Robin ½
All original Ranma 1/2 Characters and Back story Copyright Rumiko
Takahashi, and all original DC Characters and Back story Copyright DC
Comics Inc., and both are used without permission. Please don't sue...
cause I have no money.
Any new characters are mine, but they can travel as their bags are
always packed.
Welcome to Gotham
It was a bleak night, even for Gotham, but as far as Bruce Wayne was
concrened it matched his mood. The rain was cutting through the heavy
coat he wrapped around himself and the wind made standing on the roof
of Wayne-Tech Towers a true danger. He stood his ground and put his
face to the skies in defiance, it had only been six months since the
loss of his last ward, Jason Todd, and the time hadn't healled the
emotional wounds. He wasn't ready for this yet again.
Bruce gave himself a mental shove, this was a matter of honour, a debt
owed, not something he could have refused. The thought of taking on
another ward so soon, it just didn't settle right with him. And the
boy. . . He had just lost a loved one, a parent, even if Bruce could
understand the feelings the boy probably wasn't ready either.
Taking a moment to return to himself Bruce looked off in the direction
he knew the helicopter would be coming in from and tried to bring back
the false persona that people were supposed to see.
Ranma watched as the city come into view, it was large, dark, and
lonely looking. He had never seen a city so obviously designed to be
omminous before, and he kind of wished he wasn't doing so now. The
flight in from the landing field was only the second time he had ever
flew, the first was the private jet which had come for him in China,
and it was a thrill to be so high above the ground. Unfortunely the
city took most of that thrill away bringing back bad memories, like why
he was coming to live with a gajin stranger in a city on the other side
of the world he had known all his life.
Glancing over at the man who called himself simply 'Alfred', Ranma
wondered again why an strong minded, an honourable man like him could
allow himself to be a servant to others. It might have been a weird
thought for a person raised in japan, with japan's history and all, but
to Ranma it was an important one. He needed to know what made people do
what they did, and why, it was how he was using now to try not thinking
about his father's death.
"So, um, Alfred, where are we gonna land?" Ranma asked as he scanned
the city again, he decided the rain just added to the nastiness of the
image. His only real examples of cities were Tokyo and Hong Kong, the
first because his father kept coming back to there when they weren't
traveling around, and the second from only a few days ago where he and
Alfred and left on this trip. Tokyo was to bright and atempted to look
civilized, and Hong Kong. . . Well Hong Kong had much the same feel as
Gotham, execpt it looked like they tried to put a little hope in their
building designs.
Alfred leaned over and pointed at the tallest building which stuck out
of the ground like a canine tooth among mollars, "That is the Wayne-
Tech headquarters. Master Bruce is up there waiting for you."
"It's nice of him to take me in and all, " Ranma said politely but
with the same sadness he had carried since China. "He wouldn't have had
to if I could have found either my Mother or father's old friend Mr.
Tendo."
"Don't worry yourself, you aren't the first ward Master Bruce has
welcomed into his home," Alfred replied as he put a comforting hand on
the boy's shoulder, he had taken a liking to Ranma quickly seeing a
strong dedication to all things the boy set his mind to. "You'll meet
Master Richard in a couple of days since he's currently at university
in New York."
Alfred's only concern was how his employer would take Ranma's other
problem. . .
----------
Bruce watched the helicopter finish it's landing and the unloading of
gear with a bit of hesitation, although by the time the doors opened he
had hid his real feelings again.
Ranma stepped out of the helicopter glad for the heavy rain coat he
was wearing as the rain on seemed to intensify as the doors opened. And
the umbrella Alfred was holding over him really helped too. Alfred led
Ranma towards whom he could only assume was Mr. Wayne, he had the look
of a man in the kind of pain Ranma was feeling himself and that
bothered Ranma for some reason he couldn't figure out. Ranma was about
to bow in greeting when the wind caught the umbrella at a bad angle to
be carried away into the dark sky.
Bruce watched in shock as the teenage boy with black hair, who had
originally been standing in front of him with his friend, shift into a
slightly smaller teenage girl with natural fire red hair. At least her
clothes still seemed to fit.
