'Fitting,' the Reploid thought as he stood among the crowd, ' that is should rain today. Almost like washing away the terrible thing that happened eariler this week.... The Reploid looked at Cain, who seemed so be older than ever before, and he almost wondered if the man was going to collaspe. He also noticed that frrom a baren tree overhead, a single reploid raven watchesd the precession silently.
"Death Star," said a Reploid next to him. One of the pilots that was in the Battle of Repliforce six months ago. The kid was good. But now he seemed racked with grief. Death Star figured no one thought X and Zero would die, and most certainly not the way they did. "What is going to happen? I heard rumors that people are stirring things up against Reploid. Blaming them for what happened." As if on cue, thunder filled the air.
Death Star started to trudge forward and he turned and looked at the kid-like Reploid. "It's probably nothing, kid. Go on. Don't be out here. Dwelling isn't good for anyone, Human or Reploid," Death Star said and vagueling wondered why He was here then. And knew why. To pay his respects and because of the guilt he had for not stopping the madness before it began. He had a clear chance to stop it all....
Cain was still talking, but Death Star found himself not listening anymore. He trudged around until he spotted the person he was looking for. X1. The robot had his head bent down. Death Star walked up behind him and stopped. He knew X1 had to be taking this very hard, even if he was a Robot not a Reploid, but Death Star knew X1 had emotions, deep down, where it counted. And X1 had been in the Mega Man line for ages. He was around when the orginal Mega Man walked the Earth. The proto-type for X even.....Death Star walked up to him and laid his hand on X1's shoulder. "How are you holding up?"
"Well, a close friend of mine died after beating the stuffing out of a guy I barely knew, who tried to blow up the world, so, pretty chipper I'd say." X1 replied in heavy sarcasam. Death Star stood there, not knowing what to say.
"Is there anything you would like to talk about?" Death Star finally asked.
"Uh..." X1 started to say. It was obvious to Death Star that he was getting choked up. "I...I just remembered I have an experiment running chief, I'd better get to it." As X1 walked off, Death Star could swear he saw tears in X1's eyes. Death Star started after him, to help X1, but he was stopped by someone, one of his new men, asking questions. He watched hopelessly as X1 walked off.
Quickly answering the officers questions, Death Star started in the direction of where X1 had left. The rain was falling heavier and the crowd began to depart, and he couldn't find his friend anywhere, and he doubt he really went to the lab, and if he did, the lab would be locked. Slumping his shoulders, Death Star to watch Cain hobble off. 'Things are falling apart.....' he thought miseribly. And another thought crossed his mind, making him think. 'And history repeats itself.'
The entire building was shaking around the little blue robot. Before him stood a sleek black robot, upgraded with the evil which fell from the sky. It had increased his powers, so the robot thought, and he was about to permently crush his long-time enemy.
"Bass!" Mega Man shouted. "That is not true power! I proved it once already," Mega Man shouted up at him. Just eariler, in Skull Castle, he had fought and defeated Bass. He had reached Wily and finally managed to beat the mad scientist, who ran in escape as Skull Castle began to crumple around them. But Bass had blocked Mega Man's escape.
"You fool! You're too naive to know I hold the ultimate power! I will crush you!" shouted Bass, and fired a charged blast at Mega Man and activated the jetpack, swooping at Mega Man. The blue robot dodged the blast and fired two quick shots at Bass as he rolled out of the way, almost getting hit by the falling debris.
"You'll kill us both, Bass!" Mega Man tried to reason with him as he blasted at the sleek robot again, and flipped backwards, looking both ways. He was cornered, and Bass seemed to be driven by...madness. The robot was far stronger than ever before, and they both knew it.
"Shut up already!" Bass snarled and fired off a blast at Mega Man. Doding the blast, Mega Man fired off a charged blast, and quickly side-stepped more fallen debris. Bass fired off a super charged shot and the blast covered the room, ramming Mega Man, who was already weakened from his battle with Wily.
