The next part of the Fortress X and Octavia beamed into seemed rather straightforward. The only enemies they encountered at first were shield bearing humanoids, bats, and strange jumping insectoid bots that clung to them but didn't do damage...except when Octavia tried to shoot one off X. Octavia giggled nervously as X glared at her, his head still smoking.
The path was also quite narrow, shortly leading to an upward path involving riding a moving platform that changed direction each time the button on it was depressed to reach the next area. After that, were more types of mechanaloids they'd fought before. The next such passage also had spikes at the bottom, and the platform was harder to guide.
Following another passage, they moved downward through a spiked passage to a horizontal path. At that point, they paused as both their sensors detected a Light Capsule directly above them. "Now...how to get up there..." X murmured.
"You could just throw me again," Octavia offered.
Nodding, X did as suggested, grabbing hold of her and hurling her upward. Gripping the side of the vertical passage, she climbed upward until she reached the capsule, which opened for her.
"Octavia," the Light hologram began. "I have a new upgrade for both of you...but I had to customize it to each of you. It won't be able to transfer between you the way the other upgrades have."
"But...but X can't get up here-"
Octavia covered her ears as the sound of X's Giga Crush going off startled her. X then leapt up into the chamber. "Found another way in!" he said proudly. "I used crystal shooter to turn another enemy into a platform, then charged up my buster. When I was at the peak of my jump, I triggered my Giga Crush(1) to give myself the extra height to grab the sides of the passage!"
"Most impressive, X," Light praised. "Your tactical skills continue to grow and impress." He frowned. "I'm afraid that there was an unanticipated problem regarding upgrading Rush for you."
"What?" X asked in shock. Octavia also looked upset.
"When I tried to reactivate Rush...his higher brain functions - those that gave him a personality and controlled his systems - refused to activate." Light sighed. "I suppose I should have anticipated such a thing, considering he took himself offline when-" He paused. "Never mind, it's not important. At any rate, I didn't want to fail in keeping my promise to you...so I used Rush's basic design and some of the newer Reploid technology and my own techniques to build you your own robot dog. Now that you've activated this capsule, he should be beaming in in three...two...one..."
A red teleport beam shot down, forming into physical matter right in front of X. The beast that appeared resembled a robotic St. Bernard, colored red and white, complete with synthesized fluffy fur which Octavia promptly dove into with a happy squeal, shouting, "You're so fluffy!"
As X knelt down to scratch the massive head that was turned up to smile at him and lick his face, Light chuckled. "Behold, your robo-dog and support unit...Piano."
Both X and Octavia turned to look at Light funny. "...Piano?" they both asked in confusion.
"All the robots I built have musical themed names," Light explained. "And despite his size, he's very quiet."
While Octavia tilted her head in confusion, X chuckled. "Pianoforte, right?"(2)
"But shouldn't he be Pianissimo, then?" Octavia asked.
"Ruff," Piano disagreed immediately, his deep voice quietly booming.
"He's not that quiet," Light explained. "Also, he's the size of one, practically." He smiled as X and Octavia laughed at that. "But for now, both of you...step into this capsule and receive a new surprise."
As the hologram vanished, X and Octavia stepped into the capsule, only for Piano to try and crowd in with them, much to their laughing amusement. Eventually, they got him to sit outside the capsule while they received the upgrade.
As the capsule finished the upgrade, their busters glowed. Varia beeped. "Shoryuken online."
X and Octavia turned to each other with a wide grin. They realized what this was.
As they dropped back downwards, Piano came with them. "So...what abilities does he currently have?" Octavia asked.
X checked his status screen for what commands Piano currently knew. "Let's see...Piano Fight...Piano Tank...Piano Spike." He shrugged. "The first is pretty self explanatory...but what about the others?"
Octavia turned to the large canine robot. "Piano, what's Piano Tank?"
Smiling, Piano lifted his head, revealing that the keg hanging around his neck was actually a Sub Tank that held nearly 10 times what the current Sub Tanks held, and was designed to readapt to X and Octavia's armor energy over time for volume.
"Nice!" X proclaimed happily. "And...Piano Spike?"
"Ruff!" Walking forward to a spike pit, Piano leapt in. His thick fur slipped between the spikes, filling in the gaps and allowing him to walk across them without harm. He looked over his shoulder, gesturing to his back with his nose. "Ruff!"
Nodding, X hopped onto Piano's back, riding him across as Octavia hopped onto X's shoulders.
Crossing the spike pit, the trio made it to the boss chamber, where Agile was waiting for them, now inside a horizontal cylinder that obviously held some sort of weapons. "And now, you shall fall before me-OW!" he yelled as X shot at him. "Can't I at least finish my monologue?"
