(I've had a few people comment that so far Ranma seems way too comfortable around all these new people. To this, all I can say is how many times have we seen Ranma act nervous in the anime or manga? He's a man without fear. Unless it's a cat To show nervousness, wheather it's there or not, would be a weakness and he wouldn't show it..)
"We need a surrogate," the man demanded.
"Agreed, but I'm not about to."
"Listen here Dr Kinney. Either you find a surrogate tonight or your little side project will be terminated. So what's it gonna be? Gonna play mommy?"
"Just give me a few hours and I'll find someone," Kinney pleaded.
"As I said, you have till tomorrow. Find someone if you can," he said. Sarah Kinney watched as Zander Rice walked away laughing.
'That bastard... he just lives to make things difficult for me,' she thought as she turned to her computer. She then pulled up the database. The database was constantly updated with data collected from around the world. The organization preferred to know where the top candidates for any sort of experiment were, in the event one was needed at the last moment.
'I need a female,' she typed out the first request. 'Ten million returns, hmmm... high endurance... I'd say the rating should be some where in the ninety to one hundred range... A little better. Only eight thousand that time... Still... she has to have well built hips to support the embryo during it's growth...'
She entered in the estimated body sizes she was hoping for.
'Nine hundred and eight... We can do better... Blood type,' she quickly entered the blood type of the embryo. The computer returned with seven. She quickly arranged the list in order of their ratings in each of her requirements. At the top of the list was the name Saotome Ranko, age 16.
"Perfect," Dr Kinney exclaimed aloud. She knew of course before she took any other actions, she would need to have a visit with M-13. The man was creepy, but for her purpose, he would be required.
She made her way down the long flight of stairs. As she neared the bottom, she pulled out her ID badge.
"ID please," a large white man in the standard company security blue shirt and black pants asked menacingly. Without pausing, she lifted it up to the officer's eyes.
"How's it going Tom?" With this question, his menacing air vanished and he smiled as he answered.
"I'm fine Dr. Kinney and yourself?"
"Over worked and under paid as usual. The corporate life eh?"
"It's a wonderful thing."
She then passed by Tom and placed her hand on the scanner and looked into the retinal scanner. A moment passes before the door before her finally opened to reveal a darkly light room. Inside, four bare walls and a strange man in a wheel chair greeted her without fan fair.
If she knew M-13, he already knew exactly why she was there. His ability enabled him foresight of an different kind. He could predict where things were likely to be at a given moment. Of course he couldn't actually see them. He just got a feeling of the air. It'd taken the organization a long time to train him to match those feelings with coordinates.
Of course, she knew he would already have her answer because his powers also granted him perfect clarity on things that were about to happen directly to him. Such a power she did not envy. She heard the physiologist mention that early on, he was abscessed with how he was going to die.
Before M-13 was a piece of white paper. On that paper was the purpose of her visit. She couldn't help but be creeped out by this even though she knew it was going to happen.
She quickly picked up the phone and called the search and capture division. "Captain, I need you to locate and retrieve someone for me. I'm faxing the information to you at this very moment... No, this can't wait till morning. This is a top priority. You have permission to take the orbital flight unit. You have until 5 am to complete your mission."
She sparred a glance at her watch and sighed gently. It was 7 PM currently and she figured, with luck, Dr. Rice wouldn't bother pulling the plug till morning time. That gave them a grand total of eleven hours. She would be cutting it so close, you could feel the razor burns coming.
- - - - - -
Several hours later.
The red head's sparring match against Ryoga was now high over Tokyo. They'd managed to scale one of the taller buildings in the area as they battled for no apparent reason. At least not any reason Ranma-chan knew of, but she didn't mind. Since the Saffron fight, she had been dying for a large scale fight. Something she knew she could always count on Ryoga for.
"You know P-chan," Ranma-chan started.
"Don't call me that!" Ryoga shouted.
"You know Ryoga, you think there's a chance we could just spar for the sake of sparring one of these days?"
"Not till I grind you into the pavement Saotome!"
"Geez man, why are you always so angry at me?"
"I've been through hell and back cause of you Saotome!"
"So you say, but you never say anything past that."
"Just shut up and fight damn you!" Ranma-chan suddenly cut in through Ryoga's defenses and preformed a flurry of a thousand punches to Ryoga's mid section. This action on a normal person would have killed them, but Ryoga only passed out.
"Damn it Ryoga..." She swore as she caught her breath.
