Maverick Hunter Iris

Maverick Hunter Iris was meant to be a written fan-adaptation by Frozarburst based on Capcom's *Mega Man X* series, centered around Iris after a small change in the Mega Man Timeline from the far future prevents her demise in *Mega Man X4*, which in turn causes multiple other changes that greatly affected the rest of the series. Concept art and teasers for the story were posted on Frozarburst's Deviantart gallery. But the story was delayed along with Dragon Ball Rising for the development of Toon Wars: The Final Days and eventually left unfinished when Crossover Forces was being written. Interestingly, however, Frozarburst explains he still wants to complete it one day and confirmed the story did happen as Iris cameoed in The Watterson. Similar ideas were also integrated into Dark Disney, such as the Toonverse's cryptic nature reflecting that of the Earth when the Carbons were born. The unfinished scripts have also been recovered and posted here. As of this update, there is no confirmed release date.

## Plot

### 75XX

In the distant future long after almost all of the main Mega Main timeline (centuries after Mega Man Legends), Duo, the superpowered space robot from Mega Man 8, returns to Earth when the Maverick Virus (the more extreme version of Evil Energy) suddenly resurges as a hate plague, affecting all technologies and the planet's inhabitants. To quell the outbreak and to discover the source, the president of the world gives Duo access to an old warp gate operated by Irene, a technician who dressed herself after the Reploids of old. After uploading a data file on his drives, he set off to the distant past into the early era of Mega Man X. However, a piece of the future Maverick Virus followed him only to fall back to Earth in its original energy form. Duo, fortunately, was able to keep himself on the Moon to transmit the information he has to Dr. Cain (the closest being to Dr. Light Duo was able to find).

### 21XX Erasure Incident

In the closing stages of Mega Man Xtreme 2, Commander Fracture, the leader of the Maverick Hunters after Sigma before being replaced by Signas, learned of several possible locations of Berkana and Gareth, the soul stealers. With Iris as navigator, X and Zero are tasked to find the hidden base, choosing to go to the Lavatory named after a typo. While they're on their way, Iris starts getting a distinct Maverick reading unlike the ones attributed to Sigma, which scrambles her operations. She heads down to Douglas, the technician, in the maintenance room, but the Navigators and other nearby Reploids are infected by the mysterious virus, almost immediately going Maverick. Commander Fracture realizes that X and Zero had gone to the right place, but his base is now a battleground as Iris and Douglas are forced to try and trace the signal of the virus. Zero eventually reaches Gareth after being separated from X, who ends up confronting Berkana in her lair. Though she starts off sounding like herself, she suddenly has a mental breakdown begging X not to kill her and class her as Maverick, explaining it was all Sigma's doing and that she's in love with X. X, rightfully, is incredibly confused but puts her knowledge to good use when she reveals the area of the base Sigma's in. Zero, meanwhile, defeats Gareth and makes his way to Sigma as well. However, when X checks in with Iris, he instead hears gunshots and explosions from the battle in the headquarters.

Iris and Douglas are able to discover that the new virus dates far in the future than the version they're used to seeing, seemingly responding with the current Maverick Virus as a way to assist. Such is confirmed by Sigma, who explains to X and Zero that he's deactivated his influence on Berkana because he's receiving help from his new partner. While he and Gareth's lion guard attack the two hunters, the then Captain Signas returns to the Hunter H.Q. to defend Iris and Douglas, who are close to cutting off the virus' connection to the base. Fracture also joins in, commending Iris' technical prowess. Once the connection is broken, all the workers turned Maverick are rebooted back to their original state, leaving the virus isolated with Sigma. Before he could crush X under his battle body, Zero comes in upon defeating the guard, splitting Sigma in two despite his indestructible hull. With almost no second phase and total silence from the remains of the Maverick Leader, the hunters assume he may have retreated or was cut off by his partner. Berkana apologizes for her actions and returns all the stolen DNA Souls to their hosts, honoring X's compassion to her by vowing to work closely with the Hunters to uncover the mystery of the future Maverick program. Fracture, along with much of the hunters at the headquarters, is shaken by the surprise attack. But he gives many thanks to Douglas, Signas, X, Zero, and especially Iris for going above and beyond when he couldn't find a solution. Iris, however, is still skeptical of Sigma's disappearance, opting to stay when Repliforce is likely going to want her back. Despite her protests, Zero insists she return to Colonel so as to not be bombarded by complaints of her being in danger.

### Pre-X4

Both the Maverick Hunters and Repliforce attend a world celebration to honor their efforts against the Mavericks. Here, X and Zero interact with humans thanking them for their service and meet both sides of Reploid fighters, noting that Repliforce are a lot more stern and robotic than they are. Nana, a big fan of X (and who would be one of his Navigators in the alternate X history post X7) nervously greets him before running off from too much excitement. Iris is also present trying on a humanoid frame invented by Alia for the purpose of further testing the limits of Reploid bodies to make them more human. Dr. Cain, happy that both Repliforce and the Maverick Hunters could join, gives Signas the chance to bestow the rank of Captain to X and Zero for going above and beyond to stop Sigma's plans at every turn. Iris is also commended personally by Colonel, who has all of Repliforce salute her. The General and X are prompted to discuss an idea Dr. Cain actually considered about a potential city where humans and reploids can live in peace without the threat of a Maverick outbreak (which would eventually become Neo Arcadia in Mega Man Zero). The General also agrees, but he also brings fourth a possible alternative to keep both sides safe by having Reploids be given a different place entirely. Where to, he is unsure. After the ceremony, and a reiteration of Dr. Thomas Light's hope for peace by the President, Iris notices someone watching her on the way out with an odd design (Duo).

