{Urgh, wha' hit me?} the young Japanese teen groaned as he slowly came to, only to wince as memories of the fight filtered back. {Right, Saffron. Probably got hit by a boulder or someting when the mountain was collapsing… Sure hope Ryoga got Akane out of there in time.}
Slowly sitting up, Ranma looked around where he was and noticed he was NOT at Jusendo, nor his room back at the Tendo home. Looking around the darkness, before he noticed that it was in some type of room, a rather small room. No, now that he looked around more, he knew exactly what he in, a cell. He knew this from experience no thanks from Genma, the man he was unfortunate enough call father, and several other various cells on four separate continents.
Said caid probably wasn't more than two an a half meters in any direction and a single recessed fixture in the ceiling filled the room with a harsh florescent light. The only other furnishings, besides the bed, were a stainless steel toilet, a sink, and door that Ryoga would've had trouble getting through.
'Some friends they are, leavin' me to get placed in jail. Great.' He sighed, as thoughts of Akane and Ryoga took to the back burner, while he shook his head and winced from the pain it caused, 'No use worrying about it now.'
Getting up slowly, he began to examine his injuries which he knew he had thanks to the pain he got as he moved. Whoever brought him here had taken care of them; wrapping his cracked ribs, resetting left shoulder, giving him a collar, bandaging the deep slashes on his ba-
'Wait, what was last one?'
His thoughts skittered back as his hands prodded around his neck and found his new neck wear. The collar he found seemed to be a seamless band about two centimeters wide and a single centimeter thick. 'Hmm, seems pretty light. Can't have much stuff in it… Probably just a tracker. Grrr… No seam. Not gonna be easy to get it off.'
"What do you mean he's human?" An irritated female voice drifted into the cell.
'Alright, time to get outta here,' Ranma smirked. Pushing the thoughts of his injuries aside like had been trained to do, he darted over to the door and stood to the side, using what little ki he could muster to open the view slit of the door. Peeking just outside its line of sight, Ranma let himself watch what was going on, and exactly who was talking. At the same time, he sent a small prayer to any Kami listening for letting him learn English during his travels.
"I mean exactly what I said, Raven. The boy has no x-gene, not even a latent one. He is completely human," a male voice said. They were nearer now, almost outside the door.
"I watched him level a mountain as collateral damage! He threw a un unconscious girl nearly thirty feet away from himself to another young man in a bandana to save her. Only to get pinned to the ground by a boulder that fell on him for his trouble. It had to weigh at least six tons! He was lying under it when I found him, Eric! Not only that, it was propped up on his chest, and he survived! If it wasn't for Colossus, whom you had come with us in case we needed to subdue him, I would've never been able to get him out of it." The woman, Raven, snarled angrily. They were at the door and Ranma tensed, readying himself to strike.
"I'm not doubting what you saw, Raven. But, the boy is not a mutant. However, he has all the trappings of being a martial artist of some skill and it is likely that whoever that winged pyrokinetic mutant was that he was fighting was more than likely the one to actually destroy the mountain." The view slit in the door slowly slid back, which would've remained unknown by Raven, however, her partner saw it.
"Hmm, it appears as though our guest is awake. After you, Raven."
The door opened on well oiled hinges and the woman stepped into the cell, "He recovers fa-AAHH!"
Ranma grabbed her wrist and, with a quick twist toss, threw her to the back of the cell. He ignored the old man as he darted out and started running down the corridor. Ranma noticed that the old man lacked that full body knuckle look that Cologne and Happosai had. So, he had to run as fast a could out of there to esca-
ZRACK!
A massive electric shock from the collar sent him tumbling into a twitching heap at the end of the corridor. As the old man walked toward him with slow measured strides, Ranma got a better look at him. There were more subtle warning signs that he had missed in his haste to leave: the cape, the odd helmet, the uniform…
'A supervillian?' Ranma thought as he slowly sat up with a bit of a grimace, the fall had aggravated the cuts on his back. 'Well, thats just great.'
"None of that, young man," the man said as he neared Ranma. "That collar can deliver a shock strong enough to fry your brain. It also has enough explosive in it to take your head off. So," he smiled none too friendly, "don't get any ideas about escaping."
"Urgh," Ranma looked past the old man and watched as the woman he had thrown stumbled out of the cell. She was blue he noted.
"You knew he was going to do that!" She snarled as she stalked up to the old guy.
