Theo grumbled as he studied one of the numerous tomes he had in his library. Since that horrible incident over a week prior, he had decided to learn as much as he possible could concerning other schools as magic. Almost to the point of switching magical careers, thats how obsessive he was with that particular incident.
"The strength of a Hippy Happy Clown Mage is, if they manage to survive more then their estimated life time (a whole three hours), then the magic user would increase in power exponentially while studying this field. This isn't because the class of magic user itself is very powerful, but due to the absolute horror and hate it inspires the user often times must defend himself from hoards of people generally out for their blood." Theodore read, but his heart just wasn't in it today. He was too depressed to even laugh about the stupidity of a mage career called 'Hippy Happy Clown Mage'.
There were many reasons for his depression and disinterest. His daughter had told him nearly a week ago she was going to grow up big and strong like her mother, and then asked if she could practice breaking his arms for when she grew up and found a loving man of her own. Oddly enough, the whole 'finding' a man comment didn't upset him as much as her asking to break his limbs did. She probably didn't know what she was really asking, but it scared him something fierce nonetheless.
Then, there was Xane, the literal 'Walking Disaster' of Agency Zero. That damn Amazon had shown up, breaking most of the doorframes through out the house, and then she had the gall to hit on him. In front of Julia no less! The pain from that debacle took a long time to heal, and he was still sleeping on the couch. Well, at least he got off lucky. Xane didn't look so good when she got punted into LEO. Now that he thought about it, he still didn't know the reason she even showed up here in the first place! "Life sucked." he grumbled, turning the page but ignoring what was on it. Who cared about the "Panty thief magical mage!" career anyway? Bleah.
Then there was Brittany. The darling little girl, so cute and happy go lucky. She was also a total beast when there was any kind of Tuna in the area. Why, she literally jumped across the living room and mauled him when he had walked in with a tuna salad. He almost lost his hand! How it was possible for a girl her age to do that never really occurred to him to ask. It just didn't matter.
His father didn't have anything to do with his current mood, that lecher had run off after Xane to 'kiss her booboo's'. Pfeh, who knew the man was such a pervert? He should have known something was up when his father disappeared like that. It wasn't until ten minutes after he ran away that he discovered the old battle-axe was visiting, which introduced him to a new level of hell. Damn that barbarian woman! Why couldn't Mumsey just leave him the hell alone?
No, the real focus of his depression centered around Ranma. The boy he had brought back from Ireland, the boy he had extended an invitation for him and the girl he refused to let go of to stay at his place, despite knowing his wife would be really pissed off because of it. That damnable boy who absolutely refused to call him by his god given name!
While that was a minor annoyance, the real reason for his sour mood happened three days ago..
***
Three days later;
Ranma sweated as the twelve foot tall woman swung her battle-axe around while giving him the meanest glare he had seen in his relatively short life. He didn't even know if you could call this.. thing a woman. Hell, he was pretty sure her chest was nothing but pure muscle, breasts included! How the hell could.. could this MONSTER be Julia's mother anyway?
"Well boy. I heard from my little Julia you are quite the fighter." Mumsey couldn't see it. Hell, he was still a kid! Had the muscle tone of a sissy acrobatic loser, and seemed to have the confidence of a dead beetle. "Still.." she mused, "Julia wouldn't lie to me. Maybe I'm just not seein it?"
"Eh, yeah I guess so." Ranma shrugged, keeping a keen eye on that battle-axe. Who knew what the hell this woman was capable of.
"Well boy.." she said it with a snort of disdain, obviously not believing a word of it. "Prove it."
Julia rolled her eyes. What the hell was wrong with her mother? She was never this confronting in the past. "Ah..." she grinned mentally, "Never this confronting before I decided to marry Theo, anyway." So that was her game! Damn her mother was just so stubborn! Why couldn't she accept the fact she loved Theo and had no intention of leaving him, no matter how much she griped about it?
Theo lacked the benefit of this revelation, as his mind was far more focused on something of a much more.. cruel nature. Revenge! Revenge against the old battle-axe for all the ridicule he had suffered under for marrying her daughter! For all the pain she inflicted on him trying to force him to release all claims to the woman he loved. Oh yes, this was going to be fun fun fun! "Ranma." Theo coughed in his hand, appearing completely calm despite the absolute giddiness he felt. "I recommend you battle the old battle axe full out."
Mumsey chuckled, the sound itself sounded like two bongos were lodged in her throat. "Teddy's right little man. I'll squash you like a bug otherwise." She was rather impressed she managed to suppress the twitch at being referred to as 'The old battle axe'
Ranma blinked. While he had every intention of fighting full out against the woman, after all he knew she taught Julia much of what she knew and thus he automatically had a lot of respect for the woman. It's just the way Theo said 'All out' that really got to him. "Eh.. you want me to transform?" he asked towards Theo. It seemed like a bit much.. but.. this woman didn't look like he needed to go that far. He hadn't had much time to get use to the new strengths and limitations his form offered, heck, he only had enough time to really regain his sense of balance.
"Yes, well Ranma. It would be good practice for you, and I'm sure Mumsey would like to gauge your true strength." Theo offered with a wicked smirk, which Julia frowned at seeing though she said nothing.
"Eh? That cool with you Mrs. Brigand?" Ranma asked respectfully. No sir! It wouldn't do to piss this woman off. After all, if she was as good as he thought she was, maybe she had something he could learn from her? Heh.
Mumsey shrugged. "Yeah, just hurry up already." she grunted.
