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. Archived at http://www.geocities.com/supermanunbound/index.html and http://www.fanfiction.net/~arthurhansen

"You can stand up now, Lucille," Kasumi said as she shook her head.  Akane lay on the floor where she had fainted while Ranma checked her out.

"Huh?" Ranma said in confusion. She looked up to see Lucille brush a chunk of concrete off of herself quite easily. She walked back into her lab from the nearby storage room, scowling at the shattered wall and equipment.

Looking totally unhurt, Lucille glared at Kasumi. "Some of us still have secrets, you know."

"Ranma and Akane already know that you have an enhancement, Lucille.  So that is no secret. Right?" The older Japanese girl looked at her blandly.

"Ah. Right. Of course." Lucille tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ears.

There was a knock on the door. Lucille walked to it and opened it. A quick explanation to the Airforce guards about the accident and the door was closed.

Kasumi suddenly narrowed her eyes in thought. "This is a good opportunity to put a scare into Akane. Her temper gets her into too many problems. And now that she is stronger than fifty men, we just can't have her losing her temper any more."

"Spoiled brat, I take it?" the scientist asked as she started to tap her forefinger on her lips thoughtfully.

"Yes," she said in reply with a sigh. "After mother died, our family nearly fell apart. Father is still just a shadow of the man he used to be. Nabiki turned a bit mean." Kasumi smiled to herself. "Still the same sense of humor though. Akane... became angry."

Lucille shrugged. She'd remembered reading that in some report somewhere. The confirmation of Kasumi being Rising Sun hadn't really surprised her at all.

"What about you?" Ranma asked blithely. Akane seemed fine, just fainted. Probably better to let her wake on her own.

"I retreated into supporting my family. Cooking, cleaning. It took getting poisoned on live television to shake me out of my pity," she replied with a smile. She pursed her lips, listening to Akane's heartbeat. "I think we really do need to put a scare into her to shake her out of her anger." She disappeared in a blur.

Lucille squawked in protest as the white and red blur zipped around her. The bandages and sling artfully gave her the appearance of being hurt. The scientist slumped in her seat. "Fine. I'll go along with this plan." She used her own moral compass... 'What would Superman do?' And this was one of those schemes that Clark would do, if the situation called for it. Dang it.

Kasumi shook Akane forcefully. "Akane! Wake up, Akane!"

"Kasumi? I had a horrible dream that I couldn't control my own strength and hurt someone," the woozy girl said as she awoke.

Her older sister winced, but put on a stern face. "That wasn't a dream. You did hurt someone."

Akane looked over in shock at Lucille Newtrich, who was theatrically sagged in a chair, trying to look as wan as possible. She managed to look fairly convincing as an injured person. The young girl sat up, looking a bit fearful.

"Lucille, I appreciate you not pressing charges at this point. I don't know what my father would do if Akane had to be remanded into juvenile services for assault. I'd better take her to the Warehouse until she learns how to better control herself." Kasumi put her helmet back on, resuming her persona as Rising Sun. She led the two martial artists out the door.

Akane's face fell, becoming pale. Juvenile Services? Wasn't that basically prison for kids?

Lucille sighed and shook her head. All in the day of a super-heroine, she mused to herself. She used her 'undamaged' hand to set her totally useless glasses back on her face. It was little things like that, that made disguises so effective.

Rising Sun flew her sister and future brother-in-law towards a non-descriptive warehouse with an overgrown field. Several tanker trailers were parked there; Waldecker's failed experiment for building his own personal space station. Kasumi made a mental note that she needed to visit William some time at his 'Folly'. It was a veritable paradise of lush plants growing in low gravity.

"What this place?" Ranma asked. She had a terribly cute little frown that made her look adorable. Something that would have horrified her to be told.

Rising Sun tapped a one hundred digit code into the panel by the door. It buzzed and she pushed open the door. As soon as the door was closed, she took off her helmet again. "This is where people that have gained super powers have to train to control their powers. I spent about two weeks here, but Akane should only need a few days. I hope."

"How do you train?" Akane asked interestedly. Her body was stooped just a bit, signaling that she wasn't over her shock. Would she really be thrown in jail?

