Hunting
Alright guys, first of all, I would like to let you all know that this chapter was written by none other than ShadowWarriorOmega! I couldn't do any work on this for a while, due to some personal issues, but everyone be sure to thank him for the work he put in for us! I really appreciate it dude. With that said, let's get this show on the road.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Mega Man X series, and I do not own RWBY. The Mega Man franchise is the property of Capcom, and RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum.
Once X had made contact with the ground, he rolled forward on the grass, standing up and taking a quick survey of his surroundings. A howl sounded through the clearing, and X turned to its direction before away and heading into the forest. Before entering the forest, he noticed that the howls were getting closer and closer to him, so he took this as a warning to stay on his guard, lest he wanted to become a pile of scrap. As X trekked along, the Reploid couldn't shake off this weird feeling he was getting. It was like he was being watched. And not by the cameras set around in the forest. It was more animalistic.
"Get a hold of yourself, X!" He thought to himself. "You're being evaluated right now. What would Zero say if he saw me slacking off?"
That's when the harsh cold feeling of reality had set in again. X was the last of the Reploids, a race so old yet so futuristic and had showed so much promise. And without his partner and best friend, he felt lost in this new world. Remnant had changed so much. But how had the world changed so quickly? Was it evolution? Or was it that Reploids were no longer needed by the world? X was hurled out of his thoughts as he saw a two streaks of black strafing across the trees from his peripheral vision. He prepared himself by transforming his right forearm into his only and most reliable weapon: the X-Buster. X clutched the cannon as he anticipated the ambushers' next moves.
Out of the bushes, three wolf-like creatures leapt out and slashed at X, only to miss their target as the Reploid dashed out of the way. As he stopped, he had gotten a better look of who his attackers were. These wolves stood on their hind legs and had black fur covering their entire bodies. Within the fur, the wolf-like creatures had bone like protrusions coming out of their hairy spines and arms. But the most memorable and strangest trait was that the cranium seemed to be made entirely out of bone while its blood-crimson eyes seemed to look straight into X's soul.
"What are these things? Are they wolves?" X eyed the creatures as he dropped his arm cannon, not wanting to battle. In that moment of hesitation, the largest of the Beowolves jumped at X, claws aimed as it swiped at him. In the nick of time, the Reploid dodged backwards and out of harm's way.
"Wait a minute. These must be the Creatures of Grimm that Professor Ozpin told me about," X realized. "In that case, I can't allow you to terrorize Humanity and Faunus anymore." The Maverick Hunter readied and aimed his X-Buster as the Beowolves growled, accepting the Reploid's battle declaration.
The first Beowolf charged at the blue robot, jaws wide open as it tried to sink its teeth into X, only to get a large blast of compressed solar energy into its jaws. The Beowolf was sent flying into one of the trees then collapsed onto the ground, mouth now emitting smoke, courtesy of X, before its lifeless body erupted into smoke and evaporated into the atmosphere. The remaining Beowolves gave the scene a look of disbelief and caution. Not wanting to end up like their brother, the Grimm gave out a loud roar that could be heard across the forest. Without wasting a second, five more Beowolves came out into the fray, seven in total. X noticed that one of the Beowolves was much larger than the others and had more bonelike protrusions. The rest of the Beowolves seemed to be following its lead, so it was safe for him to assume that this one was the leader of the pack or the Alpha Beowolf.
The pack of monsters began to surround X as he assessed the situation he was unfortunately given. The two Beowolves from the beginning both gave a thunderous bellow before charging at him. X lifted up his arm cannon as blue electricity began building up, dancing across the X-Buster like a ballerina in a dance studio. As the two closed in, X gave his own battle cry as he unloaded on the monsters.
"HYYAHHH!" A gigantic discharge of blue energy was fired at the Beowolves, enveloping them and creating a massive detonation on the ground. After the smoke subsided, all that there was left of the monsters were ash.
Back at Beacon Amphitheater, all of the students and professors, save for Professor Ozpin, couldn't believe what they had just witnessed. They had never seen a spectacle quite like this before. First, the existence of Reploids being verified for the first time in the history of all of Remnant. Now, they had just witnessed only a fraction of what the Reploids, no, what X was capable of. The most awestruck in the amphitheater were Teams RWBY and JNPR.
