Evolution is a continual process, never stopping, never ceasing. Be it organic or inorganic, from the smallest cell and virus, to planets and beyond, it is a process that struggles between Chaos and Order, to advance the universe forward.
In this particular universe, Genma was learning this the hard way, though he had no way of knowing why.
Take humans and their ancestors. On the outside, little to no difference could be spotted among them. You’d have to look deeper, deeper to see bone thickness, organs, brain development, and so forth.
And since Genma wasn’t one to spring for such tests, he had no idea that his son was literally more advanced than any human on the planet. If he bothered to see the signs, look at report cards, teacher’s notes, and so forth, he might have gleaned some understanding.
But what worth was book education to a martial artist? It was just a distraction, sitting at a desk, instead of practicing and refining the Art, learning more, going further.
So, because Genma valued scholastic advancement so little, he never knew that Ranma was advancing in grades beyond his age. He never noticed his son sneak out at nights to those school libraries and larger ones, devouring the knowledge in them at a rate unheard of in the human genome, but at a speed only slightly less than genetic memory could have afforded.
He certainly would have been interested that Ranma was devouring those books as they floated before him, as he too floated, surrounded by a green aura.
That is not to say he didn’t notice Ranma’s advanced thinking, problem solving, and adaptive reasoning. Mainly, this was due to whatever he taught Ranma, Ranma learned much faster than Genma had anticipated. Moves and techniques that had been planned to take weeks were gone through in a day. If Genma tried to leave out parts, tried to make it harder to understand, Ranma would surprise him by either figuring it out, or creating something different that was just as good, if not far superior to what the original was.
Basically, it was a major pain for Genma Saotome. He had a rough outline of how the training journey should go. However, his son was literally too good. And while Genma took a great amount of credit for Ranma’s abilities—his mother had no skills with the Martial Arts—he cursed himself for what was occurring now. As such, even in spars, Genma was finding himself much more on the defensive than he wanted, losing fights that he shouldn’t be for a decade or more to come, and being the one who needed to adapt sooner rather than later.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Ranma was eight, and already feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Then again, it might have been the fact he was basically the adult in his family at the moment. His father was simply not the most … responsible member of their little group.
Don’t get him wrong, he loved their travels, the training, and the learning. He loved the new sights, the new knowledge, and the unknown that could grace him at any moment.
There were of course, some things he certainly didn’t like about it. After all, being left alone in the woods with no food, no supplies, and being told it was ‘survival training’ was not on any child’s wish list. This was especially true for when your father returned days later, somehow having gained weight, and smelling of booze, steak, and cigars.
But he wasn’t just any child. Even if he hadn’t just needed to expend some will, form the local surroundings into a shelter, use it to turn some formerly cute and cuddly woodland creature or kind fish into a tasty treat, he still would have endured.
But show his father these skills? Never!
Why? Simple, read the papers—as he could since he was allowed near them and learned what each character meant. He had read tales, seen them on the occasional television, about people with super powers, like him. Some ran fast, some flew, some were terrors that flapped in the night, but all had enemies after them.
Ranma wasn’t ready for that sort of attention yet. And his father … just wasn’t dependable to have such information in hand. Who knew what it could lead to!? Besides, his Father seemed to have an odd habit of introducing him to families who had daughters his age.
Creepy…
Looking up to the blue sky, he wondered … if this was what he was meant for, his grand purpose in life. He certainly didn’t see other people with his powers. Well, the closest were these guys in green and black suits, but they used a ring to focus their abilities.
He … didn’t need a ring, just the will to make it happen.
And up there … he felt maybe, perhaps his answers lied there, in the heavens. Not only did aliens exist, but they had to have all sorts of things for him to learn, maybe even new martial arts styles…
“Hey, Ranchan!?”
Blinking, he broke his focus off dreams of the future—after all, he still had so much to learn on Earth—to turn to the newest daughter/friend his father introduced him to. “Yeah, Ucchan?”
“What are ya thinking about?” she asked, looking to the sky to.
“Ah, the future,” he replied, wondering why that made her blush. “Anyway, what’s up?”
“Ah, our Pops’ went off to do some talking, so they suggested we go hang out.”
Blinking, Ranma turned back … and spotted the old men walking off, holding bottles of sake in their hands, and making a walk Ranma knew all too well: the ‘I’m about to get drunk off my ass’ walk.
Great, means I got to take care of Ucchan, he internally sighed. Not that he minded, but really, what were they doing, leaving such young children behind, and unsupervised?
Sure, they’d kick the ass of any pervert who came for them, but truly, wasn’t that the physical adult’s job?
Ah well, it meant he’d get to show off for his new friend. He didn’t mind hanging out or protecting Ucchan, really he didn’t. She was really a lot more physically advanced than a lot of girls her age—why at first glance, he would have sworn she was a boy!
Of course, that was what earned him a solid bean on the head from one of her two baker’s peel utensils. Really, with her muscle and stance, she should really look into getting a full-sized brick-oven pizza one.
“So,” he started, hands behind his head, “what do you want to do today?”
She shrugged, not used to having a day off. Like Ranchan, her father insisted she train and learn her family’s Arts every available moment. But unlike Ranchan’s father, hers understood the importance of excelling in school. “How about we head into town, maybe check out a few restaurants, scout out the competition?”
Ranma nodded. Actually, that didn’t sound too bad. He’d been hoping to look at some local styles, maybe … peruse the local libraries. Not to mention, a few styles in the area his father groaned about, calling them ‘lesser works of the Art’, had caught his attention, if nothing else than by their names.
“Sure Ucchan; that sounds like a great idea!” he smiled. “Will we be eating out or do you want to make lunch after? If the former, I need to hit up dad’s stash. He never trusts me with his money…” even though Ranma himself had proven on many occasions that he was more responsible with it, and far better at bartering than his father ever was.
Plus, it didn’t hurt that at 8-years-old, Ranma was as cute-as-a-button and so, had an unfair advantage when bartering with female merchants, especially those in the bakeries. Kami-sama, he’d lost count of all the free cupcakes and cookies he’d gotten over the years.
“Of course!” the young Kuonji heir shouted. “We have to try their foods so we can analyze flavors and style to see if it can be applied to my family’s okonomiyaki! I swear, I WILL become the best chef ever!”
Nodding, Ranma waved her off, as he ran to the Kuonji cart, willed open the lock that secured their packs, and snuck into his Father’s stash.
Sighing at the literal pocket change inside it, he turned towards his own bag and retrieved his.
It also helped that his super power could be used to separate large piles of garbage, and easily carry it to a recycling center. Once more, the unfair advantage of being chibi came into play, as they were all too happy to help such an environmentally concerned kid, by giving him cash instead of a check or credit.
Returning, he noticed Ukyo glaring at him. “What?”
“I got the keys, Ranchan,” she spoke, holding up said keys to the cart.
Ranma just chuckled weakly. “Well … I’m just awesome like that … and Pops didn’t lock up,” he said, glaring at the direction they had gone to.
It worked, as Ukyo either believed he had found a way to open it, or their fathers had left it open, since they’d likely be too drunk to open it when they returned.
Well, a pox on them, since she knew Ranchan would lock it up tight!
Ukyo grinned at the thought of the old men struggling with a chest that Ranchan had personally taken a hand in sealing up tighter than his mouth when Genma wanted to know something that could get them in trouble. Yeah, her friend was just cool like that.
Taking a moment to take a mental note of how much money there was, the ponytailed youth was pleased to find that he had enough for a good meal and a dessert after, for both himself and Ucchan. There would be no need for his father’s tried-and-true method of dine and dash. Especially as Ranma found from experience, such wasn’t as ‘tried-and-true’ as his father claimed it to be. “Well, Ucchan, I’m ready to go. Are you?”
“OF COURSE!” the little lady chimed with youthful exuberance—that is if a certain Green Beast of Konoha existed here, he’d be mighty proud—that seemed to make a smile burst forth on both her and Ranma’s faces. “Let’s hit the town!”
As the duo made their way through the throngs of street carts, free samples from restaurant vendors, picking the local pickpockets, and even watching several demonstrations of martial arts for a local fair, they could absolutely say that they were enjoying this day.
Ranma too, as he was now actually up on funds, winning several games of guessing how many were in a jar of something, and other carnival games.
