X and Octavia warped into the forest area of the Weather Control Center for their first mission against one of the Mavericks. "So, which Maverick's running amok here again?" Octavia asked.
"Wire Sponge," X stated. "Not much is known about him, since his data isn't in any registries. There's reason to believe he was built by Sigma, however. And be careful: Reploid and Mechanaloid weapon systems have improved since our last mission, and our armor has to adjust to the new damage levels. We can't take as much damage as before-"(1)
"Look!" Octavia interrupted, pointing to a hidden alcove in the wall above and behind them. "A Heart Tank!"
Smirking, X leapt up and grabbed it, increasing the armor energy of both their armors. "That will be useful. Let's go."
As they progressed, they encountered a few mechanaloids rising out of the ground, but they were easy to destroy. They also encountered two orbs that manipulated the weather in the area as they went. The second one caused a driving rain that caused a bit of a problem, but at Octavia's suggestion, they used the first in a sequence of narrow platforms over a pit of spikes to climb upward and take a different path. This path also led them to a new Sub Tank, which would prove useful since the old ones were already synced to their old armor energy levels. Since their armor energy now functioned differently with the new damage levels, the new sub tank synced to it, allowing it to hold enough energy to replenish either of them fully.(2)
Further onward, they took an elevator upward to another level of the area, dealing with frog based mechanaloids as they continued. Entering yet another building, they found their way to the Maverick in question.
The Maverick was bright green, resembling a sponge right down to the flower on his head. He lowered down from the ceiling via his long vines. "Hi! I'm Wire Sponge!" he called happily. "Do you wanna play with me?" His voice was...oddly childish.
X started to open his mouth to issue the charges of tampering with the Weather Control Center, but Octavia spoke up first. "Can we play jump rope?" she asked.
"Yay! I love jump rope!" Wire Sponge called out, hurling one end of his wire/vine to X. "Hold this!"
Not knowing what else to do, X caught the end. Octavia ran to the middle, and X followed Wire Sponge's lead in the skip rope chant as Octavia hopped over the makeshift rope.
"Built in a lab
The Little Sponge awakes,
Master says useless
And go away!
Broken mind
And broken heart,
Little Spongy
still does his part.
Master broken
Spongy lost
Like his base
His heart storm tossed.
Little pony
Oh so kind,
Be Spongy's friend
And calm his mind?"
As the jumping came to an end, Octavia hugged Wire Sponge. "Of course I'll be your friend," she said happily. "Want to come back to base? I think you and CiCi would get along well, too."
"Yay!" Wire Sponge cheered happily, clapping his hands. "I made some friends!"
X stared, unsure how to react to this.
Wire Sponge had been happy to hand over his Weapon Chip after making "so many new friends!", and so X and Octavia had the Strike Chain weapon to help them with their journey. Their next mission took them to the Desert Base...but they had company.
"So, why did you insist on coming with us, Storm Eagle?" Octavia asked when they arrived.
"Overdrive Ostrich served under me in the battle with Sigma," Storm Eagle explained. "If anyone can get him to talk about why he joined the X Hunters and convince him to change sides, it's me." He spread his wings. "I'll perform aerial reconnaissance, see if I can plot a safe path for you."
While Storm Eagle took to the sky, X and Octavia continued downward. Angled shots proved most effective in dealing with enemies as the climbed down ladders...and then they found a Ride Chaser. Grinning, they both immediately leapt on, skimming over the spikes. Using the Ride Chaser's built in blaster and Octavia's busters, they blasted through the enemies in their path and a large device that had been generating a sandstrom. Entering an indoor area, they were forced to abandon the Ride Chaser. Octavia was able to cross a pit of spikes - as they still had no effect on an organic being in Bio-Metal Power Armor - to collect another Heart Tank.
Not long after, Octavia paused as Varia gave an alert. "Light capsule detected," she proclaimed. "Wall is destructible, but not with currently available weaponry.
X nodded. "Then we'll remember to come back when we have a weapon that can do that," he instructed. "For now, let's keep going."
Not long after, they found a missile launching. Catching hold of it, the pair blasted it with everything they had to destroy it before it could get high enough for the payload to activate. As they landed in the desert, Overdrive Ostrich raced up to them.
"You!" he snarled viciously. "You'll pay for what you did to Commander Storm Eagle!"
X and Octavia stared at him in confusion...especially as Storm Eagle came in for landing behind him. "Tell me, Overdrive," he asked calmly, "exactly what did they do to me?"
Overdrive Ostrich spun to attack, but froze. "C-C-Commander? But...but you're dead! They...they showed me the footage! They showed me your destroyed Tornado Cannon!"
Storm Eagle lifted the arm with the cannon in question. "I wonder how they managed that..."
"Sigma did create a copy of you to defend his fortress," X pointed out. "If the footage you saw was on an aerial platform and not an airship, then it was the copy."
Overdrive blinked. "They...they tricked me?" he gasped out. "But...but..."
Storm Eagle stepped forward, resting his hand on Overdrive's shoulder. "Come back to base, my friend," he said softly. "We'll talk about it."
Upon the group's return to HQ, Alia raced up with a report. "Commander X!" she called out. "The upper cadre of the X Hunters has made its move, going to back up the other Mavericks! Three high level Reploids have been spotted and..." She gasped for breath, plainly not wanting to believe her own report. "One of them is Serges!"
"What?" X and Octavia demanded together.
"There's more," Alia continued. "Based on energy readings, they have Zero's missing parts installed in their systems!"
"Then we'll just have to take them back," X growled, priming his buster. "Along with some answers..."
