Mega Man X: Island Of Awakening

by Erico

Six Months After The First Uprising, new events transpire in a place called Paradise...a place that will serve as The Island Of Awakening...

6. Pheonix In The Desert

MEGA MAN X: ISLAND OF AWAKENING

By Erico

CHAPTER FOUR: PHOENIX IN THE DESERT

"The Maverick Base is on full alert, X." Gearloose said placatingly as they ran through the MHHQ's many hallways. X merely nodded his head, not completely focused. Somehow he wished all of this…just wasn't real. It meant he would have to lead Hunters to destroy more reploids.

"Point being, Gearloose?" X replied raggedly. The green and brown armored Hunter scratched a helmet wing and shrugged.

"Well, it means that we won't be able to just warp in there…more than likely, they'll have an EM shield up. And going on foot'll be suicide, if they gave that place automated gun emplacements."

"I assume you have a solution."

"Cain mentioned we should take the Landchasers. But there's something on those cycles they don't usually mention to people, because they're afraid that they'll be reckless with them."

"Oh?" X said, raising his eyebrow a bit. The Landchasers were GDC designed and manufactured, and seeing as they were weapons, he'd never read up fully on them. "How would it help?" Gearloose shrugged.

"If our cycles get under heavy fire…knock on wood, I'll bet…what we can do is push these babies BEYOND normal operating capacity and add a few extra ergs of thrust."

"Increase the speed beyond safeties?" X said, his voice slightly rising. Gearloose nodded.

"Yup, that's the ticket all right!" X shook his head.

"It's crazy. Isn't there a possibility that they'll go critical and explode?" Gearloose shrugged, his eyes dimming out.

"About as much of a possibility that we'll get blown to atoms by the Mavericks if we go in slow." X shook his head again.

"Either way…means death. There's no way to win, is there?" Gearloose laughed bitterly.

"The life of a Hunter is often short and filled with woe…but God, is it a ride." X found that Gearlooses' words were correct, and his viewpoint one that even X shared.

Finally, they stood outside of the door to the main hangar bay, looking at it with nervous anticipation. X stepped forth and pushed it open.

The other Hunters were already there, moving about and picking their Landchaser cycles for the mission ahead. X looked at them. A few he knew…just by name.

Not one of the Hunters here did he know on even the level of a new friend. They were all just workers…workers in a massive conglomeration of troops.

X stepped forth and gingerly sat on the padded seat of his own cycle, feeling the controls for the first time. It felt odd…yet at the same time, ergodynamic and efficient. This craft had been designed well.

The engine was already turned on, and the repulsors underneath X kept the Landchaser in the air. He looked about himself, noting that all the other Hunters had ceased their conversations and were now watching him with a look that demanded leadership.

They were looking to him…the most senior of the Hunters…for their orders. X fought the sickening swell in his stomach for a moment from his reaction, then wondered how a reploid, a being of metal and silicon could ever get queasy.

Then again…he was designed to be a robotic human. Perhaps the reploids on earth did not have this response…but X was the prototype of the reploids. Neither robot nor reploid, a twisted halfbreed amalgamation. Light had built him like this…built him for a reason.

"To create peace…or to create a race that brings with it destruction…" X mused bitterly.

"Commander X, sir?" one of the Hunters asked calmly. X looked up from his moody view of the Landchaser's handlebars and stared up at the fresh face.

"Yes, Mannok?" The indigo and magenta colored reploid shifted in his bike seat and stared at him again.

"Just where should we put down exactly from the base?" X thought for a moment, then hit his own cycle's datapadd.

Accessing a GPS connection, he brought up the Maverick Base's coordinates and cross-referenced them with the surrounding terrain. Flat, sandy dunes in every direction.

"Galldarnit…there's no tactical advantage to this situation in the least…" X said wearily. Finally, he punched in a different set of coordinates and relayed the information to every other operational Landchaser in the hangar bay. The other Hunters looked down for a moment and replied their affirmatives to X's Landchaser computer.

X blinked his eyes wearily and throttled the engine up higher, activating the Landchaser's comm system.

"This is Commander X to all Hunters on this mission. When we go in, we'll be expected, we'll have no cover, and we'll more than likely be outgunned. But if we don't do this, then the Mavericks will still have a chance to live…and our sacrifices will be all for nothing."

X's words were solemn, and carried throughout the bay with a dismal ring. Even the mechanics and technicians who maintained the craft used by the Hunters paused and bowed their heads, absorbing the sound.

"As much as some of you may hate it, and as much of you are eager in anticipation, we'll all be facing the same FUBAR tonight. And if luck is with us…we'll come out of it alive." X shook his head and blinked his eyes, activating his warp generator. He interlinked his signature with the cycle's and let his generator calculate the power drain to transport both to the required coordinates.

But X had enough sense to look over to the doorway that led to the rest of the HQ. Standing there with a look of worry and a brooding stare was Cain, leaning slightly on his walking stick.

Cain raised his hand in a flat palmed gesture and motioned to X. Then he mouthed his words over the Landchaser's assorted whines.

Be careful, X. Come back alive…

X nodded his head, but didn't send back a reply. He knew that Cain knew what he was thinking.

Doc…Alive is just a state of mind. Inside, I'm already dead.

X shut his eyes, and at long last the void above the skies of Tokyo absorbed him…

One warp signature among many…

Destined for a place of death.

Their target was codenamed Paradise. The time for implementation…

Thirty seconds from now. Agile shifted his nervous eyes one more time and dropped his gaze down to his wrist. A part of the armor slid back to reveal an LCD screen, capable of displaying everything from system stats to GPS coordinates…and of course, the ever accomplished watch.

He cursed at the slowness of the clock and lifted his eyes again. Up at the front of the hovercraft he was in sat Violen, calmly ignoring the distractions behind him and driving the massive machine across the swollen waves of the Pacific. His control over the craft was so focused, Agile had yet to feel a bump from being smashed about over the salty waters.

Their distance to Paradise…Cornus Island…was now five miles.

Which, for Agile was five miles too many.

"Can this thing go any faster?!" Agile finally yowled. Violen didn't turn about to answer, but he did lift one hand from the wheel and begrudgingly give his counterpart the finger.

Agile sighed and tried to calm his racing mind…a task he found particularly difficult, being one of the jumpiest reploids ever constructed. A glitch in his self control circuits had never been fixed, buried too deep to be corrected without permanently deleting his very essence…without wiping him blank.

So he tried to focus on their goal at hand. Cornus Island was so close now…so damn close.

Those fools at the GDC would have never expected this. And they couldn't even detect them.

Agile grinned and thought back. It was a stroke of genius to have one of their Maverick Generals infiltrate the island. He worked as a janitor for the Island's most vital areas, which gave him full access. Surreptitiously, over the course of three months now, Magna Centipede had been supplying data on the island to the Mavericks, everything from scanning frequencies to the numbers of human and reploid workers…and eight major points of interest which would become the Maverick focal points and strongholds on the island once it was claimed.

As a matter of fact, Magna Centipede was at this very moment cleaning out the trash cans and sweeping the floor of the Central Computer facility located in the middle of the island. At least, that was his official guise to the GDC. Magna Centipede, with his surprising ability to warp dash from point to point about a room was able to look busy at work for the security cameras, yet all the time be tapping in commands to the computer console responsible for watching the skies and waves about Cornus.

It was this, and a cloaking device Serges had prepared for their hovercraft a few weeks ago that kept the Maverick's approach a secret.

Agile grinned his toothy grin.

Oh, things were moving so perfectly. And because he was evil…Because he was Maverick…

Agile knew that Mister Murphy, the indomitable spirit of screwups and clusterfracks wouldn't show up.

He looked about his hovercraft, noting Violen's presence up at the front again. Sitting behind him was a few generals, and the scout Mavericks under their command.

Overdrive Ostrich…Crystal Snail…Flame Stag and Bubble Crab.

In a second hovercraft close behind and to the left of Agile's resided the second attack group. In that one resided Morph Moth, Wheel Gator and Wire Sponge.

And on his right sped the workboat that belonged to Serges. He also was partaking of this initial assault on Cornus, for his boat held powerful plasma cannons that could disable the outer defenses…and the long range missiles he was packing would come in handy for bombarding inner island gun emplacements.

Agile's wristcomm suddenly began beeping with a deedle-deedle that signified a priority one message.

His eyes shifted back to his current time and he smiled a small toothy grin. Clenching his other fist up, he raised his wristcomm to his mouth and activated it.

"Agile here. That you, Magna?"

"General Magnus here. Five seconds to initial strike."

"Best of luck to you, Magnus." Agile replied easily, his voice barely contained by the excitement he was feeling. He picked up Magna Centipede's double click response, and then the line went dead.

Agile activated his comm's broad transmitter. This would let him reach every Maverick within five miles…exactly the right distance.

"Mavericks, this is Agile. OPEN FIRE!"

The desert sands blew about lazily in the calm night winds, as the clear blue sky above let stars twinkle down with a brightness that would be unimaginable by the city lights.

It was a place of serenity, a place of infinite peace, a place where time stood still and all just revelled in the joy of watching the silence enfold them.

