Author's Note: As of 7/22, I have decided to continue and expand this into a full adaptation of Mega Man X. Please rate and review as you see fit; any and all feedback is appreciated!
Abel City Beltway, July 21XX
Despite the recent revolt of Sigma, the inhabitants of Abel City felt they had nothing to fear. After all, their proud metropolis was still standing despite the devastating missile strike several days earlier, and not a single Maverick incident had been reported since. Many were on their way home from work, and the city began to transform into a neon carpet as the sun set.
Nobody was aware that their brief respite from Maverick attacks would soon end.
Storm Eagle held the Death Rogumer in cloud cover, awaiting orders. Suddenly, his communicator blinked. Storm Eagle ordered his troops to the deployment bays before responding; any call on a Maverick Hunter frequency signaled sensitive business.
"Yes, Commander Sigma?"
Sigma frowned in irritation at the use of his obsolete title. "Storm Eagle, our chance has come. The humans and Maverick Hunters have lowered their guard; now is our best chance to strike. Begin deploying your forces on the highway as planned."
"Sir, there are thousands of humans on that road! This revolution was never about harming them!" Storm Eagle objected.
"Silence!" Sigma snapped, cutting off Storm Eagle's protests. "Do not forget your position, Storm Eagle! And besides, there is no better way to attract the Hunters than to cause death and destruction. You will follow your orders."
"...Yes, Commander." Storm Eagle resignedly sighed. "Take us down and begin deploying our troops." Despite the avian Reploid's misgivings, Sigma was right; he had no choice if he was to save Teal.
Right on cue, an arrogant voice remarked, "Exactly why I don't have friends. They're just a liability to my interests." Storm Eagle sighed and tried to maintain his composure. "Weren't you supposed to be down there, Vile?"
"I don't give a damn what 'Commander' Sigma says; if X isn't going to show up, I'm wasting my time!" the purple robot replied. Such brashness, Storm Eagle thought with a sigh. Suddenly something caught their attention.
"Then I imagine you'll find your time well-spent," Storm Eagle intoned, as a blue streak of light fell from the sky onto the freeway.
Dodging fleeing civilians, X ran in the direction of the Death Rogumer. Even before the last vehicles had fled past him, X saw what they were fleeing from: a line of Spikies. He raised his X-Buster, but before he fired, he hesitated. Was it right to kill them? Despite their hostility they were still robots, and he could always jump over - "No," he snapped to himself. "You can't. They'll simply keep chasing the civilians. Remember your duty as a Hunter, X!"
Snapping out of his thoughts, he realized the Spikies were almost on top of him. Instincitvely, he jumped over them and destroyed the line from behind with a well-aimed burst of plasma blasts. "Well, got them both ways."
He barely had seconds to duck as a rocket screeched over his head, followed in close succession by several more. Taking advantage of X's vulnerable position, the offending Gun Volt ("Who gave these things their names anyhow?") switched attack modes to trap X in its electric field. However, the blue bomber had anticipated this, and fired a charged shot straight into its head as the walker switched weapons, destroying the machine.
"Good thing all the bots so far are autonomous. I don't want to kill them, but I really don't want to kill any Reploids."
The distraction caused X to walk straight into a hole in the road. Steering himself with his buster's recoil, X clung to the wall and slowly began to ascend it by a series of jumps.
As he climbed out of the hole, he realized that the gap could mean only one thing: Crushers. Right on cue, several of the robotic drones dropped their deadly spike presses. X managed to roll out of the way to avoid them, but the machines left gaping maws in the road, and several unfortunate straggling cars plunged into the holes.
Trying not to think about the lives potentially lost, X shot the drones down, careful to aim for their bottoms so as to destroy their spiked presses with them. Continuing on, he shot down three more waves before coming across a pair of Gun Volts. Both immediately launched a barrage of missiles, forcing X to dive behind a wrecked truck for cover. As the walkers clumsily ambled forward to try and flush him out, X stuck his buster out of cover and disgorged a charge shot, blasting both machines backwards. One immediately plunged off the side, while the other shook the blast off and continued advancing.
X realized his power core wouldn't be able to spare enough energy for another charge shot. As the Gun Volt reached his position, X released all the energy his reactor could spare. It wasn't as powerful as a fully-charged shot, but it got the job done and the Gun Volt exploded violently as its rockets combusted.
