MEGA MAN X: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
By Erico
CHAPTER TWELVE: GO DEEP!
"If X and Zero were here right now, I swear upon the mystical ruler's conscience that I would THROTTLE THEM!" Sigma bellowed. Vile watched from a distance, making sure that he was outside the immediate range of anything Sigma could throw or charge at. When the boss got like this, his rage was uncontrollable. And even Velguarder, the mighty hunting mutt cowered and whimpered in a far off corner.
Sigma's response was understandable; from his standpoint, life was giving him a vicious kick in the ribs. Six maverick generals had been totally obliterated, and the loss of Boomer was the last straw. Boomer's role, and the terror and power which he held over New Tokyo was a force Sigma had wanted to depend upon. Perhaps even more aggravating about it all was the fact that after the full effort Boomer had given his operation, to totally obliterate the Hunters; the notch in the works was the one which had been the grain of sand since the beginning.
"X." Vile muttered quietly. He lifted his head and finally spoke. Vile knew if he didn't give Sigma some good news, something would go boom.
"Sigma, I've hit upon an idea here." Sigma looked over angrily.
"What would that be, Vile?" Vile coughed.
"The others may be dead, but their abilities are not." Sigma slammed his hand on the desk.
"Vile, if you don't hurry it up and give me the 411 straight, I'll rip it from your core processor PERSONALLY." Vile's red eyes glared brightly for a moment, the only sign of life underneath his helmet.
"Blanks, Sigma. Or another name would be drones. But I think of them as blanks. Tell me, if you took out the control chip from a reploid, what would you have?" Sigma sighed.
"A very advanced robot. But how wou-" Sigma blinked. "Are you saying that maybe-"
"I can build duplicates of our friends down to the very chinks in their armor. Without a reploid mind, they're nothing but robots which you can program and control at your leisure. We're not down brute strength, Sigma. Only their minds. And they had the sense to record their ideas before they went off to war. I managed to dig up a few plans for some castle guardians in Spark's old datafiles." Sigma rubbed his chin.
"Such as?" Vile's eyes glowed again, and a low disturbing chuckle filled the room.
"Oh, some very devastating machinery. Even Boomer helped to build one." Vile punched some buttons, and three diagrams filled the screen. Vile turned to face the screen and pointed.
"Bospider, Rangda Bangda, and D-Rex. Placed in certain fortress junctions, we effectively bottleneck any invaders into facing them before they can move on to the next level. This works because the outside is so heavily guarded by autoturrets and Bladers, the only rational way is through." Sigma's frown disappeared.
"Any critical machinery along the way that they might try to sabotage?" Vile shook his head.
"Sigma, I'm your chief architect. Have you no faith in me?" Sigma broke out in a wide smile.
"How long before you can set it up?" Vile shrugged.
"Not long. A few days, tops. The raw materials are already here. And if they DO manage to get past the defenses, Spark managed to come up with one last line of defense. THE LAST LINE. And it's also the strongest." Vile sighed and punched up the last few commands. The screen flashed red with skulls and crossbones, and then a gigantic monstrosity filled the giant viewport.
Sigma's smile was that much wider.
And his cruel laugh was heard throughout the entire complex.
"Rise and shine, you slacker!" Hazil bellowed. X was startled, but he responded with as much gusto as he could muster-which was about as much as a potato responds when light hits it. X opened his eyes, and lazily let them flutter back shut. Hazil tapped the side of his chest compartment in disgust, and then finally sighed. "Fine. I guess we'll have to do it the hard way." X heard the metal slide open smoothly, and then Hazil's hand shuffle around the interior for something. X's mouth squirmed into a frown, but it soon was wide open, as was his eyes as he jolted out of bed like it was on fire.
Hazil stood beside the bed as he always had, with the same unchanging look somewhere between depression and anger which he always wore. And in his hand was the object which had awoken X from peaceful slumber; a 100 Decibel compressed CO2 air horn. Hazil gave a brief glimmer of a wry smile as he spoke up again.
"Ah, good. It works!" X stared holes into Hazil wanting to pour hot peppers down Hazil's gullet until the grouchy doctor keeled over from heat exhaustion. But he sighed and turned around towards the door.
