Disclaimer that won't prevent them from doing something legal-like against me:
See previous chapter for details
Hi again everyone. Sorry about the obscenely large hiatus between the first chapter and this one. Several things impeded my progression to finishing the story.
All right, as of now the only info I'm missing from the Megaman/Megaman X series is MMX3 and Mega Man 7.
Anyway, not too many notes this time
1) A clarification. When I referred to " the TV show by the same name" I was referring to the Mega Man TV show, not Mega Man X. If you know what channel, and when a MMX TV show is on please tell me, I wanna see! Or maybe tell me where I can find videotapes/DVD's of said series
2) If there was/is/will be such a thing RDS 3100 vid-disk, the one I used was totally made up.
3) Mega Man characters introduced in MegaManX5 and 6 have always been there
OK, on to the much delayed chapter 2!
A Family Reunited
Chapter II: Challenge from the Deepest Blue
Whack! Whack!! …WHAM! Dr. Cain had just hit the RDS 3100 player three times.
After momentary flicker, the mysterious voice finally had a face.
"I just love percussive maintenance" said Dr. Cain, rubbing his hand.
The most noticeable feature on the reploid was the black visor. It was attached to a red helmet, with three white spikes, two tracing the top of the visor and stretching back slightly, and one going straight up the middle of the helmet. Wrapped around his neck was the second biggest distinguishing feature, his yellow scarf. This brightly colored scarf created an interesting contrast between it and his predominately gray body. His buster and his hands were a similar style as X's, except they were red.
He continued, "Yes, it has been quite some time since we've last met, brother." He held his chin in the gap between his thumb and forefinger, I believe they call you Mega Man X, now, am I right? If not you can correct me later." He shook his head, "By now, you must have met a reploid, of my own design of course, inspired by a certain canine pal of yours." He nodded his head toward the recording device, as if he was making a winking motion.
"Rush…" X trailed off, his voice sounded very far away.
"Rush?" asked Zero, but X was not paying attention
"Anyway, I was hoping to throw a little reunion, brother, and figured this would be the best way to get your attention. If you wish to come, and I know you do. I challenge you to join me in the deepest blue." He 'winked' again. "This should be no problem for you to figure out where I am." Smirking, he put his right hand akimbo and gave a salute by taping the first two fingers of his left hand to his helmet, then moving them away in a waving fashion. "Seeya later, bro!"
The screen went blank and the RDS 3100 player powered down. Zero took a glance over at X and noticed X was looking rather pale, even X's normally deep blue armor appeared to have become a few tints lighter.
"X, what's wrong?"
X gave no response. His gaze was fixed at the point where the mysterious figure's image had been.
"X…? X… you there?"
"Oh, crap… this could get ugly..." quietly blurted out Dr. Cain. He slammed the emergency intercom button, "Lifesavor, hurry in here, the disc seems to have had some adverse affects on X! His life might be in danger!"
"Pro…to…" X swayed forward and back a couple of times, then passed out, falling back, hitting the floor of the lab very hard.
"Hurry!" continued Dr. Cain. "He's just passed out!"
"X!" shouted Zero, he ran to X's side, and knelt down by him. "Stay with me! Hold on, everything's going to be OK. Just hang in there!"
"Bro… ther……"
* * *
"Looks like he's coming around" X could hear Lifesavor say, although it sounded very distorted.
X's head was pounding, he put a hand to it, he winced. "Ugh… anyone get the number of that truck…?"
Everyone in the medical ward breathed a big sigh of relief. X had been out cold since about noon that day. After all the fighting X has been through, losing him to something that seemed so trivial would have been ironic.
Zero, unable to stand the gloomy atmosphere any longer, "You know, X. You should see the dent in the floor you made. I think Sigma's going to be your least of your problems when the janitors find out about it."
The company allowed themselves a chuckle, now that the worst had passed, it was time to return to business.
"Do you remember anything that happened?" inquired Dr. Cain.
