Mega Man X: The Mist Enigma

Chapter 14: Even More Questions to Boggle the Mind

Zero, Axl, and I touched down outside the repair quarters. The doors were shut. We heard power tools and electrical surges every few seconds. "Lifesaver must be hard at work," I said.

Zero nodded. "Yeah, we shouldn't disturb him."

Douglas then came up to us. "We just got the code from Gate. Come see." Without hesitation, we ran to the control room.

Up on the big screen was a very odd cryptic language. It looked like ancient Mayan or something like that. Alia was already trying to decipher it. Signas called to us, "Let's let Alia work in peace. You three can take a break for now." The hunters saluted and I nodded.

We then left the way we came. We sat down outside the repair quarters. Zero and Axl took their helmets off and sighed heavily. I began to think about the green figure on top of the giant snake. Who could that have been? I asked Zero and Axl. "Do you guys have any idea who that green guy was?"

They shook their heads. "No idea," Zero said.

Axl seconded, "I never forget a face. And I've never seen that one before."

"It was a Reploid, right?" I asked.

Axl looked to Zero. "I don't know."

Zero shook his head. "Me neither. I don't think he was a Reploid, but he definitely was a robot."

I held my chin. "Well what kind of robot is still in production in this age besides Reploids?" It then hit me. "Unless he was an older model robot."

Just then Pallette and Layer came walking to us with a Bulbrite with them. "You guys might want to see this," Layer motioned. "We've restored the video from the Green Everglades."

My eyebrows rose. "Really?"

Pallette nodded, "Sure thing. Here, we'll show you." The Bulbrite then shot the video onto the wall. It showed us fighting the giant snake right after I was blinded. On top of the snake was that green robot.

I stood up. "Freeze the image." The Bulbrite did so. "Zoom in on that figure," I pointed to the green robot. It did so. At first, it was still blurry, but after a few seconds it began to clear up. After it had done so, the robot was shown in full detail. My jaw hit the ground. I heard a familiar tune ring in my head instead of a bell.

De-duh de-duh de-duh de-duh Da! Da! De-duh de-duh de-duh de-duh Da! Da!

Only two words came out of my mouth. "Snake Man."

Everyone was clueless. "Who's Snake Man?"

I answered, "Snake Man was a foe of X's older brother and predecessor, Mega Man, a hundred years ago. That was during the time when Dr. Light was constructing a robot called Gamma. A scientist and Mega Man's arch nemesis Dr. Wily sent Snake Man and seven other Robot Masters as they were called to fight with Mega Man while Wily would kidnap Gamma and use him for his own evil plans."

Pallette asked me, "Well, was Snake Man destroyed back then?"

"Yes he was. But Wily had a thing for rebuilding his favorite robots." Another click went off. "Do you guys remember before fighting Optic Sunfloward? That CM data you found? That thing you fought was also one of Dr. Wily's robots, Cut Man. And also, the dragon we fought at the Calm Reef may have been a past foe as well."

Axl looked puzzled. "This would imply that this Dr. Wily is behind this. But that can't be possible. If that was a hundred years ago, there's no way he could be alive now."

My mind was buzzing again. "That's true, but look at Dr. Light. He's planted capsules all over the place to help X out. Maybe Wily could have done something similar. Maybe that could explain the nightmares Zero used to have. But I shouldn't worry them with this. They've got enough on their plate." Aloud, "Yeah, there's no way."

Layer pointed out, "Well, maybe someone is copying Dr. Wily's work to frame him."

I let out a hmm. "Maybe."

The doors opened to reveal X, good as new. We were in shock. "What?" X asked with confusion. "My injury wasn't that serious."

Lifesaver walked up behind him. "X just needed a new back plate is all." We all sighed with relief.

Axl smiled and put his arm around X. "I knew you'd be alright!" He laughed, and X joined him.

The Bulbrite then projected an image of Alia. "Guys, I've got something! Come in here quick!" We all ran to see what Alia had found out. On the screen, each of the strange letters was assigned an English letter. It spelled out some gibberish. "This is what they all translate to," Alia told us. "It's now a matter of piecing the letters together into a group of words. I just can't seem to piece them together to make sense." The letters were two As, two Fs, two Gs, two Is, two Rs, two Ts, C, H, L, N, O, P, S, V, and four Es. I found a couple dozen pieces of paper and a pen and tried writing down every combination I could.

The first problem: Could we figure this out? The second: How was this supposed to give us Gate's coordinates? The third: How long did we have to figure all this out? I'd dwell on those more, but I had to figure this out. "God damnit Gate, I hate you. I hate you so very very much."