LAST EDIT: 3.9.17

Radiant Falcon Fan Works #9

Mega Man Eternity Cross

You may have noticed that these last few chapters didn't have an author's note bit at the beginning. That was intentional, as I didn't want to take you away from the story more than I already have. You may also have noticed that I set this story up like an anime; with opening songs, an episode card, eyecatches, previews of the next chapter, and my signature footnotes. That's also intentional; as I wanted to do that, in part because of a successful fic doing that same thing, and in part because I could. Finally, I don't know if you noticed, but there are two arcs going on at roughly the same time. We've already looked at Rock, but now let's hit up Tibet and check on Roll...


Soundtest 0A: Colonel's Theme (EX Ver.) - Bloody Sorrow ~Apharmd-C Theme (Cyber Troopers Virtual On Oratorio Tangram)

Frame: Earlier that morning; a road, Tibet; 20XX, 4:30 GMT

A young soldier, wearing a black and white uniform with gold trim, as well as a black soldier's hat. and appearing to be human, was walking the road carrying a strange cane. At least, it looked like a cane; it could've been a club. This mystery soldier wasn't affiliated with any known military agency. At least, none known to this time. For you see, he was actually what will eventually be known as a reploid. And he wasn't with any agency because he was from the future. One hundred years in the future to be exact. His name was Colonel Thorne(2), and he was -as far as he was concerned- the greatest soldier in the most powerful army in history, the Repliforce.

He is also supposed to be six feet under, killed by his main rival Zero in that same timeframe. But he somehow was brought back to life by an unknown force claiming to have control over history. What he doesn't know is this is 20XX, and Zero is currently incomplete. Not that it mattered to Thorne; he had a mission to carry out, and that was to find his sister, Iris. Iris too was supposedly killed by Zero, but he had heard rumors of a brunette with the same features as his sister; long brown hair, a red beret, and her Repliforce dress, custom ordered by Colonel himelf. He had to find out if this was his sister, and the only way to do that was to go straight to the source, the old Final Weapon crash site, which interestingly enough was in this country, just one hundred years from now.

But Colonel Thorne didn't know that. And if he did, he'd go for the nearest human's throat. That was the Maverick way of doing business. If humans said the Repliforce were Mavericks, then it was time he started acting like it.

-=STAGE 04-A=-

COLONEL'S REVENGE

[ready]

soundtest 0B: the reformed (VAVA and Kujacker's theme) - d.i.y. (skate. original sound tracks)

Frame: Time Master Base, Antarctica; Outside Time

Felix Raia(3), a cyborg known by his colleagues as VAVA(4) but to his enemies as simply Vile, always was a bit trigger happy. Even when he worked for the most notorious of Reploid criminals, the one called Sigma, he was a loose cannon. Nonetheless, when he heard of a disturbance in 20XX, he just had to check it out. Ever since Vile lost to Mega Man X and his fellow Hunters Zero and Axl one too many times, and was subsequently revived by the Time Masters, impressed with his determination (or perhaps the proper term would be stubborn persistence), he figured he could get back at his enemies by making sure they didn't exist.

Come to find out that Vile ended up enjoying his assignment, and didn't want to lose his job. "sometimes it pays to be the good guy" he was quoted as saying. So it was that Vile, Sigma's former right hand reploid, became VAVA, 21XX's Framework Executor(5). VAVA's job normally was to watch the Maverick Wars era for any disturbances, and fix them if necessary. Unlike his comrades, he tended to get more his work. That was why you saw him take an active part in the first, third, and eighth Maverick Wars. The Time Masters normally preferred doing things behind the scenes, but Vile always was different, even without his cybernetics. He prefered his shoulder mounted cannon rather than an arm cannon or some variety of beam saber, and he actually has a custom Ride Armor, which he affectionately named Bruno.

