From: dyellope@norfolk-county.com (David Yellope) To: ffml@fanfic.com Subject: [FFML] (repost) Ranma 1/2-SF Xover "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior" Chapter 1 Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 07:43:54 GMT Before I start, the standard copyrights, Ranma 1/2 is done by Rumiko Takahashi. In no way shape or form am I challenging her right to the people contained here in. This is my 2nd fanfic, the first, entitled "Ranma 1/2 Shadows of Darkness and Light" is still being worked on, albeit very slowly, the first two chapters are available at http://members.tripod.com/~SirFozzie/shadows.txt Chapter One: "Ranma Saotome, Street Fighter" Ranma looked up from his breakfast, eyes widening at his father's words. "You want me to join WHAT??" "I want you to join the Street Fighter Circuit. In past times, the heirs of the Saotome Anything Goes School of Martial-Arts tested themselves by seeking out the masters of other disciplines and meeting them in battle. That's where several of the techniques in the school were taken from." Genma replied, face set in stone, "And now, with fighters from around the world, the Street Fighter tour has taken hold. I want you to spend at least 12 months on the tour before you return." Ranma didn't mind the traveling, he had done plenty of that with Genma on various training trips in the past, in the past. Now that he thought of it, it wouldn't be so bad. Sure, he'd miss all of his friends, but the prospect of at least a year of peace with no Shampoo latching onto him at every opportunity, no crazy plots from Kodachi, missing Ucchan, and no Akane,. that settled it. "Well, since you've given me no choice in the matter, I guess I'll get ready. When do you want me to start?" Ranma thought to himself, "Man oh man, a year without that baka smashing me, or worse yet, trying to feed me! It'll be heaven adding in being able to train on the road." His dream was quickly smashed by Genma's next few words. "You won't be leaving alone. Mr. Tendo and I decided it would be best if Akane went with you on this trip. She needs the work just as much as you do,." Ranma wasn't expecting that. His jaw suddenly dropped, and his eyes bugged out of his head. "You WHAT? YOU WANT ME TO GO AROUND FIGHTING WITH THAT MACHO KAWAIKUNE TOMBOY FOLLOWING ME AROUND? THAT MACHO CHICK? WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SHE ACTUALLY TRIED TO COOK?!!" Ranma screamed at Genma. The proverbial "uh-oh" drop of sweat appeared Genma's face, not from his son's rant. Ranma froze. He slowly turned around, only to hear the three words he dreaded most. "RANMA NO BAKA!" followed by a wooden mallet swinging upwards, connecting underneath the chin and sending him flying through the roof. Akane, still shaking, had only caught the last few words of Ranma's rant. She turned to Genma, who seemed to visibly shrink away from the angry Akane. "Now. What brought this on?" Genma's quick, hurried explanation drew a "W--H--A--T?? " shout from Akane, the resulting explosion of her temper literally blowing the roof of the Tendo Dojo off, sending it flipping into the air. Luckily it landed back in place, although it was upside down. (The scene changes to the Nerima Stadium, where an interested crowd of about a thousand watches on.) "It seems pretty simple," Ranma thought to himself, Although the fights were taking place in a ring, which would restrict his movement somewhat, the fighters he had seen so far, while decent, would be no match for him. (Or so his overblown ego tried to convince him) He had drawn the third fight out of six, and was competing against someone named Jenakaya, whose style was listed as Capioera. Ranma scratched his head, trying to remember the lessons that Genma gave him a while ago on different styles, but the only thing that came into his mind was that Capioera was a style that used several dance moves. "Heh. When I get in there. There won't be any dancing." Since the fight was local. he had trained at the Dojo. Akane still wasn't happy with the way she had been railroaded into this, she tried to protest, saying she couldn't afford to miss a year of school,. that she didn't want to go fight, finally Soun just told her that she was going. and she would have to uphold the honor of the Tendo school of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Everyone in the house had avoided Akane since then. Just then the second fight ended,. the Sanbo fighter had finished off his smaller, faster opponent with a devastating Suplex/Throw combo, "Well here goes. My first fight. and my first win!" Ranma thought, stretching out the last few kinks, as he waited for the medics to revive the Wu Shu fighter. Then, walking to the ring, he could dimly hear Genma, Ukyou, and the others let out a cheer. "Ladies and Gentlemen, our third bout of the afternoon is fought in the Freestyle division. First of all, he is making his Street Fighting debut today, he trains here in Nerima at the Tendo Dojo, he trains in the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, Ranma Saotome!" Ranma raised one hand acknowledging the polite applause from the crowd, and then focused on his opponent who stood motionless in the opposite corner. "Ladies and Gentlemen, his opponent today is a Rank 3 Street Fighter. He comes into today's fight with a Street Fighter Freestyle record of 8 wins, 7 by way of knockout, against only two losses, and one draw, a master of the South American art of Capioera, Jenakaya!!" The lanky man raised a hand to acknowledge the applause from the crowd, Ranma tensed up slightly, as the referee called the two men into the center of the ring. "Ok, gentlemen, I know you've been briefed on the rules before today's fight. I just want to make sure you got them. There will be three five-minute rounds, no lethal moves, biting or gouging. If in my judgement you are unable to defend yourself effectively. I will stop the fight. If you wish to submit, tap the mat three times. We have a ringside doctor with the authority to stop the match if need be." the ref motioned to both men. "Bow. and prepare to fight" Ranma covered one fist in his hand and bowed, The opponent's eyes met, while Jenakaya twisted his body into a complicated bow. Then, the two fighters retreated to their corners. Ranma's mind was ablaze with strategies, attacks, and possible counters, but one notion had already been destroyed. Capioera wasn't just a "Dance art", He could see the hidden strength in Jenakaya's flexibility. "Fighters, ready?" came the call from the referee. Ranma nodded slightly and took a deep breath, controlling his ki as best as he could before he assumed his set position. Jenakaya also nodded as he assumed an unorthodox guard stance. "BEGIN!" Ranma decided to go for the early knockout surprise, charging at Jenakaya,. hoping to startle him with a roundhouse right at the beginning. The Capioera fighter had other ideas. In a sensational move he leaped into the air and bringing himself into a tight spiral, striking like a cannonball, smashing himself into the surprised Ranma who was rocked back and knocked down from the force of the blow. Ranma blinked a couple of times, as he kipped up to his feet. "Ok, that didn't work. What now?" He thought to himself as he assumed the guard stance again, circling his opponent warily "He won't catch me off guard with that move twice," Leaping into the air with a spinning round house, followed by a jumping side kick that caught the lanky Capioera fighter in a glancing blow. The impact pushed his opponent against the ropes, but before Ranma could follow up and press his advantage, The canny fighter used the ropes to bring him back towards Ranma and took him down with a foot sweep. Ranma got back to his feet quickly with a kipup and again waited, trying to seek a hole in the Capioera fighter's defenses. The two traded punches for the next few minutes, trading bruises as the sweat flew Ranma got a temporary advantage when he connected solidly with a Tenshin-Amaguri-ken. However, the bell rang before he could attack his dizzy opponent , somewhat disappointed in his performance, Ranma slumped in the corner,. Genma quickly stepped in to the ring and waved a towel in Ranma's face to cool him off, then mopped up the sweat, and let Ranma catch his breath for a few seconds. "He's better then I thought he'd be, faster, more agile. I just can't seem to get a solid blow in." Ranma said, taking a sip of Gatorade Genma gave him, closing his eyes, and starting to prepare mentally for the next five minutes. "Of course not, boy, this is a whole new level! You have to be prepared to fight, to change your whole style based on the way your opponent fights! This guy, you got to stick in close. he's too fast for you to fight him on the outside!" Genma tried to explain. Ranma opened his eyes and looked straight at his opponent, who looked back, face set as if it was in stone. "You can do it this round, take him out" Genma finished as the warning buzzer sounded. Ranma grinned at his father. "No problem. if he gets near me this round, he's going to get knocked out." He stood up, as the bell for the second round rang. Five minutes later, a bruised, battered Ranma Saotome sat in his corner again. He hadn't been able to knock his opponent out, in fact Jenakaya had time and time again attacked Ranma just after he had failed to hit, Jenakaya had landed counterattack after counterattack, Genma was none too pleased. but he tried to put on a good face. "Ok, you've gone 10 minutes, just five more now. If it goes the distance, he'll probably win it from the judges. You've got to go all out. Knock him out and win! Forget defense if you want to win!" As the bell rang for the third round, Ranma staggered to his feet slowly. "One way or the other, it won't last this round, Pop. One of us won't finish this round", then came out to start the final round. And indeed Ranma's style had changed, no longer was he sitting back, waiting for Jenakaya to attack. Ranma charged in, keeping Jenakaya from using his speed and agility advantage. Ranma flailed away with kicks and punches. Jenakaya landed punch after punch in return, Ranma got the worst of the damage in the exchange but something in him refused to let himself go down. Finally he saw the advantage he needed, following up another Tenshin-Amaguri-Ken by grabbing Jenakaya's shirt in one hand, and rolling backwards, using a foot in his opponent's midsection to throw Jenakaya, the Capioera fighter managed to land on his back safely, although stunned. Ranma was on him like a wild animal. As Jenakaya staggered to his feet he was met with a jumping snap kick that bounced him off the ropes, to fall face first on the mat. The referee stopped the fight there As a spent, bruised Ranma sagged against the ropes himself. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of this fight, at 2 minutes and 52 seconds of the third and final round. by Knockout, RANMA SAOTOME!" The fans cheered. That was one hell of a fight. An hour later, the cheers were for someone else. A bone tired Ranma found himself being looked over by Dr. Tofu. He Tofu said that Ranma would have a good set of bruises for a week or so. but he came through nicely, considering the punishment he had taken. Back at the Dojo, Ranma was lying on his futon, trying to get his body to stop aching. Genma was on the phone, while Mr. Tendo was trying to keep all of Ranma's fiancees from attending him. Ranma just enjoyed the peace and quiet until a near silent presence came to his attention. Turning his head just slightly as Akane came into view. "Hi." He didn't say much more, for the simple act of talking was draining right now. Akane came walking in, face still a little white from what she had seen earlier. "You ok?" she asked softly, "Hurts, but I won." was his reply. "You know Ranma, you really have to learn to duck better," she tried to put on a brave face and smile. "Every time he landed one, he seemed to land three." Ranma muttered quietly, closing his eyes, remembering the fight. Where did he go wrong? "Do you know why? It's because he linked his moves together, seriously Ranma, it was almost a move of its own, just it was made up of two different moves linked together smoothly. Yours were more powerful, but until the end, you were too "stop and go" with your moves." Akane tried to explain. She had watched the match with a keener eye then she would like to admit, seeing Ranma hurt wasn't a good thing. "I'll try to remember that next fight," Ranma said. He then opened his eye, bolting to an upright position. What he saw shocked him. Akane, the kawaikune, was crying? "Akane, what's the matter?" He tried to keep the surprise out of his voice. As if the words had released an internal dam of emotions, the words came flooding from Akane. "I don't know how you could go through with that, and now I'm supposed to go through with this too? I can't even hit you when we fight. how am I supposed to win a Street Fighter match?" Ranma's eyes widened. For too long, Akane had seemed like a block of marble. strong, yet proud and unyielding, but that pride had taken a major blow today. She had been scheduled for a fight in two weeks, in Osaka, "Akane, it'll work out, I promise. I'll show you some things I learned in the ring today, you'll be ready for your fight. You're a decent martial artist, you're the heir to the Tendo School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, and you just need to keep control of your temper." The smile he received was worth every bruise on his face and body. Sighing to himself, he asked himself "Why can't more times be like this, She's so cute when she smiles." "Will you spar with me Ranma?" Akane asked quietly. Ranma shook his head slightly. He didn't like hitting girls, but if he could teach Akane how to handle herself in the ring, where the rules were a lot different then what she was used to, then he guessed it was worth it, "Yeah, I promise. Just give me a day or two to recover, ok?" Still smiling, Akane said ok, and quietly took her leave. Ranma lay his head back on the futon, and once again ran over the fight in his head, this time he was smiling, "She's right, I was real jerky. I have to work on linking my moves better if I'm going to continue." And with that thought, Ranma fell asleep a winner, in more ways then one. End of Chapter One: Chapter Two: "Akane's First Fight" is in the planning stages right now. I might be bringing in more characters from the Ranma 1/2 world as Street Fighters (Shampoo and Mousse and maybe Ukyou and the Kunos, would be good bets,) this will be an ongoing saga until I decide it's not worth writing anymore. and yes, the minions of Shadoloo will make an appearance coming up sometime soon, Comments, Critiques, MSTings and the like are welcome, There is No Lumber Cartel.. And I am NOT Member #01538 Hentai at large... Fanfic Writer.. RPG addict You send me spam.. I send you a bill. $15 per spam By sending me garbage.. you indicate your acceptance of these terms. Some people prefer to hide their head in the sand.. to make problems go away. I just become a BIGGER problem and I make THEM go away! === File Separator ============================================== From: dyellope@norfolk-county.com (David Yellope) To: ffml@fanfic.com Subject: [FFML] Repost: Ranma 1/2-Street Fighter XOver "Iron Fist Iron Warrior" Chapter 2 Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 07:45:53 GMT Hello again everybody, 2nd chapter time. All C&C, MSTings and coupons, and coupons for free pizza are welcome at dyellope@norfolk-county.com. Standard warnings apply, Ranma 1/2 and it's characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. No disrespect intended. The Street Fighter series is a trademark of Capcom, and no disrespect intended there either. "Iron Heart, Iron Warrior" Chapter Two. "Akane's First Fight" Ranma pulled himself groggily off his futon. He definitely was not what people would call a "morning person" But a promise was a promise. There was only ten days to go before Akane was to take part in her first Street Fighter match. He had promised her that he would train and spar with her, make sure she was ready. Ranma quickly stood up, stretching out all the kinds from his muscles. Quickly dressing, he came down the stairs and grabbed a quick bite to eat. He decided to avoid Mr. Tendo today, the father was suffering from alternating bouts of "I want my girl to be a worthy heir to my school," and "My poor baby's going to get slaughtered" and was not fit company to be around. He didn't know how Kasumi and Nabiki could put up with it. Slipping out of the house, he walked over to the dojo, where from the sounds of contact, he guessed Akane already was. As he stepped into the dojo, Akane was rhythmically punching the post, shaking its foundations with each blow. Ranma studied Akane's form critically. It still had some holes in it, but she had improved meteorically in the months since he had arrived. Akane finished her set, and turned to Ranma, "Sorry I didn't wait, I guess I had a lot of nervous energy to work off" she said, somewhat flustered that she hadn't noticed him entering. She blushed slightly, thinking to herself "He's probably going to say I'm not worthy of being taught or something. I don't know if I could be ready for what he went through in ten days, OR even ten months." Ranma grinned slightly, the bruises from his encounter with the Capioera fighter just about gone. "Don't worry. You were doing just fine. But it's not basic form I want to work on with you." He started setting up poles, letting them lie flat against the ground, setting up small quadrants of space just big enough to balance on. Akane watched on, trying to understand what Ranma was doing. Ranma then stepped into one of the areas of space, balancing on one foot. "You reminded me after my fight that my form was jerky, that I finished one move and then started another, instead of combining them into one flowing move. Now, this is an exercise I used to do with