"Shoryuken," Octavia replied easily.
"Gee, thanks," Agile said happily. "You're a nice po-"
Agile said no more as Octavia's Shoryuken tore him in half.
X gave Octavia a 'look' as she came down.
"...I thought it was funny," she pouted.
"Ruff!" Piano agreed.
(1) An alternative way to get to the capsule shown in the playthrough videos I'm using for writing research. Seen here.
(2) The piano was originally called a pianoforte, as the first string instrument that could be played quietly (piano) or loudly (forte).
well I guess Rock Megaman is dead if Rush refused to activate
SHORYUKEN!
Exactly how many TFS references are you gonna put in this?
its official dr light is a fan of street fighter but can he make the ultimate attack the RAGING DEMON
That TeamFourStar reference
Saint Bernards are cute. The movie Beethoven and its sequel were funny.
6608028
I don't mean to include anymore, but "Shoryuken" was just too perfect.
6608011 Poor Rush, I wonder if they ever saved Rock's mind on a disk somewhere...he is a robot after all.
A very enjoyable chapter. Great job.
Huh. So your basing it on that Megaman... Interesting. Though, if you had Vinyl in the room when it happens, I am going to be annoyed.
...
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Eh, they were just kind of "there" in the game, so it's not like it mattered anyway. I'm just surprised they could actually get the thing to work... and in one shot (Don't question it Don't question it Don't question it...)
6608038 I didn't clock the joke at first... Then I fell over laughing. It caught me off guard.
Did Vinyl and Wily do the impossible? Did they finally kill Mega Man? THE PLAYER CHARACTER?
I expect this to be expanded upon Tatsurou.
Except I'm pretty sure other instruments like horns, strings and woodwinds could do it first.
First "keyed" instrument maybe, not first instrument.
6608177
My mistake. First string instrument. Fixed.
Shoryuken.
That was just perfect.
No seriously, it was.
If I could give you another like, I would.
6608029 no. he cannot.
Kikosho however...
6608068 Not sure if they would want to after all the mental scarring he'll have.
"Can I finish my monologue?"
"Shoryuken."
"Ah gee, thanks. You're a nice--"
Great use of a DBZ Abridged reference.
You just made my morning a helluva lot better. And I just had my coffee. Cheers.
Anyone who didn't immediately use the Shoryuken on Agile missed one of the best set ups. And I'm ashamed Tatsuro, you have a giant Saint Bernard who needs a musical name and you don't use this: ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTIxOTUxMTY5M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzI2NDAyMQ@@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg Still, great abilities for him, can't wait to see more of him in action. The Shoryuken joke was great, really cheered me up in the middle of a sucky day at work.
6610024
I'm assuming that picture link that isn't working references the movie "Beethoven". However, all of Light's robots have names based in types of music or music terms. Not musical figures.
6610040 yeah, it was referencing that. But your explanation makes sense. I can totally picture X realizing he has to clean his new dog at some point though and groaning.
6608263 Don't mind me, I'm just an uppity former brass musician.
6608028 Do you know how many words in all the fanfics you've read in your life?
I really, REALLY hate using this term, but that dog, while badass, seems overpowered as all hell. The adapting as they do isn't bad, but Piano Tank holds over 2x what ALL their current subtanks COMBINED can, and that's assuming its just able to hold 10x what a single subtank can. (It wasn't 100% clear if it held 10x what ALL their subtanks do, or 10x what a single subtank does.) Even saying a single subtank only gives a full heal to X OR Octavia, not both, Piano is still more than twice as efficient. He could fully heal both X and Octavia 5 times, where the normal 4 subtanks would only be able to do that 2 times. If a single subtank can fully heal both X and Octavia... That's 10 full heals for Piano where the normal subtanks can only do 4.
I get that Piano is super awesome, and he NEEDS to be super awesome to match with Classic. But as it stands unless they suddenly lose all ability to use standard subtanks, the duo currently has the ability to fully heal themselves SEVEN or FOURTEEN (depending if a single subtank fully heals one or both) times every mission. That's not X4's Ultimate Armor levels of broken op, but pretty damn close. As it stands there isn't a single boss (in X2) remaining that can even pose a threat to the pair right now. Nothing can do remotely close to enough damage fast enough to overcome that kind of healing ability before they could blow it up. For those not familiar with X4, one of my personal favorite X games, the Ultimate Armor was given only by using a certain cheat code at the start of the game when playing as X. It gave the dashing power, enhanced buster, and reduced damage from his other armors, as well as INFINITE USAGE of his Giga Attack. Said move also lasted longer, thus gave him even greater dashing range/more invincibility frames, and could kill pretty much any boss in the game in 3 uses, TOPS.
