Chapter 4: Therapeutic Chaos
21XX: New Tokyo, Maverick Hunter Headquarter (MHHQ), 0937 Hours GMT
"You know, it's kind of funny. I remember you used to tease me for the longest time about how emotional I used to get after one of Sigma's uprisings. And now, for some reason you're starting to have nightmares that are causing you to wake up screaming and thrashing."
"There's nothing funny about that. If your trying to get an apology out of me than..."
"I'm messing with you dude, you know I wouldn't try that. Well, unless it was something really, really, bad."
I looked at the ground at that last remark. 'Should I tell him what I think? What would he say? 'Oh Zero, you know Sigma was just playing mind games with you,' or something like that.'
He noticed that I was deep in reverie and asked, "seriously man, what's wrong. I haven't seen you this down since the 'Repliforce...'" He stopped mid-sentence, but we both knew what he was referring to. During the 'Repliforce incident,' I was forced to kill my girlfriend Iris, the only woman that ever really mattered to me. I didn't come out of my room for a month after that. It took X and Dr. Cain threatening to blow the door off the hinges to get me to let them in.
"Remember when we got split up in the Final Weapon during the 'Repliforce incident?' How you fought General while I was attacking Sigma?"
"Yes, I remember I got there just in time to help you defeat Sigma's final form. Why?"
Here goes. "Well, before you got there Sigma tried to talk to me. To tell me something. He showed me our first meeting, before I became a Maverick Hunter, and he the maverick leader. I was a maverick and he was fighting me."
"Wait, you were a maverick? But Sigma said that you were a survivor of that one mavericks' mad rampage. That one crazy maverick that destroyed an entire unit."
"Well, from what Sigma showed me, I was that maverick."
"That's impossible, Dr. Cain said that he hadn't changed anything in your systems, he just repaired the small amount of structural damage you had and revived you. And built you a new control chip covering. Sigma said that it must have been smashed earlier in the fight with the maverick."
"X, why do you think I've always been such a good hunter? You of all people must have noticed that I go into a battle rage while fighting mavericks. Lots of people say that I become a terror while I'm out hunting, not to mention the fact that I scare the green horns when I take them on escort missions. Face it X, I was made to be a killer. Why should it be a surprise that I was originally a maverick?"
"The first mavericks, the ones before Sigma, didn't have the virus that made them go berserk. If you had been a maverick at that point in time, you wouldn't have had it. Maybe you just came to terms with any feelings you may have had against humans and turned over a new leaf."
"X, the first mavericks wouldn't have been able to make such a mess of Sigma himself. He showed me our fight; I tore the shit out of him."
X looked down at his feet, apparently contemplating what I had just said. "He did look really bad when he got back, worse than any other time he went to hunt. But now that you mention it, he did seem different afterwards. Sort of detached from everybody else. He wasn't like that when Dr. Cain first activated him. If he did catch the virus from another reploid, could he have...is he saying that he got it from you?"
That was what I had been dreading. What would he say if he knew I was the reason that we are still fighting Sigma to this day. "I think, when he beat me in that warehouse, I infected him with the virus."
X looked pale. "But, how is it that you didn't have the virus then? You can't just pass it on like that. A maverick that infects others with the virus is still infected, it's been proven. It's impossible to get rid of it like that."
"What if it never fully left?"
"What do you mean?"
"You remember the 'Eurasia incident?' How Lifesaver noticed that the virus didn't affect me the same way it affected other reploids? How it made me stronger, faster, and more dangerous?"
"Yes, but we all determined that it was likely that you developed antibodies of some sort because of the innumerable times you and I have fought Sigma. It's almost the same with me, I encountered several instances of the virus as well and I didn't go maverick."
"But it still caused damage. It affected you negatively. It made me better somehow. For some reason, it made me more complete. What if I can never totally get rid of the virus because it's an essential component of my systems, made to strengthen me the more of it is present; something I was built with?"
X was staring directly at me. "Who in Heaven or Hell could build something like the Maverick Virus, much less build it for you?"
"I don't know. I wish I could remember my activation. I have had dreams of it though."
"That's what your nightmares have been about? Maybe it's some kind of clue. What did you see in them?"