"If you need me, I'll be out." Hazil smirked.
"Since when did I ever need you? Granted, the Hunters do, but I'm the doc here. And if you're feeling ungrateful, just remember this; I managed to save that Sub-Tank you nearly destroyed with that funny trick at Boomer's." X stopped, thought about turning, but didn't. He shrugged and waved his hand back at the box on wheels.
"Thanks, Hazil." X clicked the door button, and the gate slid open. X's footsteps grew quieter and quieter, and that unsettled Hazil a bit. He turned about towards his various medical instruments.
"Used to be you never stopped hearing footsteps around here." Hazil sighed.
Nowhere in his weary head did he have the foggiest idea of when that familiar noise would be present again.
X's first stop was the war room, naturally. Zero was smiling a bit at X, a smile that held newfound respect and admiration. Since things were quiet, X informed Zero he had a lead he wanted to follow up in the Power Plant.
Now that he had Boomer's weapon stored in his weapons array, he wanted to see if he could get at that Sub-Tank. When he warped into the factory, the workers were bustling about at full tilt getting it running again. The ruins of the once proud Rogumer were now nothing more than piles of scrap laying on the outside of the plant, just waiting to be carted off for recycling. The plant manager seemed pleased to have X there, and to X's view was more of a nuisance than anything as he walked along the lower corridors, hobbling up and down ladders until he reached the necessary spot.
"Mr. X sir, I just want to say that we are truly thankful for taking our plant back! You Hunters are doing a marvelous job of stopping the Sigma conflict!" X winced.
"You ARE aware that Sigma was a Hunter, correct?" The man nodded.
"Oh my, yes! But we know that since you're fighting him, there's no way you would ever think of becoming maverick!" X nodded.
"So, we still have support with the commoners." The man shook his head sadly.
"Not all believe like I do. There are some that think all reploids should be shut down, and that no more should ever be built." X sighed.
"Boy, that's a fun prospect to think about. Like Pandora's box, my friend. The first thing you see is the bad. The good is the last to show up." The man nodded quietly, stunned at the fluency of which X spoke. X looked around and through the narrow slits in the piping.
"Do you see back there? That's a Sub-Tank, which I'd like to get. Do these pipes have any truly important function?" The plant manager shrugged.
"Heavens, no! These are all old pipes from back when this place still used inefficient coolant transfer systems. We use a cooling system much like the fusion reactors do now." X nodded.
"That's good to know, because I'm gonna slice through them." X's blue and white faded away as a gray coloring masked his armor. He drew his Buster back and fired, and a curling metallic blade arced forward, slicing through the pipes and towards the tank. It stuck in the side, and then dragged the tank and itself back towards X in a return arc. X caught the tank, and the blade dissolved harmlessly into molecules of dust. Plugging the Sub-Tank in his systems, X was relieved to find he now had four Sub-Tanks, the maximum it seemed his systems would let him carry.
Too bad none of them were full. But a bleeping noise filled his thoughts, and X reached down for his comm.
"X here. What's up, boss?" Zero's voice, clear as day filled the tiny speaker.
"We've got trouble. Launch is being a pain in the bay! Seems he's hijacking tankers full of fuel and supplies. If he keeps this up, Sigma could have a lot of materials in possession to continue the attack." X clicked the send button.
"I'm on my way." Zero spoke in surprise.
"Your systems can handle underwater?" X nodded.
"Light knew what he was doing when he built me, I can tell you that much." Zero chuckled.
"All right X. Have fun." X smirked.
"Zero, why don't you see Cain about my plans? I think he can dredge up the waterproofing schematics for you." Zero laughed.
"It might come in handy, X. Stay alive, okay?" X snapped his comm off and sighed.
"Zero old buddy; I wouldn't have it any other way."
The sky was clear, and the sun was shining with all its midday intensity. Tokyo Harbor held life which had been there since it first came, with seagulls flying overhead for fish, and the native swimmers stroking about.
But there was an air about it, and all the animals seemed disturbed and frightened. For some time now, explosions and a general ruckus had been present in the area, as Launch Octopus effectively created a blockade for naval traffic, hijacking transports and taking entire ships apart for transport to wherever Sigma's main base was.
