The Return of an Old Friend

[Gankutsuou]

Months ago on the old board, some of you may have read my story A New MegaMan, which I have no idea if anyone liked it or not.

Regardless, I've been slowly working on a new one for the past 2 months, and is a sequel to the previous one, and I plan on making one more that could be connected to the MegaMan Zero series.

Anyway, if you read it, I hope you enjoy it. ALso, please let me know if there are any sections I should alter a bit as there were parts (like the ending) that I rewrote multiple times, but it

The Return of an Old Friend

Nine months have past since X and ProtoMan destroyed Bass and his most of his minions. They also managed to retrieve the missing body of the original MegaMan, which has been placed in a chamber in the main headquarters so it will be safe, and to be used as a symbol of freedom. Since then, X and ProtoMan have continuously set out to free the rest of the world from the remainder of Bass’ troops and surviving Mavericks. In the process, four new robots were recovered and activated, all placed under X’s command. They are Ariel, a top archer, Fist, the strongest of the four, Soldat, an expert sniper, and Sparx, a quick swordsman.

"So what are we looking for X?" asked Sparx.

X looked at him and said, "We were tipped off by someone that there were a few survivors here, but they were trapped here by drones."

"Ah," replied Sparx in a snotty tone, "I hope we find something soon, I’m looking to slice and dice a few things."

"Do you always have to show off Sparx?" asked Ariel. "We are here to save people. That is what you, we, were created for. To serve and protect the good from harm."

Sparx stared at her and laughed. "HA! The greatest thing about being a hero is all the glory you gain from it. Right, Soldat?"
Soldat looked at Sparx briefly in disgust and walked away from him when he stumbled across a glass floor in the midst of some rubble.

"X, OVER HERE!" he shouted.

X and the others dashed toward Soldat’s position to examine what he found. Soldat used his visor to examine the glass for unknown substances that may cause harm to machines, but there was none. He looked at X, who then nodded his head and Soldat used his arm cannon to remove the glass while Fist grabbed it before it fell to the ground. They quietly placed the glass beside them and Ariel shot a hook rope to the rocks above them so the five warriors could climb down without making too much noise.

They climbed down the rope and landed on the ground quickly and quietly, but the room was so dark that nothing could be seen within it. Sparx scanned the area with his visor but he still could not see anything. X turned on his helmet’s light to look around before he had the others turn on theirs. Their weapons were ready for the moment an enemy appeared, but there was nothing. The room was filled with junk, old robotic pieces, and oil spills. It looked as if the room had not been used in ages.

"See anything?" asked a confused Fist.

Ariel glanced at him and said, "Nothing on my side either."
The five bots spread into different sections of the room until Sparx noticed a control panel against the wall on his right. He stepped up to the panel and slowly moved his arm in its direction.

X turned around and saw what he was about to do and screamed, "STOP!!"

Unfortunately, it was too late to stop Sparx as his curiosity had already pulled the lever. Lights flickered as the sounds of machinery thundered throughout the once silent hall. X and the others looked around them as the light in the room came on and they realized they were inside an old factory. Everything appeared to be quiet until the floor split open and walls dropped down from the ceiling. Everyone tried to stay together, but walls dropped down on them, trapping each group into confined spaces. It was X and Fist, Ariel and Soldat, and finally Sparx, who was on his own. Each team tried to blast or cut through the walls in front of them without success. Shortly a door opened up to the opposite corner, but no one knew what horrors awaited them. Suddenly, Swordys appeared with flaming swords and set the oil in each quarters on fire to force everyone out of their rooms.
The fire spread quickly in each room and caused a wall of flames to burst into the long narrow hallways the heroes were stuck in. X and Fist ran as fast as they could to get to the end of the hallway, while Soldat fired a freeze missile and Ariel used one of her water arrows to put out the flames. Sparx on the other hand attempted to block the inferno without success. He was cast down the hallway like a canoe in a raging rapid. His body was damaged and a little cooked, but he still got up because he enjoyed the thrill of what just happened.

"Too bad no one else was around to see me take on that fire like nothing," he said as he grinned with a pompous expression.
As he turned his head to look at the inferno in the hallway, he noticed a shadowy figure standing in the flames. The figure got bigger and bigger until it emerged from the fire.

The figure looked at Sparx with a mean stare and yelled, "I am FireMan, and I will wipe that arrogant smirk right off your face!"
He raised his arms and launched a flaming attack toward Sparx, who was unprepared and was knocked in to the wall behind him. He got up, dodged another attack, and then he jumped in to the air to perform a flying kick and hit FireMan in the chest. He shouted with joy until FireMan got up and dashed toward Sparx.
In the mean time, Soldat and Ariel snuck around the surrounding area, but they could not find anything. They walked in to the factory’s control room and saw that millions of robots being built. It was as if the owner of the factory was going to start a bigger war than the one that has transpired between the Mavericks and Reploids.

"What is all this?" Ariel asked with a confused tone in her voice.
Soldat looked at her and said, "I do not know. Why are all these here? Who even owns this place? And why would they want to start a war, if that is what it was for?"

