December 17, 21XX: "Where's X?" Dr. Thomas Light asks. "I just finished the new enhancements for him."
"Where else?" Dr. Albert Wily answers. Light doesn't need to have any more explained. The four month anniversary of Wily's attack. Four months since Zero was killed in a nuclear implosion. X is assuredly at the monument he built for Zero.
"Of course," Light replies, "I'll go check on him."
Measuring 50 feet, Zero's monument attracts a lot of attention. The lone figure by it is so motionless, it takes a moment for some of the onlookers to realize he isn't part of the monument. X sits silently, unmoving. Occupying the same location and position he's held since he built this monument.
"There's nothing you could have done, X," the now familiar, yet mysterious, voice tries to console.
"Who ARE you?" X asks not for the first time.
"Sorry," a timid voice replies, "I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that. My name's Jennifer."
"Don't worry about it," X answers, though he honestly had no idea anyone else was around. "What are you doing here."
"I came to visit the monument of the one who saved my life," she starts, "I live in the area Zero saved from the meltdown."
"Most people don't remember that," X replies, "they just remember the area he couldn't save."
"He'll always have my respect and admiration," she responds placing her hand on the monument.
"X?" Dr. Light asks, "is this a good time?"
"As good as any," X answers unconvincingly.
"I should go," Jennifer states uneasily.
"Pretty lady," Light admires after she leaves earshot.
"I didn't notice," X honestly answers.
"That's it! Now I really know you're in trouble."
"Maybe. But she's half your age. Even less if we use your REAL birthday," X tries to joke. "Why are you here?"
"I wanted to tell you about some new upgrades I developed for you." After waiting a few moments for X to respond. "Well, when you're ready, head to the lab and I'll install them for you." Light waits a while before he leaves. X sits in silence for several minutes before curiosity gets the better of him.
When X returns to the lab he sees the familiar site of Drs. Light, Wily, and Cain working together. "Okay," X begins, announcing his presence, "what are these upgrades you were telling me about?"
"We're touching them up now," Light answers for the group.
"How are you holding up, X?" Cain asks.
"I'm here," X starts, "don't ask for any more than that!"
"I think we're ready," Wily announces. "X, step over here please." X does as he is ordered and steps on the enhancement platform. The three doctors work at their controls as parts of X's superstructure are replaced.
"These are the Hyper Boots," Light begins, "they allow you unlimited air dashes, and the ability to dash downward."
"This is the Energy Helmet," Cain continues, "it slowly refills your life energy as you stand still. It also makes it so that your weapons only use energy when charged."
"This is the Hyper Armor," Wily continues, "it squares the amount of damage you can take before being destroyed."
"And this is the Hyper Buster," Light concludes, "it keeps your current full charge as normal firing and allows you to charge even further. It also lets you charge special weapons. And, it slowly recharges your weapons energy as you stand still."
When finished, X looks completely different. He jumps and does a few air dashes to test out the boots. He then fires a couple of shots to test out the weapons. As he stands still to test the refilling abilities of his new upgrades, his armor starts to short circuit. "What's going on?" X asks, "what's happening to me!?" Dr. Light quickly turns off the new enhancements.
"It's okay, X," he consoles, "I turned off your new upgrades."
"What happened?" X demands.
"The helmet and gun both recharging your systems caused a feedback loop," Dr. Wily explains, "you need to take off those upgrades so we can work on them."
"Okay," X concedes taking off his new-found toys. When complete a familiar voice echoes throughout the room:
"Yes, X," it begins, "take off the armor. So I can wear it."
"Nega Man!" Dr. Light observes. "I thought X destroyed you."
"He nearly did," X's duplicate answers, "I escaped just in time. Too bad you won't!" he yells firing at his creator.
"NO!" Cain screams running between Nega Man and Light. Injured, he asks "What are you?" he asks to Nega Man.
"I am an exact replica of Mega Man X," he begins, "only stronger, faster, smarter, and better looking. On second thought, I'm nothing like X!" he finishes smiling. "And now for you, brother!" he yells firing at X.
After being hit X is unable to move. Nega Man then takes X's enhancements and leaves. Several hours later X awakens to see a concerned Dr. Light. "What happened," he asks weakly.
"Nega Man escaped with all of your Hyper enhancements," Wily answers.
"Wait," X starts confused, "where's Cain?"
"He's in the hospital," Light answers somberly, "it doesn't look good."
"I need to go after Nega Man!" X moans trying to sit up.
"You're in no condition to go anywhere," Wily tells him. "Besides, the Hyper enhancements were designed to only work with your systems. No other reploid in existence can use them."
"Nega Man has the intelligence to override the fail safes," Light offers.
"He was only designed to fight, Thomas," Wily lectures, "he isn't that smart."
"No," Light counters, "you didn't make him that smart. I enhanced him, remember."
"Then we have to get them back," X tries to sound forceful.
"You're still recovering from when he hit you last time," Wily explains, "what makes you think you have a chance against him in the Hyper enhancements."
"All the more reason to have X get them back quickly," Light argues. "We need to let him go. If Nega Man arms himself with the Hyper enhancements, nothing would ever be able to stop him."
"Okay," Wily concedes, "but we'll be keeping a close watch on you."
"All right," X begins, "what do I do first?"
