Author's Note: If you were confused by the way I did Chapter 3 of "The Beginning" (And that probably means all of you readers), now I'm doing a brief recap of "The Beginning" in Rock's point of view. Yeah, I know it's a waste of a chapter for the intro to "The Mysterious Reploid", but I can't leave most of you hanging out to try without some answers to those burning questions in your heads.
Oh, and one more thing, Gate never went insane until MMX6 in this fanfic.
1 - New Lives for Old Robots
News suddenly spreads throughout the whole city. The Chimera has been labeled a highly dangerous maverick by Mega Man X, who was crippled by the sight of his brother's death at the hands of this armored vigilante. Hunters are on high alert to track him down and destroy him. The Chimera once again disappears without a trace.
Devastated by the news, Rock and Treble never talked to anyone. His friends believed that he was broken hearted over the death of his brother. None have yet to realize the true reason why he was so silent. Treble, while he's never met ProtoX much aside from what he used to be 100 years ago, had felt Rock's emotions through fusion and was the first important, yet sorrowful, lessons he had learned since he started following Rock around.
When they had heard that they, as the Chimera, had been labeled highly dangerous mavericks, they feared that the Maverick Hunters would eventually uncover their dark secret and not only put them in danger, but all those who cared about them. From that point on, Rock and Treble have agreed never to use the Chimera armor again.
Alia, the only friend who not only knew Rock and Treble's connection with the Chimera but practically helped him create the adaptor from the blueprints he stole from Dr. Cain's lab, knew how the two really felt, but was helpless to do something about it because she isn't sure whether Rock claiming he is dangerous is true or not. And trying to lie to him to make him feel better isn't going to make him feel any better than if she was forced to agree with him.
Rock's teachers decided to give him some time off to recover from his recent loss after seeing his lack of attention and the amount of times he keeps botching up his assignments no matter how hard he tried to fix them. He tried to refuse, but after much insisting, he finally accepted it. He spent most of the day laying on his bed and staring at the ceiling of his dorm, unmoving, tears spilling down his face. His friends, along with Alia and Gate, had decided to leave him alone, worried that trying to talk to him would only make him even more upset. His mind began going back to the time he had woken up for the first time since his destruction at the hands of his former, mortal enemy, Zero. He didn't exactly remember what happened just after his tragic loss, and at the time he was feeling his systems shut down one by one, he thought he was done for...until....
Two months ago in the 21XX era....
Gate walked up to the capsule that had been retrieved by his colleagues from a hidden location in the jungles of Japan. Inside the capsule was a silhouette of a human reploid laying inside with his eyes shut.
"Hmm...." he mumbled, "These readings indicate that he was created by Dr. Light. If that is true, he could be of great use to us."
"But there was nothing in Dr. Light's history that mentioned a reploid like this," Alia said, "What if the readings were wrong?"
Gate sighed and backed away from the capsule, "You might be right. The only way we can really confirm he came from Dr. Light is if we reactivate his functions and see if he can remember who his creator is."
"Fat chance he is," one of Gate's colleagues said, "If he was created by Dr. Light why was he found in a jungle and not in the same place X came from? Is he some kind of super machine that can't be trusted by those who dug up the main honcho that started the reploid race?"
Gate scratches his chin, turning his back on the capsule and eyeing the floor, "Could be because this reploid is meant to wake up on his own. Given the capsule has some kind of time-release mechanism that would reactivate him when the time is right for his activation."
Alia walked closer to the capsule, looking at the reploid inside. As she examined his structure, questions began rising in her head. What kind of answers does this reploid have if he is truly Dr. Light's creation, and would he even be in a good mood to answer them? As she contemplated on these questions, she ran her hand over the glass near where the reploid's face is.
As if the entire glass was an "on" switch, the reploid's eyes shot open, scaring her slightly.
"H-Hey...what...!?" the reploid stuttered in a child-like voice, looking around the capsule. He then panicked and began pounding on the glass, "LET ME OUT!!! LET ME OUT!!!"
The others heard the reploid scream and turned to see Alia frantically messing with the buttons near the capsule, causing the glass to swing open.
"Alia, what're you doing!?" Gate shouted. The reploid scrambles out of the capsule, stumbling across the room until he fell flat on his face and skids across the room, scaring the other colleagues as they scattered, seeing him stop an inch from the wall.
Alia threw her hands over her mouth, shaking everywhere, "I-I'm sorry. He was panicking, I didn't know what to do!"
The reploid got up, stumbled a bit on his wobbly legs and slammed his back against the wall, staring at all the lab coat-wearing strangers surrounding him. Outside the capsule, they noticed that he looked like Mega Man X without shoulder pads with a slanted "X" on his right shoulder. His hair was black and shoulder length with three long bangs, the middle extending past the nostrils of his nose while the ones on either side of it sagged a couple of inches, curved near his green eyes.
"W-What's going on!? This isn't Dr. Light's lab!" the reploid nearly wailed, shocking everyone in the room when he mentioned his creator, "Where am I!?"
"A college research center," Alia said, getting the reploid's attention as he eyed her.
"R-Research center? I don't understand! Where's Dr. Light? Where's my father!?"
"Dr. Light has been dead for nearly 100 years," Gate said. The reploid's mouth hung open in total shock.
"A...a hundred years? N-No! I couldn't have been stuck in that thing for that long!"
The reploid continued to stare at the others before sprinting towards the door, knocking two of the colleagues to the floor.
"HEY!" one of them shouted, jumping up to run after him.
"No!" Gate said, throwing his hand in front of the colleague, "Let him go. When he accepts where he is, he will return. Being in a world that has changed over 10 decades, this center will be the only known place he could return to." He turned to the door, "Come on. We've got work to do."
Alia watched Gate and the other colleagues leave, putting a hand over her chest. She knew Gate might be right about the fact that Dr. Light's newest creation may end up coming back here for shelter, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for the problems the reploid was going through just after being released from his capsule. If she knew the reploid, he was probably off at old Tokyo, looking for the rubble that used to be Dr. Light's lab.
Alia arrived in the ruins of old Tokyo. The place was barely visible after years of sandstorms burying it underground. She wondered if the reploid could even find the cemetery Dr. Light had been buried in under all this sand. She caught a figure heading over to a nearly buried, white gate that had tombstones barely sticking out of the sand. She ran into the cemetery, standing behind a giant cross, the only tombstone in the desert that was taller than most of the other buried tombstones.
The reploid looked around the cemetery until he came across the forehead of a statue sticking out of the sand. He bends down and starts grabbing a hand full of sand and tossing it to the side until the statue could be fully recognized. It looked exactly like Dr. Light. The reploid, seeing the statue as being too familiar, decided not to bother digging deeper to find the carved out name of the statue.
Alia wanted to walk up to the reploid and convince him that he wasn't the only family member alive, but her sub-conscious mind told her to leave him alone. Losing to her sub-conscious mind without even lifting a finger, she stood behind the cross and waited to see what the reploid would do next.
A faint whine got both reploids' attention. They turned to see Treble lying in front of a badly made grave with a wood plank almost buried by the sandstorm. Alia could tell he had been laying there for over 100 years due to the sand that had covered up his once shiny, violet, metal skin.
The reploid got up, walking over to Treble who saw him and scoots back, snarling. After a minute of the reploid's inaudible coaxing, the wolf-bot whined and walked over to the reploid, rubbing his face onto his chest as he placed a hand over his head and lightly stroked him. This had Alia wondering if the mysterious reploid is really Dr. Light's first creation, Mega Man.
Feeling that the reploid may already have a better life ahead of him, she turns to leave, both ancient bots unaware of her appearance in the first place. She began to think that Gate was wrong about the fact that 100-year-old reploids won't have anywhere else to go.
Alia had been depressed all day, thinking of nothing but the reploid Dr. Light had sealed up. Her teachers found it very hard to get her to pay attention during class and would sometimes slap their rulers or pointers on the desk in front of her to wake her up. This worried Gate, knowing that she was the most attentive reploid in college. To see her this spaced out made him think that she might have caught something during her none class days when she would go outside with her friends and have fun.
That afternoon, Gate caught up with Alia who stood near the door to her dorm, Frog standing beside her, trying to chase a fly that was flying around them.
"Is something wrong, Alia?" Gate asked, "You've never been this spaced out before."
"Huh?" Alia looked up to see Gate standing in front of her, his hand resting on the wall beside her head. She shook her head and looked down, trying to force a smile, "Of course I am. I...guess I need to have that stasis pod fixed again."
"Come on, you could sleep for an hour and you'd still be awake and active. Admit it, something is bugging you."
"Frog know what wrong with Alia! Frog know what wrong with Alia!" the red headed, humanoid amphibian said, bouncing up and down beside Gate and Alia. She stops and points to her, "Alia in love with ancient reploid! Yes yes! Frog felt same way when she saw Toad Man on the Internet!"
Alia's eyes bugged out, her face turning red, "WHAT!? No way! How could I fall in love with someone who's only been on this planet for half a day!?"