"It would have to be for a war," replied Ariel. "I just do not see all these machines having individual personalities. There are thousands of them. No to mention their designs are identical."
They looked at their environment once again when they heard gun fire coming from underneath them. X fired a charged shot at a few Mettaurs while Fist pounded on a few Swordys. After a minutes rest, a huge fan in the tunnel began blowing huge gusts of wind, so strong, that it knocked the two machines off their feet. Fist drove his fists into the ground hard enough so he would not blow away and slow made his way to the fan. He smashed the fan to pieces the moment he reached it and scattered the remains all over the tunnel.

"Thanks," said X as he stood up.
Fist smiled at him and said, "Not a problem. Smashing things is my hobby."

The two laughed before they continued their search for the exit in the long, narrow, and dusty tunnels. They ran through a countless amount of tunnels before entering a round room, which looked like a rich man just lived there recently. The wallpaper was clean without any imperfections noticeable from a distance; there were chairs, tables, a desk, and a couch in it. There were thirteen computers lined up next to each other in three rows with a control panel underneath them. X walked up to it and realized it was a security system and the cameras showed the interior of the entire facility. He looked through each one, changing their channels until he saw Ariel and Soldat in one of the rooms, next to millions of inactive drones. He continued to search the channels to see if he could find Sparx, but he could not. He found a map that showed what area Sparx would have been in after their separation, but all that could be scene was a room on fire.

"WE HAVE TO GET SOLDAT AND ARIEL!" X shouted. "Who knows when those drones could activate?"

The room started to shake and the floor split open revealing a giant fan. All of the furniture inside the room was destroyed as soon as it fell into the fan’s large blades. Fist looked at it and realized he was not going to be able to destroy this one as easily as the last. The ceiling opened up and another fan activated to help push everything into the fan in the ground. The computers and control panel slid into the wall behind them before it closed up, leaving X and Fist the only things left inside of the room to be destroyed by the powerful fan.

"WE…MUST STOP…THIS OR WE’LL…BE DESTROYED!" shouted X with a horrified, yet determined look on his face.

"ANY IDEAS?" asked Fist as he punched into the ground again to keep him and X from flying into the fan.

X looked around the room for anything useful at all until he noticed a crack in the ceiling by the fan. He charged up his buster as long as he could and fired at the crack. The room lit up as the shot hit the wall, the ceiling crumbled to pieces, and the fan crashed into the fan below it, destroying it as well.

Like earlier, X and Fist took a breather when a being floated down from the hole in the ceiling. He was tall, turquoise, and his body had turbines on his shoulders.

"Welcome to my death trap X." he said. "I am WindMan."

"WindMan? Another one of Bass’ leftovers huh?" replied X.

WindMan looked at him and laughed. "Oh please, I am not like the other lackeys. We are even stronger than the ones you fought before. Think of us as upgrades."

"Us?" asked Fist.

"Yes, but you will meet them at a later time, if you live that long that is."

Suddenly, his turbines shot a couple of small tornados at X and Fist, which had knocked the two off their feet. As usual, Fist got up and dashed at WindMan to beat the crap out of him, but WindMan launched a charged tornado attack, which sent Fist flying across the room into the wall behind him. X tried to shoot at WindMan, but he jumped into the air and kicked X’s face.

"Fist," X said, "We are going to come up with a better strategy than usual, this guy is strong because we cannot get close to him, and his attacks do not help matters."

WindMan stood in front of them and his turbines started to blow strong wind currents just as strong as the large fans had done so in the room and tunnel earlier. Fist grabbed hold of X while they thought up a strategy, but X could not think of anything at first because there was nothing around the room they could use to their advantage. Unable to withstand the strong winds, Fist realized there was one move they could use, and he swung X over his and tossed him behind WindMan. X shot WindMan in the back with a charged shot before he could react to what had just transpired.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed. "What the hell? You will pay for this MegaMan X!"

The interior of WindMan could be seen from the backside, with wires hanging out, and the second he got up, Fist gave him a nice fist in the face. Metallic pieces spread throughout the air as WindMan’s face had also been damaged thanks to Fist. X and Fist stood behind and in front of the damaged robot about ready to finish him off until he started laughing hysterically.

"You fool, you will never destroy us!"

In that instant he stood up as much as possible and backed away until he reach the hole in the floor and jumped off laughing. X’s eyes widened as he jumped beside the hole and saw nothing but darkness.

"Do you want me to go down there after him?’ asked Fist.
X looked at him with a smile on his face and said, "No, we’ll get him next time, thanks for the offer though. What worries me is his comment about us though. Who else is with him? How many renegades are left?"

Neither of them could figure out what was going on, but they had no choice but to continue their journey to find the others and destroy the factory.

II

A few hours passed when X and Fist finally found a way out of the tunnels. They had gone through an armada of drones such as Mettaurs and Swordys before they finally reached the end. X wondered why they were not attack by anymore of WindMan’s partners, but quickly through away the thought to concentrate on finding the others. He had hoped Soldat and Ariel were still in the factory’s control room, and the two set out to find out.

