The Road to Cydonia is a crossover fan fiction between Ranma ½ and X-COM: UFO Defense written by Cap'n Chryssalid. In it, Ryouga and Akari are abducted by aliens, who discover the existence of the Nerima Wrecking Crew while probing Ryouga's mind. After killing Akari and mind raping Ryouga, the aliens follow him to Nerima, where they attempt to abduct the rest of the crew. While the aliens succeed in capturing Cologne, Ranma and Ryouga manage to free the Tendos and take over the ship that was abducting them. After crash-landing it in South America, Ranma and Ryouga are approached by X-COM, an organization dedicated to fighting the alien threat. Ryouga, eager to seek revenge on the aliens, immediately decides to join, and Ranma ends up following him into the organization. Deciding that they'll need allies, they immediately seek to recruit the rest of the Nerima Wrecking Crew, and the Juliet and India squads are formed. The story then follows Ranma, Ryouga, Shampoo, Mousse, Ryu, Ukyou, Konatsu, and Tatewaki as they battle against the alien threat as members of X-COM.
There is also Reflections Lost on a Dark Road, a crossover fic that takes place after The Road to Cydonia, written by Lathis and Cap'n Chryssalid.
The Road to Cydonia can be read here
or here.
The Road to Cydonia provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: Due to being brainwashed and crazy Tetsuya was very much this.
- Alien Abduction
- Alien Autopsy
- Aliens Are Bastards
- Anticlimax Boss: The battle between Herb and Saffron comes to mind
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Because all aliens are hardwired into the Mind, they never turn on each other. The sole exception being an incident in which a ship of aliens fresh from another dimension apparently killed each other. Micronoids. X-COM is still trying to figure that one out.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: The Giesteslanze goes right through Xcom armor with ease.
- Artistic License – Military: The Ranma portrayed “WOULD NOT” be trusted to command anything, let alone a combat unit. He has demonstrated absolutely no leadership potential, allowed those under his 'supposed' command to behave as 'they' saw fit, and left 'discipline' up to others to perform upon the members of 'his' squad.
- With all of the training Ranma and Ryouga have been receiving, and NONE of it looked to be on 'How to Lead'. Good leaders are MADE, they are not born (as Ryouga seems to be portrayed).
- Aesop Amnesia: Despite her Heel Realization Nabiki still gathers info on her co-workers
- All Amazons Want Hercules: This is why Konatsu never had a shot. Ukyo feels that Men are supposed to be rough: more like coal than polished diamond.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Ranma wouldn’t be Ranma if he didn’t have this trope.
- Batman Gambit: The Visitor’s pulled off a huge one during the Twilight of the Amazons story arc involving chemical weaponry and Jusenkyo. Luckily it was foiled in the end.
- Battle Aura: All of the Juliet and India squads at one point or another, but special mention goes to Ryouga during his first confrontation with an Etherial. To protect himself from its psychic abilities, he engulfs himself in his battle aura at full power. It's compared to "lighting yourself on fire to keep from freezing to death."
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Ranma was struck in the face with a burning piece of metal, and while at first it was mentioned that once it heals it would leave a nasty car. That scar was never mentioned again.
- Big Brother Is Employing You: Occasionally a character will muse on the unpleasant implications of what X-COM is doing, and its abuse of ordinary people's rights. Then they'll decide the end justifies the means and carry on with whatever distasteful task they were going to do.
- Brainwashed: The trenchards that are made by converting a human. The duplicates may also count, since severing their connection to the mind causes them to act like their original selves pre-abduction.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Musk, Pink and Link, and Cologne respectively
- BFG: Lime’s weapon of choice
- Bittersweet Ending: The Twilight of the Amazons arc, the hero’s won despite being out numbered. However the aliens got away and Joketsuzoku was left devastated. A Pyrrhic Victory indeed.
- Blatant Lies: Kuno’s account of his assassination mission
- Boring, but Practical: Doctor Iosif Aliyev’s approach to fighting Xcom worked extremely well.
- This was also Nabiki’s approach to overcoming the Mettayatara Metsubushi
- Brain Bleach: In Univere Tsubasa becoming a runway model was seen as this. Also counts as a disturbance in the force.
- Casting a Shadow: Ryouga's shishi houkodan and its variants.
- Chaste Hero: Ukyo acknowledged that Ranma was this.
- Clone Degeneration: Trenchard Cologne uses a special technique to prevent this.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Mitsuko Hibiki is a perfect example. She once demanded that Mousse prove that he was Ryoga’s friend by asking what his favorite color was, only to realize that she didn’t know it either.