'Smooth X, although I do not have to give you credit for your persistence.' "Death mostly. Lots of dead robotic bodies. Oil, fluids, and shrapnel everywhere. However, when I see my hands, they are covered with blood. I'm pretty sure it's human blood. I see Sigma, back when he was the leader of the Maverick Hunters, he's looking at me in absolute terror, screaming in fear. I see myself, first without my armor, and then with it; I have eyes that look like they have no soul behind them. But the last thing I see, is some silhouette of a man in a lab coat. I think he is the one that created me. And then he talks to me. He tells me to destroy...someone."
"Who?"
"...I...I don't know. I've never gotten that far." That was a lie and I did feel bad about it, but I didn't see any need to tell X about it. It would probably freak him out.
X looked like he was deep in thought. "Well...okay...let's just say you are the reason for the spread of the maverick virus. For some reason, you don't have the virus, or you do and, not only are there no physical signs of infection, it also doesn't affect you the way it does every other maverick. Either way, you are not a maverick and, if you did have the virus, I know that infecting Sigma wouldn't have been your choice. With all mavericks, the virus makes it so that they morally can't be held accountable for their actions. Unfortunately, mavericks are still a danger to humanity and the only known way to cure a maverick is by destroying it or fatally injuring it, so that doesn't really apply. But even if you did have the virus and you were a maverick, I don't know that I would be able to do anything about it. As many mavericks as I have retired, I don't think I could ever hurt you. You're my best friend Zero, I don't know what I'd do with out you. Whatever you did in the past, doesn't matter now, and it certainly doesn't matter to me." X looked directly into my eyes with an incredibly piercing stare; it was almost as if he was looking right into me, and I could swear his eyes were slightly glistening. He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. "I would do anything to protect you."
I was stunned. I had no idea X was capable of such a display of trust. Well, no, that's not true, I did knew that he was. I just never would have guessed that he'd give me one. "I...I don't know what to say. Thank you X." All of a sudden I felt something weird in my eyes and then I couldn't see. 'Oh hell, I'm starting to cry.' I quickly turned away and took a deep breath. I looked back at X, he just smiled. 'Well, at least I can trust X not to spread this all over the cafeteria tomorrow.' We sat in silence for a minute, until I started to feel awkward. I got up and walked over to the other side of my room. "Well, I'm getting tired of all this depressing stuff, I'll break out the booze." I reached towards my mini-fridge, but I never completed the action, for at that moment I felt a giant rumbling in the floor. I quickly looked at X, and immediately knew that he was thinking the same thing. Someone was attacking HQ. We were out the door in a split second.
---
X and I burst into the war room. Signas was already there and was issuing orders to other unit commanders. "Signas! What the almighty hell is going on!"
Signas looked over at us, finished briefing Griffin, the commander of the 11th 'Rolling Thunder' unit, and motioned for us to join him. "There is a rather large contingent of maverick forces bombarding our outside defenses. I assume you both felt the explosions? That was one of our anti-infantry turrets being taken out. Luckily we have almost two dozen more before their ground forces can even hope to come within two kilometers of the base." Signas let a wry smile appear on his face at this last statement. Everybody in HQ knew how much he loved it when a well initialized defensive system worked properly. He turned away from the monitors to look back at us. "Unfortunately, with those air troops doing bombing runs every forty five seconds, it won't be too long before they take down those other turrets, and as soon as they do we will be swarmed with an unknown amount of maverick infantry. What I want you two to do is gather the 17th and the 0th units and join up with Griffin's unit to take the offensive to the ground troops before they can get close enough to do serious damage. The largest cluster managed to stay out of range of our guns so you should have no trouble surrounding them at this point. Luckily, Dr. Cain was thinking tactically when he had this place built. Because of the geography of the surrounding landscapes, the mavericks are being funneled through a relatively small pass. This is where my strategy comes in. The 17th and 0th groups will warp to the north and south sides of the mavericks while you three and the 11th make a charge through the middle of the infantry with the ride chasers. With any luck, this cavalry charge with decimate the maverick forces and it should be a relatively easy matter to subdue or destroy the rest."
It was at this moment that Axl burst into the room. He was gasping for air, almost as if he had run to get here, he had dark red lipstick smeared all over his face, and his hair looked a bit disorderly. It was all I could do to keep from busting my gut with laughter. X saw him and rolled his eyes, Signas let out a sigh as he put his hand over his face, as if trying to ease a headache, and Griffin just looked slightly perplexed. "I'm here, I'm here...what did I miss," he asked, panting out of physical exhaustion.
