MEGA MAN X: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
By Erico
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE WILD BLUE MAVERICK
"Storm, report!" Storm Eagle awoke from his semi-nap as his alert eyes glanced at the flickering screen. There stood Sigma, ever stoic and serious. Storm quickly leapt up and threw a salute.
"Sir!" Said Storm. Sigma waved his hand.
"Storm, you can stop saluting me. I asked you to report."
"Right away, sir!" Storm blurted out. He brought his hand down and went to parade rest. "Sir, things are a bit behind sh-eduule right now. That limy bugger X has just taken out Flame Mammoth's metal factory, I'm afraid." Sigma rubbed his chin.
"It seems our friend X is more than a handful. Before, it was our escape. Then it was Chill…and now Flame. Storm, don't underestimate him if you run into him. He's beyond himself now." Storm blinked.
"Beggin' your pardon, sir, but what do you mean…beyond himself?" Sigma frowned.
"Before we did our breakaway on June 4th, X was very close friends with Boomer and Flame. If somehow he's found the inner strength of mind to put his humanity aside and just do his job…we may all be in trouble. The bonds we held with X will be no weakness to him. Treat him as you would any Hunter, Storm. Like an enemy. Shoot on sight, got it?"
"Yes sir!" Storm clacked his heels together and involuntarily threw another salute. Sigma grimaced and turned the connection off. Storm nodded.
"Right you are, sir. Even if he is just one reploid and a novice Hunter…that's no reason to underestimate him."
X looked at the diagrams of the Maverick HHQ reconstruction. It had been about a week, and since then things had quieted down enough he had been able to focus on the rebuilding, as well as his training.
After his physical outburst in which he struck Zero, the Crimson Hunter had come to X with a greater sense of trust. Not saying that Zero was CONCERNED about him, X smirked. But enough of a trust in X that Zero was giving him extra help in training.
Still, X thought whenever he did a good job on the shooting range, he saw a glimmer of a smile glance across Zero's face. His skills with his Dash Boots and his Buster were greater than they ever were, and X found himself now fighting with more than his emotions.
Thanks to Zero, he began to THINK about how to fight, instead of just doing it. And X still had the full Sub-Tank. Not to mention, X noted calmly, two Heart Tanks. After he had taken Flame down, he'd gone back to Mount Fuji and roasted the igloo on the building rooftop. Stored inside was Chill's glimmering Treasure. He could only wonder where he might find similar artifacts. Just then, a klaxon went off. He winced, and cursed at the device.
"We get a full frickin' week to get this place on its feet…AND THE FIRST THING WE FIX IS THAT GODDAMN HORN?!!" X groaned and jumped from his seat. Shaking his head to clear his mind, he opened his scarred door and dashed down the hallway to the war room.
"Don't tell me, boss." X sighed. "We've found out where to take on the next Irregular Hunter." Zero nodded.
"Either this is getting repetitive, or you should quit and start a psychic hotline, X!" Cain joked. X frowned at the doc.
"Cain, I got a bone to pick with you…" Cain nervously coughed.
"Err, right. The alarm. Sorry, X. But that's primary equipment, like the war room. Zero growled at the both of them and reached in his chest compartment, pulling out a C02 Air Horn. He released the trigger, and the loud noisemaker went off with a 120 Decibel Squeal. When X and Cain uncovered their screaming ears, Zero put it away.
"Let's get back to what's important, shall we?" X nodded.
"What's the situation, Zero?" Zero clicked a button beside him, and the viewscreen above flashed to life.
"It seems that the Death Rogumer's been having some fun parading about the city lately-namely they've been dropping off some more robots to wreak havoc. Most likely it is a diversion to keep us away and busy from any other efforts they might be making…"
"Like the building of Sigma's Fortress?" X said, tapping his arm in quiet anger. Zero nodded.