Even still, when it was discovered that someone was unaccounted for from the fourth war, VAVA sent one of his subordinates, a computer program by the name of Kujacker(6) (also known as Cyber Peacock, another Maverick ex-patriate) to find out who and then report back to him. Standard procedure to send out a lackey, VAVA was told. He thought that was crap; lackeys should be working behind the scenes. Look at what happened to that guy in the Himalayas(7). Taken out by a rogue Strider. 'Heh, what an idiot.' he thought to himself. After about five minutes, there was a window popping up on his HUD(8) that said "transmission recieved". VAVA tapped the right side of his custom-made helmet to answer.

"What's the situation over there, Kujacker?", VAVA inquired, to which the program answered

"Bad, Felix. Remember when I told you about the Repliforce War?"

"I remember you telling me Sigma was pulling the strings the whole time. Still can't believe he would put an innocent chick in the crossfire like that."

"The dead has risen, Felix."

"That doesn't surprise me, Kujacker. Remember, Zero came back to life twice."

"Well, this is not Zero. It's one of his fiercest rivals, a Colonel Thorne. Evidently someone revived him and put him in 20XX."

"Who was it?"

"There's no records of any revivals in the past three weeks. Someone here either went rogue and is hiding his tracks or..."

"or he was revived just now?"

"I was about to say that, Felix. At any rate, he's heading for the Final Weapon site."

VAVA narrowed his eyes. No space station should be there for at least another hundred years. "Where's the site?"

soundtest 0C - Strider Outpost Tibet - Jago Stage (Killer Instinct 2)

Frame: Strider Outpost Balcony, Himalayas; 20XX, 13:45 GMT

"It's... beautiful..."

Roll Light, a young android and sister to Rock Light, managed after seeing the view of the mountains for the first time. Even Ton Pooh, formerly one of the Striders' deadliest enemies, was impressed. "With a sight like this, it's no wonder the Grandmaster wanted to rule this planet so badly." They, along with Quint, also known as the Time Master Quincy Sairasu, were on the balcony of the Strider Outpost in Tibet, a miltary complex converted for the pseudo-ninjas' purposes. Strider Hiryu, who was training Roll so that she too would become one of them, was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. Evidently he had seen it before. The Special-A Class Strider wasn't necessarily apprehensive about coming here; after all there were two Striders he happened to know here, one of which was Excellynn(9) Shenaton, or Sheena for short. Apparently Sheena had become an A-Class Strider right under his nose, and Hiryu had to see if that was true. But, business first.

It was Quint who was having trouble. Though General Andore had given him license to do what was necessary, he did have a prime mission, which was 'fix the chronoscopic frameworks'. Quint just couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. So he told the trio of travelers, "I've gotta make a call; I'll catch up with you three."

"Well, well. If it isn't Strider Hiryu."

A familiar voice caught Hiryu's attention, to which the aforementioned ninja turned his head to see another young male bearing the white jumpsuit of the B-Class Strider. His hair was disheveled and blonde, but it was short. "Where have you been these past three years?"

"Kain. I thought that was you. Sorry, I'm in a bit of a rush. We'll talk later."

Frame: Hall 2E, Strider Outpost, two minutes later.

As Quint was walking down the halls of the outpost, he had made a call to his home base in Antarctica. "Quincy here."

"This is VAVA, responding."

"VAVA? You're supposed to be focusing on 21XX. What's the occasion?"

"Colonel Thorne's the occasion. He's here in 20XX, heading in your direction."

Quint narrowed his eyes. He knew something was up ever since he arrived at the Strider Outpost. "Any idea on what he's doing here?"

"I've dispatched Kujacker to track his movements, and so far all I know is he's looking for something."

"Or someone, ever think of that?"

"I'll relay that info."

Quint sighed. At least VAVA knew what he was doing, even with his quirks (aside from the cybernetic equation, there was a bonsai tree on his control panel back at the base) "Okay Quincy, here's what I found..."