A familiar shhiiing resounded through the stank air as X warped down from above, landing in shallow water. He looked down, and noticed his systems automatically switched to subterranean mode. Everything was sealed off, and no nooks for moisture existed as the metal seamlessly connected in his joints. His face was left uncovered, but any water he might gulp down would instantly be sent to the fusion reactor and added to the process.
X nodded slowly at the almost instantaneous change, then looked ahead. He was not far off from the beachline, but the deeps of the harbor were still some distance ahead. And the deeps was where Launch would be residing. He had to hop his way down the shelf, down and down until he reached the bottom of the harbor, full of dim, dank water and threats galore. Checking his Buster, X began to slowly trod along in the water, noticing his pace decreased dramatically. He frowned for a moment, then shook his head as he activated his thrusters. Water pushed aside from him as hot gas came to the surface from where his boots were shooting the propulsion jets, and X had to watch out, because keeping his balance was not the easiest thing.
But he managed, and kept going. If he was to succeed, he'd have to learn, and learn fast. He smiled, and came up with a very valid thought.
All these places in which the mavericks chose to wreak havoc; each place only gave him greater experience in fighting.
"Is this it, Launch?" Sting hissed, his long tongue flicking out to stab at the mosquito which annoyingly buzzed around his pointed, horned head. Beside him, on one of the nautical hovertransports, Launch used one of his spindly missile arms to click on the tally button of his datapad once more. It blinked up again, and satisfied with the results, Launch nodded his large bulbous head.
"Looks like it. You get all this stuff to Sigma ASAP, okay? X and Zero are probably already breathing down our necks here. Sting nodded anxiously, looking about him.
"I'll be more than happy to put some distance between me and all this water, Launch." Launch heaved his chest up and down, in a sign of humor.
"Whatsa matter; you afraid of the water?" Sting tapped the side of his head with one of his three pronged hands.
"Launch, I climb on things. I don't swim through it. And then I attack my enemy by complete surprise." Sting looked as far as his vision would go, his obvious robotic optics scanning outwards in zoom mode. He flicked his tongue out again and sighed. "You weren't far off, Launch. X is already here, and it looks like he just took down a Hortoise Tortoise." His eyes scrolled back inside with a wet smack, an unsettling sound to anyone who had not heard it before. Launch rolled his eyes.
"Great. Well, you might as well get going then. My Anglerges should hold him off until I can lure him into my trap. You ever seen a Gulpfer before, Sting?" Sting shook his head.
"Can't say I have, but I've heard about them. Don't they swallow you whole and drain your energy?" Launch nodded, unable to smile because of his design.
"Right on the money, Sting. We'll see how X fares against them when he sticks his nose out too far." Sting hit a button on his datapad, and instantly all the ransacked materials of the Tokyo harbor ships lifted off on the hoverplatforms. Sting's battalion of robots and mavericks each obeyed the command; to get out of the harbor and back to Sigma's Fortress with their load of supplies.
A main transport was waiting some distance from the sacking operation, and it was that transport which would get them the rest of the way there.
They just had to make it three miles without being attacked.
But at the moment, Zero was also exploring the coast-on his own cognizance. He hadn't drafted a report, or told Cain where he was going. If Sigma had tapped the HQ before they went off, he would have no warning about this mission. It seemed a bit paranoid on his part, Zero thought. How many operations had gone off without a hitch when they'd spoken about it in the HQ? Too many for Zero to think about at the moment, but he always played it safe.
It was pretty normal, as far as shorelines go for Tokyo harbor. The occasional dock, a broke, busted and burning ship every now and then from Launch's ransacking, and not enough action for his tastes.
"Recon is boring. I wanna see some blood!" Zero heckled, a wide grin flashing across his face. He checked his Buster, and let it begin to charge for whatever might come his way.
The mess of Launch's soon became a giant obstacle course, with Zero irking his way through every nook and cranny. He became more and more agitated at the fact this was accomplishing nothing, and he was still unable to aid X in any way, being unable to 'go deep' as it was. A fish out of water, but Zero knew something was wrong.
