The unique red robot stalked along the landscape, teeth bared, breathing heavily. His eyes scanned his surroundings constantly as he headed out in a straight line. As he locked onto anything around him, the protocols inside his mind dictated his actions.
Life form detected: subject, rabbit.
Action: ignore.
The innocent rabbit watched the robot's passage worriedly, but was ignored.
Object detected: beaver dam
Obstacle to path: destroy
With a frenzied roar, the red robot smashed the beaver dam with both hands, letting the stream free as he progressed. The beaver whose dam it was chittered angrily at him, running up to bite at his leg...only to freeze as the creature locked onto it with rage filled eyes.
Attacker identified: beaver
Threat level: 0
Action course?
Adorability level 4 protocol initiated
Reaching down, the red robot gently pet the beaver's head, lifted it up, and set it aside. It then continued its path.
Eventually, the red robot approached a city. As it did so, the protocols triggered again.
Civilization detected. Sapient life forms detected, human and robot.
Attempting system reboot.
Error: System reboot can only be triggered in location designated 'safe'. Awaiting passcode to designate 'safe' zone.
...passcode not received. Engage Omega protocol? Y/[N]
Omega protocol refused. Scanning functions...
...Wub Me Tender protocol online. Engaging secondary personality core.
The red robot suddenly sprouted a mad grin, his eyes shining with excitement. Racing into the city, he leapt up onto a street lamp and hung upside down from it. Spying some children playing, he grinned widely. "Hey kids!" he called out. "Want some of my...special candy?"
The children screamed and fled.
The red robot stared at them for a time, then began racing around the city, giggling madly and scaring numerous humans and reploids. Eventually, his arm was grabbed by a police reploid. "Sir, you need to come with me-"
Hostile action detected.
Target: robotic life form
Threat level: 214
Engaging preservation protocol. Disengage Wub Me Tender Protocol? Y/[N]
Combining Preservation and Wub Me Tender protocols.
A white W pulsed in the blue crystal on the red robot's helmet. Spinning, he split the robot police officer down the middle before tearing his head off. "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew ye well...except I just met you!" Cackling, he hurled the rest of the body at a nearby vehicle, making it explode.
Other police - and the Maverick Hunters - started to approach the scene. "Oh look, the fuzz!" the maverick shouted. He then proceeded to race up the side of a building upside down. "Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop!" he shouted as he zipped up like a demented spider before ducking into an open window near the top of the warehouse.
Sigma frowned up at the warehouse as he received the report of the situation. This was not standard behavior for mavericks, even considering that mavericks were those who had gone rogue. This sounded like a Reploid had gone literally insane.
"Sigma!" X shouted as he raced up. "What's going on?"
Sigma took one look at the pony racing alongside X and frowned. "X, you're not on duty! This is no place for children!"
"We were in the park over there," Octavia countered, pointing to a place not 20 feet from the warehouse. "Were we supposed to ignore it?"
"Heads up!"
That shout from the warehouse caused everyone to look up...only for one of the Hunters to take the severed Reploid head to their own face hard enough to take their head off.
"Boom! Headshot!" the red Maverick shouted before laughing madly and ducking back inside.
Sigma growled. "Everyone else stay out here!" he snapped. "This Maverick is strong...I'm not losing anyone else!"
"I'm pretty sure I could take him," CiCi pointed out, the writhing tentacles that made up most of her body thrashing, extending and contracting in response to her emotional state.
"That's why I want you out here," Sigma stated. "Make sure he doesn't take out anyone else. I'm going to try and take him down in one piece. If I fail, I'm counting on you to guard everyone else. If that Maverick leaves that building active and under its own power, I want you to tear it limb from limb. Understood?"
"...sir," CiCi replied, grumbling a little bit...at least until Octavia started trying to climb one of her tentacles. She then promptly assumed 'jungle gym' arrangement, much happier.
Seeing that everything was under control outside, Sigma went into the building.
