Freedom Fighters NEO: The Repliforce Arc is a loose adaptation of the second Mega Man X: Mavericks game.Six months after Dr. Koopa's betrayal of the Freedom Fighters, he returned, having successfully resurrected Repliforce. The Hunters invoke a Heel–Face Turn on the Doppler army on Mobius, and head off to Bowser Jr.'s Robot Reactor, where Repliforce was building their Robot Republic. After the Freedom Fighters arrested the Repliforce commanders, it turns out Zero's greatest worry was the Colonel's sister, Iris.\\ Meanwhile, Dr. Koopa is revealed to have travelled across timelines, collecting light soul power from 7 beings and dark soul power from 12 beings, in order to recreate an ancient weapon of which his Sword of Chaos was a part of. Right after recreating the ancient weapon and dubbing it "the Keyblade of Chaos", due to its handle looking like two crossed keys (unaware that he actually reforged the X-blade), Dr. Koopa is confronted by Vile. Dr. Koopa defeats Vile and decides to remove his glitch. Unfortunately, he causes Vile to blow up. After that, he tells Zero to come alone at Bowser's Castle to meet his fate, but of course X and Metallix followed Zero. Metallix, trying to convince Dr. Koopa that Zero isn't evil, positions himself to guard a light from any "Star Marshalls", only to learn from Star Marshall Duo that Dr. Koopa was corrupted by "evil energy". When he arrives, Zero sees, to his horror, that Dr. Koopa brainwashed Iris. Dr. Koopa tries to finish X off with his Humongous Mecha Powered Armor, Mecha Bowzilla. Thankfully, the mech is disabled by Duo. Unfortunately, Iris is kidnapped by Layer, causing Dr. Koopa to have a Heel Realization. X, Zero and Metallix team up to rescue Iris, killing Layer in the process, but Iris is revealed to have an evil program installed into her by Dr. Koopa should she fail to kill Zero herself, program meant to show "the monster Zero truly is". Then, the light Metallix was supposed to protect turned out to be The Mother Elf. She tries to possess Iris, but she was too late: Zero has gone Maverick.
This arc contains examples of:
- Adaptational Intelligence: Decoe and Bocoe. Justified since they were built by a smarter scientist.
- Back from the Dead:
- From the Classic series: the Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 4 Robot Masters.
- From the X series: the Doppler Army, Repliforce and Layer. Also the Shadow Devil.
- Layer subverts this by being killed by X, Zero and Metallix.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Once again, Evil vs. Evil.
- On one side, we have Dr. Koopa, with Decoe and Bocoe as his Co-Dragons and Repliforce as his Mecha-Mooks, who wants Zero dead and Iris alive.
- On the other side, Layer, who wants Iris dead and Zero all for herself.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Duo saves X from Mecha Bowzilla.
- Also the Mother Elf, who possessed Iris in an attempt to stop her from corrupting Zero. While it appeared she was too late, the next arc reveals that she actually is Iris' heart, recreated from Zero's memories of Iris.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: What Dr. Koopa did to Iris. It turns out he removed her heart.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- Layer became evil after she learned about Repliforce's return and how Zero is trying to have them stand down.
- Also, Zero himself, at the end.
- Heel Realization: Dr. Koopa has one when Layer kidnaps Iris, as he realizes that, if he didn't try to brainwash Iris, she wouldn't have been kidnapped.
- Love Makes You Evil: Layer didn't like the fact she was a Hopeless Suitor, and Zero's desperation to save Iris was the last straw for her, causing a Face–Heel Turn.
- Mercy Kill: Due to
Word of God being that the fact Layer can't give up on Zero despite not being loved back by him makes her get hurt by her own feelings, the Hunters killing her is more like saving her from her suffering. - Ron the Death Eater: In-Universe, Dr. Koopa's view of Zero in this arc is this, since Zero is a Maverick Hunter, and the Maverick Hunters are affiliated with the Freedom Fighters, who Dr. Koopa worships.
- Shout-Out:
- This is the first appearance of Dr. Koopa's Mecha Bowzilla Powered Armor, which is a shout-out to Super Mario Maker level developer Kiavik, who made the most famous level, "Super Mario vs. Mecha Bowzilla". Like in Kiavik's level, Mecha Bowzilla is piloted by Bowser Jr. (Dr. Koopa is Bowser Jr. but as a cyborg.)
- Spared By Adaptation: Since this is an adaptation of Mega Man X: Mavericks and the one that stays the closest to it's respective game, Repliforce qualifies. It appeared at first that Iris subverted this by being possessed by the Mother Elf, but it's Double Subverted with The Reveal that the Mother Elf is Iris' heart.
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