Part XII: Discovery
It was several days later, and Echo and Blitz were cleaning a section of the underground chamber where they found X and Zero. Blitz had just finished getting all the debris out of the room, and Echo was working on repairing the computer system.
"Do you think that there's something weird about Cirrus?" Echo asked.
Blitz shrugged. "I don't know. If you ask me, Cirrus was always a little intense."
"That's not what I mean. Doesn't it strike you as strange that he acts like he's hiding something? That he walked away from that Maverick assault without a scratch on him?"
"I think you're blowing things out of proportion, Echo. Just leave Cirrus alone. He's not going to lead us into some suicide mission just for the sake of seeing us get destroyed. He's not a Maverick."
"Yeah, I guess I should cool it. Stop being so paranoid."
"That's good advice."
Zero walked out of the remaining portion of the HQ's above-ground remains. He hadn't seen any sign of Alia, Iris, or Signas. Gate's suspended animation capsule was found a few hours ago, but they didn't release him. They wanted to make sure everyone was together.
He turned on the transmitter. "X, any luck?"
X was below-ground, searching the secondary capsule room. "I don't know. I found a few more containment chambers, but they're not labeled."
"How many?"
"Three."
"Alright, I'll be down there in a minute."
Strolling into the room X was in, Zero's vision was instantly directed to the three machines in the center of the room.
"That them?"
X nodded. "Yep."
Zero accessed the mainframe, choosing to open the capsules. Immediately, there was a loud hiss as the seals on the machines broke, releasing cold steam into the chamber. The lids drew back, and revealed exactly what they had hoped they'd find-Alia, Iris, and a very perturbed Signas.
"Just what the heck did you think you were doing, putting us in there? I'm in my right mind to-"
Signas was cut off as X read the monitor. "Maverick activity. Directly above."
Iris, who had been revived by Lifesaver after she fought Zero, clasped her hands together and answered in her smooth British accent, "What? How can that be?"
Alia straightened the radio headset she always wore. "Yeah, X, what's going on? I thought you destroyed the last of the Mavericks."
Zero spoke up in his friend's behalf. "That's not really the issue. Something happened, and now the Mavericks are back again. This time, though, it seems to be that they're collecting materials for a project or something."
"A project? What?"
Now it was X's time to explain. "The Mavericks seem to be under directions to collect materials. We don't know what for, but I wouldn't think it's a good thing to leave them alone and wait."
Signas stretched, popping his knuckles anxiously. "So what are we supposed to do?"
X and Zero looked at each other, then back at the others.
"Stay here and keep us informed," they said in unison.
"Zero," Iris complained, "it's dangerous. You could get hurt."
Alia shot a glance at her. "Oh, shut up, you chippie."
Iris' eyes went wide at that comment. Thankfully, Zero stepped in before the slapping and screaming began.
"Don't worry, Iris, I'll be okay. And we can try to figure out how Alia can access the HQ's old mainframe. Maybe there are some clues we didn't pick up on four hundred years ago. Gate can help her after we release him from suspended animation."
They seemed to accept that. X breathed a sigh of relief and was about to say something else when he felt a rumble.
"Did anyone else feel that?" he asked, glancing around the room.
"Feel what, X?" Signas returned. A few seconds later, the ground began shaking, knocking plaster and dust down into the chamber.
"Never mind. What is that?"
"I don't know. Hopefully not Mavericks," Alia said.
Zero unlatched his saber. "I'll go check."
Disappearing out of a nearby hole in the ceiling, Zero rushed out to street level and used his quick jump reflexes to propel himself onto a rooftop overlooking the desert. He couldn't see anything but sand, sand, more sand, and one large...
"Oh, no," he said to himself, jaw dropped in awe.
In the distance, a sandstorm of gargantuan proportions was speeding toward them. At the center of the storm was some sort of weird Maverick that seemed familiar, but Zero couldn't figure out where he had seen it before. Aiming himself down to the hole he jumped from, Zero plummeted back into the chamber, landing next to X.
"We have to take cover. It is a Maverick. A big one."
"Can't you fight it?"
"I wouldn't chance it. It's going so fast, it'll run over us before we could do anything."
"Alright. We need to get Gate out of here, though," Alia reminded them all.
"Yeah. X, you tell Echo and Blitz what's happening, and I'll make sure Gate gets out. Everybody else, get back to street level and head for the center of the city."
Signas was confused. "Why? We'll be out in the open."
"The core of the original Arcadia was really the remains of another city. That section was heavily fortified against attack. Chances are, even if that thing invades the city, it'll have to slow down to avoid damaging itself. It'll give us more time to get rid of it."