Kasumi disappeared in a blur and then reappeared the same way. "With eggs. I hope we have enough here." She led the duo over to a table that had several cups glued to the table. "The object is to pick up the egg and put it in each cup and then move down the line."

"That doesn't seem tough," her younger sister said.

"You have to do it fast and you have to let each egg go before picking it back up. I can make it look like the egg is in all six cups." Kasumi smiled with a glint of challenge in her eyes. Her baby sister could never resist a challenge.

Ranma snickered. "That could be tricky."

Three pretty women came up on deck of the very disreputable schooner that had docked on deserted beach on the west coast of Japan. The rough group of sailors stood in between them and the small spur of land.

The ugly captain with a heavily scarred face smiled. "Well, ladies. We brought you here, just like you asked. Now there is the matter of payment."

The leader of the three Chinese women raised an eyebrow at that. "We have already paid you in gold." All three Chinese girls were stunningly beautiful. Two of them looked closely related. Perhaps they were sisters.

The captain smiled, a ghastly thing, as he held up a pistol. He loved the look of fear in his victim's eyes.

The look that was definitely not appearing on the faces of the pretty Chinese girls in front of him as they coolly looked at him and his men's guns.

"Grandmother? May I deal with these dogs?"

"No, Shan Pu. I think it would be best if I dealt with these... dogs." Cologne had never moved her eyes from the smugglers. Had her newfound confidence and invulnerability made her make a mistake in choosing whom would smuggle them to this land?

"Dog?" the captain spluttered angrily. "I'll get my worth after selling you to the Triad to work in-" His tirade was caught short as the 'grandmother' appeared in front of him instantly and buried her fist in his stomach. The other sailors all blinked in astonishment.

Cologne narrowed her eyes. "Slavers. I thought your ship smelled odd. Ra Tzura, take Shan Pu away while I... deal with this."

Shan Pu let the other elder lead her away in a great bound over the head of the sailors. She heard the crack of guns being fired and winced. Ruthless men, fighting her grandmother in her rejuvenated state? It would be a massacre.

The roar as the fuel tank exploded covered the abject terror of the screaming men.

"Ranma! This is all your fault!" a young woman screamed out. She was lost, out in the woods on a back road. Her mis-sized clothes seemed to be more something a young man would wear.

"Ranma? That wouldn't be Ranma Saotome, would it?" another young man said from up the road. He seemed to be pushing a cooking cart in front of him. His long hair was held back into a ponytail. Across his back was a large-handled cooking spatula. Though it did have a sharp edge.

"Yeah, it would be. Who are you?" the girl said bluntly like a boy would, as many 'tough' girls were wont to do these days.

"Ukyo Kounji. Well, if it is the Ranma Saotome that I think you are talking about, I have a matter of honor and revenge with him." The effeminate looking boy grinned evilly.

"So you are headed to Nerima, too?" Ryoga asked hopefully. 

Ukyo blinked in surprise. "You do realize we are in Osaka?"

"Is that far from Tokyo?"

"What are you, some kind of idiot? It's on a different island!" Ukyo shouted.

"Really?"

Akane walked into her house, her head held down. It had been a disconcerting couple of days. Kidnapping, super-powers and the threat of being thrown into juvenile prison had frazzled her nerves.

"Uh, see ya!" Ranma yelled out to Rising Sun with a quick wave.  Rising Sun blurred off at super speeds, a white-red streak in the sky.

"The prodigals return, I see," Nabiki said from the kitchen table. Her father and Genma were there too.

"Where is Kasumi?" Akane asked in an uncomfortable tone. She didn't like lying to her father, but Kasumi had been very insistent on her secret identity.

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Caught up at work. She called just a few minutes ago to say she was trying to get out of her office."

"Your sister has an important job! I can only hope that you and Akane hold such prestigious positions when you graduate high school!" Soun said, throwing a glare at his second daughter.

She grimaced in response to that jab, but nodded. "Your teachers sent you a pile of school work. Both of you," she said, nodding at Ranma too.

"You haven't been slacking off, have you, boy?" Genma said, glaring at his 'son'.

