MEGA MAN X: ISLAND OF AWAKENING
By Erico
CHAPTER TWELVE: A BUG IN THE SYSTEM
This was the final effort, Violen realized with grim fervor.
Seven times.
Seven times now Mega Man X had warped down to Cornus.
Seven times the crucial operations of the Maverick Generals had been stopped.
Seven times allies had died. . .all at the hands of a warrior whose only motivation was rage.
The burly, simian like reploid double checked the device strung about his waist. He looked up at Magnus, more commonly Magna Centipede for a word of reassurance.
"You sure this'll work?" The four armed Maverick clacked his mandibles together, vexed close to his breaking point.
"For the fiftieth time. . ."
"Fifty-first." Violen corrected softly.
"FIFTY FIRST TIME, YES THE SONOFABITCH WORKS!!" Violen didn't cringe, and the exasperated Maverick General Magnus sighed.
"Anyhow." That was one of the things about him. He didn't stay mad nearly as long as the others. "I was sort of stunned that AGILE came up with this plan, you know?"
Violen shrugged.
"He's smarter than me."
"Yeah, but forgive a more brilliant mind to bring up the concept that it was SERGES who put most of our stuff together." Magnus shrugged. "I just don't get it. He's not the same Agile who was here on the 19th. . .and he sure as Hell isn't the same Agile who hid in Ice Fortress after X mopped the floor with him."
"So he's grown more confident."
"More sinister is more like it. . ." Magnus muttered. He nodded to Violen. "Shall I give you the rundown on what that thing will do again?"
Violen looked at him with a blank stare. Manus rolled his eyes
"I guess I should." He stepped about and sat down. "That thing is a personal transportation device. Now, I know for a fact that X used something similar when he took down Flame Stag in the Volcano Base. But the principles are the same. You attach it to whatever, feed it some locations, and activate the sucker. Whammo, the device and whatever it's attached to are sent off to whatever location exist. You with me so far?"
Violen was still staring blankly. Magnus groaned and drew a hand across his face.
"Listen. Little thingy send big thingy far, far away." Violen's eyes flickered with a little disgust.
"I'm not THAT stupid." Magnus chortled.
"Riight. . .and I'm not that smart. Anyhow." He twirled his chair around for a moment, then blinked out.
Violen blinked in surprise for a moment, but then let his gaze return to normal.
It was just one of Magna Centipede's tricks. . .the ability to move from point to point in a room with a highly complex particle warp system. Boomer Kuwanger and Sigma had held warp boots, and Magnus' parlor trick ran on the same sort of system. Instead of allowing the owner to go from point to point in a blinding flash of light that could take him miles away, the 'quickwarp' philosophy let the owner move from point to point in a flash that allowed him to avoid attacks.
The beauty about 'quickwarp' or mere 'warp' as it was known sometimes, was that it could be combined with dash boots and normal long distance warp transportation devices.
The downside was that it drained a lot of power, and was therefore rendered useless for larger reploids and Mavericks with more aggressive weapons systems. And in the worst case scenario, it could blink out completely and never re-form the user. . .doomed as a cloud of particles for the rest of eternity, never dead, and never alive.
Magna Centipede however, was the rare case. He didn't use dash boots, considered them useless. And he'd also eliminated a long distance warp generator from himself, opting to only have the 'quickwarp' engine. . .and the other various tricks in his personal arsenal. He wasn't the most heavily armored Maverick. In a head-on firefight, he didn't pack the most heat.
His power lay in his mobility. . .and the crafty approach he used to taking out foes.
And so, Violen found it little concern when Magnus reappeared, attached to the ceiling above by his boots.
"Oh, knock it off." The X-Hunter grumbled. "Save that for X."
Magnus dropped back down to the ground, his face still serious.
"And he will come. Anyhow, this device has a special feature that the Hunters more than likely never bothered to consider. . ."
"The signature copy." Violen replied tonelessly.
"Yes, the signature copy." Magna Centipede said with a grin. "A rather nasty little trick that masks your primary warp signature with a false one that resembles another warp signature to a t." Magnus rubbed his chin. "In this case, the warp signature of one Mega Man X, Maverick Hunter."
The alarms went off only a second later, causing Magna Centipede's eyes to darken.
"Well, he's here. We have an unauthorized warp that just passed through Cornus's EM shield."
"And we can't make the EM shield impervious to warp-ins because. . ."
"Because if we had, you wouldn't have been able to make it here and participate in Agile's 'Grand Plan', you simian simpleton." Magna Centipede muttered. "Now go along and do the next part of the mission. And make sure that thing is set to take you back to Ice Fortress and not here."
"Is there anything else I should know?" Violen asked.
"Can your pea-sized brain handle it?" Magnus muttered under his breath. Violen perked his ears up.
"What?"
"I said, if you run into trouble, hammer it." Magnus said quickly. "Aside from that, just try not to get that thing hit. It does a good job of warping you in and out covertly so they won't know where you came from and where you're headed, but that effect only works if the secondary power source on the side doesn't get knocked off." He pointed to a smaller capsule of energy attached to a port on the side of the device strapped on Violen's waist. "That thing powers the signature's anti-tracking equipment. I couldn't make it run off the primary charge without draining the total systems life to ten minutes. . .useless for this mission."
Violen nodded for a moment, then tapped the activate button on the makeshift device.
He vanished in a flash of light.
