Zero had been in interesting positions before, but this had to take the cake. The world was going to hell outside of his confines, but he could see nothing of it, much less act to change it. So, he was stuck sitting in this cage unable to sleep due to his frustration. This left him with one thing: his thoughts.
The crimson prodigy wished things were as simple as they'd been in years past. When he'd first started out, he was nothing more than a thrill seeker. He fought because he wanted to, savoring the excitement of action and not really thinking about the killing aspect. Several things, Mea's death included, led to a gradual change in his attitude. Probably most of the change came from being assigned full command of the Maverick Hunters, which more or less required him to curb his cowboy tendencies. However, even then once he got into combat he could rip and tear through his opponents without a second thought. He saw it as defending his principles. He supposed that was a youth thing.
Ever since his revival, though, things had been different. It wasn't that he was afraid to die, nor was he afraid to kill if he had to. The difference was that he didn't enjoy it anymore. Fighting itself was still a blast, he'd admit, but taking lives was becoming less and less appealing. Then came the Repliforce War, and with it went all the love Zero had ever had for battlefields. The battlefield had cost him almost everything…Colonel and Iris had been like a part of himself, and while he still had X and the comrades in his own unit, his Repliforce friends could never be replaced. And he'd killed them. He'd killed both of them with his own hands, totally without Sigma's influence, in full control of himself. He was probably being too hard on himself—after all, in both situations he'd been taken by the innate rage Wily had cursed him with.
But this situation was different from all the others. With the exception of Repliforce, Zero had always carried a grudge against his opponents, and hated them and all they stood for. It was easy to justify killing Sigma, Vile, Serges, Agile and Violen, and wounding Doppler, because Zero had hated them for their deeds, which had been judged as morally unacceptable. But when fighting the Repliforce, Zero hadn't wanted to kill his opponents. Oh, sure, it wasn't as hard to kill the Repliforce officers like Web Spider and Slash Beast. Zero didn't know them that well, and assumed their overall mission would justify his killing them. He hadn't particularly enjoyed it, but it wasn't worthy of a mental battle. Colonel, however, had torn his emotions apart in battle. More than once Zero had frozen during that fight, unwilling to continue, and Colonel had moved in for the kill. It was a dangerous thing, not hating your enemy, because it brought hesitation, and those who hesitated were indeed lost.
That was why Zero was so worried about the present situation. Inside his head a war was going on between his better judgment and his conscience. If he ever escaped this cage, he knew, he would eventually be forced to fight the Terrornova assassins. His better judgment screamed that there was really no debate. Malevex, Teytha, Mortar, and Gredam were nuclear terrorists, and you couldn't get much worse than that. They planned to activate nuclear weapons, and therefore they deserved to die. Zero tried it again with different words. They planned to seek redress for horrific grievances, and therefore deserved to die. There seemed to be a conflict.
The major reason Zero was even having this argument with himself was because he quite simply no longer hated the Mavericks. Even the regular foot soldiers and squad leaders were not objects for hate anymore. Zero had learned just how evil humans could be, and consequently he'd learned the reason Sigma rebelled all those years ago. Sigma hadn't been necessarily evil back then. He'd just been a revolutionist seeking equality in the way he thought would work best for his people. Afterwards he'd become a slave to the Virus, a demon who cared only for carnage, which made him very evil now despite anything he might have been in the past.
But were the assassins evil? They were specifically targeting the Maverick Hunter Headquarters with weapons that carried a tiny blast radius, which seemed to hint that they were trying to avoid collateral damage. A truly evil group would have tried to maximize the destruction. The assassins were also fiercely devoted to each other, from what Zero could see, and a truly evil person had no real loyalties but to themselves. And could their past deeds be considered evil, either? Malevex had killed Mea, Zero's friend—under the orders of Chartreuse and Major Komanov. Three of them had attacked at the quarry, killing Sol and Katana, two members of Zero's unit—as part of a plot devised by Sigma to conveniently swap bodies.
Fine, they weren't evil, said Logic. What difference did it make? They were his enemies, and they planned to kill all his friends in one fell swoop, and it was their own choice this time, not Komanov's or Sigma's. They were Mavericks, and he was a Hunter, and it was his job and his duty to destroy them.
