snip<

       Ranma had no idea how long the shooting lasted, nor did he care. It
galled him to hide from a fight, but he wasn't about to take on ten men with
guns. Even he knew that a fist couldn't stop a bullet. Finally, the
cacophony of noise stopped.

       Smoke wafted lazily in the air, the acrid stench of cordite hanging
everywhere. Slowly, Ranma raised his head above the counter. Three corpses
were laid out on the floor. Most of the furniture was shot up, tables and
the counter riddled with bullet holes. A white-hot bolt of pain arced up his
leg, causing him to give an audible gasp. Inspecting the wound, he found
that it wasn't too bad. 

       //Man, I must've really been freaked if I didn't feel a bullet,\\ he
thought. He looked down to see Ukyo still lying on the floor.

       "Ucchan?" he asked. "Get up. It's over." When she didn't respond, he
tried again. It was then that he noticed the blood. Four dark stains were
steadily spreading on her back., and her skin was getting pale. There was a
little red underneath her as well.

       "UCCHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!"

=========================================================

       Well, there's my first teaser! As I said, this is an idea I've been
playng with ever since I found the fanfic "A Thirst For Vengeance."
Unfortunately, I can't find a completed version of it... Anyone know where I
can find it?

       C&C is, as always, welcome and appreciated.

Thanks!

Jed

Well that's one way to start your story off with a bang.

ahem.<  Pardon me.  Couldn't stop myself.

Okay, nice set-up.  Good characterizations without lapsing into any
big cliches, and you've certainly started things off on an exciting note.
It would make me want to read more.

As I see it, you have one big challenge in front of you with this fic,
and that's the Question of Guns.  Different writers have voiced 
different opinions about how Ranma and company would fare when
faced with an opponent armed with a gun.  

In some stories, the Ranma crew are reduced to little more than
normal humans when faced with guns.  This is perhaps the more
realistic approach, though even in real life a gun does not make
a person invincible, nor does the possession of a gun automatically
give one an unbeatble edge over a skilled martial artist.  Much 
depends on the situation.  Basically, what the "realistic" approach
states is that a gun is as dangerous to Ranma as it would be to
anybody else.

Other writers are less satisfied with this.  After all, what are the 
"realistic" parameters of the Ranma cast?  Maybe someone who
can throw a hundred punches in a split second would be fast 
enough to dodge bullets easily.  Maybe someone who's had the
endurance training to shrug off blows from a swinging boulder 
could also shrug off bullet wounds.  We've seen our heroes do
some pretty extraordinary things.  At one point, Ryouga was
standing on top of Ranma's head with a pair of ice skates, 
holding Azusa, Mikado, and two whopping ice boulders.  Deep,
fatal gouges noticably failed to appear in Ranma's skull.  So
just how tough are these people, and how dangerous would 
bullets really be?

There's no one right answer to this question.  My intent here is
not to start yet another debate about this matter on the FFML.
You have to make this determination on your own, and then stick 
by the rules you set when you write the story.  I suggest that if you 
"tone down" the Ranma cast so they're more vulnerable to bullets, 
you should not have them doing too many other superhuman 
things in the course of your story (even comic-value stuff, like 
punching people into ballistic arcs and such).  I'd imagine your story 
is not going to have much dramatic value if you allow Ranma and 
friends to wade through gunmen without breaking a sweat, but that
doesn't mean their extraordinary abilities won't give them special
advantages against people armed with guns.  So you 
have to decide what sort of balance to strike, and then stick with it.

Also, you might want to check up a little on the gun control laws
in Japan.  I'm sure that there are some people on the list who know
more about it than I do, but I'm pretty certain that firearms are very
uncommmon in Japan, even amongst the criminal class.    Not 
saying that you'd never see them, but it'll enhance your story if
you get the details right.

Best of luck,
Grayson Towler
grayson@rigroup.net

http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless