Ranma/DC Concept Revamped

As mentioned in my announcement posted tonight, this is a rewrite of my DC/Ranma crossover concept. While the basic premise remains the same, I have elaborated further on it and have taken into account a lot of the comments people left about it. Thank you all for showing such interest in an idea I had that honestly started more as a giant finger to an ignorant lout of a guest over on fanfic.  Changes will be in underline form so as to point them out more easily.  Although looking at the amount of changes and additions, that seems kind of superfluous LOL.

First and biggest difference is this: I should have mentioned it right away, but for now this is just a story concept. I will in no way dream of picking this story up until ATP or Semblance and AGGC are done. 

A Journey Gone Astray (obviously name subject to change)

Instead of just letting Ranma and Genma go after the older Saotome stole his yattai, Ukyo’s father both goes after them and informs the police, forcing Genma to run even faster than he would have otherwise and in a different direction, making for the shores of Hokkaido with the police in hot pursuit. During this time, Ranma realizes his father had stolen from his friend and leaves in a huff, only to run right into storm which forces him back to his father just as he is about to put to sea in an attempt to travel to to Honshu (the main island of Japan) from Hokkaido (northernmost large Island) in such a way that the police and Ukyo’s father can’t follow.  

The storm capsizes their boat, and the stormy sea whisks Ranma away from his father. The next thing he knows, he’s waking up on a beach somewhere with a few older women poking him with spears and swords. Ranma has arrived on Themiscryia, and though he is a man-child, the emphasis there is on child. No child so young has ever washed up on their shores before, and the Amazons are very clearly torn. This changes when one of them attempts to hook his shirt and lift him up like a fish on the end of a spear only for him to hop up and nearly take her head off with a kick, then running off, leading them on a chase and climbing like a monkey all over the island.

Eventually corralled, Ranma has made an impression enough to be taken to their queen and princess for judgement. As an innocent The queen deems him no threat, but will have to be returned to the sea as son as it can be contrived without endangering his life – since doing so would be the same as killing him. She calls upon Hera to help them do so, but Hera orders them to wait, she wants to see the future of this boy and his mettle – “After all, to survive in Poseidon’s realm for so long is no mean feat.”

So Ranma spends time on the island, training with the Amazons and getting stronger every day at a rate that astonishes most of the Amazons, having seen the like only rarely. There he gets to know the girls near his own age, including Cassie, and the older teenager Diana, who has just celebrated her 18th birthday.   He and Cassie become best friends, even though she forces him to realize that she’s a girl, something Ukyo never did, which makes things awkward when he gives voice to a Genma word of wisdom… Needless to say after Cassie and Diana both toss him around – he’s faster and more agile, but they are FAR stronger and more skilled at this point – the idea of women being the weaker sex goes out the door.

A little under a year after his arrival however, Hera decides it is time to send the boy home . He does indeed have a future ahead of him he must fulfill. After much argument -after all Ranma doesn’t want to leave the best training he’s ever gotten and his friends, and his friend Cassie doesn’t want him to leave either - Ranma is forced to realize he can’t stay on the island because he’s a guy. That cuts deep, but he is sent on his way in a small, specially made sailboat, and after learning how to use it for a time sets off away from the island, where Poseidon’s waters take him back to Japan. 

This new and somewhat improved Ranma finds his father and makes him a deal. He trains Ranma seriously and no more of this thieving nonsense, and Ranma will go along with his schemes for a while.  But this doesn’t mean that Ranma won’t keep his eyes open...

