last updated 3.9.17

I created this story off the top of my head, yet there are companies who would want to stifle the fans' creativity. Protect fanbased intellectual rights, the fair use doctrine, and the internet. Protect the Fans.

Radiant Falcon Fan Works #9
Mega Man Eternity Cross

"No matter the circumstances behind the Mega Man franchise and the publisher behind it; no matter what happens to what was once one of the most beloved video game companies of all time; no matter what, there are always fans. Fans who've dedicated their lives to the blue bomber and his future brothers and brothers-in-arms. Fans like you. Fans like me. They can kill Mega Man, but what they cannot kill are the cherished memories we fans have. "

-Quoted from my review of Megaman Legends 3 (the fanfic)

Let's get one thing straight. I love Mega Man. I also love that he's in the next Smash Bros. So that said, why haven't I made a Mega Man fic that does justice to the entire franchise? It's not for a lack of trying; I have written a bit of this stuff before, but it's not published. Maybe later.

This fic is about time. Time travel to be more exact. And since this is about time travel, let's get a few things straight: everything from the original game to the very end of Legends 1 is canonical, meaning Roll Caskett's still looking for her parents and Voulnutt never got shot to the moon. In addition, Mega Man Battle Network is an alternative timeline which will come into play later on. Finally, as you will see in this prologue, Strider Hiryu (you know him) and Pulseman (from the Mega Drive game of the same name) are major characters in this story. So yeah, it's kind of a crossover.


It is the year 20XX. Normally, an intro such as that would elaborate on how different the future is from our current time, but in reality it's the same as every other time in history. People go about their daily lives caring too much about work or something, then a war comes along to remind everyone how good/bad life is before going back to the same old lifestyle of people caring too much about work or something. The only real difference between us and the denizens of the year 20XX are flying cars and androids.

Well, them and the Striders. The Striders, an international organization of pseudo-ninjas, have been around since the 1900s though;so really it's all about the generation you're talking about. These Striders aren't among the most highly trained paramilitary group; they are the most highly trained paramilitary group. Just one sub-C Class Strider could take on a whole team of any given country's Tier 1 Special Forces and win. Of course, Striders are human; they can die like any other one. It's just really really really hard to kill them. In fact, those who are able to kill one are already a part of the organization. One of the more notable Striders is Takeshi Hiryu, an orphan who was put through the program at an early age. His skill was second to none, eventually making it to the A-Class before the tragic death of his sister Maria.(1)

Then he retired from the Striders and lead a quiet life in China for a while, eventually telling a few stories to a visiting manga-ka group by the name of Moto Kikaku(2). And then Mei-oh, the ruler of a faraway planet, struck China, believing it to be the center of the world and thus the ruling capitol. It didn't work, probably because Mei-oh had never read up on Earth, (in actuality: Greenwich, England is the center of the world) but mostly because Hiryu made him and his fortress explode. The Striders shortly pulled him out of retirement, and now he's the younges Special-A Class Strider in the organization's history.

Of course, Hiryu was among the few Striders who have friends outside of the organization, and this is where the Light family comes in. The Striders know of Dr. Thomas X. Light and his various android creations (Rock Light, alias Mega Man, being among them), but Hiryu knew them personally. In fact, he was training Light's 'daughter' Roll in the Strider way. Naturally, androids such as Roll have power beyond normal humans, and he knew this. Androids aren't even supposed to harm humans or let humans come to harm through their inaction, lest they be shut down by the authorities(3); although, the government gave Dr. Light a bit of leeway with this. Their reasoning was thus: since Mega Man wasn't a criminal, nor were his siblings (the whole thing with Dark Man(4) doesn't count), the government decided to not subject them to the First Law(5)

And yet, Mega Man still didn't harm any human. It might have just been in his programming or something along those lines, but he just didn't have it in him to hurt a human. The same thing goes for both his older sibling Blues Light (alias Protoman; the first android), and his younger sibling Roll, although in Roll's case, being a Strider trainee, it was not necessarily required in her job description.

Incidentally, the Laws of Robotics do not apply to those who are only half-android. These human/android hybrids are known as Cyberanimated Lifeforms; C-Life, for short. These are not to be confused with cybernetic organisms (cyborgs), those with robot arms or legs or something (Captain Nathan "Rad" Spencer in the Bionic Commando(6) division of the Area 88(7) Defense Force is a good example, as he has a robot arm and can therefore be considered a cyborg) acting as prosthetics. Without going into specifics, C-Life hearts are mechanical, whereas cyborg hearts are organic.

