Megaman X2: Eternal War

Chapter 8: Battle at the H.Q. (part 2)

By Genoscythe

Disc: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING! ANYTHING!!!

A.N: Not much to say, but this chapter is going slow.

V.R. was in the middle of a hallway when the shelling started. The first few shots were a dull rumble, obviously warning shots. Then they became louder and louder, until the whole base was rocking from the strain put on its shield. He cursed silently under his breath and hefted his large backpack onto his shoulder. He flew up several flights of stairs until he reached the observation deck, where other snipers were already positioned. The snipers, who were from unit 0, 14, 15, and 17, took a position near the rail and kept their guns trained on the enemy, occasionally firing if a maverick got too close. V.R. set up his sniper unit and leaned against the rail to get a better view of the situation.

The first things he saw were explosions. Hundreds upon hundreds of smoke clouds peppered the front line, where his friends were fighting. Their hunters were barely holding back the line of enemies, and it wouldn't be long before the hordes broke through and got to the H.Q. Near the cliffs, he saw hundreds upon hundreds of large green ships, slightly oval in shape. They were unloading mavericks as he thought. Daring to chance a shot at a ship, he fired, but the beam of energy never made it; it just disappeared. Shield, he thought. It was probably a D-05 type, which was strong enough to dissipate any energy attack. " Perfect," He muttered. " Just bloody perfect."

Blood. It showered over Drake as he desperately fired his assault rifle at a leaping mantis drone. He wiped the sticky red liquid from his eyes and searched for X within the turmoil. They had gotten separated several minutes into the fray. He knew that he was a very capable warrior, but he couldn't help but worry. Drake pulled a lever on the side of his large gun and switched from shotgun mode to burst mode. The shotgun barrel flipped over to lock into place on top of the gun, and a smaller nozzle slid out of a recession in the front of his gun. Unfortunately, while he was doing this, he didn't notice that the mantis drone had gotten up again, despite the gaping hole in its chest. He fell back and fired, but missed. It raised its arm, but in a moment, a piercing ray of light shot through the air, cleanly taking off the arm and its head. He could tell that it was a sniper shot. Drake turned towards the observation tower and waved. If he could have seen that far, then he would have noticed V.R. wave back.

He turned on his heels and dashed off into the fray, once again searching for X. Suddenly a flash of purple flew past him, followed closely by a maverick wielding a saber. The purple hunter turned, and Drake saw his- er, her face. Calliope held her saber out horizontally to counter the saber maverick. As predicted, it jumped into the air, and she suddenly brought her saber up almost too quickly for the eye to see. Soon, the maverick was missing two arms. Not about to give up, it rushed her and opened its skull-like mouth. Drake could see her fumble with something in her pouch, then he saw her hold out her hand. It tried to bite down, but it apparently missed. Drake couldn't see, but it had something in its mouth, because it began chewing. Suddenly, Calliope dashed forward at top speed. As she passed by his shoulder, she gave him one word of warning. " Run,"

Without waiting for another warning, Drake ran after her. Moments later, he heard an explosion, and part of the maverick's head landed right in his path. " Eww. That girl can sure kick some serious ass," He and Calliope made it to the back ranks, where fewer hunters were positioned. There were several crates of ammo on the ground, which some hunters were taking cover behind. After Calliope passed by one such crate and an azure armored hand shot out and grabbed her arm. She let out a small scream as she was pulled down behind the crate. X held her close to him, encircling a protective arm around her. She opened her mouth to yell at him. " X! What the he-" He put a finger to her lips and shook his head, signaling for her not to yell.

" Not so loud," He whispered. " It might hear you," She looked at him skeptically.

" What might hear me?"

" We don't know. We were heading out with some of the other team members when about fifty serrated tentacles sprung out of the ground and slaughtered all of our troops. Any loud movements or noises and it'll surely strike,"

" We?" She asked skeptically. X pointed to a figure hunched over behind him, which she could recognize as Commander Genoscythe.

" You," He said, giving her a curt wave before turning back to work on some equipment. Suddenly, Calliope realized something.