Fast Forward, a changed Ranma who has taken his training far more seriously even then in canon and has cared even less for conformity sits down with Akane to have a heart to heart. Akane has finally admitted she can’t handle his curse, and that finally frees Ranma from the honor obligation. After that, he has to pay for his father one last time, a bill to be paid to the government of Japan who bought up many of his debts. With that, they can call on Ranma to do five tasks for them, short of murder and kidnapping. Three of them are easy, dealing with Japanese borne supervillains/ The fourth sees him heading into the Amazon rain forest to help a series of archeologists on an expedition. The second takes him to America to protect a business mogul meeting his opposite number in an American city, Gotham city to be precise… 

Things this Fic will contain:

1. Timeskips: Yes, in this fic it would be a necessary evil. Kids can be fun for a bit, but not as main characters and let’s face it, 18 year-olds have more fun LOL. This is not going to be one small training/living montage followed by a large timeskip, no, this will be a series of time-skips to show important moments in the character’s lives. This will include:

• a) Ranma’s training under Genma, and Genma realizing he needs to find other masters to help him
• b) Ranma and Genma at Jusenkyou, and dealing with the amazons.  Ranma: “Damn, that’s disappointing as all heck. Where’s the smashing trees, the fighting Cow guys, the flying? Maaaan, China’s got gipped when it comes to Amazons.” Cologne: “Er… I’m sorry, what?”
• c) Ranma showing up at the Tendos, and responding very differently to the whole fiancé thing
• d)  Ranma Vs Ryoga _Ryoga will be more like a nuisance than a real rival for a while.
• e) A few other Ranma centric moments to emphasize how he reacts differently to things now.
• f) Diana’s entrance into Man’s World, Cassie’s attempt to sneak after her only to be stopped, and Cassie pining for her young friend and vice versa

2. Inadvertent Genma bashing: Ranma will actually get along with his father okay so long as Genma no longer tries to make decisions for him. Other people though… well, when you say your childhood memories are shot to hell and you can’t remember the names of some of your little friends on a magical island because of the number of concussions you’ve had from your own father and then mention about how he trained you to a literal inhuman degree, people will start to jump to conclusions. Diana: “Who’s up for a panda rug girls!?”

3. Seriously trained Ranma! Ranma will have trained with a lot of other martial arts masters and though young, will be better than literally any other martial artist in the world in terms of sheer skill and the number of styles he can use. Despite his father dragging him away everytime it lookse like Ranma’s getting too comfortable with any one style (and thus making Genma persona-non grata to many masters) Ranma will have become at sixteen as good as he was when the wedding occurred in the original.  He will have his original skill set and a bit more thanks to reverse engineering some of the techniques he saw on the island

• a) Cologne will have trained him seriously, in return for learning about these other Amazons, going so far as to cancel the kiss of marriage at Ranma’s request in return for being taught about them
• b) O-sensei (this is a DC character Justlovereadin’ mentioned to me that I had never heard of, although ironically I had heard of his real life counterpart, the man who developed Aikido) will have trained him to an incredible degree and helped him to become a true master of the Neko-ken.
• c) Power Fist will have trained his body’s ki and durability – Ryoga eat your heart out. 
• d) He will know some of Diana’s techniques to deal with archers/gunmen, and has even begun to work on flight, but can’t quite get it.
• e) However not all his former trainers will have the best relationship with the Black and Wild Horses that are Genma and Ranma… 
• f) Ranma will also not be adverse to weapons as I’ve had him be in a few of my stories. 

4. A differently cursed Ranma!!! Ranma will remember the fact that he was thrown out of Themiscriya because he was a guy. Because of this, as his father is taunting him to fight in among the pools of Juesnkryou, he finds the spring of Drowned girl and perches over it, daring Jusenkyou to do its worst, figuring if it happens, then at least he can use his new form to get into the Amazon island again and see his friends again. And no, Ranma will not have made any friends since, and will still be extremely dense when it comes to he differences between guys and girls. If anything, he will assume there are fewer differences since it’s obvious from his memories that girls can be just as strong as guys. 

• a) Inside his head though, Ranma still identifies himself as a guy.
• b) This means that the downsides of being a girl will hit him even harder and will in fact cause an argument with the Amazons once he meets them again. Amazons don’t get periods while on the island after all...
• c) This also means that Ranma will see no real reason not to use his female body to his advantage - distraction, disguise, excuse anything and everything 
• d) BUT!!! Ranma will not retain his female form throughout the fic. After all, there are a lot of magic users out there which can help him dispel his curse. This will have repercussions, big ones!!! 

