MEGA MAN X: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
By Erico
CHAPTER SIX: A GIFT IN THE GLACIER
It had been a total mess back at Maverick HHQ. Sigma's outbreak and rampage had left the entire facility a mess, the only untouched area the sideput Medical Bay, where a flustered and irritable Hazil rolled back and forth from his hospital beds, checking up on the dozens of survivors, all with serious injuries. No one had been unscathed in the attack except Hazil, X and Zero. Even the grizzled Cain now hobbled along on his stick. With a crippled leg, his favorite wooden beam was now a required piece of equipment. X and Zero had managed to get some of the computer bays back online, but it would take a long time and a lot of money before everything was running at max efficiency.
And until that time, only the bedraggled 17th Hunter Unit was partially operational. All the other Units had been obliterated, but the 17th managed to have some survivors. Zero led them, for he was the natural choice after Sigma's escape. The problem was that most of them were inexperienced greenhorns, greatly injured. It would be a long time before they saw action, and Zero often wanted to just set off a nuke and get the inevitable over with.
X walked up to Zero, who was scrutinizing the data readouts he was getting.
"What's up, boss?" Zero turned to X, with a look that acted as a sign. "Don't talk to the Hunter." X sighed.
"That bad, huh?" Zero nodded.
"It'll be another 4 days AT LEAST until the 17th is back up. Until that time, X…you and I are the only ones left to guard against the threat." The words sunk in, but now X was so embittered it hardly affected him.
Zero couldn't believe the circumstances behind it all. The pride of the Maverick HHQ was now either turned maverick, or destroyed. The miniscule remnants were in traction and comas, and only himself and the loose cannon X were remaining in full battle order. Zero knew that any full frontal assault would be a worthless gesture at the moment, the mavericks were too strong. And he himself had to remain behind and make sure everyone was prepared. Therefore, X was the only person who could do anything. Zero didn't trust the blue greenhorn. Even if he was strong, he was reckless, rash and inexperienced.
All of them aspects that led to failure. Zero could not rely on X for any good measure of aid. And X could only get better if he had experience. Therefore, Zero was left with one decision.
X would have to go and fight the mavericks by himself.
"Listen, X. You're the only person we have who is able to do anything at the moment." X shook his head.
"What about you?" Zero glared at him.
"I have to make sure that this place recuperates, buster. Now listen up. As the only active Maverick Hunter, I have an assignment for you." X peered over, a look of worry on his face.
"What is it?" Zero punched a few buttons, and the broken overhead screen flickered to life, bringing up a map of Tokyo. High up in the Northern region stood Mount Fuji.
"Chill Penguin has set up a base of operations up there. All of it has been iced, glazed and turned into a winter dangerland. The lush trees are no more, X. It seems that the reason for this is very simple; the mavericks have already caused chaos and panic. Now they're going to deliver the final blow. If he gets enough snow up there produced…" Zero paused, rubbing his eyes wearily. "If enough snow is produced, X, he can start an avalanche." X gasped. An avalanche of that magnitude would flatten Tokyo with snow. Everyone would perish.
"I'm taking a big risk here, X. This mission is imperative that Chill is destroyed, you got me?" X nodded. He took a step back, and then warped out. Zero sighed again, sitting down. For once, he felt old. Old and unable to do a blessed thing.
The toughest part of being a leader is sending your men to die. Zero had no feelings of emotion towards X, but he did have a level of respect for the reploid that had halted the Highway invasion.
"X…take care of yourself." Zero said, then walked out to check on Hazil's progress.
Little did anyone realize that something else was happening, deep below the ground. Five motionless capsules lay in wait, and then suddenly sprang to life, flashing lights and making bleeping noises.
They had been activated because they had received a message from X's systems. A message that the weary Dr. Light had hoped the capsules would never have to receive. X was going to war. The first capsule opened its top, turning into a mighty self-contained mole drill. With great force it sped upward…upward towards the base at Mount Fuji. The others were also on, but they waited, waited for instructions of location from the tiny unnoticeable thought transmitters in X's Control Chip.