"No, I did not Mystique," he said without turning toward her. "The boy is injured, and quite badly really. I did not expect him to shrug it off quite so easily. Though, it does lend credence to your account of his abilities."
"Hmph," the woman, now called herself Mystique, snorted. "Well, you've seen it now. He was almost as fast as your boy. A lot stronger, too," she rubbed her shoulder and winced. "Are you really sure he's human, Magneto?"
"Yes, I'm quite sure about that. Hmm," Magneto eyed Ranma critically, "Get up boy, I've got a bit of a test for you."
Ranma stood up slowly, using the wall to brace himself, "And if I don't want?"
Magneto quirked an eyebrow and a small jolt zapped Ranma, "You DO NOT have a choice, or did you forget?" Sweeping his arm in a grand gesture, he allowed a small current to 'remind' the boy of the collar. Then pointed down the left passage of the corridor, "Now, after you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Here we are," Magneto said as they stopped in front of a set of double doors that slid back heavily, revealing a small arena of sorts. He waved Ranma inside, "Your opponent will join shortly."
Ranma glared at the doors as they shut with a depressing thunk. Sighing, he turned from them and started some light stretches to get the kinks out of his body, and get used to moving in his injured state. He didn't have more than a ten minute wait before the doors opened again and a red haired teen in a brown trench coat entered.
Said stranger nodded amicably to Ranma and kept shuffling the playing cards he was holding.
"'M Gambit, homme," he said in a thick French-Cajun accent. "Guess de chif be wantin' us t' fight," he pocketed the cards and took out a collapsible bo staff.
"So," he started to circle around the arena slowly, "what's your power, HUH!" The teen asked as he lashed out with a sweeping swing of his staff.
"Power?" Ranma asked as he ducked under the blow and countered with a crouched side-kick, "Whatcha talking about?"
Gambit grunted and flew back, landing in a crouch himself. He smirked and pulled a card out. Said card flashed with a golden light and was flicked at Ranma's feet, "Dis, yo' mutant power."
The card hit dead center on target, then exploded with a small blast, but Ranma was able to back-flip into a one hand stand, before pushing himself up and back several feet.
From his own position on the floor, Ranma looked at Gambit and scratched his chin idly, "Hmm, can't do that. How're you gett-"
"Enough," Magneto's voice cut in, harshly. "You're here to fight, not talk."
"Yea, yea. I heah ya, chif," Gambit groused.
Twirling the staff in hand, Gambit danced around his own weapon before slamming the end on it the floor. "Eh, ya' heard 'im. Don' worry," he leaned lightly on the staff and smirked, "I'll go easa on yea."
Ranma shook his head and pushed off the floor, "I ain't tried yet." Sommersaulting back onto the wall, he kicked off before gravity had a chance to claim him. Flying at Gambit like a bullet, he yelled a traditional attack phrase, "HiYAH!"
"Woah!" Gambit ducked left and swung his staff to the right, managing to catch Ranma's ankle with a glancing blow as he flew by.
Despite the strike, Ranma was able to land lightly and dart back at Gambit before he had a chance to re-orient himself.
However, the Cajun was prepared as he stuck his hand into his coat and threw back a handful of glowing cards at him. Forcing Ranma to dodge, just barely, and jump out of the way from the rest of them. Bobbing and weaving through the cards, Ranma was able to make it near Gambit once again. Moving with flow, he performed a low sweep kick that knocked the mutant off his feet.
Though Gambit managed to take the fall and roll back to his feet, just barely avoiding a sharp roundhouse kick to the ribs. He turned again, just barely managing to block a spinning bachkanded punch that Ranma made with same spin he used for the kick. However, the force behind his fist managed to blow through Gembit's defenses, knocking him off his feet and back into the arena wall.
"Ouff!" Gambit grunted as he slid down to the floor. "Merde, you super strong and fast or someting?"
Not giving said martial artist the chance to answer, the cajun mutant threw out another handful of cards at Ranma. The explosions forcing the pigtailed fighter back, but not quick enough as several of the cards hit his side.
"AHhh! Kuso!" Ranma cursed as he grabbed his injured side. The bandages from his earlier pathc job exposed and burned through. Showing off the nasty, and now scorched, bruises there from his battle against Saffron. Ranma looked up slowly and glared at Gambit, "I was gonna go easy on you. But now its personal, and it's going to be painful."
