70 Years Later
The day Mega Man died was a day of drastic change. Wily successfully destroyed Arcadia City, though the majority of the populace was safe from the blast. Wily managed to start a massive war with his new resources now that Mega Man was out of the picture, no one could stand in the way of his pursuit of destruction.
Until the day the reploids appeared.
Reploids, or replication androids, were the largest advancement in the world of robotics. Robots were able to emulate emotion, sure, but their purpose and judgement were largely pre-programmed to fulfill whatever job they were given. Be it Roll's housekeeping duties or Guts Man's assistance in construction, their roles and emotions were decided for them, they had no true free will.
Reploids, on the contrary, were designed to truly emote, allowing them to make decisions for themselves and become far more adaptable than the typical robot. This resulted in the Four Guardians: known as the first true reploids, they were designed by a former aide of Dr. Light named Dr. Cain, who built them in the hopes of overwhelming Wily and winning the battle against him. And while the majority of them were lost, they were successful in defeating him and ending the war.
In the 70 years since the destruction of Arcadia City, reploids have become mass produced and have nearly completely replaced robots. Over the remains of Arcadia City, an advanced metropolis named Neo Arcadia was built. Its governing leader being one of the original Four Guardians, Sage Harpuia.
It's here where Dr. Cain's research on advancing reploids continues to grow. It's also here where a group of hunters have gathered to form an organization against a new, unfamiliar force that threatens to destroy the reploids from within their own selves…
Abandoned laboratory, Abel City. 9:37 PM
There was no way around it, he was officially cornered. Surrounded on all sides by heartless machines, he could only gun down so many before he would be overwhelmed. Instead of panicking, however, his face contorted into a cocky grin. He twirled twin pistols in his hand for the sake of showing off (as he so loved to do) before gunning down 5 Reploids in front of him. However, one had grabbed him from behind while he was turned.
"Hey! No grappling!" the now ensnared individual said has he flailed around helplessly in the machine's arms. He was an orange haired individual with a scar crisscrossing above his nose wearing sleek black and gray armor over his body, with a peculiar glass like blue sphere placed on the chestplate.
He tried to wiggle out but only managed to fumble and drop his weapons on the floor. He cursed he under his breath as the opposing reploid's grip tightened, with the others beginning to approach maliciously.
Suddenly, a shot rang out landing behind the young reploid's head and singing his hair. He fell limp and turned to notice a clean hole shot through the head of the enemy that had grappled him. He clumsily gathered his guns and excitedly readied himself to re-enter the battle, but his his hopes were dashed as in one clean stroke all but two of the reploids' bodies were sliced in half by a new arrival on the scene: a red and white armored reploid with a long blond ponytail emerging from his sleek red helmet, a stoic and emotionless face barely even looking at what he was cutting through with his green sword that seemed to not be made of anything but plasma. He impaled one more in the head and used the stabbed reploid as a shield against the other enemy's laser shots, before converting his free hand into a cannon to shoot and destroy the final enemy reploid.
"You're only good at this because of that sword. If I had a plasma sword I could do that faster." The younger reploid complained as he quietly stood up in defeat. "Speaking of, when can I get a plasma sword?"
"You'll get one when you stop cutting yourself with them." The stoic reploid replied.
"One time…" The spiky haired one moped under his breath.
"Found him yet?" the red one asked.
"Uh, no… But I've racked up a pretty high kill count so that counts for something, right Zero?" he added to cover up his current failure to find what they're looking for.
"Axl, you're the only one who cares about body count. Try to remember that this is a search and rescue mission." the reploid named Zero chided.
"Come on, we're maverick hunters, Zero. Gunning down evil reploids is in the job description." Axl noted with a shrug at Zero's indifference.
"Infected reploids." Zero corrected as he sheathed his sword.
"Same difference, yeah?" Axl replied nonchalantly as he rested his arms behind his head. Zero simply sighed in annoyance before proceeding on with his mission.
