"Well, this clinches it. The old man's finally gone nutso."
Zero peered warily through the musty glass viewing window before him, which covered nearly the entire wall, barely concealing his feet. The window was used to get an eagle-eye view of the MHHQ's interrogation and questioning room, used previously in many cases to hold conferences with former Mavericks or emotionally disturbed Hunters, be they human or reploid. The Crimson Warrior had often used the window to entertain himself by watching a random psychotic Hunter ruthlessly tearing the room apart in fury, with Dr. Cain attempting to keep the nutcase under control. As these problems became more and more serious over the years, Cain decided to accompany himself with some bodyguards in the room at all times, to ensure that no major conflicts would arise with the patient while making sure that Cain would not be harmed in any way.
But in this case, however, Cain decided to do without them.
"Well, what do ya expect to happen?" X said nonchalantly from Zero's right side. "It's not like this is anything surprising, really. Cain's always been like this. Some sort of 'forgive and forget' policy, I guess. Although, in this case, I have to admit..." He squinted his greenish eyes down at the two figures seated at a table in the middle of the room; one the renowned Dr. Cain, and the other the former bloodthirsty Maverick known infamously as Vile, now apparantly reformed from his evil deeds and renamed 'Sunshine'. "This is really crossing the line. I mean, not only did this psycho cost us the lives of half our men during the first Maverick War, but he came inches away from sauteéing me on the spot. Oh yeah... he caused you to die, too."
"Yeah... to save your sorry blue ass, as I recall," Zero remarked. "Anyway, I personally figure that the doc somehow gained an extremely high amount of courage overnight, got loused up as usual, or he's having another one of his infamous 'senior moments', if you catch my drift. The old man seems to be gettin' more senile by the minute. Or maybe he's just been tipping the shot glasses a bit much during the past week. It really wouldn't come as a shock to me."
X shrugged. "Nonetheless, we should be keeping a close eye on him. You know that I've asked Cain numerous times if he wanted to have Jenn run a body scan on Vile, or have some of the other technicians check him out, or maybe have him kept isolated for a designated period of time so that the doctor can speak with him without the constant fear of being killed the next second. But he kept on declining and declining and declining, insisting that he talk to him in private, unattended... I just don't understand it..."
"Like I said... ye old bastard is senile, or a drunkard..." Zero repeated.
"But it's more than that," X continued. "I don't think anyone here trusts Vile the slightest bit, especially Cain - he built the guy, for chrissake, and he knows that he was extremely unstable and needed to be unplugged and locked away for good. Cain took a lot of risks with him back before the first Maverick Rebellion. So why, out of all people in this building, would he choose to walk in there without protection to speak privately with him? I've never seen Cain trust somebody this much before, considering the horrible rep Vile has. And I've known the doc my entire life."
Zero rolled his eyes. "Oh, is that so, X? It's pretty damned interesting that you never have, since I recall some very distinct cases in which Cain chose to follow through with his little 'trust policy', and things turned out to be pretty sour in the long run." He made a glance over to Wiedl, who was occupying himself with a game of solitaire in the corner of the room. He seemed completely oblivious to what X and Zero were discussing.
"Damn it all!" the orange-armored reploid spurted out, throwing his cards across the room and causing them to all scatter about in the air. "Lost again! I was THIS CLOSE to getting an eight of hearts, but NOOO... the deck keeps on shittin' out diamonds and clubs!" He pounded the wall with a clenched fist, making a large dent in its steel surface. "THE GAME IS FLAWED!"
Glacier Dragoon, sitting next to him and obviously not enjoying it, shook his head in pity. "I keep telling you, Wiedl, you can't play a decent game of solitaire with a deck of only 48 cards. Here," He handed him a small deck of new cards, with the MHHQ insignia printed on them. "Take these. I got them from downstairs. Brand new, and not lined with filth like yours."
"Bah!" Wiedl scoffed and pushed the cards away, as if the offer were an insult to his honor. "I don't need any fancy-pants cards. My cards are what make me me! I'm never relinquishing my cards. EVER. Don't you understand what I'm telling ya, Dragoon?"
"Alright, Wiedl, fine!" Glacier snapped defensively, placing his new cards to his side. "Forget about the damned cards. Like I give a flyin' fatoot if you send yourself to Hell's Gate. But I'll tell you this right now - sooner or later, you're gonna really need to use a REAL deck of cards. I never realized you could play solitaire with an Uno deck from the 1980's."
