Radiant Falcon Fan Works #9

So remember when I said this wouldn't take long? I've been busy.

Eternity Cross Continues...

soundtest 0F – previously on...

[Zero's Mission Log, 11.27.21XX]

Signas sent me and Axl on a time-space continuum mission trying to find my best friend X. I don't know exactly where we're going to end up; but we do know when: 20XX. This is uncharted territory for me. I've been to the north pole, space colonies, cyberspace, even the moon. But I've never been time-traveling. The primary objective is to find X. Beginning mission!

-=Stage 8=-

Time Twisted

[-READY-]

soundtest 16: soviet streets – Main Menu (Soviet Strike)

FRAME: Streets, Moscow, Russia; 20XX, 11:59 GMT

The streets of the city known officially as Moscow were packed with citizens and tourists alike. The birthplace and residency of one Dr. Mikhail Cossack, a colleague of Dr. Light's and one-time semi-nemesis(1) of Mega Man himself, Moscow was a cultural center these days, though it wasn't always this way. Even so, a rogue Strider was wanted in the area. Coincidental tourist and mercenary Takeshi Hiryu, Special-A Rank Strider; as well as his cadre of friends and former enemies; including Roll Light; Tong Pooh; the Time Master Quincy "Quint" Sairasu, most recently, Colonel Kyle Thorne of something called the Repliforce, had landed in Moscow a few minutes ago. There was some trouble getting Colonel across the border, due to his lack of proper identification -never mind the fact that he was originally created in 21XX-, but as with the case with Roll, no one was going to argue with a card-carrying former Strider. No one wanted to; pissing off a ninja of any kind is liable to get you killed later, and this was especially true with Striders.

"The story goes that the Repliforce was created as a supplementary unit to the Maverick Hunters, but after Sky Lagoon crashed, humans in 21XX grew distrustful of the Repliforce, going so far as to brand them Mavericks." Quint had told a story on the plane ride from Tibet to Russia. "It wasn't long before the Repliforce almost completely was destroyed. The only survivors of the Repliforce incident are Colonel, who you've just met; my boss Andore; and Spiral Pegacion, who currently works for us."

"Wait, what of my sister?" Colonel had asked.

"I'm not sure. Some say she works for the Hunters under a pseudonym, most say she died on Final Weapon trying to avenge you."

"But why would Iris fight at all? She was nary a fighter, more of a diplomat."

Roll then piped up, "I'm not combat-oriented either, and yet here I am fighting with Hiryu-sama."

"Good point, Roll. My guess is that she absorbed your power core, not knowing how to effectively utilize it. Ultimately she died in Zero's arms."(2)

The Strider said, "These Maverick Hunters sound like decent guys." to which Colonel responded, "Yes, they are good people enough. Zero and I do have history together, however."

"What kind of history?"

"Not a good one, sir Hiryu. He and I seldom got along, especially when it came to Iris' future with the Hunters."

That was a few hours ago. Now, the unlikely ensemble were hitching a hovertaxi ride to an Advent Hotel, where they planned to check in and regroup. On the ride, Quint asked, "By the way, Colonel, I never did find out how you got revived. Last I checked, you were still dead."

"What do you mean, sir Quincy?"

"I don't know if you noticed, Colonel; but this is 20XX, a full hundred years prior to when you're supposed to exist."

"Someone claiming to have control over history wanted me revived, methinks."

"did they call themselves Time Masters?"

"Nay."

"then you're not supposed to be here." Quint concluded. "I have a feeling that whoever caused you to go Maverick, however brief of a time it was, also is behind Hien's appearance." to which the Strider responded, "Can't be. Hien was one of the better students training under Miyamoto-sensei(3), yet he too was only human. If I recall, this Maverick Virus you spoke of affects machines without the proper antibodies, right Quint?"

Roll shuddered, having caught a similar machine virus last year.

"Right. However, a Reploid that is, say, patient zero(4), could pass on the strain to a new host. This is how Sigma caught and eventually became the carrier for the Maverick Virus, pretty much causing him to turn evil. There's a Time Master who has first hand knowledge of Sigma's inner workings. He's the one we put in charge of overseeing the 21XX frame."

Tong Pooh was listening intently. "What is a frame?" she asked.

