Untitled Ranma/FF8 crosover.

[Atlan]

THis would be the prologue. The idea for this fic came from three directions. The first was reading about the futilitty of trying to cross DBZ with Ranma, since the DBZ crew are so strong.
The Second idea was my musing over the lack of a Ranma/FF8 crosover out there.
The third idea was me thinking about how when Ranma goes to another world, eveyone uses a wish, the Naban Mirror, the uslessness of Ryogas sense of direction, or Happosai using some artifact. I wondered what the most cheezy idea would be, an unusual one, and I came to one conclusion: Abducted by a UFO.
Spell check welcomed, eveyone knows I can't spell for the life of me.
Disclaimer: I don’t own either Ranma ½ or Final Fantasy 8. Any characters from either are just being….. borrowed, yeah. That’s right, borrowed. I’ll return them, I swear. *cough*
In Ranma, this is set after the battle with Saffron. And, it’s also set in book 36, Part 8. That means that Ranma has left the Tendo home, but hasn’t given Akane the pillbox that looks like an engagement ring, and their house is still intact. Confused? That’s how I like it!
A small, blue-green creature pottered around its room. This was odd. Not because the room was the laboratory of a UFO, although that was the case. It wasn’t odd that the UFO was larger on the outside than on the in, either. It wasn’t even odd that the creature was knee high to a normal human, or that its legs were less than an inch long each. Nor was it odd that it was alive despite a total lack of nose or mouth, or even ears, hair, and eyelids. One might even say that the fact that the creature was operating serious machinery without any form of fingers was odd.
No. What was odd was that this little creature was anywhere near the star it was departing. After all, it had been ordered to go to a certain planet, find some interesting specimens, anal-probe random cattle and the occasional person. That planet was no-where near where this little guy was leaving from.
The explanation for this was simple: he wanted a new name. On his home planet, one didn’t just get a name at birth, unlike those of most planets. On his homeworld, a name was changed according to a persons rank, personality, and however their boss might feel at the time.
And since he had an irritating disposition, and a supervisor that hated his guts, this little guy was called something he truly hated. A name which was translated into the equivalent dialect where ever he might go. So, on the planet he had just left, a planet called Earth, he was known as Pu-Pu. Yes, as in the smelly matter that most races excreted at one time or another.
And so Pu-Pu had had a brilliant idea- he would go to another planet, looking for something more interesting than the colon of a quadrupeds. Yes, find a small, out of the way planet. Then take samples. Then blow the planet up, to make sure his new samples were unique, and priceless.
Which explained why Pu-Pu was in his craft, flying away from the exploding sun that had once provided warmth to nine planets, six billion people, and one mountain range covered with enormous statues of faces.
It also explained why Pu-Pu was in his lab- inspecting the merchandise. One inhabitant of the planet, shaped like one from the planet he was supposed to be studying. That meant two arms and legs, one head, a pinkish color, and subject to needing to make more of what the blue alien was named after.
But normal inhabitants of this planet, and indeed most planets of the pink, four limbed things, couldn’t do things this one could. This one could change his gender with the application of a fairly common liquid, depending on the temperature of said liquid. This one could also fire energy blasts similar to magic, but fueled by its own body, as opposed to a guardian monster or a technological enhancement. It could assimilate combat-related information at a truly astonishing rate, and was the perfect soldier.
This specimen was perfect for infiltration missions among the thousand or so planets with pink, four limbed creatures on them. Not an unusually large number, for a race with more than a million stars and their inhabitants on file.
Or the abilities could be taken by a cloning group, trying to improve the gene pool of Pu-Pu’s species. There were any number of fantastic opportunities in this one, opportunities which could spell his way from being Pu-Pu to being Ultimate-Manifesto-Cool, or something else as awe inspiring.
Pu-Pu rubbed the pompom on his antenna in anticipation. Soon, he would get the name, the status, the praise he deserved! A small, bell-like noise came from his mouth, which was the equivalent of an evil laugh in his language.
But, there was always room for improvement. Pu-Pu was setting up for an experiment. On the planet he was supposed to be studding, there were a people who linked themselves to Guardian Forces, or GF’s, to increase their combat potential. These GFs were rare on their planet, but virtually unheard of everywhere else. And even if Pu-Pu was to find a GF on a random planet, it would be impossible to junction it to the subject against his will. Junctioning required either permission from the GF, if it trusted its possible host, or the host, if it had never met the GF before.