By now, X could hear a telltale chop-chop-chop of a helicopter, and his suspicions were confirmed as a Bee Blader attack helicopter swooped down in front of him. X scrambled out of cover as the helicopter's missiles blew the wrecked vehicle apart, but was unable to move fast enough to avoid a hail of bullets from its minigun. Most of the shots ricochetted off his armor, but a single bullet managed to penetrate his knee. Disregarding the pain, X silenced the minigun with his own weapon, rolled to avoid another volley of rockets, and blasted the bee's head, where its brain was located. The flying machine quickly lost altitude and crashed into the unstable highway, bringing the section down and crushing several Deerballs that it had dropped earlier. X had reached the far edge of the collapsed section by then and pressed on, noting the Death Rogumer had not moved.
X took a brief moment to check the damage to his knee. The bullet had penetrated, but the hardened steel plating had done its job well; no vital machinery had been damaged, and the bullet had only managed to sever the hydraulics of one of his many backup movement systems. Silently thanking Dr. Light for his foresight, X stood back up and continued on.
As he approached another gap, X scanned the road ahead and saw it was dangerously unstable. Though devoid of enemies, it sloped upwards, and X was well aware that his line of sight and detection was restricted. However, no enemies fired on him as crossed the void. Promptly, several Spikies that had been lying flat at the top of the slope began rolling down.
"Of course it wasn't that simple," X muttered to himself as he dispatched the spiked spheres with his buster.
No sooner had the spiked balls been dispatched than a contingent of Bomb Beens dropped from the sky, accompanied by another Bee Blader. The smaller Bomb Beens pulled ahead of their larger comapnion, but they were recieved by a hail of plasma shots. X smiled as he thought about the exasperated remarks Zero would make about safety and numbers, but quickly pushed the thoughts from his head as he took on the Bee Blader.
The helicopter immediately began dropping Deerballs, which rolled out and sprouted legs upon hitting the ground. X grumbled in annoyance as he put down the flimsy bipedals; they were easy to deal with but they allowed the Bee Blader to attack him without a chance of a counterattack. However the AI of the helicopter made a critical mistake; as it attempted to maneuver for a clear shot, the rotors clipped a streetlight, shredding both themselves and it. With no main rotor, the helicopter spiraled out of control and fell beneath the highway. X cringed as it crashed into a nearby building. With a rumble, the structure tilted and began to collapse, screams rising from the dust cloud.
Instinctively, he jumped over the side of the freeway to help. "What are you doing?" something inside him demanded.
"I can't just leave them! It was my fault I couldn't take down that Bee Blader in time!" he thought as he reached street level.
"You have a mission to finish! Thousands more could be hurt or killed if you don't stop the Maverick attack!" the same inner voice snapped.
"I still can't just leave them!"
"You're not a doctor; there's nothing you can do." The voice sounded softer this time. "Move on, X," it instructed with a hint of sympathy. "You'll be of more help to them by keeping Mavericks away from the area."
X heard sirens approaching, and silently prayed the emergency workers would make it in time to save everyone as he reluctantly turned away and began to scale a support column to reach the freeway. Once he reached the top he stole a glance back and was relieved to see his prayer had been answered. Resolutely, X turned away from the collapsed building and back to his mission.
Storm Eagle monitored the attack with increasing worry. If he failed, Sigma might kill Teal as punishment; he may have been forgiving of X's mistakes as the Commander, but Storm Eagle was not sure if he would show the same mercy now...
His thoughts were interrupted as an alert sounded, and a monitor switched to a feed of X approaching the airship. He'd always known that the blue robot was a warrior at heart, Storm Eagle thought.
"Bah! Smashing a couple of repurposed industrial bots means nothing!" Storm Eagle sighed as he realized he had spoken his thoughts aloud. "I'll show that worthless piece of scrap his true worth!" Vile snapped.
With that, the purple Reploid stalked off the bridge to the deployment bay to power up his Ride Armor.
X was now under the Death Rogumer. "Any way to enter the ship?" he inquired.
"Scanning...Looks like the only way in is to use the deployment ramps," came the reply.
"Then here I..." X's voice trailed off as a massive blue walker jumped from the ramp and landed in front of him, cracking the pavement under its feet.
"Vile, please stand down. I don't want to fight a comrade, even if you've gone Maverick." X spoke in a friendly tone, despite the cold relationship between the two.
"Maverick? Hah! You think I work for Sigma? I care nothing for his 'better world' or your 'limitless potential'! I have only one purpose, X, and that's to kick your blue ass to the scrap heap!" With that, Vile's Ride Armor charged.
Immediately, X knew this was going to be a tough if not unwinnable fight. Though only equipped with fists the Ride Armor was built to withstand artillery shells and would be almost immune to his buster. Nevertheless, X had no choice. He rolled underneath the walker and fired a charged shot at the cockpit, but the shielding around it held. Switching tactics, X aimed for the knee joint, pelting it with plasma shots. By this time Vile had lined up his walker for another charge, and this time X wasn't so lucky. The Ride Armor's fist connected with a sickening crunch, throwing X back a respectable distance. X staggered to his feet, only to have the Ride Armor punch him again. Once more he tried to stand but Vile met his rise with another punch, this time in the head, dislodging his helmet.
