Mega Man X 1.5
A Breath of Hope, a Torrent of Despair
by Tremor3258
Disclaimer: Noun, the art of a fanfiction writer covering their butt in regards to copyrighted material by acknowledging they own none of it.
Oh, wait: Capcom owns MMX, which is the primary source for all characters, settings, and evil computer viruses in this story.
"Squad 1, cover the entrances! Squad 2 is moving in for a paratroop drop onto the roof of the fortress!" Zero barked out orders to the Reploids surrounding him in the dry, bitterly cold air of the desert in the evening. In front of them was an apparent dusty mountain with several caves. If one knew where to look, one could just make out the shape of a skull over the primary entrance. This was Dr. Wily's final skull fortress, built into the Piedmont sections of Maryland. Following the shifts in the climates after the Third World War in the early twenty-first century, several portions of the highlands above the waterfall line had become desert due to much of the topsoil becoming radioactive due to fallout from the high orbital nuclear strikes that had wiped out much of the former satellite infrastructure. Robots, then Reploids, had become the driving force behind the world economy due to the difficulty of accessing various mineral reserves, as well as a dwindling on-world population as more people moved to the Space Colonies.
Dr. Wily had built this fortress in preparation for a strike to take on Dr. Light while he was doing some work in New York City. Though the radiation was long gone, the land had become barren as the topsoil blew away without vegetation to anchor it. People didn't come by the area much, as it was considered almost cursed. Even Mavericks rarely visited the area, since this was the sector where the famed Crimson Hunter had been found by Sigma, injured by the Maverick Virus and with a wiped memory. What should have become history's greatest enemy became one of its strongest defenders.
"Let's hope we can be two for two on that then," muttered Zero to himself. Jazz and Bebop were undergoing comprehensive testing back at Headquarters. Gate had proven quite able, and had forced Laser Wolf into making a move on Alia because of the former Repliforce soldier's fear that Gate was trying to rekindle an old relationship. He was, but simply as a friend.
"Still, when someone brings the new Reploid the World Council had commissioned, and said that much of the body design work had been done based on someone you're interested in's blueprints, I'd be jealous too," reflected Zero. Commander Yammark had been a great vindication to Gate, as his theories indicated that a truly free-willed Reploid was one whose data patterns had grown complex enough, either through time or design, to be unanalyzable by being able to understand what software was running at any one moment.
The Council had forbid Gate from carrying out his work for several years, for fear that the Reploid would turn Maverick immediately, since one couldn't be certain that the Prime Law would be impressed during the basic knowledge dump progress when a Reploid was brought on line. However, the Amazon region's weather control systems had proven too complex for most preprogrammed Reploids to handle. They had initiative, but it was low-level. It took high-level thought patterns to manage the designs, and finally the Council had broken down and let Gate build his dragonfly.
For that matter, Zero knew another reason for fear. A strong-willed Reploid, regardless of design, had a great deal more power than an equivalent Reploid who had just recently been programmed, so much of his behavior was still predetermined. Zero had Reploids in his ranks that could devastate city blocks with their firepower, but he could beat all of them with a simple Buster and his Z-saber. X beat Sigma partly due to his rage at Sigma's attacking innocents, despite Sigma having massive battle bodies on tap. Jazz and Bebop had defeated some of the most modern equipment with their bare claws and some ancient firepower. Iris ... "Don't think about that, Zero, focus on the mission," the long-haired Reploid ordered himself.
The mission was straightforward on paper. Find the original core program to the Virus, which may very well in the fortress, and take it back for analysis. Of course, no one knew what sort of nasty deathtraps were still functioning inside the doctor's last hideout, or even where the viral chip was. So, the plan was to haul everything that wasn't nailed down (and if it could be ripped up, it wasn't nailed down) back to Headquarters to be looked at, and scan everything else.