But Pu-Pu was lucky in this case. It gave an equivalent of an evil chuckle, before looking at the results of the scan it had done earlier. The results were positive: the specimen had encountered several of these GFs before! He had defeated them, which instinctively made the GFs subservient to the specimen. And with the planet they had been on now consisting of only supercharged plasma, the GF’s were now in a non-physical state. The unfortunately named creature started changing settings on the tube in which the specimen lay in suspended animation.
The UFO stopped in its tracks, halting all motion instantly. Out of the side facing the direction it had just left, a satellite dish poped out of the hull. It extended, becoming only a single molocule thick, yet over a mile in diamiter. Then it waited.
Barley a minute afterwards, the shock-wave hit. The energy caused by the sun exploding was much weakened, this far out, but the important part was still there: The GF’s that instinctively sought their master. The satellite dish held firm as the energy flowed around it, hot plasma gushing about like water past a boulder in a river. But this boulder absorbed just the right part of the water it was after. The GFs, mindless, were sucked into the batteries on board the advanced ship. They were unaware of anything, unaware that they were now prisoners.
Pu-Pu set it’s craft back in motion, withdrawing the satellite dish as it flew through the blackness of space. Another sinister chiming of bells, and it was ready to start the experiment.
No-one would be interested in the normal junctioning of a GF, due to the memory degradation involved. So conventionally equipping the specimen with them would be a waste of a good subject. After all, even if a prospective buyer wanted him for the DNA, the memory loss could knock a significant amount of the price. So that meant Pu-Pu had to get unconventional.
Since this valuable specimen had so much life energy, enough to launch it physically, then a compromise was possible. If the GF’s, instead of roaming and corrupting long-term memory at random, could be forced into a specific part of the memory, the life energy of the individual could keep them there permanently. The small creature made a couple of adjustments to its computer, and gave it’s equivalent of a happy nod. The experiment was feasible: The GF’s would be given the last two months of the specimens’ memory. For him, it would seem as if two months previously, he had woken up where ever Pu-Pu decided to release him from his suspended animation. There was an unfortunate side effect though- he would only be capable of using those GFs, and no others. And there was a chance that some of them would be unusable, on account of how far they were buried in the mind. But that wouldn’t matter, the experiment was a success! Let the buyers handle it, mused the small alien. Let them handle it while the renamed Pu-Pu lived a life of luxury!
A small beeping came from the news monitor in the craft, and Pu-Pu waddeled over to read it. The AI in the ship was capable of filtering out junk mail, so the beeping meant it was relevant to him. The blue-green creature read the news, and then fell over in shock.
The news: someone had brought a sample of a race called the ‘Sayains’ in to the market. And a sample called ‘Futaba’. The first sample was a unbeatable fighter. It got stronger simply by being damaged, and a adolescent of the race was more than competent to destroy an army of people with the abilities of Pu-Pu’s sample. The second sample was capable of changing sexes depending on its hormone level. This was much more practical and controllable than a water trigger.
Meaning that Pu-Pu’s sample was not only non-unique, but also inferior. Useless. And after all that time searching! After the price of the bomb it had dropped into the sun! Wasted! Pu-Pu would be lucky to not get an even worse name out of the deal from this!
The planet that it was originally supposed to investigate came into view up ahead, and Pu-Pu twisted its marshmallow face in anger. This subject was useless! It resisted the temptation to throw it out the airlock, though. Not out of respect for the specimen’s life, but out of an unwillingness to loose the machinery keeping it in suspended animation (SusAn). Nor could it take the equipment off it in space, and the combat potential of the specimen would make it more than competent to destroy the UFO they were in. No, there was only one thing to do- land somewhere, take the specimen out, take the SusAn gear, and run like hell back to the UFO before the pink thing woke up. Then, make it look like the ship had been damaged in a meteor storm, to explain the missing bomb, and go back to searching for cows to anal-probe. And of course, making sure to leave the specimen in some place it would die soon anyway, to erase any trace of the failed business venture. Then delete the work logs, then Pu-Pu’s memory of it too- overly inquisitive bosses had a lot of power over their employees in his society.
Fully committed to this course of action, Pu-Pu overlooked one small thing: the GF’s he had functioned his specimen with. In most circumstances, this wouldn’t be a big thing. After all, having a GF wouldn’t assure the survival of most specimens dumped in the arctic north. Only a rare few, those with the drive and the skill to survive. What would the chances be of finding someone like than?
As the UFO flew away from the winter lands of Tariba, the specimen it had left behind stirred. The ice and snow that surrounded it was so cold that it did not trigger his curse. Moving slightly in his sleep, naked, a black pigtail stuck out of his head. Ranma Saotome rolled over slightly, and opened his eyes.

