Rise of the Dead A Ranma 1/2/ Living Dead fusion By Dr. Suekeichi Kaiton Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is copyright Rumiko Takahashi and Kitty film, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead are copyright George A. Romero. Aside from these, other series such as Resident Evil, Evil Dead, Re-Animator or Return of the Living Dead may appear as well. Quantum Timeline Year 2390 ---Safe haven jumpstation--- Ranma Saotome stood on a shiny silver platform in one of Biotech's many dimensional 'gatehouses,' awaiting his orders. Upon connection with the Biotech Datatrack system, weapons would be given to him for the course of the mission, weapons that he could configure before a mission started for you see, it was all a game to him. The dimensional doorways were a way for normal information to be turned into weapons, nearly any weapon could be created by the Datatrack and used by operatives. "Agent Saotome!" Col. Zentaro Choiler oversaw his transport. "You are to go into sector 56 which is unexplored and save civilians in a fifteen mile radius of your position, is that clear?" The coronal was a military man, a slight underbite on a face made of granite. This head sat atop heavy broad shoulders. Barrel-chested, many young female cadets considered him to be the living embodiment of testosterone. This idea was not completely unfounded as he did have the tendency to fly off the handle for his own male pride, hence his promotion to supervisor. The figure was one that struck fear into the hearts of even the highest generals of Biotech, a lean young man that was the best at one thing...measuring out death. Biotech was an enormous heavy manufacturing company that came to power in Quantum Timeline Year 2340 and pioneered the field in bio weapon engineering. During that time the possibility of divergent alternate realities was posed by Dr. Hiroshi Yoshima at Tokyo University, and a few years later saw the opening of the first dimensional doorway. Biotech proposed that the doorways should be used to track down people from other dimensions overrun with the ZOMBIE virus and take them to safety, essentially creating a safe dimension for all living things. To this end Biotech organized a team of 'Agents' or enforcers whose job entailed the rescue of civilians and the destruction of the undead. Ranma Saotome was one of them. He was born in the upper west side of Nerima by Biotech executives Genma and Nodoka Saotome and attended the local Biotech education facility. Growing up in Nerima was tough, as the borderline with the "Deadlands" began in the area and the residents were constantly fending off the undead. Ranma grew up with a loving family and kind friends but also took an interest in the martial arts, quickly becoming the new star of the martial arts circuit. At the tender age of sixteen Ranma was inducted into the enforcer squad where he swiftly moved up the ranks and received the title "Agent." Upon earning his Biotech status he married Akane Tendo, a school love, but their love was not to last, frequent fights and violence disturbed the household and they were divorced a year later. "Yes sir! Permission to rescue possible citizens?" Ranma was a handsome eighteen year old with chiseled features and a great physique. He wore a skin tight black cat-suit with a communicator CODEC affixed to his chest. A ragged mop of black hair sat atop his skull complimented by a short pigtail. He was looking forward to the possibility of acquiring a new wife, any refugees from dimensions could return and marry government officials to become Biotech citizens. "Granted. Good luck agent." Choiler nodded his thick head and his hulking bulk was haloed for a millisecond by the transport light. "Our prayers are with you." ---Universe 256--- A ragged newspaper dusted the pebbles off the sidewalk. The street lay open before him like an all-enveloping maw with jagged buildings for incisors. The newspaper lifted from the gutter and was propelled by a gentle breeze. It held the headline "THE DEAD WALK!" Ranma Saotome was here, in Universe 256 sector 56, armed only with a CODEC and his wits; both, of course, were all he needed. A grating, wheezing sigh burst from the alley and a shambling thing loosed from a hellish nightmare stumbled into view. His CODEC beeped. A CODEC was a portable radar device used by Biotech agents, it stored the weapons inputted by the mainframe defense Datatrack and held detailed maps of the area within twenty meters complete with location of ZOMBIE carriers. Ranma had the newest model, one that could easily hold sixty armaments without slowdown and kept his enemies on screen. He picked the bright green button on the left and depressed the recall switch, blinding arcs of multicolored light split the fabric of reality and a mine thrower was placed in Ranma's hands. The slick, smooth finish drew his fingers to the trigger, a cocked hammer later Ranma fired a volley down the alley; he was rewarded by the distinct sound of skulls splattering over the walls. Ranma had a grudging respect for the weaponry of the twentieth century, well made, well crafted, and deadly. A mine thrower was a basic arm, after the high-speed shell left the chamber it was thrown with a homing sensor to the target, twisting in the air to