The frosty mountain air, which had once been warm and humid hung dryly as a blue beam shot down from the sky, a coalescence of particles, light and phased matter. When it landed, the pieces de-jumbled to form the figure of X. He looked around himself; Mount Fuji was truly a Winter Wonderland, and he could see on farther parts of the mountain jutting overhangs of ice and snow. He took a breath, surprised to note that when he exhaled, the air condensed into a thick mist.
"X…examine beauty later, friend." X shook his head and began to run towards his destination; the volcanic geological survey buildings which undoubtedly held Chill Penguin-and the avalanche equipment. It was pretty quiet, nothing but the sound of his heavy boots crunching down the wet snow. Fallen cyber-trees all around him, a combination of organic and technological parts to keep trees alive. A measure that had been drastically needed after the geo-problems of the early 21st Century.
Then, without warning a chunk of cyber-tree was flung through the air at X. He could not dodge it, and the heavy chunk hit home, devastating his armor and tacking down his internal operations energy. After he took a breath and primed his Buster into ready mode, he saw the problem.
A robotic logger had chopped the tree chunk loose and sent it at him. And Chill had even had the audacity to make the thing give a fake chuckle when it hit something. X growled in disapproval and started to run towards the problem. The logger's tree regrew, and he chopped another chunk at X. But X was prepared, and he leapt on top of it. It carried him back a ways, then he jumped off and continued forward. Already the logger was shooting a second chunk, but X yelled a furious war cry and fired his Buster, a magnificent level three blue blast. It disintegrated the chunk, and hit the logger. A chaser follow up of small pelt shots completely obliterated the logger, but no energy capsule was left for X to obtain. He shook his head and continued. He'd have to be more careful after that.
It was a long run to the first building, as he encountered rabbit drones with earguns, more robotic loggers and a few bee bomber drones as well. But he made it inside. As his eyes grew accustomed to the dark, he could hear a fluttering of wings, then he saw them. Bat drones, basic facility workers reprogrammed for kamikaze air attacks. He kept going down deeper into the facility, blasting bat after bat, and one gave him an energy pellet that restored half of what he had lost to the logger. As he reached the bottom step, he saw that everything had been glazed. He'd have to make full use of his abilities to get around in here. More bat drones and even more Spikys got in his path, then he reached a dead end. He stood, puzzled as to where he should head next…
When a Spiky landed flat on him and clearly gave the answer. Up. Still, the blow was vicious and X was down to about 75% power.
"Great way to learn. Get hit or get smart." X grumbled, rubbing his sore cranium which already received enough punishment from Cain's walking stick. He jumped up the wall, then leapt to the small overhang from which the Spiky had dropped. He was surprised to see another level above; the next floor of the facility.
"This place is like a hotel." X chuckled, bringing himself a joke. "Room service, I have mavericks on floor ten. Could you please come and take care of it? And bring some more toilet paper. I've got the runs something terrible!" X smiled, and for a moment the severity of his task wore off. Even for a brief moment, X dropped his warrior guise for that of what he used to be; a being in life who only wished to live.
But he stopped himself as another Spiky came rolling towards him. He raised his Buster and fired off 2 plasma pelts, destroying the robot wheel. Then he continued on, and hopped up another incline. A run back the way he came, and another leap of faith after that. Then, nothing but solid wall stood before him. A direct climb up. X took a deep breath, then jumped high against the frozen stone and concrete, making a rapid series of jumps back and forth, like wall jumping. Then he stood victorious, looking down at the hole he had just emerged from. He turned and began to walk forwards again…
And stopped in wonder as he gaped at a glowing blue capsule with a red fusion top.
The capsule was identical to his own; similar in every respect except for the blue energy shield which surrounded the core. It stood tall, the red top flashing off a strobe every few seconds. 8 meters wide by 14 meters high. He cautiously walked toward it, not knowing what to expect from the foreign but familiar object. As he drew closer, he was unknowingly sending off a powerful beacon. A beacon to which only the capsule could respond, at the only frequency for which that beacon and the receiver would click together. A perfect match, preventing all other access from others that were not X. The blue shield came down, and then X gaped in shock and amazement at what he saw.
A ghost in the machine, Doctor Thomas Light. Even if the hologram was blue, X could make out his creator's unmistakable features; the big white beard, the portly belly, the long pants, the out of place lab coat and the heavy set mouth and eyes. X stared at it, his mouth opening and closing. He was groping for words, but none would come forth.