But as Magnus watched, the amber hued beam of light morphed, shifted, and changed. . .until it was a cyan blue, shooting for regions unknown.
The Maverick General smiled in spite of X's arrival.
"This plan just might work after all. . ."
The final sanctuary of the Maverick regime.
Yup.
And this makes eight.
Yes.
X stood for a moment in the room. These were the coordinates he'd been given by the reluctant GDC task force for Cornus.
Apparently he was in a side meeting room in the Central Computer Complex, a good distance away from the center of the facility. With good reason. X's systems could bring him in through the island's main EM shield, but there was a highly concentrated field surrounding the structure's center.
Which meant that was where the final Maverick was located.
Times like these I begin to wonder…
Wonder what?
Was the Maverick cause all wrong? Morally, yes, their use of extreme violence turned them into little more than idealistic serial killers…
Buuut…
Well, they are right. I've lived a naïve and sheltered life, and I know for a fact that others of my kind…
Your children, you mean?
Please, don't call them that!! X shouted back forcefully. The voice sighed.
Technically, I'm right. The voice said.
I know for a fact that others of my kind are not nearly so well off as me. X shot back, ignoring the voice's statement. What the Mavericks do is wrong, and yes, they are a menace. I promised to save lives, to make sure that no innocents would suffer at their hands. That is why I fight. The ones that truly deserve to die do so. . .the ones that killed Jim Dacker and Cancer and all those others back at the MHHQ and Tokyo as a whole.
Buuut…
The cause is right enough. Reploids are treated like second class citizens, like all the racism and segregation that came in human ages before. We have a right to life, and as thinking, sentient creatures, we are as entitled to all of humanity's rights. All men and women are.
I get the reasoning, X. We're men and women too, reploids. We're just made of metal instead of flesh.
"And it'll all be over after this." X said wearily. "After a year, the need for the Maverick Hunters will finally end. The Mavericks will be no more, and steps can be taken towards the reploid's freedoms. The right way."
You have grown stronger, X. The voice said in admiration. Stronger than when I first met you.
X grinned as he walked out of the small meeting room with the circular table and holographic display, blasting away a Barrier Attacker's shield, then the sentry drone itself.
And when did you meet me?
When I woke up for the first time.
X paused in midstep, ignoring the shreds of the Barrier Attacker he'd blown to bits. His eyes burned narrowly for a moment.
He had known only three individuals in his time who he'd met when they had woken up. And one of them was Sigma, which left him out of the question.
So who are you then…X asked warily.
Cancer…
Or Zero…
And the voice sighed, said to X he was indeed ready to finally know.
And told him.
James Cain was sitting in the command chair of the MHHQ's 'War Room', one of a few names for the control nexus of viewscreens, monitoring systems, and status databases. From here, a competent team of technicians and operators could glean and relay crucial data, be it a radio transmission from forces in the field or satellite images coming in from above. Hunters could be ordered out, and ordered back in just as easily.
Above all other importance to the MHHQ was its safety protocols. After having been attacked from the inside out before, Cain knew all too well that their sacred lair was all too vulnerable. To that end, there was now a continual EM shield about the base.
It wasn't a large scale shield, because that would effectively blind them to the outside world. In an age where the danger existed not within, but from the outside, the prime worry to the Hunters was unfriendly forces waging for a direct attack on their base.
The EM's shield only power lay in blocking warp signals that weren't recognized by the scanners. Each individual reploid and robot generated a different warp field if they possessed the proper technology, as distinct to them as fingerprints are to humans. This allowed Hunters to come and go with ease, yet block other. . .more dangerous signals. . .from getting through. Signals like Mavericks hoping for a surprise attack.
Mega Man X, however, was a Hunter. As such, the shield never concerned him.
A familiar cyan blue beam of light and particles flung itself down towards the MHHQ, barely even slowing down as it passed through the EM shield.
The scanners recognized it as friendly, and chirped a message to that effect to the War Room.
A base operator on duty at the internal conditions post blinked a few times, then turned his head, his chin covered with a tuft of white gray hair and two oblong horns jutting from his head. There was no need for his helmet, the reploid shrugged.
"Doctor Cain?" The reploid operator queried. Cain looked over from the main viewscreen, happy to turn away from viewing the GDC "Cornus Incident Special Council's" latest reports.
"Something important, Bill?" The reploid winced a bit. Yes, that was his name. Bill. Bill the reploid goat. He didn't remember how many times he'd been heckled about the other two goats gruff before Cain told him to butt them into a wall the next time they 'got his goat.' He had a lot of respect for James Cain. He would die for James Cain.
"Not really, no." Bill said nonchalantly. "X just warped back to the MHHQ sooner than expected." Cain frowned and got up from his seat, hobbling over next to Bill the reploid goat and leaning his free hand on the console's seat for added support. He peered his wrinkled head down and stared at the screen, his eyesight as good as ever.
Sure enough, the EM shield's systems were reporting that Mega Man X, Commander of the 17th Maverick Hunter Unit had returned.
"Odd. . ." Cain muttered in slight befuddlement. "I would have given him at least another hour and a half, travel time included. . ." Cain shrugged. "But I guess even X can move a bit faster than usual." He chuckled a bit. "That's the final Maverick stronghold. X probably thought he'd go in with all guns blazing and come back home, riding off into the sunset."
