" Megaman Xtinction: Future's End"
Chapter 1
By Mirai X
A/N: This is a revised version, upgraded after learning about MMX4 and beating MMX5. It would be appreciated if past reviewers would leave their comments once more. Thank you.
Series Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, but wish I did.
Stealth Rat hated his job. There was a time when he saw it as his key to power and security, both of which he lacked as a normal reploid. But Stealth Rat wasn't just an underground electrician reploid anymore. During the Doppler crisis of the 3rd great Maverick uprising, he had been working on a shorted power switch. As typical of his luck, one of his sharp, curved claws pulled a wire out of place just as he got the circuit board operational. A huge power surge coarsed through Stealth Rat's body, quite unusual for such a small board. But that had been the last thing on his mind. All he knew was two things: one was that his core was overloading and it the second was that it hurt like Hell. When he reactivated, he had pulled himself from the damp sewer floor and made his way back to his apartment. Having just considered it a rough day at the office, Stealth Rat just shrugged it off and went about his job.
However, a few months later, the company Stealth Rat worked for met with hard times and sacrifices were needed to be made. Unfortunately, Stealth Rat himself was one of them. He scowled inwardly as he remembered the notice of seperation. The feeling of utter confusion and hatred. Then, something snapped inside of him. Something that could be traced back to the haphazard accident all those months ago. Suddenly, all he felt was an overwhelming disgust for human beings. His eyes glazed over and seemed to glow crimson, his robotic body shaking and his clawed fists clench. Then, one of the fists snapped open.
"Lightning Claw!" He had screamed.
Faster than anyone could follow, Stealth Rat's electrically charged talons had dropped his ex-employer's body to the floor in a bloody mess, his head landing several yards away. Stealth Rat had then delivered similiar executions to his old co-workers, including his best friend, a human named Jeff Sanchez. But that didn't matter to him anymore.
What did, was the complete and utter destruction of humanity. Stealth Rat then found himself a mouse on a mission. Over the next year and a half, he planted bombs near shorted circuits that he created in the very tunnels he once maintained. When a human would come down and try to fix it, Stealth Rat would set the bomb off, leaving the human to explode in a shower of gunpowder and organic material.
Stealth Rat relished his new favorite passtime. He even started up a collection of his victim's middle fingers, hoping to one day have enough to tell the whole world to "F*ck Off." He had relished it indeed..... until the day the Maverick Hunters caught onto him. It was then that he truly felt like the rat he appeared to be. A green armored Maverick hunter had chased the terrified rodent throughout the entire Tokyo sewer system, equipped with a large beam rifle mounted on his speeder bike.
He had desperately turned a corner and dove from the top of an underground waterfall in an attempt to lose the hunter. He splashed down hard, but quickly brought himself to the surface. As he watched the speeder launch over the fall, releasing skis from 3 hatches beneath it to prevent it from splashing into the filthy liquid as well, a powerful beam came from seemingly nowhere, destroying the hunter and bike with little more than a few white-hot titanium flakes falling to the disgusting wastewater below. Shocked, Stealth Rat whirled around to behold noneother than the legendary Maverick himself, Sigma, holding a huge plasma bazooka over his shoulder.
Sigma smirked. "Damn Hunters. They're all alike. Protect the humans, and destroy any threat to those weaklings that surfaces. What fools." He then turned his gaze to the cybernetic rodent floating beneath the falls. "And you..... You would be Stealth Rat, am I correct?"
Speechless at this stranger's appearance and the aura of control and power radiating from him, Stealth Rat nodded dumbly.
Sigma smirked again. "Good," He said, turning his back and walking slowly away, "Come with me, my Maverick brother."
Stealth Rat followed.
It was then that Stealth Rat began working for Sigma as a demolition/espionage agent. He found himself to be very good at it, as his name suggested. He could sneak into industrial complexes and intelligence agencies as well as he could make his way around the sewers.
Which is exactly what he was doing now.
