It was a cool day on the barren earth. The Space Colony incident had taken its toll on the lush planet that once was the pride of the galaxy. The maverick Hunter, Zero, sat at the bar. He sat there, silence, holding his drink in its glass, watching the ice melt. His best friend the renowned Mega Man X, and his girl friend Alia, sat at another table discussing missions and what they would do this weekend. Zero sat thinking about what he saw today on his classified mission. A disturbance that all thought caused by rouge mavericks and techno-pirates had the Maverick Hunter leader, Signas, up in arms. He sent Zero to a bunker with no back up on routine scouting mission. Zero, had no intention of dealing with mavericks and humans, with no regard for authority, quietly. The problem was, Zero found out much more than he expected.
Axl, the newest addition to the Maverick Hunters walked into the lounge and over to Zero. Axl was much like Zero and X. He had a passion for justice, exceptional combat skills, and his own method of dealing with justice. However, he had the quietness and cold personality of Zero. He sat down two stools away from Zero, ordered a drink and sighed. Zero however, was tense. He held his glass so tight, it began to crack. His sensors detected something moving around the building... slowly. He said nothing, only slightly unsheathed his beam saber. X and Axl, who were thinking of much more than combat, either love or comrades lost, were unprepared.
Suddenly, the wall to the lounge broke apart, sending debris and shrapnel everywhere. Axl was the first to be detained with an electrode net. X was the next, followed by Alia. Zero however sidestepped to the next stool, and crushed his glass in his hand. Maverick robots, simple construction drones, leaped in first followed by people wearing suits and strange masks. Technology like this had been seen by zero once before. In the bunker he had just finished up. The people spoke in strange mech voices.
"Maverick hunter, Zero, Come with us now!" The strange enemies held up weapons on their arms that looked ready to fire something that resembled the plasma shots fired by X.
"Who ever you are," Zero said, "I almost admire your foolishness. You took out the quick draw then the all heavy enforcement." Zero mad a small motion towards X and Axl. "But, you just failed to do one thing: Capture the most dangerous threat!" The intruders opened fire at Zero, while the construction mavericks attempted to hit zero with their massive strength. Zero easily dodged the mavericks, and quickly avoided the shots by the intruders. He kicked one construction droid into another, sending them flying into the walls and was behind the attackers before their eyes could even follow. With no mercy, and a flash of maverick strength and rage, Zero cut down the strange attackers. He quickly dispatched all remaining functioning mavericks. Composing himself, calmly, Zero then freed Axl, X, and Alia from their bonds and sat back down.
A mask had fallen off of one of the intruders. It revealed something that made even Zero's stomach gyro turn. It wasn't human at all, it had claws, and skin that resembled a reptile. The face had mandibles, and eyes that now were a dull red
X looked at Zero with confusion. "What are these...things?"
Zero sat down. "They are aliens. I don't know where they are from but they are called 'Zebesians'. I don't know why they're here, or how they got here undetected for that matter, but..." Zero put a disk on the table. "I found this on a mission I was on today. I can't read it... but something tells me that they aren't here for peaceful negotiations..." Zero was cut short from the sound of marching and machines. They all looked out of the hole that had been created in the wall. What they saw concerned everyone but Zero. A literal armada of mavericks and space pirates came pouring over the hills. Hundred of thousands, possibly millions could be seen. Zero only said one thing.
"Alia... Go to red alert 5..."
Roughly 350,000,000 light years away from earth, an insect like ship docked into a space station floating among a planet and its moons. The ship slowly extended a long metal tube that connected to a hatch on the floating station, and slowly a door opened and the sound of air came rushing forward. A figure clad in yellow and red armor stepped out of the hatch dragging two similar looking reptile creatures and another, stranger one. It waved a cannon mounted on its right arm at the creatures and slowly, with seething hatred, they obeyed and went into a room where laser bars held them in cells. A humanoid figure but with blue skin and yellow eyes came out with a large translucent looking object.
Let's see Samus... two Zebesians and a Keyhunter, a nice catch. Trying to sell Metroids again?" He began counting and swiped a card into a machine he had. "Here you are 20,000 credits.'
The person in the armor took of its helmet to reveal what looked like a blond haired human girl with blue eyes. In all comparison she was beautiful, but she seemed very serious. "A small reward... I see my efforts are not a appreciated..."
Why should they?" The humanoid said, "The space pirates forces are all but thriving thanks to you. Ever since you defeated Metroid Prime, the space pirates have nothing left. The Zebesians hate the key hunters, and vice versa." Samus took the card and went walking off.
"I've fought these things long enough to know they don't stay down for long." She replied in a cold voice. Samus stepped onto her ship, and quickly detached, almost taking a piece of the colony withe her. When she was at a far enough distance to satisfy her position, she set the ship a drift behind an asteroid.
"Computer," she stated to the ship, "bring up all new bounties." The computer acknowledged and brought up twenty new faces and profiles. Ones that caught her attention were strange, metal clad humanoids. The one that really caught her attention was a red android named "Zero". The bounty was an incredible 90,000,000,000 credits. That kind of bounty would be enough to put her on easy street for a while. She looked at the others. A black clad "Axl" was a mere 2,000,000 credits... then she saw the blue armored "X". 200,000,000,000! Incredible... but that one seemed a bit too anxious. To post a bounty like that he had to be extremely tough. Besides, she would have to fight tooth and nail, with a bounty like that, the competition would be fierce. She thought she would warm up on Zero first. Then bring in the rest. By any means necessary.
"Computer, bring up profile on bounty head, Zero." The computer displayed the red armored figure in a holographic display while alien text sped across the image. Then, a cold, mechanized voice spoke.
"Zero: android class: unknown. Location: system 13Q-045, Planet: Earth. Zero's creator: unknown. Zero is a android wanted for mass genocide of cyborgs, androids, and organic life forms. Leader of a faction known as 'Mavericks', flawed machines that become violent and irrational. He is known to be a comrade with the androids Mega Man X and Axl. Zero is wanted for charges of genocide on continuous counts, destruction of property, betrayal of peaceful organizations, espionage, and harboring terrorists. End Bio"
Samus looked at the charges on X's profile. He had only seven murders and destruction of property. "I don't get it... why does Zero have a lower bounty than this 'X' but has more charges?" Oh well, a job's a job. Computer, set course for planet Earth, full speed." She gave the commands sternly and walked off. She didn't care what back water planet she had to go to, she would have her justice.
Samus went to her quarters, took off her armor, and lied down in her small bed pulling the sheet around her. She was cold and alone, just like every other time. But no one can be alone forever...
as Samus would soon find out.