"So, I take back everything bad I said about X's descent. That was… amazing…" Jaune said. Pyrrha could only look at him in amusement, "It always proves to never judge a book by its cover, Jaune." The blonde swordsman smiled sheepishly at her comment as he scratched the back of his head.
"Ren, did you see that?! Did you see that?!" Nora asked her best friend as she was jumping around the place. Ren, not able to respond due to the blue Reploid, just nodded his head. Ruby imitated her in voicing her excitement to her friends.
"Omigosh! Omigosh! Yang, did you see that!? X was all like 'Howaaah' and 'Hyeaahhh'! And his arm turned into an awesome cannon! And he was able to turn the Grimm into ash with that huge energy shot made out of plasma!" The scythe wielder exclaimed, enacting various martial art poses with each sentence.
"Ruby, we all saw what happened. Maybe you should calm down," Yang chimed, trying to stop her sister from passing out, but to no avail. Ruby couldn't contain her excitement over the Maverick Hunter. While the young leader kept bouncing, Blake had taken the time to look up from her book and actually participate in watching the demonstration. She was awestruck but to a lesser extent compared to Nora or Ruby. Weiss, however, was not fully convinced that X was truly a "Reploid" but the decimation of the Beowolves was a start.
"Settle down, you dunce! So far, this X character had only taken down two Grimm. But, he hesitated to attack them when they first appeared," Weiss stated.
"Weiss, he's a Reploid. Where he was from, the Creatures of Grimm didn't exist back then. It was after the Maverick Wars when they began to pop up over Remnant," Yang countered.
Weiss looked at her blonde teammate in vehemence. "And how can we be sure that he actually is a Reploid? For all we know, he could be a prototype for a version of the Atlesian Knight combat droids sent from Atlas!" The two began to eye each other ferociously in annoyance before Ruby gained their attention back.
"Weiss, Yang, you might want to look at this." Ruby interjected, referring to the monitor that showed X, surrounded by Beowolves.
Back in the Emerald Forest, the Alpha Beowolf howled in rage and vengeance as he witnessed his own kind, obliterated by the blue newcomer. The four remaining regular Beowolves echoed the Alpha's anger as they burst at X, wanting to taste the destruction of the Reploid. As they tried to close the gap between X, they ended up colliding with each other instead.
When the lycanthropes had recovered from the four-way head butt, they had turned around and looked all over the forest landscape. The Beowolves had lost sight of their blue target. Only when the pack heard a large humming with air and heat bursting down upon them, did they realize they forgot to look up. Above them, X had been hovering over the Grimm using his built-in thrusters, charging his X-Buster. Glowing with energy, he gave a mighty shout, releasing his payload at the Grimm. The shot was a small, but full-fledged laser stream of pure energy. It wasn't as strong as the charge shot X shot earlier but it sure did the job as it tore right through the Beowolves, incinerating them into a black powder. The shot had launched the Maverick Hunter into the air some more before back flipping and landing on the ground.
X, proud of his work, proceeded to dust off the remnants of Beowolf on his armor. However, the Alpha Beowolf sprinted behind X, wanting to end the Reploid and ending his life but his plans were cut short… literally. Before it even had the chance to swing its claws, X had produced a sword handle that erupted with a green beam blade into his hands. He slashed at the Alpha Beowolf vertically, bisecting the monster perfectly. The newly split Alpha Beowolf flew right pass X and landed on the ground beside him. Smoke began to emit from the cleaved cadaver. X began to look upon the Z-Saber with nostalgia.
"Thanks Zero. You saved me again." The blue Reploid pocketed the beam saber into his inner armor compartments and began to march towards his objective.
Back at the Amphitheater, the students began to build and discuss their own theories on how X had gained his combat skills, still zealous and fanatic enough to challenge him when he got back. Ruby and the others, however, were still trying to process what had happened.
"Okay, so it seems to be in possession of a sword that is able to produce a blade made of pure energy, possibly plasma." Blake stated, "It seems that in X's past, everything was more advanced than modern archaeologists had originally thought."
"Hey, was it just me or did X look a bit tense after using his light saber?" Jaune spoke up.
