Prologue:
Five years ago a war was waged that would end the mavericks reign of terror forever. They were led by Sigma, once thought to have been destroyed due to the effects of the Sigma anti-virus. He was resurrected, and as an act of revenge possessed his arch-rival's, Mega Man X's best friend Xero with the thought that X would not turn against his best friend. In a climatic battle both Sigma and Xero were destroyed. The spirit of Zero acted as an anti-virus, preventing Sigma from ever returning. What followed was five years of peace, but the peace was shortlived.
A secret society of mavericks arose, causing terror in the population. They inspired maverick attacks and many other forms of terror such as bombing buildings and attacking civilians. They were led by a reploid named "Wulvpak". The Wulvpak clan worked secretly under ground in resurrecting mavericks that had been long destroyed. Mavericks that were destroyed at the hands of X were resurrected with the promise of revenge on the blue bomber, and the wrath of Sigma would be unleashed on the world again.
The Wulvpak reign of terror spread further and it was time once again for the maverick hunters to rise to the call of duty to protect both the humans, and the remaining reploid population that hadn't yet gone maverick. The Wulvpak attacked a laboratory known as Omega Labs. Omega Labs were conducting top-secret projects. Among them was a highly classified project known as the "R" Project, an experiment to create a war machine with the ferocity and abilities of a prehistoric beast. When the laboratory was attacked, the top-secret "R" Project was released into the world with a lust for revenge. But the "R" Project was not the only thing that was released....
X awoke with a start, panting. Another bad dream. He'd been having them since his last battle five years ago. Painful memories of that fateful day. Even after all those years he was still suffering from guilt, one he knew would never leave him. He shock that memory to the back of his mind for now, stretched, yawned and got out of bed. Reploids had no trouble waking up like humans do. They can be up and ready to go in a matter of seconds. They can do everything humans do, only better. X drowsily stretched and yawned again, for there was no rush, no emergency this morning. He was dressed in a pair of white boxers with yellow smiley faces on them that Mac had given him for Christmas a month ago. Of course he despised them, but he didn't want to hurt Mac's feelings. Mac had been brought back and cured from the Doppler virus because there was a shortage of maverick hunters. And some days X wished they hadn't. X could trust that reploid about as far as he could toss him with his pinkie finger, plus he got on his nerves. X strolled away from his bed to the other end of the room to a small chamber and stepped outside. He yawned out the word "clear" and a blue beam of light shot down from the ceiling onto him, and in a flash he was clad in his blue armor.
After X had "gotten dressed" he strolled over to the closed door of his room, pressed a button and it hissed open. He then stepped into a long corridor, turned to the right and started down the hall. He heard a loud clamor behind him as he went. Barking, howling, and clanking. X Turning his head and as he did so a pack of reploid hunting dogs ran by him, running rampant in the halls. "I've told Megabyte time and time again NOT to let the dogs out while in the kennel," X said to himself in disgust. "Personal note to myself: NEVER let a rookie into the kennel without supervision." Well, he thought to himself, at least you don't have to clean up after reploid dogs as often as you do biological ones. And with that he headed down the hall to the central control room.
The central control room was a large rooom with control panels and monitors all around. On the walls were large display screens with diagrams, maps and grids displayed on them. Some reploids were moving around, going about their business and some were still kicking-back against the control panels, the typical slow moving moment around HQ.
X looked around the room, searching for his fellow hunters, Mac and Retro. He found Retro at one of the control panels, looking wide-eyed and intently at the monitors before him and typing wildly at reploid speed. Retro was also a resurrected hunter, though he was never a maverick. The second time that Sigma was resurrected Retro was on a mission with X, as being part of the 17th. Unit, to attack an abandoned reploid factory in which a maverick resistance force took up . Retro , speeding recklessly ahead of X was taken out by some of the heavy artillery outside the factory. But now he was back, and X only hoped that he wasn't hacking again, which is what it looked like he was doing.
X rolled his eyes in disgust. "Retro", he shouted. "Are you hacking again!?" Upon hearing this Retro's heart jumped into his throat and he quickly hit the abort button. "Nnnoo sir," he stammered. "Oh sure," X grumbled to himself. Retro locked kinda like X and was about X's size, only he wore green armor and two antennae stuck out of his ear nodules, one on each nodule. The many times Retro had hacked into "Playbot" magazine Inc. was immeasurable, and X was about damn sick of it. Now, where is Mac.... Oh there he is, asleep as usual, X thought. He found Mac laid back in his chair asleep with his feet up on the control panel sawing logs. He looked like a six-foot purple Robo-Cop, what with the somewhat bullet-shaped helmet and the dark visor over his eyes. His snore was loud and racking and X could tell that it was annoying his fellow hunters, including himself, and he would like to take his X-Buster and blow Mac's god damn head right off. But instead X decided to save his comrade's ears the non-violent way. So he picked up a notebook, tore a sheet off and using a pen he found wrote "WAKE UP AND STOP SNORING!!!!!! Then taking a magnet he found (some hunters are famous for leaving junk around) stuck it and the paper on Mac's helmet so that it hung down in his face. Mac felt someone pressing something to his forehead and awoke to the words hanging right in his face. Mac tore the paper from under the magnet off his head, read it and was infuriated. HIs face turned red and he crumbled up the paper and tossed it aside yelling angrily "alright, whose the wise guy!!" X stepped forward with a grin. "I am, Mac." " Come on, there's stuff that needs to be done and your still asleep." "I'll get you for this X!" Mac yelled, infuriated, throwing the magnet he found stuck to his head. "If you have not forgotten, I am your leader, I will be doing all the "getting" around here," X said sternly.
