Today was an intense day.
An hour ago, Dr. Wily tried to invade the Plasma Power Plant to steal the Litanium Rods to build some kind of "super blaster." That was nothing special. Wily trying to take over the world was par for the course.
But then, 30 minutes later, two new bots showed up and started destroying everything in their path. Within seconds Mega Man found himself out gunned, outmatched, and on the verge of death, alongside his sister and his dog. Just when things couldn't get more incredible a green portal opened and a giant blue warrior calling himself Mega Man X appeared, rescued him and his family, before proceeding to blow up everything in his path in hopes of capturing these so-called "Maverick Bots."
Mega had never seen such a fire fight in his life—especially one where the hero was doing more damage than the villains. He pleaded with the future bot to restrain himself from destroying the whole plant, only to be told that he had to capture the Maverick Bots "at all costs."
Mega Man X then explained why these "Maverick Bots" were here. They were sent from the future by some bot name Cigma to get the Litanium Rods to finance their war on the humans. He then used his infer-red scanners to track the Maverick Bots who had fled with Dr. Wily. He returned to the lab and demanded an aircraft. The only one Dr. Light had left was the Sky Cycle and it needed repairs. He said it would take 45 min to an hour.
That's when X lost it.
He grabbed Dr. Light by his collar and lifted him off the ground, demanding that he fix it now.
Mega tried to stop him, only to be shoved backwards. Before a full fight could break out, Roll shoved both of them out of the room, promising to help Dr. Light finish the repairs.
That was 15 minutes ago.
Now, Mega rested against the wall, his arms crossed, with a scowl on his face, while Mega Man X continued to pace, his face a mask of frustration.
"Hey, X, what was with you attacking Dr. Light like that?" Mega Man asked, walking towards the future bot.
"I told you Mega, we have to capture the Mavericks at all costs!" X thundered, turning his head towards his companion, his eyebrows bent in anger.
"Yeah, about this 'all costs' thing," Mega pried, "you were willing to blow up an entire plant just to capture two bots! You could have killed dozens, maybe hundreds of humans with that kind of firepower! How is that an acceptable cost?" the hero demanded.
X stopped in his tracks, before turning to face the young bot.
He breathed in before answering.
"It's funny…I once asked the same question," X said, his arms crossed. "I had a chance to capture Vile a while back. He acquired a giant mech suit and was causing a lot of death and destruction as he rampaged throughout this one building. I was ordered to blow up the entire structure so we could catch him."
X closed his eyes and turned his head.
"…I couldn't take the shot. I couldn't blow up all those people."
"Sounds like the right move to me," Mega affirmed
X shook his head.
"It wasn't. Vile escaped the building. By the time, Zero, my Master Sergeant, arrived to open fire at his mech, Vile had already jumped onto an airship piloted by another Maverick Bot."
"Zero turned around, seized me by the throat and slammed me against a wall, berating me for letting Vile escape, and shouting at me that we had to capture the Mavericks 'at all costs.'"
I asked the same question you did, "Even at the costs of those we protect?"
"He slammed me against the wall again and told me to think about the big picture. He told me if Cigma wins all humans would die as will all repliroids who don't submit to him. He told me that if I kept this up, I would find myself standing over the graves of the humans, telling them they all had to die so I could save a few people in a building. He told me we had to win 'at all costs.'"
X looked down in despair.
"Truth be told, he hates the fact that I even save captives. He would have my head for saving you and your sister. He thinks every second not spent destroying the Maverick Bots is another second we give them to kill hundreds of more humans. He straight up told me that given the choice to save me or attack Cigma, my life would be sacrificed without a second's thought."
"Sounds like a jerk," Mega quipped.
"That 'jerk' is right Mega! Things are bad here," X said turning sharply at Mega Man
"They can't be that bad," Mega fired back, still skeptical of the need for such extreme measures.
"Yes, they can. When I said that evil might just win, I meant it. Things are far worse than you can imagine." X responded forebodingly.
"Try me," Mega Man challenged.