5. Shazanma!!! – Ranma will have discovered that his blood is not exactly pure Japanese and will, in fact, have found out he is a descendent of Merlin, whose own back story is not nearly as straightforward as legends tell. Mind you, he won’t actually like to use it all that often, or see the need most of the time. But when he wants it, it will provide a clear power-up that will allow him to hang with the powerhouses of the Dc universe.

• a) Forced to think – Ranma is, even as Shazam, not strong enough to just plow through enemies. He will have to eventually think up strategies tactics not just for himself but for those around him.
• b) Ranma will be forced to deal with a lot of magical type opponents because of his connections to Merlin via Shazam – this includes Morgan Le Fey, Mordred, and others

6. An ickle bit of mythology, specifically, the Greek and Japanese type. Ranma will go searching for a sword, and will be friends with the Amazons whether they like it or not, and will have severe issues with Ares.  In fact, many of the threats Ranma will have to face will come from different mythologies that are prevalent in the DC universe. He would also spend time, both in his female form and alter as a man once it’s been dispelled on the Amazon Island

7. New Rivals. Does this come as a surprise? Ranma will be, well, Ranma and will rub guys and girls the wrong way at times.

• a) Orion – New Gods guy – he’s a bit of an asshole who looks down on anyone weaker than him
• b) Robin/Batman – Robin will not get along with Ranma a lot of times, angry that he basically shows him up without even trying and bitter that Ranma steps into the leadership role he thought would be his. Batman in turn will be very worried about Ranma, and concerned about how good a martial artist he is and the magic Ranma seems all too comfortable with. Ranma in turn will think the Batass is a paranoid dick and Robin a little too sure of himself (LOL) 
• c) Others will show up occasionally. Including a Ryoga who has been operated on by Cadmus, Power Girl who doesn’t like him one bit because he can beat her in a fist fight, and Superboy…

8. Justice Juniors – both in terms of the original comics version of the Teen Titans and the fact that I would be concentrating on the younger characters from DC. 

• a) World travelers.  Ranma and Co will be based on a sea-faring ship rather than in a single city. This will let them travel the world and bring them into contact with international rather than simply America based villains.
• b) High Tech –Kara – an alien who comes from a high tech society – the group will have access to a lot of technology and a great many devices for training, transportation and simple fun.
• c) A slightly different team and organization.  Instead of being sponsored mostly by Batman in order to give Robin a chance to lead his fellow heroes, Diana will be the one to help create the team, with Cassie as it’s leader, although eventually Ranma will move into the position of field leader when she proves unable to focus on the whole battlefield at one time.  The emphasis will not be on independence but on combat ability 
• d) The Team will be Ranma, Kara, Cassie, Kori, Raven, Beastboy, Robin and eventually Barbara Gordon – never understood why she wasn’t invited to join the team, so AUTHOR POWERS ACTIVATE. Others will join for short amounts of time and then leave in various ways, and this original roster will also change too beyond the core four.
• e) Best Buds Beast Boy. Ranma and Beast Boy will be good friends perhaps the first actual guy-type friend Ranma has that doesn’t come with a rivalry attached. He and Robin can get along so long as they aren’t in action or training, or talking about training or… well, they can get along about forty percent of the time.

9. Snarky Ranma when it comes to heroes. Ranma will have issues with Heroes ranging from small complaints about all that spandex and just why 

• a) A certain level of Batman bashing - “Wait, so he’s killed how many dozens of people, and you think because he’s insane he deserves to just be locked away in an asylum that is more like a turnstile than an actual prison”
• b) Ranma will in contrast actually get to know and like Superman, even though he will poke fun at him for a lot – why do you wear your underwear on the outside anyway being one of the first things Ranma says to the man of steel.
• c) Ranma and the Justice League will be a mixed bag. More because the Justice League and who I have in it will be a mixed back than anything else.

