Then he opened his eyes and realized he wasn't at the Tendo dojo. The room he was in was composed entirely of stone except for the metal bars which made up one wall and a window. The air was cool and damp and the gentle roar of the ocean could be heard out the window.
He quickly realized his nightmare from last night was no nightmare, but a harsh reality. He had fought an opponent and lost, he had failed his mother when she needed him most. And then, the memories came unbidden back to him.
"INSOLENT WELP!"
)}K-KLANG{(
"Whoa! Nice shot there, bucket head. That one only missed me by a week." Ranma taunted as the dodged yet another volley of metallic missiles. *Note to self: next time you fight some clown that calls himself 'Magneto,' stay away from construction sites."
As soon as their fight began Ranma discovered why his opponent called himself magneto, the reason being that said opponent seemed to be able to control all the metal around him with ease. Their fight had lasted only five minutes now and already it had moved two blocks. Their current battleground found them at a partially constructed building which unfortunately provided the young martial artist's adversary with all the ammunition he could ask for.
So far, Ranma's first bout with a mutant was not going so well. He had already gauged his adversary’s fighting style, which was as simple as it was sloppy and frustratingly difficult to combat. Magneto simply hurled numerous heavy metallic objects at him while staying well out of the effective range of any attack Ranma would be capable of performing.
Thus far, Ranma's only working strategy was his trademark 'dodge and insult' tactic, which was working for now, but this fight was getting very monotonous very fast. In truth, the only reason he had lasted so long was because his reaction time, speed and skill were far above Magneto's own.
)}K-K-KLANGG-ANGG-ANGGG{(
"Ha,Ha,Ha, what are you aiming at? Maybe you should've spent less time sewing that stupid looking get-up and more time practicing with your aim--oomph!" The boy's taunt was cut short as he was clipped by an I-beam and sent tearing through the tarp covering the uncompleted face of the building.
"NO, RANMA!" Came the scream of Mystique who had arrived just in time to see her son get smashed across the lot and through a tarp.
Magneto ignored the frantic mother as he made an idle gesture and the tarp was ripped from the face of the building. He scowled at where the impertinent human calf should have been but was momentarily surprised to find him gone. He scoured the terrain with his eyes but still found no trace of the boy.
"Lookin' for me, Bucket-head? MOUKU TAKABISHA!"
The Master of Magnetism looked up just in time to see a bright light slam into him and knock him down about fifteen feet, and then: pain.
Ranma smirked darkly as he descended on his hapless opponent. The loser had given him just the opportunity he needed to pull off a victory. He recovered immediately after being knocked through the tarp and recognized his opportunity just as fast; the tarp obstructed the mutant's view of him, which easily allowed for a sneak attack. He triangle jumped up the beams of the uncompleted building and found himself several stories above the crimson-clad dork before the tarp was ripped off. Then, he took initiative without a second thought, the excitement from a feasible plan giving him all the confidence he needed for one of his patented ki attacks, which he launched without delay.
Now, all he had to do was keep up the pressure and make sure Helmet-head didn't regain his footing... flying... whatever, and the fight would be his.
He launched himself downwards towards his opponent and executed a vicious descending kick which could have ended the fight had the mutant not attempted to dodge.
Yet, he did and instead of taking the kick at the base of the neck where it would have broken his collar bone, he dodged just enough to avoid impact yet the foot still grazed across his chest and abdomen tearing his costume and flesh in an arc across his body. Magneto cringed from the pain but only for the slightest moment as the pigtailed martial artist grabbed his cape along his decent and used his inertia to sling the magnetic mutant towards the ground where he crashed hard on his shoulder.
Ranma smirked at hearing a satisfying crunch when his adversary landed. The fight was his now, all he had to do was render his opponent unconscious and the fight would be over. Putting thoughts to action he rushed towards his opponent.
*NO! I am Magneto, The Master of Magnetism, the liberator of all mutant kind! I will not lose to this under-evolved primate! I WILL NOT LOSE!* "NO!!!" And, with a last act of desperation Magneto let lose one more time with his dwindling energy.
Ranma was surprised as the rebar used in the building foundation reached out and grabbed his legs. He struggled to free himself when he noticed a dump truck left overnight by the construction crew barreling towards him. He struggled and kicked with all his might and managed to snap the rebar like a twig, right before the truck slammed into him, which didn't hurt as much as he thought it would. It was just like being hit by Ryoga, if Ryoga's fist was the size of a dump truck, either way it wouldn't kill him but he would feel it in the morning. He grabbed the grating on the front of the truck and used it to soften the blow as much as possible then he quickly, yet carefully lowered himself under the truck right before it ran head-long into a concrete retaining wall.
He took a moment to gather his wits, still not believing that he was alive and in one piece after that. Then he caught a whiff of something disconcerting. )}Sniff-Sniff{( Gas... GAS!?
He scrambled out from under the truck as fast as his injured, tired body could take him. Only to be blown across the lot and into unconsciousness.
Magneto, having had more than enough of the boy, unsheathed Mystique's trinket and sent it flying towards the boy with his powers.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Only to see Mystique throw her body on top of the boy's, ineffectively shielding him from the weapon. He stopped the blade just centimeters from impaling them both, logic quickly flooding his anger-clouded mind. The boy's taunts had almost made him forget why they were fighting in the first place.
"Please, don't." She begged with tear stained eye's, refusing to let go of the boy. "I'll do what you want. Just don't kill my boy! Don't kill my son!" She sobbed.
The master of magnetism straightened up, acting as though he wasn't in excruciating amounts of pain (and almost pulling it off, too). "Finally you heed the voice of reason, Mystique." He said as if he had planned the entire battle as a sort of charade. He then wrapped the boy's limp, charred and bloodied body in rebar and separated mother and son. "However, the boy's life is mine. If you should forget your place only once..." He left the rest unsaid as she followed him silently out of the destroyed lot, her head hung and tears of shame and fear pouring down her face
"So, you're awake." He was startled from his memories as the man he had fought suddenly appeared at the other side of his cell bars, he must have arrived during Ranma's introspection.
"You bastard!" Ranma bit out, ignoring the pain from all over his body as he stood to face his newest enemy. "Where's my mother?" He shouted into the man's face.
"She's just taking care of a few things for me at the moment. Not that it concerns you at all." He wasn't acting as though the injuries he sustained the other day were bothering him at all, while Ranma was barely blocking out the pain from his own unattended injuries.
"Let her go, you bastard!"
"And, why should I? She's mine to do with as I please, and she will be as long as she wants her favorite son to be left alive." He drawled as calmly as ever. "However, I am not here to talk about your mother. I'm here to give you the opportunity to tell me all about those special abilities you showed me during our little disagreement yesterda-"
"GO TO HELL!" He shouted, interrupting Magneto, who's eyes narrowed dangerously. Ranma scowled back in defiance.
"Very well, I'll just take the information I want when my psychic gets here. I'll decide what to do with you after that. Sabertooth!" A large scruffy man walked into view. "Watch his cell until it's time for his interrogation." With a parting scowl the Master of Magnetism left the room.
Once Magneto was out of sight, Ranma plopped back down onto a cot in the cell. He would have to treat his wounds and train hard, so he could rescue his mother from that jerk. But first he'd have to escape....
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(Posted Sat, 21 Jun 2003 22:04)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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