The fifth tale of "Year 2".
Five weeks after the SHOCKER and T-Valkyrie incidents, a certain robot scientist plans on attacking the House of Time And Space in a bid to change time. Little does he realize is that there's a group of people who see him of use to their cause. Will the heroes involved prevail and stop him and his secret benefactors, or fail trying?
As opposed to other stories, Mechanical Outbreak is a two-act story, making it shorter than the other story arcs. The story can be read here
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This contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Captain Qwark cameos in Diamond Adventure! The Dark Mystery, while Dr. Nefarious appears as the second-to-last boss in Battle Royale: Round Two. Both have expanded roles here.
- Bullying a Dragon: Defied and Averted. Vanille and Jirachi visit the House of Food to get a meal. They and a few others wouldn't dare tick off Leman Russ, a drunkard of a Primarch known for starting fights for petty reasons.
- The Bus Came Back: Outside of his one minor appearance in the finale of a previous story, Sub-Zero has returned in a major role as a supporting character/deuteragonist since Revenge Of The GUAE. This is also the first appearance of Dr. Nefarious since Battle Royale: Round Two.
- Butt-Monkey:
- Qwark gets dissed on quite a bit in this story. He gets snubbed by several other heroes, who are exasperated at his antics, Sub-Zero freezes him mid-speech for bragging, and he gets roboticized.
- His neighbor, Falco Lombardi, is a more comedic example, having been forced to drop out of a mission with his squad leader Fox McCloud and, from the instructions of The Rock, joins in on Qwark's antics.
- Crash-Into Hello: Non-Romantic example. Vanille and Jirachi run into Tracer, who was running from a few troops from The Millenium and help her fight them off.
- Chekhov's Gag: It's played for laughs here. Back in Muse Hysteria, Donald Duck proclaimed that no one likes Courtney Gears' music. This story has Ultron and Sigma debate on using it as an anthem before Ultron decides against it.
- Continuity Nod:
- A double feature. As Zero and Ciel speak about the events of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Zero reveals to Ciel that the infection of Thor and the Asgardians was not just the work of Sigma and the Power Stone, but also the work of the Ultron virus.
- Diabolus ex Nihilo: It's unknown how Sigma and Ultron rebuild Null Sector, the group of omnic terrorists, help Sektor kidnap Cyrax.
- The Ghost:
- Ratchet, Clank, and Oerba Yun Fang are mentioned several times, but make no appearance. Courtney Gears is mentioned twice, but since she's a wanted fugitive she never appears.
- Kenshi mentions Ruby Rose, Ragna The Bloodedge, and Yuuki Terumi (as usual for Rags), the former of whom was brought in by Takeda to have his father train her in blindfolds, in addition to her appearance resembling Ragna's, whom Takeda suggest she meets.
- Vanille, Jirachi, and Tony Stark discuss Sora and Riku's misfortunes in Diamond Adventure! The Dark Mystery.
- Several characters have mentioned the Maverick Hunters a few times. While Axl and Zero each make a brief showing, X never appears.
- As Motoko's group and the Overwatch group take off, Mei-Ling makes relieved comment that Jin Kisaragi isn't with them, calling him a bully.
- Knockout Ambush: An unintentional example. While Dr. Nefarious was prepared to fight his nemesis Qwark and his quasi-allies, who fought off his army, the doc was blindsided by a Rotom, who electrocuted him, so much he shorted out and, instead of playing "Lance and Janice", it's a song by Mozart.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Dr. Nefarious invades the Temple of Time And Space to try this again.
- Mythology Gag:
- The sparing match between Genji and Raiden has a few cues from their fight in Death Battle X.
- Sigma approaches Nefarious and Lawrence in his grim reaper outfit to remain anonymous, something he did with the Repliforce General in Mega Man X4.
- Outside-Context Problem: Vanille using Jirachi's wish to rid Sigma of his virus was something the Maverick leader was completely unprepared for.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Unusually, Dr. Nefarious expresses disappointment at Courtney Gears for doing the same thing Tremaine did. note This isn't due to squishies killing each other, but Gears had made a big number of enemies doing so (some powerful), attracting the attention of not only the deities in the House of Justice (via Carmelita) and Mickey's group, but the Maverick Hunters as well.
- Rousing Speech: Ciel brings an outstanding one about peaceful coexistence between robots, cyborgs, and humans in the epilogue with the newly established Liberion Arcadia, a group endorsed by X, Zero, and a few others.
- Soap Within a Show: Given Dr. Nefarious is involved, "Lance and Janice" plays several times during the tale every time he malfunctions, except for the time a Rotom ambushed him.
- The Stinger: The last scene shows Balthier recruiting Vanille prepare for something sinister.
- Talking Animal: Pokémon in this case. Jirachi can speak via telepathy, like in Pokemon Jirachi Wish Maker.
- Time Skip: As the description previously states, this tale takes place five weeks after Rider Taisen and Rise of the Valkyrie.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: In the first act has Cyrax, already a cyborg, become a robot merely to be enslaved by Sektor. Later on into the act, Qwark is the victim after getting kidnapped by Monsoon and Triborg.
- Villain Teamup: Dr. Nefarious and Sektor form a nuanced alliance through the machinations of Sigma and Ultron. They are later joined by Monsoon and Null Sector.