Alia, Iris, and Signas exited through the hole that Zero just exited from. X rushed into the next room, warning Echo and Blitz to abandon what they were doing and run for safety. Zero, meanwhile, began the task of getting Gate out of the containment capsule.
The door opened, aided by a sharp hit from Zero's saber, shattering the metal in front of the shocked reploid scientist.
"What are you doing?!" he yelled, as Zero picked him up and flung him over his shoulder. "I insist you put me down!"
"Shut up, Gate. Unless you wanna be Maverick feed."
The scientist figured it was better to be humiliated than dead, so he did as Zero said. The two of them met up with X, Echo, and Blitz on the street. Zero let Gate down.
"Now, run!" X yelled, taking off at a bolt.
Blitz jumped over a dumpster and looked back to see the giant Maverick bearing down on the city. It had jumped onto the street they were on and was now chasing them.
"Uh, guys. There's a bit of a problem."
Zero glanced to the gray and black reploid. "What?"
Blitz motioned back with his head, and Zero's surprised expression cleared immediately when he took a look behind them.
"Aah! Guys, haul it!"
The rest of them sped up, dodging falling debris as the Maverick knocked concrete loose from the buildings lining the street. Suddenly, Blitz had an idea.
"Echo! Scan this guy! What is he?!"
Turning around and quickly scanning the Maverick, Echo shouted back, "It looks like an aquatic!"
Blitz's eyes glistened enthusiastically. "Great! That's great!"
Zero looked over at the Hunter. "What are you on, Blitz? Crack?"
"No!" he yelled back, charging his blaster. X and Zero looked up as lightning began crashing all around them.
"X! Clear a path in front of us! Zero, can you use your saber to spray a plasma blast?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Just follow my lead, and when I tell you to, you'll know what to do."
"Okay."
Continuing to charge his arm cannon, Blitz made the lightning bolts striking the city more and more intense. The Maverick was unlucky enough to actually catch several of these strikes, jolting it back a few times. The electric field surrounding Blitz had become so thick Zero could hardly see him anymore. All of a sudden, he turned around, and propelled himself backward, in the direction the rest of the group was heading, and fired.
"Now, Zero!" he yelled, as the electricity from around him solidified into a huge blast of plasma flowing through the cannon on his arm. The field quickly disappeared, and Zero knew what Blitz was talking about before.
Spinning the Z-Saber like a propeller, Zero was able to create an electric spray from Blitz's energy blast. The Maverick looked on in shock as the beams of electricity rendered it piece by piece. It wasn't enough, though.
"It's still coming!" Echo screamed, leaping over another trash bin.
"Yeah, but it's slowing down! We injured it!"
It was true. The Maverick was sparking quite heavily. But the energy hadn't destroyed it, and Blitz was depleted for the moment.
"Just keep running!" X called to the rest of them. Then, suddenly, he stopped in the middle of the street. The others caught up and stopped as well.
"What's going on, X?" Zero asked.
"We're right near the others, that's what! That stupid street led us right to the city center!"
"What?!"
"See for yourself! Hey, Alia!" X said, waving. Zero's gaze was redirected to a nearby alleyway, where Iris, Alia, and Signas were crouched behind a slab of concrete.
"This is just great, you know that?"
"Zero!" Iris called when she saw him, and ran out into the street. Zero's eyes went wide, trying to tell her to get back to cover, but she was already halfway there.
"Iris, you idiot! Get back here!" Alia screamed, then took off to fetch her.
Signas was left alone. What about me?
"Girls! Wait up!" he called, running from behind the asphalt debris to where X and Zero were standing.
It was at that moment that the Maverick decided to round the corner, barreling down the street towards the group. It was the first time X or Zero had gotten a good look at it.
"What a sec," Zero started. "That's..."
The Maverick stopped in front of them, peering down with its insanely small head from a height of over thirty feet suspended on a gigantic body that was so out of proportion that it was surprising the wind hadn't snapped off its head yet. In its heyday, it could speak, but the damage it received in one particular battle had disabled that for now. The ring that ran from one side of its body, over its head, and into the other side was glowing, and the lionesque body began pounding the asphalt below them.
X struggled to stand underneath the pressure rising from the street.
"This really isn't safe to just stand here, you know."
Zero hung onto a nearby mailbox. "And what else can we do, X? Really?"
Echo's voice had taken on a frightened tone.
"Uh, guys..."
X looked back at her. "What is it?"
"Is the street supposed to be cracking like this?"
X and Zero glanced below them. Sure enough, the concrete road was beginning to split, the force of the pounding breaking the bonds that held in place for so many years.
"We've gotta get off this slab before it falls away!" X said, a little too late. The road gave way, swallowing the entire group into its black depths.
