Ryoga : Crossover
by Mark Latus
A Ranma 1/2 fanfic in nine parts
The Quick Guide to Ryoga Hibikis
Ryoga 1 - The only Ryoga who belongs on this world. The guy you've seen in the
anime.
Ryoga 2 - Engaged to the Nabiki of his world. Has the same curse as Ranma. AKA
Ryoga 1/2, Ryoga-chan.
Ryoga 3 - Married the Shampoo of his world shortly after meeting her. Normally
lives in China. Trained by Cologne.
Ryoga 4 - Engaged to the Ukyou of his world.
Ryoga 5 - Forcibly engaged to Kodachi of his world. Slightly paranoid.
Ryoga 6 - Briefly married to "Ranko Tendo" of his world. Bitter & self
destructive.
Ryoga 7 - ?
Part 7 : For Whom The Bell Tolls, or
A Farewell To Arms
Through the red haze of his pain the past few moments flickered through
Ryoga 5's mind. A kaleidoscope of images: Ryoga 7 saying time was up and
jumping through a window, the walls erupting inwards as bolts of energy ripped
through them, Ryoga 2 knocking the Tendos down and screaming for them to stay
low, then the world exploding in agony.
He'd seen Ranma and Ryoga 3 blast their own way through the walls to join
Ryoga 7. They'd been followed a moment later by the remaining Ryogas. Except
Ryoga 6, from his position on the floor he could see his counterpart sprawled
on his back. The hole in his chest was still smoking, his face frozen in a
final expression of pain and surprise.
The pain in his left arm was like nothing he'd felt before. Ryoga 5
steeled himself and looked down. His arm ended in a burned stump just below
the elbow. The charred remains of his hand lay a few feet away, filling the
air with the smell of burned meat. He doubled up and vomited.
He couldn't deal with this, he had to think of something, anything else.
Through the gaping hole in the wall he could see the garden. It was lit by
the strobing light of the intruders weapons. It was growing darker, few guns
were still firing. Over the shouts and screams he could hear one Ryoga
laughing. He crawled to a hole and looked out. It was Ryoga 7, laughing as
he killed. The garden was full of bodies and fallen weapons.
The few surviving enemy were directing their fire at Ryoga 7. He saw
Ryoga 7 throw a bandanna, it sliced the woman trying to shoot him from throat
to crotch. Ryoga 5 watched, feeling nothing. A team of two tried to bring a
heavy weapon of some sort to bear on 7. Without any sign of effort an energy
sphere formed in his hand and launched itself at them. They screamed briefly
as they burned. A man shouting obscenities got a clear shot at Ryoga 7 and
splashed laser energy over his face. Ryoga 7 ignored the burst and charged
his foe. The man had time to shout, "Fuck! You're one of them!" before Ryoga
7 reached him. He nodded and slammed a punch into the gunman. His opponent
slammed back into the garden wall and smeared.
Ryoga 7 stopped laughing and examined the garden. There had been twenty
rebels, he'd just killed fifteen. Ranma and Ryoga 2 stood together, each had
a dazed foe at their feet. There were three bodies at Ryoga 3's feet, two
living, one dead. All accounted for, excellent. Ryogas 1 and 4 stood staring
at him in shock. They hadn't had time to account for any enemy, but they had
seen him slaughter his opponents.
Ryoga 7 nodded at them and walked over to join Ryoga 3. He looked at the
dead man, his spine was twisted at an impossible angle. "Had to kill one hmm?"
Ryoga 7 asked him cheerfully.
"I... he gave me no choice", Ryoga 3 answered shakily.
"Your first kill? Well don't worry it gets easier. Or so they tell me,
personally I've never had any problems." Ryoga 7 looked down at the
unconscious gunmen. "Inaba and Moltov, small fry ... excuse me." He reached
down, there were two sharp cracks.
Ryoga 3 stared at him in horror, "You killed them!"
Ryoga 7 replied genially, "Breaking people's necks generally kills them."
He strolled over to where Ryoga 2 and Ranma stood over their prisoners. He
smiled at them, "Perrier and Sadu, nice work you two. I hoped I'd get a chance
to talk to the ringleaders." Sadu clutched the forearm Ryoga 2 broke to make
him drop his gun and looked defiant. Perrier groaned in semiconsciousness at
Ranma's feet.