X sat up in his medical bed, looking straight ahead, trying to recall. "I think so," replied X, "there was this gray reploid with a red helmet and a yellow scarf…"
Dr. Cain nodded, "Go on."
"He said something about a challenge to meet him in the deepest blue…" X frowned slightly and turned to Dr. Cain, "that's about it."
"X," said Zero, eyes semi-shut, with a look of slight ponderance on his face, "you mentioned something about a Rush, and a Proto-something…" he looked directly at X, "that's about the point you passed out… do any of these names ring a bell?"
"Thanks, Zero" cut in Dr. Cain, "I was about to ask the same thing. That figure directly addressed you as 'Brother' and 'X'."
"No, no they don't—I don't even remember saying them."
Zero passed a glance at Dr. Cain, then at Lifesavor. They both shrugged.
"Still, the origin of the package is unknown…" said Dr. Cain.
X suddenly had a brainstorm, "…you don't think he's referring to the Marianas Trench, do you?"
"Sounds like a possibility," mused Dr. Cain. "I'll get Alia to confirm the origin of the package, it's not like we're doing anything important around here anyway."
"Well," yawned Dr. Cain. "It's almost two in the morning, and I'm off to bed. I'm bad enough without eight hours, but I need at least four or else I'm completely worthless to everybody." He staggered off, he waved as he walked out of sick bay. "Night everyone, X, I'll give you the full briefing at 6:20—and someone had better have my coffee ready."
A couple chuckles came from the remaining company. Lifesavor dismissed Zero with a nod. After Zero left, Lifesavor looked at X, "I'm going to keep you the rest of the time for surveillance, you know, standard procedure. After your briefing, I would like to give you one last check-up." He noticed a slight look of concern on X's face, "Don't worry," he assured X, "I'll wake you up in plenty of time." He dimmed the lights, and went on to attend other patients.
X allowed himself to drift off to sleep. He knew it was going to be an even longer day than yesterday and he was going to need every minute of rest he could get.
* * *
"Hey, Mega! Come on! Please come out!" begged Roll for the fifth time that day.
Rush scratched at the door and whined.
No response emanated from the other room.
It was a little over two weeks since Willie's demise. Because he had been a former colleague of Dr. Light, he insisted on giving Dr. Willie a proper burial. During the service, instead of bringing some kind of closure, Mega Man's already despondent state became worse. Immediately after returning to the lab after the funeral, he went straight to his room and closed the door. He sat on the edge of his bed and had not moved or talked since.
Dr. Light turned the corner and saw the two trying in vain to coax Mega Man out of his room. He shook his head and smiled slightly, "I know your intentions are good, however, it's not going to help." He looked at the door gravely, "he has some issues to work out," he looked back at Roll, "Unfortunately, this is something that he has to do on his own."
Roll looked down at her feet, "But I feel so helpless out here while Mega's in there and could… could…" she could not continue. She looked into Dr. Light's eyes, "… and there's nothing I can do!" She was on the verge of tears.
"There, there now…" he embraced her, Roll buried her face into his shoulder, shaking uncontrollably. Dr. Light patted her on the back, trying to console her, "I feel the same way too."
The thunk of a helmet hitting the floor was heard coming from the other side of the door.
"I hope he sorts it out soon." She said into his shoulder.
"I do too," said Dr. Light, turning to look at the door again "I do too…"
Rush looked at the door and whined again.
* * *
"X…! XWAKEUP!"
X's eyes snapped open. His optic sensors were still warming up, but though the blurry vision he could make out the form of Lifesavor yelling something at him.
"X, I'm sorry. There was a glitch in the clock systems at about 3:15."
While the Dr. Light Memorial lab may have in fact been the least affected Maverick Hunter building by the aforementioned budget cuts, that was not to say that nothing ever went wrong because of them. The lab, after all, had been hastily been turned into a Hunter Headquarters, and there were still some, minor, bugs to work out.
"Everyone knows that Lan can't be drug out of bed until at least 8:00. Luckily, I had a fuel-cell powered clock for such an emergency."