But all moments must end…dreams fade away and leave people with sleep laden eyes awaken to the reality, however grim it is.

And the silence was cut down in that moment as a grouping of fifteen Landchaser class Hovercycles spouted angry flames behind them and burned across the sandy dunes.

Each pair of eyes that resided on the cycles was focused intensely on the goal, a goal that was growing closer and closer now. The lights of the supposedly abandoned reploid construction facility stood out in the darkness, and as they grew closer, they could see that the sand had swept over what had to once be a concrete roadway. There was a series of overhead street lights that led all the way to the facility, clearly indicating where it had once stood.

Mega Man X narrowed his gaze and examined the pathway. He looked up ahead as far as his ultrasensitive optics could carry and could just barely make out what seemed to be some sort of entryway to the facility at the end of the roadway…a perfect entrance. It was probably a loading dock before.

He tapped his Landchaser's comm and interlinked with Gearloose's, who was a few feet behind him and a lot to the left. The green and brown Hunter had been right about increasing the speed of the hovercycles, and by popping the front end of the craft up into a wheelie, he had been able to redirect the thrust and increase it, pushing him forth fast and farther. A few of the other Hunters on this trek were repeating Gearloose's example, although some were fumbling to keep the wheelie going for much longer than a few seconds.

"Gearloose?" The green and brown Hunter blinked a few times at his distance from X, then punched in his own transmitter activation.

"That you bossman?"

"Yeah. I have a question, Gearloose."

"Shoot…" Gearloose chuckled a bit. "Go ahead and ask, I mean."

"You see those street lights close by?"

"The ones that supposedly lead up to an entrance for this sucker? Hard to miss."

"I assume you know what I'm going to suggest."

"Yep. Want me to relay the command to the others?" X thought for a long moment, then shrugged.

"Only send seven Hunters up there for now. Keep the others in a standby position back here."

"I'm on it, boss." Gearloose said with finality. He ended the two way comm and punched up his unitwide transponder, activating the receivers on every Landchaser cycle about him.

"This is Gearloose! All Hunters, Commander X has given the goahead. Seven of you are going to follow the buried roadway between the street lights there and try to break into the base through that loading dock entrance. The rest of us will wait back here for the second wave."

The responses came fast and furious, the rashest of the group volunteering immediately. As Gearloose, X, and the remaining others waited in a stationary position at the edge of the abandoned roadway, the seven volunteers sped ahead, setting their comms to unitwide transmission.

"All right Hunters, let's LIGHT EM UP!"

"Yee HAW!" One eager Hunter fired off a shot of plasma from the nose cannon in the Landchaser, which sent the rest of them into a frenzy of speeding and firing.

Of course, in their rash haste, they forgot to keep their eyes peeled for danger…

Which meant they never saw the laser cannons emerge from their stationary positions about the perimeter of the base, one mile out from the facility.

But they did see the bright flashes of light emerge from the darkness.

And it was only when the Landchaser and the Hunter on it at the very front of the first assault exploded, shredded apart by a multitude of dead on autoturrets that they realized what trouble they were in.

"Gods, NO! DISPERSE!!!" Came the cry of one shocked Hunter as he began to turn his Landchaser about.

A laser blast struck dead on in his chest, piercing all the way through the armor and into his internal microfusion generator. The containment field penetrated, the fusion reaction went out of control and swallowed both him and his Landchaser in a glorious white hot explosion of energy twenty feet thick.

That explosion carried out and chewed off the back ends of two more Landchaser riding Hunters, sending their vehicles grinding into the sand dunes and hurling them clear. They at least survived, being flung from their cycles before more laserfire blew the machines to shreds.

And the stationary Hunters waiting behind watched open mouthed and horrified as their comrades were torn to atoms.

"HELP! HELP, THEY'VE GOT US…" One Hunter's final transmission was cut short by another distant explosion.

X's bluish green eyes widened in fear as he saw the carnage unfold, his mouth lowering into a gasp.

"Oh no…" He whispered in a low trembling tone.

It was happening…again…

Reploids, dying in white hot fury…because of him…

His fault…

Zero…Ahead of him in the night, standing in front of the explosions of the Landchasers suddenly emerged a ghostly figure, his arm blown off and bleeding, his helmet chewed up, his legs lying uselessly behind the crawling figure.

X's eyes went dim as he lost focus…became lost, only seeing Zero.

Zero, reaching out with eyes that spoke of unimaginable pain.

X!!!

Why, X?! Why do you always let your allies DIE?!

XX!!!!!

"X!" shouted Gearloose loudly. X snapped out of his trance with a cry of surprise as a strong arm gripped his own. He looked over to see Gearloose with a frantic and extremely angered stare gazing at him.

"X! Goddamnit, THIS IS NO TIME TO BE FREEZING UP ON US!" Gearloose shouted.

X brought his jaw back up to the rest of his face and shook his head.

"I'm…I'm…"

"Sorry, I know." Gearloose replied tersely. "Come on." Gearloose turned to the other Hunters, waiting with jittery nerves for orders.

"You all wait here for two minutes. X and I are going to shoot on ahead and save the others…then I want you all to come charging in, full speed, guns blazing, twisting in every possible jink you can come up with. I want you to SLAG this place. Are we clear on that?"

"YESSIR!" Came the reply. Gearloose shook his head, suddenly looking more tired than X had ever seen him before.

"God Help us, X." Gearloose punched up his engine controls and gave his cycle full throttle. In a burst of speed, he shot ahead.

X also hit the gas, burning the sand into hot melted glass as he went. He blinked his eyes a few times, then shook his head.

The gigantic ghost of Zero was gone.

An illusion…a hallucination…

Or a guilt ridden memory that was haunting him? X's eyes teared up a bit as he thought about it.

He had let Zero down.

He had let those dead Hunters down…he'd sent them off to die…

A failure. X was no Hunter.

"I'm not supposed to be here…" X whispered raggedly. "Saints above…I'm no Hero…" And he remembered his quote. 'There are no heroes…only mourners.'

"I'm just an imposter who comes with skills Zero taught me…" X whispered quietly.

"Just an abandoned child with Hallowed Crimson Memories."

The forces on Cornus had been caught off totally unawares of the evil scheme. Their first warning of trouble had been the loud concussion reports and the billowing smoke and fire pouring from the island's outer gun emplacements.

"What the--!" Bellowed a human suddenly. Tumbling out of his bed and brushing back his bedraggled brown hair, he quickly slipped on his uniform and plowed out of his room.

The hydraulic doors hissed apart in front of him and the human, Commander Gerald Naismith found himself once more in the gigantic bridge of the GDC's prize and joy, the hulking Dino Tank.

The night shift was still on duty, although the sun was beginning to rise in the early morning hours.

"Report, Mister Lablange!" barked Naismith. The narrow eyed Frenchman looked up from his monitor, his face clearly displaying the shock he was feeling.

"Cornus Island is under attack…"

"Who, Damnit?! Where?!" Lablange gritted his teeth and shook his head vigorously.

"I don't know, sir! My scanners are showing NOTHING unusual within twenty miles from here…" Naismith rubbed his chin before shaking his head.

"Run a diagnostic, Mister Lablange." He turned to the others aboard, Fandam of Greece, Smythe of England, and the plucky reploid weapons operator aboard the bridge, Damien. "Fandam, put us in contact with GDC HQ. Smythe, get me the Central Computer facility. Maybe they can identify the attackers. Damien, put us on RED ALERT!"

Naismith waited patiently after his orders had been delivered and sat down in his command chair. Something about this particular incident had him chilled…chilled to the bone. And then the replies came in.

Lablange spoke first, shaking his head. "Diagnostic readout's in the green, Commander. It's like whoever's out there blowing up our defense grid…isn't there…"

"Commander, I can't reach GDC HQ…All I'm getting is static!" Fandam said in disbelief. "I don't understand…we don't have any sunspots swirling around in the Magnetosphere…" Damien cursed at his controls and backhanded the targeting toggle in front of him, drawing Naismith's eyes.

"Damien, what's wrong?" Naismith asked, his voice beginning to betray the worry he was feeling. Damien turned up and glared, shaking his head.

"It don't make no freakin sense, boss…I'm COMPLETELY locked out from the Dino Tank's systems. I can't even CLOAK…Much less fire our guns." Naismith let out a large groan and drew a hand across his face.

"This is crazy…Just too crazy…"

"Err…Commander?" Smythe said suddenly, looking up at his leader in surprise. He lifted his headphone and lipmike free from his face, blinking a few times to clear the stunned look off of his face. "Beggin' your pardon sah, but…The Central Computer Facility's contacting US…" Naismith sighed in relief.

At least THEY were still able to be hailed.

"Onscreen, Mister Smythe." The huge monitor in front of them switched from the external front view cameras to fuzzy static, then a slightly unclear transmission, which then cleaned itself up.

Staring back at them was a purplish, insect-like reploid with wide eyes and mandibles astraddle its mouth.

"This is Magnus. Dino Tank, are you reading me?" Naismith blinked in surprise, then keyed in his microphone.