A simple, normal information gathering mission. Any Unit could have probably handled it, but what they needed were speed and stealth. The fewer traps that were activated meant a better chance at the data not being accidently destroyed. While elements of several other Units were in the area forming a security cordon, or preparing to engage outer defenses, only Unit 0 was there in its entirety. Most units had a terrain speciality, but even urban warfare types wouldn't do well in the fortress, though the terrain would look familiar, since they were usually chosen for sharpshooting capability to quickly attract Maverick's attention and lead them to safer locations for retirement. There were a few Units with combat specialty, but most of those were heavy combat slugging Units. The 17th, X's Unit, couldn't be picked, as they were too high profile. When people thought of Hunters, they usually thought of the 17th, Elite, capable in most terrains, and had a high dedication to reducing casualties. The 'ninja' Unit 0 was the choice for the mission, despite their small size, as they could be trusted to keep their mouths shut and do their job without anyone finding out about it.
That was the real kicker. Wily could have left enough Rock Monsters behind to stomp through Tokyo, and it would be less dangerous to the Hunters. Any word that the Hunters were after the core Virus to analyze it wouldn't go over well with the public. Any response to Viral activity except to delete it was viewed as suspicious. The Hunters had dropped five more points in the last opinion poll, leading to a fifteen percent approval rating. They were in enough danger of retirement, in EVERY modern sense of the word, without bringing to light attempts to bring the actual Maverick Virus into Headquarters. Various elements of the Units had been brought in, but Unit 0 was a group that would fight to destroy the Virus, chosen by Zero specifically, even if it meant their own lives or occupation. There were some Hunters who were convinced that even mentioning the Virus could make you catch it, and others who believed that the Virus could only be met with opposing hatred. Those Hunters had been carefully farmed out on goodwill missions to various Cain Lab facilities as a 'quick-response force'. Since they were the most vocal in opposition to the Mavericks, and many of the Labs were in isolated areas away from humanity, no one had trouble with the Hunters diverting their forces to around the globe and near-space.
Zero shook himself, as his Hunters were in position. Zero took the forefront, double-checked his precious saber, and waved the group's forward. Half the Unit would attack from the top of the fortress, cutting their way into the center ring, while the other half would work their way inward, hopefully meeting in the Control structures. Jazz had supplied a map, but that was the Fortress in 'rest' mode, and the configuration had probably shifted to a maze judging by the other contingencies the paranoid Wily had put into place.
The cave, however, was still open. Zero narrowed his eyes as he examined it as the Unit approached the ground-level access points from separate directions, using all available cover. Zero was very familiar with various damage types, and it looked like there had been a gate over the cave that had been literally kicked open from the inside. Zero's innards twisted for a moment. He hadn't visited this place since he had been found, throwing himself into training of himself or others, but he felt the dim impressions of memories, like a half-remembered dream. Remembered emotions like loneliness and confusion, as well as a fierce pride in stewardship. But a few of the memories, a little sharper, were of a great deal of pain as his mind was driven from him in red fire until all went black. The first moment of clarity was waking up with Dr. Cain examining him, before joining the Hunters. Zero cried out once, before slapping his hands to his mouth, ignoring the glares of his Unit at breaking the silence. His head had started to pound, a dull throbbing that was getting louder. Zero ran a diagnostic, but nothing came back.
Zero thought back to what Jazz had said about what happened to her after Wily's death, with an order that came to wipe away all thought and destroy the doctor's enemies. I've had dreams like that starting right before the Fourth Uprising! Zero thought in shock, he made a gesture to his subordinate. 'Am compromised, returning to base.' The Unit's eyes widened in shock, but they made no move of opposition. These were warriors. Zero quickly teleported back to Headquarters.
X was waiting in the war room with Signas as the orange bolt came through the ceiling. As soon as Zero's particles had reformed, he began to curse, "I am such a moron!" Zero said at length, "X! There's some sort of transponder activated on location!" Zero explained what had happened, and then continued, "The headache's just now starting to fade, and I'm on the other side of the planet! Who knows what would have happened if I had gone inside?"
