THE TENTH DISK
By blackhart
copyright MM Abacus Fiction, revised 6/26/2001
Chapter Nineteen
X
We began searching among the rubble of the ship for Argyle's remains.
That search ended quickly. Finding the ship's skeleton, I searched around the
cockpit for any sign of the old guy, but found nothing.
"I've gotta talk to Zero," I said to myself. Radioing him, I related the
list of recent events to my friend. He took in every word with an
understanding sigh. Telling him about the ship's crash, however, he stopped
me.
"Go back to that last part," he said. "Once you searched for Argyle's
body in the cockpit, you didn't find it?"
"Nope," I said. "I know he didn't bail, `cause I didn't see him leave the
ship."
Zero gave another one of those sighs, mixed with a hint of interest,
and then a curse. "You're sure you didn't see him bail?"
"Absolutely sure," I said. "You know something?"
"I might," he said. "I'm gonna put out a call to all Hunters still at HQ to
begin a search for him."
"You think Argyle's still alive?"
"Worse than that. I think Chakra was right about him."
"Should I be worried?"
"Not right now. For now, just worry about getting Wily here. We'll
worry about Argyle later."
* * *
Zero
"`Anything I should be worried about?' he asks," I muttered. I'd say so,
if Chakra's right. Could Argyle have been...one of them all along and us not
suspect it? Had he been the other one who came through the portal from
21XX?
"You can't find out who came through that thing last, can you, Chakra?"
I asked.
"You're being awfully inquisitive about this thing's workings, Zero," he
said. "Any reason?"
"I have to be inquisitive, Chakra. I'm the Commander here, right?"
He smiled. "Right. Anyway, sorry to spoil your small moment of
genius, but I've already checked that. If there's a way to find out who came
through last, I haven't found it yet."
"Crud," I whispered. "That's one less lead for us, then."
He nodded, exasperatedly. "Yeah. You'd be surprised how boring it
gets even for a gadget guy like me."
I smiled. "I can only imagine. You do good work, Chakra."
"Thank you, sir."
"Sure. Just keep doing good work, huh?"
"On it."
I walked over to Iris. "Down-heartedness hasn't gotten to you yet, has
it, love?"
She smiled, in as good of spirits as ever, apparently. "Not here. The
others're just looking for something to do. A pep talk probably wouldn't hurt
`em, Zero."
I fingered a strand of her hair, smiling. "Right."
I found a spot close to all of them, then got everyone's attention.
"Listen guys," I said, "don't lose heart for this yet. X just radioed me and
said they got Wily back. His team'll be here soon."
Gilley brightened a bit. "I've missed Argyle. Did X tell you anything
about how everyone was?"
I winced inside. I can't let her down right now, not like this. "He said
everyone was fine. No one dead, anyways." Well, it isn't a total lie, if my
theory's right, I thought. But Argyle could be something worse than dead...
Checking back in with Chakra, I asked him if he had any theories on who
the people from 20XX could have been. "My only guess is some poor civilians
who wandered into the portal or something," he said. "And again, that's only
a guess."
"I'm forming some more theories of my own," I said, mulling over that in
my mind. He-- He-- couldn't have come back, could he? But who would the
other one from 21XX have been? Who else came through after Dragoon?
Unanswered questions, and too little time to ponder them. Shoot.
"You'll have time to think about it later, boss," said Chakra. "Right now,
I've got a ship over the fortress's debris. Care to go check it out?"
"No need. They're friendlies, Chakra. It's X and his group, and they no
doubt come bearing gifts. They've gotten the old guy back from Dragoon, I'd
wager."
* * *
X
I dragged Wily by his lab-coat collar to the lake with us. Popping a
portable rebreather into his mouth, I sank to the bottom with him. The
others followed as I saw the tunnel Sigma had mentioned. I began to jet up
there, using my dash jets to propel me. Once inside, I noticed the
architecture of the room. It's airtight, I thought. They can drain the water
out of here. I looked around and found a control panel on the wall farthest
me. Tapping the one button on its face, I began to breathe easier as the
water seeped from the room.
I looked around. Everyone had followed okay. Good. I pulled the device
from Wily's mouth and threw it onto the floor. It was no longer needed; he
wouldn't be going back in that lake anytime soon.
"Guys, group formation. Let's move into the next room."
I sauntered up to the door and tapped the panel. The door hissed open,
and I was greeted with a black corridor ahead.
"Anyone volunteer to go first?" I said with a smile. The others smiled
and chuckled as I led the way into the long stretch of hall.