Mega Man backed up against the wall, knowing it was futile to try to reason with Bass any further. The other grinning wickedly and walked towards Mega Man, completely insane, which was a first for a robot. "You always defeated me before, Megatwirp, but this time, the tables have turned. Goodbye," Bass said and rammed Mega Man. The wall Mega Man had been leaning on gave way and they both exploded out of Skull Castle as a large fraction of it caved in.
Holding on desperately to Bass, Mega Man attempted to get RushJet down, but failed. Grinning, Bass began to flip around, trying to shake Mega Man off, to fall to his death. Growing tired of Bass, he fired a blast at Bass' engines and it exploded, sending the two falling. "What?!" Bass shouted in surprise and activated his rocket boots, twirling to get Mega Man thrown off.
"I've told you, Bass, the power you have now is no true power. It's sucking you dry..." Mega Man said, trying to reason once more.
"NO!" yelled Bass and electrified his body, forcing Mega Man to let go. The blue robot began to fall rapidly. Suddenly Rush appeared out of nowhere and he landed on the platform his body formed. Bass was obviously pissed about this, and made it known with blasts at him. "I'm gonna SOOOOO tear ya up!"
Mega Man quickly exited the cavern and flew away, and heard a thundering explosion sound from behind him of the cavern caving it, presumingly destroying Bass and Skull Castle once and for all. "Rush, home..."
Proto Man watched from a corner of the lab, since he had brought the robot here. "Do you think Wily's finally given up, Doc?" asked Proto Man, walking over and plopping down on a table.
"He's getting old, Proto, like I am. I don't think he has it in him for a 9th Rebelion....he'll probably go to some corner of the globe and live out of the remaining days of his life," Light said sadly. Wily had been a good friend, a long time ago....but time had seperated that now."
There came a loud noice across the room at the computer. Proto Man turned his head in slight annioance at being interrupted in his conversation. It was Doctor Light's newest creation, X1. A cross between a robot and a "Reploid" as the Doc. called it. A Reploid could think and make it's own decisions. The thought made Proto Man shiver. That kinda robot would be too dangerous....
Doctor Light was also looking in that direction, a smirk on his face. "He's playing solitare. Loves that game for some reason." Proto Man made a face, and muttered about killing the creator who made solitare by feeding him to aligators....or maybe mutated bunnies...Proto Man was still pondering the many ways to kill the creator when Mega Man teleported, looking tired and hagged.
Dr. Light hurried Mega Man out of the room to the repair part of the lab, leaving Proto Man alone with X1. He walked over to the computer and glanced at the robot. He decided to have a staring contest with it, since there was nothing else on his non-too busy schedule.
X1 looked at Proto Man, starting to catch onto his game. "Staring contest huh? Well, I don't stare at walls all day for nothing...." As Proto Man grimaced, X1 leaned closer, staring even harder. After several moments on intense eye lock, X1 caught his opponent off guard as he jabbed Proto Man's eyes with his fingers. But in X1's momentary lapse in judgement, his fingers bounced off of Proto's visor that he always kept down. "Nice going glitch-for-diodes, were you programmed with Guts Man's intelligence, or Cut Man's?" Proto said, almost laughing off his seat. Grumbling, X1 deployed his glue gun and fired a glob off, silencing Proto Man. "Maybe we can start calling you Silent Man."
Proto Man jumped up in surprise. Grumbling sounds can be heard and he scribbles something down on a piece of paper and thrusts it at X1. It read: 'I challenge you to a video game duel.'
X1 leaped to his feet. "THUMB WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Proto Man smilied evilly and scribbled down on the paper. 'Thumb War, eh? I'm the undefeated champ. You should stick to the video game duel, pal.'
X1 smirked evilly. "Undefeated champ you say? More like always-trumped chump." If Proto could, he would frown, but the glue gave him to much trouble. He motioned X1 over next to the table.
Mega Man bowed his head. "It's just that I....I want to help Bass. He seems so lost....I just want to bring him back and maybe he could join us against Wily."