"Magnus, this is Commander Naismith aboard the GDC Dino Tank. We're picking up explosions and the loss of outer Cornus gun emplacements…can you verify?" Magnus's eyes narrowed, and his voice dropped.

"Yeah…I can verify. I'm picking it up here." Magnus looked down for a second, and Naismith and his bridge crew could pick up the sound of the reploid typing something on the console's keyboard. Damien looked up and blinked a few times.

"Magnus? I know you…Hey, you're just a Janitor!" Damien frowned. "How do you know to contact us?" Magnus looked up and blinked, then grinned.

"Hey, a reploid isn't stupid just because people say we are. I've picked up a few tricks along my way." Naismith waved his hand in the air.

"Whatever, Magnus. Listen, we have a problem. Our scanners show that Cornus is not under attack…we can't detect any incoming unfriendlies. Are you picking up a different reading there?" Magnus chuckled a bit and typed in a few more keys.

"Oh, I'd say so. Hold on, I'll route my data to your processors on my signal uplink."

The image went fuzzy for a moment, and then Damien's console lit up with a new radar image. The reploid's eyes went wide as he examined the data.

"SHEEIT! Two hovercrafts and one heavy attack boat…" Naismith's eyes went wide, and he pounded a fist into an open hand.

"I knew it! Magnus, thanks for the data. But we're a little dead in the water here…We need you to get a signal out to the GDC HQ. Tell them we're under attack!"

Magnus seemed to ponder over the idea for a moment, then shook his head.

"Not possible, Commander. I assume your own communications equipment's out on the blink?" Naismith nodded, his heart falling.

"Yours is too?" Magnus chuckled a bit and grinned.

"Oh, not exactly. It just won't be possible to send out long range transmissions for now. You see, there's an EM bubble surrounding the island that won't let any radio or any other kind of signal out." Naismith blinked in surprise.

"How do you know that?!" Magnus laughed loudly for a moment, then suddenly stopped and glared at the screen with a menacing gaze that froze Naismith's veins to ice.

"Quite simple. I MADE IT."

Damien broke the uneasy silence that followed with a quick report.

"Commander, the Hovercraft have moved past the outer Ring…ONE'S COMING OUR WAY!" Naismith's hands turned a pale shade of white as he gripped onto his armrest more firmly.

"Magnus…" He growled, still scared by the reploid's admission. "What are you saying?" Magnus growled right back.

"I'd prefer it if you used my TRUE NAME from now on. You can call me Magna Centipede. And you want to know what's coming your way, my soon to be dead human friend?" Magna maneuvered his face closer to the camera so Naismith could hear his exhalations. "Those are MAVERICKS. The real deal. The final followers of Sigma." Magna stepped back and grinned a sick grin.

"Oh my yes, indeed. Cornus Island is a fine plum, a ripe fruit meant to be plucked by a starving group…that would be us. Of course, the current resident are going to have to be…let us say…forcibly evicted." Magna chuckled a low laugh that curdled the blood of every human in the room, and even frightened Damien.

"In laymen's terms, that means we'll have to kill you off. There are enough reploids here to join our cause. Those who won't, we'll destroy. This is Magna Centipede, and in the name of our late Lord Sigma, I claim Cornus Island for the Mavericks." Magna Centipede raised one of his many arms up and waved at the screen before laughing again.

"I hope you all had the time to fill out your wills recently…the incoming bunch is not that friendly. How do I know this? Well…I trained with them. And let's just say, what I would do is a small tremor. He brings on the 9 point Earthquake. Just think about that…while you're being ripped to shreds." Magna Centipede laughed hollowly, a bitter laugh of pure hatred that echoed about the room.

And then he cut his transmission off.

Naismith turned to his bridge crew on the Dino Tank, and even though he tried to hide his own intense fear, he could see it all too clearly on their faces.

They were afraid…as they should be.

They had been caught totally off guard. Infiltrated by the Mavericks…probably months ago…

This attack had been planned out to the smallest detail…

And it meant their deaths.

That was when Damien turned back to his monitor and sighed in defeat.

"Commander, the Maverick Hovercraft docked with the Dino Tank thirty seconds ago. If they've gained total control over our systems…"

"I know, Damien. I know." Naismith replied softly. He stood up to face them all and shook his head. "We will die here…that's a given. But…" Naismith's tired eyes suddenly lit with a burning fire, a hatred of the Mavericks.

"We do need to make an effort to get a distress call out…to the Hunters." Surprised looks addressed his words, and Naismith nodded.

"You heard me. The Hunters. The GDC can't help us now…only the Hunters have the firepower, mobility, and skills necessary to face these monsters. Damien…I leave this mission to you." Damien blinked in surprise.

"Huh? Why me, sir?" Naismith stared at the reploid with a grim look of determination and trust.

"The rest of us are human…we die much easier. If anyone can escape, it's you. I need you to get outside this damned EM bubble that traitor Magnus has erected over Cornus and get the message out. Besides…those are Mavericks out there, and no one pilots a Landchaser cycle like you can." Damien took in a deep breath and looked into Naismith's eyes.

"Lemme get this straight. You want me to escape from the Dino Tank, avoid the Maverick forces, pilot my way out to the open sea, and try to find some way to power up my comm signal enough to reach the MHHQ?" Damien sighed. "Commander, those are narrow odds." Naismith nodded wearily.

"It's better than staying here. You do that, you'll be killed." Damien looked about himself at all the humans watching him with quiet looks.

They had all accepted their fate…how they would die at the hands of a corrupt reploid today. Yet, they were willing to let him go, to pursue his own freedom…and to get the message out so that this horrible day would not to unnoticed.

Damien finally nodded his head.

"All right. But I can't get down to the Hangar Bay…That place has to be crawling with Mavericks…" Damien shook his head. "That's damn near suicide." Naismith pointed his finger up to the ceiling.

"Take the upper escape hatch. I stored my Landchaser there just in case. You should be able to use that." Damien walked up to the command chair that Naismith was sitting in. He stood there for a long moment, then extended his hand.

Naismith took it and the two shook hands for a long, long moment.

"Commander, it's been a pleasure serving under you." Naismith nodded his head, not bothering to stop the tears that were coming to his eyes.

"Now go. Do it for the world. Tell them…tell them we died with honor."

Damien quickly turned about from the bridge and jumped up, punching his way through the ceiling grate and climbing his way up the long metallic shaft. This would take him to the air system…from there, a simple matter to burn his way to the outer Hull's scaffolding and find the upper escape hatch.

He had to do it.

For them…for those that would die…that had died…today.

Naismith turned away from the open ceiling air shaft and faced the doorway behind him that led to the Dino Tank's elevator.

A small plinking sound indicated that someone was coming up the shaft…and that they were only seconds away.

The elevator finally blinked green as the elevator car came to a rest.

The metallic doors were sliced open with a horrific grinding sound…a pair of buzzsaws that sprouted from the doorway with sparks flying in every direction from the blistering slicers.

The doorway crashed in with a final horrific groan, and then the figure in the shaft walked in.

Plodded was a more correct term. He stood slightly hunched over, his short arms ending in metallic claws that dripped with torn wiring and fluid…more than likely, the blood of the humans belowdecks. A wide toothy snout stuck out unnaturally, dripping with more of the same fluid…

Naismith cringed as he saw torn fabric from a GDC worker's shirt stuck in the Maverick's jaw. That fluid was human blood after all.

"You resemble an alligator." Naismith ventured staunchly, trying to deaden his senses to the carnage he knew would follow. The Maverick chuckled low in his throat and spit out the shirt shred from his mouth. Then he twisted his head slightly to the right and blinked once.

"And you, dear human…you look like lunch."

Gearloose and X sped along the desert dunes as fast as their Landchasers could go, speeding ahead in a mad dash to reach the other Hunters in danger. Along the way, they fired off blast after blast from their nose cannons, aiming them at the closest automated cannons. The once buried turrets exploded in white hot fury, yet all the while those still left continued to pour down heavy fire.

Both X and Gearloose were darting about between the predictable blast patterns as best they could, knocking out the turrets and all the while getting closer and closer to the Hunters that were pinned down and without transport.

"Crimineys!" Gearloose muttered under his breath, jumping his cycle in the air for a short hop to avoid a low ground skimming laserburst. X looked over and grimaced, spotting a Hunter.

"Behind, fifty feet, my left. I see one, Gearloose. He'll be cool for now…but if we don't take out those turrets, none of us will survive." Gearloose took a broad visual sweep of the Maverick base and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

"We don't need to knock them all out…If we can peg out just the cannons along this one path, we can open up a direct shot at that Loading Dock entrance. Once we get there…it's a straight shot into blowing this place sky high."

X examined the options he saw…Gearloose's plan was the accurate one. And considering how this place HAD to be taken down…it was the only one.

"We've got two Landchasers, one very nasty array of guns…and me and you." X said. "And with those narrow odds…it's the best we can do."

Gearloose and X swung their cycles about, turning them on a direct line for the buried roadway. As they flew underneath the street lights above, X fired off another blast…

Another turret was shattered into sparks. X patched in a comm signal to the stationary Hunters behind them.