She gave him a flat look. "I had so much time in between being kidnapped, threatened and being poked and prodded. Com'on, Akane. Let's get to work on our home work." She grabbed Akane's hand and dragged her out of the room up then up the stairs.

Finally, with a muted snarl, Akane yanked her hand away from the other girl. "Let me go!"

"Um, sure?" Ranma suddenly grinned and in a low whisper, said to her quietly, "I happen to know that super-speed makes homework a snap!"

The teacher stood up and directed everyone's attention to a young man that stood at the front of the class. "Everyone welcome our new transfer student, Ukyo Kounji! Please introduce yourself!"

Ranma stared at the new person quizzically. "Ucchan?" As the boy grilled up and then served some of his food it clicked in for sure. "Ucchan!" he called out. He bounded to the front of the room with a wide smile.

"Ranma Saotome... I finally found you," Ukyo said with glittering hatred showing. "I am going to destroy you for what you did to me!" In a blur of movement, Ukyo crafted another okynomaki and threw it at Ranma.

"Huh? Is that a challenge? What did I do?" Ranma asked, his smile falling from his face. He looked over the confection warily.

"Pretending to forget won't save you, Ranma Saotome! I'll only be appeased over your broken body!" Ukyo shouted, point a finger accusingly.

The teacher broke in at that point, getting the class back on schedule. She glared at the two piles of neat homework. This Ranma was going to be a disruptive influence, she could tell. She'd better inform the administration.

"So, you can't remember why this Ukyo hates you?" Akane asked after school as they walked home.

"Not really." Ranma jumped off the fence and into puddle. With a flick of his toes, he splashed himself with a bit of water. With a bound, she was back on the fence, thinking it over.

"Why'd you do that?" the other girl asked.

"So I can remember better. I've got an almost photographic memory and think much, much faster, as a girl," she replied blandly.

Akane quirked her left eyebrow at that, but tried to bring up a memory of Luthor threatening her. She gulped as she realized that she could recite, word for word, what he said exactly. She thought back further. The memory was a first vague, but in moments crystallized into clarity. "Mother..." she murmured to herself. She tried to stop the welling of tears, but was fighting a futile fight.

"Akane?" Ranma asked worriedly. She hopped back off the fence and carefully put hand on Akane's shoulder.

"I can remember my mother," she replied, tears of painful joy streaming down her face. "I had thought I had forgotten, but this... change... I can remember her."

"Oh," the redhead replied uncomfortably.

"Thank you. Out of all of this wackiness, this made it all worth it," Akane said with a smile.

"Yeah. It takes a bit of effort, but you can bring up a lot of old memories!" Ranma grinned, then turned serious. "And I need to ask my old man exactly why we abandoned... her?" In shock, Ranma stopped walking. "Ukyo was this girl I knew, right after we started our trip about ten years ago."

"Ranma, that didn't look like a girl," Akane noted.

"I think I need to beat some answers out of my old man first!" she said angrily, even as they arrived at the Tendo Dojo. They opened the door to find a beaten man lying on the ground. "Pop!" Ranma yelled,  charging over to her defeated father. "Who did this to you?"

"Heh. It doesn't matter. It's an old matter of my honor," Genma said weakly.

"Does it have to do with abandoning this Ukyo girl a long time ago?" Ranma asked, a thoroughly disgusted look on her face.

"Wha-? How did you-? No, of course not!" her father sputtered.

"Pop, how about you tell me before we have to spar for a little bit." The redhead started to crack her knuckles ominously.

Genma recovered almost instantly, hands held up defensively. His earlier signs of punishment were almost totally gone. "Now, now! Let's not be hasty!"

"Who is this Ukyo and why is she so angry at us?"

"It was a matter a long time ago! I can't believe she held a grudge for so long!"

"Pop!" she snarled.

Akane just shook her head. She was just starting to walk off when Genma dropped his bomb.

"I can't believe she's still angry over taking her dowry," he said with a nervous laugh.

Ranma just blinked at her father. Dowry? "Wait, you mean I'm engaged to her? I thought I was engaged to Akane!"