"Father…father???" X finally managed to stutter. The hologram did not respond. But it couldn't. It was merely a recording, nothing more.
"So you've come at last…" it said somberly, the hologram of Light shaking its head.
"X, I gave you the ability to choose your own path in life. And I hoped the world would let you choose a peaceful one." Light paused, giving a faint chuckle of insane sadness.
"If you're listening to this recording, son…the worst has happened. Now it seems you are destined to fight. You've been forced to be like your older brother, Mega Man. Savior of a planet and its people." X tried to speak, but found he couldn't. Tears were his only signs of response.
"Because I thought the world might need a new hero, I have buried other capsules like this one. Find them and you can increase your abilities beyond anything the world has ever known." Light's hologram opened its arms broadly.
"Step into this capsule and receive an acceleration system to boost your speed." The hologram gave a last, sad smile, then began to fade out. "Good luck, X." The hologram blipped out in a final blink, and then X found himself looking into an empty capsule. His single tear fell to the frozen floor, turning into a rivulet of ice as quickly as it hit.
"Father…I never said hello." X plodded towards the capsule quietly, somberly. He would do what he was required to. Even his own creator had accepted the possibility of it all.
He would make them proud.
A few seconds later, he emerged from the shower of energy, and looked at himself. Only one part was changed; his boots. Now they glimmered white with gold trimming, and when X ran a diagnostic, he saw where it fit in. The 'optional' Emergency Acceleration System in Light's original schematics. This was that system. Dash boots, just like the ones Zero already had. He had gotten his first weapon of war, from the most unlikely source.
His father.
He emerged from the inside of the monstrous facility, and Chill Penguin was nowhere in sight. X shook his head. His new dash system had taken some getting used to, but now he knew everything it was capable of. Massive dash jumps, incredible blazing ground speed…no doubt this system would prove to be a very useful one in the war ahead.
When he jumped over the stone checkpoint that marked distances between facilities, X saw a most incredible sight before him.
It wasn't a capsule of Light's, nor Chill. But a massive, mighty…AND UNOCCUPIED…Chimera Riding Tank. A small smile crossed his face as he jumped up into the cockpit. The controls were pretty simple, and he found he could jump, punch and also DASH in any combination of ways. He calmly walked forward, the massive legs keeping in action by the hydraulic pumps. Then a barrier stood before him, an igloo. X shook his head and raised his Buster, firing off a shot.
It bounced off like a bullet. X frowned, then charged up and fired a level three blast. That also ricocheted.
"Ah….FRACK IT ALL TO HELL!" X finally yelled, slamming his fist sideways in anger. But he accidentally hit the punch switch, and the behemoth's right arm swung out and destroyed the sturdy structure with one jab. X looked at it, then smiled. He quickly moved to dash, and then as he saw the pit he hit the jump button on the control stick. He whistled through the air, smashing head-on with a mosquito drone that got stuck in the tank's armor. X looked up to see if any more drones were coming, and instead saw a ledge above. He looked forwards.
"That isn't a ledge-that's the roof!" X said. Then, a thought flashed in his mind. The enemies were in the building. If he took the roof, he'd save himself some trouble. He leapt up, and then disengaged the Chimera, leaping from the cockpit and digging his hand and heel into the wall. After a series of jumps, he stood on the roof, facing a pair of ominous igloos.
"Why would Chill stuff igloos up here?" X suddenly realized why as several mosquito drones flew out, chasing him. X ducked down, mentally activating the dash thrusters into action. As he sped off, he made a mental note. Those mosquitoes were guarding something, like a mommy bird guarding the nest. Probably something valuable. If and when he got better firepower, he'd return and figure out what that was.
For the most part, X had acted like a coward. This would upset the battle hardened Zero…but he could stuff it, X thought. His energy was high, and he planned to keep it that way. His charged Buster(yes, charged) fired off, destroying the snowball the nearby Snow Shooter had fired off. X had named the drones that himself, for that was about all they did.