[GenocideHeart]

Hmm, looks interesting. You DO know that GFs can also be bound to objects, though, right? Diablos and Doomtrain, specifically. Just to be clear...
Do the GFs that Ranma collected include Eden?
Also, I wonder what Shiva's effect on him would be. Technically, she can freeze water before it even HITS Ranma, so he may well never turn to a girl again, barring exceptional circumstances.
Just a few thoughts...
By the way, it's Trabia, not Tariba.

[Mitchell]

Hmm I dont think the GP that are bonded to Ranma are the ones from the game. They seem to be moer the mythical creatures from his own world (such as Orochi, or perhaps Saffron.)
Overall an interesting new crossover. Even though he's portrayed as an arrogant evil ass, I kinda feel sorry for Pu-Pu.

[GenocideHeart]

Hmm I dont think the GP that are bonded to Ranma are the ones from the game. They seem to be moer the mythical creatures from his own world (such as Orochi, or perhaps Saffron.)
Overall an interesting new crossover. Even though he's portrayed as an arrogant evil ass, I kinda feel sorry for Pu-Pu.

I doubt it is Saffron. He's way too arrogant to be 'submissive' to anyone, defeat or no defeat.
Also, the Phoenix is not summon-able as a GF in FF8. Its Pinions can call a fraction of its power, but the Phoenix itself isn't available, and since it's hinted to be native of FF8's planet, I recommend not dragging Saffron in this. It'd horribly screw things up, since the legend flat out states there can't be more than one Phoenix at once...
Similarly, I recommend dropping Orochi. He's supposedly tied to Gaia, i.e. the Earth, and will die when it dies. Seeing how Pu-Pu reduced it to nothing but plasma, we can safely say the Orochi is gone with it.
This... leaves very, very little to work with. Perhaps use mythological beings that don't appear in the series... *shrug*
EDIT: There's also another problem. Besides Herb (dragon), Saffron and Orochi, and possibly the Ghost Cat, Ranma hasn't really fought many powerful creaturesof myths, so why should they recognize him as Master? I can think of a few dozen creatures just in japanese mythology that could eat up Saffron for breakfast, and I doubt they'd find Ranma's little stunt impressive.
This fic may need some work in that direction, because the logic in having the GFs bond to him makes no sense. He's just not tough enough to have high level mythological figures bow to him, unless he somehow went and defeated Susanovo when I wasn't looking...

[Atlan]

I always found FF8 somewhat inconsistent. The biggest one was that in the game you can get about 20 GFs, yet the entire balamb garden is junctioned with them. So for this, I am asuming that there are a lot more GFs than just the ones that Squall and co can get.
As for Saffron not making a good GF, Remember Cerebus and Diablos? Cactuar? Bahamut? Ifrit? They all had to be killed to become Squalls GFs, and most of them were prety unfriendly. The theroy I'm using is that obeying a human who defeated them is wired into the soul of a GF.
As for GFs, i was thinking of the toughest, not entirly human opponents ranma faced. Orrochi, Safron, Herb, Ghost Cat, Tarou and the stupid panda drawing were the GF's I had planned. Though I may add or reduce that list. Except for the panda, its just too riduclus to pass up!
Not all the origional GFs were bassed on myths, remember. Carbuncle is a ruby-like gem or a fairly discusting growth that a person can get.
Also, I'm going with the theroy that there are many GFs of a simlar elemnt: like Squall has Quetzacottal, Rajun probably has the old thunger guy from FF7 and FF9.

[weaponx9]

You could add some mythical creature spirit from jusenkyo, because ranma did destroy it which could be classed as defeating the spirit (or spirits).

[Forum Troll]

He didnt destroy jusenkyou, his "modification" of the dragon tap and the collateral damage of the fight between him and Saffron caused the springs to flood, for a time.
However he did modify the source of jusenkyou, which I guess could be construed as a defeat.
Troll

[GenocideHeart]

I always found FF8 somewhat inconsistent. The biggest one was that in the game you can get about 20 GFs, yet the entire balamb garden is junctioned with them. So for this, I am asuming that there are a lot more GFs than just the ones that Squall and co can get.
As for Saffron not making a good GF, Remember Cerebus and Diablos? Cactuar? Bahamut? Ifrit? They all had to be killed to become Squalls GFs, and most of them were prety unfriendly. The theroy I'm using is that obeying a human who defeated them is wired into the soul of a GF.
As for GFs, i was thinking of the toughest, not entirly human opponents ranma faced. Orrochi, Safron, Herb, Ghost Cat, Tarou and the stupid panda drawing were the GF's I had planned. Though I may add or reduce that list. Except for the panda, its just too riduclus to pass up!
Not all the origional GFs were bassed on myths, remember. Carbuncle is a ruby-like gem or a fairly discusting growth that a person can get.
Also, I'm going with the theroy that there are many GFs of a simlar elemnt: like Squall has Quetzacottal, Rajun probably has the old thunger guy from FF7 and FF9.