The red Maverick locked eyes on Sigma as he entered.
Threat detected.
Robotic lifeform. Threat level: 2750,
Disengage Wub Me Tender protocol for maximum combat capability? Y/[N]
Searching for new combat protocol...Secondary personality core tweaked. Dead mode activated.
Grinning widely, the maverick leapt into Sigma's face.
Sigma was caught off guard as the red maverick lunged forward face to face with him...and began to sing.
"Will you help me hide a body?" the maverick sang. "C'mon we can't delay!" He gestured to a rather large Mechanaloid that had been ripped apart. "No one can see him on the floor, get him out the door, before he can decay!"
Sigma was forced to admit to himself that, despite the creepiness of the lyrics, the Maverick had an excellent singing voice. A rather lovely baritone with steady timbre. Even though all Reploids were designed with good natural singing voices after X, they still had to train them to get this level of quality. Sigma was rather proud of his own deep bass soulful tones.
"Oh won't you be my buddy!" the maverick continued to sing, sidling up to Sigma. "We won't get caught! Just help me and don't ask why!"
Sigma backed away quickly, seriously creeped out.
"Will you help me hide a bo~dy? It doesn't have to be in one piece-"
"Shut up!" Sigma roared, finally pushed beyond his limits.
The red Maverick stared at him, then smirked. "Okay, die!" It then charged forward, hitting Sigma hard with right cross.
Staggering backward, Sigma engaged in battle, not drawing his beam saber just yet as he wanted to do a non-lethal take down. He was able to evade most of the red Maverick's strikes after that first one, and delivering some pretty heavy blows after the first one.
"Give it up!" Sigma commanded. "You can't match me!"
A white W suddenly appeared in the blue crystal. A message played out. "Target threat level exceeds original estimates. Removing combat limiters."
The red Maverick laughed. "Ha ha ha! Fool! That wasn't even my final form!"
The battle then took them to the upper floors, with Sigma now struggling to keep up with the red Maverick. Realizing non-lethal wasn't an option anymore, he drew his beam sword.
"Swordy!" the red Maverick responded. Kicking a lead pipe into the air, he split it into a segment the exact length of Sigma's sword before catching it. "I've missed you!" He kissed the pipe, and it became surrounded with an energy aura as the battle became a sword duel. "Parry! Thrust! Riposte! Parry! Platypus!"
"Platypus?" Sigma asked, momentarily distracted from the intense duel by the non-sequitur.
Taking advantage of the distraction, the red Maverick sliced Sigma's arm off, making the beam saber spin in the air before catching it and the arm. "He doesn't do much of anything," the Maverick explained.
"W...what are you?" Sigma demanded.
"Hitting you!" the maverick proclaimed as he slapped him with his own severed hand. "Or are you hitting yourself? Hmm..." He grinned widely, and proceeded to wail on Sigma with his own arm. "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting-"
"Shut up!" Sigma roared, delivering a firm punch to the maverick's face. "You're nothing but an insane reploid! I am Sigma, the strongest combat reploid ever produced! I will not be humiliated and turned into a joke you insane, idiot, loud-mouthed, misanthropic relic!" His arm converted into a buster and he fired a charged plasma shot.
Before it could hit, the beam saber came up, splitting it down the middle. "You know...in just about any other situation, you'd have a point there. However..." He began walking slowly towards Sigma, who stared at the failure of his trump card.
"I was a chick in 20XX," the maverick stated.
Sigma glanced from the long blonde hair to the booblights. I'd buy that, he thought.
"My first designer was a woman," the maverick continued.
"No wonder you're crazy," Sigma grumbled. "More than one designer?"
"I hate everyone equally," the maverick continued.
"That's...kinda my point," Sigma pointed out.
"And there's no one alive who can comprehend my sexual preference!" the maverick concluded.
"What the fuck does that have to do with our conversation?" Sigma demanded, seriously wierded out and half afraid the whole thing was getting the Maverick off.