Of course, the snowballs held explosive charged in them, but it was the same principle. With a thrust from his boots, X stood below the demon and grabbed the drone by its one little insignificant leg. He didn't even bother to shoot at it, he just stared at it for a moment and then shrugged, tossing it over his shoulder. The robot broke apart like a simple model and X walked on.
Until he could go no farther. Then, he realized he was facing the main building, the one with the computer consoles-and most likely Chill. The door, a sliding door opened as he approached, and X slid inside The door shut, latching itself to a locked position, and a frightened X stopped. He turned around, and shrugged grimly.
"Oh, well. Not like I expected to walk away from this anyway." He'd give it a shot, of course. But X somehow felt like he should have written out a note saying that UNICEF could take his worldly possessions.
He walked down the icy corridor for a while, stopping at the second door. He took a breath, for he could hear clicking and quacking behind it. Yes, Chill Penguin was inside all right. His loud mouthed beak was unmistakable. X took the final step, making a broad entrance. If he was going to go out, he'd do it in style.
Inside, Chill was quacking merrily. Sigma's plan was working Jim dandy, and within minutes his planned avalanche would engulf the city. He even began to sing, making a little diddy.
"Oh I am the Icy Penguigo! Bad guy of ice and snow-if you don't run, taste my Icy Shotgun, and be frozen in clammy glow." Chill finished the chorus with a round of quacking. He was so intent on his work and congratulating himself, he had not bothered to look at the robotic sensors, which would have warned him that someone was coming. But a very loud noise did stop him dead in his tracks.
Clapping. Slow. Deliberate. Clapping. Chill turned around in surprise, to find himself staring at X, the tiny blue reploid who had caused so much trouble during their initial escape.
"Bravo, Chill. I see you've kept that blasted horrible song-singing ability." Chill smiled. So, X wanted to have a little verbal banter before Chill frosted his skull into dust? Fine.
"Who says it's horrible? The Hunters always said I did great."
"The Hunters were always drunk half the time." Chill quacked out loud, laughing.
"Perhaps they were. But now I am ICY PENGUIGO! Scourge of all that is frosty." X scoffed.
"You make that up yourself, or is this your personal tribute to the Frito Bandito? You don't get a belly like that from running."
"No, I got it from my creator." Chill said, his eyes burning. "So, X. I assume the reason you've dropped by is to try and stop me from doing this avalanche thing."
"You guessed right, tubby." Chill's eyes widened in anger even more.
"You'll have a bloody hard time stopping me, kid." X yawned. Perhaps he was a little too unwary about now, but he wanted Chill to lose any thinking abilities he might be able to use to smash X with a devious trick.
"Bloody? You been hanging with Storm too much. How is the old sod?" Chill smiled with realization.
"Oh, he's just cooking up something else in case this plan fails. And if you're trying to fluster me, it won't work. So, save your breath for when you need it-like when I freeze every part of your body."
"I don't breathe."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I keep forgetting that our tiny tyke reploid tries to ACT human, but he ISN'T." Chill suddenly stopped charging towards X with a belly slide. X saw it coming, and jumped up onto the wall, gripping it. Chill bounced off, spinning away. When he got back up, a powerful blast of plasma blasted him back down to his back again.
"YOU BLASTED $)@^&!+)&^!!!" Chill screamed out. X smiled. He had gotten the first blow, but he knew that Chill's portly frame held powerful armor, and it would take many more hits to bring the bad boy down. X waited for Chill to make another slide attack, but instead Chill gave a confident smile and leapt high up into the air, soaring across the massive internal chasm of the battlezone. X froze, unable to do anything. And the simple fact was, even if he knew what to do, doubtful he would have done it. X was a rookie, and rookies freeze up under pressure.
Chill's body smashed X to the ground, pinning him helplessly, and also racking up massive amounts of damage. X groaned, and Chill laughed.
"Not so tough now, are you boy?" Chill raised his head, and X saw what was coming. Chill was going to encase him in any icy casket. With lightning reflexes, X raised his Buster and fired shot after shot. Only a few actually did any damage, but the major goal X had wanted was done. Chill was forced to back up many feet, and X regained some breathing room. but the attack had been devastating, and now X was chugging along, his medical recovery systems running at 60% power. If the power went to 0, X would find himself dying, either by microfusion generator overload, or by simply losing so much blood and vital fluids and body parts that he would simply pass out, totally shut down.
