The snickering group of boys seemed to be waiting for something to happen, mostly likely something to blame Ranma for. Wanda just looked expectant.
Ranma took a breath to steady himself, “OK, since I didn’t get a chance to see your powers in action yesterday, maybe you better tell me what they are.”
“They call me the Scarlet Witch because I can make the way things happen change.” At Ranma’s blank look she continued. “Any power used against me, I can turn it back on the user. I can make things happen which is bad for other people, but good for me.”
“That’s” Ranma noted, “not very specific.” He really hated this part. “OK. I’ll... pretend I’m attacking you and you just... defend yourself.”
“No problem.” Wanda said, getting ready. The rest of the Brotherhood took a couple of steps back.
“Here I come.” Ranma said. Wanda’s hand glowed as she waved it at him. He stepped forward to lunge at her and he promptly fell on his face. “What the?” he looked at his feet. “Eww, gross. Mom do we have a dog?” he asked as he wiped his shoe on the grass.
“No, son, it must be the neighbor’s.” she said. Lance and Toad broke down in gales of laughter and Fred was fighting not to laugh too hard. Wanda just gave an apologetic shrug but didn’t stop smiling.
“You tryin’ to tell me you caused that?” Ranma asked her.
“I told you I can affect luck and probability.” She said again.
“All right, let’s try that again.” He took off both of his slippers, grateful it hadn’t gotten on his pants. He jogged cautiously towards her as she waved her hands again. The large tree in the neighbor’s yard bent over the fence and blocked Ranma’s path with it’s branches. He took a step back as some of the branches started reaching towards him and jumped, using one branch as a springboard.
Wanda looked up and panicked as Ranma appeared suddenly over the tree branches and thrust both hands at him.
“IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Ranma curled into a fetal position in mid air and landed hard. His body shivered and twitched as pure pain wracked his body, his breaths coming in short gasps.
“What happened? What’s going on?” Mystique ran forward. Streaks of red hair appeared on his head as his body seemed to want to shrink and grow at the same time.
“I – I dunno.” Wanda was scared, “He just screamed and he fell.” None of the Brotherhood were laughing now as they looked on concerned.
“Blob, quickly. Take him up to my room. Now!” She ran ahead into the house. When he was halfway up the steps, Mystique threw a glass of cold water on her son. Ranma only gave up a small squeak then passed out. His form seemed to stabilize into a short buxom red-head.
“Hey. He’s a girl now.” Fred said, confused. Mystique threw another glass of water, this time it was hot. Ranma’s form shifted again, back to how they normally knew him. “What...?”
“Quickly.” Mystique ordered as she led everyone into her spacious room. As soon as Ranma was on the bed, she ordered, “Out. Everyone out.” She turned to Ranma and undid his shirt and took it off him.
“I’m sorry.” she heard. Wanda had stayed behind, though. Mystique only spared her a glance before returning to Ranma’s care. She undid his pants and they followed as well.
“Is he going to be all right?” Wanda asked again as Mystique pulled of Ranma’s boxers and began examining him, lifting his scrotum and looking carefully for any extra orifices that might only be found on females.
Wanda was stunned into silence at what she saw, but quickly snapped herself out of staring at Ranma’s naked form. “What are you doing?!” Mystique was too concerned about her son to care about Wanda’s rantings until Wanda physcially pulled her off. “Stop that! What kind of sick bitch are you?”
Mystique rounded on her attacker, the fire in the older woman’s pale eyes immediately cowed the younger girl, “Don’t you call me that. Don’t you ever call me that! This is your fault. Why did you try to hex the magic that is inside Ranma. That had nothing to do with your sparing match. Do you realize what you could have done?!”
“Stop yelling at me!!” Wanda screamed as she tried to stand up to Ranma’s mother. The digital clock next to them exploded in a spark shower and died.
Mystique stepped back for a moment and took a calming breath. How she desperately wanted to strike this girl for hurting her son. But turning on any member of this house, especially this one, would have much longer lasting consequences than she was ready to handle for her and for Ranma. She centered herself and spoke words that she would never have spoke not too long ago.
“I’m sorry. I’m just concerned, that’s all. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. Ranma has a peculiar condition. Perhaps it is best if I explain it to everyone at once. Please, wait downstairs, I’ll be down shortly.”
She covered Ranma where he lay and got an extra change of clothes for him and set them at the foot of the bed. When she got downstairs, the living room was silent as the younger members of the house waited. Though no one said anything but they all looked at her expectantly.
She took a deep breath, “Ranma’s resting now and he appears to be ok.”
“What happened to him anyway?” asked Toad. “I ain’t never seen Wanda’s power do that to anyone.”
“Yeah, it felt like his body was trying to tear itself apart when I was holdin’ him.” Fred added. “Does he have some sort of shape shifting power like you that he can’t control?”
“No,” Mystique said, taking a seat, “As far as I can tell, Ranma doesn’t have any mutant power.”
“You expect us to believe that?” asked Lance. “We’ve seen what he can do. Normal people can’t move like he does or throw energy blasts.”
“If he’s not a mutant, maybe the magic inside him enhances his ability somehow.” Wanda said.