Light sighed and sat down on the table. "Listen Mega, because I won't say this often. Bass has fallen completely over. There's no saving him, unlike others. You must destroy him for the good of the world. I hate having to order you to do such a thing, but you must destroy Bass quickly and with out trying to reason with him. It will only give him an upper hand, do you understand me?" Light told him.
Mega Man nodded, a little sadly. "Right now I have no idea where Bass is, though. It could take months before he shows up..." he said as he and Light began to walk back to the rest of the lab, where X1 and Proto Man where.
"If Bass is truly in this state of mind you say he is, Mega, he will be coming back as soon as his wounds heal. He's mad, mad with power and anger toward you," Light informed him as they stepped into the room and found a desperate struggle of thumbs as X1 and Proto man tried to out-do the other.
Proto Man had finally ripped the glue off of his mouth and was yelling. "HEY!!! NO FAIR!!!! ARRGHHH!" he fought harder, trying to out-do X1. Light and Mega Man both stopped in their tracks to watch the two, a faint smile appearing on Light's face.
"It's not my fault my thumb's double jointed!" X1 protested. Stealing a quick smile to Dr. Light, X1 revaled in his winning edge. "Thanks Doc."
"I'm gonna double joint your face!!!" snarled Proto Man and pressed his weight into X1, growing harder and faster.
X1 pressed back with almost no effort. "That all you got, scarf boy?" he said with a bored yawn. Proto Man let out a strangled, half-glued cough and almost got X1's thumb down. "Oh, sorry Proto-dunce, not gonna be that easy," replied X1, as he quickly moved his thumb out of harm's way and slammed it down on top of Proto Man's.
"What?! NO!!!" yelled Proto in anguish. "I've never lost!!" he cried out, and pointed at Mega Man. "I beat 'em all, Mega Man, Light, Roll, that little old lady at the Drug Store!!!!" Mega Man allowed himself a small snicker, which quickly bought the glare of Proto.
"Oh, c'mon Proto, give us all a thumbs up," X1 said, adding insult to injury to Proto Man's loss. Proto let outa growl and then teleported from the room, leaving the three alone.
"You know that Proto Man, he's all thumbs..." X1 told them.
Bass entered the old cavern, holding his shoulder, which was leaking battery fluid. Trebble whined uneasily beside him, worried about his master. Usually he would have given Trebble some attention, but Bass' mind was ablaze and he quickly worked his was into the labortory where Dr. Wily stood, leaning back in a chair, tired and defeated.
"Doc..." Bass groaned.
"Bass. How good of you to come," Dr. Wily said. He breath smelled of alcohol. Bass had told the doc not to be drinking, but it did no good. But right now Bass didn't care about it. He only cared about killing Mega Man.
"I need repairs Doc."
Wily cocked his head to the side. "Why bother? I've given up on the fact of ever stopping that infernal Mega Man. For years our rivilary has fueled me, but now...my tanks our out of gas. I'm going to die here, and soon. I'm too tired to go on," Wily said slowly, his words slurred.
"Now Doc, stop talking like that. I can beat Mega Man. Just patch me up, and I can do it. Hey, I got an idea, lets look through the papers I stole you from Light's lab awhile back, you remember 'em? Had the Rush Adaptor. He had some coded sheets I assigned Hacker Man to crack. He told me last week he cracked 'em and they were a doozy," Bass rapidly told him, finally snapping out of the red haze in his mind and slight worry twinkled now.
Wily snorted. "Nothing's important anymore, Bass..."
"I mean it, Doc. It says something about a thinking machine. A...Reploid," Bass informed him. Wily's head shot up and all drunkeness slightly disappeared. "Lets head to the lab," Bass suggested. Wily nodded and they entered the lab where Hacker Man was working.
"G-Good day b-boss!" he stamered.