"This is Commander X! All remaining Hunters, move in and target the laser turrets able to fire on the buried highway! Once you have that done, retrieve the fallen Hunters and fall back…With any luck, you won't have to make your own assault."

"Gearloose…with me." X said with a note of finality. "And keep your gun blazing…you'll have to fire enough shots for the both of us." Gearloose sighed.

"Still not willing to pull the trigger, eh X?" X shook his head.

"I've fired off enough tonight…I just want to get home alive." Gearloose and X hit a higher boost of speed from their cycles and pushed on ahead. Weaving and dodging around the shots, Gearloose looked back to X.

"So why is it that the sole surviving Hunter from the First Uprising can't even use his weapon?" Gearloose prodded, hoping to keep X from drifting off into his own world. X didn't look over to Gearloose, but did address the question.

"Because I've killed too many already. Boomer…Flame…Sigma…they all died by my hands, Gearloose. But who I became…was not me. It was a soulless, uncaring killer." Gearloose blinked, shaking his head.

"I don't think so, X."

"Oh? You know who I am? You know me?" X retorted angrily. "Do you think you can reach into my skull and see who I really am?" Gearloose ducked a low blast, then cursed as a laserburst scorched along the outer armor and melted rivulets of metal away.

"X, it doesn't take a rocket scientist. I've seen the old newsreel footage of you from before the Uprising. You were just a timid prototype in a world that your very presence had altered for all time. You knew why the Hunters were there, yet you hated them all the same. You were a pacifist who held the capability for destruction…but never used it." Gearloose pushed his cycle into a jump and avoided a low skimming blast, then fired off his own shot along the same track as the laserburst.

"And do you know what triggered your evolution, X? The death of Cancer."

X's grip on his bike tightened as much as his jaw.

"What about Cancer?" X replied tersely. But his voice was slightly subdued, and Gearloose knew he had hit the right nerve.

"Because Cancer died, something was triggered. I don't know what he said to you in those final moments…and it's not my place to know…but he did say something, something that changed your perception. You became a Hunter to avenge him. It was a factor of hot blooded revenge that pushed you into being a Hunter. On that same evening, you almost ended the Maverick Uprising then and there…save for Vile." X's eyes kept facing forward, and he saw another blast coming. He jumped that one as well.

"He was just one of many who died on that day. Why should my reaction to his death be any different than the others who perished?" Gearloose growled into his comm.

"Because he was the first reploid. Because you were close to him. You were like BROTHERS. And now you're just guilty again. Guilty because you think you're a murderer." Gearloose shook his head and weaved his bike left, avoiding another burst of laserfire.

"Murderers kill just to kill, X. the lives you take are ones that have already taken blood of their own. They're the murderers. What you are X, is the lawmen with the big Six Shooter. You stop them…before they can take the lives of more innocents. No one likes doing their job, X. No one. No one likes to think about what they're doing. But we gotta, X. For the generations that follow…We gotta…" Gearloose shook his head.

"X, don't you see?! You have it in you. You can become the Hunter again. Because as you are right now, you're not helping much." X shook his head, blinking fresh tears from his eyes.

"I didn't ask for this, Gearloose. I never asked to be a Hunter." X said finally. "If I wasn't so concerned about saving the others, I'd ship up for home right now."

Gearloose shook his head, sighing in defeat.

"X, you don't have to agree with me. But I'll bet that if another Hunter died here tonight, you'd snap…and you'd become the Hunter that you're famous for."

The laserfire seemed to intensify at that moment, stopping the conversation short.

The miles ticked down more and more…

X yelped and leaned his body closer to the cycle, trying to flatten himself and make less of a target for the laser turrets. Still, dodging the blasts was no easy matter.

"X, they've got a JUGGERNAUT guarding the doorway!" Gearloose yowled in shock. "Damn…new model, too. Keep on your toes with the approa…"

That was when a lucky shot connected with Gearloose's cycle in mid-wheelie. X's head swiveled around in surprise, and he saw the Landchaser begin to flash a hot white…a hot white that made it all too clear the thing was going to explode.

"Gearloose, GET OFF! IT'S GONNA BLOW!" Shouted X in a tone of urgency. And then time seemed to slow down immensely for him…

Noo…Not Gearloose…not him…

Gearloose blinked once in silent acknowledgement of his fate and lowered his head for a minute.

"I'm sorry, X…There ain't no getting off this train to Clarkesville…" Gearloose began to cough a bit from the smoke, a cough that grew louder…and changed.

X watched in stupefied horror as Maverick Hunter Gearloose threw his head back and let out a long laugh of manic craziness. And then he threw an arm forth and pointed at the Desert Facility…so close…

"In the words of my generation, Mavericks….UP YOOOOUURRRSSS!!!"

And then the Landchaser blew.

White hot fusion fury exploded outwards in a five foot wide diameter ball of vaporizing fury. All that was the Landchaser…and all that was Gearloose was incinerated to dust within the hot gas ball.

"GEARLOOSE!" X cried out, reaching an arm to try and grasp the Hunter…

But it was too late.

And then the explosion ceased to be, as quick as it had begun, silenced once more.

And then the horrific realizations crashed down on X, as swift as they had before…so very long ago.

Another one passes away…because I was not there to save them…

Cancer…

Zero…

Gearloose…

I…I am not a fighter…I'm not a hero…I'm not a warrior…

I…I…I tried…

Not my fault… It's not my fault…

"It's my fault…" X whispered in a groan.

Thought you could be a Hunter by playing only half the game…

You're no Hunter…

Hunters save the lives of their friends…

Hunters fight off the Mavericks…

The Mavericks…

The enemy…

They killed Cancer…

They destroyed Zero…

They still have Zero…

And they just blew Gearloose to atoms…

Someone must stop them…

They can't go on…

They can't be allowed to force more to die…

Damn them…

DAMN THEM ALL…

The Hunters…

The Hunters will stop them…

I am a Hunter…

I WILL DESTROY THEM.

"I'LL KILL YOU MONSTERS!" X finally screamed, a long loud scream that echoed about the desert. His eyes were full of tears, but the wind kept blowing them free from his optics. His hands clenched tighter on the handlegrips of the Landchaser and his mouth clamped into an expression of pure rage.

It didn't matter about his own personal beliefs, his own personal suffering…

X's demons could go to Hell. As long as those Mavericks still existed…More would die.

He could not let that happen. He had swore so long ago to Cancer…He had promised his dying friend that his death would not repeat in others.

X had promised to stop the Mavericks before more lives would be taken.

And now…he had to keep it.

"Gearloose…By Damn, you were right." X choked out angrily, his hot tears being flushed away by the wind. He kicked his cycle into high gear and spun the craft into a wheelie.

The increase in speed pushed him beyond the performance envelope for the Landchaser…no laser turret could track fast enough to land a shot.

X positioned his course right smack towards the Loading dock doorway…and the towering green Juggernaut guarding it.

He released a feral scream, a scream borne out of his own suffering, the suffering of all those under the Mavericks…and the power of Zero and Cancer and Gearloose that they all had instilled in him.

He was Mega Man X.

He was the greatest Hunter.

And tonight, this base was going to be blasted to atoms, whether the Mavericks liked it or not.

And as X's left hand tightened up even more, his optic feedback loop routed a query to the corner of his eye.

Do you wish to Arm the X-Buster?

At long last, the Blue Bomber of the 22^nd Century knew the answer.

"YES!" Almost instantly, his hand vanished as it was swallowed by a bulbous blue oval at the end of his arm, ending a little shorter than his regular length arm.

The Mark 17 X-Buster. Capable of Level 3 Charge, incredible durability…and a permanent part of X's design.

X let a long laugh emanate from his mouth and echo about the desert.

It carried back to the Hunters, even through the torrential maelstrom of laserfire.

It was not X's laugh.

It was Gearloose's.

The Dino Tank was stationed three miles inland when the Mavericks attacked. Thanks to the actions of that traitor Magnus…no, that MAVERICK Magna Centipede…Cornus Island's defense grid had been caught completely unawares.

And now the Dino Tank was in the hands of the Mavericks. Only Damien had escaped the horrific maw of death that now hung over the greenish juggernaut's hull like an oppressive fog bank.

He shot down the back of the Dino Tank on his probably deceased Commander's Landchaser cycle with as much speed as the Cycle could grant him. He'd even disabled the safeties to boost his speed, yet still the same Damien was cursing the cycle.

"I need more power…need more!!" Damien growled under his breath. Any second now, the Mavericks would gain control of the Dino Tank's self defense grid, and…

Then the laser turrets suddenly came online, their hydraulics moaning as they swiveled about to bear the menacing turrets onto Damien and the Landchaser he rode on. Damien gritted his teeth and cursed, snapping the cycle into a high G escape turn that sent him spiraling through the air and away from the Tank…away from the Mavericks.

His mind didn't freeze up, he wasn't paralyzed with fear, his reploid heart didn't start pounding a hundred beats a minute…Damien didn't have time to do any of that. HE would worry about being killed later.