Pop." Ranma then threw a snap kick, landing his foot in another free square. Traveling back and forth, twisting his body, throwing punches and kicks at an imaginary opponent. First slowly, then faster, Ranma built up a rhythm, finishing the kata and stepping out of the square. "Ok. Now I want you to try this. Don't worry if you make mistakes. Just relax your muscles and try to control each and every step." Akane wasn't sure she could handle it, he had made it look so effortless! She stepped into the first square that Ranma had indicated, and started throwing kicks and punches has he had. On her third kick, her foot landed a bit too far forward, and she nearly slipped as she stepped on a pole. She repositioned herself, and started again. This time it wasn't four moves before her body betrayed her again and she hit a pole. She tensed up, waiting for the derisive comment from Ranma. If he made a comment, she swore she would either run from the dojo, ashamed, or smash his head with a mallet. She wasn't quite sure which one she'd do, just that it'd be one or the other "That's ok Akane. I did worse then that my first time myself" Ranma was surprised at how soothing his voice sounded. Indeed he had been two months before he could do more then five moves without tripping. The seeds of talent were there, now how to call them forth and make them grow? An idea came into his mind. He grabbed a yellow and black headband that Ryouga had left after his last fight with Ranma, and placed it over Akane's eyes. "Ok, Akane, don't worry about speed, or how your form is, or even if I'm here. Just explore each square with your feet. Build a mental picture of the grid in your mind. Then start basic punches and steps. I don't care if you hit a pole, just continue the exercise." Ranma explained. Ranma stepped back and watched Akane start feeling her way around the grind, cursing slightly to himself that Ryouga had gotten himself lost again. Ryouga seemed to help Akane with her training, and Ranma guessed it was worth the glares from Ryouga or the bites of P-Chan if it helped Akane. Part of him wanted to rush to Mr. Tendo and make him call off the match. As much as he would deny it if anyone asked him straight out, he had become fond of Akane. He feared that she would not be ready in time for the fight, she could not be ready in time. But the inner voice inside of him said, "If you try hard enough to help her, she WILL be ready." After about ten minutes of exploration, Akane started throwing punches and stepping from open space to open space. Her form was stilted at first, denied the sense of sight, she was uneasy. At the beginning, maybe one punch in two would land correctly, with her foot in an opposite square. Soon Akane forgot everything around her, she didn't know if Ranma was watching or not, or if he was laughing at her. She didn't care. Her world was narrowed down to a series of open spaces, and the poles that divided them. Her punches became crisper, her feet came down with more confidence, and she decided to slowly increase her speed. Ranma watched, smiling slightly as Akane continued with her form, adding in an occasional kick to her repertoire of punches. He hadn't picked it up this fast. Genma had used "the grid" as a way to remind Ranma when he was a boy of humility. He could throw all the fancy punches and kicks he wanted, but without control, it was all just wasted motion. After five more minutes, Ranma clapped his hands twice, breaking into the near meditation state that Akane was in, "Ok, Akane, great job on that exercise." Ranma was surprised at how much he meant that complement. Akane definitely had picked the kata up quickly. If she learned everything else as fast, she might be a better fighter then he was. This notion was strictly rebelled against by a certain part of Ranma. No macho tomboy chick could be a better martial artist then he was! With an effort, Ranma fought down those emotions. "So I train harder and smarter." Another part of him thrilled that someone else could push him to a greater effort. He wanted to be the greatest martial artist he could be, and a constant challenge could only improve his form. Akane removed the sweatband, then used it to mop a couple of beads of sweat that had appeared on her face during the kata. She looked at the smile of approval on Ranma's face. "He, He approves?" was her confused thought. "I thought I was clumsy in that exercise and he's looks like I did something great and special." She smiled back, first weakly as she got her breath back, then an almost impudent grin. "So how'd I do, "sensei"?" Ranma laughed quietly at being called a sensei. "Not bad for a tomboy." Akane's face immediately darkened. Ranma realized his mistake and tried to rectify it. "Sorry, you did real well Akane." Damm, every time he tried to compliment her he said the wrong thing! "Let's try a couple more exercises before lunch ok?" he continued, trying to offer an olive branch before Akane decided to unleash the mallet of doom. Akane smiled again, this time a little guarded. "Ok, sensei". The two retrieved the poles and returned them to their proper places along the walls of the dojo." Ranma kept one pole as the two came back to the middle of the mat. "Ok, Akane. Most of the times you've fought, you've fought somebody with about the same reach as you. If you could reach them, they could reach you. That leads to a good balance of offense and defense, but every now and then you'll meet a fighter who has a greater reach then you. You have to adjust." Ranma explained, the memory of his fight coming back to him. He had tried to fight on the outside, but the Capioera fighter's longer arms and legs had the range to kick him when he couldn't apply an effective counter. "Assume your guard stance." Ranma told Akane, who quickly complied "For this exercise, I want you to be defensive only. Use your movement, and use your blocks to avoid the stick hitting you. Let's start at about half speed." First using the stick as if it was a leg, he probed Akane's defenses. Each time she either ducked under the "blow", or dodged it by moving slightly, or blocked it with her hands or feet. She even jumping over the bar one time when Ranma whirled the stick, spinning the pole as if it was a fighter doing a foot sweep. Ranma slowly counted cadence with each maneuver, speeding up as Akane got better at dodging each time, using as little movement as necessary to avoid the attack. As the morning gave way to the brightness of noon day, then slowly the sunlight fled before the approach of night, the two trained, going form one exercise to another seamlessly, only stopping briefly for water and a bowl of ramen cooked by Kasumi. Later in the day, Genma and Soun watched the two go through their exercises and sparring. The two men shared a private look that their children missed. Their smiles said "Our plan is working perfectly". Finally, Ranma called a halt to the activities. In their evening spar, Akane still wasn't able to land a solid move against Ranma, but it was no longer easy for Ranma to dodge her attacks, the two were covered in sweat by the time they were done. "That's enough for today Akane," Ranma said gently. Akane was tired, but she decided that she wouldn't admit it. She protested "Just a bit longer, I think I can get a good hit in" Ranma's ego kicked in before his brain engaged. "Nah, a sexless tomboy like you could never get a good shot in." Mr. Tendo and Genma shared winces at Ranma's thoughtless words. Ranma realized what he had said, and had time to close his eyes before the expected "Ranma no BAKA!" and the pain of a mallet shot that left him dazed. As he slowly picked himself off the ground and saw a steaming Akane walking back to the house, he closed his eyes and imagined that his mind was strangling his ego. He hadn't MEANT to say that, it had, well, just HAPPENED. Akane was on the bed, a few tears of anger staining her pillow, how dare that baka insult her like that! Part of her was mad at herself for hitting Ranma, reminding her that he didn't mean it. She wondered if Ranma would want to train with her any more, or if he had given up on her. She heard a soft knock at her door. Akane dried her tears, she didn't want Nabiki or Kasumi or her father catching her crying. "Come in, please" she said politely as she could. Ranma stuck his head in. "Hi, Akane. Mind if I come in for a moment?" He held his breath, expecting to be yelled at. Hearing no response from Akane, he came in, and shut the door behind him. "Listen, Akane, I want to apologize for what I said out there. Sometimes I speak before I think, and you know I don't think you are a sexless tomboy. You did well out there today." Akane was shocked. Ranma was being POLITE? her next few words came out in a stutter, due to her surprise. "Y-Y-you really think so?" she asked, an entirely different kind of shining in her eyes now. "Yes. In fact, tomorrow morning I was going to re go over the basics with you. But I think you have them down now. we'll do a lot of sparring and I'll show you what makes things different in a ring, We only have nine days left, and no "sensei" likes to have his student fight without being fully prepared." He joked, trying to get that smile back from Akane, Finally, the smile reappeared on Akane's face. "Ok. Tomorrow morning then?" Akane was thrilled. Ranma thought that she could not only be ready for a match, but could win? Tomorrow, she vowed to herself, I'll work doubly hard. "Tomorrow morning. Sleep well, Akane." Ranma said quickly, leaving the room, mind confused about the events of the last week or so. Akane spent a couple of minutes staring at the door, just as confused as Ranma was. She smiled one last time and said "Good Night, Ranma" to the open air. The next eight days passed in a blur it seemed. Each day Ranma would come up with a new exercise, or a way to toughen up a previous exercise, and challenge Akane to improve her technique. The two grew more comfortable together, Ranma still made the occasional gaffe, but none were as bad as the first day, and none were greeted with a mallet in return. The other fiancees of Ranma, who were already shocked by the announcement that Ranma and Akane would be leaving Nerima shortly for a full year so the two could travel on the Street Fighter circuit, were floored by how well Ranma and Akane were getting along. They wanted to try to distract Ranma, but Kodachi's one attack on Akane was foiled quickly by both Ranma and Akane. They didn't wish Akane ill, (well most of the time they didn't at least) they just wanted to keep the two at arm's length. Finally, the night before the fight, after the two had finished up a light training session, Ranma and Akane were sitting in the dojo. They had left one of the doors of the dojo open, so the light breeze could cool them off. "Akane? I need you to answer a question for me, and I need you to be honest. Do you feel you're ready for this? If you want, I can have your dad call the promoter and ask Mr. Nakajima to withdraw you from your fight. I don't want to see you get hurt if you're not ready." Ranma looked at the ground. He had done the best that he could, she had done much better then he could ever had anticipated, but still, there was that nagging doubt. And if she wasn't ready, she shouldn't fight. Period. Akane took a good couple minutes to think it over, this was a question she was afraid to ask of herself as well. She was still a little scared, but the last few days had given her some confidence. She still had a lot to learn, but she had learned a lot. It came down to asking herself if there was anything to be scared of. When it was put that way, there was an answer. "I may not win, but I am ready, Ranma. I will go in and fight tomorrow. The last few weeks have caused me to realize if I want to be the heir to my father's school, I have to test myself against others." Akane stated, the confidence in her words growing with each voice. She had a question of her own. "Ranma, will you be in my corner for the fight? Your dad may be the trained fighter, but he didn't train me. You did. and well, my dad would be too worried about what's happening that he wouldn't help me at all." She looked up, praying and hoping for the right answer from Ranma. Just like there was only one possible answer from Akane's point of view when asked if she was ready to fight, there was only one answer that Ranma could give. "Sure, I'll be in your corner for your fight. Just don't expect me to have any cold water to cool you off, I don't think that most of the crowd would believe my curse." Ranma grinned. "Get some sleep, Akane-chan. Tomorrow's a big day." Akane's eyes widened as Ranma left quietly, shutting the door behind him. He had called her Akane-chan? The next day dawned bright and clear, seemingly perfect. Ranma grabbed Nabiki and pulled her aside after breakfast. "Nabiki, I need you to do myself and Akane a favor. Tell your dad and my Pop that the time of Akane's fight has been changed from 6:30 to 7:45 ok?" Nabiki, being no mental slouch, had already picked up on Ranma's meaning. "No problem Ranma, no problem at all, since it's for my sister, I'll consider it a favor for you." Nabiki knew the way Ranma would react. "Oh great, a favor. how much is it going to cost Nabiki? 500? 750? 1000 yen?" Ranma cursed mentally. Why did Nabiki have to be so mercenary about this? "No monetary cost, silly. I just need you to get a good quality tape of it for my dad. He'd be *crushed* if he missed his daughter's first professional fight. " And I can make a few copies to sell to people like Tatewaki Kuno and the other people who adore Akane, she thought to herself. For the price of a favor she'd do anyway for her sister's sake,. Ranma would guarantee a good profit for herself. Best of both worlds. "Sure, Fine" Ranma said, amazed that this favor came at no out of pocket cost. Maybe she wasn't so mercenary after all. "Akane and I are going to go out and get ready, tell them to meet us around 7:30 ok?" Ranma then scooted out of the house before Nabiki could extort any more "favors" out of him. Akane soon joined Ranma outside, and the two spent an idle hour walking side by side, Akane's clothes for the match were carried by Ranma. Not a word was spoken for perhaps forty five minutes as the two were alone with their own thoughts. Finally, Akane broke the silence. "Do you think I have a chance to win tonight?", she asked. Despite the innocuous nature of her question, her heart seemingly had taken refuge in her throat. During the last few days, Ranma's opinion had become very important to her. "If I didn't think you had a chance to win, I wouldn't have let you fight, Akane. A lot depends on who you draw, and on how your style interacts against theirs. But you have a good chance to win." Ranma stated, plain from the heart. The thought of her getting hurt worried him now, more then it ever had before. He stole a look at Akane. "More importantly, do you think you can win." "Yes. After the last few days, anything's possible" Akane said with a smile. "After all, who would think we could go almost ten days without a fight?" Later that night, Akane didn't have that smile on her face anymore. she had drawn a Western Kickboxer from America, named Alex Rodriguez, who was also making his Street Fighting debut after making a moderate name for himself in the American kickboxing organizations. She had changed clothes, to her Fighting outfit, which was her simple white gi, knotted with a sash at the waist. She had gotten a mild case of the shakes as nerves hit, but the two spent the time before her match talking about the strengths and weaknesses of her opponent. Somehow, having Ranma with her, who had gone through all of this two weeks ago, helped. A man popped his head into the dressing room after knocking politely. "Miss Tendo, your fight is next". Akane did a final few warm-up stretches, and looked at Ranma. Ranma looked back, face serious, but somehow unable to keep a smile on his face "You ready, Akane?". Somehow, the smile was mirrored on Akane's face as she replied, "Let's go, "Sensei"" the two shared a laugh at the nickname Akane had given Ranma as they left the room. The noise from the crowd rippled as Ranma led Akane down to the ring, whispering words of encouragement. For her par, Akane did her best to ignore the crowd and focused on the ring. she did a few tests of the ropes to see how much "give" they had. Her face seemed to be locked on to Ranma's, as if to shut out the rest of the world. Ranma knew she was scared. But she would do the best she could, and hopefully that would be good enough. "Ladies and Gentlemen, our next match is a Freestyle Division match, and is scheduled for two five minute rounds. This is a special debut match. Both fighters are making their Freestyle division debut tonight." the ring announcer was interrupted by the crowd. Ranma had been told that Street Fighting was usually a distraction for the idle rich, but people of every way of life and stripe seemed to be here tonight. "Our first competitor hails from New York City, New York, United States of America. He had a record of 14 wins and 6 losses as a member of the American Kickboxing Federation. Alex RODRIGUEZ!" the crowd applauded mildly, not warming up to the man, but not rejecting him out of hand. "And his opponent hails from Nerima Japan, she fights under the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts discipline She is making her first professional fight with us tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen, AKANE TENDO!" The applause was a little louder for Akane, as the crowd tried to show their support for the local fighter.: Akane's mind was swimming as she vaguely heard the referee's directions, and after bowing to her opponent, retreated to her corner. Ranma tried to calm her down. "It's just like the drills we did Akane. He has reach, he has several places he can attack you. But you're smaller, you're a harder target to hit. Make him come to