MEGAMAN AXL: Zero Era 2

CHAPTER 1: He Lives On…

It has been a year

since Axl chose to

take a different

path from Ciel…

…

He still fights

against Neo Acradian.

…

But these battles

slowly lose meaning

for him.

…

Axl knows what his

purpose is in life,

that is to reunite with

Ciel and the Resistance Soliders…

…

Endless desert to be seen within the eyes' view, pieces of lost ruins of fallen cities and Reploids are evident where they once stood. A lone figure dressed in a long brown cloak tireless walks alone aimlessly without destination or worry, just silently walking in the sandstorm without a care in the world.

How long has he fought? He though he enjoy a good sparring match from time to time, fighting an entire year against Neo Arcadian everyday without rest or sleep wear on his nerves. Looking back on how this started, he remembers a certain female awaken his sleep asking for help against a force of unimaginative power and rebuild the bond between Humans and Reploids.

Reploids, robotic beings or otherwise known as androids are machines that think, act, and will themselves just like Humans. All Reploids where born from a single design of another robot, the more perfect android that cannot be perfectly replicated which is where the term comes from. A replica of an android, the first of his kind as he was known as Mega Man X the legendary hero how saved the world countless times. Reploids acted and behavior similar to humans, X more so than the others, and evident of this fact, but Humans seems to forget this important fact from time to time except for a selected few.

His mind returns to the scene where the girl smiled to him. A beautiful smile he hated to see sad or cry, making him want to protect that smile no matter.

Hehe… remember he felt this way regarding two other females. He had a crush on certain pink female Reploid ninja thief for a little bit and she flirted with him from time to time but seemed interested in his abilities but grew to trust one another and work well together.

And another who had a crush on him and he was aware of it. Her entire attire mimic the typical nurse uniform, but within her body and had a special machine that generated unique ores that enchanted a Reploid's capabilities. Though she didn't care about it and all she wanted was to help people around her and get closer to him.

The funny thing is that both of them remind him of two other female that has caught his attention. The female scientist he mention earlier and a certain blue-clad female with a halberd. They remind him so much of the two he spent time with together during his adventures on Giga City Island.

The storm slowly began to die out and his vision became clear again.

"Hehe, about time. I hate getting sands in my boots," chuckled the lone figure to himself.

Suddenly he heard the sounds of footsteps echoing from the back, turning his head around with the cloak covering his face.

A small platoon of blue colored Reploids came into view, their single red eye covering their entire face looked down at the lone figure with enmity as their drew their arm cannons at him. These machines were called Pantheons, servants of Neo Arcadian.

The lone figure smirked and pulled the cloak off of him.

A black armored stood in the desert, the intense sunlight glowing off of his battered and wore armor but giving him an elegant and noble appearance of a dark hero. His face was hard and cold espesically with the X-shape scar on his forehead giving him an intimidating look, but with a hint of playfulness brimming in his eyes. A small smile slowly etched onto his features as his drew out a pair of twin guns from his gun pocket holsters equipped on his waist.

"Some entertainment, eh? OK boys, thrill me!"

The black Reploid looked eager and ready to kick some butt, but his panting gave evident that he was tired and almost exhausted of his energy. However he didn't care, he was giving to give them hell and give it to them he will.

The Pantheons came charging in shoot away small pellets of energy at their sworn enemy, the black Reploid.

But this was no ordinary black Reploid. He was Axl, an ancient S-Class Maverick Hunter who fought alongside X and Zero long ago, a member of the Resistance Army, and the one who defeat Copy X the fake Reploid who was given the image of X to uphold the peace and security of Neo Arcadian but quickly lost sight of this path. He is a hero to the Resistance Army, but to him he was just a kickass hunter ready for anything.

He vanished in a flash and reappeared behind them blasting their heads clean off and roundhouse kick another's head off a few feet away and somersault back in front of them just in time to watch all their bodies fall to the ground.

"Burn to the ground, baby!" chanted Axl as he blows up the smoke emitting from his guns.

After quickly picking off the few remaining Pantheons, even more showed up. Though he enjoys a good challenge, this was a little too much for him.

Furrowing his eyebrows and irritation he laughed nervously. "You know… this isn't fun anymore…"

The black Reploid quickly dashed away, furthering increasing the distance between him and the Pantheons. Running across hills and pit holes in the desert Axl finally lost track of them, but now realized he was lost… or more lost than before.

"Well I didn't know where I was going before so it doesn't matter," he breathed heavily.

He had to watch it he was running low on energy and one false move could mean the end of him.

The ground began to tremble as three huge figures appeared before Axl from seemingly out of nowhere. Axl scoffed, he hadn't seen this type of enemy in a LONG time!

The three Golems looked down at Axl as they opened their mouths and began charging a certain purple laser attack.

"Hehe… you seem to be doing good as usual." A cold voice shrugged at Axl's dilemma.

"Oh hey Lumine. Did I wake you?" Axl answered uncaringly and without interest.

Lumine, a New Generation Reploid in charge of the Jakob Elevator Project where space travel to the Moon would benefit humankind for the greater good however a problem occurred. All New Generation Reploid's Copy Chip, the same type of chip that allowed Axl to take on the form and abilities of other Reploids by scanning their DNA, had Sigma's DNA in the mix which allowed them to go Maverick at will. Lumine was one of them and was stopped by the combined efforts of X, Zero, and Axl without he played one more trick up his sleeve.