His friend was currently studying something involving octopus balls, melted chocolate, and cinnamon, making Ranma wonder what that could add to any particular okonomiyaki recipe.
Then again, he never focused his skills on cooking, just eating. I wonder though… he paused to consider. Well, cooking was a style on its own…
And Ukyo’s style was incorporating martial arts into the culinary arts of okonomiyaki…
Could there be… GASP! A correlation of martial arts and ANY style of cooking? Japanese! Chinese! French! Italian! All these and more could be incorporated into SUPREME MARTIAL ARTS!
Yes, already his young mind was processing at a light year a minute, trying to come up with an idea for a recipe that could be the basis for a ‘Battle Baguette’.
Hmm … no … too much starch would take away from the taste … although that might help to make a Croissant Shuriken…
Sadly, like all happy days in the DC universe where a couple was happy, enjoying themselves, or deep in thought of things not involving their main character lifestyle, it was interrupted.
This time, it was a flaming green object crashing down several blocks away.
A few people screamed, some wondering what it was, others not wishing to have a Darwin Award on their grave and ran as fast as possible in the opposite direction.
“What the fuck was that!?” Ucchan yelled.
Ranma said nothing, staring at the direction of impact, but his head swirled around, to see a trio of yellow dots rushing towards the location … and slowing down.
Color: Yellow. Emotion: Fear. Entity: Parallax.
“Ranchan?” Ukyo asked, shaking her friend, who seemed to be lost in thought.
Shaking his head, Ranma returned to focus on the impact sight.
Answers. That way, lay answers.
Despite the shouting of his friend and the physical limitations of his body, the ponytailed child was already rushing amongst and over wreckage, trying to get to the impact sight of the green flame that had come hurtling out of the sky...
When he got there, his eyes went wide as he saw the dark brunette-haired masked man within the sight of impact. There, amidst dirt, concrete, and a broken pipe—that was currently rushing dirty water all over the downed man—was a Green Lantern!
Color: Green. Emotion: Will. Entity: Ion
Despite the danger he felt fast approaching, the youth couldn’t take the smile off of his face. This … he just KNEW! This was it! This was the guy who would have all his answers!!
Ranma’s nose crinkled as he realized that he would get his answers … once the Green Lantern had a shower. He smelled worse than his old man after a night of bar-hopping.
Sadly, the guys in yellow had a different opinion, as they started to fire blasts at the Lantern, forcing him away, trying to draw the fight away from the population.
Unfortunately, the area was not clear, and those guys in yellow were not the best of shots.
A blast of it struck a nearby building, shattering the front, and sending concrete, iron, and such down … upon a family below it.
Familiar love in danger! His hand thrust out, Ranma wasn’t worried about protecting his secret, saving face, or waiting until he was ready to face what came.
Color: Violet. Emotion: Love. Entity: The Predator. flew through his mind, as the violet energy lashed out from his hand, forming a construct of what Ranma associated with love: his mother.
Granted, she was near three stories tall, but she still sheltered the mother and child as the rubble struck and fell around them.
Ukyo just stared in shock, gasping for breath as she had run hard to keep up with her best friend, between the odd ability Ranchan was showing, and what had happened before her. As the violet image faded, she shook her head and focused on the emergencies at hand.
And as much as she hated it, she could hear her father’s voice, as she had been involved in her first cooking fire, telling her to remain calm and focus on doing what was needed. “Move it!” she yelled to the family, who nodded at her and took off.
Fighting down her own fear, she turned towards Ranma … and noticed he had already walked off, heading towards the battle.
“The frack is that!?” he heard a voice speak in garbled tones. The ponytailed youth didn’t bother to turn around as instinct went to work.
Color: Green. Emotion: Will. Entity: Ion
Suddenly, before the Fear-inducing member of the Sinestro Corps, there was a giant construct of….
“GGRREEEEAAAAAAAUUUUN!!”
“AAAIIIIIEEEEEEE! IS GOJIRA!” a rubber-necker businessman screamed before he and his friends turned tail and ran. Oddly enough, this also forced all the other citizens who preferred to watch the oncoming battle to flee.
Sadly, the Yellow had been more focused on Ranma, instead of the giant green construct he had made … and its tail.
*WHAP*!
