Chapter 7: Congregation of the Fallen, Morph Moth
With Flame Stag's demise out of the way, X once more returned to the HQ and got his body repaired after all of the burns the Maverick had inflicted on his armor. He then went back to Alia in the command center, where she found her watching a second computer screen that showed the room Dr. Doppler was currently working in alongside the holographic consciousness of Dr. Cain. She had a curious look on her face regarding what they were doing with Zero's parts until she heard X ask politely "What's up Alia?"
Alia immediately looked away from that computer and focused on the other one with the island the X-Hunters were occupying as she nonchalantly replied to X with "I'm just keeping track of the movements of the Mavericks." "Why do you have a monitor up for Dr. Doppler and Dr. Cain then?" X inquired as he laid a hand down on the back of Alia's chair and leaned forward to look at said monitor, and Alia replied while turning her head slightly to look at X "I'm just trying to keep an eye on them, Doppler specifically."
"How come?" X inquired, and Alia explained to him without revealing her true interests in this matter "These days today's friends can become tomorrow's enemies. How many Maverick Hunters have turned Maverick these days, X?" X pulls back a bit and remarks with a serious expression "I'd personally not think about that. What are you getting at Alia? Dr. Cain trusts Dr. Doppler, I think that'd be enough to not suspect him of being a Maverick."
"You know who else Dr. Cain trusted before he was blown up by missiles launched by said Maverick? Sigma." Alia commented on firmly, and X could only growl a little bit at that remark seeing that Alia was by all means right, but instead of choosing to linger on that issue for much longer Alia shut the monitor focusing on Doppler off and briefly said "I'm just suggesting a little caution X" before continuing on to mention "Now then, we should worry more about hunting down the last three Mavericks."
X nodded his head and remarked "Yes, that's probably not a bad idea. Who do we have left?" Alia commented as she typed away on the keyboard "As of now two of the Maverick haven't returned to their bases. The most important thing I can gather from this is that they are dealing with the heaviest duties for the X-Hunters, but until they can return to their bases we can't strike them down. The third Maverick, who is actually residing on the island's junkyard at the moment, is the one you should probably go after next."
"What's their name?" X inquired, and Alia immediately replied "Morph Moth. I'll tell you most of the details about him once you get to the junkyard, but the most important thing I can note right now is that he was last seen raiding some of the island's cities before returning to the junkyard." "Did he take anything important?" X inquired, and Alia shook her head and told him "Nothing at all actually. It seems he just attacked the ruins left behind by Wheel Gator's tank, but there were no causalities, nothing…"
"That's odd…Why would he not attack any Reploids or humans? I guess that's something I'll have to find out once I reach him…" X remarked while rubbing his chin a bit, while Alia typed the coordinates into the keyboard and remarked "Think about it as you go after him. I've got the teleporter set and ready to go X. Good luck out there." X nodded his head in thanks of Alia's good faith and then rushed for the teleportation devices, taking one of them out of the HQ and to Morph Moth's junkyard base in a flash of blue light as usual.
X was dropped on the outskirts of the junkyard as the sun had very nearly set all the way, making the sky have a dark red and pale shade to it. The beauty of the sunset was ruined by the smog coming out from multiple smokestacks in the area, all of which are currently connected to the trash burners deep in the facility. The junk laid far and wide across the ground in mountainous heaps, stretching until they reached the edge of the city Wheel Gator attacked in the distance.
X then laid a hand on his helmet and asked Alia "I've made it to the junkyard. What do you have on Morph Moth, Alia?" Alia replied quickly "Morph Moth is another unknown Maverick just like Wire Sponge…It could mean that he was created by Sigma, but I have no way of determining that with the information available to us now. Anyways, the most important thing I can reveal to you about Morph Moth is that every time he's attacked a location, he's only kept his assault going for exactly one hour before vanishing out of sight."