"Dead on the money, X." X couldn't help but smile, for now his leader was giving him compliments. "In any case, the Death Rogumer has shacked up at the New Tokyo National Airport for some fuel hijacking. Naturally, the Death Rogumer being the airship of choice for our plucky maverick friends, and the means to which they are getting around makes it a primary target on our 'to fry' list. If we can shut that down, we shut down their abilities to move on us." Zero turned the image off.
"X, over the past week I've come to see that you are a true Hunter in our ranks. I'm not assigning you this mission…but I hope you'll take it." X blinked.
Zero? ASKING X to do a mission? X was all smiles inside, but he held a blank expression outside. Still, the exhilarating feeling he felt from that simple gesture of Zero's was enough to reaffirm X, and give him the courage to take it. If his leader trusted him enough to do this, he wouldn't let him down.
"Zero, I'd be honored to take down the Rogumer. But if I may ask…where's the 17th gonna be?" Zero smiled.
"Why, playing cleanup, of course. While you're taking out the root of the problem, they're gonna be clipping the leaves and branches. The Rogumer left them quite a mess to save the town from." X nodded.
"All right. Will you be with them?" Zero shrugged in response.
"I gotta, X. But I'll have my comm open. You need any battle advice, just give me a whistle." X gave a quick salute, then warped out to his destination.
Cain turned to Zero, a quizzical look on his face.
"Alliteration? Weeds and roots? Zero, if I may say so, you've become a bit more poetic lately."
"Maybe, doc. But anyone would if they hung around X for too long." Cain laughed, waving his stick.
"Oh, to be young and bloodthirsty…"
High above the level fields of takeoff ramps lay a veritable maze of towers and skycrapers. Here, in the New Tokyo Airport lay Storm Eagle, making repairs and obtaining more fuel. His forces ran amok throughout the area, and even the gulls avoided it. Only one thing dared to break in on the party of pestilence at the 'port.
A bright warped beam of Mega Man X. When his particles crashed to earth and re-jumbled, X blinked his eyes, noting how high up he was. Any fall would mean fatal doom to him.
"They like to pick their comfortable environments, don't they?" X muttered. Chill with his snow, Flame in the foundry, and now Storm rising high in the clouds. He flicked his wrist over and activated his comm.
"Zero, do you read?" Static, then the Crimson Hunter's reply.
"Four by four, X. What's up?"
"Just where is Storm from my location?" More static.
"It seems he's set up a field generator around his ship and the immediate vicinity. You'll have to make it there by foot, X. About two miles ahead, and I'm reading heavy emissions. Expect lots of company, including those robots who might be reprogrammed." X nodded, even though he knew Zero couldn't see him.
"Understood." X clicked off the comm. Thousands of feet above death, and two miles to it. X had to chuckle at the irony of that.
"What a way to go. By land…or by air." In either case, X knew it wouldn't be pretty. He only had his wits, his boots and his Tanks.
And that meant he could not fail.
It was a big straight walk along the roof of the control tower he'd landed on, and the only structure higher than him on it was the giant beacon tower, but that was one detail that did not concern X at the moment. All his focus was on the mission. A mission that held critical importance to stopping the Hunter's Rebellion.
"Boy, they sure gave Siggy's breakaway a lotta names…" X mused quietly. "The Hunter's Rebellion, the Maverick Uprising; it's like they can't make up their minds." X's mind began to wander, as it often did. Images flashed before his eyes, images of life before June 4th…
And standing there was Cancer, grinning from ear to ear at the pie he'd just smothered in X's face. X felt a pang of remorse, but he was long past the stage of depression and mourning. It was time to act, to fulfill the last wish of his dead friend. To stop the threat, so no more would die. So X could have a road in life to follow. But even as he trodded along, a sentence came to him. A sentence which X would have scorched into his mind for years.
"With war, there are no heroes. Only mourners." X shook his head. "Focus, X. Focus. 'But Master Yoda told me to be mindful of the future!" X laughed at his own reference to a long standing movie series.
He stopped at the edge of the roof, looking across the gap. A Hoganmer not giving him the time of day, a few Sky Claws(rigged to self-destruct, X noted angrily)and a bunch of fuel canisters. And no way to get there, even with a dash jump.