you. Don't let him work his style fight. Make him work yours." As the buzzer sounded, Ranma dropped down from the apron. "Well, I've done everything I can for her. It's up to her now, and all I can do is pray" he thought to himself. Then it hit him like a hammer. He couldn't help her now, it was up to her. Could he just stand there if she got hurt? As the bell sounded, Akane had taken her fear and locked it away, deep inside herself where she wouldn't deal with it. Rodriguez, expecting an easy fight, came sauntering out to the middle of the ring, and threw a couple snap kicks at Akane as if he expected "the little girl' to fold up and run. Akane had dealt with that attitude before, and knew that she would have to deal with it, to gain his respect. To make him wary of her. so the next time Rodriguez threw that forward kick, she spun under it and caught her opponent in the back of the shin with her foot, sending the kickboxer down. "YEAH! All right Akane! keep it up!" Ranma cheered from the outside. She had conquered her fear in the ring, Akane smiled to herself. "Not bad for a Macho Chick, eh Ranma" she thought to herself, with a mental smile, as Rodriguez scrambled back to his feet. He had learned his lesson. This wouldn't be an easy match for him. Over the next four minutes, each attack that Rodriguez made would be countered by Akane. Rodriguez would try to hit Akane with a left hook, Akane would grab the hand and use the kickboxer's own momentum against him, flipping him over her shoulder and kicking him in the chest before he could roll away. Rodriguez, getting frustrated, tried another snap kick, Akane knocked it aside with a sweep block with her left hand, and her right hand flashed out, catching Rodriguez right in the ribs, staggering him and sending him a step or two back. Rodriguez went back to a traditional kickboxer attack, time and time again his foot came in, looking to connect, probing her defenses. Akane used the same blocks and maneuvers that worked against the pole to great measure. With thirty seconds left in the round, however, a sweeping round kick caught Akane squarely in the side, knocking the air out of her, and she involuntarily let her guard down. That's all the experienced Rodriguez needed, like a flash, he was hammering her with blow after blow, Akane managed to block or dodge some of them, but there was just too many punches and kicks connecting! Ranma stood rooted to the spot, mind racing, asking himself, "Should I throw in the towel? Would she forgive me if I did?" he had just about decided that it would be worth her anger just to make sure she wasn't hurt and was about to throw in the towel when the decision was made for him and the bell sounded. Rodriguez, now seemingly back in complete control of the match, walked back to his corner, while Akane staggered back to her corner. Ranma quickly guided her over to the stool, and toweled the sweat off quickly, trying to think of what to tell her, then decided quickly. "Ok Akane, you made it through that. you did great for four and a half minutes, but you have to fight a full round. He won't let you escape if he gets you hurt again. You have to watch your defense!" Akane groaned slightly, then returned to full focus, shaking her head slightly to clear the cobwebs. She nodded slightly to tell Ranma she was ok. "Five more minutes, that's all you need Akane. If you get in trouble like that again, I'm going to throw in the towel. I don't want to see you get hurt anymore." Ranma tried to explain. THAT got Akane's attention, and she turned a force four glare onto Ranma. "Don't. If I want to quit, I'll tap out. Don't make that decision for me. I can beat him!" The staccato beat of her words came out filled with emotion. Her eyes pleaded with Ranma to let her make her own choice. Ranma was taken aback by her words, then nodded. "Your call Akane, now watch that round kick to the side!", the warning buzzer sounded and Akane got to her feet, a trifle too unsteadily for Ranma's taste. but he had made a promise. The bell for the second and final round sounded, Akane staggered out to the middle of the ring. Ranma was aghast. Had he promised Akane that he would let her go out , just to have her stagger out, defenseless and liable to get beat up? Her opponent could smell the victory and he moved in for the kill. Akane ducked under the right hook, and just stayed on the defensive, frustrating Rodriguez who had tried every move he could to finish off the weaving Akane, then he made a mistake. He went for that sweeping round kick, aiming for the spot that he hit Akane last round. Ranma closed his eyes. He didn't want to see this. But the stagger had been a ruse to sucker her opponent in with that attack. Akane had taken a step to the left, catching Rodriguez's leg just below the knee, trapping it in between her body and her arm. Shed fired a couple shots to her opponent's stomach, knocking a bit of the wind out of Rodriguez, then she twisted her body over, taking her opponent over with a leg whip, helped by her foot tripping him. Not letting him get up, Akane kept the legs trapped, putting one knee on each leg and fired rapid punches at the sternum of Rodriguez. He tried to block the punches as best he could but in this position, he couldn't fight effectively, and after about the twentieth punch got through his defenses, tapped out. The referee quickly called for Akane to get off of Rodriguez, and called for the bell. Akane raised her hands over her head, and was quickly engulfed in a bear hug by Ranma, who just as suddenly put her back down when he realized what he was doing. But Akane didn't mind. She had survived. Better then that, she had won. The rest could take care of itself. She turned to shake her opponent's hand, and to hear the announcer. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of the bout, at 1 minute and 47 seconds of the second round, AKANE TENDO!" Back in the small dressing room the promoters had given Akane, she sat in the one chair in the room, tired, with a bruise on her right side, and a split lip, but she said to Ranma. "I did it, didn't I?" As if she still couldn't believe that she had won her debut in the Street Fighting matches. Just then, Mr. Tendo and Genma came in, thinking that Akane was about to fight. Due to Nabiki's giving them the false time (also they were a bit late due to Mr. Tendo having to pray at the family shrine and having Nervous Breakdown #36 (My daughter is going to get hurt badly)) and froze, taking in the scene. Mr. Tendo immediately rushed to Akane's side. "Wh-What happened Akane?' Akane just grinned, "I fought. Not only that, I won." Soun Tendo chose that moment to have his eyes roll up into his head and fall to the ground. Genma grinned, "I knew you could do it! The two of you will make a great Street Fighter team." Akane raised her head again. "Not yet, if anything, tonight's fight proved that I still have a way to go. I'm not going to enter another fight until I train a LOT more and get better. But with Ranma and I training, hopefully that won't take too long." Akane replied, head tilted at an angle, a commanding tone in her voice that brooked no arguments. Genma turned to Ranma "Mr. Nakajima asked me to tell you that if you wish to join his stable, he's willing to let you join as a provisional member, as well as Akane when she decides that she's ready. The contract is for one year, the amount of time we agreed you'd spend street-fighting." Ranma grinned, looking at Akane, who smiled back. "That should be just enough time for the team of Saotome and Tendo to set the street fighter world on it's ear Pop" Ranma said, matching Akane's grin. "After all, we're both undefeated so far." ------------------------------------------------------------ Several people I'd like to thank,. Nick Eckert, Will Jones, Rony Hedin, K Yee, all from the FanFic Mailing List for their ideas and support. It's people like you that keep me writing at this pace! A special thanks goes out to Ryan Erik, who patiently helped me with my quite atrocious grammar and spelling, in part one (which I have corrected if anyone wants) And a VERY special thank you goes out to my friend in the "real" world, Chris Crawford. He's the one that has to put up with my lunacy on a regular basis, and not only that, he's the one who helped me come up with the idea for this fic. And so it goes, another chapter is in the books. I know a lot of people think that this fic is missing several prominent things, the fighting between Ranma and Akane and of course, Ranma's curse. There will be a bit of both in the next chapter, which I am tentatively entitling 'Out Of Nerima and On the Road". The First two chapters came out rather easily, I bet chapter 3 won't be as easy. But it'll be worth it I hope. Maybe we'll even see a World Warrior or two. Ja ne y'all! D.M.Y. May 23rd, 1998 ff There is No Lumber Cartel.. And I am NOT Member #01538 Hentai at large... Fanfic Writer.. RPG addict You send me spam.. I send you a bill. $15 per spam By sending me garbage.. you indicate your acceptance of these terms. Some people prefer to hide their head in the sand.. to make problems go away. I just become a BIGGER problem and I make THEM go away! === File Separator ============================================== From: dyellope@norfolk-county.com (David Yellope) To: ffml@fanfic.com Subject: [FFML] (repost) Ranma 1/2-Street Fighter Xover "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior" Chapter 3 Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 07:47:52 GMT before we start.. Ranma 1/2, its characters are a creation of Rumiko Takahashi, and if I didn't give her proper praise (not that I wouldn't anyway), I would be fed to a pack of wolverines, so thank you. Street Fighter and its characters or storyline is copyright Capcom, and no offense is intended. Hey everybody, it's time to do it again! Chapter three time! All C&C, MSTings, and Chinese fortune cookies are welcome at yellope@norfolk-county.com. I try to write back everybody who writes me, because without you, I'd have no audience. I might soon be posting a couple of fics from a friend of mine shortly, but otherwise, this is my sole intent right now. Sit back, relax, and enjoy. ------------------------------------------------------------ Ranma 1/2-Street Fighter Cross over "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior" Chapter Three "Out Of Nerima and On the Road" ------------------------------------------------------------ The last twenty-four hours had been frantic to say the least. While Ranma was used to life on the road, having traveled the globe with his father, this was going to be a new and different experience for Akane, who had never been away from home for more then two or three weeks. Ranma usually had nearly all his stuff packed and ready to go on a moment's notice anyway, but Akane had to pack and get ready to leave, so Ranma decided to say goodbye to a friend first. Ukyou was nearly out of her mind, as she cooked up an okonomiyaki to try to distract herself, and to keep herself from crying. How DARE Ran-chan leave for a whole year, especially after she had just found him again after so long! So absorbed was she in her cooking and her thoughts, that she didn't hear the bell that usually announced visitors to her shop. Nor did she hear the person sit down. It took the person clearing his throat to get Ukyou's attention. Without looking up, she said "I'm sorry, the sign on the door says we're closed right now" Once again, the tears threatened to overwhelm her, and she bowed her head down to her cooking. Then to her shock, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the stranger actually get up, and move around behind the counter. Immediately all the sniffles and the tears stopped. Was this stranger going to rob her? Or, (and her heart turned to ice) something worse? Her muscles tensed, as she thought to herself, ok, let's see how well you do with a hot okonomiyaki in your face pal! She waited until the stranger was a couple of steps away, then turned and flung the okonomiyaki at the person, yelling. As the flying food left her spatula, she recognized her "stranger" and noted with horror what she was doing. Fortunately for both their sakes, Ranma had seen a hint of the movement before it happened and managed to duck under the flying food, letting it *splat* against the wall harmlessly. Ranma looked at Ukyou, who had dropped her spatula in shock. Ukyou recovered slowly. "Ran-chan!! Sorry about that. Did I get any on you?" she asked, mind still somewhat frozen from the shock Ranma had given her. "Nah, I saw it coming." Ranma said, picking himself off the ground. He grimaced inwardly. He knew Uc-chan was taking this pretty hard, but he shouldn't have surprised her like that. "You okay, Uc-chan?" Ukyou had pretty much recovered at this point, but all the arguments, the pleas that she had thought up mentally left her mind. All that came to mind was "Do you REALLY have to go for a full year Ran-Chan?" Ranma sighed, saying goodbye to Ukyou was not one of the things he was looking forward to. Some of the other things could be put aside. For example, saying goodbye to Shampoo or Kodachi. He was quite sure they had probably concocted a couple mad schemes to get him to stay and were just waiting for him to show up. He tried to put on a smiling face. "It just was going to be that this was something I had to do, cause Pop said so. But I've learned a lot lately, and this is something I want to do. The fact I'll miss you hurts a lot though." Ukyou nodded, still somewhat confused by all of this. Ranma continued, voice a little weak. "You know that you're my best friend in all the world Ukyou. I promise I'll write every week or so. I wish you could come with me and Akane, but I know you have your roots here with the restaurant." Ukyou closed her eyes. For a while, she had considered selling the restaurant, and joining Ranma and Akane on their trip. But in the end, she knew that she couldn't leave. It was a whole another world from the one she was used to. She wouldn't feel comfortable. Also, there was the growing friendship between Ranma and Akane. Ukyou started crying softly. "Ran-chan, do you care for Akane?" She needed to know. She needed to know if she had a chance, or if her and Ranma would just be "special friends". Either way, she'd still care for Ranma, but she wouldn't allow herself to love someone whose heart was already claimed by someone else. The question, coming out of nowhere as it did, floored Ranma. If it was from anyone else, Ranma would have tried to "macho" it out. But with Ukyou, one of his dearest friends, he felt like he would have to tell the truth. Now if he only knew what the truth was. "Ukyou, things have changed a lot over the last three weeks. I truly don't know how I feel about Akane. She's a good student, and when she went through some rough times over the last couple weeks, she came through with flying colors. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't want to see her hurt. If that means I care for her, I guess I do." Ukyou sighed. It wasn't a full-fledged answer by any means, but she guessed it would do. Maybe Ran-chan would know better when he got home. The tears continued, and Ranma just brought her close, holding her in a hug, letting the tears fall from both their cheeks, as Ukyou silently cursed the spirits that had made her fall in love with a martial artist. Meanwhile, at the Tendo dojo, another sort of tearful goodbye was being said. Akane was packing several bags with clothing and mementos of home. Nabiki and Kasumi were helping her get everything together. Akane felt somewhat weird, it was an odd mixture of excitement and worry about the journey she was about to go on. Nabiki tried to keep Akane's spirits up. "Hey it's not like it's forever sis." Akane nodded, slightly, packing a second gi into a bag. Nabiki continued, "At least you won't have to deal with Tatewaki proclaiming his love for you every other minute. Plus, many girls would love to spend a year with their fiancee visiting exotic cities." Kasumi and Nabiki shared a giggle over Akane's protest that he was a pervert. Nabiki noted that the protests had almost seemed half-hearted. "She's finally falling for him, it sure took her long enough" she mused to herself. Nabiki wondered what the changes a year away from fiancees, curses, bad poetry (from Kuno-baby) and constant interference from their well-meaning fathers would do for the relationship between Akane and Ranma. "It won't be that bad" Kasumi said. "After all, Mister Nakajima gave us a list of some of the places you would be, so we'll be sending notes and little things to keep your spirits up." Kasumi had approved of this trip. Sometimes she wanted to try to fix everything, to tell her dad and Mr. Saotome to stop meddling in their kids affairs. And sometimes Akane and Ranma needed a reminder that they cared for each other. But she had a feeling that they wouldn't listen to her, so she had decided to work a little more quietly. She was the one, who when she had found out about some of Genma's fights in the past, had asked about some of the stories. This had led to the two fathers talking about the Street Fighter circuit, and when Genma started thinking about going on a trip with Ranma to show him the circuit, had suggested that Akane join in. After all, this would be a great way for the Saotome and Tendo schools of Anything Goes Martial Arts to get some publicity, and since the two were engaged, after all... Then she sat back and let nature take it's course. Akane shared a special smile with the two closest people in her life, her wonderful sisters, then finished packing. "All done" she chirped, and sat back. The immensity of what she was about to embark on hit her, and she started shaking slightly. The three sisters then shared a big hug. They had been there for each other so long, now for a year, one of them would be separated from the other two. Later that day, Akane and Ranma stood at the