"You. . ." was about all his mind would allow him at the moment. He
had seen stranger things before but this was just too unexpected, and
caught him off guard.
"I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this," Ranma-chan answered avoiding
looking directing at the man in front of her, depression obvious in her
voice.
Bruce looked squarely into Alfred's eyes with a cocked eyebrow, "Did I
just see. . .?"
"Yes, Master Bruce, Ranma, the boy I've brought back from China, has
just turned into a girl."
"Is it some kind of Meta power?" turning his attention back to the
depressed boy. . . girl.
"It's a curse," Ranma-chan stated coldly not bothering to look up.
"A curse? . . . I see. Well, we'd best get out of this rain before
discusing this further," Bruce replied as he directed the girl towards
the nearest door. "it sounds like it going to be a long story."
After drying themselves off, Alfred led them to the car so Ranma could
see his new home and get settled in. At first Bruce was strangely
quiet, giving his new ward glances from time to time.
"Yes, the curse changes me completely into a girl, at least
physically," Ranma-chan stated in annoyed tone after finally getting
feed up with the stares.
"That wasn't what I was wondering. . . At least not yet, I'm just
having problems with the idea of seeing a real 'curse'," Bruce replied
trying to sound friendlier then he did earlier.
"Sorry. . . And sorry for the intrusion into your life Wayne-sama,"
Ranma-chan started as she looked up again. "Alfred explained what
happened with your last ward, I understand it wasn't your fault. . .
But I understand why you feel guilty."
"It was my fault he was were he was," Bruce stated with a touch of
anger.
"If I'm gonna be too much trouble. . . I can always go back to Japan."
"I don't mean to seem unfriendly, Ranma, I've just not been sleeping
too well for the past couple of months," Bruce explained, rubbing his
eyes with the back of his hand. "If I wasn't willing to take you in I
wouldn't have, so don't concern yourself about that."
"Just forgive me for what I'm going to do," Bruce thought to himself
unhappy about what he had set in motion.
"Pop said you were a student of his when I was just a baby, I don't
really remember you."
"I started my training a little before your mother got pregnant and I
stayed for a couple years after you were born, that's how I became your
Godfather," Bruce explained thinking back to his time in Japan. "I owe
a lot to your father. . . And it's the least I could do for such an
honourable man."
Ranma-chan's eyes bugged out and a small spurt of laughter couldn't be
held back, "My Pop. . . Honourable!?! On which planet was this?"
"He was one of the most honourable men I have ever known," Bruce
replied looking confused by the girl's reaction.
Ranma-chan started laughing, hard. Each time she tried to stop it
would start again causing her to soon double over in pain, "My. . . Pop
. . . Was. . . A. . . Thief and. . . A bastard! He use to sell me of
for food then steal me back after he ate and I'd been fed."
"I don't understand," Bruce said in confusion. Turning towards Alfred
he asked, "Are you sure it was the same Genma Saotome?"
"Of course, Master Bruce," Alfred replied indigently.
"Pop may have talked big about honour and duty, but he never listened
to himself."
"So. . . You were raised by a scoundrel?" Bruce asked in a serious
tone wondering what had changed his old sensai, and if the girl. . .
Boy followed in his example.
"Yeah, but I tried to be as opposite to him as I could be," Ranma-chan
stated proudly.
"I see."
-----------
Things got quiet again for the rest of the trip until Ranma got her
first view of the manson, and realized they were headed there.
"Is that. . .?"
"Wanyne Manor, the family home of the Wayne family for many
generations," Alfred replied from the front of the Bently.
"And your new home," Bruce added trying to put on a big smile.
"It's. . . Huge."
Finally reaching their destination Alfred tried to take out the bags
which held Ranma's meager belongings, but Ranma-chan grabbed her own
backpack which Alfred was struggling with as if it was almost
weightless.
"Don't worry about it I can carry my own stuff in," she said with a
smile then headed off to follow Bruce into the large house.
Alfred just blinked as he watched the girl run off with a pack which
had to weight a half ton, then shrugged before bringing the rest of the
bags in.
----------
"So has Alfred got you settled in?" Bruce asked as he watched a now
male Ranma walk into the library he was sitting in.