Signas shook his head sadly, "So I guess it your origins have been confirmed. I was rather hoping that Jazz had been confused on that point."
X said seriously, "If there is some sort of transponder, it's managed to signal you despite a rebuild, and a memory wipe. That's a heck of a job on your systems, Zero. If Wily could hide a program ordering you against others for forty years, the Maverick Virus would be child's play in comparison."
"Let's hope that the Core Virus program is the worse they find, then," Signas offered. The other two nodded grimly.
A call came through on the war room. The engineers had spent several days lying new lines in between secure sectors of Headquarters, and the quarantine bay was on the new network, making the call as safe as talking face to face. The triumphant expression on Gate's face filled the holo screen when Signas activated it. In the background, Yammark was speaking to the two cats and Lifesaver. Gate nodded respectfully to the Hunter leaders, and said, "Hi Zero! Did you find the Vi-program already?" Zero groaned. Gate had been brought in on the plan as a necessity as the Hunters needed to figure out why the Virus wasn't driving Jazz or Bebop Maverick. But, like many scientists, Gate believed operational security was washing the dust off yourself before entering a clean room. X quickly explained what happened.
Gate nodded grimly, and said, "That matches what I found, or rather didn't find. The standard analysis programs, obviously didn't work, and my more advanced routines didn't get anywhere without knowing their emotional grids."
X breathed in sharply. Gate was talking really getting down into the programming structures, to the point that a wrong move with a data probe could lobotomize a Reploid. Zero, however, smiled, "Those two really want out of there, huh?" asked the Hunter.
Gate grinned, "I really can't blame them. There is a couple of problems. Wily was paranoid as all get out, evidently. Jazz gave me her access codes to start scanning her operational files, but the encryption codes kept changing whenever I tried to look at basic behavioral patterns!" Gate shook his head and continued, "Light must have been even worse, though. Since a major threat seemed to activate the 'midnight'," Gate stressed the code word for the black armor heavily and Zero groaned again, slamming his head against a map table, "program, I tried looking through Bebop's basic threat response routines, an anti-intrusion routine launched a virus. I barely saved my computer!"
X clarified, "They were war designs in a violent era. Light built me to go into a future to help people, but even all my combat equipment can't be analyzed yet. When you consider the fact that those two may have been captured and someone attempting to reverse engineer them, it makes sense, especially since Light had lost plans to me to Wily. Neither wanted a repeat performance."
"Agreed," said Gate, "But between the two of them, I think I managed to get enough data to start determining which programs were under active control or not. And the data's still inconclusive, I'm afraid. I've found something that MIGHT be a defanged version of the Virus, but that was by taking DNA Soul chip readings, wiping out everything related to that, overlaying both, and doing millisecond to millisecond comparisons of a twelve-hour period. The pattern looks similar to Virus readings, but considering how little of their circuitry is actually accessible to scanning with all the blocks put in place, it could also be a basic maintenance program. I think I'd actually have to build a copy of one of them before I could say for certain what the pattern is."
X finished, "And because they've got more black boxes than a fleet of space liners, there's no way you could finish their designs because so much of their circuitry is proprietary to them only." Gate nodded and slumped.
Zero sighed, "Great, so we're basically stuck until we can get the program back here?" Gate nodded.
"If we actually had their blueprints, or even old data pattern analysis it would help, but it looks like that would either be in Wily's fortress, or burned up in the volcanic eruption. The only way for sure to figure out what's going on is to get them to activate the midnight program, but if they do that in here with my equipment, they'll ring more alarms than X has gotten armor components." The three leaders nodded.
"Thanks for the update Gate. If we find anything out from the fortress, you'll be the first to know." The communication cut off, and the three leaders went back to discussing events.
