MEGA MAN X: ISLAND OF AWAKENING
By Erico
CHAPTER FIVE: BEASTS OF BURDEN
"So do we have any idea what we should attack first?" X queried. Cain looked down at X before harrumphing and tapping in a keycode. The overhead monitor flashed onwards and brought up map of Cornus Island. Cain's features seemed deepened by the chaos, but he was nonetheless determined.
"At the moment X, any assault on the larger complexes is close to suicide for you. There's only one place I would recommend you take on first…The GDC Dino Tank." X grimaced.
"That thing's armed to the teeth. There's no way I'd be able to get close to it in time to avoid their guns!" Cain shook his head.
"Stop thinking so shortsightedly! You're talking about coming in from a distance. I'm referring to a warp in." X scoffed.
"Cain, unless you have some magical technology that can give me an exact location, we're a little out of luck. That thing is mobile, deadly, and being controlled by Mavericks. That leaves us with three strikes already." Cain shook his head wryly.
"Not quite, X. Hold on, I have a GDC tech on the line." Cain pushed another button on his armrest and then the sound of a vox communication clipped on. "This is Cain at the MHHQ. Go ahead." A little static, then a timid male voice on the other end.
"Hey, great to hear. This is Cassidy Jack at the GDC's Emergency Response Center, and I've got some info that might help you out." Cain nodded, then grunted.
"Cassidy, I'm going to turn you over to Mega Man X. He's the one who will be doing the Dino Tank infiltration." Cassidy's voice betrayed his surprise.
"THE Mega Man X? Woah…Hey you there, dude?" X stepped closer to Cain's chair comm and coughed lightly.
"Yes. Helpful information about the Dino Tank?" Cassidy laughed.
"Consider it your back door, all right? What it is, really, is a little something that the chief designers put in back during early development. It's a cloaked warp transmitter that practically no one knows about. I didn't know about it myself until Faahzid showed up. He was on the Dino Tank's team, you know." X blinked, then nodded his eyes.
"Yes, I recall hearing about him. So how do we use this warp transmitter?" Cassidy grunted for a minute and ruffled some papers on his end of the phone.
"I've got the frequency here…AHA! Yeah, hold on, I'll transmit it to you." The vox clipped off for a moment and then the main viewscreen displayed a series of numbers with dots in between them. X narrowed his eyes and brought up his Warp Generator. Connecting it to his comm, he dialed in the frequency…
And then his optic feedback loop displayed that honestly and truly, there was a place at the Southeast corner of Cornus Island with that warp communications signal.
"I see it, Cassidy." X said in surprise. "That trick worked…it should be no problem for my warp systems to get me there, and even if the thing moves, it just traces the signal!" Cassidy coughed lightly, then shrugged.
"There is one downside, X. It was a one shot deal. Once you use it and successfully land, the warp communicator that you've used will die out. The power supply was completely separate from the rest of the tank."
"Lemme guess. Reasons of security." X grimaced. Cassidy sighed.
"I'm afraid so. X, it's not much, but it's the best we can do. I'm just sorry the rest of the GDC didn't pay more attention to this problem…and now it's too late. Basic surgery won't cut it."
"Cassidy, I know how the joke goes." X said with finality. He activated his warp generator and shut his eyes, beginning the energy transfer.
"That's when you call in the Hunters…Maverick removal specialists."
X vanished from the depths of the MHHQ, flying through ceiling and sky as a bright blue beam of light and molecule sized matter.
Time to take back the island.
When X finally reverted back to his normal form, he took a few moments to blink and clear his vision…and get his bearings.
Which wasn't easy when he was standing in front of an open rear entrance to the Dino Tank as it rolled through the populated district of Cornus with ease, blasting fire every which way and turning the structures into scrap.
X paused to look down at his feet…and there it was.
"I'll be." X harrumphed. "Those GDC people DO have some smarts. I wonder if my entry has come unnoticed, though…" X shook his head and watched for a few more moments as the small black box that was his entry to the Dino Tank blinked its lights a few last times and finally died out with a whine. "Warp transmitters…only for reploids." X cleared his mind and activated his X-Buster, beginning to charge up a shot as he ran towards the open walkway nearby.
But he had visitors…
Well, more like the welcoming committee, X thought wryly. He recognized them, of course. GDC class missile drones. Of course, it wasn't called that by nickname.
The nickname used was 'Tubamail.' It was a name that would make no sense unless you realized that before the GDC altered their design to be high efficiency trackers with dash thruster rockets and high explosive warheads embedded in their bodies, that they were made to fly small parcels from place to place at high speed. The thing that produced them on board the Dino Tank's various launch points were also GDC class, and were aptly called 'Tubamail Generators.'
Of course, the name wasn't of particular interest to X at the moment, seeing as there were two bearing down on him at the moment at high speeds, and that generator was capable of creating more.
He leveled his Buster at a straight angle and released the level 2 Charge as well as a flurry of followup pelts. Thankfully, the missiles all blew apart under the green burst, letting the pelts fly on and strike the Generator full on. It wasn't enough, though. It took X two more semicharged green bursts to blow through both the newly hatched Tubamails and the Generator itself.
The destruction of the first major threat cleared X a path through the open back gate. So he dashed in.