Octavia bit her lip worriedly, hoping the battles to come would not damage Zero's pieces beyond repair...
(1) My explanation for why Life expansions don't carry over between games.
(2) And now the Sub Tank explanation.
Was Wire Sponge supposed to be like Spongebob Squarepants??
Isn't Wire Sponge supposed to have multiple per-... oh, right, different iterations and all that.
Yes, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees, one step closer to the ultimate scene of OCTAVIA LEADING AN ORCHESTRA OF BI-*bonk!*
Ahem, right, my lawyer reminds me that I should stick to being happy and thanking the author for another bit of fine writing... *flumph!*
6509251
...no. He most certainly wasn't.
For one thing, he was green and narrow.
6509263 MAKE ZERO A GIRL!
Poor Wire Sponge. He needs a lot of hugs. Anyway, now X and Octavia are aware of part of the plan of Serges.
I do like the way you are going about how X proceeds with his missions in this fic, it mirrors how Megaman deals with the robot masters in WWW...(I get it now a Battle Network reference )
6509309 No...do not even suggest it...I do not want it turning into one of those fics
6509251 ...Yes.
6509263 I always assumed Wire Sponge was supposed to be a sea cucumber.
Well... That was very quick.
And I think the scene between Storm Eagle and Overdrive is from the manga, isn't?
I like Storm Eagle in this story. ^-^
Slightly cocky, yet humble at the same time.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
6509537
Derived from, yes. But they didn't actually reconcile post 'destruction' in the manga, since Storm Eagle actually got destroyed.
6509370 What type of fiction are you talking about?
6509675 EROTICA DAMN IT!!!!
Seems that Octavia jumped at the chance to make a new friend and X was roped into it quite effectively.
Wonder when Octy will start having romantic interests? Or possibly even have some other non reploid Casanovas try to sweep her off her hooves?
There is a song I hear, a melody from the past...
So, yet to read, but was surprised to see a story like this hit the front page. Love the X-series onward, but mixing it with MLP? Will have to check this out sometime. Some of the chapter titles are great, though:
reminds me of Awakening Will.
I believe it was on the back cover of MMX4: Be a hero, or a Zero!
He is the meat, and they are the hunters?
Wire Sponge had kind of a sad personality in my opinion, but I'm glad Octavia made him better.
6509670
Good addition to the story.
Are you gonna write about X3 later?
6510333
Once I'm finished with 2.
6510338
Good to know.
In X3 manga, Blizzard Buffalo is friends with a kid.
Later, Blizzard with Neon Tiger, Blast Hornet and Tunnel Rhino help X and Zero against Bit and Byte.
6510354
I don't know the manga that well, actually. I'm using a wiki to determine who can be saved.
Unfortunately, most of the Mavericks of X3 are either downright evil or being controlled by the virus via Doppler's device.
6510368
Sometimes I feel bad for them.
Storm Eagle is a example.
6510368 Yup. Blizzard Buffalo is the giant, scary looking teddy bear of the bosses. That's one of the few things I know from the manga. After this point, my knowledge runs dry.
Wire Sponge and Cici... interesting. I do love the image of Wire Sponge using his weapon to let Tavi jump rope and befriending her. Plus Overdrive Ostrich getting reunited with Storm Eagle is awesome! More of the X1 bosses showing up to help in stages would be nice. I also love how you explain having to get Subtanks and heart containers each game. Now I want to see X and Octavia get time warped back to X1 and curb stomp Vile with one low power shot after X8 when they're at full power upgrade wise due to it being the last game with those items in it.
6509752 There's always the Pegasus former Repliforce member The Skiver from X5.... I can just see him being an unwanted paramour for Octavia and X gladly beating the crap out of him, then letting Zero and any other 'family' have a turn. Same could be said for Toxic Seahorse
6510368 I vote for Blizzard Buffalo to be saved at the least, I've always felt sorry for him when I learned he originally was an ice sculptor. Blast Hornet also worked under Zero in the Special 0 unit, so saving him would be awesome!
Anybody remember this? CAPCOM's cruel April Fools joke?
articleimage.nicoblomaga.jp/image/279/2014/1/1/11fd9ffcc76e17829883d0bf311d05eb27d69b491417548615.jpg
you can use this as an appearance song for vinyl if it happens
*Begins announcer voice*
BETRAYED! - The Struggle For Answers!
As X and Octavia discover the truth behind Serges' disappearance, will they be able to determine the full scope of what he's set in motion before it's too late? Will the clash of two legions of 'Hunters' provide answers, or only senseless bloodshed? Will our heroes have the strength to put an end to Serges' mad plot, or will his elaborate trap for X spell our hero's doom? It's Maverick Hunter vs. X-Hunter in the next episode of Melody of the Future!
Everypony loves laser-based diplomacy!
6509727 There are good genderbender erotica out there.
But you have not been on the web long enough to understand good non-erotica genderbender fiction.
You should try plain old genderbender sometime.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/243930/my-fair-princess
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/281500/my-life-is-a-runway
Octavia makes this entire game so meta, I love it.
BTW, how many X games do you plan on going through? Are you going to include X7 too?
6511486
Nope, but I suddenly want it as a figurine.
7031544
Here You go!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/truforce/truforce-collectibles-mega-man-x-action-figure
Yeah that works.
7165174
What works?
Talking candy-colored ponies in worlds not their own are like Pinkie in the world of talking candy-colored ponies; It's just Ponies being Ponies, nothing to see here, move along, just do your best to ignore the blatant abuse of physics, causality, and logic.
so now serges betrayal is revealed, and 2 robotmasters have been redeemed, hopefully the next bath are lucky like these guys