boarding gate for their flight to Italy. The entire Tendo family and Genma and Ukyou had turned up to see them off. Ukyou had given Ranma one of her small spatulas to keep as something to remember while he was away. Just as the attendants announced that Flight 402 from Tokyo to Rome is now boarding, Nabiki came up to Akane. "Kasumi and I pooled our funds, and we decided to get this for you." She handed over a light golden necklace. But it was the heart shaped locket that drew Akane's attention. She opened it with shaking hands. Inside was a picture of the three sisters, Kasumi on the left, Nabiki on the right, flashing a victory sign. In the middle was Akane, brandishing an impudent grin for the camera. Akane was overwhelmed, she started crying again, and hugged each of her sisters. "It's beautiful. I'm gonna wear it all the time." she declared, slipping the necklace over her head, letting the locket lie against the bottom of her neck. Ranma watched, a small strange smile on his face. Ukyou noticed, and inwardly cried. She knew where his heart would be eventually. But still she gave Ranma a hug, clasping him to her. As she broke the hug, she said "Don't you get hurt on me Ran-Chan. If you get yourself killed in some exotic port I'll never forgive you." Ranma grinned. "Well, we ought to be boarding", Akane said with a tight smile on her face. After a last round of hugs, Akane and Ranma walked down the boarding ramp to the plane that would take them far away from the life they had known. As the two sat in their seats, Akane turned to Ranma. "It's only been a couple of minutes, yet I miss them already." Ranma knew exactly what she was talking about. He looked inwardly, found that familiar hurt inside, and winced as it was opened anew. "I understand, Akane. I feel the same way about my mom. I went away for years at a time because Pop wanted to train me as a martial artist, then when I got cursed, I couldn't meet my mom as myself, due to the fact she might be unhappy about my pop not making a "real man" out of me. I've often wondered if I should just tell my mom the truth next time I see her, just because even if she follows through on her threat to make us commit seppuku, just so I can talk to her as myself again. The only way I've been able to deal with it is to cry when I'm alone, cause I don't think anyone would understand, and then lock away the pain when I'm done." Ranma said, eyes downcast. Akane took Ranma's hand in hers. "Thank you Ranma." she said, smiling softly. Ranma looked up, and she could see a couple of tears glimmering in his eyes, tears she knew he didn't want to shed. "Maybe after a year on the tour, we can talk to your mom and explain everything. After all, we're a team right?". She still remembered Ranma's comment when he had told Genma that "the team of Tendo and Saotome would set the Street Fighter world on it's ear." Akane's words seemed to knock Ranma out of his funk, and he looked up. "Right" But still, he sat back in his seat, and putting his head back, closing his eyes, he started thinking about things. The plane ride was quiet, Akane had fallen asleep in her seat. For some reason, Ranma could never sleep on planes, so he spent his time watching the in-flight movie and tried to relax. From time to time, he snuck looks at Akane, who was sleeping peacefully, airplane blanket covering her body. She understood what he went through, and she had helped him. He tried to run through his feelings in his head, and just like when he was talking to Ukyou earlier, it was all one big confused jumble of emotions. She was cute when she was happy, and she put up with his ego, well at least usually (rubbing a spot on his head that she usually smacked with that mallet of hers when he said something particularly bad). As he settled back into thinking, he thought that maybe if his pop and Mr. Tendo hadn't spent all their time planning the engagement, and forcing the two of them together, perhaps maybe they wouldn't have gotten off on the wrong foot. He tried to think of how it could have been. To his surprise, he found himself smiling as he dropped off for a quick nap. As he groggily tried to wake up.. he felt Akane lightly shaking him. "Wha- wh- huh?" was all he could stutter out, as he finally came fully to his senses. He had been having a dream, about Akane, but the details fled his waking mind like the last shadow fleeing the morning sun. "We're coming into Roma airport. Mr. Nakajima's supposed to meet us after we clear customs." Akane handed him a thermos with coffee in it. Ranma took a cautious sip of it. Ok, it wasn't from Akane, he thought to himself. If it was, it'd probably knock him right back out. As the two finally cleared customs, they spotted a limo driver holding dual signs up, one said "Saotome", the other said "Tendo", As the two came up to him, he grabbed their bags. "Mr. Nakajima's apologies sir and madam, there's been a slight change of plan. Our original site for our fight, was unfortunately raided by the Italian police last night. Our fight has been merged with a tournament that was being held today." The person hastily explained, in somewhat passable Japanese Ranma had been told that while popular, Street Fighter matches were illegal in many countries, so this came as no surprise. He handed his bags over and spoke for the two of them. "Let's go." The two were quickly herded into a waiting limousine, which immediately set off. After the long flight, Ranma and Akane wanted nothing more then to take a nap to adjust their internal clocks, but apparently, that was not to be. The driver seemed to think that driving in Rome traffic was a combat sport. Akane and Ranma had all they could do not to be thrown around the plush seats. Ranma pressed the intercom button. "Why all the speed? I mean, we just got here," then he had to hold on for dear life as the car nearly went on two wheels and the tires screeched in protest as the driver took a turn at 60 miles per hour. As the car settled back, he could see the driver press his own button. "You mean they didn't let you know before you left? It's a series of 5 fights, and our normal 5th fighter broke his leg two weeks ago. So if we need you tonight, the fight will decide who wins the series, and a rather large bet. So I have to get you there in time, just in case you're needed. Hold on, we're almost there." The limo screeched to a halt next to what looked like a natural set amphitheater. Rows of stone benches surrounded a wooden stage. On the benches, high class Italians (the men were wearing tuxedos, the women wore evening gowns) cheered and placed wagers on their favorite fighter. On the well-lit stage, two fighters were brawling, the larger man had several bruises on his body, while the smaller man seemed to have the advantage as they traded fisticuffs. The driver took in the scene, and cursed softly. "Jensen's fighting already? The fights must be going quickly tonight. Ranma, can you fight in those clothes?" Ranma looked down at his shirt and pants. It wasn't the level of comfort or the ease of movement he was used to, but yeah, he could fight, and he told the driver so. "Great. By the way, my name's Ian. Ian Thompson. Limo Driver, translator, Den Mother, and generally on loan from God to watch over these misfits, the spirits know they need the help," the driver said with a smile. "Hurry, we got to get down to the stage quickly". The three ran down the stairs of the amphitheater. When they reached the bottom, Ian said something to a dark, rugged Italian, who took a discerning look at Ranma, then nodded. The fight on stage quickened. The smaller man leaped several feet in the air and brought his leg down in a smashing ax kick on his opponent's head. The larger man stumbled forward, straight into a power-packed uppercut that sent him flying backwards and off the stage. He groaned as he hit the well packed earth, and just lay there. Most of the crowd groaned, apparently the smaller man had been the underdog in the fight, meaning a lot of bettors had lost money. The Italian Ian had spoken to got up on stage as the smaller fighter raised his arms in victory, and started announcing. "Sorry to do this to you Ranma, but you're up next. Good luck and good skill, a lot of money's riding on you!" Ian said, trying to project confidence into his manner Ranma groaned. It wasn't enough that he had just taken a multi hour flight westward and his body said it was mid morning even though it was the middle of the night here, but he shows up and two minutes later, he's supposed to be fighting? And money's riding on it? At Ian's nod, Ranma climbed up on stage, and stretched out his sore muscles as best he could. Akane turned to the suddenly nervous Ian and asked "How much money is being bet on Ranma?" Ian sheepishly grinned, "I didn't want to tell Ranma for fear of jinxing him, but approximately 217 million lira, which is about 17 million yen, or approximately 125,000 American." Akane's mouth dropped open at the amount. There are times when someone has the right to borrow a phrase from somebody they know. This was one of them. "Oh, My." Akane said, wondering at the amount. Briefly, she wondered what would happen if Ranma lost, would their new teammates be *unhappy*? Ranma briefly tested the stage, he liked the hardness, and he could get good grip on it. He quickly took off his shoes, as to get a better grip. Then a cheer announced his opponent's arrival, so he looked over across the round stage. And looked Up. And Looked further Up. And even Further up. His opponent wasn't big. He wasn't even huge. He was GIGANTIC. He looked like some bizarre cross of an Ironwood tree and a human being. And he was almost as thick as he was tall. If he had gone to an American high school, he probably would have been voted, "Most Likely to be mistaken for a brick wall". Ranma panicked for a second. With all that he had gone through today, they wanted him to fight THIS MONSTER? Then he calmed himself. After all, he told himself that he would just to have to avoid getting hit. The guy had to be slow. The Italian started announcing, there was some polite applause, but the whole crowd seemed to roar when his opponent was announced. Apparently, he was known as "Force". Immediately people started placing bets, and it was apparent, at least to Ranma, that the crowd considered him a heavy underdog. The Italian looked at both fighters, nodded, and jumped down from the stage. Apparently that was the signal to start. Force immediately started moving forward, hoping to trap his opponent. Ranma circled to his right, looking for a spot to attack. He tried a front kick to his leg. It was like kicking a tree. Ranma hobbled back, leg a little sore, and tried a punch to the stomach. The punch had little if any effect on Force, who nearly decapitated Ranma with a backhand swing, Ranma just barely ducking under the blow. Then Ranma had an idea. He taunted Force, making rude hand gestures, playing up to the crowd, even thumbed his nose at Force. The crowd was silent for a few seconds, then the burst into cheers. They approved of the impertinence of the challenger, but there was an undercurrent of "Just wait till this punk gets his head ripped off" On the outside, Ian was flabbergasted. "What is he doing? He's going to make that guy mad enough to really hurt him badly!" Akane smiled. She had seen this before. "It's a Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts technique. Do you remember the first rule of martial arts, Ian?" Comprehension dawned on Ian and then he smiled, a big enough smile to match Akane's, "Yeah. A fighter's no good unless he controls his temper." Force charged as fast as he could at Ranma time and time again. Ranma played the matador to the bull of Force, tempting, teasing, goading Force into a mad charge, then at the last moment, skipping away. Any sense of fatigue he had, disappeared as he let himself go. He was on the razor's edge. One false move, one false step, and he was in for a lot of pain. Finally he had made his way to the edge of the theater. He then shouted at Force. A crude smile slowly made its way to Force's face. He had his opponent trapped. Soon his pain would begin. He charged at Ranma, 10 feet, 5 feet, Akane closed her eyes. And Ranma Leaped. Jumped straight up into the air, in a forward flip that evaded the outstretched arms of Force, who went hurtling off the edge and down the four feet to the ground. Ranma landed, took a momentary look behind him without turning, and then leaped in a backwards somersault, sticking the landing like a gymnast, both feet firmly planted in Force's stomach. Then to make sure the big man would not rise to destroy him, he found the massive trunk that served as his neck, and carefully smashed two fingers into the base of the neck. Akane held her breath. Would Force know what Ranma was doing? If so, he could break the hold in time. Force struggled weakly for a few seconds, then the light of comprehension dawned in his face. The grip was on the area that contained the carteroid artery, the major supplier of blood to the brain! Ranma dodged the few weak swipes that Force threw his way, and kept it on until the big man had stopped struggling, then left in on a few seconds longer to make sure the immense Force was unconscious. He then stood up. The crowd was silent for several seconds in awe of what they had seen. Then they exploded in cheers, chanting his name. Ranma's new teammates came out and congratulated him, lifting him up to their shoulders. Akane smiled. Brains over Brawn, every time. Another person in the crowd smiled, but his smile held no happiness, but a deep down predatory grin. This one has talent, he thought to himself. He is a beautiful fighter, like me. Carefully, he left without notice being taken of him. After all, it would not do for the great assassin, the Spanish Ninja known as Vega, to be caught in such High Society. They might wonder who he was there to kill. He will either have to be co-opted, or he would be destroyed, he thought to himself. One not working for his employer was one working against it. ------------------------------------------------------------ Wow. Chapter Three down already, and I don't know when this juggernaut will end even if I want to. Hope you enjoyed the ride and the write. Chapter Four is tentatively titled "Shadows and Shadloo" and will be released when I finish it up. Hopefully that will be soon. Requests for past parts of this story, my other Ranma 1/2 Fanfic, Shadows of Darkness and Light, or if you just want to comment or critique my work, you can email me at dyellope@norfolk-county.com. Thanks go out to all the people who have had a hand in this. All the people who have offered to pre read this, as well as people who have offered ideas on the story and where it can go from here. Till the next time, (hopefully soon) Ja ne, y'all! D.M.Y May 25th, 1998 There is No Lumber Cartel.. And I am NOT Member #01538 Hentai at large... Fanfic Writer.. RPG addict You send me spam.. I send you a bill. $15 per spam By sending me garbage.. you indicate your acceptance of these terms. Some people prefer to hide their head in the sand.. to make problems go away. I just become a BIGGER problem and I make THEM go away! === File Separator ============================================== From: dyellope@norfolk-county.com (David Yellope) To: ffml@fanfic.com Subject: [FFML] (repost) Ranma 1/2-Street Fighter XOver "Iron Fist Iron Warrior" Chapter 4 Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 08:46:16 GMT Ranma 1/2 and Street Fighter Crossover Chapter Four of: "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior" Howdy folks, and folkettes! Chapter Four time coming up. As usual, thanks go out to Rumiko Takahashi, for creating the Ranma 1/2 universe, Capcom for the Street Fighter Universe, and also in this case, White Wolf. I took the Lightning Fists from the Street Fighter: The Storytelling game source book "The Perfect Warrior" Comments, critiques, MSTings, and recipes for fat free brownies (Have to throw that in there SOMEWHERE ) can be sent to dyellope@norfolk-county.com. And now, awwwwayyyyyy we go! "Life on the Flashfire Circuit" The fights had ended an hour ago, but the party seemed to be well under way. The guests of honor had been the victorious fighters of Nakajima Productions, and especially Ranma. Although they were tired from their long flight, Akane and Ranma decided to stay awake for as long as possible, to soak in the experience. Several of the guests were wealthy backers of Nakajima Productions, and they seemed especially interested in Ranma. After all, many fighters that they had seen before either didn't have the skill of Ranma, and they didn't seem to have the natural charisma of this uncertain teenager from Japan. During the night, the various fighters of Nakajima Productions re-introduced themselves, as Ranma tried to make sure he recognized everyone. First, there was the small, but fast and seemingly always in motion Lei Chong Ling, a Kung Fu champion before he turned to the Street Fighter circuit to learn more about varying martial arts. He was seemingly very up front with everyone. He had told Ranma that he had seen the tape of Ranma's first fight, and wondered why Mister Nakajima had signed a veritable rookie, but after seeing Ranma's fight against Force, understood and thought he'd be an asset to the team. Ranma agreed, the two fought somewhat similar styles, they spent a good couple of minutes talking about the various moves and maneuvers. Then there was Todd Vanderstreet, who was trying to step away from his family name, and make his own way as a fighter using a Karate variant. He seemed a natural charmer. When introduced to Akane, he had kissed her hand. That immediately set Ranma on edge, but he didn't say anything. After all, you don't make a good impression by decking your teammate the first day you know him. The third fighter was introduced has Venton McCracken, an American boxer, whose rough looks seemed out of place