Guyver Ryoga / Ryoga 1/2 : Worlds in Collision
A fanfic about three alternate Ranma 1/2 Universes
by Mark Latus
Part 6 : Back From The Future
7 am Tuesday Morning - Tendo Dojo - Ryoga 1/2 Timeline
"Akane, Nabiki, Ranma, Ryoga, breakfast is ready." Kasumi finished
setting the table. Normally they were a lot more punctual but today they
were all busy searching the house and garden. It seemed their visitors had
left abruptly overnight. There seemed to be some confusion over the manner
of their departure. Exactly what difference it made she couldn't imagine.
Ranma and Akane arrived almost immediately afterwards. Ranma's father
was already there, as he did so often he'd taken his panda form and was
chewing his way through a plate of bamboo canes. While it simplified cooking
Kasumi still thought it a bit strange he didn't spend more time as a human.
Ryoga and Nabiki arrived a few moments later, "You see anything?"
Ranma shrugged, "Not a trace. If they'd just left I'd have been able
to spot something. Least I think I would."
"We are dealing with a Ryoga here, he could easily have just got lost."
Akane considered what she'd just said, "No offense."
"None taken. Maybe they're still around maybe they vanished, it's hard
to say."
Mr Saotome held up a sign reading, "If you mean that couple who resembled
Ryoga and Nabiki they vanished early this morning."
"Say what?" That was from Nabiki.
The next sign read, "About two I was going to get a snack. I had a busy
day yesterday and that gives you an appetite."
Ranma snorted, "Yeah if I played games all day I'd be hungry and
exhausted."
"Show your elders some respect, my son. In any event as I was passing I
witnessed the other Nabiki and a small pig disappear. It amazed me so much I
had to eat twice as much as I'd planned."
Ryoga whispered to Nabiki, "How does he manage to write those signs so
quickly without proper hands?"
"No idea, it's just one of the many mysteries around here."
Akane wondered aloud, "So they're gone again, but are they coming back."
Ryoga (the closest thing to an expert on this subject) shrugged. "Who
knows? They didn't have any more idea why they switched worlds than we did."
He remembered a few things his double had told him. "Even if they did come
close to killing us I hope they're all right."
Nabiki remembered her counterpart's story. "Yeah. If we'd been through
what they have ... well if we were born into that world we'd be them. That's
a scary thought."
The phone rang and Kasumi answered it. "Hello, Tendo residence. Oh good
morning Ukyou ... Excuse me? ... I see. All right I'll tell him, goodbye."
She hung up and said, "Excuse me Ryoga." Akane stopped glaring at Ranma,
everyone had assumed (having been eavesdropping), Ukyou was calling Ranma.
Why would she call Ryoga?
"Yes?"
"That was Ukyou. She said she'd gone down to her restaurant to get a
start on fixing it up when four of you walked by."
"FOUR?"
"That's what she said. It was rather a strange thing to say."
Ryoga looked at Nabiki. "Half of me wants to go to school and pretend I
didn't hear that. The other half thinks I should go have a look." He
sighed. "Feel like guiding me to the right place?"
Nabiki considered then asked Kasumi, "Did Ukyou report seeing any other
Nabikis?"
"No, just an excess of Ryogas."
"Hmmmm. Oh what the heck, nothing urgent's going on in school today.
Come on, let's see what all this is about."
Ryoga bolted the remainder of his breakfast and stood up. Following
Nabiki he headed for the door. Just after they'd left Ranma got up prompting
Akane to ask, "Where are you going?"
"Hey this could be trouble, remember that other Ryoga was hostile. If
these new guys are dangerous someone who's a decent fighter ought to be
along."
"Anything to get out of classes, right Ranma?"
"Hey I'm serious. Besides this is for your sister's welfare."
"Fine, but I'm coming with you. Kasumi, better call the school and tell
them there's a flu epidemic in this house."
"Oh my, but that means lying to your teachers ..." A little late she
realized, as they'd already departed. She sighed and began clearing up.
****************************************************************************
7 am Tuesday Morning - Tempus Research & Development - Guyver Ryoga Timeline
Under the gaze of Director Nagaoka Dr. Maxwell and his staff continued
their feverish work on the spacial displacer. Every time they fixed one bug
in the triggering equipment another showed up. How the software had become so
corrupted so quickly was impossible to understand. System checks revealed no
intrusions, the only theory that made any sense was some sort of feedback from
the alien artifact.
Maxwell glanced over at Nagaoka again, the former director didn't say
anything. Since he was dead this was hardly surprising. Shortly after the
incident last night, which had cost Tempus most of its remaining Zoanoid
troopers, Commander Gyro had stalked in and slammed the severed head onto a
lab table. Speaking with a barely controlled murderous fury Gyro had told
the assembled scientists and technicians to have everything working by the
morning. One of the technicians had coughed and was immediately gutted, no
one had followed the speed of Gyro's move. After that the room remained
dead silent until several minutes after Gyro departed. Then someone realized
they were dead for sure if they kept just standing there and activity resumed.
The tech's body had dissolved, like everyone else in Tempus he had been
through Zoanoid processing. Nagaoka's head remained intact, evidently it had
been treated with some sort of preservative. It certainly provided an
excellent incentive to keep working despite the frustrations.
Gossip had filtered in so Maxwell was reasonably sure he knew what had
happened to his former boss. Immediately following the breakout last night
Nagaoka had made a quick assessment of his odds of survival. With a speed
Maxwell wouldn't have credited Nagaoka had jumped through a third floor window
and started running for the parking lot. Unfortunately for him Commander Gyro
had been watching. He had jumped from his office on the seventh floor, landed
without damage and headed after his subordinate. Nagaoka had stopped, spun
around and pulled a gun. Gyro's strike ripped his head off before he had a
chance to aim. Maxwell suspected Nagaoka had expected something like that,
at least it gained him a quick death. Transformation would merely have put
him under Gyro's telepathic control. Following which he'd probably have been
ordered to rip himself apart. A fate Maxwell was facing if he didn't get
the sodding Displacer working again. Why the hell had he transferred from
Kronos London? The work was dull but at least reasonably safe.
Although Maxwell didn't know it for the past few hours Gyro hadn't been at
all concerned about the Displacer experiment. He had acknowledged the arrival
of the Hyperzoanoids an hour earlier and told them to secure the building.
Locating Hibiki and terminating him and his friends could wait, the big
question now was what was happening to Kronos worldwide?
It had begun three hours earlier at 4 am. Suddenly Kronosnet had
collapsed, trying to access communication files only brought up gibberish.
Somehow an extremely complicated virus or viruses had got into the mainframe.
It looked as though everything not committed to hardcopy was lost. If that
wasn't bad enough the phonecall that followed had made everything seem crazy.
It had been from Palmer, the head of Kronos LA, one of several North
American bases. It had been on an unsecured line as the Kronos communications
satellites were inaccessible. It was noon in California and should have been
a typical day at that branch. Palmer had been near hysterical, very atypical
behaviour for a Zoalord, "GYRO YOU BASTARD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"
After the fiasco little over an hour ago Gyro was in no mood to be talked
to like that. "Palmer, this line is unsecured ..." he began coldly.
"FUCK THAT AND FUCK YOU! YOUR DAMNED HIBIKI'S HERE! DOZENS OF THEM!
THEY'RE KILLING EVERYTHING, WE CAN'T STOP THEM! ARIZONA'S ALREADY GONE!
YOU'VE KILLED US ALL YOU BASTARD WE ..." The line went dead.
Gyro listened to the static in confusion, what the hell had that meant?
He put down the phone and touched the intercom, "Communications, reopen
contact with Kronos LA."
"Network is still down sir. We can use the public lines but ..."
"Do it and route Commander Palmer through to my office." He broke the
connection and brooded. Whatever that call had meant it seemed he was not the
only Zoalord having problems. Good, anything that would distract the council
from his current problems was welcome news. He ran the surveillance tapes
from last night again, everything that happened in Tempus was automatically
recorded. But unless an alarm was triggered only a random check would alert
security. He grit his teeth, Tempus was unsuited for serving as a field
operations base but Dr. Balkis had insisted. "The bastard just wanted to
make me suffer after losing Kronos Tokyo to a bunch of teenagers and a
geriatric", he thought.
At any rate the tapes made it clear that the piglet Guyver wasn't just
some bizarre practical joke. Somehow Nabiki Tendo had smuggled the thing into
Tempus and freed the prisoners. After she'd left the building she had
evidently met Hibiki and he had destroyed most of the available Zoanoids.
Fortunately he hadn't known how weak Tempus's offensive capabilities were,
or he'd preferred to get his friends out of the firing line. In any event
he'd fled with them but he now knew where to strike to find Kronos. Gyro had
considered relocating to the main base at Mount Minakaumi. Unfortunately he
couldn't afford another failure, his position was far too precarious. Balkis
had personally told him that even Zoalords could be replaced. The only thing
to do was wait for the Hyperzoanoid squad to arrive and hope Hibiki didn't
attack in the mean time.
