As Zero continues his quest to destroy the Mavericks, X has had enough of war and embraces pacifism, looking for alternative solutions. This is an original story using characters from the Mega Man X series. This stand-alone story can be enjoyed by those unfamiliar with the Mega Man X world. For the most part, I've tried to stay true to the spirit of the characters, but I've strayed from canon in some aspects.
Chapter 1: The AirportNormally there would be several flights taking off and landing, but at the moment, they were all grounded. The scene was a chaotic one. Panic was ensuing at the airport terminal. Reploids ran from plane to plane along the paved landing strip. Humans pushed each other as they emerged from the faded green plated hulls of the jetliners, squinting against the brightness outside. They struggled to keep their balance as they rushed down the mobile stairs leading down from the crafts. Although human voices shrieked as they urged a faster way through the crowds, the synthetic reploid voices remained calm. They were programmed to maintain a firm and insistent, but calm tone, in an attempt to maintain order. Some had reached the massive expanse of pavement and headed towards the vast, empty space beyond the airport building and landing sites.
Both the people and robots were too distracted to notice the lone figure of a reploid emerging on the roof line of the airport building. It was slightly taller than most reploids with heavy red and white armour, gleaming in the sunlight. Most of the crowds would have recognized from the golden hair flapping sideways in the strong wind and the pointed ears protruding straight up from the sides of the helmet that this was Zero, the legendary leader of the Maverick Hunters. His handsome, synthetic face looked very human-like, but the rest of his body, though somewhat proportioned like a human, was made from thick red and white metal.
Zero's unparallelled speed allowed him to reach the landing zone first. He took a quick pause to process the scene below. Reploids that have gone Maverick were visually indistinguishable, but Zero identified several suspects based on their behaviour. Intel from headquarters revealed their plot to plant bombs on several aircraft. Zero also noticed one plane in particular that the airport ground crew reploids had not even started to unload yet. Time was running low. Should he go after the Mavericks? Should he try to guess which planes have been targeted and try to diffuse the explosives? Should he assist in passenger evacuation?
In the brief moment it took Zero's processor to weigh out the new information before him, he felt frustrated by the absence of his most powerful Maverick Hunter, known as "X". Zero recalled how efficiently they worked as a team. They had some great victories together. Aside from this, Zero felt a strong sense of comradery with X and missed having him by his side. He wondered why his programming instilled these feelings of friendship within him. Zero was designed for battle. Perhaps he was meant to have this attachment with his team to fight more effectively? X's reciprocal bond with Zero must have been very different. They say X was designed to truly think and feel as humans do. He wondered how their experiences of friendship differed. Was Zero's experience somehow artificial compared to that of X? These synthetic feelings within Zero's programming were mixed with some anger and resentment towards X for refusing to join him on any more of these missions. Zero thought about how well they could have split up and resolved this present difficulty. Not much could be done about that now.
Zero leaned toward the ledge of the building, as his dash system exhausted great bursts of air from the bottom of his wide, metallic boots, propelling him towards the edge with dramatic acceleration. Kicking up off the edge, he lifted himself skyward, and was now hurtling up, then down into the scene below. With great precision, he landed in an empty space, with a loud metallic clang. He was now immersed in the bustling throng of people struggling to evacuate. Zero ran towards the rear of the unevacuated plane, lept up and grabbed hold of the lip of the cargo hatch with one hand. With his free hand, he pushed against the hull of the craft until he could hear and feel the locking mechanism within snap open. The hatch opened slightly, revealing the latch in the gap in the hull. What happened next appeared as a flash of green light and the latch was cleanly cut in half. In one swift motion, Zero had activated his plasma sabre, sliced through the gap between the hatch and hull, then disabled the sabre, all in an instant. The movement was so quick, it was almost imperceptible, save for the loud buzzing sound and green light. The rear cargo hatch lowered slowly until the bottom rested about the height of a reploid from ground level. It was designed to be loaded from a cargo dock. Zero dashed into the craft, through the cargo hold, and opened the door to the cabin.