"Is that it, huh?" Gate said, slyly, "I see Ms. Independent found someone she actually likes for once."
"Y-You got it all wrong! I may have an interest in him, but that doesn't mean I love him!"
"Come on. You're face isn't red because of the outside heat. It's almost winter." Gate began nudging Alia's cheek with his other hand, "I think I see love in the air."
Alia got into Gate's face, nearly blowing him back with her voice, "Quit saying that!" she then backed up some, "Even if I do like him, it's not going to last long. That reploid has a life ahead of him. Why waste it being cooped up in a place that teaches him stuff that he might already know?" She rested her back against the wall, eyeing the floor, "He...he might not come back."
Gate put his hand back on the wall beside Alia's head, "Not come back? I already told you we're the only ones he'll have to trust. Being in a world that evolved over the years, even old Tokyo is like a huge labyrinth to him. He'll HAVE to come back here." He takes his hand off the wall and turns around, "Well, I'm going to go play with some of my creations before shutting down for the night. Don't stay up too long thinking about him."
"GATE!" Alia glared at Gate, watching him walk off, laughing. She stood there, growling, her fists throttling.
Frog bounced up and down in front of her, "Frog want go swimming before sleep! Alia join, yes?"
Alia straightened up, looking at Frog, "Well...I...." Frog stops bouncing and looks at her with a VERY wide grin stretched across her face. She sighed, "Alright. But don't push me into the pool this time."
Frog squealed and hopped off, chanting, "Frog go swimming" along the way (And annoying half the colleagues trying to sleep). Alia sighed and followed.
They went to the public, indoor pool in New Tokyo. Frog always liked swimming there. As she swam around the pool, Alia sat near the edge of the 14ft end of the pool, her feet in the water. She wasn't paying attention to how Frog swam. She was still caught up on the questions revolving around Dr. Light's creation. Is he really the old Mega Man from 100 years ago? If so, what happened to him and why was he sealed away the minute he was reconstructed? She knew these unanswered questions would eventually leave her mind the next day...she hoped it would. She didn't want these questions to keep distracting her from class.
She then saw Frog jump out of the pool, landing beside her and nearly drenching her in chlorine.
"Ancient reploid come! Ancient reploid come! Bring doggy reploid!" Frog squealed. Alia saw her hopping towards the high dive where, sure enough, the old reploid and Treble stood. Could they have come in to see her? Maybe Gate was right about the reploid not having anywhere else to go.
Frog stopped behind the two as they looked at her, slightly confused, "You come to see Alia, right?" she then looked at Treble and crawled up to him, seeing him back up slightly, "Is this your dog?" she began running her hands around Treble's head, causing him to blush and curve his mouth into a love sick smile, "Such a good doggy." Treble began to sag from the webbed hands rubbing against his face until he lost balance and fell into the pool, bobbing to the surface on his belly, the lovesick expression still on his face. Frog giggled and turned to the reploid.
"Frog want know! Frog want know!" without warning, she jumps up and lands on the reploid's back, her weight forcing him towards the pool as he yelped and tried to regain his balance, "Does ancient reploid swim?"
She jumps off the reploid her feet knocking him off the ground and into the pool. She squealed as she rose into the air, arms and legs spread out before turning over and landing in the pool.
Alia gasped, throwing her hands over her mouth. The reploid burst his head out of the water a second before it disappeared. Frog's face appeared in the reploid's face, scaring him slightly as she let go and swims towards the surface. He shakes his head and follows. When his head came out of the water, Frog began swimming circles around him, "You lousy swimmer. Alia swim better than you."
"Come on, I can barely run in this body." The reploid said. Frog threw her hands on his head, pushing him up to his forehead in the water.
"You're funny!" she giggled.
The reploid wiggled his head until Frog released him, spitting water out of his mouth, "Why're you roughhousing me!? Why don't to roughhouse her instead?" he adds by pointing to Alia who grits her teeth in both startlement and nervousness. Frog frumped.
"Alia no fun. She doesn't want to swim with Frog."
The reploid looked at Alia who stuffed her hands between her legs, her mouth now compressed, a bit of sweat running down the side of her face. The reploid grinned. "She doesn't? She's the only one who isn't in the pool with us. I'll just have to fix that."
Alia yelped as the reploid swam towards her. She tries to get away only to see him grab her by the waist and pull her in, screaming, creating a huge splash that drenched both Frog and Treble.
Both came up. Alia quickly pulled away from the reploid, her face even redder than before. This left him a little confused. Frog swam up behind him and whispered in his ear. "Frog think Alia like you."
"Frog!" Alia cried. She sighed, brushing some of the wet hair from her face, looking at the reploid, "Why did you decide to come here? New reploid's rarely decide to come here for a quick swim."
"I was going to head back to that research center to ask some questions about what happened over the past hundred years," the reploid said, "But when I saw you here, I thought you might need some company."
Alia's face turned beet red. She then smiled slightly and moved closer to the reploid, putting her arms around him, uttering a quick, "Thanks." She moves back slightly, her hands moving to his shoulders, "To be honest, I wanted to ask you a few questions myself. First of all, you wouldn't happen to remember your name, would you?"
The reploid eyed the water a bit before turning them back to Alia, "Rock...Rock Light."
A couple of months have passed since the start of the Maverick Hunter organization. With Sigma as head of the army, most of the mavericks have been reduced to at least 200 a sector. Proving their loyalty to humanity, everyone began to breathe easier.
At the research center, Rock sat on his bed, tightening the green ribbon in his hair, a dark brown line extending from the tip of his middle bangs to the tip of his ponytail, wearing a lab coat identical to most of the colleagues walking around the center. His friends found it weird that he was the only reploid on the planet who refused to sleep in a stasis pod like the other reploids do to his fear of capsules, but that didn't bother him as much.
Treble also became less aggressive. His times spent following Rock had given him time to realize that humans weren't as evil as Wily had led him and Bass to believe. He still misses his old master, but his friendship with his former enemy taught him that there was more to life than just being obedient. And the more he learned about that, the more he became friendly with other college students, both human and reploid alike.
Alia walked into their dorm, getting Rock's attention as he turned around to look at her, "We're heading over to Robot Rescue to do some extra credit on robotic technology. Wanna come?"
Rock got up, Treble appearing at the foot of the bed, "Maybe later. I promised Treble I take him to his friend's hideout in the desert to retrieve some of his belongings."
"You don't mean the dead lands of the desert, do you? "Alia looks as though the dead lands was the last place anyone would have the guts to go to retrieve some mere belongings, "Are you sure you can travel that far in one day?"
"That's where teleporting comes in. I was lucky to still have mine equipped when I was upgraded. No one'll even know I left."
Alia eyed the floor, then Rock, "Well...just be careful, okay? I don't want anything to happen to you while you're gone."
"Don't worry. If anything happens to us, we can defend ourselves. I've had years of experience in battle, you know." He gives Alia a-thumbs up before walking out of the room with Treble following.
An hour later, two beams touched down in the center of the sandy desert of the dead lands. After re-materializing, Rock and Treble were shocked at the sight around them. Torn hunters and their four-legged companions lay scattered across most of the desert, their fluids staining the grains of sand that wash over their body parts.
"Something tells me we should've landed closer to the shack." Rock muttered. Treble's ears perked as a faint scream echoed through the dead silent desert. The two ran to the source to see Garma's torn and lifeless structure in Zero's hand. Rock's eyes widened.
"It's...it's you!" he cried. Treble snarled, both backing away as Zero eyed them, dropping Garma and turning to fully face them, his grin wider than before. He began to walk towards them, flexing his bloodied hands. Fearing his unmatched power, the two reploids continued to back away from him.
Rock's pupils suddenly shrank before he grabbed his chest, screaming in pain, stopping both Zero and Treble, watching him as he hunched over, eyes shut, his hands trembling, "It...it hurts!!!"
Garma's reconnaissance troops who heard their leader screaming in agony and were running to the source in hopes that he wasn't destroyed came to a screeching halt when another scream got their attention.
"Wh-What was that?" the first asked.
"I don't know, but it's coming from the area where Garma was last heard." The second said before running ahead of the first hunter. When they got to the source of the screaming, they saw four figures standing 4 feet from them, one of them being what's left of Garma. Their eyes widened when they saw blue fire shoot up from under Rock, his hair and the bottom of his lab coat flying flapping upwards in various directions. What happened next shocked everyone with in the area.
Zero's pupil shrank to the size of rice grains, grabs his head and stumbles back, screaming in pain. The reconnaissance troops didn't know what was going on, but felt as though Rock had something to do with it. After a few minutes, Zero's body glowed as a beam shot out, dematerializing his structure it was completely gone, the beam disappearing into the sky. Both hunters were in complete shock when they saw what happened. They watched as the fire surrounding Rock vanished, his pupils growing back to their original size.