It was just after 4:30 am when Communications division called back. They
told him they couldn't contact Kronos LA and advised him to turn on CNN. Gyro
told them if it wasn't relevant he'd have their heads, literally. After what
he'd done to Nagaoka no one believed that to be an idle threat. The technician
gulped and swore it was important. Gyro flicked on the set catching the middle
of an urgent bulletin originating in California. On screen a newsanchor who
obviously had no idea what was going on read from a teleprompter. In the
background the words "Tragedy in Los Angeles" were displayed.
"... cause remains unknown. To recap for anyone who's just joined us at
approximately 12:25 pm today, just ten minutes ago, the Office Tower of the
Los Angeles branch of Kronos Incorporated collapsed. Details are still
sketchy and we have unconfirmed reports of armed men entering the building.
The alleged perpetrators were described as Asian males approximately 18
years old, all bearing a remarkable similarity. The cause of the building's
collapse are unknown and so far there have been no reports of an explosion
or of gunfire. There were a variety of reports of "monsters" and strange
lights from witnesses' on the scene but so far no evidence to collaborate
these stories. Events are still fairly confused but ..." Gyro turned the
sound off, what the hell had happened?
The intercom gave a priority wail, he punched the speaker button. It
was Communications again, "Sir, distress call from Toronto base, they report
they're under attack, so does New York base. Both claim attackers resemble
Ryoga Hibiki and are destroying everything thrown against them. We've lost
contact with New York but Toronto's still on the line ... correction we just
lost Toronto connection. We will attempt to reestablish contact."
The attempt had failed, it quickly became apparent why. CNN had to widen
its story as news of the collapse of Kronos buildings in New York and Toronto
broke. At 5:00 am Japan time Kronos Brazil reported itself under attack.
Since this complex was based in the jungle surrounded by a company town the
news media didn't learn of it. At 5:30 am Kronos London got out a brief cry
for help before going silent. By then two things were obvious to Gyro, first
something was attacking Kronos installations at thirty minute intervals with
alarming success. Second, it was working its way east. With no ordinary
phone links to main base and the network down there was no way to communicate
with Balkis. It couldn't be Hibiki, could it? Unless Maxwell's teleport
experiments gave the Guyver the power to travel anywhere in the world ... no
that didn't fit. Even with that power these attacks were too swift for a
lone Guyver.
At 6:00 am the Hyperzoanoid team arrived, as they did reports arrived
on attacks at Kronos Paris and Kronos Berlin. News commentators were trying
to link the current wave of destruction to the still unsolved destruction of
Kronos Tokyo five weeks earlier. Gyro deployed his Hyperzoanoids to protect
the building. Tracking and killing Hibiki could wait, first thing to do was
ensure survival. He couldn't call Main Base for reinforcements. On the other
hand Balkis couldn't recall the Hyperzoanoids to protect himself. Tempus was a
subsidiary, not actually a Kronos building, it might get overlooked.
Still Gyro wasn't about to gamble his life on that chance, he needed
more firepower. He made a decision, it was time he met Mr. Kuno. Time to
get the new Guyver on his side. The late director's file on Tatewaki Kuno
was sufficently detailed. Akane Tendo and "Ranko Tendo" (whatever her name
really was) were clearly the keys to controlling Kuno. While they were no
longer available in person it should be possible to manipulate Kuno into
thinking he was acting on their behalf. Let's see, something along the lines
of Kronos being attacked by the allies of the fiendish Ranma Saotome should
do it. Explaining the Hyperzoanoids to Kuno would be a little harder but
avoiding a repeat of yesterday's Zoanoid massacre was essential. Let's see,
men who have heroically sacrificed their chance at a normal life for the
greater good of Kronos and the world ... yes, something along those lines
would suffice. A shame the agent who had originally contacted Kuno had died
during the breakout. He ordered his secretary to place the call.
At the Kuno Mansion the newest Guyver was jolted awake by Sasuke softly
whispering, "Master Kuno, forgive me for waking you but you have an urgent
call."
Kuno pulled himself from his slump on the training room floor. "I was
not sleeping I was meditating. Remember that." In fact while he had started
by meditating on how to deal with the Ranma problem Kuno had slipped into a
doze. He had succeeded in sleeping through his transition back to his own
timeline. Which was why on awakening he was amazed to find the training room
wrecked once more. It seemed impossible, had he activated the Guyver while
asleep? If so he must have sleepwalked and destroyed the hall again. Which
posed alarming possibilities. "What time is it anyway?"
"A little after 6:30 in the morning Master Kuno." Currently a massacre
was under way at both Kronos bases in Russia. At present this remained
unknown to the the outside world.
"And who has the termerity to disturb my meditations at such an early
hour?"
"He says his name is Gyro and he is the highest ranked Kronos executive
in Japan. If you could spare the time he would like to discuss a threat posed
to Akane and Ranko Tendo and how the two of you can alleviate it" Noticing
Kuno's blank look Sasuke added, "Ranko Tendo is the pig tailed girl's real
name."
"WHAT! Both my loves are in danger? Why didn't you tell me that!"
Before Sasuke could explain that he just had Kuno dashed to the phone. His
speed would have been impressive even if the Guyver was activated."
"Hello?"
"Have I the pleasure of addressing Tatewaki Kuno, Kronos's brightest
new star?"
"Indeed you do." On his end of the phone Gyro nodded, Nagaoka's notes
were correct. It was indeed impossible to overdo the flattery when talking
to Kuno.
"We have a something of a crisis and request your assistance. You may be
unaware of this but both Ranko and Akane Tendo recently joined our
organization in clerical positions. I suspect they learned you were involved
with us and saw it as a way to get closer to you."
"Really! Ah yes of course, I can understand that."
"Quite so, unfortunately while they were working late last night at our
local office, Tempus Research and Development they were kidnapped by Ryoga
Hibiki on the orders of Ranma Saotome. I am ashamed to say that we were
unable to stop them though many brave men lost their lives in the attempt."
"The fiend!"
"Yes. As you probably already know Hibiki is the possessor of the other
Guyver unit making him a fearsome warrior. We suspect he's coming back this
morning with allies to destroy the building." This is the crucial part, Gyro
thought. "We have brought in additional forces. If you would consent to join
them we can be sure of capturing Hibiki and learning the location the girls
are hidden."
"Truly a noble cause, I shall be happy to lead your warriors for such an
end."
"Ah ... yes! Yes of course you will lead them. However we need you to
join us as quickly as possible."
"Fear not, for such a mission school must be considered secondary."
Especially with that math test today.
He noted the address Gyro gave him and ordered Sasuke to fetch the car.
Truly this was a day of destiny, he would rescue his loves and let them show
him their gratitude. He began getting very excited and forced himself to
calm down. First he must vanquish Hibiki, which would not be easy. Much as
he hated to admit it yesterday had shown him Hibiki had more experience in
using the Guyver armour. However he would be leading a picked force and his
purity and nobility would insure his victory. He headed for the garage.
Truly there was nothing to worry about, what could possibly go wrong.
It was nearing seven as Akane drove back to Tempus. They'd spent the
night at a motel, fortunately they still had plenty of funds from looting
the Zoanoids. Nabiki supplied directions from the passenger seat. While
Akane followed them she was avoiding talking to any of the others. In the
back seat Ranma and Ryoga, both of whom looked somewhat mangled, were careful
to avoid drawing her attention. Ranma hadn't realized she'd take the
revelation about P-chan quite this hard. He suspected part of it was anger at
herself for not catching on sooner. Hopefully she'd get over it, at least
she'd stopped short of breaking their engagement. Beside him Ryoga wondered
if she'd ever say anything non-abusive to him again.
The plan, such as it was, was extremely simple. Get Ryoga back to Tempus
then get clear. He transforms and wrecks the place taking a couple of high
ranking Kronos types alive. From them he'd learn the location of the main
base the other Zoanoid had mentioned. Maybe if they could locate and destroy
it things would finally get back to normal. Unlikely but it was the only
shot they had.
At Tempus Gyro had set up a phonelink to the two China bases. As he'd
half suspected both were attacked at 7 am. Forewarned both bases had been on
full alert. From what he'd heard before the connections broke it wasn't
making a lot of difference. Based on the current pattern he expected an
attack at 7:30 am. Unless Tempus was bypassed in favour of the main base.
Whoever was attacking seemed to know the location of every major Kronos base.
So far none of the smaller sites had been attacked. He received word that
Kuno had arrived, time to go layer on the flattery again. The Guyver had
better go on the front lines, something Kuno's assumption of leadership would
make simpler.
****************************************************************************
7:25 am Tuesday - Takahashi Industrial Park - Ryoga 1/2 Timeline
Ukyou pointed out the four figures in the distance, "That's them I
recognise the armour". Behind her Nabiki and Ryoga strained to see. They'd
met up with Ukyou shortly after her phonecall. Ryoga could get a good speed
going when he tried, and if he was carrying Nabiki he could avoid getting
lost. Ukyou had decided to join them rather than just point them in the
right direction. Until the contracter arrived and repaired the damage she
couldn't open her restaurant anyway. Besides she was curious how this whole
mess was working out.
They advanced on the still figures, none of the four showed any sign of
interest in them. All four seemed to be wearing formfitting armour, the
legs colored black, the arms and torso colored green. Clipped to the back of
each suit, the stock rising over the right shoulder, was some sort of gun.
