Ranma woke slowly, feeling only slightly less exhausted than the first day he woke up in Washu’s lab. He was alive though, which was a good sign, and hopefully back in his home dimension. It didn’t really matter much to Ranma if he’d landed near the Tendo dojo or not. He could simply teleport there in an instant, provided that this really was the right dimension.
Wiping the sleep from his eyes with a yawn, Ranma wearily sat up and opened his eyes to take in his surroundings. By the looks of things, he was in a hospital room, or something like one at least. It looked a little odd though, and some of the monitoring equipment looked like it would be more at home in Washu’s lab than a typical hospital.
“Oh, you’re awake! I was just starting to wonder if your little friend’s advice was actually working or not. So how are you feeling?” a black woman with white hair greeted Ranma warmly in English. She was sitting in a chair just behind Ranma as he sat up in bed. She held a paperback book in her right hand, a finger marking her place for the moment.
“Really tired, but I’ve been worse. Recently in fact,” Ranma replied tolerantly, in English as well, returning the friendly greeting. He noticed that the woman’s clothing was a sort of business casual, yet she looked nothing like a doctor at the moment. Even so, she seemed to know how to work the devices surrounding Ranma as she adjusted certain ones and turned off others.
“Mini-Washu said you’d probably feel like that, something to do with your body being short on mass or something. I’m not exactly the resident expert on that sort of thing, he’s off doing other things for the time being,” the woman responded with an apologetic grin on her face. At the same time she replaced her finger with a proper bookmark and gave Ranma the rest of her attention.
Ranma shrugged good-naturedly at the comment and gave a rye grin of his own. “Yeah– I didn’t exactly understand Washu’s explanation about how that worked either. I just know that eating is supposed to fix that problem, eventually,” he told her, feeling a little sheepish about it at the same time. “I’m Ranma Saotome by the way, and if you don’t mind my asking, where exactly am I anyway?” he added, introducing himself as an after thought.
“Ororo Munroe, or you can simply call me Storm if you prefer. Nice to meet you,” the woman countered, introducing herself in turn. “And at the moment you’re in the med lab of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, located in upstate New York, Ranma,” Storm added, answering his question.
Ranma blinked in surprise at the revelation, geographically speaking, it was kind of hard for him to have gotten any further off target than that. Washu had literally landed Ranma on the opposite side of the world here. “Whoa, talk about missing your target . . . ,” he breathed out in mild disbelief.
“Actually, Ranma, your situation’s a little bit worse than that. According your friend, Mini-Washu, this should be your future, by about 15 years or so, give or take a few. Only we couldn’t find your name in any of the Saotome family registries listed in the Japanese census. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, Ranma, but-,” Storm hesitantly told him.
Only to get interrupted as Ranma finished her last sentence for her. “But I didn’t make it home after all,” he finished disappointedly. “Well, unless Washu knows she messed up, then I guess I’m stuck in this world now,” he added, trying not to sound too depressed about it.
“Sorry, but I’m afraid so, Ranma,” Storm confirmed needlessly. She tried to smile encouragingly at Ranma, but it looked more timid than anything, completely defeating the woman’s obvious intentions.
“Hey, don’t worry about it; I’ll be fine. I just need a little time to get myself setup somewhere and I’ll be fine, Storm. So don’t worry about it. I’ll have it all covered in no time, you’ll see,” he assured her. This wouldn’t be the first time Ranma had been out on the road with nothing but the clothes on his back. Thanks to Genma’s scheming habits, Ranma knew all he needed to know about surviving on the road without supplies, and then some.
At this point it wouldn’t even be hard for him. All Ranma had to do was find some place out of the way he could use for shelter and he’d be set inside of a week, no matter where he was. He already knew nearly everything there was to know about hustling eats, money, or even clothing in a pinch.
However, his host at the moment didn’t seem to see things the same way Ranma did. In fact, judging by her response she was almost offended by the idea of him fending for himself. “Well luckily you won’t have to bother with any of that rubbish, Ranma. You’re more than welcome to stay here at the school. Which is where you should be at your age anyway, young man, not fending for yourself out on the streets. In fact, Ranma, we’ve already set up a room for you. Come on and I’ll show you where it is, after that I’ll introduce you to the professor; he’s been looking forward to meeting you since you got here,” Storm insisted firmly.