Treble looked at Rock who's looking at his trembling hands, "I-I don't know what happened. All of a sudden, my chest feels like it was on fire." His eyelids began to sag as his hands dropped to his side, "I...I feel so...tired...." he then dropped to his knees a second before the rest of his body hit the ground face first, releasing clouds of sand from both impacts.
"He...he needs help!" one of the hunters called out. Both ran towards Rock only to see Treble stand over him, snarling at the two.
"Whoa! T-Take it easy, mutt! We're just trying to help your friend." The second said, but Treble continued to snarl at them before both teleported out in separate colored beams.
"What should we do now?" the first asked.
"Well, it seems that Commander Garma wasn't able to handle that Maverick. We may have to call Sigma and tell him what happened."
The two beams landed somewhere in the middle an old shack somewhere in the dead lands. Treble moved towards Rock's head and began licking him until he groaned and sat up.
"Ugh...someone get the license bar of the mechaloid that hit me?" he mumbled, pushing himself to his hands and knees. When he regained all five of his senses, he looked around his surroundings, "Is...this the place you and Bass hung out in?"
Treble eyed the floor, a bit depressed. Rock moves his hands toward the wolf-bot's head and rubbed it, "Come on, we'd better look for your stuff."
Treble lead Rock through the paths of the shack. There was barely any light to help them see where they were going. Treble had to rely on his sense of smell to prevent either of them from bumping into something along the way to the center of his hideout. When they finally arrived, the desert light shining in from the holes in the walls and ceiling, preferably from when Bass would shoot inanimate thing out of irritation after having one of his arguments with Dr. Wily.
"This is your hideout?" Rock asked, looking around the cargo area of the shack, "Don't mind me criticizing, but this place could use some work." He looked at Treble who scowled slightly, "Then again, it has been 100 years since this place's been used last. Maybe the lack of maintenance caused most of the surrounding to rust. Let's just hope none of your stuff suffered with this place."
The two walked around the cargo room until Treble stopped near some boxes, tail wagging. Rock appeared behind him, seeing a gothic-style doghouse hidden behind the stack of "Dr. W" marked boxes. He kneels down and looks inside the doorway of the house.
"Whoa, it looks like an apartment building in here." Rock yelped. Treble grinned, tail still wagging. Rock gets up and closes the door to the doghouse, picking it up, "Well. I guess this saves us the trouble of looking for all your stuff. Let's head back before anyone else finds out where we are."
But when they arrived at the entrance of the old shack, Rock and Treble came to a halt upon seeing Sigma drop to his knees, battered and torn with one arm missing and Zero laying behind him with gem shards laying around him and what looks like a "W" glowing on the socket in his helmet. Hearing their footsteps, he lift his head to look at them, muttering something they couldn't hear, but knew it wasn't good. When he turned to look at Zero, the two took this moment to make their escape and teleported out.
Rock placed the doghouse near his bed back in their dorms in the college research center.
"Well, at least this saves a lot of temporary roommates having to complain about the way you sleep at night." He said. Treble wags his tail, grinning before running into his doghouse.
Rock noticed something under the bed that wasn't there before. He pulls it out seeing the words "Robo-Porn" strewn across it, "Robo-Porn? Who'd read this junk?"
He tosses it behind him a split second before a violet blur flies out of the doghouse and grabs the magazine. Rock turns around to see Treble snarling in his face, causing him to yelp and stumble back.
"WAH! How was I supposed to know you liked robot porn!?" Rock squeaked, putting his hands up for defense.
A shadow blocked out the overhead lights of the dorm room, getting Rock's attention as his looked up to see Sigma towering over him. Treble turns around to see him and quickly stumbles to Rock's side. He continues to stare at the two ancient reploids before turning around.
"Come with me," he said, walking off. Rock and Treble looked at each other before following.
Sigma took Rock and Treble to Dr. Cain's lab where they uncovered his strange an ultra rare ability to sense and even destroy any virus that was causing reploids to turn maverick. When Dr. Cain found out that Sigma was the one who sparked this realization, he tried to persuade him to get tested, but the head of Maverick Hunters refused and left in anger. He sighed and looked at Rock's structure again, unaware of the slippery Light bot sneaking up to the bin of blueprints and disappearing with one of Dr. Light's aging blueprints.
"Where did you get that?" Alia asked when she found Rock sitting at his desk with the blue print spread out across the desk's surface.
"I found these designs for a fusion adaptor when Sigma took me to Cain Labs to get examined," Rock said, studying the instructions that were printed around the adaptor's design. Alia's mouth hung when he said that.
"W-Wait! Did Dr. Cain know you took one of his blueprints?" Rock didn't look up from the blueprints, knowing how shocked Alia was.
"I doubt he even knows about this. And to be honest, I don't think it's a good idea if he did."
"What do you mean?"
"Take a look at the designs of this adaptor," Alia looks at where Rock points, seeing an arrow going from the adaptor to what appeared to be some kind of flight/gliding armor, "Dr. Light originally intended to install this into one of my support units. But after my accident, he never got around to making it. With all this controversy going on about some of the Hunters going maverick, I'm worried that if Dr. Cain ever got a hold of this blueprint, he would use it to duplicate a lot of fusion adaptors so powerful, no army on earth could stop them if the Hunters all of a sudden turn maverick." He didn't want to let on the fact that he didn't trust Sigma's strange behavior.
Alia stared at the blueprints some more, "Then...what do you think we should do with this?"
Rock covered his mouth, staring at the blueprint a while longer, "Dr. Light would sometimes let me fight by my own rules as long as they aren't too dangerous. Because of him, I felt as though no one on this planet would be able to tell me who I should fight." Alia's eyes widened at where he was going with his thoughts.
"Wait...you're not thinking of...."
"Well, following commands isn't going to end this ridiculous war anytime soon. Since I'm the only one who knows the schematics for the fusion adaptor, I figured I'd create the armor and install it into Treble."
"But...what if something bad happens to you while wearing that armor?"
"I know there won't be anything bad happening to me." Rock looks at Treble who seemed eager to want the fusion program installed, "Treble's already removed everything that might give us problems during the time we're fused. We should be okay."
With Alia's help, Rock had managed to design and program the fusion adaptor into Treble. After making some proper adjustments and getting rid of some of the bugs that may cause serious problems to the adaptor, it was time to put it to the test.
Rock and Treble stood on the roof of a building high above the city where no one would know what they were about to do.
"You ready?" Rock asked. Treble nods and jumps towards him, dematerializing into sparks as it slammed into Rock, causing a white glowing armor to cover him from head to foot. Once the glowing faded, he was in full armor. He looked at his black hands. With Treble's mind apart of his, he could feel that he was as awed at the appearance and the power they were feeling as he is. Rock clenched his fist in excitement, "Alright! Now to test the flight program."
A schematics of the armor appeared on the visors of his helmet, the feet part of the armor flashing white.
"Rocket boosters activating," a computerized voice said. Rock leapt into the air as the boosters came to life, keeping him in the air. Excited, he began flying around the city, most of the people mistaking him for a strange looking airplane. While flying around, he heard a terrified scream in one of the allies of New Tokyo. He flew to the source to see a young schoolgirl backed up against the wall with three ugly looking mavericks standing in front of her.
"Beware...beware...." they chanted as if it were a ritual, "We're going to get you...we're going to get you...."
"P-Please, stop! Leave me alone!" the girl whimpered. The mavericks laughed as they continued their dreadful chants.
"Beware...beware.... We're going to get you...we're going to get you...."
"ACK!" The two mavericks turned around to see the third fly into them and knock them to the ground.
"What the hell was that!?" the first shouted, shoving the out cold maverick off them. They got up and looked behind them to see Rock standing in a forward stretch with his left fist held out in front of him.
"Hey! What's with the kid and the tacky armor?" the second grumbled.
"Who cares? He's gonna pay for interfering with us!" the first charged towards Rock swinging his massive fist only to see him merely duck it, "What the...!?" he yelps as a black fist slammed into his mid-section, knocking the wind out of him as saliva flew out of his gaping mouth. The second maverick watched their leader fall to the ground, out cold and glared at his attacker.
"Why you...!" he leapt towards Rock and brought his folded fists down only to see them land in his open hands, holding him in mid-air, "How did...!?" a foot to the mid-section interrupts him as Rock releases his grip on his wrists, sending him flying onto his little gang.
The schoolgirl looks at Rock before springing to her feet and running past him, screaming. He watched her disappear into the streets before focusing on the pile of mavericks beside him, then cans of spray paint behind them.
The blueprints had a name for the fusion adaptor: the Chimera armor. This gave Rock an idea.
The first news of the Chimera's heroic actions didn't last very long as another report followed the day after in which he had been turned into a convicted Vigilante. While the Hunters have tracked him down while trying to take out a gang of wanna-be mavericks, he managed to evade their attacks. For the next month most of the Hunters had been working hard to uncover both the Chimera's identity and where he was hiding until the sorrowful and fearful day when Sigma all of a sudden went maverick and provoked the Chimera to battle him which ended in near tragedy. Rock didn't think that the head of Maverick Hunter, turned traitor, would even recognize his identity through voice alone.
