Chapter 2
by Jaxom
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, and whoever else she lets have a hand in it. I'm just a hopelessly poor fan attempting to pay tribute. Suing me will cost you more in legal bills than you could possibly get out of me.
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Sailor Pluto glared at the scene playing out before her as she gazed through the Timegate. The final battle of her fellow Senshi, and the death of her Princess at the hands of six demonic creatures. She still couldn't understand how the attack had even taken place. She'd spent centuries watching over the future of Crystal Tokyo, using the Timegates to show her anything that might threaten it. The Inners had finally defeated Neherenia. She was expecting a brief rest before the next challenge. There wouldn't be a long wait, but a couple of months to let things settle down before the next disaster was certainly something she had anticipated happily. Instead of a much deserved rest fate had handed her absolute disaster in the form of a horde of demons.
These demons did not fit into the chain of events she had predicted before the arrival of Crystal Tokyo. Somehow the possibility of their attack had gone unnoticed by the Time Gate until it was too late. Occasionally things did catch Pluto by surprise despite her connection to the gate. That was usually because her future self had warned her against looking at something too closely. Sometimes fore-knowledge is more dangerous than helpful.
She had watched the months to come very closely on a number of occasions though, and she knew that these incidents were not supposed to have occured.
The creatures themselves were a horrific sight to behold. No two were alike, though they were variations on the same theme. They looked like the demons Hollywood produced for movies, or creatures from the Island of Dr.Moreux. Twisted brutes with the combined features of men and animals. They looked altogether more frightening than typical Negaverse monsters, particularly because they spurned the typical frilly too-toos and bizarre weapons that their previous foes had favoured so often.
The demons had begun attacking a few weeks earlier, surprising the girls with their ferocity. There were never any warnings, no oaths, no declarations of any kind about why they were attacking. They just attacked. Worse yet, they seemed to know the true identities of the Senshi, and they targeted them directly. They didn't notice or care if innocent people were in the crossfire, but they never actually tried to attack them deliberately.
The attacks had been following a fairly clear pattern as well, with each attack the number of demons and the types of attacks they used were changed. The creatures were obviously searching for a weakness to be exploited.
This time they had struck for real.
The Inners were caught by surprise as they walked together through an amusement park on a rare day away from Juuban. Ami had been brutally eliminated before any of the Senshi could transform. Venus, arguably the most experienced of the Senshi died seconds after she transformed. She didn't deliver a single attack. Jupiter and Mars managed to take down one of the creatures together, but that was their final act. Queen Serenity would have been proud of the way Usagi fought, though she was hopelessly outclassed she managed to kill 2 of the demons with the Crystal. Usagi was the last to fall. One of the remaining demons, a brutal looking monstrosity like some great gorilla with glowing red eyes and vicious claws slowly choked the life from her as she struggled weakly against him. As her struggles died down, he twisted her head to the side sharply, and grinned in satisfaction at the hideous snap.
Pluto herself arrived to help just before her princess' death, but the other remaining demons had kept her too occupied to save Usagi. She saw the last moments of Sailor Moon, and the demon survived her fury for precisely as long as it took her to scream out the name of her attack. A black dome enclosed the monstrosity that had destroyed her future, ripping it from timestream and casting it into an eternal timeless void.
It was a forbidden attack because it disrupted the flow of time and temporarily weakened the timestream itself. That didn't matter at the moment, her connection to the Gates told her that her fellow Outters had met the same fate. They hadn't even had a chance to transform before they were caught.
Pluto briefly considered remaining to try avenging her princess and comrades, but the first creature she had faced wounded her. Against the two that remained she found herself becoming quickly overwhelmed.
Pluto watched her actions play themselves out in the gates. She saw herself wounded again, but more severely when she tried to ambush her assailants in a dark alley as they stalked her. She smiled as she watched the death throws of one of those monstrosities. Her ambush had at least been a limited success. She only had one creature left to deal with, but her energy was failing her quickly.