The barrel was a single cylinder about 8 cm in diameter which merged into the
tubular body of the weapon. There was no indication of a magazine and the
whole thing looked more like some sort of film prop than anything else. A
small crowd had gathered and was looking for cameras as people speculated on
the show being filmed. Ryoga felt motion behind him and turned to see Ranma
looking at him. "So what's going on?"
Ryoga shrugged and the clock hit 7:29 am. Simultaneously all four Ryogas
drew their weapons and began spreading apart rapidly. At precisely 7:30 am
all four disappeared. The crowd applauded.
Ranma, Akane, Ukyou and Nabiki all looked at Ryoga, he spead his hands.
"Don't ask me, you know as much about it as I do." Rhetorically he asked,
"But what the hell is happening."
The answer to that question would be found either a few hours earlier or
125 years later, depending on your point of view. To the android known as
207 the former was the right way to look at things.
*****************************************************************************
7 pm July 1st 2120 AD - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Imperial Timeline
207 and his comrades materialized and resynchronized their chronometres.
It was now four hours since their departure to timeline Gamma. "Clear the
timescoop chamber immediately!" The order came from 332, the Ryogoid who'd
returned to retrieve them.
As they departed all four Ryogoids asked 332 for an explanation. The only
answer they received was an order to report for facial remodeling back to
standard features. No more individuality. None of the four was pleased but
disobeying an order was unthinkable. As they headed for the body shop it
became obvious that Janeiro center was filled to capacity. With two
exceptions every Survey/Explorer unit was present. There was also a fairly
large grouping of former Enforcers who'd been hastily modifed to survey
configurations. Just what was going on? An inquiry brought only a response
that an imperial briefing was scheduled for 7:30:00 pm.
The remodeling was done in a few minutes. It had been a rush job in the
first place and only facial features had been altered. Now once again 207
looked like a 17 year old Ryoga Hibiki as did 179. 218 and 673 were both
model 19s and possessed slightly different features. Drifting into the crowd
they were hailed by 541. Joining him (why interface when there's nothing
better to do?) 207 asked, "What the hell did you tell the Emperor?"
"Beats me. I just downloaded my memory. Next thing I knew every
explorer in the world was being recalled to the homeline. You guys are the
last to come home. Except for 901 and 115, they just got sent back to
Gamma. For some reason they got sent to West Germany circa 1982."
"Thirteen years before us. Why?"
"No idea. Wait a sec, they're back."
The unmistakeable glow of timescoop faded and two more androids entered
the chamber. Each was carrying a tactical nuclear warhead. Before anyone
asked 115 broadcast, "We were sent to retrieve these from the NATO stockpiles
during the cold war era. Mission completed don't ask us why we need them."
207 considered. While nuclear weapons had been discontinued as obsolete
if needed they could be assembled easily enough. Why snatch them from
Timeline Gamma? Only one explanation made sense. Matter will only stay in a
foreign timeline if surrounded by a quantum lock field, all Explorers have
internal generators to hold them in alternate timelines. There is a definite
limit to field size however. Say you wish to detonate a large bomb in another
universe. You'd have to surround it with a lock field, taking care that the
field generator was outside the explosion's radius. That would take a very
large, very powerful generator. Given mass limitations transporting somrthing
that big into another timeline would be a problem. But if you use a bomb
indigenous to that universe, no problem.
So what was the emperor planning? Starting World War III would probably
take Kronos out of action but that seemed a little extreme. While 207 didn't
consider himself excessively sentimental genocide felt wrong. From a look
around the center the other units felt the same way. But if the Emperor gave
the order they'd all do it.
At precisely 7:30 pm the androids interfaced with the network. As he
often did the Emperor communicated in human fashion. "My children, you are
all wondering why you have been brought here and what my plans are regarding
Timeline Gamma. The plan is simple, we have uncovered a point in that line's
history that indicates we are about to make a major change. It appears that
the Kronos organization is on the brink of acquiring dimensional shift
technology. While at the point we investigated there is only a single alien
artifact capable of making the shift we cannot afford to take chances. It is
possible from studying it they will learn to replicate the phenomena. This
would give Kronos interdimensional strike capability over a century before
the Empire acquired it. The risk to our history cannot be understated."
"I considered various options to end this threat. Having been born human
I would prefer to avoid initiating global thermonuclear warfare in the Gamma
timeline. The alternative is the annihilation of the organization known as
Kronos. Thanks to unit 541 we now have a complete listing of Kronos bases
throughout Gamma. We will individually target each base and destroy it,
starting with the major bases and working our way through the smaller sites.
There will be one exception to this, Tempus Inc."
"I am well aware that we are currently limited to a injecting a maximum
of twenty androids into an alternate timeline. Additionally our time travel
technology is somewhat imprecise regarding arrival point. There is a simple
solution. In groups of twenty you will be transported to the appropriate day
,several hours before striketime to allow for errors. You will not be sent to
Gamma. Instead each group will be dropped at a spacial equivalent point in
another alternate timeline. At your designated attack time you will cross
from your current timeline into Gamma. You will have precisely 30 minutes to
destroy the objective then cross back to the other timeline and await
timescoop back to the present."
"Stand by for individual assignments."
207 was slightly surprised to find himself part of a four Ryogoid squad.
The other fourteen members of the Japan strikeforce were assigned to Mount
Minakaumi. That force included 901 and 115 and the nuclear warheads. The
extra mass explained why the force was down two members. It seemed the old
gang was together again. 218, 541 and 673 were assigned to 207's command.
Mission objective; arrive in timeline Delta, manoeuvre to the equivalent of
Tempus's building, cross to Gamma, kill everyone in the building and destroy
the artifact. Armour and IFD's were to be issued.
The small squad headed for the hastily rigged armour bay. At the time of
construction each android was issued a suit of powered armour. It boosted
weapons capability, defense shields and strength. 207 had never used it. In
fact, apart from the recent rebel incident, there had been no need. The
policy of equipping each android with it dated back decades to when mass
insurrection was still a possibility. Given their own capabilities and
human acceptance of the Empire it had ceased to serve a useful purpose. But
if it's not broken why fix it? So the practice remained.
207 stepped into his armour, probably not the one originally issued to
him but it was designed to fit a model 17. He ran through a systems check
and accepted his IFD. He'd never fired an Intrinsic Field Disrupter before
but had full programming in his memory.
Like all Ryogoids 207 had a small desire for individuality. The tricky
part was being uniquely individual. Like many units that spent time exploring
variations of the twentieth century he looked for inspiration there. Which
is why he clipped a badge reading "Unnatural Born Killer" to his armour's
chestplate. He noticed 541 writing on his IFD, "If you're close enough to
read this start praying." Every unit had its own little quirk that the
Emperor tolerated. It helped he considered them his children. Boys will be
boys.
It was time. In two separate groups the strikeforce assigned to Kronos's
Japanese bases headed for the time machine. Death and glory time.
Shortly after the final group of Ryogoids departed something happen in
space. The space telescope named Hubble 3 orbitted on the fringes of the
solar system. Due to the timelag factor it carried an onboard sentience
rather than being remotely linked to the network that covered the inner
planets of the solar system.
Hubble 3 noted astronomical anomalies that did not match existing data.
Automatically it activated its higher level consciousness, the machine
intelligence aboard often shut itself down to avoid boredom. Like the other
MI's it was based on Ryoga Hibiki's human personality.
The MI reviewed the data and ran a systems diagnostic. When no errors
were found it remotely linked to a nonsentient telescope in Neptune's orbit.
The anomoly was confirmed, the words "OH SHIT!" seemed somehow appropriate.
Hubble 3 sent a priority message to Earth and continued watching the stars
blinking out.
*****************************************************************************
7:30 am Tuesday - Mount Minakaumi - Guyver Ryoga Timeline
901 and 115 appeared on the mountain's slope apart from the rest of their
squad. The remaining twelve had parted from them while still in the Delta
timeline. Destroying Kronos's main base was their mission, the rest of the
squad had another target. In the previous timeline this was just an extinct
volcano. Here a huge complex had been excavated over the mountain's hidden
treasure, a crashed alien spaceship.
541's upload gave the the location of the hidden entrances. Overriding
the Kronos systems to gain access was simple, they had the key to deactivating
the viruses at will. Additionally neither was especially as concerned
regarding detection. Time was short.
Even given the powerboosts the armour gave them two androids against
Kronos's strongest forces was suicide. Except that their job wasn't wiping
out the complex, they just had to plant their packages and get out.
901 headed to the east side of the complex's lowest level, 115 to the
west. Both were firing IFD's continually, the Zoanoids were everywhere.
This would have been completely impossible if the base still had internal
communication. But that was out along with plenty of other systems. The
first strikeforce to crossover (Los Angeles, California) had activated the
dormant viruses 541 had placed in Kronos's network. Almost instantly there
was worldwide chaos at Kronos bases. Records were destroyed, software links
to communications satellites collapsed. Kronos was strangling as its high
tech (high tech from a contemporary viewpoint) collapsed around it.