"Launch can't get all his ransacked supplies to wherever Sigma is just by hovercarts-there's gotta be a big transport around here somewhere." Zero looked about. If it was a transport, it would be cloaked, hidden from view by any snoopers. All Zero had to find was some tiny discretion, a blip or blink, or wave in the natural view. They were hard to spot, and most often than not you really had to know the terrain really well to find it. But if Zero knew anything, this cloaked vessel would be much harder to find.
It WAS Sting's craft, after all. And Sting was known for his ability to blend in, and not be spotted. Zero squinted, stared and did every trick he knew, even going so far as trying to see it in 3-D eye vision, which only gave him a headache.
"Aww-FRACK IT!" Zero finally screamed. He raised his Buster, and began to pop off shot after shot around him, not aiming for anything, but blindly trying to hit the cloaked craft he knew existed. There was nothing critical around to worry about hitting, because it was all destroyed anyway.
Blast after blast hit open air, fizzling away as its power drained. But then Zero heard a CATHUNK and moved his ears toward where he had picked it up. Sure enough, a wavy distortion occurred, and then vanished moments later. Zero grinned from ear to ear as he began to line up his Buster.
"Surprise, mavericks!" Zero strafed the craft from head to toe, and finally managed to hit the cloak generator, which blew up in a minor display of pyrotechnics. A whine came out, and began to wind down into a low moan, and then the full green and black craft came into view.
It was pretty well armored, and Zero knew it would take a lot of hits before he even got through the first layer. But that was the least of his worries as a side opened up and a Bee Blader droned its way out.
"Oh, crap." Zero grumbled. "What is it with these things? Do I smell good here?" Zero shook his head, then jumped backwards in a backflip to avoid the rain of jacketed death the minigun spewed out from the mouth. But even as his life was on the line, and death could occur as soon as a sneeze, Zero smiled.
Now he was having fun.
Underneath the surface, X was not having fun. Zero might have been, but X didn't respond so happily to situations where he might bite the dust. The Sea Attacker, a heavily armed underwater attack robot which was similar to the Bee Blader had been making his life less than enjoyable. Already he'd taken one down with what he considered to be sheer luck, but this one was no better of a target. In fact, it was only more annoying.
The Electric Spark had proved effective at destroying the bright headlamp, which glared in his face and gave the Attacker a definitive target. X's first thoughts about the weapon was both him and the Attacker would be hit with the charge instantaneously, but luckily the electric blast was encased in a bubble of plasma. It was this bubble which then enveloped the target and prevented anything else from absorbing the shock. It gave the shot an eerie tint to it, and made a very odd sound, but those were minor aspects to it.
The Sea Attacker stopped firing the salvos of seaworm missiles and opened up its front end. X turned about, bracing for what he knew would come; the craft would start sucking in water, and if X wasn't careful, him with it.
He felt the tug of the water, and the odd swishing sound it made. But he kicked his boots on and repelled the force, easily keeping from the deadly intake valve. He held his fire, charging the Buster to its maximum.
However effective the E. Spark was at taking out the floodlamp, it did little good against the heavily armored body of the craft, and only plasma seemed to make a dent. The Storm Tornado was dampened and declawed by the water, and the Fire Wave-well, it wasn't an acetylene torch, for crying out loud! X suspected the Boomerang Cutter might do something, but he was still a little leery with the controls on it. Therefore, he trusted his Buster, the Mark 18 Design which he was most familiar with. The Mark 17 was the Buster he had been activated with, the Mark 18 his Upgrade. The craft stopped the intake, and then switched the motor for the outthrust. X turned about, and released his trigger before the Sea Attacker could make a move.
The purple wave ripped away the last layers of the armor, and burned into the delicate interior. What damage his Buster did was only compounded by the water's force, which shorted out the controls and overloaded it.
As soon as X had uncovered his eyes from the explosion, he looked on ahead.
This was scary.
Something caught his attention, as a giant spiraling spout swirled into life with a steady whumpwhumpwhumpwhump. X smiled.
"So that's it." No one could have heard him say that, but his sonar transmitter was running, so he could still talk over his commlink.
Not that he was expecting any calls.
The giant swirling tornadoes of water were the decoagulants. Even with all the cleaning and reclamation humans had made, there was still waste. These water vortices were designed to break apart any wastes which fell into the harbor and make them digestible to the army of microbes in the Tokyo Environmental Agency.