"First of all, we aren't calling it that. Secondly, it seemed that even though he was quick on the draw, X's slash at the Grimm was sluggish at best. He just had the element of surprise," Ren put his two cents in.
Pyrrha was looking at the ground pensively. "Perhaps the reason why X was slow is because it's not his sword." Everybody looked at the red-haired Amazonian-like student with further explanation. "It's only a guess but maybe this sword he possesses reminds him of his former life in the past. And since X is the last of his kind, it holds sentimental value to him."
"I never really thought of it like that. To me, it just looked like a cool sword." Ruby stated. Weiss could only scoff at her red-hooded leader.
"Of course, only you would think of weapons, 24/7. It still amazes me how you even get work done if all you do is drool over the newest weapons and prototypes all day."
"Says the Ice Queen…"
"What was that, you child?"
"Ice Queen!"
"Dunce!"
Yang had gotten up and pried the two away from scratching each other's faces off. "Now guys. I think it's time for you two to have a timeout." She said with a playful, yet motherly tone.
"In your dreams!" Ruby and Weiss retorted in unison before looking at each other. The duo then proceeded to giggle before it turned onto full-on laughter while the others could look on in amusement.
Shortly after decimating his Grimm attackers, X continued to explore the surrounding of the Emerald Forest, hoping to avoid any encounters with the soulless monsters to conserve his energy reserves until he recovered. But as fate would bring, his prayers were unanswered. Now, the Maverick Hunter was being confronted by three Beowolves, two Ursi, and a King Taijitu. The bearlike creatures seemed to move slower than their werewolf comrades but what they lacked in speed, they sure made up in strength and ruthlessness as X found out when he was tackled into a tree by an Ursa. X planted his feet on the ground and grabbed the Ursa's shoulder and underarm, quickly lifted up the Grimm. He threw the Ursa towards the Beowolves. The two of the monsters quickly scrambled out of the way as the Ursa flew in the air. One Beowolf was simply not fast enough to evade the airborne Ursa and collided with it head-first, knocking the two out. X turned around and grabbed the remains of the tree that he was pinned to and uprooted it. With a mighty swing, he threw the large piece of lumber at the remaining Beowolves. The Beowolves had hardly any reaction time, only being thrown into a stupor like a deer in front of a car's headlights, before being crushed by the log. The remaining Ursa started charging towards X before leaping into the air, trying to tackle and compact the Reploid into the ground like his predecessor. However, the Ursa was cleaved in half like a watermelon as X slashed across its torso.
"Ok, that takes care of the bears and wolves. Now where's that snakAAAHHH!"
The white half of the King Taijitu had snuck up behind on X during his fray, wanting to destroy X once he was in a weakened state. Wrapping itself around the Maverick Hunter, it began to constrict X, causing strenuous amounts of damage to his body frame and forced him to drop the Z-Saber. The White King Taijitu could only flick its forked tongue at its prey, expressing its win as the black half of the King Taijitu slithered up towards them. Seeing no other way out, X began to charge up both of his X-Busters as the Black King Taijitu reached toward its other half and X himself. Opening its jaws and revealing the assortment of fangs that decorated its mouth, the Black King Taijitu began to strike at X. However, at the last second possible, the tides had changed. X shot both arm cannons at the ground, creating a massive explosion at the White King Taijitu, propelling both halves of the Snake Grimm into the air along with X. His blue chassis starting to crack, X activated his boot thrusters and forced himself into the ground. Not wanting to make a crater into the ground, he tucked himself into a ball before landing. The Blue Reploid rolled onto the ground before getting into a running stance and picked up the Z-Saber off the ground. Now, wielding the energy sword, X positioned himself under the gigantic shadow that was being produced by the flailing King Taijitu in the sky. X looked onto the falling Grimm, judging its position and time when it was going to land. As the giant snake monster brushed past the tree line, X swung the Z-Saber at the King Taijitu, able to make a clean and concise cut as the two halves of the Grimm were separated and landed opposite of each other and their formidable blue enemy. X brought out both X-Busters and began to charge them up as he aimed at both heads of the former conjoined monster. Their tail-ends now dripping black blood, both Grimm began to squirm back onto their bellies and lunged at the Maverick Hunter. Now fully charged, X shot both X-Busters, discharging two fully-fledged charged solar bullets at both Grimm. The charge shots hit their target dead on, destroying the heads of both creatures and leaving the bodies of the Grimm squirming around before halting altogether and began to emit smoke from the cadavers before disappearing altogether.