The two proceeding through the abandoned facility together until Zero stopped in his tracks. He sighed briefly before touching the side of his helmet to patch through the person calling him. "What is it?"
"I-uh… It's Iris here. Just here to check on your status." a young girl shyly said over the communicator in Zero's helmet.
"I'm fine." Zero said irritably. Zero wasn't one for small talk during missions, and a brief status update certainly qualified as this to him. "Is that all?"
"No! I mean, um… I think I've figured out where the stranded reploid is." She added hastily.
"Really? Where!?" Axl shouted into the side of Zero's face, earning an annoyed swat from the other.
"Quit doing that she can't hear you." Zero barked in aggravation, causing Axl to flinch away slightly.
Zero sighed. "Where is he?"
"Um… From here, go left down the hall and then… No… Hm." Iris paused.
"Hm?" Zero questioned.
"It's a little complicated. You're going to have to find a way downstairs, but I don't see any ways down…" she replied, confusion evident in her tone as she tried to wrap her head around the floor layout.
"Well then what're we supposed to do, blow the floor open!?" Axl shouted into Zero's ear as he brushed uncomfortably close into the other reploid's personal space, earning an annoyed shove in response.
"Axl wants to know if we can blow open a hole to the bottom floor by force." Zero asked on Axl's behalf.
"I don't think so… the floor's made of some pretty strong steel…" Iris noted. Zero shook his head at the now distanced Axl, confirming that wasn't an option, earning a frown from the younger reploid.
"I'll figure something out." Zero stated.
"We'll figure something out." Axl corrected as he approached closer to Zero so he could hear Iris again, backing away once more after earning an agitated glare from the older reploid.
"Okay. Let me know if I can help with anything. And don't get too reckless, okay guys?" Iris responded.
"Will do." Zero said before touching the side of his helmet again, severing the connection.
"Alright, let's get this treasure hunt going!" Axl proclaimed as he began to strut down the corridor to their right.
"She said to go left." Zero corrected the oblivious Axl as the he went the opposite direction, being quickly followed behind by his confused partner.
"Right!" Axl shouted after the red machine ahead of him.
The two explored every door throughout the suspiciously maverick free hallway in their search for some sort of entrance. While there wasn't anything resembling a doorway in one of the rooms Axl found, he did find something of interest.
"A crate!" Axl excitedly announced as he looked into the room, which, besides the metallic container Axl brought up, was empty and dim looking.
"...What about it?" Zero asked as he caught up to the younger reploid.
"Crates always have something cool in them." Axl informed Zero.
"This isn't a game, Axl, crates don't house any powerups." Zero said dismissively as he continued investigating further.
...That is, until he heard a round of shots being fired behind him. He raced back to where Axl was to see him bombarding the crate with gunfire.
"What are you doing!?" Zero furiously exclaimed. "Do you want the entire maverick army to know we're here!?"
Suddenly, the crate burst open and the spare parts scattered across the room. Axl reached inside the remains and took a strange glass container from within. This container is known as a sub tank, which is filled with extra fuel to restock reploids that are low on energy.
"See?" Axl said as he flashed his new find to Zero.
"...Well then." Zero responded blankly at being so blatantly proven wrong.
Axl noticed something underneath the crate's bottom half and scooched it away with his foot to reveal- cracks in the floor? The floor didn't quite seem to be metal here, either...
"Hey, yo, the floor here doesn't look like the rest of the floor. It looks weaker." Axl noted.
"You sure?" Zero asked in response.
Axl shrugged and stepped on top of it, jumping up and down to see if anything would happen to the supposedly weaker floor. He suddenly let out a loud "Eep!" as he fell through the floor to the area below, causing Zero to race over out of concern.
"Well I'm sure now." Axl said agitatedly as he rolled over onto his side to get up, wincing slightly from the impact.
"Aww, my sub tank's busted." Axl noticed as he witnessed the spilled fluids and broken glass on the floor.
"Shame." Zero said dryly as he cautiously hopped down to the room below.
He helped Axl back up onto his feet before the two began to look around the room together.