But they also made incredibly fun rides. X gaily hopped onto it, and felt himself rising to the surface. But something caught his eye as a water mine suddenly dropped very close to him, then continued to fall and exploded. He felt the shudder and looked up in surprise.
Launch's pride and joy of the surface, the Cruziler was throwing depth charges at him. X smiled.
The Cruziler would be sorry.
The Blader had bitten the dust, but it had managed to slice open Zero's left leg with one of its bullets. Therefore, the Crimson Hunter, gritting his teeth through the pain was pretty much an unmoving target, his leg servos weakened. Worse, the dash circuitry had shorted out in that leg, and left him unable to boost out of any traps.
The cannons on the de-cloaked ship tried futilely to hit Zero, and Zero stumbled as best he could, using his one good dash thruster to lopsidedly throw himself around. With a final burst of power, he leveled his Buster and squeezed off the charged shot.
The final turret gun exploded in fire, and Zero was thrown backwards by the explosion. Dazedly, he shook his head, trying to clear his vision. He heard the steady thrum of the ship's thrusters begin to power up, and he frowned.
"Oh, no you don't!" Zero would not let this airship get away. As it lifted off the ground, he steadied his back against a chunk of rubble and began to fire shot after shot, hoping to prevent the ship from escape.
The plasma stitched down the sides of the craft, finally managing to strike a chink in the stern half where the engines were powering up. What Zero had hit was the Power Coupling, which controlled the surplus energy the engines produced. Without it, the ship began to overload, smoke pouring out of it until finally the engines whined angrily and blew apart.
The engine's fusion explosions were severe, and totally engulfed the back end in a white fireball. The front half was propelled by the explosion into Tokyo harbor, where after splashing into the water and destroying several waste processing tubules which could be seen just under the surface, fizzled into mere scrap.
Zero, braced by his chunk of rubble was not thrown about, and got up with not a scratch, except for the ones he'd already received. Just then, the quiet aftermath was interrupted as he heard several hovercarts coming close. He turned his head and began to charge his Buster, waiting for the pickup which the now destroyed airship would have received.
The first cart blazed into view- and was promptly blazed into scrap. The rest slowed down, unsure of what had happened. Zero began to fire wildly at the direction from where they came, and he heard several of his shots hit the intended targets. Shouts of surprise rang out, and then one cart whined forth. Zero took that one out too, but the occupant leapt off of it before it was turned into molten metal, and landed lightly on the ground.
Zero cocked his stony expression at the maverick, and kept his Buster raised.
"Sting Chameleon."
"Zero?!" Zero fired his shot, but Sting dodged it, leaping high into the air and swooping over Zero's head. Zero turned to fire, but found that Sting was not fighting.
He was fleeing. The hovercarts whined past Zero, and he took out a few more. But a few survived, and Zero could not stop them. He shook his head.
"I can't stop him." Zero shook his battered head and groaned. He'd taken a lot of damage, and he needed to get back to base for repairs. He would just make sure X knew which direction they were going before he shut down on his repair cycle.
"Sweet-swirling-onion rings!" X yelped. Everything was going wrong. "Just a minute ago, I'm shooting at the Cruziler, and now it's sinking!" X, wide eyed and frozen with fear watched helplessly as the undertow dragged him down, but not as fast as the Cruziler, which was at the moment smashing onto the spike pit traps that Launch had set up. X gritted his teeth, knowing that once those prickly layers had ground the ship into dust, they would do the same to him. His dash thrusters, the pride of his flexibility were of no use to him when he was dangling away from a surface to dash off of. All X could do was drop, drop to his death on the wreckage.
But something happened below him, and X saw it occur. The Cruziler SMASHED through the layer of spikes on the seabed, revealing a secret underground passage to X. Moving as best he could, X hung onto the wall and dropped down slowly, watching through the murky water as the Cruziler's hull hit rock bottom at the very lowest point of the drop. No doubt this was Launch's hidden area, a place only he thought he could reach. The Cruziler had given X access to it.
