Now mother and son sat in the kitchen and ate a small meal. Though they sat in companionable silence, Ranma kept stealing glances at his mother when he thought she wasn’t looking. She quickly got tired of that.
“Something on your mind, Ranma?”
“No, nothing,” he said a little too quickly.
“Ranma,” she said in a disappointed tone, “I thought we promised there wouldn’t be any secrets between us.”
Ranma sighed and silently cursed motherly intuition, though he didn’t know he was being fairly obvious. “Well, can I ask you something? I just don’t want to sound prejudice or stupid or anything.”
“Of course, you may ask me anything. I promise I won’t get mad at you.”
“Is this your real form or one that you chose?” he asked, blushing a bit.
The woman with dark blue skin and auburn hair laughed softly, “No, this is my natural form. Even though I can hold a shape in my sleep, when I am totally relaxed, this is the form I take. True, there was a time I looked like a normal girl. The mutant x-gene usually doesn’t activate until puberty in most cases, usually between nine and sixteen. Mine activated early and since I couldn’t hold a form for very long back then, I had to grow up with the stigma of being obviously different.”
Ranma just nodded and accepted the answer. He wasn’t sure his mother noticed her voice becoming more and more stressed as she talked about it. He certainly didn’t want a repeat of the last morning, so he let the subject drop.
“How long do you think we got till Magneto comes after us?”
“It’s difficult to say. He may come right away, or he may decide we are not worth his time. Before I went on my little mission, I sent the Brotherhood to Magneto, hoping they would at least be out of the way, or, at most, they would cause some sort of disruption. It looks like I miscalculated just how much he and Pietro brought them to heel. I didn’t expect them to be here and they certainly seemed to be expecting us.”
“So we might have some time, if he sent them guys back here instead of his heavy hitters.”
“Or he might have something more important going on. But make no mistake; he can be very patient and cunning when he wants to be.” They lapsed into silence once more before Mystique asked, “Have you decided on what you are going to do with the Brotherhood yet?”
Ranma looked down, “No. I got a few ideas, but I just don’t know yet.”
Mystique smiled evilly, “You scared them pretty good this morning.”
Ranma looked down, “I really shouldn’ta, I guess. It just sort of turned out that way.”
His mom seemed on the edge of rebuking him, but seemed to reconsider. “Explain.” She said crisply.
“Firstly, they were here lookin’ for a fight. That white haired guy was hopin’ you’d talk back to him or give him some reason to start a fight. So, yeah, that made more than a little mad, but I really thought they’d be able to take it a little more.”
“Continue.” She said after a moment.
“Well, the big guy, Blob, he started out with a jump in the air, I think he must have come down from more than three meters, so I didn’t seem much problem sending him back up there.”
“And that move you used?”
“It’s really Happosai’s favorite move, just wait till the person attacks you then redirect their momentum back at ‘em. He must be really strong to go up that high. I’ll admit I was a bit worried, but it mostly seemed to piss him off. I didn’t think I could take him out easy any other way, plus I still had the other’s to deal with, so I sent him for another ride. Good thing he can take it, I guess.”
“Yes.” She said grimly. “I think Toad got off fairly easy, all things considered. But Lance? Why did you use a ki blast on him. You don’t think that’s a bit of overkill?”
“He was throwin’ earthquakes at me. We were in the back yard and I was afraid he’d hit the house or something. If those shockwaves had upset the foundation, this house wouldn’t even be standing anymore and there was a girl still inside, don’t forget. It was the fastest way to get him to stop. Besides, it was only a small ki blast.”
“It sure didn’t seem like it from where I was standing.” She looked at him for a moment, studying him. “There’s more to it, though, isn’t there?”
“I shouldn’ta let my emotions rule the fight. I could’a done better than that. I’m sorry.”
“That’s part of the reason I put them in your charge. How you take care of them is now your responsibility so you will have to make it up them that way.”
Ranma nodded, “I was kinda thinking about what you said before, ‘bout how we get stuck in a cycle of makin’ the same choices for the same situations so we end up with the same problems. I think you’re right, in a way.”
“How so?”
“Well, Magneto’s got a team, and Xavier has a team. Maybe we’d do better if we had a team. I mean, usually I’d say I’d take on all of them alone, but that’s what I always do, so that might be what they will expect. But if I get a team together, they might not expect it.”
Mystique smiled, “I was rather hoping you’d say that. I do feel a bit responsible for these boys since I did bring them here. In that case, let’s not go back to Japan for a while. You could train the Brotherhood to help us with Magneto as a way of restitution and you might even get to know your brother and sister as well.”
Ranma brightened at that prospect, but it died at his mother’s next words, “Of course, that means you will have to go to school here.”
------------------------------------
The next day was Saturday, and Ranma called the other members of the house together in the living room.
“Mom and I decided to keep the team together, but there is a catch.”
”Let me guess, you’re going to be the leader.” Lance said with obvious distaste.
“No, I’ll leave that to Mom. The catch is this is going to be for volunteers only. We expect Magneto is going to come after us, and if you’re on the team, you’re going to be going up against him almost right away.”
Todd whimpered a little, “You kidding, right? Magneto’s too powerful. He’ll flatten us without even trying.”
“Mom and I figure we have some time. While Mom is going to lead you, I’m going to take over your training.”
“What do we need training for? We’re already powerful.” Fred said.
“And I already beat you with training alone. You might have fancy powers, but if you focus them through training, it would mean the difference between a club and a sword, or a sword and a scalpel.”
Wanda spoke up, “So what is your power anyway? You must have some sort of mutant ability if Mystique’s your mom.”
“I don’t have any. As far as we figure, my x-gene hasn’t activated yet and probably never will.”
“No way,” said Todd, “So, like, you’re not even a mutant? No way you can be part of the Brotherhood. This house is for mutants only.”