Axl noticed a strange rectangular lining in the wall that looked out of place with the rest of the structure and lightly pushed on it, causing it to collapse and disperse large amounts of dust.
"What did you break?" Zero responded to the noise until he turned to see Axl entering a new hole in the wall. He sighed and followed after him into the room, noticing Axl standing over a bizarre egg shaped capsule with a computer monitor beside it running some sort of data through it.
"I uh… found 'im." Axl spoke, slight surprise evident in his tone. Zero approached the egg shaped machine and peered inside-witnessing the blue comatose reploid with a prominent red gem mounted on his equally blue helmet.
"Iris, this is Zero. We've successfully found X." Zero informed the young girl as Axl began trying to pry the capsule open.
"He's real!? I...That's great!" Iris exclaimed. "Bring him outside the facility so we can transport you three back."
"Easier said than done, But I'm sure we'll manage." Zero said before severing his connection once more.
Axl shot at the bottom of the lid of the capsule approximately twenty times with it not budging an ounce. He groaned aggravatedly before Zero simply picked up the capsule lid from the bottom and lifted it up with ease.
"...I loosened it for you?" Axl said almost as if it was a question as Zero rolled his eyes and began to disconnect the wiring in X's back that connected him to the machine.
Zero placed one of the unconscious reploid's arms around his shoulder. He waited, staring at Axl, who was busy looking at the computer screen off to the side.
"Mind giving me a hand?" Zero asked in an annoyed tone, causing Axl to take notice of what Zero was doing and hastily sling X's other arm over his shoulders as well.
The two had difficulty getting him out the same way they came, until Axl carelessly tossed him through the hole, earning a frustrated glare from Zero. Axl nervously shrugged as the two leaped up and grabbed onto the small ledges created by Axl earlier and hoisted themselves up onto the ground floor.
They picked back up X without a word and carried on through the empty hall.
Their exit mission was going far smoother than their retrieval mission, Zero believed this to be due in large part to Axl being unable to wander around and pick fights with every maverick he found.
However, their lucky streak was broken when Zero was shot in the side, causing him to keel over and causing Axl to lose his grip on X, who promptly fell on top of Zero.
"Whoops, sorry." Axl said awkwardly as he noticed the pile of reploids on the floor before turning his attention to the mavericks in front of him. They were a team of five purple human like machines, with the fifth hosting a large sharp plasma shield used for close range combat and the rest armed with arm cannons aimed at the hunters.
Axl smiled widely with a cocky grin as he slowly pulled out his guns. He rolled to the left to avoid the oncoming fire before shooting a special bullet at the one with the plasma shield, sticking into the machine and shorting it out.
"Scan complete." a synthetic voice announced through Axl's communication system.
"Perfect." Axl responded. Suddenly, Axl was encased in rings of purple data, that shrunk around him until his form shifted into the purple enemy he had just shot.
"I've got my plasma sword now." Axl teased as he flashed the sharp shield at Zero, who just rolled his eyes.
"Just finish them off…" Zero complained.
Axl shrugged before he ran forward, shield up front blocking each shot until he was up close to the enemies. He stabbed one with the shield then moved the shield to block a shot from the next closest one. He ripped the shield off the freshly stabbed one and slung it into the next closest. The others began to shoot at him and he was in no position to block with the shield. He rolled over to the right, rolling over the enemy stuck on his shield and removing it from the machine in one fluid motion. As he completed his roll he shifted back to his normal form, finishing off the remaining two with his headshots from his twin pistols.
After a moment of silence he looked to Zero. "Finished them off." He smiled cockily.
"...Your technique needs work." Zero replied sarcastically.
"You're welcome." Axl dryly responded as he lifted X off of Zero. Zero stood up with decent effort and the two made it through the rest of the base, albeit slowly on account of Zero's injuries.
Upon exiting the facility Zero contacted Iris once more.
"We're out of the facility. Transport us back." He spoke.
"Got it! Preparing the transport now."
And with that, the mission was a success.