Panting from exhaustion and energy depletion, X changed his weapons back into his arms as he fell back on the ground. He stayed in that positon, trying to regain some lost power in that fight by feeding off the sun's rays and storing it into his internal energy generation device. After a while, X replenished most of his energy back and began to walk towards his objective. Noticing a gray tower in the distance, the Reploid used his broad-range eye camera to focus on the structure. He judged that the distance from him and said structure was around less than a half mile away from his position. This gave X plenty of time to actually think about getting rid of all the conflict that plagued Remnant as he walked.
"The Grimm won't be an easy task to solve. The only resolution I see is to destroy them all. It don't know if it's the best course of action… but they've been wreaking havoc across the world. I can't let an incident like Eurasia or Sigma threaten Remnant again. I can't let that happen. No, I won't let that happen!"
While X was deep in thought, he hadn't noticed the cliff that he was on, the temple-like structures below that he spotted, or the seemingly endless abyss that he was about to fall into. That had certainly snapped X out of his daydreaming and thoughts. As X stretched his arms out and let his internal gyroscope balance him out, he noticed that there was some damage done to these structures. When he regained control, he used his hovering thrusters and floated to the Cliffside, where he began to slide and descend upon. X then spotted a Cliffside building that was nearby below and leapt towards it, using his Acceleration System to give him a large boost to land on the roof faster. When he arrived on the roof, X began to analyze the remains of these ruins. He noticed that there were blast marks all across the area.
"Had there recently been a battle here?" X thought as he grabbed a piece of rubble from the building, examining the burn marks. "Well, whatever the case, it definitely took its toll." He tossed the debris aside and jumped down and began to walk on the singular bridge ahead of him, leading the Reploid to a platform covered with broken pillars. This was where the beginning of the end would start.
"Well, it seems that X has found the remains of one of the ancient temples that Teams RWBY and JNPR had demolished in their battle with the Giant Nevermore and Death Stalker," Professor Goodwitch stated, watching the camera feeds off her Scroll. "The Initiation has gone rather well, wouldn't you agree?"
Professor Ozpin looked on the monitor pensively, "Indeed, Glynda. Not surprisingly, he is also very adept in dealing with the situations that he has encountered within the past hour. Perhaps it is time that we give him a situation that hits closer to home."
"You don't mean the-"
"Yes, I do. In fact, I've already taken the liberty of calling the Schnee Dust Company beforehand. President Schnee was quite adamant about the request, saying something along the lines of wasting defense resources, but after telling him what it was for, he became quite cooperative. Right now, the airdrop should be flying over the site now."
"Well, Ozpin. You'd best hope that it doesn't destroy X," the business-like professor said.
"Now, now, Glynda. I've made more mistakes than any man, woman or child has made on this planet," The Headmaster spoke, glasses gleaming in the light. "But I believe that this isn't one of them."
The rubble and debris started shaking on the ground as if there was an earthquake happening when X reached to the ancient platform. X could barely maintain his balance, relying on his internal gyroscope so that he wouldn't collapse. That's when he noticed that the air currents were going out of whack, creating gusts of wind powerful enough to send X off of his feet.
"Ugh. What could be causing all of this wind?" The Maverick Hunter inquired, struggling against the wind. X tapped into his ultra-sensitive voice recognition system in his head, checking any sounds that seemed out of place. As soon as he activated it, a large humming instantaneously burst into his 'ears' so to speak. Looking up, X noticed a large hovercraft flying above him, descending towards the platform. The aircraft's wings had giant jet engines attached on it that seemed to rotate as it began its descent. The most noticeable feature about the aircraft was a giant snowflake was engraved on its side with the initials: SDC, below the emblem.
"X," The Maverick Hunter turned around, trying to locate the voice that called his name.
"X, this is Professor Ozpin. I'm communicating with you through the Bullhead's speakers," said Ozpin, speaking into the microphone back at Beacon Amphitheater.