accomplish it's goal. He ran through the dank sewer and noticed that a large homestead loomed to his right, checking his CODEC and determining he had a good few hours before he had to use _that_. He walked in. It was a traditional Japanese design, with distinct Asian motifs. A lurching ZOMBIE fell over in the yard and barred his way, it's red eyes glowing with hunger and promises of death. Behind it a carmine eyed woman missing portions of her stomach stumbled out of the patio, her breast flapping with the motion exposing the ribs beneath. Ranma called on his cougar and fired two shots with precise accuracy at their heads. Soun Tendo's head burst in a spray of gray matter and gore, his shoulders becoming a fountain of blood as a bullet tore through his brain. Akane Tendo's chest was punctured by the round but was otherwise unharmed...until her chest exploded sending her lung off into the house and her head bouncing to Ranma's feet. He kicked it away, long since unaffected by an analog's death. The CODEC detected one more ZOMBIE inside the house, he spun on a heel speeding into the livingroom and pumped Takewaki Kuno's torso full of lead. He ran for the kitchen and leapt over the table continuing through the house until reaching the stairs. Blood pooled in his boots and he could taste the coppery tang of blood in the air, the shoes squishing up the steps. The wooden floor was smeared with red gore, recently done, and blank eyes swept through the darkness searching for a remorseful heart. A body lay on the landing. Ranma knelt to examine the body, a fresh kill by the look of it, neither gangrene nor maggots had permeated its flesh yet. The brown haired girl was his age, by the look of it. Looming, plain, and strongly secured, a door was placed at the end of the hall, a brilliant line of white spilling from within. With the house secure enough Ranma rummaged through his pockets for his laser pen, a gift from the President himself. A long narrow tube was pulled out and blue light concentrated into a beam flew from the tip, burying itself in the boards. Ranma deftly sliced the boards away, the wood melting like gelatin before the blue-hot beam. Thin, knotted wood burned away in the face of such a heated ray, the metal lock melting from the strain. Ranma swung open the door and smelled death through carmine eyes on the horizon. He entered, footsteps like whispers in the wind, and spun around just as a woman came barreling through the door and impaled his shoulder with a knitting needle. Unable to see behind his shoulder, Ranma backhanded the poor girl and wrenched the needle from his arm, withdrawing a nanite wound patch. With his gash deftly covered and the blood ceasing to seep from the wound, he looked at the unconscious girl sprawled on the bed. Depressing the recall switch his weapons disappeared and he administered first aid to the fallen. A slow drip caught his attention, however, a thick agonizing sound that resounding through his soul, sending ripples into his heart. A red stain began to creep its way along the fabric of the girls dress; glancing up he examined the body of a young man, no older than twenty five, dressed in a black gi with wire-rimmed glasses that were bashed into his eyes. He hung from the dresser, his eyes dripping gore onto the girls primly wear. His chest had been ripped open from the inside out. "Hey! Hey! Wake up!" He gently tapped her face as she began to stir. Her beautiful green eyes opened with fear, scared of seeing another member of her family killed by an undead monster. He saw the briefest glimpse of fear in her eyes before she realized that he was alive, and didn't want to eat her (her flesh that is, he was keen to taste other parts of her though). Her chest rose and fell in quick erratic spurts and her blood pressure was dangerously high. "W-who are you? What do you want? Oh!" He eyes widened in shock at the face before her. Good, it seemed that she was lucid. She was wearing a conservative housedress of yellow with a brown skirt that reached her ankles, deep oaken locks fell down her back tied with a white bow. She was an angel, cast adrift in a sea of Hell; an outcast in a land of the dead. There was a faint luminescence from her green eyes that seemed to bend the available light around it, funneling the energy straight to his soul. "I'm sorry you'll probably faint when I tell you. My name is Ranma Saotome, and I come from another dimen..." The words hadn't even been issued forth before she fainted in a crumpled heap at his feet. --- Ranma left the house through the rear entrance, kicking a stray can down the road. He had left a note and a holocube on the night table and secured the doors, she'd be safe enough. The CODEC detected at least two more survivors in the fifteen mile radius, one wounded, one dying. The drying one would have to take priority, saving any people he could was his mission, and he didn't intend to fail. --- "Hmm? What? Ranma?" Kasumi awoke with a start, her emerald eyes gleaming with sleep. When she scanned the room for her mysterious savior and saw no trace, she broke down and cried then. In her sobs she dismissed the strange cube and note hastily left on the table. Of course, how would that strange traveler know that she had loved a boy called Ranma Saotome all her