Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Ranma-1118 ❯ Part 1: ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

This is my very first Ranma/Prototype fanfic and crossover.

Date: 120110

Disclaimer: A Ranma/Prototype crossover. All characters and concepts belong to their respective creators and owners.

Synopsis: DX-1118 has always been fatal without exception. Can Ranma survive the Infection?

R A N M A - 1 1 1 8

Part 1:

Things had calmed down somewhat since the Saffron Incident. Mostly because the NWC had seen fit to leave the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist alone after what happened at Mount Phoenix. Even the tagteam duo of mentally-retarded martial artist dads had been reluctant to set off the killer of the Phoenix King for fear that he might turn on them next. Still, the peace that currently permeated the Tendo home was not to last. Such was the fate of a chaos nexus.

"Ranma, for stealing my darling Shampoo, prepare to die!" a loud voice cried out.

Even without turning his head around, Ranma knew who it was.

"Duck-Boy!" he scoffed at the somewhat blind Hidden Weapons expert.

"I have found the ultimate weapon that will destroy you, you fiend!" his opponent shouted and his hand ripped out a scroll from the seemingly endless depths of his white robes.

"Is that so?" Ranma poured scorn on the idea as Mousse opened the scroll to read its contents.

This was not the first time that the blind martial artist had claimed to find the 'ultimate weapon' to destroy him after all, Ranma groaned inwardly as he wondered what the Hidden Weapons user was up to now. The Hidden Weapons user began reading from the scroll that consisted of words that Ranma was not familiar with. Ranma waited for over a minute wondering what the words from the scroll was supposed to do as his opponent continued to chant the words.

Two minutes ... Three minutes ... still nothing happened while Mousse continued to pronounce the ugly-sounding syllables of the contents in the scoll. Ranma began to tap his finger impatiently.

"Hey Mousse! You done yet?!! I haven't got all day, you know?!!!" Ranma shouted, breaking the Hidden Weapons user's concentration.

"Shut up! Look what' you've done!! Now I've got to start from the beginning again," Mousse shouted back.

"Again from the beginning?!! Forget it, I'm out of here!" Ranma replied before leaving the area.

""Come back here! You coward!" the Hidden Weapons user shouted in rage and embarrassment as the target of his hate began to leave the area.

"Would love to but I haven't got all day to wait for you to begin to attack!" Ranma answered and leaped.

Mousse seemed to look at him in surprise ... Ranma noticed the surroundings began to blur a little in front of him ... Moose ... the people ... the cars ... the building ...

Even the sounds appeared to be getting fainter or blurring away.

'What is happening?' Ranma thought.

Everything blurred completely before dissolving into nothingness ... and for what seemed like an eternity before resolving back into blurry shape or form again in the same manner.

"Blast Moose! When I get back to Nermia, I'm going to pound on him so hard until he has trouble figuring out if he's standing on his head or on his legs," Ranma swore.

The blurry shapes were becoming more distinct now. Finally, they resolved into more human shapes ... and buildings .... before becoming clearer to show the figure of a man in a brown jumpsuit holding a glass phial in his hands while trying to ward off two men in black suits who had cornered him.

"Don't come any closer or I swear I will break this test tube!" the man in the brown jumpsuit shouted at the two men while throngs of people continued to move pass them seemingly oblivious to what was happening.

The two men did not answer with words. Instead they drew guns to open fire on the man. Ranma had seen enough. Regardless if the man was a stranger or not, it was his duty as a martial artist to protect the weak as could be seen from the two men in black business wear who were about to shoot him with their guns.

"Moko Takabisha!" Ranma shouted as he threw a ball of ki energy at one of the men holding the gun.

It struck the man with the gun, the impact from the ki blast knocking him right back into his partner, who also tumbled to the ground. Without wasting anytime, the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist grabbed hold of the man in the brown jumpsuit only for him to loose his grip on the test tube he was holding as it dropped to the ground, spilling its contents as it shattered into a million pieces.

"NO!" the man shouted, his face gone pale with fear.

Ranma who didn't understand a word the man was saying wondered what the hell was wrong when he saw the two men in black suits getting back up to their feet opening fire with their guns on him and the man he was trying to save. Now in Ranma's world, a martial artist of Ranma's caliber was able to move with speed that no ordinary human could ever hope to possess. Coupled with his intense training in the Katshu Amaguriken technique that he had received from the Old Ghoul, he was able to move at speeds that blurred into invisibility. Grabbing hold of the man, Ranma lifted him into his arms and threw him over his shoulders before leaping away from the scene, while dodging the shots that had the two shooters somewhat stunned by his fast-moving antics. The man he had saved continued to struggle ineffectively against Ranma's grip while the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist left the scene at his rather fast speed.