It was humorous times like these that kept X from having an emotional breakdown what with the return of the mavericks and the fact that he was the cause of the death of his best friend Zero five years ago. He may have been smiling, but deep down inside he was still disturbed about the recent flashback he just had.
Dr. Cain vigorously hobbled into the room towards X. "X! X!" X was now more alert. "Yes, Dr. Cain? What is it?" "It's happened again!" Dr. Cain said, still catching his breath. X was surprised. Not again, he thought. "Your kidding!" "No, I'm afraid not. Come on, I'll show you." Mac and Retro stopped what they were doing and followed Dr. Cain and X. Then, all of a sudden, Dr. Cain turned around and stared X curiosly in the eyes. "It's another bad dream, isn't it X? I can see it in your eyes." X sighed and stared down at his metallic boots. "Yes", he said softly. Dr. Cain put his hand on X's shoulder. "X, I can repair damaged robots, but broken emotions is something I just can't fix. Only you can repair things and make things better." "I understand", X said softly. Dr. Cain smiled. "Come".
They entered a smaller section of central control off to the side. In there were various control panels and a large blank screen on the wall. Dr. Cain turned to the blank screen and motioned to it and the others turned, too. He was holding a CD in his hand. "You see here some footage taken by a survellance camera in an old storage facility downtown. Several worker reploids there had gone maverick and before our forces could act that strange reploid appeared again and attacked and destroyed all the mavericks there. See for yourself". Dr. Cain inserted the CD in a slot on the control panel and a vision appeared on the screen. It was alittle jumpy and staticey, but clear enough to see the layout of what was being recorded. It was a view from above looking down at the bottom. Movement could be seen from below of the mavericks, and the humans running for cover. The sounds of explosions were fairly clear, along with voices. Then all of a sudden several lazer shots rang out above the other sounds and the sounds of explosions and shattering glass were heard as the lights went out. Then the picture got clearer again and turned a shade of green as the camera switched onto night-vision mode. Then a green streak, like that of a sabre beam could be seen streaking all about, striking and destroying every maverick that fell in it's path. There seemed to be someone weilding it, for there was a form that appeared to be reploid on the screen. After the entity wiped out all the mavericks it paused for a moment, then turned it's gaze slowly upward to the camera. It stared with big yellow eyes that resembled the eyes of a hawk or some sort of beast. The reploid pointed it's armcannon upward at the camera. A shot was fired and the screen flickered and went blank. "Thankfully the audio-visual disk remained fairly intact, as you can see by the somewhat blurred footage", Dr. Cain said, motioning towards the screen. He pressed a button and the screen switched off. "We HAVE identified the entity as being a reploid", Dr. Cain said reassuringly. Retro spoke up. "Well, of course. No human would've been able to pull a stunt like that one off." "Yes", Dr. Cain leaned forward to face the inquiring hunters. "This is the most complete footage we've had of the mysterious maverick assailant. The hunter prefers to wipe out any visual evidence of it's battles by taking out the survellence cameras. So far there have been twelve instances, both with roughly the same pattern of attack, but no motive as to why it attacks the mavericks."
"Ha! Ha! Hell, if it keeps goin' on like this it'll put us hunters outta buisness!" Mac remarked. The others pretended they didn't hear that. "Intelligence interviewed several witnesses that have caught a glimpse of the reploid, and from what has been told it appears to be female". "Wow! It took us faster to figure out her gender than it did to figure out Zero's, and we haven't even met her!", and with that Mac began to laugh. But his laugh was shortlived when X grabbed him, pushed him across the room and pinned him against the wall. It happened so fast that Mac didn't even have time to think. There was much power in that little blue reploid, more than anyone, human or reploid could percieve. X got a strangle-hold on Mac's neck with his one hand, using the other to pin the purple robo-cop against the wall. "If I ever, EVER hear you make a remark about him again I'll blow you to peices and leave you for the vulturoids, you hear?!" "Y-yes", Mac stammered, still shocked. "DO YOU HEAR?!!" X screamed once more, even louder this time. Mac, catching X by surprise, pushed him off saying, "X, you're obsessed! This thing happened years ago, GET OVER IT!!" X couldn't believe what he was saying. "Do you know what it feels like to be forced to kill your best friend?!" Mac then stopped and listened. "You don't know what it feels like to see him dying, to wake up day after day, knowing he's not there, and knowing that YOU'RE THE CAUSE OF IT!! It's a lingering guilt that'll last me my entire life and there's NOTHING I can do to change that!" Mac bowed his head in shame, finally realizing his mistake. "I'm sorry X. I had no idea..." Mac said softly. "You had no idea" X growled under his breath. Dr. Cain decided that it was time for him to step in. "X, come on. It's not time for painful memories. It's time for us to join together for the good of mankind. Mac said he was sorry. Please X..." X took one last angry look at Mac, then turned and walked back to the others, with Mac following at a safe distance.
Dr. Cain continued. "A team of hunteers will be assigned to investigate this matter. Are you up to it?" "You can count on us, Dr. Cain", X said. "Good. There is a warehouse in the inner city that is famous for maverick attacks. It is also a place were sightings of this mysterious hunter are prolific. I want you to go there and investigate. Try to find some evidence of her and try to make contact if you can". "Roger, Dr. Cain." Then he turned to the others. "Alright, you heard what he said, let's move on out!! And they were off.