Meanwhile, somewhere in a dark room laughed FireMan and a few other machines.

One of them spoke with a metallic sound, "WindMan is currently going through repairs, but it will take at least a month before he is completely fixed. He took quite a bit of damage from both X and Fist. No matter though, by then our plan should be ready to commence."

"What about the others undergoing repairs?" asked FireMan.

"They will be fixed around the same time as WindMan, especially BurnerMan. He was nearly dismantled by X when we found him. Unlike some of the others though, he was able to be repaired."

"What about GutsMan, ProtoMan, and the rest of the Maverick Hunters? Can I have a shot at them?" asked SearchMan as he loaded up his gun.

The voice replied, "Not yet, I need you to stay here for just a little longer. If X and the others make it out of that factory alive, then you can go, otherwise, we need you’re here. We, the Darkloids, will not make the same mistake Bass did. If he had done things right, we never would have had to suffer such hard times with X’s return. In fact, X would never have been allowed to be rebuilt if I had been in charge."

MetalMan turned his chair around at the computer terminal and said, "My lord, an unknown asteroid is on its way here."

"WHAT!?" the voice shouted. "MetalMan, FireMan, I want you two to attack X and his buddies as soon as they meet up with each other! Oh yeah, and take R004-C with you."

Both FireMan and MetalMan bowed to their lord and left the room while SearchMan sat in MetalMan’s chair and smirked.

Back at the factory, Ariel and Soldat stood there wondering what they should do when suddenly they heard a loud crunching sound. The two soldiers turned around and crept up to where the noise came from when they heard Fist’s grunt.

The two had a joyous look in their eyes when they shouted, "X! Fist!"

"Where have you been?" asked Ariel, "We were worried about you? What about Sparx?"

X looked at them and said, "We’ve gone through hell, but I’ll inform on the situation in a moment. No sign of Sparx though. We were in a room with the factory’s security system and I could not find Sparx at all on the monitor. I hate to put it like this, but we may have to accept the fact that Sparx is dead."

Everyone looked down with sadness for a moment until X informed them of everything they know thus far. The factory’s main generator powered up the moment X finished briefing everyone about the events that had just transpired. Machines began to operate and caused loud echoes of machinery being burnt and built to spread throughout the entire complex. Once again, the silent halls were filled with the thundering sounds of metal. X and the others spun around continuously to try and figure out what is going on. They heard grinding noises coming from the hallways in front of them, so they once again split into two groups to search them.

Soldat activated the flashlight on this helmet and reloaded his gun while Fist prepared himself to attack anything that came their way. They slowly walked down the hallway until they came to a fork in the path. Both soldiers agreed it was best to check them out together, but faster to split up. Fist took the left path while Soldat took the right. Soldat could hear the sounds of a saw getting louder and louder. Fist’s path curved toward the right, and he could also hear a buzzing sound.

Meanwhile, X and Ariel searched through their end and entered a crematory where broken parts are recycled. They entered the hot room and the outer rim of the floor opened up to reveal a pit of lava encircling the room. The doors shut and a wall of flames shot toward them. X and Ariel jumped out of the way without a second to spare when they heard a laugh coming from the fire.

"Hahahaha, welcome friends, welcome to the room of death!" said the voice.

"Who are you?" asked Ariel.

"Impatient aren’t we?" the voice said. "I…am FireMan, chief operator of this facility, and you are trespassing."

"FireMan?" replied X. "I remember you. You were quite weak in your original form, what makes you different now?’

FireMan walked out of the blazing inferno and screamed. "HOW DARE YOU! I am nothing like my former self. My new EXE form is stronger than you; in fact, I am even stronger than that weakling WindMan. I am going to be the one to kill you X."

"Eh, very unlikely," said X in a sarcastic voice.

In that instant, FireMan fired at both X and Ariel with a flaming wall attack, but Ariel responded with a water attack and extinguished the oncoming flames. X launched a charged shot at FireMan, but he blocked it waving his flames around like a shield. FireMan laughed at him while Ariel tried to attack him while he was not looking, but FireMan turned around and shot his torches at her, knocking her unconscious. While he was distracted, X slid under him, tripped him to the ground, and then shot him. The fiery villain stood up with an angered look in his eyes and screamed as loud as possible. From that point on he continuously blasted out his attacks with a second thought of defense, which became his undoing as X jumped over him and kicked him in the head. FireMan was knocked toward the lava pit on the edge of the platform when he was kicked by the awakened Ariel, falling into the pit. He screamed as his body was melting in the hot molten lava while X and Ariel just stared at him.

"X…YOU CAN NOT…DO THIS TO M…ME! YOU ARRREE S…SU…SUPPOSED TO SAVE…THOSE IN…NEED. X…PLEEEEASE HEEEEEELP MEEEEEE…"

X looked down at FireMan and said, "Sorry, not this time."
In his last bit of strength, FireMan shouted, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!! WHAT KIND OF HERO ARE YOU!! I WILL BE BACK, I SWEAR IT!!"

