The SPARROWS' living-legend

Metal Slug belongs to SNK Playmore. I own nothing but the character made for the story

Within the SPARROWS Base, a male cadet walked through the hallways, with a large hiking-type bag in both of his hands. He had blonde, short but spiky hair, blue eyes, a beige skin. He wore a short black sleeved military jacket with two little pockets on each side of the front jacket. He wore a white T-Shirt, blue pants with a brown belt, and black converse shoes. Judging by the looks he was given by soldiers in hallways, he didn't look like he was military-ready.

He made it to the end of the hall and stared at the door on the right. It read, Room 251. He was on the 3rd floor. He brought out the key he was given and unlocked it. Upon opening the door, he discovered the room was like he expected: Lame and Empty. He found a bed that at least looked comfortable and a desk, closet and bathroom. He tossed his bag on the desk and flopped on the bed, his hands covering his face. He sighed the heaviest sigh he could, but no one seemed to hear him.

"This sucks..."

He released his hands from his eyes and stared at ceiling.

"Those jerks purposely sent me here!", he thought. "They knew I was supposed to be sent to the Peregrine Falcons Squad, but they instead sent me to S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S.! I knew rumors that some males were jokingly sent here and later on sent to the PF Squad, but I never knew that some men were STUCK here! And I'm one of those men stuck here! Ugh! Frustrating..."

He was angry at the staff in charge of recruiting soldiers into the Regular Army. They did this type of stunt almost everytime a male wants to join the Regular Army.

He didn't really question how quickly he joined the military though. It took him a day. Odd right? He had assumed the Regular Army took the saying, "We take all that we can." He supposed that even those with no battle experience nor medical experience could join which was an odd type of system. The system was already corrupt enough.

Two knocks came at his door along with the voice from the other side.

"Is anyone inside?"

The man got up and sat on the edge of the bed, saying, "Its open."

The door opened and came a female. She wore a cap, had glasses, yellow/gold-ish eyes, and red hair tied into a ponytail. She wore a brownish military vest and a short white T-Shirt. She wore brown shorts kneepads and military boots. Her name was Fiolina Germi, or "Fio" for short.

"Hello, my name is Fio."

"Hi."

She sat next to him with a paper and clipboard in hand. She stared at the man.

"I'm going to list of the information about you, given to me from the recruit office. You can stop me if there is any false information."

"Ok."

He didn't really say much. He was still furious over this mistake and harsh joke.

Name: Rock Maverick
Sex: Male
Place of Origin: Minnesota, USA
Date of Birth: June 23, 2007

"Same Birthday as your favorite Video Game Character I'm assuming..." she thought.

Age: 21
Height: 5"8
Weight: 75 kg
Blood Type: A

"Any false information?"

"No."

Fio repeated the word 'Maverick' again and again in her mind. Something about that word made her think she'd heard it before. She tossed away the thought and returned back to business.

"Okay, so do you have any special type of skills?"

"Well..."

Fio held out her hand, allowing Rock to stop.

"You don't have to be nervous. Just speak it out."

Rock sighed, and nodded.

"Special skills you ask... I very good with Fire Arms, I'm acrobatic but not athletic, and I am able to hide even the biggest of objects between my back and jacket in a way that it looks like its not even there."

Fio had a very hard time believing that last one. Sure, she's seen a lot of abnormal things in her life as a soldier but nothing that cartoonish. She just smiled though, showing him respect. She didn't buy the last skill though.

"Any type of weakness?"

"Mice." Rock quickly said.

Fio blinked twice. "Um, excuse me, did you say, mice?"

"Correct. I'm not the biggest fan of them."

Fio coughed. She wasn't expecting THAT type of weakness.

"Excuse me for asking, but, why?"

"It's just their fast movement on the ground scares me and the fact that they could be pratically EVERYWHERE. I've had this fear since I was five."

"Any other weakness?" Fio asked.

"Uh, no, that's pretty much it. Mice and Rats. ESPECIALLY RATS."

"O-ok then." Fio said cheerfully, yet awkwardly.

Fio looked at Rock. He wasn't exactly military-ready with his casual clothing.

"We'll get you into training soon so we can see if your skills are true."

Rock frowned. "I'm assuming you don't believe my skill about hiding things behind my back."

Fio sighed and smiled. "Not in the slightest."

"Okay, let me show you something." Rock said getting up.

Rock went towards his desk and grabbed his bag. He shoved the bag between his back and the jacket and in seconds, the bag had 'disappeared'. He turned around slowly and his back looked completely normal, no bump where his bag would've been or nothing. Fio was left with a shocked expression.

