Crimson Striker Zero

by verifiaman

Zero, on the run from Neo Arcadia after the events of Zero 1 with the real X tagging along, find themselves on another interdimensional adventure unlike anything they've ever experienced, a mix of old and new that will leave them confused and at times, confuddled. And unbeknownst to them, they're not alone.

1. Renewal Part 1

I've been wanting to make this fic for a long time. Three Inti-Creates series in one story, with the inspiration being those namco bandai crossover games. Now that I have the fully translated version of Gunvolt, and more writing experience, I feel comfortable posting this. It's rough in places, mainly the descriptions and parts of the narrative(not very good with describing things) but I'm proud of what I have here.

Mega Man Zero is property of Capcom. Azure Striker Gunvolt an GalGun are property of Inticreates. I don't own any of these.

"Bored...so bored.." A young teenage boy in a hammock stared dully at the holo screen floating in front of him, a bag of potato chips in one hand and the other busy typing rapidly on the screen in front of him. He was 14, with bright blue eyes that were seemingly stuck in a perpetual droop. He had sandy -blonde hair, somewhat spiky with a large bang swept over his eye. He wore bright blue headphones over his ears, and wore blue swimming trunks. "Nova better hurry up with that patch.."

His name was Merak, also known as the Slothful Conjurer, and one of the Sumeragi's Seven Swordsman. And right now he was suffering the nightmare all hardcore MMO players had to endure: waiting for the game and it's servers to update, which meant he had to go over the report detailing the construction progress of that submarine that Nova wanted built, a day earlier than he planned.

"Construction of Docking Bay 16 is complete, check the energy shielding on tunnel 15..." He yawned. He snapped his fingers, causing a small, swirling blue portal to appear by his side. This was his Septima, Wormhole, which allowed him to open up holes in space-time to any destination. There were strict limits, like not being able to go to places he hasn't physically been for example, but it was a handy tool to dump things on the underlings Nova gave him when he didn't feel like doing the work himself. He reached into it and pulled out a portable gaming device, the Sumeragi Utility Combat Klepto (Named by him of course, he got to name all of Sumeragi's new tech as part of his contract) "Might as well play a portable game or something.." He said with a shudder. As he pondered whether he should bother changing the acronym of the device to something more obscene and stupid, his wormhole uddenly turned red and shot out green energy, causing him to jump and fall onto the sand face first. "What the heck..?" He spat the sand out of his mouth and looked at his portal. He attempted to close it, but it just got bigger and bigger with each try.

"This isn't good.." He turned on the S.U.C.K, pressing a special button on the side of the device. It was never to be pressed unless he had a report to be submitted or if there was an emergency, and this was definitely an emergency. Anything that could affect his Septima like this would require either Nova in a good mood, or a good amount of ass kissing to the higher ups to disable his powers.

[Ah, Merak-san.] The polite, almost impossible to anger tone of Nova Tsukiyomi always put the Seven Swordsman, along with anyone who worked under them, on edge. And given what was happening in front of Merak right now, he was definitely feeling the pressure. [I take it you've noticed the dimensional anomaly, right?]

"You too, huh?"

[It's quite hard not to notice. We were in the middle of recruiting a new Adept into our ranks when the area around us turned into a carnival funhouse.] Merak heard laughter in the background. [Also, Jota-san has de-aged and is in the process of trying to molest my female form.]

"Uhhh..." Merak would make a gay joke about how the Shining Sentinel's near obsessive loyalty to their boss, but there was something else that he needed to ask. "Are you..?"

[Yes, I've changed too., and it's quite obvious that I'm cognizant of the changes] Merak heard a slapping sound. [Sorry about that, he was reaching his hand into my bra.]

"...You're a girl."

[Yes. Can't you tell by the change in my pitch?]

"No." He sounded just the same!