Wiedl winced. "But I enjoy the vast array of pretty colors..."
"Ugh... whatever," Glacier said frustratingly. He directed his gaze back to the floor; it was much more pleasing to watch than a giant oaf fumbling with children's playthings.
Zero turned back to face the viewing glass. "Back to what you said, X... I'm not exactly sure what to make of Cain's reaction to Vile's behavior either, but there's one thing I know for sure... if Vile actually knew that he was acting this way, he probably would've commited suicide a while ago. At least, that's what I would've done."
X didn't respond. Instead, he simply kept his eyes glued to Cain and Vile's conference, a bit of worry in his eyes.
"I think we should make the best of this, X," Zero started again. "This could be some great entertainment. I mean, it's not exactly everyday that you get to sit back and watch a senile old man have some 'quiet time' with a demented Maverick. Let the fun begin, I say!"
The old, wrinkled hands of Dr. James Cain fumbled through the disorganized pile of papers he laid out before him. He adjusted a pair of rounded spectacles until they remained completely stationary on his small nose.
"Alright, let's begin..." he said to the orange Maverick sitting on the opposite end of the table. "I'm going to ask you a few simple questions, and I'd like you to answer them for me to the best of your ability. Can you do that for me, Vile?"
"Yes, doctor," the reploid calmly responded.
"Alright then..." the doctor began. "First of all, I've heard that you've undergone some very serious... um, changes... since our last encounter with you. One of those has been a change in your name. Out of curiosity, what would that new name be...?"
Vile nodded. "My new name is Sunshine."
There was an awkward pause. Cain lifted his eyebrows in a bit of disbelief and concern. "Err... Sunshine..." he repeated. "That's very interesting, indeed... tell me, where would the inspiration for this name come from?"
The reploid's red eye glowed in intrest. "Well, after my revival, I finally realized all of the horrific and violent acts that I've been known to have commited in my previous lives. I decided then and there to change my ways for the better, take full responsibility for my previous actions, and attempt to redeem myself and to make up for my past deeds. I also realize that my life was quite dismal and saddening during my role as a Maverick. Therefore, I promised myself that my role as a hateful reploid would be over, and that my gloriously new form would be as beautiful as a ray of sunshine. Hence my new name."
"I see..." Cain replied. "Well, I think everyone here is more comfortable in calling you 'Vile', as you have been infamously known as a wretched type of being in the past. Would you be alright with us calling you that name rather than your new one, just to prevent any confusion as to your identity?"
He shrugged. "I guess that would be alright, sir, but only if it's for the sake of understanding. I don't want to be presented as the Maverick I formerly was."
The doctor smiled. "Don't worry about it, I'll make sure you won't be. Now, for my next question... this redemption you planned... how exactly did you intend to carry this out?"
Vile took a moment of thought. "Well, I first devised a plan to carry things out systematically," he said. "After making my way back to the city, I thought it might be easiest to write down all of my past blunderings and make up for them. I made quite a long list of victims, actually... it would've taken quite a while to make up for all of them."
Cain was intrigued. "May I see this list of yours?"
"Certainly," he responded. He reached down and pulled up a small writing pad, with a weakened binding and paper stained with grease. Upon examining the notebook, Cain discovered that the pages filled up with indecipherable jargon, so small that it could barely be read even if it were magnified by a hundred times.
"Erm... quite interesting, indeed..." Cain said, wiping the excess sweat off of his glasses and handing the book back to Vile. "Just a tad hard to understand."
The reploid smirked. "I'm not exactly a penmanship guru, sir,"
Yes, well... moving on to some more in-depth questions. You told me before that you decided to change your name after your revival. So I'm guessing this was a conscious decision, rather than you somehow being reprogrammed this way? Or am I not listening clearly enough?"
"No, you're right," Vile assured. "From what I can still remember, I made the decision to be the way I am, but I believe that maybe my reviver made a glitch in my programming, or was trying to do away with my emotions... I... I'm having trouble thinking back to that time. I apologize..."
"Not a problem, Vile. Just relax," Cain consoled, raising an assuring hand. "I know some of these questions may be difficult for you to answer, and I'm not going to put any pressure on you." He cleared his throat. "Now then, Vile... could you tell me a bit about your latest revival... if you can remember anything about it... more importantly, who was responsible for it?"