Ryoga 2 stared at his counterpart in shock. "You just killed two people
in cold blood! In combat I could understand but ... what the hell kind of
Ryoga are you?"
"He's isn't any kind of Ryoga", Ryoga 5 announced as he staggered out
of the house. He was leaning on Genma for support, holding on with his
remaining arm. "He's not one of us, he never was!"
Ranma and the other Ryogas stared at him. "Your arm ...", Ranma began.
"Hurts like hell but I don't want to think about it. I'm running on
adrenaline and anger right now. Soon as those run out I collapse into shock
so listen up while I can still talk. Ryoga 6 is in there with a hole burned
clean through him. Nothing like staring into your own dead face to get you
thinking. A lot of pieces just clicked together."
He glared at Ryoga 7, "You went out of the window before anyone opened
fire. You knew they were out here. Those rayguns of theirs pack a real punch,
one shot killed Ryoga 6, another ... BURNED MY FUCKING ARM OFF!! You took a
blast in face and it didn't do much more than slow you down. Whatever you're
made of it's not flesh and blood. SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?", he shouted.
Ryoga 7 just smiled. From behind Ranma the stunned woman muttered,
"Ryogoid."
"What?", Ryoga 2 asked her.
Ryoga 7 answered, "Ryoga Hibiki Simulation Android. Colloquially referred
to as a Ryogoid." Everyone stared at him, "Unit 303, Model 17 to be more
specific. The model number refers to the age my bodyshell is designed to
appear."
While everyone was digesting this the Tendos emerged. "The phone's out
of order, we can't get police or an ambulance here.", Akane told them.
Ryoga 7 nodded, "Good, police would get in the way and I'd have to kill
them. I don't believe in unnecessary waste of human life." He looked at
Sadu and Perrier, "Of course I'm all for the necessary waste of human life."
Nabiki broke in, "I don't know what's going on but by now the neighbours
..."
"Will have closed their windows and decided to ignore it. Fighting,
screaming and weird energy bursts are commonplace around here. No one's
going to call for help."
Ryoga 3 decided to say something, "You said you're a robot, what kind of
idiots do you think we are?"
Ryoga 7 reached up and touched a concealed switch on his jaw. His face
swung away revealing the polysteel skull beneath. No one said anything. He
closed his face, the synthetic skin flowed over the join lines. In seconds
there was no sign his ... its skin had ever been broken.
In the silence that followed Ryoga 7 addressed its adversaries. "Well
folks, you lose. History stays the same, any last words?"
Perrier spat at it, "This isn't over, we may be finished but there'll
be others to defy you. People will never surrender to the network."
Ryoga 7 chuckled, "You don't know much about genetic engineering do you?
No one gets born outside the birthcentres anymore and we're continually ...
ahhh, improving the race. Inside of three decades none of the humans being
born will be capable of understanding the concept of resistance. Face facts,
everyone is going to learn to love Big Brother."
Sadu snarled at it, "You shouldn't be so quick to dismiss us. We killed
one Ryoga, maybe we got the right one."
Ryoga 7 laughed again, "You don't understand yet my dear Sadu. None of
these people is the right Ryoga. You may have found out about the time machine
but none of you rebels ever found out about the Quantum Shifters. While this
the past it's not our past. Any changes made here affect the future of this
world not ours. The Empire remains unaffected by your foolhardy defiance."
Ryoga 2 found his voice, "What ... what the hell are you two talking
about?"
Ryoga 7 looked to see he had everyone's attention. "I was planning to
explain this anyway. Current policy is to gloat before killing resistance
leaders. As you may have guessed being a machine doesn't mean you can't
have emotions. Particularly when a human mind is used as the template for
your creation. So listen up, here's a brief history of the future."
"There's a parallel world a lot like this one, the main variation between
them occurs two years from now in 1997. There's a fight between Ranma Saotome
and Ryoga Hibiki. Things get a bit out of hand and Ranma dies. Ryoga gets
sent to jail for manslaughter. In prison Ryoga's personality begins to shift
toward the mindset that will let him rule. He realizes how unfair it was
for the outside world to not understand a duel between warriors. He becomes
bitter and angry and works on developing his skills. Particularly his chi
generating abilities."