"Ah, yeah. . . Big room," Ranma replied still feeling overwhelmed.
"Big house."
"Bigger than you might think," Bruce said smilling at his own personal
joke. "So can we talk about this curse?"
"Not much to say, cold water changes me into a girl and hot water
changes me back," Ranma replied as he did a small leap into another
chair.
"That doesn't say much," Bruce stated looking annoyed.
"There's this ancient training ground in China, Jusenkyo. Over a
hundred little springs are spread out all over the place, each has had
something drown in it at some time in the past. You fall in one and
poof you're cursed to become what ever drowned there when cold water
hits you," Ranma explained rolling his eyes. "I'm told I got off lucky,
turning into a girl and all, Pop was cursed to become a Panda bear."
Bruce cocked an eybrow at the boy, "A panda?"
"Yeah, still kinda looked like Pop though."
"That was something I was going to mention. . . Your girl form looks a
lot like you, and the red hair isn't too suprising as your Mother has
redish hair herself," Bruce said thinking back to the days he spent at
the Saotome Dojo.
"Tonic said the springs couldn't make us the exact image of the thing
which drowned, it would cause too much confusion, so it makes a person
what they would have looked like if they were born that way," Ranma
explained. "So I look the way I would have if I was born a girl."
"Tonic?"
"An elder Chinese Amazon, she took me and Pop in while he looked for
someone to look after me when he died."
"Chinese Amazons?" Bruce said in mild shock then waved off the
explaination he saw coming. "No, no that's okay. Too much at once."
"The guide at the training grounds also said some of the springs bring
mental changes too, fortunely spring of drowned girl doesn't," Ranma
continued with a small shudder. "I don't know how I'd handle knowing
that I acted like a girl while I was in my curse form."
"You have a real problem with turning into a girl?"
"You could say that," Ranma replied sarcasticly. "I was raised to be
'A Man Among Men', Pop tried to teach me all things manly and to avoid
anything which wasn't. It caused a lot of problems between us as I was
growing up."
"I see. . ." Bruce replied rubbing his chin. "So you changing into a
girl was like a slap in his face, making all his training useless?"
"Not really, but it did cause problems. He made a pact with my Mother
promising that he'd make 'A Man Among Men' by the time he brought me
home or we'd both commit seppeku."
Bruce's eyes went wide in shock, "I can't believe you went along with
the deal. You seem more intelligent to me than that."
Ranma chuckled to himself while shaking his head, "Like a lot of what
my Pop did with me I had no choice in the matter. I was a baby at the
time the pact was made, he said he put my hand print on the page to
make me agree to the pact."
"I see," Bruce replied sounding very unhappy about what he had been
hearing. "I guess my old sensai had changed a lot after I left. . ."
"Oh, he said he was sorry about everything he did to me over the ten
years we had been traveling, sorta to get it off his concious," Ranma
stated with a sneer. "If it wasn't for how good a martial artist he
made me I wouldn't have forgiven him any of it."
"Master Bruce, I've laid out your evening meal," Alfred called from
the door.
Ranma looked at the antique clock over the fireplace in confusion then
back at Bruce.
"I work late, I work late," Bruce replied as he got up and headed out
of the library with Ranma following behind.
----------
Bruce and Alfred looked on in shock as they watched Ranma decimate the
food on his plate, it was his fifth helping and it looked like he was
going to ask for. . .
"More, please," Ranma asked holding up his plate with a smile.
"I'm sorry, Master Ranma, if I'd known you where going to have such an
apatite I would have made more," Alfred replied recovering himself.
Ranma wiped his mouth and smiled, "That's okay, Alfred, it should do
until morning."
"I'm surprised that you're not having stomach problems after inhaling
all that," Bruce stated from across the table still working on his
first plate.
"Nah, I chew everything I have to," Ranma replied as he got up. "Me
and Pop used to do that all the time, he made everything he could into
training."
"And what kind of training was that, Master Ranma? Insulting the cook?"
