Once Sigma officially went Maverick, the level of Maverick activity skyrocketed. With his ability to remotely influence the positronic brains of other reploids, many were rapidly turned to his side. The first of the Maverick Hunters to be turned was Vile, who was already almost Maverick even before Sigma's rebellion. Several other Hunters also went Maverick, mostly those whose forms were based in animals. Although nearly all Hunters were somewhat affected by Sigma's abilities, most were resistant enough to it that they remained stable long enough for Lifesaver to design a countermeasure. Oddly, X, Zero, and CiCi were all completely immune to the influence.
Dr. Cain struggled to help however he could, but age had taken its toll on him, and life extension only went so far, even with as advanced as Reploid science had made it. As a result, Dr. Ciel had taken over his duties, guiding Maverick Hunter HQ and acting as liason between it and human authorities, as well as a scientific adviser.
With the war coming to a head, orders were sent down. The Hunters could not fight a protracted war against the armies of Maverick mechanaloids being sent against them. Hunters had to be sent to take out the leadership...their own former comrades. X, Zero, and Octavia were assigned this mission: X and Zero as they were the only ones who could face Sigma directly without succumbing to his mental influence; and Octavia because her presence had helped several Hunters resist Sigma's influence, and it was theorized she might be able to help some of the former Hunters break free.
However, while several former Hunters had taken over various locations, one was far more dangerous than any other, and was selected to be the first target.
And so, with Zero as backup, X and Octavia were dispatched to the highway to capture Vile.
As X and Octavia beamed down to the highway, Octavia staggered a bit. "Oogh..." she grunted. "That felt weird..."
"Yeah," X agreed. "The first teleport is always the hardest. Take a few moments to get your legs back, and then we need to get moving."
Nodding, Octavia stabilized herself, closing her eyes and taking a few relaxing breaths. "...let's go," she said at last.
Several motor vehicles moved past them as they advanced, but they paid them no mind except to avoid them. The first Maverick Mechanaloids came after them then, a Spiky - a wheel with spikes and a face - and a Gun Volt - a blue spheroid unit on legs that fired electricity and missiles. The Spiky was easily dealt with by a charge shot from X, and two charge shots in quick succession from Octavia - one from each forehoof buster - finished off the Gun Volt before it could get a shot off.
The gaps they had to clear posed little difficulty for either of them. While Octavia couldn't normally jump as high as X, the busters in her hind hooves provided lift when fired against the ground to give her height equivalent to what X could do. The Crushers that came next - yellow helicopter pods with spiked drop bottoms to crush what was beneath them - proved no more difficult than the Spiky, save having to jump to shoot. X and Octavia made sure to take turns shooting, seeing to it that each of them always had a charged shot ready to fire off.
At an empty stretch of highway, a Bee Blader - a Bee shaped dropship, the same sort that had delivered X to the giant Mechanaloid battle at the start of the sequence of events now known historically as the Day of Sigma - dropped down and opened fire on them, as well as dropping Deerballs - metal spheres with eyes that unrolled long legs to walk at them.
As X shot at the Deerballs, Octavia expended her charge shots to damage the Bee Blader's optics. She then ran forward and leapt onto the front of the gunship, where its optics could no longer see her.
"What are you doing?" X shouted out worriedly.
Frowning in intense concentration, Octavia crawled up the outside of the Blader to under the propellers, wriggling along on her belly to keep from being cut. To X's surprise, the color of her crystalline armor changed to green and pale purple. Holding one buster out, it extended an energy blade which she used to sever the propeller's connection to the gunship, causing it to crash through that section of highway.(1)
As X and Octavia triangle kicked back up the highway support pillar, X glanced at Octavia. "What was that?" he demanded.
"When Sigma impaled you with his beam saber, it was enough to analyze it as weapon data," Octavia explained as she withdrew the beam and switched back to ehr primary weapon. "While your systems were too damaged to upload it as a subweapon, Varia managed a complete download. It doesn't have much in the way of weapon energy, since it's costly to sustain a blade...but it's enough for a few good uses(2)."
X nodded. "Maybe we should see about getting you a Beam Saber to use later."
The pair set their conversation aside for later as they continued further down the highway. They encountered a few Deerballs, followed by another Bee Blader, which they dealt with in the same way. Beyond that, the highway's structural integrity became too low for X to walk across without crumbling, so Octavia took point. She was light enough - even with Varia - that she didn't make the ground crumble. She dealt with the Spikys and the bee shaped flying mechanaloids that dropped bombs at them.
"What are those called again?" Octavia asked, pointing at them.
"Bomb Beens," X replied.
"...how original," Octavia quipped.