life in this world, and seen his bloody death at the hands of those monstrous things creeping about outside. Kasumi Tendo was the eldest daughter of Soun Tendo, a beloved town figure and local martial artist. On her seventeenth birthday her father had arranged a marriage between her and a local chiropractor, Tofu Ono; family honor was at stake, and Kasumi would obey the wishes of her dead mother...never tarnish the family honor. They had lived peacefully for many months doing all the things that married couples do, accept consummating their love, for you see there was no real love in the relationship. Tofu was a pathetic excuse for a man when in the presence of Kasumi and frequently fell all to pieces, in short he just wasn't mentally stable. Her life changed about a year after their marriage. /Flashback/ It was in fall, and she was walking back from the market. Bundles of groceries weighed her down as she walked through the winding streets. Tofu was at a seminar in Juuban for the week and the forecast called for snow, Kasumi was just stocking up. "Need any help?" Ranma was wearing a red Chinese style shirt and black Kung fu pants. A school bag was balanced on his head. "You look like you can't carry all that stuff. Let me help." He took three bags from her. "Why thank you..." "Ranma, Ranma Saotome." "Thank you Ranma, I live just down the street, my name is Kasumi Tendo." She had kept her maiden name and refused to wear the ring out in public. She saw his gaze fall to her hand, focusing on that particular finger. "Where do you go to school?" "Oh down at Furinkan High, eleventh grade. Let's get a move on shall we? It's starting to snow." She hadn't even realized the puffy bits of white that now dusted her shoulders. They began to walk and Kasumi found herself absentmindedly gazing at Ranma, his physique, his sharp features, his cute butt, but stopped herself because it was an improper thing for a married woman to do. Still...the idea was _very_ tempting. They reached the clinic just before it got really bad, and warmed themselves in the kitchen. Ranma wasn't going to leave until the snow stopped, so Kasumi offered him dinner. "You said you attended Furinkan Ranma-kun?" "Yeah. Rising star of the martial arts circuit." Evidently a man of few words, rather he seemed to project his emotions instead of voicing them. Kasumi found that oddly comforting, not having to speak all the time. "Do you happen to know a girl named Nabiki Tendo?" She had finished the vegetables and was starting the stir fry. "The self proclaimed 'ice bitch?' Of course! She's always conning me out of something, but she's pretty cute too." He seemed lost in thought. "Do you know a sophomore named Akane Tendo?" Nabiki's underhanded ways always irritated her. "Yeah, she fights all the time, y'know, boys and everything." He was practically salivating as she served the meal. --- After dinner they had talked for a little while longer until Ranma stood up and regretfully informed her he had to leave. She was desperately grasping at something to keep her sanity and this kind, helpful boy seemed to fit the bill. She rolled around the idea of seducing him, but dismissed it because she didn't want the relationship to be purely physical. And after all, she was still a virgin. "I'd like to do this again Kasumi. Can I come after school tomorrow? We can finish this talk." "Sure Ranma, would you like to stay for dinner again?" "I'd love to." And so their romance began, starting with an innocent gesture while Tofu was gone and continuing as an illicit affair behind his back. Ranma was, needless to say, stunned when he found she was married but their love continued until the end of spring. During the winter they had come to love one another, depend on each other, trust one another; and Kasumi gave her virginity to the only man she ever truly loved. Even when the disease struck Tofu never knew. /End Flashback/ It was too cruel and horrifying for Kasumi to bear looking at Tofu's eviscerated corpse. In the end he had known, and saved her all the same. Ranma lay in a torn apart heap outside the school when seven corpses rose and ripped him to shreds. The tears came again, not for Ranma nor for Tofu but for her second chance to make everything right. She noticed the note and holocube then. "Kasumi, I've fixed the doors so nothing will attack, and left you a gun, use it if you have to. I'm sorry I had to leave but my mission is to rescue any survivors, the cube will tell you everything else. To activate it push the black side. Ranma." Kasumi looked in wonder at the white die, seemingly made of ivory except for one side; pressing the activation switch, she watched as a life-size hologram of Ranma appeared. "Kasumi, I'd like ta explain everything to you but I don't have enough time. I come from anther dimension. I know this may be hard but you must listen. I am an 'agent' of the Biotech corporation sent here via dimensional gateway. The ZOMBIE are all around you and have infiltrated numerous universes, my job is to rescue you and bring you back to my world. Once there you will be safe. I will return in one hour and we will depart, pack your belongings." As Kasumi fussed about packing her bags, she didn't notice that Ranma had moved Tofu's body underneath the bed, nor would she have