#Rangda Bangda | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

megamanxfanfics · 5 years

Text

S.V - Ep.15: What Awaits in Zero Space

------------------------------------------------------------

EXT. ANTARCTICA – Fallen Colony – DAY

------------------------------------------------------------

X teleports back to where he once faltered, feeling rejuvenated and more prepared for the dangers ahead.

He walks over towards the broken Colony. As he nears the crater, he can see the mysterious energy of the Zero Virus swell all around him.

He takes a deep breath.

X: (whispering) Here goes nothing…

-pan to-

------------------------------------------------------------

INT. ZERO SPACE – Level Indigo – DAY

------------------------------------------------------------

He jumps down inside the opening of the crater, which becomes the remnants of the Colony. Immediately the unnatural cybernetic beauty of the place throws him off.

He drops down and spots a spike marl droid and destroys it. Then he swiftly walks over and drops down through a maze-like corridor.

When he drops down again, a series of deadly lasers fire at him.

X: What the-!?

He guards himself while falling down in the corridor below.

X: Alia, what was that?

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Be careful, X. They’re everywhere. They caught me off guard too...

X widens his eyes in fear.

X: (v.o, thinking) Alia’s analytics are top-notch... To even surpass her abilities must mean...

He closes his eyes and takes a breath.

X: Sigma’s not playing around this time...

[INSERT TITLE CARD - What Awaits in Zero Space]

He transforms into his Force Armor and presses on his head gem.

X: Internal Tracer... I’m counting on you, old friend.

[RADAR]: Roger.

He drops down once more into an open corridor, where he is surprised to see Repliforce Soldiers in their Ride Armors.

X: Huh?

Then, a purple virus spectre phases in front of him into the shape of Zero.

X: (scared) W-w-what!???

REPLIFORCE SOLDIER 1: Get him!!

Both the soldier and the Virus dash after him, where X is forced to back-dash jump and blast the Soldier down with a Plasma shot. Naturally, it goes through the Zero spectre, who just smirks at him and phases away.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) ...It’s the Zero Virus, X... I know it’s creepy, but.. try not to let it get to you.

X: Oh my God.

His heart races as he charges up and runs ahead. He strategically takes down another Ride Armor soldier when another spectre forms behind the explosion.

X: Ahhh!

With wide eyes, X dash jumps away and narrowly evades the dashing spectre before it disappears.

He powers through and runs across to the end of the corridor where he drops down.

A short distance below, X lands on a small platform where his radar blips.

[RADAR]: Warning: 3 lasers, below.

His internal tracer locks onto the 3 targets for him, so X can prepare his moves ahead of time.

He jumps down and evades the first two, then has to do a quick dash to evade the 3rdone. After dropping down once more, a 4thlaser almost disintegrates him, before his radar can analyze it. He drops down into a more open corridor and pants.

X: Jeeez.

ALIA: They’re too fast and unpredictable! Use the Dark Hold!

X: (gasping) That’s right.

His armor shifts into purple as X calls upon the power of the Dark Hold. With a quick pose, time itself freezes. The entirety of the blue Zero Space is coated in negative light, where X can easily see the lasers with a hue of beige ambiance behind him.

He quickly dashes down a set of steps and passes by 4 deadly lasers. Then down another corridor with 3 more. When landing he runs and dashes down to the next corridor which opens up the room with many platform traps. He sees the lasers all around him that would threaten to destroy him had he not frozen time.

As he drops he looks at his gauntlet and watches the Dark Hold countdown to 00. Suddenly, the negative space reverts back into X’s gauntlet and the Zero Space re-emerges with a green laser firing right at X.

X: Ahh!

He ducks and lands, staring up at the last laser that could have killed him.

Upon landing, his radar blips again to the few laser traps ahead. This time they are in a pattern from the floor and the ceiling.

ALIA: Be careful, X. You don’t have the Dark Hold any more.

X nods.

X: I know...

He carefully walks and dashes past the first 3 ceiling lasers. Then, he dash-jumps beyond the next two floor lasers. With a quick wall-jump, X dashes past a final short ceiling laser before he drops and lands in front of a gate.

X: Phew...

-pan to-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Gateway 1 – DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

X swiftly walks through the gateway as Alia com-links into him.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) X... Before you walk through that shutter, I just want you to know that we all care about you, very much.

X: (smiling) I’ll be fine. Thanks, Alia.

He opens the shutter and enters the lair of the Shadow Devil.

Only, when he walks in, he discovers that the target has already been destroyed.

X: What the Hell....?

He looks at a skull-shaped creature, which has been pinned to the wall by the Zero Virus and stabbed in the forehead by an electric blade. The electricity continues to swell around the remnants of the deceased creature.

-FLASH-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Shadow Devil’s Lair - DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: 2 hours ago…

The Shadow Devil looms before Zero; a creature birthed by the Zero Virus, itself.

Zero closes his eyes and takes a calm breath.

ZERO: So it’s true. We are his Children after all…

He allows his armor to shift into black as he stands before the Shadow Devil.

ZERO: …the only problem is… I don’t care…

Without hesitation, he uppercuts the Shadow Devil with an Electric Blade, piercing it at the eye.

SHADOW DEVIL: Rooooooooooaaaaaaarrrr!!

ZERO: HAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

He tilts his saber down and impales it with a Quake Blazer, causing a massive explosion through the beast.

SHADOW DEVIL: RAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

The goo comes apart and it swiftly tries to attack Zero as it reforms itself behind him. Zero simply floats with folded arms, while his virus barrier bashes away any globs that come in his path.