It was several days later, and Echo and Blitz were cleaning a section of the underground chamber where they found X and Zero. Blitz had just finished getting all the debris out of the room, and Echo was working on repairing the computer system.
"Do you think that there's something weird about Cirrus?" Echo asked.
Blitz shrugged. "I don't know. If you ask me, Cirrus was always a little intense."
"That's not what I mean. Doesn't it strike you as strange that he acts like he's hiding something? That he walked away from that Maverick assault without a scratch on him?"
"I think you're blowing things out of proportion, Echo. Just leave Cirrus alone. He's not going to lead us into some suicide mission just for the sake of seeing us get destroyed. He's not a Maverick."
"Yeah, I guess I should cool it. Stop being so paranoid."
"That's good advice."
Zero walked out of the remaining portion of the HQ's above-ground remains. He hadn't seen any sign of Alia, Iris, or Signas. Gate's suspended animation capsule was found a few hours ago, but they didn't release him. They wanted to make sure everyone was together.
He turned on the transmitter. "X, any luck?"
X was below-ground, searching the secondary capsule room. "I don't know. I found a few more containment chambers, but they're not labeled."
"How many?"
"Three."
"Alright, I'll be down there in a minute."
Strolling into the room X was in, Zero's vision was instantly directed to the three machines in the center of the room.
"That them?"
X nodded. "Yep."
Zero accessed the mainframe, choosing to open the capsules. Immediately, there was a loud hiss as the seals on the machines broke, releasing cold steam into the chamber. The lids drew back, and revealed exactly what they had hoped they'd find-Alia, Iris, and a very perturbed Signas.
"Just what the heck did you think you were doing, putting us in there? I'm in my right mind to-"
Signas was cut off as X read the monitor. "Maverick activity. Directly above."
Iris, who had been revived by Lifesaver after she fought Zero, clasped her hands together and answered in her smooth British accent, "What? How can that be?"
Alia straightened the radio headset she always wore. "Yeah, X, what's going on? I thought you destroyed the last of the Mavericks."
Zero spoke up in his friend's behalf. "That's not really the issue. Something happened, and now the Mavericks are back again. This time, though, it seems to be that they're collecting materials for a project or something."
"A project? What?"
Now it was X's time to explain. "The Mavericks seem to be under directions to collect materials. We don't know what for, but I wouldn't think it's a good thing to leave them alone and wait."
Signas stretched, popping his knuckles anxiously. "So what are we supposed to do?"
X and Zero looked at each other, then back at the others.
"Stay here and keep us informed," they said in unison.
"Zero," Iris complained, "it's dangerous. You could get hurt."
Alia shot a glance at her. "Oh, shut up, you chippie."
Iris' eyes went wide at that comment. Thankfully, Zero stepped in before the slapping and screaming began.
"Don't worry, Iris, I'll be okay. And we can try to figure out how Alia can access the HQ's old mainframe. Maybe there are some clues we didn't pick up on four hundred years ago. Gate can help her after we release him from suspended animation."
They seemed to accept that. X breathed a sigh of relief and was about to say something else when he felt a rumble.
"Did anyone else feel that?" he asked, glancing around the room.
"Feel what, X?" Signas returned. A few seconds later, the ground began shaking, knocking plaster and dust down into the chamber.
"Never mind. What is that?"
"I don't know. Hopefully not Mavericks," Alia said.
Zero unlatched his saber. "I'll go check."
Disappearing out of a nearby hole in the ceiling, Zero rushed out to street level and used his quick jump reflexes to propel himself onto a rooftop overlooking the desert. He couldn't see anything but sand, sand, more sand, and one large...
"Oh, no," he said to himself, jaw dropped in awe.
In the distance, a sandstorm of gargantuan proportions was speeding toward them. At the center of the storm was some sort of weird Maverick that seemed familiar, but Zero couldn't figure out where he had seen it before. Aiming himself down to the hole he jumped from, Zero plummeted back into the chamber, landing next to X.
"We have to take cover. It is a Maverick. A big one."
"Can't you fight it?"
"I wouldn't chance it. It's going so fast, it'll run over us before we could do anything."
"Alright. We need to get Gate out of here, though," Alia reminded them all.
"Yeah. X, you tell Echo and Blitz what's happening, and I'll make sure Gate gets out. Everybody else, get back to street level and head for the center of the city."
Signas was confused. "Why? We'll be out in the open."
"The core of the original Arcadia was really the remains of another city. That section was heavily fortified against attack. Chances are, even if that thing invades the city, it'll have to slow down to avoid damaging itself. It'll give us more time to get rid of it."