Survival was his only perogative. And even that came second string to getting the message out…that Cornus Island had been taken over by the Mavericks.

He pulled out of his gut wrenching barrel roll and slammed the repulsors downwards with an extra burst of power, making sure that when he collided with the ground, it was a soft landing, and not one that would damage his Landchaser.

There would be enough damage taken on his getaway, Damien figured. That assumption became all too true when laser blasts and high intensity plasma cannons began to unleash their savage fury behind him, in front of him, and all about.

A laser bolt with a bit more luck than the others found itself slicing clean through his arm. Damien let out a small sharp cry of pain, then gritted his teeth and kicked his Landchaser forward with even more speed, weaving in and out of the firestorm raining down with skill borne partially out of his experience with the cycle, and the rest it coming from his desperation and will to survive.

"Damn…damn those Mavericks!" Damien cursed loudly, relieved at last to vanish out of sight of the Dino Tank's guns and take his cycle into the dense foliage of Cornus Island's jungles. He knew where he was going. The sea.

Two miles.

Damien's trip had been eerily silent for the last mile, and it was beginning to worry him. He reached down and tapped on his Landchaser's scanners, the front end of his Cycle radiating powerful electromagnetic waves that flew about the air in an attempt to seek out unfriendlies.

And then his small LCD screen activated with a calm greenish glow, showing Gearloose a 3-Dimensional view of his surroundings…

There were airborne blips coming down from above.

Fifteen of them. And from the data…Damien cursed, shaking his head.

"I knew it wouldn't be easy…" Damien said wearily. The Dino Tank, albeit immobile for the time being, had had no problems unleashing several robotic flight drones. Suicide bombers, designed to bore into their targets before exploding a small internal charge and scattering horrific shrapnel, destroying, annihilating…Damien wondered what had even possessed the GDC to make that specific robotic device. But as the weapons operator for the Dino Tank, Damien had used that…and more devious tactics in training.

"At least I know how those things fly." Damien glowered. If those Mavericks thought they were going to snuff out the only spark capable of blowing their grand scheme, they had another thing coming. He knew their strengths, their weaknesses, and what situations they failed at.

And he also knew that with fifteen of them, and one of him, and he was still way too far from Magna Centipede's EM signal barrier…

One and a half miles.

The all too familiar whine of the bomber drones came into Damien's audio receptors, and he bared his teeth, tilting his head a bit to get a better view of above. But he didn't need visual confirmation.

The scanner of his Landchaser told him everything he needed to know.

And then the thick foliage above began to rustle, and a group of five dropped through, their thrusters charring branches and leaves in their wake. Damien gripped the handlegrips of his Landchaser tightly, then released his right hand and clenched it into a fist.

Mentally confirming his decision, Damien blinked as he felt the familiar twinge as his hand slipped back into his arm and brought his Buster out to bear. A Mark 17, but Damien had made some slight alterations so the supershot left a fizzling trail of plasma in its wake that could strike foes stupid enough to think the main charge was easily avoided.

"All right, you flying bombs…come to papa!" Damien cried out. He looked down at his LCD scans and saw them coming from behind in tight formation. Without turning around, he contorted his arm completely about and straightened the joint, then unleashed the semi charged green burst, and then several smaller blasts. He gritted his teeth, then began to charge up his Buster all the way. Those flying suicide drones were getting closer…somehow his cycle wasn't going as fast as it could.

But he nodded his head and grinned in small relief as he saw his scanner paste the results of his shooting session.

Two of the five had been blown to pieces. One had decided within its limited robotic brain to head back up with the other 10 and await further instructions, and the other two had been hit with the shots enough to lose flight controls and smash into the trees close by.

Damien knew these forests like the back of his hand, and as he deftly flew about the trees, he thanked whatever deity existed for giving him a fighting chance.

But there were still more there, and he only had his Buster and the Landchaser's nose cannon against the 11 surviving suicide drones. But Damien gritted his teeth.

There was no way he would let despair overtake him.

One mile to go.

"Oh, Sweet Baby Jean…" Damien cursed angrily as he looked at his scanner. He wanted to smash a fist through it for telling him such dismal news…But that wouldn't help.

All 11 had decided somewhere within their minds to attack him as a cohesive team. If taking on five was bad…eleven was near impossible.

Damien knew combat was a futile gesture now.

There was only escape.

Half a mile to go.

The drones were coming faster now, slowly narrowing the gap between Damien and certain death. The reploid's time was limited…

"DAMN IT ALL…" Damien swore angrily. He shook his head and silently brought up his memorized view of the forest ahead of him. And then he tapped in the commands to forever disable his cycle's safeties.

Hurling the front end of his Landchaser into a wheelie, Damien threw away all vestiges of caution and bared himself fully to the raging speed he needed.

The wind whipped by his face so fast, Damien found it hard to keep his eyes open. Perhaps that was why it wasn't a recommended maneuver. But at least he knew where he was going.

With as much speed as the Landchaser put out, Damien was pleased to see that the drone bombers were beginning to lose distance from him. He was winning out…

But then Damien blinked, and with ice suddenly shuddering through his veins, he realized that even though he knew his way around this section of Cornus's forest, he had never gone out to the sea by this route.

"Oh, Damn me…" And then Damien's Landchaser Cycle broke free of the dense Cornus Island forest…

And began the long quarter mile drop to the ocean waves below.

Damien's scream was loud as he plummeted downwards, and the incredible forces exerted threatened to rip him free of his cycle. He quickly grabbed the cycle with both hands and held on for dear life, then realized he couldn't slam his legs back onto the Landchaser.

He'd lost control of his movements.

But thankfully, his Landchaser had not, and when it got close enough to the waves below, it righted itself and automatically kicked in a full repulsor thrust, placing the Landchaser safely onto the waves and shooting him forth…and slamming Damien onto the craft with enough force to knock the wind out of him as the seatpad ground into his pelvic region.

Gasping for air, Damien shook his head and cleared the stars from his eyes.

"Thank God I'm not a human guy…that would have immobilized me."

And he continued to shoot forth away from the island.

Then Damien's Landchaser bleeped with a happy tone. And he smiled.

"I'm out…I'm OUT OF THE BARRIER!" He shook his head. Now that he was out here, those drones would be moving with even more determination…and odds were that the Mavericks would send out whatever else they could find on hand. They might even use the Hovercraft and that heavy cruiser that Magnus showed them on the Central Computer scanners before…

Damien shook his head again, and punched in his comm activation sequence. These Mavericks would not go unnoticed. Not while Damien was still alive. His LCD display switched over from scan mode to Comm mode, and he dialed in the number he was seeking…MHHQ Emergency Alert.

It dialed once and rang a few times…And then someone on the other end picked up.

"Maverick Hunter Headquarters." Damien gritted his teeth.

"This is Lieutenant Damien, Weapons Operator for the GDC Defense Juggernaut Dino Tank on Cornus Island…And we've got a situation!" There was a pause on the other end, and then Damien's Landchaser blinked annoyedly.

The MHHQ operator on the other end of the line was tracing Damien's comm signal. The reploid only blinked once before sighing.

"I know you're tracing the call, Hunter. And you know Goddamn well my location. The open sea just off Cornus Island." The Hunter waited a moment, then grunted.

"Mavericks are attacking Cornus Island? It seems like a wasted gesture. The GDC has that place well guarded, you can't just waltz in there without being noticed!" Damien growled angrily.

"They infiltrated us…A Maverick called Magna Centipede took control of the Central Computer facility! HE DISABLED OUR WARNING SYSTEMS. We had no way to tell they were coming! And now they've taken control of the Dino Tank, AND MORE THAN LIKELY EVERYONE ON IT ASIDE FROM ME IS DEAD!!!" Damien shook his head in disgust.

It was then that the robotic drones began to creep closer and closer, and the familiar whine of their thrusters began to fill Damien's audioreceptors.

"Oh, SHEEEOOOT!" Damien turned around…sure enough, 11 tiny specks of black against the seemingly impossible full moon above were barreling down on top of him.

"Hunter, listen to me and listen good. I have Mavericks out for my head as we speak, so I'm going to do something incredibly stupid. I'm going to leave the commlink open…because you're sure as Hell not going to get any answers calling Cornus direct, because that bastard Magna Centipede put up an EM shield around the ENTIRE FRAGGIN ISLAND. I'm not kidding when I said the Mavericks are in control, Hunter."

Damien shook his head and sped up his Landchaser, checking his health systems and shaking his head. That shot that blew through his arm had caused more damage than he would have liked, and it was sure not helping him keep attached to the Landchaser too well.

He brought his Landchaser about full tilt and popped another wheelie, angling the nose of his craft so that it pointed up towards the incoming drones.

And with a powerful scream, he began to fire. Both his Landchaser and the X-Buster on his arm began to unleash their fury upon the open skies…and the foes coming towards him.

Six of the eleven suicide bombers blew apart underneath the assault, and Damien looked to see if the commlink was still open.

It was. Those Hunters were getting the full treatment to his struggles.

And then another signal bleeped in. Someone was contacting him. He brought it up, then set it so the Hunters could hear that as well.

Because he knew that there was only one group that would try to contact him.