noticed Tofu's eyes opening with carmine pupils and his mouth dripping in anticipation of her fresh flesh. So intent was she on packing she didn't hear his howls from under the mattress. --- Ranma made it just in time to the dying, his flesh was already draining of color, and it wouldn't be long before he turned into one of _them_. He recognized it as Ryoga Hibiki, or at least his analog in this universe. He had suffered numerous bites and his eyes were gouged out. "Who is that?" he asked in a feeble voice. "A friend." "Ranma." "Yeah." There was a pause. "Ranma please kill me! I'm dying, I know that, but please my friend don't let me turn into one of them, I don't want to be getting up once I'm down!" He was grasping at Ranma's clothes in desperation. "Please Ranma..." "A-alright." His voice was horse, even if he was an analog, no one deserved this fate. "Thank you." These were his last words before a cougar bullet pierced his brain and exploded the head in a hail of gore. Ranma waited until the body finished convulsing on the ground and the blood flowing from the neck slowed to a trickle before raising to his feet. He wouldn't let this happen to the other. --- Kasumi was just opening the door to the hallway when Tofu broke free. Sailing through the air, the mattress hit the far wall while the good doctor groped feebly for his prey. Shining shards of his glasses dripped fluid from his gaping sockets and his ichor ran down his legs in thick streams. Incoherent gibbering erupted from his maw throughout his blind quest for Kasumi's flesh. "Kasumi...good...food...the pain! Brains! Yes, Kasumi, I can smell your brains! Oh! The pain!" She screamed then ducked behind the bureau as he lunged at her. The sight of an eyeless, bleeding reanimated corpse would be shocking to anyone, but this used to be her husband! He stumbled out of the room and grasped Kasumi's leg, using it to pull her closer. --- Ranma was flustered to say the least. Hinako Ninomiya was his old school teacher back home and he remembered her being kind of an exhibitionist but this analog was just nuts! He remembered her as a sultry tall woman with brown hair and huge breasts that came to school in extremely short skin-tight dresses. This analog was a twelve-year old child that became a stunning woman only after sucking someone's ki. Luckily he had plenty. As he was freeing her from the rubble of Furinkan HS, his CODEC beeped with a warning. "" "Wha-that's right here!" He spun on his heel just in time to see a misshapen mass begin dining on a fallen comrade. "Hinako? C'mon!" He knelt to allow her onto his back. "Ranma! I can't do that! I'm your teacher, what would people think!" As the carrier finally began it's slow shamble towards them, her fear overran her sense of modesty and she leaped onto his back as he coiled his legs and sprang to the rooftops. "I hope you know what your doing Mr. Saotome," she cried indignantly, "if you don't I'll...waitaminute...when did you get so old?" "You'll have to forgive me but we gotta get out of here! I'll tell you later." The other ZOMBIE listed by his CODEC was inside the Tendo household, --- "Ahhhh!!!!!!! S-somebody help me!!!!" Tofu had pulled her down and was dragging her under him. His mouth frothed in anticipation of her wet brains grinding between his teeth. These said teeth were then kicked out of his mouth as Kasumi valiantly struggled in his grasp. "Hold it right there!" Skidding into the hall, Ranma dropped Hinako on the stairs and retrieved a moonraker laser from his CODEC. "Kasumi! Drop!" She flattened to the floor, just as Ranma finished prepping the laser for a wide-beam attack. Tofu gibbered impotently in rage as his quarry was denied him, his arms rose and his skin flapped up, exposing the muscle and tendon rippling underneath. The laser emitted a steady beep as it began calibration and finally Ranma discharged a blast that blew the entire left side of the Tendo house for mile. The house, without the extra support, crumbled, spilling the three into the tearoom. "Is everyone alright?" Ranma dusted himself off and helped Kasumi off the floor. "Hinako?" "Yes, I'm fine. Now would you please explain what you're doing? I've never heard of students carrying around that kind of weaponry." Her yellow dress stretched as her breasts heaved up and down with each breath of air, her hands were at her sides. "I'd really like to Hinako, but I don't think you'd really understand the situation you're in." Just as Kasumi latched onto him, sobbing, his CODEC rang once more. "" He scratched the back of his head nervously. "You heard the computer folks, time to go home." Before either of the women could contest, he had flipped the return switch and they were enveloped in the glowing halo. ---Safe haven jumpstation--- Biotech was in an uproar as ZOMBIE carriers overran the labs, destroying the circuitry needed for dimensional jump. Ranma and co. landed just in time to see Choiler ripped to pieces and dragged off by the howling creatures. He sprung into action as the creatures swiveled their dripping eye sockets towards the group. Mine-throwers, grenade launchers and magnums appeared in their hands as the group began tearing into the crowd of decaying flesh. Arms, legs, heads, various body parts flew through the air as one after