"Yes, Professor? What is it that you needed to tell me? Am I close to the Abandoned Temple?" X inquired.
"Yes, quite so. You've had quite an Initiation so far but take this next challenge as a 'final test' so to speak," said Ozpin.
"Final test?"
"Yes. If you are able to defeat this foe, this Bullhead VTOL aircraft will take you to the Abandoned Temple then back to Beacon Academy."
The Bullhead rotated itself and placed the rear of the vehicle towards X. The hatch began to open as it revealed a massive, black robot that began to climb down the ramp and leapt off the aircraft. The ancient platform quaked as the giant droid landed, creating several more cracks along the center. The machine had four spider-like legs positioned around the base of the body. The torso itself resembled to be humanoid and contain a large hole in the middle of its chest. It had two arms equipped with a large energy cannon each. It also possessed two larger energy cannons on its shoulder as well. The robot was decorated with dark gray paint with red accents that ran all over its body. This thing was easily twice the size of X, if not than more. X could only gaze at this mechanized, weaponized monstrosity in confusion.
"A giant Mechaniloid?! That's my opponent?" X asked.
"Yes," answered Professor Ozpin. "This creation from the Kingdom of Atlas where most of the technological advancements in Remnant occur. I present to you the Atlesian Black Widow, serial number: BLK-WDW. We had to say the serial number for promotional services so don't mind that. This is a combat droid whose main purpose is to protect its objective and obliterate enemy combatants. Although we recently programmed this particular model for the sole purpose of combat. We thought that by giving you a familiar opponent, it would help you get into the groove of things, as it were. Are you able to handle defeating this 'mechaniloid'?"
X only nodded, "Roger, I'm beginning the mission!" The Maverick Hunter exclaimed as he aimed his cannon at Atlesian BLK-WDW. The colossal mechaniloid responded by lifting its arm turrets towards X.
"INITIALIZNG COMBAT PROCEDURES. MAIN CANNONS READY. ENGAGING TARGET WHEN COMMAND IS GIVEN," The Atlesian Black Widow spoke in a cold, synthetic voice.
"All right, then. Maverick Hunter X! Begin the final test!" Ozpin ordered through the speakers as the Bullhead flew away.
And that's when all hell broke loose.
Cue Battle Theme: VS 8Boss – Mega Man X8
X began firing solar bullets in rapid succession at the Atlesian BLK-WDW's torso, seemingly causing no damage as it shrugged off the blasts. The BLK-WDW returned the favor and started firing Dust salvos from its arm cannons. The Maverick Hunter kept jumping side to side, avoiding the salvos before taking cover behind a pillar. He began to wall-kick all the way to the top of the pillar and began firing at the BLK-WDW. One of the shots managed to hit the mechaniloid square in the head. In retaliation, the BLK-WDW charged towards the pillar and used its front legs to knock it down. Forced to use his thrusters, X began hovering over the mechaniloid before landing on its head. From there, X pulled out the Z-Saber and began stabbing into its arms. But to no avail, even with the countless attacks, the mechaniloid refused to back down. It began to rotate its torso extremely quick, swinging X off. X landed on and then went on his knee, having not fully recovered from his earlier battles today.
"Just what exactly is this thing made off? It just shrugged off my shots as if they were nothing! Even the Z-Saber couldn't slow it down. No matter, I just have to fight faster and harder!"
X got back on his feet and began to charge his X-Buster up. The Atlesian BLK-WDW proceeded to fire its shoulder cannons, wanting to disrupt X in furthering his next plan. The Maverick Hunter kept charging up his X-Buster, with the excess energy going into the second buster, while simultaneously dodging the salvos and dashing towards the mechaniloid. The Atlesian BLK-WDW continued to show no mercy towards the recently awakened Reploid as it started firing all of its cannons at X. X, not wasting any moment, jumped onto the legs of the spider-like droid and proceeded to leap onto its right arm cannon. X pointed both arm cannons at the Atlesian BLK WDW's body and fired two gigantic, sky blue, charge shots. The two shots began to merged as it traveled to their targets and when it hit, another explosion occurred and X was blown back onto the platform. When the smoke cleared, there had been a giant gaping hole in its torso that reached all the way down to the base where the four mechanical legs were conjoined at, revealing the massive circuitry and wiring that had ran through the machine. The damage finally taking its toll on the Atlesian Black Widow. The red accents began to fade into the black as the mechaniloid spoke its final words.