As Quint listened to VAVA's spiel, he took mental notes. He had previously heard of Colonel Thorne as a talented beamsaber fighter who used to work for the ill-fated Repliforce militia and whose life was tragically cut short. Evidently he died for what he believed in, according to Colonel's former superior officer and current Time Master General Andore. His sister, an Iris Thorne, suffered the same fate as her brother: death by Zero, though he agonized over the kill. The interesting thing was that there was an Iris working on the present Maverick Hunter Ride Armor Unit, though he had no idea if this was the same Iris, as that information was either hidden from him or he just was not informed about it. Only problem was that that Iris, whose full name was Iris Northe, was purported to be C-Life; either she was a completely different Iris or it was possible that her identity was completely changed which, while not against the law in 21XX, was generally frowned upon by the United Earth Government since they wanted to keep track of everyone.

At last, VAVA finished his report. "Catch all that, Q?" he asked.

"Where's this Iris Northe now?"

"She was at the Maverick Hunter Base just outside of Osaka(10) in 21XX, but I'm doing a Chronoscan. She's not there. Either she hasn't made it to the base yet, she's out on the field, or..."

"Or a Chronoscopic Hotspot Malfunction(11)?"

"Can't be. I've checked every angle; the place is secure."

"Double-check, VAVA. And be quick about it; I'm already getting some stares from people."

soundtest 0D: Complete Global Saturation (Wesker III's theme) - Moonlit Army (Contra Hard Corps)

Frame: Conference Room, Hall 4E, Strider Outpost, 13:47 GMT

Strider Hiryu, a legend among Striders, didn't technically belong to the organization. Sure, he was the youngest to receive a Special-A Class rank, but the trouble was that he officially left the Striders years ago, and only came back for consultancy/mercenary work. When Headmaster Miyamoto gave him the mission to kill Hien(13), Hiryu accepted the job partly because of the Headmaster having taught him in the past, and partly because the paycheck was nice. Then again, he was training Roll to become what he once was, not because of the pay, but because they were good friends. But if you had told him years ago that he would be talking to the one person who sent his sister on that ill-fated trip to the middle east again, he would've not only call you crazy, but kill you on the spot.

"Wesker(14). I take it you're still alive?", Hiryu finally inquired. Albert Wesker III was an older man of fifty-two with slicked back blonde hair and dark eyes, who wore a military fatigue (unlike the other Striders who prefered ninja-style clothing and/or jumpsuits) and the dark spectacles he was known for. He responded "Yes, Hiryu. I am. And I truly apologize about-"

"Save it." Hiryu interrupted. "I'm here on business, Wesker. Tell me what you know about Hien."

Wesker chuckled a bit, then explained, "Always the impatient one, are we? Very well. Hien was once one of our best pupils, almost on par with you; the Headmaster had told me. Personally, I thought the old fool had exaggerated a bit, but he was right about one thing: Hien was much more impatient than you. When he realized he would never break your record, he killed another A-Class Strider, took his cypher(15) and fled. The man now has two weapons, and he knows how to use them."

Hiryu suddenly realized why he hated this guy. Wesker had an egotistic mind; and he had disliked the Headmaster, even planning on killing him on separate occasions. Plots to kill other Striders weren't unheard of, but he wanted Headmaster Miyamoto's head on a pike. The trouble wasn't that the Headmaster saw too little potential in him, it was that Wesker saw himself as a Headmaster and he wanted to get there by any means necessary. His mind worked in a straight line where everyone else's mind worked in curves.(16) This made him a dangerous man, and many people asked for his termination from the Strider program.

"Where is Hien, Wesker?"

"I have my best spies tracking him. When they get a hit, and they will get a hit, you will be the first to know."

Hiryu didn't trust Wesker, but he also didn't say anything. He just nodded his head, knowing that he would eventually have to kill this man. His thoughts were cut short, however, when the PA system sounded. The lady(17) on the PA system said "All B-Class or higher Striders report to the Command Room. Repeat: B-Class or higher report to Command Room."

Frame: Command Room, Central Hall, Strider Outpost; five minutes later.