"Time passes, enter Doctor Morimoto and his human/computer interface
experiments. Doc. Morimoto has read 'Neuromancer' a few more times than is
good for him. He convinces the government to let him test his work on human
subjects. Prisoners are to be the initial guineapigs. Ryoga signs up for
the program, his chi generation abilities make him the perfect subject. He
successfully interfaces with the test system. In doing so his intelligence
increases exponentially, he gains access to outside systems. Moving at
computer speeds his consciousness expands across the world. Using his
newfound genius he begins making plans. The test ends successfully, the
scientists unaware of just how much they have achieved. Several more
experiments follow. During each Ryoga puts more of his plans in motion."
"The final test is run, Ryoga announces that he has total control of the
global computer networks and has set failsafe programs in place that will
activate if he is interrupted. He is not believed and is disconnected, it
being feared he is suffering neural damage from the experiments."
"Every nuclear reactor in the world starts going critical, safety systems
refuse to operate. The orbital weapons systems constructed by the Republican
government of the U.S. to bolster the economy through defense spending ceases
obeying ground control. Targets in America, Russia, China, India, Europe,
Japan and Asia are announced along with a countdown of striketimes. For
symbolic reasons the first city targeted in Japan is Hiroshima. It burns for
a second time. Kobe is announced as the secondary target, attack to commence
in five minutes."
"Rather hurriedly Ryoga is rewired into the system. He announces any
attempt to pull computers out of the networks will result in attack on the
offending nation. He then declares himself ruler of Japan. 100,000,000
people are dead worldwide, not surprisingly the government caves in. The
other world powers figure sooner Japan than them and recognize his claim.
Covert attempts begin to disable the computer networks. Several more cities
are destroyed, the attempts cease."
"During this time automated factories begin designing to Emperor Hibiki's
specifications. New weapon satellites are constructed and launched. A robot
army is constructed to keep order throughout Japan. Destroying cities uses
them up quickly, far more cost effective to send in automated tanks and just
kill a few hundred people at a time."
"On March 1st 2015 everything is in place. By this time the prison has
been redesigned into the Imperial palace. Ryoga Hibiki declares himself
ruler of the world. Many threatening speeches are made in the U.N. Many
cities worldwide are destroyed. The new orbital weapons are far more
advanced than their predecessors. By the end of the week the worlds nuclear
weapons have been destroyed in their silos. Conventional forces have been
destroyed by laser satellites and orbital kinetic energy weapons. Nations
surrender and Ryoga Hibiki declares himself Hibiki I, first Emperor of
Terra."
2025 A.D., Year 10 of his reign. Emperor Hibiki unveils the end results
of his continuing attempts to create a Machine Intelligence. He has never
trusted the collaborators who run the puppet 'provinces' of his Empire. The
MI's are based on his personality and carry downloads of his memory. The
perfect choice to assist him. A new generation of robots are constructed.
Humanoid form, equipped with a variety of offensive and defensive capabilites.
MI's are installed and they are designed to look like their master. The first
Ryogoids roll off the production lines."
"The Ryogoids have a special purpose. The are designed to move among the
human population and enforce a 'streetlevel' obediance. After all just because
you can destroy cities doesn't mean you'll do it every time you're defied.
People have realized this and various forms of streetlevel resistance have
begun. These range from graffiti spraying to sabotage to assassination of
collaborators. The arrival of the Ryogoids ends this. The annihilation of
the resistance movement begins."
"Still as the emperor says, 'We'll get along fine just as soon as you
realize I'm God'. So how do you like the story so far?"
It didn't have to stop to breathe during that monologue Ryoga 2 realized.
He glanced around, Ryoga 5 was clutching his stump and muttering. Everyone
else looked stunned, except the rebels who looked defeated. He cleared his
throat, "You're saying we take over the world?"
The machine chuckled, "You idiots? Not a chance, now here's the
interesting bit."
"A few years ago, meaning 2115 AD as to me the present means 2120 AD,
time travel was discovered. It was potentially the most useful invention ever,
as well as the most dangerous. If we changed anything in the past we risked
creating a paradox wave that would wipe us out of existence. So how were we
to research its potential?"