"ANALYSIS COMPLETE. REPLOID IDENTIFIED. OBJECTIVE FULFILLED. MAIN BATTLE ROUTINES GOING OFFLINE. SYSTEM ERROR. SYSTEM ERROR. SYSTEM ERRORrrr..." The Atlesian BLK WDW's harsh, artificial voice died down and the combat mechaniloid had finally shut down. It was finally over. X had passed the Initiation into Beacon Academy. But one thought had echoed through his mind.
"Did the mechaniloid just identify me as a Reploid?"
Weiss couldn't believe her eyes, ears, practically all of her senses! All that had echoed through her mind was the Atlesian BLK-WDW's last testimony.
"Analysis complete. Reploid identified. Analysis complete. Reploid identified. Analysis complete. Reploid identified."
All doubts about X had vanished when she heard one of her family's and Atlas's technology acknowledge him as a Reploid. Mega Man X was indeed the last of the Reploids. While Weiss was still taking in this information, Ruby had decided to take up the responsibility of rubbing it in her face.
"HA! I told you so, Weiss!" She yelled in glee. "X is a Reploid and you said that I was being stupid and childish. Well, who's stupid now?!" Ruby then began to cheerfully sing while Weiss sank into a glumly depression, not accepting that she was wrong.
However, not everybody could echo Ruby's sentiment. Blake was in shock. She was in shock because X had been able to single-handedly defeat an Atlesian BLK-WDW without any help. Atlesian BLK-WDWs were notorious for their destructive and ruthless manners of dealing with their enemies. Even Blake couldn't handle the combat monstrosity and the only reason she survived that battle was because Adam was there to finish it off. She would have to congratulate him when he would get back to Beacon.
As the various students began cheering for X's victory, Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch began to discuss on what happened
"Professor Ozpin, are you sure that that the BLK-WDW that the Schnee Dust Company sent was the correct one?" Professor Goodwitch inquired.
"I'm positive. This just proves to show that X truly is one of the strongest Reploids left, well he's the only one left but I digress," The gray-haired professor responded, taking a sip out of his mug.
Professor Goodwitch began to go through the data on her Scroll, "Very well, then. I'll contact the mechanical waste staff and ask them to haul off the BLK-WDW... What? This can't be possible."
"What is it, Glynda?"
"I'm going through the BLK-WDW's status, checking which systems sustained the most damage to send the statistics to the Schnee Dust Company. The diagnostics are stating that the machine is still functioning."
Professor Ozpin widened his eyes at this revelation before pulling out his on Scroll and began to speak into it, "Hello, Johnson? I need you to fly back to X as soon as you can."
"You got it, boss."
The headmaster could only close his eyes, "X, I hope you're prepared for what's going to happen next."
X was now spending his time inspecting the disabled Atlesian BLK-WDW, waiting for the Bullhead to pick him up. X was fascinated by the mechaniloid as he began to pry open the metal plating near the arm cannon. When he got it off, X found out that instead of a solar energy generator that powered the arm cannon, it was an assortment of canisters filled with different kinds of powder. These colored canisters were all hooked up to wires which supplied the weapon with ammunition and possibly served as a primary power source. X grabbed one of the canisters and pulled it out of the machine.
"Just what is this stuff?" X asked to himself, further scrutinizing the possible power source.
While X was occupied, the lines running across the Atlesian BLK-WDW began to brighten up. As the red accents began to brighten, the head of the mechanical powerhouse began to lift up. It stayed in that position as it ran a diagnostic check through its body as a faint hum could be heard. Fortunately for X, he heard the faint hum before dodge-rolling into safety as the damaged mechaniloid slammed its front legs down in an attempt to immobilize the Maverick Hunter, before falling down again.
"MAIN MOTOR FUNCTIONS NOW OPERATING AT 75 PERCENT. DIVERTING POWER AWAY FROM NON-ESSENTIAL SYSTEMS. PREVIOUS OBJECTIVE DEEMED VOID. NEW OBJECTIVE ACQUIRED: ELIMINATE THE REPLOID."