The Shadow Devil reforms itself, but forms it’s eye at it’s right foot in an attempt to trick it’s adversary. It shoots a powerful fireball from it’s eye, directly at him.

ZERO: Hmph!

He bats it away with his forearm and slams a charged fist into the eye, creating a giant Messenko Giga Attack of dark energy, which tears it apart once more.

The desperate glob, remolds itself in the middle of the room in the form of an ominous skull. It propels itself towards Zero with a high jump, revealing it’s deadly spikes at the base.

ZERO: HAHAHAHAH! You simple-minded fool...

Zero waves his right arm and then his left, throwing waves of his Virus aura at the skull. Four waves of the Zero Virus form themselves into sharp spikes, which pin the creature to the wall, just below his distorted master’s logo.

ZERO: I’m done playing into his schemes and living in his shadow...

He forms a Z-Buster and uses his lancing Thunder-God attack to pierce the beast directly through the eye.

SHADOW DEVIL: GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The eye rolls back into it’s face as it’s Skull-like body explodes from the inside out.

Zero stands before the explosion, unwavering as his Virus aura protects him from the blast.

ZERO: This is My life. And I’m done living it for anyone else...

Zero walks away from the pinned down, melted beast. It remains in the shape of a skull, with a hole in it’s forehead, where the eye once lived.

-FLASH-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Shadow Devil’s Lair – DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: NOW

X looks at the fallen creature with a confused frown. He powers down back into his base armor.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) We didn’t want you to get your hopes up, but Zero has destroyed this monster. We saw the whole thing through his coms while you were asleep.

X: …Huh… Why didn’t you tell me??

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Signas thought it was best to let you discover this on your own…

X: What!? Why??

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Everything happened so fast. We’re still processing it as this all unfolds. …I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to keep anything from you.

X watches the defeated skull with an irate brow, but then softens his gaze as he wonders about Zero.

X: I don’t know what to think…

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Please don’t be mad.

He stares at the dead monster and almost smiles.

X: No, it’s not that. It’s just- Zero! He actually fought this thing! I’m.. really surprised! And actually… Impressed!!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Well.. I wouldn’t-

X: You think he’s still in there, somewhere?

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) I’m not sure we should-

X: Maybe he’s still on our side after all!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) This is exactly what we were trying to avoid.

X: Oh, come on Alia. Can’t you have a little faith for me, here??

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) …I’m sorry, but we do not feel the same way about this. I’m not as attached to Zero as you, so I can only analyze the facts. He is a Maverick. The same one who attacked Sigma, 7 years ago… He corrupted Sigma! He has had this Virus in him, all this time. And even after everything he’s done as a Maverick Hunter, once a concentrated amount of the Sigma Virus affected him, he turned on you and left you for dead.

X scowls once again.

X: I haven’t forgotten that… …but I can’t give up on him either. Not yet…

-FLASH-

------------------------------------------------------------

INT. ZERO SPACE – Level Purple - DAY

------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: 1 ½ hours ago…

Zero continues to travel down a new corridor, where the space around him glows in the color purple. No longer on the defensive, he allows his armor to revert to red and normalizes the pressure of his Virus Aura until it is not there.

ZERO: Ahh.. That’s better. What other surprises does the Old Man have for me?

Just then, a series of Repliforce Soldiers, mysteriously phase in before him.

ZERO: Hmph! You again??

He narrows his gaze and air-dashes right over to the Repliforce Soldier, who quietly aims at him.

Zero floats and slashes the Repliforce soldier into pieces.

Then he proceeds to Air-dash into the next two that smirk and fire at him.

ZERO: Noo, you’re not Repliforce.. I can tell…

He Hisuisho dashes against the first soldier and drops down to the floor.

ZERO: This is SIGMA!!

He smashes a fist into the ground, creating another powerful Messenko Giga Attack. The dark energy spreads right through them and tears them apart.

REPLIFORCE SOLDIERS: GAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

He walks ahead and smirks at the last Ride Armor Soldier, who holds up a shield with his buster out.

ZERO: Hmph...

He forms a Z-Buster and fires it 3 times. His Charge shots are extra powerful spirals that knock down his shield, and blow him apart in no time.

ZERO: Hahahahahahahah!

At the ledge of the corridor, he can see a series of platforms, which lead diagonally up towards the next floor up. He doesn’t need to use them at all as he simply forms his dark aura and levitates himself high up to the next level.

Once there, he floats beyond a short wall, into a narrow corridor and walks into a couple of walk shooters, which he cuts down. Another Ride Armor soldier, floats before him, but he lances through it with his Raijingeki.

He levitates up a short wall and air-dashes past two neo-crushers, who threaten to bash him down with their maces.

He drops down a short-distance and C-slashes a walk shooter that jumps after him. Upon landing, he fires three more Z-Busters, which kill the next Ride Armor soldier and destroy another walk shooter. Then he dashes past a Neo-crusher. He continues to dash and use a quick Wind-shredder against another walk-shooter as he advances through the corridor.

He levitates past a series of spike traps, using his F-splasher dash, once again to a walk shooter that jumps after him. Another Ride Armor soldier points his blaster at him with a frustrated brow.

REPLIFORCE SOLDIER: HUUURGH. Get outta here!

He fires many blasts, but Zero just gracefully dodges them in mid-air as he gets closer to his target.

ZERO: Hehehe, never...

He tilts his saber and burns him down with a Quake blazer.

REPLIFORCE SOLDIER: GUUUAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

ZERO: I’m home... You just don’t belong here.

He moves on, out of the spike trap, levitating beyond a spiked wall only to find another Ride Armor Soldier, below.

ZERO: I already destroyed you Repliforce Roaches...