another, the hoard was wiped off the Earth. Silence reigned in the control room, broken only by the sporadic sizzle of the ruined circuitry strewn around them. Kasumi and Hinako dropped the firearms immediately and fell to the floor in shock, Ranma, used to this level of gore, wrapped them in blankets and urged them back to the dimensional pads. "I'm gonna send you two to the safe haven. You'll be safe there." He kissed them both before stepping back. "I love both of you, that's why I do this. Remember me. Tell my superiors that I'll be along just as soon as I can." With a tear streaking his cheek, Ranma pressed the recall switch and shut his eyes as the women disappeared into the safe dimension-he knew they'd survive. He knew them all too well. Turning to the almost ruined control panel, Ranma punched in the coordinates for home. Sighing and making sure the machine took the commands, he redeposited the weapons in his CODEC and stepped aboard the pad. The energy washed over him as the warp took place, his last sight before disappearing was of the panel exploding and his very body disintegrating. ---General Ranma Timeline--- "Ugh...what the hell happened?" The sun blazed in his burnt eyes. The sky was blue again...not the artificial green polydomes that encompassed the sky in the Biotech safe haven. "What the hell?! Where am I?!?" The CODEC chirped at his side. A lighted green display emerged from his belt, thousands of flaming dots centralized in one area, an area not twenty miles from here. No matter the dimension, Ranma was an agent, and where there were ZOMBIE, he was needed. Depressing a switch, the mainframe null-space opened with brilliant light. Moments later a Cougar Magnum 'Special' landed in Ranma's hands. Equipped with a laser targeting system, a silencer, twin sniper lens, and freeze round compatibility it was his weapon of choice. Unlike magnums of this world, his was made using a magazine holding a maximum of sixty-six bullets. He smashed in a fresh clip. "Ranma!! Ranma Saotome!!" A young man wearing a yellow tie-dyed bandanna leapt into the abandoned lot he stood in. "Don't think you'll get away this time! Pretty sneaky, even for you Ranma. What better place for a settling of the score than the very place where it began." He flashed a toothy grin. "Ryoga?!? I don't have time for this!" He flashed his index and middle fingers before his eyes and black shades and his skin-tight black kevlar suit appeared. He lifted the magnum and pulled the automatic switch. "I'm going. I don't care what kind of petty squabble you have with Ranma, but I have a job to do." He quickly took to the roofs. "Wait! That's odd..." Ryoga scratched his chin thoughtfully, "...he usually insults me first." A double-take occurred. "Waitaminute! What the devil does he think he's doing! And since when did Ranma use a gun?" Ryoga was left with nothing to do save shake in fury. --- "" The CODEC blurted out maneuvers for the attack. Ranma casually leapt over three roofs in a row, content in his new abilities. The trail led to a spacious park. It being spring, various couples were enjoying boat rides, completely unaware of the horrors lurking a few feet below them. ZOMBIE carriers were either killed (when in small groups) or warped out (in the case of whole towns). When warp was necessary, the mainframe selected a dimension for transport, usually a dead one. From time to time came a flub like this. Several thousand carriers were warped underneath this city, and it was up to Ranma to stop them. An operation needing extreme elimination tactics...Ranma's favorite. By 'nuke' he meant the standard issue spray bomb used for underground ZOMBIE. The ZOMBIE seldom had enough gray matter rattling around upstairs to dig elaborate tunnels, so the bomb was designed to incinerate the offending creatures by washing through the tunnels already created. He called up the nuke and placed it on the grass. The drill-like weapon was attached to a patchwork metal box, small enough to be held in the hand. This box held the motor and scanning systems used for the weapon's deadly mission. A blue laser erupted from the point, and Ranma carefully positioned it towards the lush grass. To the casual observer the weapon looked like nothing more than a handheld drill, but what they failed to notice were the neutrino warheads welded to the tip. As he waited for the sensors to sweep the area for a central chamber, he smiled at the na•vetˇ of the couples loving in the rain of cherry blossoms, he wished for the innocence he saw around him. A warble sounded. Raising it high and smashing it down, he walked away as it began burrowing into the soil. Young lovers strolled along the lake, had picnics, and took boat rides, all ignorant of the deadly weapon burrowing through the soil and rock beneath them. As the warhead detonated all the resident's felt was a slight shift in the earth, many believed it just a figment of their imagination. Little did they know the horrible hell that almost befell them. Hungry maws and rotting bags of flesh were incinerated by purifying plasma, all vestiges of the cells infected were long since destroyed. Whistling a jaunty tune, Ranma calmly walked out of the park. ---to be continued...--- Hope you liked it! C&C welcome. Suekeichi Kaiton vze2jcwc@verizon.net