She let out an airy, un-Nova laugh, causing Merak to blanch. He'd seen enough genderbent pics online to know that this was utterly revolting to him. [It seems I've become quite the attractive woman.] She sighed.[It's a good thing for you that my Glaives suppress the negative aspects of my personality in this anomaly. I know it's not your fault that this is happening, but if I was my true self, I would fly over there and crush you with a skyscraper out of sheer anger for your laziness. Honestly, if I could guess who's behind this, it's probably those Eden-] The world flashed green, and suddenly Jota's adult screams of horror filled Merak's ears.

[N-NOVA -SAMA!] The Shining Sentinel blubbered to the once again male head of the Diva Project. [WHAT HAVE I DOOONNEE?!] Merak heard Nova sigh in annoyance.

"Geez, he's loud!" Merak hissed. "Look,I kinda need you to activate the Full Lock function on my Glaive. This anomaly screwed up my powers real good, and now one of my wormholes is growing a wee bit too big for my liking."

[Impossible. Ame no MuraKumo has just been damaged.] Nova warned. [And right now I'm feeling anger towards my sudden gender change. It seems this anomaly is affecting Sumeragi technology as well. We should-] Merak heard a phone ringing on the other end. [Uh-huh..I see... put the video on screen, now.]

'Is that Zonda?' Merak thought as the video played on the other end. 'Thank god I can't see that freak.' He still had nightmares of that freak's male form waking up in his bed. Why, Merak didn't know, but it was funny Wormholing him into the bed of one of the scientists. 'Yeah, that's definitely Zonda, all right. Love, love, love, oh my god will you shut-"

[And with that, I have made a temporary base in Sinner's Row.] Merak froze, an unnatural cold passing through his body. 'Who is that?!' That sounded nothing like Zonda. It didn't even sound human! The voice sounded like a little girl, but the tone and affecation sounded like someone who didn't understand basic human mannerisms!]

And it seemed Nova agreed. [Ughhh, I get the point, turn it off, NOW!]

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

[Good news, Merak-san, You were right about the attack by Eden last year being nothing buta diversion. The head office received confirmation on one of our own being an Eden spy-]

"WAS THAT ZONDA?!"

[...Yes. I never thought I'd want to listen to that disgusting love diatrbies clogging my comm channels again. How did you figure it out?]

"Well, I don't know, maybe that because she was a sadomasochistic love freak that can change genders as well as make mirrors with dubiously undefinable uses yet scans of their body only showed one Septima with no genetic enhancements?! Geez, no wonder she chose that personality! I don't even think she even understands all that love crap she kept spouting out! How'd those idiots at the top figure it out?!

[She transformed into an underage girl a few minutes ago.]

"...How does a mirror Septima-"

[I know. Ridiculous. But it happened, right in front of the Glaive Control Center's manager. She didn't even realize it at first, so it was quite jarring to hear that annoyingly perverted, bombastic voice change into one of the most detached, emotionless tone and expression I had ever heard or seen in my life. Her appearance perfectly matched up with what one of our spies in QUILL's middle eastern branch gave us. She's more than a spy for Eden, she's the leader of Eden, who went under the alias Pantera during her takeover of Tanshkent.]

Merak heard a loud thud on the other end. [Interesting. if you'll excuse me, Merak-san, your little hacking buddy just fell from the sky. Jota's too traumatized by what just happened, so I'll have to take care of him myself.] He sighed with relief, stretching his back [Urghh..Thank god I don't have those things on my chest anymore. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to vent some anger for what just happened to me.] The line went dead.

Merak sighed. "Well, orders are orders. Not staying here to see what'll pop out of that wormhole." He raised his hand up into the air and began to recite the password to summon his Glaive, Unwavering Spirit.

Light whose fell pillars

Leave rifts in the wider world

And lead it toward ruin!

A black, triangular sword appeared in his hand. It had an bright blue, upside down Y shape running down the blade, bright blue in the center of the chap, and two blue lines running down the angular crossguard. A black aura appeared around Merak, swirling around his body like a tornado for a few seconds before exploding, leaving Merak in his Sumeragi issued battle armor, which gave him blue horns sticking out of his head, blue pupils, and black sclera. The armor also served to augment his (pitiful) phsysical capabilities and leave him with the ability to increase the power of his wormholes. And since he had this extra power...

