Descent into INSANITY
By Cyrus E. Koldstone
*This follows my own take on what happened during that infamous battle against Wily's final creation and the implications it would come to have*
I am the walking Scythe.
The immortal weapon which guides all living beasts to their final destination of death and oblivion.
I am the last of my kind, the final part of a long disassembled puzzle known as a ROBOT.
A creation from before the times when Reploids roamed the planet and had free will upon them, a messenger from an era of both harmony and chaos.
And yet
I too was the first to transcend the limitations of both human and machine; to become at the same instance neither and both of the halves.
I have become that which is the true embodiment of the words "Cybernetic Organism"; a being that is both machine and human at the same time.
A true Cyborg in the purest sense of the word.
I am a weapon of destruction aimed at either peace or war; neither are my friends or foes, just my duties as a warrior.
At one time I was the greatest warrior their ever was, even could be called a "hero" for the sake of what I did. Who am I to say whether I was or was not? I performed what was asked of me to the greatest extent of my abilities and got the job done.
But that was so long ago…
So many died….
SO MANY DIED BY MY HANDS!
Why did I have to assume this role of a destroyer?! Why was my goal in life to destroy all that was around me that dared to defy what was preached as right?! Everywhere I was sent, someone would die at my hand.
A blue bomb to be repeatedly dropped into life and utterly destroy all those that dared to oppose the messengers who had sent it.
I had no control over it then; my directives were to serve the humans as I was ordered to and perform my goals as best I could.
But that doesn't mean I had to enjoy what I did. So much destruction and chaos had been laid in my wake as I strove for peace and justice.
Who has the right to impose upon someone else what they believe to by fair and just; and who am I to enforce that justice?
I was nothing more than a glorified weapon!
My radiant sapphire armor and energy weapon had no equal in existence for the time; and I was content with that.
Yet now… Now I have become something else. With the death of those I cared for deeply at the hands of the one I had defeated for so long; the truth was finally revealed to me. Pain surged through my mind as my CPU struggled to find balance between its Prime Directives and that of its Human Ethics and Ideals.
I held the bodies of my dying sister and creator; killed at the hands of final act of horror by a man whose single goal was to enslave the planet.
His legacy had survived… but they did not….
And in a way neither did I….
My mind found the truth and created its own single Prime Directive.
SURVIVE
One single word; yet in itself containing all the basis, fundamental motivation and core processing rules that my advanced positronic brain would need to exist in this world.
Above me the lava continued to flow out of the dormant volcano of Mt Fuji, submersing the house in its lava; but I could hear none of it.
My mind was truly for the first time beginning to understand what it had been craving all these years of life:
The ability to choose.
I now no longer had the frail limitations of a ROBOT. My organic based brain accepted the cybernetic rules set within my core being, and I was free…
But the pain still remained.
I couldn't stop crying for a long time after the cataclysm struck Tokyo; I was there, buried within the heart of our home; covered in under a hundred feet of sediment and boiling magma.
I too was damaged, but was changed. I was now far beyond those of normal ROBOTS and far more dangerous as well.
I knew the world above me had died in the cataclysm, but I needed to find a way out of this insanity.
The doctor had constructed one final device in case such a thing had occurred
He called it the Second Chance: A Quantum Warp Teleportation engine.
Its sole purpose? To transport one person out of a desolate world and to within 100 years of the present date at any location that could be observed by satellites in orbit.
I knew that the risk in this was great; that no one had ever tested the SC for fear of having their atoms scattered across the time/space continuum.
But I could not stay there.
Rummaging though the darkness of the old lab and house, now that sun light could no longer penetrate through the foreboding layers of still molten magma; I found supplies that I might need in order to survive in this new unseen era.
As I searched, I found that the doctor had kept his greatest achievements locked within the vault of the lab. Opening the thick door with a well placed Buster blast, I stepped into the gapping hole of the vault door and into the greatnesses that my father had created.
Now the vault was no simple room; it was a connected shaft that led down to an old catacomb of reinforced shielding and metal plates; strong enough to deter a concentrated nuclear blast even if it was detonated directly in the city.
I searched out the vast area, finding what pieces and tools I could along the way.
Energy Cells here, regeneration cores there… it was all stuff I would never need in this future.
But there was one thing in there that I found which I never would have believed existed.
A new age Enhancement Attack Suit, or EAS for short; the Doc had planned to incorporate it into his new X Project that he had been working on before his death.
At the time I didn't know who or what X was, but the armor itself was powerful enough beyond my own abilities to warrant a taking.
So grasping it in my arms; I headed back up to where the SC was located in the main room and prepared for my trip into the future.
Reaching the main room again, I carefully put on the attachments of the suit.
The Enhanced greaves and gauntlets all boosted my power and speed beyond anything I could have imagined possible; even changing the abilities of my Buster by fitting it with a new age Ion Generator.
Yet, something inside of me was different as I strapped on this new incredible armor.
I liked the idea of all this power now, all of the possibilities that I could create with this new force…
Had something else inside of me changed when the Doctor had died?
I shrugged it off and continued fitting myself with the chest plate and other adjustments.
The new armor had a power redirection manifold laced into the metal plates; meaning that if I took fire from energy blasts they would be scattered across the chest area and their attack power reduced.
I had to hand it to the Doc, he knew his mechanics.
Finally I was done; and it felt good.