"What? Oh no, that was delicious, not what I'm use to, but delicious,"
Ranma said quickly bowing to the man. "It was speed training. Me and
Pop tried steal food from each other and eat it before it could be
stolen back or allowing any of our own to be stolen."
Bruce thought about it for minute as Ranma looked around the room, "I
guess that would encourage a person to either get faster or starve, but
the level of speed you displayed was beyond human."
"Nothing is beyond human, it just takes discipline and the right
training," Ranma replied seriously without stopping his examination of
the painting he was looking at.
"There are always limits to things, Ranma," Bruce said as he wiped his
own mouth finally finished his meal.
Ranma laughed, "Thinking like that is why you've found limits." He
turned around and smiled, "I know a couple of Chinese ladies, who are
probably the oldest people I'll ever hear of, they are much more faster
than I am, and they say all it took was training."
"Is this 'Tonic' you mentioned earlier one of them?"
"Yep," Ranma stated with a larger smile. "She really openned my eyes
to a lot of the things that Pop thought were 'Unmanly'. And the
training her and her sister gave me really improved my skills."
"I see," Bruce replied as he looked at his watch. He stood and started
to head for the door, "I'm sorry, Ranma, we'll have to continue this
tomorrow, I have an appointment tonight that I have to keep. Have a
good night, and I'll see you in the morning."
"Um, okay," Ranma answered to the empty room, looking at a clock he
wondered what kind of business was done after eleven at night.
Shrugging his shoulders he headed to his room still tried for the
flight.
----------
"Was wondering when you'd get here," Nightwing stated from his perch
on the edge of the building that served as their starting point tonight.
Batman gave his old partner a dirty look before taking up his own
position, "Ranma was more interesting than I thought he might be."
"Really, What he do? Stop a bullet with his bare hands?" Nightwing
asked sarcasticly.
"No, but I might not put it past him to do it," Batman replied as he
got his batoculars out and aimed them at the warehouse they were
watching. "He became a girl."
". . . So your old sensai's son was really a daughter?"
"No, I was living with them when he was born, so I know that Nodoka
had a boy," Batman stated as he focused in on a truck unloading crates.
"So this isn't Ranma? Do you think it's some kind of a plant?"
Nightwing asked as he also took note of the crates then panned over to
the man guarding the open gate.
"No, Ranma turned back into a boy after we got to the mansion," Batman
focused on a trio of men on the roof of the warehouse taking note of
the lack of guns.
"Some kind of Meta power?" Nightwing spotted the short staves the men
carried and pointed them out to his mentor.
"Magical curse, water activated, from China," Batman replied taking
another device from his belt. Opening it he looked at the display
looking for a little red dot to surface on the scanning surface.
"Holy Ancient Chinese Secrets, Batman," Nightwing stated with a big
smile trying not to start laughing.
"I've missed you, Dick," Batman said with his forehead in his hand
also trying not to laugh. Calming themselves down he continued while
still watching for that red dot, "He might still be a Meta, he
displayed a level of speed tonight at dinner which was beyond human."
"You mean a teenager inhaled his food faster than he could chew and
asked to excused, heavens forbid 'That ain't human!" Nightwing replied
in mock shock.
"He finished five helpings before I was even halfways through my own,
and I had a hard time seeing his hands move as they were moving so
fast."
"And what did he have to say about it?"
Batman looked up from their survellence and turned to his friend, "He
said it was just training, but Alfred told me in the cave that he
witnessed Ranma do a lot of things simular in China."
"Are you going to have him tested?"
"I think I should," Batman stated unhappily. "It won't change my
position on him living with me, but it might change my plans. . ."
"You still don't trust Meta's," Nightwing said sadly shaking his head.
"Some of your best friends are Meta's."
"Yes, and some of my worst enemies are Meta's too."
Beep. . . Beep. . .
"Looks like our friend is here," Batman stated looking down at the
device as it changed from a little blinking dot to a video display of
the inside of the warehouse. Turning a couple of dials the picture
rotated until to rested apon the round, but sharp features of a small
man in a tophat and fine tails.
"He's there," Batman stated as he grabbed the grapple from his belt.
Both he and Nightwing swung off the building towards the warehouse to
do their night job.