Both androids moved at superhuman speed, time was very short. 901 found
the designated site, this would have been a lot harder if he didn't already
have the floorplan. Pausing only to throw a plasma sphere at a Guyver
replica Zoanoid he set down the bomb and armed it. Two minutes to get clear.
115 reported mission accomplished and both headed for the nearest exit.
They made it with thirty seconds to spare. Behind them door systems
resealed and the viruses scrambling the electronic locks reactivated. In
the lowest corners of the base timers counted down to zero.
In the heart of the mountain the central computer section was located.
Dr. Balkis glared at the technicians trying frantically to unscramble the
systems. How the fools had let viruses this powerful get into the system was
unimaginable. For that matter how could this virus even exist? Comparing it
to the known computer viruses was like comparing terminal cancer to a mild
cold. This had to be the cover some form of attack but who was leading it?
Who had the technical knowledge to create it and how could they have stayed
unknown to Kronos security? If this was a prelude to attack when would the
real attack begin?
Balkis felt the air temperature rising and got his answer. He had a
moment to wonder if environmental systems were collapsing and then it was
over. Both tactical nuclear warheads had detonated simultaneously. As atomic
weapons go both were small, smaller than the primitive device that leveled
Hiroshima. But this was an enclosed space. Channeled by the mountains walls
two waves of superheated air burned through the complex. In the lower levels
Zoanoids were incinerated before they knew what had hit them. As the burning
wind poured into the higher levels it weakened. There victims had a moment to
feel their lungs sear before death claimed them. At the uppermost section
under the summit there was a slight chance of survival. The air mass had
cooled and the tougher Zoanoids were able to withstand intense burns. Anyone
in human form was doomed to lethal heatshock. The few survivors had a few
moments to gasp in the smoke filled air before the shockwave arrived. The
structures so painstakingly built by Kronos fractured and collapsed.
Hearing the roar and seeing smoke billow out any observers would have
assumed the volcano was active again. The nearest people were the three
thousand in Takeshiro village. They didn't notice the eruption, they were
too busy being massacred.
541's investigation had revealed that the village was entirely populated
by Zoanoids. A few hundred were Kronos members, the rest of the population
had been removed and processed bit by bit. Memory blocks prevented them for
remembering Zoanoid conversion. Activation could be triggered telepathically
by a Zoalord or chemically through adding the appropriate drug to the water
supply. The Emperor had been decided that leaving such a large nest of
Zoanoids would be an error. Which was why twelve Ryogoids were stalking
through the town killing everything. The orders were clear, no survivors.
They were being carried out with inhuman precision.
By 7:55 am scans revealed no Zoanoids or large mammals alive within a
kilometer of the village. Unaware of their abilities most of the villagers
had been easy kills. 901 and 115 reported in, they had been climbing the
mountain with their forceshields set to maximum. From the summit they scanned
downward, seeking any survivors. Nothing had survived the explosions, the
complex was reduced to junk. Heat, radiation and the blastwave ensured that
nothing would be salvagable from the complex. A job well done, hopefully the
four at Tempus had been equally successful.
The carnage didn't bother the androids. Compared to the slaughter at the
Empire's creation this was a minor event.
Events at Tempus had unfolded a little differently. It had been nearly
7:30 am as Ryoga and company approached Tempus. Akane pulled over just short
of the company parking lot. She'd been elected driver by the others. In
daylight Nabiki's eyepatch would draw traffic policemen's attention, Ryoga
couldn't drive and would have got lost anyway. After nearly writing off the
car while demonstrating his skill Ranma had admitted he had no idea how to
drive.
Anyway it was time. Ryoga took a deep breath and reached for the door.
Get out, summon the Guyver and hope there's nothing tougher than it inside the
building. "Here we go!"
"Don't screw up." That was from Ranma.
"Just like we planned it." Nabiki tried looking very confident.
"Ryoga ..." That was the first thing Akane had said to him in hours
(apart from "You bastard! I thought we were friends."). He looked at her
and staring straight ahead she added, "Good luck."
"Thanks Akane. Well here goes ... WHAT THE HELL!"
The exclamation was understandable, four armoured people had just
materialized in the parking lot. Despite the armour they could move. One
charged the lobby, blasted the elevator and jumped down the shaft. While
this was happening a second leapt upward smashing through a third story
window. The third didn't leap, somehow it flew upward crashing through into
the seventh floor. The fourth remained outside circling around the building.
Shapes appeared at the windows as passed. When they did it fired its oddly
shaped rifle. Very neat holes appeared silently and the shapes dropped out of
sight. Ranma squinted as he watched the speeding figure. His vision was
excellent but what he was seeing made no sense. "Ryoga, that guy looks like
you!"
"WHAT!" Ryoga studied the figure, Ranma was right. "I don't get it, the
other me wasn't that fast. This guy looks like he could take on the Guyver."
Inside Tempus all hell was breaking loose. Tempus's own Zoanoid force
had been decimated the previous night. Even so nothing short of the Guyver
should have capable of cutting through Zoanoids like that. Gyro had activated
his telepathic link to the Zoanoids, it didn't help him understand the
situation. Any Zoanoid who glimpsed the intruders died almost instantly. But
they lived long enough for him to see that Hibiki was simultaneously on
sublevel three, the third and seventh floors. He wasn't using the Guyver but
he didn't seem to need it. Whatever those weapons were thet were effective.
The toughest Zoanoids couldn't withstand them. As he listened Gyro could hear
brief screams as the intruder advanced. The Hyperzoanoids had been meeting
"Commander" Kuno on the fifth floor, prior to deployment to protect the
building. Now they were thundering up the stairs under Gyro's mental call.
Kuno was still on the fifth wondering why his troops had rushed off without a
word. Hearing various explosions, weird howlings and screaming Kuno shouted
"GUYVER!" and activated the alien battlesuit. Best thing to do would be
follow his fleeing troops and rally them.
On the seventh floor Commander Gyro began his own transformation. His
human form shifted effortless into battlemode. He was no mere Zoanoid he was
a Zoalord. The ultimate fusion of human and alien biotechnology. His mind
reached out as he linked to every Zoanoid in the building. Rather than merely
controlling their minds it was more as if he had dozens of bodies, all of
which could act simultaneously. Coordinated attack on the intruders began.
His own form crackled with power, he was ready for anything. Let the Hibikis
come, he would learn their secrets before they die. He was power incarnate,
the closest thing this world had to a god.
None of which did him a lot of good when his molecules began drifting
apart under 207's concentrated fire. The Ryogoid had detected something
incredibly powerful and smashed through the office door firing on widebeam.
The pulp SF writers of an earlier era would have called it a disintegrator
raygun. To 207 Intrinsic Field Disrupters were generally a ridiculous
weapon, bulky and with an incredibly unnecessary overkill capability. Still
they did have their uses. 207 ceased fire as Gyro became a cloud of random
molecules. Whatever that had been its power exceeded all known Zoanoid types,
best to make a log entry.
It was at that point that the Hyperzoanoids arrived. Detecting a laser
energy generator approaching 207 sealed his forceshield. Just in time as the
doorway exploded behind him. Again he was faced with an unknown Zoanoid type.
These possessed a black exoskeleton of insectlike appearance with a huge set
of horns emerging from the sides of the heads. The laser energy emitted from
a crystallike outgrowth in the center of the forehead. Around 207 the office
walls and the outer wall were blasted away. The Zx-Tole variety Hyperzoanoids
had felt Gyro's telepathic deathscream. Knowing he wasn't in the line of fire
they had spread throughout the seventh floor, demolishing any walls in their
way. All of them opened fire on the office Gyro had died in.
207 realized he had a problem. If he opened a "window" in his shield to
return fire laser energy would pour through. It was intense enough to damage
him, possibly even destroy him. However if he just stood here there was no
guarantee they'd run out of power before his forceshield collapsed. In either
case the IFD would melt down pretty quickly, it was relatively fragile and
he'd need it later. Decisions, decisions.
When in doubt attack, a policy the Emperor always lived by. He returned
the gun to it's holster on his back and generated a plasma sphere. Movement
required reducing shield intensity however the battlearmour should compensate.
He'd backtracked the laser's to his targets. Time to move.
The android spun to the left and leapt forty meters. Tempus had been
built wide rather than tall to accomodate the bulkier alien artifacts. Which
meant 207 had a lot of ground to cover. On landing he rolled to within four
meters of his target, electomagnetic containment fields had dragged his
fireball with him. The Zoanoid had excellent reflexes and spun to wash
laserfire over 207 as he opened his shield. 207 fired his plasma sphere and
watched the Zoanoid's head exploded. Systems check, minimal damage, power
armour absorbed most of the energy (armour capability down 4%), shield
reestablished. One down, six to go.
The first attack set the pattern. In sixty seconds five more Zoanoids
fell. Unfortunately 207 had a problem. His armour had burned out from
multiple laserfire impacts. While his internal weapons were fully functional
he couldn't fire them through the dead armour without risking backlash. It
was also hampering his movement. Under normal circumstances he'd ditch the
armour. That wasn't allowed here, if he dropped anything and it got out of
range of his quantum lock field it'd snap back to the homeworld. Introducing
foriegn objects to that particular past was forbidden. So what to do?