"Come on.." Merak muttered, focusing all of his mental power on the growing wormhole, only for nothing to happen. "Well,. It was worth a shot. Knew it was pointless, but didn't hurt to try.." He held his hands out, which was the command to summon his Sumeagi issued battle chair..but nothing came out. "Well...shoot." He looked at the wormhole, and then at the city in the distance across the water. "...Shit.." There was nothing but deep cliffs under the water, which led to high pressure water. And while his suit was given a breathing apparatus in the off chance there was a flood during the submarine construction, but it couldn't protect him from the intense pressure. "Well, I'm boned." He said with a shrug, plopping down on the ground. "Might as well go out doing what I sort of love freaking hate portable games..." He plopped down onto the sand and pressed an icon on the S.U.C.K to play a retro game he downloaded onto it, only to get the worst thing that could happen to a portable gamer on the go:

Dead batteries.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

-Z- -Z- -Z-

Loading mission: Renewal.

Zero travels the endless desert, the vengeance of Neo Arcadia trailing him everywhere he went. But once again, time and space bend to an unknown will, turning the barren desert into a bountiful ocean.

-Z- -Z- -Z-

The barren, dry, hot wasteland outside Neo Arcadia was inhospitable to humans and some Reploids. The temperature out there was hotter than the former Sahara Desert in the summer, the air had a slightly toxic taint, there were rogue Mechanaloids from the Elf Wars still left around, some of them from Neo Arcadia itself, used to guard illegal storage depots for the city's less scrupulous citizens. And right now, one of these depots were under attack. For the past half year, Zero had been on the run from Neo Arcadia for killing their supposed leader, or if you believed the Neo Arcadian media, incapacitated 'X', who drove him off, but not until he activated the self destruct protocol for 'X's' chambers, severely injuring the city's beloved leader and costing Neo Arcadia billions in damages.

So as an 'apology', mostly a reason to get Neo Arcadia off of the Resistance's back and to refuel his slowly depleting Energen supply, he decided to go on a bit of vigilante spree, taking the data stolen from Area X and traveling through the endless desert, choosing to dodge Pantheons and the occasional Mutos Reploid, and using said data to look for the illegal storage depots, seeing as how the remaining three military forces were unable to do anything about legally. Whoever owned them must have had an immense amount of pull if they could do something this blatant and reign in trigger happy Fefnir and Leviathan.

The storage depot under attack was a 2 floor, cylindrical underground facility, meant to distribute hundreds upon hundreds of illegal Reploid and Mechanaloid generators straight under the Guardian's noses. The organization that owned this particular depot had it connect to other depots via old fashioned railway system, powered by snyth-coal so as to not alert Neo Arcadia about an illegal use of Energen. The trains were perfect replicas of the trains used during the pre Civil War era of the United States, a personal favorite of the owner, sculpted down to the last detail and worth millions of E-crystals..

..and one of them was just smashed to bits, going off the tracks as it approached it's stop and slamming into a large scorpion Mechanaloid. The robotic arthropod caught it in it's pincers, legs digging into the ground to slow the moving obstacle, when all of a sudden a red figure jumped out of one of the train cars, landing on the head of the distracted Mechanaloid and stabbing it straight where it's main CPU was, shutting it down. "Well that's one thing I can cross off my bucket list." Plus he recorded it too! That Menart kid that he found before he faced the beetle guy, whatever his name was, will enjoy this! He was one of the few Resistance members to listen to Zero's story of the Elf Wars without succumbing to some level of depression. Honestly, Zero didn't understand why Ciel tried putting him in therapy; a Reploid that threw children like Shuriken was more darkly comical than horrible. "Hey X, how's the datamine coming along?"

X's voice came in over Zero's communication system. [88% done, Zero. I have to wipe any traces of our involvement and make sure the Rekku Gundan squadron in the area receive the information.]

"Good," Zero said. Without looking behind him, he punched a Pantheon Guardian that attempted to stab him with it's electric club. "I'm gonna cut the power after I eat."