He still had more in front of him. It may have been a rear entrance that had the ability to protect itself, but the Mavericks weren't stupid. They never were. There were two Tricera Tanks, robotic drones half his height that fired small explosive shots and resembled dinosaurs crawling about on their treads. The Tricera Tanks were a part of the Dino Tank's internal defense systems, no doubt about that. The resemblance to the rest of the rather Paleolithic markup was too strong.
Still, they were durable. Dodging their shots as they rolled closer, X had to slam both of them with fully charged X-Buster shots, level 3 blue balls that somehow carried an edge of hot pink plasma searing behind them.
It was a short hop down the ladder, but X leaped off of it and turned about in midair, seeing another Tricera Tank rolling towards where he would land.
"Not today, drone." X growled angrily. He squeezed the trigger. First, a level 2 green, then the followup pelts. As it blew apart in a shower of sparks and glowing metallic shards, X finally landed.
Ten seconds, and already he'd met three Tricera Tanks. Not exactly a happy sign.
Another short hop down from his new ledge and X was presented with a long hallway.
"And no enemies for once…" X mused. It was a small matter to dash down the hallway…before he bothered to look up and spied a shaft.
"Whaddo we have for him, Johnny…" He grabbed onto the opposite wall, scampering up the side and using his gauntlet wall gripping claws to hold himself steady. Activating his Dash Thrusters, X readied himself for a dash jump untried since the final hour of the First Maverick Uprising. Unleashing a powerful cry, he flung himself through the air…
And came short. His landing was sturdy, at least. X cursed sourly. He couldn't reach that shaft's upper length, no matter how hard he tried.
His Dash Thrusters just couldn't give him the power to obtain such a height.
And at that moment, X wished for nothing more than another capsule from his father, one to give him enough power in his boots to blast him up to that shaft.
But he shrugged and moved on. He could always come back to the shaft later. He still had a Maverick General to wipe out.
Wheel Gator sat in the command post of the Dino Tank, annoyedly tapping his metallic claws against the wall and glaring at his monitor. It was currently displaying a live feed from the internal security cameras, and the Australian Maverick didn't like what he was seeing one bit.
"That bugger…Walkin' in here like he owns the place, blowing my forces to kingdom come…" Wheel Gator thought of punching a fist through the viewscreen, but thought better of it.
He stood up from his crouched sitting position on the floor and waded over to the intercom. He had to wade…he'd lowered the floor and filled the first four feet with rolling dirty water. It was a habit of his to swim about in this layer of invisibility before popping up to swallow foes in his jaws and ripping them apart. His long toothed snout granted him that ability…and by a quirk of his design, he'd also been given the ability to deflect plasma if he was firing plasma bullets from his mouth's plasma turret.
Foes could try to run away from Wheel Gator…but he'd get them in the end. That was just how he'd been rebuilt…after becoming a Maverick. He frowned.
Who was he before he was a Maverick? Some kind of animalian reploid…more than likely, the same body.
Jasper…Jasper? Wheel Gator savored the sound of the name in his mind. Was that what he was known as before…
He whistled out a short yelp of pain and clutched onto his head, letting go of the thought. And as he did, and resumed his normal thinking of how to destroy the meddlesome Hunter blasting his way through the Dino Tank, the pain faded as well.
"Bloody Hell…" Wheel Gator wheezed slowly. He shook it off and blinked a few times. "Crazy yanks." He turned back to the viewscreen and looked at the bluish Hunter ransacking through the small hallways.
He knew this Hunter. The other seven did as well. All knew about this Hunter.
This was Mega Man X, the 'damned lucky idiot' as Serges was given to calling him, that had somehow managed to destroy Sigma and blow up the Flying Maverick Fortress. X was their greatest enemy, to whom they held the largest grudge.
X represented the core of the Maverick Hunters. If he was eliminated, all the others fell as well.
"Well then, X…Don't keep me waiting long. This aussie's got the need to kick yoah 'ead across the room like a football." Wheel Gator laughed at that. Laughed long and hard.
He switched the main viewscreen to an exterior view. As X battled on, the Dino Tank was rolling through the technological district of Cornus Island…the main region of tall structures one would expect to see in a metropolis like New Tokyo. Most of the humans here were dead by now…which meant that the Tank's main purpose was the destruction of useless, human buildings. The tall ones were the most enjoyable.
If they were strafed right, they'd end up toppling down and crushing smaller buildings by their weight and velocity alone.
Wheel Gator's laugh vanished. But that toothy smile still remained.
Like the Cheshire cat…
Grinning in the dark.
X had found out the crucial nuances behind running a jet platform early on…being pressure activated, merely stepping on it set the thing off.
If he hadn't figured it out, it would have meant the end of his mission. Spiked floors were still a danger to robots and reploids alike in this day and age…Go figure. Was it the high powered electricity that ran through them, combined with the puncturing power that opened them up to instantaneous shortout and death that made them such a pain, or were they merely built to annoy everyone possible?
The welcome party at the other end of the line wasn't exactly too amiable either.
"More like Australian Pygmies at the shoreline throwing spears…According to old movies and books." X noted drily, firing off a small plasma pelt at the first foe in sight.
Unlike the Tricera Tanks from before, these were labeled Disk Boy 08's…a pseudo reploid that had been abandoned after it was adopted by the Mavericks. They were really no better than advanced drones, reploids without higher cognitive functions that held good response time but no ability to divert from a set attack pattern.
Still, they were deadly. The green and blue armored 'roploid' ducked behind its plasma deflective welding shield before pulling it aside to hurl a powerful spiked wheel at X.