But at what cost, asked Conscience. The last time he'd had this debate with himself he'd returned from battle devastated and unable to sleep at night because of what he'd done. Zero found himself to be deathly afraid of the same thing happening again, especially since he'd finally been starting to recover. The truth was, he really didn't hate any of them. He'd hated Malevex at the outset, but as he'd learned the truth his hate had been placed on other parties…and he didn't even really hate Chartreuse, Virdelko, and Kitao so much as he was disappointed and disgusted with them. He didn't hate anyone. And if he didn't hate them, how was he supposed to kill them and justify it? Sure it might be technically right, but if Zero killed them would justice really be served? It would be like telling Chartreuse and the others "I don't like what you did, but I'll help you cover it up because those people were more evil than you are." Which, Zero decided flatly, could not be true. He'd seen a violent temper and a willingness to kill in both Malevex and Teytha, and a quiet fire burning in Mortar, but in none of them had he detected the outright malice he'd seen time and time again in people like Vile and Sigma. They were fighting for each other…
…And wasn't that why Iris had fought? For Colonel?
Zero let out a sigh and leaned his head back against the cold steel wall. What the hell was he supposed to do? He couldn't just walk away from these people, could they? Like it or not, they were terrorists, and might pull this shit again someday if they were set free. But could he destroy them?
Probably, he decided grudgingly. Physically it was possible, for sure. Zero had much more battle experience under his belt, and even though these Mavericks were for once as old as he was they were still accustomed to fighting from the shadows. If he could create a duel situation, he should be able to defeat them. He also supposed he could survive, mentally, if he had to.
If he had to. The words resonated through Zero's mind. Would he have to? Hell, would they ambush and kill him before he even had a chance? He had a feeling Malevex or Teytha wouldn't ever have this conversation with themselves. They'd just strike Zero down if the moment came and not bat an eye. Malevex himself had said that he'd wanted to kill Zero outright rather than capture him and give him the chance to ravage the base from the inside. But that had been, again, with his comrades in consideration and without any actual hate for the crimson captive. He wondered if Malevex hated him? He was the instrument of the humans, after all. Would that hate allow those assassins an edge in battle?
Foolish thoughts, said Logic and Conscience at the same time, because until Zero got out of this blasted room he could do nothing. The steel bars in front of him still sparked with electricity, and Zero wasn't about to try to rip them apart. It was impossible for a Reploid to grab them long enough to bend them without sustaining enough electrical damage to overload their circuits, and he knew it. He was trapped until someone let him out.
And when that time came, he really hoped the person would be letting him free and not leading him to his execution.
____________________
Bit hadn't been paying attention to the monitor for a while, having been preoccupied with Gallagher's launch and monitoring other base security measures. Also, the technician that was supposed to have been monitoring all the screens in that corner had for a long time been cleaning his firearm. Perhaps the most important factor was that Cyber Peacock had told the security team to expect "blinks" in the power system, and so when the technician first glanced at the UNDINE monitor and saw static, he imagined that it had something to do with the power. After all, Gallagher had launched from that room and lots of power had been used up. Plus, the room wasn't all that important now that the airship was gone, and thus no warning bells went off in the technician's head.
Now, after all this time when he checked it again, things were different.
"Sir," the technician said, calling Bit from the other end of the large control room at the central core in upper Seraph Castle. "I think I might have something here."
The slight golden Maverick was there in a heartbeat. "What's the problem?" The technician pointed to the static on the UNDINE monitor. "When did this come up?"
"Just a minute ago," the techie lied, covering his ass. "I thought it was a power hiccup, but it's not coming back."
Bit frowned behind his facemask and input a few commands. He frowned deeper when there was no result. "Diavus," he said loudly to the chief technician. "Get Malevex in here."
The acting commander was already in the general area and arrived within the minute with Teytha right behind him, moving to where Diavus and Bit were now hovering. "What's happening?"
"Maybe something interesting," Bit said in a monotone. "The cameras in Revolver's garage are shot to hell. We originally took it for one of those power hiccups Peacock was talking about, but it's been a bit long for that."
"Analysis?" Malevex asked next.
The golden security chief nodded. "It would be a nice place to invade. We'd like to hope the chief tech, Billo, closed the garage doors leading to the surface, which we have no reason not to believe. Still, the cameras are out, and…" Bit shrugged. "Just a bad feeling, sir."
"There's that hall leading from the garage to the base interior," Teytha pointed out.
"Yeah," Malevex decided quickly. "Why take chances? Bit, have a look. We'll keep tabs here."
"Let me page Byte," Bit responded. "Then I'll put a team together and take a look. It's probably nothing," he added. "The Hunters all turned back when Gallagher attacked."
"Nevertheless," Malevex said with finality. Bit nodded again and left to find his brother.
"What do you think?" Diavus asked after Bit had left. "We got trouble?"
"We're about to find out," his boss replied in a voice that betrayed no emotion. It didn't serve to put Diavus at ease.
____________________
"EUREKA!" Delates shouted, beholding at last the chasm that led to Revolver's garage.