"Nice moves, shrimp. But it's gonna take more than that popgun to take me down." Chill grunted. X frowned, and began to charge up his shot. Chill reared back his head, and then suddenly shot it forward. What emerged from his mouth was an ice pellet whose power lay in the incredible velocity. X saw it coming, however, and with his dash boots now in action he backed up and leapt onto the wall. X squinted, trying to judge the distance. Then, finished with his internal measurements, he jumped off the wall, his dash boots giving him an added kick of power that sent him soaring. Chill, still busy with his Shotgun Ice blast's finishing stages saw only that X was not where he should have been.
"What the…" Chill began, only to be interrupted by the noise of a hard landing behind him. He quickly swiveled, but not fast enough. X stared him down.
"Surprise, you grounded grouse!" X let loose of the trigger, and the massive blue ball of power that he had been storing was released. X was so close, Chill didn't even have time to squawk out a cry of surprise. The plasma blast overcame Chill, hitting him dead center in the chest and sending him sprawling backwards. Chill coughed out in pain, then slumped back down to the floor.
"Oh, man. X, where the devil did you pick up those dash boots? I thought you couldn't use those…" X smiled inwardly, but his face was stone.
"Call it a gift from the glacier." X fired off a green blast, but Chill got up and then sent himself into a slide, his upper armor deflecting the shot with ease as his velocity built up an electrostatic charge around his front, which repelled the super-hot plasma. X saw it coming and found he dashed not away from Chill, but towards him. With a well timed jump, X soared over the oncoming bowling ball of Chill. But Chill bounced off the wall, returning on the same line towards the retreating X.
"You can't run, BOY!" Chill quacked in anger. X thought otherwise as he dashed again, giving himself another long jump that sent him smashing into the wall. The impact would have been enough to cause any human to pass out, but X's shock absorbers did their trick, keeping him from even slight harm. Chill popped up, and saw X crouching into the corner of the wall above. Chill smiled.
"You think you're safe?" X frowned.
"It's better than down there." Chill quacked.
"Think again, my friend." Chill leapt up into the air, and a frightened X jumped off the wall. But it wasn't a dash jump, just a regular. And when Chill landed, he quickly turned around and began to exhale. Exhale frosty, cold freezing breath. When X landed, the cold liquid oxygen encased him and he found himself unable to move. He couldn't even bat an eye, and he wanted to scream. All his pain and cold sensors were numbing the brain, screaming at him for escape, relief. Just to be anywhere but here. Even his medical regenerative energy was yelping at him. Chill frowned at the statue for a while, then whistled his tune again.
"Well, well. An X-sicle. Nice. If you'll excuse me X, I have a city to bury in snow and ice." With the flick of a switch, a massive control mechanism came down from the ceiling, and the portly Chill Penguin leapt up with the grace of a gazelle. He grabbed the ring lever, and a massive snowstorm began to build outside, and even in the room. The heavy, wet frozen water built up, and then Chill's forces began to pelt the mountain with explosives. Mount Fuji became a channel for the massive snow wave, and even encased in a frozen tomb X could feel the low rumble of its power building up. He wanted to scream, he wanted to stop this maverick. But he couldn't. He was trapped.
But liquid oxygen does not last in that state for long, and it quickly sublimated into gas. The oxygen rich air around X became an enormous power cell for his accumulative energy generator and energy amplifier. His microfusion reactor took the oxygen, peppered in nuclear energy, and what emerged was plasma, building around and in his Buster. Within less than a second, he had a full blue blast built up. He looked up to see Chill not even looking down at him, too busy quacking away at his success to realize there was a grain of sand in his gears.
That grain of sand was X. X let a small sound emanate from his throat, which built up to a loud yell. He dashed to the side, jumping up the wall. As he reached the top and began to slide down, he let loose of his Buster's trigger and the plasma blast soared along in the air, until it struck Chill Penguin dead on. Chill let loose of the switch, falling to the ground, hitting it hard. X didn't let up, as he jumped down and began to pelt away with several pulls of the trigger. Chill, unable to defend found his vitality draining away until he was hanging by a thread. He panted several times, until he was staring at X, whose switch was depressed, charging his shot.