Fleeing again had been the only choice. Returning to the time gates to recover her strength would have been the wisest choice, but she was too angry at the loss of her friends to consider a true retreat. Perhaps another opportunity would present itself to strike at this one. Unfortunately it seemed more intelligent than it's fellows, and tricking it again would not be easy.
Her second attempt at an ambush had failed miserably. The creature somehow guessed at her intentions, instead of coming at her directly as it had previously it managed to outflank her. When she stopped to pull her surprise attack she could not find her victim. Until she was struck from behind by some kind of fireball.
Pluto had almost no memory of the events being played out next. She remembered fear, hopelessness, and remorse for her friends. She remembered wishing the demon's next blow would finish her so that at least she could join her friends. She had no clear idea why she was still alive.
She watched in horror as a civillian jumped down into the street and confronted the beast. He looked to be in his late teens or early twenties, quite handsome actually, though that was of no consequence to Pluto as she watched the scene unfold. She prepared herself to see the young man beaten to death by her savage enemy. Then blinked in surprise when it spoke to him.
"I felt your approach," it said, facing off against the young man.
"Then you should have run," he replied. Suddenly he was surrounded by a pale aura of blue light.
Pluto breathlessly watched the short battle, and nearly cried out a warning to her saviour when he reached out to take her staff. Only to swallow her cry in shock. Instead of killing the young man painfully, it transformed in his hand and seemed to magnify his impressively glowing aura into a frighteningly bright nimbus. The blue light surrounding him easily lit the entire street, casting everything in a blue tint. The young man killed her assailant almost casually, striking him only once before decapitating him with the transformed weapon. Then naming himself Guardian.
Unfortunately the time gate went black at that moment, and Pluto could not determine what happened next. How had she come to awaken before the Timegates. She could see her staff leaning against the gate, and it relieved her that it appeared to be restored from it's transformation.
She knew instinctively that she could not have brought herself back in the condition she'd been in. Nor could she have healed herself, she didn't share Saturn's gift in that regard.
Briefly she thought that perhaps Saturn had escaped when the other Outers were destroyed, but she knew that was impossible. She'd felt Saturn's death along with the others, and Hotaru wouldn't have been able to bring her to this place in any case. The injustice of the situation screamed out to her, demanding that she undo the damage caused to her friends, and the cherished future that was Crystal Tokyo.
Pluto gazed again at the Gateway. She would break the trust given to her by Queen Serenity, she would travel back in time to the moment of the attack against the Sailors and warn them. As long as she lived she would not allow the dream of Crystal Tokyo to die.
Opening the gate to allow for time travel required focus, and strength of will. Most minds would crack under the pressure of forcing themselves through what was, in all practicality one of the most implacable forces in existence. Only a very disciplined mind could control the gates. Pluto had centuries of experience with manipulating the timestream, and she knew it was within her power to move herself back through it.
Summoning her resolve, Pluto reached out to take hold of the Time Key. The staff that represented her position as protector of the gates, and allowed her to focus her will and mind to the task of opening the gates themselves for her passage.
An instant before her hand was to touch the staff she felt a pulse of power radiate from it, and she jerked her hand away in shock. She was familiar with that reaction from the Key, it was a warning. If she touched the staff it would destroy her, just as it would destroy anyone that was not permitted access.
Pluto stared in disbelief at the Key, and realized for that it was rejecting her for the first time. She'd been able to call up the visions of what happened to her Princess and the others, but she could not open the Gateway. Nor could she feel the bond to the Gates that she had once taken for granted. The gentle sensation like a stream flowing through her mind was gone. It's infinate simplicities, and complexities both denied to her.
How then had she called up those painful visions? Her powers must not have left her completely, though she had little doubt that she would suffer for the loss of her weapon the next time she faced battle. She would have to find another way to avenge her friends and restore the future.