Gambit paled and gulped as he backed up into the arena wall, and tried to inch himself along it. That had been a full power blast, and his last cards to boot. Yet that had barely even phased his opponent. It seemed since force wasn't working, the cajun thought about diplomacy, or just plain begging. "H-hey, mon ami, n-no need to get hasty, eh? It was an accident!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mystique flinched and looked away from the monitor. People who couldn't shape shift quadruple jointed limbs weren't supposed to bend like that.
"Hmm…," Magneto stroked his chin, still watching the monitor. "Maybe I should have had him spar with Sabertooth. The brute isn't as good as Gambi-"
"Ahhhhhhh-" With a loud snap and a CRACK! of bones moving in ways they were never supposed to bend. Unless done so by a properly trained professional, Gambit yelled out one more, a few octaves higher than before, "AHHHHHH!"
Magneto slowly turned his head sideways, "Huh, I didn't think you could…" Shaking that last thought out of his head, Magneto pressed a button. "All right, that's quite enough of a demonstration… So please, un-knot Gambit."
"AHHHH-" With a few more snap and pop sounds, Gambit went limp in relief of being free from his imprompt due yoga lesson. Relieved with his freedom and entering into blissfull unconsciousness, Gambit's last words muttered before passing out were, "-Hha-oh grâce àdieu…"
"Alright Mystique, you can use the boy," Magneto said. "He should prove to be an excellent trainer for the Brotherhood."
Turning about, the Master of Magnetism swept out of the room with some parting words for the blue shape-shifter. "They may finally prove to be useful under his tutelage."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mystique fidgeted and patted the pouch on her belt again. However, the small weight of the collar's remote wasn't as comforting as it should've been. Taking a deep breath, she assumed her usuaul arrogant pose, the very same she'd perfected decades ago and pressed the control that opened the arena doors. However, as they opened, she came into the continuing sounds of bone snapping and bending in ways they shouldn't, as she watched Ranma finish off helping Gambit.
"There ya go. Good as new!" Her newest recruit finished telling his patient as he twisted Gambit's arm in a very… unsettling way.
"… m' leg… i can't feel m' leg…" The newly awoken Gambit simply squeaked.
"Yeah, don't worry about that. Those advanced yoga techniques left me feeling the same way when I first did them, too." Ranma patted Gambit on the shoulder, "You'll get feeling back in a day or so."
"Ahem," Mystique cleared her, catching Ranma's attention.
He turned around, slowly, looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a freight truck. All he could do was laugh and scratch the back of his head as looked at Mystique, "Um, heh heh."
Though, quickly trying to squash the feeling of child caught his hand in the cookie-jar, Ranma tried to explain his way out of the situation. "There's no permanent damage, really! Plus he should be able to bend a lot better now, too!"
Gambit's head slowly rotated toward Mystique, turning a full hundred and eighty degrees, "help me…"
"See!" Ranma beamed, "He couldn't do that before."
Mystique twitched and then ran her hand over her face and muttered to herself, "He probably would've just ended up hitting on Rogue, anyway…"
Taking back her commanding stance, she let her voice take on a more commanding tone, quickly covering up any slip of her inner monologue, "I don't care. He's Magneto's problem, not mine."
With that, she made an about turn and began walking away, before stopping and looking over her shoulder at Ranma. "Coming."
"Oh, okay," Ranma nodded and walked out of the arena.
Mystique rolled her eyes, continuing on and motioning for him to continue as well. After a few quite minutes, with their footsteps as the only sound, she glanced at Ranma. He had his hands clasped behind his head and looking up at the ceiling, seemingly without a care in the world.
"You're taking this pretty well," she said softly, looking ahead again.
"Huh? Oh, I guess so. You haven't done anything too bad, really." Scrunching up his face and snorting, Ranma continued, "My Pops sold me off more than once before. Sometimes to some really messed up people."
Mystique stumbled and looked at Ranma, aghast, "Your father SOLD you off before?!"
"Yeah," he shrugged. "Sometimes some of those people did some experiments 'n stuff on me. For instance, when I was about four or five, there was this one time, somewhere in Canada I think. He sold to this really creepy looking bald guy in a white lab coat and glasses. Though, due to some kinda incident a few days later, I was able to escape. So, no harm done. After all, what doesn't kill me, only makes me stronger, right."