Just then a platform came up and struck him in the chin. As X stumbled backwards, he cursed at it, then stared at it. In between him and the other building was a conveyor belt system with vertical platforms riding it. He could continue his mission! But first…X would have a few words with Mr. Roboto, as well as roast those fuel canisters.
After all, that WAS what the Death Rogumer came here for.
The Hoganmer had been as predictable as the ones in the smelting factory, and when X had roasted the canisters he had found to his surprise an energy capsule, which he then used to recharge himself from his recent abuse. X made a note to himself to check any of the other possible fuel sites if and when he found them.
A quick dash leap off the ledge, and he was riding high on the platforms. The Sky Claws were persistent buggers, but X found that a Level Three Supershot always did the trick. A level two would have sufficed, but the smaller size made it harder to get a hit.
And boy, were there a lot of Sky Claws.
"Storm must like his flyin' robots." X grumbled as he destroyed the next one. A few more feet higher and then he took down another. X squinted his eyes against the sun, trying not to freeze by looking down below at the fields which would mean his death.
"Not much higher nowwwwhatthedevil?!" X cried out a sentence so close to his last one, they emerged unintelligibly. A Sky Claw roared overhead, too high up for X to brace himself from the force of the shot he would have to make to destroy it. That meant he would have to run. But run where? To fall to his death? And if he tried to jump to the side of the building, the Hoganmer below him would pick him up on motion sensors and knock him off.
No, X thought with a chill. He would have to go backwards. And so it was his choice that X turned a full about face and pulled off a very short dash jump, whistling through the air like a falling meteorite back to where he came from.
"OhmiGooooddd!!!" X screamed as the tower came flying up towards him. With a sickening thud, X smashed on the top of the control tower, leaving a massive dent in the roof. Below him, he heard screams from the people in the tower, but it was his own pain he focused on.
"Floor seven…shirts, ties and lace panties…" X groaned as he lifted his head weakly. The damage was more to his mind than his body, for his visual sensors recalibrated from the jostle and his vision de-blurred almost instantly. And then the dazed look on his face vanished as a smile replaced it.
"Oh, goody! Christmas in the Summertime!" X chuckled and leapt to his feet instantly. Minor damage, really. His energy had dropped by two units, but not enough to concern him. He was looking at his new toy;
Storm Eagle's hidden Heart Tank.
"Figures. Leave it to a bird to roost high above, along with his toys." X grabbed the glistening red object and jammed it home in another slot of his Chest Compartment. His energy increased another 2 notches, and X suddenly realized he had a lot more internal operations energy than when he began all of this. He pumped his fist powerfully, letting a smile cross his face.
X was performing marvelously, and his skills were also increasing. He turned his head and looked up.
"Great. Now I just gotta retrace ten minutes of work!"
X did manage to get to where he would have gone originally, but on the way the destroyed Sky Claws had been replaced by others, effectively making him run the gauntlet twice. With a final lunge of his body, X flopped to a landing on the top of the building. The markings on the side read '2001', but that didn't matter to X. All he knew was he had a long way to go, and the task wasn't getting any smaller.
"The life of a Hunter…" X bitterly regretted every cold stare of disgust which he had bestowed upon them, and felt even more enraged at those who still continued to squirm in discomfort. Even Cancer in the end saw how important they were, and humans saw only beasts fighting beasts in the name of justice. "We put our lives on the line every day…and those who hate us continue to do so." X pounded his fist on the roof. He, too had been one of them. But even he rolled around and saw the need. "Let the warriors fight the true demons…so they can pick up the pieces and claim glory." X spat out the words angrily.
He would stop the threat, but now he knew he was a Hunter. He'd moved beyond anything he had ever been as just X. The simple realizations of his new path and the experiences they held had emboldened him to feats considered impossible to him. Inside X churned a bubbling cauldron of conflicting emotions; between X and the Hunter. And he knew there was only one solution.