The ones seeking his death.

"This is Damien. And I say this now…the world will know of your trickery this day, Maverick!" There was low chuckling on the other end of the line before the voice spoke up.

"I'll admit that you're skilled…Damien. But you're up against the elite of the Mavericks…the followers of our deceased Lord Sigma."

"You mean the ruthless killers that now control Cornus?"

"We're not the monsters you make us out to be, reploid." The Maverick chipped tersely. "We will bring unification and freedom to our race, and eliminate the humans that threatened it!"

"And what will you do with me, Maverick?" Damien growled lowly. "I will never join your cause…NEVER!" The voice on the other end of the line began to laugh loudly and roughly, causing Damien to shiver in fear.

Those Mavericks truly were monsters.

"If you shall not join our rallying cause for freedom, reploid…then you shall die!" And just as suddenly as the Maverick comm signal had come in, it ended.

Damien shook his head in fear and spoke up again.

"Did you get that, Hunter?" He waited. No response. Damien frowned. "Hey, MHHQ, you reading me?" He tapped the LCD display of his cycle…and then froze.

The Landchaser was reporting a scrambled comm. Quickly, Damien flipped his scanner back on…

"Oh, Goddamn them…" One of the hovercrafts was coming back from the island, moving at full speed towards Damien. Even worse, it was emanating the jamming signal.

And there was still those five suicide drone bombers after him.

Damien realized then and there…

That he'd done his best to get the word out.

And now the Mavericks wanted him to die.

X leapt from the back of his wheelied Landchaser like he had been born riding the cycle, and then kept hurling forth through the air as the cycle continued on.

The massive green 'Mech guarding the door was struck full on by the rampaging Landchaser, and the resulting explosion took not only X's cycle, but the legs of the 'Mech as well.

But the 'Mech wasn't out completely, and that grated on X's nerves. But in his condition, frenzied beyond all reach of sanity, it put X from full boil to critical mass.

Screaming with the fury of all the innocents ever killed by the Mavericks, X drew his Buster up in a straight line and fired shot after shot until the metallic green 'Mech blew apart in a shower of sparks and melted slag.

And then X calmed down some. But not enough. No, while he had his rage, he was going to walk into this Maverick base and blow everything to shreds along the way. He would make them pay.

For Zero.

For Gearloose.

For Cancer.

For himself.

A rush of power began to flow through X as he walked into the dark confines of the lair, lights flickering and tiny. X began to charge up his Buster, then activated his Dash Thrusters and shot ahead. He leapt up and over a small outcropping that rose up from the floor, then came to a stop on the other side and rolled for a moment, decreasing the stress on his feet.

He froze for a moment as he heard an eerie 'shiink' slide down from behind him. Swiveling about, he found himself staring at a robotic barrier that had just slid down to prevent his exit. X narrowed his eyes and raised his Buster.

It took his Supershot and a lot more smaller bursts, but he did it. The robotic barrier melted and blew apart, and left X with a clear view of the outside once more.

"Mavericks…Damn them…" X cursed again.

The rest of the hallway was filled with similar robotic barriers, and even more annoying Scriver, a small robot with a long screwdriver for a snout and hopped about.

Moving down from the hallway and jumping into the production facility, X noted that there was a series of long traps set out with sparking pieces of metal…

But what caught his interest the most was the conveyor belt he found alongside the first trap. Watching with a wary eye, he watched as an illuminated part of the belt rolled out of one mechanical node and into another…and another, as he walked along to view the process.

Each little box node along the belt built a different part of a more and more similar looking robotic drone that X had seen before. Finally, the whole creation ran off the assembly line and activated, rotoring into the air as a fully constructed rotodrone affectionately nicknamed by the Hunters, the 'Scrambler.' It was based off of a similar helodrone from the First Uprising, and valued by the Mavericks for their ability to take more than a lucky shot, as well as their maneuverability.

X shook his head and raised his Buster, firing off another shot. It struck the rotodrone Scrambler dead on and blew it apart in a shower of sparks, and once more X was left in silence.

For good measure he blew the Scrambler construction systems into slag before he moved on, dodging his way around a particularly annoying Mecha-Arm who wanted nothing better than to treat him as a piece of normal metallic garbage and dump him into the pile of sparking wreckage that filled the second trap.

But as he moved along, X noticed two points that left him puzzled.

One, he was still at full health, surprising to say the least considering his was the Maverick Base.

And two, if this was the Maverick Base, where were the Mavericks? So far, he'd only seen robotic sentries and drones…

Where was that one Maverick who had reported in over the comm? And why when he spoke did he tell the other person not to respond, to not reveal himself?

X froze before climbing up a wall ladder to an elevator shaft, his blood curdling.

No…

Can't be…

This…but…

Aaw, FRACKIT…

THIS ISN'T THE TRUE MAVERICK BASE!!!

IT'S A DIVERSION!

The other Maverick…the one who didn't answer, THAT'S the real Maverick base…

But if I'm here…

X swore under his breath, shaking his head angrily and trying to clear his hot tears away.

Somewhere else on this world, but not here, those devious Mavericks were cackling on their sinister haunches and pointing with contempt at the all too easily fooled Hunters.

Somewhere on this world, those Mavericks had set up their true base, and set them up to hold this as the diversion…the Maverick's Red Herring.

And it was those same Mavericks, X was betting, that had their hot little hands on the remains of Zero.

The hot rage reinstilled itself, bubbling from within X like a steaming geyser that threatened to destroy all in sight.

And he screamed. Screamed because now not only had the Mavericks torn away who he was, and destroyed the lives of his friends…

But now they had mocked him.

It was all too much for X…Too much for the Hunter that should never have been, but nonetheless WAS.

He brought his commlink online and tried to transmit a message to the Hunters outside.

All he got was static. X swore again. The Mavericks had set up an EM shield around this base…he couldn't send a radio call out, and more aggravating, he couldn't warp out.

Which meant that the enraged Mega Man X had one choice. To move on ahead and let the rage subsume everything, let it flow out from him like a dismal fog and poison everything about him.

He would burn off his anger by venting his rage on this base.

And then when he found out where the Mavericks truly were…

Then his head would be on straight. Then he could move with a cool head.

Then when the Mavericks were gone, they'd no longer need him as a Hunter.

And Mega Man X could begin to live again.

Cain had not been the first to hear the news of the traced comm signal from just off of Cornus Island. He had not been the one who examined the conversation with skepticism, before the sound of plasma fire and that vox only Maverick interlink melted away any icy doubts.

Cain HAD been the one whom had been alerted. And likewise, he had been the one who brought the MHHQ on full bore red alert.

Cain had been given the unpleasant task of calling the GDC's main building in Amsterdam and informing them that their prized gem, Cornus Island had been overtaken by Mavericks and that no comm signals were going in or coming out, and the only messenger, a reploid by the name of Damien who was lucky enough to get his Landchaser out of the EM bubble around the island was most likely dead.

Cain had been the one who the GDC had yelled at angrily, and who had the privelege of informing the rest of the Hunters on base that for the time being, the GDC was going to try and save the island themselves.

If the Mavericks had leeched into every aspect of the island, then it was a futile gesture. And Cain had a feeling that the GDC knew it, but they were far too stubborn to admit it.

The GDC was already sending in aerial forces to try and take back the island. And thanks to the wonders of certain Hunters who loved to hack into comm frequencies for fun, everyone crowded in the MHHQ's War Room was now treated to a spectacular sound bite from the hot zone over Cornus.

And from the sound of it, the Mavericks were winning.

"Green Two, bogey on your six!"

"Brown Five, Triple A, watch yourself!"

"I'm hit! I'm hii.."

"Blast it, there's too much firepower up here!"

"We lost Janssen!"

"Fall back! Fall Baa…"

Cain shut his eyes and clenched his hands up. It was almost too much to bear, hearing the voices of those GDC Fighter pilots being shot down in the skies above Cornus.

Cain had tried to tell the GDC their huge tactics wouldn't work. They hadn't listened to him. And now because of the gray hairs in charge, these soldiers were DYING…

"Shut it off." James Cain finally grumbled to the technician who had tuned into the GDC Airforce Frequency. The technician blinked for a few moments and stared at Cain in consternation.

"Whaddid you say, boss?" Cain slammed a hand down on his armrest.

"I SAID SHUT IT DOWN!!!" The technician responded within a moment, and silence filled the War Room.

No one talked. No one moved. But they all knew what the others were thinking…because it was exactly what they were thinking.

The Mavericks have latched onto a powerful stronghold…and the GDC won't let us do our jobs.

Of course, only LISTENING to what those pilots were going through had changed a lot of minds. The false courage had sublimated away, and left the mainly inexperienced caste of Hunters with their tenderfoot fears.

Not a one who had boasted about going to defeat the Mavericks was talking now. And Cain knew it within the core of his being. Some of the Hunters here possessed incredible skills.

None of them had the GRIT. The sheer determination, the will to put a stop to them, no matter what the cost.

Only one Hunter…the Greatest Hunter…had that spark in him. And it had been given to him by Zero.

Cain shut his eyes and tried to forget where he was.