He slams another fiery blade down onto the intruder, who explodes upon impact.

ZERO: But Sigma keeps bringing you back.

REPLIFORCE SOLDIER: Damn you!

He blasts Zero multiple times, who bats the shots away like child’s play. Then, he Denjin uppercuts the Ride Armored Soldier to death.

At the end of the corridor, Zero makes it to a ladder, which makes him smile.

He vertically speed-dashes up to the next floor with one boost, then he spots another Ride Armor soldier waiting for him.

Annoyed, Zero decides to take out his Saber and extend it into a giant wave of crescent shaped energy. The slash disintegrates the soldier and chips at the nearby wall ahead. Zero walks ahead and looks up to find that a hover gunner and sniper are shooting at him from above.

He levitates and electrifies his blade into an uppercut against the hover gunner. Then he Hisuisho dashes into the sniper against the wall. At the other side of the narrow corridor, a Ride Armor Soldier fires at him, so Zero Hisuisho dashes into him and performs a flaming uppercut to move past him and a second hover gunner.

He continues to levitate up the vertical corridor, when another Ride Soldier aims and fires at him. Zero Hisuisho dashes up to him and performs his classic three-hit combo to destroy the soldier. A nearby sniper tries to shoot down at him, but he just blasts it away with a Z-buster shot.

Then he floats above, to a pole in the middle of the room. The surrounding walls all have spikes, while a Ride Armor soldier awaits him and two hover gunners shoot at him from above.

ZERO: Hmph!

He grabs onto the pole, blasts the soldier away with his Z-Buster then fires at the two hover gunners up above him.

As he dashes up the pole with his wire-hook, he begins to pant, actually feeling winded for the first time since his battle with X.

At the end of the pole, two more Ride Armor soldiers catch him from both sides with charged blasts.

ZERO: AHH.

REPLIFORCE SOLDIER: HAHA!

REPLIFORCE SOLDIER: Gotcha!!

Zero dash-jumps over to the one on his right and retaliates with a Messenko Attack. The initial blast disintegrates the soldier before him, while the spreading remnants of the attack effectively destroy the soldier behind him.

Drained and actually feeling weak, Zero opts to climb the ladder up towards the top floor, where a gate awaits him.

ZERO: (panting) Now what...

-FLASH-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Gateway 2 – DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: NOW

X walks through the gate in his base armor with a curious look on his face.

X: (v.o, thinking) Zero destroyed all of them... I must find out what he’s up to.

He passes through the corridor to the next shutter and opens it.

Once he enters the room, the cybernetics around him phase into a purple screen, which bears a large, ominous Sigma logo.

X: Hm?

The room then morphs into a very familiar design from Sigma’s Fortress.

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) Oh, X... Were you expecting anyone else...?

-pan to-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Rangda Bangda Room – DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

The colorful markings around the room display orange, gold, red, blue, green, white, purple and magenta. Two symmetrical holes in the room are cut above a sun, near the bottom of the wall, which resemble that of a face. There was no mistaking it. This was a new Rangda Bangda Room. This was Sigma’s doing.

X: Sigma!

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) Hee hee hee hee! Welcome to my Colony. I hope you can /stay awhile!

At the dash a blue eye appears from the left socket and /comes after him.

X: Whoa..

He jumps back and fires a Charge Shot at it, then it comes after him again.

X: Agh!

He dashes away and shifts into his nearest power set. His body becomes red and orange as he shoots a Ground Fire at the eye. This causes the eyeball to burn and retreat back into it’s socket.

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) Heheheh.. Right back atcha, X...

A red eye appears out of the right socket and slowly moves towards the center of the room. Then it immediately unleashes heavy rapid fire in both directions, blasting the ceiling and the floor, simultaneously.

X: (nervous) Ohhh.

X quickly shifts into green, producing his next weapon, the Spike Ball. When he attacks, it does nothing to affect the eye. The Spike Ball is simply blocked and retracts back into his buster.

X: Uhh.

His armor shifts white as he cringes at the oncoming fire.

X: (hurt) /Agh!!

He throws a Wing Spiral at the same time that he is shot down with heavy bullets.

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) MUAHAHAHAH!!!

ALIA: (o.s, filtered, worried) X!!!

There is an opening in the gunfire spiral, which allows him to recover and sit up.

X: Aghh.. I’m okay. For now…

He narrows his eyes and shifts into dark blue and orange with his next weapon, the Goo Shaver. He immediately shakes his head and switches to his F-Laser, which swaps the orange and dark blue coloration of his armor.

He dashes away from the oncoming bullets and carefully aims at the red eye.

The F-Laser is too slow and barely catches the eye as it retreats back into it’s socket.

X: Hmph…

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) We don’t have time for this. Use your Gaea Armor and take that thing out!!

X: …I might have to.

Suddenly, the walls close in on X, as he recalls what happened the last time he was in a room like this. Just like last time, they narrow the entire room into a short vertical corridor, where the ‘nose’ of the room is able to attack him. This time it is in the pattern of a sun. If that wasn’t enough, suddenly spikes form at his feet, and almost kill him.

X: Ahh!!

He immediately jumps up and flashes into his Mech-like Gaea Armor. He lands on the spikes and glares at the sun.

X: Damn you, Sigma. I don’t have time for your games! What have you done to Zero!??

SIGMA: Hee hee hee. Don’t worry about him. He’s fine… He’s right where he belongs. You on the otherhand… I’m surprised you survived.

He narrows his gaze as the sun starts to attack.

X: Well you know me… I’ve always been resilient.

With a quick charge he blasts the sun decoration. It crawls down the wall, towards him, but X simply clings to the other wall and blasts it again with a 2ndGaia shot.