From that point on, FireMan’s body sunk into the lava never to be seen again. X and Ariel looked at each other in relief when the doors opened up. The two machines jumped over the lava and went to find Soldat and Fist before anyone else could help them. As they ran through the hallway they heard a buzzing sound that sounded as if someone was cutting metal. Ariel froze for a minute to listen to it, but X jumped at her and pushed her out of the way of an oncoming metal press.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," replied X, "but we have to help Soldat and Fist. I have a feeling that noise has to do with them."
Ariel nodded and the two got up to help their friends, who were indeed in trouble. Soldat shot his gun at a giant saw that spun towards him and reflected it back to its owner, MetalMan. MetalMan stood on top of a beam handing from the ceiling and laughed as he jumped down.

"Your weak shots are of no use to you," he said.

Soldat fired a missile, but MetalMan’s fist repelled it and it exploded, sending Soldat flying in to the wall. MetalMan laughed as he slowly crept up to Soldat until suddenly a huge fist smashed through the wall and knocked MetalMan on his behind.

"No one hurts my friend and partner!" shouted Fist as he walked through the hole in the wall.

"Eh…so it is you, foolish oaf. Do you know who you are messing with?" asked MetalMan.

Fist looked at Soldat to make sure he was okay, which he was, and then he ran toward MetalMan in anger. MetalMan slowly just stepped out of the way and tripped Fist with his foot and pulled off one of his blades and sliced Fist’s arms off at the elbows. He screamed in extreme pain and was kicked aside by MetalMan. Soldat stood up shaking and fired at MetalMan, but missed him by a few meters. MetalMan smirked and launched a few missiles at Soldat from his back, which blasted Soldat, rendering him unconscious.

"Hahahahaha…looks like you are no match for your maker either," MetalMan said.

MetalMan crept toward Soldat to finish him off when he was shot in the back from X’s buster. X recognized the saw wielding machine and knew that he must have been rebuilt stronger than before.

"So we meet again X," said MetalMan with a metallic coarse sounding voice.

X shot at him again, only this time he dodged the attacks and punched X in the face. "Damn it!" yelled X, "He is stronger this time."

Ariel appeared on the scene and kicked MetalMan in his face. MetalMan backed off and flipped a switch on the wall which reveal and unconscious Sparx.

"SPARX!!" Ariel screamed.

"Ah, so that is the name you have given him," MetalMan said as he laughed. "Poor Sparx here thought he could take on FireMan all by himself, but he sure did not last very long against him. FireMan is such a weakling, yet he still lost, making him an even bigger weakling. Then again, they all are…yet you still took them in. Friggin’ rejects!"

X and Ariel tried to figure out what he was talking about, but MetalMan punched the ground and caused the floor to split apart. Ariel lost her balance and fell inside the rift, but landed on top of something hard and round. She could barely see anything inside there, so she activated her helmet’s light to see her surroundings, and if there was a way out of there. Her eyes widened as she was in a room filled with the same robot bodies her and Soldat found earlier.

"What in the world is going on here? Why are there more of these?"

She looked around and found a disc sticking out of a computer, so she grabbed it to take it with her to the base and study it there. Ariel continued her search in this room that looked like a lab until she pressed a switch that opened up a storage capsule which contained a Reploid that looked just like her. The weapons, the armor, the colors, the height, weight, everything was identical to her. There was a plate on the capsule with the serial number R002-G on it.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" she shouted hysterically.

She turned around and saw a copy of Fist in a capsule with the number R001-D on it. Ariel began to freak out until she heard X getting pounded by MetalMan up above her and realized she had to help him. Before she left, she hacked in to the lab’s computer system and set the self destruction device to detonate in fifteen minutes.

MetalMan launched some missiles at X, but he was able to evade them and fired a charged shot at him. The two continued their fight when an alarm when off and said, "THIS FACILITY WILL DETONATE IN TWELVE MINUTES, PLEASE EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. I REPEAT, THIS FACILITY WILL DETONATE IN TWELVE MINUTES, ALL PERSONAL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

"WHAT?!" yelled the frustrated MetalMan.

One again MetalMan through his huge saws at X, except this time X jumped on to one of them and manipulated it into slicing MetalMan’s arm off. Soldat woke up and saw the injured MetalMan and X, so he raised his cannon and blew off MetalMan’s leg. MetalMan screamed and Ariel kicked him into the lab below through the rift in the floor.

"ARIEL, you are okay?" asked X.

"Yes, but we have to get out of here. I fell in to a lab beneath us and activated the self destruct system. I’ll get Fist and Soldat out of here, you get Sparx."

Ariel left with both Soldat and Fist leaning on her shoulders to find an exit, while X pressed the switch MetalMan used earlier to lower the chains and he freed Sparx from his bindings. He picked up the unconscious Reploid and headed towards whatever exit he could find. While X was looking for an exit, he ran into Ariel and she told him they have been unable to find one.