"That sounds like X, all right." Bill admitted with a slight smirk. While not a true Maverick Hunter, and thusly not under X's direct command, the reploid, like many others knew of X's aversion to fighting. "Get it done, come home, and try to forget about it."
Cain's hand however, wasn't as convinced as his voice. His fingers thrummed steadily on the seat's edge for a few moments.
"So. . .where did he come in?" Cain asked unsteadily. Bill tapped a few commands on his keyboard with his humanoid hands, not hooves as one might expect, and looked up at Cain in askance.
"Odd. . .All the other times, X has gone to the Medical Bay, your office, or right here." Cain frowned.
"So?" Bill turned back around and tapped on the screen, unsure.
"It says here he warped into the weapons depot."
"That's clear on the other side of the building!!" Cain grumbled. "I guess the guy wants to take one Hell of a walk."
"I guess. . ." Bill echoed, his voice still shaky and unconfident.
Clear on the other side of the building, a figure walked about the armory, examining the vast array of weaponry at his disposal.
But it wasn't Mega Man X.
The device attached to his belt had worked exactly as planned. Grinning a wide toothy grin on his apelike, or perhaps piglike face, he calmly reached for a belt piled high with fragmentation grenades and slung it about his should and arm, then reached for a high impulse heavy plasma cannon. Not the typical X-Buster in design, this particular model was built for mounting on hovercars and other heavily armored transports. It was pretty heavy too. Violen was not one to give a damn about that, and he lugged the thing into both hands with ease.
Violen had been given a very thorough look at the MHHQ's schematics from the data their late leader Sigma had put down for future generations. It was accurate enough to bring him into the armory unscathed. It was accurate enough to take him anywhere else he wanted to go.
And where he wanted to go was someplace he wasn't quite sure of yet. All he knew was that X wasn't on base, and that more than likely the rest of the Hunters were greenhorns.
He cocked the power mechanism back on his cannon, feeling the distinct and satisfying 'kerrchatck' that the designers had kept from the previous age of projectile weaponry. Next came the whine as the devices' power cells came online.
Violen grinned broadly and walked toward the exit to the rest of the MHHQ.
"Enough good cop, bad cop, Hunters. Now you're the prey."
X still had a tough time keeping his bearings straight.
"I still can't believe it…" The Maverick Hunter croaked, his head shaking back and forth in disbelief. "I mean, all this time…I never thought you'd come back, Zero."
Aaw, quit your damn blubbering, X. I've missed you too, all right? Zero grumbled back, his gruffish voice failing to hide his true joy. After all, they were friends.
And now they were back together.
X shook his head.
"I still don't get it…I mean, your body's back at the MHHQ, Zero. How can you talk to me?"
As far as I know, I've been talking to you before you even got a third of me back. I can't explain why I can talk to you either…remember, I've never 'died' before. It's a new experience.
"But why all the secrets?" X asked suddenly. "Why the smoke and mirrors, why the jesting comments? Why the drill sergeant routine?"
X, think for a moment. What was my main concern with you during the First Uprising?
"That I couldn't handle it?" X replied hollowly.
Exactly. You weren't strong enough…strong enough in the mind. By some miracle…by fate, perhaps…you carried on after my death and succeeded, so I now know. But you were running on rage and reploid adrenaline.
"I'm not a reploid." X retorted.
Thanks for clearing me on that point, Sherlock. The reason I took such a roundabout route to telling you was I didn't think you could handle it. But you've grown, X. Cornus Island has done more to make you the Maverick Hunter I always knew you could be.
"Yeah. Tell that to my spirit."
You said it yourself, X. You fight to preserve the innocents that would be lost.
"As true now as ever." X replied, grunting as he hurtled himself against the wall to avoid a scanning spotlight. "Bloody Hell…the Maverick here's set up enough of these things to be a real pain."
Yeah, there's a reason. He wants to know when you're coming. Those sensor sweeps of his would fit the bill…if he could ding you with one.
X unleashed a charged up Flame Burner and skimmed over another one in a flash of fire.
"But I'll say this. He packs enough trouble in this base. One Installer, and one funky ass holographic sword on top of everything else."
Yes…that sword. Zero mused. Odd, don't you think? It seemed to lack physical form.
"Do you think there was a fallacy about it?"
I think it was a ruse…meant to hide the true identity of something else.
"You think it wasn't a sword attacking me until I blew it to shreds?"
I'm thinking it was some sort of robotic sentry with a wicked cutting edge and hovertechnology.
"Makes sense." X muttered. "What I saw was merely a ruse to disguise the true weapon, eh?"
Either that or the Mavericks have found a way to solidify particle energy into a state it can take the shape of a sword.
"I don't suppose there's any way to confirm either theory?" X asked, finally dropping down to the bottom of the shaft and whistling appreciatively at his efforts as the scanner lights moved back and forth above him.
I'm no scientist, X. That was something your dad might have been able to do, but I'm just a reploid who didn't know when to die.
"I'm thankful for that." X said quietly. "It would have been a boring life without you, Zero."
Hell, you'd be DEAD if it weren't for me. Lay the credit where it belongs, okay bubsy?
X stepped out into the next section of the Central Computer Complex.
He grimaced as the ceiling began to drop blocks towards him, the ones that had already landed solidifying into the floor. Above the mess was another scanning beam his helmet detected. This one moved slower, and probably served more of a purpose than to merely alert the base about an intruder. And the beam was slowly creeping towards him.