I would recommend dropping the whole 'old enemies as GFs' thing, for one reason: Gilgamesh.
There's a good chance that even if he summons his old foes as GFs, they'll ignore his order and instead do whatever the Hell they fel like, simply because they are too stuck up and stubborn to listen to him, or even consider obeying.
Unless you want a whole bunch of GFs so violently hostile to Ranma that they'll refuse to obey, I'd instead recommend going for mythical monsters of Earth lore. For instance, the Camazotz (Bat God of the Maya), the actual Yamata no Orochi, the Baba Yaga, maybe even some of the Cthulhu Mythos monsters like Shub Niggurath.
Some suggestions:
-Yamata no Orochi
-the Baba Yaga
-the Camazotz
-Byakko, Genbu, Suzaku and Kylin
-the Yuki-Onna
-the Loch Ness monster
-Girimekhala (Varna's elephant in legend, IIRC)
-a Tarrasque (it's a creature of european lore, not just a D&D monster)
Seriously, the list of GFs you can get is basically endless. My advice is to not use the more 'human' enemies Ranma fought, because frankly, they are likely to pull a Gilgamesh and do nothing at all instead of what Ranma wanted them to do.
The Orochi and the Ghost Cat are acceptable, but Herb, Saffron and Tarou are far more likely to mess up on purpose to make Ranma's life miserable. Remember, a GF only does what you want if it RESPECTS you, and while Herb may respect him somewhat, Tarou and Saffron held nothing but contempt for him.
Just my $0.02. The fic is yours, but having those three actually OBEY Ranma, GFs or not, is so OOC it isn't funny.

[Pale Wolf]

-the Yuki-Onna

This one's a given.

[GenocideHeart]

It'd be funny to see a catfight between Shiva and Oyuki.
On a side note, something else must be kept in mind when choosing GFs. The high-end FF8 GFs, according to the FF Compendium, have more than enough power to blow up a planet (Eden) or at least put a crater of considerable size in it (Bahamut).
The most Ranma's enemies managed when going full tilt, in Saffron's case, was to blow up a part of a mountain... so they are kind of... not powerful enough.
Of course, if you want to UNDERpower Ranma, I'm fine. Way too many fics out there have Uber Ranma, and I frankly find it boring.

[Atlan]

Well, I do see your points, everyone. Thanks for all the ideas.
As for getting rid of the more human enimes, Herb did respect Ranma at the end, and I am planing on having him as Ranma's primary GF. Of course, not a toataly respectfull one. Tarou never once respected him, so i'll stick that idea in the trash. Hell, the only reason I thought of Tarou was because of how cool his curse looked.
Saffron, i'll think about. He did hate ranma, but getting rid of him would make a conseridable difference to the plot.
But in all honistly, I would prefer to avoid having GF's that Ranma never met. So I think i'll avoid most of those myths, but thanks for the sugestions, they gave me a coupple more ideas.
In terms of power, remember Cerebus? He changed drasticly when he joined the party, getting much weaker. Odin got stronder (sort of) and Brothers got more powerful. So I think i'll use the line that GFs draw power from their partner.

[crystlshake]

I like the sound of using the panda drawing. Probably wouldnt have much in the offense capability but may get some decent defensive or buffing skills like carbunkle. Although I can just see it pulling a stunt like the victorebell of James (Pokemon) and glomping him when summoned. Perhaps even having trouble getting it to leave after a battle.
The ghost cat also has some interesting potential- it probably wouldnt care too much if it had a chance to find a bride and may decide to live vicariously thrue Ranma if it cant. Between that and the Nekoken hilarity ensues. As a result of the fear it inspires maybe the panda drawing doesnt get along with the ghost cat. Perhaps the ghost cat also gets a kind of 'upgrade' based on the fear Ranma has of it. Some kind of fear/terror/pain type of spell or can assume a more menacing shape. As far as its limit type ability(ala ff10) perhaps creating some kind of reenactment of the nekoken training for the target or inducing it in Ranma for a major offensive boost (kinda like a combo attack or something).
Two other possibilities with varying levels of usefulness would be the astral form of the old man that ranma dated(cant see this being too usefull without some alteration) or more feasible the oni that posessed Kasumi. The oni could also be given the neat 'strike me down and I grow stonger' kind of aspect. Conceptually it also coincides with the whole mental storage concept and could become a true terror on the battlefield given enough time to power up (on negative emotions IIRC).

[GenocideHeart]

I'd actually find it amusing if Ranma had a 'instantly end the battle' type GF.
Specifically, Kasumi. Summon her and all enemies become friendly and have tea with you.
...ok, it's stupid. But it might be a neat gag.

[Forum Troll]

Actually, we never get to see how Saffron thinks about Ranma after the fight...because he is reborn as a baby and cannot tell anyone. He is going to be raised by people who have had their main problem (lack of water in the mountain) fixed by the fight between Ranma and Saffron, so they might have a different oopinion of Ranma this time around.
So you can pretty much handle that however you want.
Troll