"That's a pretty specific amount of time…Wonder why he only goes for that long…" X pondered, and Alia theorized to him "It's been suggested that Morph Moth retreats to junkyards after every attack he makes. Perhaps he recharges his energy by absorbing junk into his body." X remarked afterwards with slightly widened eyes "Then he has to be recharging at this very moment. This is the perfect opportunity to strike before he can reawaken."
"Yeah, sounds about right. I guess I'll let you know right now that there's a Dr. Light capsule somewhere within this junkyard and let you handle everything from here on out unless I notice anything else." Alia shut off the communication line at that point, and X held his arm cannon before remarking "Beginning mission…" X then sprinted forward and leaped atop a nearby tank of gasoline that had been broken open, finding a few cranes lying around that suspended the corpses of broken Reploids in mid-air.
"So many lives lost and thrown to the junkyard…" X showed empathy towards the Reploid corpses as he paused in place, and as a slight act of generosity towards the corpses he shot at the wiring with quick and small shots so the corpses would be dropped to the ground. Once the Reploids were freed from their disrespectful positions X dropped from the gasoline tank and landed on the ground next to one of the corpses, but before he could sprint onward he felt something suddenly grab onto his right leg and jerk hard on it to keep him in place.
X looked down and saw that not only was one Reploid corpse grabbing onto his leg while it's broken eye glowed bright in an eerie manner, but the other two he had freed from the cranes were preparing to grab onto him as well. Realizing that these "corpses" were being reanimated to attack him, likely by either the X-Hunter leaders or Morph Moth, X knew he had to destroy them in order to prevent them from being mistreated like this.
Though it pained him to do so, X took his buster and shot at the heads of the corpses, breaking through them to destroy the remains of their control chips before they could start dragging him down into the piles of junk beneath his feet. Once the corpses were dispatched, X turned around and took a moment to sigh before running on ahead to the main junk disposal facility, which was being patrolled by a couple of those shield holding Reploids from Wheel Gator's tank, suggesting that they were told to guard this by the X-Hunters after their commander's defeat.
But their method of attack hadn't changed since then, and once they threw their shields out at X he used a quick charged shot at the center of ground between both of them to create an explosion big enough to blow both Reploids away and open the way to the entrance of the junk disposal facility beyond the smoke left from the impact zone. The facility was blanketed with darkness in the inside, showing that the place was currently inactive. But X could feel the parts of a thousand Reploids below his feet as he cautiously advanced, so he'd know exactly when he'd need to jump the moment his "toes" touched an elevation of parts.
After putting on his night vision, X looked around and saw some more Reploid corpses being hung from the magnetized ceiling. The magnetic force was very weak and didn't even come close to reaching X, but he didn't want to risk the possibility of it turning on while he was in there. However, he only moved a couple feet forward before he suddenly felt something powerful pulling on his body, the area's air becoming distorted with a strong magnetic pulse that forced X to barely be able to grit his teeth as he struggled to hold himself on the ground with the magnetic energy from his boots.
He lifted his head up and watched as the parts on the ground began to be pulled up towards the ceiling, with the Reploid corpses' lower bodies being lifted up against the magnetic surface while their eyes brightened all at once, filling the green sight X was experiencing with a rather eerie red glow from multiple locations before they began to fire shots down at X. For once X was forced to take some of the attacks from his enemies since the magnetic pull forced him to trudge slowly through the junk.
But as corpses, they could not use their full energy reserves to hurt him, so while X was damaged by the shots he knew it would only effect him slightly in the long run. He tried to destroy as much of the corpses as he could though with his arm cannon, just to be safe though. Once X pushed through enough of the junk he ended up climbing onto a ledge away from it all. The magnetic pull was not as strong there, but X still had to keep his boots magnetized to avoid being pulled up towards the ceiling. He catches his breath for a moment and surveys the area around him, noticing that he was halfway past the magnetic ceiling.
He kept pressing onward for a few feet until he touched his foot against the ground and heard a slight echo coming from below him. "Huh?" X pondered in a puzzled tone before he tapped his foot against the ground to make sure he wasn't hearing things, but the echo repeated each time he did so. Feeling he was right to assume there was something underneath the floor, X leaped back a couple inches and then held his arm cannon out while switching to Wheel Gator's power.