And smacked said Yellow Lantern into and through the middle of a building…
*CRASH*!
… And the next one…
*CRASH*!
… And the building after that…
*CRASH*!
… And the building after THAT…
*CRUNCH*!
… Before finally coming to a stop in a mangled heap right in front of a fruit cart, circular watermelons rolling everywhere.
There were a few cubed ones, but they didn’t roll. But if it was a game of Tetris, then it’d be likely they’d never get a single line.
Ukyo blinked again, as the new construct faded away, but she didn’t wait for it to finish before she took off after her friend, as he had taken off again, slower this time. That had come from her friend, and he was heading into the fight.
She’d be there for him … and hope for the best.
Kyle dodged to the side; barely avoiding … what he guessed was some form of space-wolf yellow construct, as it tried to bite into his arm.
“Feeling a bit of fear, Lantern?” came the high-pitched hissing laugh of one of the Sinestro Corps members, currently trying to kill him in the most painful way possible.
“Oh, shut up, scaly,” he snorted, green energy lashing out from his ring, grabbing a nearby car, and whipping it to impact said foe, slamming both into a nearby wall.
Warning: Charge falling below 10%. his ring informed him.
“Great,” he growled, noticing that he still had … one guy left to fight? Where’d the other one go?
Charge at 58% and climbing.
Blinking, he looked down to his ring, wondering if it was broken, when he noticed … his own mother—or at least, a blue construct of her—holding her hand on his arm. If he didn’t know any better, he could even feel his aches and bruises from this fight fade away.
Looking to the side of … well, his mother, he spotted the tendrils of blue energy … coming from a small, Japanese boy.
Power levels 200%.
“… Okay, worry about that later,” he sighed, looking up at the confused Sinestro Corps member. “Finish the fight first.”
Kicking out her legs to push the car off from her, Karu-Sil growled in a most angry fashion, spittle managing to fleck off from between the spaces of her sharpened teeth. She looked around angrily for the Green Lantern; constructs of her pack already forming around her...
… Only for the woman to scream out as two fists—no, not light constructs, JUST fists—of the Green Lantern smacked into her abdomen while he was flying at top speeds.
Getting out from the fruit stands, the tube-headed Sinestro Corps Member stared as he saw Karu-Sil go rocketing past him. “Nuts to this!” Low growled, doing his best to wipe off watermelon pulp and seeds with clawed blue hands before launching himself at the Green Lantern, mouth wide and all three rows of teeth glistening in anticipation of sinking into flesh.
He didn’t even launch from the ground, before an overhead kick from Rayner connected to what passed for his head, creating a crater in the street and almost driving the figure into the very sewers he looked like to have come from.
Kyle was just staring in shock. He didn’t just feel charged, he felt super-charged, moving at speeds even he was having trouble coming to grips with. “That was some Mother’s Kiss,” he paused.
Warning: Sinestro Corps member escaping, his ring warned him.
Turning, he spotted the fleeing yellow aura, but gave up the chase. Even as amped as his powers were at the moment, he couldn’t leave the other two unattended, especially in … wherever he had landed.
“Never any backup around when you need it,” he mused, creating two construct bubbles to keep his damaged prisoners in, a smaller one to keep their freshly removed rings in, as he took off, hoping to locate the small boy … and maybe get some help, if needed, from Ganthet.
Somehow, he felt Big Blue needed to know this.
“Stupid, stupid, STUPID!” Ukyo shouted as she continued to hit him again and again alternately with a Baker’s Peel in each hand. “How could you put yourself in the middle of that danger, Ranchan! We’re not super-heroes!!”
Sighing, the ponytailed youth raised his hand, making a construct of an okonomiyaki … although green and made of light, it somehow SMELLED like it were fresh-baked. Since he had already ousted his secret, he may as well go for broke.
“… Okay, so MAYBE you’ve got what it takes to be a superhero,” the young Kuonji girl relented. “But you could’ve been hurt! You’re just a kid! Like me!” she shouted, trying to get her friend’s attention. “Don’t you know what happens to people like us if we become super-heroes at our age, EMERALD SHORT-PANTS!?”
His motorcycle skidding as he lost concentration, Nightwing managed to bring it to a mostly safe stop. Taking off his helmet and breathing heartily to get his adrenaline to stop pumping at the near crash, the hero of Bludhaven wondered why he had the urge to smack Bruce.