Suddenly, the computer’s voice came on again and said, "FIVE MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION, ALL PERSONAL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. I REPEAT, THIS FACILITY WILL DETONATE IN FIVE MINUTES, ALL PERSONAL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

Time was running thin, so Soldat lifted off of Ariel’s shoulder and fired a freeze missile at the wall. The missile froze the entire wall, and X used a charged shot to break the ice. To their surprise, a tunnel had already been dug through the ground leading to the service, so the duo ran out of the factory as fast as they could while carrying the injured ones. The group made it to the surface without a second to spare as the factory exploded just moments after they made it. Glass, rock, metal, and ash spread throughout the air like a raging snow storm.

"That was a close one wasn’t it?" asked Ariel.

X looked at her and said, "Yes, but we better get back to the base for repairs, especially Fist."

Ariel stared at the remains of the factory for a few minutes with a grief look until she was called by X. X asked her if something was wrong, but she said no and looked away from the factory as she caught up with the others.

III

It has been a few days since X and the others returned to the base with the aid of ProtoMan and his team, who spotted them thanks to the exploding factory. X, Ariel, and Soldat have been fully repaired, while Sparx is still unconscious, and Fist will take at least two weeks before he has recovered. Once they were ready, ProtoMan and Alia called X, Ariel, and Soldat for an emergency meeting to discuss some pressing matters on an oncoming asteroid.

ProtoMan looked at everyone and said, "We have a major crisis on our hands once again. The day you guys were in the factory, we traced an asteroid headed for Earth."

"WHAT?" shouted Soldat with a shocked look on his face.

"Yes, and it gets worse," replied Alia, "We are unable to determine how many days it will take to arrive in our atmosphere because it keeps changing its speed every time we get a lock on it. It is as if it knows we are trying to track it."
X looked at Ariel and asked, "Anything wrong?"
Ariel stayed in her awed position until X shouted her name. She glanced at him with a bleak look and said, "No, nothing is wrong, but this is unbelievable."

X’s brow rose in the air as if he was confused before ProtoMan and Alia continued their briefing.

After the meeting adjourned, X chased Ariel outside of the room and asked her why she was lying to him. She told him there was nothing wrong and ran away from him. Before leaving the room, ProtoMan took a glance at the original MegaMan’s body with sadness for his former enemy, friend, and most of all, brother. Suddenly, MegaMan’s eyes opened just seconds after the room was empty.

In the meantime, Ariel walked into Sparx’s room, who just woke up a few minutes ago.

"Hi," said Ariel with a smile on her face. "How are you feeling?"
Sparx looked at her and smirked, "I am just fine. All the damage done was just minimal. I want to kick that flamebot’s ass right now!"

"SPARX, DON’T EVEN JOKE LIKE THAT!" shouted Ariel. "We all thought you were not going to make it after all the damage you had sustained. Even ProtoMan is very pissed off at you."
Sparx’s smirk turned to a frown and he apologized for being so reckless. Ariel started to ask Sparx a question about if he had any memories of how he was built when the alarm went off. Sparx got up and ran to main computer room despite his injuries and Ariel’s plea.

‘WHAT’S THE SITUATION!" screamed Sparx as he ran into the room where the others were.

Everyone just looked at him and X asked, "Sparx, what are you doing here? You are still recovering from the last operation; go back to your quarters."

Ariel entered the room as Sparx began to speak. "X, I’m sorry about what happened last time, I will not be so foolish again…I promise."

"All right," said Alia, "Now that everyone is here, here is the situation." She showed them a map of the ACDC area and the spot that was currently under attack by an air ship. "This air ship just appeared out of no where, and we cannot figure out who is controlling it. There is a great chance it belongs to the bots that attacked you in the factory. Regardless, go out, find its weakness, and destroy it before it causes extreme damage. We have finally repaired the teleportation unit, so now we will be able to transfer you guys there in just a few minutes. Good luck."

X, Soldat, Sparx, Ariel, and a few soldiers headed towards the transporter as Alia readied the coordinates for them. ProtoMan on the other hand, stayed behind to help Alia do more research on the asteroid because there was something familiar about it.
At the same time, X and the others arrived at the ACDC area and were immediately assaulted with a barrage of missiles from the ship. A few soldiers were blown to pieces as Soldat locked his cannon on to the ship and fired a missile at it. The missile hit is directly, but there was no noticeable damage.

"DAMN IT!!" he yelled.

Ariel and X fired at the ship as well, but their attacks proved to be quite pointless. However, Sparx climbed to the top of one of the buildings near by and jumped onto the ship’s rear. Like always, the cocky Reploid smirked and drove his sword into the ship’s engine as far as he could. Within seconds the ship went haywire and flew around in circular patterns until it crashed. X and the others ran to the crashed ship to see if Sparx was okay, which he was.

"Sparx, I thought you promised not to do anything extreme!" the angered X said.

"Sorry, but I had no choice. Besides, it was not THAT extreme," replied Sparx as he started to laugh.

X could not help but laugh as well when something hit him in the back and he fell to the ground.

"XXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" screamed Ariel.

Everyone turned around to see what hit X, but there was nothing behind them. They searched the surrounding area, while covering X in order to protect him from anymore attacks.

"Do you see anyone?" asked Ariel.

Soldat looked at her in grief and said, "No, and nor am I able to find any unknown signatures with my visor. Something is not right here though, I can feel it."