"generally, a Chronoscopic Generation, or a Frame in our terms, is the general year where key events occur. For instance, this is the 20XX frame, the Wily Wars to use the media's term. 21XX would be the Maverick Wars, 22XX is the Elf Wars and Neo Arcadian period, 23XX is what's commonly called the Game of Destiny, and far beyond that is what we refer to as the Legend era. We may be the defenders of history, but even we aren't dumb enough to go that far into the future. Not after the last time."

"What happened this 'last time'?" she inquired curiously. "Someone from that period found and destroyed something called a Quantum Mega-Refractor, which caused a chain reaction that it ultimately caused key events to never happen. We had to reset that Frame back to its start.(5)"

"Explain."

"Each Chronoscopic Generation has a beginning, what we call the Origin Frame. In Roll's case, it would be the creation of her brother Protoman. In my case, it would be further back to the beginning of the time period called the War Against Destiny. However, every frame also has an end known as a Cataclysm Frame, which ends a generation of key individuals and events and starts a new one. In my case, the end of the War Against Destiny, which was at the turn of the 21st century. This frame ends when Roll's creator Thomas Light dies. 21XX ends with the creation of the Cyber Elf, and so forth up to the Legend Era, which does not have a clearly defined Cataclysm, and does not have a clear Origin either. This is why we couldn't track the exact date of people in that timeline, and the reason why we haven't devoted much resources to researching it these days. Us Time Masters are stationed somewhere in the limbo between the Cataclysm of one frame and the Origin of another, called Outside Time. We do much of our observations in that period between frames."

"why doesn't this Legend Era have clear boundaries?"

"that's something you'd have to ask VAVA about. He's the guy who made the decision. If we reset a Frame, it's because there's too many discrepancies with regards to its original state. We call it the Glass Clock Protocol.(6) Usually we let things play out normally, and on occasion someone will change how things play out during history, such as people not being where they're supposed to. There are, however, certain things that must not be changed." Quint turned to Colonel Thorne. "Your death, and by extension the death of the Repliforce, must not be changed; or it could have far reaching effects throughout history. Also, any time a past self meets a future self, we run the risk of what laymen call time paradoxes, the effects of which could have unexpected results. If we were to meet players from a future Frame in this one, it could change the course of history."

Hiryu took this time to respond, "You mean that there's butterfly effects in your line of work."

"Yeah, it's kind of complicated."

"Outstanding. What happens when we from the past somehow get ourselves transported to the future?"

"I'm not sure. I've heard rumors that, as long as any future information doesn't get brought back to the past, everybody involved should be fine."

"What, like atlases or lottery numbers?"

"The rumor said something about sports almanacs, but who's got time for those nowadays?"

Roll, who was listening intently, could've swore she saw a movie with that premise a few years ago in Dr. Light's library.(7) "What about technology from the future? I'm sure that tech from 21XX or even further on could help us develop new things here." She asked Quint. "Especially space travel. We rarely launch shuttles anymore, and I want to see if there's alien life that aren't Stardroids."

It wasn't Quint that responded, but Colonel Thorne. "Lady Roll, I think we need to have words about that. Lest you forget, I met my end on a Repliforce spaceport."

"It's either that or giant robots."

Tong Pooh, also paying attention to the conversation, explained, "Child, there's a saying on my world; 'to think creative is prosperous, to think fictional is not.' In other words, I feel you may be reading too many comic books."

"Hey, what else am I going to do on my spare time, play video games? I'm pretty bad at them."(8)

Hiryu interjected, "Point of order, Roll; we've got more interesting lives than any game character I can name. Besides, I have seen you watch a lot of JoJo on the flight to China."

"Well, it is my favorite franchise."(9)

Quint looked out the window of the hovertaxi. "Colonel, do you see what I see?"

The quintet were approaching another local Advent Hotel, only this time standing right outside the place, was a red-armored figure with blond hair all the way down to his knees, and another jet-black armored person with two holsters at his sides, with shoulder-length styled bright orange hair. Both of them were carrying very different helmets.

"Zero... I can see that hair coming from kilometers away. I do not recognize the other one, though. What are they doing here?"