The remaining Zoanoid wasn't maintaining constant fire, it must be
conserving power. 207 looked a real mess, most of the artifical skin had
melted from his face exposing the ceramic/polysteel skull underneath. So the
Zoanoid could see its opponent was some sort of machine.
Garven, the last surviving Zx-tole saw the Terminator lookalike slump
against a wrecked office wall. It rasped, "System failure, unable to ...
cannot compute ... error, errrrrrroooooo ...." It fell to the smoking floor,
completely inert. He approached cautiously, there was no sign of life. All
right, he was running low on juice. So he'd get in close, examine the thing,
then pump a few las-bolts into it before getting the hell out. He knelt
down to study the still figure. His senses stil didn't detect any trace of
organic matter. A real robot, impossible. Since Kronos only used biotech
this couldn't be some sort experimental project. But who built it?
He caught a flash of movement and felt armoured fingers dig into his
throat. 207 couldn't smile having lost his face. Intead he remarked in
conversational tones, "You don't know shit about artificial intelligence do
you? Hell I could have sung "Daisy" and you'd probably have bought it."
Garven channeled his remaining power into his gem. The android's arm twisted
and Garven's neck broke. His emitter stopped glowing and went dark. "That's
for melting my favorite badge. Not that I wouldn't have killed you anyway."
207 stood up and he scanned for lifesigns. Nothing on this floor or the
sixth. Doubtless the folks below heard the fight and ran downstairs. Where
his comrades would have been waiting for them. Everything was under control.
"Halt spawn of evil!"
What the hell? Still detecting nothing 207 saw the Black Guyver emerge
from the wrecked stairwell. Evidently Guyver armour was capable of blocking
scans. "Whatever pit the sorceror Saotome summoned you from is insufficent
to match the power of ... " Kuno's declamation broke off as, with a single
smooth motion, 207 unslung the IFD and fired. Kuno looked down at the large
hole in his chest then fell over. 207 stepped over the body and headed for
the stairs. Time was short, he still had a few things to do.
He linked to his comrades, "Seventh floor cleansed, sixth floor empty."
218 acknowledged. "All sublevels cleared."
From outside 673 added, "All Zoanoids attempting to flee have been
terminated. Ground and second floor lifeless."
541 reported, "Third and fifth floor have been wiped. Currently on four
waiting to finish up."
207 acknowledged, "On my way." As he headed down he added, "Say did you
know there is a way to make Tatewaki Kuno shut up?"
"Really? How?"
"Dissolve his lungs. Say whatever happened to him in our timeline?"
541 shrugged mentally, "Nothing recorded. I'd guess he bought it when the
Emperor torched Nerima."
"True, whole place became one mass grave. Pity, but it had to be done."
"Absolutely, the Emperor couldn't submit to blackmail." One of the
Emperor's memories surfaced, of a video link showing a hardfaced government
agent holding a gun to Akane's head and demanding he disconnect himself
immediately. The Emperor's response was to turn an orbital laser onto the
transmission's source. No one ever tried blackmailing him again.
In his fourth floor lab Dr. Maxwell continued babbling, trying to make
some kind of deal with Hibiki. The figure watched him impassively, twitching
his gun occasionally when Maxwell slowed down. Maxwell didn't understand any
of this. He'd heard screaming outside then Hibiki kicked in the door. He
wasn't using the Guyver, he didn't need to. A combination of energy spheres,
lethal bandannas and that unbelievable weapon had emptied the lab. When
Maxwell was the only survivor he had been asked to give any details on the
artifact not committed to the computer. Wishing to live longer he had, but
he was running out of facts and somehow Hibiki knew when he started inventing
stuff.
The door opened and the robot walked in, it was impossible to mistake its
nature. Its gaze flicked over Maxwell and went to the Displacer. "So that's
the cause of this whole mess?"
"That's it.", 541 replied. "Ugly looking thing to die for isn't it?"
"Wwww ...WAIT!" Maxwell had caught the words "die for." "You want to
fight Kronos, I'll help. Whoever ... whatever you are I know where we ...
they are based. I can ..." He cut off as the robot raised a hand
"Sorry Doctor but it's far too late. What happened here is happening at
every Kronos base worldwide. Before sunset Kronos will have ceased to exist.
First the major bases then the secondary centers. It's over."
Maxwell gasped, that just couldn't be. But Hibiki and this thing had
technology he couldn't understand. Was it possible? "But ... but we're
Kronos", he stuttered. "We're the one and only secret society, tha cabal that
dominates the world from the shadows. We've been around for centuries! We
can't get wiped out in one day! It ... it's not fair!"
541 nodded, "You're right it isn't fair." He took aim at the shaking
scientist. "I suggest you apply to the universe for a refund." The weapon
hummed briefly. "Shall we get on with it?"
207 nodded and aimed at the alien machine. Both androids fired their
IFDs on widebeam bathing the artifact. For a few seconds it seemed to resist
them. Then the intrisic field binding its molecular structure collapsed and
it faded away. "OK, the job's done. Five minutes until crossover, let's go."
Both androids went through the window. 541 absorbed the impact better
than 207, his armour was still functional. 218 had already joined 673
outside, one last task and they were out of here.
During this time Ryoga and company had been watching in confusion.
Whoever these guys were they seemed to be doing one hell of a job on Tempus.
Most of the seventh floor was open to the sky after energy beams had come
ripping out of it. Zoanoids attempting to run away had been blasted by the
Ryoga lookalike. Those were well on the way to dissolution. Now the
lookalike had been joined by two others and someone, something with a steel
face. A face that Ryoga recognised from that weird incident a few nights
earlier. All four were training those weird weapons on the ground floor.
On the seventh floor the Guyver unit continued in regenerating tissue
to repair the damage to its symbiote. It was not intelligent and so could not
have comprehended that it was about to have to start from scratch.
The four Ryogoids open fire on the building's support columns. These
disintegrated under the fire. Momentarily the building hung unsupported.
Then it crashed downward, shattering under its own weight. Mission
accomplished with five minutes to spare. They walked away from the building's
remains toward crossover point.
Ryoga (followed by his friends) moved to intercept them. "Hey, wait a
minute!"
207 connected to his collegues, "Remember we're programmed not to act
against him and if he summons the Guyver he has the power to toast us. So
everybody act nice and get ready to warp out on my signal." To Ryoga he
asked, "Yes?"
"I ... well I ...uh saw something like you a few days ago ..."
"The late 303", 207 thought.
"And when I was on that other world the other me mentioned robots that
looked like us so ..."
"Yes, the four of us are Ryogoids."
"Ahh. Uh so why are you attacking Tempus?" Ryoga considered the scene.
"I should say why did you destroy Tempus?"
"Well it wasn't just Tempus, we're destroying every Kronos site in your
world. You should listen to the news, I imagine it's the story."
Ryoga just stared at 207. So it was left to Nabiki to ask, "Why are you
doing this? According to the ... other Ryoga you're the bad guys?"
"Well Nabiki (whatever happened to our Nabiki Tendo?) this is purely self
interest. Kronos might have messed up our history. As you both learned they
were experimenting with dimensional travel. Which incidentially is why you've
been crossing worlds recently. So we decided to take them out."
"That's it? You just did it for yourselves? You didn't care about all
the people they've murdered?" Ryoga studied his lookalikes with loathing.
"Not in the slightest. Self interest is the key to success. At least
it was for Emperor Hibiki." Almost 8:00 am, next squad was due. "Time to warp
, bye." The four androids vanished, no lightshow, no weird noises, just
gone.
"But, but, but ..." Ryoga waved a hand through the space the androids
had occupied.
Nabiki put a hand on his shoulder. "Forget it Ryoga. If they've really
got rid of Kronos who cares about their motives. Now let's get out of here
before the police show up." She considered, "We'd better leave the car, last
thing we need is a grand theft auto charge." In the distance the wail of
emergency sirens could be heard. The collapse of a building was hardly going
to go unnoticed.
They headed off. "First thing to do is find a TV. Then we find out if
Kronos is really under attack."
*****************************************************************************
8:00 am Tuesday - Takahashi Industrial Park - Ryoga 1/2 Timeline
When the "actors" didn't reappear and the camera crew didn't emerge after
ten minutes the crowd began breaking up. In fact Ryoga was thinking of
forgetting about it and leaving. Ukyou was still insisting that since they'd
arranged for a day off school everyone could help her fix up her restaurant.
"After all", she concluded, "it is sort of your fault."
"That guy wasn't me so ... oh no!" Ryoga's voice shook as the four
figures reappeared. Three of them still looked like him but the fourth ...
Ryoga had seen a face like that once before, he was never going to forget it.
"Ryogoids!"
"That's right cousin", 207 said cheerfully. "Just passing through on
our way back to our own time."
"Uh ... sure." He'd help wreck one of them, did machines bear grudges?
Were they still unable to act against him (or any other Ryoga Hibiki)?
"Well we'd love to stick around and chat but we have to get to our
timescoop point. We had to take an indirect route to avoid materializing
inside a crowd. Occupying the same space as humans gets messy."