The new Blue Bomber jumped his foe's shot and fired off the shot he'd been charging. The level 2 burst hit the shield as the Maverick tried to block it, but this time the shot was strong enough to knock the shield loose and send it spinning into the air above the roploid. X grinned and raised his Buster again as he landed, bearing down on the faceless foe, still trying to locate the spinning aerial piece of metal.
"Don't try to pull that stunt with me, pal." The Disk Boy 08 fell to his Buster as easily as the Tricera Tanks before.
Jumping down to the next level of the seemingly never ending hallway passages, X kept on chugging along. More enemies…more shot…And he was still at one hundred percent health. All in all, a good day. And seeing as none of the foes he'd faced yet were thinking reploids like himself, X had none of the guilt from his actions.
It seemed like a video game, really.
"And just what is reality…"
One more level down into the depths of grinding machinery. X still felt a slight vibration from the tank's movement, although it was more noise than annoying motion.
X had to stop himself for a moment after landing at the bottom of the transitional shaft. He could hardly believe what he was seeing.
Staring him straight in the face was a class 2 Walker Mech…a transitional from the Chimera, its codename was the Kangaroo. Like the original, it had high powered hydraulic struts for legs that allowed it to heave its considerable mass off the ground. It also had high powered rechargeable rockets at the back of its body that gave it dashing abilities, and it was capable of walking on spikes.
New to the Kangaroo, a GDC influenced 'Mech was its two powerful spike laden fists, able to smash through most anything with ease. If the punch control was held, the Kangaroo would gain the ability to unleash a powerful dashing punch that crushed foes even more quickly. In terms of mobility, the Kangaroo also carried a revolutionary jetpack based off of its rear thruster design that granted it temporary airborne capabilities. Temporary being the key word…X's research on it showed that GDC initial tests said quite clearly holding the hover controls for more than five seconds resulted in mass overheating of the thruster power coils…
A process that inevitably made the entire assembly blow up in flames.
Maneuverability, power, and stupefying defense, the Kangaroo was the latest in combat technology that turned a lone warrior into a powerhouse able to wipe out entire hordes of Mavericks…
"Or Hunters, as the case here would indicate." X grumbled. Zero had managed to uncover a crucial flaw in the arm joint of the original Chimera Mechs…a flaw that had ended up saving X's life on the night of June 4th, 2118. It was doubtful that same flaw still existed in this new Kangaroo Mech. "Well, guess what Mavericks. You're about to learn a crucial lesson today. If you don't put your toys away…" X hopped into the cockpit and booted the systems up. The stationary mass of metal raised itself up from the ground, standing tall as the hydraulics kicked in. X tested a quick punch, then grinned and finished his sentence.
"Someone might steal them from you."
He was located at a dead end of sorts…there was a wall facing him with a small door on the bottom of the bulkhead, leading to whatever was behind the massive armored structure. Something on the other side was well protected…and X wanted to know what before he started punching crazily.
Luckily for him, the Kangaroo's onboard computer held a map of the Dino Tank's internal structures. Tapping in a query for his own location, he cross referenced it with the main schematic.
"So…You're not too far from home, are you boy?" X grinned and tapped the windshield with a free hand. It was safe to punch through the armored wall…nothing explosive behind it. Just a Mech bunker. "All right then, you dog. Let's test your BITE!"
He held down the punch toggle on the right arm switch, gritting his teeth and hoping that the 'Mech wouldn't blow up on him.
And somehow, it didn't. The legs lowered down, and the right arm pulled back, the spike laden fist beginning to spin at high speed. X gave a short nod of his head, released the switch…
And barely managed to keep seated as the entire Kangaroo jumped forth, seeming to scream a warcry from its dash thrusters. The hydraulic arm lunged forth, the spiked fist slamming into the metal bulkhead and squealing.
The sparks flew back at X and showered the windshield with brilliant flashing intensity. It was the noise itself that made X clamp his eyes shut and grit his teeth.
Like fingernails on a chalkboard, the sound was incredibly aggravating, even to a reploid's audio receptors.
The wall vanished at last, torn down by a superior force. X had to wait a few moments for the smoke to clear before he could look inside clearly.
And sure enough, the Kangaroo's map uplink was right. It was a bunker full of Kangaroo Mechs. X whistled in surprise for a few moments, then marched his own 'Mech forward.
He didn't expect to fall a good distance because of a nonexistent floor. But he did anyway, landing solidly on a five foot wide walkway that was connected to the side of the Dino Tank. It was most definitely stable to hold both him and the Kangaroo, X noted in relief. But that did little to help calm his nerves. He could look out and see the Dino Tank rolling through the city, its plasma guns firing away at everything in sight and turning the small metropolis of Cornus Island's populated district into slag, rubble and smoke.
"Those Mavericks have had it." X growled. "Thinking they can get away with destroying an entire city…"
It wouldn't be the first time, either. Back during the First Uprising, both he and Zero had gone off to settle the score with Boomer Kuwanger and the menacing Plasmic Cannon he'd set up on top of Karashita Tower in New Tokyo.
But this…
This was destruction on a far more crude and violent scale.
And then X heard the whine of rocket thrusters coming closer and closer. Turning his Kangaroo forward, he spied another Kangaroo charging at him…a true Maverick at the controls.
"So, it's a jousting match then…" X said softly. The edge of sarcasm dripped into his voice even as he tightened his gloved grip on the controls. And then the look of pure anger filled his face again.