10. Focus on a few: While I will use numerous enemies and plots I wish to focus on just a few main characters, and FREAKING KEEP IT THAT WAY!!!! 

• a) This means I will in no way introduce the whole DC universe, and will be picking and choosing who to introduce, how and for how long. For instance, I will introduce only one Green Lantern, and not the corps, and have decided against taking this story into space. The DC universe is just too big and too disorganized and disjoined and just GRAAH, much like the marvel universe. I’ve gone through that pain once, I do not want to subject myself to it a second time. 
• b) Emphasis on comedy rather than world building. While world building will happen despite the above point to a certain degree I mean to keep the emphasis small and on Ranma and those around him. In this manner it will be a comedy and action oriented rather than having the emphasis on world building and fixing things like in ATP. 
• c) Screwed up timeline: I will mix and match events, when characters were introduced, when, well, anything and everything really in my attempt ot keep the character list small. 

11. Merged worlds: While the superpwered people would know about Nerima and its environs, and vice versa, since none of the JL make their home in Japan, it doesn't really register.  Ryoga and Happy are known though, and Ranma made an impression on more than a few when he fought Saffron.

• a) Cologne – thanks to her part in training Ranma, she and the lesser amazons of China will get some training in return from Ranma, but not much. They will in turn not become main characters in Nerima but may interact with Ranma afterward in the larger DC universe
• b) Monsters such as the monster park and Yamato No Orochi are not known. 
• c) Juesnkyou is a much bigger deal than in the world of Ranma. 
• d) Many of the magical items Ranma will have dealt with will have made their way around the world, and also a few from the DC universe will make their way to Nerima too. 

12. Major Enemies and Minor toolbags. Ranma and company will deal with both minor villains and major ones, including one of his own making almost. 

• a) Darkseid.  Due to wanting the last female pureblood Kryptonian under his control Darkseid is going to be sending troops, pawns and disturbed individuals to Earth rather like clockwork for Ranma and co. to deal with.
• b) Ares. Thanks to his connection to the Amazons and his being a man for at least half the time, Ares will have a particular hatred towards Ranma, and Ranma sure as hell won’t get along with him either. 
• c) Raz Al Gul – Ranma will have received training while younger from him, and his father will have grabbed him before too long, but only after Ranma has absorbed everything the League could teach him. This, needless to say, infuriates Raz, although not nearly as muc has the fact that Ranma did in fact surpass all his teachings in such a short amount of time. 
• d) Cadmus – Ranma’s disdain and disregard for government, laws, and the rules of physics as well as his sheer openness about his abilities will infuriate the government and Cadmus will try to capture him or corral/control him in various ways with various pawns.
• e) Villains minor – along with the aforementioned magical threats, Ranma will deal with many of the enemies that Aquaman or the Flash would and a few of the international Villians that Batman has dealt with like Deathstroke and others.
• f) Evil and sentient Jusenkyou – the cursed springs are the playfield of a Chaos demon who loves watching the chaos the curses cause in the lives of those who are foolish enough to go there . Furious at the idea that Ranma not only deliberately became cursed but with the right curse and then was able to find someone who could dissipate it, the Demon will act to punish Ranma and all those around him.  This will come in the form of sentient beasts from the various springs, and attempts to get him cursed again in various ways. Since he would just go and get them dispelled at need, this will be something of a continual event… 

13. Population control:  Ranma, and eventually those with him, will realize that killing their opponents should be on the table if in the defense of other's lives.  This will mean the various villains out there will be culled. (Yes, Friendly Neighborhood Eldritch Horror I am keeping this idea despite your cogent, seemingly well thought out argument to the contrary. In my own readings of the comics years ago I did not see any evidence to believe that the fear of a villain coming back to life more powerful is enough to stop from putting him ten feet under in the first place. If you can find a comic that states that’s why the Batman doesn’t kill the Joker or Scarecrow or Bane then I will revisit the idea, but not before that)