They looked around some more until Soldat looked at the damage on X’s back and realized it was a wound that would have come from a rooftop.

"How do you know?" asked Sparx.

"Because, the damage seems like it would have been from the same type of cannon I have, or one nearly identical."

With that said, Ariel started to freak out as she thought about what Soldat just told them, the data she found on the disc, and the factory’s capsules. Sparx ran to her to help her while Soldat scanned the rooftops for an energy signature of where the shot would have come from. It took a minute, but he was able to locate the energy and its culprit. He shouted at Ariel to get a grip and launch an arrow at the roof he pointed out, which she did seconds afterwards. The arrow hit the roof’s wall and revealed the sniper, SearchMan.

"Well done. Well done indeed," said SearchMan as he leaped from the building. "I am SearchMan, your superior officer. Now, hand over X and I will let you live."

"HELL NO!" shouted Soldat.

"Fine, then I shall kill all of you before I kill X," replied SearchMan with a confident voice.

The battle began as Soldat fired at SearchMan, but it was reflected by SearchMan firing his own missile at it. SearchMan rolled out of the way of Ariel’s arrows she just launched, and then he blew up a couple of the soldiers. X woke up and could see the battle in front of his eyes, but he did not have the power to stand up immediately. He watched as SearchMan’s gun shot a missile that separated in to a dozen smaller missiles, and exploded at random. Both Ariel and Soldat were knocked to the ground, while the remaining soldiers were blown apart.

"Damn it!" Soldat thought. "Why is this guy so much trouble? It is as if he knew our movements before we made them…"

SearchMan smirked and laughed as Soldat lifted up, but their attention was diverted to X as they watched him struggle to stand up. SearchMan turned around to fire at X, but Ariel slide into him and knocked SearchMan on his behind. X finally stood up straight and prepared himself for battle.

"Heh, ready for battle I see," SearchMan said, still in a confident voice.

X just stood there and smirked while he charged up his X-Buster and fired at SearchMan, but SearchMan dove out of the way and launched a barrage of missiles and lasers as if he was a gun-wielding maniac. Missiles flew everywhere, as did explosions, ash, rubble, and Reploid body parts. The entire street was swallowed in smoke without anything being visible, even through a scanner.

As the smoke was clearing, ProtoMan and Alia lost track of the asteroid.

"WHAT!? WHERE DID IT GO?" shouted Alia, who was confused as hell.

As if things were not bad enough, the base’s alarms went off reading "Intruder Alert."

ProtoMan looked at the computer monitors, but saw nothing. "Control Room to Security, what is the current situation? I repeat, Control Room to Security, this is ProtoMan, please respond now."

A voice came over the intercom, "We are not sure what is going on. There are no intruders appearing at all on our scanners. Nor does it appear there is anything outside of the base. Wait…ProtoMan; we are transferring the image from Hallway C to you now."

ProtoMan and Alia looked at the monitor and saw something unbelievable, MegaMan was alive and walking. He turned around, waved to the camera, and shot it.

"MegaMan…how is this possible?" said ProtoMan. He called the Security Office again, "I need you to send me the recordings in the Conference Room."

The images came on the screen and sure enough, the unthinkable happened. MegaMan’s body was gone, and his capsule was open.

"How? We checked him, and found that he could no longer be reactivated. So how could he have just gotten up and walked away?"

"A ProtoMan," said Alia, "We have an even greater problem. That asteroid has appeared on the scanners again…only…it is right in our atmosphere…and heading right for the ACDC area."

"WHAT?" screamed ProtoMan in a loud and shocked tone. "Teleport me there right away!"

VI

The smoke that once filled up the streets of the ACDC area began to disperse and reveal the battle’s horrid nature. The streets were flooded with fire, ash, rubble, and the bodies of those who were unable to escape SearchMan’s attack. Three shadows were lying on the ground while two were standing next to each other. The three on the ground were Ariel, X, and Soldats, while the two standing up were SearchMan and Sparx.

The injured X stood up and saw Sparx’s huge grin of deception on his face. "Sparx…why?"

Sparx and SearchMan stood there laughing and SearchMan said, "See X, I told you it was inevitable to win. R004-C, I mean Sparx, belongs to us. We had to reprogram him thanks to the brainwashing your team on him, which is exactly what we did when FireMan beat him. Soldat, Ariel, you belong to us, so I shall give you two options. You can either come back to us, the Darkloids…or be destroyed with X. Which is it?"

Ariel stood up with a sorrowful look on her face because she realized that everything she found on the disc and saw in the lab brought her fears to fruition. She fell on the ground and screamed while Soldats and X lifted off the ground. SearchMan readied his cannon for a final blow when ProtoMan fell from the sky and sliced the side of his arm. Sparx smirked and dashed towards ProtoMan before he could finish off SearchMan and a wicked sword battle began. The two of them were evenly match, both clashing their swords together, and as night came about, the sparks from the swords lit the streets up as if it was already morning. The two chased each other into a building and continued up the stairs. Sparx jumped on to the next flight and destroyed the staircase beneath him to give him time to flee. ProtoMan grabbed a crack in the wall and leapt to the remaining stairs above him. The two continued their duel on the roof top; both of them seem to know each other’s moves as if they were the same being.