The sun begins to dent, already appearing heavily damaged. Then it retreats into the center of the room.

SIGMA: Oho, my! This is quite an upgrade you’ve acquired. I can’t wait to see what else you can do…

The room opens up once more as the walls retract back to their original areas.

X: Well, you’ll find out soon enough.

Just then, a green eye appears out of the right socket, behind X. It immediately fires direct rapid-fire blue shots at X.

X grits his teeth and raises a gauntlet to block the attacks. They harm him only slightly as he charges up and fires a large Gaia Shot at the eye. Then, another. And one more.

The green eye relentlessly fires at X, but each Gaia shot overtakes the bullets as the eye shakes and retreats back into the socket.

From the left eye socket, the blue eye peers out again and throws itself right at him.

X quick-charges and blasts it with a Gaia shot before dash-jumping over it. The blue eye follows him and bashes into X’s back.

X: (annoyed) Agh!

He grabs the eye, over his shoulder turns around and punches it, hard in the iris.

The eye cracks open and malfunctions, sparking from the inside. It retreats back into it’s socket, heavily damaged.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Whoa… You’re doing great, X. Keep this up and you’ll be able to escape this room in no time.

X: Good. I’ve got to find Zero!

The walls begin to close-in again.

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) Hee hee hee. I’ve already told you. You need not worry about him. It is yourself, who should be worried!

The sun crawls down the other wall to attack X this time. He fires a direct Gaia Shot at it, then clings to the other wall. Just then, other spikes form at both walls, threatening to kill him. Thankfully, his Armor is impervious to this trap.

X: (wide-eyed, furious) Wow, Sigma! That could’ve killed me!!

He drops down and fires another Charge Shot at the sun decoration, which nearly crumples upon impact.

X: Don’t you want another challenge!?

SIGMA: Oh, X… I already know you won’t disappoint me… I’m just testing your new abilities.

X: WHAT!?

He is struck by the sun, before it retreats into the center of the room again.

X: /igh..

He cringes for a second and then shakes it off.

SIGMA: Don’t you want all of this to end, X?

Suddenly, the red eye appears out of the right socket, once again.

SIGMA: Imagine what the 3 of us can do together…!

X widens his eyes as the red eye spiral attacks him again. He puts his hands out to block the oncoming fire as he charges up.

X: NO. Don’t tell me…

He quick charges and blasts the red eye twice, before the oncoming fire finally hits him. As he guards himself,the bullets barely phase him.

X: You’re trying to Will Zero into becoming a Maverick!!

SIGMA: Hee hee hee, oh no, silly boy… He always was one. And rather than punish him for it, it’s time to Accept it!

X shakes his head, distraught.

X: NNNNOOOOOO!!!!!!

He shoots at the red eye, two more times as it retreats into the socket, cracked.

The green eye appears from the left socket, where X does not hesitate to strike with a Gaia Shot. He dash-jumps into it’s rapid fire, allowing the bullets to wash over him as he quick-charges. When he lands, he blasts it at a 45 degree angle, which shatters the green eye entirely.

The blue eye appears in place of the green eye socket. X just charges again and blasts it with a charged Gaia Shot. The eye jumps out of it’s socket, coming after X, who dash-jumps away and destroys it in mid-air with a final Gaia Shot.

The red eye peers out from it’s right socket once again, and floats to the center of the room as the walls close in on X. He blasts the red eye away before the spikes can form below his feet.

The moment the sun re-emerges from the back wall, X destroys it with a Gaia Shot and the whole room explodes around him. With that, the Rangda Bangda trap has been destroyed.

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) Very good, X. Zero is waiting for just further ahead.

The damaged room opens up a new corridor, which leads further into Zero Space.

-FLASH-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Rangda Bangda Room - DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: 1 hour ago…

Zero enters through the gate to see the room reveal the Sigma logo before him.

ZERO: (irate) SIGMA!!? You have some explaining to do!!!!

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) All in due time, old friend.

ZERO: Don’t you Dare call me that!!! Nothing has changed between us!! You got that!?

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) Heeheeheehee, very well… A fighter to the very end, I see. This will be interesting!

He opens up the corridor into the next room.

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) Welcome home, boy. I’m gonna enjoy working with you…

Zero shakes his head, annoyed.

ZERO: Huuurgh. No Way!!!

-pan to-

------------------------------------------------------------

INT. ZERO SPACE – Level Red – DAY

------------------------------------------------------------

Zero runs through the red draped corridor with intensely clenched teeth.

ZERO: I’ll Never Join You!!!!!

SIGMA: (o.s, filtered) You already have boy, you just don’t know it yet.

ZERO: NO! This is MY LIFE!!! And I’m done with the Mavericks and the Hunters!! …Once I’m through with you, I’LL be the one to reshape the New World.

SIGMA: Heeheeheeheehee… Haahaahaahaahaahaa! I’d love to see you try!!!!

The corridor narrows into a ramp with a short ceiling above it with threatening spikes. He speed-dashes below and cuts down two mets in his path.

He continues to dash further down the ramp, encountering a couple of more mets and a hover gunner, before the room opens up into a more elaborate spike trip.

He smirks and sets up his Virus Barrier which allows him to float and drift passed the trap. He flies beyond a set of poles, which he would have needed a wire-hook to advance through. A few hover gunners shoot at him, but small waves of his virus aura are enough to crush them as he air-dashes passed a set of rolling gabyools on the long pole below him.

From there, he spots another large spike trap, where hover platforms allow passage. He smiles at Sigma’s weak attempt at a challenge as he simply flies through the whole trap, uncontested.