------------
All original Ranma 1/2 Characters and Back story Copyright Rumiko
Takahashi, and all original DC Characters and Back story Copyright DC
Comics Inc., and both are used without permission. Please don't sue...
cause I have no money.
Any new characters are mine, but they can travel as their bags are
always packed.
Welcome to Gotham
It was a bleak night, even for Gotham, but as far as Bruce Wayne was
concrened it matched his mood. The rain was cutting through the heavy
coat he wrapped around himself and the wind made standing on the roof
of Wayne-Tech Towers a true danger. He stood his ground and put his
face to the skies in defiance, it had only been six months since the
loss of his last ward, Jason Todd, and the time hadn't healled the
emotional wounds. He wasn't ready for this yet again.
Bruce gave himself a mental shove, this was a matter of honour, a debt
owed, not something he could have refused. The thought of taking on
another ward so soon, it just didn't settle right with him. And the
boy. . . He had just lost a loved one, a parent, even if Bruce could
understand the feelings the boy probably wasn't ready either.
Taking a moment to return to himself Bruce looked off in the direction
he knew the helicopter would be coming in from and tried to bring back
the false persona that people were supposed to see.
Ranma watched as the city come into view, it was large, dark, and
lonely looking. He had never seen a city so obviously designed to be
omminous before, and he kind of wished he wasn't doing so now. The
flight in from the landing field was only the second time he had ever
flew, the first was the private jet which had come for him in China,
and it was a thrill to be so high above the ground. Unfortunely the
city took most of that thrill away bringing back bad memories, like why
he was coming to live with a gajin stranger in a city on the other side
of the world he had known all his life.
Glancing over at the man who called himself simply 'Alfred', Ranma
wondered again why an strong minded, an honourable man like him could
allow himself to be a servant to others. It might have been a weird
thought for a person raised in japan, with japan's history and all, but
to Ranma it was an important one. He needed to know what made people do
what they did, and why, it was how he was using now to try not thinking
about his father's death.
"So, um, Alfred, where are we gonna land?" Ranma asked as he scanned
the city again, he decided the rain just added to the nastiness of the
image. His only real examples of cities were Tokyo and Hong Kong, the
first because his father kept coming back to there when they weren't
traveling around, and the second from only a few days ago where he and
Alfred and left on this trip. Tokyo was to bright and atempted to look
civilized, and Hong Kong. . . Well Hong Kong had much the same feel as
Gotham, execpt it looked like they tried to put a little hope in their
building designs.
Alfred leaned over and pointed at the tallest building which stuck out
of the ground like a canine tooth among mollars, "That is the Wayne-
Tech headquarters. Master Bruce is up there waiting for you."
"It's nice of him to take me in and all, " Ranma said politely but
with the same sadness he had carried since China. "He wouldn't have had
to if I could have found either my Mother or father's old friend Mr.
Tendo."
"Don't worry yourself, you aren't the first ward Master Bruce has
welcomed into his home," Alfred replied as he put a comforting hand on
the boy's shoulder, he had taken a liking to Ranma quickly seeing a
strong dedication to all things the boy set his mind to. "You'll meet
Master Richard in a couple of days since he's currently at university
in New York."
Alfred's only concern was how his employer would take Ranma's other
problem. . .
----------
Bruce watched the helicopter finish it's landing and the unloading of
gear with a bit of hesitation, although by the time the doors opened he
had hid his real feelings again.
Ranma stepped out of the helicopter glad for the heavy rain coat he
was wearing as the rain on seemed to intensify as the doors opened. And
the umbrella Alfred was holding over him really helped too. Alfred led
Ranma towards whom he could only assume was Mr. Wayne, he had the look
of a man in the kind of pain Ranma was feeling himself and that
bothered Ranma for some reason he couldn't figure out. Ranma was about
to bow in greeting when the wind caught the umbrella at a bad angle to
be carried away into the dark sky.
Bruce watched in shock as the teenage boy with black hair, who had
originally been standing in front of him with his friend, shift into a
slightly smaller teenage girl with natural fire red hair. At least her
clothes still seemed to fit.
