MEGA MAN X: ISLAND OF AWAKENING
By Erico
PROLOGUE
Wires, servos, shape metal alloys, blood vessels, synaptic relays, warp generator, microfusion tank…
The reploid standing above the table paused his work for a moment to raise his hands up and rub his eyes, his tired body screaming at him for rest. But the reploid ignored his body's pleas for sleep. His task at hand held priority above everything else.
Even his own well being.
Still, he did back away from the operating table and the bright lights for a moment to stretch his arms out and reach for his drink. Perhaps the carbonated soda…cherry flavored?…might ward off his body's aggravating stasis messages.
The reploid looked up at the ceiling for a moment, breathing in the air as he held the container of sugary liquid in his hand. His mustached mouth gained a smile as he took a small sip of his drink.
"The air's so clean…no human stink." His contempt for the species that had borne him was apparent as his blue and red armor and the bulky black Russian smokestack hat above his head. "I would ask for no less than these pristine conditions to resurrect another…"
His voice seemed metallic, hollow…empty compared to other reploids of his humanoid breed. The reploid smirked for a moment and hopped up onto a chair, watching with bemused interest as his little legs and their partially oversized metallic boots dangled freely in the air.
Of course, it didn't surprise him. After all, he was barely four feet tall.
But that didn't matter to him. After all, he was a Maverick.
And that made him stronger than a reploid who was seven feet.
His comm chittered to life, and the Maverick rolled his eyes for a moment. One was a warped red…and the other was frighteningly robotic. His hand reached down to his left arm's wrist and he keyed in a switch. It had to be one of his two fellow Mavericks reporting in.
After all, no one else knew he was here.
"Yes?" He said in mock surprise. There was a grunt on the other end, and then on the wall of the room opposite from the short statured Maverick, an image flickered to life.
Unlike the short and stubby Maverick, this one truly DID look imposing, even if it was only his face being seen.
"It's me Serges. Just wanted to see how our pet project was coming along." Serges rolled his eyes again and hopped down to the ground, snapping his fingers as he fell.
Within the span of less than a second, an armored hoverboard skimmed from its stationary position away from him and skimmed just underneath his feet, letting the short Maverick float a few extra inches off of the ground. Serges looked up at the imposing apelike/human face of his counterpart and gave a twisted half smile that curled his white mustache up oddly.
"Do you doubt my abilities to reconstruct him, Violen?" Violen's eyes shifted away, and for a moment his face tone darkened as he blushed.
"No…I don't doubt you. Agile was getting a little antsy." Serges snorted.
"The way that lanky purple maniac acts all the time, SILENCE makes him antsy. You tell him to pop some Valium before I drop some Mine Bombs on his head." Violen chuckled, a deep basso growl in short staccato bursts that seemed to flow over better than his gruff words. Serges floated over so he could get a better look at the screen and folded his arms behind his back in a semblance of parade rest.
"So tell me, Violen. How goes the plans for our great Second Uprising?" The apelike Maverick's eyes lit up as a toothy grin replaced the wan smile before it.
"We are almost done with the recruitment of our eight new Maverick Generals. A few of them show great promise…" Serges flung a hand halfheartedly in the air.
"Tell me later. I want an exact time to work with. When can I expect to move my fun little patch 'em up service to the Paradise?" Serge's voice flickered as he mentioned the last word, giving away to anyone tuning in on the broadcast that it was a codeword of sorts. Violen chewed on the inside of his mouth for a moment, then nodded.
"Soon. Within three days, we will begin the planned invasion."
"And the diversion?" Serges prodded. Violen responded quickly.
"We have set up a small operation in the Middle East at one of our confiscated and unimportant construction facilities. That should keep the Hunters busy until our toehold on Paradise is secured."
"It should…" Serges mused, rubbing his chin. "Remember of course, Sigma SHOULD have won the First Uprising."
"There were two rogue elements that prevented that occurrence, Serges." Violen chided his cohort. "Two tiny grains of sand in the gears that crunched them to a halt. Two Hunters that survived."
"No. One Hunter, and one Damned Lucky idiot." Serges shot back, his eyes aflame. Violen held his tongue for a moment, then smirked and let out a small noise of satisfaction.