The Hunter…Had returned.
"I've got fresh cinnamon buns…COME AND GET SOME!" X screamed at the top of his lungs. He lunged his own Kangaroo down the walkway rigging with a long powerful burst of thrusters. And he primed both arms for power punches.
His scream was loud…
It had to be.
He was screaming for four people. Himself, Zero, Cancer, and Gearloose.
All had reason to yell at the Mavericks.
The walkway had at least two Kangaroo Mechs that X had to slam through. Obviously, the Mavericks controlling them had yet to fully understand the controls and full extent of abilities with them, but X had no such shortcomings.
The walkway had contained one massive hole in it that could have meant certain doom for X, had he not tested the jump and hover capabilities of his Mech. That aloned had saved him, however the Maverick Mech tailing him ended up falling through the hole and falling countless meters to the ground below. X winced as he heard the crumpling thud. Not even a Kangaroo could survive that much of a fall, it seemed.
The walkway led to a tapered end, with a ladder and a hatch above it. X narrowed his eyes.
The ride was over, it seemed. He shut down the Kangaroo Mech and leapt free from its cockpit, landing lightly on the metallic surface and climbing up the large steps to the ladder. It was a short climb, but pushing the hatch open was a task that made it a bit longer.
"This isn't kosher GDC…" X grumbled, taking a look behind him as he shut the hatch again. A massive spiked metallic ledge jutted out from the smooth bulkhead wall, a glistening Heart Tank sitting unused on top of it. X rubbed his chin and measured the height.
Although that tiny little treasure could come in handy later, X couldn't make the jump to it, no matter how much force he put into it…not without smashing into the spiked wall beneath it and killing himself.
"So now I've got that vertical passageway AND this Heart Tank to worry about later." X mused.
"I'm glad to see you're so bloody concerned about what you'll be doing tomorrow…it shows you at least have some hope you'll survive, yank." X halted in midstep and turned his head up to the ceiling, where a speaker was emanating the noise.
"Come again?" X said warily. The voice cackled, carrying undertones of a throaty deep voice synthesizer alongside the Australian accent.
"But that hope won't keep you afloat in my Barrier Reef, X. This Dino Tank may seem like a walk in the park, but you've yet to reach the real trials." X took a step forth, unleashing a shot and plowing the shield free from a Disk Boy still far off.
"And you've got quite a lot of spunk to be speaking in that tone of voice…MAVERICK." The voice chuckled even louder at that.
"Oh, you've got me pegged all right. Yeah, I'm the resident Maverick here…my name's Wheel Gator, the nastiest Aussie this side of the Equator."
"And you're killing innocent people for your twisted cause. Sigma's DEAD, Maverick. I don't understand why you still follow in his footsteps."
"Sigma's DEAD because YOU killed him, you damned lucky idiot." Gator growled sullenly. "We follow his example because it's been proven humanity will never accept us as equals."
"Stuff it." X shot back hotly. "I've heard the same garbage from those who came before you. And back then, it was from reploids I knew before they changed sides. Your sad devotion to Sigma's twisted vision can mean only one thing…your demise."
"Oh, yes." Wheel Gator spat back eerily. "Mega Man X, the lapdog of humanity's whims, both father and Grim Reaper to the race his mere existence is responsible for."
"I don't deny you exist because my plans were integrated into a new race." X replied, blasting the Disk Boy to atoms with a supershot and several followup pelts. "But don't you dare assume for even a microsecond I am a Hunter because HUMANS asked me to be. My decision to be a Hunter came from a request to be such…BY A REPLOID. I am a Hunter because I avenge the innocent lives you and your sick cause continues to take for your supposed 'freedom rebellion.' I am no one's lap dog." He stared up at the ceiling, at last finding a camera. He glared at it, knowing full well this Wheel Gator was watching him. The wall speaker finally barked back at him.
"It's all talk, isn't it?" Wheel Gator snarled. "I'll tell you what. You'll eventually find your way to the control room. When you do, come see me. Words aren't what I use to solve problems." X primed his Buster again, hopping up to the small ledge where the Disk Boy had perched.
"Oh, I'll be there." X glowered. "You just be sure when I arrive, you have your coffin primed…because you're dead in my eyes already."
"Odd…you've never even seen me." Wheel Gator said easily.
"I don't need to see you." X replied easily. "I can smell the stink from here, Maverick."
The intercomm shut off with an audible slam. X allowed himself a small grin.
He wasn't going to let the Mavericks get the better of him.
This guy was pave dirt.
Hazil rolled into the War Room of the MHHQ, his chest compartment holding several canisters of sports drinks. The weary faces about it seemed to indicate a general attitude that was not one specific emotion, but a twisted amalgamation.
Of outrage. Purpose. Concentration. Defiance. Fatigue. Anger.
He shook his head.
"Hell, all I ever needed was a grumpy go lucky attitude and a keg of German Lager." Cain seemed to be suffering the most, for unlike the other, mainly reploid members of the MHHQ War Room crew, he was human.
And old. That was three strikes against him. It didn't help he was the one who had been forced to keep himself awake longer than usual to coordinate GDC cooperative efforts.
"Hey Cain, I got a can of wakeup juice here." Cain withdrew his face from his wrinkled leathery hands and peered at Hazil for a long drowsy moment. He blinked his aged gray eyes and leaned back into his padded chair, sighing.
"Jolt cola?" Hazil snorted unhappily for a moment.