After travelling for what seemed like an hour and until he was sure they were safe, Ranma finally let the man down. Much to his surprise, the man did not appear to be happy at being saved..He shouted in what appeared to be angry words at the martial artist giving the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist a strong sense of puzzlement and incredulity. It was almost like being scolded by Akane for whatever wrong thing that had happened.

Alex Mercer was furious. Oh no ... actually it was more like a combination of furious and panicky at the moment.

"YOU FOOL!" He shouted at the pigtailed stranger who had intervened in his scuffle with the two Blackwatch assassins.

"DO YOU REALISE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE? OF COURSE, YOU DON'T!" he roared before covering his face with his hands.

"WE'RE DOOMED! WE'RE ALL DOOMED!" Alex began to pace the ground he was on nervously.

DX-1118 was always fatal ... except for the 0.004 percent that managed to survive .. somehow and the survivors were never the same again as his thoughts went back to the strange woman that he had extracted the virus from.

What was her name? Greene? The look in her eyes never seemed to cease to creep him out. It was like she was waiting for something.

"BUT YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND A WORD I'M SAYING, RIGHT?!!" he shouted at his saviour in rage.

Despair crept over him.

"Whatever ... We're going to be dead in a couple of days anyway! And the worst thing is, you don't even realise it, do you?" he shouted at the stranger who still didn't seem to understand a word that he was saying.

"If we're not killed by Blackwatch, then the DX-1118 variant will finish us off," Alex shrugged before taking a walk.

He needed a drink. A long stiff drink. Well make that a couple ... screw alcoholism! He was going to die anyway. What was a couple of strong brandy or whiskey going to do to his health that the Blacklight virus or Blackwatch couldn't do to him first? He was screwed either way ... the only thing was by what ... first.

Ranma continued to look at him in puzzlement little doubt as to wondering what the uproar was all about.

He would find out the answer a day later ..

Alex fell to the ground ... coughing repeatedly.

It had only been an hour ... it seemed and he was falling sick already. He had done his job too well it seemed. The DX-1118 viral strain that he had been working on had been enhanced by several orders of magnitude through his treatments and it was now showing its effects on its creator ... by killing him. The irony could not have been more obvious. Killed by his own work, through a twisted sense of fate while his saviour continued to show no signs of any form of illness though Alex was sure that would soon change.

He shrugged off the pigtailed stranger's offers of help, saying, "You're dead. I'm dead. We're all dead already. You just don't know it yet do you? The DX-1118 viral strain is always fatal," he laughed insanely, despite coughing blood repeatedly.

The pigtailed stranger brought him a glass of water to him that he took in his trembling hands only to lose control of the glass as it lost its purchase, splashing the stranger's features. Right before his disbelieving eyes, the stranger's form shrunk dramatically and its assets grew more feminine to reveal ... a red-headed girl with quite a large chest poking into his face.

Alex was quite certain that he had going through the insanity stage by this point as could be seen by the male stranger turning female in front of him. He was seeing hallucinations now ... he was sure of it ... after he did keep track of the viral effects of the DX-1118 variant most of the time. It was his pet project after all. Yeah ... some pet project that was now eating him alive.

"Knowing what you do, how do you feel about what you're making Alex?" a close associate had asked him.

"I was not paid to feel," he had answered somewhat coldly at the time.

Now that he was a victim of his own creation, he was not so sure about what he had said that time. Anyway, it was too late for any regrets.

Elsewhere ...

"The package has been opened," one of the men said.

"Have you located Dr. Mercer?"

"No sir. He got away," came the reply.

"That's all. Take the bodies away," the voice on the other end ordered.

Two shots were fired and both men fell to the ground dead.

"The virus has been released in Manhatten city. Situation: Code Red. The President has been appraised of the matter and has left the situation to Blackwatch," a man said.

"How many people are infected?" a second man asked.

"With thousands of commuters moving through that train station, everyday? Who knows? Most likely the entire city at this stage. Seal off the city. Nothing goes in or out without my express permission," a voice commanded.

"Already done. The Marines are moving in. A cordon sanitaire has been erected to seal Manhatten city from the rest of human civillisation," he answered.

Back at the building, Alex continued to cough more rapidly. He paused intermittently to spit out more blood. The Infection was well into its final stages. He would not live past the night. He was sure of it. His saviour was also starting to show signs of the Infection too ... as he coughed once in a while to spit out some blood that had turned black. He was also becoming somewhat feverish for that matter.