[You haven't recharged yet?!] X yelled in outrage. [Zero, I told you this plenty of times, you have to watch your energy levels!]

"I was going to,but I can't watch my energy levels if I can't replenish my energy. The E-crystals in the desert are useless, and the last thing I want is to learn if this body can get indigestion." He sighed, rushing towards a group of Pantheons that appeared out of a cargo elevator and began taking them all down with his fists. "It's a good thing whoever owns these depots didn't spring for a Golem or an Orochi Arm." Losing his weapon to the last giant Mechanaloid was a blow he still hadn't recovered from(though not as hard a blow as having his holsters forcibly removed from him by bandit Reploids during a system cleaning). His Z-Saber was a part of him, and Jackie Channing his enemies just didn't have the same feel as cutting them down.

Zero looked around the elevator until eh found the control pad. "Gonna see where this goes. Be right back." He typed a command on the pad, bringing up a holoscreen that displayed the list of floors. "This place goes farther down than we thought." He pressed the icon labeled 'F3' causing the elevator door to close, descending further down in the base. "Five floors unlisted on the schematics."

[That doesn't make any sense. I checked everything in this facility's databanks, and nothing suggests there would be a need to hide seven whole floors.]

"Whoever owns this place must have a lot of pull in Neo Arcadia." Zero said as the third floor came into view. "I don't think a simple mob or organization could make all this."

[All what?]

"There's an entire Energ-" Zero paused, pupils shrunken before his eyes dulled. He fell to the ground screaming, his vision going green as countless error messages filled his vision, complimented by just as many download prompts. "ARGHHHH"

[Downloading system update 4.2]

[Downloading Movement System update 1 of 4]

'NOT AGAIN!' Zero meant to say, not surprised that he thought it instead of spoke it. Once again, he couldn't feel his limbs or see the world outside the constant stream of error messages. "Just a few more...seconds!" Suddenly he could see again, a dull pain pulsing throughout his body as he realized the elevator had stopped on the 3rd floor...he thought. "X!"

[Y-yeah, I know..] The Cyber Elf said, tired and panting heavily. [I had the same thing happen to me too. This..was the-] He took a deep breath. [-Fifth time today!]

Zero got his bearings as the pain subsided, getting up off the ground. "The Energen lab's not here anymore." He closed his eyes, turning on his sonar for a few seconds. "And no Pantheons..there are six unidentifiables coming my way. Their footsteps are too light to be basic Pantheon models, and they're moving too fast and efficiently to be Pantheons."

[That's what I get for making them on a shoestring budget.] X said with a sigh. [Hold on a second.] He went silent, appearing to Zero's side a second later. "By the way, we're underwater now." Zero muted his yell so as not to draw more attention. "When that data upload happened, this facility's computer systems notified me of a geothermal valve that came loose and asked if I should reinforce the plasma pressure shielding."

"What?" Plasma Pressure Shielding was used for deep sea facilities as a cheap way to protect against underwater pressure. Either he or X would've detected if any shielding was active, and they certainly would've known if this facility connected to the ocean. "So we experience a sharp jolt of pain and suddenly we're teleported underwater. Am I getting that right?"

"Yes. not to mention the fact that the computer registered zero contaminants in the water. It's almost as though the ocean isn't polluted."

Zero sighed. "So that means that we either travelled back in time or we landed in another dimension."

"It's probably safe to say it's the latter, given our past experiences. We're not lucky enough to travel back in time."

"Yep." The footsteps got closer, enough so that Zero's basic audio receptors could pick them up. "Get the camo up and let's see what we've landed into this time." He really hoped it wasn't another dimensional anomaly. Last time it happened was in his Maverick Hunter days, and he nearly got dissected by a human girl with Lego men, him and X nearly got taken by some organization named S.I.N, not to mention that fox girl did something to his hair that made it form into Pippi Longstocking braids after he insulted her less than stellar figure and called her a spank happy masochist.

I really have gotten a new respect for the flat chested. He thought as X turned him invisible, a certain French teenager and her Resistance group on the mind. I hope to god they're all right.