"Hey, no way pal. At your age, that stuff could kill you!" Cain let his eyes twinkle for a moment.
"Forgive me if it keeps me awake." Hazil sighed and opened up his chest cavity, pulling out a cylindrical flask and placing it in front of Cain's motionless hands.
"Not Jolt. Caffeinated tea. Lowcaf."
"Madagascar Vanilla?"
"Of course. Brewed it up special just for you. And at this time of night, a far more viable option than spinach artichoke dip."
"I'm just worried." Cain replied raggedly, flipping the lid on the canister and taking a deep drink of the cold sweet tea. Hazil shut his chest compartment and folded his arms.
"About X?" Cain nodded. Hazil motioned to Cain to come down from the post. "Come on…let's take a walk."
"To where?"
"Your office. You need some snooze time."
"It can wait."
"Horse hockey, doc." Hazil glared. "I'm the Chief Medical Officer here. And I've got the following questions for you. Are you a reploid?"
"No."
"Have you been on your feet most of the day?"
"Yes."
"How long has X been gone?"
"Forty five minutes."
"THEN YOU'RE GONNA CALL IT A NIGHT." Hazil finished sternly, whistling over to a tech listening in on the GDC broadcasts. The young female human, Asian appropriately enough turned her head. Hazil motioned to Cain.
"Doctor's orders…Cain's gonna get some Z's. Take over command, will ya?" the woman smiled a bit and nodded her head. Hazil grinned at Cain and handed the archaeologist his walking stick.
"There, you see doc? This place CAN RUN without you playing daddy." Cain fumbled with a comeback.
"But…but I…aaw, frackit all. FINE." James Cain grasped onto the wooden stick and slammed its rubber tipped end onto the floor, pulling himself free of the command chair and easing himself onto the bulkhead floor with Hazil's help.
The Asian woman eased herself into Cain's chair, then set to work re-routing her console's information to the sidescreen of the seat. Cain lingered his backwards glance, then finally sighed and turned around, resigning himself to being led away from the bustling room of electronics by the Hunter's Chief Medical Officer.
The hydraulic doors hissed open, and Cain and Hazil slipped through into the left entrance to the round robin hallways of the MHHQ. Cain's office was close, but his plodding, jerky pace caused by his stick made the walk longer than usual. Hazil just compensated by slowing his tread speed.
"Cain, you shouldn't worry about X." Hazil said dolefully. "The guy's faced worse odds…and he came back alive then."
"Are you talking about the final attack on Sigma six months ago?"
"One and the same."
"Yes, I'll agree with you that was bad…but you're forgetting X had an incredible suit of armor that enhanced every part of his systems then. His Buster could shoot a hole through a mountain, his helmet could slam through rubble, and his body armor made him almost as impenetrable as a third generation hovertank. And he still came back from it thrashed and covered in his own blood."
"And what's different now?"
"He has no suit. He left it behind…he's on his own again. And unless Light bestows upon X some early Christmas presents…" Cain shook his head. "Hazil, he's just one Hunter. There's no telling just HOW powerful those Mavericks are now. What if the First Uprising was just…" He ended his sentence before he could finish it. But Hazil patted him on the back, knowing full well what he meant.
What if the First Uprising was just the icing on the cake…
"X will come back alive." Hazil said firmly. "He's not one to go dying on us." Hazil halted the good doctor and opened up the hydraulic door on their left.
The door to Cain's office. It hissed apart in small protest, then fell silent as the opening parted completely. Inside, soft blue lights bathed the room with an ethereal glow that gave it all a mystical gleam…like reality seemed to shift and quiver unsurely inside the door.
Hazil led Cain over and gently sat the good doctor on his reclining chair, propping his weary legs up on the popup footrest.
"Just take it easy, Cain. You know X better than any of us…and somewhere inside that cracked cranium of yours, you should realize he'll live. He's X…And more than that, he's a Mega Man. And the Mega Men never passed away under the spotlight of a new Robot Rebellion…or Maverick Uprising. If he was going to buy the farm, it would have happened early on in the First. This is the second, and he's still ticking. I'd bet my control chip on it that as we speak he's turning all those Mavericks inside the Dino Tank to scrap." Cain yawned for a moment, and Hazil turned the room lights down even more.
"You know what Cain…" Hazil froze and wheeled himself about to look at the doctor.
Incredulously, he watched as Cain began to softly snore…passed away at least to the blissful realm of REM dozing. Hazil's mouth twinged with a bit of a smile.
"That's the spirit, doc. Don't worry about X. He'll handle himself." Hazil wheeled towards the hydraulic door and slipped outside, the door hissing shut behind him and enveloping the archaeologist in a layer of quiet sounds and dimmed lights.
And then Hazil's smile vanished. There was still another key player that Cain had forgotten to mention.
"I just hope those Mavericks haven't reconstructed Zero yet. The last thing X needs is to face up against his friend."
X had at last managed to climb his way free of the belly of the beast. It had taken him a while, riding up long elevator passages lined with spikes and even more aggravating Disk Boys. X had finally given up in desperation and ended dragging their metallic carcasses against the wall, watching grimly as they were chewed up by the sharp electrically charged tines.
And then there was the fun session he'd had crossing over a bunch of high powered energy conduits, to which falling would mean certain doom. A rickety thruster elevator was not prime transportation over such areas…especially when internal Tubamails were constantly trying to jar him off his small safe haven.