"Well, that's definitely weird."
Yeah, just get past here as soon as you can, X. Came the joking voice of Zero. We have Mavericks to destroy before we sleep.
"And promises to keep." Replied X.
The first sign for most of the Maverick Hunter HQ that anything was amiss was the first horrendous explosion that made the building shudder to its very foundations.
Then the klaxons began to wail…
Wailed in a tone that had not been heard in more than six months.
Most of the greenhorns on the base were unfamiliar with it, had not been briefed on it. All of them turned their heads up in shock and surprise. Few knew what it truly meant, save for the few operators on call who got a text alarm flash on their screens in the War Room.
Only James Cain, founder and supreme commander of the Maverick Hunters knew what that warbling electronic howl meant.
His skin paled even whiter than his beard, and his white knuckled grip tightened on the armrest.
"Mavericks on base…" Cain whispered, not audible to any Hunter, technician or operator on call in the War Room.
"Gimme a status report!" Barked the chief of the watch. Cain was on his feet quicker than the nearest technician could respond.
"WE HAVE MAVERICKS ON BASE!!" Cain screamed, his voice cracking at the end and failing him. Exhausted by the sudden burst of power, Cain slumped back into his chair, his bad leg screaming at him for such a stupid action.
All heads turned to look at Cain. All those horrified eyes…
"B…But…" The chief of the watch began. Cain shut his eyes, disbelieving it himself. But he was re-living the nightmare…
The nightmare where Jim Dacker died saving his life.
"I don't know how he got in either…"
But Cain knew one thing for damn sure.
There was an explosion on the other side of the building.
And someone had triggered the full Hell alert switch.
"Goddamnit." Violen muttered, staring at the half vaporized carcass of the Maverick Hunter who had first laid eyes on him. The charred metal and wiring left off an acrid odor, but the being was truly dead. "I was hoping to go unnoticed for a while longer." The Maverick lamented. Shrugging in dismay, and knowing he could do no more to help it, he tore off down the sideway. He had places to go, and a mission to fulfill.
Hazil too, heard the alarm. And he too knew exactly what it meant.
"Oh, Sod it all…" The Medical reploid muttered, jerking away from his latest batch of medical reports and pushing his tread base to drag him to the other side of the room.
He lowered his right hand down and punched in a series of numbers on an electronically sealed safe. His eyes were narrower than ever as he stared at the device as it flashed green.
"I had hoped it'd never come to this, Zero…" Hazil muttered. Reaching inside as it hissed open, he finally claimed the device inside as he shoved his hand in.
Or rather, the device claimed his hand.
He reluctantly pulled back his limb, feeling an unfamiliar twinge of pain shoot up his arm. At the end where his arm should have been below the elbow now lay a bulbous protrusion of grayish metal, oval with a ruby port at the end.
Hazil cocked his X-Buster and turned about to face the door.
His eyes were now mere squints of what they once had been. His jaw was firm.
No fear seeped into his eyes as the Medical Bay door refused entry with a chittering bleep. A second time.
And at long last came the shuddering impact of something heavy and spiked slamming into the hydraulically operated shutters. The door bent under the blow.
And another blow.
And another.
Hazil steadied his X-Buster and began to charge it up, hearing the whine of destruction run through his body like ice water and echo about in his mind.
Please…Please, oh PLEASE let it be enough…
The doors finally gave in completely, snapping from their hinges and clattering to the floor with a dismal groan of tortured metal. Hazil felt a strong odor seep into his nostrils, almost causing him to cringe. The stink of death and destruction…
And from that smoky fog of the MHHQ's circular hallways walked a large and ominous figure, a bulky plasma cannon gripped steadily in its gaping paws.
The Maverick's features snapped into focus, and it stared down at Hazil for a moment. It grinned in sadistic joy.
"What, is this the best the Hunters can throw at me? A puny tin man on wheels with a popgun on his arm?" Hazil didn't let the voice unnerve him. He stared the behemoth down…
David Vs. Goliath, on December 30th, 2118.
Violen's laugh was low, ominous…hollowly evil.
For the first time since the alarms went off only seconds before, Hazil shuddered.
Back in the War Room, a capable Doctor Cain finally came to a conclusion of just why a Maverick would be here.
It chilled him to the bone.
Oh God no…tell me they're not…
"This is the War Room to the Medical Bay. RESPOND." All waited with baited breath in the War Room…but no response came.
"Repeat, Medical Bay, can you respond?!" Cain tried again, his voice slipping into desperation.
"Cain, what's going on here?!" The chief of the watch demanded. Cain turned, looking at the reploid with a stare that did little to hide his own fear.
"The Maverick is going for Zero."
By this time in the entire Cornus mess, every Hunter knew that Mega Man X had fought against terrifying odds to reclaim the long lost parts of the famous Maverick Hunter Zero, whose career was shortlived yet spectacular.
The War Room fell silent and stunned at Cain's words.
But the reploid goat named Bill stood up and faced the others, clearing his throat.
"I'm going down there." Cain turned, incredulously staring at the Maverick Hunter.
"But…"
"Cain, no buts. No doubts. I'm a Hunter, and he's a Maverick. I can't just sit here and watch as that bastard RECLAIMS ZERO AND LAYS DESTRUCTION TO OUR BASE!!!" Bill was a greenhorn, but in that moment, his heart burned with the fire of the Maverick Hunter.