The end of the hall was blocked, I could see. Zero. I smiled. My old
friend's personality showed even through something so simple as a crumbled
wall. I'm coming, buddy, I thought as I noticed a glimmer of light from the
corner of my eye. Twirling around, I ducked as a mecha-bat swooped down to
attack. Rolling back a foot or two, I came to stop in a crouch, firing several
small energy bolts at my assailant. "Take that, you waste of scrap," I said
as it exploded. "Keep your eyes open, guys," I said. "Zero sealed the tunnel
to keep the bats out of their workspace. Get to the rubble."
Some nodded as I began to dash toward the end of the tunnel. I turned
back a few times to make sure everyone was with me, firing a few shots at
the gaining bats. Finally, we had reached the crumbled rock, and I motioned
for the others to start moving the clutter to make a hole through. Slinging
Wily off in a corner, I met with the horde of flying nasties fast approaching.
A charged shot here, a charged shot there, and six or seven bats were
downed permanently. I glanced backward and saw that my troops had opened
a small hole, and that Zero and his group had begun to help them with the job.
I smiled and kept at shooting the bats.
Continuing my glances, I saw that the others had finally cleared out a
hole large enough and were beginning to help people through. After they'd
shoved the last one through, I fired off about three more charged shots,
picked Wily up from his resting place, tossed him through the opening, then
dashed quickly through the hole, where Zero slammed a boulder large enough
to cover it.
I stood up and accepted my friend's hand. "Have a fun time with
Dragoon?" he asked with a glint of question in his eye.
I smiled. "Fun's not exactly the word," I said. "He got his head raked
off on a skyscraper back at the Sky Lagoon ruins."
He winced. "Ooooh, that's gotta sting."
"I can only imagine."
"So you got the old coot, eh?" Zero asked, bending down, eye level with
Wily.
"He was a slippery one," I said. "I'm not sure we'll ever know exactly
why Dragoon kidnapped him, though."
"Fulfilling the virus part of Sigma's plan to warp time, maybe?"
"You think he meant to do that in the first place?"
"Maybe, but when I said something about it to him, maybe it snapped
the Reploid part of Sigs into awakening for just a nanosecond, long enough
for him to understand."
I shrugged. "Not sure we'll ever know now."
Zero shook his head. "He'll be back, and we'll have another chance to
talk, somewhere down the road. I know it. I just know it."
"You're not givin' up on him, are you?" I asked. "You still think, deep
down inside, he has good intentions?"
"I think it's a liable hypothesis. However, right now, what I think doesn't
matter so much as to what the facts are."
"Have you figured out the controls to the machine yet?"
"As best we can," he nodded. "Let's send the old guy back to his own
time, what say?"
I nodded, smiling. "I think Wily's seen enough of the future."
"Oh, one other thing," Chakra called, "we've found a mechanism built
into the machine that erases all memory of these future events from the
traveler's mind. You want us to zap the old guy's memories out of
existence?"
"I think it's an excellent idea, Chakra," I said. "He might have learned
enough about Reploid robotics here to destroy Mega Man earlier on than he
should."
Chakra nodded, going back to work in his swivel chair. "Right, boss."
* * *
Zero
I took X aside quickly. "Speaking of Mega Man, there are two entries
on the time machine's history trail from 20XX. We know one of them's
Wily's, but beyond that..."
"You think he may have come after Wily when he disappeared?"
"I think it's possible."
"Man, this mission just keeps getting more involved..."
"I know. First we're sent off to get Sigma's source code from ten
minidiscs, then we find Wily making Sigs' battle body, then we find out
Sigma's not as bad as we think, then Dragoon kidnaps the old guy, and now..."
"My predecessor may be in the same time as I am, hunting down his
enemy. Weirder and weirder."
"Listen, let's get back to the others, or they may think something's
up."
"Oh!" he said, practically yelling, "have you told Gilley about Argyle
yet?"
I hung my head. "I didn't know about...THEM...until about ten minutes
ago. I had no idea."
"You don't keep your eyes all that open, do you?" he said with a
smile.
I returned it. "Wasn't she a little young for him, though?"
"Point taken, I suppose. Anyway, no, I haven't told her. Care to do
the honors?"
"Spare me the sarcasm. It's not needed."
"Sorry."
"It's all right."
"Anyway, if anyone would have to do it, I guess it should be me.
`Scuse me," he said, then took off toward Gilley. I watched as he drew her
aside, began talking, she, keeping a smile on her face, then X slowing down
and relating the news. Her smile quickly disappeared and became a teary
frown. She leaned on X's shoulder for support. I looked away. I didn't need
to see this.