As he dash jumped down the long front facing hull of the Dino Tank, X knew that his odds of survival out here were considerably less. Tubamail Generators dotted the outer hull of the behemoth like zits on a teenager. And they were beginning to pop…
"Griddle caked sausages…" X wheezed in disbelief. He shook his head and primed his Buster, hearing the familiar whine as the charge powered up from green 2 to blue 3. A pair of Tubamails flew up towards him, tracing his moves. X narrowed his eyes, corkscrewing his body and flipping through the air like an inverted top, minimizing his body's surface area.
"Yeah, you just try nailing me with that move, ya twerps…" He stabilized himself after the two missiles flew past harmlessly. Landing directly beside the Tubamail Generator they'd come from, he whistled and danced about it for a moment.
Sure enough, the speedy missiles turned about easily, boosting full thrust down towards him. X narrowed his eyes, calculating their speed mentally. "Just a little more…a little more…"
He jumped aside at the last moment, fueled by a huge boost of thrusters that sent him sprawling backwards. The Generator blew apart easily, spattered and sprayed by the Tubamail's shrapnel charges. X shook his head as the impact threw him down farther along the hull, then twisted himself in midair and landed easily.
"Well, that's like nailing a pig with a potsticker." He grumbled. There were still far too many Tubamail Generators dotted about the hull to take out. That tactic may have worked on one, but with the numerous ones about, there was no way.
So X chose the more viable option. To flee. And going back the way he came wouldn't do squat…so it meant he was charging down towards the Dino Tank's front entrance like Gangbusters.
"He who hesitates is lost…" X quipped, noting dutifully that was exactly what his older brother's Archrival Bass had said to the Blue Bomber at the end of the 7th Robot Rebellion.
Another huge dash jump and X cleared the last diagonal slab of hull…
And landed right in front of his entrance. Surprisingly, it was open, which by all rights it shouldn't have been.
But then again, Wheel Gator lay not far beyond it. X had seen this before.
An open invitation to the 21XX Blue Bomber to face against a Maverick…
To win…or die.
Either way, his foes always made a conclusion. And the Tubamails behind him were convincing enough to cause X to dash into the structure. The Tubamails veered away at the last moment, and X realized that they'd been purposefully channeling him into the entrance…like herding sheep.
Shaking the foreboding free, X hopped up and grabbed ahold of an energy capsule left out in the open, then peered down the final broken elevator shaft. He narrowed his eyes…
There was one final guardian Wheel Gator had left for X…a massive green metallic behemoth with 2 explosive cannons in its upper torso. And X had seen this kind of Warmech before.
He'd seen it at the Maverick's Red Herring. That time he'd slammed his Landchaser into it and plugged it full of plasma holes. This time it'd be a bit different than before…seeing as he had no Landchaser.
He did have a height advantage on it, though. And just maybe…
X squeezed off his supershot, watching with grim satisfaction as the plasma sizzled through the air and burned through the stumpy legs of the Mech. Crippled, the metal groaned and snapped, sending the menacing top half of the Mech clattering to the floor. Its cannons turned away from him, X hopped down the shaft and finished pumping the danger with smaller pelts of plasma that finally turned it into slag.
And then there was the rotating doorway…
Wheel Gator lay just beyond. X checked his energy…full health still, drew in a sharp breath and hopped over the mess of Mech standing in his way. Touching the responsive metal surface, X slipped through the rotating gate and began to charge up his Buster again.
"All right, Maverick. Let's see what you bring to the party."
X stepped through the second rotating hatch and fell for a moment in surprise. Then his feet settled into a brownish muck with a particular squishing sound and he balanced out.
This was the Dino Tank's control room…and it appeared most of the consoles were missing, torn off and thrown out like garbage. Even as X looked about, he could see that the main viewscreen on the wall to his left was active, about the only light active in the room, and showing a continual picture of outside. Of the Dino Tank rolling about the city, tearing it apart…
And then came the laughing. X steadied himself, holding his Buster at the ready and stabilizing it with his right arm.
A green metallic figure who had been completely immersed in the muck pulled itself free with a thick splashing sound. Its tail wagged back and forth easily, and it seemed slightly hunched over even as it stood at full height. The claws glimmered in the dim lights like deadly quills on a porcupine, and the shoulder applets of the figure seemed to be laden with a roll of circular spikes. Intimidation, perhaps.
But it was the long reptilian snout, the toothy sadistic grin as it laughed, and the dancing eyes far back into its head that caused X to immediately identify the figure.
Wheel Gator…the Maverick General in charge of the Dino Tank.
"So you made it, eh?" The reptilian Maverick snarled. X merely watched on with his cold blue green eyes and nodded. Wheel Gator flexed a powerful hand and pointed with his fist at the viewscreen.
"You see that, X? You can't stop that. This island belongs to the Mavericks now. Cornus Island is ours to launch a revolution from. OURS!"
"Oh? Then what am I doing here?" X replied. Wheel Gator shrugged.
"That I've yet to figure out, mate. Signing your death warrant, I suppose."
"You're not the first Maverick I've faced up against." X ventured easily.
"Yeah…but I'm the first you've faced without your blasted super armor." Wheel Gator snapped back with a vicious gleam in his eye. "Without it, you're as weak as a newborn koala."
"Did you ever hear the saying, a snake sheds its skin to grow stronger?" X barked tersely. "Through it all, the armor was just a tool. The hand still existed…ME."