"You're good, X. But even if you defeat me, the damage is done. The avalanche has taken place." But X didn't let his gaze slip. They were both in critical condition-now the final shot would decide who would emerge victorious and who would remain a pile of scrap.
"That is something to deal with later, Chill. The fight ends here-and now." Chill quacked, like a laugh.
"What, you want a shootout at twenty paces?"
"That's the idea." X stared, Chill stared. Then Chill reared back, and X released the switch. Blue plasma bounced off of glazed ice, and Chill quacked in superiority. He could hardly wait to hear X's microfusion reactor go critical. But as the blue burn phased from his vision, Chill's eyes widened in fear. A tiny, unnoticeable but still very deadly shot was searing along. There was no time to react. Just time enough to say one word.
"CRAP!!!" The white plasma bullet struck Chill head on in the face, and then his world went black. His generator, unable to allocate any power to his regenerative systems went critical as it overloaded. Chill Penguin ceased to be as he was blown apart by a miniature atomic explosion.
X stood fifteen paces away, panting heavily and looking at the scene which he had helped to create. He walked over, a part of his Buster crying out for something. He reached down with his left hand, his Buster hand and touched the now crumpled head of 'Icy Penguigo.' His systems brought up his Weapons Array, and he saw a new item form on the menu that rested in a corner of his eye; Shotgun Ice. X sighed. He knew how to use it. He just didn't want to. He shifted from the light yellow and blue to his blue armor with the white and gold boots, then walked to the center of the room, warping out with only one thought on his mind.
"I did it, father."
Hazil was examining X as the tiny blue reploid recharged from the attack with a look of concern-and possibly even pride, X thought. Just then, Zero and Cain walked in; okay, Cain hobbled in. Zero smiled.
"You did it, X. You whupped Chill." Cain nodded.
"It seems that X has found his path in life at last…" X frowned, looking down at his shiny new footwear.
"I guess so." Cain saw that X didn't want to go into it any further, and he changed the subject.
"X, not only did you eliminate Chill, but you stopped his plot to envelop the city I snow. For the most part. Zero has some new info for you." The red Hunter stepped forward.
"X, a substantial amount of snow was released from Fuji before you stopped 'Icy Penguigo.' Luckily, it didn't do much, just took out an area with heavy drifts. Including a factory…" X looked up.
"So, it's a factory. Nobody's working there anymore, remember?" Zero shook his head.
"Well, no HUMAN workers are." That caught X's attention. Zero continued. "When our Hunter forces went down to stop any mavericks that might try to take advantage of the confusion, we found that several mavericks, including Flame Mammoth had bottled themselves up in the factory. Intel seems to point out that he's building more of their numbers. Needless to say, this is a bad thing, X." X chuckled softly.
"And let me finish here. You want ME to go play hero again?" Zero nodded.
"That's the general idea." X winced, for he had said the same thing to Chill.
"And would you mind telling me just where the blazes you'll be when I go off to commit professional suicide?" X said. Zero frowned.
"I'll be out and about, trying to figure out just where Sigma is trying to set up his base. We know he will…just not where." X's head drooped, for he was still weak.
"Why me, Zero?" Zero shrugged.
"Why not you, X? You're the perfect candidate. Someone who the mavericks think can't fight for beans…but someone who can, as is evidenced by your attack on Chill. They're not going to expect hostilities from you. If I went there, they'd be full alert. They know I can do it." Zero's reasoning was lacking one element he did not let slip from his tongue. Zero also didn't want to wager on X's aid in the big attack if he couldn't handle the minor aspects he was getting assigned.
Of course, nothing anymore was a minor situation, Zero thought with sad irony. X sighed, then slumped back down weakly. Hazil rolled over, a frown on his face.
"Okay, kiddies. Visiting hours are over. X here needs his rest-he's got a big day tomorrow." Cain sighed.
"Right, doc." Zero and Cain began to walk out of the room, but then Cain turned around.
"X, where'd you get those white and gold boots?" X looked up, a sad smile on his face.
"It was a gift…A gift from the glacier."