"Urgh..." Vile spat out, clutching his helmet with both hands. "No... I can't... quite... recall..." he mumbled incoherently. "The past few days have been very awkward... but I do remember that the person responsible for my revival was someone evil... I recognized him when I first saw him... but now, for some reason... it's extremely hard to think back to then. It's... it's almost like it never even happened... but there was something very distinct about my revival. I don't really believe that my recovery was meant for good purposes, I can remember that distinctly."
"Ahh, I see..." Cain said with sudden intrest. "So your conversion may have either been a conscious decision, or just a complete blunder on your former advocate's part."
"Yes, sir."
"Of course..." he mumbled, scribbling down some notes in his folder. "Yes, yes... things are starting to become a bit clearer now. Vile, I personally believe that you may have experienced something of a memory loss due to your rebuilding, as it seems that you can barely remember any truly important details... it arouses suspicion, frankly."
Vile gave a puzzled look. "Excuse me...?"
"Sorry if that sounded a little on the harsh side... but many would come to the conclusion that this little "memory loss" dilemma is an elaborate setup for some sceme carefully planned out by you and the Mavericks, involving fooling us and then taking us down when our backs are turned. No offense or anything..."
"None taken, sir," Vile calmly responded. "I understand that the kind of damage I've caused in the past is immesurable. It's perfectly normal to you to be a little paranoid of me - I've put you in a bit of an awkward situation, I guess."
Cain nodded. "Don't worry about it... now Vile, before we end this session, I'd like to ask you one more question. It'll require a bit of memory, but I'm going to give it a shot. Are you alright with that?"
"Yes, sir," Vile replied, eagerly nodding his head in agreement.
"Alright, then... Vile, from the best of your ability, I'd like you to try to go back to the time before you were revived... when you still practiced an evil nature, and when you fought against X and Zero. Do you remember anything, as in emotional anguish, physical pain or struggle, or anything of the sort? Just out of curiosity..."
He nodded. "Well, yes.... It's a little bit hazy, so I'm not going to be able to give you any real detail... but I remember myself being raised high above the ground, on something of a support mech-style robot. X and Zero... I remember them being there. They seemed extremely surprised to see me there... Doppler had given me life, I believe... under the acts of some unspoken evil force. We engaged in battle, and I recall my mount crumbling before my feet and becoming nothing but burnt, useless scrap metal. That's when I began fighting viciously... I still recall the feelings I felt that day - anger, unyielding hatred, lust for the blood of my attackers... and then, as soon as it started, I fell. I was dead... and I believed myself to be dead for good. Then... I... I... errgh...."
Instantly, Vile clutched his helmet once again, his entire head shaking violently. It seemed that something about those memories had infected the helpless Maverick's mind, and the feelings were seeping back. His brain was slowly, ever so slowly giving in to the feeding of hate that was being fed to it from that horrible memory... a type of unimaginable hatred, one that could cause someone to commit deeds worse than anyone on earth could possibly imagine...
Slowly, the ex-Maverick rose to his feet, still clutching his metallic skull in total agony. His vision became a total blur; the desk, the man sitting across from him, the entire room seemed to be drifting far away from him at that very moment. The memory was winning him over, and he lost all control of himself before stumbling into complete darkness... and the dark and dismal scene replayed in his infected mind...
"X..."
There was blood at his side; his vision was extremely blurry, but he could still partially see the sickening, blackened fluid from the dark corner of his eye. The earth almost seemed to be tipping on its unyielding axis, causing the entire world to swirl into a sea of radical and completely dizzying array of colors. He could barely feel any other part of his body; they had gone entirely numb, and he figured that it was caused by some error in his system. But he knew truly what was happening to him.
He hardly had any strength left in him; simply lifting a single finger on one of his scorched hands was like a type of merciless bloody torment from the very bowels of Hell. Using all of the latent energy left within his shattered corpse, the broken Maverick managed to lift his helmeted head high to take a final glance at his fatal wound. He only saw it for a moment, but he could've almost memorized completely; a deep, circular blow, covering almost his entire chest area. He felt it as it dripped with immense, horribly morbid reploid blood. He was disgusted... why, why did this have to happen...? What did he do wrong...?
This is it, I guess... he thought. I'm going to die... again...