In the mean time, X and Soldat tended to Ariel as SearchMan repaired himself. Soldat noticed what SearchMan was doing and fired a couple of missiles at him, rendering him unconscious as he hit the rigid pavement.

"Ariel, what’s wrong?" asked X.

Ariel looked at both of them and said, "X, Soldat, I’m sorry. I’m very sorry." Her voice was filled with sorrow, "I should have told you earlier, about the factory, about the disc I found, about the…"
Suddenly, the sky’s color changed from a black and blue color to a red so bright, it looked like the sky was on fire. Everyone’s head turned toward the sky to see what was going on, and in that instant, ProtoMan took the opportunity to knocked Sparx off the building.

"Sorry Sparx, but we have more important matters to attend to." He jumped off the building and ran up to X the moment he landed. "X, everyone, listen…that is the asteroid. It disappeared off our scanners for a few minutes, and when it appeared, it was in our atmosphere."

"WHAT?!" shouted X.

"Yes," said ProtoMan, "Not only that, but MegaMan took off as well."

Everyone looked at ProtoMan in confusion, but there were bigger things to worry about, such as the asteroid. X and the others were about to start firing at it, even if their attacks would have been useless, but then it stopped. Soldat had an even bigger confused look on his face than he did before. He looked around him, as did X and ProtoMan.

"What is going on?" he asked.

Silence filled the air as Sparx and SearchMan woke up. The sky returned to its dark colors, but the asteroid remained frozen in time. SearchMan opened up his communicator and contacted the Darkloids’ base, but even his commander had no idea what was going on.

After a few minutes of nothingness, SearchMan decided to fire at the asteroid, and his missile set off a chain reaction of explosions over the giant rock. The sky rained rubble and SearchMan cheered that he destroyed the asteroid by himself, or so he though. The smoke dissipated and revealed a large metal object, which began to light up and transform. The Reploid’s eyes on both sides widened as the egg-shaped machine took a humanistic form. Arms formed out of the sides, one had three spikes on its shoulder, while the other was plain. Finally, a head formed on the mechanical titan, and ProtoMan recognized the familiar face.

"DUO!" he shouted. ProtoMan walked up to the machine and asked, "Duo, what are you doing here? I thought you were destroyed?"

Duo looked down at him and said, "The Duo you know no longer exists. I am here to destroy the inhabitants of this world for their crimes."

Everyone that heard Duo’s words looked at each other with a shocked face.

ProtoMan asked, "Why? Why do you want to destroy everything?
What crimes?"

"The crimes that have been committed on this planet for the past five years. This planet has become engulfed in evil energy, and my job is to eliminate all things evil. Not only that, but I do not sense the guardian’s energy signature. I sense one similar to him, and I can sense yours’ ProtoMan, but where is MegaMan?"

"Where is MegaMan?" thought ProtoMan. "Then who…"

"One more thing, there are four evil energy signatures right here, the two next to you, and the two behind me. There is too much evil to let loose." Duo’s eyes lit up and he said, "Let Operation: Destroy Earth commence."

The god-like machine let out an array of missiles over the surrounding area, which was once again flooded with fire and smoke.

"We must stop him, AT ALL COSTS!" yelled X.
Everyone agreed, including Sparx and SearchMan, and they all attacked Duo together. Duo looked down at them in anger and aimed his attacks for the six Reploids.

"Your attacks are useless against me, but if you wish to resist, then I shall kill you first."

The six machines attacked Duo continuously, but ProtoMan knew things would not go well. He took a gander at the distance between Duo and the closest building next to him, and took a leave from the battle for the moment. X charged up his buster and fired at Duo’s face, but his attack was powerless. Being as big of a show off as he always is, Sparx ran up to Duo, who just laughed and fired a laser beam out of chest and blew Sparx to pieces.

"Sppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppparx!!!" screamed Ariel.
Sparx’s remains flew across the ground and crashed into a rock that was sticking out of the ground. Soldat and Ariel starred at the fallen machine’s body with great horror. X turned around as he heard Ariel because to freak out and noticed that Sparx’s insides were identical to the inactive drones they saw being built in the factory.

Soldat’s eyes and mouth grew wide with shock. "What…what…what is this? He looks like…But how…" He began to freak out at the design as well, but Ariel knew more than he did, as did SearchMan.

Duo’s attacks stopped for a moment and SearchMan said, "Yes Soldat, I told you, you belong to us, the Darkloids. You were built for one purpose, and one purpose only, to destroy X and the others. You, R002-C, along with Sparx, R004-C, Ariel, R001-D, and Fist, R003-G. All of you were created by a good doctor who has dedicated his life to helping us. It is too bad the factory was destroyed, but no worry, you all will die soon. Plus we shall have vengeance for Lord Bass. The Darkloids will rule the world!"
With that sentence spoken, Duo turned his attention to SearchMan and launched his fists at him, which sent the Darkloid flying through the sky in pieces.