“That is something else entirely.” Mystique said sadly. “After he was born, I left him with his father who took him on a martial arts training journey. Ranma has been visiting training grounds and looking for masters to learn from since the time he learned to walk. All of the abilities you’ve seen are a result of his intense conditioning. His energy blasts are actually his ki, or lifeforce, powered by his emotions and willpower. He is in better condition than an Olympic athlete and might be considered a master in several martial art forms. This is the type of ability that the old legends are made of and fiction is written about.
“As for the magic, his father took him all over Japan and mainland China for most of his life and encountered many people along the way, even apparent magic users or magical places and artifacts. Above all, he has a curse that will turn him female. He has no control over this curse and it appears there’s no cure for it as well.”
“Ha.” Todd laughed, “Who’d he piss off to that laid on him?”
Both Mystique and Wanda shot him a look, but Wanda spoke up, “So, when I hexed his magic...”
“I think both bodies were trying to occupy the same space. Either that or the transition from male to female, which is normally instantaneous, was stuck somewhere in the middle.”
“And when you were checking him out, you were looking for any lasting effects like I might have turned him into a hermaphrodite or something?”
“Exactly.”
Todd stopped laughing, Lance stopped smiling and all of the boys shifted in their seats and put their knees together.
“So, you really think training us with this martial arts guy is going to help us improve our powers?”
There were so many scathing remarks that jumped to the front of Mystiques mind, but she restrained them all, “What I think is irrelevant. We told you the truth; we will be facing off against Magneto and his Acolytes. If you are willing to fight, then yes, you had better improve, but if you can’t take the training you are free to leave and we won’t hold it against you. Knowing Ranma, he will probably want to start training tomorrow, so you had better enjoy the rest of today.”
---------------------------------
Magneto studied his computer as it replayed the fight between his Acolytes and the boy, Ranma. Energy readings from his escape proved beyond doubt that no mutant powers were involved, unless he had some sort of boosted life force, he would need to get the boy, or at least some DNA sample from him to confirm his hypothesis.
Pietro’s return had disturbed him. Though he was now one of the Acolytes, and a good addition it was, it meant the Brotherhood was no longer under his control and Ranma was back with his mother and the item she was sent for is still in the hands of his one time friend, Xavier. That mother and son had not joined the X-men was a bit surprising, but not unexpected; there was a lot to forgive after all and the X-men are, if you’ll excuse the phrase, only human.
Revenge would be a petty distraction at this point in time as he still had to locate the other pieces of that elusive puzzle. Interest in these artifacts seemed to be growing and others were pursuing their own leads. Time was running out.
--------------------------------
“Anything on scanner today, Charles?” Logan said coming up behind his friend who was working on the mega-computer Cerebro and handed him a cup of coffee.
“No, but the Brotherhood seems to have been pretty active recently and there appears to have been a coup. Pietro is no longer with them.”
“So we know where Mystique and Junior are. Any lock on the kid’s power?”
“No, either his x-gene hasn’t activated or he is as elusive as Mystique.”
“I’m votin’ for the latter. All of the X-men who fought him say they witness some sort of power. Cyclops says he turned invisible or teleported. Jean says he shot energy blasts from his hands, Nightcrawler is swearin’ he turned himself into a girl, an’ you saw what he did to me.”
“Yes, a tornado in your front yard is difficult to miss. Any one of these powers would make sense, but all four in the same mutant is unheard of. Perhaps Kurt could be persuaded to bring Ranma over for a visit. We could also verify Mystiques story that way.”
“Yeah, Rogue’s not going to like though. The others are a bit touchy as well; being beat by one kid has hurt their pride a bit.”
“True, it will be a trying time, but we’ll manage.”
----------------------------------
The sound of the telephone interrupted the tranquil morning and was promptly ignored by two men playing a board game on the back porch.
A slender hand picked up the phone, “Hello? Oh, hello auntie, we’re so glad you called. When we couldn’t reach you at your house we feared the worst. … Oh good. Have you seen Ranma by any chance? … Oh, that’s a relief. … Of course. Just a moment.” She took the receiver away from her ear, “Uncle Saotome, your wife is on the phone and would like to speak with you about Ranma.” A splash of water could be heard. “Oh, bother.” she spoke into the handset again, “Auntie? Yes, unfortunately he seems to be a panda at the moment, could I take a message? … I see. … Oh. … Oh, my. … But what about...? … OK. … I understand. … Take care, Auntie. Bye.”
She walked over to where her father played shogi with a member of the endangered species list. Other members of the house listened in as well.
“That was your wife, Uncle. Apparently Ranma is with her and she says that since you have succeeded in making Ranma a man among men.” After the panda was done blowing a copper trumpet, dancing around and throwing confetti in the air, she continued her message. “She also says she has taken your son on a training journey to improve on your training and make him a Leader of Men.” The whole house was quiet waiting for the other shoe to drop. “She says they will try and visit when they can, but until the training is finished, all other matters must be put on hold.” The house erupted into a babble of questions that she could only make partial sense of, “She says they will be gone a minimum of only eight years, which is fair, since you had him for most of his first sixteen. She says his training will be finished when Ranma has earned his first PhD.”
Her sister was heard muttering, “That means we are never going to see him again.”
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See other episodes by David L. Battley
(Posted Sat, 28 Aug 2004 01:51)
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