X soon took over as leader of the 17th Unit in hopes of riding the war himself and getting revenge on Sigma for what he did to everyone in the base. Seeing that with his brother more alert with maverick outbreaks, both minor and major, Rock felt no need to interfere any longer and the Chimera disappeared for a while until another disturbance called him back.
Strange activities involving dead mavericks coming to life began plaguing the city with terror. The Chimera had already tried to deal with the problem but when his visors picked up an even stronger energy reaction coming from the outskirts of Japan, he knew he had to do something.
Relying on the energy-tracking device on his helmet, the Chimera reached the forest, seeing a purplish glow in the far distance. Not wasting any time, he kicked his rocket boosters into high gear and charged through the trees, almost reaching the glow when a loud noise interrupted him. He turns around to see ProtoX getting thrown into a tree with a giant, banged up gorilla heading towards him. He grabs his C-Boomerang and throws it towards the gorilla, slicing the tree over his brother's head and slamming into its face, knocking it to the ground. Then he leapt over ProtoX and swung his left C-Blade across the gorilla's face, causing it to explode as he jumped back to avoid getting sucked into the burning balls of fire.
The Chimera looks at his brother before taking off after the glow without saying anything. When he reached the source of the glow, he saw it was a rusted, moss-covered version of the Eiffel Tower, its windows emitting an eerie, purple glow. Not wanting to look for a door, he charged in through the window. The place was not only covered with wires, but also had undead machines wandering around like zombies from an old monster movie.
Ignoring the mavericks wandering around the ground, the Chimera saw a flight of stairs to the right and flew towards them, seeing most of the mavericks try to grab him, but barely got his coattail. Finally reaching the stairs, he deactivates his flight boosters and starts climbing them on foot.
When he reached the top of the stairs, he saw that ProtoX had already beaten him halfway to the top of the tower. The two stared at each other unmoving and emotionless. When ProtoX knew that the Chimera wasn't going to talk, he felt that fighting was the only answer, to which the Chimera accepted without hesitation.
The two had fought for more than two minutes until ProtoX suddenly stopped, his mouth hanging open as if he had been spooked by something. The Chimera felt as though the fight had given his uncertain memories a jumpstart. Before he could say anything, an evil laugh got their attention.
"Well, well. It seems we have intruders," the voice boomed, "I was only interested in the Chimera, but you can come to...Break Man ProtoX."
"Who are you!?" ProtoX shouted. The voice laughed.
"Why don't you come up here and find out...if you can survive my avalanche."
"Avalanche?" the room suddenly shook as an explosion buried the two in a pile of stones and concrete. The Chimera was the first to emerge, looking at his brother half buried under the pile, in worse shape than he is and making no signs of waking up soon. He stares at ProtoX some more before running towards the purplish glow coming from the stairways to the top of the tower.
Upon arrival, he saw that a giant praying mantis was pined to the wall by wires and a capsule with a purple glass standing under it. The evil laugh echoed again.
"How good to see you again, Chimera," the voice said, "Or should I say...Mega Man!"
The Chimera's pupils shrank slightly, "W-What!? Th-Then...you must be...!"
"That's right!" the glass slid down as a holographic figure appeared in its place. The Chimera took a step back.
"You're...You're Wily!"
"What's the matter, Chimera? Surprised to see me?" the hologram grinned, "I knew that my creations would turn on me one of these days, so I downloaded my A.I. into this hologram, programmed to activate should something tragic happen to me. And since my reappearance after all these years, I've decided to let the whole world know of my reactivation!" The Chimera continued to back away, "And I wouldn't want to forget my traitor of a servant. He thought he was so smart trying to purge every controlling virus in his body. But there was one program that can't be erased." He grinned and raised his hands, "AND NOW! TIME TO ACTIVATE THE MANUAL OVERITING PROGRAM!"
The praying mantis' eyes flashed a crimson red causing the Chimera's eyes to shrink to the size of rice grains. He stumbles back and grabs his head screaming in pain as a buzzing sound filled his hearing sensors. Wily laughed again.
"Once I have taken control of you," he said as the Chimera dropped to his knees, increasing the grip on his head, his screaming growing louder, "I will use you to turn against those you've tried to protect over the years. Think of it as a trade off with your baby brother. My masterpiece for you! The best part is, he won't even know he had a brother until he has annihilated you!" His laughing was cut off when a streak flew past him and the Chimera and slammed into the forehead of the praying mantis causing it to short out and fall over limp, its arms dangling over his capsule. Wily looks to where the streak came from, "Who's there!?"
"You will not...lay a hand...on my brother!" came a labored breathing voice. The Chimera turns around to see ProtoX standing behind him with his hand in front of him, half conscious.
"You! But you were supposed to have been destroyed in the avalanche!" Wily cried as he backed into the wall of his capsule, seeing ProtoX coming towards him, hunched over and dragging his feet along the ground.
"As long...as he needs me...I...will never...die!" ProtoX seethed. Wily began shaking everywhere before pointing at him..
"S-STOP HIM!" he cried. The mantis sprang to life and swings its claw towards ProtoX, slicing him in half. The Chimera's eyes widened in shock, watching ProtoX's left arm and his upper and lower body fall to the ground, fluid spilling out of the gashes as he fell. Shaken, he gets up and walks towards him, falling to his knees and picking him up in his trembling arms.
ProtoX opened his left eye slightly and looks at him, smiling, more fluid spilling out of his mouth, "F-Fight...Fight him...brother...." he muttered before his eyes closed, dropping his head into the Chimera's now shaking arms. Horrified by the death of his brother, he embraces him in a sorrowful hug. Wily just laughed.
"A price to pay for not revealing yourself sooner!" he said. He brings his slightly curved fingers towards the Chimera, "And now, to finish turning you against your remaining family and friends!" The Chimera muttered something morbidly before he shot up screaming in rage. Wily's eyes widened in fear, "What...what's happening!? You're readings! They're going way off the charts! How can that be!?"
The Chimera glares at Wily with raging eyes before flying towards him, his left arm slung across his throat. He thrusts it out when he neared the capsule, causing the whole room to flash brightly as the sound of blade slicing something was heard before pitch blackness....
Rock's eyes shot open, gasping as he stared at the ceiling of his dorm room. He sat up rubbing his slightly messy, undone hair, one hand gripping the sheets of his bed, his lab coat missing. He looks at the morning sun shining through the window on the left side of his bed.
Three weeks had gone by since ProtoX's death. As the days went by, Rock slowly started to regain his old personalities, his sorrow nothing more than a deep feeling. The dream he had last night seemed to be a slight farewell from the pain he suffered those past three weeks.
"Must've fallen asleep," he mumbled. He then sighed and pushed the covers off, slipping out of bed and walking over to his lab coat hanging off his desk chair with his dark green hair ribbon on top of it. He felt something rubbing against the back of his leg and turns around to see Treble pressing his head against him. He smiles a bit and bends down to pet him, "Had a nightmare too, huh?" Treble whined as he got up and slipped his lab coat on, tying his ribbon around his raven hair, "Let's take a walk. Maybe the morning air might calm us down some."
Treble wags his tail as he heads to the door, Rock following behind him. The door suddenly swung open as Mekah and Carlos suddenly sprang into the room, shouting "SURPRISE!!!" Treble screamed a doggy-like scream and jumped onto to Rock, Scooby-Doo style.
"Ewwwww...you let Treble watch Scooby-Doo!?" Mekah said sticking her tongue out in disgust. Rock laughed nervously, his legs shaking from Treble's weight.
"W-Well, I can't fit into his doghouse," Rock grunted, "So I never know what he's watching."
"Enough about that! We found something you might be interested in!" Carlos said.
"It's not another one of your cheer-up rap numbers, is it?"
"Hey! What's wrong with my rap!? I have good rhythm!" Mekah elbowed Carlos and walks up to Rock.
"We were walking by Robot Rescue and came across this sign that's looking for brave people for an On-Field Rescue Squad! We thought you might be interested since you do have good experience in battle, and this would be a great opportunity for you to get your revenge on the Chimera for killing your brother!"
Rock stares at Mekah, then Treble who stares back at him for an answer. If being an On-Field Rescue Squad would help him end the war better than being some vigilante-gone-maverick, it would probably be worth it. They would just have to go there and see for themselves.
OOC: Don't worry, the actual start of the second series is starting soon, so don't complain about me looking for an excuse to post stories with rehashed plots. Besides, I figured a good humor scene would lighten some of you tearjerkers up (For those who even cry over the angst parts of my fanfics).
Next Chapter: To end the war without using the Chimera armor, Rock and Treble tried to become members of an On-Field Rescue Squad at Robot Rescue and shocks everyone with their good fighting skills. But their actions gave X the wrong idea as he had expelled them after Dr. Cain revealed that Rock is his older brother, bringing up one of the biggest sibling rivalries in history, and Zero is stuck in the middle of it, trying to play peacemaker. Will the two brothers settle their argument and except things as they are? And what happens when the X-Hunters rise from the grave to play another round of tampering with X's feelings?