That made for an unpleasant mental picture. "Don't let me keep you."
"Oh by the way your recent visitors will be sticking to their own world.
However we can return to this world anytime we want." The other three
androids gave menacing smiles. They couldn't act against this guy despite
the trouble he'd help cause. The best they could do was give him a new
anxiety. "Be seeing you."
The androids marched off. Ryoga made no attempt to follow. Just great,
that was about the last thing he wanted to hear. Behind him Nabiki said,
"Loveable guys."
"A million laughs." He sighed, "What did I do to deserve this?"
Nabiki snuggled up to him, "You got lucky."
Good point. The hell with the androids.
******************************************************************************
1:20 am July 2nd 2120 AD - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Imperial Timeline
207 and his collegues reappeared in the timescoop chamber. They had
spent thirty minutes at the Delta line scooppoint waiting for the ride home.
Now they were back, returning in triumph as the team to have destroyed the
central point in this operation. Time to celebrate.
Strangely the crowd of Ryogoids in the assembly hall seemed very subdued.
Why? Could their missions have miscarried?
The answer they received mystified them. "Look at the sky."
So they did. Android eyes studied it with inhuman precision. After a
few moments 207 remarked, "There must be something wrong with my eyes. It's
cloudless but I can't see the stars."
"Your eyes are fine. The stars are gone." Unit 512 looked depressed.
"WHAT!"
"They blinked out after the last squad departed. Forget linking to the
network, the Emperor's monopolizing it until he's figures this out."
"This is impossible ... unless there's some sort of time paradox."
512 nodded. "The current favorite theory is those rebels did alter
history. Our present ceased to exist, except somehow we kept existing as we
were crucial to altering Timeline Gamma's history. With that done our world,
our universe began to collapse."
"But if that's the case ..."
"Why are we still here?"
"Yes."
"No one knows. This solar system seems stable even if the rest of the
universe has vanished." With a little embarrasment he said, "A human thinker
has postulated that in opening dimensional holes we're somehow tapping energy
from other universes or from the connections between them. But it's
insufficent to maintain a whole "dead" universe, though it can maintain a
single solarsystem."
"That's nonsense ... isn't it?"
"No one knows, how often does the universe end on you?"
"Once." 207 considered, "This bites. But we still exist and we have
time travel. If the Emperor removes the lockout we can travel back to our own
past and set things right. The Empire isn't dead yet."
207 headed for the repair bay. He'd get himself fixed and volunteer for
the mission. It was far from over.
*****************************************************************************
Noon Tuesday - Tendo Dojo - Guyver Ryoga Timeline
Ranma and Ryoga entered the Dojo cautiously. While they'd heard plenty
of newsreports indicating Kronos was being wiped out that didn't mean there
couldn't be a Zoanoid or two waiting here. After all Kronos had hours to
replace the ones Nabiki and P-chan surprised.
There was definitely someone in here, they could here footsteps. This
is it Ryoga thought. "GUYV ... Mr. Tendo?"
"Father?" Akane had followed them.
"Good morning Akane." He seemed cheerful, it had been weeks since they'd
seen him like this. "Does anyone know why the house is such a mess?"
"Daddy?" Nabiki edged in the door. "Akane told us you wandered off."
"Did I? I suppose I might have, it's hard to remember. Things seem
vague lately. Anything important going on?"
"Oh, yes. It looks like Kronos might actually be gone."
Soun looked politely puzzled, "Who?"
Akane looked a bit scared, "Daddy, what's wrong with you?"
"I'm afraid that's my doing." The voice was recognisable but its owner
had left Nerima permanently. However the shrivelled figure in the green dress
was unmistakeable.
"COLOGNE!"
"Hello again youngsters."
Ranma was the first to address her. "You told us you were never coming
back."
"I changed my mind."
Akane realized something. "You did something to my father."
"Yes. He was tormented by the past so I removed it."
"What?"
"Xi Fa Xiang Gao Shiatsu. Who did you think taught Shampoo the
technique?"
Ranma remembered it, Shampoo had used it on Akane to remove her memories
of him. "You wiped his memories?"
"Obviously. No need to thank me."
"THANK YOU!" Akane couldn't believe this. "You mess with my father's
mind and ..." She trailed off as she studied Soun. "Well I suppose he's in
better shape now than he's been in weeks but ..." Feeling very confused
Akane went silent. Nabiki took over.
"What gives you right to mess with people's minds?"
"Having the power to do so."
"So why are you back ghoul?"
"Watch it Ranma, since you aren't a potential son-in-law anymore I don't
have to be nice to you."
Akane moved closer to Ranma, "If you're thinking of sending Shampoo after
him again ..."
"You can relax child my granddaughter will not be returning."
"Something happened to her?" Ranma sounded worried, Akane glared at him.
"She will not be returning as she no longer remembers any of you." She
nodded at Soun, "He's not the only one to lose bad memories."
"WHAT!"
Cologne sighed. "As you recall we left here to avoid being caught in
your troubles. Shampoo didn't want to go but when in her cat form she was
easy to transport. When we returned to our village I hoped she'd have calmed
down. She hadn't, she was determined to return here to die with Ranma. Also
she took Mousse's death a lot harder than I had anticipated. She was
uncontrollable, I faced losing my great-granddaughter to a futile death. It
was not an easy decision, however there was no choice. She no longer
remembers leaving the village and believes her amnesia was caused by an
accident during training. I also told her that Mousse died several years ago.
No one in the village will tell her the truth, I made it quite clear that
anyone who did would answer to me. Shortly afterwards she became involved
with Stylinggel, another of her childhood suitors. Not the husband I would
have chosen for her but I guess he'll have to do."
There was a brief silence. It was broken by Ryoga asking, "That still
doesn't explain why you're back here. You told us you were never coming
back."
Cologne nodded, "So I did. However it occurred to me that I had acted
too hastily. It would be a wiser policy to observe Kronos and learn all I
could about them. With their attention focussed on you I was able to observe
them."
Nabiki was the first one to get it. "Excuse me, you've been watching
us for weeks? During which time you never felt any urge to help us."
"Correct. My main concern was and is the village. We have no blood
ties and are unlikely to ever have any. Exposing myself would merely have
endangered my own life. Matters would have proceeded the same way if I wasn't
present."
"But you were present."
"Yes, but you didn't know that. In any event I did help your father. I
found him wandering the town in a delerious state. I brought him here and
removed the source of his madness."
Nabiki glared at the crone. "Was this before or after you heard Kronos
was finished."
"I must admit it was after reports of Kronos's collapse were being
broadcast."
"How very considerate."
"Remember I had no obligation to help him. If you would prefer him
returned to his former state ...."
Nabiki sighed, "I guess not, but this seems wrong somehow."
"Grief affects people differently. Most bend beneath its weight but spring
back. Others simply break. In any event shall we watch the television?"
Without waiting for an answer Cologne's staff brushed the on button.
A newscast came on reporting that rescue efforts at the first Kronos
building to collapse were in their eighth hour and still hadn't found anyone.
The newscaster solemly remarked, "It was just over five weeks today that the
Tokyo offices of Kronos Incorporated collapsed. Despite weeks of excavation
and reports of the building being full not a single body was found. While it
is still too early to speculate people have begun to wonder if this strange
pattern is to be repeated worldwide. In other news reports of an eruption at
Mount Minakaumi evidently drove the residents of nearby Takeshiro village to
spontaneously evacuate. Currently the whereabouts of these refugees are
unknown. Authorities are asking for public cooperation in locating them so that
an emergency shelter can be set up."
"Returning to our top story, 'The Kronos Collapse', locally the Kronos
subsidiary Tempus Research and Development ..."
The TV continued babbling away though no one paid it much attention. No
one was sure whether they should celebrate or mourn for the victims of the
secret war. Cologne looked at them, "It appears to be all over. Now what?"
That was the question. What now indeed?
The rest of the day passed in a blur. They spent most of the time sitting
in front of the TV, listening to experts who had no idea what had actually
happened, reports of new Kronos collapses, stock market chaos as Kronos shares
dropped to zero, and the continued failure of rescuers to find any bodies among
the rubble.
Toward evening Nabiki got up to stretch. She'd dozed off for a few
minutes. Ranma was slumped against a wall, his arm around Akane. Both of them
were asleep, hardly surprising as none of them got much sleep last night.
Ryoga and Cologne were gone though the door to the patio remained open. She
wandered over quietly hearing voices. Ryoga was finishing his explanation of
recent events.
Cologne was saying, "Why do you look so down? You are probably the most
fortunate of everyone involved with these troubles. You possess an invincible
weapon with remarkable powers to heal you. Your own family is safe, though
dispersed randomly over the face of the planet. Still that's normal for them.
In any event your enemy has fallen and you can resume your old life."
"Can I? Can any of us?" Ryoga waved a hand at the house behind them.
"They've lost so much and it all stems from me. So many dead on my account.
For that matter am I still human? Am I Ryoga Hibiki or a copy created by the
Guyver?"
"If you are a copy then you are a perfect copy. So that question must
remain unanswered. There is no way to tell. Besides I suspect there is more
to this you are not telling me.