Walking over to Iris, I smiled as she saw me coming. She stepped up
from where she leaned against the side of the time machine. I slipped behind
her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. "Feeling any better?"
"Alright now," she whispered. "The others are in good spirits, too, it
seems. X and his group's boosted morale, I'd say."
"Hmm," I grunted. "Iris...you know I don't like to have to ask you
this...but did you--I mean, did you ever--?"
"Have any notion that Sigma had something else up his sleeve?"
"That's the question."
"I kept getting vague, and often vacant inclinations as to
something," she said, "but nothing concrete, nothing that could help us now."
I nodded. Using my hands to move her shoulders, I turned her to
face me. "You, Roll, and Enker are our three biggest aces right now against
the old guy," I said, touching my head to hers. "Anything at all you can tell us
would be of the utmost help."
"I understand," she said, "but my answer hasn't changed in five
seconds, Zero," she continued, smiling. "Always the impatient one, aren't
you?"
"I try," I said, brushing a lock of her hair aside. Hugging her, I
whispered in her ear, "But you're the beautiful one."
"I try as well," she whispered back. Moving away from me, her eyes
flitted away. "Chakra's waving for you," she said, pointing. "Get this
wrapped up ASAP, will you? I'm tired of this fighting for now."
"So am I," I said as I turned to walk towards the main controls. "So
am I."
* * *
"Whatcha got for me, Chakra?" I said as I leaned on his shoulder.
"What I got is the jackpot, boss," he said, beaming. As he pulled up a
screen on the computer, he began gesturing to certain things on the screen,
describing each. "I've finally got a GUI working here."
"Gooey?" I asked.
"A GUI, boss. Graphical-user interface."
"Oh, right."
He rolled his eyes. "Anyways, I can get to the history trail from
here, the time selection option from here, and from here," (at this point he
gestured to a humanoid icon with a great question-mark inside of it) "from
here, I can get the mug of anyone who's used this machine."
I squeezed his shoulder, standing back up. "Awesome job, Chakra!
You've earned double vacation time for this, bud."
"Thanks, sir," he said.
"Get on looking who the last four subjects in this machine were," I
said. "Finally, some more good news! This'll definitely cheer the others up."
By blackhart
copyright MM Abacus Fiction, revised 6/26/2001
Chapter Nineteen
X
We began searching among the rubble of the ship for Argyle's remains.
That search ended quickly. Finding the ship's skeleton, I searched around the
cockpit for any sign of the old guy, but found nothing.
"I've gotta talk to Zero," I said to myself. Radioing him, I related the
list of recent events to my friend. He took in every word with an
understanding sigh. Telling him about the ship's crash, however, he stopped
me.
"Go back to that last part," he said. "Once you searched for Argyle's
body in the cockpit, you didn't find it?"
"Nope," I said. "I know he didn't bail, `cause I didn't see him leave the
ship."
Zero gave another one of those sighs, mixed with a hint of interest,
and then a curse. "You're sure you didn't see him bail?"
"Absolutely sure," I said. "You know something?"
"I might," he said. "I'm gonna put out a call to all Hunters still at HQ to
begin a search for him."
"You think Argyle's still alive?"
"Worse than that. I think Chakra was right about him."
"Should I be worried?"
"Not right now. For now, just worry about getting Wily here. We'll
worry about Argyle later."
* * *
Zero
"`Anything I should be worried about?' he asks," I muttered. I'd say so,
if Chakra's right. Could Argyle have been...one of them all along and us not
suspect it? Had he been the other one who came through the portal from
21XX?
"You can't find out who came through that thing last, can you, Chakra?"
I asked.
"You're being awfully inquisitive about this thing's workings, Zero," he
said. "Any reason?"
"I have to be inquisitive, Chakra. I'm the Commander here, right?"
He smiled. "Right. Anyway, sorry to spoil your small moment of
genius, but I've already checked that. If there's a way to find out who came
through last, I haven't found it yet."
"Crud," I whispered. "That's one less lead for us, then."
He nodded, exasperatedly. "Yeah. You'd be surprised how boring it
gets even for a gadget guy like me."
I smiled. "I can only imagine. You do good work, Chakra."
"Thank you, sir."
"Sure. Just keep doing good work, huh?"
"On it."
I walked over to Iris. "Down-heartedness hasn't gotten to you yet, has
it, love?"
She smiled, in as good of spirits as ever, apparently. "Not here. The
others're just looking for something to do. A pep talk probably wouldn't hurt
`em, Zero."
