A/N: This sucks. First and foremost, this sucks. I'll admit that, but the thing is, I started this story at least 3 years ago, back in high school. I've never had motivation enough to finish more than a chapter or a few paragraphs at a time, but I'd really like to see it completed one day. It's a great story concept at best, to me at least.
Also, this is completely AU, meaning it follows the MMX series about as patriotically as you could expect a worm to follow a five mile length of string in a hot desert. Well, maybe it's not that far from the original series. Still, there are variations I added. Events aren't as they were in the game, characters aren't exactly in their right time frame, you get it.
Just, if you review (please?), nothing too harsh. I do bite and I have rabies to show for it. And I have fangs too. Grrrar!
EDIT: I just realized the first chapter somehow replaced the prologue. Sorry if I confused anyone.
Sunrise
Prologue: Scars of Time Were Also Once Wounds
Just another beautiful evening in the way of things, as it had often been many a time since the dawn of the planet. The winds came, flowing lazily from the southwestern sky between the two tall, jagged cliffs' sides. The heavens were cloudless on that day, allowing for one to gaze upward and on, unhindered, into eternity in any sky bound direction. On earth, ageless landscapes had watched the same scene forever even as it changed very little over the days. When they were bored of it, they could turn ancient eyes to another, more recent interest.
The ruins of a once proud factory, now just a skeleton of what it had been at one time, clung weakly to a single bridge that still hung by a thread between a small canyon not far from the sea. The fragile wooden structure was worn, bleached from overexposure to the sun, dry, cracked and splintering away with each breeze that passed. It had long ago been quite useful as a passage to a cave on a remote portion of the island, but now it's weakened condition promised a certain death on the rocky surface far below to any who would dare to tempt it.
Though the place seemed peaceful enough from the look of it, none on the outside could ever suspected what horrors had been committed within. Now, new creatures had returned to the island with a different purpose. They had come peacefully enough, yet they would leave with the same horrible violence hidden from that tiny land only a few decades before.
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One... two... three shots fired, all easily dodged. A fourth and a fifth, both hesitated as the owner bothered to power them up a bit before sending them out for an assault. The first was parried without much trouble; the second just barely grazed the reploid's armor, leaving a small black burn mark in its wake.The reploid cursed mentally. He hadn't been expecting such a primitive-looking machine to be able to land a hit on him.
The black robot he had found only moments before was quite obviously several decades old judging from its rust-spotted armor, how slow it moved, and also by the severe lack of damage its buster shots were causing. It had come out of its pod after he had accidentally caused a jolt to the inactive body, shocking it back to life and into a blind rage. The thing fought like a demon, screaming in an unearthly language as it fired blindly at its opponent, but had it any true threat the reploid might actually have had a challenge on his hands. It was quite an interesting model. Even with it's lack of power, to actually have hit him was truly something. Not to mention its age alone could make it a worth-while find, if he could get it back to base in one piece.
He would have considered knocking it unconscious and taking it back with him had there not been the one concern: on the forehead of this machine there was an ocean blue crystal which radiated a strange purple aura. He had never seen anything like it before in his life, but every once in a short while, this aura would send a small bit of itself out towards him. Only two had made contact so far, but with each touch, he felt... different. He didn't know what that meant, only that he didn't like it.
On the third touch, his reaction decided for him that then and there, he was going to take the robot out. He kept a wary eye on the aura about the crystal, patterning it carefully. When it had cast off its last and faded completely, a strange thing happened. The bioroid faltered, stumbling to all fours in a moment of shock. It stayed there, shaking its head before unsteadily forcing itself upright again.
The reploid took this opportunity and charged the smaller being. As it heard the oncoming assault, the bioroid looked up, but it was already too late. There was a brief moment between the two during which time seemed to slow down to a crawl. The expression on the robot's face was one of pure horror, one not unlike the look of an innocent faced with certain death. It was then that the reploid realized the robot hadn't been fighting him by its own will, yet his fist had already connected. The other didn't even have time to react. It was lifted violently off the ground and thrown backwards... right over the cliff's edge. The reploid stared at this in slight shock - he hadn't even realized they'd come so close to the ocean. He rushed to the edge, hearing the terrible screams of the other as it crashed down the rocky edge on a one-way trip to the wild waves below.
He stood there for long moments after he witnessed the robot plummet through the white, frothy sea, hoping against hope that it would surface. If it had lived, there might be a chance to call back to base for help as it was too dangerous for him to go down himself lest he tempt his own fate.
After a full ten minutes, it became obvious that the robot had not survived. A heavy sigh escaped the reploid as he turned, regret hanging loosely in his mind as he returned to his mission. What he saw next startled him.
Standing no more than ten feet from him was the image of the black bioroid he'd just sent to death... but it was no more than an image. It was purple, somewhat transparent, and flickered routinely, as though it were a hologram. Over all, it looked like a ghost, and the reploid glared at it and set himself for another battle - it also looked just like the strange aura covering the robot's crystal.
The image stood there silently, hovering a few inches off the ground. It said nothing; it didn't move. The reploid didn't quite know what to make of it, even began to let off his guard somewhat until it suddenly charged him. The reploid dashed out of the way as quickly as he could, but even then he couldn't escape a light scrape of the thing. Before he could leap out of the way again, the purple transparency made a second lunge for him quicker than he could react, this time slamming into the reploid full force.
The reploid reflexively prepared himself for the impact, but it never came. Instead, he was suddenly overcome by a feeling not unlike what he had experienced when smaller pieces of the aura had attacked him before, but this was much more intense, so much so that it overwhelmed him completely. He cried out frantically for a moment, then the feeling slowly left his body, leaving him on his knees several feet from the edge in a deep confusion.
It had been frightening. He had never felt anything like that before, but he knew as soon as the syndrome released him that he had briefly gone insane. Was that what had made the bioroid attack him so wildly before? Most certainly so. There was no other explanation for coming at him like it had nothing to lose, then suddenly seeming as though it had never fought before in its life.
He sat still for a while, concentrating on his physical being and waiting to see if anything else would happen. Strangely enough, he could only detect a slightly higher than normal body temperature, and a minute or so later, that was gone too. There was no more burning, there was no more pain - the sensations were gone completely. Yet he waited longer still. Only when he felt assured nothing more would happen to him, he stood and continued his mission, making a mental note to himself to get a systems check as soon as he returned to base. As for the robot, he decided he would simply say nothing about it. By the time he could get a search party out, the poor thing would already be crushed beyond recognition deep in its watery grave.