Stealth Rat sighed bitterly. Being a Maverick seemed to hold so much more promise back then. He wasn't stupid. He knew Sigma was only using him. But after having been evicted from his apartment and put on the Maverick Hunter's "To Kill" list, he had little other choice. Plus, this was achieving his goal, the destrution of humanity, alot faster than one circuit board accident per 2 weeks.
Deciding to focus more now on the task at hand than the past, the rather small Maverick peered down through the air duct he was in at a human scientist in a large metal room. He sat busily at a computer, running what seemed to be simple diagnostic tests on a not-so-simple peice of important-looking equipment.
"So that's what Sigma's wanting," he said, eyeing the device, "Doesn't look so special to me."
Stealth Rat bared his oversized fangs and dropped through the duct, alarming the scientist. The frail old man put his arms protectively up toward his face.
"No! Please!" He pleaded. "That's my life's work! Leave it be! You don't know what you're doing!"
Stealth Rat grinned evily, raising his claws. "I'm doing 2 thing here, old man. I'm stealing this precious machine of yours and I'm killing you! Lightning Claw!" And with that, an electrically charged claw launched from the Maverick's hand, plunging messily through the man's neck, ending his cries.... and his life.
Raising the curiously small device under his arm, Stealth rat looked at the corpse in disgust. "Stupid human. Willing to die for something with no life of it's own."
And with that, Stealth Rat silently lept up to the air duct, leaving the security guards to clean up his mess.
"Here." Stealth Rat said smugly as he handed the strange little device to Sigma, turning away with a dissatisfied snort. The tall, sinister Maverick leader looked it over carefully.
"You've done well, rodent," He remarked. He then scowled, drew his beam saber, and sliced Stealth Rat's head clean off. "Next time, make sure to show respect to the future leader of reploidkind."
He smiled evilly, sheathing his saber. "Finally.... the end to those hunters is at hand. Soon, mankind will be no more than a memory to this world. We shall purge that scum from existance! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"
"Zero! Report to the command chamber! Meeting in 5 minutes!" X called to his friend from outside his quarters.
X paused a moment, waiting for the golden-maned warrior to reply or open the door. After a minute, X began to feel suspicious.
"Zero?" He called again, this time rapping his fist against the cold steel door. The only reply was the echo from his knuckles hitting the door. X glanced at his internal time keeper. The meeting had just begun, and Signas, Alia, and the others were probably not happy with the delay.
"Hello....?" The blue reploid called again. Silence was his only response. He pressed the control panel on the wall, expecting to gain entrance to Zero's room. Nothing.
X's brow furrowed. Something was wrong. He couldn't deny it any longer. He took three careful steps back and withdrew his left hand into his arm, the X buster's nose emerging. He lifted his arm and charged a beam, then fired it into the door. The plasma beam knocked the door from it's hinges and sent it toppling over. He hesitantly stepped inside, keeping his guard up. Zero was gone, all right. His recharging capsule was untouched and fully charged, and yet his beam saber hilt still sat on it's mantle, where the red-armored reploid kept it. X then noticed the familiar blue gemmed red helmet resting beside the hilt.
Since when did Zero go anywhere without his helmet? In all the time X had known him, he had never removed it. X rarely removed his own, but just often enough as to where it would be no surprise to other Hunters. But Zero always kept his helmet on his head and in mint condition. Only in battle did he care to take abuse to his helmet. His power core was more important to him.
Or was it? X thought. Ever since the last battle against Sigma, and the death of Iris, Zero had been in as much of a depression as the stern commander of the 0th unit could be.
"K'so...." X breathed, as his clenched his fist. " Zero......"
Elsewhere in the remote wilderness of Japan, a lone figure sat beneath a waterfall, the rushing crystal liquid engulfing his form and the area around him. A gentle mist surrounded the waterfall, glistening in the dull moonlight. The pure water flowed down his golden hair, his stern, troubled features, and over every curve in his armor.
