The world seeming like its ending can merit lots of factors to spring into action. People can be lead to protect their homes, some can go to the front.
And sometimes, people can be lead to the most unexpected of places and help others without even knowing it.
In the case of Ty Takahashi, that situation happened today.
Through some contacts and a few rumors, he discovered a large facility that sat outside the conflict of the worlds slowly merging together. Having thoughts of a new Headquarters being open, Ty set off with Primrose and Diane to investigate the facility.
"Why are we here again?" Primrose asked.
"I told you Prim, we're taking a look at this facility I found out about. Some contacts confirmed a few rumors, and so here we are. This facility here could be just the HQ we need. I mean, the guys I talked to say this base has everything."
"And you don't think that's the least bit shady?" Diane asked. "Shouldn't we have brung the whole team?"
"Hey, it would've helped to, but its the end of the world as people like to say out there, and the others are busy. Josuke and his friends are back in Morioh keeping things peaceful, Koichi's off in Europe tailing this Giorno Giovanna, and the others are running around dealing with the problems all over the universe." Ty said before he moaned. "And they tell me Meliodas had the bright idea to run off and search for a literal flying fish… sometimes I don't get what goes on in that brain of his."
"In other words, we were his only options since everyone was scattered." Primrose sighed.
"Some leader he is sometimes." Diane agreed.
"Hey!" Ty said.
The three then approached the Facility and entered it. It was large on the outside, but also wide on the inside. Large enough to facilitate Diane, who was at her giant size at the time of the mission.
"See? What I tell ya, this place is Legit." Ty said.
"It certainly is… spacious." Primrose said.
"And it's totally abandoned. Which means after the end of the world is over, we have our new base." Ty said as he walked upwards to the center.
Suddenly, the doors behind them suddenly slammed shut as the power in the base suddenly turned on.
"And… were trapped." Diane said.
"Okay, I'm open to the part where you two start berating me for not seeing this coming." Ty said.
"No need for excessiveness. It seems this base already belongs to someone, but who?" Primrose asked.
"Maybe the guy who wanted the world to end in the first place." Ty said as a large monitor screen turned on.
"Greetings, Jump Force." played a message on the screen that showed the image of Normal appeared. "Or whatever you want to call yourselves. It seems somehow through your blundering, you've stumbled upon one of my old labs. Well done. Of course, I don't actually mean that. Now listen...you'll probably hate this...but you should know once this message finishes, the self destruct initiates. So...you have at least one hour before you and about 100 miles are incinerated. Course you can try and defuse it but not like I'm gonna tell you how. Well, bye bye." he said as the video cut as a timer appeared.
"Oh great…" Ty said. "We gotta defuse that bomb before it blows!"
"How? We don't know where the system leads, and no idea what or where the defuse system is." Primrose said.
"Yeah, I have no clue how to disarm a bomb." Ty said. "Wait… all we need to do is destroy the system that leads to the self destruct sequence, right? So the system must be somewhere in this room!"
"How do you know that's even the right call?" Diane asked.
"We don't have a choice. There are some towns within that 100 miles. We don't do something now, they'll get caught too." Ty said.
"He's right. This room must have the defuse trigger somewhere." Primrose said.
"That guy on the screen seems like hes the smart type, so he would expect us to search this whole base to find the off switch and fail, blowing us up. So the defuser would have to be in this room and right… there!" Ty said pointing to the central hub console in the middle of the room. "Diane, smash it!"
"Got it!" Diane said as she brung her gauntlet hand down and smashed the console, deactivating the self destruct system with nearly 10 minutes to spare.
"Phew…" Ty said.
"Who was that?" Primrose asked.
"Dunno, but something tells me he's behind all this. And whatever he's planning, this labs got some connection to it." Ty said.
"Hmm...looks like some sort of alchemist's layer. So many he was creating something…" Primrose said.
"Like a serum of some kind." Diane said.
"That makes sense, he seems like the Scientist type." Ty said.
The central console that Diane smashed then suddenly reactivated and transformed into a hub map complete with the areas linked to the central room. In those specific areas, 8 pictures of animal-like robots came up. "What the? What's all this?"