- Combat Pragmatist: The greatest tenet to the Anything Goes School, even if their opponent is more skilled they will always find some way to overcome them, some way to cheat or fool the. Some way to use words or trickery to get what they wanted
- It is also a weapon the Trencard’s seem to utilize quite a bit a well.
- It’s also a big part of Mousse’s fighting style. Ayabe even forced him to unleash the Saotome Ultimate Technique
- The Comically Serious: Colonge’s father Ho
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Crack Pairing: Ryouga/Nabiki - Crazy Enough to Work: What Ryoga seems to think of many of Ranma’s strategies.
- Crossover: This is a crossover between Ranma ½ and X-COM: UFO Defense.
- Curse: The Hibiki family has no sense of direction because of a family curse.
- David Versus Goliath: The first fight against a sectopod.
- Deus Angst Machina: Ryouga. Girlfriend killed right in front of him after being cut up for 20 minutes? Check. Father turned into an evil alien hybrid, forced to fight him, then required to be kept locked up to avoid attacking them? Check. Months worth of shameful memories erased, then returned en mass? Check. Dead girlfriend revived as an alien hybrid no longer under control of the aliens, but dying, requests to be allowed to die, forcing him to prevent the operation that would save her life at the cost of her remaining humanity? Check. New recruits enable the aforementioned operation to succeed anyway, returning her to the control of the aliens? Formerly dead girlfriend now psychically attacking him in his dreams? Check.
- Dirty Coward: Genma in true form ran away while the alien abducted his friends and family.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Kuno really should learn not to do this
- Dramatic Irony: The only reason Ranma was caught so easily was because he’ such a sound sleep. It was a weakness Genma had never quite managed to weed out of his son. However the reason it’s so bad is because of Genma’s attempts to get rid of it to the point where Ranma can dodge in his sleep.
- Elaborate Underground Base
- E.T. Gave Us Wi-Fi: X-COM gets the majority of their technology by reverse engineering stolen alien technology.
- Evil Knockoff: Trenchard Ryouga
- Evil Twin: Trenchard Cologne
- Flying Saucer
- Fountain of Youth: The aliens appear to do this to Cologne. In actuality, it's a clone.
- Genre Deconstruction: Nabiki's characterization. In fanfiction, Nabiki tends to be portrayed as the most manipulative character; a lot of the traits usually ascribed to Nabiki in fan fiction (such as spying on people to find out their secrets, being manipulative, setting up elaborate plans, knowing what is going on, etc.) actually belong to Ranma. In reality Nabiki is opportunistic and thinks only of her immediate gain. She does not factor in the possible consequences of her actions. This is shown on multiple occasions such as her taking picture of Ranma when she knew nothing about how Ranma might retaliate when he found out, not taking into account how dangerous it is to be Ranma's fiancée (which nearly got her killed), or what would happen to her or her family if she lost the 10 yen battle. Now what would happen when Nabiki is taken away from not only her more thick skinned victims, who don’t just take her activities in stride, but can’t simply kill her with their bare hands.
- Guile Hero: Ranma has repeatedly shown himself to be this combines this with Action Hero. While he prefers to kick ass he can utilize Batman Gambit and Indy Ploy with the best of them. Even outshining the Visitors at times.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Ranma and Ryoga interrogation of Doctor Iosef Aliyev ended up falling into this.
- Go Out with a Smile: Tetsuya does this he even to the point of joking about his eventual fate.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Trenchards
- The Hedonist: Trencard Cologne seem to enjoy the finer things in life
- Heir to the Dojo
- He Who Fights Monsters: X-COM frequently resorts to tactics that would be considered war crimes in their fight against the alien menace.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: How the aliens planed to infiltrate Xcom
- Hive Mind: The Mind.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Averted twice, Kuno was simply no match for Saffron who was simply no match for Herb.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Elerium
- Improbable Weapon User: Ryouga uses his belt and headbands like blades, and has an alien alloy umbrella. That said, he also uses conventional weapons.
- Tetsuya Hibiki uses his clothing as a weapon. His outfit comes apart in strips of cloth, which act like Combat Tentacles, and his undershirt hardens like armor.
- Mitsuko Hibiki also uses cloth as a weapon. It seems to be a Hibiki thing.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: While in the middle of receiving his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Tetsuya Kazuo took the time to drink of cognac.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: Jusenkyo victims all count.
- It's All About Me: According to Tetsuya this is Ryoga’s main problem.
- Just Friends: Ryouga and Kasumi
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Curing a Jusenkyo curse removes the victim of all the memories they acquired while in their cursed form.
- Lethal Chef: Akane, though has been working to improve that since being forced to eat her own cooking.