"It appears I've... *cough* ...been proven wrong." Fio said nervously. Rock had pulled out his bag again and sat it on the desk again.

"That is a useful and amazing skill." Fio said, clapping.

"Thank you! I was, hoping I'd hear that from Marco Rossi. I mean, not that hearing it from you is bad either!" Rock said, not trying to affend the woman who was older than him by a year.

Fio perked upon hearing the name Marco Rossi.

"Did you say, Marco Rossi?" Fio asked.

Rock looked at Fio. "Yes. Marco is such an inspirational guy! I hear he and his buddy Tarma easily took down that devil, General Morden in the first war! I also heard that two female soldiers helped Marco and Tarma in future battles against Morden, Amadeus and even Aliens! I always thought that Fio was my favorite because she looked so cute! Not only that but..." He stopped immediately.

Fio was smiling, blushing also. She felt flattered to have been called cute. Rock had realized that THIS was the Fio that helped Marco and the others in all the battles involving Morden. He smiled nervously.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you were the Fio."

"He must not be very bright, but that's alright. It's okay." she said waving her hand. "It was actually quite nice being complimented like that."

She got up and put her hand on his shoulder.

"You have quite the skill, one that can be very useful in any future battles we might come across. When that day comes, we'll make sure you're there. But first, we'll have to train to ensure that you are ready for the battlefield."

"Ha! Okay!" Rock said excited.

Fio walked away, with her two fingers on her chin. She was clearly thinking about something.

"With his type of skill, he could be someone really special. The PF Squad has Hyakutaro Ichimonji maybe..." Fio suddenly gasped excitedly, scaring Rock. It made it worse when she ran to Rock and held onto his shoulders, shaking him a little.

"I've got it!"

"Y-You've got w-w-what!?"

"The Peregrine Falcons have their living-legend, Hyakutaro Ichimonji!"

"I know him! He's the one who shoots out those little hadokens! But, is that what you've got?"

Fio ignored his comment, not rudely, but because she was still expressing her new idea.

"YOU! Rock Maverick, will be our living-legend!"

"M-me!? A living-legend?!" Rock said surprised. Fio nodded her head with a smile still on her face.

"I dunno... I mean, I'm honored that I could be a living-legend to the S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. but, shouldn't a female be chosen? I mean it make sense right?"

"Who cares about the gender! The point is, I choose you, Rock Maverick!"

Rock had a sweatdrop come down his face. How she said the last part of the sentence made him think of Pocket Monsters... er, Pokemon, uh... Which ever works. Back on topic though, he was honored to be chosen has a legend. It was quite an honor indeed.

"Do I get anything for this type of job?" Rock asked.

"Job? It's your destiny! You'll get everything you've ever wanted!" she said metephorically.

Rock's eyes shot open. He knew that this was going to be amazing, especially with Fio as one of her teachers.

6 Months and 12 days later...

Shortly after General Morden and the Martians joined with the Regular Army to together stop the new alien invasion known as Invaders AKA Venusians, Marco, Tarma, Fio, Eri, Ralf and Clark ended up in China where the Invaders have attacked first.

Within the sewers, our heroes were getting outnumbered by fifty, no, hundreds of Invaders closing in on them.

"They're getting too close for comfort, Marco!" Tarma yelled, using his remaining ammo of the Heavy Machine Gun taking out two deadly ball spinning Invaders.

"Just keep going!" Marco yelled out, rescuing a P.O.W. who gave him extra ammo for his Double Machine Guns.

Eri started getting desperate and started throwing her grenades in multiple directios, taking out at least 4 or 5 Invaders. Ralf used is famous Vulcan Punch to take out a few, but despite their efforts, they just kept coming.

"No way, I'm going down like this! Clark, back me up!" Ralf yelled, sweat around his face. Clark came him using the Zanetsu Sword weapon he saved a little while back.

Fio reached into her pocket and brought out a radio communicator.

"Fio here! Is our "weapon" any closer yet? Over."

"The "weapon" has just arrived and is heading your way. Over."

"Great."

Fio tossed her communicator back into her pocket and continued shooting with her Heavy Machine Gun, having more ammo than Tarma did.

Marco gave his Double Machine Guns to Tarma, using a Shotgun instead. The Invaders were going down, but it didn't seem to end.

"Fio! Is he ANY closer!? I don't know how much longer I can take these crappy aliens!" Eri asked with anger in her tone

"He's getting closer!" Fio said with certain.

"He's taking too long!" Eri angrily replied.

Above from the broken ceiling, someone was falling down. It wasn't a second P.O.W. that fell down like the first one randomly did, but instead, it was someone else. He was on his knees, grinning.