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Ranma laid sleeping on his futon in his quiet Juuban apartment as Nabiki watched over him. He had returned from his confrontation with the demon looking rather proud of himself, if a little confused, and clearly exhausted. He had practically passed out upon returning. Though he had given Nabiki a short, and slightly scattered summary of what happened when he returned. Just before dropping onto his futon like a lead weight.
Apparently he had succeeded in killing the monster, but misplaced the damsel in distress. When he'd turned around to check on her after the fight she had been gone. Though her blood remained behind as evidence of her former presence. He'd searched the area for awhile before giving up and returning to find Nabiki still waiting for him on the roof of his apartment building.
Nabiki flicked on the tv to watch the news while she considered the latest incident. Ranma's behaviour right before he ran off to the rescue had been terrifying. He'd mentioned to her before that people sometimes radiated emotions through thier aura, and that he could read those emotions if he had to. It was a technique he'd learned from Cologne recently, it was meant to be used during a fight as a method of predicting how an enemy would strike. He apparently had an unusual gift for it, in that he could see auras now with great detail. Cologne had been very impressed when Ranma told her what he was seeing. He hadn't told her everything. He'd kept from her that since he began using the technique as he watched the Sailors fight he'd begun to see magic as well as the general chi auras the technique was intended for. He'd told Nabiki, but he'd hadn't mentioned it being anywhere near as specific as what she had seen on the roof.
It was as if Ranma could sense the thoughts of both the demon, and the wounded Senshi. That certainly wasn't part of what he'd told her. They were not even in view when he did it!
Nabiki didn't notice the tv until she heard the newscaster mention the Sailor Senshi.
"-erious figure came to the rescue of the downed Sailor Pluto this evening, decapitating another of the creatures that spread such distruction at the Hanamaru Amusement Park. While not all the Senshi have yet been located, it is believed that many died in the first altercation at the park. "
"Footage from the Hanamaru security cameras indicates that the beasts attacked a group of five teenage girls without warning, one of the young women was killed immediately, the others proceeded to transform into the Sailor Senshi."
"The Senshi were unable to handle the number of creatures they faced, despite reinforment in the form of Sailor Pluto towards the end of the confrontation. Video evidence seems to indicate that Pluto alone survived the encounter, fleeing with the remaining two beasts in pursuit."
Nabiki stared dumbly at the screen. Those creatures had killed Sailor Senshi? She had never really cared much one way or the other for the Sailors, they were not a Neriman phenominon, and she found it hard to believe they were the only defence the planet had against evil. Especially since several people she knew could probably beat back most of the monsters they faced with thier bare hands.
"The body of one of the pursing monsters was later found in downtown Juuban where it had apparently been decapitated. There was a single witness to this altercation, but he is currently being held for questioning by police investigators."
The following scene showed a harried looking young Japanese man being escorted into a police station by several officers, while several reporters milled around yelling questions. Despite the officers attempts to keep the man from speaking he managed to make one short statement. "He saved her, The Guardian killed the monster."
"Kuso," Nabiki muttered under her breath. "There just had to be a bloody witness."
The fight had only taken place two hours ago, and already it was big news. Though with the deaths of several superheros involved that was not too surprising.
Nabiki sighed to herself, and turned off the television. She could already see how this would turn out. The press would be looking for The Guardian now. So would the police. In all likelihood whoever had killed the rest of the Senshi would not be pleased, and even Pluto herself would probably try to track down her rescuer if and when she recovered. Ranma had been absolutely certain she survived, despite being unable to find her.
It all added up to a major nightmare for the middle Tendo daughter. Ranma had inadvertantly become a bloody Superhero.
That Nabiki had no problems seeing him in that role disturbed her. What else was a world class martial artist with no real education to do? "Wasn't life crazy enough without this"
Nabiki muttered to herself.
Grabing her organizer from her bag Nabiki settled in to solve the latest complication Ranma had presented her with. The situation was too volitile to let Ranma handle it alone, she would just have to think it through before he woke up.