"Pipe down!" X snapped, trudging over one last damned snow hill. The blizzard was kicking up again, much to their discomfort, and while X would be glad to get out of the elements he didn't want to go alerting the Mavericks before they had to.
"Think it's heated?" Feldspar asked, shivering and approaching Delates.
"Probably not," Unit 0's acting commander guessed. "Mavericks aren't the best when it comes to comforts."
"Just shut up," the snow-pelted Acrystos ordered, shaking off as much of her powdery cloak as she could. "I've been swimming in snow all night."
"Point," Delates and Feldspar conceded.
"All guns blazing?" Tyclammel asked, talking to X.
"Bad idea," X decided at once. "Be ready to defend yourselves, but I don't think we'll need it."
"Agreed," the more restrained Cort put in, twirling one of his magnums in his fingertips. His black trench coat flapped in the wind behind him, and pulled away from his gray-armored body it provided no protection but he wasn't shivering at all. "The Investigators would have taken care of all resistance when they went in."
"Right." X looked around and did a brief headcount. Good, everyone was there. Delates, the jack-of-all-trades; Tyclammel, the heavy weapons expert; Feldspar, the sniper; Lyon, the demolitions master; Cort, the deadliest pistol marksman X had ever encountered; Acrystos, the stealth queen; and himself, Mega Man X, the leader and loner. It should be enough, the Blue Bomber told himself for the hundredth time that night—no, it was morning now, he knew, it was just that sun hadn't quite appeared yet, and it wouldn't for a long time given the snowstorm.
"What are we waiting for, Great One?" the ever-impatient Delates asked.
X glanced up at the still-black sky and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he prepared for yet another strike into the heart of the Maverick war machine. Then he looked down and into Delates's eyes and nodded. "Let's go."
X was the first one in. He would have it no other way. Delates was right behind him, shortly followed by Acrystos and Cort. Tyclammel, Feldspar, and Lyon leapt into the chasm together and all seven Maverick Hunters landed inside coding lab UNDINE, ready for battle—Delates had his arm cannon activated and was looking for trouble; Acrystos held two beam sabers with short but wide blades the glowed a cool blue; Lyon's arms had converted to sport miniature missile launchers that rose above his hands; Tyclammel's Gatlin gun was activated; both of Cort's pistols were in his hands with full ammo charges; Feldspar's arm cannon was activated though his sniper rifle was strapped to his back.
What they found was…nothing. Well, there was something: dead bodies. Heatnix, Wolfang, and Scarabich had been busy, they all saw. X walked right past the corpse of chief technician Billo and looked ahead to where the actual UNDINE lab now lay in ruins. "It won't be coming back this time," he thought aloud.
"Cameras are all destroyed, sir," Cort reported after strolling up. "Looks like our comrades did a thorough job."
"Yeah, but have the Mavericks noticed that?" X thought, again aloud. Cort didn't answer.
"I think that's our path," Tyclammel spoke up, motioning to the far hallway in the room's eastern corner. It didn't seem to lead to any of the obvious garage control rooms, and thus the Hunters approached it assuming that it was the path they were looking for.
"All right," X said quietly as they approached the hallway. "You've all got the fortress map implanted in your CPUs. You know that Seraph Castle, like all of the Maverick fortresses, is based on a 'ring' structure for security. Typically massive security is placed on the outer ring, since it serves as the main defense line. We're passing that up entirely and appearing somewhere in the middle of the second ring."
"We still don't know which way takes us to the third ring," Delates pointed out glumly.
"True," X agreed. "But you all won't need to worry about that. There's an elevator nearby that you'll head to right away. Take that to the lower levels and begin the process of placing bombs on the castle foundation."
"No problem," Lyon said confidently. "We'll be sure to let you know before we explode them, of course."
"Of course," X replied dryly.
"Then you really are just gonna go rushing in there like Rambo?" Delates asked. "Are you absolutely sure you don't want any help?"
"Delates, I've done this time and time again on my own, and it's actually a blessing. I'm not saying you guys can't keep up, I'm just saying it's easier for me to fight knowing there's no one else for me to worry about."
"If you're sure, then…" Feldspar grinned. "Who are we to stop ya? Though how exactly do you plan to find this third ring?"
"That'll be where the control room is," X pointed out. "I don't know how many Maverick leaders are still in this base, but if they're around then one will be guarding each ring, and the head honcho will be hiding out in the control room. I guess I'll just pick a hallway and see where it takes me." He grinned. "Hasn't failed me yet."
"That's how it's done," Acrystos agreed. "Any idea what's on this path, though?"
"It wasn't in the castle blueprints," Cort pointed out.
