i was in the mood for a powerful-Ranma story, couldn't
find one, so started writing it.
besides, i wanted to see a scene where Rei (SM) met Rei (Eva)
met Rei (Hokuto no Ken)...


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FIST OF ORION (outline)
part the first: Saint Ukyou?
trademarks owned by a whole lotta OTHER people.
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/
email: metroanime@mindspring.com
       comments welcome, flames and comments about
possible ancestry, hatemail from True Fiancees should
be sent to Kleppe-san or Lurker-san who apparently
enjoy that sorta thing. (shrug, to each their own, i s'pose)
        this is just an idea sketched out that (like way too many)
started taking off on its own. The idea was to come up with
a different approach to the "Saint Ranma" thing i'd done awhile
back as it had too many elements duplicated in other people's
works.
============================================
The Kami Plane, Mimir's Well__________
	"The timelines are merging back to normal
quite satisfactorily," Hephaestus looked up from his
inspection at the Fate and the Norn. "Some are lasting
a BIT longer than we originally estimated."

	"I see." Atropos looked from Hephaestus to
her colleague from a different pantheon. "What of your
entry? Surely you won't let it fade completely?"

	Skuld shrugged. "It's terminated, or might
as well be. After that one godling and that moderator guy
threw up in it, then Shen Long took it over..."(1)

	Atropos shrugged. "So some collapsed early,
some collapsed late, and these temporary timelines are 
just mixing up. I mean, look at this one over here."

	"Is that the one where Akane eats the Supersoba
and Nabiki convinces her sister to keep the strength and go
with electrolysis?"

	"No, that's over there. Pity it also increases male
tendencies towards aggression and sex drive. No, this one
over here."

	Skuld blinked. "Looks like they're all welded 
together, doesn't it?"
---------------------------------------------
	Genma turned to his six year old son. "Okay,
Ranma, you know the drill. Run in, grab some food, and
keep that guy chasing you."

	"Hmmmph." Ranma nodded his head. Maybe
they could go back and visit Ucchan afterwards. He missed
his buddy.

	"Go," Genma commanded in the same whispered
voice.

	Ranma shot near the stranger, his arm reaching 
out in passing to snag one of the fish roasting on stakes
above the fire. 

	Genma never even saw the stranger move, he was
just suddenly fully extended, a finger stabbed out into the boy's
back. Ranma stumbled and collapsed.

	Genma continued to watch as the man picked up the
fish and reset the stake so that the fish continued to cook.

	Using all the sneakery he had, Genma circled the clearing
to get a better look at where his son had collapsed. Ranma's eyes
were open and unseeing, and it didn't look like the boy was breathing.

	Genma thought back to the move he'd seen the stranger
use. The speed and accuracy of the pressure point move. Genma's eyes
widened. Hokuto Shin Ken.

	Leaving his dead son behind, Genma fled. Against a practitioner
of Hokuto Shin Ken even the Yamasen and Umisen techniques would be
assaulting a tank with a butterfly.
------------------------------------------------
	Kenshiro looked up as the other intruder abandoned the child.
As he had thought, gypsies. Someone took in a stray child, taught the stray
that they were the child's parents, and then used the child to commit crimes.
They were especially bad in places like Paris.

	Ambling over, he hit two more pressure points on the child,
taking him from a near-death state to mere sleep. A few more and he could
blank the child's memories of the false father.

	Then, well, ever since Bat and Rin had left, he'd missed having
anyone around.
------------------------------------------------
	"I made a deal with the boy's father," the okonomiyaki seller
frowned, having recognized the child from across the park. It had only
been six months after all.

	"The father was a 'gypsy' I suspect," Kenshiro said quietly.
"So you've engaged your daughter to this boy? Even though he has
no house or last name to give her?"

	"Yes..." Kuonji-san considered. The boy had finally managed
to stop his daughter from trying to beat him into flat little pancakes. "Until
this, they got along well and I doubt I'll be alive much longer..."

	"Disease? Curse?"

	"Poison. Both my wife and myself were exposed to a nerve toxin 
during that Shadowlaw terrorist incident two years ago in Kyoto. My wife
died last year, I'm not expected to last much longer. Ukyou wasn't exposed.
That was one reason I was so anxious to make this arrangement."

	Kenshiro nodded, thinking that this Genma had known of this, 
and still had abandoned the child? "Fine. She can come with us."
-----------------------------------------
	"Orphans, Kenshiro?" 

	Kenshiro nodded, with the two children on either side of him.
"The boy was being raised by a thief impersonating his real father. The
girl was engaged to Ranma as part of a deal where the thief made off with
her father's foodcart."