As Axl walk over to his body to retrieve it and give it a proper burial, a tentacle shot out of his body and struck Axl's head gem infusion a part of himself into his system.

Lumine sighed. "Well whatever the case, things are not looking good for us. I can't provide you with the powers you need if your energy output is too low. Such a useless Prototype…"

"Don't you dare call me a Prototype!" Axl yelled! He was very sensitive and touchy about being called a Prototype, even though it's true as he's a prototype of the New Generation Reploids who abilities originated from Giga City Island.

The Golems finished charged up their energy and fired off a purple steam of beam one after another in perfect unisonance. Axl easily dodged them all despite the fact he was tired and injury from his one year fighting in the desert and jumped upon one of the Golem's head.

One of the fired another shot, prompting to blow off the one's head off where Axl was as he soared into the air and landed on that Golem's face after its attack and fired a charge shot clean in the face blowing it off and using all of his remaining strength kicked it near the last remaining Golem as he fired another charge shot turning the Golem's body into a bomb and destroying the both of them.

"And I'm not useless!" roared Axl with pride.

Lumine couldn't help but laughed at Axl's sudden angry. "Works every time."

The enigma Reploid smirked in the back of Axl's head and went back to sleep. "Hey get back here! I'm not done yelling at you yet!"

Axl yelled trying to get the other being in his head to come out. "I swear, I'll keep on yelling until you wake up again!"

Another group of Pantheons appeared in front of Axl after he finished off the Golems. However another trembling sound is heard as the ground shakes beneath Axl's feet. "Now what?"

A giant claw launched where Axl was and destroyed the Pantheons where they stood. A giant scorpion Mechaniloid smashed through some ruins behind Axl as its claws retracted itself back to it.

"Oh this day keeps on getting better and better!" Axl threw his hands into the air. He was not in the mood to fight right now!

Taking another look at the Mechaniloid one thing popped into his mind. "I wonder if Neo Arcadian burrowed some designs from Red Alerts. Just reminds of the little critter that chased me before and where I met up with Zero the first time."

The scorpion Mechaniloid extended its tail and lashed out at Axl as he rolled away. Axl countered by firing a few rounds of energy shots from his guns but they bounced right off the Mechaniloid's armor. Growling in irritation Axl charged up his guns and fired two rounds of a fully charged plasma shot.

However both attacks did little to no damage as the scorpion Mechaniloid chased Axl and launched its claw again.

"Dammit this isn't good! I have no choice, but to use that!" Axl gritted his teeth. It would kill the Mechaniloid, but unfortunately it would completely drain him of all his remaining energy.

The Mechaniloid soon fired lasers from its tail and Axl was growing more wearily by the minute, he needed to finish this thing off or he'll die!

"Here, snack on this! GIGA CRUUUUSSSHHH!"

A steam of purplish-blue lightning erupted from the tips of Axl's guns, screeching the air as it rips through it like a reaper searching its next prey. The blast howled throughout the air tearing everything apart in its wake and soon completely pierced the scorpion Mechaniloid's body into millions of pieces that weren't recognizable in any form or shape.

Axl laugh to himself, he did it! But a new problem arose. "Take that you damn Maverick… I did it… But it… It cost me everything…"

Axl's vision began to waver and darken, losing all light as darkness seeps in. Finally the fatigue catches up to him and Axl falls flat on his chest, his head slightly buried in the sands as he closes his eyes to sleep. He was completely drained and defenseless.

A giant shadow circled above Axl before slowly descending itself to the ground near where Axl fell. A green figure jumped off a bird-shaped Reploid.

The bird-shaped Reploid was known as Aztec Falcon, a servant of Harpuia and the one in charge of the Disposal Center to retire Reploids labeled as Mavericks. However he was defeated and destroyed by Axl and his body rebuilt once more to serve lord Harpuia.

And the other figure was one of the four Guardians of Master X. Loyal soldiers who did his bidding and protected the Humans of Neo Arcadian and the enemy of Axl. It was Axl who destroyed the beloved leader of Neo Arcadian and so being second-in-command Harpuia took X's place for the time being hidden the fact that Master X was dead from the people and pretend to serve his best interest.

The guardian of the winds looked down upon the black Reploid sleeping in the sand, the one who took his master away from him and his people. He glared at him complementing on what to do with him, thinking of the options presented in front of him. Never had he thought as he survey the areas to find any lost humans or technology to revive his master did he believe to run into Axl of all places.

"… … … Axl… To live or to die…? Hmm… … … …" queried Harpuia studying the young Reploid before him.

He frown. It would be easy to finish him off here, but to do some after everything he's done and to do so will stain his honor and respect for the black Reploid despite how much he loathed him but at the same time envious that he worked alongside the original X granted that he and the others knew the X they know was a copy, but X nonetheless.

The green Reploid picked up his body and carefully placed him onto Aztec Falcon and soon took to the skies to their next destination.

-LINEBREAK-

Author's Note: Hooray! Here it is the long-awaited sequel to my Mega Man: Zero Era fanfic! Axl's back baby and even after a year of fighting Mavericks on his own he's still doing great! I may shorten each chapter this time around, to update the story with new chapters and seeing as it's going to be hard to mush enemies together like last time.

Well I hope you guys will continue reading this all the way to the final part of my fanfic series, Mega Man AXL: Zero Era 4. Axl will be fighting a long and hard battle now!

Please review and tell me what you think, OK?