"Give me the stolen plans you encoded..." Wily snapped. Hacker Man nodded and handed him a thick pad of papers. Wily sat down and began to skim through it, his eyes and face lighting up. "I don't bloody believe it...>Light has the plans to create a thinking machine, capably of making it's own decisions....emotions! He's begun already with a proto-type called X1. 100 percent success, and next one, 'X' will be the full module. But it says here Light's fear of Reploids going nuts and rampaging over the world, so he's held back any further development...." Wily told the two as he read along it.
"Are you going to build one?" inquired Bass.
Wily looked up and his face darkened. "I don't have time to finish one. I would die before I could even accomplish half of this.....I would need a subject already built, I would say...." Wily muttered.
Bass thought this over. I'm sure we can find something for you to work on it at Light's lab. I just need to be tuned up and powered up, Doc..." Bass pleaded, the red haze returning.
Wily looked up, and thought about it. "True....okay, Bass. C'mon, lets begin, we have a lot of work to do. Today marks the fall of Dr. Light's achievments of peace."
Mega Man X leaped off the roof and tucked himself into a ball, gaining speed, and then stretched out his hands, grabbing the side of the flying speed back, attacking the top of the skyscrapers in the city. The renegade Maverick was causing a lot of damage, so he and Zero were called on the scene. So far he hadn't seen any sign of Zero.
The Maverick turned to face him and snickered. It was small, but heavily armored and had a huge cannon on it's arm. It fired a blast at him, which X dodged by swinging under the side of the Attack Bike and fired a blast at the driver. At this speed and alitude, blowing the bike up would fall into Bad Idea.
Knowing this, the Maverick fired another blast at X, who swung in some to dodge it, and then swung out in a full complete circle and landed on the back of the Bike, almost losing his balance and falling off. Holding on with one arm, he fired at the Maverick and blasted it's shoulder, sending him sprawling forward some, hitting the controls and sending the bike on a straight headway downward. X always wanted to make a big hit, but not like this...
Leaping to the front of the bike, he pulled the Maverick back, seeing it was still alive, and grabbed the controls and pulled it back up and brought the bike around and saw the speed controls were damaged. Inoperatable. X silently cursed, and flew the bike out of the city limits, aimed at a tree, grabbed the Maverick and leaped off, landing on the ground 5 feet below and rolled some. The bike smashed into the tree and they both blew up, the remains of the tree on fire.
Picking the Maverick up, X gave it a sharp slap which awoke it. The Reploid stared at X with infernal anger. "Listen carefully, you junk pile. Who do you work for, and if you say Sigma, I swear I'll personally rip you into teeny tiny pieces that no one will ever find, and sprinkle them across the globe," X hissed.
The Maverick's mouth jerked a little. "I'm not working for Sigma. Just the new Maverick boss who took over after your friend Zero killed Sigma," the Maverick informed him.
"Who's the boss?" X snarled and shook the Maverick. It didn't responds, but instead blasted at X. X dodged with ease and blasted the Maverick which exploded and sent him stumbling back. The Reploid must have self-destructed. Cursing under his breath, X teleported back to HQ, not only to report to Cain, but to chew out Zero for pulling another one of his vanishing tricks.
Sigma. Zero still tasted the bitterness when he thought of the name. Sigma had fought Zero, years ago, and ended up winning....because....of....Zero tried hard to remember. But only a vague rememberance of a pain echoing around in his head. Zero didn't know who had created him, but the dreams.....the man. Finally he put two and two together.
X had once said to him after Sigma's second fall "He mentioned something about you being the last of the Doc's creations. Have any clue on what that means?" Zero had no idea and told X so. But now....
Finding what he wanted, he saw the cavern, with the huge doors sealed up, ordered by Sigma. He knew Sigma had ordered the area perserved and not to be messed with. Brilliant Sigma.
Walking up to the doors, Zero drew his sabre and slashed a hole in them and stepped through them. The room inside was dark. All the computers and stuff inside had been shut down, by Sigma. Walking around, he felt vague memories of this place. Haunted memories. Suddenly, Zero hesitated. Did he really want to find out about his past?
