A fan fiction story revolving around the world of "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures" and "Ranma 1/2." No infringement of ownership is meant. It is just for fun.

Ranma blinked her eyes open as sunlight drifted across her face. "What? Want to sleep!" she mumbled. After a while, it occurred to her that she was really, terribly hungry. She sat up and realized that she was in her father's sleeping bag. She seemed to be wearing one of her undershirts and boxers and that was about it.

She looked around at the little hollow that she seemed to be hidden in. A large tree had fallen over the dip in the ground and bushes hid her from casual view.

Off in the distance, she thought she heard people talking, it sounded like Chinese to her.

Her father seemed to literally step out of the air, just in front of her.  He looked a bit ragged, his arm and ribs still wrapped in bandages. "You finally woke up? Good. Keep quiet, it isn't safe here."

The girl licked her dry lips. She was surprised to see her father raise a cup of water to her lips, then a rice ball. "Thanks." That was weird, she must have been hurt worse than... Images suddenly cascaded through her minds-eye. Pain, surprise and for just a moment, stars and a blue curve beneath her. "So what happened?"

Genma nodded. "You were at that village and fought. The village exploded. What happened?" Genma looked at her expectedly.

"It was-" Ranma thought for a second, replaying the last few minutes of the fight perfectly in her head. "Some sort of technique. All she seemed to be doing was dodging, but she was- cold? and she led me. Led me into a spiral. While getting me really angry. I was furious. She then punched. It looked like it was going to miss and then it felt like semi truck hit me." She licked her lips nervously. Stars. "I don't remember much after that."

"A tornado blew the village away. Such a devastating technique. You landed nearby and I rescued you." Genma nodded his head seriously. "They are  still hunting us, three days later. We'll move on when it gets darker."

"Three days?" Ranma almost cried out, incredulous.

"You nearly died. The path of a martial artist is fraught with peril," her father said finally with a very grim voice. "Now that you are awake, we'll head deeper into the mountains. I found a path that I don't think they will follow. They seem to be avoiding that mountain pass for some reason."

After the sun had set, the two martial artists had left. They traveled for a large portion of the night. Surprisingly, Genma would not left Ranma switch from her cursed form. "You can survive better," was all he said cryptically.

She had to agree. It was much easier to see and she could easily hear the trackers following them.

After Genma made sure Ranma knew which direction to head he stopped. "Ranma?" Genma asked, his voice just above a whisper. He saw the dim shape nod. "I have business to attend to. I will catch up to you in a day or so."

"Huh?" she asked. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head as the older martial artist just disappeared in front of her. His glassy eyes were the last things she saw. "Er, okay. See ya later." She looked around and then trotted up the path.

How had he done that? He'd never shown that level of ability before! And, more importantly, how does she learn it?

"How is Lo Shwan?" Cologne asked, the shadows of the camp making strangers of old friends. To think that the mighty Joketzu would be reduced to vagabonds on the road.

"She will recover, though her body was taxed terribly. The strain of making such a perfect Dragons Rising Ascension Blast nearly killed her." The young woman just shook her head. As was the Joketzu way, the two other Elders would never be spoken of except by their closest family.

"Elder Cologne," an older woman called out as she walked up to the hurriedly created tent.

Cologne's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "I thought we had sent you to the accursed training ground? Not the fountain of eternal youth!"

The woman, who looked nearly fifty just smiled. Ra Tzura spoke, "This is the result of the pool of the drowned girl."

"You look half your age!" the wizened matriarch stated the obvious. "The pool never did that before."

"And I am far more powerful. I have never felt so strong!" Ra Tzura spoke grimly. "Something changed it. What, I do not know. But I believe the Jusenkyo Guide now. That really was just a boy with just a little power and his father. Well, now I have the same power. I will take three of our sisters and baptize them, to be reborn as the new power of northern China."

"This is foolishness, Ra Tzura! You do not know what the pool does! In truth, you may have let a demon into your body!"