The six unidentifables came to the elevator, all of them dressed in green armor, with orange and green helmets that obscured their faces. They all had huge, white rifles, Zero and X sighing silently in disgust. Not only were the energy readings on those things basically a giant beacon allowing anyone with a smidgen of knowledge of basic tracking systems to find anyone wielding those bulky things, but because of the energy output on those things, the shot output would be terrible! At least one shot could be fired every few seconds, compared to the Pantheon Hunter's multiround shooting capabilities. At least the armor looked more durable than the base Pantheon models.

"There's no one here!" One of the men exclaimed as X and Zero walked past the group undetected. "We all heard it right?!"

"I heard it!"

"Me too!"

One of the soldiers sighed. "God damn I hate these suits! Bad enough they suck fighting against Reploids-" Zero and X stopped and turned around. "-But they don't even have basic visual spectrum detectors!"

"We're meant to be cannon fodder, not special ops." The soldier sighed. "Let's just get the security chief down here. Whoever made that scream's probably invisible or something." X and Zero looked at each other and nodded, slowly walking down the tunnel and further away from the troops.

-Z- -Z- -Z-

"I'm still logged into the system." X said to Zero when they were far enough from the soldiers. "I've downloaded all the files onto my CPU and am currently decrypting them. I'll give them to you for download once I'm done."

"Thanks." Zero said as the two came out of the somewhat dark tunnel and into a lit tunnel. The tunnel was made of transparent domed glass, coated with clear hexagon shaped energy. The dark blue sea and undersea creatures were a welcome sight for the war veterans, having missed the sight. They could see that the tunnel connected to a giant undersea mountain, and it wasn't the only one; dozens of transparent tunnels connected to the mountain to various underwater buildings, some two stories high, some three, and some deep underground given that a few of the tunnels went into the ground.

"Impressive." Zero said as they walked in the tunnel. "What type of evil organization do you think we're going to fight this time? Something with a good public persona? Evil genius with too much time on his hands? Some form of the Illuminati?"

"All three in this case. This base belongs to a conglomerate called Sumeragi." Zero looked at X as he suddenly found himself visible. "I wasted too much energy, sorry. Anyway, Sumeragi has been active since the Heian period, experimenting with this concept called the Lifewave."

"Some sort of supernatural force that gives superpowers?"

"Yes. The important thing to know is that those with the strongest connection to the Lifewave are known as Adepts. They're like the X-men you fought in that one tournament, only a lot more fantastical with their powers. And it seems that the Adepts follow the same theme as in our dimension; 7 of them in charge of important government facilities, with the strongest of them leading the seven. The Adept in charge of this facility is known as Merak, nicknamed the Slothful Conjurer. His power, or Septima as they're called here, is that he can make holes in space-time and go anywhere he wants."

"So he'd probably ambush us with a portal or something."

"Actually, he's been MIA for an hour. He was supposed to report in, but he hasn't."

"Huh. You think it's related to the dimensional-AUGHHHHH!" The two fell to the ground screaming, their vision filled with green and error messages once again as more files downloaded themselves into their systems.

-Z- -Z- -Z-

"I HATE RUNNING!" Merak yelled as he ran off of the beach and into the city that appeared from that last green flash. He was despairing over not having anything to do while waiting for death when all of a sudden, a large city appeared out of nowhere, connecting to the beach with the buildings looking more advanced than anything in Japan. He was glad ot have a place to escape to and get away from the giant wormhole of death...

...And then a Molten Tigrex with rocket launchers on it's back jumped out of the portal and began spewing fireballs everywhere. He still couldn't believe this was happening. A Molten Tigrex with rocket launchers on it's back came out of a dimensional wormhole! He knew he shouldn't be shocked. After all, he had to work with Teseo to get Zonda, Jota, Viper, and that druggie from the Pharma Lab out of that strange eight bit dimension, the fervent nature Teseo showed giving credence to Merak's theory that one of the four sucked into that world was a spy. After all, why would he hack into Sumeragi's server with the intention of helping four of the most dangerous Adepts in Sumeragi? Maybe because that video game character, Eko-something, was in there with Gunvolt.