Seeing that the fight was clearly over, she went to the roof top elevator. After waiting a few moments, the door opened and she was greeted by a man dressed in black. Before she could register the gun in his hand, it went off. She looked down to see a tranquilizer dart sticking out of her side. She struggled against it's effects, but to no avail. The bald man, an American she assumed by the way he looked, fired a second round to make sure.
This was more then she was able to take and she passed out.
- - - - - -
"We got her."
"Great, where was she found any ways?"
"We were lead to a skyscraper in downtown Tokyo. We're not exactly sure what she was doing up there, but it seemed clear she was leaving as we arrived."
"Stranger. No matter, we have what we need. Prep her for implantation right away."
"Already taken care of."
- - - - - - -
Hours later, Ranma-chan felt her senses returning. Her head throbbed from the tranquilizer that was used on her. She stretched a moment, noticing she wasn't wearing her clothes any more. Just something that felt like it was made out of paper.
"Wonderful, you're awake," a voice said to her. She turned and saw a woman dressed in a white lab coat.
"Who are you ?"
"I'm Dr. Kinney."
"Is this some sort of hospital?"
"Sort of Miss Ranko."
"How do you know that name?" Ranma-chan asked, doing her best to hide the nervousness she was feeling.
"Well, I had at better at least know your name. We found it in a medical database of your doctor."
"Dr. Tofu's?" She thought of the good doctor and how he kept two medical files. One for her male side and one for her female side.
"I'm not really sure to be honest. In fact, you're a very lucky girl to have been selected."
"Lucky? How so?"
"Because you're being given a great honor. You're here because we needed someone to be a surrogate," Kinney calmly explained.
"A what?" she asked, her gut telling her she wasn't going to like the answer.
"A mother for an embryo," this caused Ranma-chan to clenched her fist.
"A... mo... mother?"
"Well, being as cute as you are, I'm sure it was bound to happen sooner or later. Don't worry. You won't be expected to care for the child after it's born. Just carry it to term and you'll be free to go afterwards. Play your cards right and we'll even compensate you for your time. I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to make my rounds. Till later."
Dr. Kinney left quickly, leaving Ranma-chan to try to figure out what was going on.
'I don't know who you guys are, but I'm not gonna let you guys hold me,' she thought. With that, she got out of the bed. She quickly made a quick search of the room for her clothes, only to turn up empty handed.
"Well, clothes or no, I'm getting out of here," she said to herself. She took a second to calm herself, then took up the stance.
- - - - - -
"Dr. Kinney, the girl's escaped!" a voice called over the loud speaker.
"Escaped? How's that possible? I was just in there..." She turned around and opened the secured door and peered inside. To her dismay, the room was empty. Since the room offered no actual hiding places, she knew searching it would be a waste of time. As she turned to call for a lock down of the base, she swore she felt something brush past her.
- - - - - -
The klaxons were blaring and all the guards were now on full alert. Not that Ranma-chan felt threatened by this. After all, no matter how well trained a soldier was, he couldn't hit what he didn't know was there. Still she'd hoped it would take longer for them to realize she was gone.
She suddenly felt the need to acquire a set of clothing before continuing any further. She came across a door. With a silent motion, she broke the door from it's hinges. To her relief, the room she found was a residential. She rushed in and began her search.
Her hunt quickly took her to the bedroom and straight to the closest. Inside, she found several dresses, all a bit too risqué for her own taste and under normal circumstances, she wouldn't even think of wearing one. As it was, she needed to be clothed to keep from standing out. She decided on a black evening gown, the longest in the collection, that didn't even reach her knees. On the plus side, she figured it would be better for fighting then a full length dress if she had to fight.
After she finished dressing and finding a matching pair of shoes, she slowly she made her way North, counting on the fact that the base had to eventually come to an end. Thankfully, she managed to find a large steal door with a simple panel. She considered the possibility of hacking the door panel, but realistically knew her computer skills weren't good enough to hack a calculator, so she opted for the other use of the word hack and began to beat the door up.
Each punch against the metal caused a shot of pain to go through her, but she did her best to ignore it. After all, if she couldn't escape, a fate worst then death awaited her. The dreaded motherhood. The door held strong at first, but eventually gave up against the unrelenting fist of furry. As the door fell, a blast of cold wind hit her.
"What the hell? Where are we?" She asked as she exited the compound. Before her was a snowy landscape filled with pine trees and mountains.
Her gut had told her she was definitely farther north then she was used to and so she quickly began heading South. She continued walking for two days and nights before she felt she had to stop and rest. As luck would have it, she found a cave just big enough for her to crawl into.