He used the Spin Wheel to dig through the ground below him, grinding it apart until it reached the tunnel buried underneath it and then continued forth for a few more feet before vanishing. X then dropped down into the tunnel by sliding against the wall, finding that the magnetic force quickly died down as he went further away from it. Once he was at the bottom of the passage, X landed atop a slant of discarded parts and walked forward, vaulting over a small stone-metal wall to find himself face to face with another Dr. Light capsule.
Approaching the capsule, X shuts off his night vision temporarily as the capsule opens up and the holographic visage of Dr. Light illuminates this secluded room. Dr. Light's hologram was smiling a bit as he remarked to X "Well-done on finding yet another of my capsules, X. You've already come a long way since the first one, and I couldn't be prouder of you for getting to this one." X remarked quietly "Dr. Light, what's one of your capsules doing in a junkyard?"
"I can't say I know for certain why, X. I placed these capsules around the world ages ago…More than likely they were moved around by someone, and in this case they thought this capsule was nothing more than junk. It only makes sense though…This capsule has a rather particular sensor to it, meaning most people on the planet cannot activate it. At least these capsules are very durable, and can survive years of wear and tear." After Dr. Light details the answer to X's question, he remarks "But enough rambling X. I know you did not come here to hear me do that. This capsule contains the body armor parts. With it, your resistances will increase tenfold, and it will allow you to activate the 'Giga Crush' technique…But only once X, so use it wisely."
"I will. Thank you Dr. Light…Also, I'd like to thank you for what you said to me about controlling my emotions. I-I don't know what I would've done to Wheel Gator or the Mavericks afterwards had you not calmed me down" X remarked in an appreciative tone, and Dr. Light smiled and told him "I'm glad to hear that. I just do not want for you to succumb to rage and become the very thing you are trying to stop, X…I think that is all I need to say for now on the subject. I'll let you take the Body parts and continue your mission."
The hologram disappears then and there, allowing X to hop into the capsule and acquire the body parts after being consumed by yet another influx of data. By the time the data flow was over with, X found himself wearing a set of white and blue body armor with broadened shoulders and straps with green lights placed over said shoulders. X felt a little more powerful upon getting the body armor, something he hadn't really experienced with the other two upgrades, and he stepped off of the capsule a moment later while Dr. Light's hologram appears one more time to say to X "You've made me very proud to call you my son…I hope you continue working towards a better future for humans and Reploids, Meg-…I mean, X."
Dr. Light stopped himself from saying something rather quickly, and then finished being proud of X after disappearing from view. X didn't pick up on the comment and merely said "Thanks Dr. Light…" before turning around and making his way out of this secluded room, climbing up the walls and returning to the magnetized zone from before. But he's very surprised when his body is suddenly covered by a light aura that manages to reject the magnetic pull from the ceiling. The effects of the body part now demonstrated to him, X sprints through the remainder of the magnetic zone and uses his arm cannon to deal with any reanimated corpses that get in his way.
X then looks to the left and sees some machines pulling various piles of junk from the ground and dragging them higher up into the building, leading X to assume that they were being brought to Morph Moth. But the conveyor belts were too far away for X to target accurately, so he decided to ignore them for now and instead focus on getting to Morph Moth before he could be fueled by all this junk. After a short climb up the ramp in front of him, X leaps up to a higher ledge and performs a quick slide to knock a shielding Reploid off the ground, using his arm cannon to pierce through the Reploid's chest and destroy it.
X then got onto his feet and leaped onto the nearby ladder, climbing it up so he could get to the next ledge. Now the conveyor belts were obscured behind a wall of wired green metal, all of which looked to have been built recently. X then ran for the edge of the ledge and leaped outward, using his air dash to land on a higher ledge on the other side before turning around and going for another run so he could make it to the last ledge he needed to get onto in order to advance.