"It's Zero!" The full passenger compartment erupted in chatter. The people that filled the rows of seats all had different reactions to the sight of the famous red reploid, busting in through the back of the plane. He had his fans that were excited to see him. However, with many recent failures, public opinion of the Maverick Hunters became mixed. There were also those with a very different attitude towards reploids in general. The Mavericks had committed many atrocities and some people had extended blame to all reploids. Stories also circulated about Zero's dark past, before he dedicated himself to stopping the Mavericks. Vanity was not a feature programmed into his personality, and Zero cared little for what the public thought of him personally. However, maintaining the reputation of the Maverick Hunters as a whole was an unavoidable necessity.
"Come with me!" Zero extended his arm towards the closest passenger. A middle aged woman motioned towards him. He lifted her off the floor and accelerated toward the rear of the plane. Humans are very delicate. Their soft, fleshy bodies cannot endure the extreme forces that Zero was designed for. He had to limit his acceleration, and cushion his landing as he leapt down from the hanging hatch. He jumped back in for another passenger. Despite Zero's restraint, the cargo hold went by in a blur to the people experiencing this manoeuvre at such speeds. They would have been terrified, but by the time they could even scream, they were already being set down safely on the pavement outside. Zero continued darting back and forth, in and out of the plane, emptying it out at a rapid pace. Some passengers began lining up, but Zero was able to remove them before any serious crowding occurred in the aisle. Others were hesitant or even defiant, but nevertheless, Zero rushed them to safety before they even had time to open their mouths in protest.
As Zero was down to the last handful of passengers, he could hear an explosion outside. As he completed the evacuation, he helped the last few people reach the rest of the group who were almost at the clearing where the evacuated passengers had assembled. More blasts could be heard and Zero could now see the billowing smoke from behind the nearby planes. He sped in between the landed crafts, searching for lagging evacuees or even suspicious looking reploids. However, for the most part, the landing area was now clear. The sounds of explosions continued as Zero zoomed past some of the destroyed craft. One aircraft went up in a burst of flames right beside him, but his advanced plated armour protected him from the heat and his dash system counteracted the force to keep him on balance. Zero headed back toward the terminal building. With another dashing leap, he hurtled towards the closest wall. As he made contact with the wall, his metallic boots clanged as they attached to the vertical surface. Zero kicked off the wall, climbing higher into the air, then used his dash boots to propel himself back towards the wall. He repeated this wall kicking technique to climb higher and higher up the wall until he had returned to his position atop the edge of the roof.
Zero could now absorb the magnitude of the destruction in the scene below him. Several planes were a smouldering black wreck. Pieces of wings, plasma propulsion jets, and broken glass were strewn about the site. He noticed there was little left of the plane he had cleared. Zero took some solace in knowing he had saved those people, and it looked like the airport reploid crew managed to vacate the other planes as well. He watched the reploids assisting the evacuees in the clearing. There is a chance that they had been exposed to the Sigma Virus since there had been Maverick activity in the area. Zero would have to institute a quarantine and have all of them scanned. The Sigma Virus is what causes reploids to go Maverick and is spread from robot to robot. Zero himself was not at risk of exposure. Due to his dark past with the Sigma Virus, Zero himself was now immune.
There was no sign of the Mavericks who were responsible for this immense damage. They had gotten away with it. This irritated Zero severely. Failures like these were becoming increasingly common. Zero felt an overwhelming determination to put an end to all Mavericks. He was programmed with one singular goal. If he could just destroy every last one of them, the Sigma Virus could no longer spread, and the war would be over. Zero thought again of what could have transpired today with X's help. If one of them could have gone after the Mavericks and stopped them, then maybe they could have even prevented all this damage. Zero felt that losing X's involvement has led to this weakening momentum in the war against the Mavericks. If only he could convince X to join him once again, they could wipe out the Sigma Virus once and for all.
However, X told him that he had become disillusioned with war. He said that for every Maverick they slay, several more would pop up in their place. X would always remind Zero that Mavericks are reploids too, and that this war would only keep destroying all reploids. Zero became irate when X referred to the struggle as pointless. But it seemed, in the present conflict, X had become determined to find a new approach.