Megaman ZX – The Novelization
Chapter 11 – Under Attack!
Vent and Aile arrived at the HQ's transerver room and headed straight towards the command center, not paying attention that the whole HQ had emptied out. The door slid open, revealing the Guardian commander sitting at the main hub while looking at the screen which showed the radar.
"Prairie, what's the status on the enemy fleet!?" Vent asked as he and Aile came into the command center.
Prairie turned her head from the screen, "Not good! They're right on top of us! This ship wasn't designed for heavy battle. If the enemy boards us, we're done for!"
The Guardian HQ started shaking a bit before the alarm suddenly went off, "Slither Inc.'s fleet has fired an opening volley! Returning fire!"
Prairie turned to the operators in front of her, "All hands man the port and starboard machine guns! Don't let them get any closer!" The operators repeated Prairie's order as they contacted the other Guardians in the HQ before the ship shook again, but more violent than before. Prairie turned her head to the two Guardians once more, "Vent! Aile! You two have to get to the deck and do what you can to stop those boarding parties!"
Aile saluted at Prairie, "We're on it! We'll keep every last Guardian safe!" Aile turned to Vent, who had pulled out Model X and Model Z.
"Rock ON! Model ZX!" Vent and Aile transformed into their ZX forms and took the elevator, heading up towards the deck.
A few Guardians were on top of the Guardian HQ's deck on the higher platform, firing at the airships surrounding the HQ. One of the airships shot out a heavy metal box, which was connected back to the airship with a chain. The impact of the metal box had destroyed the deck's railings before the door on the box slid open, revealing several Galleons as it came flying out of the box with their wings on their back.
Aile shot the Galleons' wings, making them either crash to the deck or fall out of the HQ. Vent cut through the flying Galleons with his rolling slash, leaving their remains for Vent to kick out of the deck as the railings were gone. Just as Vent was about to jump and cut the metal box into half, a flying Galleon had appeared behind him without him noticing, but Aile had seen it and shot it before it could hit Vent.
"Thanks!" Vent turned to Aile with a smile before turning back to the door and cut it in half, sending the connected chain back to the airship.
Another airship closed in and sent out two heavy boxes on the deck, destroying more of the deck's railings. The doors slid open and more flying Galleons came out of the boxes. The flying Galleons began shooting at Vent and Aile, who countered with their ZX busters. With a ZX buster in Vent's left hand, Vent blocked another incoming Galleon with his ZX saber in his right hand.
More Galleons fell victim to the two Guardians and as they had just destroyed the last two empty metal boxes, another one landed near the entrance leading into the HQ. More flying Galleons flew into the HQ, followed by a male purple Reploid wielding a scythe along with a female one with white and blue armor and wielding a staff.
Vent noticed the infiltrators and turned to the entrance leading into the HQ, "They're the ones from before!"
"Enemy troops have boarded the ship!" Prairie's panicked voice was heard from Vent's communicator, "They're heading for the engine room down below! You have to get down there and protect the engines! Hurry!"
"But Aile…" Vent turned to Aile, who were shooting at the flying Galleons which had just come out from the most recent metal box, "Aile, you're still injured from the battle with Purprill! Are you gonna be okay if I leave you here while I go down to the engine room?"
"I'll be fine!" Aile shortly replied before releasing a charged shot at one of the Galleons, "You go ahead! I'll catch up with you once I'm done cleaning these guys up!"
"Okay!" Vent shortly replied before heading back into the HQ.
As Vent was going down through the elevator, he pulled out his ZX buster and shot all of the Mavericks he saw on every floor before reaching the bottommost floor where the engine room was. Vent used his buster and shot the remaining Mavericks, which were weak Galleon Hunters, before proceeding to walk towards the engine room, only to be stopped by bombs as they created holes on the floor of the HQ.
Vent looked ahead and saw a door, "The engine room's up ahead…"
Vent jumped over the holes and made it to the engine room's door, arriving in time as Prairie and another Guardian member were being cornered by the two infiltrating Reploids. The Guardian kept on shooting at the Reploids, but a shield had blocked all of his shots before they could hit any of the two Reploids.
"Prairie, are you alright!?" Vent asked as he ran to their side.
"Vent!" Prairie noticed that Vent was on his own, "Where's Aile?"
"She's still on the deck. There are still more enemies up there to be taken care of," Vent turned to the two Reploids, shielding Prairie and the Guardian from the two Reploids.
"You… The boy from before…" The female Reploid, Pandora, said as she studied Vent's form, "Model X… Model Z… together…"
"Or should we just say Model ZX now? Serpent's orders are to eliminate the Guardians here and now… Such a waste. It's time for one final test to see if you will make a worthy sacrifice for the revival of Model W," The male Reploid, Prometheus, suggested as he let out an evil grin.
"Sacrifice!? Me!?" Vent asked angrily.
"Prometheus… It's not fair…" Pandora protested.
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to leave some fun for you," Prometheus got his scythe ready and looked at Vent with another evil grin, "That is unless he's too fragile and gets blown to pieces."