Cain had seen that same glimmer before…his eyes quavering, he nodded weakly towards the reploid.
Bill wasted no time in tearing out of the room and down the hallway towards the Medical Bay, dash thrusters burning as fast as they could.
Somehow, Cain kept standing, leaning on the walking stick he had been cursed to use since the base had first been attacked on June 4th.
"God help us all…" He managed to croak in a feeble voice.
And the klaxons wailed…
"LAST CALL!!" Hollered X, firing his last supershot towards the behemoth 'Installer' guardian that the Mavericks had sent to face him. It wasn't a very widely known or widely used defensive measure, because its lasers were relatively weak, its rate of fire was slow, and its overall speed was slower.
What it did have was undeniable defense.
Of course, like most other bulky and heavily armored drones X had gone up against, he'd found that the quickest way through them wasn't through a hailstorm of plasma but a highly focused strike with his Spin Wheel. A charged up shrapnel blast of his special weapon had gutted a gaping hole into the beast. It was that hole X was now exploiting with his basic weapon.
The Installer shuddered as the plasma burned through, then collapsed. Its power generator gave out a few moments later and the entire apparatus whined down into shutoff.
Shaking his head, X trod onwards and walked through the exit of the room.
We should be getting closer to the center of this place.
Yeah. It's weird how you say 'we' though, X. As far as I'm concerned, you're you and I'm me. I'm my own spirit, free as can be.
And once I'm done here, we can go home…and we can bring you back.
Zero laughed at that.
I wonder how those damned Rookie Hunters'll take it…the great Zero, returned from the dead.
Well, I expect their jaws'll hit the floor. Then they'll start groaning once you start training them.
Come to think of it, I never trained you…
You didn't have the time. X reminded him firmly, partially sad as he remembered those opening days of horror, but not letting it tamper with his good mood completely.
Aah, you turned out all right.
X yelped as he suddenly felt the floor give way underneath him. Using his Air-Dash, he made it to the other side of the newly formed chasm and jumped to safety. He stared down behind him for a moment before his experience wiped the surprise away.
"Figures. Removable floor." He looked on in front of him, and saw that at the end of the corridor lay a shutter gateway.
It's a corridor of perils.
I guess this Maverick isn't done testing you.
"I'll just test him a bunch to make up for it once I get to him then." X grumbled.
Well, I don't think he could surprise you much. You've got a lot more tricks now than you did before.
The rest of the trek was filled with a series of perils that weren't all that difficult, but nonetheless did a fantastic job of keeping X on edge.
But at last, after blasting through dropping security boxes with energy cannons and dashing over failing bridges, he made it.
Victorious, he stood before the door to the Maverick's lair.
This is it, Zero…At long last, it's FINALLY OVER!!
But no response came. Frowning, X spoke up louder, actually opening his mouth.
"Zero??"
Nothing. X suddenly felt very unsure of himself.
"Zero…??" Nothing. Zero's presence was no longer in his head.
Something was very wrong. "So I'm alone, then…" X muttered, disbelieving. After all this time, he had gotten Zero back…why now, after revealing who he was, did his presence leave him?
More importantly…
Did X have the skills to face this Maverick without Zero's encouragement?
Hazil's breathing came shallowly.
He'd be lying if he didn't say his body hurt like Hell.
One arm lay useless at the floor, blown off by a fragmentation grenade thrown by the bulky Maverick. The room wasn't in the best of condition from the attack, either…but Hazil wasn't concerned about the room.
He wasn't concerned that much about himself in the long run. It was that damnable uncompleted body of Zero he was worried about. There was no way the Mavericks were going to get their hands on it…It had been theirs once, but by the twist of fate known as paranoia and backup measures, the control chip of Zero had returned to the clutches of the Hunters. But it was a one shot precaution…
And if this Maverick reclaimed Zero…now fully repaired, reconstructed, and only hours away from being fully awakened…
"DAMN YOU, NO!!!" Hazil screamed, raising his only remaining arm, the one with the Buster.
Violen rolled his eyes and leveled his much larger and much more devastating plasma weapon.
Hazil's shot went low, and wasn't accurate. All it managed to do was tear off a tiny power node attached to the belt on the Maverick's waist.
Violen's shot however, was more accurate. And deadly.
Hazil screamed louder than ever as a good square two feet of his torso was blown off and slammed against the wall. The medical reploid stumbled back in shock and collapsed onto the floor, his arms flailing for anything within reach to stop his fall.
It just so happened what his fumbling fingers latched onto was a curtain draped about to hide a medical bed.
Lying on that medical bed was the fully constructed form of Zero. Every line of him built just as Violen remembered seeing him on Serge's boat before the stupefying loss of his control chip.
Violen grinned a toothy smile.
"Hello, Zero…miss me??"
"No, damn you…" Hazil wheezed, his optics blurry and unresponsive to his demands. His body hadn't been built for combat…he was closer to death than he'd ever been before. Violen clucked in dismay and shook his head.
"You fool. You can't stop me. And if you were having any questions about that…" Violen turned about a bit and swung his mace tail down in a vicious slam.
Hazil once more screamed as his only remaining arm was crushed into oblivion, rendering the Buster useless into a mess of sparking wiring, reploid blood, shattered crystal and flattened metal.