in such high society, but Ranma liked the guy. His first question upon meeting Ranma was, "So, how badly were you scared when you saw that wall you were facing?", although the smile on his face and the handshake let Ranma know he was joking. Ranma laughed, and replied, "I think it was better I didn't know who I was facing. If I had known before hand, I think I would have run halfway across the ocean by now." The two laughed. The fourth fighter, who was still somewhat groggy after his match his match earlier in the evening. was introduced as Igor Jensen. The huge Sanbo fighter seemed somewhat relieved that Ranma had pulled it out for his team. However, when the two shook hands, Igor's hand ENGULFED Ranma's. It was all Ranma could do to keep from screaming as Igor shook his hand. Ranma could tell that this was literally a guy who didn't know his own strength. Ranma then shook hands with the final fighter, a Wu Shu expert named Hector Garganza. He winced sympathetically at how slow Hector moved around in his crutches, Ranma guessed it was his injury that opened up a spot on the five-man roster. As the party continued, Mister Nakajima climbed up on top of the table. He spoke in English, which seemed to be the standard language of the group. Ranma and Akane had taken some English lessons, so could follow the gist of it. "Honored Guests, Thank you for showing up at my party. I have two special announcements to make. First of all, one of the people in the crowd was a promoter for a tournament in Brussels. Ladies and Gentlemen, on the undercard of the World Warrior battle between Fei Long and Balrog, the team of Nakajma Productions has been offered a team battle match, against the fighters known as the Lightning Fists!" The entire crowd went nuts at this, as a fight like this would mean a lot of recognition, and a lot of money for the team if they won! Ranma smiled at Akane, who was grinning too. Seems like they had hit the big time already! Mr. Nakajima waited until the hubbub had died down from the last announcement. "Also, we have made a major decision. We have decided to expand the stable to a 7-fighter team. That way, we get to keep Hector when he recovers, and when our other new fighter from Japan, Miss Akane Tendo, is ready, We'll be stronger then ever!" The crowd applauded, but it was the fighters who seemed the happiest. Ranma guessed that they had formed tight bonds, and he would have pushed somebody out when Hector recovered, which wouldn't have been too good. The party continued on into the night. Ranma and Akane managed to avoid the offers of wine, preferring to sip on glasses of spring water (Ranma tested his to be sure it wouldn't trigger his curse). However, they had sipped enough wine, to be polite, that they felt a little giddy. The wine had acted quickly on the both of them. And to their surprise, they found a supply of energy to keep them going long after they thought they'd be asleep in their beds. Finally, as the party tuned down, and it just was Mr. Nakajima, the various Street Fighters, and Ranma and Akane left, they all were telling stories of life on the road. Ranma and Akane were laughing at the stories. Hector finished up a story of a fight on top of a building that was being built, and then looked at Ranma and Akane. "You know, fellow fighters, we have not initiated our new battle hermano (brother) into our team!" This seemed to be a planned thing for they immediately grabbed Ranma, who was halfheartedly trying to break free, and started carrying him. Ranma was a little nervous, but he relaxed. What could happen, anyway. Then he freaked out as he saw where they were carrying him. "OH no!" he cried trying to wiggle his way free, but his new teammates had too good a grip on him. "Not the pooooooooooooool" As his teammates threw him through the air, he only had time to think, "I hope the water isn't cold," before... S-P-L-A-S-H! Then silence. Then the sound of six jaws dropping at once, as well as Akane covering her eyes. Ranma-chan climbed out of the pool, shivering somewhat. She sighed. She knew this would come out eventually, but this wasn't the best time for everyone to find out. "I guess there's one story I have to tell. But first.. can we PLEASE get some hot water?" Back inside, Ranma gratefully accepted the cup of hot water and poured it over his head. Back to his normal self, he sighed again. "Ok. you guys probably think this is pretty weird. It all started..." and he went on to explain the whole story of training at Jusenkyo, and the cursed spring that he fell into. Todd was the first one to react after the story. "If anyone tried to tell me that was true, I'd think they were ingesting something that gave them hallucinogenic fits. But I saw it with my own two eyes." A thoughtful Nakajima said "Is there a cure for the cursed spring?" Ranma shook his head. He had spent most of his time since being cursed, looking for the cure. "My Pop and I have spent a lot of time looking for a cure. It can be rather, well, inconvenient" Ranma finished, then yawned. The Fighters immediately started apologizing, noting they had a long flight, and Ranma and Akane took their leave. In their way out, Ian handed Ranma a room key. "You two are in Room 501. We're going to leave for Brussels on Saturday. So spend the next few days relaxing, sightseeing, and getting ready. The Lightning Fists are GOOD." It wasn't until the two had gotten into the elevator and had pressed the button for the fifth floor that Akane realized. "We're sharing a room?" She winced inwardly. Ranma shook his head wearily. "We forgot to tell Ian that the engagement thing was by our folks, and that we would want separate rooms. And right now, all I want is twelve hours of sleep." The two were in for a rude shock. There was only one bed. Big enough for two, comfortably, but there still remained just one bed. Ranma looked at Akane. "Ok, who gets the floor, and who gets the bed." Akane considered the options, looked around the small room, looked at the bed, looked at Ranma, and tossed her bag to the ground. Akane then made a decision she probably would never had made if she had been fully awake and alert. "Ranma, we both need the rest. Lets share it." Ranma face-faulted. "Are, are you serious, Akane?" Inwardly he vowed that if he found out that his Pop and Mr. Tendo had set this up, he was going to hurt them. Thoroughly. Slowly. Akane sat on the bed. smoothing over the dress she was wearing over her knees. "Ranma, we've been through a lot. I trusted you when our parents pushed us into the Street Fighter circuit, and you needed to train me. You trusted me when I fought, that I knew was tough for you. We trust each other. Besides, I know nothing will happen, you don't care for a "sexless tomboy" anyway." For once, Akane winced, as it was HER turn to make a thoughtless comment. But it's true, she thought to herself. And any chance he might have to care for her she destroyed with her reaction. The small portion of her mind that was still functioning normally was outraged at her careless admission. What do you care for how he feels about you? He's a pervert, a hentai! Akane mentally silenced that voice, then looked up. Ranma was SMILING??? How dare he? He'd better have a good reason for that, or he'd get smashed with Mallet-Sama so fast... Ranma was almost as giddy as Akane at this point. Maybe even worse, he thought to himself. Not only had he flown for many hours, but he survived a crazy driver, fought someone who looked more like a wall then anything, and then had a long night. And once again, he spoke without thinking. "I thought that was MY line, Akane." he said, a goofy smile on his face. "And for me, not caring for a sexless tomboy," he continued, taking her hand in his and raising it to his hand in a courtly fashion, much as Todd Vanderstreet had earlier, "You couldn't be any further from the truth. But right now, I think we both need a good sleep. We'll talk about it more in the morning." Ranma turned off the light.. and climbed underneath the covers, and turned his head so he couldn't see anything but the wall, as not to embarrass Akane. Plus he had been called a peeping tom enough, and rather not make that particular charge true. His last coherent thought was "If Kuno wanted to kill me earlier, he'd want to kill me twice as badly for sleeping in the same bed as Akane." Akane blushed, but quickly prepared herself for bed, and climbed in , and got into the other half of the bed. She listened to Ranma's breath even out as he slipped into a deep sleep. "Good night, Ranma-kun" she said, even knowing that he was asleep, and quickly slipped into a much needed sleep herself. Ranma was the first to wake, as the sun had sent it's beam right across his face. He slowly came to consciousness, and shifted slightly. That's when he realized he wasn't alone in bed. He turned to see Akane sleeping peacefully on the other part of the bed. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, she's gonna kill me", Ranma thought, panicking to himself. Only sheer terror closing his throat kept him from screaming in panic. Ranma quietly slid out of the bed, praying that Akane would not wake. Thankfully, while she twitched a couple of times, he was able to get out of bed safely. Wondering what the heck had happened last night, Ranma climbed into the shower. Halfway through, his memory started coming back. "Ok, I told everybody about my curse, then Ian give me and Akane the key to our room, and then," Ranma winced, as the last part of the conversation came back. He hoped that Akane didn't remember the night. Even though she had suggested it, she'd find a way to make it his fault. When she had herself convinced that it was his fault, out would come the Mallet of Doom, and Ranma would be sent into low earth orbit. And this time, he wouldn't know how to get back. Quickly thinking to himself, he decided that unless Akane brought it up, he wouldn't say anything. And the strange thing was, now that he thought about it, he did care about Akane a lot, but she probably would laugh if they were both sober, and he tried to tell her that he really cared about her. Not that he wanted to marry her, or anything, he assured himself, but she was nice to be around. (well, most of the time). Too bad there was no chance he could tell her that, without ruining it. Akane woke up, and she turned over slightly, and saw the place where Ranma had been sleeping. The events of the past night came back to her, and her first reaction was to start thinking of how loudly to yell at Ranma, and how hard to smash him. But then she fully realized what happened, and she blushed and let go of her anger. "He probably won't ever say it while we're both sober, but at least I know he cares about me." Akane then sighed. Even drunk, she hadn't told him how much she cared for him as well. But then, knowing Ranma, he'd just shrug it off. But she did care for him. He had been getting better with remarks, and his training really did help. Too bad there was no chance she could tell him that, without ruining it. The two pretended as if the previous night didn't exist. Ranma grabbed Ian, and explained their plight, and Ian promised to see if he could get them separate rooms. Later that day, Ranma and Akane went sightseeing, taking in the sights of Rome, acting like a couple of teenagers (which they happened to be). They shared laughs and smiles, Akane had brought her camera with her, and the two took about half a roll of shots of the various sights. The two seemed to dodge around any discussion of the previous night. Ian was true to his word, getting Ranma a separate room, and after a fine Italian dinner, even Ranma was full by the time the team had finished the heap of pasta that they were served. Soon, they went to their separate rooms and separate beds. And although they would never admit to it, They dreamt of each other. The next few days passed by quickly. Ranma and Akane visited all the usual tourist spots that Rome had to offer. But after two days, Ranma was restless, and so was Akane. Ranma asked Ian if there was a grassy field somewhere that Ranma and Akane could spar and practice on. Ian consulted his ever-present black book, and drove the two to a suburb of Rome, about an hour and a half away. "I'll be back in two hours, have a good practice!" Ranma led Akane through the basics again. It had been several days since Akane had last practiced, and in that time, she had backslid slightly. But soon enough, Akane was firing off her kata smoothly, and the two ran through some of the more advanced drills Ranma had devised. Once Akane had that down, Ranma decided to run a new exercise. "Ok, Akane, I saw a move early in my Nerima fight that I think you could do. It'd be a great move. No matter how many times you hit a wrestler, such as our teammate Igor, or that guy Force I fought, the fact remains, that if they catch you, they are going to seriously hurt you. But this guy did a backflip, and during the backflip, he connected with both feet underneath his opponent's chin. By the time the big guy could regain his senses, the other guy was far enough away that he would have to track him down all over again. I don't expect you to pull that off right away, but lets see if we can get you to do the backflip first." Ranma explained. He hoped this worked, Akane was a good close in fighter, but if she had closed in against Force, she would have been smashed. This way she could get herself out of trouble. Akane nodded, assumed her guard stance, and leaped backwards. She had to put her hands down, and even that didn't help, she lost her balance, and flopped flat on her face. She grimaced, got back to her feet, and tried again. This time, she didn't even have a chance to put her hands down, falling nearly flat on her face. The next forty minutes were sheer torture. Time and time again, she threw herself backwards, and not a single time was she able to land the move successfully. Either she would over-rotate and land flat on her back, or nearly piledrive herself if she couldn't make the full backflip. Ranma considered ditching the idea, to let her get acquainted with a few more moves, before trying the backflip kick again. Finally he said, "Ok Akane, I just want you to hit one. Then we'll spar for a while, before Ian shows up." Akane nodded, making a few minor adjustments to her stance, bending her knees a little deeper, then sprang, and landed the backflip correctly. Still intent, she leaped twice more, correctly landing the move each time. She was about to attempt it again when Ranma put a hand on her shoulder. She started slightly, then grinned at Ranma. "How was that, "Sensei""? She asked. Ranma grinned. "Real good. REAL good. Ready to spar?" He had been surprised before, but her perseverance made him proud. Ranma knew many martial artists who would be convinced that if they couldn't do a move the third time they tried it, they'd be convinced that they would never be able to do it. The two quickly assumed their guard stance, and started a light sparring session. As they got more comfortable with each other's defenses, the sparring sped up. Ranma wasn't giving one hundred percent, but he was having to work several times harder then he had used to keep up with Akane. Akane seemed to have a natural knowledge of how to handle Ranma's kicks and punches, and what moves he'd use in combination with each other, so she shifted from one block to another without a pause. Near the end of the session, Ranma decided to surprise Akane. He faked a front kick, planted his front foot and pushed off, leaping into the air, corkscrewing his body with a jumping sweep roundhouse kick. He momentarily felt bad, she hadn't seen this before, but he wanted to see if she could adjust to new maneuvers. he swept his foot around, and tried to slow it down, so he wouldn't hit her to hard. Ranma realized in surprise that not only did he NOT hit Akane hard, she had ducked underneath him and rolled underneath. Completing the roll, she popped up to her guard stance, as Ranma whirled around to prevent Akane from getting a free shot in at his back. As he turned, she set herself, and leapt. Akane's feet connected solidly right under Ranma's chin and sent him flying backwards, eyes wide in surprise. Akane finished the back flip, and landed neatly on her feet. Ranma lay where he had fallen, not from pain, from surprise. He had just shown her that basic move earlier, and she pulled it out of nowhere to surprise him??? As he levered himself on one elbow, the look on Akane's face was stunned shock herself. Akane had been as surprised as anybody, but it almost seemed automatic to throw herself under the kick from Ranma, then the perfect setup to do the backflip kick. She looked at Ranma. Then smiled. "I guess the student takes a point from the teacher, eh "Sensei"?" Akane asked, trying to avoid grinning like a fool. She had finally scored a point off of Ranma in a sparring session! Ranma picked himself up off of the ground, made sure his jaw was still in place, half from the force of the blow, half from the surprise. "Yeah, but what's that, 500 for me and one for you? Gonna have to do that a lot to catch up, there Akane!" Ranma fired back, "And this time you won't catch me off guard. Using a move I just taught you. Hmph" A lot of laughter was heard in the last twenty minutes of the sparring session. The next two days passed by in a blur for Ranma and Akane. Both days they spent sparring, joined by Lei Chong Ling, who wanted to see the Anything Goes Martial Arts style and some of the moves it used. Finally, on Friday, the team took a chartered plane first class from Rome to Brussels, Belgium, where there next fight was to take place. Once the team arrived, their demeanor took a change. Before, they were somewhat happy go lucky, and pleasant. Now they were edgy. They had a week to prepare themselves for what could be the biggest fight of their lives, and they had never fought together as a unit. Todd and Ranma seemed to