X really, really did not want to hear what time it actually was, unfortunately he did not have the choice in the matter.
"It's 6:15 now! Hurry, the briefing room's on the other side of the lab!" He handed X a slip of paper. "This is where the room is, GO!"
Lifesavor could have sworn he heard a sonic boom.
* * *
"Pardon me." "Coming though." "WATCHOUT!"
X was flipping in his mind though all the potential ways through the lab, attempting to shave any second he could, meanwhile dodging lab technicians, service reploids, other Maverick Hunters and other assorted obstacles in his path.
"Great!" muttered X under his breath, "I probably look like some rookie hunter who's late for his first assignment… woah! WATCHIT!"
* * *
His current route made him pass through one of the scattered lobbies of the lab. At the same time Zero was attempting to impress some female reploids in that same lobby.
"… and then he said, 'What do I look like, a duck?'" Zero noticed a blue blur out of the corner of his eye. He knew it could be only one thing. "If you'll excuse me, ladies, some pressing matters have just sprung up." With that he excused himself from the female reploids. After making sure they were not looking, he took off after X.
Zero could not help thinking that X should try out for the Reploid Olympics with the speed he was dashing through the corridors, dodging obstacles all the while. A short distance from where X was Zero could see some worker reploids moving a large metal object that filled the entire hallway, however left a small gap at the bottom, just big enough for X to possibly crawl through.
"Finally, I'll be able to catch up to him." Zero smirked. His confidence quickly vanished as with a small grunt, X slid underneath the apparent wall. "Wow… I wonder where he picked that one up…"
* * *
"I'm two minutes late… I'm done for… what am I gonna' do?"
He and Zero had had the misfortune of witnessing another hunter arrive one minute late to a mission briefing by Dr. Cain when he was short of sleep. Needless to say, it was something that no one should ever have to experience, much less witness.
X spotted the door, unfortunately, despite his liberal application of the brakes, he slid well past the open door. Finally able to change his trajectory he dashed inside. He was about to blurt an apology when Dr. Cain strolled in, sipping his coffee; very black, by the smell of it.
"Hmm. Seems I'm two minutes late. Hope you'll forgive me."
X nearly passed out again.
He closed the door. "Anyway, Allia has confirmed that the package originated near the Phillipenes, so you're guess of the Marianas Trench is probably right on. This isn't a mission per se, so you'll have to take out of your vacation time. However, if you can prove that this is in fact a Maveric threat, maybe we can get some M-O-N-E-Y so we can resume operations like normal and send any help required" Still looking at X Dr. Cain said, "No, Zero, you can't go. Just come in, no sense sticking near the door. Make sure you close it once you're in."
Zero walked in with an astonished look on his face.
Preempting Zero's question, "You're a little predictable sometimes," said Dr. Cain, continuing to look exclusively at X. Finally turning to Zero, "We can't start sending out all of our best hunters at once. We need you here in case a 'real' Maverick threat should occur."
Zero had a dejected look on his face, he hunched a little, head hung down. "Aww… awright."
"Alright, " continued Dr. Cain. "Lucky for you, Douglass was sent there on assignment, so I messaged ahead, and he told me he has 'something special' in mind for you to use. Chances are, it's something he's been tinkering with, so I'd get there as fast as possible if I were you, before he changes his mind..."
"Roger!" X saluted and teleported off.
* * * * *
Freaking finally! It's done. To be honest, I was beginning to think I wasn't going to finish it anything nearly as good as this. Note: this is not to say it's good, it's just I was thinking it was going to wind up worse. Kudos to D-Scythe for coming up with the duck joke punchline—yes, I do still remember that from back in middle school, and I figured here was as good as any to put it in. By the way, that gold star from the previous chapter is still up for grabs! Anyhoo… X is off, Zero is depressed, and at the rate I seem to be writing these chapters, it's going to be 20XX when I finish it. Hopefully a bunch of stuff will happen in the next chapter!