I fingered a strand of her hair, smiling. "Right."
I found a spot close to all of them, then got everyone's attention.
"Listen guys," I said, "don't lose heart for this yet. X just radioed me and
said they got Wily back. His team'll be here soon."
Gilley brightened a bit. "I've missed Argyle. Did X tell you anything
about how everyone was?"
I winced inside. I can't let her down right now, not like this. "He said
everyone was fine. No one dead, anyways." Well, it isn't a total lie, if my
theory's right, I thought. But Argyle could be something worse than dead...
Checking back in with Chakra, I asked him if he had any theories on who
the people from 20XX could have been. "My only guess is some poor civilians
who wandered into the portal or something," he said. "And again, that's only
a guess."
"I'm forming some more theories of my own," I said, mulling over that in
my mind. He-- He-- couldn't have come back, could he? But who would the
other one from 21XX have been? Who else came through after Dragoon?
Unanswered questions, and too little time to ponder them. Shoot.
"You'll have time to think about it later, boss," said Chakra. "Right now,
I've got a ship over the fortress's debris. Care to go check it out?"
"No need. They're friendlies, Chakra. It's X and his group, and they no
doubt come bearing gifts. They've gotten the old guy back from Dragoon, I'd
wager."
* * *
X
I dragged Wily by his lab-coat collar to the lake with us. Popping a
portable rebreather into his mouth, I sank to the bottom with him. The
others followed as I saw the tunnel Sigma had mentioned. I began to jet up
there, using my dash jets to propel me. Once inside, I noticed the
architecture of the room. It's airtight, I thought. They can drain the water
out of here. I looked around and found a control panel on the wall farthest
me. Tapping the one button on its face, I began to breathe easier as the
water seeped from the room.
I looked around. Everyone had followed okay. Good. I pulled the device
from Wily's mouth and threw it onto the floor. It was no longer needed; he
wouldn't be going back in that lake anytime soon.
"Guys, group formation. Let's move into the next room."
I sauntered up to the door and tapped the panel. The door hissed open,
and I was greeted with a black corridor ahead.
"Anyone volunteer to go first?" I said with a smile. The others smiled
and chuckled as I led the way into the long stretch of hall.
The end of the hall was blocked, I could see. Zero. I smiled. My old
friend's personality showed even through something so simple as a crumbled
wall. I'm coming, buddy, I thought as I noticed a glimmer of light from the
corner of my eye. Twirling around, I ducked as a mecha-bat swooped down to
attack. Rolling back a foot or two, I came to stop in a crouch, firing several
small energy bolts at my assailant. "Take that, you waste of scrap," I said
as it exploded. "Keep your eyes open, guys," I said. "Zero sealed the tunnel
to keep the bats out of their workspace. Get to the rubble."
Some nodded as I began to dash toward the end of the tunnel. I turned
back a few times to make sure everyone was with me, firing a few shots at
the gaining bats. Finally, we had reached the crumbled rock, and I motioned
for the others to start moving the clutter to make a hole through. Slinging
Wily off in a corner, I met with the horde of flying nasties fast approaching.
A charged shot here, a charged shot there, and six or seven bats were
downed permanently. I glanced backward and saw that my troops had opened
a small hole, and that Zero and his group had begun to help them with the job.
I smiled and kept at shooting the bats.
Continuing my glances, I saw that the others had finally cleared out a
hole large enough and were beginning to help people through. After they'd
shoved the last one through, I fired off about three more charged shots,
picked Wily up from his resting place, tossed him through the opening, then
dashed quickly through the hole, where Zero slammed a boulder large enough
to cover it.
I stood up and accepted my friend's hand. "Have a fun time with
Dragoon?" he asked with a glint of question in his eye.
I smiled. "Fun's not exactly the word," I said. "He got his head raked
off on a skyscraper back at the Sky Lagoon ruins."
He winced. "Ooooh, that's gotta sting."
"I can only imagine."
"So you got the old coot, eh?" Zero asked, bending down, eye level with
Wily.
"He was a slippery one," I said. "I'm not sure we'll ever know exactly
why Dragoon kidnapped him, though."
"Fulfilling the virus part of Sigma's plan to warp time, maybe?"
"You think he meant to do that in the first place?"
"Maybe, but when I said something about it to him, maybe it snapped
the Reploid part of Sigs into awakening for just a nanosecond, long enough
for him to understand."
I shrugged. "Not sure we'll ever know now."