Ranma closed his eyes, following the instructions Bast had given him in what seemed like forever ago.
"Saotome... I want you to concentrate... I want you to search into your heart, which is now one of a prehistoric feline. I want you to dig deep and search for strength, strength beyond anything you could have imagined... Seek the power within your soul, grab it and don't let go... Then you shall understand what has happened..."
He could feel that part of himself, that part that had been changed when he destroyed Bastet's temple. It wasn't held secure by the strands of magic as it had been earlier, now it freely raged in his heart. It almost sang in time with the beat, surging as it pumped out and oxygenized his blood. Mentally grabbing hold of the power, he once again let it surge through his entire being.
***
Theo, Julia, and Mumsey sweat dropped and blinked at the boy as a steady rhythmic drum began thumping all around them. At first it wasn't noticeable, but as the seconds went by the volume began to rise higher and higher, and it became very clear were the thumps were coming from.
Ranma's entire body started to glow, a faint prismatic outline shimmered into existence around his form, the beating of the drum quicken and was now reaching its apex. His arms snapped out to either side, his hands balling up into tight fists as the sickening sound of bones breaking, stretching, and reforming literally screamed out from the boy. It was hard to describe the sound exactly. Like a scream, but with no sound. It just felt as if something entirely primal and ancient had been tapped by the boy, and was working its way through his body as they watched in a sense of detached awe as he began changing.
The first signs, aside from the shimmering aura and the sound of beating drums, came when his head suddenly snapped back, his mouth opening in a snarl as his canines began elongating. Extending slowly at first, Ranma's eyes snapped open as they shot out extending a foot in length. His ethereal blue eyes had vanished, leaving milk-white irises in its wake. The veins on his arms became more pronounced, as if he was straining to push something too hard.
The muscles in his arms then suddenly erupted bigger then before, followed by his chest suddenly bulging out and ripping the shirt he wore to shreds. He had lost the shirt Bast had given him in his first fight against Julia, so was using a replacement at the time. His leaned over somewhat, bringing his hands in front of his face as he growled. Whether in pain of some primal pleasure, none of the spectators knew for sure. An ebony canopy of dark fur sprouted all along his body as his spine broke, then reformed to fit his larger form.
His leather sandals suddenly lacked the strength to hold in his clawed feet, splitting and tearing apart as clawed feet emerged beneath. A long ebon tail erupted from the base of his spine, the very tip a bushy ebon darkness.
Two words were prevalent through everyone's minds. "Holy" and "Shit". Of course since Julia and Mumsey hadn't seen his hybrid form before today, they added a sentence of "He certainly doesn't LOOK like a little boy now."
***
Ranma stood up straight, rotating his shoulders as he acclimated himself with his new enhanced senses and height. It didn't hurt to change this time as much as it did the first time. He thought that was weird, but shrugged it off as unimportant. If it really meant something, he'd figure it out sooner or later.
"All right!" He heard himself talk, once again remembered how deep his voice was in this form. "Uh.." he blinked, looking at the dumbfounded looks on Julia and Mumsey. Theo wasn't as bad, but then again he had seen this form before. Must just be shock or something. "You ready, Mrs. Brigand?"
***
Theo snorted, banishing his memories of that incident. While Ranma had kicked Mumsey's ass pretty quickly, and he had to admit it felt good seeing that bitch get what she deserved, it ended up causing him even more pain.
How you ask....
*RING RING RING* "TEDDY! MY PILLOW NEEDS SOME FLUFFIN! MOVE IT LAZY!" the singsong voice (if that voice happened to be a death call) of his loving (read spiteful) mother-in-law (demon from hell) reached his ears.
Walking the walk of a man doomed to die, Theo snarled, "Next time that boy breaks Mumsey's leg, I'm going to break his!" It didn't help matters Mumsey refused any type of healing spell, only allowing him to set the leg correctly. Damn stubborn women! She firmly believed only wimps used healing magic to heal non-life threatening injuries. Damn her 'Pain is just weakness leaving the body' way of life.
***
Theo grumbled to himself as he lay down on his bed.. well.. his couch for who knew how long it took Julia to forgive him about the Xane incident. At least the battle-axe had fallen asleep, and Ranma had wisely stayed the hell out of his way again.
Lying here like he was, Theo was reminded of the final reason for his depression. That reason, of course, still focused on Ranma, only this time it involved his wife Julia. For the past three days Julia had been all but ignoring him. She blamed him for Mumsey getting hurt, since he was the one who suggested Ranma transform in the first place. Not that he could fault her, since he had wanted that battle-axe to receive some measure of pay back for making his life a living hell.
To make matters worse, Julia had been spending a lot of her free time helping the boy test the limits of his new form. Any thoughts of his wife doing it to check out the boy's body was ruthlessly suppressed. He would not get jealous of that boy! Nope! He knew his wife loved him, and was completely faithful to him.
"It didn't help Mumsey all but said she'd rather have Ranma for a son-in-law then me." He grumbled again. That hadn't set well with him. Julia just groaned as she normally did when the hag started on that topic, and Ranma had just looked confused.
"Besides.." he chuckled in amusement, "The boy doesn't seem like the type to steal some one else's wife." he then chuckled some more, as he remembered his reaction to 'sex' when his father had broached him on the subject. Just why Jonathan did that, didn't really matter, only that he did. The boy couldn't form two words before running out of the room like a frightened child. "Heh."
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(Posted Sun, 18 Jan 2004 01:18)
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