"Then in 2118 we made a related discovery, the existence of parallel
worlds. Alternate realities that we could observe and study. We learned to
construct Quantum shifters so it was possible to physically enter these other
realities. The Emperor made a decision, these alternates were the perfect
place to test the time machine. We simply observe the present of an alternate
world, adjust the time machine to inject into a point in that world's past and
observe the effects of our changes on it's present."
"Anything that goes into the past doesn't travel into our past, we've
locked it out of that. You just travel into the past of the world we're
observing."
Ryoga 7 smiled at the rebels, "So we could have just left you here. You'd
kill the Ryoga of this world and think you'd saved the future. But we have this
policy of never letting rebels think they've won. So I was sent back to
intercept you and arranged plenty of targets to draw you to me."
Ryoga 1 frowned, he hadn't followed much of this. "Kill me? I never did
anything to them."
Ryoga 3 broke in, "Plenty of targets? What does that mean."
Ryoga 2 answered, he looked sick. "Bait, he's saying we were bait for
the rebels. That's why we're here, nothing profound, nothing meaningful. He
... it was just using us to trap its enemies."
Akane spoke up, "That story you told us ..."
"Was the creation of our best public relations people. A great story so I
couldn't resist using it."
Ryoga 7 looked at Perrier and Sadu, "So you never had a chance at success.
By the way, you've been hoping the empire will die with the Emperor. Emperor
Hibiki's body died in 2117 at the the age of 139. It was fairly irrelevant,
his mind transferred totally into the network years ago. You were finished
before you started."
"BULLSHIT!", Ryoga 5 shouted. "I've learned to think twisted and the
end of your story doesn't hold up. Why send only one robot back, we'd accepted
six Ryogas, you could have sent in ten robots and we'd never have suspected
what they really were. For that matter why bring in any additional Ryogas.
As you said there was already one here, the rebels would have hunted him."
"Shut up!"
Ryoga 5 continued, "The only reason you didn't send more Ryogoids was
you couldn't. Maybe there's some sort of limit to what can pass from one
universe to another, or backwards in time. Maybe both. Anyway only one of
you could get here. You needed to be sure the rebels would attack soon,
where you could be sure to trap them. So you brought us through."
"Now why the urgency? Here's my theory, things can only stay in
another universe a limited time. After that they snap back home. But right
now the rebels are in their past. If they return to their own world it's in
their past. Where they can kill the right Ryoga Hibiki and screw up your
glorious future."
"Pure speculation", Ryoga 7 told him. "In any event they die now!"
"That's what you think buddy", Ranma snarled. "The only way you get to
them is through us." Pause. "Right?" he asked Ryoga 2.
"Uhm, well they were trying to kill me ....", Ryoga 2 responded.
"Well anyway you've got to go through me", Ranma announced.
Ryoga 7 chuckled, "Ranma I am the ultimate killing machine. I have a
polysteel skeleton, ceramic armour under my skin, superhuman strength and
reflexes, a complete knowledge of every form of martial arts, and the
memories of the greatest man who ever lived coupled to the ultimate machine
intelligence. I am undoubtably the coolest thing to ever walk this planet.
Whereas you are just a teenager who knows a few martial arts moves."
"Oh really, then you shouldn't be afraid of me."
Next to Ranma thoughts whirled through Ryoga 2's mind. The rebels had
tried to kill him, they had killed Ryoga 6. Of course the Ryoga of their
world sounded totally evil, especially if he acted the same way as that
machine. And Ryoga 6 wouldn't have been hurt if he hadn't been brought here.
Still ... he didn't know what to do. Neither did anyone else it seemed.
That wasn't quite true, Ryoga 5 was concentrating on building chi energy.
It was hard to focus through the pain but he owed the robot for his arm. He
intended to collect.
Unaware of this the Ryogoid faced Ranma. It had plenty of time before
the rebels would snap out of this world so it could afford to amuse itself.
It shared its creator's emotional patterns, including his ego and sadistic
tendancies. His creator hadn't properly appreciated killing Ranma the first
time. He hadn't had the right personality then. The Ryogoid had his new.
improved, personality. This would be fun. Ranma had no idea just how
outmatched he was, but he was about to learn.
"Lets go!"
end of part 7
Next episode : Is challenging the ultimate killing machine the bravest thing
you can do? Or just the stupidest?
Part 8 : Terminator Blues.
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