"The Hunter fights for the peacekeeper." X shook his head. Incredibly, he noted how mentally refreshed he felt. He flexed his arm and smiled. "A little mindplay makes your day. Better than apples, right Cancer?" X looked up, and in the glare of the bright blazing sun he pictured his dead friend, still smiling with that look of childish fancy.
"Perhaps you knew what was coming better than any of us, Cancer. Maybe that's why you died…" X took off at a pace, leaving the cloud of saddened emotions behind with its rainy cousins.
A different X might have tried to fly away from it all. But not this X, the blue Hunter noted. He would not run.
He would avenge.
X ran into some Megamechs along the way, but when he saw platforms moving up and down at yet another tower, he knew he had to investigate. Blasting away at the last chugging behemoth, he dash jumped lightly onto the jet-powered platform, and it took him up. Up to where another platform lay in wait, and then higher up from that the tower itself.
He leapt lightly on the side, so lightly it didn't even rattle the plastic window panes a bit. Staring inside, he blinked a few times as he took it all in.
"Great. The central hub of 'el Airporto.' And who's guarding it? A megamech." X shook his head. The central hub was the computer mainframe who controlled the air traffic. If the mavericks managed to destroy it…
X couldn't let that happen. He pulled back with his right hand and swung it forth in a straight punch. He could HEAR his metallic knuckles fracture on impact.
"GAWDFRACKINDAMNIT!!!" X yelped as he pulled back and shook his hand wildly, as if hoping that by some miracle air resistance would cure the shooting pain creeping up his arm. He glared at the window pane angrily. "You wanna play hard?" X blinked his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again he was emblazoned with red and orange. Flame Mammoth's Fire Wave would be his weapon here.
Plunging his left arm forth, he let it shift into his Buster and depressed the trigger. Unlike his basic Buster, which charged plasma, or the one shot Ice Shotgun, the Fire Wave kept firing a continuous stream of hot flames. The plastic windowpane gave way almost instantly, and X literally fell into the building. With a heavy thud he collapsed on the floor, then ashamedly scrambled to his feet and looked around, his Buster still active.
What caught his eye was an object lying on the ground without a care in the world.
"I get the feeling they really don't expect me to find these sometimes…" X grumbled as he swiped up the Sub-Tanks. His words were truthful, for often they were hid in the maverick's area where the Irregular thought only he could obtain it.
But X always found a way to find them. Most of the time it was by sheer luck or stupidity. X hoped he could predict them a bit more often, if only to prove to himself he wasn't as green as the others thought. X looked on and saw the Megamech just chugging in place at the center of the room. X quietly tiptoed up to it and raised his Buster.
"Surprise, bubby!" X grumbled as he depressed the switch. The hot flames licked angrily at the drone, melting it into a pile of slag within moments. X whistled. Unlike his Buster, or the Shotgun Ice, the Fire Wave had a nasty habit of just racking up hit after hit in a very short time. X checked the energy gauge. It had 75% left of its energy.
Weapons energy was based on a separate meter. Like the medical systems of X, the Adaptive Weapons System was based on how much energy was left in the micro-tubule. The microtubule provided the matter and energy for a specific adapted weapon, producing everything from condensed water and metal in the Shotgun Ice to the spark and flammable liquid of the Fire Wave.
Zero ducked his head down, narrowly avoiding a scrape with the heavy tire that swung through the air. He lifted his Buster back up and fired off the charged shot he'd been holding back.
"Sir! They have us surrounded!" Zero looked over to one of the 17th's members with a frown.
"I know that, Taskin. I just have more to worry about at the moment." Like your life, Greenhorn, Zero thought angrily.
While X had gone off to stop the source of the problem with Storm and the Rogumer, Zero had taken the remains of the Hunters to stop the squabbling mess it had dumped in the streets. And at the moment, the Bee Bladers and the robotic drones were getting the better of them. Of course, they were being led by a REAL maverick. A flesh and coolant fluid reploid gone bad. And that meant their attack was coordinated, unpredictable…and very deadly.