Even losing the ability to use standard subtanks would still leave them with over twice the healing what they normally get. With both Piano and normal subtanks, they have nearly four times the healing power that normal subtanks alone can offer. And Piano Tank evolves as time goes on, just like they do. This means they will start every new mission (game) with over twice the healing power that they should have at the end of the mission (game) Normally they would start off with ZERO healing ability. (No game starts off with any subtanks) That's pretty dang crazy.
Edit: I would like to note I LIKED watching Sigma get nuked all to hell by the pair with Hadoken. Them being unstoppable badasses at the end of every mission (game) is fun as all hell. Because by that point X usually DOES feel like an unstoppable badass. (and Zero even more so in the later games) But Piano Tank just comes off as "Fuck your damage, we got potions." at the very start of everything. With eight more missions (games) left, they really shouldn't be able to do that so soon.
6613254
Piano Heal, while being a Sub Tank in design, does not function like Sub Tanks. It functions more like "Rush ?", where Rush would beam in, toss out a random item, and beam back out. While it can hold that much, X still only has one special weapons bar worth of energy to draw from it, as well as Piano's other abilities.
While writing wise, I have Piano and Classic stick around for the whole stage, gameplay wise they would be called in like Rush or Treble from the Mega Man games. That's the balance.
Also, unlike sub tanks, Piano's keg does not refill, except between games.
As for the total volume, it's equivalent to the maximum sub tank energy you have available in Command Mission, which was the basis for the amount.
6613263
That alone is good enough for me. Objection withdrawn.
DOGGIE!
Y'know... Reading THIS story and the other Mega Man story got me thinking, and I was just about to suggest trying this concept with the Battle Network universe, seeing as that's my favorite Megaman series...
But... Then I realized that such a thing would be rather... difficult to pull off. After all, not only do the events of that series take place over roughly just a couple of years, but most of the major action takes place in the Cyberworld as well.
HOWEVER.
Knowing you, you'd find a way to pull it off...
And if you could pull it off? Well... I'd certainly read that fic. This is just a suggestion for the future, however. You don't HAVE to do it if you don't want. I know not everyone likes the Battle Network series a whole lot. Still, if you'd consider it for the future, that'd be nice.
Still, for now? Just keep on doing what you like. I've loved everything you've made thus far, and I'm eager to see what's next.
6619866
Actually, I do have an idea for how I could pull it off. A rather intriguing idea, that would step around a lot of issues about the timeline.
The only question is what pony would I use?
6619976 Well, let's see. Who have you already used? You've used all of the Mane 6, Spike, Trixie, Cadence, Shining Armor, Octavia, VInyl, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis... I THINK that's all.
That still leaves quite a few... Luna, the CMC, Babs, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Lyra, Bon Bon, Zecora, Gilda, Cheerilee... Yeesh, that's a lot of options, and that's not even all of them!
Actually... Why not Lyra? Not only is she another musical mare like Octavia and Vinyl for the other Megaman universe, but you could have her prepare for Bon Bon in Starforce just like you did with Vinyl preparing things for Octavia.
6620732
Luna's a part of the NMM story.
CMC, Gilda, and Cheerilee are already slotted.
Lyra and Bon Bon fail the criteria for use. (Their canon personalities have been demonstrated in only one episode, and I don't really like said personalities. Two of four criteria failed, and to be usable they have to meet three.)
I can't write Zecora over the course of a whole story.
So from what you listed, that leaves Babs, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon...and I'm not sure how the story would go with one of them.
Can you lose to me in a rap battle shoryuken!
6622411
You have proven that you are the best, you have Hadoukened a giant hole in my chest
6608011
Maybe he got 'fixed' in a battle? But yeah, you're probably right.
Do they get a cat next?
Who's idea was this?
A crossover fanfic with MLP that I can actually stomach...I actually find funny and joy to read.
I hate MLP X-overs yet I'm still reading this, congrats!
And Shoryuken on Agil was just too funny.
7883965 check out his other work, all of them hit the featured box within minutes of a new posting.
Now I want Dragon Ball Zeeeeyup! to feature this in some way....you know along with DODGE!
I feel like chucking Tavi is the answer for most instances where things are out of reach. Though he did find another route this time.
So did I, Tavi, don't worry.
6621258
Wait a sec— Cheerilee was slotted? Guessing that one fell by the wayside?
And yeah, I can absolutely understand why you wouldn't want to do a long-term Zecora story.
10951025
That one became "Dressed To Steal" using Coco Pommel instead.
10951654
Ah, gotcha. Haven't gotten to that one yet. Might be a bit since I know nothing about Sly Cooper.
Hahaha 😂😄😂😆 Aieeeeee
Did she...huh?!?
piano appears, and gotta say love the idea of a fluffy robot dog