"That's Zero, alright. The other guy's name is Axl. I was actually informed that someone else from 21XX showed up in this Frame. If we make contact with them, there shouldn't be much of a problem, but..."

"...but what, sir Quincy?"

"If they're looking for someone, we should be careful where we step. Hiryu, Roll, go see what those two want. Tong Pooh, scout out the area and see if you can't track down our gray-clad friend the old fashioned way. Colonel Thorne, you're with me. Those two don't need to know you still exist, especially Zero."

"And what are you going to do, sir Quincy?"

"I'm going to make a call to my pals up Outside Time."

Soundtest 17: blademaster zero – Opening Stage Zero (Mega Man X5)

FRAME: Streets, Moscow; five minutes earlier...

The Maverick Hunters Zero and Axl were in unfamiliar territory. Between the two of them, Zero was the only one who had been to Russia before, and the last time he'd been there was to acquire parts for the Enigma Anti-Space Particle Cannon; a very old, very weak, now very decommissioned Wave Cannon(10). That plan ultimately failed, which is why they sent Zero on a suicide mission using a space shuttle. "So, this is Moscow? I never expected it to be full of... people."

Indeed, people actually walked the streets of the Russian capitol. "Remember, this isn't our time. Back home, and the last I checked, Moscow is a ghost town." That wasn't precisely true, but the city did bet a lot of money on the Eurasia colony. When Eurasia went down, Moscow went down with it. But that wasn't due to happen for another hundred years or so. "Remember, we're not tourists. We have to find X as soon as possible, and try to avoid changing history in the meantime. Our very existence-"

"Dude, hold up. We can't just waltz into the visitors center, especially since we are armed. At the very least, we need to come up with aliases so that we don't attract too much attention." Axl suggested. "I'll be Hadrian(11) Browning. You?"

"Joe... Wily" the name popped into Zero's head without much thought. It was the alias he was using anyway. "So we're using human names now?"

"It's better than having no names. You know that X goes by Trance Light as an alias."

"I see what you're getting at here." Zero forgot that X sometimes used the name Trance when he went incognito. In a family of musically themed robots, X choosing the name Trance was somewhat appropriate. At least, that's what he told Zero. "Actually, Axl, see if your comms are working. If nothing else, we should be able to contact him and find out where he is."

"You're the boss, Joe."

Axl turned on his comms watch. As the link was powered by a reploid's internal systems, it didn't necessarily need recharging, but it did require a name to look up.

After about three minutes, the comms link opened up, revealing a black-haired, blue eyed young man with short hair. "This is X, what is it this time Axl?"

Zero asked the question on all three of their minds. "X, where are you?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, Zero."

"Try us."

"Dr. Light's Lab in Japan. How'd you get here?"

As Zero and Axl relayed the events that led to their showing up, X responded, "So, you two time-traveled here to 20XX, huh?"

"I think you'll find the proper term is frame-jumped."

"How long have you been in this time period?"

Axl spoke up "We literally just got here not six minutes ago." this caused Zero to raise an eyebrow. "relatively speaking."

"Right, well, see if you can't make it to Japan. If you can, find the Strider, Takeshi Hiryu. He should be in the area, at least according to Rock."

The name sounded familiar to Zero. "Rock would be your predecessor, right?"

"That's him. Any idea where this Strider is?"

"I don't have an exact location, but Rock says he'll find you. Do not engage him in combat; he is human, after all, and we don't want undue attention on us."

"Got it. Anything else?"

"Yeah, when you reach the rendezvous point, take off your helmets. It's more culturally polite in this time, to say nothing of Dr. Wily's Robot Masters. The humans are still somewhat hostile towards them, and they're incapable of removing their helmets."

Axl spoke up with, "We can use aliases to get in, right?"

"Considering you two are from a different time period, you should be able to. Any other questions?"

Zero piped up with "Just one. Is Rock there with you?"

"I'm corresponding with him via Skynet -the comms standard used here- but otherwise no. Something had come up and he's busy."

"Fair enough. Over and out."

The communications feed cut off. "Either this could go really smoothly, or really poorly, but at least we found X. Right, Zero?" The crimson swordsman wasn't responding. "Zero! Earth to Zero!"