He floats beyond a long stretch of platforms before he finally sees a gate ahead of him. When he finally lands, he feels very tired.

-pan to-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Gateway 3 - DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

Zero enters the gateway and drops down into a large open corridor. When he lands, he pulls out his saber, panting.

ZERO: (exhausted) Ahhh… I’m still getting used to.. this power. Flying takes a lot out of me…

He walks through the open passage and enters the next lair.

When the gate closes behind him, he finds that no one is there.

ZERO: Huh? …No one is here.

He puts his saber away, disappointed.

ZERO: (calling out) Hey Sigma! What gives!!?

Just then, a new cybernetic screen pops up, this time depicting a clear ‘W’ logo, which causes his eyes to widen.

Staring at the logo is almost hypnotic and therapeutic to Zero, as he remembers where he came from. This was his master’s logo. He was his ultimate creation, and up until now, Zero has been undoing everything his creator had intended in his master plan.

Zero narrows his eyes as he doesn’t receive an answer from Sigma. He notices that the room is locked and there is no passage out of there.

ZERO: (smirking) Hmph… I get it. Whether I like it or not, I gotta play into your game, right Sigma??

Still, no answer.

ZERO: X must still be alive…

He takes a breath and smiles.

An image of his old friend passes through his mind.

ZERO: Well… It’ll be good to see him again, I guess…

He walks over to the far corner and sits down against the wall.

ZERO: I could use someone like him… On my side…

He closes his eyes and folds his arms as he finally takes a rest.

-FLASH-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Level Red – DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: NOW

In his base armor, X dash-jumps out of an intricate spike trap from a broken hover platform and catches the wall ahead of him. He slides down a wall, tired as he starts to kick-jump up.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Wait!

X: Huh??

He begins to slide down again.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered, excited) I think, I can see something behind that wall!

X’s eyes widen as he continues to slide down and suddenly falls through a hologram of the wall below.

-pan to-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Hidden Capsule Area - DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

X: Whaaaooh!

X face plants before a pink capsule and looks up with a surprised smile on his face.

X: What the-?

He pulls out his black heart-tank, the two sub-tanks and the one power cell that he’s collected to unlock the capsule.

Once doing so, Dr. Light appears with a stunned look on his face.

DR. LIGHT: I never expected you to come here without the armor...

X: Ah.. I’m trying to be truer to myself these days...

DR. LIGHT: That’s very good of you to have faith in your own abilities, but it’s also very dangerous to go without adequate equipment. Especially in a place such as this.

X: Speaking of which, how did you get here...!?

DR. LIGHT: This capsule was always underground... When the Colony landed, I was thrust into this strange Zero Space. You must end it. You must stop Zero...

X takes a breath.

X: I know...

DR. LIGHT: To finish this battle, I’ll give you another model of the Ultimate Armor.

X: NO Doc! I can’t rely on that thing anymore!!

DR. LIGHT: You must. In order to become the World’s Champion, sometimes we must unleash the darkest parts of ourselves.

X: ..but I hate who I AM, when I wear that Armor. I become this Destructive Monster and I can’t bear it.

Dr. Light shakes his head.

DR. LIGHT: It’s all in your head. It is not the power that you wield... But what you choose to do with it that matters in the end.

X looks at him and thinks about that for a moment.

X: (v.o, thinking) ...Could the same be for Zero...?

X thinks back to what Signas said, recently.

SIGNAS: (o.s, v.o) I don’t think you have to stop him. You just have to save him.

He sighs and nods.

X: Alright...

DR. LIGHT: Very well. As you know, you can perform the Giga Attack an unlimited number of times. But don’t get lazy... Beware not to depend on the power of this armor too much.

X: Heh, I know...

Dr. Light smiles at his son.

DR. LIGHT: The end is near... Good luck, X!

Dr. Light dissipates and X enters the capsule. When the brilliant light from the capsule washes over him, his base armor is reformatted into his Ultimate Armor once again. Only this time, he feels even stronger and his armor is coated in black, just like Zero’s ultimate form.

X looks at himself with big eyes and clenches his fists, surprised.

X: We really aren’t so different… him and I…

X continues to worry about the dark nature of his power set as he dashes out of the hidden corridor.

-pan to-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Level Red - DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

From out of the holographic wall, X dash-jumps up to the real wall above and climbs up to the open corridor with a few kick-jumps.

Once there, he dashes over to the other end of the block, where he can spot a series of hover platforms that lead to a gate at the far end of the corridor.

X runs, drops, dash-jumps and air-dashes from platform to platform until he makes it to the gateway at the end of the hall.

-pan to-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Gateway 3 – DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

After entering the first shutter, X drops down into the open corridor, as the lights dramatically become dimmer.

X: (whispering) This is it… Zero’s here. I can feel it.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) …Good luck, X.

X: (focused) Thanks. I’m breaking contact…

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Understood.

X calmly switches off his com-link as he runs ahead and dashes through the next shutter.

-pan to-

------------------------------------------------------------ INT. ZERO SPACE – Zero’s Lair – DAY ------------------------------------------------------------

X dashes through the shutter to find Zero asleep against the wall with his arms folded. His virus barrier covers his body like a flame, while Virus Spectres of Zero can be seen flying around the room.

Once the spectres spot X, they fly directly into their host’s body and Zero, himself wakes up.

His virus power levitates him back on his feet, where he glares at his fated foe.

The two stand tall and stare at each other battle-ready, as the nostalgic logo of Dr. Wily taunts them in shades of red and purple.