Mystique shook her head and started walking again, "Magneto had gotten some reports of strange activity in Tokyo and he had me check it out. However, as I was on my way over to Japan in my plane, some unusual activity over China, forced me to land. Recognizing your face from a picture given by Magneto, I saw how your fight with the… mutant ended, and I decided to grab you. Using the collapsing mountain as cover, myself and an associate rescued you. We brought you here to be medically attended too.
"Oh," Ranma nodded absently. "Did the others get out okay?"
Not looking back at Ranma, Mystique answered him truthfull, "Yes, as far as I saw when I left with you."
Signing with relief, Ranma remembered a word he had been wandering what it meant. Figuring now was a good a time as any to ask, since his friends were okay, he asked. "Whats a mu-"
"Just a minute," Mystique said as she stopped and opened a door to a small office. She ducked inside and, after a minute of rummaging around, grabbed a handful of files.
"Here," she said as she handed them to Ranma, "The team I run could really use someone with your skills. These files are on the people in that team, and who you'll be training."
She gave him severe look, "I'll be expecting good results."
"Um, okay," Ranma nodded nervously and started to flick through one of the folders as they resumed walking. Though, after a while, he had to ask what was on his mind, "What's this stuff about powers? That Gamble-guy was talking about 'em, too, but Magneto interrupted him."
"Ah, those are linked to our x-gene, something found inside our bodies. You don't have one, as you're just a regular human; but those of us with them can do things that are beyond the abilities of normal humans."
"Oh, is that why you're blue? I wasn't gonna say nothin', but I thought you were maybe just sad or somethin'."
Mystique gave him a cool look and then shifted into a dark haired Caucasian woman. Again starting to walk faster, she replied rather icily, "No, I'm not sad, that is just my natural form…" Mumbling, "Like I haven't heard that a million times. 'Are you sad? You look a little blue.' Idiots."
Ranma wisely decided to be quite and went back to puzzling out the files. He knew how to speak English pretty well, considering it was an important requirement due to the wandering he and Genma had done on their trip. Reading it was a different matter, though, but he didn't want to upset present company.
After a few more minutes of walking, and Ranma pretending to read the files, they came to a small hanger that had several planes in it. Mystique headed to a small yellow one that had the wings above the cockpit. Ranma watched as her form changed slightly so that she was now he, with blond guy, wearing a brown bomber jacket and dark blue jeans.
"We're going to be heading down to Anchorage," she, or he, said as she opened the pilot's door and motioned for Ranma to get in.
"I'll buy you some clothes and stuff there. Now, then you're going to be getting onto another plane that'll drop you off in small New York airport. There, a young man with long brown hair in the black t-shirt, named Lance, will be waiting to pick you up. At the moment I have to head down to Mississippi and take care of some business," she said as she finished preflight checks and climbed into the cockpit.
Giving Ranma a sharp look, she continued, "Don't, and I really stress this, DO NOT try to run. That collar Magneto fitted you with can be activated anywhere in the world and he won't hesitate to use it, understood?"
Coming to terms that he was a prisoner, Ranma responed softly, "Yeah, I understand. But…"
Mystique glanced at him for a moment and went back to her startup, "What?"
Scratching the back of his neck, while casting his worried glance down, Ranma continued. "Well, those… others in my group, and a few more, well… they've got a tendency of showing up wherever I am. What'll happen to them if that happens?"
Looking at the young man, Mystique answered calmly, "Don't worry about them. I'm sure by now Magento has found a way to keep the others from looking for you."
Shocked, worried, and more than a little enraged at what her words could mean, Ranma spoke, "what the heck's that supposed t'mean?!"
Noticing the boy's anger, Mystique smirked and told him what Magneto told her, before he had awoken. "Magento knows many mutants, some with… more powerful abilities than myself. Some of those abilities can be used to affect a person's mind."
Ranma blinked, but she continued before he could question what that meant, "One of those mutants, a man named Mastermind, was with me when I found you. As per Magneto's instructions, he altered the memories of everyone present during your fight. As far as they believe, you died in battle. Also, to make sure it stays that way, Magento had him follow your friends to make sure the other people in your life believe that as truth."
Shocked at what he had just been told, kept Ranma speechless, though whatever other thoughts he had of the situation were interupted by the blue mutant woman. "There's a brown trench coat behind the seat, ah- I haven't asked you your name yet, have I?"
Pushing his depressing thoughts out of his head, he responded as he grabbed the trench handed to him and slipped it on. "It's Ranma. Saotome Ranma."
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(Posted Tue, 23 May 2006 20:21)
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