But upon doing so X encountered an armored wheel Reploid with the broke head of a construction Reploid on top of it that was capable of firing shots at X. But X tanked the shots without flinching and switched to Wheel Gator's colors, throwing a Spin Wheel from his left hand that allows him to slice right through the wheeled Reploid with ease, all the whole not at all stopping his advance until the Reploid blew up, at which point X ran while holding both of his arms out slightly, leaping right over a small metallic ledge and landing down on a surprisingly vacant hallway that he advances through until he reaches an oddly compressed room.
Inside this room were three large glass capsules that had all been broken through, and there was little light in this part of the facility. But even so, X didn't see any signs of mechanical life within the room, and as such put this room in the back of his mind for now as he nevertheless cautiously advanced forward, finding three more broken through capsules that surged with electricity to suggest that whatever was in them had just recently broken out.
"Just what are the X-Hunters working on in here…?" X quietly inquired before he turned to the right away from the capsules and saw a ladder sticking up slightly out of the ground. Instead of taking the ladder down normally, X decided to leap down the hole it was attached to so he could get to the bottom faster, suspecting that if he took it slow he'd be attacked by other enemies. At the same time, he stuck close to the ladder so he could cling onto it in case there were any spikes waiting for him.
He makes it to the bottom of the ladder and looks on ahead, finding another magnetic ceiling up ahead along with some platforms with spikes underneath them. X quickly leaps across the platforms while landing on some rising pieces of junk in-between them, shooting down dragonflys that were patrolling the air until he gets off of the platforms and descends towards the ladder. He grabs one of the rungs of it and climbs down to the next floor.
X then runs forward through another magnetized corridor, going through all of the Reploids that were in his way with simple shots from his arm cannon, weaving around the junk that was rising up off the ground until he climbed a few steps and made it to yet another ladder. Descending to the next floor, X was surprised how easy things were, though he chalked it up to all of the armor parts along with the fact that he was just simply getting used to all of the X-Hunters' tricks with time.
After crossing another hallway, X lands inside of a small room similar to the one where the broken capsules were at, and the way beyond was blocked off by a disabled Reploid made entirely out of various pieces of junk. The Reploid had an antenna on it's back and a lack of a frontal plate. X raised his arm cannon up and prepared to destroy it with a charged shot, but then the machine suddenly lifted himself up and began to slowly walk towards X like a lumbering zombie.
For something this big, X suspected that there had to be something inside of the Reploid to keep it moving. He wasn't be frightened at all by the machine and quickly fires the charged shot at the upper part of the Reploid's body, blowing right through it and revealing an odd spider-like machine inside of the Reploid with some wings on it's back. The creature flies out of the big Reploid and then flies off towards the hallway ahead, and X quickly pursues it while commenting "Why was that thing inside of that Reploid?"
After following the winged machine through the hallways of the facility for a little bit, X goes through some sliding steel doors and watches as the winged spider flies up into the ceiling, which composed entirely of compressed pieces of junk. Once the spider crawled into the ceiling, something began to quiver in the center of it all, and in mere seconds a cocoon drops from the ceiling suspended by a string coming from the top of it's head. The cocoon had closed eyelids and wires connected from the cocoon to the head.
The cocoon didn't say anything, and X immediately locked his arm cannon onto it and thought to himself "He's still regaining his strength. I have to take care of him right here and now." X switched to the colors for Flame Stag's power and fires off his two-fireballs Speed Burner attack from the arm cannon, hoping to roast Morph Moth in a single attack before he could break free from the cocoon. Sure enough the cocoon was quickly set on fire from the attack, and the eyes widen open instantly as a reaction.
Some muffled sound comes from within the cocoon, but then it starts violently swinging itself back and forth against the ceiling, hitting it hard enough to shake the room and make the junk break off very quickly. X had to move himself around to avoid getting hit by the junk, and eventually even the walls of the room crumble apart to reveal the outdoors, where a few mountains of junk existed with smoke stacks placed in the center of them. Morph Moth's cocoon had vanished from sight during the downfall of junk that X was now standing atop of as the floor, and this worried him just a little bit.
