Megman X.5

by Tremor3258

Disclaimer: I don't own Megaman, either version. Capcom does! Lucky guys, them.

This is a slightly revised version, with a few minor mistakes corrected.

In which our characters show up, meet, and then the part ends!

"Well, Bass, what do you think of your 'sister'?" The black war-android stared in the frank admiration he figured Dr. Wiley wanted. King had been defeated, and Wiley was busy putting together his most prized creation, a robot who would be able to make its own decisions, and equipped with advanced weapons and armor. Frankly, Rock came close to true intelligence, but Zero could adapt far faster than Megaman ever would. But that project was on the back burner for now, all that was left was the carefully delicate programming to set Zero on his merry destructive way.

Wiley had one of his rare good days after the fight with King, and heard Bass's report on what Protoman had said. So, Wiley had decided to give his prize robot something to fight for, and defend. Thus, a sister. Besides, Wiley hated having to clean up after himself. Still, she would make a good last line of defense. Slightly longer than shoulder length black hair could be bound underneath an orange helmet, Wiley was in an orange phase, and so Jazz was currently armored in light peaches and oranges, resembling an older teenager rather than the younger child-like appearance taken by many of the bad Doctor's creations. Rather than armed with a standard plasma buster for most general style robots, she was equipped with a homing missile system in her shoulders.

Nearby, an orange and brown lean tiger lolled, Rhythm, a support unit for the new girl-style Mech. Still, the programming download should be complete, having forcefed enough of a basic education to start a personality matrix, if Wiley's copies of the Artificial Intelligence design was correct. Best to check out the circuits on a lightly armored body rather than the pinnacle that was to be Zero.

Suddenly, she awoke, and twitched around, stuck in a fluid bath as the programming was downloaded. Wiley was surprised, she shouldn't have woken up yet! Was there an error? He couldn't just deactivate her, because of the care in crafting Bass's subroutines to protect her. And now the dumb cat was whining, and soon Treble was going to wander in...

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" roared Wiley. Jazz froze in her tank as everyone else, following preprogrammed routines, froze in place. Wiley held his head in his hands, "Why am I surrounded by such fools?" No one answered the rhetorical question, and Wiley quickly drained the tank. Jazz stood there, looking blankly. Wiley groaned, "Right, need to get you over and get some more information in to you. Right now, you're not much more help than a Met," referring to the little yellow helmets. Wiley thought, he wasn't at his main base right now, he was still rebuilding it from last time, and they were rather close to Dr. Light's lab in order to put his latest scheme in operation so, "Rhythm, take Jazz to Central Park and let her soak up some atmosphere, after Jazz gets into something a little less military. Might as well test her infiltration subroutines." The cat nodded, not equipped with a vocalizer, and grabbed Jazz by the hand, blankly letting herself be taken away.

Meanwhile, in a little better lit lab on the outskirts of New York City, Doctor Light was working on his newest invention. Dr. Light was seeing if he could get lightning to strike again, as work on X continued, the robot already placed into its capsule back at his main Tokyo lab. X had no limits planned on his behavior, and so could potentially be very dangerous. Still, this robot was a test bed module, to decide if Light was to go ahead with final activation of X. Equipped with 'watered-down' versions of X's advanced new systems, and without a set of capsules lying around just in case, but with a support armor system, Staff, black with red trim. Bebop's systems could theoretically reach true artificial intelligence, but for now, was held in the bounds of the laws of robotics, at least, theoretically. For now, he served as a useful testbed for the new neural networks. Rock definitely didn't need the help, and some of these systems could be dangerous. He was armed with a new model buster, based on the old Gemini laser, currently without charging but fired a particle stream in the laser's core, making it extremely potent.

Roll and Rock were in the room, and Dr. Light assumed Blues was hanging around in the area. He had recently come in for a shield upgrade, and Light had mentioned Bebop's activation coming up. Blues had been interested, if only since he had another Bomber to try and keep safe, as he had mentioned at the time. "All right, are we ready to throw the switch?" Megaman took that moment to switch into his armor from his casual clothes, and Roll held up a large sledgehammer. The duo nodded.