And as he did, he sent out a prayer, a prayer for a person who meant a lot to him.

"Mega Man X…just make it home safely."

Damien knew he would die. He knew that now all too well. Not only did he still battle with the wound in his arm, but now one of the suicide bombers had blown the bottom half of his left leg off. His health meter read at 20%, and there was still four suicide bombers coming after him.

Not to mention that the hovercraft still barreling on towards him was firing all its guns, and pockmarking the waves with steaming clouds of angry vapor.

"Only a matter of time…" Damien slurred. He blinked his eyes and turned his Landchaser into another sweep turn to avoid an incoming burst of plasma. His low power was affecting his speech. More so his thoughts.

That hovercraft posed a threat to anyone who would come charging in here…it had even taken potshots at the jets that came flying in. Of course, it was the Dino Tank inland that had knocked out the majority of the fighters.

That alone confirmed Damien's hopes that the Hunters had rallied the message. He had done his duty…

And now it was time for revenge. He would die anyway. Nowhere he could go within traveling distance could repair him enough to save his life.

"Might as well…lower their numbers." Damien said slowly. He turned his Landchaser from its turn and headed straight for the hovercraft.

Damien leaned his body in on the cycle, avoiding blast after blast of searing plasma energy coming after him. A look at his bike's LCD screen with his failing optics also confirmed what he thought was true.

The other four suicide bombers were still coming on strong.

A shot of well aimed plasma burned into the nose of his Landchaser, melting away the high strength plastic covering the nose cannon on his cycle. But with one missing leg, a bleeding arm, and optics that were beginning to go blind on him, Damien didn't care.

He steered straight towards the hovercraft and hit the speed boost.

"Time to say your prayers, Mavericks…" Damien slurred one final time. Shortly after that, his body deactivated his voice processors to conserve power.

Just before his Landchaser impacted the Maverick hovercraft, Damien used his only surviving leg at max Dash Boot thrust. He even ignored the safeties on that and half hurled himself free of the cycle, half exploded his good leg off.

But the end result was what Damien was aiming for. His Landchaser slammed into the hovercraft and exploded, tearing open a huge hole in the side of it. The four suicide bombers chasing after the Landchaser also hit the hovercraft and exploded.

Within less than two seconds, the hovercraft was nothing more than atoms and shrapnel.

The horrendous storm of fiery metal flew out in all directions at supersonic speed, and struck down Damien as it shredded into his back.

It severed his spinal column as well…forever paralyzing his limbs. But even as the pain faded away, his neural receptors flickering out one by one, Damien still held the ability to smile.

And he did. He had won a small victory against the Mavericks…he had redeemed himself and avenged the lives of his fellows.

Damien hit the water at max speed, and the friction with the water tore viciously at his face's synthflesh. Battered, beaten, and utterly scrapped, Damien shut his eyes as the cool waters of the Pacific enveloped him.

He knew it was only a matter of time now.

The water grew colder.

Not long now until his plunging metallic body was crushed underneath the Ocean's intense pressures…

And then all his pain would cease to be.

A stupid robotic drone that resembled the Scrambler had tried to crush X between a pair of malfunctioning hydraulic walls, to no avail. X had jumped up high enough to get a clear shot, and then he'd blown the robotic drone to pieces.

It was a short hop, skip and a jump from the top of the elevator shaft down a long corridor, strangely absent of foes. X kept himself wary as he went along, maintaining a full charge on his Buster.

By some slight miracle, there was an energy capsule at the end of the corridor, resting on the other side of a long drop down a ventilation shaft. X narrowed his eyes, then plucked the capsule and drained it.

"Down the shaft…like descending into the pits of Hell itself." X shook his head, then checked the charge on his Buster one final time.

It was time to end this. Whoever was down at the other end of the ventilation shaft would find themselves facing one angered Blue Bomber…and the popgun on his arm.

With a cry that would have made Geronimo proud, X plummeted down the shaft, not even bothering to slide down the side by aid of the small wall gripping claws Light had built in his wrist armor.

The rotating gate below at the bottom of the shaft surprised X. He had been expecting a simple wire grate…

The gate meant he was expected.

It opened completely as he fell through, inviting him into the darkness below. And it was darkness.

X landed into a huge room, on some kind of girder. This he noticed because as he landed, bright blinding lights appeared everywhere about the room, as if this place was designed to be some kind of Coliseum. X narrowed his eyes against the glare and growled, raising his Buster up to strike against any sound.

And then a loud plodding footstep jarred him from his not so stable standing position, and knocked him soundly onto his butt.

"What the…!" X yowled in surprise. His eyes slowly began to adjust to the bright lights, and then he saw what was coming.

It had to be at least forty feet tall from the look of it. The way the light shone off of most of its body, X could tell that it had an outer shell of plasma deflective armor-making it near impossible for X to deal damage to it.

Only its head looked like an inviting target.

Its head flashed their robotic optics with a burst of light only once, before it began to approach him. Its arms were long, conjoined metallic sphere, a design that seemed out of place to the wondering X…

Before it swung a hand up on its flexible limb and slammed him aside, boosting his comparitively smallish blue body into the wall of the arena.

X gasped for air as the blow knocked the wind out of him, and then his body began screaming at him from the pain.

Immense as the pain was, the damage report wasn't too peachy either. Checking the health meter display out of the corner of his eye, X grimaced. He could take maybe three…not more than four hits like that.

The gigantic mechanized terror came closer and closer. X shook off the pain laden stupor he was in and stumbled to his unresponsive feet, growling angrily at his own sluggishness.

He should be able to turn this 'bot into scrap metal without even a hint of damage. After all, it wasn't the Forever Sigma that had nearly taken his life on the night of June 19^th. Compared to Sigma's final twisted form, this 'Gigantic Mechaniroid' was like a puppy to a sabertooth tiger.

"I am better than you…" X growled to the monster, dashing out of the way of a powerful leg and foot that came crashing down to earth. Grabbing a hold of the nearest scaffold ladder, X darted up the railing and onto a higher platform.

The monster turned about, swinging its mighty fist in yet another attempt to beat down X. X narrowed his eyes and shook his head, then primed his Buster again. His initial charge was still holding on it.

The fist came swinging in through X's set of scaffolding, breaking it apart with a horrific metallic grinding noise.

X leapt the fist, then artfully landed on the spherical arm and began a mad dashing run up the extremity, howling his head off.

The Mechaniroid dulled, then brightened its optics in what might have been a substitute for a blink. And as X drew closer, it emanated a surprise grunt and tried to swat X off with its other arm.

All in vain. The Blue Bomber of 21XX would not be so easily knocked loose, not this close to his goal.

X hopped over the incoming limb with all the grace of a practiced ballerina dancer, gyrating his body into a 360 spin frontflip. When he landed again, it was on the Mechaniroid's shoulder. X's eyes went dull for a moment as he raised his Buster.

"This one's for GEARLOOSE!" X shouted angrily, releasing the massive blue supershot. But instead of just the blue, now there was a twinge of angry pink spliced in as well. The Mark 18 must have made some alterations to his original 17's design while X used it.

It flew for the short distance it had to make, then angrily began to eat its way through the softer metallic shell of the robot's head. But it wasn't enough. The robot let out a metallic yell and tried vainly to swing its arm up.

No use. X was in a position its flexible arms COULDN'T reach. His second shot was a midlevel green.

"AND ONE FOR CANCER!!!" X screamed, firing again. More metal burned away. Now there was a clear hole in its armor. One more shot…X shut his eyes and blinked away the hot tears. Once he felt the green level activated, he released his trigger again.

"AND ONE FOR ZERO!" X screamed finally.

This time, the plasma tore completely through the metallic shell of the mechaniroid's head and burned into its head's silicon and circuitry.

X leapt off of its shoulders as he suddenly noticed the all too evident white flashing of its entire body…the white flashing that signified its fusion reactor was overloading, and would explode.

And explode it did, hurling chunks of debris in all directions and slamming X against his piece of scaffolding with the powerful airburst.

X shook his helmeted head to try and absolve the pain he was feeling…indescribable pain that had wanted to forget about so very long ago.

But as he lay there on his back, splayed out like a child's gingerbread man, he saw that the Mechaniroid's explosion had been more focused in an upwards direction…

And blown a hole in the roof. X checked his Warp Generator's active scanners.

He could escape.

And as debris of the desert Maverick base…no, TRAP…fell all around him, X shut his eyes wearily and told his Warp Generator to take him home.

X dissolved into a bright beam of blue energy and slightly coalesced particles, and as his beam flew through the hole in the roof, and into the stratosphere of the night, the entire complex blew.

It was a victory for the Hunters…but a victory over a Red Herring.

And if this was just the diversion…

Where were the REAL Mavericks?

By the time X put a definitive stop to the Maverick Base out in the Middle East, the Maverick assault had completed at Cornus. Aside from the rather annoying GDC gnats that kept trying to fly in and take them out, to no avail Serges thought wryly, it had been quiet.