After waiting a little bit X looked up and saw some golden dust sprinkling down from the sky, and he quickly noticed the one creating the dust descending from above. It was Morph Moth, who lived up to his namesake by having a pair of gigantic metallic yellow wings with fans on them to help him achieve flight and produce dust. He had fuzzy antennae and yellow capped shoulders, and an otherwise ivory metallic body. Through a small curl up iron tongue, Morph Moth remarked to X in an elegant, masculine tone "Grrr…You awoke me from my sleep with a crude blast of fire!"
"Morph Moth, what are you doing here?" X inquired while keeping his arm cannon held at the Maverick, and Morph Moth levitated above the ground while holding his right hand against his face, shaking his head slightly and stating "Tsk tsk tsk…Now wouldn't you like to know?" "Talk!" X demanded to know the answer with a bit of anger in his voice, and Morph Moth flinched a bit before telling him "Such a fiery temper. I suppose Flame Stag's power is affecting you a bit….Fine, if you must know, I was just resting up my power after attacking that nearby city."
"Why? You didn't even attack anyone!" X exclaimed, and Morph Moth held his right hand forward and wiggled his fingers around while explaining "So you would've preferred I stained my hands with human blood and Reploid oil? Quite contradictory for a Maverick Hunter to say…I find it to be quite barbaric to ravage Reploids and humans, personally. It's much more enjoyable to be surrounded by their inactive remains. Ah…The peace of a junkyard sleep, a delight so few can truly know."
"Don't worry, you'll be sleeping permanently soon enough." X commented on as he lifted his arm cannon up, and Morph Moth shook his head again and said "Tsk tsk, you're in such a rush to kill me X. Don't you find it interesting how the X-Hunters have managed to reanimate the corpses of Reploids? Now, even after death, the Reploids can still serve a purpose while maintaining the beauty of their ruined bodies."
"That's horrible! They should be allowed to rest peacefully. What you're supporting is wrong, Morph Moth!" X stated while clenching his arm cannon tightly, and Morph Moth mentioned afterwards "Can my actions really be considered 'wrong', Maverick Hunter? I was born for the purpose I fulfill, I've never known what it's like to be considered a 'normal' Reploid in your eyes. And besides, can you really say it's wrong for us to allow Reploids a second chance to do something when otherwise they'd just rot away in these junkyards waiting for the day when they MIGHT be used as spare parts?"
"I get what you're saying Morph Moth. Overdrive Ostrich proves that some Reploids are mistreated and cast aside…But you're not just using those types of Reploids for your sick experiments. Your actions can't fully be justified because of that!" X stated, thrusting his arm cannon forward as Morph Moth's antennae twitched and he remarked bitterly "Hmph, you're not going to understand the beauty of being a piece of junk until you become one yourself. I hope you like what you see X, because this shall be your graveyard!"
Morph Moth then flaps his wings a couple times and takes off right as X tries to fire a Speed Burner at him. Morph Moth then swings his hands down and fires a destructive rainbow colored beam down at X. X gets hit by the beam and is knocked back a couple feet, but barely felt any damage to his body thanks to the armor upgrades he received. Morph Moth noticed this and said as he kept to the air "Well now this is problematic…I wasn't told of these defensive capabilities…"
X didn't listen in to what Morph Moth said as he leaped back and landed on the wall, jumping off of it and attempting to pull off a close-ranged Speed Burner, but the Maverick quickly flew up and watched as X performed a flip and landed on his feet while the flames burned through the wall on the other side. Morph Moth then swung his hands down and fired off another energy beam that strikes X right in the back, but only makes him flinch slightly before he turns around and quickly fires off another Speed Burner.
Morph Moth once more had little difficulty getting out of the way of the attack, and then he wiggled his right pointer finger around while stating "Ah ah ah X…Play with fire and you'll just get CRUSHED!" He then gestured said pointer finger at the ground and made the junk start to rumble under X's feet, in a matter of seconds making it rise up and start to wrap itself around his body like a sphere. But X quickly shifted to Wheel Gator's colors and threw a Spin Wheel at the junk in front of him, making it grind through it all and open a body enough passage for X to leap through.
