He looked from cage to cage of small mammals and insects, each with slightly glowing eyes or some other visible sign that they weren’t your average pet. He shuddered slightly and avoided the cat that was floating a couple of inches above the floor of it’s cage.
Unnoticed by him however, a small familiar looking (to our readers) blue and red spider slowly descended, rappelling down a web line to land on his neck, looking for a good place to have a quick bite.
Nabiki was questioning Storeman on if there were any super villain packages that didn’t come with ‘megalomania’ or ‘must conquer world’ added.
To her way of thinking, the villains got the really good skills when it came to building expensive and patentable items. Why take over the world when you could just invent something that would make you rich enough to buy a small island, like say…. Hawaii?
If she had to, she could even put up with megalomania. It didn’t seem to harm Bill Gates’s career after all.
“Owch!” Ranma slapped the back of his neck just missing whatever had bitten him and stared around irritated. He had spent over a decade living on the road, but getting bit by insects was still something he still hated.
“Congratulations Sir! You have been chosen to be the bearer of the proportional powers of a spider. Always a good choice if you ask me. A very well rounded hero pack. Of course there are a couple of books you’ll need to read. Mandatory I’m afraid.” Storeman actually looked a bit embarrassed over the last bit.
“What proportional powers of a spider?” Ranma panicked. He could just see himself running around with six arms and eight eyes, being stared at by everyone.
“Strength, speed, agility, the usual packet. I assure you everyone who has received the gift of the spider totem has never had cause to complain.”
Ranma paused as he thought abought it. ‘No one has ever complained?’ “I ain’t gonna grow extra arms or eyes or nothin’ like that?”
“Nope. You are simply gifted with the abilities of a spider. Modified for human size of course.”
“What was that you were saying abought speed, strength, and agility?” Ranma asked, becoming a bit more interested.
“Your speed, strength, and agility will grow to match what a spider would have if it was your size. For instance you will find yourself able to dodge like the wind. Flowing around an opponents attacks like smoke. ”
“I can already do that.” Ranma began to look a bit doubtful abought the ‘blessings’ of the spider.
“Well can you run across a surface a centimeter wide without falling?”
*Nod*
“Leap from a standing start to the roof of a building?”
*Nod*
“Sense danger when there is no visible source?”
*Nod*
“Speed and reflexes several times the human norm?”
“You should see him eat and his punching speed already breaks the sound barrier.”
“Really? Are you sure you haven’t been here before?”
“Nope. Training.”
“The ability to cling to walls?”
“I’ve seen him remain motionless on a flat ceiling for hours to avoid my sisters cooking.”
“Can you walk around like it’s a flat surface?”
“Nah, but that would be cool. It’d make it a lot easier to avoid getting poisoned that way.” Ranma perked up a little.
Storeman looked a little more confidant. “Did I mention super human strength?” He said with a grin. This bit always hooked them.
“How strong are we talking here?” Nabiki interjected.
“Being able to bench press ten tons.” Storeman said with pride.
“I can do twelve most days and if I really strain fifteen.” Ranma grinned.
“Seriously?” Storeman looked a little rough around the edges.
“Yep.” Ranma puffed up a little. It’s always an ego boost to realize that you’re already in the superhuman range of abilities.
“Flexibility?”
“To an insane amount.” Nabiki interrupted, blushing for some reason Ranma couldn’t quite figure out.
“Heal at an incredibly fast rate for a human?” Storeman asked hopefully.
“I’ve seen him break bones and have them heal within days.” Nabiki replied
Storeman sighed. This really wasn’t a good day. The boy already had most of not all of the basic powers and that probably wasn’t including everything the boy could do. Now he had to explain the downside that the boy wouldn’t have if he hadn’t been bitten. Well… best to get it over with.
“Overdeveloped sense of duty?” He asked tentatively.
“I’ve seen him protect his enemies from disasters of their own making without a second thought. Or a first one for that matter.” Nabiki grinned.
“Hey, I just don’t like to see people hurt, OK?”
“I’m just teasing Ranma. We like you the way you are. Completely unlike your father.”
Ranma blushed a little at that, for some reason Nabiki couldn’t figure out this time.
“Females close to you put in life threatening situations or kidnapped?”
Ranma shrugged. “At least it keeps things from getting dull.”
Storeman relaxed as he felt the weight of bad news being lifted from his shoulders. Apparently the kid was already slated for the hero biz. Picking up a couple of books from the counter he handed them to Ranma.
Ranma looked through them.
“How to banter well with villains?”
“Insulting an opponent in a fight or appearing to think the entire thing is a game is a great way to make you’re opponent lose his temper and make mistakes.”
“By Genma Satome?”
“I don’t know the chap, but the book is top drawer when it comes to making someone lose their temper.”
“Already had lessons.” Ranma replied with a smirk.
Seeing the smirk and recognizing it from the diagrams on page one hundred and thirty three, Storeman nodded and placed it back on the counter.
“How to build your very own web shooters? What’s that?”
“Well one of the abilities of a spider is to secrete web fluid which can be very useful.”
“I saw a movie like that, but didn’t it come out of the guys wrists?”
Storeman looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry, but Spiders don’t have spinnerets located in that particular area.”
“Then where does it come from?”
Glancing over at Nabiki he quickly leaned forward and whispered something in Ranma’s ear.
“Eeewww! Gross!”
“Well you can milk the glad and store it in a container to use on wrist wearable web shooters. Which is what the book shows you how to do.”
“I suppose so.” Ranma replied with a sigh.
“What other powers do you have?”
“I can create tornados and store stuff in subspace. I can fire energy blasts and learn anything with the words martial arts in it in very little time. I can grow to dozens of times my normal size and explode stuff with a touch.”
“You can grow several times your own size? When did you learn that?”
“When Happosai and pops got into it. It uses a lot of ki so I don’t bother.”
“I thought Ryoga was the one who specialized in blowing stuff up?”
“I learned it. I just don’t use it. It causes too much property damage. Can you imagine the problems we’d have if I went around blowing stuff up too? I also know how to use the iron cloth technique to make clothing into weapons or armor.”
“I thought Ryoga used that one too?”
“He does but he swore off using it casually since he cut Akane’s hair that one time. It could have been worse. He’s a pretty decent guy when he ain’t going ‘Ranma Prepare to die!’. Almost forgot the sealed techniques. I can turn invisible and throw blades of vacuum that cause incredible amounts of damage.”
“You can also turn into a girl, stick your foot into your mouth in any situation, eat enough to impress a sumo champion, collect even more violent fiancées without trying, lose you mind and think you’re a cat when exposed to one and unable to escape.”
“Those are curses not powers.”
“Anything that puts you beyond human limits is a power.”
“They don’t exactly make my life easy.”
“Let’s not forget that while in Neko-ken you have energy claws that cut through anything and heightened senses and your strength and speed go up to ridiculous levels.”
“Yeah but it’s not really me.”
“It’s you.”
Ranma just sighed, unwilling to argue the point with Nabiki.
“It’s normally 100,000 yen for the spider set but being chosen by the totem enables you to a discount of 98.5% and taking into account everything.” Storeman did some quick calculations on a calculator and consulted a book titled abilities and disabilities.
“Here you go.” Storeman held out a rather large amount of cash.
“What’s this for?” Ranma asked in confusion.
“Balance. Abilities versus disabilities. Consider it good Karma. You also get a rather hefty store credit in case you want to purchase something else.”
Nabiki grinned and Ranma felt a cold shiver run up his spine.
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(Posted Fri, 25 Jun 2004 05:03)
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