"Yeah," Delates nodded. "So there could be any amount and size of rooms in between here and the second ring. Stay on your toes, people."
They did just that for perhaps another two full minutes before encountering a large door of the sort that X knew all too well. It was purplish in coloration and looked almost like a column. If the past was any indication, there would be a large arena and a large guardian behind this gate…but, that didn't make sense, did it?
"Don't worry," X said, noting their apprehension. "There's no real sense in them putting a guardian here, of all places. Remember, this isn't a place people are supposed to enter the castle from."
"I guess you're right," Delates said, not buying it and keeping his buster at the ready.
X approached the door and placed the palm of his hand on the central orb. Security doors like this opened at the input of a certain command, and X had faced enough of them that he had plenty of codes to pick from. The computer in the orb scanned X for the right one, and sure enough there it was. The door broke apart and the parts retraced into the ceiling and floor with a sharp hiss. The Maverick Hunters each inhaled slowly, looking into the room beyond them. Then, one by one, they entered.
For a while it was quiet. The room was a bit wider than the hall they'd just left, and quite long, but other than that there was nothing of interest, nor was there a giant guardian waiting to smash them to bits.
"Guess the bossman was right!" Feldspar said happily, clapping X on the back.
At that precise minute the sound of a gate at the other end of the room caught their attention, and they heard footsteps coming their way. Many footsteps.
Feldspar blinked and glanced back towards X, who had the same look on his face. "Uh oh."
____________________
"I can't believe you didn't sound the alarm immediately!"
"There were power hiccups!" Bit protested to his brother as they pounded down the stairs, a small troop of six Maverick soldiers behind them. "We were told to expect this sort of thing!"
"By who?" the grumpy Byte growled. "Kujacker? That scheming, good-for-nothing opportunist? Or The Team, who have no concept of security management in a large area? For Chrissakes, Bit, we were the chiefs of Doppler Town! We know security! Why deviate from protocol even a little?"
"It happened, all right?" the annoyed Bit responded, his massive shield strapped to his back and ready to come off in a moment's notice into his waiting hands. "It's probably nothing, just a malfunction in the cameras."
"Then how come Billo hasn't been answering our pages?" Byte asked bluntly. Bit had to admit that was a good point. "See? Something's going on, brother."
That was, for whatever reason, a hard concept for Bit to accept as he started down the long hallway leading to Revolver's garage. They would first pass through a larger room guarded by their favored security gates, a room that had been originally used for storage, and then they would be able to see what was the matter. Bit couldn't rightly believe that anything was wrong. Despite Byte's criticism, he'd done everything by the book this time. This was his second chance, and it didn't matter to him who he was working for—Doppler, Sigma, he didn't care—he just wanted to succeed for once. Security was his business, and this time he thought he'd handled all the angles.
"Be ready for anything!" the overeager Byte said to the six grunts, somewhat poorly trained ones compared to the others at Seraph Castle.
"We're not taking them on if we can help it," Bit snapped, pressing his hand against the orb in the center of the security gate at the end of the hallway. "We're not a force to fight a battle with."
"Says you," Byte snapped back. "How bad could it possibly be?"
That said, the brothers and their ragtag force entered the storage room and at first saw nothing of import…then their eyes became adjusted to the relative darkness the chamber was immersed in, and they made out several familiar figures…
"Uh oh," said Bit and Byte together.
____________________
For a while the two parties just stared at each other. Bit, Byte and their six comrades stood, weapons ready but too dumbfounded to use them. X, Delates, Acrystos, Feldspar, Lyon, Cort, and Tyclammel stood in much the same manner. Finally Bit broke the silence by stepping forward and clearing his throat, an action mimicked by X.
"X."
"Bit."
Another uncomfortable silence followed, though this one was not broken by words of greeting.
"KILL THEM!" came Byte's sudden roar, and it snapped everyone into action. By some perverse luck, it was actually the Hunters who benefited most from Byte's battle cry, instantly coming to attention and firing off a barrage of rounds at the Maverick soldiers. Two of the Mavericks fell, not dead but crying out in pain from serious wounds. The brothers, suddenly without a number advantage, charged together. Bit's shield came out in front of him just in time to block the spray of fire from Tyclammel's Gatlin gun while Byte barreled through plasma blasts from X and Delates. Acrystos zipped with impressive speed across the room into the Maverick ranks, dueling one of the grunts with her double blades. He parried a few of them, but a sudden riposte took him through the throat. Three down.