-Freezeframe. Grainy Effect-

-Fade to black-

#MMX Fanfics #Season V #Episode 15 #What Awaits in Zero Space #Zero Space #Fallen Colony #Eurasia #Stage 1 #Stage 2 #Stage 3 #Shadow Devil #Rangda Bangda #Zero #X

1 note · View note

megamanxfanfics · 5 years

Text

The End of Season V

Happy Independence Day!!!! Season V is finally Finished!!!!!

As we close out this last arc, I wanted to make some final thoughts, before I say goodbye to X5 forever!

----------------------------------Ep. 13--------------------------------------------

I said just about everything I want to say about this one already. [See previous entry] The only thing I’ll say is that it was really hard to keep any of the original narrative without making X & Zero’s relationship irreparable.

----------------------------------Ep. 14------------------------------------------

This was interesting! Having a true Aftermath episode, after years of wondering what I might write next.

X needed to recover, and the world needed.. rediscovering on our part. We know that the World was heavily damaged from X5 and the X6 intro, but we never get to explore just how much, from the games.

I had some fun exploring this through some final Dynamo continuity and of course, I took advantage of this with some final Gate continuity. In Dynamo’s case, he won! This is it!! He got everything he wanted. But now he’s left with this empty feeling inside. ‘Now what...’

As for Gate, he’s just happy he’s alive and surprised at Isoc for keeping that mysterious barrier tech from Serges. [The irony of this statement is not lost on me.] There is a lot more that Isoc knows, that he isn’t letting on. Gate remembers that Isoc liked to dumpster dive for parts after a fortress would be destroyed in the past. We saw this in Xtreme 2. That is why he suspects nothing of Isoc having X-Hunter tech. Moreover, now they can continue to rebuild his reploids and take over the Research Community. By force!

I love how at this point, everyone wants to reshape the World. Not so much, Dynamo. He just wants to enjoy it. But Gate & Isoc have the Elite Reploid vision. We find out Zero’s motivations later. And X, we know wants a World where reploids and humans co-exist in peace; this would later be called Elysium.

Back at Hunter Base, while X is asleep and recovering, I had a.. tough time dealing with Alia and the Rescued Reploids. A little bit of Pre-X6 spilled in here, but the dialogue was all over the place. I had Reploids reacting very aggressively, or Alia being too bossy and I recall having to edit it down a lot. I attempted to keep the reactions as real as possible, because absolute strangers wouldn’t just automatically volunteer to be Maverick Hunters. No matter how grateful they are for being rescued, they don’t owe you anything.

When we cut back to Zero, I had a blast writing him fly through the Zero Space 1 level. There is no threat, and as far as Sigma is concerned, he is Home. So of course there would be no lasers, firing at him. But then I saw an opportunity at the boss lair that I couldn’t pass up. This gave me a new writing motif for Ep. 15.

Back to X, he’s back up! And sooner than expected!! This was the first time I had to write an item-grab episode. And honestly, it was kinda fun! This part of it woke the episode up a little bit. It was fun to write nostalgic settings like, Adler’s Lab and Dr. Glow’s Fortress. It was also neat to explore X’s new Gaea Armor in a more peaceful way. As we slowly warm up to the idea that X can traverse through spikes and bash through unbreakable blocks, like a Mech.

I had to give us some kind of stakes at the end of X’s item grab mission, in Dino-Rex’s well. X reverts to his base armor and tests out the Speedster chip, as he needs it to grab a heart-tank before lava can hit him.

That was fun. But then, when X got home it got complicated. The job well done was short-lived, before he was introduced to the new recruits BY NAME. [Yes, I spent some time looking up usable names from the X6 Rescued Reploid list.] That conversation itself, reminded X of Zero which makes him cry... Then, it got weird. Emotions were a little all over the place, so I edited it as needed, but Signas was the saving grace here. He introduced the idea that X might not need to kill Zero, but just save him. The same way he did in X2.

Either way, X is nervous, but he goes in after Zero to finish what he's started.

---------------------------------Ep. 15----------------------------------------------

This was an awesome episode, that covered more ground than I thought it would. X explores all of Zero Space Stage 1, with all the bells and whistles. Lasers and mechaniloids are flying after him left and right. X needs to use the Dark Hold and go in his base form, because the Gaea Armor is too slow. [This caused enough of problem IRL when I was doing my research playthroughs.]

But once X got to the first boss, I had fun. I took us back to 2 hours ago, while X was sleeping. This is where Zero tore up the Shadow Devil like he was nothing. And due to his clear knowledge of crammed Megaman History, he knows exactly who the Shadow Devil is, and it’s legacy to Wily Creatures.

When X learns that Zero destroyed this creature, he is instantly optimistic that he can bring Zero back, but Alia warns him not to feel that way.

Then we stay in the past with Zero for Z-Space Stage 2. [At this point all the Mavericks were spawned by Sigma and Zero cleared them all, so for X these stages were a breeze, barring the first one, where Zero wasn’t a threat to Sigma yet.] Despite Zero having to deal with Mavericks, this was not your average stage direction play through. Zero had all these game breaking powers that I could use to my advantage and keep things interesting, and I did!

I really wanted X to fight the Rangda Bangda though. So I came up with something for Zero to get through the room. Sigma just introduces himself in that room and taunts him, letting him through. “Welcome home, boy! I'm gonna enjoy working with you...”

Meanwhile, X deals with SIgma’s death trap. Only, the Gaea Armor easily lets him get through it without too much trouble at all.

From Zero’s perspective, we find out a lot of his motivations and realize that he gets more and more tired every time he uses his God-Virus powers. With a final flight to the gate, he is exhausted and all of the fighting he's done with X, the Shadow Devil and the mechaniloids up until now has finally taken it’s toll on him. As he enters an empty room, Zero is confused, but also takes this moment to rest.