The scene was being watched from Sigma's fortress. The first voice from last time spoke, "We managed to get this link into their war room at great risk. There's a good chance it will be found out in the next counter-intelligence sweep, and Number Three's agent disabled."
The second voice, Number Three, said back, "Yet we know where they are, and what they're after! If they were to bring the chip into contact with Zero..."
Sigma nodded, "Agreed, One and Three, we will lose all chance at controlling him. We know for certain that I had the Virus chip removed from the Doctor's fortress when I first encountered our prized little Reploid, foolishly infected when he ran a diagnostic on the fortress's computer." Zero had spent many years simply upkeeping the fortress, until the need to replace a bad hard drive had led to him connecting himself temporarily to the computer, and running into a version of the Virus. Zero was designed to compliment the Virus, but the version held by the computer had been damaged and led to the Reploid's memory degrading until he assaulted any who came into the area before finally collapsing. Sigma had found him, and inadvertently been infected, before heeding the call and absorbing the Core Program from the chip Wily had left in the main control room. Still, both the image of Zero as a maid to Wily, and the remembrance of the look on Zero's face, tortured by losing his beloved Iris, hearing of the far more believable tale of a grand battle in between an infected Zero and Sigma, made Sigma chuckle. The truth that Sigma had ripped his own arm off to try and stop the infection before clawing his face in his madness was a bit more ... unclean to say the least. But Sigma had come to terms with the Virus, and come to an agreement, evolving the Virus into a program that gave Sigma domination over the lesser Reploids infected with it, as well as giving them Sigma's disdain of humanity, though the Virus's amplification of negative emotions turned it into a sweet raging hatred.
Speaking of thus, Sigma turned to the viewer, "I will send an agent into the fortress. It will increase the Hunters' desperation if they believe they had only recently lost their chance to recover the chip, rather than recent information. Not to mention the increased paranoia at another security leak will keep them distracted for a few more precious moments."
Three hissed, "You speak of destroying my agent! Rock has yet to awaken, and he has been under constant surveillance by HUNTER medics, not Cain Labs, so I don't know his exact condition. What he says upon awakening could throw all our plans out of balance."
"So destroy him," proposed One.
Three yelled, "One, Two, you may think destruction is the end to all things, but there is no one in position who could do such! Give the Hunters a chance to throw blame for recent events on Cain Labs, and they will! Many in their ranks are from Repliforce, and despise Cain Labs for issuing the initial warning. We will LOSE our trump card!"
Sigma laughed, "What trump card? The second half of our weapon is still beyond our access. Only Isoc can reach those records, and he isn't even aware of their existence. When the weapon was first activated, it was too weak to be able to do anything. Only the Crimson One brought the true power forth." Not all of that was true, thought Sigma, but they didn't need to know that.
One said in an impatient tone, "Enough! If needed, we will arrange something to discredit Isoc, which may at leave give enough confusion for our agents to move. We'll have the warrior and the fighter, and then we can divide the world up as we please. We will meet later."
"Agreed," said Sigma, before closing the connection, and bringing up a list of Maverick Generals. He'd been carefully putting together his forces for quite a while, since the Doppler event, and when the next TRUE Maverick Uprising began (rather than a manipulation or a quick strike), the forces arrayed, battle tested and toughened would prove a bit of a surprise to the Hunters.
"Let's see. A teleport signal SHOULD reach the command center of the fortress with the defenses off. The Hunters are merely moving with that delightful caution I've worked so hard to drill into them. I need something strong enough to convince the Hunters, without enough strength to make them wonder why a Maverick would hang around a dusty fortress when humans are fifty miles away and easy for killing. Ah! Nova Skunk! Foolhardy, reasonably powerful, with a glass jaw, but disciplined or terrified. One of those two, could never tell which," mused the leader of Mavericks. Nova was no General, but he would be sufficient.
Sigma pressed the buttons, contacting the Maverick, who appeared on screen and immediately saluted. Ah, absolute power. "Nova, I have a mission for you. How would you like to be transferred through who knows what kind of defenses to face near certain death from a group of Hunters? I do have the access codes to the defenses, but some would get close to you?"
