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+--- Thread: After Life (/showthread.php?tid=6099)
After Life - Mega Man X - 05-19-2017
System startup initiated... ... Done.
...
System error, attempting diagnostic program.
A.I. network: Online. Age check... Error - variable overflow.
Loading last backup; Date 23XX.XX.XX
Warning - Primary Battery low. Recharge required; Projected requirement 156 days at 23% efficiency...
Attempting network connection... failed. Please check connection.
Body function test...
Warning - Broad-Range Eye Camera error; Repair required.
Lightweight "Titanium-X" alloy armor enabled. Integrity 100%.
Reactive Armored Skeleton enabled. Projected damage resistance... Calculation error - Please calibrate system.
Warning - Full-Auto Gyroscopic Stabilizer System offline. Please check connection...
Warning - Emergency Acceleration System offline. Please check connection...
X-Buster online, output test 35%.
Warning - Energy Amplification Device error; Repair required...
Warning - Variable Weapon System offline; Please check connection...
Continue activation? y/n
>y
...
Welcome back, MEGA MAN X.
You have (1) unread message.
>load mail\unread /bydate
Omni Wrote:My name is Omni. This is not the world you know. This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it. The Omniverse is a place that reflects the wishes of those who are part of it. But! There are rules. I will explain them only once, so listen carefully.Message end.
This is Omnilium. It’s what ties the Omniverse together. Without it, you are nothing. With it, anything you desire can be yours. But you will need more than this. If you desire it enough, you will find it. You will find that using it comes naturally. Just think of what you desire most.
You will not be alone in the Omniverse. There are others. Of course, they, too desire Omnilium. Do not fear death. For as long as you interest me, you will be reborn.
That’s all you need to know right now. You’ll figure out the rest soon enough. I’ll be watching … and waiting.
>wake
Please Wait...
A pair of eyelids crept open, exposing a pair of shining bold eye-cameras. Stark white assaulted his visual sensors, and Mega Man X wondered for a moment if this place were actually some sort of afterlife.
He knew for certain that could not be true, however.
His body- it felt almost strange to have a body again. The certain weightlessness of his nigh-ethereal being had become his norm for the past few decades or so. Simply being physical like this once more was not the strange part, however. The oddity in this situation was the body itself.
X recalled the message he had inadvertently been left. When did he receive it? No date had been listed, where it most definitely should have been. He poured over the log of his internal console for a time, examining the details. The android beckoned his joints, his artificial muscles to animate, and they did. After what felt like an agonizing moment, he sat upright from the laying position he had awakened in.
The ultimate conclusion that Mega Man X reached? This body was not his own, but a fabrication of Omni.
That should have been a given, of course. His original shell had long since been lost to the events of the Arcadia War. That fact that he remained in any body at all could only be a dead ringer for his having been placed in a new form.
That being said, the detail put in this imitation was, well... A cursory glance over his new armor revealed a complex new Titanium-X shell, much in the likeness of X's original model but lacking the simplicity of it. The android wanted to say 'appreciable', but he found himself having second thoughts. Those second thoughts concerned the apparent lack of capability this new body bore. All the nuanced little internal systems were either absent, non-functional, or of questionable operation.
Never, in all of his time operating, could X recall any time where his form had been stripped quite so bare as now. The prospect of this almost insulted the android, painting the mysterious Omni as a cruel and unlikable figure.
Unfortunately, also as a result of this prospect, X had no more power to judge.
With a sigh, the blue knight stood up, the machinery of his skeleton shifting and creaking ever so subtlety. At least the body did everything that one would reasonably expect a body to do at a baseline level. At least the armor seemed sturdy enough. At least his mind had translated well enough into the internal functions.
By the time the android erected himself upright, getting his bearings of the immediate white space, he had reconsidered. X should be more grateful he had entered this world with a body at all, much less one made specifically for him.
That left one burning, absolute question: why did this 'Omni' bring Mega Man X here?
After Life: The Burning Question - Mega Man X - 05-19-2017
To save me from death?
X's immediate visual scans of the environment revealed the only thing in close proximity to himself was a fountain. Transparent voxels spewed from crude likenesses of cherubs, all pointing to the sky yet pouring into a sparking prismatic pool. Other than as a peculiar sight, the structure seemed to have no apparent purpose.
There was nobody else here- not in close proximity, anyways. Why would Omni draw X here, in the stead of any of the other 5 noble androids X had closely aligned with?
To give me new purpose?
The thought seemed rather incredulous at first, but X recalled Omni's words more closely. This world reflects the wishes of those who are part of it; with Omnilium, anything one desires can be created. Without Omnilium, X would be nothing. So his new body was made from that mysterious substance, therefore. In that same thought, this body might also grant the function to manipulate Omnilium.
Neo Arcadia came to mind. That seemed a little ambitious to recreate right off the bat. It had taken many years back then, and while it hadn't meant much in terms of his lifespan, it still spoke of a large volume of effort. Being able to create a whole city like that would not be so easy here, or else Omni had no limits on his subjects.