Ranma had tried to get some medical help for the man but he had refused all offers of help. It was like he had resigned himself to the fact that he was dying or given up on living altogether. The Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist could not be sure which. He had tried calling out to the Tendo residence eariler on but all the phone lines appeared to be down. What was worse, he was starting to feel chest pains, stomach-aches and had difficulty breathing like something had clogged up his lungs. His head was feverish too. All in all ... It felt worse than eating one of the tomboy's cooking for that matter. While taking a glass of water to drink, he had become somewhat faint and lost his grip on the glass. It had dropped to the ground and shattered, changing him into his cursed form. Still feeling weak, she stepped wide with her legs spread apart to prevent herself from falling to the ground in a heap. Her feet grazed the floor, scattering some of the broken glass.

The now-female martial artist drew her foot up instinctively. There was a small cut from a piece of broken glass embedded into her foot. Not wasting anytime, she drew up her foot and drew the piece of broken glass out of her body. Not feeling concerned about a small cut, she simply went to a dresser and opened one of the draws to get a bandaid. Opening the draw, she found it and stuck the bandaid across the wound. Thinking nothing of it, she left the room to check on her sick companion ...

It was a pity that Ranma did not see what happened next because she would have then gotten a hint of was happening to her. The small cut on her left foot rippled in a tiny wave of black and red and disappeared from view like it never was.

The man lying on the bed did not seem to be getting better. Instead, his health steadily grew worse until finally, he ceased breathing entirely. Sadness filled her heart at this stage for Ranma found herself unable to help the man in anyway. Furthermore she felt ... She felt extremely hungry too for some odd reason.

What was happening to me? she wondered.

If only Ranma knew ...

All over the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist's body, a massive battle on the cellular level was being waged by two forces unlike anything the world had seen before with Ranma's super immune system on the one side and the DX-1118 virus on the other side. The powerful strain of the DX-1118 virus was encountering stiff opposition in the form of Ranma's immune system not giving an inch whatsoever to the foreign invaders attacking the body.

No retreat.

No surrender.

That was the motto of Ranma's life. Ranma Saotome never lost and her body cells were just as eager to not be the first to lose. If Blackwatch had an inkling of what was transpiring in Ranma's body, they would have spared no effort in trying to recover her body to determine exactly how her immune system was able to hold off the viral attackers to a standstill. The battle that was taking place between her white cells and the DX-1118 virus attacking her body would have become the stuff of legends among microbiologists who would give their right arms or legs just to see what was going on in her body.

Still the Infection continued to batter at her body's defenses mercilessly as it tried to make inroads into Ranma's body with its incredible mutation capabilities. Ranma's immune system adapted to the viral attacks rapidly, however, and gave back as good as it got ... which meant that the virus was advancing very slowly if at all. It was also rapidly escalating into a war of attrition with both sides of the battle changing as needed to counteract the opposition's attacks.

The intense battle being waged, though, was weakening the martial artist somewhat as her white cells continued to draw on more and more resources and energy to stop the rapidly mutating invaders but found themselves unable to evict the strange foreign virus that had gained a foothold in their domain. The situation had effectively stalemated with Ranma's white cells unable to throw out the tiny microscopic invaders and the DX-1118 virus unable to make any further progress into the body. Feeling rather weak at the moment, Ranma quickly made her way out of the room to get some food.

Damnit!

She had never felt so hungry in her entire life. Even that rat running around was starting to look somewhat appetizing ...

Without wasting anymore time, Ranma ran as fast as she could to the nearest store to grab some food.

As she ran around to the nearest foodstore, she noticed the CLOSE sign outside. Cursing her tough luck, she ran further down the street to find a restaurant to get something to eat. It was also shut. Something did not feel right. The streets appeared almost completely deserted with only a few people walking to and fro. They appeared to be wandering somewhat aimlessly ...

'What was happening?' She wondered as she noticed the few people walking haphazardly in the street began to shamble towards her slowly ...

Curious to know what was going on, she approached them carefully. They certainly looked like they had seen better days. Their clothes dirtied and covered with blood, and their bodies slightly distorted as if they had been disfigured just recently. As she closed to within fifteen feet of them, they began to growl upon seeing her. The growl echoed down the streets and she could see more of those shambling people coming in her direction.

'What had happened to these people?' She wondered.

Activating her ki sight, she noticed a large black stain upon their aura.

'Something's wrong their aura. It's like they're already dead and something else has completely taken over their bodies,' She thought and began to back away hurriedly from the three 'people' heading for her.

Inside the bedroom on the third floor, a pair of eyes belonging to a recently deceased man began to open.

TBC

Another idea that I had while writing up Blacklight and Shadowwarrior. Seems like I'm in a Prototype phase .... ^_^