Oh, and one more thing, Gate never went insane until MMX6 in this fanfic.
1 - New Lives for Old Robots
News suddenly spreads throughout the whole city. The Chimera has been labeled a highly dangerous maverick by Mega Man X, who was crippled by the sight of his brother's death at the hands of this armored vigilante. Hunters are on high alert to track him down and destroy him. The Chimera once again disappears without a trace.
Devastated by the news, Rock and Treble never talked to anyone. His friends believed that he was broken hearted over the death of his brother. None have yet to realize the true reason why he was so silent. Treble, while he's never met ProtoX much aside from what he used to be 100 years ago, had felt Rock's emotions through fusion and was the first important, yet sorrowful, lessons he had learned since he started following Rock around.
When they had heard that they, as the Chimera, had been labeled highly dangerous mavericks, they feared that the Maverick Hunters would eventually uncover their dark secret and not only put them in danger, but all those who cared about them. From that point on, Rock and Treble have agreed never to use the Chimera armor again.
Alia, the only friend who not only knew Rock and Treble's connection with the Chimera but practically helped him create the adaptor from the blueprints he stole from Dr. Cain's lab, knew how the two really felt, but was helpless to do something about it because she isn't sure whether Rock claiming he is dangerous is true or not. And trying to lie to him to make him feel better isn't going to make him feel any better than if she was forced to agree with him.
Rock's teachers decided to give him some time off to recover from his recent loss after seeing his lack of attention and the amount of times he keeps botching up his assignments no matter how hard he tried to fix them. He tried to refuse, but after much insisting, he finally accepted it. He spent most of the day laying on his bed and staring at the ceiling of his dorm, unmoving, tears spilling down his face. His friends, along with Alia and Gate, had decided to leave him alone, worried that trying to talk to him would only make him even more upset. His mind began going back to the time he had woken up for the first time since his destruction at the hands of his former, mortal enemy, Zero. He didn't exactly remember what happened just after his tragic loss, and at the time he was feeling his systems shut down one by one, he thought he was done for...until....
Two months ago in the 21XX era....
Gate walked up to the capsule that had been retrieved by his colleagues from a hidden location in the jungles of Japan. Inside the capsule was a silhouette of a human reploid laying inside with his eyes shut.
"Hmm...." he mumbled, "These readings indicate that he was created by Dr. Light. If that is true, he could be of great use to us."
"But there was nothing in Dr. Light's history that mentioned a reploid like this," Alia said, "What if the readings were wrong?"
Gate sighed and backed away from the capsule, "You might be right. The only way we can really confirm he came from Dr. Light is if we reactivate his functions and see if he can remember who his creator is."
"Fat chance he is," one of Gate's colleagues said, "If he was created by Dr. Light why was he found in a jungle and not in the same place X came from? Is he some kind of super machine that can't be trusted by those who dug up the main honcho that started the reploid race?"
Gate scratches his chin, turning his back on the capsule and eyeing the floor, "Could be because this reploid is meant to wake up on his own. Given the capsule has some kind of time-release mechanism that would reactivate him when the time is right for his activation."
Alia walked closer to the capsule, looking at the reploid inside. As she examined his structure, questions began rising in her head. What kind of answers does this reploid have if he is truly Dr. Light's creation, and would he even be in a good mood to answer them? As she contemplated on these questions, she ran her hand over the glass near where the reploid's face is.
As if the entire glass was an "on" switch, the reploid's eyes shot open, scaring her slightly.
"H-Hey...what...!?" the reploid stuttered in a child-like voice, looking around the capsule. He then panicked and began pounding on the glass, "LET ME OUT!!! LET ME OUT!!!"
The others heard the reploid scream and turned to see Alia frantically messing with the buttons near the capsule, causing the glass to swing open.
"Alia, what're you doing!?" Gate shouted. The reploid scrambles out of the capsule, stumbling across the room until he fell flat on his face and skids across the room, scaring the other colleagues as they scattered, seeing him stop an inch from the wall.
Alia threw her hands over her mouth, shaking everywhere, "I-I'm sorry. He was panicking, I didn't know what to do!"
The reploid got up, stumbled a bit on his wobbly legs and slammed his back against the wall, staring at all the lab coat-wearing strangers surrounding him. Outside the capsule, they noticed that he looked like Mega Man X without shoulder pads with a slanted "X" on his right shoulder. His hair was black and shoulder length with three long bangs, the middle extending past the nostrils of his nose while the ones on either side of it sagged a couple of inches, curved near his green eyes.
"W-What's going on!? This isn't Dr. Light's lab!" the reploid nearly wailed, shocking everyone in the room when he mentioned his creator, "Where am I!?"
"A college research center," Alia said, getting the reploid's attention as he eyed her.
"R-Research center? I don't understand! Where's Dr. Light? Where's my father!?"
"Dr. Light has been dead for nearly 100 years," Gate said. The reploid's mouth hung open in total shock.
"A...a hundred years? N-No! I couldn't have been stuck in that thing for that long!"
The reploid continued to stare at the others before sprinting towards the door, knocking two of the colleagues to the floor.
"HEY!" one of them shouted, jumping up to run after him.
"No!" Gate said, throwing his hand in front of the colleague, "Let him go. When he accepts where he is, he will return. Being in a world that has changed over 10 decades, this center will be the only known place he could return to." He turned to the door, "Come on. We've got work to do."
Alia watched Gate and the other colleagues leave, putting a hand over her chest. She knew Gate might be right about the fact that Dr. Light's newest creation may end up coming back here for shelter, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for the problems the reploid was going through just after being released from his capsule. If she knew the reploid, he was probably off at old Tokyo, looking for the rubble that used to be Dr. Light's lab.
Alia arrived in the ruins of old Tokyo. The place was barely visible after years of sandstorms burying it underground. She wondered if the reploid could even find the cemetery Dr. Light had been buried in under all this sand. She caught a figure heading over to a nearly buried, white gate that had tombstones barely sticking out of the sand. She ran into the cemetery, standing behind a giant cross, the only tombstone in the desert that was taller than most of the other buried tombstones.
The reploid looked around the cemetery until he came across the forehead of a statue sticking out of the sand. He bends down and starts grabbing a hand full of sand and tossing it to the side until the statue could be fully recognized. It looked exactly like Dr. Light. The reploid, seeing the statue as being too familiar, decided not to bother digging deeper to find the carved out name of the statue.
Alia wanted to walk up to the reploid and convince him that he wasn't the only family member alive, but her sub-conscious mind told her to leave him alone. Losing to her sub-conscious mind without even lifting a finger, she stood behind the cross and waited to see what the reploid would do next.
A faint whine got both reploids' attention. They turned to see Treble lying in front of a badly made grave with a wood plank almost buried by the sandstorm. Alia could tell he had been laying there for over 100 years due to the sand that had covered up his once shiny, violet, metal skin.
The reploid got up, walking over to Treble who saw him and scoots back, snarling. After a minute of the reploid's inaudible coaxing, the wolf-bot whined and walked over to the reploid, rubbing his face onto his chest as he placed a hand over his head and lightly stroked him. This had Alia wondering if the mysterious reploid is really Dr. Light's first creation, Mega Man.
Feeling that the reploid may already have a better life ahead of him, she turns to leave, both ancient bots unaware of her appearance in the first place. She began to think that Gate was wrong about the fact that 100-year-old reploids won't have anywhere else to go.
Alia had been depressed all day, thinking of nothing but the reploid Dr. Light had sealed up. Her teachers found it very hard to get her to pay attention during class and would sometimes slap their rulers or pointers on the desk in front of her to wake her up. This worried Gate, knowing that she was the most attentive reploid in college. To see her this spaced out made him think that she might have caught something during her none class days when she would go outside with her friends and have fun.
That afternoon, Gate caught up with Alia who stood near the door to her dorm, Frog standing beside her, trying to chase a fly that was flying around them.
"Is something wrong, Alia?" Gate asked, "You've never been this spaced out before."
"Huh?" Alia looked up to see Gate standing in front of her, his hand resting on the wall beside her head. She shook her head and looked down, trying to force a smile, "Of course I am. I...guess I need to have that stasis pod fixed again."
"Come on, you could sleep for an hour and you'd still be awake and active. Admit it, something is bugging you."
"Frog know what wrong with Alia! Frog know what wrong with Alia!" the red headed, humanoid amphibian said, bouncing up and down beside Gate and Alia. She stops and points to her, "Alia in love with ancient reploid! Yes yes! Frog felt same way when she saw Toad Man on the Internet!"
Alia's eyes bugged out, her face turning red, "WHAT!? No way! How could I fall in love with someone who's only been on this planet for half a day!?"
"Is that it, huh?" Gate said, slyly, "I see Ms. Independent found someone she actually likes for once."
