Mega Man/Fanfic Recs

The following works have managed to absorb the power of Good-Writing Man.

These are recommendations made by Tropers for Fan Fics, all of which have been signed. After a few samples, you will be able to judge whether you might be interested in the 'fic, based on who recommended it. No-name recommendations will be Zapped (wiki). Nobody would back up the rec. Discussion of the recommendation is welcome on the discussion page. As such discussion is important, do remember to add the discussion page to the watchlist, if need be.

Do warn when a fanfic may head into homosexual or non-canon territory. Some people just don't like it, and as we all know, Shipping is Serious Business.

Authors, and Websites
Bob and George by Dave Anez
 * Recommended by The Tamborine Man, seconded by Shadow Darkman
 * Synopsis: Dave Anez wanted to make a superhero comic. But, when he couldn't keep up his schedule, he made some strips based on Mega Man to fill in the gap. The filler took off when the original idea flopped, and the rest is history.

Mega Man: The Series by Mandi Paugh
 * Recommended by Konkoa
 * Synopsis: A series of genfics spanning many episodic adventures in Mega Man's life, including a few novelizations of the games. It's hard to explain the whole thing as a whole—plots from the different "books" include Mega Man switching bodies with Dr. Wily, a raygun that turns Mega Man into a coward afraid of his own shadow, and a Crossover with Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm no good at writing synopses, but it really is worth a look.

MS-Paint Masterpieces'' by Disgruntled Ferret
 * Recommended by Lavanya Six
 * Synopsis: Proof that the remaining 10% of sprite comics is worth dying for. A retelling of the first six Mega Man NES games (of which we are mid-point in of Mega Man II now) that fuses their individual stories with the Game Boy Mega Man games.
 * Comments: While the first 90 strips are a bit wacky, afterward the story becomes a bit more serious (although not too serious). The fight scenes are worth mentioning, conveying motion and power that you wouldn't think possible in a sprite comic. Around the end of the MMI story, the author switches entirely to his own sprites. Well-written and beautiful to boot.

Iragination by IRA
 * Recommended by Mad Man X
 * Synopsis: A website full of Fan Comics, Fan Art, and even a Fan Game or two, majorly concerning the X Series.
 * Comments: Most of the content is Original Flavor, and aside from one Massive Multiplayer Crossover, he goes in-depth about the Wily arc, seen in Madness In Red. Original Character is also dealt with pretty reasonably, as they are mostly in the background and only serve the plot.

General Fics
''Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Plot-focused stories or light day-in-the-life stories. Pretty much anything that isn't focused on romance.''

The Cost of Unity: Rebellion, by Etero Narciss
 * Recommended by Lifescythed
 * Synopsis:The Maverick Hunters fight a force unlike any seen before. Led by the charismatic and idealistic Maverick Marduk, the RLF stand to challenge all that X believes in as they search for Unity; the era in which reploids and humans stand as one.

Unwilling Partners, by Az The Dragon
 * Recommended by Chroma Colors
 * Synopsis: They have no idea on how it happened, only that Netto and Forte have somehow crossfused, despite the fact that they are about as different as they can be. This weird situation is only worsened by the fact that the fusion continues outside of a Dimensional Area and the effects cannot be reversed. Now the two must work together to solve this mystery, while keeping their identity secret from their friends and family and dodging the attempts at capture by the organization Dark Mu. Some of the biggest themes in this story are character development and repairing relationships.

Lost in the Land of Nod, by Bryon Nightshade
 * Recommended by Lifescythed
 * Synopsis: During the first Maverick War, X confronts Dr. Cain about the creation of the Reploids. Dr. Cain's response challenges X's most fundamental beliefs.
 * Comments: For years Fans of joked about Dr. Cain being too stupid to actually test the reploids he built as Dr. Light had done with X. This story provides the best defense of why he did not bother. But what really makes this fic good is how X is handled. Ever since X4, X has lived in mortal fear of the possibility that he might go maverick. But he never does anything to suggest that he would even remotely go down this path. He is too peaceful and the games have given us nothing to validate this fear. He couldn't go maverick if he tried. This fic changes all that. This piece not only makes you believe that he has it in him to go maverick, but also makes the temptation very real and very scary as X realizes that the allure of Maverick ideas is much stronger than he once thought. All of this is done keeping everyone in character.

Megaman ZX: Return to Zero, by Rice Krispie
 * Recommended by Comartemis
 * Synopsis: It takes a lot more than a Colony Drop to keep a good reploid down. Zero's body didn't survive Ragnarok, but his cyber elf certainly did, and now he's back among the living to help Ashe, Aile, Vent, and the Guardians deal with the fallout of Master Albert's Game of Destiny, and the reappearance of a disturbingly familiar threat...

Mega Man X: Whispers In Time by Eric Lawson
 * Recommended by Shay Guy
 * Synopsis: Most of Eric Lawson's Fan Verse is good stuff, but the best might be Mega Man X: Whispers In Time. The gap between the original and X series is filled with every ounce of drama and tragedy the author can muster—and it works. One character after another tells their story, focusing on August 2085, when Zero was awoken, but not limiting themselves to that by any means. The detail varies—Treble skims over his early life with his master Bass, while Mega Man goes through basically every single game—but it all adds up to a coherent whole.