Violen was still smiling that Maverick stare of sick pleasure as Hazil gasped for air, now completely helpless lying there.
"And you are mine." Violen restated, reaching for Zero's body.
But the fight wasn't done yet…
Out of the blue, the reploid goat known as Bill hurtled himself into the room, lowering his hard head down and slamming full force into Violen. Bleating a war cry, he shoved every erg of his strength into the blow.
Violen was caught completely off guard by the attack, and was flung across the room to slam headfirst into the opposing wall. The room shook from the attack's ferocity, and Bill stood his ground, Buster raised for a retaliation.
But what followed was a move he did not expect. The massive mace attached to the Maverick's backside suddenly sprang to life flying towards him at unimaginable speed.
Bill, the brave but foolish greenhorn of the Maverick Hunters had only enough time to widen his eyes in surprise before he was smashed against the wall.
Violen shook his head and turned about, still slightly dazed. But he grinned down at the newcomer, lying in his final dying moments.
His entire torso had been crushed inwards by Violen's mace tail. His Microfusion tank didn't go critical, but had managed to stop the reaction to a slow halt to prevent detonation.
"Game over, Hunter." Violen glowered. "You lose." Calmly, Violen stumbled back over to Zero and picked his sleeping body up, slinging it over his shoulder before he re-triggered his warp systems.
And after less than two minutes, Violen was gone. But his destruction, his influence still remained strong as ever. The cyan blue beam of light and particles pulsed of its own accord and hurtled skyward, leaving behind the utter destruction.
Only moments later, others arrived, Cain hobbling quicker than any of them and coming in only after the initial Hunters had made sure the Maverick was gone.
The founder of the reploid race felt his face blanch. Yes, he had seen destruction before, but it never ceased to bother him.
"Bill…" Cain uttered tonelessly, seemingly distant from the horror. The goat reploid looked up, his face full of pain, both physical and psychological.
"I…I tried to…" Cain gingerly placed a hand on the crumpled form of the Hunter.
"I know."
"He was…too much…Too much for me to handle…" Bill coughed, and Cain saw his eyes grow dimmer. "My…systems shutting down…"
"Your Microfusion tank?"
"Shut off…" Bill said weakly. He looked at Cain, and focused enough of his final breath to utter one sentence. "I would have died to protect you…Cain…" His eyes blurred over completely and he slumped over…now nothing more than an empty shell.
One of the other Hunters looked over, shocked.
"Who…who was he?" Cain got back up and turned to them, his face ashen.
"He was one of you…a Maverick Hunter." Cain bit his lip and turned to the other side of the room, where a few Hunters were tending to a weakened Hazil. Once more, Cain felt the sting of nausea bite into him as he looked on Hazil's torn, melted, charred, smashed and severed body. But inured by the death of Bill, he walked over stolidly and held his stomach.
"Where did he go, Hazil?" Hazil couldn't focus on Cain, but he heard the question and responded in a slurred voice.
"Awaaay…." Cain's eyes narrowed.
"God almighty…what did he do?" Hazil looked at Cain with despair and frustration, hidden somewhat by the incurable pain racking through his body.
"He…toook….Zeroooooooo…."
Hazil slumped into stasis, his body too devastated to keep him conscious any longer. A batch of medical techs ran in and made their way to Hazil. Cain tapped their leader on the shoulder firmly. Confused, the fellow looked up.
"You will save his life." Cain said through gritted teeth. The medical techs merely nodded and took Hazil to a corner of the room, beginning their grisly work of reconstructing the chief medical officer.
Cain plodded back out of the Medical Bay, still stunned by it all. Walking in a daze, he made his way back to his office, and the War Room not far from it.
"Sir?" Cain walked on, but the voice approaching him grew louder, finally snapping him free of his stupor. "Sir?!"
"What is it?" Cain muttered, looking up through tired eyes. The reploid operator from the war room handed Cain a printout on plain dot matrix paper.
It held a picture of the globe, and a set of very simple coordinates.
"The Maverick that warped out of here didn't mask his signal, sir. We know where he's going."
"And yet he still made it in…"
"Apparently they have a grasp on technology that allows them to mimick the warp signals of others…Like X." Said the reploid grimly. Cain looked at the paper one last time, then crumpled it in a wiry grasp with all his strength. Looking at the technician, his eyes burned with relit fury.
"So it seems that the Mavericks aren't done with us yet…"
The shutter door opened and closed. X breathed for a moment and paused, holding back his Buster's charge. The Maverick had yet to appear, but he would…
They always did.
And this case was no different. His method of appearing was unorthodox to a fault, though.
To the odd sound like a thousand insects scuttling about, the Maverick…a buglike construct as well…appeared. X narrowed his eyes, thinking that this was too strikingly similar to Boomer Kuwanger…
And that time he could have well died.
Save for Zero.
"Well, I suppose I'm the last one then." The Maverick muttered, clasping his two pairs of hands together and forming guns from his index fingers. X didn't dignify the gesture, but nonetheless prepared himself for a sudden shift if need be. The Maverick smiled, a smile partially hidden by his metallic mandibles. "Tell me then, X. How many have you killed in cold blood?"
"Less than you and your kind." X retorted. The Maverick nodded sagely.
"So it is, so it is." He performed a slight bow, then returned to a poised stance. "My official Maverick designation is Magna Centipede. However, I still have the sense to remember my former name; Magnus."
