Project X
Disclaimer: Mega Man and Everything else I reference belong to Capcom and their various owners
Chapter 6: Day of the Maverick
It had started off as a routine day. Dr. Light ate breakfast with Xavier and Dr. Cain. Dr. Cain looked over the mounting reports of maverick reploids and sighed while Dr. Light remotely ran Light Industries. Then Dr. Light retreated to her private labs in Maverick Hunter HQ where she worked on new things. Some were upgrades for the reploids at large; others were things she didn't want to share. Her bionics research was advancing slowly, due to the fact she had to work on it covertly. Xavier worked on a few small things while studying robotics whenever Dr. Light or Dr. Cain has a spare moment to teach him.
Zero found Xavier looking over a datapad filled with information on historical events.
"Hey X! Are Dr. Light or Dr. Cain busy?" he asked. Zero had picked up on human mannerisms quickly, Xavier beginning to retrain himself in being human at around the same time. He viewed the android as his brother.
"Dr. Light's shut up in her lab working on something or other and Dr. Cain is repairing Storm Eagle, he really got busted up in the latest Maverick attack." said Xavier.
"What?" asked Zero blinking in confusion.
"He was heavily damaged." said Xavier 'Was that how I talked over 100 years ago?' he wondered.
"X! Zero!" said a voice the pair turned to see Dr. Light was out of her lab early, covered in a fluid that looked suspiciously like the circulatory fluid from a reploid.
"What were you working on?" asked Xavier.
"Oh, this? I was helping drag Storm Eagle in. He was severely damaged, so he… leaked all over me." said Dr. Light searching for the right word. "I need your help with something."
"Alright." said Xavier.
"I have my communicator on if they need me." said Zero following Dr. Light and Xavier down the hall.
Dr. Light entered her lab followed by Xavier and Zero and they saw several parts of various inventions lying around haphazardly.
"I think I've nearly got it. But I need you here to watch and tell me exactly what goes wrong." said Dr. Light. She rushed over to a stack of papers. Dr. Light often used paper to work out complicated computations as she didn't trust the computers not to crash on her. After she was done she'd painstakingly copy everything into the computer after it worked. Dr. Light looked over the papers one last time before picking up a hunk of metal. It was white in color. Just as she was about to activate it the alarms blared.
"Mavericks!" she said in fear nearly dropping her invention.
"X, protect Dr. Light and get to Dr. Cain. I'll go investigate." said Zero. The android zipped out of the room leaving Xavier and a shaking Dr. Light in the room.
"Stay close to me!" said Xavier as his right hand converted into the buster.
"Ok." sobbed Dr. Light. He opened the door to see the lights were flickering. He stuck close to the walls with Dr. Light close by. He made it into the lab to see Dr. Cain on the floor his limbs at odd angles, Storm Eagle covered in blood.
"NOOO!" screamed Dr. Light causing the blood covered reploid to turn. Xavier charged up a shot.
"Stay back Dr. Light, he's gone maverick!" said Xavier.
"So the old piece of scrap deigns to honor us with his presence." snarled Storm Eagle advancing a step.
"Stay back." warned Xavier.
"It's too late, X. Sigma has enlightened all the hunters and soon we'll enlighten every single reploid! Join us!" said Storm Eagle. "Or are you too jealous."
Those words made Xavier pause. He was jealous of the hunters, slightly, as they had a purpose and he did not. Plus Dr. Cain seemed to give them more attention then any of other reploids.
"I'm not like you." said Xavier firmly.
"X, your six!" Zero's voice rang out before he felt a hard blow hit him from behind sending him forwards onto his face. Zero was at his side and Xavier looked to see Sigma standing with a malicious smile on his face. Dr. Light had backed into a corner and sat silently, too numb to move.