''Mega Man: Guiding Rainbow's Light by Eric 'Erico' Lawson
 * Recommended by Calahad
 * Synopsis: Before Mega Man X, before Mega Man...There was a man with a dream. Before the age of robots, humanity faced one last struggle. Before he was tired and gray, he was young and bold. This is the unspoken tale. This is the story of Dr. Thomas X. Light. Complete.

The MI 9 Trilogy (so far) by Eric Lawson
 * Recommended by Shadow Darkman
 * Synopsis for End Of A Dream: In the time between X4 and X5, a reckoning is reached, and as X and Zero confront their past, they must reach ahead...To seek the End of A Dream.
 * Synopsis for The Sound Of Mavericks: A year after the events of End Of A Dream, The Clock ticks down once more on chaos reborn...
 * Synopsis for Demons Of The Past: The fight never ends, and two weeks past the end of The Sound Of Mavericks, a new Chronicle is begun...
 * Comments: Sequel series (somewhat) to Guiding Rainbow's Light and very interesting stories, and I'm looking forward to how things will go for the Scion's Zenith (not spoiling the details on them) as they attempt to preserve their species' existence. "What is worse than a Maverick?"

Mega Man X: An Uncertain Future and Mega Man X: Island Of Awakening'' by Eric Lawson
 * Recommended by Shadow Darkman
 * Synopsis for An Uncertain Future: In the beginning years of 21XX, Doctor James Cain unearths a surprising find...A Capsule, containing a Prototype Robot known as Mega Man X...
 * Synopsis for Island Of Awakening: Six Months After The First Uprising, new events transpire in a place called Paradise...a place that will serve as The Island Of Awakening...

Chronic Sigmatism by khaki knight
 * Recommended by Guy Smiley
 * Synopsis: A day that started out badly enough for Alia grows more and more frustrating - and ridiculous - as the remainder of the Maverick Hunters scramble to stop what they believe to be a Sigma attack - in actuality, an insignificant computer systems glitch.
 * Comments: A short, breezy humor piece which grows more and more absurd as it goes. Poor Communication Kills at its finest.

Rockman: The Robot War by Ben "Malegrim" Roberts
 * Recommended by Guy Smiley
 * Synopsis: Driven mad by brain defects caused by teleportation, Doctor Albert William Wily takes it upon himself to teach humanity not to rely upon robots...

Rise Of The Chosen by Ainrhyr
 * Recommended by CRB Wildcat
 * Synopsis: "Aile was just an ordinary transporter, until she got chosen to wield the legendary Biometal Model X. Now she has to fight, just to protect her friends, her beliefs, her sanity, and her life against a force dead-set on the destruction of everything." A novelization of ZX that focuses on Aile, as opposed to Vent or both of the siblings.
 * Now has its own trope page.

Epilogue by Triad Onion and Griffinkhan
 * Recommended by CRB Wildcat
 * Synopsis: Dr. Wily equips Bass with Flash Man's Time Stopper, then sends him out to fight Mega Man. When it malfunctions and both of them are transported into the future, it has serious consequences for three separate timelines. Takes place during the Classic series, just after Mega Man and Bass; the X series, after X8; and the Zero series, after Zero 3. A Fix Fic, according to the introductory notes.
 * Comments: A Fix Fic it may be, but it's still a rather well done story that mixes humor ("Hey, who's the Boba Fett cosplayer?") with some nicely written action scenes and drama; Rock and X's interactions with Dr. Light are particularly touching. There are several instances where canon is toyed with, most noticeably during the chapters that take place in the midst of the Zero series; and it's starting to look more and more like a Dead Fic after 20 chapters, but the pluses outweigh the minuses enough to make reading it worthwhile.

Terrornova by Revokov
 * Recommended by Pramxnim
 * Synopsis: Shortly after the fall of Final Weapon, a decade old conspiracy surfaces that threatens to blow the entire Hunter organization out of the water. Set after the events of X4, and completely ignores the X5 in favour of an original storyline.

Mistress Ciel by Archaon
 * Recommended by Comartemis
 * Synopsis: Following the conclusion of the Zero series, Ciel's despair over the state of the world leads her to take a shot at forging a new one with the assistance of a certain long-dead mad scientist.

Hikari Enzan by Atreyu452
 * Recommended by Liokae
 * Synopsis: Based in the MegaMan.EXE setting. Enzan wakes up to find he's traded places with Netto, and has to piece together what's going on in a world where everything he's remembered is wrong.

Stuffed Animals by Rice Krispie
 * Recommended by Guy Smiley
 * Synopsis: A ficlet set shortly before the events of ZX. Giro reminisces about his past and Prarie gets him a birthday present.
 * Comments: As one reviewer puts it, Giro in the games comes across as "a plotdevice with a beam saber" rather than a character - after all, he does get wiped out before we start fighting the Robot Master analogues. As such, seeing him not only at the center of a story, but one where nothing actually blows up is rather surprising. The characterization is the real draw here, of course; even the Mythology Gag right around the end is touching and doesn't feel out of place in the slightest.