"You. . ." was about all his mind would allow him at the moment. He
had seen stranger things before but this was just too unexpected, and
caught him off guard.
"I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this," Ranma-chan answered avoiding
looking directing at the man in front of her, depression obvious in her
voice.
Bruce looked squarely into Alfred's eyes with a cocked eyebrow, "Did I
just see. . .?"
"Yes, Master Bruce, Ranma, the boy I've brought back from China, has
just turned into a girl."
"Is it some kind of Meta power?" turning his attention back to the
depressed boy. . . girl.
"It's a curse," Ranma-chan stated coldly not bothering to look up.
"A curse? . . . I see. Well, we'd best get out of this rain before
discusing this further," Bruce replied as he directed the girl towards
the nearest door. "it sounds like it going to be a long story."
After drying themselves off, Alfred led them to the car so Ranma could
see his new home and get settled in. At first Bruce was strangely
quiet, giving his new ward glances from time to time.
"Yes, the curse changes me completely into a girl, at least
physically," Ranma-chan stated in annoyed tone after finally getting
feed up with the stares.
"That wasn't what I was wondering. . . At least not yet, I'm just
having problems with the idea of seeing a real 'curse'," Bruce replied
trying to sound friendlier then he did earlier.
"Sorry. . . And sorry for the intrusion into your life Wayne-sama,"
Ranma-chan started as she looked up again. "Alfred explained what
happened with your last ward, I understand it wasn't your fault. . .
But I understand why you feel guilty."
"It was my fault he was were he was," Bruce stated with a touch of
anger.
"If I'm gonna be too much trouble. . . I can always go back to Japan."
"I don't mean to seem unfriendly, Ranma, I've just not been sleeping
too well for the past couple of months," Bruce explained, rubbing his
eyes with the back of his hand. "If I wasn't willing to take you in I
wouldn't have, so don't concern yourself about that."
"Just forgive me for what I'm going to do," Bruce thought to himself
unhappy about what he had set in motion.
"Pop said you were a student of his when I was just a baby, I don't
really remember you."
"I started my training a little before your mother got pregnant and I
stayed for a couple years after you were born, that's how I became your
Godfather," Bruce explained thinking back to his time in Japan. "I owe
a lot to your father. . . And it's the least I could do for such an
honourable man."
Ranma-chan's eyes bugged out and a small spurt of laughter couldn't be
held back, "My Pop. . . Honourable!?! On which planet was this?"
"He was one of the most honourable men I have ever known," Bruce
replied looking confused by the girl's reaction.
Ranma-chan started laughing, hard. Each time she tried to stop it
would start again causing her to soon double over in pain, "My. . . Pop
. . . Was. . . A. . . Thief and. . . A bastard! He use to sell me of
for food then steal me back after he ate and I'd been fed."
"I don't understand," Bruce said in confusion. Turning towards Alfred
he asked, "Are you sure it was the same Genma Saotome?"
"Of course, Master Bruce," Alfred replied indigently.
"Pop may have talked big about honour and duty, but he never listened
to himself."
"So. . . You were raised by a scoundrel?" Bruce asked in a serious
tone wondering what had changed his old sensai, and if the girl. . .
Boy followed in his example.
"Yeah, but I tried to be as opposite to him as I could be," Ranma-chan
stated proudly.
"I see."
-----------
Things got quiet again for the rest of the trip until Ranma got her
first view of the manson, and realized they were headed there.
"Is that. . .?"
"Wanyne Manor, the family home of the Wayne family for many
generations," Alfred replied from the front of the Bently.
"And your new home," Bruce added trying to put on a big smile.
"It's. . . Huge."
Finally reaching their destination Alfred tried to take out the bags
which held Ranma's meager belongings, but Ranma-chan grabbed her own
backpack which Alfred was struggling with as if it was almost
weightless.
"Don't worry about it I can carry my own stuff in," she said with a
smile then headed off to follow Bruce into the large house.
Alfred just blinked as he watched the girl run off with a pack which
had to weight a half ton, then shrugged before bringing the rest of the
bags in.
----------
"So has Alfred got you settled in?" Bruce asked as he watched a now
male Ranma walk into the library he was sitting in.