"Oh, for goodness sakes! Will you put those down, the last thing we want is to drive him into a nervous breakdown a few seconds after activation." The two stored the weapons away quickly. Rock had recently given up one of his weapon sets due to yet another Mega Buster upgrade, and the old data sets didn't work. But, it kept him current with whatever Wiley was planning, as he was on the run, again.

Light threw the switch, and even though he hadn't a problem with an activation for years, he took a step back. The green robot with light gray trim opened its eyes and sat up, blinking. "Good morning, Bebop. I am your creator, Doctor Light. These are Rock and Roll, your 'siblings' as it were." Bebop was based on the X design, and was a bit taller.

Bebop turned over and bowed slightly to both of them. Light watched critically. This design was new, it was possible that a cascade error could start any moment and wipe out the robot. The limiters put in were tricky. Bebop looked down at his heavily armored body, and then looked at the other two, and said in a puzzled tone, "What exactly is my function, Dr. Light? I am not to kill, and yet..."

Dr. Light nodded grimly, "An unfortunate fact of our times. The Earth often faces attacks from various sources, and no human is strong enough to withstand them. Rock was rebuilt to protect the Earth, and I have felt that it is time for him to have assistance." Bebop stared in frank astonishment at the four foot Blue Bomber, who was wearing jean shorts and a T-shirt. Megaman summoned his armor with a moment's thought, and displayed his mighty Mega Buster. Bebop nodded once, uncertainly.

Light said, "You two need a little chance to get to know one another. For that matter, you should meet your support unit," Light pressed a button, and a lynx-like creature, resembling a modified and slightly bulkier Tango, walked out. "This is Staff, he can provide a number of useful functions, such as transport and combat armor."

"Cool!" Bebop said with a grin, scratching the cat's face, who purred. Dr. Light blinked, but decided it was a reaction similar to getting a new toy, or watching Rock blow up the latest eight Robot Masters. "Hmm, Rock, Roll, take Rush out with these two and get acquainted. You can even run him through a few low level drills."

The two older robots plus robodog started off immediately. Bebop paused, "Um, Doctor, won't I be conspicuous?" Dr. Light nearly gagged on the pipe he was filling. Definite signs of initiative! Not to mention good integration of data!

The good doctor smiled paternally, "Yes, of course. Catch up with Roll, and she should have bought some clothes in your size. You should be able to warp in and out of your armor." Bebop nodded and walked off.

Well, thought the researcher, it looks good so far, and I trust Rock and Roll's instincts for keeping things out of danger. Next, try and discover a healthy form of tabacco, or give up this nasty habit. Light grinned, or maybe Wiley would give things up, settle down, and find a nice padded cell.

Central Park, even in this time period, a nice place to relax. Meanwhile, a seemingly blind teeanger was being led around by a robotic cat. That was unusual, but not extremely so in New York. Robopets had been a fad a few years back. Suddenly, with a twitch, which corresponded to Wiley's preplanned activation time, the girl seemed to focus in. Jazz leaned down and whispered, "Thanks Jazz, I feel a lot better being out of there." Jazz meowed back in reply. Her setup was simple, follow her mistress's commands, and try and cause as much destruction as possible. Time in the sun was merely a bonus.

Jazz felt strange as she wandered over onto a bench. She had seen things she shouldn't have. Wiley had spent several days hooked up to data banks allowing her to browse in a dream state, so that she awoke ready to function. "Father isn't feeling well, something's wrong." It was a discontinuity in her program, one she didn't feel able to resolve yet. She was supposed to obey, but she was unable to question. Which was the greater prerogative? With the Doctor's aging health, the shock of being confronted could kill him. And then, if she did something that was perceived as disloyal, she could be destroyed, where the third law of robotics prevented. "I'm very confused." Rhythm meowed, such thoughts were too much for its processors.

Meanwhile, Roll was extremely happy about the day out, away from the lab and maintaining the various systems. Rock was only slightly less enthusiastic, followed by Rush, Beat, and Tango. Plus, he figured Blues might show up, which was always at least interesting. Bebop followed behind slower, unsure of what exactly to do. Rock didn't seem to mind the switch to war machine, but it was distressing to have a set of commandments burned into your system to do no harm and enough firepower to take on a small city. Bebop had followed the same startup procedures as Jazz, since Wiley had copied Light's designs, and found himself busy watching the people.