be always on edge when it came to one another. Both Todd and Ranma liked to bounce from place to place, trying to catch their opponents off guard and get a free strike. However, when you only had five fighters, you could only have one person bouncing around like that, it put too much of a burden on your teammates to have to try to fend off a team of five when you only had three shouldering the brunt of the attacks. It didn't help that Todd was still acting like a courtly suitor to Akane every chance he got. Honestly, Ranma thought to himself, this guy's as bad as Kuno. Fortunately for both Todd's health and for Ranma's blood pressure, Akane seemed to take it in stride. Finally, Ranma shrugged mentally, and decided to change his style, for the good of the team. The team seemed to click after that. In a practice fight against several local martial artists, the team took very little time in dispatching their opponents. The day before the tournament, the two teams met by the arena they would be using for the fight. Thanks to a hefty bribe, the stadium was "closed for repairs, and upkeep" for a week, so the Street Fighters could use it without fear of being raided. This was Ranma's first opportunity to size up his opponents, He had ample time, as the promoters played up the conflicts in this team fight. Ranma had heard rumours that the leader of the Lightning Fists, Bonnie Brown, who was not so affectionately known as "Backhand Bonnie" to the Street Fighting public. She supposedly had run the New York City streets when she was growing up, and looking at her in person, Ranma had trouble disagreeing with them. When he had asked Hector about Brown, he replied, "That Chica is 8 feet worth of bitch packed into a 5 foot 6 frame." Standing next to her, was a smiling dark skinned man. His bushy black beard jutting out, he seemed well at ease with the area. Ranma took a second look, however, beneath that friendly exterior located a cold heart that not even magma could warm, when he thought nobody was looking, the look on Mustafa's face could only be called patronizing. Ranma reminded himself that this Thai Kickboxer would be one to watch. Santo Hidetoshi stood next to his teammates, a tailored business suit covering his immense bulk. The sumo wrestler seemed somewhat friendly towards his opponent. This was a person who he wouldn't mind having on his side, Ranma thought to himself. Now only if he had a better choice of teammates. Hercules Harrison stood off to one side, not saying anything, taking the scene in with black orbs that seemed dull and defeated. Ranma had heard about him. During a professional wrestling match over in the USA, he had accidentally broken his opponent's neck. After he had served a 2-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter, the legendary "Rock of Gibraltar" had retired from wrestling, and proceeded to try to drink himself into oblivion. Only the intervention of the Lightning Fists kept him from succeeding. The last person seemed a bit old to be fighting, his hair and beard had gone completely gray, lightening almost to white. But he had been told that Fixer was the brains behind the team, that while Brown led the team, he was the heart of it. Ranma nodded to himself. Don't miss an opportunity to take this one out, he told himself. Finally, the promoters had stopped talking about the Balrog/Fei Long "Fists of Fury" match, and Bonnie Brown, sneering at the Nakajima Productions fighters, took the microphone. "First of all, the Lightening Fists would like to welcome the "esteemed" members of Nakajima Productions to Brussels." The way she said esteemed made it sound like something an incontinent dog leaves by the side of the road. "Now we'd like to tell them to go home. The Fists ain't lost a team fight yet, and there's no way we're gonna start." The sadistic grin on Brown's face seemed to add extra emphasis to her words. "You see, they're good, but they are going to get beat severely. See those two?", pointing to Lei Chong Ling and to Todd Vanderstreet, "I told Hercules and Santo to smash them like twigs. Mustafa's promised me that he's going to choke out Jensen. Fixer's got Venton McCracken all under control, and the kid?", while pointing to Ranma, "The kid's going to get his ass whooped so hard, that any grandkids, not that I'm gonna leave him the equipment to have grandkids anyway, will feel it." Ranma had had it with this, well, this BITCH's posturing. Detaching himself from his team, he walked toward Brown, and stood eye to eye with her. Ranma's eyes had a hint of fire in them, as he said quietly, "Want to say that again?" Brown smiled at her teammates, then quickly sunk a knee into Ranma's groin. As Ranma went down, writhing in pain, the rest of his team came in to back him up. But someone else already had that covered. Akane grabbed Brown by the shoulder, turned her around, and LEVELED her with a devastating right hand. Not content with just that, Akane picked up the bleeding Brown and threw her right into her teammates, who were charging in. As the Lightning Fists collapsed in a heap, security moved in and made sure the two teams couldn't get at each other. Brown got to her feet, and would have charged Akane, if it wasn't for the hordes of security separating them. "YOU BITCH! JUST FOR THAT I'M GONNA MAKE SURE I BREAK AT LEAST ONE BONE ON EACH MEMBER OF YOUR TEAM. NO ONE DECKS BONNIE BROWN AND GETS AWAY WITH IT" Akane helped a still groaning Ranma to his feet. "Just try it." She got out in return. The flashbulbs were popping. It wasn't every day that you got to see two World Warriors going at it, but an added bonus (at least for those in attendance) was to see a bonafide grudge match as well. The general feeling was, this should be interesting. ------------------------------------------------------------ Well folks, this one's in the books. 4 down, who knows how many to go. For those of you who want to know what a fanfic writer goes through when writing, most of this story was written at the radio station where I work as a DJ, during a never to be forgotten 15 hour STRAIGHT shift. Luckily, I had the computer in the same room as the board, so my thoughts of homicide on the people who called in (at 1 and at 9) to tell me they couldn't do their shift, were distracted. Truth be told, I had to rather vigorously quash my hentai side when writing the first hotel scene. I had trouble convincing myself not to "slip it in" somewhere, but maybe that'll be an alternate version for a side story or something. Once again, thanks go out to all the people who have encouraged me to write this monster, and for all the comments that have made me want to write as best as I can and as fast as I can. Till the next time, Ja Ne, Y'all! D.M.Y May 27th, the year of Ranma 1998 There is No Lumber Cartel.. And I am NOT Member #01538 Hentai at large... Fanfic Writer.. RPG addict You send me spam.. I send you a bill. $15 per spam By sending me garbage.. you indicate your acceptance of these terms. ===================================================== Some people prefer to hide their head in the sand.. to make problems go away. I just become a BIGGER problem and I make THEM go away! ========================================================= === File Separator ============================================== From: dyellope@norfolk-county.com (David Yellope) To: ffml@fanfic.com Subject: [FFML] (repost) Ranma 1/2-Street Fighter Xover "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior" chapter 5 Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 07:51:23 GMT Ohayo, everybody. Time for Chapter Five. Time for a big fight chapter! :) As always, Requests for Prior chapters, my other fanfic (currently in dustbunnies but I may continue working on it after a few more chapters of this), comments, critiques, and MSTings are all welcome at dyellope@norfolk-county.com. Flames are also welcomed, (I feed them to my Dalek security staff, I think it gives them a fiery disposition ) Chapter Five of "Iron Heart, Iron Warrior" "Fight To The Finish: Nakajima Productions vs. The Lightning Fists" The press conference over, Akane half helped, half-carried Ranma up to his room. Ranma was still in quite a bit of pain from the knee to the groin administered to him by the leader of the Lightning Fists. Ranma swore to himself quietly that should he be so lucky as to get his hands on one "Backhand" Bonnie Brown during the match tomorrow, he was going to repay the pain, IN FULL. Akane's thoughts were full of violence as well. Some were directed at Ranma, for putting her in this situation by letting that bitch get a free shot at him, and some was directed at Bonnie Brown. She grinned inwardly. She had wanted to lay that bitch out from the first time she had laid eyes on her. Akane opened the door, and dumped Ranma on the bed. She picked a chair for herself, and sat down. She said "Still think females can't fight, Ranma? Still think that Females can't hurt you? I'll bet you've changed your mind." Ranma croaked out, "When I see that bitch tomorrow, I am going to hurt her. They're going to call her "No Hands" when I'm through with her!" For the next few minutes, Ranma continued on his rants on what exactly he would do. Akane sighed, she had hoped that this wouldn't have been necessary. She got up and took the two strides to stand next to Ranma, as he looked up. She slapped his face. HARD. Ranma shot to his feet in protest, before his body reminded him of his injury and sank back down on the bed. Akane winced. Ranma needed a reminder of what he had been, and what he was going to have to do. "You've grown soft, Ranma Saotome. You've fought people who used no rules before. You've had to fight for your life. Tomorrow you may well have to do it again. You hear Bonnie. she's going to be looking to break people. Time to grow up. Because if you fight clean out there tomorrow, you're putting the whole team in jeopardy." Ranma gaped at the verbal assault. Then he nodded. Akane continued. "Get a good night's sleep. Then tomorrow, you'd better be ready to show that bitch the error of her ways." Without even waiting, she turned and stalked out of the room, leaving a stunned Ranma in her wake. Ranma stared at the door, in disbelief, then he fell back to considering Akane's words. She was right, he had gotten too used to the rules and the honorable conduct of the Street Fighter circuit. It was all well and good to play by the rules, but if you're opponent broke them first, you had to pay them back in coin of the kind. Not to hurt them, but to beat them. That was what mattered. That you won, your opponents lost, and those you cared about were unhurt. He tried to remember one of the early lessons Genma had taught him. His father's voice came in clear and strong. "Anger can be a useful force, as long as it is focused. If the anger controls the fighter, instead of the fighter controlling the anger, he is no longer a martial artist. His punches and kicks lack control." Ranma took a deep breath, tried to get all the anger into one place, and went to work on controlling it letting the anger work for him, instead of vice versa. The next morning, Ranma woke Akane up, and the two headed over to the arena where the fights were to take place, early. Ranma wanted to see the place where he would be fighting. He seemed well at ease, like the previous day hadn't happened. The two settled down to wait, talking about nothing much in particular. Back at the hotel, another person's wait was coming to an end, but his thoughts were far less peaceful. Dark, cold eyes scanned the door, searching for his targets. His employer's instructions were very detailed. If he saw either of the two people he had seen in pictures, his job was to take them out. Not kill them, but the option he preferred, cripple them. He cursed the traffic that morning. He had gotten here 20 minutes later then he planned. He smiled as he saw the team inside get up and start to file out for the van. His smile quickly faded when he realized his two targets were not there. "Damm, the two must have left early," he thought to himself. His employer wasn't very tolerant, and would probably turn him into the hunted instead of the hunter by putting a price on HIS head if he went back to her now and reported failure. He scanned the team. Well, he thought to himself, at least I can do something to report, that I can report to her as a success. Silently, he inched forward to the corner of the motel. He'd take the first one that came out of the building, and give the advantage to his employer that way. She'd appreciate that at least. He reached into his vest, and slipped on the metal fanged claw he used as his weapon. As the first person stepped out and took a step towards the waiting limo, he popped out and charged the heavy-set boxer. Taking five quick steps, sprinting towards the man like a leopard in flight, he got to within two steps of him, as the boxer turned, he had sensed that SOMETHING was wrong, but by then it was far too late. The man leaped forward, spinning in mid air, hands grabbing the boxer by the hair, the metal claw gouging several bloody furrows into the man's cheek. As he flipped over , he threw his body forward, and heaved the boxer over his head. Finishing hiss move by rolling to his feet, he watched the man fly right into and through the windshield of the limo. The Spanish ninja smiled. The injuries should be enough to keep this one out of the fight, he thought to himself as he heard the first startled shouts from behind him, as he started running, hoping to lose himself in the crowd. Neither Bonnie Brown, nor his true master, the World Warrior Vega, would be totally satisfied, but he had done his best. Lei Chong Ling and Todd Vanderstreet took off in pursuit of Vernon McCracken's assailant. Ian and Igor ran over to the limo and tried to staunch the blood that was streaming from the many cuts and scratches on the boxer's face and scalp. The Spanish Ninja noted that he had pursuit, and ducked into an alleyway, noting possible escape routes, using the few seconds the sudden turn had given him to try to find a place where he could escape pursuit. Finally, he saw a fire escape ladder about 12 feet off the ground. Tensing his leg muscles, he sprang into the air, somersaulting several times, and catching the bar of the ladder in both hands. As quietly as possible, he swung himself up to the fire escape proper, and was out of sight before Ling and Vanderstreet could catch up with him. Two hours later, "Backhand" Bonnie Brown, (who had a habit of breaking the bones of anyone who was foolhardy enough to refer to her by her nickname) cursed to herself. The fool was supposed to take the kid and that bitch out! Then she composed herself and smiling, turning to Mustafa, said, "Well, at least we got one advantage. One of my sources tell me that Venton McCracken was admitted an hour and twenty minutes ago, suffering from multiple lacerations, and a pretty serious concussion. He won't be fighting. And there's no sign of those two teenagers either. Looks like we'll be fighting five on two!" Mustafa, as he usually did, took the information without blinking. Brown shivered slightly. For all people knew, the Thai Kickboxer wasn't born, he was chiseled out of ice. For the longest time, he was only happy when he was breaking somebody's bones. Now he smiled more, because he now got paid to figure out how best to cause pain and agony. Brown was mad at the fact that the two who had embarrassed her the day before hadn't gotten hurt yet. But she had learned patience. She chuckled to herself. The two were probably a couple of countries away by now, she thought to herself with a wicked smile on her face. They could run, but sooner or later, she'd find them, or she'd hire somebody to find them. Then they'd pay. "Nobody, and I mean Nobody, crosses the Lightning Fists OR Bonnie Brown." She said, quietly enough that only her teammate could hear. Mustafa smiled. He hoped that he was the one who found them. There were so many bones, and so many ways to break them. Then when he was through, he'd try out some of his new poisons on them. There would be so many interesting ways he could kill them. He smiled again, considering the possibilities. The team showed up at the stadium and quickly found Ranma and Akane, who hopped over the barrier and quickly joined them. One look at the tight set frowns on their faces, plus the fact that one of them was missing, told Akane all she needed to know. She only asked a one-word question, directed at Ian. "Who?" Ian replied, "We think it was a hired hit man, probably from our opponents. Whoever it was, it was Shadoloo based. Only Shadoloo fighters use a claw like Vega." Akane had a thousand more questions, like who this Shadoloo was, and how they could extract vengeance for their injured teammate, but there was no time. She had to do SOMETHING. Fans had started to file in. Nakajima Productions headed to their dressing room, all preparing to wreak vengeance for their friend. Ian and Akane had disappeared, but Ranma had no time to consider where they had gone. Lei Chong Ling, who seemed to be the most experienced fighter, had stood up and started pacing quietly around the room. Ranma went through a mental exercise to calm himself down, (which he sorely needed to calm himself down after he heard what had happened), and waited for the team captain to speak. When Lei spoke, it was quietly, but with great force. "Ok, my friends, we are in quite a bit of trouble. They have us outnumbered, and probably have planned their strategy already, knowing we're hurt. We have to come up with something, and quick." The team spent the next couple of minutes planning strategy. Finally, they decided that even though the attack plan had been designed for a full complement of fighters, they had no choice but to attack straight ahead. "Remember," Lei reminded everybody, "They have an extra fighter. WATCH YOUR BACKS." It was time. Each fighter slowly stood up, lost in their own