Pausing in front of a control panel to the computer system, Zero reached out to press it, but paused, his hand wavering in the air. By finding out his past, he would undoubtly betray everything he stood for now. But all the deaths that he had failed to stop....and a new, strange feeling to humans.... Was this how Sigma lost it? A feeling that crept around in his head, taunting him, luring him....Zero pushed the panel.
The computer systems and moniters filling the room immediately jumped to life, rebooting and bringing up the orginal programmings. Zero walked around the room and stopped in front of a chair, looking down at a bottle left next to it. Continuing on, he looked around the lab. He knew he was stalling going over to the computer system.
Coming across a sealed hallway near the back of lab, he stopped. Blasting it down, he could tell the air was stale here. Sealed up for many, many years. Continuing down the hallway, he looked around. It was dark, and certain doom hung in the air. As he walked along, he could tell something wasn't right.
Finally, Zero entered a small room. Looking around, he gasped almost. Sitting in a chair was a skeleton, holding a book. The papers seemed to be turning yellow with age and wrinkling up. Taking the book out of the skeleton's hand, he knew this was his creator. And he matched the size of the person he thought his creator was.
Exiting the room and going back into the rest of the lab, Zero read through the journal entries. Most of it was giberish, talking about the man losing his mind, forgetting stuff, like the oven. But finally he came down to the last few entries and the true story began. 'My hatred for Mega Man seems to be vanishing these days. Our rivilary winding down. I know I don't have the time to launch a tenth rebellion, so I came here to spend my days, when Bass, my finest creation, gave me the papers he had stolen awhile back. A Reploid. Thomas certainly out did himself. I want to begin on this Reploid, but my time is running down. But Bass proposed something, and I'm going to let him steal the supplies I need to make the Reploid from Light. But I think Bass has a hidden agenda now and I'm worried about how stable he really is....'.
Zero set the journal down on the table next to the computer and felt himself slumping down in the chair. He was right. He was created by Dr. Wily. Sighing, he looked at the computer and saw a handprint thing. He figured that was how Wily entered the computer files. Curiously, he set his hand down and the computer immediately jumped to life, and Dr. Wily's face filled the screen. "Zero....my finest creation. If you are reading this, then you must now know your true past.....and your mission. Destroy Mega Man."
As Zero left the lab, as shadow detached itself from the wall. Sadly watching Zero leave, he walked over to the grinning skeleton. "Always had to have the last laugh, didn't you." With the upmost respect, the figure sat a small sheet of metal down at the skeleton's feet. The figure followed Zero out of the lab.
The metal piece was old and rust with only flakes of paint spotting it. Yet the indention was as clear as when it was first formed. A letter "W".
Commander X and Captain Death Star sat in the briefing room. So far there hadn't been any new Hunter Captains since the Repliforce incidident five months ago. Dr. Cain had called the two in for a briefing on the infomation X had found out eariler that day. Unfortantly Zero hadn't shown up yet, and X was beginning to worry slightly.
"There has been multiple rumors that someone from Repliforce has picked up the pieces of the Mavericks. They have rebuilt several of the old Mavericks and constructed new ones, but other than that, we know nothing about them. They have gone underground," Dr. Cain began when the door opened to the briefing room. X turned and saw Zero. The Hunter was looking tired, confused, and angry. He sat down in his chair.
"Anyway, there are reports that there was something strange going on while Zero was on the Final Weapon. Captain Death Star reported this in, but it was dismissed until now," Cain continued. He waved a hand at him. "If you would..."
Standing up, Death Star began. "After we destroyed the last of the Repliforce fleet, I flew over to the Final Weapon, feeling a bit useless because I couldn't do anything to stop it. I was flying around it when General destroyed it. I noticed two escape pods fly out of it, one was Commander Zero's, the other one rocketed away almost immediately and I lost tracking on it. It was later considered to have ejected from the force of the Final Weapon blowing up and rocked away..." He sat back down.