"Axl, while I appreciate your fast response to trouble, it would not kill you to make yourself a little presentable, would it?" Axl looked confused for a minute, than his eyes widened as he put his hand up to his lips and saw that there was still lipstick on his face. He turned beet red. "Never mind that Axl, just listen and you can clean yourself up later. I'll give you the short version; mavericks are attacking; the 17th and 0th unit will flank them on opposite sides; X, Zero, and the 11th are going to lead a charge of ride chasers directly into the mavericks and hopefully wipe them out."
Axl's mouth went wide as a huge grin grew on his face. The lipstick on his mouth making his face look hilarious. I had to put my hand to my mouth to make sure I didn't laugh out loud. "Excellent. I'll go get cleaned up and meet them in the vehicle depot."
"Actually Axl, I want you and the 6th to wait and warp in after the 11th makes it's charge and then start your attack."
A look of shock came over Axl's face. "But that means...aw come on Signas! I don't want to be on garbage duty."
"The initial charge should leave the mavericks disorganized and easy prey for your unit though."
"Yeah, but that's no fun. I want to put my guys into some serious action."
I knew Axl was only going to sulk about this, and that certainly wouldn't help his performance on the battlefield. "Hey Axl, I know it's not a fun job, but if you go through with it, I'll let you have something out of my stash..."
He immediately looked at me with wide eyes and said, "deal! I'll see you guys there!" He quickly went off to the washroom before meeting with his unit.
I turned to look at Signas with a smile of satisfaction on my face. He, however, appeared less amused. "I am sure I do not want to know. Alright you three, brief your units and head on out. I want everybody ready to go within the next four minutes."
---
Three and a half minutes later, X and I were in the vehicle depot with the 11th. I looked over at X, he was riding a custom blue ride chaser while I was on my standard red. Griffin and the other members of the 11th were driving orange chasers. "You all ready?"
Griffin and his unit looked over at me and responded, "SIR! YES SIR!"
X than looked over at me. "So, do you want to take point or should I?"
I grinned, "let's hit them at the same time. Same deal as last time?"
"Sure, first to fifty gets all the shots free."
"You're on."
The hanger bay doors opened and we were off. The mavericks were only two kilometers away. Hopefully Signas' plan would work and, while the 17th and 0th kept them occupied, we would be able to cut a swath right through the infantry middle so that the 6th could mop up the rest. Pushing our ride chasers to their limits would get us to the maverick's front line in thirty seconds, offering a large surprise for the mavericks that would be caught on the wrong end of a plasma cannon.
We were halfway there when, all of a sudden, I noticed a strange energy source coming from the middle of the maverick groups. That wouldn't have been much cause for concern, had the energy not suddenly begin to increase exponentially. Instantly, I knew what it was. I heard X's voice over the comm saying, "oh my god!" He knew too.
I frantically got on the comm to the rest of the unit. "WARNING!!! They've got a plasma cannon!!! Everyone, take evasive..." Suddenly the energy dropped to zero almost instantaneously. "SHIT!!! X, WATCH OUT..."
I caught one glimpse of X looking directly in front of him, in shock. Than, in an instant, his ride chaser was blown up under him. He went flying into the air, screaming at the top of his lungs.
My look of terror was quickly replaced by an grimace of intense hatred. I quickly got back on the comm; we were seconds from the front line. "Griffin. Keep going. I'll catch up." Griffin offered no words, but merely flicked on his acknowledgement light; he knew this was personal and nothing he could say would affect me right now. I pushed the chaser past it's limits, disabling the safeties and effectively turning it into a time bomb. I aimed it at the plasma cannon and preformed a jump with the chaser. I passed over the heads of some of the mavericks and jumped away from the chaser with all of my strength. Contorting my body in mid-air, I got ready to air dash back to where X might've landed.
Then my world exploded in blinding agony. I fell to the ground, stunned that one of the mavericks had been quick enough to tag me. Damn it, these were definitely not the rookies I was dealing with. I got to my feet and began charging my buster, ready to rain hell fire on any maverick that got in the way of X.
Then, ice water filled my veins.
Suddenly, I realized what the mavericks' plan had been. As I looked at the mavericks that were surrounding me, I was struck by how much the battlefield now resembled a sea. Every single one of them looked exactly like X. And they all looked in my direction. "Oh, god...please no!"
They all raised their busters and said as one, "MUST DESTROY MAVERICKS!"
End Chapter 4