Red Thunder

**Red Thunder**is a Maverick Hunter that plays a secondary role in Mega Man X: Unit 49's Season 2 and onwards. He is a speedster who lives with a strong will of vengeance towards Mavericks.

## **Personality**

Although he tries to keep his emotions cool, he still cares about his colleagues and his mood will warm up if someone messes with them, making him intolerant to injustice most of time, at the point of denying mercy to regretful enemies, unlike X.

Red Thunder is very confident about his own abilities, given his unique features, and thinks his speed is unmatchable - to prove that, he might take a seemingly impossible task if it challenges this belief, and that trait makes him easy to persuade. If he considers it is necessary, he will end up exceeding his limits without considering long term risks, such as overcharging his Electropulse Trinkets and nearly killing himself.

Red Thunder sees every mission as a chance to improve himself while he still cares about his colleagues. After the incident in which his unit was killed, he pledged to get vengeance. He became very intolerant to injustice and started to deny mercy even to regretful enemies, unlike X, for whom he does not hide his contempt due to how X's mistakes affected the Maverick Hunters despite his other deeds.

## **Abilities**

Red Thunder is equipped with the **Heat Buster**, an arm cannon that shoots fire blasts with a fire rate lesser than that of a Solar Buster, but its shots can be charged as well.

Red Thunder's main ability comes from his feet: the **Electropulse Trinkets**, devices that can be charged to release strong electromagnetic pulses that can fry nearby machines and even sensitive internal parts of Mechaniloids and Reploids, rendering them unable to move or permanently damaged. Originally, he had only the **Electropulse Anklets** attached to his *Enhanced Emergency Acceleration System*, which are used for his signature move: Red Thunder dashes forward in high speed, with energy particles appearing from the lightning mark on his chest and head, while everything around is struck by red and purple thunderbolts. At their maximum charge capacity, Red Thunder can activate all Electropulse Trinkets at once to release a *Crimson Pulse*, which can paralyze even the strongest Reploid. Although Red Thunder can bear higher voltages than other Reploids, his body is still temporarily damaged every time he uses a EMP.

## **History**

Not much has been revealed about Red Thunder's history yet. It is known that his Unit in 2187 was ordered to hunt the two criminal brothers Dikho & Scatho, and, after several tries, they managed to catch them while meeting with the weapon dealer Maestro. Scatho and Maestro were killed, but at the cost of the lives of his two partners, Gunther and Fenghi. Somehow, Dikho vanished severely damaged and Red Thunder left behind, with a desire for vengeance.

*For more information, check Chain Vengefulness.*

### **The Great Neo Maverick War**

Red Thunder accepted Captain Elika's request to merge his Unit with the 49th Unit in order to increase their chances of victory against Saturn and the Neo Maverick Army, since the main headquarters had been destroyed, with several casualties.

   When investigating Kran, Elika related Red Thunder's report about Widhalm and the incident with Maestro and X's report and supposed that Kran was Widhalm all along, who began a life as a fugitive because he was deceived by Maestro to think Earth's Government and the Maverick Hunters were evil and killed him without any good reason. When that idea was presented to Red Thunder in U49's briefing, he became enraged for Elika even thinking of something like that. X tried to make him understand that Elika's point was that some decisions made without caution by both organizations may have caused innocent Reploids to go Maverick, but that made things worse: Red Thunder questioned if that did not also mean X was irresponsible for feeling sorry for his enemies and lowering his guard to listen the "sad tragic story" of a Maverick (which indirectly caused the tragedy at the Iberian Castle), and accused him of being responsible for several avoidable deaths during the Maverick Spring since he had left the frontlines while still being able to fight. That behavior made Zero begin seeing Red Thunder with hatred in his eyes.

    During the *Fanfare Operations*, Red Thunder, Encore and Zero formed Squad B went to the 3rd Hangar of the Earth Army to intercept a Neo Maverick operation to steal powerful Ride Armors called Blue Moon and Red Sun, as well as their data. Since Alia and Nora were unable to support all Squads at once, Red Thunder expressed his liking for missions in which he had autonomy, since there was no one to fill their heads with "peacenik talk". Since the sentry mechaniloids were attacking them, Red Thunder mocks X saying his incompetence made the government see them as Mavericks. Zero's runs out of patience and grabs him by the neck, saying they are aware of their mistakes and he would do something bad with him if he did not stop provoking X. Red Thunder simply accepts that they dislike "being poked with the truth".

Later, they find Baronel in the Red Sun and Zero tells them to get the Blue Moon in order to stand a chance against him. Red Thunder thinks Encore is a coward and Zero "an overconfident jackass". When they find the Blue Moon, Red Thunder wants to pilot it since he is more experienced. However, Encore persuades him by saying he would waste his speed in a slow machine like that. The two go back to fight after Encore accidentally exhausts the *BM Ray*.

    When Baronel tries to launch the RS Meteor towards Encore and the Blue Moon, Red Thunder overcharges his Electropulse Trinkets to release the Crimson Pulse and paralyze the enemy, leaving him vulnerable for Zero to easily kill him. However, several Neo Maverick Thugs and a pair of blasters come from the roof and hold him for time enough to Baronel recover from the paralysis, earlier than Red Thunder himself, who spends the rest of the fight with his movements impaired. He takes control of the Blue Moon and uses it to fight Baronel. At some point, he is convinced to follow Encore's plan and shoot the slightly charged BM Ray at his chest, killing Baronel in the process. However, the plan goes wrong and Zero has to use his Kyushuken to save Encore. Red Thunder is very impressed by Zero's strenght, who keeps holding the energy even with it melting his arms. Later, he would rescue Zero from being captured by the NMA and send him back to base, as well as recovering his damaged Z-Saber.