"According to the computer...these are robots that were destroyed long ago. Mavericks." Primrose said.
"Mavericks? I heard about those. They're half animal robots that were used by Sigma. Flux also used them in conjunction with his robot masters to do his dirty work." Ty said.
"So… what was that guy up to here?" Diane asked.
"Not sure. But if we're going to find out, we need to investigate these rooms. I don't wanna go in without any intel, so I think I'm gonna have to make a call." Ty said booting up his communicator and calling someone.
(Cue-Hunter Base: Going to the Front- Megaman X8)
"Hello? Anna?" Ty asked. "You there? It's me, Ty."
"This is Anna, what's wrong Ty, it's unusual to receive a call from you." Anna said.
"Yeah, about that… we kinda stumbled upon a large base I got info about. We got trapped in here by this crazy guy who almost blew us up. Diane smashed the defuser and we're safe but… we found out that the guys using this facility to make a lot of his projects, probably the one behind all the crazy stuff going on. And there are animal robots in here with us." Ty said.
"Normal. I should've known. And those animal robots, they're mavericks that X, Zero, and Axl fought with Jexi a while back." Anna said.
"I don't think these are ones he's familiar with." Ty said.
"Yeah, one looks like a sunflower, another looks like a rooster with a flaming mohawk and there's one that looks like a giant… Panda?" Diane asked.
"Optic Sunflower, Burn Rooster, and Bamboo Pandamonium. Those were some of the 8 Mavericks involved with the Jakob Project." Anna said.
"And they're working with this Normal guy?" Ty asked.
"He must've stolen them from Flux after he retired, so now he's using them for reasons unknown." Anna said.
"Right, which means bad news." Ty said. "I don't think there's any time to send the experts over here, you guys are probably busy. So… we'll take care of this."
"Alright, the sooner the better, the less problems we have to deal with, the better. I'll guide you through each of the enemies areas." Anna said.
"Exactly why Icalled you. You're Spirit Force's navigator, and you've guided them through the whole Epsilon thing and Ragnarok. Think you can map out this facility so we know what we're going through?" Ty asked.
"Of course. Sending data of the facility and Mavericks to your comms." Anna said.
The names of the 8 areas along with the objectives Normal had for them each appeared on Ty, Primrose and Diane's HUDs.
VR Training Area
Normal seems to have created a Training Facility to make the Venoms stronger. Find the one in charge of this base, and put a stop this regiment.
Umbra's Weapon Manufacturing
Normal seems to be manufacturing weapons to better fit the Venoms individual combat styles. Find the leader and put a stop to it.
Anti Gravity Tower
This Tower seems to be a key focal point for controlling the vortexes swallowing cities. Destroy it so the process can be halted.
Mineral Deposit Desert
Normal seems to be mining the materials needed for all his weapons and technology. Go to the source and capture it.
Central Power Station
Something seems to be supplying power to the facility, find it and shut them down.
Climate Control
Normal is using this area to control the Real Worlds weather, making the corruption from the Jump Worlds more effective. Shut it down before things blow up on a catastrophic scale.
Recycling Plant
According to the files, Flux used to use this plant as a means to Scrap and meltdown his destroyed Mavericks, Robot Masters and mechs. Now it seems it's being used for an unknown purpose. Investigate and find out.
Missile Silo
It seems Normal is analyzing the data from these missiles to help create his weapons. Find out who's behind it and stop them.
"8 Areas, 3 of us, one navigator… this seems oddly familiar." Ty said.
"Ooo, it's like we're the Maverick Hunters!" Diane figured out.
"I wonder which one of us could be one of those 3?" Ty asked.
"I don't think that's relevant right now. Though… I do suppose I could be Zero." Primrose thought aloud.
"So uh… which one of us are X and Axl?" Diane asked.
"I think it's pretty obvious I'm X. Right, Anna?" Ty asked.
"You are the leader after all." Anna said.
"Alright, where should we start?" Ty asked.
"You mean you don't know?" Primrose asked.
"Well, why don't we just pick one of the areas and go from there?" Diane asked.
"Good call Diane. Now… where to start?" Ty asked.