thoughts, and preparing mentally for what could be the fight of their lives, they slowly filed out of the locker room, and strode out into the harsh light. The crowd swelled in anticipation, it was about time. Then several voices murmured in confusion as they only saw four members of the Nakajima Productions team. But then the confusion was replaced by a roar from the crowd as the Lightning Fists stalked on to the field, and slowly walked over to the boundary of the fighting area. Ranma's eyes were glued to Bonnie Brown, and Ranma had to stop himself from muttering several curses. Bonnie had a vicious smile on his face. "So, kid, you got more guts then I thought. Too bad I'm going to have to spill those guts now," she called, her voice carrying over to the other side. "Heard your boxing friend had a little accident, ain't that a shame? Guess we'll have to beat you five on four." Suddenly a voice from behind Ranma answered Brown's words, and made everybody turn and gape. "Guess again, bitch. This is going to be five on five." came from Akane, now clad in her fighting gi, and stepping forward on the pitch. When she had found out that they had hurt Vernon, she realized that she would have to fight for her teammates, even if she wasn't ready yet. She wasn't going to let her team get hurt, and she wasn't going to let this bitch get the satisfaction of winning the match. Ranma wanted to run, to tell Akane that this wasn't her fight. But he stopped. He wasn't going to make her decisions for her. Plus the look of complete and utter frustration on The Queen Bitch's face (his new nickname for Bonnie Brown) He called back, "I guess it's a fair fight now. Shall we do it?" A voice over the loud speaker carried to the 5,000 fans who had learned about the fight and paid a high fee to get in. "Ladies and Gentlemen, these are the rules for the team fight. Each team has five fighters, and a team will only be eliminated when all five fighters are out of the fight. A fighter will be judged out of the fight if they are knocked out, or are knocked off the fighting area, (which was marked as a red square on the soccer field) and they do not return within 45 seconds. Fighters, to your places!" Ranma walked to his team's corner. He spared enough time to look at Akane, her jaw set, her eyes upon her opponents. He smiled. The team was all together now. Five people with a mission. To defeat the Lightning Fists. And may the fates have mercy, on the Lightning Fists, because Nakajima Productions weren't going to. "FIGHT!" came the voice from the loudspeakers, as the crowd roared. Ranma tuned out the voice and the crowd, and slowly advanced with his team. The Lightning Fists had no such restraint, they came charging out quickly. Fixer threw a whirling kick at Igor who blocked it with one of his fists, while Mustafa seemed to have Akane singled out. Todd wasn't able to break free, as they had planned as he had to dodge the hammering punches and slaps from the Sumo of the Lightning Fists, Santo Hidetoshi. Hercules Harrison slowly stalked Lei Chong Ling. That left two fighters who wanted to fight each other more then anything. Ranma set himself as Bonnie Brown came into striking range. Hoping to unnerve the younger fighter, Brown started whirling around, throwing high roundhouse kicks, combining with low foot sweeps, trying to catch Ranma off guard, but Ranma easily ducked the high kicks, and leaped over the foot sweeps, resetting himself in the guard position. He gave a short laugh of derision, as if he had no respect for her fighting abilities. Ranma faked a left-hand punch, and watched Brown over-react to the fake, Ranma delivered a kick that sent the Special Forces trained Brown to the ground. "Not so tough now that you can't get your cheap shot in, huh?" Brown took a couple steps back from the impact of the kick. Ok, the kid wanted to try to humiliate her? "Nice try kid, but you're gonna have to do better then that." she leaped into the air, throwing her foot around in a roundhouse blow, which Ranma dodged easily, side stepping the kick but Brown had her own plans. She had reached into a pouch on her belt, grabbed a white powder, and turning from the landing, she heaved it in Ranma's face. Ranma screamed in pain as the substance made his eyes water. Brown laughed. "Never should've shown me up kid, first you and then the bitch are gonna get it." Ranma's eyes watered as he tried to defend himself from the measured blows Brown was laying in, but each time one landed, he groaned in pain. It was hard to see where a punch was coming from when his eyes were watering! Akane ducked under a vicious kick by Mustafa, and landed a couple punches of her own, but Mustafa showed no expression. He knocked back Akane with a side kick, but while Akane was recovering, hit Todd Vanderstreet with a kick to the back of his head., that Todd couldn't have seen. sending the Karate fighter sprawling forward unconscious from the blow. Akane swallowed nervously as she saw the grim smile on Mustafa's face, as the crowd roared. First blood to the Lightning Fists. But the odds were evened quickly, Lei Chong Ling charged Harrison leaped, actually used Harrison as a base to leap from and kicked him twice to the face with a leaping kick. The force of blow knocked Harrison down, and as he tried to get to his feet, Lei kicked his arms out from supporting him, and laid in several vicious elbows and forearms to the back and head of Harrison, who was soon rendered unconscious. But his victory was short lived, as Santo grabbed him from behind in a punishing sumo bear hug. Fixer spun through with a Double Dread Kick, first a sidekick drove his Sanbo fighter opponent back, and then he whirled in the opposite direction with another kick, stunning him temporarily. But he made a mistake. He hadn't gone far enough away to get out of the reach of the Sanbo fighter, and that was the moment the big Russian waited for. Igor grabbed Fixer by the throat, lifted him off the ground and threw him a good 25 feet, but the canny veteran kickboxer, minimized the impact and rolled through the landing. Mustafa smiled. Several kicks had left Akane reeling, blood pouring from her nose. One more kick should do it. Bonnie would be pleased. He raised a hand to the crowd, who roared in anticipation, and prepared to hit a dazed Akane with an ax kick that would surely render her unconscious. As the foot came down, Akane raised both her hand above her head and neatly caught the foot on her shoulder, minimizing the impact. Before the gaping Mustafa could extricate his foot, Akane smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. From this position, it was easy to throw a snap kick. "Payback's a bitch", she said, and threw the kick where it would hurt the most. Mustafa screamed in pain as the entire crowd that was watching winced in sympathy. Mustafa went down, tears streaming in pain, hands holding his injured groin. Akane stood over him. "Since I can't do that to your leader, I guess you'll do. If you or any other person of that goon squad ever do that to Ranma or any of my teammates ever again, next time I won't kick them. I'll rip them off." And with that, she laid him out with a palm blow to the temple. Jensen had grabbed Fixer in a sleeper hold, cutting off the supply of oxygen to the brain, Fixer tried to fight out, but his blows had no offense behind them. As he was blacking out, a last, desperate offense came to him. He let himself fall, dragging Jensen with him. Fixer's head jammed right underneath the chin of the bigger Jensen, and Jensen fell back to the ground, unconscious. Fixer tried to move, but he could only lay there, gasping for air and oxygen. The crowd murmured as the announcement that Fixer was judged out of the fight. It was rare to see a double KO like that, but now Nakajima Productions had lost two fighters, while the Lightning Fists had lost 3. The Electronic Scoreboard read Nakajima Productions 3 (Ranma Saotome, Akane Tendo, Lei Chong Ling) Lightning Fists 2 (Bonnie Brown, Santo Hideoshi) Brown had knocked down Ranma with a foot sweep that he couldn't see due to his eyes. And she was laying in vicious kicks to the stomach. Ranma was able to dodge several kicks that would have laid him out as he desperately tried to get his eyes cleared. Akane looked around at the fight. Her team had the advantage, but if that sumo wrestler took out Lei, then it would be even. But Ranma was fighting gamely, but Brown was ripping him apart, because he couldn't see! After a second, she came up with an idea. She shouted at Ranma, unknotted the sash that closed her gi, and tossed the sash to his outstretched, groping hand. Then she ran over to Santo and her teammate. Lei only had a few seconds of consciousness left. His ribs felt like they were on fire, and although he continued to struggle, part of his mind realized that there was no escape. Then he heard a cry from Akane, who was charging. He immediately curled up as best as he could inside the hold, ducking, as Akane leaped into the air, and landed a kick to Santo's face. Stunned, the sumo fighter let go of the bear hug he had on and took two steps back. Lei took a deep breath, focused his will has best as he could, and dashed forward with a series of Rekka Ken punches. Santo tried to block them but the blows just came in to fast for him to block effectively. As the third and final punch landed right on the temple, Santo fell back, and fell flat, as Lei howled in victory. The big sumo wrestler had been taken down. Ranma had used the sash to clear his eyes enough to see, and Brown, realizing her predicament distanced herself from her three remaining fighters, cursing as she looked around to see if she had any support, and eyes widening, realized it was just her left. Akane stood behind Ranma, (not wanting him to see her without her gi and get distracted). Both stood on guard. Brown realized that she could only do one thing. Attack. She charged both her remaining opponents. Ranma calmed himself, and set himself right in Brown's path, trying to judge the perfect moment to strike, focusing his spirit. Then it was time. "TENSHIN AMAGURI KEN!" As he yelled, his spirit blazed, and his blurred hands actually glowed with the force of the strike. Brown could not stop in time and literally ran into the punches. She flew back, flipping end over end from the sheer force of Ranma's punches, finally ending up twitching on the ground a good 10 yards away. The crowd in stands were going crazy with applause. Some of the male members of the crowd whistled appreciatively at Akane. Ranma turned to see what the whistling was about, and nearly was bowled over by a bear hug by Akane, who was yelling "We Did IT! WE BEAT THEM!" Ranma accepted the hug for a moment, then realized the state Akane was in and staggered back, nose bleeding as he realized Akane was missing her top. Akane remembered what had happened, and she blushed fully, at least Ranma thought she was having a full body blush, considering the parts of her he COULD see! She quickly retrieved her gi, and slid it back on and redid the sash when a blushing Ranma handed it back to her. Ian hopped the railing, and the team helped Igor and Todd to their feet, and to the chants from the crowd, the victorious fighters raised their hands to the crowd, as doctors and technicians checked over the Lightening Fists to make sure they were in no immediate life-threatening danger. The victorious fighters, waved to the crowd as they sat in the winner's box, to watch the final fight of the five of the evening. This was the World Warrior between Balrog and Fei Long. "Ladies and gentlemen, our final match of the evening is a World Warrior fight. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to FISTS OF FURY!" came the now familiar voice from the loudspeaker. "First of all, he is a practitioner of Wing Chun Kung Fu. He has a record of 69 wins, with only two losses, one draw, and 58 of those wins were by knockout, the Hong Kong movie star, The Jade Dragon, FEI LONG!" The crowd applauded, the recovering Lei Chong Ling applauding as he studied his fellow Kung Fu martial artist, trying to learn from watching. He had a friendly bet with Vernon, since they both shared a style with one of the World Warriors in the fight. "And his opponent, hails from the United States of America. He's a former united Heavyweight Champion Boxer of the World. He comes into tonight's fight with a record of 128-6 -3,with 118 by Knockout. Fists of Steel, the master of the Dashing Punch, BALROG!" The two briefly acknowledged the cheers of the crowd, but it was obvious that they were intent on the fight. There were no rules in this one, either they'd fight until they were both too tired to continue, or until one was knocked out. As the two clashed, Ranma turned to Akane. "Thanks for the loan of the sash to clean my eyes. Sorry about the way it left you." Akane blushed, but then smiled. Akane giggled, remembering the look on Ranma's face when he realized she didn't have her gi top on. "That's ok. I'm just glad we won, we got revenge for what they had done to Vernon and to you, and we both made it through." She blushed, deeply this time and whispered, "Did you like the look, Ranma?" Ranma suffered another nosebleed as he realized that Akane didn't mind that he had taken a peek. He thought to himself, "So much has changed since the first time I accidentally walked in on her.", he then recovered a little of his bravado and told Akane, "Just as long as next time you try to get me to take a peek at you, it's not in public." Akane ALMOST summoned Mallet-sama at that remark, who said that she WANTED him to look at her, then sighed. I guess he really does think me uncute, she thought to herself. But then again, he HAD taken more then a peek when he noticed. She shook her head, not knowing if she was happy or mad that he had looked, then looked back at the fight. Uncomfortable, Ranma turned back to the fight. Fei Long had Balrog dazed, and apparently wished to finish the fight, had leaped in the air, and summoned his chi and as his leg actually burst into fire, hit Balrog with a screaming Dragon Kick that sent the Boxer flying back, unconscious. The crowd erupted. A few days later, a bruised and battered Bonnie Brown appeared in front of her Master. Bonnie had once swore that she would never bow down to anybody, but she was terrified out of her mind at what this person could do. "I beg forgiveness. I wish to kill those two, to try to make up for my failure." A throaty chuckle came from the man sitting on the chair. "No, my dear, you did exactly right. I was the one who told your manager to sign this fight. I needed to see if Vega's reports were correct. He was. Consider the loss erased from my mind. Go and serve us well. We have a shipment going to Thailand tonight. You and the rest of the Lightning Fists are to guard it. And one last thing. We have OTHER plans for the two of them. Do not take any retribution." As Bonnie Brown saluted her Master, and quietly fled his inner sanctum, she felt like she was the luckiest woman on the face of the earth. People who tended to disappoint her Master were either killed, or if they were unlucky, faced a fate that was probably worse then death. But she whispered to herself, "It's not over. Someday, some way, the Lightning Fists will get their revenge. Whatever Bison has planned for you, I hope it hurts you." M. Bison stood up, calmly walked over to a view screen, and pressed a single button. "Get me Vega", was all he said. Almost immediately, the handsome Spanish Ninja's face filled the screen. Vega never liked to be summoned so pre-emptorily by Bison, but he knew Bison would never call him unless he needed something. "Yes, Lord Bison?" "I am pleased. Your reports of the fighter Saotome were right on mark. He would be a welcome addition to Shadoloo. Continue to watch him, we will prepare a strike when the time is right" "I hear and obey, Lord Bison." replied the Spanish Ninja, as he broke the connection. M. Bison sat on his throne. Studying a map of the world, and the forces of Shadaloo that occupied its criminal underworld. It's all a game of human chess, you just have to know how all the pieces moved, he thought to himself. He considered the moves he was now taking. As always, there were risks, but risks needed to be taken to make the prize worthwhile. He had just advanced another pawn in his schemes. Bison laughed quietly, "Soon enough, Ranma Saotome, you will become another pawn in my games. Welcome to Hell, I hope you will enjoy the ride." The chuckle became a loud laugh. that continued on through the night. ------------------------------------------------------------ This is a rewrite of Chapter 5, armed with several criticisms by the people of the Fanfic Mailing List, who I have found to be good judges of what needed to be worked on. People wonder that I've made Ranma less powerful. One of the things was that he had adjusted to the circuit, its culture and rules (such as it was). Also, it's no fun to write a cookie cutter "Ranma gets mad and blows away everybody." story. Ranma is powerful, yes. But at heart, he is all too human. As always, comments and critique are welcome at Dyellope@norfolk-county.com. If any of you have ICQ by Mirabilis (a program I can't recommend any higher, it's very good.) look me up. I am 177814, (nickname Fozzie) Till the next time all, tentatively titled "Secrets and Shadoloo: The Poison Haze" Ja Ne, y'all D.M.Y June 1st, the year of Ranma 1998 There is No Lumber Cartel.. And I am NOT Member #01538 Hentai at large... Fanfic Writer.. RPG addict You send me spam.. I send you a bill. $15 per spam By sending me garbage.. you indicate your acceptance of these terms. ===================================================== Some people prefer to hide their head in the sand.. to make problems go away. I just become a BIGGER problem and I make THEM go away! ========================================================= === File Separator ============================================== From: dyellope@norfolk-county.com (David Yellope) To: ffml@fanfic.com Subject: [FFML] (NEW!) Ranma 1/2-Street Fighter XOver, "Iron Fist Iron Warrior" Ch6 (Part 1 of 3 in "Home Again" Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 07:53:01 GMT The Mindless Faces of Evil present A Megayope Production Ranma 1/2 - Street Fighter Crossover "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior" Chapter 6: "Home Again, Part One: Decisions, Decisions" The month after Nakajima Productions victory over the Lightning Fists was some of the most hectic times in Ranma and Akane's life. Not only did the underground press want interviews with one of the hottest teams in the world of Street Fighting, but several mainstream magazines sent reporters to try to get Akane and Ranma to tell more about their respective schools of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Akane didn't get a swelled head, but did as many interviews as she could stand; figuring it was good publicity for her father and Mr. Saotome's dojo. However, the normally ebullient Ranma didn't feel the same way. If he saw any reporters coming to him, he would immediately look for a way out, leaving before he could be asked for an interview. The rest of the team was puzzled by this behavior, but as a sort of unspoken pledge; no one mentioned Ranma's curse, figuring if anyone was going to tell the press, it would be him. Akane had figured she would miss her family so much while she was away, and she did, but she had a life line to home. Every second or third day, a quick note would arrive from her sisters and her father. She would spend a few hours reading and re-reading the note, catching up on all the small details of what was going on back in Nerima. She had to chuckle, going over the latest letters from home again, sitting on the bed in her hotel room Nabiki had enclosed a note that Kuno had spent the first two months protesting about how the "evil accursed sorcerer Saotome" had taken away both loves of his life, Akane Tendo, and the mysterious pig-tailed girl. However, Kuno had spoken one too many times about Ranma, in the wrong person's hearing. It seems that during one of his soliloquies on the evilness of Ranma, Shampoo had taken umbrage at one of his more detailed descriptions and tried to smash Kuno with one of her bonbori. This had led to a big fight, which devastated about two blocks of downtown Nerima. To everyone's great surprise, Kuno had won the fight. Shampoo now had to figure out how she was to marry both Ranma and Kuno, and Cologne had thrown up her hands in horror when she realized the pickle this put her in. Cologne and Shampoo spent the next week trying to worm out how long Ranma and Akane would be out on the circuit. Failing to get an answer from even the ever-helpful Kasumi. Cologne had packed up the Nekohanten, as well as Shampoo and a still protesting Kuno (even though she had used some kind of Amazon neck pinch to turn off Kuno's vocal cords, to everyone's great relief) and hadn't been seen for weeks. As Akane finished the letter, she sat back, and started thinking about Ranma's recent behavior. She wished she knew what was wrong with him. Although not particularly acting like the engaged to be married couple their parents wanted them to act like, the two were friends, and something was definitely bothering him. During a normal three-hour sparring session, Akane would count herself lucky to get three or four touches in. However, lately, she would land three or four times that many moves. Ranma tried to half-heartedly convince her that it was because she was improving, but Akane knew better. A lot of the moves were basic moves that Ranma should have blocked easily. She was brought out of her thoughts by a polite knock at the door. She stood up walked over to the door, opened it. Alex, the team chauffeur, go-fer, personal assistant, and in Akane's estimation, the backbone of the team, stood waiting. She smiled, Alex was a good friend to all the fighters, and he had saved them when he was able to get Akane her fighting gi in time to replace Venton McCracken for the fight against the Lightning Fists. "Hey Akane, I just got some good news from Mr. Nakajima. I thought I'd come up and tell you first, so Vanderstreet doesn't take the initiative and invite himself up to your room to tell you the good news." Akane winced to herself slightly. It seemed that Todd Vanderstreet found her to be "exotically charming" and spent his time trying to charm/seduce her. It wasn't bad enough yet to make her think about getting rid of him with mallet-sama, but still, it was annoying. "Mr. Nakajima's going to call everybody together later today. We signed a contract to headline a card back in Osaka. Solo fights, but it means big money for the team. We thought you'd be especially happy because you can go visit your family while we're there." Alex explained. Akane bounced off the bed and hugged Alex excitedly, causing the chauffeur profound embarrassment. Akane broke the hug with a blush, but her excitement was still palpable. "When do we leave for Osaka?" Alex consulted a travel itinerary he had brought with him, expecting this very same question. "Well, we're setting it up now, but I think we'll leave in two weeks, and we'll spend a month over there promoting the fight card." Akane grinned, "Does Ranma know yet?" He would definitely be surprised, she thought to herself. Alex's face dropped a little. He had been present for most of the recent sparring sessions, and Ranma's lackluster performance worried him. He hadn't said anything to Mr. Nakajima yet, hoping that Akane would figure a way to get him back to one hundred percent. "Last I saw him, he had just ducked out of an interview, and was heading up the roof I think. Maybe you ought to tell him yourself, Akane" The two made small talk for the next few minutes, but Alex left to go tell the rest of the team, and Akane decided to hunt down Ranma and tell him personally. She headed up to the hotel's roof, blinking slightly as the bright sun blazed high above. Ranma sat on a wall in the center, looking out from the roof onto the sea. Akane walked up next to Ranma, and the two spent a couple minutes looking out, listening to the sounds of traffic far below. After several minutes, Ranma finally spoke, in a quiet voice. "Hi Akane." Was all he said, not even turning, eyes locked in on the horizon. "Hi Ranma. You ok?" she asked, just as quietly. Ranma sighed quietly, looking down at his feet for a few seconds, before looking out again at the horizon. "Nah, just an old problem that has been getting worse recently." Akane thought she knew what was bothering him, and his next few sentences confirmed it. "I wonder if someone's going to read these interviews they want me to do and tell my mom about me." His voice never rose in pitch, but his voice carried an intensity Akane didn't usually hear. "I know Pop was right, about making me promise never to tell my mom about what happened until we found a cure for the Jusenkyo curse, but ever since I was young, I haven't really had a mother. I was always on training trips with Pop, learning more moves, there was something driving me. My mom understood that, made me promise to be a "man among men". I don't know how'd she react if she met me now, but I don't think I'll have that chance for a while. For all Pop and I know, there is no cure. What am I supposed to do then, never see my mom unless I'm Ranko again? Sometimes I wonder if it would be worth the chance of her following up on our promise to commit seppuku, just to know I could talk to my mom again. A plan crystallized in Akane's mind at Ranma's words. It was risky, with a chance of catastrophic failure. If it did fail, well, she guessed Ranma would never speak to her again. But still, an effort had to be made. She had to deal with the here and now first, however. "I understand, Ranma. But right now, we need you to be one hundred percent. Alex just told me we have a fight in Osaka scheduled, we'll be able to spend a month at home, and we'll figure a way to do this. Maybe we should ask Nabiki, she's always got good plans." Ranma couldn't help grinning, "Yeah.. good plans to fleece somebody out of money." The two spent another half an hour talking, before Akane excused herself to call home and tell them the good news. Even though it was an international call, Akane didn't begrudge the cost. Her share of the team's prize money had left her moderately wealthy, and not being one to shop, she had saved most of it. It was time to spend a little. Nabiki answered the phone, and gleefully told everybody the news (the cheers were loud enough to be heard over the phone, she noticed.) She talked with her family for a few minutes, then asked for Nabiki, she had a favor to ask. When Nabiki returned, she asked Nabiki to make sure no one else was within listening distance, then spoke quietly. "Nabiki, I need you to get me something, and I need it kept quiet. It's a surprise for Ranma when he gets home..." She quickly detailed what she would need, and she could almost SEE the grin forming on Nabiki's face as she got the idea. "Right, Akane, will do. Although I wish Ranma knew, I hear he's getting rich, and I don't charge family members." The two shared a chuckle as Nabiki said her good-byes and taking the stairs two at a time, headed up to her room, a big smile on her face. Akane-chan was up front and honest usually, but she had to have been watching Nabiki at work, this plan was GOOD. Meanwhile, Akane replaced the receiver, went to sit back on her bed, and chuckled softly. "Ranma Saotome, for once in your life, you're the one who's going to owe ME a favor. The look on your eyes will be worth it." She sat back to think on how to best pull this plan off. The team continued to spar over the next two weeks, but there was a definite undercurrent of excitement underneath the everyday work. Punches were thrown with a little more intensity, the kicks were just that little bit crisper, and Ranma, while not back to his usual carefree self, was back close to his old level. He returned to his form in the sparring sessions against Akane, but somehow Akane didn't mind. She would rather learn more by fighting a Ranma at near one hundred percent, then get a temporary ego boost by fighting a less interested Ranma The two weeks passed rather quickly, and soon enough, the team was packing for the flight to Osaka. Mr. Tendo and Mr. Saotome had decided to offer the dojo as a practice ground, and Ranma and Akane pitched in some of their money to reserve several rooms for the team, as hosts. Soon enough, it was time to leave, and as Ranma and Akane chatted quietly, a sense of deja vu struck Akane. Just a couple months ago, they were flying off into an unknown future. Now once again, although Ranma didn't know it, great changes were in store. She grinned; the telegram from Nabiki had arrived just an hour before the team left. It read... We'll meet you at the airport. You'll find that request in your room Akane. You know the place. Nabiki Ranma wondered what "that request" meant, and Akane had to stifle a giggle and told him he'd have to wait to find out. Akane knew that Ranma HATED mysteries, which was just a bonus. Even if he got curious and tried to find where Nabiki had stashed the information that Akane had requested, he could tear apart the whole room and not find it. There was a loose floorboard in Akane's room. The two sisters would leave secret notes for each other in there, without the fear of other people reading it. After she got the information, however, it was all up to her. Ranma tried to stay happy, for Akane's sake, which wasn't too hard at times, but sometimes his thoughts would drift. For many years, Pop had taken him out on the road on training trips here and there. He didn't particularly think bad of it, mind you, he thought that's how EVERYBODY did things. He was never in one place long enough to have an attachment, it was just himself and Pop versus the world. But that had changed in the year or so that he had been at the Tendo dojo. He had missed the place, Kasumi's quiet strength, watching Mr. Tendo and Pop cheat like mad at shogi, (and then deny that they had, of course) even razzing Akane about her cooking. He was looking forward to going home. His mind immediately seized on that thought. The Tendo Dojo WAS home, and he was looking forward to it. Now if he could just get his Pop to figure a way to reconcile with Mom, it'd be perfect. As his mind worked through his recent experiences, he wondered why that it had took him so long to MISS his new home. He guessed it was because he wasn't alone, he had someone with the same connection in Akane. The two had developed a fast friendship, based on a few common experiences, and a common goal, to be the best heir they could be for their school of Anything Goes Martial Arts. That's not all, admit it, you care for her, came the rogue thought. Ranma braced himself, usually around that time, he would do or say something just to prove he DIDN'T care, well, then out came the mallet and he either ran away at high speed, or he FLEW away at high speed. That would be rather inconvenient 30,000 feet up and over the ocean. Ranma adjusted his seat belt, sat back in his seat and closed his eyes and tried to work through his feelings. He DID care for Akane, he just hated being pushed into an engagement he hadn't wanted, that he wasn't READY for. If their meddling fathers just had INTRODUCED them, and maybe let the two of them work it out, they would have a better chance. Now, they had to wonder if the other one was "caring" for them only to appease their fathers. But he still cared for Uc-chan, but somewhat differently. Uc-chan was a rock in his world, someone you knew you could count on to have beside you when trouble threatened, that would be there when you need it. But he didn't know if that meant he loved her. He thought of Akane's shy smile, and of her tremendous dedication to her training. She had pushed him past limits he thought were unbreakable. He never wanted to teach before; it seemed, so, well, BORING. He'd rather be where the action is, after all. But he enjoyed the sessions greatly; there was something that felt really good when Akane mastered a new move. And the few times where he had surprised HIM, well, it had pushed him to a new level. He looked at Akane, saw the grin on her face, as she studied him, and jokingly asked, "And what's put that grin on your face, Akane?" Akane's grin broadened. "Oh, just thinking about surprises, Ranma-sensei, I bet the future of Nakajima Productions contain many such surprises." And she couldn't stop a giggle from escaping. Yes, Ranma, she thought to herself. The future DOES contain many surprises. And there's a real big one headed for you shortly. End Part 6 Well, that FINALLY does it. Part six comes to a close, I'm sorry for how short this part is, but I figured that I'd rather have two short parts, instead of one long part that would take forever to release. For those of you who wish to comment or critique, or if you just want to chat about Anime and Ranma, or even the Street Fighter world I have a variety of ways to be contacted. E-Mail: You can currently reach me at Tarislan@yahoo.com, or dyellope@norfolk-county.com. I also have a CompuServe ID, for any of you that use that service: 75252,3312. AOL IM: Tarislan is my nick ICQ: (Preferred to AOL) my Nick is Fozzie, and my ICQ # 177814 Well, that FINALLY ends Part 6, and Part One of three of a mini-"Story within a story". I think that everyone back in Nerima is going to be VERY surprised by the changes that the Street Fighter world has put Ranma and Akane through. As sort of an "apology for how brief this part is, I've decided to let everyone in on my plan for the next few chapters. Here's a brief rundown of future chapters: "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior" Chapter 7: "Home Again, Part Two, A Plot is Unveiled in Nerima" We'll learn more about what's been going on back in Nerima. With Shampoo, Cologne and Kuno no longer around, how much quieter will Nerima be? Can Ranma be on his best behavior, and we'll see Akane's plot come to fruition. Chapter 8: "Home Again, Final Part: Two Confrontations" Nakajima Productions steps into the Street Fighter ring again, to take on another opponent. But the TRUE confrontation for Ranma will come not in the ring, but outside. We'll see Akane's plot come to fruition, and how both Ranma and Akane deal with the aftereffects. Ranma's world will definitely take a hit after this part. Chapter 9 "Poison Haze, Part One: Danger Zone" Life on the Flashfire Circuit isn't all wine and roses. An outside force decides to test Ranma, not physically, but the one place you can never truly defend: The Soul Chapter 10 "Poison Haze, Part Two: A Shock to the System" Ranma learns there is one wound you can't heal naturally. What happens when an internal wound festers? Chapter 11 "Poison Haze, Part Three: Cleansing the Soul" For once in his life, Ranma decides he needs help to deal with the Poison Haze. But can an old blind man really teach him to see truly? And an old sensei pops in, to help Ranma. But will the help come at too high a price? Chapter 12 "Poison Haze, Final Part: Liberty and Justice" Ranma must now confront his foe, the puppet master, One that tried to pull his string. But will he learn that even the puppet master is controlled? I would be GLAD to accept any pre-reader help. If anybody wants to help me write this, I would welcome it as well. Until then, Ja Ne, y'all September 4th, 1998 There is No Lumber Cartel.. And I am NOT Member #01538 Hentai at large... Fanfic Writer.. RPG addict You send me spam.. I send you a bill. $15 per spam By sending me garbage.. you indicate your acceptance of these terms. Some people prefer to hide their head in the sand.. to make problems go away. I just become a BIGGER problem and I make THEM go away! === File Separator ==============================================