An instant later Ranma’s left wrist had been seized by the white haired woman and he was gently being drug to his feet. “Well, if you feel that strongly about it,” Ranma replied, giving in to the woman’s firm but gentle tugging. He floated out of bed as much as stood up, only Ranma was a little too preoccupied with Storm’s sudden determination to notice right away.
“You better believe it buster,” she replied with stern humour. “Now come on, the sooner we get you settled in, the sooner we can get you into class, Ranma,” Storm added with the same stern humour, towing him along behind her.
She led/towed Ranma out of the slightly largish medical room and down a futuristic hallway to an elevator. An elevator with an old fashioned look to it that clashed badly with the futuristic hallway. Once inside it though, Storm finally released Ranma’s hand to operate the control panel. She selected the third floor and the elevator immediately began to move.
That was when Ranma finally noticed that he’d been hovering just above the floor without meaning to. Ranma noticed it when he felt the Elevator move up and touch his feet, then go trough them. Ranma actually had to catch up to the elevator four times before finally giving up on trying to ride it normally.
“Looks like you’ll need some help learning to control your powers too, Ranma,” Storm noted after his third failed attempt at riding the elevator up normally. From her tone, she could have been talking about the weather for all that Ranma’s new powers bothered the woman.
“Well, I only just got them, what do you expect?” Ranma bristled a little at the comment. He hadn’t really meant to, but he was already a little irritated that he couldn’t make himself solid enough to ride the elevator up normally.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll have you trained up on how to use your powers in no time flat; I promise,” Storm assured him soothingly. “After all, we are a school for the gifted you know,” she added with a knowing grin.
Ranma wasn’t quite sure what Storm was attempting to hint at, so for the moment he decided it would be best to simply nod and play along for a while. Fortunately the topic was dropped for the time being as the elevator reached their destination and opened accordingly. Storm stepped purposefully out into the hallway it opened onto and Ranma obediently floated out behind her.
As he did, Ranma idly noted that this hallway’s decor matched the elevator’s interior almost perfectly. European in style, the place resembled a mansion or one of those fancy boarding schools Ranma had heard about a few times. Yet whichever one it was, the place somehow managed to look homey despite its blue-blooded appearance. Something that Ranma used to think wasn’t really possible.
His host, Storm, didn’t even seem to think twice about the richly appointed hallway. Instead she turned to the left and walked down the hall like a woman on a mission. Then again, she probably saw herself that way anyway. She only paused long enough to make sure that Ranma was still following her before pressing on.
Storm led Ranma past one opening and down a second into a side hallway and kept going for a bit. She finally stopped near the middle of the second side hall next to a door with Ranma’s name on it. Well, most of his name anyway, a guy a little taller than Ranma was still putting the last few letters of ‘Saotome’ onto the door’s reusable nameplate.
A couple of girls were with him too, chattering happily about what they hopped the ‘new kid’ was like. Ranma couldn’t fully make out what they were saying, not exactly anyway. But he still had to fight off an embarrassed blush at the attention he was already getting when none of the group had even met Ranma just yet.
“Well, Ranma, it looks like you won’t have to put your own name on your door at least,” Storm noted with mild amusement. Then the woman turned her attention on the three suddenly embarrassed teens, even if the big guy hid it better. “That was very nice of you three, Kitty, Rogue, Bobby I see that the three of you have taken it upon yourselves to welcome Ranma into the Mansion?” she addressed them with a warm smile.
“Well, try and make him feel a little more at home anyway,” the boy, Bobby, replied with an impish smile. The girls nodded their agreement, despite their slightly embarrassed reactions.
“So is this him, Storm? He finally woke up?” the girl with the white forelocks asked. Ranma wasn’t entirely sure which girl was which; Storm had greeted them too quickly for Ranma to be certain. In fact, he was only relatively sure that the boy’s name was bobby, since it was boys name. Then again, Rogue sounded more like a nickname than a proper one, so who knew?