X had no words of relief for Soldat and Ariel, besides, what could he say to them? He looked up and saw ProtoMan on the rooftop above Duo. Before he could do anything, he heard Soldat’s loud and angry voice shrieking, "YOU BASTARD!! I WILL KILL YOU!!"

Duo’s face turned toward the running Soldat and once again fired a laser beam out of his chest that Soldat was unable to dodge and part of his right side was destroyed, including his arm cannon and lower part of his leg.

"Only one evil entity remains in this area…wait, two remain."
ProtoMan leapt off the rooftop and landed on Duo’s back before putting one of his swords into Duo’s body. Duo nudged in pain for a split second, but grabbed ProtoMan and threw him to the ground.

"ProtoMan, are you okay?" yelled X.

"Yes, I’m fine, just a little damaged, but fine. This guy must have a weakness, but where?"

X looked at him and smiled, "Way ahead of you, his weak spot is the center on his chest. Not sure if you noticed, but he seems to have to recharge his power every few minutes and his chest lights up. If we can get him to use up some energy for him to have to recharge, we can hurt him."

ProtoMan nodded in agreement, as did the tearful Ariel. They taunted Duo until he shot his fists at them, but X jumped on one of them while charging up his buster and fired at Duo’s chest when the colored changed and jumped off the returning fist. The shot hit his chest dead on, and Duo agonized in pain and shut down for a moment. Ariel fired one of her arrows at Duo, which also hit his chest, and put him in more pain until he was charged up.

Duo looked at the three and laughed, "Fools, you cannot stop the might that is Duo. I will carry out my mission, regardless of what friendship you and the old I may have had in the past. I will…MegaMan? No, you are not MegaMan, you have his look, but you are not him!"

X and ProtoMan turned around and saw MegaMan standing on top of a building.

MegaMan stood there with a cloak on and laughed non-stop. "Hello once again," MegaMan said with a psychotic tone in his voice, "How long has it been since you destroyed my body? Days? Months? Years? How long? I have been unable to keep track. All I know is that I felt it was time to come out of hiding. No, I am not Sigma. I told you once before, Sigma is no more and shall stay no more."

X’s and ProtoMan’s mouths dropped in disbelief as they realized who they were talking to.

"Bass?" replied X, "It can’t be, we destroyed you."

"YES, you did destroy me, but did you really think I would have taken any chances knowing full well that the scar on my chest weakened me? I took precautions and copied myself into the mind of MegaMan’s body because I had no way of knowing what would happen, and I knew no one would willing destroy MegaMan. I HAVE RETURNED! Duo, I have come for you."

Bass jumped towards Duo and evaded his fists, grabbed on to them, and then jumped on to Duo’s chest and placed his hand on it.

"YOUR BODY IS MINE!" he shouted.

Both Duo’s chest and Bass’ hand began to glow and a wave of energy flowed around the two beings. Suddenly, MegaMan’s body disintegrated as Duo’s body was covered in a red aura.

"Ah yes, I can feel his power, his body belongs to me," said Bass in Duo’s body. "Foolish Reploids, I shall kill you all."

After the aura disappeared, Duo’s and Bass’ voices were in synch with each other, but Bass was in control of the body’s movements. He looked down at X and the others and launched a barrage of attacks ranging from his missiles, fists, and chest cannon.

"Damn," shouted X, "Bass’ power allows him to have an unlimited amount of energy."

ProtoMan scanned him and noticed that his energy levels only appeared to be unlimited, but he was in fact, straining to keep his power at maximum levels. He turned towards Ariel and said, "Ariel, shoot his chest when I count to three, X, fire a charged shot two seconds after Ariel shoots her arrow. Ready? One…Two…Three."

Ariel launched her arrow, which Bass destroyed, but he was unable to block X’s charged shot and was hit directly in the chest. The attack caused electricity to encircle the mechanical titan and his entire body began to shake.

"WHAT?!" Bass shouted. "How can this be? What? This is impossible!"

His body’s energy started to short circuit his body, so X and ProtoMan took the opportunity to attack. The duo destroyed the arms while Ariel shot Bass’ head and caused the body to explode. All that remained of Duo after the explosion was a damaged head. It seemed like Duo was in control of himself again, and said, "ProtoMan, you have won this battle. I am supposed to fulfill my mission regardless of who tries to stop me, but since we were once partners, and you have defeated my new body, I will leave you and X to protect this world as I did once before with MegaMan. Know this though, there is a massive amount of evil energy engulfing the planet at an accelerated speed and I can feel a war brewing. If there is ever a time when you and X should fail, I will be back to destroy this planet without a second thought. I leave you now, good luck."

A flash of energy left the rubble as Duo’s head crumbled to pieces. The threat was over, at least for now. X, Ariel, and ProtoMan knew it would not be long before the rest of the Darkloids revealed themselves, but they at least got to enjoy the moment’s peace.

Ariel told them she would show them the disc right after they returned to the base and went under the repairs. They would recycle the remains of Soldat and Sparx with full honor for their bravery, despite their origins.
_________________
Once I was Dr Kain, but I died and have been reborn as Gankutsuou.