the shape of a cat fighting a Phoenix, with the cat losing, as the blue aura forms a dragon and helps the Phoenix subdue the cat. Ranma-chan's aura settles around her and is no longer a bright golden blue but now a more dark and vibrant golden blue. Then the aura fades completely leaving an unconscious Ranma-chan next to the tree stump. She falls slowly over, and curls into a small tight ball. The battle for control has taken the whole day and well into the next. When she finally won it is late afternoon the second day at her training ground. She however, does not wake till the third day and that is to the sun shining brightly in her face. Not caring how long she was asleep Ranma-chan pulls some dried fruit from her hidden weapons space and has a quick breakfast. She then gets in her lotus position. She then reaches deep inside her searching for the Neko-ken, she does not find it as she did before, but instead senses it as a complete part of her. She opens her eyes and stands with the fluidic grace of a cat and begins to see if she now controls the cat within. She faces off against a tree stump some twenty feet away, she pause bringing forth the cat and swipes. She is disappointed when nothing happens. She decides to move closer gradually moving in she finds that her weakest strike at a distances of fifteen feet, but even at her maximum distance she can shred the tree stump to pulp. For the next few weeks she learns on how to control her Neko-ken power, how to force weaker swipes and stronger ones. She also has to re-teach herself how to do many of her katas as the new level of power, agility and speed needs to be re-learned. Each day she comes to the training ground as female, but leaves as male learning that her male side has a reach of twenty feet with the Neko-ken. During her training she also begins working with her Phoenix wings in using them in battle and being able to shoot chi blasts while using them. The first few times weakens her considerably, but the more she practices the stronger she becomes. One of her focuses other then building her strength is not to be catapulted backwards when she fires off her blasts. This takes several weeks to learn how to use her wings as an anchor when she shoots a blast. At the end of her month long training Ranma heads back to camp his body battered and bruised but with a happy grin on his face. He decides tomorrow he will learn to use the weapons he chose to learn. The katana, Bo staff, and a bolo whip, deciding Kodachi has the right idea as in the whip with Ryoga's technique of infusing things with chi it can be deadly and helpful.