"Okay, you want to know how bad it is?" X said in a lecturing tone. "I'll tell you. In my timeline the world is divided into three sections: Cigma's sector, the Contested Sector, and the Unscathed Sector."
"Cigma's sector is an outright nightmare. He's already set up human concentration camps, which are run by these two Maverick Bots, Flame Mammoth and Chill Penguin. Both like torturing, humiliating, and working humans to death. When Flame Mammoth wants to get his jollies, he piles the humans one on top of the other, coats them in a vat of oil he spits out of his trunk, and sets them on fire."
Mega's eyes widened.
"Chill Penguin is even worse," X continued. "He likes to line up the humans firing squad style and launch chunks of ice at them until he slowly breaks their bones into powder."
X clenched his fist.
"When he's not doing that, he likes freezing children into ice sculptures and sliding into them hard enough to shatter them into pieces and forcing their parents to watch," X finished, aggressively swiping his arm through dead air in fury.
Mega felt sick to his circuits, and took a step back.
"Then there's Launch Octopus," X continued. "He's in charge of Cigma's armory. He thinks nothing of experimenting on humans or roids who won't submit to the Maverick Empire. As a result of his unethical experimentations, the Mavericks have access to the most advanced weapons on the planet. On top of that, Octopus's repliroid men don't get tired, meaning they can work round the clock. Cigma not only has the most state of the art technology, his ammo stock is nearly infinite."
Mega absorbed this information, eyes further widening.
"Why can't you just attack Cigma directly and cut off the head of his army?" he asked.
X sighed in frustration.
"Cigma himself never enters the battlefield. He gives orders from afar, with Spark Mandrill serving as his bodyguard and shield, while Vile, his top henchmen, who hates human emotion, serves as his hands and feet, dispatching enemies with cold soulless logic. Additionally, his base remains too fortified to be attacked. We all know where Cigma is. But he's too well guarded for us to lay a finger on him," the hunter explained grimly.
"But that contested sector means there's hope, right?" Mega asked, desperate to find a silver lining in what X was telling him.
"No," the future bot answered with the shake of his head.
"That sector is contested, but Cigma is advancing. Every day we either hold what we have, or we lose ground. Never the other way around. His army is too powerful and it's all my fault.," X finished with clenched teeth.
"Your fault? How?" Mega asked in bafflement
"Remember that time I spared Vile?" X reminded his distant ancestor. "That gave him a chance to take that experimental mech back to Cigma. He reversed engineered it and now his armies rampage through humans with them. I saved hundreds of human lives at the expense of thousands," X recapped with guilt and shame.
"Most of these mech pilots are commanded by two Maverick Bots who always work together, Armored Armadillo and Boomer Kuwanger, known as the "Breaker" and the "Cutter" respectively," the hunter added."Armadillo treats humans like they are bricks for him to smash. He harvests the bones of his victims, which he sticks to his outer shell."
"Kuwanger is even more sadistic. His horns are constantly caked with blood from all the humans he decapitates. When he's not on the battlefield, it's said that he impales their heads on his horns and waits for their skin to decay so he can collect their skulls."
"Sizzling Circuits," Mega uttered in disgust.
"Then there's Storm Eagle," X continued.
"Another Maverick Bot?" Mega asked, exasperated by the grim picture X was painting.
"Yes. He looks down on humans as if they are ants and treats them accordingly," X affirmed.
"He attacks them with his airship's lasers, carpet bombing, and even his weapon, the Storm Tornado, which allows him to blow humans and their homes away with a single blast, displacing hundreds of people in one fell swoop."
"Then there's Sting Chameleon, Cigma's sadistic spy. He treats humans like they are insects to be devoured and routinely strangles them with his Iron Tongue. He's been spotted in the Unscathed Sector, having apparently set up shop so he can undermine us by learning our secrets and passing them on to Cigma."
"And that's just some of his men," X added.
"I didn't even tell you about Magna Centipede, Cigma's interrogator, who impales humans and roids alike with his tail. Or Flame Stag, who bathed almost half a continent in ash by causing a series of unnatural volcanoes."