Alia, Iris, and Signas exited through the hole that Zero just exited from. X rushed into the next room, warning Echo and Blitz to abandon what they were doing and run for safety. Zero, meanwhile, began the task of getting Gate out of the containment capsule.
The door opened, aided by a sharp hit from Zero's saber, shattering the metal in front of the shocked reploid scientist.
"What are you doing?!" he yelled, as Zero picked him up and flung him over his shoulder. "I insist you put me down!"
"Shut up, Gate. Unless you wanna be Maverick feed."
The scientist figured it was better to be humiliated than dead, so he did as Zero said. The two of them met up with X, Echo, and Blitz on the street. Zero let Gate down.
"Now, run!" X yelled, taking off at a bolt.
Blitz jumped over a dumpster and looked back to see the giant Maverick bearing down on the city. It had jumped onto the street they were on and was now chasing them.
"Uh, guys. There's a bit of a problem."
Zero glanced to the gray and black reploid. "What?"
Blitz motioned back with his head, and Zero's surprised expression cleared immediately when he took a look behind them.
"Aah! Guys, haul it!"
The rest of them sped up, dodging falling debris as the Maverick knocked concrete loose from the buildings lining the street. Suddenly, Blitz had an idea.
"Echo! Scan this guy! What is he?!"
Turning around and quickly scanning the Maverick, Echo shouted back, "It looks like an aquatic!"
Blitz's eyes glistened enthusiastically. "Great! That's great!"
Zero looked over at the Hunter. "What are you on, Blitz? Crack?"
"No!" he yelled back, charging his blaster. X and Zero looked up as lightning began crashing all around them.
"X! Clear a path in front of us! Zero, can you use your saber to spray a plasma blast?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Just follow my lead, and when I tell you to, you'll know what to do."
"Okay."
Continuing to charge his arm cannon, Blitz made the lightning bolts striking the city more and more intense. The Maverick was unlucky enough to actually catch several of these strikes, jolting it back a few times. The electric field surrounding Blitz had become so thick Zero could hardly see him anymore. All of a sudden, he turned around, and propelled himself backward, in the direction the rest of the group was heading, and fired.
"Now, Zero!" he yelled, as the electricity from around him solidified into a huge blast of plasma flowing through the cannon on his arm. The field quickly disappeared, and Zero knew what Blitz was talking about before.
Spinning the Z-Saber like a propeller, Zero was able to create an electric spray from Blitz's energy blast. The Maverick looked on in shock as the beams of electricity rendered it piece by piece. It wasn't enough, though.
"It's still coming!" Echo screamed, leaping over another trash bin.
"Yeah, but it's slowing down! We injured it!"
It was true. The Maverick was sparking quite heavily. But the energy hadn't destroyed it, and Blitz was depleted for the moment.
"Just keep running!" X called to the rest of them. Then, suddenly, he stopped in the middle of the street. The others caught up and stopped as well.
"What's going on, X?" Zero asked.
"We're right near the others, that's what! That stupid street led us right to the city center!"
"What?!"
"See for yourself! Hey, Alia!" X said, waving. Zero's gaze was redirected to a nearby alleyway, where Iris, Alia, and Signas were crouched behind a slab of concrete.
"This is just great, you know that?"
"Zero!" Iris called when she saw him, and ran out into the street. Zero's eyes went wide, trying to tell her to get back to cover, but she was already halfway there.
"Iris, you idiot! Get back here!" Alia screamed, then took off to fetch her.
Signas was left alone. What about me?
"Girls! Wait up!" he called, running from behind the asphalt debris to where X and Zero were standing.
It was at that moment that the Maverick decided to round the corner, barreling down the street towards the group. It was the first time X or Zero had gotten a good look at it.
"What a sec," Zero started. "That's..."
The Maverick stopped in front of them, peering down with its insanely small head from a height of over thirty feet suspended on a gigantic body that was so out of proportion that it was surprising the wind hadn't snapped off its head yet. In its heyday, it could speak, but the damage it received in one particular battle had disabled that for now. The ring that ran from one side of its body, over its head, and into the other side was glowing, and the lionesque body began pounding the asphalt below them.
X struggled to stand underneath the pressure rising from the street.
"This really isn't safe to just stand here, you know."
Zero hung onto a nearby mailbox. "And what else can we do, X? Really?"
Echo's voice had taken on a frightened tone.
"Uh, guys..."
X looked back at her. "What is it?"
"Is the street supposed to be cracking like this?"
X and Zero glanced below them. Sure enough, the concrete road was beginning to split, the force of the pounding breaking the bonds that held in place for so many years.
"We've gotta get off this slab before it falls away!" X said, a little too late. The road gave way, swallowing the entire group into its black depths.