Ryoga glared, "All right this is what's bothering me. A few months back I
got sucked into a war I didn't know existed. Everything went crazy and people
died for no reason. Now just like that it's over."
"You feel the glory of ending it should have been yours?"
"NO! ... OK maybe I feel a little like that." He paused to order his
thoughts. "Suddenly there's a war, just as suddenly it's all over. That seems
... wrong."
Cologne chuckled without real humour. "You've matured quite a bit
recently but you are still very young. Do you really think it's different in
the other wars men have fought in?" Cologne's mind drifted back over the years,
the many struggles she'd witnessed. "Leaders declare war for matters of their
own interest. The soldiers fight for patriotism, glory, honor or homeland.
They know nothing of their leaders real intentions. One day a decisive battle
is fought somewhere. Peace is declared and a treaty is signed. The remaining
soldiers go home, most of them were nowhere near the final conflict. There
was war, now there is peace and life must return to its former course."
"That ... that's so cynical."
"Study human history and tell me how to live 300 years without becoming
cynical. But there's something else."
"Yes. I've told you about the robots."
Cologne nodded, "I remember, go on."
"They had the power to stop Kronos anytime but they didn't. They didn't
intervene until it affected them. Before that they just ignored what was
happening."
"You would prefer outsiders continually meddling in our world?"
"No, no of course not. It's just that ... well they were sort of me. How
could I act like that?"
Cologne studied him. At length she said, "You share a name with the Ryoga
of their world. Don't assume you share anything else. A man is shaped by his
experiences and how he reacts to them. You can become a monster if you choose
or you can be a man. It's your decision."
"Yeah. Anyway I guess I should be going. Sticking around will keep a lot
of bad memories alive."
"Wait a second!" Cologne surpressed a smile as Nabiki stopped listening
and joined them. He didn't have a clue she was there, she thought.
Aloud Cologne said, "Well I should get inside. Even these mild nights can
be hard on old bones." Mounting her staff she hopped inside and closed the
door.
As soon as she was gone Nabiki said, "You're leaving me! Us, I meant us!"
"Well yeah", Ryoga felt verry ill at ease. "Kronos is gone and I've
brought too much evil on this house. Besides Akane's not going to want me
under the same roof as her."
"Akane will get over it! We've been over this before, Kronos holds the
responsibility for everything that happened."
"No, part of the guilt is mine. If I hadn't come here ..."
"They'd probably have transformed us into Zoanoids in case you ever came
here. There was nothing they wouldn't have done to regain the Guyver."
"Maybe but ... "
"You're planning to leave us unprotected?"
"What!" Ryoga looked at her. "Nabiki, it's over!"
"It it? How many Zoanoids were outside Tempus or this mysterious mainbase
when they were destroyed?"
"How should I know?"
"Could be dozens. What if they come looking for revenge? And then there's
Ranma."
"What about Ranma?"
"Kuno's still out there with his Guyver unit. He's sworn to kill Ranma,
remember? Who can hold him off besides you?"
Ryoga thought this over. "That's sort of true, but it's mainly
rationalization." "Still", he considered, "I don't really want to go and she
doesn't want me to go so ..." Out loud he said, "Well, its not like I have
anywhere to rush off to. It can't hurt to stay a bit longer. Provided no one
objects."
"Don't worry about that." Then, somewhat hesitantly she asked, "Ryoga.
Do you think I'm ugly now?"
She'd turned her face so the scarred side was before him. He tried to
think of something to say, nothing came to mind. Following an impulse he gently
turned her head to face him. He studied the woman before him for a long moment
and then kissed her.
From a window Cologne watched. Interesting. Clearly this union had begun
in the fires of battle. Now that there was peace would it endure? Only time
would tell. On a personal level what should she do now? She could return to
the village now that Kronos had vanished as a threat. Still it got dull around
there sometimes. Perhaps she'd stick around for a while, see what happened.
That other Guyver could make things interesting.
Coincidentally across town at the rubble pile that had been Tempus Inc.:
"Ok it's secured, haul away."
The crane operator nodded and began lifting the wall section. The
emergency service workers watched with a certain apathy. None of them really
expected to find anything. They'd been at this for hours and it looked like the
building had been empty when it collapsed. Indeed from the newsreports it was
the same at every Kronos site around the world. A couple of the workers were
talking.
"Say Kousuke we seem to have lost our audience."
The crowd of spectators who'd been watching had broken up and drifted away.
Excavating an empty building wasn't too exciting.
Kousuke nodded. "Yeah, you know this reminds me of when we were digging
out Kronos Tokyo. The only people who watched us were folks passing by. No
tearful relatives looking for loved ones inside. Almost as if the people
inside didn't exist."
"They didn't. We never found a single body." No one knew that the
Zoanoids had been present, they'd just disintegrated after death. The only
human casualty when Tokyo branch came down was Happosai. The explosion didn't
leave any fragments big enough to be identifiable.
"Hey did you hear that?"
Suddenly a beam of energy ripped out of the rubble, disintegrating all
the concrete before it. Something black and armoured levitated out of the hole
and settled on top of the rubble. Running on automatic mode the Guyver scanned
for threats. None detected, all the workers had frozen at the sight of it.
The control medallion defaulted into standby mode, return to homebase and
deactivate. Host's memory supplied the necessary coordinates. The Guyver
turned, reduced its weight by gravity manipulation and leapt in the approriate
direction.
Watching it sail off the Supervisor asked the worker next to him, "Yoshi
did you see that?"
"No."
The supervisor considered reporting a black spiky alien had climbed out of
the ruins and flown off. "Neither did I. All right everyone get back to work!"
Arriving at the Kuno Mansion (after crashing through the roof) the Guyver
deactivated. The fully restored Tatewaki Kuno looked around blankly. He was
unaware he'd just been rebuilt after being both partially disintergrated and
squashed by the building's collapse.
His senses returned (more or less) and he bellowed, "You defeated me this
time Saotome but this is far from over. I shall not rest until I have freed my
loves and destroyed you utterly!"
There may be a moral here somewhere. Though apart from don't give idiots
superweapons it's hard to say what that might be.
In the shadows Kodachi considered this new development. It appeared her
brother had gained control of the demon that had attempted to consume him
yesterday. Amazing, she wouldn't have thought he had that much willpower.
Regardless it sounded like he was going to become a threat to her darling Ranma.
Now what to do about him?
*******************************************************************************
Tuesday Evening - Tendo Dojo - Ryoga 1/2 Timeline
It was a pleasant night and Nabiki and Ryoga were sitting together on the
porch. From inside Akane could be heard saying, "Ranma you jerk!" This was
followed by a crash and Shampoo saying, "Tomboy stop picking on Shampoo's
husband." More crashes and yelling followed.
"Sounds like everything's back to normal."
Ryoga nodded, he looked a little distracted. "So what's wrong", Nabiki
asked.
"Just thinking about something?"
"Those robots?'
"No, not much we can do about those. We'll just have to live with the
possibility they'll come back."
"What is it then?"
"That other me you met might be OK but there's another one I've been
thinking about. You remember my trip to another universe?"
"Yes, hey if that was true after all that means you did get to see yourself
die. That's awful!"
"Yeah. All part of life I suppose. Still makes me feel cold remembering
it." He shivered slightly. "But the one I was thinking about was the guy we
called Ryoga 5."
"The one who lost an arm?" Ryoga nodded. "He was engaged to Ukyou?"
"Kodachi, Ryoga 4 was engaged to Ukyou."
Nabiki studied him, "Let me guess Mr. Ryoga 2, you're wondering how your
counterpart fared after arrival back home."
"You've got it, he was in pretty bad shape." Ryoga sighed. "I guess
I'll never know."
Nabiki put an arm over his shoulders. "Callous as it sounds you'll never
know so stop worrying about it. There's too much to worry about in our own
world without adding another one. So forget it and pay me a bit of attention."
"You're right." He stopped staring off into space and turned his
attention to his lover. "What would I do without you?"
"All sorts of silly things."
"You know you looked pretty good with an eyepatch."
"Idiot." She said it with affection. Perhaps she should ttry to shock
him tonight by wearing but an eyepatch. Yo ho.
Inside the commotion continued as life went on.
End.
Epilogue - Whatever happened to Ryoga 5?
Another dimension, another world, a few hours earlier.
Akane headed down the hospital corridor toward Ryoga's room. He was out
of the intensive care unit and seemed stable. However he still hadn't emerged
from his coma. The police still didn't have any idea what had happened. They
weren't even sure if it was an assault or some sort of bizarre accident. All
Akane knew was that Saturday she'd been visiting Dr. Tofu. Suddenly through a
window she'd seen someone shamble towards the clinic. She'd open the door and
confronted a very pale Ryoga. His left arm ended in a charred stump just past
the elbow. He'd muttered "Help me" and collapsed in deep shock. Dr. Tofu had
managed to stabilise him until the ambulance arrived. What had caused the
injury was still unknown. It appeared something intensely hot had sliced his
arm off almost instantaneously.
She arrived at the room she'd been directed too. Kodachi was paying the
bills for a private room so Akane decided to walk straight in. Inside Ryoga
remained comatose in the bed, the EEG indicated no change. Kodachi was curled
up in a chair on the right side of the bed. She was holding Ryoga's remaining
hand. Kodachi looked up at Akane's arrival, it was obvious she'd been crying.