X frowned.
"You're an odd one." Magna nodded, clucking his tongue.
"That's what happens when your regime goes to great lengths to lessen your destructive impulses…you go odd." X sidestepped a bit, watching to see Magnus's response. There was none.
"What do you mean?" X muttered. "You live for destruction." Magnus chortled.
"Usually…Violen is the prime example of that, I suppose. But I had to fill a role of infiltration…I was the first Maverick to come to Cornus Island."
The announcement made X narrow his eyes.
"When…and how??"
"Well, the GDC was getting in a fresh supply of forces. It was a simple matter for me to dredge up my old name, which was still credible as a worker, and send it into the GDC for transfer to Cornus." He grinned. "As luck would have it, they decided the best job for me was a Janitor. Imagine that. Me, a Maverick, spending months cleaning up after those human's FILTH." Magnus sighed. "The behavioral limiters were there for a reason, I suppose. Otherwise, I could have gone off and killed one, blowing my cover. Plus, being a Janitor had its perqs. I could go most anywhere…Learn things I could not otherwise." Magnus nodded. "In all honesty X, the Mavericks have had their eye on this place since July. We just waited until the 19th of December for the irony of it."
"June 19th, 2118." X growled. "The night that Zero and I put a stop to Sigma."
"So you did, so you did…" Magnus mused. "It seemed fitting that the six month anniversary should have our retribution."
"So be it." X lifted his Buster up. "But now you will pay." Magnus shrugged, and the massive metallic pincer tail waved about behind him.
"You can try to make me." He offered with a coy smile.
X's two shots rang true, but it was to no avail. Magnus vanished out of existence, dispersed into a mad scattering of particles before the shots were even within scalding distance.
X heard the scattering sound again, and then raucous laughter. But the room had an ambience built into it that created an echo effect…X was unable to pinpoint the source of the voice.
"I said you can try. But now it's my turn." X frowned and looked about. Not behind him, not in front of him…
Suddenly, X gasped as he felt himself being pulled up from the floor. Staring up incredulously, he gaped at the Maverick vibrating his tail back and forth violently…more surprising was the fact he clung to the ceiling with ease.
"This entire room was designed for my specifications…" Came Magnus's jeering voice. "You can't pinpoint me by noise, I have the ability to cling to ceilings…" He chuckled. "And most impressively, X…this tail of mine allows me to do a nifty little trick."
Screaming, X tried to break free of the magnetic grip by using his Air-Dash. No effect.
X found himself being squeezed in that monstrous tail of Magna Centipede a fraction of a second later…
Gasping, he broke free by playing an uppercut onto Magnus' chin.
He landed roughly on the ground, and the Maverick reappeared in front of him. Magna crossed his arms and waited.
X got up and leveled his Buster, screaming in rage as he fired.
But only the smallest of shots left his primary weapon.
Magna Centipede brought his tail about and deflected it with ease, grinning from ear to ear.
"It appears my trial was a success." X looked down at his Buster in befuddlement. He tried to charge it up…but it stubbornly refused.
"And now your precious plasma cannon is little more than a popgun, X!" Magna laughed. X shook his head in disbelief, but the reports were all too clear…
X-Buster's charge function has been disabled. Repairs required.
X's mouth went dry as a darkly laughing Magna Centipede began to walk towards him.
"Fool." Magnus hissed in satisfaction. "This is why we save the best for last."
What followed was sheer insanity…
Magnus laughing his damned fool head off, leaping about the room with that sick sense of pleasure as the Hunter frantically tried everything he knew to try and defeat his foe.
"You'll have to do better than that!" Magna guffawed, warping away from a spray of plasma bullets. X gritted his teeth and cursed himself…
This was worse than what Crystal Snail had tried. And there had been a trick to him…
Blast it, when I need Zero the most, he isn't here…
Perhaps, X wondered as he air-dashed away from a handful of magnetic mines, Zero was merely keeping silent. He had told X after all, that what he had been trying to do was make X reach his true abilities as a Maverick Hunter…
But there was always a trick to these things…wasn't there??
X had tried most everything he'd come to rely on. Basic plasma, the Spin Wheel, he'd even shot off Speed Burners, Sonic Slicers, and a helping of Bubble Splash aside. But each time the effect was negligible, or the Maverick moved too fast for the shots to connect.
And it was all that damnable high tech equipment of his…
All that high wired electronics…
If only there was some way to JAM IT ALL…
If there was one thing that X never felt bad for having, it was ideas.
He'd fried Armadillo and Sigma with electricity. He'd tackled Sting with Boomerang Cutters.
And now, he came upon that same type of epiphany.
He turned and stared at Magna Centipede, all jeers and sinister grin.
Calmly, he selected one of his special weapons from his array and lifted his Buster. As he did, his armor changed to a shade of dark red and green along with his white.
Magnus shook his head.
"Oh, please…like another weapons change is going to help you any."
X fired, and Magnus, in all his adrenaline and ego filled stupor, blindly waited for the shot to connect.
But it wasn't a bolt of energy that surged at him. It was a clustering of metallic junk and wiring…
And once it struck, it spread out, exploding in all directions.
X lowered his Buster and glowered at his handiwork, watching a stunned and stupefied Magna Centipede try to weedle his way out of the wiry cords that surrounded him.