X raised his X-Buster at the now-malfunctioning combat droid, "How is this possible? Those charge shots hit it directly, knocking the mechaniloid down! It gave up! What changed now? Unless…!" X widened his eyes at the only explanation possible for the Atlesian BLK-WDW acting out of control.
It had gone Maverick.
Cue Battle Theme: Angry Boss – Mega Man X8
The Atlesian BLK-WDW's legs began to lift the Maverick back into an upright position. "ALL DUST-POWERED CANNONS OPERATIONAL. ARM CANNON AMMUNITION MISSING. MAIN BATTLE ROUTINES NOW ONLINE." The Maverick began firing all of its cannons in a machine gun-like fashion, giving no time for X to evade all of the salvos as he got damaged in his torso and legs. In retaliation, X began firing both X-Busters, hoping to slow the BLK-WDW's attack as he shot solar bullets at its head. As the solar bullets hit, X pulled out the Z-Saber and sprinted towards the Maverick. When he got close enough, X jumped onto the legs and began stabbing and slicing the wires and metal frame, turning it into molten scrap. With one final slash, X had sliced one of the front legs off of the mechaniloid. The combat robot's shoulder cannon aimed down at X before unleashing another bombardment of Dust ammunition, pushing away and knocking X down before he could get another slice in at the other front leg. When X had recovered and gotten up, somehow able to stand on its own, the Atlesian BLK-WDW started moving its cannons in front of the hole in its torso before they all began to combine to form one gigantic cannon, the machine taking the form of an artillery cannon. The cannon began discharging energy out of the side ports around the barrel as a much larger energy ball began to form in front of the mechaniloid. X began building up energy in his X-Buster, hoping that his charged shot would take out the cannon before it had fired. X and the Atlesian BLK-WDW both fired at the same time, X releasing a giant discharge of blue energy while the Maverick shot a pure-white laser. The two blasts had connected and tried to envelop one another, wanting to get to its target. But the Atlesian BLK-WDW's laser prevailed and burst through X's charge shot. X put his arms up in a cross guard before the Dust laser hit the Maverick Hunter dead on. The impact was so colossal that it broke parts of the platform and sent them falling down in the abyss below, along with X.
As X kept descending, unable to move his arms or legs. He closed his eyes and thought to himself, "So, this is how it ends, huh? Taken down by a Maverick in the future. I can't say that this is a pleasant way to go but it looks like this is the way I have to go."
"Come on, X. Pick up the pace. This is no time for a Hunter to slack off."
X quickly opened his eyes when he heard that voice echo in his mind. "…Zero…?"
Cue Battle Theme: Opening Stage - Central Highway – Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X
The red energy crystal in X's helmet began to shine a brilliant shade of gold as X's systems went into overdrive, regaining control of his formerly paralyzed limbs. The reinvigorated Maverick Hunter used his thrusters to air-dash to a nearby piece of rubble, prompting jumping off of it onto another piece of falling debris right after. X kept boosting himself all the way back up to the fragmented platform and back into the fray. The Atlesian BLK-WDW could only raise its cannons at X, signaling that it was time that the battle needed to end. With a new sense of clarity in his unwavering, emerald green eyes, X's hands began to glow an iridescent shade of white before changing them into X-Busters. His armor, although now covered with more cracks, didn't waver to the damage caused by the mechaniloid. This was X's limitless potential.
"My name is X. I am a Maverick Hunter. And I will not let Mavericks like you, or the Creatures of Grimm destroy the peace that Humanity and Faunus have been striving for!"