“That was when Magneto was in charge,” Mystique said, “but I’m running things now. What does he have to do, beat you again? My Ranma is twice...”
“Mom! That is not the way.” Mystique just huffed and crossed her arms. “It’s like I said, it’s completely voluntary and we will be going up against Magneto sooner or later. If you stay, you train with me and fight or you get out of the way.”
“I’m in.” Wanda piped up. “If you’re going up against my dad, I’m all for it.”
Ranma looked sharply at his mother, who tried to look innocent, “Oh, didn’t I mention that Wanda and Pietro were siblings? Or that Wanda absolutely hates her father?”
Ranma let out a breath in exasperation, “All right. Anyone else?”
“If my little sugar plum is staying, so am I.” Todd said, though it was obvious he was put up a little bravado.
“I’m not your sugar plum.” Wanda cringed from his adoring gaze.
“I, for one, am tired of loosing. If you think you can make us a better team then count me in.” Lance said.
“Hey, it sounds better than anything else. Count me in, too. But I still don’t see how trainin’s going to do us much good.” said Fred.
“Come on. We may as well start now. We’ve got the whole day ahead of us.” Ranma led them all to the back yard. “Now, yesterday gave me a pretty good idea of what your abilities are. Fred, how about you and I start? You stand over there.”
Fred stood across from Ranma on the lawn, “OK, now what?”
“It’s a simple game of push, you back me up to the edge of the yard and I’ll try to do the same for you. Picking me up is against the rules.”
“Ha! Too easy.”
“Go get ‘em, Freddie.” Lance called.
Ranma put his arms around the front of Blob’s girth as the big teen confidently walked forward. To his surprise, he wasn’t moving. He put his hands on Ranma’s shoulders and started pushing, again he wasn’t making any forward progress. He really started to lean into it and found himself sliding backwards.
“Hey! How you doin’ this?”
“You may be stronger and bigger, but I have leverage since I’m underneath you.” Ranma said with more than a little strain in his voice. “This is a simple sumo technique.”
“If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I wouldn’t believe it.” Lance said.
“Go, Ranma.” Wanda cheered.
“OK, stop.” Ranma called and they separated when Blob had been backed up about ten feet. “Do you believe me? This is what training can do for you.”
“Yeah, OK. Thanks.” Blob walked back to the others.
“Todd, you’re next.”
“Just call me Toad, yo. Everyone else does.” Toad said as he leaped over. “We gonna do that push thing too?”
“Heh. Nope, Keep Away. You got a three second head start and I’ve got to tag you, but try and stay in the yard. Go.”
Toad jumped across the yard in one hop and Ranma was right on his tail, keeping back but trying to push Toad’s agility to it’s limit. Toad’s legs were his strong suit, but seeing Ranma bounding around right behind him made him worried. He jumped towards the house, looking as if he were going to crash into the wall, and still Ranma followed him. At the top of the arc, Toad used his tongue to grab the lightning rod on top of the house and pull himself higher. Ranma couldn’t match him and hit the wall and landed on the ground.
Toad looked over the side of the roof, “Ha, Toad one, Newbie zip.”
There were cheers from the other two male teens, “Good thinking, Toad.” “Great move.” But that ended when Ranma took three steps back and started running vertically up the wall. Toad made a quick escape to the other side. Ranma was on top of the roof when he saw Toad go over the opposite edge. Ranma ran over there and jumped to the ground. But Toad was no where to be seen.
“Toad two, Newbie zip.”
Ranma did a double take as Toad was sticking to the side of the house just under the eves. “That, I didn’t know you could do.” He leapt at Toad one more time as Toad went up over the roof again. This time he went over the edge and down to the ground, but Ranma was already there, and tagged him.
“Not bad, you need some fine tuning, and you seemed to enjoy it, and that’s always important.”
“Aw, man. You were holding back.”
“Try not to hold it against me. Lance, you’re up.”
“So what’re we doin’?” he said, cracking his knuckles.
“Just a little test for you. How fast can you pull up those tremors?”
Lance hesitated, torn between bragging and the truth, “Sometimes it takes a while. Sorta depends on my mood.”
“I want to see something, just try and cause a small tremor. You may have the most destructive power as far as causing property damage, so nothing big, OK?”
Lance rolled his eyes to the back of his head as he concentrated. As the ground beneath him started to shake, Ranma pushed him, causing him to fall.
Lance looked up angerly, “Why the hell did you do that?”
“It disrupted the tremor. Why?”
“Because you shoved me on my ass, you prick!”
Ranma snorted, “That’s something we’ll have to work on then. What about your fighting skills, if someone gets close enough can you beat ‘em?”
“I do alright.” Lance said dismissively then caught Ranma’s eye, “All right, not as good as you, but still…”
“We’ll work on that too. You’re a bit vulnerable up close and you have to stand still and concentrate when you’re using your power. That’s too much of a target.”
“Yeah, OK. I get it.” Lance walked back to where the other’s were.
“Now it’s my turn, huh?” Wanda said.
Ranma looked over to where his mother stood watching on the sidelines. She was obviously enjoying his discomfort at the prospect of fighting a girl. The guys saw Ranma hesitate and began to snicker among themselves.
“That’s right. Wanda’s part of this team too, that means you have to evaluate her skills as well.” Lance said, giving Blob a nudge with his elbow. Wanda could potentially beat anyone with a wave of her hand. In his opinion, Ranma needed to be taken down a peg.
“I dunno, maybe it’s not such a good idea.” Fred said, whether he was concerned for Wanda or Ranma, no one could tell.
“What’s the matter?” teased Toad, “The big bad martial artist is afraid to fight a pretty girl?”
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(Posted Sun, 22 Aug 2004 02:40)
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