Although she's no longer part of the Maverick Hunters, Iris still continues to search for the mysterious Maverick Program with remote help from Berkana and Alia. All of their information points to it being the result of time travel but from what point of origin, they are unsure. Colonel, along with everyone else but X and Zero, believe it's possible Sigma may have been deleted or otherwise overwritten by the virus and could still be around in some form not previously seen. However, through all their efforts to find evidence, they came back with nothing. Iris is then requested personally by Dr. Cain to come visit his lab where he assigns a Navigator to Iris named RiCO (originally from D.I.V.E.). RiCO is excited to meet Iris, who's confused as to why she'd be given a Navigator despite not being a hunter, let alone a fighter. To which RiCO explains she's here from the future as well, having been transported in data form by Duo to aid in preventing the future virus. Although peace was ultimately achieved and humans and reploids became one in the same long after the Mega Man X series, remnants of the original Maverick Virus in its earliest form, The Evil Energy from Mega Man 8, were still hidden away on Earth and could turn everyone Maverick thanks to their new biological traits. Duo, the space robot designed to stop the energy before Mega Man X, returned to this era to try and delete it from the source, but the program made its way back to the past with him in hopes of kickstarting its outbreak a millennia ahead of time. At first, Iris passes out trying to process everything but recovers and rightfully asks where she, Zero, and X end up in history. To which RiCO hesitantly reveals Iris died in Mega Man X4 along with all of Repliforce and Zero and X continued to fight several wars until the end of Mega Man Zero 4. Both dying after successfully putting an end to Omega Zero and Dr. Wile. Because Iris is aware of future events and saw the new Maverick Virus first hand, Duo brought RiCO to her to aid her in her mission to stop the program while he repairs himself from damage upon entry to the past. Though she isn't designed to be a fighter like X, Dr. Cain recognizes Iris' developing sense of justice (inadvertently inherited from her efforts trying to research the virus and her friendship with X and Zero). Knowing Repliforce would refuse to let her assist the Hunters, Iris requests RiCO to relay information to them to essentially lead them to designated targets for her. When Repliforce is involved, on the other hand, Iris will personally step in and try her best to stop the situation. Her last question to RiCO is when all these events would happen and why Repliforce would end. But upon mentioning the Sky Lagoon, she immediately understands.

### Mega Man X4

Iris makes it to the Sky Lagoon like how history intended. Though, this time, she gets a virus reading that quickly vanishes as though it was relaying a message to someone. RiCO confirms its Sigma but hints to Iris that the core of the Sky Lagoon is exposed. She confronts Magma Dragoon planting the bombs needed to detonate the floating city's gravity generator and records his confession and the evidence, having RiCO send it all to the Maverick Hunters. Dragoon, refusing to be taken away, states he does this for the freedom of all Reploids and destroys the generator, killing himself in the process. Iris is blown back but rescued by X and Zero who received Iris' findings while the rest of the Hunters evacuate the city. With all the civilians saved, Iris and RiCO are praised for preventing a huge terrorist attack from succeeding. However, RiCO states because of this, the coming events of X4 will be heavily altered.

Commander Fracture requests a private meeting with his Captains after pondering what Magma Dragoon said. Although he was a Maverick Hunter, his reasoning sounded much akin to that of Repliforce, who were adamant about Reploid independence at the celebration and potentially bringing them to a different place to save humanity. X believes Dragoon did this not because of Repliforce but for his own interest; Zero even confirms it couldn't have been them because of his willingness to attempt to kill Iris or anyone of both ends. Signas also knows even if the General's message sounded somewhat malicious, he would never betray humanity nor his own kind. Should Repliforce prove to be a threat, Fracture requests Zero keep Iris safe knowing how valuable she's been to the team. Fracture's paranoia, however, starts to weave in as he continues to think back to the attack on the Hunter Base during the Erasure Incident, looking out for signs of Maverick activity intensively. In the meantime, future virus attempts to kickstart what should be the Repliforce War, sabotaging various locations in hopes of turning the bosses in the original timeline Maverick. Iris, aiming to stop Web Spider from causing any damage, goes to the jungle to try and break his programming. Instead, however, she finds the boss dead from what is meant to look like a Maverick Hunter raid. On the opposite end, X confronts Frost Walrus who also died in a similar fashion already. But this time, the future virus was more closely involved, having attempted to reactivate frozen Mavericks. Only one, Chill Penguin, was energized but had forgotten his Maverick reprogramming from damaged circuitry.