He hopped down the rest of the way and over the disabled wreck, into a large chasm connected to the tunnel. It was a dangerous place, with even more spiked pits in it than the open harbor bed. X could see this would be dangerous going. But then a noise came from above, or more precisely a rumble. X looked up in stunned disbelief as something broke through the ceiling;
An Anglerge, a massive multisegmented beast with a powerful protective armor, and great speed. X frowned at the mechanical monstrosity and readied his Buster.
Only one of them would live from this conflict, and X wasn't about to let any blasted ROBOT defeat him.
"Sigma, come in! Sigma, PICK UP YER DAMN BLOODY PHONE!" Sting rasped into his comm. The connection crackled as it was scrambled for a moment, but then it cleared. Sigma's voice came over the line.
"Sting, what is it?" Sting rolled his reploid optics around before picking up again.
"I'll tell ya what it is; ZERO TOOK OUT THE TRANSPORT! And X is off as we speak trashing Launch's operation!" Sigma breathed deeply, trying not to scream in rage at everything that was going wrong.
"Where are you, Sting?" Sting checked his map.
"Looks like the natural habitat forest to me. My old prowling grounds."
"Set up your base. I'll send some help along as soon as I can to pick you up. How are the supplies?"
"Destroyed. Every bloody sled destroyed, Sigma. Zero took them all out."
"SHIT. Is there ANY good news?"
"Just one tidbit. Zero is pretty wiped out, 'cuz he was looking chewed up when I got to him. He'll be recovering for a while, which means if Launch fails the only threat we'll have is X to deal with."
"Hip hip hooray." Sigma's weary voice replied. Just then, the comm system on one of Sting's remaining sleds shorted out from Zero's attack, and a loud blaring noise screamed through the air. As quickly as possible, Sting flipped his comm off, leaving Sigma wondering what the devil was going on. But Sting knew full well in his crazed mind what had happened.
"Goddamnit! The scrambler went down. WE'VE BEEN TRACED!"
"Oh, Lucy- I'm home!" X wailed out through his underwater radio transponder. He had directed it towards one figure, three fathoms ahead of him. Launch Octopus turned his bulbous head very slowly and stared at X with as much anger as he could.
"Well, well. Hail the conquering hero." Launch raised one of his arms, and X could see it primed to fire a shot. "You've taken out my Cruziler, both of my precious pet Anglerges, STOLEN my Heart Tank, stopped my entire operation; And now you have the GALL to show up here? What more can you do here? My operation's already been wiped out!"
Launch fired the shot, but X released his own Buster, silent in the water. The twin purple rotators of plasma sliced through the water, disrupting the propeller on the tiny missile enough for the cascading energies to squeeze it in the gaping maw of power and crush it. The wave continued on, striking Launch off guard and pushing him backwards into the wall of the massive underwater room which was his control of the now destroyed operation.
X lowered his Buster, a frown on his face. Launch rubbed the back of his head gingerly, as if unable to believe such an insignificant foe could do so much with so little effort. X nodded his head slowly, affirming the thought in Launch's head.
"Yes, I can destroy you. And until I do, your operation will never truly be dead." Launch screamed, an odd sound from one who had no mouth to speak. He leapt forward, extended every tentacle he had and released a powerful salvo of piranha missiles, the special ammunition which could chew through anything in its path. X hadn't had enough time to begin to charge his Buster again, so he quickly switched to the Electric Spark and hoped for the best. He fired a trio of blasts at varying heights, which managed to take out three of the five. X dashed along and avoided the other two, and also the crushing weight of Launch, which settled into the position where X had stood not so long ago. X turned about and threw another blast. It hit the lumbering armory dead on, but did little. X's eyes widened as Launch laughed.
"Oh, that's pitiful! Do you really think one that works in water would not be resistant to electricity? It's suicide not to be!" X switched to his Buster and grumbled in response, beginning to charge his Buster.
It had only reached level 2 when Launch went up in the water and began to spin around. His arms swung in a wide arc, creating a vortice. The water tornado sucked X in the spin, and he found himself unable to break free. Worse yet, when X fired his charge upwards, Launch was protected by the water, which deflected the blast aside with little hassle.