Nova Skunk was, naturally, a giant skunk, but painted orange with a red stripe down his back. "Lord Sigma, I would be glad for the chance to destroy some Hunters!" the herbivore-based Reploid drooled at the chance for some bloodshed. Sigma quickly transmitted the codes, and the Maverick dissolved into a set of sparks around two energy beams, headed for the wilds of North America.
Sigma shut off the view screen. "Now to check on my other project..." Iris was coming along nicely. Her body was untouched, but electrodes connected to a Reploid are just as painful, and less damaging. Possibly more painful, since neurons can eventually become over saturated with particles and refuse to transmit electrical signals. Reploids don't have that option. Iris had started to summon her crystal several times before she caught herself. "I'll soon have my perfect destroyers, and then the humans will fall like wheat to a beam scythe: instantly with a lot of extraneous damage." Sigma indulged in quiet laughter for a moment, relishing how well everything was working.
Nova Skunk dropped with a crash into the control room. The room was well sealed with passive armor against earlier teleport systems, but technology had passed the old defenses by. Nova cackled with glee. The old fusion reactor was still working, and Nova quickly hit a set of switches, bringing up the anti-teleport shields, and trapping Unit 0 in the fortress. Working quickly, he brought the rest of the fortress to full power, activating the ancient guardians. The fortress shifted its innards. Once-bright passages went out, spike traps were revealed as floor panels moved back, cannons emerged from the walls, and groups of drones were deployed from hidden alcoves. Only the most paranoid, trigger-happy Reploid could have retained total battle alertness in the peaceful fifteen minutes of cautiously moving through the hallways. And since Unit 0 wasn't a group of Mavericks, there numbers were cut by a quarter by the sudden assault as they were caught in a sudden crossfire.
Hearing the frantic distress signals, the rest of the Hunter's main body began to move in from their defensive screen, but Wily's Skull Fortress's defenses were optimized against large numbers of enemies and armies. After all, the world had fought against the mad scientist. The Hunters were far more capable than any army had been in Wily's day, but they were also much smaller, as they had perhaps half of their total strength, the rest fulfilling other commitments or untrustworthy.
The quiet air of the war room was disturbed by Zero's sudden scream of pain as he fell to the ground, clutching his head. Mother Computer at the same time displayed the Hunters' predicament in a dispassionate green text, "New energy source detected at target coordinates. Heavy weapons fire detected. Unit 0 pinned down, and rest of Strike Group Shadow under heavy bombardment. Maverick Virus signals have been detected. Recommend immediate deployment of more Hunters." The war room turned verdant as lists of retired and injured Hunters began to be displayed.
X reached down to help Zero up, but Zero reached out blindly with a fist, driving his friend back. Signas put this together with the earlier conversation, "Computer, analyze energy source! Utilize all available resources!"
"Working," replied the computer, but before it could get anywhere, Gate's face appeared on the screen.
"We've got major trouble down here! Something just happened, and I think we're about five seconds away from having the Council see Mavericks in HQ!" Gate was frantic, and turned. Jazz was lying on the floor convulsing. Bebop had his hands over his ears as he bent protectively over her. Jazz's armor was starting to darken, the emergency mode triggered by her stress. Gate peered back into the pickup, "Hey, what's wrong with Zero?"
X's mind worked frantically. Jazz's systems were starting to generate Maverick Virus nanos, which meant everyone in that room, plus all the research, was in great danger. "I think it's the same thing happening to them. Wily's fortress went on-line just a second ago. Is Bebop still all right?"
Bebop nodded, and said in a slightly louder tone than usual, as if his ears are ringing, "Jazz is transmitting what she's going through on our shortwave frequency. If she's in this much pain with her armor mode, she's going to tear herself apart with the convulsions!"