It was as if he was in a trance. Axl waved his hand in front of Zero's eyes, which were slightly blank. "Yo, whoever froze Zero, show yourself!"

"So, my Snake Snare didn't scare you? What are you, some sort of Stardroid?"

A robot with a long snake for a helmet, clad in green, suddenly appeared from the blue. This was Snake Man(12), a Wily Robot Master. As he spoke, a rather synthetic 'hissing' sound was heard from each 's' sound. "I am Snake Man, and you are trespassing on my territo-urk!"

the long tail from Snake Man's helmet was suddenly cut off, preceded by a 'sching' sound. As Zero's systems rebooted, he heard the slight humming of another plasma-based weapon: the light sword Cypher, belonging to a certain Strider Hiryu. "That's something I didn't need to see on my cypher; snake skin and oil-blood. Zero and Axl, I presume."

"ugh, what the hell happened?" Zero's systems fully recovered from Snake Man's apparent attack. "I guess you are Strider Hiryu?"

"Takeshi Hiryu. My associate Roll and I have this covered; my other associate Tong Pooh is up on the rooftops tracking our own enemy. We'll talk later."

"Right, need some help?"

"Unless another robot fell from the sky and launched a surprise attack, I doubt it."

At which point, another robot fell from the sky and launched a surprise attack. Or rather, two surprise attacks, for a blue laser shot from the sky and bounced off of the concrete sidewalk, which Hiryu dodged in an opportune moment, while the other attack was simply a crystal ball being thrown at the ground. It broke, sending shrapnel clusters bounding off of the sidewalk. This was Gemini Man(13) and Crystal Man(14), two more Wily Robot Masters. "Remember, we're here for the girl. Keep that human away from her."

"We will tackle him. Our Gemini Storm will make him sweat, even if a little. We know how dangerous he can be."

"Fine, and my Crystal Grenade will overload Roll's systems."

As the two robots (technically three, due to Gemini Man's ability to split apart into two separate robots), Snake Man struck back. "NO! These interlopers are intruding on my installation. I suggest you two travel back towards the fortress where you came from."

"Wily needs something from Roll. We will not leave until we have acquired it for him."

Roll, who again was listening intently, said to Hiryu, "You know, if Wily wanted to see me, he could've just asked."

"What do these guys want this time, Roll?"

"You know I babysit these guys in my spare time, Hiryu-sama. This time, though, I'm not sure what they want."

"Anything particularly useful in your inventory?"

"Well, there is Pilot."

Pilot, the new Option-D; a talking badge that acts as a navigator, smarmed in a stereotypical robotic voice, "Checking inventory for useful items related to Robot Master activity. Search indicates several 'useful' items detected, most relevant: Soul Crystal.(15)"

"Thanks a lot, Pilot."

"Sarcasm detected."

the Maverick Hunters were listening. Zero, who was watching the whole thing play out, said "Guys, you know these jokers?"

Roll thought she heard that line before somewhere.(16) She responded "They're some not-so-friendly neighborhood Robot Masters. I tend to chill with them every so often, but I have no clue what they're on about this time. Last I heard from some friendly Robot Masters, they said they were making a Wave Cannon."

"is there a difference between Robot Masters and not friendly ones?"

"On the surface, no. They tend to split between factions, though, since Wily doesn't have any kids and he's getting on in age. Some factions want to kill my brother Rock -you'd know him as Mega Man-, others are his informants. All of them Rock had nearly destroyed years ago. I'm starting to wonder why he hasn't crushed some of their motherboards yet."

"Crystal Grenade!"

Crystal Man tumbled a large crystal ball on the ground towards Roll, who kicked it back, sending it flying back towards the robot master. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"Soccer practice, Hiryu-sama.(17)"

The crystal ball exploded, sending Crystal Man flying towards a nearby house. The two remaining Robot Masters turned to each other. Traditionally, Snake Man and Gemini Man were weak to each others' Variable Weapons(18), Search Snake and Gemini Laser. "Snake Snare!"

This weapon, meant to temporarily freeze robot systems worked before, but nothing worked this time. "Huh. My Snake Snare must be offline."

"You are a fool, Monty. Allow us to show you why. Gemini Split!"