"What are you doing here?"
"Pleasant as ever", Akane thought. Aloud she said, "I was on my way home
from school and thought I'd see how Ryoga was doing." More softly she asked,
"No change?" Kodachi shook her head. "Would you like a tissue?"
Angrily Kodachi wiped her eyes. "I don't cry, that's for weaklings." The
tears trickling down her face made it obvious she was lying.
Akane wasn't sure what to say. Frankly she'd never been too happy about
Kodachi and Ryoga's relationship. It had all begun when Kodachi snuck over to
the Dojo to cripple Akane prior to their match. She'd fallen off the roof and
been saved by Ryoga. For her it had been love at first sight. Ryoga hadn't
been similarly affected, Akane suspected he'd had a crush on some other girl.
In any event from that time on Kodachi had been chasing Ryoga.
Then a few months ago things changed. It started with Kuno displaying a
variety of strange personality shifts. He gone through severe depression,
paranoia, schziophrenia, and generally acted weird. Shortly after that Ryoga
had suddenly become smitten with Kodachi and they'd become known as a couple.
A week or two after that Akane had run into Ryoga again. He'd been
extremely depressed but had told her what was going on. Fearing she'd lose
Ryoga to another girl Kodachi had begun experimenting with mind altering drugs.
She'd tested these concotions on her brother hence Kuno's recent weird
behaviour. Once she was sure she'd finally got it right she'd contrived to
get Ryoga to inhale it.
It had worked perfectly, Ryoga fell into chemically induced love with
Kodachi. She'd kept him in this state for about ten days. Then, fearing
biological damage, she'd discontinued the drug. Which brought Ryoga to here
and now. He had no idea what to do now. Akane had no idea what to tell him.
Ryoga had muttered something about how he'd thought the bath together would
have got Kodachi over her crush except she'd thought it was cute. He hadn't
explained further and Akane hadn't really wanted to ask. Ryoga had implied
he was obligated to stay with Kodachi, that if he broke up with her she'd
be "dishonoured". Akane got the distinct that things had gotten rather
intense during the past week. She felt Ryoga was struggling to tell her
something but couldn't bring himself to say it.
So on that unusual basis Ryoga and Kodachi's relationship had begun. At
first Ryoga had seemed more resigned to it than happy. Later he'd seemed to
be enjoying her company. Perhaps things were working out for them. For her
friend's sake Akane hoped so.
Things had got a little stranger after that. Tatewaki Kuno had suddenly
become obsessed with the idea of eliminating Ryoga and getting his sister to
marry Ranma. He felt if he did this Akane and Ranma-chan were his. If this
peculiar idea was a sideeffect of his sister's experiments on him was unclear.
What was clear was that after his own attempts to get rid of Ryoga failed
(since that pitted him against both Ryoga and Kodachi) he had hired
professionals.
Actually it's questionable the "Order of the Purple Striped Dragon"
Ninjas could be considered professional. They were fairly inept and Ryoga
managed to outrun or outfight them on a regular basis. Still perhaps they'd
got lucky and been behind Ryoga's injury. Akanne had told the police about
them. The detectives had looked at her as if she was nuts and told her that
ninjas did not exist outside of movies or TV. Morons!
Meanwhile two members of the nonexistant ninja group were entering the
hospital. Both were wearing regular clothes to avoid suspicion which made
one of the two very nervous.
"Yohko without our hoods we'll be easy to identify later. This is a
really bad idea."
"Shut up Morisato! We have a contract to fufill and our target is in
here. this is the best chance to strike we'll get. Now move it shorty!"
Keiichi sighed, this ninja warrior stuff had sounded pretty good back on
career day at highschool. He should have known that the only group without a
height requirement would have something wrong with it. "I should have gone to
technical college when I had the chance", he thought. So far all this job had
got him was beaten up by Hibiki on a regular basis. If that wasn't bad enough
the training from the clan leader (Yohko's grandmother) had nearly finished him.
They entered the elevator. As they were alone Keiichi asked Yohko,
"Yohko, just how many people have you killed?"
"Including the one we're about to do?"
"Yes."
"One."
"Wonderful", he thought. "She has no more idea if she can really do it
than I do."
To herself Yohko was thinking. "This is it, this is where I prove to the
old bat I can take over the clan. But do I still really want to?"
Meanwhile a doctor had entered Ryoga's room. "Miss Kodachi I thought I'd
find you here. Your brother is out of surgery and we've managed to remove the
bokken. He'll be unconscious for a while but should be awake before the end of
visiting hours."
"Thank you doctor."
"Whoever shoved it down his throat was remarkably skillful. They managed
to do it without rupturing anything or completely blocking his airway. While
very painful and uncomfortable it was probably a warning of some sort since
whoever did it could have finished him off with ease. The police will want to
talk to him. Hopefully he can identify the person who assaulted him."
The doctor left. Behind him Kodachi murmured, "He'd better not ID his
attacker. I warned him that next time he'd need a proctologist to get the
bokken out."
"You did it?"
Kodachi had forgotten Akane was present. Very coldly she said, "His
ninjas may have been responsible for what happened to Ryoga. If so he got
off very lightly. No on touches what's mine. NO ONE!"
"Have you considered therapy?"
"Not since my analyst ran away."
Outside the room Yohko unsheathed the Sai's that had been strapped to her
thighs and concealed by her skirt. "OK I'm goin in, cover me."
"Uh, right." Keiichi was fumbling around in his shirt for the bandolier
holding his throwing knives. The hell with him. Yohko kicked open the door
and charged in.
Akane gaped in surprise at the armed woman in the red dress. Suddenly,
as the intruder crossed the room's halfway point, she was entangled in a red
ribbon. Kodachi slid the window open, "This definitely completes your ensemble
dear. Now go play outside!" Kodachi snapped the ribbon towards her. With a
howl the entangled woman sailed out the window and plunged downward. Kodachi
slammed the window shut and snarled, "Like to try something?" at the young man
in the doorway.
"Ah no, not really. I've been planning to get out of this business."
"Fine but first I want you to get in touch with your boss. Now that my
brother can talk again he's going to cancel his contract with you. I am through
treating you people as a bad joke!"
"Yes Ma'm. Uh I'll go pry Yohko out of the carpark. If that's ok with
you?"
"Get out of here!"
"Yes Ma'm." As he headed downstairs Keiichi made up his mind. It was time
to get out of this loony business and go to college. Yeah, go to college and
study engineering. He'd always been good with machines. Maybe join an auto
club, you knew where you were with motorcycles. Life would definitely become a
lot more normal.
Behind him an EEG showed increased brain activity. Like most martial
artists Ryoga sensed threats on an almost instinctive level. His body tried to
rouse its consciousness to defend itself. A therapy no one had tried on him as
doctors don't like threatening their patients. Somewhat incoherently he
muttered, "Whashappenin" and tried to move.
Kodachi put her hands on his shoulders and held him down. "Don't try to
move, you could hurt yourself." To Akane she snapped, "Don't just stand there
get a Doctor, a nurse, or somebody!"
Ryoga's eyes focused on the woman above him. "Kodachi ... wasn't sure
you'd be here."
"Of course I'm here. Where else would I be?"
Very weakly Ryoga whispered "Had a real bad day ... it hurts."
"You'll be fine. Together we can deal with anything."
"Wasn't sure you'd want me ... broken toy."
"You're not a plaything you're the man I love. Why can't you understand
that!" Her eyes filling with tears she turned back to Akane and shouted, "WHY
ARE YOU STILL HERE? GET THE DAMN DOCTOR!"
Akane headed out. As she heard the door she heard Ryoga whisper, "Don't
cry, Rose."
Uncertain if this was a happy ending or a sad one Akane hurried up the
corridor. Behind her she heard Kodachi weeping as Ryoga tried to comfort her.
Looked like they were still a couple, but what would the future bring?
End.
Author's afterword: This was supposed to be a simple story fleshing out one
of the characters from "Ryoga : Crossover" but it ballooned
into this thing. Anyway that's it. So what did you think?
If you have a comment email me at "mlatus@willow.msvu.ca".
Loose ends: What's happening in the Imperial timeline will
be explained when I get around to writing the Crossover
sequel "Ryoga : Futureshock". Don't expect that anytime soon
though, I have a few other things to write first.
Ryoga 1/2 will return in "Ryoga 1/2 : Mother's Day" which
will deal with the chaos that results when Ranma's mother
arrives for a visit.
First though it's back to the Bubblegum Crisis Universe for
the sequel to "BGC : Tokyo Babylon" It's called "Bubblegum
Crash : Knights' End" and occurs just after the third Crash
OAV ends. Since it's going to get fairly involved I plan to
write the whole thing at once then post it. This is a
change from my current chapter by chapter method and is done
to prevent myself making glaring continuity errors. It's
tentatively scheduled for posting end of October. Here's
hoping.
Thanks to everyone who wrote in while I was writing "Worlds
in Collision". Your comments are always appreciated.
Mark Latus
Oct. 6 '95
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