Zero shook his head. "He'll be back, and we'll have another chance to
talk, somewhere down the road. I know it. I just know it."
"You're not givin' up on him, are you?" I asked. "You still think, deep
down inside, he has good intentions?"
"I think it's a liable hypothesis. However, right now, what I think doesn't
matter so much as to what the facts are."
"Have you figured out the controls to the machine yet?"
"As best we can," he nodded. "Let's send the old guy back to his own
time, what say?"
I nodded, smiling. "I think Wily's seen enough of the future."
"Oh, one other thing," Chakra called, "we've found a mechanism built
into the machine that erases all memory of these future events from the
traveler's mind. You want us to zap the old guy's memories out of
existence?"
"I think it's an excellent idea, Chakra," I said. "He might have learned
enough about Reploid robotics here to destroy Mega Man earlier on than he
should."
Chakra nodded, going back to work in his swivel chair. "Right, boss."
* * *
Zero
I took X aside quickly. "Speaking of Mega Man, there are two entries
on the time machine's history trail from 20XX. We know one of them's
Wily's, but beyond that..."
"You think he may have come after Wily when he disappeared?"
"I think it's possible."
"Man, this mission just keeps getting more involved..."
"I know. First we're sent off to get Sigma's source code from ten
minidiscs, then we find Wily making Sigs' battle body, then we find out
Sigma's not as bad as we think, then Dragoon kidnaps the old guy, and now..."
"My predecessor may be in the same time as I am, hunting down his
enemy. Weirder and weirder."
"Listen, let's get back to the others, or they may think something's
up."
"Oh!" he said, practically yelling, "have you told Gilley about Argyle
yet?"
I hung my head. "I didn't know about...THEM...until about ten minutes
ago. I had no idea."
"You don't keep your eyes all that open, do you?" he said with a
smile.
I returned it. "Wasn't she a little young for him, though?"
"Point taken, I suppose. Anyway, no, I haven't told her. Care to do
the honors?"
"Spare me the sarcasm. It's not needed."
"Sorry."
"It's all right."
"Anyway, if anyone would have to do it, I guess it should be me.
`Scuse me," he said, then took off toward Gilley. I watched as he drew her
aside, began talking, she, keeping a smile on her face, then X slowing down
and relating the news. Her smile quickly disappeared and became a teary
frown. She leaned on X's shoulder for support. I looked away. I didn't need
to see this.
Walking over to Iris, I smiled as she saw me coming. She stepped up
from where she leaned against the side of the time machine. I slipped behind
her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. "Feeling any better?"
"Alright now," she whispered. "The others are in good spirits, too, it
seems. X and his group's boosted morale, I'd say."
"Hmm," I grunted. "Iris...you know I don't like to have to ask you
this...but did you--I mean, did you ever--?"
"Have any notion that Sigma had something else up his sleeve?"
"That's the question."
"I kept getting vague, and often vacant inclinations as to
something," she said, "but nothing concrete, nothing that could help us now."
I nodded. Using my hands to move her shoulders, I turned her to
face me. "You, Roll, and Enker are our three biggest aces right now against
the old guy," I said, touching my head to hers. "Anything at all you can tell us
would be of the utmost help."
"I understand," she said, "but my answer hasn't changed in five
seconds, Zero," she continued, smiling. "Always the impatient one, aren't
you?"
"I try," I said, brushing a lock of her hair aside. Hugging her, I
whispered in her ear, "But you're the beautiful one."
"I try as well," she whispered back. Moving away from me, her eyes
flitted away. "Chakra's waving for you," she said, pointing. "Get this
wrapped up ASAP, will you? I'm tired of this fighting for now."
"So am I," I said as I turned to walk towards the main controls. "So
am I."
* * *
"Whatcha got for me, Chakra?" I said as I leaned on his shoulder.
"What I got is the jackpot, boss," he said, beaming. As he pulled up a
screen on the computer, he began gesturing to certain things on the screen,
describing each. "I've finally got a GUI working here."
"Gooey?" I asked.
"A GUI, boss. Graphical-user interface."
"Oh, right."
He rolled his eyes. "Anyways, I can get to the history trail from
here, the time selection option from here, and from here," (at this point he
gestured to a humanoid icon with a great question-mark inside of it) "from
here, I can get the mug of anyone who's used this machine."
I squeezed his shoulder, standing back up. "Awesome job, Chakra!
You've earned double vacation time for this, bud."
"Thanks, sir," he said.
"Get on looking who the last four subjects in this machine were," I
said. "Finally, some more good news! This'll definitely cheer the others up."