The local head of this Strider Outpost, one Yuan Shao(18), had already announced that Hiryu was in attendance and was about to explain why they were all gathered. A total of around forty five Striders were gathered around a central control panel projecting a screen in the air, despite the technology not being made public until later that year. Shao explained, "Good, you're all here. Allow me to show you something. The Time Master Quincy Sairasu has been seen in the base. We have no knowledge that his actions are not detrimental to our operation. Should anyone find otherwise, please speak up."

'they know', Hiryu thought, as the young man was displayed, and then said aloud, "I vouch for Mr. Sairasu. He's of no threat to us, and if anything, I have reason to believe he's here on other business anyway."

"Ah, Strider Hiryu. Care to explain what he's doing here, then?"

"I invited him."

Shao smiled. "Very well then. On to the next item on our agenda..."

Frame: Central Hall, Strider Outpost; six minutes later.

B-Class Strider Kain (adopted name Kain Highwind(19)) and Hiryu were walking back from the Command Room. "Who's this mystery kid, this Quincy Sairasu?", to which the Special-A Class Strider responded "He's a... friend... of my student Roll. You remember Roll, right?"

"The Light kid? Vaguely. That's that droid you fight with in the Tag Team Fighter circuit, right?"

"Yeah, Evidently Quint – that's what Roll calls him – is looking for Hien as well."

"Then it looks like we've got some competition."

Hiryu pondered this for a minute. Kain was twenty-five, same age as Hiryu, though he had obviously advanced the ranks much slower. "Well, when you put it that way..."

"The kid rubbing off on you, eh?"

"You could say that. My philosophy is that learning is a two-way street."

"ah, a 'you-teach-me-and-I'll-teach-you kinda deal. Anything your girlfriend says about it?"

"Ton Pooh is not my girlfriend."

"Then why travel all the way to Tibet with her?"

Hiryu told Kain what Ton Pooh had said last night. "So a 'if you can't-beat-'em-join-'em deal." Kain concluded, to which Hiryu nodded.

soundtest 0E: roll thinks - Starry Ocean ~ final stage (Armored Warriors)

Frame: Central Hall, Strider Outpost, 13:59 GMT

Having clearance to travel into the Command Room of the Strider Outpost was reserved for B-Class and above; no guests, no C-Class or trainees, no exceptions. Though Hiryu did leave the organization, he still had a Special-A Class license(20), so he was allowed in. No such luck for Roll Light, who decided instead to travel around Central Hall and meet up with Hiryu later. This gave her time to think. As an android, she's had her share of programming routines coded in from time to time, sometimes overwriting what was already there. When her brother Rock registered as an Earth Guardian(21) a few months back, he had his First Law(22) programming overwritten, to say nothing of the programming routines that were completely new. From what Rock told her, it was like "someone going into your brain, adding and removing things at will, changing a part of you." She had nightmares for a week, and she dreaded her Earth Guardian registration. Come to find out that Hiryu found her first – mostly due to Rock's half-joking suggestion.

This was a double-edged sword. On one hand, she didn't have to enroll as an Earth Guardian. On the other hand, this meant fighting, sabotaging, instigating, hacking, sometimes killing; basically criminal acts normally punishable by death or deactivation. The Striders were as close to a criminal organization as you could get while still being legal. It helped that they were ninjas, no doubt about that, but sometimes she wondered if this was the right course of action she should take. Should she have went with Rock to enroll as an Earth Guardian or remained Dr. Light's housekeeper or something along those lines, or was she destined for greater things like the Strider program?

As an android, things like this ran across her head like lines of code. Sure, none of it was visible through her eyes, but her CPU was getting overclocked. Then she realized, come to think of it, Hiryu left the organization to pursue his own path, and the Striders treated him as if he never left. The two of them had a sort of bond that really couldn't be matched, but he did say earlier this morning that he would be her enemy sometime down the road. She realized that, if she was going to become stronger, she would have to learn how to make her own decisions, instead of relying on others.