Zero was blown to the side as the two Bee Bladers launched a salvo of concussion missiles, blowing away the only cover that the Hunters had. Zero kept his head lowered, but gritted his teeth and raised his eyes. All around him was chaos…one wrong move meant death to him and his team. There was no time to plan or speculate on strategies.
Zero knew action was the only prudent course he could take. He raised his Buster and let loose of the charge. The slithering blue blast swiveled through the smoky air, striking the rotor assembly of the Bee Blader closest to him. The effect was instant; the body of the beast fell like the heavy chunk of metal it was, flattening the unwary Ball De Vouxs underneath. The rotor blade of the Blader, unhinged from the base which contained its power for lifting the robot, twirled through the air at over 3000 RPMs, sliding sideways by the wind gusts. The deadly, swirling blade of destruction flew through the ranks of Crushers, obliterating them instantly and sending their Crush bases to smash into the Gunbots and megamechs below.
Even Zero froze for a moment, transfixed by the destruction and incredible randomness of his one shot. But as his Hunters began to pelt back at the remaining forces, he joined in gusto.
It was over that quickly, and Zero walked over to the one prone figure who lay bleeding and coughing under the rubble of the conflagration. The maverick glared at Zero for a moment, then spoke one final sentence to Zero.
"You may destroy me, but you will NEVER destroy Sigma." Zero raised his Buster, a sheer look of cold steel in his eyes.
"I wouldn't bet on that, maverick." Zero released one plasma burst at the maverick's head, which fell back as a smoking pile of slag. One of the Hunters walked up to Zero, a look of utter shock on his face.
"You…you killed him!" Zero swiveled in place, letting his icy stare freeze the Hunter in his tracks. He prodded his Buster in the Hunter's stomach, and stopped his protests cold.
"He would have killed us, just the same. Whether you like it or not, this is war. And there are two ways to act in one; You can be one of the Hunters, or one of the Hunted. And I think I'd like to keep my chances as high as I can. You understand?!" Zero growled at the end, getting his point across very clearly. The novice Hunter gulped, then nodded his head. Zero sighed, then walked off from the destruction to warp back to base.
"All these greens, and not a drop of muster between them." Well, there was ONE, Zero thought with a smile.
And that particular Hunter was off playing Duck Hunt.
X scrambled up the side of the giant red wall, holding his fire back. If there was an ambush behind it…and he could easily place winning bets on that… then they'd get more than they wished to deal with.
But as he stood on top of the structure, he saw two ways to go. "High or low, which way do ya go?" X mused for a moment, then snapped his fingers.
The low road seemed to work better with him, and if it didn't this time, he could take the high one. X slid down the other side as quick as he had scampered up, then dropped the last few feet. With a hop, skip and jump he found himself facing wall. He scratched his head for a moment, then shrugged. "Must be the maintenance bay. Of course it's empty! Everything's been reprogrammed to take me out." X sighed, then walked back the way he came.
But he stopped for a moment, and looked up with the experience he had gotten during Chill's takedown; look up, or you might not look again. What he saw was a ledge he had not seen before. X jumped into the air. Drat. He couldn't reach it. Then an idea flashed into his head. He ran over to the wall, hopped onto it, then turned about and blasted off of it with an extremely powerful dash leap.
He soared through the air, then stuck his left leg forward to brace for the impact. His systems held strong as he collided with the wall of the ledge, then with no further quarrel the ledge gave way as he ascended to the level.
He had to whistle at what he saw. "Another bloody fuel depot. Oh, well." X shifted into his red and orange getup, then shot out the hot licking flames of his Fire Wave. The canisters of jet fuel gave way easily, exploding with savage fury of pure destructive energy unleashed. When X opened his eyes from the blinding explosion, he whistled again.
"Deep and deeper, curiouser and curiouser the rabbit hole goes." X trod inwards, holding his fire, not knowing what to expect.
But when another blue capsule sprung up from the ground, X blinked in surprise. Light had graced him once again.
The hologram's speech was shorter than before, and did nothing else but describe the upgrade's function. Part of X still longed for a deep chat with his father, but another part of him merely nodded and accepted the gift of the Helmet.