Subjects. Was that the right word for them? The term sounded the slightest bit demeaning, yet X's initial efforts could not find a better descriptor. Why would Omni bring X here if he were not a subject of the Omniverse?
To provide entertainment?
That deity (Omni could only be something like that if he had all this power to share) claimed he brought the android here because X was interesting. What did he mean by this? Had Omni been looking upon X's world, finding his life compelling enough to see that it should continue? Or did he imagine the Mega Man simply as a plaything, a toy to place in his dollhouse?
X looked at his hand, how the fingers were capable of flexing in and out, how the joints bent naturally and the fist closed firmly. No, that theory didn't seem quite right either. The white deity had been so generous in what he gave to X- not simply a body, but the ability to create anything the humanoid machine so desired with mere thoughts. The thought didn't seem impossible or outlandish, all things considered, but instead irrational.
X wondered if he was thinking too hard about a smiling silhouette that had gifted him a new body containing potential god-like powers. No sooner that that thought crossed his mind than did he dismiss it. The android had every right to be curious.
As much as he would like the ponder all existence if he were capable, such things were a song and dance X had already been though before. He needed to do something here. The question should not be why, but what.
X attempted to zoom in with his glowing lens, to scope out whatever may be on the horizon of this nebulous dimension. Objects, things like strange obelisks, stood out among the infinite expanse of pearl. There were figures, too, many moving around the large landmarks. Everything was too far away to scope any detail, however, and X was left wondering what all this was.
Omni had said there would be others, said that they too desired Omnilium, said that death was not to be feared. So long as X remained interesting, he would be reborn.
Maybe the android was a plaything after all. He just could not know for certain.
He took a step, then another.
Mega Man X had lived for hundreds of years, seen millions of things, died many times over. He had thought his previous time would truly be the last, and prepared to go quietly. Now it seemed all too clear that the machinations of whatever gods above would forbid him from such a noble fate.
The android's mechanical ploddings held a certain smoothness and rhythm to their movements, despite the bulky form that used them. Anyone that knew X would not be surprised. He had always been more human than any robot.
After Life: Finding Answers - Mega Man X - 05-19-2017
So, what was X to do here in this new expanse?
Logically, the first thing would be to gather information. In a strange new world, intuition would only take one so far. Knowing the world, the people within it, and how it all works would be a valuable expenditure of effort. Chances are that there would be at least one database devoted to archiving all of these things; the issue would be how to access this.
Perhaps there was an information network- like the primitive Internet, or the infinitely complex Cyberspace. X couldn't determine what such a network was here, however, since he lacked a connection.
Of course, he had Omnilium. If he lacked a connection, he would simply make one.
The android's titanium body shifted into auto-pilot, each mechanical step moving on its own. The Mega Man devoted all his mental processes to imagination, forming the idea of a link to this nebulous information highway. Without any certainty of what to expect, X pictured everything he could think of: a handheld device with a wireless adapter, an integral router within a machine, a physical entrance into a virtual dimension...
With all his resources devoted to this task, X couldn't take note of how much time he required to make this concept whole. Eventually, though, his effort did in fact take shape. His cameras, out of focus from his redirection of power, were suddenly invaded by the myraid of the visible spectrum. Rainbows danced across the vision sensors, and X became acutely aware of something in his body changing, like some remote system update. The prismatic show swirled away as quickly as it appeared, his eyes reaffirming the sight of the gradually approaching landmark yet off in the distance.
From the corner of his left eye, a textual diagnostic typed itself out:
Installation complete. Connecting to Dataverse...
Just like that, X's mind expanded. The so-called Dataverse was now free to browse at his will, and he had much yet to discover about this Omniverse. The android quickly checked that he was some distance away from any potential obstacle, then kept his body automated while his systems scanned the new wealth of information at his beck.
X made his first search regarding Omni, and what he found was either rumor and speculation, or details he already knew. The humanoid became aware of a certain distinction between individuals within the Omniverse, however; a person summoned by Omni personally was known as a "Prime," and bore all those summoning powers that the white deity had granted. Those summoned by Primes themselves, however, were called "Secondaries," and had no such ability for themselves. Already X began to sense a drastic power gap between these two distinctions, and such a rift most certainly led to conflict, or at least dislike.
The android's next search concerned the world at large, the Omniverse itself. There much more fruit to be found here, with many various documentations of dramatically different regions. A cursory scan revealed there were eight primary "Verses" that comprised the Omniverse, along with the Nexus that linked them all together. X found himself particularly surprised, however, to see that the Dataverse itself described as a functional world one was capable of entering. So it really was like Cyberspace after all...
Feeling particularly more enlightened to the nature of things, the Mega Man pondered for a moment on what he should look for next. The Dataverse, he realized, would just be an empty virtual existence if someone had not compiled all the information X had found so far. There had to be groups, alliances, or factions abound in the Omniverse- it would be unlikely that everyone would wander on their own agenda, and surely at least two people in a million would share some interest. So that became the android's next search, and arguably one of the most critical to survival.