14. Pairings: Ranma/Kara (Supergirl)/Cassie Sandsmark (Wonder Girl) /Koriandr(Starfire)

• a) Kara and Ranma will meet up soon after his adventure in Gotham as Ranma is traveling through Kansas just in an effort to see the world. The two of them will hit it off due to the weird circumstances they meet for – “Are you telling me you sneezed and nearly beaned me with that tractor!?”  

i.  Kara’s time frame will be she has just moved in with the Kents after her arrival and awakening on Earth. Before this she will have spent time with her cousin and with the Amazons. She will be best friends already with Cassie and will be delighted to make another friend, especially one like Ranma who encourages her to get out, live and think for herself.

ii. While the female curse is around, Kara will be at first shocked, then a bit intrigued by it, never having heard of such magic before, and honestly feeling a little more comfortable around Ranma because of it – after all, he would be the first boy her own age that she will have ever spent time around.

iii. He and Kara will bond over movies, wanting to see more of the world, and astonishingly enough about technology – not that Ranma will understand it, but he will encourage her to keep her Kryptonian heritage and not make a secret about it – to try to use her advanced knowledge more freely to help people not just her super powers. He will see that as part of her and she shouldn’t try to deny it

• b) Cassie and Ranma will meet soon after he and Kara do. She will be apprenticing under Wonder Woman in (whatever the city she was situated in). They will get along with Cassie determined to make Ranma her friend again and vice versa. 

i. However, Cassie and Kara will have already become deep friends. Indeed, their affection towards one another is such that Ranma honestly thinks the two of them are a couple, and the two of them will eventually come to realize their affection for one another is a bit deeper than they think with his help.

ii. Like Kara, Cassie will have no issue with Ranma’s female form, although she will take umbrage with why he willingly went to Jusenkyou and got this specific Curse. Cassie: “GAHHH!!!  You, you messed with random ass chaos magic and even allowed yourself to be cursed all because, because you wanted to come back to Themiscriya? Are you crazy!? Ranma:  “Well, I really wanted to see you again, and I figured it would get me around that no man allowed thing.” Cassie: *Blush* “You, you did that just to meet me?”

iii. Like Kara, Kori and Ranma, Cassie will have a severe case of the wanderlust, and will bond with Ranma over that and over a mutual love of sailing.

iv. Later on, they will both realize that they also love Ranma, regardless of his form

• c) Because Tomon mentioned her age and a few people mentioned that Amazons would be unwilling to share with another Amazon once they chose a lover, I have removed the idea of Ranma and Diana getting together. I also feel three is the max in this world and that is pushing it.  Diana, who I will pair with Clark (let’s face it, Lois is a blah character in many ways at least in the original comics)  will instead slip into an elder sister, trainer role with Ranma as she has for Cassie.
• d) Kori and Ranma – this just makes a lot of sense because of the sheer amount of fun they would have palling around, seeing the sights and getting into fights. They are both also just fun loving characters who prefer not to take life too seriously and wear their emotions on their sleeves. Ranma would enjoy teaching Kori about the world, and Kori would love being around someone who’s emotions are so easily discernable

i. The two of them would meet during Kori’s initial landing on Earth, Ranma, Diana, Superman, Kara and Cassie would help Kori fight off her pursuers and then help destroy their ship. 

ii. Kori would be the first girl to leap from affection and friendship towards Ranma to wanting to be with him in a relationship. I would want this relationship to be sweet, lots of cuddling, lots of fun dates and teenagish things along with the more Ranma style dates

iii. She would also be the one to jumpstart the physical side of things, giving Ranma an outlet for his heretofore repressed and ignored hormones… They would get it on like bunnies for a while in other words.

iv. Eventually it would be Kori, thanks to her latent empathy, that would become aware of the emotions of Cassie and Kara, and then the two girls feelings towards Ranma and vice versa. She would be the catalyst for the two couples to become a single unit.

I hope you all liked this new and improved version gents and that the color came through!