But that was then; this was now, and right now he was focusing on trying not to crap his suit and getting the hell away from the fire breathing, missile shooting super dino. It was only thanks to his suit that he was able to outrun the Tigrex without expending energy, and he did not want to see how well the thing would hold up from the monster's explosive claws.

"Come on, WORK!" He yelled, holding his hands out to summon his chair. Once again, nothing happened. "DAMN IT!"

-Z- -Z- -Z-

"GOD DAMN IT!" Zero yelled, not caring who heard as his vision came back online. "WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?!"

"I-I don't know.." X said through panting breaths. "C-can you open the files downloaded?"

"I CAN'T EVEN FIND THEM!" Zero yelled back as the six soldiers from before ran into tunnel from the way the two came "OH GOODIE, THERE'S SOMETHING TO HIT!" He dashed straight into them and before they could even aim their weapons, he disarmed all six and resorted to very violently(an out of characterly) beat them within an inch of their lives with his bare hands. Each strike was aimed perfectly at various points of their armor, and by the time he was done, they were nothing but bloody, unconscious wrecks. "Ha...Ha..."

"...Z-Zero-?"

"Those updates are messing with my brain." Zero warned, grabbing one of the guns off of the bloodied soldiers. "I knew they were human, but I couldn't stop myself. And those strikes..it was as if I knew where the armor's weaknesses were. I'm feeling incredibly violent right now, X. I haven't felt this angry since that time Menart and Alouette cut my hair and dyed my jumpsuit pink."

"Oh...shoot." There was a small silence for a few seconds. No one messed with Zero's hair, not even X or Ciel. "So..I'll get to decrypting those files and try to find a way to get us out of here."

"You do that. Maybe it'll help us figure out why I have an HP counter on my heads up display."

(ATTENTION ALL TROOPS!) A loud voice blared on the intercom, the tunnel turning red as a loud alarm rang throughout it. (ZERO THE CRIMSON STRIKER HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN TUNNEL 23-A! REQUESTING ALL AVAILABLE PERSONELL TO APPREHEND THE TERRORIST!)

"Huh. I have quite the reputation in this new world if I have a moniker like that" Zero said, a uncharacteristically manic grin on his normally blank face, as if he discovered the joy of raw, bloody fighting for the first time. Suddenly the image of a deck of cards appeared on his HUD. "What the heck is this?" As he tried to figure out what the icon was, X's attention was turned to the outside of the tunnel by a large shadow. It was serpentine in nature, an alligator or crocodile like body with numerous spikes on it's back crackling with electricity. 'What the heck is that?'

As the beast passed over the tunnel, six more armored troopers came in, two colored red with flamethrowers, and one yellow with a pink energy shield on one arm. "It's the Crimson Striker! Open fire!"

Zero swiped the card icon away as he jumped back continuously to avoid the very slow gunfire, putting the large gun on the magnetic pad on his back where he kept his old Z-Buster. 'Odd.' He thought as he stare at the guns. 'The energy blast from those guns is similar to my Buster. Which means if I get one of those guns and pour my own energy into it's core..' He smiled as he heard a large hum emenating from the weapon. "Perfect." He got as far as the other end of the tunnel before opening fire. With the energy poured into the gun, a single large beam, almost as big as his body, shot out of the gun and at the troops.

"Nice try!" The shield troop yelled, getting in front of the group and extending his energy shield to block and absorb the shot. "Bette luck next time, Crimson Striker!" The energy blast hit the shield, causing a massive amount of smoke from the impact, blinding the troops. "We learned our lesson from the power plant! And don't even think of using the smoke to get the jump on us! We laced the energy beams of our shots with Energen absorbing particles! Stay in here too long, and you'll start losing your energy!" The smoke began to clear. "And with the energy in this shield, I can-"

"He's gone."

The shield trooper shrunk his shield back to it's default size to find that yes, Zero had run away. "Son of a bitch...AFTER HIM!"