	"Ah, a gypsy then." Lochi nodded.

	"Before I continued the boy as my heir, I thought..."

	"Prudent." Lochi nodded. Helping Kenshiro to resolve
some of his problems had proven to be a wise investment. Of course,
that still left Jagi out there somewhere, and they'd never seen Raoh's
body. Still, Kenshiro had averted a lot of potential tragedies.

	 Kenshiro shrugged. 

	"They don't speak Chinese, do they?" Lochi glanced
at the continued incomprehension on the part of the two children.

	"They're Japanese."

	"Hmmm. How long will you be gone?"

	"I can always go visit Rei and Mamaya while you check
them out. Maybe they've heard a clue as to where Yuria can be found."

	"Good idea." Lochi grinned and floated up off the ground,
drawing gasps from the two children. "In the meantime they can train
with my ward Shiryu. If the girl doesn't want to train in the martial arts,
I'm sure Shunrei could use a hand."

	Ranma and Ukyou spoke in unison. "<Can _I_ learn to do 
that?!>"

	Kenshiro smiled slightly at that. "They do that a lot, oh,
and I hope you like some sorta Japanese pizza called an okonomiyaki."
----------------------------------
	When Kenshiro returned to the encampment by the 
waterfalls, he knew the answer before speaking to Lochi.

	Ranma, Ukyou, and Shiryu had obviously become fast
friends, and had turned competitive.

	Lochi confirmed this. "They're amazing, Kenshiro. The
boy is like a sponge for the martial arts, absorbing almost any technique
and if it will make him a better warrior, will take on any training. The
girl's chi is extremely high, with training I can see her attaining Silver
at least. With Shiryu, each challenges the other the outdo their latest
best."

	"Then none will make a suitable Heir for the Hokuto style."
Kenshiro wasn't too unhappy about this, his own life being an excellent
case in point for allowing the style to pass on.

	"The boy has a lot of it already. If you don't find a suitable
Heir..."

	"There can only be one Heir to the Hokuto style," Kenshiro
reminded the sensei of a dozen other styles, "if none of these have the
killer instinct necessary for the True Heir, then let them remain happier
without it."
------------------------------------------------
	Ukyou pivoted, sliding slightly in the gravel underfoot as
she twisted to avoid the fist slamming down into the dirt near her.

	"You can do it, Ucchan!"

	Ukyou smiled slightly at the support from her Ranchan,
but otherwise concentrated on the titan before her. Essex was a 
massive and powerful creature, a neandrathal standing well over
fourteen feet in height.

	"STONE FIST!" Essex slammed another punch into the
space recently occupied by his opponent. As had been happening,
gravel sprayed up and the hard ground beneath was shattered.

	Ukyou ran up the extended arm, aiming a Lightning Kick
into her opponent's Adam's apple, then a tumbling leap to send her
past her opponent's quick grab.

	The crowd roared, Ranma's voice being the only one 
raised in her support from the group.

	Essex began to turn. Ukyou used the opportunity to
gather her power as she'd been taught. "Psi, chi, my connection
to the cosmos, through seven senses to step into the world beyond.
Canis Major Special Attack!"

	Essex' sensei, Cassiopeia Saint Hillari, called out a 
warning to her pupil. It was ignored as Essex was already almost
fully into berserker mode.

	"NOVA FLARE!" Ukyou turned her aura into a fierce
white glow and shot forward to meet her opponent.

	There was a moment of realization in Essex' eyes as
the brightly shining warrior met him in a flying dragon kick.

	The crowd went silent as Essex left the battle circle
as if someone had parked a JATO (Jet Assisted TakeOff solid fuel
rocket) on his chest. From the thick trail of smoke coming from
his leather cuirass, some present could easily imagine such a
thing happening.

	Ukyou was just catching her breath when she
felt herself picked up and whirled around.

	"You did it, Ucchan!" Ranma laughed aloud and
seemed as happy as if he had been the one to win a 
Silver Cloth and the attendent status as Silver Saint Canis
Major.

	Ukyou looked at the trail of gravel that had been
fused together by her passage and realized she was going to
have to work on controlling and directing that heat aura before
she went into battle with Ranma. "Yeah, Ranchan. But they've
only got a Bronze Cloth left for you to win."

	Ranma winked, confidently. "Hey, with you here to
root me on to victory, that Lynx Cloth is mine!"
-----------------------------------------------
	Gemini held his hands up as the young warriors swarmed
towards him. "ANOTHER DIMENSION!"

	"Ranchan, LOOK OUT!" 

	Ranma stared as the hole in space/time rolled across his
Ucchan and they both vanished.