After activating the special homing beacons in the Hyper enhancements, they discover that the four pieces are being separated and guarded. X goes after the boots first. While exploring the around the area where the boots supposed to be, X runs into Crush again.
"Crush!?" X asks in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm working with Nega Man," Crush explains, "I don't know why I ever started working for Sigma!"
"You choose to work with Sigma and Wily?"
"It was a very easy choice actually," Crush sneers, "complete my destiny or watch as inferior beings take over the world."
"You still haven't answered my original question," X comments.
"Which one? 'Why am I different from Wily's other mavericks?' or 'What am I doing here?' I haven't answered either of those questions yet."
"I'd like to know both, but I'll settle for 'What are you doing here?'"
"You just want to know everything, don't you X?" Crush asks smiling, "I'll tell you this, you won't be able to beet Nega Man by yourself, even with you 'Hyper Enhancements' so you might as well go home."
"Not a chance!"
"Fine," Crush responds attacking.
X is barely able to avoid the initial attack. He soon notices that Crush isn't using the same weapon as last time. Just as X is about to win the battle Crush teleports out of the area leaving a weapon behind. When he gets to were the boots are being kept, he sees a maverick doing guard duty. When the guard sees him, battle
ensues. The guard is equipped with the Boots and X has a very hard time actually hitting him. After a while X gives up and tries using the weapon he got from Crush. It homes in and nearly takes him out in one hit. Soon after X has reclaimed the Hyper Boots.
He then goes to get the Hyper Buster. While searching he meets up with Crush again. Crush uses yet another weapon which is left behind as X emerges victorious. When X finds the Hyper Buster, he runs into another guardian. This one is using the Hyper Buster. This time X immediately uses the weapon he got from Crush. The fight soon ends.
Next he goes after the Hyper Armor with effectively identical results. The Energy Helmet is acquired in similar manner.
Once X has recovered all four enhancements, he returns to the lab.
"Okay," Light begins, "we think we've fixed the problem with the feedback loop. Are you ready to try it?" X nods his agreement as Drs. Light and Wily prepare to reinstall the enhancements for X. This time the Hyper enhancements work superbly.
"By the way," X asks suddenly, "how's Cain doing?"
"It doesn't look good," Wily answers somberly. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," X lies, "I'm fine. Thanks for telling me though."
X quickly leaves and goes after Nega Man's fortress. "How do these guys keep building fortresses where only I can find them?" X asks himself on the way. "And where the hell do all these mavericks come from? They have to be really expensive. And why is it that my enemies seem only able to be defeated in a certain order?
On top of that, how is it that I always seem to know this order ahead of time?" With these pressing thoughts in his head he fights his way to Nega Man himself.
"Brother!" Nega Man shouts enthusiastically, "so good of you to join us!"
"Stop calling me brother!" X growls, "and who exactly is 'we'?"
"That's for us to know and you to find out."
"What an amazingly mature response," X sarcastically remarks. "Enough talk. I'm here to stop you once and for all."
"Finally showing some backbone brother? I'm impressed," Nega Man finishes unleashing his attack. Even with the Hyper enhancements X is still having a hard time beating Nega Man. As X finally gets the upper hand Crush comes in and helps Nega Man.
What X never notices is that Crush keeps hitting him out of the way of Nega Man's more powerful attack. As Nega Man is about to finish X off, Crush hits him with a shot the completely locks him in place. As X just stands there watching this obvious betrayal, Crush shouts in an all too familiar voice: "Hurry up X, I can't hold him
like this forever."
As X fires at his clone, Nega Man fires at Crush. Nega Man is destroyed and Crush is critically damaged. X runs up, "Just who the hell are you?"
Crush removes the protective helmet and answers, "I'm your sister X. Dr. Light created me as an emergency contingency plan."
"Contingency for what?"
"You are the most powerful being ever created X... Brother. It feels good to finally be able to call you that. If you ever turned on humanity nothing would be able to stop." She chuckles. "Well, almost nothing. I was built to be able to
destroy you if necessary. I'm glad I didn't need to."
"But why were you working with Wily, Sigma, and Nega Man?"
"I've been waiting brother. I had to watch you to make sure your where trustworthy. After you defeated Sigma I knew you were. But I recognized Sigma for what he really was. He was a dictator. And dictators always have backup plans. I knew he'd be back. When I found out about Wily I joined their ranks to spy on them. That's when I met Nega Man. He was infinitely worse then Sigma." She chuckles again, this time very weakly. "X, listen carefully. Nega Man isn't... the... real......," she barely is able to cough out the last word.
"Crush?" X asks, "Crush!" he yells shaking her to no avail. "Sister, I'm sorry," he whispers. X takes her body back to the lab.
"Who's this?" Light asks.
"You don't know?" X asks in disbelief. "You built
her, how can you not know who she is?"
"Light built her?" Wily asks. "I thought he, wait did you say 'she?' Anyway I thought she was one of Sigma's mavericks."
"I honestly don't remember building her X," Light explains.
"Again," X starts barely keeping his rage in check, "how?"
"When I restored Thomas's memories, I had to use histories' knowledge of his last few years. No one knew about her, so he didn't know about her either."
"So who is she?" Light asks again.
"She is, was, my sister," X nearly sobs teleporting away from the lab, leaving all of his enhancements and weapons behind...