"Silk Shot." X explained dourly. "When nothing else works. And the bands began to constrict…
Screaming in rage, Magnus was helpless to do little else as the attack continued to bind him. In all his blind struggling, the mass of junk metal and scrap wires continued to grate away at him, tearing at him as he fought to break the bonds.
Finally, he did…but as the Silk Shot's remains were flung to the floor, so was Magna Centipede's precious tail, severed off by his own efforts.
The Maverick looked at it in stunned disbelief, lying there useless as it leaked vital fluids…
He did not expect another pair of Silk Shot blasts to paste themselves to his body. But the effect was enough…
Once more immobilized, the Maverick stumbled to the floor from the impacts.
X took a few steps closer and fired another round. Now Magnus was decorated from head to toe by all the scrap. X switched over to normal plasma and leveled his Buster at Magna Centipede's head.
Eyes wide, the Maverick hit his escape mechanism, planning to reappear on the ceiling above for another strike, freed of his bonds and ready to punish X for this indignity…
But as the Maverick reappeared, something went horribly wrong. Something X recognized instantly when he saw that there were no Silk Shot remains lying barren on the ground where Magnus had fallen.
The tortured and agonized screams of the Maverick were worsened by the horribly disfigured appearance of him. For all the destruction he had seen in his life, X had to admit this was definitely weird.
Magna Centipede collapsed to the floor, a tattered monster of who he had once been.
When he had shifted away, his warp generator must have taken the Silk Shots along for the ride…upon reaching his destination, it had tried to comprehend where the extraneous material belonged in the Maverick General's schematics. And it had failed miserably.
But mercifully, Magna Centipede did not live long after that. The internal damage was too severe, and only seconds after writhing about on the ground, gasping like a wide eyed mackerel out of water…
He shut down. X shook his head and reached down, finding thankfully that the Silk Shot hadn't gone in and morphed his weapons systems.
The Magnet Mine now his, X stood tall.
Eight Mavericks defeated.
Eight Heart Tanks, Four Sub-Tanks and a new armor set claimed. And the body of Zero once more back in Hunter hands.
You were right, Zero…you were right about me.
X took a brief moment of silence then and there.
And then he powered up his Warp Generator. Vanishing from the Central Computer Complex, he left Cornus. For the last time.
It was finally over.
It was time to go home.
But home…
Was not what he expected it to be.
He'd come to the Medical Bay, figuring he might as well get his Buster fixed.
But it wasn't Hazil that reacted to him…It was a cluster of Maverick Hunters, their own Busters raised in self-defense. X only lifted up his eyebrows.
The Hunters breathed a sigh of relief and lowered their personal cannons.
"It's just you." One muttered thankfully.
X felt his stomach hit the floor.
"What happened??" He whispered in a dry voice.
X bothered to look around the room…
And there was no sign of the sleeping body of Zero.
Even worse, Hazil…
My God…
"Welcome back, X." Came a familiar voice. X turned about.
Cain looked more grimfaced than he had in a long time.
"You asked what happened. Well, I'll tell you." Cain rubbed at his eyes.
"Somehow X, those Mavericks had one final trick up their sleeves. A while after you left and arrived at the Central Computer Base…they sent a Maverick back here." X started to speak, but Cain silenced him by raising a hand. "And somehow they managed to discover a way to mask their own warp signatures with a duplicated signal. In this case, YOURS. Somehow, they discovered your precise warp frequency. Good enough to fool our scanners and allow him through."
"What did he look like?"
"Big, burly, had a mace attached to his ass."
"VIOLEN." X growled, his fist growing tighter until his fingers were digging into his hand. His eyes burned in rage. "I should have killed that bastard when I had the chance…but no, I spared him so he would be humiliated…"
"Zero would say that was a tactical mistake."
"At the time, he didn't much care." X growled. Cain lifted up an eyebrow. X looked at Cain with a deadpan stare. "So let me get this straight. Violen showed up out of the blue, wreaked havoc in the MHHQ, wiped the floor with Hazil and stuck my favorite doctor in critical condition…"
"And stole Zero." Cain finished grimly. He looked at X.
Never before had he seen the descendant of Mega Man so willing to kill anything in his path.
"But his escape wasn't foolproof…We were able to track him down." X stared at Cain, unspeaking, and the unnerved doctor continued. "A GDC spy satellite confirmed it. There's one last Maverick stronghold left to them. It's at Coordinates 00. The North Pole."
"Zero is there." X said tonelessly. Cain nodded. X turned to a Medical reploid and shoved his left arm out, morphing it into a Buster. His right one followed soon after.
"My last fight left these things incapable of charging. Fix 'em." The Medical Technician looked up at X for a moment, then at Cain.
Cain grimly nodded.
Five minutes later, the repair work was completed. X was once more at full health, and all his Sub-Tanks were charged.
Every Hunter in the Medical Bay stared at X in fear and respect.
Here was the greatest Maverick Hunter.
Cain leaned on his walking stick and looked at X with a saddened stare.
"So you'll be going then." X nodded, his rage gone for a stony stare.
"I won't let the Mavericks take Zero. I won't."
"Then all I can say is good luck." X nodded for a moment, then extended his hand out. Cain gave it a firm shake. X warped out from the MHHQ…
Gone on one final mission.
Doctor Cain took a moment to note the time.
Eight o' Clock P.M, December 31st, 2118.
"And come back alive…"