The new red armor bonded itself with my old blue frame and had shifted within each other; as if trying to find a balance to coexist and remain intact but greater.
Finally, they had found one… a deep shade of fuchsia purple.
A new color for a new being.
I stepped up onto the platform and took in a breath.
With the slowed motion of one not sure of what cards fate was about to deal them; I pressed the teleportation button on the transporter.
PAIN!
Indescribable pain and agony whipped around me as I traveled across the vastness of time.
It was not a single path, but all points of time existing as one in unity with each other. Even though there was no physical contact on my body, I could feel the immense pain that all living things were feeling for each other.
It was overwhelming, for it was not a describable pain that one could relate to and cope with; but more so just a raw surge of emotions flowing into my mind.
I felt the pain of those that I had destroyed and those of people who had lost loved ones during the ROBOT wars.
I never knew…
Never could have known that there was this much hurtfulness in the world from which I had come.
Then suddenly, I felt a tear roll through my body.
At the time I thought that I was being pulled in every direction at once, but in fact I was returning to the normal flow of time.
100 years in the future.
I had blacked out from the intensity of it all; something I didn't know ROBOTS were capable of doing.
But like I had said, I wasn't a ROBOT.
Gunfire….
Screams of anguish and destruction…
I heard them, but where was it coming from?
Slowly opening my eyes, I found I was lying in a pile of sand in the middle of a desert town. Quickly I shot up to my feet and my senses were alert once more.
Was I alive? Had I survived the trip through time?
DANGER
A ping went off in my mind; a sixth sense I had developed all those years fighting against Wily in the wars.
I turned my head to see it and could sense that something was hiding behind the side of a wall a little down the street.
I didn't know what it was, but I knew that it was after me.
My muscles tensed on the instinct, and the most amazing happened.
The EAS sprung to life, encasing me in the formerly concealed super metal and powering all my weapons.
To which of my surprise I found that I had more than one.
Metallic shoulder plates cascaded away from my arms, protecting the exposed pivoting joint from any form of attack.
A previously unknown shoulder cannon revealed itself from a compartment on my back; lengthening and swiveling to take aim at my foe.
I could feel melee energy weapons stored within my gauntlets and a pair of high velocity movement engines embedded within my soles.
Lastly a set of enveloping plates folded around my head; stopping to create a visor and mouth slit that ran down my skull.
My eyes were now glowing with a bright crimson flare from under this new purple helmet; taking in the thermoptic and x-ray vision my new enhanced eyes could detect.
A map appeared in my sight; showing me where all these "foes" were located.
Only twenty, I had thought, that's bad planning on their part.
Raising both of my arms; I activated my new Ion blaster in my right hand and ejected an energy staff into my left. The cannon on my shoulder swiveled around, trying to gain a target in the best way so as to cripple that first foe so I could proceed quickly to the next.
I remembered firing a single condensed energy shot at the wall my foe stood behind.
The attack poured through the fragile metallic frame and severed my enemy in two.
Activating the acceleration engine in my boots, I blazed down toward where my fallen foe lay.
Quickly reaching him, I noticed that he resembled that of a human… but yet that of a machine as well.
Seeking further answers; I grasped his head and initiated a memory dump into my own.
It all spread out before me:
The history of the world since my departure.
The discovery of someone called Mega Man X and the creation of a new race of beings called REPLOIDS.
I saw the malice that this being I had just slain had toward humans and those of its own kind; but also I noticed that it had these feelings because it chose to have them, not because someone had thrust them upon it.
I felt nothing for this machine; this REPLOID.
All I wanted to do now was fight, and more of his kind was out there, attacking other REPLOIDS called Hunters.
I ignited my energy staff; its crimson power pulsing away from my hand.
I felt the bloodlust rise within me and I blazed off once more into the fray.
I remember little of what had happened next; but I do remember seeing the other 17 of those REPLOIDS fall by my hand.
After it was all over, a stunningly huge bald Reploid came forth from a group and approached me.
Seeing as that he posed no immediate threat, I powered down my offensive systems and let my weapons conceal them selves once more.
Just as the last system was retreating into submission, the computer within my mind began to retract the helmet and visor from my sweaty and tired face.
But I let it stay to where it was.
I was new to this world and would feel better under a mask rather than exposing myself to the unknown just yet.
The bald Reploid walked directly up in front of me and crossed his hands over his chest.
I took note of the energy saber he hung from his wait belt, but had no fear of this man.
"I've been watching you fight from the monitors in my transport," he said to me; a smug and yet envious tone in his almost human sounding voice. "You single handedly destroyed 18 Mavericks all by yourself. Quite impressive, not many have that raw fighting skill. What unit are you from soldier?"
I starred at him for a bit, taking in his question and considering a response.
"I have no unit."
The tall man flinched a bit, someone surprised by my answer.
"What do you mean no Hunter unit? No normal Reploid fights that well without some sort of formal training in them… What's your name boy?"
That had done it.
Without realizing it, my entire defense system snapped to life; revealing my weapon arrays and fully powering my adaptive armor.
The shoulder cannon quickly telescoped into its full length and pointed itself at the man's head.
"One: don't call me boy..."
I fired off a single shot past the tip of the man's head.
He didn't flinch, but slightly showed a sly grin for my action, as if pleased that I had the gusto to openly fire upon him.
"Two: You can call me Vile"