Meanwhile, X catches up to him, about 2 hours later. Zero has now gotten a nap in, and the two are locked in the room together.

-----------------------------------Ep. 16-------------------------------------------------

The fated duel was upon us again!

The whole point of Battle of 2 Fates in the first place, was to skip this part. But years later, my narrative has changed, and here we were.

I decided to turn it on it’s head though. By this point, my version of Awakened Zero was really starting to come into his own. He has revealed that this is His life and he is going to do what he wants. The Old Man doesn’t control him, and neither do the Maverick Hunters. And Sigma is still his target.

2 out of 3 ain’t bad. X just has to work on that last part and maybe they can salvage this friendship. Minus the whole controlling thing.

So Zero tells X this. He has his own dreams. Zero wants to live in a World where he rules over the survivors and guides them into a new era where the word Maverick doesn’t exist.

While, not terrible, this is too impure for X. There’s still something evil lurking in there, and now his data is untraceable like Sigma. It doesn't help that Zero wants to make the Fallen Colony his home and is willing to align with whomever survives, Maverick or not.

It is not only for this reason that X decides to take him on. He does want to save Zero. Like I said, 2 out of the 3 things are there. If he can just do what he did in Season II, maybe it’ll all work out.

Well... that move never gets to happen.

I had a lot of fun making new fight choreography for this. I pulled out all the stops, this time. I even kept old fight choreography from the remainder of Battle of 2 Fates, but in all honesty, it wasn’t much. And what was kept was already shaved down into something completely different.

So with that said, I really went for it. Charged X4 & X5 weapons alike, using that Ultimate Buster chip like Alia & Douglas suggested in episode 14. It was all happening, now. And then... it was over!

11 pages too soon, too!

But fuck it. I didn't need to pad this. And I wasn’t going to cram and rush 2 Sigma fights in this chapter either.

I really enjoyed having Sigma enter the room after the battle was done. This happens in the game, but what also happens canonically is that he inexplicably LEAVES THEM when he HAS THEM. He could’ve killed them right there, while they’re both comatose on the ground. Or taken them in for re-programming. And that is what I opted for.

Since Xtreme 2, I’ve really been thinking, what would Sigma do if he actually won. And I’ve been honestly thinking that he’d keep X & Zero around, but in his own image. Maverick Minions to do his bidding. An Awakened Zero and a Maverick iX. That would be his dream team.

----------------------------------Episode 17--------------------------------------------

And here in Episode 17, I finally got to explore this!

I didn’t want to cheapen the stuff that comes later, but I really needed to show us that this plan wasn’t going to work. Despite the fact that he HAD them!!!

Sigma uses his virus specters to enter into their pores. It works with Zero, even giving him some final breaths of life, but it does not work with X. In fact, he has some mysterious barrier, protecting him from any infection.

This frustrates Sigma, who reveals that he just wants to make him iX.

From there, X wakes up and I’m not gonna write the whole episode again. lol

We get our much deserved fight, but keep in mind X has not recovered yet from his insane battle with Zero. And he’s already used one Sub-tank.

So now X is going in, half-drained and with 1 Sub-tank!? Yeah, that’s a death wish.

Still. I worked with it. It took away the Ultimate Buster Chip advantage, explaining that Sigma removed any chip enhancers he already had. Armors are internal, however. Sigma wasn’t able to get in there [clearly].

I’m really proud of the Gaea Armor fight. Specifically the “Predict this!” bit with the Giga Attack.

Using the 2nd Sub-tank during Sigma 1 was risky, but necessary. X was now fully recovered, while Sigma was down, and he easily transformed into his Force Armor to discover Sigma’s weakness - the Tri-Thunder.

Once that was in play, this fight was practically in the bag. Still, I needed a dramatic finish with the charged Tri-Thunder. A Force Armor Nova Strike was in there, too, which only makes the stakes more desperate, because those moves really kill X’s stamina.

Now in Sigma Fight 2, it was hard to keep this interesting. Dialogue, aside, X’s fight with him is a lot of back and forth, pattern memorizing, shoot the giant head nonsense.

I kept this up, however and even had fun with Sigma climbing over his shoulder, and shooting him at close range with the Spike Ball. I also enjoyed how he used the radar one last time to find out his weaknesses.

But when I had enough, and narratively, when X was angry enough, he was able to transform into his Ultimate Armor with a hard Nova Strike to the face. This does not kill him, but it definitely dwindled his energy way down for like, 5 more hits. [I didn’t count.]

And theeeeen, I finally got to add in a line I created for Zero, basically at the beginning planning stages. Zero makes a surprise Z-Buster shot, indicating that he is indeed alive, and still on X’s side, or at least.. his friend. To the very end.

“Some things... go beyond our programing...”

I’ve had that line forever and now I finally got to use it!

X needed a final cool thing, besides just a Nova Strike, so I shoe-horned in this new attack, which is basically an Uppercutting Nova Strike.

The idea was that the hadouken evolved into the shuryuken, which evolved into the Hyper Aura, which evolved into the Nova Strike. But now this was like a combination attack. A blue flamed uppercutting Nova Strike type thing. There is no name for it, because I made it up. I probably won't use it again, either. [But never say never...]

And there it is. Sigma died, and we got our endings.

I owe TheGreatClement, from YouTube a huge thank you for already putting this together in his LP years ago. I would’ve done the same thing, but his compilation made it so much easier to throw this together.

Then came inserting the bad ending.