That part was the Hunter. And until the threat was quelled, it was that part which X would listen to the most. As he jumped up against the pile of crumbling rocks, his new helmet smashing through the loose rocks, X let a tear fall from his eye.
And he swore in that final drop that would be the last drop he would ever shed for a capsule.
The rest of the trip seemed like a blur to X. Nothing he could really recall, it was just a run and shoot operation, occasionally picking up enough extra energy to fill his second Sub-Tank. And then he stood at the edge of solid ground, looking at the menacing but unmoving frame of the ship which had done so much to cause harm. It was almost the symbol of the Maverick Uprising, for the Death Rogumer was the signature transport for them. And X knew he could not let it stand one minute longer.
He hopped from hoverplatform to hoverplatform, knowing that straying on one for too long meant a long drop. And then with one final leap, he stood on the prow of the mighty ship, looking over its frame.
X had never been this close to it before, for before Sigma and his Hunters rebelled he had tried to avoid their working conditions. Now he saw how that experience might have helped him. "Hindsight is always 20/20, X." X chuckled, for that was something Cancer had said to him many times before. He walked along on the ship, but then cried out in surprise.
The Death Rogumer was taking off. And he was on it. He crawled to his feet, gritting his teeth. Storm wouldn't get the better of him, even if he was taking X to his area of expertise. He looked up, then ducked his head back down again as a shot of plasma scorched the air above him.
Damn! He'd almost forgotten about the twin plasma cannons above. Luckily, X was stronger than them.
Ten seconds later, the cannons were nothing more than smoking holes of their former selves, and X was crawling down into the ship itself.
And five seconds after that, the top half of the Rogumer exploded into scrap as the Rogumer became a giant, flying platform. A platform which crept ever higher as a confused X looked around.
Then a flutter of wings alerted X, and he turned about to see Storm coming from above to land on the Rogumer's deck as well.
"Storm."
"X." The conversation was terse and short, and X held back his Buster for a massive attack. And somewhere within the core of his being, he knew this would be a fight he would not long forget.
"So, the great Hunter has decided to grace us with his presence." Storm spoke in a mocking voice, but watching X's Buster very carefully. "And somehow, the bugger's managed to get some new gear. Boots and a helmet!" X nodded.
"I've had a few encounters."
"So, I assume the great Zero sent you to play hero and destroy the evil Rogumer, eh?"
"That's the idea, bird." Storm glared at X, lifting himself to his full standing height.
"You listen to me, you miserable whelp. This ship is my flesh and blood, and I'll be damned if you take it out!"
"You've already done half the job yourself, Storm."
"Minor details." Storm waved his clawed hand nonchalantly. "I can rebuild it, but I knew that if I left it standing, you'd be having a field day. Needless to say, I can't have that." X nodded.
"Fine. So, you gonna stand here all day sipping your tea, or make a move soon?" Storm sighed.
"I figured you limey Hunters would be whetting your whistle for a fight soon enough. Still, I am honorable to some degree, X. I will give you a fight."
"What was your other choice, Storm?"
"Just to shoot you outright when I was above you, knock you off the Rogumer and send you falling to your death within moments." X shivered. That was a bit too descriptive. "Not saying of course, that I won't try to do the same anyways." Storm raised his right hand, not a hand at all but a permanent turbofan. With a powerful gust of tinted wind, X found himself being flung backwards like a twig in the wind. X cried out, but then an idea flashed in his head. Bracing his feet, he activated the Dash Boots and counteracted the gust. Soon, he stood within range of Storm and he released his own shot. The fiery blue plasma struck home, but Storm did not even stumble to a knee. He grunted in pain, but pushed it aside.
"Those boots are more than decorations, aren't they?"
"Dash boots, Storm." Storm shook his head, and flew up in the air, pausing just outside of X's range.