"Y-You got it all wrong! I may have an interest in him, but that doesn't mean I love him!"
"Come on. You're face isn't red because of the outside heat. It's almost winter." Gate began nudging Alia's cheek with his other hand, "I think I see love in the air."
Alia got into Gate's face, nearly blowing him back with her voice, "Quit saying that!" she then backed up some, "Even if I do like him, it's not going to last long. That reploid has a life ahead of him. Why waste it being cooped up in a place that teaches him stuff that he might already know?" She rested her back against the wall, eyeing the floor, "He...he might not come back."
Gate put his hand back on the wall beside Alia's head, "Not come back? I already told you we're the only ones he'll have to trust. Being in a world that evolved over the years, even old Tokyo is like a huge labyrinth to him. He'll HAVE to come back here." He takes his hand off the wall and turns around, "Well, I'm going to go play with some of my creations before shutting down for the night. Don't stay up too long thinking about him."
"GATE!" Alia glared at Gate, watching him walk off, laughing. She stood there, growling, her fists throttling.
Frog bounced up and down in front of her, "Frog want go swimming before sleep! Alia join, yes?"
Alia straightened up, looking at Frog, "Well...I...." Frog stops bouncing and looks at her with a VERY wide grin stretched across her face. She sighed, "Alright. But don't push me into the pool this time."
Frog squealed and hopped off, chanting, "Frog go swimming" along the way (And annoying half the colleagues trying to sleep). Alia sighed and followed.
They went to the public, indoor pool in New Tokyo. Frog always liked swimming there. As she swam around the pool, Alia sat near the edge of the 14ft end of the pool, her feet in the water. She wasn't paying attention to how Frog swam. She was still caught up on the questions revolving around Dr. Light's creation. Is he really the old Mega Man from 100 years ago? If so, what happened to him and why was he sealed away the minute he was reconstructed? She knew these unanswered questions would eventually leave her mind the next day...she hoped it would. She didn't want these questions to keep distracting her from class.
She then saw Frog jump out of the pool, landing beside her and nearly drenching her in chlorine.
"Ancient reploid come! Ancient reploid come! Bring doggy reploid!" Frog squealed. Alia saw her hopping towards the high dive where, sure enough, the old reploid and Treble stood. Could they have come in to see her? Maybe Gate was right about the reploid not having anywhere else to go.
Frog stopped behind the two as they looked at her, slightly confused, "You come to see Alia, right?" she then looked at Treble and crawled up to him, seeing him back up slightly, "Is this your dog?" she began running her hands around Treble's head, causing him to blush and curve his mouth into a love sick smile, "Such a good doggy." Treble began to sag from the webbed hands rubbing against his face until he lost balance and fell into the pool, bobbing to the surface on his belly, the lovesick expression still on his face. Frog giggled and turned to the reploid.
"Frog want know! Frog want know!" without warning, she jumps up and lands on the reploid's back, her weight forcing him towards the pool as he yelped and tried to regain his balance, "Does ancient reploid swim?"
She jumps off the reploid her feet knocking him off the ground and into the pool. She squealed as she rose into the air, arms and legs spread out before turning over and landing in the pool.
Alia gasped, throwing her hands over her mouth. The reploid burst his head out of the water a second before it disappeared. Frog's face appeared in the reploid's face, scaring him slightly as she let go and swims towards the surface. He shakes his head and follows. When his head came out of the water, Frog began swimming circles around him, "You lousy swimmer. Alia swim better than you."
"Come on, I can barely run in this body." The reploid said. Frog threw her hands on his head, pushing him up to his forehead in the water.
"You're funny!" she giggled.
The reploid wiggled his head until Frog released him, spitting water out of his mouth, "Why're you roughhousing me!? Why don't to roughhouse her instead?" he adds by pointing to Alia who grits her teeth in both startlement and nervousness. Frog frumped.
"Alia no fun. She doesn't want to swim with Frog."
The reploid looked at Alia who stuffed her hands between her legs, her mouth now compressed, a bit of sweat running down the side of her face. The reploid grinned. "She doesn't? She's the only one who isn't in the pool with us. I'll just have to fix that."
Alia yelped as the reploid swam towards her. She tries to get away only to see him grab her by the waist and pull her in, screaming, creating a huge splash that drenched both Frog and Treble.
Both came up. Alia quickly pulled away from the reploid, her face even redder than before. This left him a little confused. Frog swam up behind him and whispered in his ear. "Frog think Alia like you."
"Frog!" Alia cried. She sighed, brushing some of the wet hair from her face, looking at the reploid, "Why did you decide to come here? New reploid's rarely decide to come here for a quick swim."
"I was going to head back to that research center to ask some questions about what happened over the past hundred years," the reploid said, "But when I saw you here, I thought you might need some company."
Alia's face turned beet red. She then smiled slightly and moved closer to the reploid, putting her arms around him, uttering a quick, "Thanks." She moves back slightly, her hands moving to his shoulders, "To be honest, I wanted to ask you a few questions myself. First of all, you wouldn't happen to remember your name, would you?"
The reploid eyed the water a bit before turning them back to Alia, "Rock...Rock Light."
A couple of months have passed since the start of the Maverick Hunter organization. With Sigma as head of the army, most of the mavericks have been reduced to at least 200 a sector. Proving their loyalty to humanity, everyone began to breathe easier.
At the research center, Rock sat on his bed, tightening the green ribbon in his hair, a dark brown line extending from the tip of his middle bangs to the tip of his ponytail, wearing a lab coat identical to most of the colleagues walking around the center. His friends found it weird that he was the only reploid on the planet who refused to sleep in a stasis pod like the other reploids do to his fear of capsules, but that didn't bother him as much.
Treble also became less aggressive. His times spent following Rock had given him time to realize that humans weren't as evil as Wily had led him and Bass to believe. He still misses his old master, but his friendship with his former enemy taught him that there was more to life than just being obedient. And the more he learned about that, the more he became friendly with other college students, both human and reploid alike.
Alia walked into their dorm, getting Rock's attention as he turned around to look at her, "We're heading over to Robot Rescue to do some extra credit on robotic technology. Wanna come?"
Rock got up, Treble appearing at the foot of the bed, "Maybe later. I promised Treble I take him to his friend's hideout in the desert to retrieve some of his belongings."
"You don't mean the dead lands of the desert, do you? "Alia looks as though the dead lands was the last place anyone would have the guts to go to retrieve some mere belongings, "Are you sure you can travel that far in one day?"
"That's where teleporting comes in. I was lucky to still have mine equipped when I was upgraded. No one'll even know I left."
Alia eyed the floor, then Rock, "Well...just be careful, okay? I don't want anything to happen to you while you're gone."
"Don't worry. If anything happens to us, we can defend ourselves. I've had years of experience in battle, you know." He gives Alia a-thumbs up before walking out of the room with Treble following.
An hour later, two beams touched down in the center of the sandy desert of the dead lands. After re-materializing, Rock and Treble were shocked at the sight around them. Torn hunters and their four-legged companions lay scattered across most of the desert, their fluids staining the grains of sand that wash over their body parts.
"Something tells me we should've landed closer to the shack." Rock muttered. Treble's ears perked as a faint scream echoed through the dead silent desert. The two ran to the source to see Garma's torn and lifeless structure in Zero's hand. Rock's eyes widened.
"It's...it's you!" he cried. Treble snarled, both backing away as Zero eyed them, dropping Garma and turning to fully face them, his grin wider than before. He began to walk towards them, flexing his bloodied hands. Fearing his unmatched power, the two reploids continued to back away from him.
Rock's pupils suddenly shrank before he grabbed his chest, screaming in pain, stopping both Zero and Treble, watching him as he hunched over, eyes shut, his hands trembling, "It...it hurts!!!"
Garma's reconnaissance troops who heard their leader screaming in agony and were running to the source in hopes that he wasn't destroyed came to a screeching halt when another scream got their attention.
"Wh-What was that?" the first asked.
"I don't know, but it's coming from the area where Garma was last heard." The second said before running ahead of the first hunter. When they got to the source of the screaming, they saw four figures standing 4 feet from them, one of them being what's left of Garma. Their eyes widened when they saw blue fire shoot up from under Rock, his hair and the bottom of his lab coat flying flapping upwards in various directions. What happened next shocked everyone with in the area.
Zero's pupil shrank to the size of rice grains, grabs his head and stumbles back, screaming in pain. The reconnaissance troops didn't know what was going on, but felt as though Rock had something to do with it. After a few minutes, Zero's body glowed as a beam shot out, dematerializing his structure it was completely gone, the beam disappearing into the sky. Both hunters were in complete shock when they saw what happened. They watched as the fire surrounding Rock vanished, his pupils growing back to their original size.
Treble looked at Rock who's looking at his trembling hands, "I-I don't know what happened. All of a sudden, my chest feels like it was on fire." His eyelids began to sag as his hands dropped to his side, "I...I feel so...tired...." he then dropped to his knees a second before the rest of his body hit the ground face first, releasing clouds of sand from both impacts.
