Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video.

Greetings. I am Tomas Megerson, a.k.a. Black Phoenix. Kitsune has brought me onboard to aid in the recording of the events that you are about to uncover. I hope that you enjoy this, as does Kitsune. You can find my own works at: http://nighthawk.anifics.com. Please stop by and sign the guestbook. I like to know who dropped in.
—Tomas

Prologue

Ranma looked around and sighed. This was the last time that he would view his home for the next two years. The world he was in was shot to hell, and the only thing he could do was leave behind those that caused the problems. He turned to face the Gate. It was his greatest achievement. It would allow him to save many lives, and the most important of those lives were now passing through it. Ranma checked his watch. Too long, this is taking far too long. It's going to be a close call. He watched as his family passed through the gate. Ranko, his twin sister, turned to gaze at him, her eyes pleading. Ranma shook his head no. He watched as his parents turned. His mother took Ranko by her shoulders and pulled her through the Gate. His father, though, rushed over to him.

"Ranma, take these scrolls. On them lie the most dangerous techniques I've ever created. You may have use for them. Remember that these were created to kill; only use them in life or death situations." Genma handed Ranma a pair of scrolls.

Ranma looked at his father for a moment and then pulled him into a hug. "Father, these are your forbidden techniques, aren't they? Thank you for trusting me with them. Now go, before the Gate closes. I'll see you again."

Genma broke the embrace and ran through the Gate, heeding his son's request. Ranma began the shutdown procedures on the Gate. Even as it started to slowly close, he thought back on to how this day had come about. He thought back to when he had first discovered the Alien Teaching Device, and how he had accidentally turned it on.

Flashback

He remembered how he had stumbled onto it when he went to investigate a loud explosion. He had found a strange looking sphere. When he had touched it, it had opened up and forced him inside. He had been forced into a chair and a strange looking helmet had fastened onto his head. He had tried to escape, but could not move. Then knowledge from different races scattered all over the many Universes had flooded into his mind. The pain was so much that he had screamed and blacked out. When he came to he had understood that the device had rewritten his genetic code and gave him vast amounts of alien knowledge.

When the Third World War had started up around them, he had built the Gate in a day. It would lock onto another Universe's version of Earth and open a portal there. He had found a nice version of Earth that was not very advanced and had a small but friendly civilization. He had made a deal with the Presider of that Earth, and in exchange for the teaching device, they would let his family and others settle there. It was a very large world. There were not many people there, due to a plague that had destroyed the previous civilization in the year 1701 AD. The plague had finally been cured. But most of the people cured were sterile. As a result, that Earth's population was currently 300,000. They would not mind a few more people coming. He had then gone home and told many people about it. He could not save everyone in the world, but he could save some. He only had permission to get 9,000,000 people through. The Presider said any more than that would destroy his world because of low resources. Ranma was person number 9,000,001. He would not be going there, but elsewhere. Since he wanted to help the people of his world, he had built more portals and found an uninhabited world. He did not have time to scout for more.

The rest of his world (except criminals to be executed , and the people who started WW III along with their genetically-created soldier killing machines) would be going to the uninhabited world. It was not a friendly place, and the environment was harsh. But it was go there, or die in the coming bombardment. Some of Earth's governments had antimatter missiles in their orbital space stations. They were determined that if they did not win, they would destroy the whole Earth. Ranma had revealed the existence of the Gates to many people. He made sure the governments (which were completely totally corrupt) never learned of them. There were people who did not believe; and there were people who did, but chose to stay anyway. He and his Gates would evacuate those that were willing. They brought the necessary supplies and material to build shelters with them. He might not be able to stay in the land of the Presider, but he could visit thanks to his portable Gate. The portable Gate was a handheld device that could open Gates but was only powerful enough to transport 15 people, and would need recharging afterwards. He could store other Universe's coordinates in the memory chips. Since he would be traveling alone, he should have enough power to go back and forth easily enough. The harsh world that the larger number of people had gone to was only temporary. With the portable Gate, he could scout out other worlds and find a nice uninhabited one. He could then build Gates on the harsh world and settle everyone into a nicer environment. Then he could go back to the Presider's world and let everyone know.

End Flashback

Ranma smiled as the gate closed. "There, now I just have to get myself out of here. That definitely makes it easier. Well, time to get moving." He quickly gathered up his data crystals (well-nigh indestructible artificially-made crystals that could store huge amounts of data), a few cold 6-packs of 7-Up, and some spare parts, and put them in his backpack. Ranma then took out his portable Gate generator and checked over the coordinates. He had them set to take him to a random world. He would now begin scouting for a place for those on the harsh world, one that they could inhabit. "Well, this should do it. Goodbye, Earth." He opened the portal and moved to step through, when a voice stopped him.

"Not thinking of leaving us behind, are you, Saotome?"

Ranma turned to see a number of familiar faces. "What the hell are you guys doing here?! You're supposed to be on the Presider's world!"

Ryoga smiled at him. "We let others take our places. They were all happy to, instead of going to the other world. We can't let you go off on an adventure with out us, Ranma. We'd miss too much fun!"

Herb looked at him seriously. "I owe you a lot, Ranma. You may need my help. I can't back away from you in your hour of need."

Tenchi grinned. "It's my best way to get away from my problems, Ranma. The girls already went through, so I can get a vacation in."

Ranma smiled at Tenchi. "Oh, but you'll pay for it when we get back, you know."

"Yeah, but this will most likely be worth it."

Hikaru walked up to him and gave him a hug. "I didn't want to risk not seeing you again, Ranma." She had a few tears in her eyes.

Akane and Ukyo came forward and joined in hugging Ranma. Akane spoke first. "You're too important to us, Ranma."

Ukyo smiled at him. "You can't leave me out, Ranchan. I'm your oldest friend, right?"

From the hug, Ranma glanced at his watch again and realized that a problem was headed their way. "Everyone, those missiles are getting damn close. Get through the Gate. I'm last."

Everyone broke off and jumped into the gate, except Ranma. He glanced back one last time, and then dove through. Moments after the Gate closed the first of the missiles hit and destroyed Nerima. Soon the rest of the world followed in a senseless death.

Ranma fell out of the Gate vortex that closed behind him. He wondered where they were. In the distance he could here yelling, explosions, and someone screaming the name "Lina Inverse"…

To be continued.

Webmaster: Larry F
Last revision: May 21, 2007