	"PEGASUS U-SEN KEN!" Seiya began his swarming meteor
punch against Gold Saint Gemini.

	Shiryu circled his arms, drawing his own power forth.
"DRAGON SHOZEN HAU!"

	Ranma looked down at the scrap of white ribbon on his arm.
The bandage that  Silver Saint Canis Major Ukyou(2) had tied around his
arm when he'd gotten wounded during the fight with Gold Saint Taurus.
The bandage made from the ribbon she usually tied her hair with.

	"NEBULA CHAIN!" Andromeda Shun used the pointed chain
while the round chain lengthened into a defensive ring. The chain stopped,
like the other attacks, just before striking the Gold Saint.

	Ranma looked up, aura flaring up around him. He didn't care if
drawing this much power incinerated him at the moment. "DIE, YOU F*CKING
B'STRD!"
---------------------Mimir's Well------------
	Skuld blinked. "That's an attack?"

	Atropos let out a sigh. "That's NOT the name of the attack,
Skuld-chan." Privately, she thought it SHOULD be.
--------------------------------------------------
	Ranma was inside the reach of the larger figure, slamming 
punches and kicks into the figure without pause. His aura continued to
build, burning  whiter and hotter as he committed himself.

	Shun waited until the Gold Saint was distracted, then fired
his pointed chain through his enemy's face mask. He was a little 
suprised to see the length of chain vanishing within.

	Ranma continued, finally causing the Lynx armor he was
wearing to fly apart and reform.

	The others stared, recognizing the Cloth, even as they realized
that Ranma was too far gone in anger and grief for the change to even
register consciously.

	"You are NOT getting away," Ranma growled, summoning his
energies into a single attack that he directed along the path of the chain. 
"ORION STARCRUSH!"

	All over Sanctuary, chi or cosmos sensitives blinked and looked
toward the House Of Gemini even as a glowing pillar of silver fire formed and
the walls of the building came apart.

	Those who were sufficiently sensitive that they could see within the
pocket dimension of Athena's Walk, could tell there had been a similar explosion
at Athena's temple at the end of the Houses of the Gold Saints.	
--------------------------------------------------	
	"Puny ones, the power of a Bronze Saint is miniscule before the
majesty of a Gold Saint. How are you, weary from your battles up to this point,
going to handle a fight with a GOD?" Gemini Saga's aura flared, as Ares 
increased his hold over the twin who had become the head of Athena's Temple
and therefore the person best placed to kill the infant goddess.

	Athena Saori stepped forward, ready to face the monster herself.

	Ranma slowly pulled himself up from where he'd literally been 
pounded into the pavement. "Not...so...fast...you... BASTARD!" 

	"Not quite yet," agreed Pegasus Seiya as he pulled himself up.

	"For Ukyou, for Athena," agreed Dragon Shiryu, though he was
still bleeding rather profusely. "We will not fall THAT easily."

	"Stand aside," Saori commanded, rapping her staff against the
ground. "Seiya, Shiryu, Hyouga, Shun, Ikki, Ranma. You have done well,
but this whole thing started with Ares and myself. So shall it end. No 
further lives will be ended by this battle between Ares and me."

	Gemini Saga smirked. "How noble and pretentious,  as you are
in ALL your incarnations. DIE, ATHENA!"

	Ranma watched as Saga re-established control for a brief moment.
As Athena focussed a blast capable of slaying even a Gold Saint through the
other's opening. As the terrible battle at last ended.

	He turned, not listening to the talk behind him turning to 
other things, to the accumulated revelations of the past year and of the
reunification of Sanctuary under Athena's rule. Ranma knew now why
Phoenix Ikki always stuck to the outrider position, never remaining with
the group. It wasn't that Seiya was a cocky little jerk, Ranma knew he had
a lot in common with the shorter boy. It wasn't that Cygnus Hyouga tended
to get positively obsessive with the memories of his mother and weird 
everyone out with that stuff. It wasn't even the way that Andromeda Shun 
tended to stare at you, particularly in the gym locker room...

	No, you just couldn't get any serious brooding done until you
could get away by yourself.

	Stopping near the damaged House where Pisces Aphrodyte had
been killed in a bishonen battle, Ranma looked to the stars and wept for the
friend he had lost.
-----------------------------------------------------
	The big tournament was being held when the stranger 
wandered in. He stepped over to the first prize and seemed to be 
considering it when the current betting favorite in the 14-15 year
old category saw him and took exception to his ignoring her.

	Shampoo stopped in mid sentence when the boy turned
towards her. He was her own age, and yet something in his eyes told
her that he had just been through a terrible tragedy.