“Sometimes, great things.”
Blinking, the trio looked up, spotting the returning Green Lantern, his aura brighter than ever as he was working on burning off the excess charge, three ball constructs behind him. “Not that I’m ungrateful for the help, kid,” he replied with a light smile. Granted, he knew his ass would probably be toast if not for their help. And since he had helped restart the Corps, he would rather stick around and—you know—actually be a part of it for a while. “But … how’d you do that?”
“… Do what?” Ranma asked, trying to dispel the okonomiyaki construct … and growled as it simply went from green to red … then orange as he felt a bit hungry, before turning indigo and fading away.
WHAP!
“Don’t lie to the stinky superhero, Ranchan,” Ukyo replied.
“… Stinky?” Kyle asked curiously. Universal Translator: both a blessing as and a curse.
“Well, you did get a sewage pipe’s contents dumped all over you,” the ponytailed youth replied in all seriousness. He felt sorry for the repair crew that had to fix that mess!
“Believe me, I’ve been trying to turn this energy boost you gave me into a way to phase off the particles of … something I’d rather not think about,” the Green Lantern admitted. All this excess power and STILL he couldn’t use it to obliterate shit—and quite literally in this case. “But what I do wish to talk about is what you just did with that dinner roll.”
“Okonomiyaki,” Ukyo corrected with a growl.
“Okay, that,” Kyle replied. There was no way, but it certainly looked like the boy was focusing different light spectrums...
Sighing, Ranma stood up, preparing to come clean—or at least, as clean as was needed, as one lesson his father had taught was deemed useful…
This, however, became unneeded, as his eyes rolled up into his head, and he passed out.
“Ranchan!” Ukyo cried, barely catching him before he hit the ground.
Worried, Kyle aimed his ring, pointing it at the kid. “Ring; scan his vitals!”
Scanning, the ring replied. Vitals low, indicating subject has entered a dormant state, due to excess activity.
“Huh?” Ukyo asked.
“… He passed out from working too hard,” Kyle retranslated. Universal translators apparently couldn’t translate techno-babble to English … or Japanese.
Sighing heavily—as this left him with one option he didn’t want, he held up his ring. “Give me a direct link to Guardian Ganthet.”
Establishing link… the ring responded.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was likely less than a minute, the image of his one and only favorite Guardian popped into holographic view above his ring.
“Ah, Green Lantern 2814.5, Kyle Rayner, what can I—”
“Are you alone?” Kyle asked quickly.
“… For the moment,” Ganthet replied, before seeming to blur. “Okay, I have sequestered myself within my private lab.”
“Get the data from my ring for the last day, lock it down, and observe what happened for the last fifteen minutes,” Kyle continued.
“… You sound most unnerved, Kyle Rayner,” Ganthet responded, even as his hands appeared to be doing something not in view of the projection.
Kyle would admit much didn’t surprise him much these days, not since Ganthet found him taking a piss in a back alley.
But to see the Guardian’s eyes grow wider as he watched the battle data was not a shock he wanted. “The boy?”
“Here with me, as well as two banged-up and out-cold Sinestro Corps members.”
Ganthet nodded. “Lantern Rayner, bring the child directly to my lab, coordinates are being downloaded to your ring. I shall send another Lantern to take charge of the prisoners upon your arrival, but make the construct carrying the child as opaque as possible; let no others see his arrival.
“Is that understood?”
“Well, yeah,” Kyle responded, shocked at how serious his boss was being. “But I can’t just take the kid without telling his folks.”
“Our dads are in a bar on the other side of town,” Ukyo responded, hugging Ranma tightly. “And you’re not taking Ranchan without me! I’m his fiancée!”
“…”
Even Ranma paused in his snores at those words. Truthfully, Ukyo had found out from her father that the two were going to be engaged, and had wanted to tell Ranma … after their date.
Frankly, considering he was out cold, she was about to be left behind, and the stinky Lantern was about to take Ranma away, she decided it was a Need-To-Know fact.
Kyle just growled. Oh yeah, these were the decisions he lived for.
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(Posted Sat, 08 Sep 2012 04:03)
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