The younger looking woman just rolled her eyes. "Cologne, I didn't just jump in with both feet. I tested the pool first, of course. There is no demonic influence that I could detect." A serous look came over her face. "How is young Shan Pu?"

"Not dead," Cologne said flatly, then smiled. "You need to teach your granddaughter the difference between very hurt and dead."

"I don't know what you are talking about," Ra Tzura said blandly, with a small innocent smile.

"She never did get over that little problem with seeing blood, did she?"

"Er, maybe. Perhaps I was a little lax in her training."

"Now, about this pool?" Cologne prodded.

"It takes getting used to. I can barely walk without bouncing!" Sheglanced slyly at the older woman. "And yes, I did intend to pick you to join be part of the group that would hunt this impertinent boy down."

Cologne nodded her head in acceptance. She narrowed her eyes in thought."You don't suppose this boy was just having trouble adjusting to the new body, do you?"

Ra Tzura just looked coldly at her. "It doesn't matter if he did or not. This is the worst blow in our entire history. Lo Shwan may have succeeded in getting most families to evacuate, but we still lost a dozen families to this... boys rampage. He will die at my hands."

Cologne could only shiver at the tone. The local villages had always had a problem with the Joketzu's pride, saying that pride always led to their downfall. For her people's sake, she hoped not.

"Mother Cologne! Someone has broken into the vault!" a young warrior yelled as she ran up.

'Vault' Cologne snorted to herself. Just a wagon with extra guards. Three  thousand years of history and they have to protect their secrets with a farmer's wagon. Even so, she zipped over there as quickly as possible. "What is missing?" she asked.

"Scrolls and tablets. Only one or two amulets are missing. And they are ones that depict martial exercises, too!" the guard said.

Cologne looked over the camp from the wagon. "No one saw the thief? Not one of you?" She had a vague sense of being watched, but too light to say for sure. She looked around carefully.

The guards all shook their heads. "We don't understand it at all. We werejust opening the chests to double check and that's when I noticed the scrolls were missing."

"All of them?" the matriarch asked. That was an awful lot of scrolls.

The guards looked at each other sheepishly and then nodded. "They even stole the inventory list."

"What kind of idiot steals something like that and leaves the powerful items behind?" Cologne mused.

Ra Tzura interjected. "Someone who doesn't read our language, of course. The boy or his father, I warrant."

"Then it becomes even more important to track them down. Those secrets are our tribes life-blood. Who knows what horrors could be unleashed on humanity if they are used incautiously?"

Ranma hopped from rock to rock with her bare feet. She could get enough traction that way. Since she seemed to be able to move so much faster than before, she figured she'd use the time travelling up the mountain pass to train. It seemed to be working, albeit slowly. It had been over a day since she'd last seen her father, she hoped he could catch up.

She just grinned as she seemed to defy gravity for a second, running along the mountain wall before leaping across it to the other side.

Somebody yelled out and held up a bright lantern, trying to see the noise. The girl slapped to a stop, incredibly strong fingers holding her to the wall like a human spider. Now that she could see them, it appeared to be some sort of fortified guard house. The two men were slightly odd looking.

One was huge and muscular, the other wiry and sleek.

Suddenly, one of them pointed up at where Ranma was. The lantern was tilted at the sheepish martial artist. The man with the pointed ears pointed and shouted again. Ranma dropped to the ground easily, trying to be inoffensive.

"Uh, hello?" she called out nervously. They didn't appear to be the same as those woman that had been trying to kill her earlier.

"What is a Japanese woman doing all the way out here?" one of the men asked. His ears almost looked cat-like, Ranma noted.

The much bigger man just shrugged. "Better than the Mongolians and the Russians." He turned back around to Ranma. "What are you doing here? You are invading the lands of the Musk!"

"Er, I'm fleeing for my life from a bunch of psycho women."

The men started laughing heartily. "Oh, that kiss of death thing! That's too good," the cat-eared man said.

"Kiss of death? What's that?" Those women were even crazier than she'd thought!