"Perhaps you'll get a kick out of this, my friend." Storm pulled back his beak, then pulled it back, a giant blue egg collapsing from it. X watched the egg fall transfixed, but then as it cracked open, he saw what Storm had been doing. Four tiny bird drones flew in a straight line at him, and X could not dodge.
As he got back up to his feet, X could tell this would be a long fight.
The two were evenly matched in all categories. X found a Buster shot or the Fire Wave would wipe out the egg before it broke, and Storm found if he caught X off guard with his wind tactics, he could almost get X to fall. But when it came to Diving from above, Storm soon realized X was getting better and better. He came to the earth and launched another egg, then began to beat his mighty wings once more in an attempt to blow X off the side of his ship.
"Nice try, Storm. But I know your tactics now!" X cried out. He released his Buster supershot, which disintegrated the egg and continued on its way until it struck Storm. Storm fell to a knee, for now his damage was very substantial. And he knew he'd dealt X a few good blows…it should have been enough, unless…
"YOU…You took my Sub-Tank!" X yawned as he fired off another blast. Storm tried to dodge, but he stumbled and it hit him in the head.
"Not only yours, Storm. I have three Heart Tanks, and Flame's Sub as well. You can't defeat me, for while you'll curl up and die, I will merely recharge myself and continue to struggle. Storm cried out in anger and dismay. He knew he would lose.
"I wonder what we'll do with your ship when you're gone, Storm…" Storm pulled himself to his feet once more, a steely glare in his eyes which was more intense than it had ever been.
"As God is my witness, X…no one will have possession of my ship but me!" Storm reached in his chest and pulled out a tiny device with a button. X's eyes became large dots as he saw what it was.
A detonator. Storm had decided if he couldn't have his ship, no one could. Storm gave one final sigh, and spoke his peace.
"God save the Queen." Storm raised his hand in one last military salute, then he pushed the button.
The explosives were inside him and the ship's main power drive, and X could barely stand his ground against the concussion of the explosions. When he opened his eyes, he sighed.
"It's probably for the best. A warrior should go out in a blaze of glory, anyways." X grabbed Storm's Buster, blown off and smoking by his foot. His armor turned purple, and he looked around.
He was falling with the ship, and Storm had gone down with it. X didn't know what to do, to give some remembrance of the honorable Eagle. Finally, he sighed and warped off of the falling wreck.
But he didn't go back to HQ just yet. With his new Helmet, there was something else he wanted to check out.
His head smashed through the crumbling blocks of Flame's old Factory, and when he scampered up through the new hole, he found what it had been hiding.
Virtually nothing to Flame's eyes, but when X approached a third capsule popped up from the ground. X smiled, and listened carefully for the hologram to speak.
"This capsule contains an enhancement for your X-Buster." That was all it said, and X asked for no more.
He walked out of there, and noted with amazement his Buster looked for all the world a dead ringer for Zero's. X wondered what his Commander would think of the Level four purple shot and the Maverick Weapons charged abilities.
"Personally, I think it gives you a better chance at getting through this, X." Zero guffawed in amazement. The only part of X which looked the same from when he left was his chest armor, and Zero knew even that held greater things inside of it. Just then, Cain hobbled in.
"X, we gotta talk. Whenever you go off, it seems like your missions always end up doing something. In this case, the remains of the Rogumer have found a home in the Tokyo Power Plant." X whistled, a wide grin on his face.
"Nice. Looks like the city's got something else to bill us for now." Cain sighed.
"I can afford it. Luckily, we might not have to pay. When that ship crashed, it took out the power, and revealed to the scouts who investigated that Spark Mandrill's been setting up shop in it for some time now. He might have tried to reroute power to their operations. Now, all he's doing is trying to get the place back online, and if we act quickly, he won't be able to." X nodded.
"I can handle it." Zero clunked X over his new helmet.
"I know you can, X." X frowned at Zero.
"So how did the cleanup mission go?" Zero tilted his head back, a wistful smile of the chain reaction on his face.
"X, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. It's a loo-loo of a sky high story." X shook his head.
"I think I could believe it. After all…I faced the Wild Blue Maverick."