" Where's Drake?"

" I don't know. We got separated early on in the fight." X sighed.

" He was right behind me a moment ago. I can only assume he's still in the area…" Her voice trailed off when she heard a high pitched scream and the sound of slithering forms.

" Jesus fucking Christ!" Suddenly, Drake hurtled over the large stack of crates and cowered behind a set of boxes. He peeked out just enough to see his friends behind the boxes in front of him. He crawled over his crates and met up with his friends. " Where the HELL have you-" Megaman X cut him off and told him about the mysterious maverick hiding in the sand. " Right. So, first we have to get that thing out of the sand," Drake whispered. Genoscythe spoke up.

" Well, maybe we could blow it out with an explosive," He suggested. Calliope flashed a devilish smile. She pulled out a grenade from her pocket.

" Way ahead of you, commander," Roughly, she pulled the pin from its recession and hurled the bomb at where she thought the maverick was. Moments after the grenade detonated, there came a howl, and an odd creature flew out from under the sand. It began hovering ominously in the air, a good twenty meters from the ground. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't what any of them had expected. X thought it could closest resemble a comically large cucumber, with a weird, spongy texture and flailing tentacle arms that slithered in and out of each other, weaving a sort of razor net. Drake actually had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. This was the terrifying creature that had them paralyzed with fear? Genoscythe knew better than to judge a book by its cover, however. He sprang from his crouch quicker than lightning, and he leapt the full twenty meters to come face to faceplate with the odd maverick. He hovered there silently, clenching his fists and closing his eyes. X turned to Calliope.

" I didn't know the commander had hover units," He whispered.

" He doesn't," She replied, who was still concentrating on the navy blue figure, which had begun to glow a dull red. The spongy maverick screeched and swung an arm at him. The bladed tentacle neared his head… then suddenly split in half! Genoscythe hadn't appeared to move a muscle, but there was a glint of purple blood on his golden arm blade. In an instant, the 17th's commander dashed forward and sent his fist straight into the maverick's face. It howled, and nearly all of its appendages flashed about him, ready to tear him apart. With a smirk, the reploid slowly grasped the scythe on his back. He pulled it out, but instead of slashing at the tentacles, he flung it straight into the sponge's body with enough force to tear through a small mountain. Suddenly, Genoscythe appeared behind it, catching his spinning weapon with ease.

To his surprise, the maverick was not dead. It merely let off another howl and turned around. Its claws lashed out at him, and X was sure that he was done for, because his scythe was for medium range only. Again, he was proven wrong when Genoscythe grasped his scythe tightly and pulled the top off, igniting the bottom half into a beam saber. With a flick of his wrist, dozens of tentacles fell to the ground, squirming. He dashed forward and kicked it hard in the knee, shorting out its hover units. It gasped and fell into the dust and sand below. Like an enormous stone, he plummeted downward and extended his sharp armored foot. He impacted with the sponge and a series of snaps and cracks emitted from its body as its organs and joints were snapped and crushed. Genoscythe's foot went straight through it, for a moment later he hit dirt.

The maverick screamed and writhed for a few seconds before going totally limp. He walked over to his comrades and dusted off his hands. " What do you say we get going, huh? This time, let's try to stay together," He said calmly, as if his magnificent display was no work at all. They all sweatdropped at their commander. He simply shook his head and dashed off into the battle, with the others in close pursuit.

" Dr. Cain, the shield is nearly out of energy!" an operator yelled. Cain leaned on the briefing table for support. " What should we do?"

" We can't do anything. We just have to hope that our hunters-"

" Sir! The shield is out of energy! We're completely vulnerable to attack!" A panicked reploid said. Dr. Cain cursed under his breath.

" Dr. Cain, I detect a large projectile coming from one of the ships. Its trajectory is…" The operator trailed off. " The power generator!" He managed to gasp before the building began rocking violently and everything went completely black.