"The hand of the humans?" Wheel Gator said drily. X shook his head and raised up his Buster.
"No. The hand of vengeance for all the innocents killed." And he fired.
Wheel Gator dove back into the muck and ducked the blue supershot X sent flying across the room. The bulkhead wall absorbed the shot and crackled hotly as it glowed red, then dimmed back down to its normal dull gray.
X narrowed his eyes, letting his Buster charge back up.
"Now where did you go…" X growled lowly.
A pair of snapping jaws leaping up from the muck and wrapping about his midsection answered the question succinctly. X gasped in pain as sharp metallic teeth bit through his armor, being flung up into the air as a rag doll in the mouth of his foe.
And then Wheel Gator chuckled…and chewed. His serrated teeth sawed back and forth, grinding through the normal blue armor of X and slowly causing red streams of reploid blood to leak out…taking his vitality with him.
And then Wheel Gator flung X across the room with ease, grinning devilishly as the sickening crunch of metal against metal combined with the pained groan of his foe.
"Bloody Hell. Here I thought they were sending the greatest Hunter against me, and I find out Serge's explanation still works. You were just a damn lucky idiot, X. A damned lucky idiot who took out Sigma because of a crazy twist of fate."
X's body was screaming at him now, a clear robotic voice against his own thoughts.
Internal damage severe. Internal operations energy now stabilized at 62%.
Impossible…I can't…lose…
At least the bleeding had stopped. But his armor was slagged, and couldn't be repaired until he got back to base.
But he couldn't escape. Not while Wheel Gator was still alive and controlling the Dino Tank.
"Are you dying on me that easily?" Wheel Gator chuckled lowly. X turned his head to see Wheel Gator take an odd stance at the opposite side of the room, arcing his head and shoulders forth and pulling his arms behind him. "If that's the case, I might as well put you out of your misery. My friend Morph will love having another junked reploid to work with…"
Wheel Gator's shoulder blades suddenly glowed green and expanded outwards in size…
They were more than decoration. Those were synthesizing modules.
X gritted his teeth past the pain that shot through every nerve of his robotic body and stood up, turning around to face down Wheel Gator.
And then the Maverick's shoulder blades began to fire. Bouncing, spinning buzzing killsaws with only X's destruction on their minds. But their bouncing held a pattern, and that was something X would use to his advantage.
Mustering his concentration, he dashed underneath the first wheel and gauged the second's approach. He paused, then dashed on ahead and performed a gut wrenching roll that made him wince from his screaming wounds. But it got the necessary result.
X was free from the grinding storm of blades that now echoed behind him, and a surprised Wheel Gator stood defenseless in front of him. X bared a wry grin and raised his Buster.
"Want fries with that?!" He fired. The blue supershot struck Wheel Gator's thick metallic hide and fizzled about angrily, dispersing after applying an initial burst of supercharged heat that distorted the armor and damaged the Maverick. But X didn't stop, unleashing even more smaller plasma shots at the damaged area. The metallic chest piece glowed hotter and hotter, and screaming in pain and outrage, Wheel Gator swiveled his body around and ducked back into the muck.
X narrowly avoided being swatted aside like a flea by the Maverick's massive tail by backflipping away.
But now he knew standing in the muck was a dangerous move. So hoping that Wheel Gator was still swimming about in the corner he'd slipped into, X turned his body around and dashed like mad, ending it with a superhuman leap that left him hanging from the opposite wall by his right hand's gauntlet wall claws. His left hand was still formed into a Buster, charging up for another shot.
It was the splashing noise from below that alerted X something odd was up. Hoping dearly it wasn't Wheel Gator trying to achieve another airborne interception, X took a desperate wall jump and hurtled himself free of the metallic surface.
As he turned and looked behind him, he realized with stunned surprise that it was only another high revolution killsaw from Wheel Gator's shoulders. A second one splashed out of the muck directly below X, going in the direction X was jumping. X used a small boot thrust to slow his forward movement and avoid the saw…
And then in surprise he realized that was EXACTLY how he'd set up a kill. Use shots to distract an opponent and corral them into one set area…
And then tear them apart.
"Oh, no you don't…" X wheezed. He may have been hurting, but he still had his brainpower working for him. There was no way he'd let Wheel Gator…a mere Maverick General and a step below Sigma…get the better of him.
He whipped his Buster groundwards, and sure enough, there was Wheel Gator using his powerful rear legs to leap up into the air and claim him with an open mouth.
X unleashed his shot, making sure he knew exactly what he was targeting. The hot plasma green shot flew, directly down Wheel Gator's throat.
It struck something cylindrical at the base of his mouth, something which resembled to X a kind of smaller plasma cannon. Whatever it hit was definitely not built to take the kind of abuse a Mark 17 Mega Buster could dish out. It melted apart instantly under the intense heat and caused Wheel Gator to cough out hot metallic phlegm while ceasing his attack to turn about and dive back into his liquid.
A short time later he re-emerged, standing a ways apart from the now grounded X. Yet there was a completely different gleam in his eye…like all rational thought had vanished.
He'd seen it before. When Spark Mandrill had been crucially wounded in the First Uprising, he'd come at X with a speed and power unmatched. And there had been an aspect of pure animalian rage behind it as well. It had frightened X then.
It only made him wary now. Wheel Gator coughed once and spoke up.
"Not bad, X. A damned lucky shot for a damned lucky idiot." The unnatural warbling in the voice had to come from a shot voice synthesizer.