A title that X had been seeing frequently throughout the various digital sites was "The Empire." Simple and straightforward, but with mysterious and potential sinister connotations. X's search led him to more detail on this Empire; how they bore an entire verse all of their own, how they held multiple outposts throughout the other major verses. Their tell-tale pearl-clad soldiers were the backbone of their military, and the Primes under their employ served as their many hands.
The Empire did not exist without an opposition, however, and that came in the form of "The Kingdom." Much as the imperials lived as a technological superpower, the Kingdom stood diametrically opposed to that, containing the more medieval of subjects. Magic, beasts, knights, and all other manner of old-fashioned or otherwise fantastical elements were gathered under this banner to some extent. It seemed bizarre to even imagine, but in the Omniverse, anything one could imagine at all seemed to be par for the course.
So what could X do here? Simple: as long as conflict existed, people would be looking for brave souls to help resolve it. Surely, the Dataverse would contain any public requests for help.
Instead, the android stumbled upon something else entirely.
The file seemed innocuous enough at a glance, being listed as an "incident report" in the megaplex of Coruscant. The scenario depicted within the file proved how drastic the event truly had been. An entire warpath carved down several city streets, rampant destruction and abuse of property. Every body found apparently seeped with rampant dark substance, corrupting their very essence into something else entirely. Disgust, horror, and fear of infection were all too apparent in the outline, despite professional attempts to disguise it.
X likened the enigmatic matter to a virus. That was the only connection he needed to draw to become interested.
The former Maverick Hunter searched through similar keywords he found in the document. Infection, darkness, Nebula- these returned results of similar reports. Incidents across all the Verses, indications of activity, movement, and recruitment. The conflicts formed the shape of an ensuing pandemic, and X immediately found within himself a new drive.
This threat must be disposed of-
You have (1) new message.
After Life: The Cause - Mega Man X - 05-22-2017
The Mega Man perked up, alerted by the sudden indicator that had appeared. After a brief moment of hesitation, he opened the incoming mail.
-----
Greetings.
I see you have been accessing the various reports regarding the recent stream of Nebula activity. Your speed and probing is quite commendable, despite the digital footprint you have left.
-----
X blinked once, dismissing the message momentarily and refreshing his eye-cameras. A trail? That might be an issue he would have to check out later. The android forced a diagnostic of the message, confirming it held no sort of nasty surprise in store - no results were found in the code. Cautious nonetheless, X opened the mail again and continued where he left off.
-----
My name is Dr. Regal. I have been investigating these events for some time now, for the organization known as Nebula is something of a personal threat in my past. I've found that this force is growing quite powerful, using the dangerous influence of Dark Data to augment themselves and the world. It is becoming too potent of a force to ignore, as not even well-trained soldier teams can put a stop to Nebula's operations.
Thus, I have been forced to turn to the raw capabilities of Primes to solve this matter. I have already sent out a call to many potentially helpful Primes who could dispatch of these operations and put a stop to Nebula. I would be fortunate to have your assistance as well, if you would be capable. If it would inspire you to consider my offer, I have a suitable reward of Omnilium prepared for everyone that aids me in destroying these strongholds across the Omniverse.
-----
The android stopped himself again for a moment. As fitting as it should be to behave in an altruistic manner, that potential reward stood out to X. Omnilium: that substance, that resource Omni offered. If X wanted to continue working in similar operations across this new expanse of worlds, he would need much more than he had now. With much of his functions currently inoperable, and without any dedicated place to repair or recharge himself, the former Maverick Hunter bore little in the way of solid foundation for repeated liberation missions. The solution seemed as if it might only come with more of this wish-granting material, this Omnilium.
Reconsidering his priorities, X resumed the message:
-----
Attached to this message is a Data Packet. Should you accept it, I will take it as an indication you are willing to help me in disposing of Nebula. My various assistants will be informed to provide you with a Liberator Aide, a special device of my design. The Liberator Aide contains processed for an advanced shielding network and accelerated healing routine, as well as a radar for detecting Nebula signatures and a processor for utilizing any Battle Chips you may come across.
Do no worry about finding my assistants; they will find you. The devices are built to track any listed Liberators in a given verse, and you can use this to find other Primes potentially informed of my cause. Find these allies and work together to locate and destroy the Strongholds in each Verse.
The fate of the very Omniverse as we know it may depend on these operations.
-Dr. Regal, Coruscant Tier 2 Science Team
-----
Although X could discern no reason to immediately distrust Dr. Regal, he scanned the included Data packet once again. The process confirmed there was no sort of virus or bug present that the android's systems could detect. X perused carefully over the message once again, thinking hard about accepting this. As much as it could very possibly be a trap, any evidence that suggested it absolutely was appeared slim. Even if it were legitimate, his opening the attachment would immediately put a great responsibility on his shoulders, one X wasn't sure if he could handle just yet.
He opened it anyway. Instead of any image or document, a program revealed itself, immediately sending some sort of signal out. X could not determine the contents of the outbound message before it finished, the program promptly closing itself.
Hopefully that was a good thing.
The android looked around again, trying to gain some sense of his bearings. He had unfortunately not made much headway since the beginning of his walk. Resolving to go with one of the worlds closest to where he currently stood, X redoubled his pace, no longer automating his steps. There was work to be done.