Then, a caution sign flashed across her vision display. Androids weren't typically equipped with a threat gauge, but Roll requested it nonetheless, possibly to keep up with her other brother Blues. The sign went from caution to warning as she walked from point to point. Roll, whose Skynet call number ended in 1990(23), called her teacher...

Frame: Central Hall, Strider Outpost, 14:00 GMT

In the complete opposite direction Roll was in, Hiryu was catching up with his old friend Kain, whom he'd known since he was first inducted into the program some twenty years ago. Then, he heard his communicator go off. Striders typically weren't allowed to have cell phones or anything that would enable enemies to determine their location(24), but Hiryu actually left the program and went into the mercenary business, and communicators were kinda his thing. So he answered that call. "Yes?"

"It's Roll. I'm getting a threat heading due the Command Room, but I can't see it with normal vision."

Things like this were very serious. The one failing of the Striders is they never learned how to detect cloaking technology, though they have an experimental prototype in their R&D labs in Taiwan. No one could reliably detect cloak in this timeframe unless you were either Earth Corps or Protoman, and neither party was interested in sharing.

"have you checked X-Ray?"

"my scanners don't have X-Ray, they've got thermal, and I'm not picking up anything."

"is there a blip on your radar?"

"yeah, it's a red one."

Hiryu knew Roll's inner workings to know that blue meant ally, green meant her, and red was reserved for foes and foe-like individuals. This meant that there was indeed someone in the base, and then he heard another call, this one from a number he didn't recognize. He decided to answer anyway, which the response was

"Where is my sister?"

EYECATCH

ICE SLASHER NOTES

(1) Streets of Rage Remake version 5 is no longer offered by the developer, but you can still get it by searching the net. As for its OST, look it up, as I'm not sure if I can offer it over the net.

(2) If you remember, there was a story over thirteen years ago called Mega Man Iris that had the title character (Iris from Mega Man X4, natch) having the last name Thorne. I adopted this part from that story, but if the author of that story wants me to change it, I can do that.

(3) If you recall, Vile was just Vile in America. I thought that, due to how different this story is from the actual Mega Man games, he should have a given name. Felix is the name of one of my internet friends (not telling who!) and for the fans of Armored Warriors, Raia is the alien planet from the game.

(4) VAVA is Vile's Japanese name, changed because it sounded to close to Boba evidently. You know how George Lucas is.

(5) The Framework Executor is the one in charge of a particular timeframe, for instance VAVA is the one in charge of 21XX. Kinda like how an Executor is the commander of a Protoss army in StarCraft.

(6) Cyber Peacock's Japanese name is Cyber Kujacker, a portmanteau of Kuja (the japanese term for a peacock) and Jacker (like a hijacker, or refering to the modem jack perhaps). In this story, Kujacker is the guy's given name.

(7) As evidenced in Stage 1. (that's chapter two, in case you forgot.)

(8) You'd think that having a Boba Fett helmet would be just for show, but VAVA's helmet has a heads up display, similar to Samus Aran's in Metroid Prime.

(9) Excellyn (it's spelled a bit differently in Super Robot Taisen OG) is Sheena's adopted name, which is not found in the manga or the NES game. In other words, I made it up.

(10) Capcom might not be there anymore, but they were founded in Osaka, Japan.

(11) Basically, a temporal anomaly, or a Time-Space Continuum SNAFU.

(12) See Stage 2.

(13) Albert Wesker, villian du jour of the Resident Evil series. Who knows? Maybe the third time's the charm and he'll finally get that COMPLETE GLOBAL SATURATION he's been known to talk about.

(14) The Cypher lightsword is the trademark weapon of the Striders in both the manga and games. It's like a broadsword, wielded like a tonfa, that emits a plasma aura. Basically a weaponized plasma cutter sword.

(15) Ever read Discworld? I have. Two of Discworld's famous characters think in straight lines(15a) instead of in curves. In the world of Discworld, this means that they think "I am now [x]" instead of "how do I get [x]?"