"C'mon X, show me that 'limitless potential' of yours!" Vile mocked as he punched X again and again. After three more blows, X didn't get up. His helmet was gone, and his armor was badly dented.
"You...you've won. Finish me," X groaned.
Vile laughed again. "There's one request I can agree with, but I think I'll have some fun first!" Suddenly X found himself imprisoned in the Ride Armor's massive fist. Though his left arm was free, his buster arm was trapped. Not that his buster could do anything when it was free...
"You put up even less of a fight than I expected a weakling like you to be able to," Vile sneered, simultaneously smashing X's head with the Ride Armor's free fist. He laughed sadistically at X's moan of pain. "Sigma thinks you can change the world huh? Well, you'll hardly be able to change the world if you're dead!" The fist made contact with X's head again, and the blue bomber blacked out.
"Change the world?" demanded a new voice. "Sounds like Maverick talk to me!" A massive energy blast crashed into the Ride Armor, blowing off the arm holding X captive. X's systems rebooted just in time to see his savior charging another blast.
"Dammit Zero, you'll regret this!" Vile snarled before the Death Rogumer picked up his ride armor. Zero cursed as the deployment ramp closed and fired at the airship, but its thick armor and shields deflected his shot. With the attack on the highway over, Zero turned to his friend.
"I...guess I'm not strong enough..." X muttered regretfully as his friend approached.
"X..." Zero laid a hand on the former's shoulder. "...You shouldn't expect to defeat Vile, he was built for combat. Besides, you haven't even reached full power yet. I'm sure that if you use all the powers Dr. Light built you with, you can become stronger...maybe even as strong as I am."
"Zero...thank you for saving me."
"It's what friends do for each other. Let's get you back to Hunter Base for repairs. I'll scout ahead for the location of Sigma's fortress and collect as much information as I can. You stay here and help the other Hunters suppress any other Maverick attacks. Good luck X, I know you can do it!"
With that, the duo teleported back to Hunter Base.
Hunter Base, the next day
X sighed, still disappointed by his failure. Though everyone had reminded him that he single-handedly stopped the Maverick attack on the highway, it did nothing to alleviate his disappointment. X hadn't failed to notice that nobody had mentioned the helicopter crash, which only deepened his disappointment.
X returned to the pod that served as his quarters. Suddenly, words from a long time ago came back to him.
"I have given you the power to think, to worry, and to grow and evolve as you fight."
"Doctor, I'll use this power to fight for justice. To fight for hope!"
"Of course you will, X. I want you to use that conscience to fight for the people of the future. They will need someone like you to guide them."
An alarm snapped X out of his flashback. Running up to the command center, he saw hundreds of incidents marked on the map of Abel City. A dispatcher motioned him over.
"X, the majority of these incidents involve small numbers of Mavericks. Law enforcement and the remainder of us Hunters can deal with those. But there's eight critical installations that are being attacked by large armies. We'll likely need you on those. I don't know if we can spare anyone to help."
"I..." X was about to back down when he remembered his flashback. He would make his father proud, and he would honor his pledge, no matter the cost. "No. Even if you can spare personnel, I'll take care of those Mavericks by myself. Just show me where to go."
Author's note: So I did expand on this quite a bit more than I anticipated. I initially was unsure about whether or not to continue with a full adaptation of Mega Man X, however I have decided I will do so.
I know a lot of you might raising eyebrows over Vile's language, but I wanted this to be a more mature adaptation of the X series than the game itself. Not only that, I felt that this was the way such a crass character as Vile should have behaved if it weren't for the Mega Man franchise being intended primarily for kids. As a prior warning, there will be some instances of mild language elsewhere.
I tried to draw out the battle against Vile to emphasize its meaningfulness later on in the story. I'm also trying to show that X's emotions are deeper compared to his Reploid counterparts since many of the characters see that as of importance.
While I will try to keep the Mavericks themselves as authentic as possible, I'm developing Storm Eagle's character a bit more than the rest (in the event of me continuing on otherwise he'll be the only one developed) because he has a girlfriend.
Note: I'm combining canons here. I've taken elements from the Rockman X manga, Maverick Hunter X and Mega Man X. A couple exceptions to this:
-Storm Eagle's girlfriend, Teal, is not dead as she is in the Rockman X manga where she comes from
-Stage gimmicks and enemies as well as part locations will be the same as in the original Mega Man X however the way they will be described may be different
-Dialogue will be a mixture of generic and game-based quotes; no manga lines