"Ah, yeah. . . Big room," Ranma replied still feeling overwhelmed.
"Big house."
"Bigger than you might think," Bruce said smilling at his own personal
joke. "So can we talk about this curse?"
"Not much to say, cold water changes me into a girl and hot water
changes me back," Ranma replied as he did a small leap into another
chair.
"That doesn't say much," Bruce stated looking annoyed.
"There's this ancient training ground in China, Jusenkyo. Over a
hundred little springs are spread out all over the place, each has had
something drown in it at some time in the past. You fall in one and
poof you're cursed to become what ever drowned there when cold water
hits you," Ranma explained rolling his eyes. "I'm told I got off lucky,
turning into a girl and all, Pop was cursed to become a Panda bear."
Bruce cocked an eybrow at the boy, "A panda?"
"Yeah, still kinda looked like Pop though."
"That was something I was going to mention. . . Your girl form looks a
lot like you, and the red hair isn't too suprising as your Mother has
redish hair herself," Bruce said thinking back to the days he spent at
the Saotome Dojo.
"Tonic said the springs couldn't make us the exact image of the thing
which drowned, it would cause too much confusion, so it makes a person
what they would have looked like if they were born that way," Ranma
explained. "So I look the way I would have if I was born a girl."
"Tonic?"
"An elder Chinese Amazon, she took me and Pop in while he looked for
someone to look after me when he died."
"Chinese Amazons?" Bruce said in mild shock then waved off the
explaination he saw coming. "No, no that's okay. Too much at once."
"The guide at the training grounds also said some of the springs bring
mental changes too, fortunely spring of drowned girl doesn't," Ranma
continued with a small shudder. "I don't know how I'd handle knowing
that I acted like a girl while I was in my curse form."
"You have a real problem with turning into a girl?"
"You could say that," Ranma replied sarcasticly. "I was raised to be
'A Man Among Men', Pop tried to teach me all things manly and to avoid
anything which wasn't. It caused a lot of problems between us as I was
growing up."
"I see. . ." Bruce replied rubbing his chin. "So you changing into a
girl was like a slap in his face, making all his training useless?"
"Not really, but it did cause problems. He made a pact with my Mother
promising that he'd make 'A Man Among Men' by the time he brought me
home or we'd both commit seppeku."
Bruce's eyes went wide in shock, "I can't believe you went along with
the deal. You seem more intelligent to me than that."
Ranma chuckled to himself while shaking his head, "Like a lot of what
my Pop did with me I had no choice in the matter. I was a baby at the
time the pact was made, he said he put my hand print on the page to
make me agree to the pact."
"I see," Bruce replied sounding very unhappy about what he had been
hearing. "I guess my old sensai had changed a lot after I left. . ."
"Oh, he said he was sorry about everything he did to me over the ten
years we had been traveling, sorta to get it off his concious," Ranma
stated with a sneer. "If it wasn't for how good a martial artist he
made me I wouldn't have forgiven him any of it."
"Master Bruce, I've laid out your evening meal," Alfred called from
the door.
Ranma looked at the antique clock over the fireplace in confusion then
back at Bruce.
"I work late, I work late," Bruce replied as he got up and headed out
of the library with Ranma following behind.
----------
Bruce and Alfred looked on in shock as they watched Ranma decimate the
food on his plate, it was his fifth helping and it looked like he was
going to ask for. . .
"More, please," Ranma asked holding up his plate with a smile.
"I'm sorry, Master Ranma, if I'd known you where going to have such an
apatite I would have made more," Alfred replied recovering himself.
Ranma wiped his mouth and smiled, "That's okay, Alfred, it should do
until morning."
"I'm surprised that you're not having stomach problems after inhaling
all that," Bruce stated from across the table still working on his
first plate.
"Nah, I chew everything I have to," Ranma replied as he got up. "Me
and Pop used to do that all the time, he made everything he could into
training."
"And what kind of training was that, Master Ranma? Insulting the cook?"