X said quickly, "Gate, do you know a reasonably safe place we could teleport them?"
Gate nodded, "Yammark's future control center in South America. No one's in it yet, but construction's complete, and it's equipped with reasonably heavy EM shielding because of all the storms."
X snapped, "Bebop! We don't know if the Virus generated by your emergency systems is infectious or not, but we know it looks like the regular Virus on our scanners. Get the coordinates from Yammark and teleport yourself and Jazz out of here! We know you're immune, but everyone in the room might not be, and Jazz needs someone to keep those seizures from killing her! Lifesaver, get up here, Zero looks like he's going to into full-blown convulsions in a minute!" The two nodded, Bebop picking up Jazz and teleporting out right before the last few traces of color left her armor. Lifesaver started to trot up.
"Signas, make sure Zero doesn't hurt himself or the war room until Lifesaver gets here. Then alert every Hunter we can. Security isn't an issue, since if the Mavericks are there, Sigma realized what we're after and has probably already destroyed it," X ordered.
The uniformed-looking Maverick knelt and held down Zero's arms, as he was starting to thrash wildly. If his movements had been coordinated at all, the Crimson Hunter would have probably tossed Signas through a view screen. "Where are you going to be?" asked the training commander in a strained tone.
X summoned his Force Armor in a flash of brilliant light, and extra energy crackled off X, grounding into the floor, "My older brother was the last person to crack a Skull Fortress, and I intend to follow through on that tradition. Sigma's obviously worried, as he hasn't moved so blatantly since the first Anti-Virus was developed. I can get through better than the reserve Hunters can, and there's still a chance we can get what we're looking for, and with Zero out of the way, I'm our best chance to find it!" With that, X teleported out in a blaze of cerulean energy, off to his destiny of struggle again.
To be continued
Been a while since we've had some action, so I thought it's time to bring it up. Rock is still asleep. Isoc's doing SOMETHING, probably trying to get the Hunters a few popularity points. Hmm, maybe the Doctor Isoc referenced was Light, since the Star Cabal has been referring to him by name, and they're usually more careful than that.
The Hunters still have far too many unknowns in there path, but with Mega Man X at the ready, it's time to start breaking down a few of them. Of course, the Hunters are not necessarily moving as the forces opposed to them want to (X does have that effect), and the secret at the heart of the Hunters could be ripped open if there enemies are willing to risk a little exposure, and with Sigma deploying Mavericks and nearly having his (yet-not-understood) weapon almost ready, that could very well be.
Isn't Sigma evil? You know, I get the feeling that being Maverick was an even worse proposition when he was on the good guy's side, and Sigma feels he's still pulling the Hunter's strings.
Oh! Right! I'm rather pleased with the fact I think I have my continuity about established and stable. I looked at X.5 again recently, and noted I had switched the names of Bebop and Jazz and their support units for a scene. Talk about embarrassing...
And finally....
Next time: (it's going to be a big one, folks!)
Many thread lines and strategies weave. But the Hunters are sick and tired of being pushed around, and it's time to start dictating the terms, rather than reacting.
The hopes of producing a Vaccine are ever-fleeting, and most of the Hunter's strength is being assaulted by heavy energy artillery. But X is on the case, and it's time to remind Sigma and his cohorts why he's the greatest hero of all.
Back at home, Signas begins digging through the mire of conspiracy that is Cain Labs, and finds a secret that could mean the end of long-cherished beliefs by the Hunters.
His name is Rock. He was once the most advanced robot in the world, and it's greatest hero. Now, he hides a secret that may reveal the Hunters true target. Can Isoc convince the Hunters to protect the defenseless Blue Bomber when Three begins the final phase of his campaign with only one goal in mind: The utter elimination of the one defense humanity has against the Mavericks.
Zero, hardened warrior showed softness for only his nearest and dearest friends, before Sigma put him against his love. Can Zero find Iris before Sigma can turn them against each other again?