- Lonely at the Top: Cologne has one goal growing up to become the strongest, to become not just an Elder, but the greatest among them. It was only after she achieved that goal that she realized all she gave up to get it.
- Loophole Abuse: Nabiki exploits this to bootleg music
- Meat Puppet: Etherials are capable of possessing humans and even other aliens and remotely controlling them.
- Mind Rape: After having his memories of P-Chan erased, an etherial returns them to Ryouga en-mass while torturing him.
- Mirror Match: Ryouga vs. Trenchard Ryouga, Cologne vs Trenchard Cologne.
- Oddly enough, neither match-up has identical combatants. Ryouga's trenchard knockoff is bald and doesn't really look human, and Cologne's knockoff isn't the same age.
- Moral Myopia
- More than Mind Control:This is what happened to Saffron and Rouge.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Playing Tetris by moving the pieces with your mind.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Ryoga survived the vacuums of space for three hours while Ranma survived reentry
- The Venom infected Pill is this as well.
- No Sense of Direction: Ryouga. Fortunately, his dog, Checkers, has both a functional sense of direction, and an unnaturally high intellect.
- All the Hibiki's, actually. Apparently, it's because of a family curse.
- Not What It Looks Like: Wouldn’t be a ranma fanfic if it wasn’t for this.
- Oh, Crap!: Kuno’s reaction when Saffron went One-Winged Angel.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Most of the X-COM agents are at peak levels of human fitness, and are in the best physical condition they have ever been in. Nevertheless, they are completely overshadowed by the Nerima Wrecking Crew.
- Pay Evil unto Evil
- Playing with Syringes: What the aliens frequently do to their abductees.
- Powered Armor
- Ray Gun
- Refuge in Audacity: Mitsuko’s status as a Cloud Cuckoolander means she employs this often. A common strategy for when she’s stopped by the cops for her actions is to say they’re fakes and determines if it’s true or not based on their reaction.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Why Ryouga joined X-COM.
- Ships That Pass in the Night: Ryouga/Nabiki
- Shipper on Deck: Ranma to Herb and Kima
- Shout-Out: There are quite a few
- Samurai Deeper KyoKuno: Did you hear it? Did you hear my sword's roar?
- The Matrix
- Samurai Deeper Kyo
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Ranma gave a chilling one to Doctor Iosef Aliyev for trying to justify genocide in the name of the aliens.Ranma: Doctor Aliyev, No matter what they did for us in the past, there's no excusing what they're doing in the present. There's no excusing what you've done, either, Doctor, which is why I want to make sure you know what's going to happen next. What we did back there was just the tip of the iceberg. You think this was an interrogation? The real one hasn't even started yet! We're going to take you to a deep, dark hole in the Earth somewhere, and when you get there, Doctor. May that God you mentioned have mercy on your soul.
- Cue Oh, Crap!
- Sociopathic Soldier
- Spanner in the Works: Trencard Cologne can spam techniques like it is the End of the God Damned World.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: Ryouga and Akari when they were abducted by aliens.
- Suicide Attack: Sadly this is how Sink dies
- Take a Third Option: How Ranma and Ryoga freed everyone from their pods while they were naked
- Technical Pacifist: Tetsuya Hibiki to the point where he left Japan to get away from the Hibiki Legacy in Japan, and the endless fights there. To bad he’s Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Too Dumb to Live: Sink is a particularly tragic example. Shampoo sent her a detailed letter about the dangers the village was in, what happened to Cologne, she event sent them a few strong unmarried men. Despite this Sink still chose to trust Cologne despite her giving her a cell phone. She quickly went mad from the revelation.
- Touch of Death: Ryouga's "killing point" technique.
- They Would Cut You Up: The reason that powerful martial artists are moved to sanctuary communities note after the aliens find out about them.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: How ryu and kuno found out konetsu was a man
- Richard a fellow Xcom soldier was on the receiving end of one as well when Ranma Splashed himself while in the gym shower.
- Unskilled, but Strong: This was the only approach Ryoga could think of to keep Trencard Cologne off her guard after she unleashed her Dangerous Forbidden Technique.
- Unstoppable Rage: Ryouga's rage is really unstoppable. After the aliens kill Akari, it doesn't completely go away for a significant portion of the story.
- The Worf Effect: Ryoga’s battle against Elder Pill is an example of this. While her Venom infected state allows her to stay upright and conscious despite fatal injuries, her clouded mind means that he can only fight through sheer instinct. Ryoga himself acknowledged this
- The battle between Ranma and Ryu wa this as well as Ranma could use only the moves genma developed no any of his own revisions