While X was caught off guard by the sudden arrivals of the Jammingers - brightly colored spheroid propeller bots with downward pointed spikes - Octavia was able to fire a charged shot at an upward angle to keep them from actually making contact.
"How did you do that?" X asked in shock.
"Do...what?" Octavia questioned.
"Shoot at an angle!" X explained.
Octavia stared at him. "Just...point your buster upward."
"...amazing..." X breathed, making Octavia facehoof.(3)
As they continued, they encountered Road Attackers, one of the many upgraded versions of Sniper Joe units uncovered in excavations of pre-End Times, this one designed to utilize a massive gun mounted on the front of a red car. While X leveled his blaster, Octavia leapt onto the top of the blaster and threw the Attacker out of the car. X blasted it, then hopped into the driver's seat.
"But I want to drive!" Octavia pouted.
"You don't have a license, and you can't reach the pedals," X pointed out. "Besides, you get to mare the cannon." He blinked, confused by his choice of words. He'd meant to say 'man'...
He was distracted from these musings as Octavia grinned happily, seizing the gun controls.
Driving along, X and Octavia tore their way through several more Road Attackers, along with several that dropped out of an airship. Finally, Vile himself jumped out of the carrier, in a blue ride armor - a large humanoid mech unit. "So, X, you still come against-"
"Bail out!" X shouted, leaping out of the vehicle as he set it to ram into Vile's Ride Armor, bouncing upward at the last moment.
Vile smashed the car aside with the Ride Armor...but didn't notice Octavia leaping from the vehicle at the last moment to cling to the back of the Ride Armor. "Really? Trying to run me down? I thought you were supposed to take me alive?"
"No, I'm just supposed to get answers from you," X countered. "Alive if possible, but we can scan your brain just as easily as long as your head's intact."
"Rather brutal of you, X," Vile mused. "Sigma thought you were better than that. But it turns out you're no different from any of us!" He laughed. "We are battle machines, X! Designed to kill and destroy as surely as this Ride Armor! We are living weapons!"
"So, can you fire that big gun on your shoulder while riding around in this?" Octavia asked, stepping up onto the shoulder pauldron of the Armor.
Vile turned to stare at her. "Umm...not easily..."
"And the design of these joints prevent you from using them to reach up into the cockpit, right?"
"Yeah..."
"So what's to stop me from firing a fully charged shot into the controls and turning this Ride Armor into so much scrap?" Octavia asked, before testing her words.
With the controls fried, the Ride Armor collapsed, and Vile was forced to bail out. "That won't stop me!" he snarled. "I'm stronger than either of you, or the two of you put together-" He was forced to duck as a blue energy blast nearly clipped him.
"How about the three of us?" Zero asked, dashing onto the scene.
Snarling, Vile leapt upwards into the airship. "Catch me if you can, Hunters!" he shouted.
X desperately tried to shoot the ship down, but it was too heavily armored. "Dammit!" X snapped. "He got away."
"Don't beat yourself up, X," Zero told him. "You did good for your first time going up against a former Hunter. Vile's one tough cookie. You and Tavi make a good team." He smirked down at Octavia. "And nice thinking frying the Ride Armor's controls. Its armor was too strong for the current power level of your Busters, so that was the only way you could have taken it down."
Octavia blushed in pleasure at the praise. "Thank you, Uncle Zero."
"Come on," X interrupted. "Let's get back to base and file our report."
Nodding in agreement, the trio teleported out.
(1) Like how Zero deals with the Bee Blader in the intro of X3.
(2) This part was inspired by a scene in one of my favorite Mega Man themed sprite comics. In it, Mega Man fought Zero, and was able to copy his beam saber as a Master Weapon.
(3) Seriously, how hard is that to program into the games? The only player characters in the entire Mega Man and X franchise who manage it ever are Bass and Axl.
Yeah, not being able to angle the buster is why I don't use X much in X8, except for 100% completion purposes.
I think this should fit in this chapter.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
YAY, FATHER DAUGHTER BONDING ROAD TRIP!!! I highly recommend they salvage one of these for cruising around between missions.
Oh gods, I've wanted to destroy that ride armor so many times when playing the first game. Even on the PC version I have that lets you use a cheat on the first level to get all the upgrades... YOU CAN'T!!!
Nice chapter, good team work between X and Tavi, but can Tavi do a beam saber from each hoof as a Death from Above leap attack????
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She can, but it drains serious weapon energy.
You know how fast using Flame Mammoth's weapon drains the weapon energy? That's how fast it drains the weapon energy just to have the beam saber out, double that while swinging. That's the cost for every hoof that uses a beam saber. (Yes, since her hind hooves currently have busters in them as well, she can do all four hooves.)