	Shampoo heard whispering behind her, and felt a flush of
anger. How dare they try to make it out as if she'd allow a well-built
cute young male body to influence her decisions?! Snarling slightly,
she pulled out her bonbori and prepared to make a few choice threats
to this outsider male. She'd prove that she'd never be so weak as to
allow defeat by a mere male.

	She couldn't be Champion until next year, but she was fifteen
and full of pride at the moment.

	"Miss," the boy said in oddly accented Mandarin, "if you're
about to threaten me, I would strongly suggest you reconsider. You are
in WAY over your head."

	Shampoo blinked and a new wave of whispering broke out from
the crowd. Again all this talk about how Shampoo must really have taken a
liking to this male. "Then I challenge you! I cannot accept this idea that ANY male
is a better fighter than an Amazon woman."

	"Amazon?" The boy blinked. "Never heard of Amazons in China.
Master Lochi sure didn't mention them. Well, if you want a challenge..."

	Cologne had been ignoring the whole thing until that name was
dropped. Then she did something that caused consternation within the ranks
of the Amazons.

	Cologne fell, speechless, off her cane. Her eyes blinked and she
tried to gauge the boy's chi level. She was stunned by what she saw there
and the realization that her great granddaughter was about to formally 
challenge a Silver Saint.

	Shampoo stepped forward, ready to formally strike this boy as
means of issuing a challenge. She never made it.

	The boy stepped forward in a blur of motion, his fist burying
itself in Shampoo's stomach and doubling her over.

	Shampoo shot across the assembly grounds, past the challenge
log, and impacted rather noisily into the second story window of the 
Community Bathing House.

	Ranma shook his head, then looked around. "Look, people, err
Amazons, however you're supposed to be addressed. I just really got a lot
on my mind just now. I'm sorry for the interruption, and I'll leave now. Just...
I'm sorry." Hanging his head, Ranma left.

	Everyone's eyes tracked from the trudging warrior to the window
of the Bathhouse, to where Cologne was staring at the boy, and back to the
boy himself. There was a village-wide, synchronized, blink.(3)

	Cologne hastily kept anyone else from attacking the boy. One
was enough. For now, at least.
--------------------------------------------
	next: can you go home again?	

(1)       "Bet: King Of Fighters"
(2)       Why Canis Major? Dog totem stands for loyalty and fierceness,
            qualities Ukyou has in great quantities, the opinions of the True
            Knights excepting. There's another reason for the Orion (Ranma)
            and Canis Major (Ukyou) referents, but that's way down the line.
(3)       Sorry Jared, i wrote this scene and that line was too perfect not to
           paraphrase. gomen ne.

SAINT SAEYA: This is a series i saw back in the Old Days before you could
get subtitled/dubbed tapes at the videostore. It dealt with the reincarnation of
the ancient Greek pantheon (Athena and Ares in the first plotline) and their
champion warriors, the Saints.
           Bronze Saints are the lowest level, having a power level roughly along
the line of Ranma and Ryouga near the end of the Ranma 1/2 series. Wearing
their special armor (Bronze Cloth) increases their chi/cosmos levels by roughly
double. Silver Saints are (supposedly) ten times more powerful than a Bronze
Saint. Gold Saints are one hundred times more powerful than a Silver Saint.
            This completely diverges from the original plotline, more so after the
first plotline (Athena Vs Ares).

HOKUTO NO KEN/FIST OF THE NORTHSTAR: A heavily angst filled journey
dealing with Kenshiro, Heir to the Hokuto Shin Ken, an assassin's martial arts 
style that deals with pressure points. Kenshiro's most commonly used move 
causes bodys to explode from internal pressure/vibrations. 
            Kenshiro needed to "break the fists" of his brothers in order to fulfill the
duties of the Heir. He failed to do so, and for the rest of the series is dealing with
all the deaths, pain, suffering, and generally bad things that have come about 
mainly because of his youngest brother Jagi and his BIG brother Raoh (Ken-ou).
             In this version, Kenshiro found help and has had a better time of it. Rei
(Southern Cross Waterfowl Fist) has settled down in a village with his sister and
a girl named Mamiya. There has been no nuclear or bacteriological war. Yet. 
Raoh was stopped by Libra Lochi, though no body was found. (Y'all know what
THAT means.) Yuria is still missing, and Kenshiro is wandering the world looking
for her.
               Bat and Rin were the male and female kid sidekicks in Hokuto No Ken,
and were adult freedom fighters in Hokuto No Ken 2. Here they're just two kids
who are living out peaceful little lives in a small Chinese village.