Once X was out of the junk sphere he switched back to his normal colors and aimed both of his arm cannons up while kneeling on the ground, charging up energy until he could fire two shots right at Morph Moth. The Maverick widens his eyes and releases his grip on the junk before trying to fly out of the way of X's charged shots, only for one of them to burn through part of his right wing and thus destabilize his flight a bit. Morph Moth dropped a few inches from the sky and immediately pulled his right arm back, thrusting it out to fire another beam at X.
X leaps over the beam and goes for the wall, leaping off of it and switching to Overdrive Ostrich's colors so he can fire a couple of Sonic Slicers at Morph Moth's wings in hopes of continuing to limit his flight. But the Maverick swerved around them easily, going straight for X and grabbing him out of the air by wrapping his right hand around the robot's neck. Morph Moth then threw X towards the ground as X gasped momentarily, stating as he watched X land on his feet "You truly are an example of what Reploids can become, X. It will be so beautiful to see a day when Reploids can evolve to greater heights like I am capable of."
X lifts himself upright and glares up at Morph Moth, who was in the middle of raising his right hand up to snap his fingers while declaring "But for that to happen, outdated models such as you need to be put away!" The junk spread across the ground starts to rise up below X's feet, and as he leaps away from them Morph Moth throws his right hand out and fills all the pieces of junk with energy from his hands, hoping to detonate them to take X out while he was on the ground.
But X quickly switched to Flame Stag's colors again and began to climb the junk with quick movements, charging up the energy as he climbs while Morph Moth remarked "Oh please…You will never hit me with those dullard flames of-" X uses the charge from his Speed Burner to do something completely unexpected from Morph Moth's perspective as he surrounded his whole body with a comet-like aura of fire and launched himself right at the Maverick at high-speed.
X slams right into Morph Moth's body and not only launches him right into the wall behind him but sets his entire body on fire, the Maverick being so consumed by flames that one could barely make out his body behind them all. X lands on the ground as the energy drops from all the junk Morph Moth brought up, and they all fall to the ground just a few seconds later. The Maverick then falls from the wall and lands on his stomach, his body incredibly singed as his wings had melted down and his antennae had been lost.
Morph Moth slowly lifted his head up, looking at X for a few seconds before he suddenly started alternating between laughing and coughing, leading X to inquire "What's so funny?" Morph Moth then stated calmly "Hahah…My elegance may die here X…But you've lost as well…" X widened his eyes for a moment and locked his arm cannon onto the Maverick, but Morph Moth told him "I take a great deal of honor in the fact that I was able to distract you long enough…For Master Serges to initiate his plan…"
"What? What is Serges planning?!" X demanded to know, and Morph Moth laughed and stated "You'll find out…soon enough X…What a glorious demise this shall be…Knowing that your fate is sealed…Maverick Hunters…" Morph Moth then raised a hand to the moonlit sky and sighed happily before promptly exploding, his head behind flung right at X, allowing him a chance to grab onto it and use his copy power for Morph Moth's ability. His armor switches to orange and green for a little bit before he reverts to his normal colors and tosses Morph Moth's head away so he can get his hand on his helmet with a concerned look on his face.
"Alia? Are you noticing anything on the island?!" X inquired quickly, and Alia responded just as fast "Morph Moth's right! A signal's being sent out from the computer compound on the island. This is looking really bad X…I need to get you back here immediately to brief you on the situation!" Alia wasted no time in getting things setup so X is teleported back to the HQ. But little did they know that this entire time X had been observed on a monitor from another location…
In a secluded metallic room with little lighting, the stout Serges stood hunched over the monitor as he saw X teleport away from the air. He had his arms folded into his coat as usual, but a happy look on his face as he lifted his head up to look at an orb containing Zero's head. With a smile as wide as he could make it, Serges murmured "I'm waiting for you blue boy…Waiting for you to come and visit a couple of old friends of yours…Hehehe."
Next Time: The Last Part