He reached behind and brought out a Super Grenade weapon, much to everyone's, except for Eri and Fio, shock. He shot what seemed like, endless amounts of Super Grenades at the Invaders, blowing them up with ease. He back up towards the group shooting more Super Grenades at the Invaders. The men asked no questions at the moment and continued shooting at the Invaders. In no time, the Invader swarm of this area was gone.

Rock threw his Super Grenade back inbetween his back and jacket, exclaiming his supposed catch phrase, "I'm Rockin'!"

Fio walked over to Rock and smiled.

"Thanks Rock!"

Eri angrily walked over and pointed at him furiously.

"It took you long enough! How many times do we have to tell you: Show up ON time!" Eri calmed down and smiled (even if it didn't look like one at first glance). "But you did great nonetheless."

"Sorry about being late. I got kinda lost and I had to help some citizens escape the aliens' capture. I promise this is my LAST time being late! I swear it!"

"It better. Just keep up the good work." Eri said.

Marco walked over to Rock and asked him, "Who are you?"

"Marco Rossi, sir!" Rock got into a salutary position, slamming his hand on his forehead. "I am Rock Maverick, sir! A special helper of the S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. Unit, sir!"

He said sir... a lot. But anyway, Marco did respect the fact that Rock shown respect to him.

"A special helper huh?" Marco said.

Fio walked over and said, "You are his inspiration, Marco."

"Me? Never thought that'd happen."

"Well it happened Major." Tarma said.

"Um, shouldn't we get moving?" Clark said.

"All this talk is boring me to death, literally." Ralf said stretching out his punching arms.

"Right, let's go!" Marco said pulling out his signature handgun.

Fio was left behind, high-fiving Rock. "You did great! But I do agree with Eri. Try to get here quicker okay?"

"Can do!" Rock said, grinning.

"Alright, you go back and report to me if anything bad happens there. I want you to help anyone who needs it."

"Yes, ma'am! Good luck Fio!" Rock said running the opposite direction. Fio nodded back at him and ran to catch up with her partners.

Rock Maverick
Sex: Male
Place of Origin: Minnesota, USA
Occupation: S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S.' Special Back-up Soldier
Date of Birth: June 23, 2007
Age: 21
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 75 kg
Blood Type: Type A
Hobby: Video Gaming
Favorite Food: Pizza
Favorite Pastime: Reading
Dislikes: Mice and Rats
Most Prized Thing: A Blue Cool-Looking Hedgehog plush toy
Special Skills: Hiding even the biggest of weapons in his jacket
Pet Phrase: "I'm Rockin'!"

Rock was known as the S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. living-legend. He will pull pratically anything out from behind his back and provide rockin' back-up to the soldiers. His father left him and his mother at age three and his mother died at age 16 at the First Morden War. He's lived the rest of his life with his best friends, who later on died during one of the Morden Wars. He joined the Regular Army to help the citizens of the world, trying to prevent them from sufforing like his fallen friends and family have. He is also known to be a student to Fiolina Germi and Eri Kasamoto (who is a assistant to Fio) and also best friends with them. Between Fio and Rock, this would mirror their parents meeting each other as both of their fathers were in the army together...

Author's Note:

My first Metal Slug story. It was something totally random I wanted to come up with while playing the Metal Slug Anthology on my PSP along with Metal Slug XX. Rock Maverick is based on the Support Helpers such as Hyakutaro Ichimonji, Glen Achilles, Tabomba, Rumi and Madoka Aikawa, etc. The character designs in this story is based on the designs used in Metal Slug XX (and Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting, even though Marco is the only character from the Metal Slug series (except for the P.O.W.) to appear in that game). Look up the game online or play it and find the Character Select screen to see what I'm talking about. I chose this design in particular because they resemble the sprite form a LOT more. They especially resemble the character select screens on Metal Slug 2/X/3. My character, however, looks like a typical anime boy. So if he was in sprite form, he wouldn't look like a Marco/Tarma edit hehe, he'd possibly look like a Trevor Spacey edit.

Why'd I do this story? I wanted to take a little break from my Mega Man ZX FF story. And once I got Metal Slug Anthology, I fell in love with the series. In Metal Slug 3, Marco got kidnapped and I played as Fio, so that's why she's a central character in this story. Even though I enjoy all playable characters in the Metal Slug series, I'd always play as Marco (mainly, b/c he was the only playable character in the first one unless my partner played second player and got Tarma). Maybe one day, I'll play a full Metal Slug game by not playing as Marco.

Anyway, please rate and review, all that good stuff.