He could hardly even register exactly what events had occured - as far as his hazy memory could take him, just a few minutes ago he had been in the middle of an intese and brutal battle against the one being who he had been waiting to fight for years - MegaMan X himself. After being brought back to life by one of Sigma's new aids, Dr. Doppler, Vile had assisted the doctor in creating the new ultimate ride armor, the Goliath MK2. He believed that nothing could possibly get the best of a machine such as this - unfortunately, the Hunters had chosed to prove him wrong, with both X and Zero barging in on his fun and tearing up his beloved mech of destruction. Now, as he could see, it lay in a smoldering heap beside him, devoid of all life, completely and permanently out of commision. It was saddening to see it lay there - he really believed that the two Hunters would be unable to get past him in this instance. And then, after Vile had entered into a sort of berserker state, he lunged venomously at X, driven insane by hatred... and out of the blue, the azure reploid managed to drive a plasma beam into his nubile stomach... and then he had finally fallen.
X and Zero... the dynamic duo. Vile was not fond of Zero's power at all; the crimson Hunter was far too crafty in battle for his own good, and had a kind of unwavering bravery that could not be diminished in any way. If needed, the Hunter was even willing to relinquish his own life for the sake of his comrades; though it was hard for Vile to distinguish if that quality should be considered commendable or just a weakness. Yes... Zero was certainly not a Maverick anymore, and it was hard to really say that he would ever become one in the future.
But Zero in particular wasn't the one he was mostly concerned about; no, he was very interested in the power of his blue-armored partner. Something about him was wrong, very wrong indeed. Though Zero was an all-around powerful combatant and exteremely skilled in combat, X was the one who's ability truly shone through. He remembered the first time he had entered in battle with X without the aid of his beloved mech... the blue Hunter was completely restrained from the force of his shoulder cannon beam, but somehow, he had managed to break free from the restraint and instantly regenerate all of his lost energy. Though it wasn't quite apparent at the time, it soon came to Vile that maybe X's power was completely indefinite; that it couldn't be measured by any kind of calculator, ruler, or other measuring tool. This may have clinched it, since X had already grown increasingly stronger over the years, and had managed to fell him once again, despite all of the arrogant Maverick's tireless efforts. Yes... his power could even be limitless....
That's when it struck him; finally, the definite reason as to why he had been defeated before and again. In man-to-man combat, in was almsot improbable that X could be defeated, for some reason. It all had made sense - the defeating of 24 fully-armed experienced Maverick militants, his own surprising defeat (caused by the energy regained by X), and more importantly, the falling of the great Maverick leader Sigma, twice in a row. He didn't doubt that, sooner or later, Sigma would fall to the power of X once again, and predictably moreso afterwards. And, with the practically-equally powerful Zero right beside him in battle, they were completely unstoppable.
Oh, what a fool he had been, to think he could decieve his mind into trying to destroy the most powerful reploids to walk the Earth! X had finally evolved from that timid young amateur he had come close to killing on that dismal highway years ago... he was now an exprerienced mercenary, and with that kind of amazing ability and leadership, he was capable of claiming victory in almost any battle he so wished. And Zero... Zero had also evolved greatly as well, and had been able to focus the amazing Maverick power he had possesed in the past and used it in favor of the pro-human side. Vile now knew that, physically, he would never be able to rise up to both X and Zero's level; it was impossible, and any attempts he had made in the past were purely in vain.
But the hateful Maverick knew very well that his arch nemesis was certainly not perfect - oh no, far from it. Though X's physical ability was innumerous and unbelievably powerful beyond all means, he had one outstantding weakness: his emotion. Though Zero was quite emotionally balanced and rarely seemed timid or frightened, X was a different story; his life had not been the easiest one, as he had been forced into fighting and killing his fellow reploids, and causing a great deal of destruction - things he hated most out of anything. He also had sure doubts about the reason of his existence, and if he was truly destined to battle his own. Yes... Vile would not die without exploiting this weakness. He never would accept being defeated mentally, no matter how powerful and persistent his opponent may be. Now all he needed to do was leave X with a message... a message that would haunt him for the rest of his living days, even if Vile never came back for billions of years. It was his one last chance at glory, at dignity. He wouldn't meet his demise as a shattered, helpless weakling.
The cold and deadly scythe of the Reaper was closing in on him rapidly; he needed to get this done, and he needed to do so as soon as possible. He managed to open his weighted eyelids to gain visage of the blue demon who had broken him, who had finally finished him off for good. The Hunter stood there, blankly staring at his shattered corpse... it was almost like he was mocking him, or that he took pleasure in watching him meet his final curtain. The sight brewed that same extreme hatred within Vile once again, the one he had felt ever since he first laid eyes on him. Mustering up all of the energy inside him, he told X the most haunting and terrible words he would ever hear:
"Don't think this is the end, X!... I will haunt you... until the day you die..."