"I should thank you. You made eliminating yourselves all the easier by being in one spot." said Sigma pointing his beam saber at Dr. Light who was startled out of her numbness. She gripped her lump of metal tighter, her eyes hardening and gaining an emotion Xavier knew all too well whenever someone insulted her height or her appearance; anger. However, this anger was different: this was pure unbridled rage. Zero blasted Sigma to draw his attention away from Dr. Light. Sigma raised his beam saber whenever the room was washed in white light and a purple blast hit him in the back. Xavier turned to see Dr. Light was encased from head to toe in white armor that made her look like a reploid. The helmet had two points on it with a purple gem in it. Her neck covered in purple metal rings going into streamlined white body armor that molded around her thin frame. Her boots looked exactly like Xavier's, being the only non-streamlined element to her armor.
A purple blast was forming in the palm of her out stretched hand.
"Pursue us if you dare." said Sigma and Storm Eagle flew them away after blasting a hole in the lab wall.
"Protect the civilians. I'll patrol the facility. Hopefully there are some hunters left." said Dr. Light. "Plus, this armor doesn't have a long energy life; I need to be where I can constantly charge it."
"But X isn't a fighter." said Zero.
"He knows how, but he chooses not to." said Dr. Light, "Is it too much X?"
Xavier hesitated; he'd had nightmares whenever he'd been given combat training before. Nightmares of a sinister man that looked like the one in cyro, but more than Dr. Cain could die today.
"I'll do it." said Xavier. Dr. Light ran to the communications center.
"ATTENTION! EVACUATE THE CITY! SIGMA AND MOST OF THE HUNTERS HAVE GONE MAVERICK! THEY'VE BROKEN THE FIRST LAW ALREADY AND ARE WANTING TO DO IT AGAIN!" she yelled into it. She turned it off and nodded to Zero and Xavier who darted out of the lab.
Dr. Light cautiously explored the building finding many heavily damaged, but non-maverick, reploids and was relieved to see one of the 'medic' reploids was still fully functional and also non maverick.
"I'll go find others and bring them here." said Dr. Light. The medic nodded and went to tending the damaged reploids. The grand total of remaining non-maverick reploids in Maverick Hunter HQ: Thirteen including Xavier and Zero (With one being a cyborg and the other technically an android.). Dr. Light stayed near the display and saw the operator stations were fully functional. She placed the head set on after retracting her helmet and sitting down.
Xavier was horrified. He stood outside the Maverick Hunter HQ building and saw the citizens fleeing in a panic, easily being picked off by the mavericks. Xavier charged in, and blasted the weaker mavericks from the sky. But to do so he had to jump over vehicles. He managed to avoid becoming a smear on the road and jumped onto a car that nearly hit him and rode on the roof taking down the flying mavericks. He could see the shock on the citizen's faces that X, the peaceful android, was taking action and fighting.
'They probably think I've gone maverick too.' Xavier thought. 'I wonder how they'd react if they knew I didn't have any three laws programming to violate.' Xavier continued to destroy mavericks. There was a broken down police carrier being swarmed. Xavier charged up a shot and blasted the biggest of the mavericks drawing their fire and soon faced too many enemies. He received aid from the police and a short time later they were safe.
"I was under the impression all hunters were Maverick." said an officer.
"Only most of them, and strictly speaking I'm not a hunter." said Xavier. "Zero is the only hunter that is out and about that you should trust. I have to keep moving, I might be able to catch Sigma or at least one of his lackeys."
"Lack-key?" asked the police officer.
"Minion." said Xavier before rushing forwards to help another broken down car. The Other police transports had circled back to transfer the defrosted prisoners to actual prisons or to shelters if they were unable to clear the city.
"Welcome to the year 21XX, reprobates." said an officer. Xavier was far ahead whenever the prisoners were being transported outside.
Xavier crossed to clear sections of road, well clear of civilian traffic. Mavericks were swarming the roadside.
'This is going to be rough.'
He faced various mavericks the worst being the Bee Copters. They'd been such a useful tool until now. Now, he was regretting the Maverick Hunter HQ for being so well armed. If the Bee Copters weren't bad enough the roads were crumbling forcing him to dart across as quickly as possible.
He neared the floating fortress which sent out the motor drones.
'Memo to self spikes hurt.' he thought after nearly getting impaled by the spikes on the car parts of them.
'Light to X, any sighting of any of the major mavericks?' said Dr. Light just as Vile showed up.