"I didn't mention Bubble Crab, who routinely turns habitable regions into unlivable wastelands by absorbing all the water in his path. Or Crystal Snail, Cigma's top scientist, who built Wheel Gator's Dinosaur Tank, which not only destroys every city it encounters, but is impenetrable by even our most advanced weapons."
"Not that we get much of a chance to attack it or anything else. Our missile strikes on Cigma's forces are all but useless, since Overdrive Ostrich can kick them out of the sky."
"As for our ground troops, they barely get a chance to mobilize in the field because Cigma's top assassins, Wire Sponge and Morph Moth, routinely take them out before they even know what happens."
Mega's eyes couldn't get wider and his mouth couldn't be more gaping.
It took him some time to get his bearings before he could ask a single, obvious question.
"If he has all of these advantages, why hasn't Cigma won, already?" Mega asked softly.
"Because there are too many roids who are undecided," X explained.
"It's not like Cigma has a virus that controls people. He has to convince them that they are better off under his rule and he can't do that just by conquering everything. He would spread himself too thin. If he wants their loyalty, he has to bribe them—and with these Litanium Rods he will be well on his way of doing just that!" X thundered with urgency.
"Make no mistake, Mega," the Maverick Hunter pressed, "at this rate, Cigma's victory is not just possible, it is not just probable, it is likely!"
"We could very well be looking at a world where the entire globe is a giant concentration camp for Cigma's enemies, both human and repliroid alike. And that could happen in the space of years, not decades. We have to stop this at all costs!" he added grimly, punching his fist into his palm.
Mega Man had to fight to keep standing. Just thinking about that almost made him want to shut down.
"I hope you can believe me when I say I don't like blasting everything in sight. I never wanted any of this. But in a world where the stakes are this high we don't have time to worry about collateral damage. We have to take every shot we can." X explained in lamentation.
Mega Man bowed his head.
He felt as if he was being crushed in a junkyard compressor by the sheer weight of the future bot's dire straits. X was right. This was far worse than he ever thought possible.
But in response to this pressure, Mega did what he always did— he summoned the will to fight back.
"Look X, we're gonna win," Mega Man thundered.
"Really? Even after all that? You think we have a chance? What makes you so sure?" X asked cynically.
"I've dealt with odds I was told I couldn't overcome. But I did it every time. Whether it was the time Wily kidnapped me before I was upgraded into the fighter I am today, or the time he seized control of all electronics in the city, or the time he pulled the moon out of orbit, I stood tall and I defeated him every time—and I don't have the blaster power you do!"
X's face relaxed a bit.
"We'll stop these Maverick Bots and get you back to your time and then you can give Cigma one for me," the super fighting robot affirmed with his trademark determination.
X slightly smiled. It had been a while since he heard a hopeful voice with such conviction.
"Thanks, Mega."
"No problem. Dr. Light will be done soon and we can roll out!" he responded.
As if on cue, Dr. Light appeared alongside Roll and the Sky Cycle.
"The repairs are complete!" Dr. Light affirmed.
"And in only 25 minutes, no less," Roll added.
"Thank you Miss Roll, Dr. Light," X said calmly.
"Miss Roll? Wow. I could get used to that kind of respect. Maybe you could learn a thing or two about manners from this future bot, Mega!" Roll quipped, turning to her brother.
"Don't count on it, sis!" Mega Man replied with a smile.
"Dr. Light, I apologize for my behavior, but my circumstances are dire and my time is short," X explained as he extended his hand.
"It's quite alright. But you must stop Wily and these renegade robots!" Dr. Light responded as he shook X's hand.
"He's right, X. We have to stop them at all costs," the blue bomber agreed.
X nodded in approval, boarded the sky cycle and prepared to take off alongside Mega Man and Rush.
"Go get'em, Megas!" Roll thundered with a smile.
And with that cheer, X felt something he hadn't felt in a long time.
He felt hope.