"Cripes! The E.Drain!" X yowled. He knew Launch could literally take all of his internal operations energy and suck him dry, killing him and replenishing the maverick's health. His arms-those blasted arms caused this!
Like a bolt of thunder, a thought struck him. He morphed into a dim gray color and pulled out a Boomerang Cutter. He shut his eyes and wished one fervent desire;
"Please Boomer, don't you fail me now!" He swung it out, and the thin blade escaped the water spout, moving ahead. Then Launch smashed onto X and jammed his lower limbs into X's body. X could feel his lifeblood pour out of him, unit by unit. But through his pained eyes he watched the thin blade swerve around, and come back in a fateful arc.
The Cutter returned fully, slashing through one arm in X's chest, then a second on his shoulder. The last two fell as the Cutter did one last fateful twinge before it disintegrated into molecular dust, and then X was free once more. Launch screamed in pain as reploid blood spurted from the stumps on his body, hurling himself backwards away from the dancing blades of fate. A gasping X noted that very little energy had vanished in the transfer, and was probably at the moment all wasted from the blood which clouded the water. Launch's automatic repair systems shut off the blood to the stumps of his arms, and then he pointed at X, rasping in pained breaths.
"You- you bastard! I'll make you pay for this !" Launch prepped his two remaining arms and fired off a wild shot. X jumped it, but then was hurled backwards by a second's explosion. The Torpedoes in Launch's internal weapons banks were strong, and he was using them as best as he could. X switched to the Rolling Shield, hoping that it's odd looking function would surprise Launch as much as it had surprised Boomer. He leapt the barrage of torpedoes that Launch fired off and released the shot. It moved in the water for a moment, and then dropped behind Launch, not striking him. X fired a second and a third on top of the first, and as the first one struck Launch, the second and third rebounded off the wall.
The first explosion put Launch off balance. The second blasted away a good chunk of his armor with its powerful energy, and the third blasted away the remnants of Launch's back and exposed his delicate circuitry to the open water. Launch screamed as his mind filled with pain, and then he vanished in the explosion, a giant ball of white particles and energy unleashed upon the water.
When X opened his eyes, he walked over to one of the removed arms of Launch and took it in his hand. His internal weapons array came online and scanned it for X's newest ability;
The Homing Torpedo.
"WWWASSUPPP???" X growled. He had warped into the medical bay for a slight recharge before he went off to deliver his report. He looked around, confused as to why Hazil hadn't shouted some curse back at him for disrupting activities. His large optics soon widened in fear at the answer.
"ZERO!!" Hazil looked up from the still figure of Zero in one of the recharge pods and shook his head wryly.
"Sorry to disappoint your dark fantasies, X. Zero's just gonna be out of it for a while. He took some serious damage stopping the material transfer from Launch's operation. Sting's ship didn't go easy on him."
"Sting?! Figures. Did he get away?" Hazil nodded and pulled out an energy canister, throwing it at X, who downed it for a quick recharge.
"Sorry to say, Zero was too weak to stop our green lizard friend. Sting tried to call for help from Sigma, though." X raised an eyebrow.
"How would you know that? All maverick communications are scram-waittasecond. You mean to say his scrambler shorted out?" Hazil yawned.
"Boy, you catch on fast. I'm a DOCTOR and I know this better than you." X frowned.
"Exsqueeze me, but this is only my third week as a Hunter, Hazil. You've been working with Hunters since-what, this spring?" Hazil shrugged.
"You're the one with the upgrades, spiffy." Hazil jerked a thumb at the door. "Cain's got the coordinates for you when you're all set to go. He's been working at cracking their frequency for some time now, and picked up on Sting's signal. Doubtless he'll find a way to sucker in Sigma's location as well soon." X shook his head.
"Hip hip hooray." X started to walk out the door, and kept speaking. "Tell that bum Zero when he wakes up, I'll be bringing back a maverick's head." Hazil waved an arm and then turned back to Zero, still slowly recharging to his maximum performance, after the severe systems damage from the fight. Hazil smiled widely.
"Zero, I don't care what anyone says. Your spirit's a true fighter, and that's what keeps you alive."
There comes a time where physical performance can only go so far. After that, the will of a being is all that determines a fight's outcome.
Zero had enough to last him to the moon and back.