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"I'm not a superhero!" Ranma protested, an argument which had not been getting him very far since he woke.
"Let's review: You rescued a beautiful woman from ninjas, then magically transformed so that you could send her on her way without being recognised"
"That was your idea, Nabiki."
"Then you somehow sense a demon attack, rescue another beautiful woman, this one complete with her own magical powers. You kill the demon using a magical transforming staff while dodging fireballs. Then you posed over the dead body and called yourself The Guardian, while glowing no less. They are already talking about you on the news Ranma. Face it, you're a bloody superhero now."
"I wonder what happened to that staff thing, I've never felt anything like that before." Ranma mused.
"Focus Ranma!"
"I don't see the big problem, it's not the first time I had to fight a monster. Tarou's cursed form, Herb, Ryoga, Saffron, that stupid phoenix thing on Kuno's head, the Ghoul, the Perv, those big animals in Ryoganzawa, the Oorochi, those idiots that kept trying to kidnap Akane. The staff didn't even throw fire and ice like the one's Saffron had. Those weren't decent ninjas either, Akane would have pounded them easily. It'll blow over again."
Nabiki shook her head sadly before replying. "Not this time Ranma, it might have blown over if the Sailor Scouts hadn't been involved, but they have quite the reputation. To the general public you're not Ranma the Martial Artist, you're the mysterious 'Guardian' that rescued Sailor Pluto."
"Sailor Pluto?"
"Yeah, they mentioned her name on the news. Along with a few guesses about your origins that you'd probably find flattering."
"Why would she name herself after Mickey Mouse's dog?"
"The planet Pluto!!!" Nabiki growled in frustration, "Now you're trying to piss me off."
"Yep."
"Just you wait Ran-chan...one of these days..." Nabiki trailed off menacingly.
Ranma grinned at her and stuck out his tongue. It wasn't often he got to be on the winning side during one of their verbal sparring matches. He was actually surprised at Nabiki's insistance about this whole superhero thing. She'd been pushing him about it since he'd woken up a half hour earlier.
"I don't see why I need the whole secret identity thing, I fight challenges all the time. It's just a different group of challengers."
"You have been watching these things fight the Sailors for a while now Ranma. How powerful are they?" Nabiki asked, trying to find a new track.
Ranma thought about it for a moment, recalling some of the near misses he'd seen the Sailors pull through. "They've got a lot of power, but they aren't really a threat. It's like fighting a version of Akane that can use magic. I'm surprised that Sailor Pluto was beaten like that though, she always seemed like one of the leaders. I'm sure she's stronger than that demon was, and she has magic like it did. I've seen her fight, she should have mopped the floor with that thing."
"Could they kill me?"
Ranma shifted uneasily before responding, "You're not a martial artist, Nabiki."
"Could they kill Ukyou?"
"Probably."
"What about Shampoo"
He laughed a little at the idea of one of the demons defeating Shampoo. It would be interesting to see her give it the Kiss of Marriage. "I think she might be able to beat it, Cologne definitely could."
"There you have it then, Ranma. You need a secret identity." Nabiki stated.
"hunh"
Ranma responded unintelligently, trying to understand the connection.
"That was a demon, not another martial artist. Saffron kidnapped Akane to get at you, so did Pantyhose. How much further would a demon go? Would that beast today have killed Kasumi to get your attention? Maybe decapitating Akane would be a nice clear signal to you. Or making fiancee okinomiyaki out of Ukyou." Nabiki glared at Ranma as she tried to nail her point home. "The Guardian has no family, no friends, no fiancees, no weaknesses the demons might exploit. Let him fight them, Ranma can stay in the background for the sake of everyone."
Over the years some aspects of Ranmas life had changed very little. He still had more problems and enemies than a man four times his age would reasonably have had time to accumulate.
Still, his life had an order to it of a sort, owing in large part to Nabiki's intervention. He had his part-time jobs back in Nerima, he had an apartment where he could sleep peacefully without having to worry about fiancees, rivals, or idiot pandas disturbing him, and he had his Martial Arts.