"You are! You must understand; we were desperate! Ukyo's father approached me in a moment weakness. He offered his cart and I, of course, refused. I explained that you were already engaged. He pushed her and the cart and all that wonderful food off onto me!" Genma frowned. "But he demanded that I take his daughter. I could not take her, so I took off with the cart."

"So you took the dowry, but abandoned the girl?" Akane cried out. "No wonder she's angry!"

"But I was so hungry!" Genma cried out, crocodile tears evident.

Ranma started to rub her forehead as if she was getting a headache. "I can't believe you did that. Wait. Yes, I can." She clubbed him down, carefully not causing any permanent injuries. "You always do something to screw up my life!"

Akane watched Ranma carefully, while trying to appear nonchalant about the whole situation. Why should she care about his, er her, problems. "So what are you going to do?"

"I dunno. I guess I have to accept her challenge."

"So, Kasumi, when were you going to say something?" Nabiki asked later as Ranma and Akane practiced out in the dojo. Soun's voice could be heard berating them for some failure in their practice.

Kasumi made a show of thinking hard. "Did I forget to tell you something?"

Very slick, Nabiki thought to herself. "Not much, except the fact that you are moonlighting as the super-heroine Rising Sun?"

"I'm very flattered that you think so, but what makes you think that?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.

"One, you are never around when Rising Sun is doing her thing. No, not sometimes. Every time. Two, Rising Sun seems to be about as self-conscious as you would be wearing that sort of get up. And three?" Nabiki smiled at this. "Your cure."

"My cure? The poison?"

"The regular enhancement process wouldn't have saved you. It had to be a special one. And considering that it was the American White House that announced it, it had to be the Presidential Enhancement," her younger sister finally announced while smiling.

"Very astute! Now I'm afraid I'll have to kill you and hide the body," Kasumi said with an entirely too calm voice. She took a sip from her tea and looked at Nabiki levelly.

"What?"

Kasumi suddenly disappeared, only to shout 'boo' right behind Nabiki who squeaked in fear for a moment. Her older sister knelt down next to her while laughing, her hands held tightly around her torso. "Oh, the look on your face!"

"That's not funny!" Nabiki yelled out.

"Why not?" she asked curiously.

"You haven't pulled a prank in forever!" her younger sister said accusingly.

"I'll do practical jokes on special occasions," Kasumi reassured quietly, a small smile on her lips.

"Sheesh, those Americans really got you to loosen up," Nabiki groused.

"We can't hold onto the past forever, Nabiki," she replied. "Oh, and please don't noise that secret around. The Emperor would be quite upset with me if my family got that out and into the open."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Sheesh, Ranma. You really let her pound you," Akane said as she scanned the destroyed battle ring. Ukyo had departed after being defeated. The only thing hurt on her was her pride though. The challenge ring, hot griddle and all, was quite destroyed.

"I didn't let her pound me," Ranma said angrily. He was nursing his bruises and burns gingerly. Everyone else from Furinkan High was leaving.

Akane waited until they were mostly alone and then softly said, "You idiot." She helped him up.

He looked at her angrily. "Why'd you say that?"

"You let her hit you and you know it. You know at least three special techniques that could have defeated her after she started throwing those gunpowder bombs around. And those are only the ones I've seen you training for," she replied absently. She slipped her arm under his shoulder to help him walk home. "You could have gotten hurt. Well, hurt worse!"

She didn't say anything more, even as they walked to the Tendo Dojo. Ranma was sullenly silent. He'd tried to rebuff her helping hands, but after being unable to even hobble he just let her help him.

"Do you feel better?" she asked finally, just at the gate.

He shot her a look, then slumped in defeat. "No. Uchan still hates me, but I couldn't just let her beat me."

"She's going to keep trying, isn't she?" Without any effort, Akane held up her fiancée and opened the gate easily.

"Yeah! It's a good incentive for her." Ranma smiled at that. "And maybe I can figure out some way to help her. But I just don't see how. I mean, if we weren't getting married, maybe I could do something."

"Oh, and what would you do?"

Ranma sighed again. "I really don't know."

"Finally, Nerima!" one of the three figures wearing slinky Chinese dresses

"And the death of the village-destroyer!" Shampoo exclaimed.

"All in good time, granddaughter. All in good time."