"Look, girl, we don't care and don't want to know about what those weaklings have done to you. Leave our lands before we kill you." He cracked his fists menacingly.

"Hey! All I need to do is travel this way! I won't even-"

The bear-like man just swung his fist to backhand her. Stupid foreigners- Huh? He pulled his throbbing hand back. "What the? Are you made of rock or something?"

"I don't want any-" Ranma tried to say. She had felt that a little bit, surprisingly.

"It's gotta be a trap, Thyme!" the cat-man said. He pulled out three knives for each hand and tossed them at the girl.

The ground cratered under Ranma as she dodged straight up, the knives missing by a proverbial mile. "Hey!" She gripped the side of the cliff.

"Kill her!" the big man shouted. "Rock Fist Fury!" His fist slammed into the side of the cliff-face, dislodging the girl up above him.

"Wha-wa-wa!" Ranma cried out, frantically waving her arms in a futile (and really unneeded) attempt to slow her fall.

"Blast Knives!" the cat-like man yelled as he threw glowing daggers at the falling girl.

Ranma still managed to dodge all but one dagger. But that one dagger exploded with pyrotechnic force, launching her into the far cliff face. In moments, she was buried in tons of rubble caused by the other daggers.

"Ha! You got that Joketzu bitch, Oregano!" the huge man called out to his smaller friend.

The rubble started to shift. "She's still alive?" Oregano said in surprise. The bear-like man shifted his stance.

The rubble suddenly exploded. "Now I'm mad!" Ranma yelled.

"I shall crush you!" Oregano yelled as he charged. Behind him, Thyme just smirked. The bear-man was a prodigy of strength.

The small girl caught his double-fisted-blow with her small hands with no effort. Oregano just blinked, as did Thyme.

"Sayonara, sucker!" the girl crowed as she booted him into the stratosphere. She was very careful to push more than kick him. She didn't want him dead, after all.

"Thyme! Damn you!" the smaller and much faster warrior of Musk shouted. He tossed the daggers at the girl, expecting her to dodge.

With a blur of hand motions, she plucked all of the daggers out of the air. With movement he couldn't even follow, Ranma hurled all of his daggers back at him. Instantly, Oregano was pinned to a boulder.

Ranma patted her hands together to knock any dust off. "Ha! That showed them!"

"Dragon's Tooth Crush!" a voice from up above called out.

The Japanese girl managed to look up in surprise just quick enough to get the blast right into her face. The ki attack slammed into her with explosive force. Smoke and dust rose from the crater.

"Wow! That is some technique!" Ranma exclaimed as she bounced to her feet. She appeared to be only a little bit scuffed.

"Stranger! You have invaded the Lands of the Musk. Leave or you will be killed," the handsome young man said. He stood at the top of a boulder. He was dressed only with a pair of loose pants.

"Lord Herb! It is our duty to protect you!" called out a man as he led a group of warriors down the path.

"Look, you idiots! All I wanted to do was to pass through your lands!" Ranma called out.

Herb just smirked. "I really do not care what you wish, girl. You have awoken a sleeping dragon, the dragon-heir of the Musk this evening. For that alone, I should crush you like a twig."

"Dragon-heir? Well, if those two idiots hadn't-"

The air crackled around Herb's fist. "I have the blood of dragon's flowing through my body, girl. Thyme and Oregano are loyal guards that I trust with my life. You are the trespasser, leave or die!"

"That sounds like a challenge! And Ranma Saotome never backs down from a challenge!" she shot right back.

"You would dare to challenge me, girl? Fine!" Herb hopped to the valley floor with no apparent effort. Energy crackled around his fist again. "Dragon Claw!" he shouted as he chopped at the girl with a sword-blade made of chi.

The men watching from the sidelines winced as the blow descended. For just a moment, Herb thought he had hit and cleaved the girl in two, but he realized that he'd only hit an afterimage.

SWAP! Herb spun through the air and slammed into a boulder. Groggily, he stood up.

"Too slow, Dragon-jerk." Ranma was standing in a slightly crouched position. She had to learn how he did that!

