Legacy of Metal is the collective name for the Mega Man fan fiction of Eric Lawson
and the common continuity that it shares. Many elements are based on Rockman: the Robot War, which the author cites as one of his major inspirations, though it has a markedly different style. The first stories starring X were written in the late 1990s, with Lawson later expanding the setting both backwards and forwards in time.
The timeline sets the Classic series in the late 21st century, with Mega Man himself born in 2070 and dying in 2085, and Mega Man X in the early 22nd, X himself being discovered in 2117. An Uncertain Future used "20XX" and "21XX," but this was abandoned in favor of the more precise timeline.
As of October 2010, four other authors have been credited as co-authors within the Legacy of Metal: Magus, Maelgrim, Revokov, and RoyFokker99.
Legacy of Metal provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Erico's livejournal shows pieces of a continuation of Shadows of a Hunter (the Mega Man Zero adaptation), but he seems content to keep the story at its current ending.
- All There in the Manual: Erico's devoted an essay of sorts to explains the physics at work in the MMX series.
- Alternate Universe: In which Light wins the Contest, leading to the setting of Mega Man Battle Network.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: ''Relics of Madness'' showcases truly awesome demonstrations of just exactly what Snake Man can do when he reawakens without Wily's kill-all-humans programming due to a freak thunderstorm.
- Ascended Extra: The Green Biker Dude goes by the name Gearloose and has his character established a bit (he plays a Lancer/The Smart Guy mix in Zero's absence) before he bites the dust.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The stories depict Zero's signature Buster combo as this; in ''Working The Holidays'', he's only able to get it off by Faking the Dead as the charge time is just unworkable in actual combat.
- Ax-Crazy: Top Man ends up even more crazier than usual due to a flaw in his programming.
- Badass Normal: Randolph "Bulldog" Hayes. To an extent, any MSWAT team - even the underfunded Maverick Hunters have high-level equipment and two of the three most powerful beings in existence on their side. (Note that Hayes was the creation of Erico's protege Magus, and not Erico himself. Hayes was featured in a short story in the compilation From The Sidelines)
- Call-Forward: Zero's full name. Chapter 17 of Guiding Rainbow's Light has a few. Vinkus talks about "everlasting peace", the final two words of the original Mega Man (as well as Rockman: The Robot War), while the shadow organization Vinkus establishes is MI9-lasting through all of the Classic series and half of the X series before we get to A Sound of Mavericks
- Continuity Nod: Many. Lampshaded by characters who think X should take up history teaching rather than explaining some of them.
- Creator Breakdown: In-universe: Dr. Light breaks down psychologically following the deaths of his "children," becoming a recluse.
- Creator Thumbprint: The author has a thing for snowflakes. Always has. They're used not only in Whispers In Time, but also Guiding Rainbow's Light (though with different meanings). And probably in other stories too, if I remembered hard enough.
- Dead Person Conversation: Utterly bizarre example: a dead person talks to a not-yet-alive person who can't hear him in Whispers In Time. It's still touching, and also counts as a Take Up My Sword (er, buster?) moment.Rock: X...the world is yours now. We've done all we can. It's up to you. But remember this, X. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, we'll be watching. Smiling. Watching you grow up. Help the world, X. Our age is gone, and it'll be up to you to guide the world during your own age. But I know you're up for the challenge, little brother. You're stronger, smarter, better than we ever were in life. And you have the legacy. It's the legacy of us, X. The Mega Men. So make us proud, X. Make us proud.
- Fallen Hero: Wily was this when he was part of Second Rainbow, making his descent into insanity and villainy all the more tragic.
- Fantastic Racism: Crops up from time to time, in the Classic Universe many Robot Masters, even ones that have nothing to do with Wily's Rebellions, take undue blame simply for being robots. It becomes a plot device in the Fifth Rebellion, when a Hate Crime against an innocent Robot Master is used to justify their plan to kill all humans.