His head bowed and arms crossed, Zero Omega was lost to the world around him. His body was unaffected by the falling water, but any awareness he had of where he was had been lulled away by the sound of the millions of glistening droplets attacking his crimson surface, which he had endured for hours.
Zero had alot on his troubled, clouded mind. The meeting, which he had missed quite a while ago, his duty to the Maverick Hunters, his best friendship with X, but troubling him deepest was the death of a reploid that he held very dear to him, and by his own hand.
He sighed heavily.
"Iris...." His mind spoke, having been unable to find his lips.
She had died in the worst of ways: vainly seeking revenge for her fallen brother against her koibito, who, as he knew she saw it, had killed him without honor or justice.
Zero knew this to be a lie. There may have not been honor in Colonel's murder, but there had been justice. A bit too much justice, he thought to himself. The cold hand over justice had all but drained the life from Zero. He had once believed it to be his purpose. To destroy all those who threatened to destroy sentient life. But that was before Zero was forced to kill Iris.
All in the name of justice.
Colonel had been wrong to refuse to withdraw and disarm Repliforce. Then, following suit with General's wishes, he left with Repliforce to begin work on their "Utopia." He thought it the best way to promise himself and his sister a life of peace. Zero, sensing the same bad omen he did with Sigma, stepped in and destroyed him. With her judgement clouded and hate in her heart, Iris attacked Zero bent on bringing forth justice of her own. That futile act had cost her her life, and nearly cost Zero his sanity. Yet he had been strong enough to let the raging fires of battle and justice to aid X in taking out Sigma one last time.
X. He may have been naive and more passive than Zero, but he sought justice with the same fervor and determination. At times, Zero questioned his friend's true innocence. He had seen X harden slowly throughtout the war against Sigma, but every time he thought X had finally matured to a fine-disciplined, hardnosed Maverick Hunter, he'd go and do something that reminded Zero that he was still, in fact, a rookie at heart.
A bitter smile crossed Zero's features. He knew X tried to be like him, just as he himself tried to set a good example. But while victory drained Zero, leaving him solemn and reflective, X was joyful and celebratory about acheiving justice and preserving the future of mankind. Zero almost admired the blue-armored runt.
But then again, X had never been in love. Or had he? Zero wasn't quite sure. He had seen X speak with female Hunters, Alia for the most part, and do what humans might call flirting, but never anything serious. He doubted X conciously knew what he was doing.
Yet Zero knew. He knew exactly what he was doing with Iris. He loved her with every part of his being. It was then that he knew that his sentiency wasn't just an elaborate computer program.
But justice had robbed him of that.
No, he had robbed himself. He had chosen between justice and happiness. He knew that he couldn't win. If he had chosen Iris, he would've lost his friends and humanity. If he had chose to be the hero, he would've lost the one being he had held closer than anything. With a heavy heart, he had chosen the second road. Now he was beginning to see no end to the uphill path he tread. No matter how hard he tried, there was always going to be a Sigma, a Doppler, or a Vile to keep the crimson reploid's Z saber from collecting dust.
Life was getting unbearable.
Meanwhile, a few hundred feet away from the waterfall, 2 figures crouched, focused on the troubled warrior beneath the falls. The first figure, a dark armored reploid, carefully studied the blonde Maverick hunter. "There he is....." It said in a low, menacing voice to it's companion. The second figure may have not been modeled after a human, but it understood just as well. As the first figured tensed itself and charged it's chain cannon, the second emmitted a low growl, getting into an attack stance, as if it planned on leaping stright for the hunter's still form and ripping it to shreds.
The first figured poised itself. It then began a low countdown.
".......1......." The chain cannon began to glow.
"......2......" The second figure's silver, titanium claws dug into the soil.
".............3!!"
What is Sigma planning for the Maverick Hunters? What is this strange device, and what power does it hold? And what will become of Zero? Are those 2 figures friend or foe? Can they be trusted?
Find out in Megaman Xtinction: Future's End Chapter 2
How was that? Good? Bad? Worth continuing?