"Vile? Vile? Are you alright there, son?"
He opened his eyes once again. A wave of blindingly bright colors flashed before his eyes, and finally, he awoke from what seemed like a 100 year rest. The world came back to him, and he could now see that he was back in the Maverick Hunter HQ's interrogation room. Glancing around him, he could see that he was sprawled against the wall in the back of the room, his legs laying together against the soft rug on the floor's surface.
Beside him was undoubtedly Dr. Cain, with a look of extreme worry on his wrinkled face. All around the two of them was a large group of medical assistants, technicians, Hunters, and many others. Apparently, his little descent in to madness had gained quite a bit of attention around the building. He glanced over to Cain at his side.
"What..." he mumbled softly. "What... happened to me?"
Cain made a stern expression. "Honestly... we really don't quite know, Vile. After you had started explaining to me about what you remembered of your previous death, you seemed to have a horrible pain entering your brain, causing you to stumble blindly backwards into the wall and eventually collapse, completely unconscious. You've been asleep for about ten minutes, my friend... I was a little worried for a moment there. You could've been dying somehow."
Vile turned his head away from the doctor. "So... that's what happened..." he mumbled again. "I'm sorry for this, doctor... but there was something about that memory... it seemed to infect my brain, and it was almost like it was controlling me... and then I visioned the entire scene over again in my daze. It was a horrible feeling... like I was being tortured by Satan himself, almost. My entire body tensed up to the breaking point, my head swelled beyond all means, my legs shook up and became extremely weak and feeble... it was terrible... I'm sorry, doctor, I'm sorry..."
"Calm down, Vile," Cain assured, placing a hand on the Maverick's golden shoulder. "It's not your fault... I should have assumed that asking a question as sensitive as that could have a rather large risk of catastrophy. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking." He handed him a small bottle of a crimson-hued liquid; it looked like it was some kind of elixir. "Here... drink this," he offered. "It'll make you feel much better after a few minutes. I must warn you, though... the stuff tastes a bit bitter."
Vile took the liquid and took a small chug. Cain was right - the liquid was pretty bitter tasting, and it caused the golden reploid to pulsate his head in a bit of disgust. But he managed to swallow the entire bottle without any complaint, and in the next few minutes he finally had enough energy to rise back to his feet.
"There... that's good, Vile," Cain consoled, helping Vile back up with an extended hand. "I understand that you may be a little weak in the knees after that rather nasty spill... but no need to worry, my friend. Here... I'll escort you to the medical ward. We're going to run a few simple tests on you, and soon enough, you'll be as good as new. And then afterwards, we're going to run a few more tests to measure your physical abilities. Is all of that okay with you, Vile?"
The weak reploid gave a small nod of agreement.
"Good to see that, my boy," Cain responded eagerly. He wrapped an arm around Vile's shoulders, and very slowly he led him towards the door across the room. Before he could, however, voices of protest could be heard from all over the room.
"What the hell are you doin', doc?" cried one stray human Hunter.
"Dude, you're frickin' crazy!" another one yelled.
"He's gonna butcher you!" chimed in a tinny voice.
"My legs hurt!" yelled one in the far corner.
Cain was able to ignore all of these jeers and hollers of anger; that is, until X finally approached him, looking extremely concerned.
"Doc!" he exclaimed. "Please... are you sure it's very safe to be taking him into the ward by yourself? Here, let Zero and I take 'em in, just in case he tries to put up a fight... you never know what could happen, y'know..."
Before X could finish his statement, Cain raised a hand of assurance. "Don't you be worrying about my physical state, X. Vile will not be causing any kind of trouble, I can promise you that. I'll be ableto handle him perfectly easily on my own..."
"But doc, you aren't serious..."
"Please," Cain said in a stern tone. "Trust me when I say this, X my boy. I'll be fine, comprende? Now what I want you to do is go on and meet back up with Zero, Glacier, and the others. Vile's going to be in the medical ward with Jenn and Mick for a little while. After he's completely recovered and examined, I'll be able to give you a full report on his mental and physical state. But for now, all he needs to do is rest. The past few days have probably been pretty damned rough on him, no doubt. Arrivederci."
And with that, Cain and a disgruntled Vile left the small room, leaving X and a group of random Hunters very much confused.