(15a) Sam Vimes and Cut-me-own-throat Dibbler (and his othercontinental relatives Cut-me-own-hand-off Dblah and Disembowl-meself-honorably Dibula, neither of which appeared in more than one book) are two very successful people due to their way of thinking, though what kind of success Dibbler's got over the years is debatable.

(16) It's always some sort of lady on the public announcement system. Don't try to argue with this one; it just is.

(17) Yuan Shao, in chinese history/Dynasty Warriors, was one of Cao Cao's childhood friends who ascended up the noble ranks in the Han Dynasty and ended up being too arrogant for his own good. Most of his generals defected during the battle of Guan Du, and he himself died of indignation sometime afterward. This Yuan Shao is of no relation.

(18) As mentioned previously, some Striders use adopted names or their real name so that they could be inconspicous. Kain, for instance, took the last name Highwind. As in, Kain Highwind the Dragoon from Final Fantasy IV

(19) I'm not sure if this is the case in the manga, but here in Eternity Cross a license is given out to Striders who reach C or above, allowing them use of tools, weapons and privileges not found in the previous license. The kicker is that a license is yours for life, even if you exit the program. So unless you're KIA, you keep your license when you leave.

(20) Similarly, Earth Guardians are basically licensed superheroes or combat androids (in this case, Mega Man and Pulseman) that actually have permission to fight crime and help solve police matters, given out by members of the Earth Corps. Essentially, the precursor to the Maverick Hunters and the aptly named Guardians from ZX and Legion from ZX Advent.

(21) If you recall, the first law of robotics states that no robot must harm a human or let a human being come to harm through inaction. Only true robots, such as Mega Man, Protoman, et al, are bound by the three laws, whereas humans and other nonhumans (cyborg and C-Life) have federal laws prohibiting acts such as murder anyway. Incidentally, should a robot enroll in Earth Guardianship, their first law is "a robot must not kill a human." changed after much debate by the UEG on whether or not accidents can happen.

(22) Though Mega Man as a series was created in 1987, Roll wasn't given a true name until 1990 when Mega Man 3 came out.

(23) Kinda like the threat gauge in Metroid Prime, or even the threat gauge mentioned in LazerTH's parody of Mega Man X6, known as MATHEMESS. That's a shout-out everybody.

(24) The irony of this whole matter is that the cypher emits a plasma aura, which causes a high-pitched 'schwing' noise to come out of the damn thing when swung, typically meaning instant detection. Either Striders are too fast to be effectively seen or the enemies are just that dumb.

Character Spotlight

Roll Light

"Roll, the Strider Trainee"
THEME A: "A Light's Journey" - Collision Chaos "G"mix (Sonic CD ~JP~)
THEME B - "Surviving Hope" - D.A. Garden (Sonic CD ~JP~)

Roll Light was Dr. Light's housekeeper android daughter, and still functions as this to a degree, but she is training under legendary Special-A Class Strider Takeshi Hiryu to get stronger. She is not a fighter at heart, but she will if necessary. She also works as part-time 'babysitter' for much of Dr. Wily's Robot Masters, as they tend to like her very much. A glitch in her systems leads to processing information too fast, which can lead to system crash. Should this happen, she will need rebooting manually via an on/off switch on the back of her neck.

MESSAGE FROM ROCK LIGHT*

Rock here. Blues mentioned something about Dr. Light planning on changing the world. I've no clue what that means, but it sounds like I'm obsolete already, which I kinda assumed. That being said, I had no idea that the world would change so soon, and with a guy claiming to be my future brother in my house, not to mention a not so friendly Robot Master equipped with a Wave Cannon, I think I'd better prevent things from getting out of hand.

?: "I am INVINICIB-ulp! Augh!"

Next time on Eternity Cross: "X Watch" See you there!


Yes, I'm ending on a cliffhanger again, because really, I can't be bothered to actually come up with the revenge part of Colonel's Revenge, and it's 9:30 PM as of this writing, so think of this as a two parter. The next part will come out after the next chapter. So until we meet again, Protect the Fans. Hopefully it won't take over six months next time. Stay Radiant.