The matriarch Razor looked over the injured bodies of the men in front of her. "Lord Herb, I greet you."

"What do you want?" Herb snapped. He looked a lot worse for wear.

"We seek two outsiders that we think traveled this way. They have attacked our tribe and stolen our treasures and secrets," Razor said with a vicious snarl.

"We have only seen one girl, and that was one too many. What sort of monster have you unleashed upon us, Joketzu?" Herb demanded. "She even managed to defeat me with her inhuman abilities, though she did retreat from my men when we pressed her." Although she didn't retreat because she was afraid, just that she didn't want to hurt his men more.

Razor gulped. With her new abilities, she had thought she was sure to defeat Herb. But she was only one of three warriors who had fallen into the Pool of Immortality who was with the hunting party. She must tread carefully. "I am the matriarch Razor. I offer parley for information and trade. We seem to share an enemy."

Herb nodded. "Very well. I suggest that we join forces to eradicate this menace. You obviously know of this creature, that knowledge will be helpful in destroying it."

"She is a cursed creature that is drunk on her power and feeds on the misery that she leaves behind her. The village of Joketzu is no more and six families where murdered by her. We wish justice and revenge, so hunt her."

Chairs and a table were being brought forward, so they sat in conference in the middle of the war-torn valley. Herb had tea brought forward.

"What sort of demon of Jusenkyo is she?" the prince of the musk demanded to know. He thought he knew of all of the powerful curses from that place. Not even the mighty Dragon Pool existed anymore, lost to myth and lore.

"We are investigating what happened, but it appears that a young man fell into the Pool of Drowned Girl. Strange magics befell her from the changed pool. The only thing that we can tell what happened is that something came from the heavens and knocked the Jusenkyo Guide out almost a year ago." Razor said after she sipped her tea.

"The Pools hold terrible power, but nothing like this. I could easily destroy anyone that fell into the Pool of Drowned Goddess Asura. There must be more to it than that," Herb argued.

"I myself have tested these waters. Not only do I appear younger, but also my speed and power are increased by a considerable margin. Even the blades of our warriors can barely hurt me," Razor explained.

She sputtered in shock as she was suddenly transformed back into her aged form from Prince Herb's teacup. "Since you are willing to negotiate, then you would not mind leaving yourself without advantage, hmm?"

Razor licked her lips nervously. He reacted with cunning and speed to dispel any advantage. "Of course, Wise Herb."

"Stupid boy! I trained you better than that!" Genma said suddenly as he slapped the back of Ranma's head so hard it knocked him silly and sprawling.

Ranma shook his head and glared at his father who hadn't been there a moment before. "Why'd you go and do that for?"

"If I was one of those Amazons, you'd be dead! How careless my son is with the fate of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts! Oh, woe is me!" Tears streamed down from the stout man's eyes in a show of stoic despair.

"They can't turn themselves invisible, Old Man!" Ranma cried out. She held her stinging ear. "How do you do that, any ways?"

"It is part of the sealed schools of Saotome Forbidden Arts. I have unsealed them to allow our school to survive. Once we are far enough away from here, I shall train you hard, boy. Harder than you've ever dreamed of being trained." Genma's eyes looked as hard as steel behind his glinting glasses.

"Cool!" Ranma was very cheered up by that.

"What has those odd men in the valley behind us so riled up?" his father asked as he handed Ranma a rice ball.

Between munches, she replied, "Stupid idiots said they weren't going to let me past their valley. I had to fight a bunch of them. Just bruised 'em up a bit, but they got really angry about losing to a girl, I guess."

"We'll have to keep moving. You aren't quite ready for the Umisenken. The focus required for it is beyond you at this point, but we can start you on the simpler portions of the training shortly."

They traveled for most the day. Genma was really pushing himself, even with his wounds. They were high up in a mountain pass. Far, far below, they could see the accursed pools of Jusenkyo.

Ranma couldn't help but think of how dangerous it really was; how innocent it seemed under the setting sun. "So, what are we going to do next, Pop?"