Now Nabiki herself seemed hell-bent on getting him to re-complicate his life. This whole superhero thing seemed like overreacting to Ranma. Martial artists protect the weak, he was a martial artist. Why shouldn't he kill a monster if he had to protect somebody? Somebody had to, and it was a bit of a rush.
Trained to fight since he could walk, the Art was more than a matter of self defense for Ranma, it was a way life. It was the only life he knew.
Ranma was a great martial artist, almost certainly the greatest of his generation. However the prospect of inheriting her family dojo by marrying Akane and spending the rest of his life as a teacher sickened him.
Not because of Akane, or at least not just for that reason, but because he didn't really want the adventures to end. He looked at her father and saw what he might become if he lived that life. Practicing the Art, but tired and complacent about it. Training half-heartedly, if at all, and never improving.
How would a superhero's life be different? He recalled the incidents of his day leading up to the confrontation with the demon. He'd been bored roof-hoping with nothing to do before the ninja attack, and he'd enjoyed facing off against the demon. Superheroes fought a lot didn't they? He never saw them do anything else on TV or in the movies. Nabiki had told him there were more of those demons, that a lot of them had attacked the Sailor Senshi in an amusement park. What would fighting a few of those things be like?
"What are you thinking about Ranma?" Nabiki asked, looking at Ranma with concern. "You look like your mind is somewhere else."
Ranma mentally cursed himself for letting his mind wander, had she still been talking? Ignoring Nabiki during an argument was like fighting the Ghoul blindfolded, but more painfull in the end. Shifting awkwardly under Nabiki's gaze. "It sounds like a plan the Panda might come up with."
Nabiki smacked Ranma lightly on the back of the head. "No need to get offensive, I am being perfectly reasonable. I can tell you enjoyed that fight, and I am telling you how to get more like it without dragging everyone you know in with you."
"What about you?"
"I am already in, and I am staying in." Nabiki said, "Every superhero needs help behind the scenes. Batman had Alfred, the Guardian will have Nabiki."
"You want to be involved too?" Ranma almost stuttered in shock, he wasn't sure if he was worried or relieved. If Nabiki was there then he had no doubt they could pull it off, he just couldn't understand why she was volunteering for chaos. "Are you sure?"
Nabiki smiled to herself. Ranma had basically already agreed to her terms, though he seemed unaware of it. There were a lot of details to work out, but that was one of her specialties. He would get the chance to fight the good fight, and Nabiki would help him. They could discuss who was really in charge later. "I am in."
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Note: The majority of this chapter was actually written while I was in Japan using a palmtop organizer. That organizer is long dead now, but thankfully one of the CF cards I used to use with it had all the preliminary writing for this chapter. I was reclutant to release this chapter as is, I do not like it as much as the first chapter, but the setup work in it was necessary. I have a lot of ideas for the future, I'm still trying to flesh some of them out, and determine where they fit in the overall storyline. One of the things I've learned from fanfics, comics, tv, and movies is that once a character is fully established the interesting part is over. Clark Kent was a lot more interesting than Superman, and the X-Men are a lot less interesting than Generation X where the mutant heroes are still learning their powers.
I'm betting many of you are going to be questioning why Nabiki would push the superhero idea, she has her reasons.
I need to acknowledge that I am not an expert on Sailor Moon. It was an interesting choice to use Sailor Pluto considering she's probably the character I know the least about. When I wrote the original chapter I had a discussion with a Sailor Moon fanatic and we went over the origins of Sailor Pluto and some of the popular fanon facts that have been invented about her. Most of my knowledge of her is based on fanfiction crossovers I've read in the past. The Church of Time and Chaos used to be excellent for stories where Sailor Pluto interacted with Ranma, though I don't think that site has been updated in quite some time.
Coming up in the next chapter: What happens when the Guardian meets the failed protector? Pink Sailor, what pink sailor?