"Magna Centipede, congratulations are to be in order." Agile smiled broadly, displaying his sharp synthteeth for all the world to see. The purple and bluish colored insect Maverick gave a curt nod and clenched his fist up, sniffing disdainfully at the air.

"It still smells like human in here." Serges shrugged.

"Don't worry. As we speak, my floating disinfectant drones are moving about the corridors of our fair Paradise's Computer complex here, spraying everything in sight. Soon, you won't even be able to recall a time where those lousy biologics' smell hung in the air. It'll be Hell trying to get their blood out of the console chairs…Might as well replace the fabric, but it'll work out." Violen sat down on a chair, grinning grimly as reddish liquid oozed out of the fabric's pores and splashed onto the floor with a sickening splat.

"I think it gives the place character myself." Violen said. "So are we completely set up? Is Paradise ours?" Agile brought up a datapadd and punched in a command, bringing up the latest data.

"Only a few rogue GDC survivors left. They're out in the forests. The main complexes and vital strategic areas have all been cleansed and claimed, though. Our remaining six Maverick Generals are setting up shop at their preordained locations. Magna's right where he needs to be…here…and Wheel Gator and his merry bunch are putting the Dino Tank through its paces shooting down the GDC's fighter planes."

Violen yawned and flicked his mace ball tail about a bit.

"In that case, on to more important business. One GDC reploid escaped from Magna Centipede's EM Barrier and spread the word. That's why the GDC's been dinging us with jets." Magna Centipede nodded.

"Yes, him. I know him. He was Damien…he controlled the weapons on the Dino Tank when he was alive. I didn't get to know him well enough. If it wasn't for the fact we had to destroy him, he could have been one Hell of a Maverick." Violen shrugged.

"He cost us a hovercraft. That's more than enough for me. Let the dead be. But if the word's out that we're here, it means that we can be expecting company soon. Hunters."

Serges cleared his throat and floated over beside Violen on his hoverplatform, making sure to not slam the spikes about its edge into Violen's chair.

"Yes. The Hunters. The EM Barrier that Magna Centipede put up is not a full version. A full version would have caused the Central Computer to go completely berserk and sound every alarm under the sun. He won't be able to get a full version up, either. This means that while communications can't be routed out from the island, warp technology will still function in full. Hunters can come in…and hunters can go out, provided they're reploid, and not human." Serges pulled a remote out and punched a main button.

The table that Violen, Agile and Serges were standing next to activated, flashing lights and raising a slight podium. Magna Centipede watched the display for a moment, then waved his hand and turned about.

"I'll contact the other Generals for a status report." Serges waved his hand absentmindedly towards the exiting Maverick, then hit another button on his remote.

A bluish holographic ball flashed into existence above the table's central podium, it's holo-emitter. And then the figure of a running, determined Hunter came into view.

"As you all well know, this is the leader of the Hunters. Mega Man X. Known to us as the Damn Lucky idiot. This holoshot was taken of him inside our nice little Red Herring diversion slash trap slash sendoff. By the way, that base is slag." Violen shook his eyes slowly.

"I've seen him work, and believe me when I say, everyone who underestimated him is scrap." Violen watched as the glaring X moved on, his clenched fists swinging aside his lean, yet somehow powerful body. Agile snorted and waved a hand.

"We won't make the same mistake. He may be powerful when he gets riled up, but I'm pretty sure he's still in the dark to what our real mission is." Serges rubbed his chin.

"I'm still holding out he knows more than we give him credit for. But it won't be us he'll be after. When he comes a calling, it'll be to put a stop to the rampage our Mavericks are up to. They should be able to keep him busy until we're running at full steam." Agile blinked softly, then nodded with a firm mouth.

"Yeah. So how's our Internment program coming along?" Serges shrugged.

"Hell, the Collection's done, and the body's in tip top off the press shape. Only problem lies with the control chip…or lack of it, in the case of our Crimson friend." Gile tapped his foot impatiently.

"Time is not something we have, Serges. We must get our plan running. We must hurry…"

When X arrived back at base, Hazil gave him a quick recharge and slapped him on the back grimly. His instructions had been purely Hazilish and simple.

"You're alive, so get your butt out to the War Room. Cain's got some news he wants the Hunter's leaders to hear."

That had been five minutes ago, and now X leaned up against a wall of the War Room as more Hunters piled in. Cain was sitting in his command chair, his white knuckled hands gripping onto the chair's fabric with the tension X knew was inside of him. At last, Cain stood up and the room grew silent. He turned about, leaning on his walking stick for aid as he looked deep into every pair of eyes with a haunting stare.

"Hunters, it seems that the mission to the Middle East Maverick Base…was a ruse. A Red Herring. Trust me, they stuck the pole in the air and we stupidly sat on it, and now we're feeling sore. Now we've got a REAL bad situation on our hands…what we have here…is the SECOND Maverick Uprising." That statement didn't leave the hunters at ease, and there was some shocked muttering before it calmed down again. Cain coughed, then sat down and motioned for the Hunters to look forward at the main viewscreen.

"Here's where the Second Maverick Uprising has occurred." Cain said in a slightly fatigued voice. Pushing a button on the side of his chair, the viewscreen in the War Room lit up and projected a globe: Earth. It rotated about a bit before finally settling on the Pacific and cruising in. X watched with slight interest, more of it annoyed than excited.

"It's an island, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. Its official name is Cornus, short for Cornucopia." Cain blinked a few times, then hit another button so the holographic image zoomed closer to reveal an odd shaped landmass surrounded by water.

"Cornus Island was born on October 6, 2087, from the same volcanic event that triggered Fuji's eruption...and the subsequent loss of life in Japan. It was that eruption that buried Light's lab, X." Cain said as a brief side note, turning his gaze to the blue Hunter. X curled up his mouth and made a short harrumph as he let his green eyes glaze over. Cain shrugged and continued, although he knew that the comment had struck a chord in X.

"It was originally claimed by the United States, due to its proximity to Hawaii. As a territory, it was developed as a purely Military Base, having little ability to support life. Mostly desert and craggy volcanic mass." Cain coughed for a moment, then hit another button on the side of his chair. The half desert, half volcanic island shifted for a moment to reveal a stunning change, with the presence of towns, lush wildlife, and even processing facilities.

"The GDC was given Cornus Island by the United States as an act of goodwill in the year 2105. Having loftier goals than military supremacy, the GDC managed to terraform the craggy land into a diverse and varied island with multifaceted aspects." Cain frowned.

"Multifaceted aspects that the Mavericks now have control of." Cain turned about and hit one final button on his chair, bringing up eight red flashing markers dotted about the island. "These eight places represent the greatest danger to Cornus Island, and to the world should the Mavericks find a way to utilize them. From the Massive GDC Defense Dino Tank that the Mavericks have hijacked, to the Energen Crystal Mines in the Southern Quadrant, to the..." Cain's voice trailed off.

"You get the idea. This is a prized gem for anyone's collection, and the Mavericks have a hold of it. The GDC can't send in troops because the defense forces take them down too fast. Our only hope lies with the Hunters...the REPLOID Hunters. Only their Warp Systems can get them in and out of that hotbed safely. So now we've come to this, people. Either we stop them now...or they win."

Silence echoed about the War Room. Dead silence. Hunters shifted uneasily, not ready to undertake such a vital...and suicidal...task.

But one Hunter did. One Hunter among all of them had the spirit and courage to go up against such impossible odds.

X stepped forth and raised his hand, his green eyes dancing with inborne fire.

"Cain...I'll go." Cain looked over to X for a long and solemn moment before speaking up.

"I thought you didn't want to fight any more."

"When the Mavericks are dead, Cain…then I'll worry about my pacifistic views. They took the lives of more Hunters in their diversion…and I'll be damned if I let them off the hook."

Every single Hunter in the room knew at that moment that something had changed in X. The morbid, quiet and softspoken X that had the aversion to violence only a few hours ago was not the same X standing here now.

Here was what every Hunter wished they could be.

Here was Mega Man X…the greatest Hunter.

Deep underground, a series of capsules standing 8 by 14 feet stood silently, their tops blinking reddish light that indicated the fusion reactors that gave them power were still working.

They had remained here since they had gone back into hibernation six months ago…since the last time they had been activated.

These were the buried capsules of Doctor Thomas Xavier Right, the capsules responsible for providing X with his powerful tools of war.

And after a long slumber, they now lit up like christmas trees. Lights along their sides activated, flickering brightly. Sounds of processors and an almost musical harmony of whirrs bounced about.

Unit 1:Reactivation sequence engaged. User X identified.

Unit 2: Command acknowledged. User is entering critical situation.

Unit 3: Location identified from user memory. Cornus Island.

Unit 4: Location too distant for drilling. Suggest activation of warp generators for dispersal.

Unit 5: Unit 5 will remain for confirmation of other unit's successful upgrade transfers.

-CONCUR-

The capsules of Thomas X. Light blinked queries and sub-routines for a few more seconds…

And then at last they began to glow, vanishing into azure light as they sped through the soil and rock above, towards the sky…

And towards Cornus Island.

Towards a place the Mavericks had called Paradise.

Mega Man X was going to war once again.

And the Capsules would be waiting for him.