Vent saw Pandora teleported out of the room and turned to Prairie and the other Guardian, "Get back Prairie! I'll handle him!"
Prairie hesitated for a moment before she nodded and followed the Guardian out of the room. Prometheus disappeared from in front of him and reappeared right above him. A pair of skull-shaped purple fire appeared on Vent's sides and another pair appeared a little above Prometheus. Prometheus' body started glowing in light purple color before the skull-shaped began shooting purple fireballs at Vent.
Vent charged his saber and buster as he jumped to dodge the fireballs, before he jumped closer to Prometheus as slammed his saber at him. Prometheus disappeared once more and reappeared right next to him, slamming his scythe so that yellow and purple spikes started coming out from the ground and hit Vent.
Prometheus disappeared again and reappeared right in front of him with his scythe ready to be swung at the Guardian. Vent put his buster in front of him and released a charged shot, knocking Prometheus before he disappeared again from his sight. Prometheus reappeared above Vent without him noticing and dived down with a slash across Vent's back, followed by a dashing slash on Vent's left side, breaking part of his armor on the arm.
Prometheus disappeared and then reappeared above Vent before he sent out four skull-shaped fires to shoot out more fireballs at Vent. Vent had slowed down due to the damage he had taken, letting himself hit by some of the fireballs. Prometheus disappeared and reappeared right in front of Vent, ready to slash him with his scythe, but a charged shot coming from the engine room entrance had knocked him back.
"Sorry I'm late," Aile said with a smile, holding her ZX buster right in front of her.
"Help has arrived, huh?" Prometheus asked as he rose to his feet, "Even so, you're more powerful than I expected. You've combined the Biometal fragments to draw out more power. Excellent feature. That woman knew that she was doing when she created that Biometal…"
Prairie suddenly came back into the room, "Wait!" Prairie looked at Prometheus, "'That woman'!?" You're talking about Sis!"
"Oh, you know her? Well then you must not be of this time either…" Prometheus laughed evilly, "What an interesting little connection you two have!"
As Prometheus was starting to fly upwards, Aile came to approach him, "W-Wait!"
"Hmph. Don't be so quick to bear your claws to me, little ones. It'll cost you your lives, just like it cost the red Mega Man his," Prometheus looked down on Vent and Aile as they glared at him in anger, "Consider yourself lucky to be alive. Remember this moment and how I let you live! If you want to press your luck, we'll be waiting!" Prometheus laughed evilly before he teleported away.
"Commander Prairie! The enemy fleet is moving away!" The operator's voice came from Prairie's communicator.
"The enemy has retreated. I want a damage report!" Prairie's serious face turned into a frown, "And make sure the wounded get priority," Prairie turned to Vent and Aile, "Vent, Aile, come back to the command center. There are some things that I want you two to know."
The two silently followed Prairie to the command center, where the operators were as they were checking the HQ's status. After a moment of silence, Vent decided to speak up, "Prometheus said that you're not from this time… is that true?"
Prairie nodded before turning to the two Guardians, "Did you know that a long, long time ago humans and machines were at war with each other?"
"I think I've heard of it," Aile replied, "But it happened hundreds of years ago, so it's history now…"
Prairie took a deep breath before she let out a sigh, "I'm a machine born of that era. I was designed to look like a person. I'm… a Reploid."
"You're a Reploid build hundreds of years ago!?" Vent and Aile asked in disbelief, getting a nod from Prairie.
"But Sis… She was not a Reploid. She was a human. She was a scientist who tried to protect us Reploids when no one else would. When the war ended, human and Reploid were both living in harmony, and peace had finally prevailed," Prairie continued, "And Sis, as the first commander, gave out the order to protect the people who survived Maverick raids before she disappeared. Giro took you two under his wing because of the first commander's order…"
Prairie took another deep breath before continuing, "At first I didn't understand why she would give such an order. But when I saw Giro transform into the Model Z Mega Man and you two transform into the Model X Mega Men, I finally understood the reason. Survivors of Maverick raids share the ability to transform with the power of the Biometal. People like you two and Giro. I'm telling you the truth when I say that's all I know. I have no idea why some are chosen to be Mega Men while others are not. I'm guessing the only one who knows the real truth behind all of this is Serpent."
"So if we want the truth, we're going to have to keep fighting," Aile concluded, getting a nod from Vent.
"Boss also told us not to give up," Vent started, "We still had something we must protect. We must destroy Model W and stop the Maverick outbreaks! For Boss… For mom… For your sister… For everyone that we hold dear in our hearts!"
Prairie smiled and nodded, "Yes… Thank you, Vent… Aile…" Prairie looked up through the glass and saw that the sky was getting dark, "You two should get some rest. Hopefully, I can get a mission planned for you."
"Thanks Prairie," Aile thanked Prairie before she and Vent transformed back into their human forms and turned to the door, "Good night, Prairie!"
"Good night, you two. Have a nice rest!"
I can't promise you guys when the next chapter is coming, but I'll update as much as I can!