"Yes. One Damned Lucky idiot. But it'll be different this time, Serges."
"Oh, I know it'll be different, Violen. Serges out." Serges cut the connection and sighed softly. Shutting his eyes for a moment, he let a rumbling chuckle cascade through him.
"Because now one of those two grains of sand is with us." Serges turned back around and opened his eyes, floating towards the brightly lit operating table he had left alone for a while.
Serges took a small moment to reminisce, and thank the lucky stars above Sigma had the forthright wisdom to divide his forces in the later half of the First Uprising. A smaller branch of his Maverick might had been sent out away from his base, to work in secret and avoid attracting attention to themselves until the time was right.
Three Mavericks under Sigma had been left in charge. The brutish ape reploid Violen, the short legged and short tempered Serges, and the manic long legged psychopath who'd been given the fitting name of Agile.
It was Violen who had remained behind in Sigma's fortress, waiting in a small alcove above the wide battle room where Vile kept his precious purple 'Mech.
He had seen it all happen. He'd seen Vile catch the fool Zero off guard and throw him in a paralyzing energy cage, and he had seen X fail miserably in his attempt to destroy Vile's baby.
Then with wide eyes, the huge ape had watched as the white and gold and blue colored X absorbed the paralyzing energy from Vile's shoulder cannon into his body as restorative health energy, and Zero break free from his imprisonment and blow the 'Mech…and himself…apart in an impressive and suicidal double Buster overload charge.
Stunned, Violen had seen the enraged X destroy Vile with ONE SHOT…and then comfort Zero in his final moments. The new Blue Bomber had let out such an agonized scream of pain and anger, it made even the brave hearted ape Maverick shudder in fear.
He had waited until X had moved on. Then Violen had made his move.
Dropping down into the abandoned alcove, he walked through strewn metal, blood and flareups until he had located every section of Zero. His head and upper torso had remained attached, and only his legs and lower body had been blown off completely. Still, Violen knew Zero was not in good shape. He'd considered it a morbid momento at the time, a little something he had taken with him as proof of survival from the blue X.
Serges blinked, bringing up another memory file. Violen had returned with his gift package in tow to Serges and Agile, but Agile and Violen did not see the possibilities within the reddish armor and dead processors.
Only Serges, a Maverick who had built reploids for a living before his enlistment knew what could truly be done with it.
Serges finally brought himself out of the lulling flashback trance and climbed up onto his operating chair astride the table.
He looked down with respect, awe, and a little bemusement at the work in progress below.
Its hair was now free of the blood, dirt and grime that had been thrown into it by the struggles, and it shone a bright yellow, lying beside it and going down to the waist. The bluish hairband kept the strands from flying all over the place.
The armor was a bit harder, but no more worrisome to Serges than the hair was. Its red and white colors were now fully showing, as fresh as the day they'd been forged. Fixing the dings was something Serges took pride in.
At the moment, Serges was in the final stage of the project's reconstruction, rebuilding the necessary wiring and internal equipment from the battered stage it had been found in. Even the Control Chip had survived, amazingly. That must have been because unlike so many who had found a quick and fiery death at the end of a plasma Buster in that conflagration, this one had passed away because he had lost his vital body fluids. Serges smiled, a broad smile that extended about his demonic face as he pulled out his magnifier and focused it on the reploid's left arm again.
"Oh my yes, Zero. Don't you worry one bit…Uncle Serges will patch you up good as new." He brought the point of the soldering node down to the connector wires and melted the superconductive metal strips together with a slight puff of smoke. "Oh, yes he will…And when you wake up, you'll be a part of the family." Serges grinned even broader as he mouthed that last word again.
"Yes, Zero…When I'm done with you, you'll be with us. Your new family."
"Zero…a Maverick." Serges liked the sound of that. "And who knows? Perhaps we might find an opportunity sometime in all of this to give you a field test." Serges paused his soldering and looked at the unblinking dead gaze of Zero, a body with no spark of life.
"Oh, how surprised X will be to see you alive." Serges laughed low in his belly, beginning to solder Zero's arm circuits again.
"I just hope he remembers to say his prayers before you blow his head off."