“Yes, Rogue, this is him. Everyone, meet Ranma Saotome, I expect that he’ll be staying here a while,” Storm introduced him to the group. Slightly at a lose, Ranma bowed to them as he was introduced, more out of habit than custom. The three teens simply nodded awkwardly in return.
“Ranma, these three are Kitty Pride, Bobby Drake, and Rogue. They’re students here as well,” Storm continued, indicating each teen in turn this time as she named them all. Each teen nodded a second time and smiled welcomingly at Ranma as they were pointed out.
“And this will be your room, Ranma,” the older woman added, opening the door with his name on it and leading them all inside. Although they were closer than he was, the other three waited for Ranma to enter the room first before following him inside. Not wanting to risk embarrassing himself in front of them by accidentally sinking through the floor, Ranma floated into the room instead of walking in. If any of them noticed, they failed to comment on it.
The room he was given was comfortably small in Ranma’s opinion. It had a twin sized bed with a footlocker at the end of it. A lamp and night stand sat next to the head of it on the door side of the bed. A five foot dresser rested against the opposite wall, flush against the corner, also within easy reach of the bed. Beyond that a low desk rested against a window, which was currently cracked open with the curtains drawn back.
Finally, there was a small hanging closet recessed into the wall opposite the foot of the bed. Which Storm opened almost immediately upon entering Ranma’s new room. “Since you obviously didn’t manage to bring anything of your own, Ranma. The rest of the staff and I rounded up a few clothing donations that we thought might fit you,” she announced warmly, displaying the half full closet proudly.
“Just return what you don’t want to clothing storage, the rest of it’ll be yours to keep. That suit of yours looks pretty good on you, Ranma. But I don’t recommend wearing it around the mansion too much. It’s kind of distracting if you know what I mean . . . right girls?” Storm added teasingly as Ranma started to browse the offerings.
Ranma choked a little at the comment, blushing profusely as he tried to discreetly check himself at the same time. He’d only worn this suit a handful of times before Washu tried to send Ranma back home. Except that not once during those times had he considered the suit’s level of modesty down below. He was fully clothed from the top of his neck down, was the only thought that had crossed Ranma’s mind about the suit, until now.
Thankfully his quick check revealed that Ranma’s ‘stuff’ was not being displayed by the suit like he’d thought Storm was implying. Sure it fit him like a second skin everywhere else, but at least it wasn’t as bad as all that. A glance at the others suggested otherwise though, since both of the girls were blushing noticeably.
“Thought I didn’t notice you checking him out, did you girls?” Storm asked the girls teasingly, making the girls blush harder, and just plain confusing Ranma.
Bobby just responded with a crooked grin and shook his head at the rest of them. “What do you say we give the poor guy a chance to get changed instead of teasing him, guys,” Bobby suggested, tilting his head once toward the door.
“Uh, yeah. Good idea, let’s give him a minute,” Kitty responded trying to cover her embarrassment by dashing out the door. Only she missed and ran through the wall beside it like a ghost instead.
Rogue on the other hand smirked as something seemed to occur to her. “What’s the matter, Bobby? Feeling a bit jealous or something?” she teased the boy, losing some of her embarrassment as she strolled more sedately out the door.
“Why would I be jealous? You’re the ones looking Ranma over like a side of beef,” the boy countered just as teasingly. Only to get hit for his troubles as he followed her out the door. “Ow! Hey! What was that for?” Bobby complained at the hit. If he got an answer though, Ranma never heard it.
Storm shook her head merrily at the departing group, laughing silently behind one delicate hand. “Kids these days. I hope they’re not that bad wherever you come from, Ranma. Anyway, you’ll find clean socks and underwear in the dresser next to the bed. I don’t know if they’ll fit or not, but there are some shoes for you in the footlocker as well. We’ll be waiting for you in the hall when you’re done,” Storm told him, managing to hold back most of her laughter as she did.
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(Posted Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:57)
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