Baal by Travis Schuster
A Tale Set in the Universe of Mega Man X
Chapter One
Seeking
The air in the room was as heavy and stale as day old beer. It was dark, dense, and dreary, the high roof ornamented with loosely hanging bits of damp textile. A slow drip could be heard in the near distance, echoing within the aluminum walls of the long-abandoned warehouse, breaking the ominous silence ever so slightly.
X raised a hand to his mouth as he coughed, his eyes watering from the dust and the overwhelming stench of rancid rain water and mildew. The combination of the stagnant air and the pungent odor was enough to make even a reploid gag.
"Well, I guess it's safe to say that our lead wasn't quite as accurate as we had initially hoped," said Zero, stopping briefly in the center of the room and letting out a sigh of disappointment.
The given operation had X and Zero seeking out a few Maverick Hunters gone rogue, supposedly trafficking an illicit and dangerous new program meant to augment a reploid's strength, speed, and reaction time. The results were said to be strong and immediate, yet not without their consequences. The mission was not only to obtain a copy of the program for analysis, but to detain any parties found to be involved in the creation, distribution, or use of the software.
"Wouldn't it be something if we ran into Axl out here?" X stated nonchalantly, smirking uneasily and glancing at Zero.
"X,...please," uttered Zero, shaking his head softly. "Don't tell me you think he's involved in all of this."
"...no. I...it was...just a thought." X's smirk quickly reversed itself.
It had been well over a year since Axl's sudden disappearance. Leaving nothing behind but an empty capsule, he vanished so quickly that any amount of time could have passed between when he left and when he was noted to be gone, far too long for anyone to have caught up. Regardless of how plausible it was or was not to actually find him by the time he was reported missing, nothing could have stopped the number of search parties that were dispatched to scour the base and surrounding areas. Old-fashioned searching was coupled with information reconnaissance on a sector-wide scale for nearly a month before most of the units involved were pulled to return to their respective duties. Despite this, X and Zero found themselves at an especially painful loss, as they had not only lost a teammate, but a valuable friend.
While Zero had let his sentimentality take the back burner to his primary work after what he saw to be the appropriate amount of time spent in grieving and confusion, X had yet to fully recover from the unannounced leave of one of his best friends. Rumors spread across the Hunters' base that Axl had been abducted by Mavericks, while others suggested that he simply lost interest in his job and felt it was time to "abandon ship." While most of the rumors were nothing more than simply that and harmless in nature, others weren't quite so docile. One rumor stated that Axl was, in fact, the proverbial ringleader of the group producing the questionable augmentation software. An even worse rumor insisted that he was dead. X was unsure of what to believe and simply hoped that one day he would return in the same way that he left, casually and without warning. Until that day, X and Zero were to be a duo once again, replicating the days of old.
The two Maverick Hunters' nostalgic daze became immediately interrupted by the sound of panicked screams and buster weapons firing off rampantly. As the noises grew closer, X and Zero positioned themselves behind a small group of empty, metal barrels. As they readied their weapons and peered cautiously over their conveniently placed blockade, the sound of a nearby burst of energy quickly emerged into a startling crash as a beam of sunlight broke through the once disturbingly dark room. With the addition of light into the equation, the room's sheer size suddenly became apparent and the Hunters took a quick glance at their surroundings.
An indistinguishable silhouette grabbed both X and Zero's attention as it staggered to its feet, hunched over in a very obvious state of pain. The stranger let out a plainly male and surprisingly familiar sounding grunt as he pointed his buster towards the gaping, reploid-sized hole in the far side of the rusty, metallic walls.
"C'mere, you Maverick bastard. Let's finish what we started! I've got just what you're looking for," shouted the male reploid.
Zero squinted his eyes in confusion and turned to X. "Samuel? Is that Samuel? What is he doing here?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," replied X, slowly standing up straight, keeping his buster aimed steadily at the newly made hole.
"Samuel! What are-" Zero's cry was interrupted by an abrupt flurry of shots fired through the wall, all which were returned threefold by the trio of Hunters.
As the smoke cleared, X and Zero carefully approached Samuel's previous position, trying to use the small bits of light beaming in from outside to their advantage. Following the spots of illumination on the floor, a new, larger figure could be vaguely seen through the settling smoke and dust.
"You...you will never be more than a filthy Maverick. You will never...you will never be...like me!" Samuel cackled violently, intermittently coughing up bits of oil and blood on the cool pavement next to him.
As clarity came into fruition, so did the image of the unknown assailant. A large Maverick could be seen, standing at least two heads taller than X and Zero, bearing a set of grotesque, shimmering fangs so sharp that they could almost cut if you looked at them the wrong way. These teeth, this snarl, such ferocity could only belong to a nemesis as sleek and terrifying as Romulus.
"You're right. And I have no desire to," stated Romulus confidently. He held the battered Maverick Hunter by the throat in his clawed grip, feeling the slick combination of oil and blood seep out through the small punctures in his neck and run down his arm, dampening his artificial fur with its sticky residue.
X and Zero held their busters in a perfect line with the Maverick's head, advancing towards him before the beast tightened his grip on their longtime comrade.
"Enough, Romulus. What do you want?" X inquired, his buster whirring with a stable charge.
"This doesn't concern you, Hunters. Stay out of my business," Romulus said, gruffly and affirmatively.
"You have one of our own. I'd have to say that does concern us," remarked Zero, buster raised high, saber at his side, approaching Romulus inch-by-inch.
Romulus shook his head and let out a slight chuckle. "Your friend might as well be gone already. He only brought this upon himself."
X and Zero watched in confusion as Romulus dropped Samuel to the floor in front of him. Giving no regard to the busters aimed at his head, Romulus turned around and began making his way back towards the hole in the wall from which he entered. After a short, shock-induced delay, X and Zero quickly followed their enemy towards the exit before realizing that assisting their friend was a much more imminent manner.
Upon reaching Samuel, they took notice of the fact that he was still letting out the same, sickly cackle as earlier. His face was plastered with a maniacal grin as oil and blood began to dribble out from the corners of his eyes.
This was an image to be burnt into the minds of X and Zero for ages to come.