"He...he needs help!" one of the hunters called out. Both ran towards Rock only to see Treble stand over him, snarling at the two.
"Whoa! T-Take it easy, mutt! We're just trying to help your friend." The second said, but Treble continued to snarl at them before both teleported out in separate colored beams.
"What should we do now?" the first asked.
"Well, it seems that Commander Garma wasn't able to handle that Maverick. We may have to call Sigma and tell him what happened."
The two beams landed somewhere in the middle an old shack somewhere in the dead lands. Treble moved towards Rock's head and began licking him until he groaned and sat up.
"Ugh...someone get the license bar of the mechaloid that hit me?" he mumbled, pushing himself to his hands and knees. When he regained all five of his senses, he looked around his surroundings, "Is...this the place you and Bass hung out in?"
Treble eyed the floor, a bit depressed. Rock moves his hands toward the wolf-bot's head and rubbed it, "Come on, we'd better look for your stuff."
Treble lead Rock through the paths of the shack. There was barely any light to help them see where they were going. Treble had to rely on his sense of smell to prevent either of them from bumping into something along the way to the center of his hideout. When they finally arrived, the desert light shining in from the holes in the walls and ceiling, preferably from when Bass would shoot inanimate thing out of irritation after having one of his arguments with Dr. Wily.
"This is your hideout?" Rock asked, looking around the cargo area of the shack, "Don't mind me criticizing, but this place could use some work." He looked at Treble who scowled slightly, "Then again, it has been 100 years since this place's been used last. Maybe the lack of maintenance caused most of the surrounding to rust. Let's just hope none of your stuff suffered with this place."
The two walked around the cargo room until Treble stopped near some boxes, tail wagging. Rock appeared behind him, seeing a gothic-style doghouse hidden behind the stack of "Dr. W" marked boxes. He kneels down and looks inside the doorway of the house.
"Whoa, it looks like an apartment building in here." Rock yelped. Treble grinned, tail still wagging. Rock gets up and closes the door to the doghouse, picking it up, "Well. I guess this saves us the trouble of looking for all your stuff. Let's head back before anyone else finds out where we are."
But when they arrived at the entrance of the old shack, Rock and Treble came to a halt upon seeing Sigma drop to his knees, battered and torn with one arm missing and Zero laying behind him with gem shards laying around him and what looks like a "W" glowing on the socket in his helmet. Hearing their footsteps, he lift his head to look at them, muttering something they couldn't hear, but knew it wasn't good. When he turned to look at Zero, the two took this moment to make their escape and teleported out.
Rock placed the doghouse near his bed back in their dorms in the college research center.
"Well, at least this saves a lot of temporary roommates having to complain about the way you sleep at night." He said. Treble wags his tail, grinning before running into his doghouse.
Rock noticed something under the bed that wasn't there before. He pulls it out seeing the words "Robo-Porn" strewn across it, "Robo-Porn? Who'd read this junk?"
He tosses it behind him a split second before a violet blur flies out of the doghouse and grabs the magazine. Rock turns around to see Treble snarling in his face, causing him to yelp and stumble back.
"WAH! How was I supposed to know you liked robot porn!?" Rock squeaked, putting his hands up for defense.
A shadow blocked out the overhead lights of the dorm room, getting Rock's attention as his looked up to see Sigma towering over him. Treble turns around to see him and quickly stumbles to Rock's side. He continues to stare at the two ancient reploids before turning around.
"Come with me," he said, walking off. Rock and Treble looked at each other before following.
Sigma took Rock and Treble to Dr. Cain's lab where they uncovered his strange an ultra rare ability to sense and even destroy any virus that was causing reploids to turn maverick. When Dr. Cain found out that Sigma was the one who sparked this realization, he tried to persuade him to get tested, but the head of Maverick Hunters refused and left in anger. He sighed and looked at Rock's structure again, unaware of the slippery Light bot sneaking up to the bin of blueprints and disappearing with one of Dr. Light's aging blueprints.
"Where did you get that?" Alia asked when she found Rock sitting at his desk with the blue print spread out across the desk's surface.
"I found these designs for a fusion adaptor when Sigma took me to Cain Labs to get examined," Rock said, studying the instructions that were printed around the adaptor's design. Alia's mouth hung when he said that.
"W-Wait! Did Dr. Cain know you took one of his blueprints?" Rock didn't look up from the blueprints, knowing how shocked Alia was.
"I doubt he even knows about this. And to be honest, I don't think it's a good idea if he did."
"What do you mean?"
"Take a look at the designs of this adaptor," Alia looks at where Rock points, seeing an arrow going from the adaptor to what appeared to be some kind of flight/gliding armor, "Dr. Light originally intended to install this into one of my support units. But after my accident, he never got around to making it. With all this controversy going on about some of the Hunters going maverick, I'm worried that if Dr. Cain ever got a hold of this blueprint, he would use it to duplicate a lot of fusion adaptors so powerful, no army on earth could stop them if the Hunters all of a sudden turn maverick." He didn't want to let on the fact that he didn't trust Sigma's strange behavior.
Alia stared at the blueprints some more, "Then...what do you think we should do with this?"
Rock covered his mouth, staring at the blueprint a while longer, "Dr. Light would sometimes let me fight by my own rules as long as they aren't too dangerous. Because of him, I felt as though no one on this planet would be able to tell me who I should fight." Alia's eyes widened at where he was going with his thoughts.
"Wait...you're not thinking of...."
"Well, following commands isn't going to end this ridiculous war anytime soon. Since I'm the only one who knows the schematics for the fusion adaptor, I figured I'd create the armor and install it into Treble."
"But...what if something bad happens to you while wearing that armor?"
"I know there won't be anything bad happening to me." Rock looks at Treble who seemed eager to want the fusion program installed, "Treble's already removed everything that might give us problems during the time we're fused. We should be okay."
With Alia's help, Rock had managed to design and program the fusion adaptor into Treble. After making some proper adjustments and getting rid of some of the bugs that may cause serious problems to the adaptor, it was time to put it to the test.
Rock and Treble stood on the roof of a building high above the city where no one would know what they were about to do.
"You ready?" Rock asked. Treble nods and jumps towards him, dematerializing into sparks as it slammed into Rock, causing a white glowing armor to cover him from head to foot. Once the glowing faded, he was in full armor. He looked at his black hands. With Treble's mind apart of his, he could feel that he was as awed at the appearance and the power they were feeling as he is. Rock clenched his fist in excitement, "Alright! Now to test the flight program."
A schematics of the armor appeared on the visors of his helmet, the feet part of the armor flashing white.
"Rocket boosters activating," a computerized voice said. Rock leapt into the air as the boosters came to life, keeping him in the air. Excited, he began flying around the city, most of the people mistaking him for a strange looking airplane. While flying around, he heard a terrified scream in one of the allies of New Tokyo. He flew to the source to see a young schoolgirl backed up against the wall with three ugly looking mavericks standing in front of her.
"Beware...beware...." they chanted as if it were a ritual, "We're going to get you...we're going to get you...."
"P-Please, stop! Leave me alone!" the girl whimpered. The mavericks laughed as they continued their dreadful chants.
"Beware...beware.... We're going to get you...we're going to get you...."
"ACK!" The two mavericks turned around to see the third fly into them and knock them to the ground.
"What the hell was that!?" the first shouted, shoving the out cold maverick off them. They got up and looked behind them to see Rock standing in a forward stretch with his left fist held out in front of him.
"Hey! What's with the kid and the tacky armor?" the second grumbled.
"Who cares? He's gonna pay for interfering with us!" the first charged towards Rock swinging his massive fist only to see him merely duck it, "What the...!?" he yelps as a black fist slammed into his mid-section, knocking the wind out of him as saliva flew out of his gaping mouth. The second maverick watched their leader fall to the ground, out cold and glared at his attacker.
"Why you...!" he leapt towards Rock and brought his folded fists down only to see them land in his open hands, holding him in mid-air, "How did...!?" a foot to the mid-section interrupts him as Rock releases his grip on his wrists, sending him flying onto his little gang.
The schoolgirl looks at Rock before springing to her feet and running past him, screaming. He watched her disappear into the streets before focusing on the pile of mavericks beside him, then cans of spray paint behind them.
The blueprints had a name for the fusion adaptor: the Chimera armor. This gave Rock an idea.
The first news of the Chimera's heroic actions didn't last very long as another report followed the day after in which he had been turned into a convicted Vigilante. While the Hunters have tracked him down while trying to take out a gang of wanna-be mavericks, he managed to evade their attacks. For the next month most of the Hunters had been working hard to uncover both the Chimera's identity and where he was hiding until the sorrowful and fearful day when Sigma all of a sudden went maverick and provoked the Chimera to battle him which ended in near tragedy. Rock didn't think that the head of Maverick Hunter, turned traitor, would even recognize his identity through voice alone.