- Fighting from the Inside: Some of the reprogrammed Robot masters seem to passively do this, even if their reprogrammed personalities don't want them too. Dark Man even self sabotages his own rebellion due to his forgotten hatred of Wily
- Forever War: Thank's to Wily's Joker Immunity and Megaman's inability to kill him, Rock comes to accept that Willy will always come back again and again.
- Freak Lab Accident: How Blues went missing and Wily's brain was damaged.
- Generation Xerox: Despite all of Dr. Light's hopes and efforts, X ends up following in Rock's footsteps.
- Graceful Loser: Overdrive Ostrich, to the point where it seems he's not infected with The Virus. Naturally, X angsts about this.
- Healing Factor: X and Zero (and by extension most reploids) have one of these thanks to Nanomachines. This is a problem for the original cast when fighting the latter, nearly but not quite reducing two characters' final moments to a Senseless Sacrifice.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Quite a few of these. Let's see...Latchkey, Walter Hastings, RD-224, Blues, Bass, Rock, Roll, X, Zero...
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: The Mega Men both insist that they're just men whose circumstances went beyond their control. Rock, at least, snaps out of it to give himself credit a couple of times. Ironically, their eventual successor is more than willing to call himself a hero...and far less of one.
- Heroic Suicide: At the end of the fifth Rebellion the now sane Doc man kills himself after realizing that there is no place in the world and that he's too dangerous to be allowed to exist. It's helped that his Final Fight and talk with Mega man convinces him that one day Mega Man will have the courage to do what must be done and kill Wily.
- Heroic Willpower: How Wycost rids himself of The Virus, but it's implied to have been a long, difficult process. And then X makes a habit of doing it pretty quickly.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Violen is beaten so savagely with his own mace as to be pitiable. Sigma's first One-Winged Angel transformation partially ends this way - X pulls his Laser Blade from the ground and slices open Sigma's neck. Oh, and said sword also becomes a gift to Zero, making it even more so.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Unlike in the games proper, X takes exception to being called a Reploid as he technically is not one. Zero doesn't object so strongly, at first because he doesn't know precisely what he is.
- Kick the Dog: Copy-X standing over the immobile body of the real X and mocking him in Shadows Of A Hunter. He never gets his in the story itself, but we all know it's coming.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Wily before going insane, later Mega Man. Fittingly, pre-virus Sigma has a minor case of this going as well.
- Lampshade Hanging: At the end of Whispers In Time, X and Zero briefly discuss the events of Mega Man Xtreme - even they, who were there, don't quite understand the plot.
- Last of His Kind: Duo is the last of the Watchers, a race of psychic Sufficiently Advanced Alien robots at war with those carrying the Evil Energy.
- Laughing Mad: Wily will lapse into this occasionally when his insanity hits full blown. Doc Man does as well.
- Law Enforcement, Inc.: Dr. Cain funds the Maverick Hunters with his own fortune in order to keep out undue government influence. To varying degrees it succeeds, but the protection is not absolute.
- Long-Runners: End of a Dream was written in April 2000, and he's still at it, having completed the most recent story in September 2010.
- Madness Mantra: Destroy, infect, survive, destroy, infect, survive, destroy, infect, survive...
- Motive Decay: By the end of his life, Wily doesn't care about anything but beating Mega Man. Justified by his worsening brain damage due to constant use of warp and cloaking devices.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: The Guardians, not that they're thrilled about it. Harpuia is barely hiding his disgust but seems at least slightly afraid of Copy-X. Phantom, who has no ties to the real X, nevertheless seems to take way too much pleasure informing the clone that Zero has been awakened.
- Nanomachines: Used to explain some of the wonkier weapons from the games.
- Noble Bigot: Vinkus is seen as part of the Anti-Robot faction of the UN and never completely gets over his distrust of Robot Masters, despite this, he does eventually warm to the Light family.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: X delivers these when he gets really angry. Cossack delivers this to Wily after Wily shows himself after Kalinka is rescued.
- Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: The UN always tends to fall to pieces whenever a Rebellion rolls around, usually leaving the US diplomatMartel and the Japanese Diplomat Vinkus to try to corral them into trying to support Megaman.
- Novelization:
- An Uncertain Future and Island Of Awakening, of Mega Man X and X2 respectively.
- Shadows of a Hunter is this for the early stages of Mega Man Zero, with a quick-and-dirty run through X5 as well.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Cristoph, ye gods. His motives in this essentially boil down to Fantastic Racism.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Shadows of a Hunter suggests some epic action sequences throughout its summary of X5; sadly none of them get much in the way of detail.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Wily never tells anybody Zero's name, though he programs it into Zero's knowledge banks. Bass and everyone else call him Wily's Demon.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: In Magus's fics the Robot Masters of each rebellion seem to come off like this, with each Robot Master's personality of styling itself in a certain pattern or personality.
- Rashomon Plot: Whispers In Time comes close, but there's no disagreement on the actual events — different characters just have different perspectives and thoughts.
- Rock Beats Laser: Aside from anything Mega Man pulls off, a standard magnum poses a real threat to Reploids. Overlaps with Boring, but Practical, as the vast majority simply can't muster up the same power X or Zero can with the standard-issue busters and sabers. Might also be a Shout-Out to the signature weapon of Axl,
who may or may not later exist in the continuity. - Robot Names: Blues's proper name is "DL#00 Protoman."
- Shout-Out:
- One of the three major robot contractors is US Robotics.
- The Runaway Five are briefly mentioned as a classic rock band in Rock's time period.
- Strictly Formula: Wily's obsession with using eight Robot Masters for each rebellion is so well known that the Robot Tournament of the sixth rebellion is set up as a trap for Wily knowing he would be unable to resist seeing eight Robot Masters. Later in the Rebellion Megaman uses this to counter Centaur Man attempts to claim that he will win because he and this rebellion is Different from all the rest.
- Teen Genius: Latchkey again. Ciel is still the biggest example, as she is apparently considered more brilliant than the entire Second Rainbow!
- Techno Babble: Guiding Rainbow's Light has oodles of surprisingly plausible-sounding babble. One older nonfiction piece is devoted to working out the physics of The 'Verse.
- Three Laws-Compliant: A standard feature of the Core Module; Reploids don't have it built in. Rock and his "siblings" can break them sometimes.
- Third-Option Adaptation: The ending of X2 is subject to this - X recovers all of the parts, but Violen invades the base and takes Zero back for Sigma to corrupt. Cue "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight.
- Title Drop: The phrase "legacy of metal" has been used exactly once, in chapter 14 of Guiding Rainbow's Light (numbered 15 by FanFiction.Net).
- An Uncertain Future has the annoying habit of dropping nearly every chapter title.
- Unstoppable Rage: Rock's specialty. X cranks this up a notch. Zero also does this at the end of Demons Of The Past when he goes after Sigma, following the (second) death of Iris.
- Villains Act, Heroes React:
- In Chapter 9 of Island of Awakening, Serges references this directly, saying X can only react, while they (the X-Hunters) always make the first move.
- In Demons of the Past, Signas (who up to this point has been presented as the Hunter HQ's Obstructive Bureaucrat and
Replacement Scrappy) comes up with a strategy that inverts this at last, challenging Sigma and his current band of Mavericks to a confrontation at the Hokkaido cliffs (also the site where Sigma's fortress was built in An Uncertain Future) first. X, Zero, and the other Hunters use this advantage to set up an ambush with a delayed attack force that catches most of the Mavericks off guard.
- Villains Out Shopping: Copy-X is shown gathering intelligence and planning a playground for children.
- World War III: The backstory for Second Rainbow in the first place was that the earth was nearly left in ruins by the Aftermath of World War 3, forcing the greatest minds of the current generation to form Second Rainbow.
