Megaman Excel 4
By: Metal Sonic EX
Disclaimer: I own a few select bosses and Capcom owns everything else.
Chapter VIII
Too Hot To Handle
Iris gaped. "Wha… I've never even seen the guy before." Midi turned back to the computer. "I know. But with all this stuff about a doppelganger…" Alia suddenly started, then gently shoved Midi away. "Hey!"
Alia began rapidly typing before snapping her fingers. "It was a small error, but it made a lot of difference." Alia showed Midi and he smacked himself. "Of course! I mixed up the cerebral routers." Everyone exchanged looks. "It's not Iris Thorne! It's Cyrus Thorne!"
Coonite frowned and quietly exited the room. "Who's this Cyrus fellow? And what does he want?" Midi shrugged. "That'll take longer, but maybe we should ask Axle." Colonel and Eagle exchanged nods. "I'll take my squadron and search Manda Island." Storm Eagle and Teal turned around and paused. "Where are X and Zero?"
Meanwhile, the two hunters entered Dr. Light's estate after being asked to make sure everything was fine by Coonite. Protoman appeared and slowly walked up. "Yo." Dr. Light quickly ran in and sat down. "Thank goodness you're here! I think Wily's gotten hold of your technology!"
(Megaman 5 (NES) - Stage Select begins playing)
Upon the push of a button, the giant screen was lowered and showed an entire forest which was ablaze. "This…" The camera zoomed into a single fiery figure. "…is Cinder Man. He possesses more power over fire than anyone I've ever seen. To be truly honest, if Wily has this much power…"
X frowned. "We can only assume that Wily's gotten hold of our technology." Zero growled. "Great…" Protoman turned to the two. "Megaman's already fighting the battle from the air. You'd better hurry." The hunters nodded and beamed off.
(Megaman 5 (NES) - Stage Select fades out)
(Megaman X4 (PSX) - Boss Intro plays)
(The Robot Master throws his arms behind him, is surrounded in flame, and reappears completely ablaze.)
Cinder Man!
Ready
(Shinobi 3 (Sega Genesis) - Idaten begins playing)
(A.N. This tune is available on KH Insider.)
X and Zero beamed down in the middle of the forest, where the surrounding trees were ablaze. "Jesus! I thought it looked bad from the air!" X noticed Megaman using Rush Jet approaching their position. "You search the area and get any survivors out of here."
Zero looked at him weird. "And what are you going to do?" X smirked, though Zero didn't see it. "See what this new armor can do." He crouched down, then flew high into the air. "Showoff…" X flipped and stuck to the bottom of Rush Jet, but knocking Megaman off. He grabbed his hand and tossed him back onto the top of Rush.
"X? How are you…" X chuckled. "Long story. Explain later." X stood erect while standing on Rush and drew his sword. "Well, this is lasting longer than it did before…" Some flying enemies approached and both Megaman and X dispatched them easily.
"So, what are you doing here?" X looked down at the forest. "Looking for Cinder Man." He noticed a figure walking down the forest and smirked. "Bulls-eye! I'm outta here!" He released his hold on Rush Jet and fell to the forest, gracefully landing on his feet.
"Keep this up and I'll start thinking that your a stalker." X stood erect and turned around, only to gasp at what he saw. "But… You're…" The figure who stood before him was Axle The Red… or someone extremely similar. The rose on his head and wrists were black, not red.
Instead of the right leg, like Axle, this figure had a vine wrapped around his left leg. Likewise, a single spike protruded from his left knee. Where as Axle's armor was green and white, this figure's armor was the exact same, save for the blue and black color scheme. Finally, the blue crystal in the figure's helmet wasn't blue. It was red.
"You've caught me, hunter. Now what?" X took a battle stance, his sword drawn. "Who are you?!" The figure chuckled. "I am the one you've been looking for, aren't I?" The figure mock-bowed. "I am Cyrus Thorne. If memory serves me correctly, there was a bit of a mix-up with my name, wasn't there?"