"We're going back to Japan. After we rest here. We'll head east and to the coast." 

Ranma leaned back and closed her eyes. She was feeling much better than she had just a day earlier. She felt so aware of her surroundings. She could even hear the large wings of birds flying overhead. 

"Intruders! What are you doing on the mountain of the Phoenix People?" a male voice demanded from above.

Genma and Ranma started in surprise. The older man had been watching for trackers further down in the valley. They didn't seem willing to enter this valley. Now maybe they would discover why.

Above them on mountain-ledges stood three winged warriors. "I am Koruma, warrior of the Phoenix. You are trespassing on our land. Surrender or die!" their leader declared.

"I'm getting really sick and tired of you jerks being so anti-social!" Ranma yelled, her voice raised high in agitation. "What happened to some politeness and asking us to leave?"

"Ground-thing, we do not care to be polite to ugly, weak people. Surrender or die. That is your only choice." The half-bird, half-man looked totally serious as he pointed twin swords at the pair. His companions just smirked in agreement.

"I just think-" Ranma's father started to say, sweating slightly. If these were people that the Joketzu wouldn't come in after them, then he wasn't so sure he wanted to pick a fight with them.

"I'm gonna flatten you punks!" Ranma screamed as she crouched and then rocketed upwards. She lightly, for her anyways, tapped him in the stomach.

Koruma smashed into the wall, coughing blood. "Demoness! Your strength is inhuman!" He slid down the wall to a small ledge. He could barely crawl to his knees.

The pig-tailed martial artist gripped the cliff wall with one hand, ready to leap off as if she were a coiled spring. She just smirked at him.

Koruma took a moment as he coughed blood to palm a very special whistle. As soon as he finished spitting out the blood in his mouth, he blew the whistle. He hoped that Kiima realized that this was no drill, that he really did mean for her to show up in the full regalia of the Captain of the Phoenix Guard.

Lime squinted up at the mountainside. "I think I see something."

His companion, though much smaller, tensed as if he were ready to make war in that moment. "Is it the Demoness?"

A fireball of immense proportions exploded on the mountain.

Herb narrowed his eyes as he looked up. "Joketzu, the Demoness fights the Phoenix God."

"Then she will be destroyed, and our alliance will be over almost before it is done." Razor stared up at the cliffs and steep mountain-faces.  Another fireball blossomed on the mountain, going even further up. "She fights like one of the possessed."

"Phoenix will destroy him as he has destroyed all threats to his race since time began." Herb smiled nastily at that thought.

Razor just laughed suddenly at that. "The Phoenix was born during the great war that the Gods fought against the evil Moon Goddess, Serenity the Destroyer. He may be immortal now, but he was born of the Gods of that time to fight against the ravenous armies of the Moon."

Streaks of fire danced across the mountain. "The fight goes too long. Can this Demoness fight even the Phoenix to a defeat?"

A massive explosion nearly sheared the top off Mount Phoenix. The assembled warriors of the Joketzu and the Musk stared in awe. What power could do something like that?

Razor narrowed her eyes. "That must be the charred remains of our Demoness. Come let us make sure she can't rise against us again."

The two dozen greatest warriors of their tribes moved with a speed and surety that would beggar the minds of Olympic athletes over a rough mountainside in the darkness of the newly fallen night.

"Gods and Demons!" Razor swore in abject awe.

"It is Kiima, mightiest of the Phoenix Warriors. In her full battle armor! Armor that is said to have been crafted by the Gods and Goddesses to crush any mortal man!" Herb's voice now held a measure of fear. His mouth held the bitter tang of terror barely contained.

The comely, young seeming Matriarch kneeled over the fallen bird-woman. "Her pulse is weak, but I think we can save her."

Ranma stared over the morning's dawn. "So, Pop? Where are we going after we get back to Japan?" She narrowed her eyes as she realized that she could stare into the sun. And see with her own eyes sunspots!

"Don't you worry about that, Boy. I've got everything planned.