V.R. saw the missile coming from the moment it fired, but he just assumed that the H.Q.'s shield would last long enough. When it passed right through where the shield was supposed to be, he panicked. It seemed to be heading for the power generator, which was located about 60 feet from the observation tower where he now stood. He knew that he wouldn't last long up on the tower, exposed to the artillery. He turned around, leaving his heavy sniper rifle and backpack in the tower. As he dashed down the stairs and into the main building. Suddenly, an explosion rocked him off his feet and he went tumbling down the rest of the stairs as the lights went out. He groaned as he made an effort to stand.

V.R. switched on a light on his helmet and began running down the corridor, not paying attention to the screams and cries of the other reploids in the building. There was one place in particular that he was trying to get to the hangar. If he could get a hover truck, then he might be able to save his friends on the front line. Finally, his light shone over a door labeled HANGAR. The electronic lock was out, so he had to resort to other means of opening the door. He swung a mighty fist at the door, instantly making it buckle and twist under the sudden force. The enormous hangar was also completely draped in shadow, but a small sliver of light could be seen at the opposite end. There was a hole in the hangar door! A small insectoid maverick was crouched on the ground in front of the hole, chewing on a piece of metal.

VR slowly withdrew the two magnums he carried at his waist and aimed at the spider-like reploid. After two shots, it dropped dead. Unfortunately, a saber maverick from outside heard the shots and began cutting a hole in the hangar door. It burst through, a maniacal grin on its skeleton face. VR fired continuously at it, and it finally dropped to the ground and exploded, tearing a huge gash in the wall. Seeing as no more mavericks would be coming through, he walked over to a large hover truck. It was semi-rectangular in shape, with two large thrusters in the back and many smaller ones on the bottom to keep it afloat. The front was curved, with a blunt end and a small slit in the upper part for seeing. There were two doors on the side that lead to the passenger section and a round hatch on top for the driver and gunners cockpit. A single rotating gattling gun was placed in the rear top section, and there were two missile racks on the side behind either door. VR climbed a small ladder on the side and opened the hatch to the cockpit. He placed his hands on the two glowing panels and waited for his ID to be confirmed. " Driver approved. Begin synapse transfusion?" A calm computer voice asked him.

" Yes," He nodded. Suddenly, two metal shafts shot up out of the panels and latched onto his arms. He felt tiny prickles as the tiny wires inside the shafts connected with his nerve points and began feeding back data to the computer. He grasped two handles inside the synapse tracers. He pulled up on them and the old hover truck hummed to life. He let go of the handles, but the tracers stayed linked to his arms so they could continue feeding movement and reaction data to the computer. VR grasped the control handle next to the tracer system and pushed forward. The vehicle jolted forward and he flew out of the hangar and turned left to the battlefield, the tracer system telling the computer which way to go via his arm movements and the movements of the control handle.

AN: This happens right before the power went out.

Mobius was furious. There was almost no way they could stabilize Jett's system, and he was fading too quickly for them to remove the magnetic particles in his body. He had even tried to remove them manually by removing all of his organs that had been affected. Just in time, he realized that there were too many organs affected, and trying to remove them all would just kill him faster. The only thing that was keeping him alive was the energy generator that was pumping life into his combat armor. In a flash of light, everything went black. The lights, the computers, the life support systems, everything. Nurses and doctors cried out in fear and some of the conscious patients began wailing about nightmares. Mobius panicked, but only for a second, because then his night vision kicked in. " Shit," He said aloud. " The damn computers are off and now everyone's in a panic. Just my luck," He stood and grimaced for several seconds before cold realization began to sink in. His look changed to that of utter horror. " Oh my god," More than half of the patients needed the energy generators to live. The energy generators that were now off. He slowly slumped to his knees as the rough, labored breathing of the young maverick hunter Jett stopped completely.

End

AN: So, how did you like it? I AM THE KING OF DRAMA! OH YEEAAHH! Sorry, that's just the sugar high talking. This chapter came out so late because school has been murder and I've been studying my ass off. I also started to lose the will to write this story, but then I decided to finish something I started for once in my life. But really, if you want more quality work from me, you have to review once in a while. Hopefully I can actually get some advice, instead of ' yr story is kool lol!' or ' your summary sucks' or any of that crap. Please review! See ya later!