And, due to Plot Cliche #12, Bebop found himself sitting down next to Jazz on a bench in the park, watching the people go about their business, though they didn't notice each other at first, until Rhythm and Staff got into a literal catfight at perceived attacks on their territory. "Ack! C'mon, stop that! I'm supposed to keep a low profile!" said the two at once, before chuckling at each other nervously. The two cats broke off under their owner and companion's voices.

"Sorry!" said Jazz, thinking do not do anything that would get Mega man to kill you, "she's usually better behaved than that, I hope" the robot finished icily. Rhythm had the presence of mind to look chagrined.

"Right! I mean, I wouldn't want you, or your cat, to get damaged in any way. It's not really right," said Bebop, keeping a glare pinned on the helpless robocat.

"Yeah, I suppose that's just an easy definition of 'right'," huffed Jazz, reminded of her quandry.

Bebop nodded sympathetically, "Yeah, I've had a problem I've been working on for a few days as well, been having nightmares because of it." Which was basically correct.

"You too?" Jazz said softly, "It's not easy. I mean, I'm feeling hemmed in, and I can't grow at all. Bizarre restrictions all over the place, how can I do any good?"

Bebop looked at Jazz in surprise, "You too? Are you reading my central proc- my mind?" Bebop caught the idiom with a cough. "Sorry, too long in front of a computer."

Jazz wasn't a mere robot, though, and nervous already and brought up a scanning feature, which easily picked up the various systems, like steel frame, that clothes and realistic skin couldn't hide. Jazz froze, I've found a person just like me, and he's working for the opposite side.

Bebop's systems detected the scan, with a few warning lights and pinpointed it back to Jazz, who's eyes, usually brown, seemed to have a slight blue tint due to the scanning systems. Bebop raised his hand, and made his first real choice, "Don't say it. We didn't notice anything okay?"

Jazz froze up for a moment, feeling sudden destructive urges, before she deleted them, hoping it was a program fault she caught in time, "Got it!" she said cheerfully, and then in a more serious tone, "That goes for you as well, Rhythm." The cat meowed, seeming a little drowsy, but probably ready to pounce on Staff.

"Rhythm? Hmm, I see that my father wasn't the only uncreative one. Meet Staff," the boy, well, basically, gestured to the cat, and said, "I'm Bebop, and I don't have your name."

She put her hands up behind her head so her elbows could shield a little of the embarrassment, say what you will, Wiley didn't do a bad job on his robots, and said, "I'm Jazz. You know, the four of us could probably start a band." Bebop smirked, and then lunged as Staff went for Rhythm again.

Meanwhile, Bass, wearing off-duty style clothes, was wandering around with Treble, looking for Jazz, figuring she should have broken all hell loose by now. Then, he caught with a sudden gleam in his eye, Megaman who was coming in the direction looking to get Bebop over to the picnic. Then the two spotted each other, and the fight was on, both going to adapter modes quickly and laying in with everything they could, as was practically a tradition for the two now.

Explosions rocked the park. The two stood up instantly, a good portion of their 'startup' programming dedicated to these situations in their trying times. The two paused, and deliberately looked away from each other as the two brought forth their battle armor, running in opposite directions to give some time. "Come on, Staff, we should find out what's up. And more about Jazz, it's good to have a friend," and Bebop smiled, as he found something in his directives that wasn't related to destruction.

Meanwhile, several innocent trees, and a rather guilty looking bush, had paid the consequences for the Super-Adapter's day out. The two had taken several hits which were slowing them down a bit, but they didn't see any sign of stopping. Meanwhile, our author created characters had wandered up and were at a loss for proper attacking. The two combatants did pick up the beacons of the other robots

"Hah!" said Rock in glee, "Now that Bebop's here, you're ours at last Bass!"

Bass countered, "Oh yeah, with Jazz- oh, wait. Here you are Jazz. I'm supposed to bring you back home. Bye, Mega, kill you next time." With that, the two teleported out.

"What an odd day," commented Megaman as he separated from Rush.

"Brother, you have no idea what kind of understatement you just made," said Bebop empthatically.

Author's notes: I needed to get things moving, and I moved quickly here. My excuse: the innocence of basically fully capable beings suddenly thrust into war (X was a pacifist too, even after Mavericks appeared until after the Hunter attack).