All right, this is my first work on As such, any reviews you can give about my writing style and the story in general would be appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mega Man or any of its subseries. If I did, I would own Capcom and be rich and famous. Well, rich, anyway. You have been notified.

The First Rule

"X, look out!"

The mech smashed its fist just inches from where the blue robot stood firing. He leapt backwards, a little unnerved by the close call.

"Zero, cover for me!" Two reploids shot up from the ground behind X, and were dispatched by Zero before getting even a shot off.

The weak point was a crystalline feature in the center of the mech. X powered up and fired. The direct hit caused the giant robot to shudder. "Fire in the hole!" X saw an escape pod shoot out of the mech just before he ducked down to avoid the massive explosion.

Soon the debris stopped raining down. X and Zero approached the pod with caution. It opened before their eyes, revealing...a human?

"Damnable Reploids," growled the man, stumbling out of the pod. "Always messing things up, aren'tcha? And here I thought I might be able to end you once and for all."

"Enough chatter," ordered X. "We're going to have to take you into custody-"

"I think not," said the human, raising some sort of gun weapon. "Either I'm dying here, or you are. And I think I have the upper hand."

"What are you talking about?" Zero gave the man an impatient look.

"Certainly you're aware," laughed the human. "The First Law of Robotics: A robot cannot cause harm to a human being. Of course, those Mavericks never abide by the laws...but that's because they're Maverick. You aren't. So you must be bound."

"I..." X didn't have a response to this.

"Your loss, bot. I could dismantle you here and now, and you couldn't do a damn thing about it. You want to survive? You'll have to eliminate me."

X was stunned. Kill a human? He'd spent his entire life protecting them. Despite the cool response he'd occasionally gotten, he'd still gone and stopped the Mavericks whenever they attacked. Even as he wondered whether it was the right thing to do, he'd never hesitated.

But now, in order to save himself, he would be forced to kill a human. And he couldn't do it. Humans over robots, he'd always told himself. He'd just never thought it would be him.

"Too bad for you," said the human triumphantly. "I'll take down the rest of the world just like I'm going to take you apart, piece by piece. Just try to stop me."

X leveled his blaster at the man. But he didn't fire. Not even as he got closer.

"Don't worry, you won't go to waste," taunted the human. "I'll have plenty of use for your parts in building my new machine of destruction. As powerful as they are, I'm sure they'll mean my success will be inevitable."

He leveled the weapon at X's head. "Farewell."

X closed his eyes and waited for the worst...

It didn't come. He opened his eyes. The man's expression was frozen in his manic grin of triumph. He also had a large blade of plasma thrust through his chest.

"Zero?"

The red Reploid pulled the sword from the human, letting him fall to the ground, dead. He gave X an odd look. "You gonna shoot me?"

"What...why did..."

"X. I don't know what screwy rules you were programmed to follow. I've never heard of this 'First Rule of Robotics.' But I know that sometimes, for the good of many, the rules have to be broken. And you know that, too, X."

Zero put his hand on X's shoulder, his voice now sounding angry. "But you didn't stop him. He was right in front of you, telling you exactly what he planned to do. And you didn't fire. You were about to let yourself be turned to scrap, or worse, turned into a weapon for evil - all because you wouldn't let yourself break that rule."

X dropped his head. "Zero...it's just not..."

"Don't tell me it's not right!" stormed his friend. "Think of all the lives you've protected so far! Not just humans, but Reploids as well! Think of all the ones you're sure to protect in the future! And you would simply concede yourself to a human who only thinks to do the opposite? You have more worth than him, no matter what the rules are! The line has to be drawn somewhere, dammit!"

X just stared. Zero was glaring at him. Then his expression softened to a tired look.

"You'll have to figure it out for yourself, X. You know, in your heart, that there's a limit. You have to be aware of it. But I can't make you see that...you have to do it for yourself. I only hope you figure it out before it ends your life."

The red robot started to walk away, then turned back one last time.

"Remember, sometimes it only takes one shot to save millions of lives." He beamed away.

X took a seat amidst the rubble. He couldn't go anywhere now...he had too much to think about.