X began to fire yellow bursts of charge shots with haste, unaffected by fatigue or injury. With each hit, the Atlesian BLK-WDW began to falter as the plasma shots took their toll, striking the three remaining legs. X ended his assault and began to charge at the mechaniloid as it began to form its giant turret and started firing at X but to no avail. X kept dashing through the salvos and the debris that was erupting around him. With a final boost, he leapt onto the front leg of the Atlesian BLK-WDW as it turned back into its regular mode. He began punching and ripping off the circuitry and other various components of the front leg, effectively rendering it useless. X began to pull back on the knee and anchored himself onto the machine's thigh before tearing off the leg. The Atlesian BLK-WDW began to topple forward into the ground, having to use its arm cannons to support it. X used this as an opportunity and jumped onto the mechaniloid's head, grappling it. X began punching the head repeatedly, making a dent with each punch. With one final swing to the cranium, X had forced his way into the electronic brain of the mechaniloid, analyzing all of the circuitry, the motherboard, and other various wires that gave the machine life. He raised his arm cannon, stuck it into the new metal cavity, began charging it until blue electricity started to form around the barrel of the buster once more. With a loud shout, X fired into the electronic brain, destroying its entire central nervous system and the upper part of the torso as well. X let go of the Maverick and jumped off. The red accents began to glow even brighter as various rays of light began to erupt out of the mechaniloid. Small but numerous detonations exploded on the broken Maverick's body before they began to envelop into one giant flare before exploding. X shielded his eyes as the light kept flashing bright before dying down. X saw to see that there was nothing left of the Atlesian BLK-WDW. X's energy crystal and hands' glow began to die down. This time for real, X was finished with Initiation. The Bullhead from earlier came into X's view from around the Cliffside as it began to fly down towards X. The airship landed right beside X as the main hatch dropped down. The Maverick Hunter proceeded to walk into the Bullhead, seeing the pilot coming out to greet him.
"You're that Reploid that everyone's been talking about right?" His voice was gruff yet curious as he eyed X in curiosity.
"Yes, that would be me." The blue Reploid smiled.
"Well, it looks like you've been through hell and back. The name's Johnson. Everybody back at the school was worried crazy for you."
"They…were...?" X said, taken back.
"Of course they were. It's not every day you see a part of history thought to be a myth," Johnson responded.
X began to smile, happy knowing that even though he was in a new environment, he had people worrying about him. People that cared about him. He wouldn't forget this sentiment. That he knew.
"Okay then," X nodded. "Let's go to the Abandoned Temple."
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Johnson responded, going back to the cockpit. He closed the hatch and proceeded to lift off into the sky and flew X to the Abandoned Temple. Five minutes later, the Bullhead had landed at their destination as X walked out to find the artifact. The Abandoned Temple consisted of the broken ruins of a rotunda. Three of the columns were broken and lying around the area in pieces. There were five stone columns still standing that held up a circle of stones. On the outer edge of the rotunda were small, pillar-like pedestals that made a ring surrounding the floor. The only thing that X found on one of the pedestals was a chess piece resting on top of it. X picked up the small object and saw that it was a White Pawn chess piece.
"Mission completed." X turned to the Bullhead, "I got what was here! Let's head back to Beacon!" The Reploid yelled as he walked back into the airship.
An hour later back at the Beacon Amphitheater, Professor Ozpin was standing in the middle of the stage. The multitude of students and professors began to cheer from the stands as they saw X walking his way up to the stage. When he arrived at the center of the stage alongside the Headmaster, X gave Ozpin the White Pawn relic from the Abandoned Temple. Professor Ozpin only smiled at X. The monitor above them turned on and showed X's mug shot and his name. Professor Ozpin began to tap into the microphone next to him to gain the students' and faculties' attention.
"Mega Man X. In the Initiation, you were able to defeat a numerous amount of the Creatures of Grimm, navigate your way to the ruins of the Abandoned Temple, and you defeated an Atlesian Black Widow. A machine created for the sole purpose of combat. You defeated it not only once, but twice when it went berserk. Excellent work by the way. And you retrieved the White Pawn piece. Normally, I would assign teams made up of four people but you're an exception. From this day forth, X, you will be the first student in the history of Beacon Academy to work solo. You will go on missions by yourself but will also assist your fellow Huntsman and Huntresses when needed."
X began to smile once again. "Thank you, Professor. You can count on me from now on."
The Headmaster returned the gesture, "I already have. Maverick Hunter X, welcome to Beacon Academy!"
The crowd began to erupt in applaud and excitement as they welcomed their new classmate once again. The title 'Maverick Hunter' appeared on screen, next to X's name on the monitor. Professor Ozpin only gazed into the crowd then towards X, noticing his happy expression of him being accepted.
"Well, this has turned out to be an interesting year."
Thanks again to Shadow, I feel he did a really good job with this. Now I know what I have \ to beat with the next chapter!