X began sweating, partly because of the heat and anger, but mainly out of fear. Who was he and how did he know so much? "Don't worry, I know what you're thinking. 'How do I know so much', right?" X took a few steps back. "I figured the hunters on my world had the same problem." X started. "Wha…"
Cyrus snorted. "You didn't think that this was the only world with life, did you? Ha! There are many worlds with life, but this is the first I've been to, save my own. Looking around in your present and past times, you history is almost the exact same as ours."
Another world with hunters? And how could it be that it's basically the same world that X lived on? "However, instead of Dr. Wily, in our past, we had a man known as Neo Cortez. Yes, he's quite dead now. Has been for some time."
Cyrus looked around briefly. "Well, it's starting to get hot in here and I prefer to avoid the heat. In this case, I'll take my leave. Ciao." Cyrus disappeared in a flurry of black petals just as someone else walked up.
(Shinobi 3 (Sega Genesis) - Idaten fades out)
Warning! Warning!
Cinder Man walked up and put a hand to his chin. "By the looks of it, I'd assume that you've been standing here for a while. But why, might I ask?" X wasn't even paying attention to Cinder Man. He was to busy taking in what he'd just been told.
"Hmph! You're one of those rude types, one who cares not for evolution. No matter. I'll gladly convert you to my ways." With a swing of his hands, X and himself were surrounding in a ring of fire.
(Megaman: Powered Up (PSP) - Boss Theme begins playing)
Cinder Man walked forward with his hands extended. "Burn!" Fire spewed from them and X leapt backwards. "I can't get to close, not when I'm sweating this badly." Cinder Man smirked and walked closer. "Thanks for the pointer."
Cinder Man threw his arms back and was surrounded in fire. "Feel the burn!" The pillar was dispatched to both hands and he threw them apart, creating a massive stream of fire from both hands. X flipped over the wave as Cinder Man began walking in a circle and finally managed to land safely.
"Okay, if this new armor is like the one's before it, then when I do this…" X triggered something in the armor and he automatically struck a ninja pose. "Ooh… I'm scared…" X ripped open his eyes as the surrounding area fell into pitch blackness. "Nothing a little fire can't…"
As Zero ran up, the darkness faded and X sheathed his sword. The visor, as it retracted, displaying a message. 'Kage Slash' attack successful. "Kage Slash?" In an instant, the upper half of Cinder Man was sliced off and exploded, knocking his lower half down. Seconds later, it exploded.
(Megaman: Powered Up (PSP) - Boss Theme fades out)
(Megaman 8 (PSX) - Boss Beaten plays)
X wondered what just happened, but quickly shifted back to Cyrus, not noticing that the fire was going out on its' own due to Cinder Man's demise. Zero walked up to X and waved a hand in front of his eyes without a response. "Weird…"
Zero put a hand on X's shoulder. "Come on. We'll leave the rest to them for now." X nodded slightly, but kept his mind on Cyrus. They beamed off together and entered the time warp.
(Fatal Fury (Sega Genesis) - Player Select begins playing)
Megaman/ X got Exhaust Flame!
(Megaman appears and launches a small fiery cloud. He beams off as X beams in and charges. X launches a thicker horizontal cloud of flame. He then beams off.)
Zero got Cinder Wave!
(Zero beams in and jumps into the air. He smashes his fist into the ground and the impact creates a fiery shockwave. He then beams off.)
Axl got Flame Burner!
(Axl beams down and summons his flame-thrower. He fires a a continuous stream of fire before beaming off.)
(Fatal Fury (Sega Genesis) - Player Select fades out)
"You what?!" X was currently speaking to Colonel, Storm Eagle, and Teal about his encounter with Cyrus with everyone else listening closely. "He said something about another world. A world with some kind of Maverick Hunters there."
Eagle scoffed. "Great. Look's like Mavericks took the time in our absence to take their business elsewhere." Just then, a screen on the monitor blinked. Alia hit it and put on a headset. "Alia here."
Coonite's voice echoed through the room. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you to bring you such bad news, but I found it to be my duty to tell you that Dr. Cain has just suffered a fatal heart attack."
Next time: The Limited Virus is detected for the first time since the Limited Incident.