Cain nodded. "It seems that someone ejected from the Final Weapon, and that someone is now running the show. But this means even more bad news. Sigma's computer virus form, the Maverick Virus, would have been scattered throughout space but now, if the person had any form of it on that escape pod, then it might possibly be back on Earth..." Cain informed them, letting the news hang in the air. X spared a glance at Zero, who was frowning at the predictament.
"You are all dismissed, but keep on stand-by incase we get anything on the Mavericks," Cain said and left the room. Death Star immediately followed, leaving X and Zero alone in the room.
"Where were you today?" X asked, anger rising a little for being left alone while on a mission.
"Had to think about a few things, bud. Sorry," Zero said, fighting the inter conflict going on in his head. X was his best friend, a brother to him.....he couldn't hurt him, wouldn't hurt him, never. But the voices in his head, Dr. Wily's voice, kept echoing over and over. 'Destroy Mega Man....Destroy Mega Man....Destroy Mega Man...' Zero leaped up, knowing he had to get away from X for the time being. "I got a few things to do...." he muttered and left.
The two Hunters jumped up onto the roof over where the Mavericks were attacking. Cain was right when they said a few old Mavericks had been ressurected. Storm Eagle and Tunnel Rhino were blowing cars up, shooting at little dogs. Two new Mavericks were also down there.
Leaping down, Zero and X blasted Rhino and one of the new Mavericks back, sending them into a lamp post. "Gaaaa. You call that a shot? Extreme will handle you two," the new Maverick barked and ripped the lamp post out of socket and threw it at them.
Slashing it in half with his sabre, Zero jumped the new Maverick and blasted him again as X blast Tunnel Rhino. Beacon and Starblade appeared from behind and jumped Storm Eagle and another new Maverick. The eight Reploids all fought each other with incredible speed, catching the eye of two tourists. "Told ya Maggie, these city folks have no manners....always breaking out into fights, blowing stuff up...." the man told his wife. Rhino spared a second to blast at them, sending the two scurrying off.
X blasted Tunnel Rhino in the head, damaging his weapon extensively. In anger, the Maverick smashed the ground and went into the sewers, trying to take off. He leaped in after him. Zero, seeing this, quickly slashed Extreme in half and jumped in after him, seeing Beacon and Shadowstorm wrapping up the other two Mavericks.
X stepped around a corner, scanning the area for the large Maverick, when something came smashing down over his head. Tunnel Rhino had gotten a the drop on him by smashing a piece of the wall over his head. Snickering, the Rhino threw a small gernade on X to blow the Hunter up and took off as Zero came up on him. X was unconscious, and the small gernade was about to blow him up.
Zero stepped forward to help his friend but hesitated. 'Destroy Mega Man....Destroy Mega Man....Destroy Mega Man....' His hand wavered, the seconds ticking by. 'X IS MY FRIEND!!!! I WILL HELP HIM!!!!' he yelled at himself, fighting his mind and grabbed the gernade and threw it down the tunnel, it exploding, caving in Rhino's exit. Zero slumped down on the pavement by the sewer side, feeling himself shake all over. This time he saved X, but it took all his willpower....would he do it next time?
X and Zero were in Cain's lab as he was scanning the memory chip on one of the Maverick's defeated from yesterday's battle. "Yes.....yes.....getting a location of the Maverick base now...." Cain muttered and brought the data on the screen for the two to see.
The grid map of the world flipped through different scenes and finally stopped at Siberia, Russia. In the middle of it was a Maverick fortress. Zero frowned. "This seems a little to easy, guys. This is undoubtly a trap...." he muttered, but in reality he didn't want to go, for fear of losing it and killing X.....he was suppose to be a Maverick after all.....
X shook his head. "That is a chance we have to take, Zero. If that new Maverick leader does have the Maverick virus there, then he could recreate Sigma, and we all don't want a fifth 'bout with him again, do we?" X said.
Zero nodded. "You're right. Lets get everything ready. This should not be fun..."