- - - - -
"There was a commotion from an area deep in the northern Canadian forest," a calm yet stern voice announced
"Really," The gruff man asked, sounding unconcerned.
"Yes. What's more, I've been attempting to track a young girl that is fleeing from that area."
"Attempting?"
"Well, to tell the truth, her life signs keep vanishing. It's only through calculations and guess work that I've been able to find her when she reappears." This news appeared to shock the gruff man. "I think it's appropriate that you go and try to find her. She might know something."
"How exactly did you find this out Chuck?"
"I was scanning for new mutants and for a moment I was pulled there. I believe the girl may be a mutant but I can't be sure till you bring her in for a scan."
- - - - - -
Ranma-chan's sleep was restless as she dreamed of the Tendo dojo.
"You're with child?" Akane asked. "How exactly did that happen? Was it Kuno or Ryoga? Or both?"
"No way," Ranma-chan protested. Suddenly both men appeared.
"I can't not wait to see the shining smile on my beautiful child," Kuno proclaimed.
"You mean my child. Don't forget I did her too."
- - - - -
Ranma-chan screamed and jolted up. She whipped the sweat off of her brow. Looking up, she noticed it was day time already. Crawling out of the cave, she once again started her trek South. Within moments, her senses were going crazy.
"Did they find me?"
"What'cha you runnin from darlin?" a gruff voice asked her. She turned to spot the man dressed in a yellow and blue costume. The odd thing about this man was how feral he seemed.
"Nothin I can't handle," she stated confidently.
"Then why you runnin?"
"Don't know. Just seemed right I guess. If you're planning on trying to take me back, you'll have to defeat me first." With that, she stomped on the ground fiercely and took up a defensive posture.
"Not plannin on doing that. In fact, I happen to have brought along a jet. I promise if you come with me, I'll protect you."
"I don't need protecting pal, but I wouldn't mind the lift. This place is freezing."
"Fine, suit yourself. I parked over there."
They headed over to the black stealth jet and prepared for take off.
"Hey buddy, you never told me your name."
"Yeah. You never told me yours neither," he replied.
"Saotome Ranma."
"You Japanese?" Logan asked. Ranma's response was a nod. "Name's Logan."
"Just Logan?"
"Hey, did I ask why you gave your family name?"
"No..."
"Hang on, it's gonna be a rough take off... never did learn to fly this thing."
- - - - - -
The flight was uneventful, not that Ranma-chan expected the odd Canadian to give her much grief. What really shocked her was where they were going to land. It was a huge mansion and she was certain the grounds surrounding the mansion were almost ten times the size of the enormous building.
"Whoa," was all she could say.
"Big ain't it?" Logan said with a grunt. To this, Ranma-chan just shook her head. "I'm sure ol'Chuck will be pleased that he's impressed another person with his house.
"Who is this Chuck guy?" This caused a gutter laugh from Logan. "What's so funny?"
"Well, sides me, no one calls him that."
"What is his name then?"
"I'll let him introduce himself. Hold on. We're landing." This declaration immediately reminded Ranma-chan of the take off and she braced herself.
- - - - - -
Moments later, Ranma-chan did something she never thought she'd do. She kissed the ground and thanked the heavens she was still alive.
"Come on, it wasn't that bad a landing," Logan stated.
"Really? You collide with the landing platform like that every time?"
"Well, actually this was my first landing." Hearing a thud, he turned to see Ranma-chan on her side.
"Logan," a deep but gentle voice called out. "Next time you're up for some time in the danger room, you'll be running the simulator program and not be leaving till you've mastered the jet take off and landings."
"Hey Chuck," Logan called to the unknown person. Ranma-chan's attention focused and she saw a bald man in a wheel chair rolling up. It was plain he disapproved of being called by that name but said nothing more to Logan. Instead he turned to Ranma-chan.
"Welcome to my mansion Ranma-chan," he said with a smile. "My name is Professor Charles Xavier. You're in my school for the gifted."
(A/N I have to admit I'm at a lose for how the Weapon X people find Ranma so fast. For now, it will have to remain one of those things... like how Shampoo suddenly found him despite there being almost no way she could have known he was there.
Or perhaps the agency has use of a mutant that can see the future to a limited degree... hmm... It could say to look at a certain coordinates but it wouldn't actually know what was there...
Or something else. Any thoughts on this issue would be greatly appreciated.)