X soon took over as leader of the 17th Unit in hopes of riding the war himself and getting revenge on Sigma for what he did to everyone in the base. Seeing that with his brother more alert with maverick outbreaks, both minor and major, Rock felt no need to interfere any longer and the Chimera disappeared for a while until another disturbance called him back.
Strange activities involving dead mavericks coming to life began plaguing the city with terror. The Chimera had already tried to deal with the problem but when his visors picked up an even stronger energy reaction coming from the outskirts of Japan, he knew he had to do something.
Relying on the energy-tracking device on his helmet, the Chimera reached the forest, seeing a purplish glow in the far distance. Not wasting any time, he kicked his rocket boosters into high gear and charged through the trees, almost reaching the glow when a loud noise interrupted him. He turns around to see ProtoX getting thrown into a tree with a giant, banged up gorilla heading towards him. He grabs his C-Boomerang and throws it towards the gorilla, slicing the tree over his brother's head and slamming into its face, knocking it to the ground. Then he leapt over ProtoX and swung his left C-Blade across the gorilla's face, causing it to explode as he jumped back to avoid getting sucked into the burning balls of fire.
The Chimera looks at his brother before taking off after the glow without saying anything. When he reached the source of the glow, he saw it was a rusted, moss-covered version of the Eiffel Tower, its windows emitting an eerie, purple glow. Not wanting to look for a door, he charged in through the window. The place was not only covered with wires, but also had undead machines wandering around like zombies from an old monster movie.
Ignoring the mavericks wandering around the ground, the Chimera saw a flight of stairs to the right and flew towards them, seeing most of the mavericks try to grab him, but barely got his coattail. Finally reaching the stairs, he deactivates his flight boosters and starts climbing them on foot.
When he reached the top of the stairs, he saw that ProtoX had already beaten him halfway to the top of the tower. The two stared at each other unmoving and emotionless. When ProtoX knew that the Chimera wasn't going to talk, he felt that fighting was the only answer, to which the Chimera accepted without hesitation.
The two had fought for more than two minutes until ProtoX suddenly stopped, his mouth hanging open as if he had been spooked by something. The Chimera felt as though the fight had given his uncertain memories a jumpstart. Before he could say anything, an evil laugh got their attention.
"Well, well. It seems we have intruders," the voice boomed, "I was only interested in the Chimera, but you can come to...Break Man ProtoX."
"Who are you!?" ProtoX shouted. The voice laughed.
"Why don't you come up here and find out...if you can survive my avalanche."
"Avalanche?" the room suddenly shook as an explosion buried the two in a pile of stones and concrete. The Chimera was the first to emerge, looking at his brother half buried under the pile, in worse shape than he is and making no signs of waking up soon. He stares at ProtoX some more before running towards the purplish glow coming from the stairways to the top of the tower.
Upon arrival, he saw that a giant praying mantis was pined to the wall by wires and a capsule with a purple glass standing under it. The evil laugh echoed again.
"How good to see you again, Chimera," the voice said, "Or should I say...Mega Man!"
The Chimera's pupils shrank slightly, "W-What!? Th-Then...you must be...!"
"That's right!" the glass slid down as a holographic figure appeared in its place. The Chimera took a step back.
"You're...You're Wily!"
"What's the matter, Chimera? Surprised to see me?" the hologram grinned, "I knew that my creations would turn on me one of these days, so I downloaded my A.I. into this hologram, programmed to activate should something tragic happen to me. And since my reappearance after all these years, I've decided to let the whole world know of my reactivation!" The Chimera continued to back away, "And I wouldn't want to forget my traitor of a servant. He thought he was so smart trying to purge every controlling virus in his body. But there was one program that can't be erased." He grinned and raised his hands, "AND NOW! TIME TO ACTIVATE THE MANUAL OVERITING PROGRAM!"
The praying mantis' eyes flashed a crimson red causing the Chimera's eyes to shrink to the size of rice grains. He stumbles back and grabs his head screaming in pain as a buzzing sound filled his hearing sensors. Wily laughed again.
"Once I have taken control of you," he said as the Chimera dropped to his knees, increasing the grip on his head, his screaming growing louder, "I will use you to turn against those you've tried to protect over the years. Think of it as a trade off with your baby brother. My masterpiece for you! The best part is, he won't even know he had a brother until he has annihilated you!" His laughing was cut off when a streak flew past him and the Chimera and slammed into the forehead of the praying mantis causing it to short out and fall over limp, its arms dangling over his capsule. Wily looks to where the streak came from, "Who's there!?"
"You will not...lay a hand...on my brother!" came a labored breathing voice. The Chimera turns around to see ProtoX standing behind him with his hand in front of him, half conscious.
"You! But you were supposed to have been destroyed in the avalanche!" Wily cried as he backed into the wall of his capsule, seeing ProtoX coming towards him, hunched over and dragging his feet along the ground.
"As long...as he needs me...I...will never...die!" ProtoX seethed. Wily began shaking everywhere before pointing at him..
"S-STOP HIM!" he cried. The mantis sprang to life and swings its claw towards ProtoX, slicing him in half. The Chimera's eyes widened in shock, watching ProtoX's left arm and his upper and lower body fall to the ground, fluid spilling out of the gashes as he fell. Shaken, he gets up and walks towards him, falling to his knees and picking him up in his trembling arms.
ProtoX opened his left eye slightly and looks at him, smiling, more fluid spilling out of his mouth, "F-Fight...Fight him...brother...." he muttered before his eyes closed, dropping his head into the Chimera's now shaking arms. Horrified by the death of his brother, he embraces him in a sorrowful hug. Wily just laughed.
"A price to pay for not revealing yourself sooner!" he said. He brings his slightly curved fingers towards the Chimera, "And now, to finish turning you against your remaining family and friends!" The Chimera muttered something morbidly before he shot up screaming in rage. Wily's eyes widened in fear, "What...what's happening!? You're readings! They're going way off the charts! How can that be!?"
The Chimera glares at Wily with raging eyes before flying towards him, his left arm slung across his throat. He thrusts it out when he neared the capsule, causing the whole room to flash brightly as the sound of blade slicing something was heard before pitch blackness....
Rock's eyes shot open, gasping as he stared at the ceiling of his dorm room. He sat up rubbing his slightly messy, undone hair, one hand gripping the sheets of his bed, his lab coat missing. He looks at the morning sun shining through the window on the left side of his bed.
Three weeks had gone by since ProtoX's death. As the days went by, Rock slowly started to regain his old personalities, his sorrow nothing more than a deep feeling. The dream he had last night seemed to be a slight farewell from the pain he suffered those past three weeks.
"Must've fallen asleep," he mumbled. He then sighed and pushed the covers off, slipping out of bed and walking over to his lab coat hanging off his desk chair with his dark green hair ribbon on top of it. He felt something rubbing against the back of his leg and turns around to see Treble pressing his head against him. He smiles a bit and bends down to pet him, "Had a nightmare too, huh?" Treble whined as he got up and slipped his lab coat on, tying his ribbon around his raven hair, "Let's take a walk. Maybe the morning air might calm us down some."
Treble wags his tail as he heads to the door, Rock following behind him. The door suddenly swung open as Mekah and Carlos suddenly sprang into the room, shouting "SURPRISE!!!" Treble screamed a doggy-like scream and jumped onto to Rock, Scooby-Doo style.
"Ewwwww...you let Treble watch Scooby-Doo!?" Mekah said sticking her tongue out in disgust. Rock laughed nervously, his legs shaking from Treble's weight.
"W-Well, I can't fit into his doghouse," Rock grunted, "So I never know what he's watching."
"Enough about that! We found something you might be interested in!" Carlos said.
"It's not another one of your cheer-up rap numbers, is it?"
"Hey! What's wrong with my rap!? I have good rhythm!" Mekah elbowed Carlos and walks up to Rock.
"We were walking by Robot Rescue and came across this sign that's looking for brave people for an On-Field Rescue Squad! We thought you might be interested since you do have good experience in battle, and this would be a great opportunity for you to get your revenge on the Chimera for killing your brother!"
Rock stares at Mekah, then Treble who stares back at him for an answer. If being an On-Field Rescue Squad would help him end the war better than being some vigilante-gone-maverick, it would probably be worth it. They would just have to go there and see for themselves.
OOC: Don't worry, the actual start of the second series is starting soon, so don't complain about me looking for an excuse to post stories with rehashed plots. Besides, I figured a good humor scene would lighten some of you tearjerkers up (For those who even cry over the angst parts of my fanfics).
Next Chapter: To end the war without using the Chimera armor, Rock and Treble tried to become members of an On-Field Rescue Squad at Robot Rescue and shocks everyone with their good fighting skills. But their actions gave X the wrong idea as he had expelled them after Dr. Cain revealed that Rock is his older brother, bringing up one of the biggest sibling rivalries in history, and Zero is stuck in the middle of it, trying to play peacemaker. Will the two brothers settle their argument and except things as they are? And what happens when the X-Hunters rise from the grave to play another round of tampering with X's feelings?