"It looks like I hit more than that plasma cannon in your throat." X said drily. Even as he spoke, he was charging up another shot. Wheel Gator swished his tail back and forth angrily for a few moments before growling and shaking a fist at X.
"You can eliminate the smugness now. You're dead. DEAD!" Wheel Gator hopped up into the air for a moment, then seemed to straighten out into a sort of dart.
The move caught X off guard for a moment as he looked on in surprise…
And then powerful thrusters in the bottom of Wheel Gator's hulking feet activated, shoving him forth in a high powered corkscrew of flashing metal.
"Taaste the blade of death, X!" The Maverick warbled angrily. The new Blue Bomber let his eyes widen in surprise, then reacting in pure desperation, turned about and made a mad dash jump at the opposite wall. Slamming into it, X wasted no time in hopping up a few more feet and leaping off again.
Only feet below the soaring X, a dash powered Wheel Gator crushed into the wall, chewing it apart with high pitched squealing…the sound of metal being twisted and battered by an inhuman force.
X braced his ears against the horrendous noise and leveled his Buster at the now primed Maverick. Wheel Gator's assault concluded, he landed down, wondering where X was, and voicing as much.
"Show yourself, you coward…"
When the hot plasma began to burn away at his tail armor, Wheel Gator knew where X was. He swiveled about and screamed in rage, then twisted into another corkscrew slam across the room.
This one caught X in the furious tornado. The edge of it, at least…enough to slam X backwards and make him crash into the wall with a sickening crunch.
When he came falling down from the immense blow, he was caught easily by a wheezing, breathing figure with a large clawed hand that wrapped about his throat and began to choke off his brain's blood supply.
"Oh, you…you're a spry one, X…But that won't save you now." X could barely emanate any sound at all, so tight was the grip of the Maverick. The Hunter's eyes began to roll shut, blaring warnings as the highly advanced power system…X's bloodstream…lost pressure and energy carrying nanobots.
"How does it feel, X? To know that despite all your best efforts, you will die?" X wheezed for a few moments, shouting at his optics to keep working for only a little longer.
And then he saw where he was located. It was a good position, if he could somehow force Wheel Gator back a ways…the target was dead on accurate.
"Gator…" X whispered tightly. The Maverick brought X lower…brought his feet lower against the surface of the floor below. X disabled the safeties on his Dash Thrusters, bringing their power and fuel consumption to max. If he did this right, it'd only take 2 seconds at most. If he failed, there was no sense in keeping his boots in safe mode.
"One…last…thing…" X spoke haltingly against the darkness that now closed in on him. Wheel Gator snapped his jaws and rolled an eye.
"What, X?"
"If I go down…I'm taking…YOU WITH ME!" Wheel Gator blinked in confusion once…
Time enough for X to lift his legs up and activate his thrusters.
With a massive burst of flames, X's body was shot forth. Wheel Gator, still holding onto X also was pushed by the intense force of thrust.
Through the muck they slid until Wheel Gator's legs slammed against the upraised metallic floor that had once been the command chair of the Dino Tank. Losing his balance, the Maverick released X and began to flail his arms about in shock.
Lowering the force somewhat, X finished the dash move with a rotating frontflip, making sure to grab onto Wheel Gator's wrists with his white gloved hands.
When X landed back into the mud, his throat blood vessels had released their precious energy carrying contents into his mind. Invigoration restored, X let loose a feral scream…
And with strength superhuman, hurled the captive Maverick forth into the air, using as much of his own kinetic energy alongside that his arms could muster.
Wheel Gator went flying, screaming a cry of intense anger at X…
Until he crashed tailfirst into the viewscreen, shattering the crystalline display and unleashing the ravaging energies behind the barrier into his tail. The armor melted away, the wiring exposed, Wheel Gator was the prime target for the unleashed demon.
It seemed like the entire Dino Tank itself was shunning its Maverick master as tendrils of bluish electrical energy flared about the Maverick, screaming and writhing under the intense forces.
And thankfully…decently…Wheel Gator finally slumped to the ground. Burned from the inside out, his every neural pathway and circuit fried beyond salvation. His eyelids came crashing down.
And then there was silence.
X fought the urge to collapse as well, despite what his body was saying.
Internal operations energy at 14%. Seek immediate medical attention.
"Later." The new Blue Bomber said wearily. First things first. He walked over to the one surviving console left in the control room and tapped its power on.
It took approximately 45 seconds for X to put an EM shield around the Dino Tank to prevent all warp signatures from coming or going…aside from his own, of course. He also re-directed the Tank to stop moving, and to only fire at Maverick forces and leave incoming GDC fighters alone.
The Mavericks wouldn't be reclaiming this hulk immediately.
So knowing that there was one final task to accomplish, X wearily dragged his feet over to the motionless Maverick and placed his left hand upon one of Wheel Gator's shoulders.
His armor shifted…changed colors to a bright green.
The Spin Wheel was his now.
"One less Maverick for the world to fret about." X slurred. His eyes were beginning to dim out…
It was time to go home before his body completely failed him.
As he vanished into a bright beam of blue white particles…
X realized that he'd pulled that off…
By the slimmest of margins. No armor, no flash of hot rage…A cool, calculating kill.
So who was right? Morally, the Mavericks were wrong, killing innocents.
But…if he could destroy them this easily…
Was it HE who was the true killer?