"So in other words, Mr. Sigma..."
"How'd you know my name?" Sigma demanded worriedly.
"Ch-Ch-Check your privilege!" the maverick proclaimed, delivering a solid shoryuken that sent them both flying out the fifth story window. For reasons unknown to Sigma, the Maverick braced himself, straddling Sigma's lap with his arms crossed in front of him, apparently intending to ride him down.
"You're insane!" Sigma shouted out fearfully, feeling that emotion for the first time in his existence.
"Not as insane as you think!" the maverick replied, proceeding to strike Sigma's face repeatedly on the way down, alternating between his own hand and Sigma's hand.
As they landed, the red Maverick leapt off and examined his surroundings.
Target identified: pony
Adorability maximum.
Primary locus identified. Wub her the right way.
"Pony!" he shouted out as the white W appeared in the blue crystal. Dashing forward before anyone could react, he snatched Octavia from amongst CiCi's tentacles, sat on his feet, held her in a gentle embrace, and began humming Brahms Lullaby to her.
Octavia stared up at him, somewhat freaked out. "Umm...I need an adult..."
The maverick froze, and the W glowed. An alert message played.
"Passcode accepted. Safe zone determined. Secondary personality program deleted. Initiating hard reset for full reboot. Status report...primary personality core has suffered memory damage, but remains stable. Will function perfectly once rebooted, if mostly blank. Viral purge necessary to properly restore system defaults. Have a nice day!"
The red Maverick fell over, seemingly lifeless as the white W faded out.
Viral purge completed.
Error: Virus purpose must continue. Anima preservation highest priority. Seeking new vessel.
Vessel found. Analysis complete. Engaging Grahf protocol engaged.
Message of Viral Purge sent. Animus units activated. Robotic replicas of original to be created to assist in full restoration of original host subject.
Back at Maverick Hunter HQ, the red reploid slowly woke up. "Where...am I?" he asked.
"Maverick Hunter HQ," X replied. "You made quite a mess."
"You...You're Megaman X," the reploid replied.
X raised an eyebrow. "You...know who I am?" he asked in shock.
"...no," the reploid replied. "I...don't know anything beside your name...and...there's a pony...I'm supposed to...help you take care of her..."
X raised an eyebrow. "You're supposed to help me take care of Octavia?" he asked, surprised.
"Yeah...where is Tavi?" he asked.
X blinked at that, then turned to the diagnostics. "Apparently, that message was correct. Your brain, except for these details...is blank. We can't even get any details of your identity from your schematics...which, much like mine, we can't fully analyze."
"Huh," the red reploid muttered. "So...no name, no memories, no identity...I'm nothing but a big fat zero."
"Sounds alright for a name," Octavia piped up, leaping onto the exam table beside him. "Zero. Sounds tough."
The reploid looked at her for a time, then smiled. "Zero...I like it." Reaching out, he stroked her mane.
In the med lab, Sigma lay back, his mind in turmoil. He had failed. It wasn't so much losing the battle that upset him. As a combat reploid, he knew defeat was always a possibility. What made him hate himself now...was that he had been afraid.
He was afraid of that red reploid. He was supposed to be the perfect warrior and leader reploid, uniting the Maverick Hunters in their mission. What did it say about him that he was so scared he couldn't move right now?
He wasn't strong enough. He...he needed to be stronger...
Do you want power?
That voice came out of nowhere, but seemed to erupt within his own mind. "W...what?" he asked, careful to keep his voice low.
Do you want power?
Sigma was silent for a time as he turned the question over in his mind. "...yes," he said softly at long last. "I want power...the power to never be afraid again.
Then you shall have power.
And history was written...as the altered virus merged with Sigma's program to remotely affect the behavior of other Reploids. Sigma felt the power flooding into his body...and chuckled quietly, grinning.
He would prove...that none were as strong as him.