1 Week Later, X forgets stuff. And he HATES Zero!

I had to change that. This was a challenge. I didn’t want X to get mind-wiped at all by Dr. Light. But now... I have room for gray area in X6... So I compromised with the non-canon. If X6 must indeed be a combined scenario of Good and Bad ending. And in X6 he does indeed remember Zero fondly... Then, I needed Dr. Light to mind-wipe something else. “...all the Painful Memories.” The painful memories of fighting Zero, himself. [Whether that includes Season II or not, is up in the air.]

But as Alia explains, there’s a ‘Protection’ on X’s memory data now. He can’t remember anything related to the Colony. I went a step further to say that he remembers Zero destroying it, and then fighting Sigma together with him. That’s it. And even that memory is hazy, because Zero’s legs were missing during that fight.

So now, we have a firm compromise. X can remember all the best parts of their history. He can remember palling around at the base, and their proudest feelings together on good missions. He still has his Best Friend in his heart.

The 2nd part of the bad ending doesn’t deal with this as much. It introduces the idea of Elysium, which is just the name of the idea he has already had since X1. But now he wants a Paradise. His idea is fully formed, rather than.. a hopeful philosophy, I suppose. If X gets his way, he will Do this! They have a broken world they have to rebuild, but first they need to rebuild their base.

Also, before I leave this part, I need to mention something irritating. I chose... X6 Reploid names, specifically to replace “Hunter A” and “Hunter B” in the ending. Specifically, Araki & Batsu. Those were the names. I placed them both in this scene, and it felt great. (At first.)

Then when I got to the good ending, I gave names for those 3 cooler ones that he talks to. Iso, Cody and Tekk.

I could’ve left it at that, but from here, I decided to look at the X6 sprites of Rescued Reploids, including Hunter 1 and 2 from the intro stage, and assigned more names. When I looked at what these guys actually looked like, and compared it with those I have chosen, Hanse & Hal just stuck out like a sore thumb.

The fact that there were only 2 reploids rescued from Dr. Glow’s fortress cemented this decision. They were gonna be the only true Yellow Reploids that are rescued from X5. And therefore... Araki & Batsu, the true Hunter A and Hunter B had to be replaced with Hanse & Hal, due to just being cooler and getting better designs.

It’s not the biggest thing in the World, but it’s just weird how planning works out sometimes. It’s my own hangup, I know, and it might not make sense, but there it is.

ANYWAY.

Then the good ending kicks in, 2 weeks later.

[I really wanted to put 3 weeks later, but that 1st week with the bad stuff had to happen.]

X stands with Iso, Cody and Tekk as Alia lets them know that there is a new Mechaniloid in HORIE block, or whatever.

This scene will be expanded on in X6, and this isn’t the place for it, but you can only imagine what HORIE Block is. - That’s right. The intro stage to X6.

I already alluded to 2 other Hunters being in trouble - Data and Batsu, so there ya go. [Yay, Hunter B is in there after all.]

But more to the point, we get our Good X5 Ending. With X gripping the familiar saber in hand, and feeling stronger than ever, knowing that Zero is still with him.

---------------------------------tl;dr-----------------------------------------------------

My final thoughts on X5. I really hate that game, man. X4 was so solid, and honestly... if the text-based cut scenes were anime cut scenes, that would already do a World of Difference for me. But gameplay mechanics wise, the introduction to the wire hook was interesting and the duck was necessary. But otherwise... I dunno. Some enemies were too strong, I hated the boss level up system, and the timed mission - while different, set a whole different tone for the game. Gone was the chill exploring, even though you could go wherever you wanted to. Alia would reprimand you if you were in an area that you didn’t belong in yet.

Still, the things that I like are that you are not really fighting Mavericks here, but instead visiting Reploids who could be infected, or in one way or another have a grudge with you.

And it’s those things, plus the prior Zero motivations that carried me through this Season. Zero hating on the Repliforce turned into an evil ugly monster that threatened to ruin his friendship with X.

Also, Dynamo was a class act. Not quite, Deadpool 4th wall breaking, but fun enough to really add life in places that were already tense and nerve-wracking.

Gate & Isoc’s sub-plot was pretty neat. It turns out I had a little more for Gate to do than just brood in his own trailer. I didn’t think Isoc would interact with him as much as he did, at first.

Showing a vulnerable Sigma whose dreams are falling apart before his final battle with X was risky, but one worth taking in my opinion. Despite all these games, I feel like I don’t show him enough, so it was nice to delve into his thoughts a little bit.

And lastly, of course - the 3rd Arc roll call.

Ep. 13 - An Epic Battle written in 2011, revised into something even better in 2019.

Ep. 14 - An awesome aftermath episode that explores the damage to the world and it’s effect on Dynamo, Gate, Isoc, Sigma, Zero and X, who must recover items before he takes on Zero again.

Ep. 15 - Zero Space was crazy! Zero fought way more than X, although, X did go through Stage 1 the hard way and they both fought the same amount of bosses.

Ep. 16 - An Epic Rematch! Probably even better than Ep. 13. That’d be a fun debate.

Ep. 17 - The Climactic Ending. It’s all come down to X vs. Sigma, again, but the battle brings surprises to all of them. When it’s all said and done, the Maverick Hunters are ready to move forward and rebuild.

And that’s all he wrote, folks.

There will be a Season Vi. Yes, I will be taking a break. But yes, you will be getting updates.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed Season V. Despite hating that game, I enjoyed writing more of this Season than you’d think. There’s a lot more in there that I didn’t touch upon, I’m sure. But anyway, you get the gist.

Later folks and as always. Thank you for Reading.

#Season V Diaries #The End of Season V #Thoughts on the 3rd Arc

1 note · View note