Reploids by Dr. Facer
 * Recommended by The Tambourine Man
 * Synopsis: A short story. During the events of X5, a man reflects on how reploids have affected the world.
 * Comments: A thoughtful story that tackles an aspect of the X series the games didn't address: How do humans feel about all of this? Be forewarned it doesn't end well.

A Different Place By Aaron D
 * Pairings: Mega/Tron and Roll/Dantz
 * Recommended by: Sydin
 * Synopsis: An AU story where Mega Man ended up with a different family than the Casketts. He ends up joining the Bonnes as a pirate during the events of The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, and follows them through the events of Legends 1, though they're very different as a result.

''Maverick X Files by Ysavvryl
 * Recommended by: Quotation Marx
 * Synopsis: A crackfic that looks at the outcome of Dr. Light not putting X through the 30 years of ethical training. Fast-paced and funny, with a surprising amount of character development throughout.

''Child's Play by Ysavvryl
 * Recommended by: Chimerical Errors
 * Synopsis: Having saved their world many times over, the legendary Maverick Hunters X and Zero are bored. Nothing seems to be a challenge anymore. Then they encounter a reploid child who asks them to defeat two monsters. Things get even stranger from there.

The Third Law by Lex1
 * Recommended by: Laryna6
 * Synopsis: "A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law." (Chapter 4) X and Zero make the happy discovery that some people just don't stay dead like sensible folk. There's one in every crowd.

The Message by Lina Darkstar
 * Recommended by: Laryna6
 * Synopsis: X discovers a pod with more than just an armor upgrade. X1.
 * Comments: Four Words: Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.

MATHS by Lazer TH
 * Recommended by: Blitz Blast
 * Synopsis: [The author] love[s] X4 so much that [he] made a horrible mockery of it. This is intellectual insanity at its best, folks, have fun!
 * Comments: The first of a series covering X4 through 7 (as well as Z1), "M"adness "A"ttacking "T"he "H"ead "S"lowly is a three-fourths parody one-fourth serious novelization of the games that never fails to remind the reader that the main characters are machines. While MATHS is more parody than serious, the sequels eventually get the correct balance down, with perhaps the best example being the X7 Parody's chaper on Blazing Hyenard.

Mega Man Star Force: Zero by SapphireLibra3
 * Recommended by: GabrieliosP
 * Synopsis: Set after the third Star Force game. Geo and Omega-Xis go to planet FM to stop a powerful weapon from being fired at Earth but never come back. Four years later, a new crisis is approaching Earth in the form of an attack by Planet FM, and Luna, aided by the EM-being Xerox, have to find the hero inside of her and save the entire planet.

Mega Man Recut: Season 1 by BlackRussian
 * Recommended by: Lalalei 2001
 * Synopsis: A retelling of the Mega Man cartoon show as a more serious, continuity-laden work.
 * Comments: Loads of inside reference, lampshade hangings, and details to make even non-fans of the cartoon take notice, this is how to take a campy show and embrace it. There's some swearing, but given the higher rating it's understandable. The author appears to be going through the episodes in order, so every one will get a chance to be redone. Yes, even those episodes.
 * It now has a trope page.

The Omega Chronicles:Rise of the Red Rebellion " by Dark Shift Rising
 * "Recommended by": James Crimson
 * "Synopsis": Omega,the God of Destruction.Defeated by Zero in 22XX,his name faded from history.Now,centuries later,the legendary crimson destroyer is back,and ready to raise a new kind of hell on a world that has all but forgotten him! BRING IT!

Mega Man: Defender Of the Human Race by MegaBauer
 * Recommended by: Lalalei 2001
 * Synopsis: A retelling/continuation of the Mega Man cartoon, with original story arcs and characters. More serious than BlackRussian's story, but still has humorous moments. Starting with Episode 6, it also features original stories set after the end of the show.
 * It now has a trope page.

Shipping Fics
Stories focused on the romantic relationships between the cast.

Past Prologue By Yamz X (Slash, AU)
 * Pairings: X/Zero
 * Recommended by: Future-Gamefreak
 * Synopsis: A story based on the Zero vs. Sigma cutscene in MMX 4, and how X came to know Zero.

Legends: Love Heist By Traingham
 * Pairings: Mega Man/Sera
 * Recommended by: greygear
 * Synopsis: Post MML2, taking place a few months after the ending. Sera, Yuna and Mega Man must take drastic measures to return to earth; to do so Mega Man must sacrifice his memories. His only backup? His life as a purifier unit.

Birthday Girl by Necchan
 * Pairings: Blues/Kalinka (slight Blues/Rock)
 * Recommended by: Laryna6
 * Synopsis: Post-Classic Saga. Why, oh WHY, couldn't Wily ever kidnap somone who wasn't her? Having her birthday systematically ruined by a madman was usually frustrating. But some times... it's just a matter of perception.
 * Comments: Beautiful, funny, heartwarming and quietly tragic at the same time. Necchan does an amazingly good job of bringing the characters to life, especially Kalinka. Damage Control is another excellent one by her, Bass/Roll during Mega Man 10.