She’d always liked that movie. She had watched it with Logan one night when they’d gone out to get some peace from the students.
Logan of course had hated it. He’d liked the fight sequences and explosions, but it turned out that under that gruff ‘nothing-bothers-me’ exterior beat the heart of a technophobe. Which was understandable, considering what technology had done to him.
The second feature had been ‘The Terminator’.
Storm made a mental note once more, to never, ever watch that movie with him again. His reaction to seeing the cyborg in the film partially stripped of flesh had not been pleasant and had sent him into a sulk that lasted for over a week.
“Popcorn and a diet Coke please.” Storm requested from the mansion’s AI.
Moments later a small cabinet opened next to her with the requested junk food.
Munching on the popcorn, she watched as the sequence began.
****
A dojo formed around Ranma as she stood there. Motes of light made solid by a technology that was the next best thing to magic. Even having been prepared for it Ranma was still shocked.
‘How the hell did they do this?’
Ranma’s attention was quickly diverted as she watched her opponent form in front of her.
A bald black man wearing a white gi bowed slightly to Ranma before speaking, “I am Morpheus. Welcome Ranma… to the Matrix.”
****
Storm blinked, popcorn dropping forgotten from her fingers, as she watched Ranma spar against a faux Morpheus.
She was glad the recording equipment was on, because she wasn’t sure she believed what she was seeing.
It had started just like the dojo scene in the movie, with the exception of the ‘I know Kung Fu.’ line.
Instead Ranma had spent nearly five minutes listing martial arts styles she was familiar with until even the holographic Morpheus was staring at her as if she were mad.
Ranma had just shrugged and grinned saying, “There’s more, but we don’t got all night.”
The running translation inside the control room had surprised Storm. Apparently Logan was correct, Professor Xavier did indeed have translation equipment available, of course the additional commentary from the computer on the martial arts schools was a bit shocking. The words ‘Unknown Style’ and ‘Style believed to have died out’ rang out with enough frequency to raise some interest.
It was as if there was an entire world hidden from the modern world. She quickly amended that to ‘another world’ when she remembered the Savage Lands hidden beneath Antarctica.
****
Ranma had initially been surprised by the speed at which Morpheus had attacked, but quickly adapted as it became obvious that he was just testing her. Flurries of blows had been exchanged, moving at speeds that left afterimages in the eyes of their solitary audience member.
A foot sweep was avoided with a back flip, that allowed Morpheus enough time to disengage and do a ‘climbing step’ run, up the wall to attack from above. Ranma chuckled as he watched Morpheus come down fist first, only to pause in midair to give her enough time to dodge.
Grinning like a loon Ranma leapt up to meet her attacker instead. She had the weirdest feeling of Déjà vu. This was almost exactly like what Larry and Andy had asked for Ryoga and him to demonstrate for them back in Nerima. Shrugging it off as coincidence she played with Morpheus, trying to see exactly how long he could hover while Ranma used the force of her own blows and blocks to keep herself up in the air.
After several minutes of this Ranma snuck in a pressure point strike that would paralyze Morpheus’s left arm and found herself surprised when it did nothing. A quick back flip put her on the ground out of reach of her opponent.
“Hold on a second. How come you can still use your left arm after I used a shiatsu strike to kill it?”
Morpheus cocked his head to one side. “I’m afraid shiatsu points are ineffective against me, as I’m not a living being and have not been programmed to respond to them.”
Ranma frowned and scratched her head, ‘If pressure points don’t work I wonder what else is different?’
“Perhaps a human opponent is not the best way to go. Would you prefer an animal opponent or a robot? We can also change the appearance of the Danger Room, as well as gravity and weather conditions, to mimic anything you desire.”
Ranma stroked her chin thoughtfully. Changing conditions and opponents would be a lot better workout.
“Surprise me.”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by dogbertcarroll
(Posted Sun, 12 Sep 2004 12:47)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.