6382876 Makes sense, but that's why it would be a finishing move or opening attack to disable something like Vile's Ride Armor or take out a wing from a flying Maverick so the rest of the fight goes more easily. And Weapon Energy Tanks came around in X4, Varia could build the prototype for that.
6382655 not even Broken Armor X?
(Broken Armor is what i call the I-Head, I-Buster, I-Foot and H-Body config for the neutral armor. Or the Ultimate Armor if thats unlocked.)
structural integrity became to low for X to walk
1. Too.
Yeah, those angle shots... If X were to meet Samus, he'd be in full amazement from the kind of angle shots she can do.
If this story takes place after Wily's Wittle Wub, then will it be possible to find guts man's messages from his freak-out weapon mode? I don't see why anyone at the time would go back and repair / destroy an entire cliff face. Not when it could be covered with a building or billboard that would be old or gone by now. I would like to hear what happens if someone(or pony) rediscovers one of them.
Wait... so you just point the buster gun upward... and fire?
What sort of madness is this?!
Which comic? I wanna say Bob and George but I'm not sure and I really don't wanna go looking through their archives to check.
Cue Maverick Hunter X's Central Highway music (as in, one of the most badass gaming tracks of all time).
Well, X COULD aim in X7...but X7 sucked. Not that he needed it for X8 anyway, his fully charged shot takes up half the damn screen.
Damn it! I forgot to favorite this no wonder I wasn't getting updates about it.
A Megaman X story?! You sir are my hero. Now to actually read it...
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"The Other Side", actually.
It can be found here.
Fair warning. It's very non-canon.
So, today I learned that "Following" someone means pretty much nothing because I didn't get a bloody alert or e-mail sayin' "HEY YOU, TATS HAS A NEW STORY OUT. READ IT." Now I have to bite someone's face off, like a big ol' cookie.orig14.deviantart.net/4887/f/2012/235/3/9/fidget_cookie_by_teaselbone-d5c7dro.jpg
(3) ...maybe he has a glich that prevents him from doing it?
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Megaman has to brace when firing the Buster, if you actually watch him firing in one of the games. ESPECIALLY if he charges it. It's entirely possible in order for him to fire, his chasis locks the arm on level. Such an idea might have been intended as a safety feature by Doctor Light. Or hell, maybe his circuitry when he fires (he's shooting pure energy for goodness sakes) has to be aligned and protected, insulating the cannon's power line against outside damage. I mean he's made of metal, that much power escaping into his body could concievably blow him apart.
sometimes... i worry about X
Hey! Someone else who reads that comic! Awesome!
I also really enjoy MS Paint Masterpieces.
EDIT: well and a few others, but I am not at my home computer to look up there exact titles. I know one is Stardroids though.
Beautiful And I totally agree. That's one of the reasons I like Bass more than Megaman, as with Axl.
6393043 Nice headcanon.
Makes sense and technically could be true.
6382736 You sure you can't? I know that on the SNES version I got it flashing critical damage once. The hard part was avoiding that damn paralyzing attack. He can also actually kill you if you are avoiding it.
Mega Man 2 Metal Blades were both cheap fuel wise, quite powerful in their own right, and also let Rock fire in all 8 directions. Clearly, Wily was the undisputed King of weapon design of his day. Even if some of his Robot Masters were of... questionable quality.
Let's all say it together now... Jump n' shoot!
I don't remember X too clearly since the last time I played it was way back when, but I'm pretty sure he didn't have the ability to duck and shoot. By that logic, he would be rather vulnerable to anything below shoulder height as well.
Siri, go to Amazon and buy me some roombas and laser guns, then call Sigma. I've got a pitch to deliver!
Doesn't matter X, too bad he doesn't get to meet Rock, his older brother.
8652011
Ya it is. Tho if he survived he'd have gone with vynal to Equestria anyways.
Reminds me of
https://ytcropper.com/cropped/i75ae2c37d5dc21
To (3) : control problems. Original consoles had very restricted ways to poll the state of buttons, plus that kind of dynamics is viable mostly for twin sticks setup
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Super Metroid managed it. Just assign one shoulder button to 'put buster at angle'.
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Better response: level design. Such an ability requires a very different layout of enemies to be the proper challenge level. Bass gets a pass due to being a "secondary" playstyle, and thus some misalignment is expected. I guess they only tried a "main" playstyle the one time, and probably decided it wasn't as good a product.
Vile actually can shoot his shoulder gun in the ride armor. It’s how you get captured for the initial cutscene intro for Zero. Fun fact if you are good enough at dodging the shoulder canon it is actually possible to die against Vile.
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Fidget is freaking adorable, I wonder if there are any crossovers with Dust on here?
Do you happen to remember what that comic’s name was or if it’s still around?
so it begins, still quite the fun read even after 5 other goes at it.