"What? Oh no, that was delicious, not what I'm use to, but delicious,"
Ranma said quickly bowing to the man. "It was speed training. Me and
Pop tried steal food from each other and eat it before it could be
stolen back or allowing any of our own to be stolen."
Bruce thought about it for minute as Ranma looked around the room, "I
guess that would encourage a person to either get faster or starve, but
the level of speed you displayed was beyond human."
"Nothing is beyond human, it just takes discipline and the right
training," Ranma replied seriously without stopping his examination of
the painting he was looking at.
"There are always limits to things, Ranma," Bruce said as he wiped his
own mouth finally finished his meal.
Ranma laughed, "Thinking like that is why you've found limits." He
turned around and smiled, "I know a couple of Chinese ladies, who are
probably the oldest people I'll ever hear of, they are much more faster
than I am, and they say all it took was training."
"Is this 'Tonic' you mentioned earlier one of them?"
"Yep," Ranma stated with a larger smile. "She really openned my eyes
to a lot of the things that Pop thought were 'Unmanly'. And the
training her and her sister gave me really improved my skills."
"I see," Bruce replied as he looked at his watch. He stood and started
to head for the door, "I'm sorry, Ranma, we'll have to continue this
tomorrow, I have an appointment tonight that I have to keep. Have a
good night, and I'll see you in the morning."
"Um, okay," Ranma answered to the empty room, looking at a clock he
wondered what kind of business was done after eleven at night.
Shrugging his shoulders he headed to his room still tried for the
flight.
----------
"Was wondering when you'd get here," Nightwing stated from his perch
on the edge of the building that served as their starting point tonight.
Batman gave his old partner a dirty look before taking up his own
position, "Ranma was more interesting than I thought he might be."
"Really, What he do? Stop a bullet with his bare hands?" Nightwing
asked sarcasticly.
"No, but I might not put it past him to do it," Batman replied as he
got his batoculars out and aimed them at the warehouse they were
watching. "He became a girl."
". . . So your old sensai's son was really a daughter?"
"No, I was living with them when he was born, so I know that Nodoka
had a boy," Batman stated as he focused in on a truck unloading crates.
"So this isn't Ranma? Do you think it's some kind of a plant?"
Nightwing asked as he also took note of the crates then panned over to
the man guarding the open gate.
"No, Ranma turned back into a boy after we got to the mansion," Batman
focused on a trio of men on the roof of the warehouse taking note of
the lack of guns.
"Some kind of Meta power?" Nightwing spotted the short staves the men
carried and pointed them out to his mentor.
"Magical curse, water activated, from China," Batman replied taking
another device from his belt. Opening it he looked at the display
looking for a little red dot to surface on the scanning surface.
"Holy Ancient Chinese Secrets, Batman," Nightwing stated with a big
smile trying not to start laughing.
"I've missed you, Dick," Batman said with his forehead in his hand
also trying not to laugh. Calming themselves down he continued while
still watching for that red dot, "He might still be a Meta, he
displayed a level of speed tonight at dinner which was beyond human."
"You mean a teenager inhaled his food faster than he could chew and
asked to excused, heavens forbid 'That ain't human!" Nightwing replied
in mock shock.
"He finished five helpings before I was even halfways through my own,
and I had a hard time seeing his hands move as they were moving so
fast."
"And what did he have to say about it?"
Batman looked up from their survellence and turned to his friend, "He
said it was just training, but Alfred told me in the cave that he
witnessed Ranma do a lot of things simular in China."
"Are you going to have him tested?"
"I think I should," Batman stated unhappily. "It won't change my
position on him living with me, but it might change my plans. . ."
"You still don't trust Meta's," Nightwing said sadly shaking his head.
"Some of your best friends are Meta's."
"Yes, and some of my worst enemies are Meta's too."
Beep. . . Beep. . .
"Looks like our friend is here," Batman stated looking down at the
device as it changed from a little blinking dot to a video display of
the inside of the warehouse. Turning a couple of dials the picture
rotated until to rested apon the round, but sharp features of a small
man in a tophat and fine tails.
"He's there," Batman stated as he grabbed the grapple from his belt.
Both he and Nightwing swung off the building towards the warehouse to
do their night job.
------------