[eyecatch]

~notes~

(1)

You know how in Mega Man 4 on the NES, Dr. Cossack was the main antagonist for much of the game before Wily was revealed to be the true final boss? It's like that.

(2)

This scene is the infamous one from X4, not because it's a death scene, but because it's accidentally hilarious. See also: "WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOAAAAARRRRGGH?"

(3)

-sensei, used in this instance to refer to an older teacher or, in this case, martial arts instructor. Both fit Grandmaster Guanyu Miyamoto accurately.

(4)

Heh, patient Zero. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, that's what you get for skipping to the end of the chapter, cheater.

(5)

This is why Legends 2 doesn't exist in this story, at least as you know it.

(6)

The Glass Clock Protocol was named after a similar plot device in Terry Pratchett's wonderful book (and part of the inspiration for the Time Masters in the first place), Thief of Time. May he prosper in the afterlife.

(7)

If there's a reason why, it's because Roll watched Back to the Future Part II. There I go making references to my favorite movie again.

(8)

Only in Eternity Cross would you find meta jokes like this; though in all fairness, it's not like video games got any easier in real life either. See also: Super Meat Boy, Dark Souls trilogy.

(9)

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage From the Future was actually a Capcom fighting game at one point, so it would make all sorts of sense. The arc it's based on, Stardust Crusaders, currently airs on Toonami these days; go watch it.

(10)

Yes I know Enigma's a broken-ass particle cannon, but now it's also a Wave Cannon. Presumably it's an extension of the shoulder-mounted cannons mentioned earlier in the story.

(11)

There I go referencing Time Trap again, only it's Axl who chose the name Hadrian instead of Protoman.

(12)

Robot Master Bio #007 – Montgomery "Monty" Wily, AKA Snake Man. Not truly a snake man, but rather a man with a snake helmet and a Search Snake weapon, which crawls on the ground. Also borrowed the Flash Stopper weapon to make Snake Snare. Named after Monty Python (get it?), British sketch comedy troupe from the 60s and 70s.

(13)

Robot Master Bio #008 - Gemini Man, full names Yun and Yang Wily. Built with experimental clone technology, which allows him to split apart into two beings. The lighter half is Yun, and the darker half is Yang, with Gemini Man referring to himself in groups, using 'WE' in lieu of "I" for instance. Gemini Laser weapon bounces off solid surfaces, but dissipates after a few moments, while

Gemini Storm summons multiple Gemini Man clones to rush opponents. Named after Yun and Yang from Street Fighter III: New Generation

(14)

Robot Master Bio #009 – Cleo Wily; Crystal Man. Like Ice Man, Crystal Man is no man, but rather a female. At least, that's what she tells herself. Crystal Ball shatters upon impacting a wall, sending ball bearings bouncing off of solid surfaces, while Crystal Grenade is a bomb that shatters after a few seconds. Named for Miss Cleo, famous psychic fortune teller (citation needed).

The Soul Crystal is not a Crystal per se, hence why Crystal Man doesn't actually use it as a weapon (nor Jewel Man, for that matter), but rather a power source for Wave Cannons. All bets are off as to where she got one, though.

(15)

She probably heard it from Stage 01, but that could just be conjecture.

(16)

Ever played Mega Man's Soccer?

(17)

The Variable Weapons are the unofficial official name for the special weapons each Robot Master has.

[CHARACTER DOSSIER]

Zero Wily

"Zero, the Crimson Swordsman"

Zero is the last creation of Dr. Albert Wily of 20XX, and started out as a carrier for what would become known as the Maverick Virus, but a chance encounter with then-Maverick Hunter commander Sigma changed that. After a battle that saw them switching sides, Zero chose to lead the Maverick Hunters for a while, and has since become a force for good. His signature weapon is an energy blade known as the Z-Saber, of which there were actually two kinds. Though he has died at least twice, he somehow always comes back, as if destiny has something in mind for him...

MESSAGE FROM STRIDER TAKESHI HIRYU

Strider Hiryu here. These robot masters that showed up are causing a lot of trouble for us. As if we didn't need enough trouble today already, what with finding Hien and stopping whatever grand designs he has. I'm fairly certain I know who's behind this, but I still need more evidence. Next time on Eternity Cross, "Time Twisted Part 2" Make sure you don't sleep on it.