Probably too videogamey, but...

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

This was an idea that came to me after accidentally stumbling across some old Nintendo games. I know it's probably not workable at all, but I just thought I'd spit it out and see if anyone thinks there's any promise in it.

The basic idea is that Cologne has gone out of town, and Mousse has decided to take advantage of this to dig through her stuff in hopes of finding a way to beat Ranma. He basically comes up with a powder he thinks is some kind of poison, which prompts him to challenge Ranma to a fight and throw it in his face. Ranma sneezes once or twice, gives him a "is that it?" look, then keels over. Mousse's triumph is short-lived as Akane/Shampoo/Ukyo mows him down to go to Ranma's side and, finding him breathing but unconscious, takes him to the hospital. There, he is announced as in some manner of death-like coma, which concerns everyone... least of all Ranma, who is currently going out of his mind with confusion and worry about finding himself A: in two places at once, B: unable to touch anything and C: unable to be heard by anyone.

To put it bluntly, Mousse stuffed up again. The powder he used was an item used in astral projection, and after inhaling it Ranma's spirit stepped out of his body, leaving it in a preservative trance and his essence in one hell of a pickle. While he's drifting around town, trying to figure out how to join body and soul together again, he gets contacted by an entity that I call, for lack of a better name, the White Guardian.

The Guardian is your typical beneficient super-powerful being that can see into multiple realities and technically manipulate reality like a sculptor manipulates clay, but which is bound by laws beyond human comprehension not to interfere directly. The guardian has a problem: it keeps watch over about half-a-dozen worlds, and currently all of them are in serious trouble and have no native heroes to rise to the challenge. Ranma represents the perfect alternative; he's good (well, decent at heart at least), formidably skilled, courageous and desperate. He appears before Ranma and offers him a deal: if he will allow the Guardian to "incarnate" him on each world to fight off its threat, the Guardian will restore him to his body. When Ranma hesitates, the Guardian 'haggles' and promises that if Ranma will help one world, the Guardian will allow him to decide to either be restored or to try and help another world, with the Guardian acting in the appropriate way per his choice.

I only have three vague world ideas, but what do you think? Does this idea have any possibility?

For the curious, the three worlds I have are:
-an alien system far away, where a pacifistic world is being threatend by "Zelos", a biomechanical monster the size of a small galaxy that devours worlds and stars for sustenance. Ranma will have to pilot an experimental starfighter down Zelos's gullet, dodging the array of traps, biomech symbionts (the equivalent of white blood cells) and parasites (deranged cultists, opportunistic space pirates, etc) and destroy the "organs", which are themselves essentially symbiotic biomechanical capital ships.

-a fantasy world where, in an ancient and long-feared castle, the dread Warlock Lord has finally assembled the Great Spell, the arcane invocation that will allow him to annihilate the world and create a new one from the ashes. Ranma will need to penetrate the haunted castle, evading the interior dangers as he seeks the keys in order to reach the Warlock Lord and stop him.

-a futuristic version of earth where human soldiers have long been replaced with legions of robots reverse-engineered from samples of alien technology that fell to the planet. Unfortunately, a second alien race, one at war with the one that designed the original tech, has tracked the tech samples to earth and invaded. The earth's robot defenders have proven unable to stand against them, but a small band of scientists have worked frantically on a possible salvation; a robotic battlesuit created from blend of both technologies... however, the invaders found the facility and attacked, killing the scientists and the pilot canidates. Ranma will need to strap himself into the "H.E.R.C (Hyper-Evolving Robotic Combatant) suit" and spearfront the war effort against the invaders, culminating, naturally, in the final showdown against the leader of the invasion forces.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

The first two plots have been done by Matt Howarth in Those Annoying Post Brothers. The third will undoubtedly require Ranma to be in onna form, as most giant robots require young female pilots. (Sexism, but there you go.)

The interesting part might be Ranma trying to think (his) spirit form into (her) spirit form.