There are two really good examples of C-Life. One is the superhero Pulseman, whose power comes from an electrical generator in his armor. The other example, and possibly the most well known, is Kalinka Cossack, daughter of robotic-engineer-cum-archaeologist Mikhail Cossack. She's just abnormally smart for a high school sophomore, and also bears a Boston accent, despite hailing from Moscow, Russia. They're also the only examples of C-Life on humans in 20XX.

I say 'in 20XX' because in the future, say around 21XX, C-Life is far more common, though it's still not preferable to staying human. It won't be until much farther in the future that C-Life would be commonplace amongst humans and androids. If you go that far, you'll hardly see any androids anyway. This is partly because of the depletion of the necessary power sources(8), but mostly due to the influence and meddling of the Time Masters. Ever read the Discworld novel Thief of Time? How about Night Watch? Time Masters pretty much are the History Monks from those novels, except most of them aren't monks. They're the protectors of the timeline. These guys make sure things happen -or don't happen- at the right time, though they don't like to intervene... much. They're sort of like the Striders in that they influence events, except that the Striders like to see to things happening personally. This causes a bit of conflict between the two, though normally they keep each other in check.

It's the Time Masters' job to make sure tomorrow happens. Obviously, this causes a bit of problems when time machines are used, such as the Time Skimmer, created by the Chronos Institute. This thing was used by premier mad scientist Dr. Albert Wily, so the Time Master Quincy Sairasu, alias Quint(9), was dispatched to take care of the situation. Posing as a reprogrammed alternate version of Mega Man and hiding in the ranks of Dr. Wily's Robot Masters, he searched for the Time Skimmer and fought his so-called 'double' in the process, losing badly. Naturally, though, he made sure Mega Man found the Time Skimmer and destroyed it.

Generally, though, things have been semi-normal, although things are never quite that simple. An anomaly has occurred within the chronoscopic frameworks(10), and things from future timelines are spilling out into 20XX. This is where our story begins...


EYECATCH

Super Arm Notes

1) This is pretty much the story of the Strider Hiryu Manga, only released in Japan and supposedly the story of the NES game.

2) Moto Kikaku were the guys who created -in part- the character of Strider Hiryu

3) ever heard of the Isaac Asimov story I, Robot? it's like that.

4) as seen in Mega Man 5, where Protoman was framed by Dark Man as the perpretrator of various robot-related crimes and even having his own Robot Masters

5) "A robot must never harm a human being"; the first of three laws of robotics that Asimov himself wrote, and have since been adopted into canon.

6) a Bionic Commando, in this story, is a cyborg in the Earth Defense division of the military. I really don't need to explain the reference here, do I?

7) Area 88, or UN Squadron in North America, is an awesome shoot-em-up from Capcom based on a manga that sadly isn't the best SHMUP in the world like ScrewAttack said it was. No, that would be Radiant Silvergun.

8) This is nothing like what happens on Earth at all. We've still got another thirty years left of oil, I'd wager.

9) Yes, this is the same Quint from Rockman World 2 (Mega Man II on the Game Boy), but with one difference: that stupid pogo stick is not involved.

10) a fancy word for time-space continuum

Character Spotlight

DRN-001 Rock Light

"Mega Man, the Blue Bomber"
THEME A: "BLUE BOMBER" - Mega Man Theme (Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes)
THEME B - "BLUE GUARDIAN" - Bloodlines (Akumajo Dracula X: Rondo of Blood)

Rock Light is an android whose alter-ego, Mega Man, has been protecting Neo Tokyo for ten years, stopping the nefarious Dr. Albert Wily each and every time. His signature weapon, the Mega Buster, is a semi-automatic arm cannon with one-loop charge capability. He can also take the data of defeated robot masters, using that data as his special weapons. His traditional loadout includes Tornado Hold, Leaf Shield, Slash Claw and Astro Crush (which acts as a giga buster move), but he typically cannot charge special weapons for greater effects.

MESSAGE FROM DOCTOR LIGHT

One of my beloved creations, Rock, and his brother-in-arms Syakuei Yoshiyama jump head-first into a brand new adventure. The first stop is my old laboratory in Japan; where Punk, created by my former colleague Albert Wily, had stole a file regarding weapon systems from the computer there.

?: "Well considering you and I are a team, it's kinda unavoidable. I'm more worried about what Punk took."

The next episode is entitled "Intro Stage". Stay tuned for further messages.

Until next time, folks: Protect the Fans. Stay Radiant.