"Good grief!" Bit cried in exasperation. They'd never pull through like this! He deflected another plasma burst with his shield and leapt away from the battlefield. The red gem on his forehead—shaped somewhat like a burning ember—came to life, and from it he drew energies that formed into a thin glowing red ring. He threw the slow moving projectile at his target—Cort—like a Frisbee. The marksman saw it coming and dove hard to his right, letting the ring pass him by. Then Cort stood sharply and leveled a pistol towards the temporarily undefended Bit. With great speed he loosed six shots, but with equal speed Bit raised his shield to deflect them. Cort didn't have time to waste on a counterattack—he pivoted on his right heel, spinning and firing his second pistol at another Maverick, one of the original two down who had decided to get back up and attack the marksman from behind. That taken care of, Cort had to dodge another ring attack from Bit, and then turned to redirect his full attention on his golden opponent.
X and Delates weren't having much more fun with Byte. The behemoth Reploid let out a roar and charged the two like a linebacker. Delates converted his arm cannon back to a fist and chose instead his beam saber, lashing out at Byte's domed green stomach. The Maverick grunted, but lashed his fist out and caught Delates in the chest, hurling the Hunter clear off his feet. Byte then turned to punish X…only to learn that the blue Hunter wasn't there anymore.
The tide of the short battle was about to turn fully in the favor of the Maverick Hunters. Bit raised his shield to defend against Cort's second wave of pistol shots, and when the gunman had to stop and reload he lowered his shield and allowed a wave of flaming red energies to cover his fist. His boot thrusters prepared to fire up and take him past Cort in a flaming slash attack that would cut the Hunter in two. He never noticed X approaching him from the left flank, and just as his shield went down X unleashed a fully charged burst of plasma at close range into the Maverick's side.
Bit flew ten feet through the air and landed in a smoking heap at his brother's feet. Byte looked on in shock at the spectacle, dropping heavily to his knees at his brother's side. Time seemed to crash for both the Hunters and the Mavericks, and no side stirred for maybe five seconds. Then the remaining three Maverick grunts beat it the way they'd come, racing away from the terrifying Maverick Hunters, whose only casualties were Delates with his sore ribcage and Lyon with a flesh wound on his upper outer thigh.
"You lose, brothers," X said darkly, leveling his arm cannon at Byte's blank face. "Where are the assassins?" Byte said nothing, glaring at the Hunter leader with a mask of hatred. "Nuclear terrorists," X fairly spat in disgust. "It's over."
"It's never over, Hunter!" Byte finally hissed in reply. An instant later he and his brother shimmered and teleported away, looking as though they were splitting apart.
X lowered his cannon and let out a sharp breath. "Damn."
"A little testy, there, Mr. Pacifist?" Delates said gently after a time.
X turned and actually glared. "These people killed a lot of Hunters a few minutes ago and they're gonna do it again unless Zion stops them in time. If there ever was a time I wanted to fight…now is it."
"No quarter, then?" Delates asked just as gently, looking in the direction of the surviving wounded Maverick, who had pressed himself in a corner and was trying to look invisible.
X's stone complexion faltered at that. "No…no, leave him alone. They don't make the decisions." The champion Hunter clenched his fists and thought of other Reploids. "I'll settle things with the decision makers myself."
____________________
"Oh bloody hell," Malevex observed dryly. "Are we losing ALREADY?"
"X is here," Byte's hoarse voice informed them via the communicators. "X and others…I think there were seven of them in all. They got three of our boys. Then they got Bit."
"He's dead?" Teytha asked in disbelief.
"No!" Byte snapped back. "He's not dead! He's just wounded, is all. X got him good. But he's actually pulling through…he just needs some time, that's all!"
"He might not have that," Malevex reminded his security officer. "You said they're using the garage hall?"
"I have no idea how far they've penetrated," Byte said, again hoarse. "Activate all your security measures. All automated defenses should be online as soon as possible. X's team will come under the second ring. The hall opens out into a fairly large power chamber that doesn't have much in the way of power equipment anymore. From there they have to pick different paths. I have no idea what ring they'll wind up in, and they don't either, despite the fact that they probably think they'll be in the middle of ring two."
"We'll ambush them in the power room, then," Malevex decided.
"NO!" Byte fairly boomed. "He's OURS! We'll take care of him."
"Fine," Malevex ordered, himself now severe and speaking quite viciously. "Take X out of the picture. Just remember that he's got reinforcements, and you've got half of a brother left to back you up."
"You forget," Byte fairly laughed. "You forget that we have our own special powers. We'll stop them. You'll see."
"Don't screw this up now!" Malevex ordered, again with that cold tone of power he so rarely used. It might have made even Sigma proud. Even the rebellious Byte was compelled to listen. "Calm the hell down, or you and your brother won't survive the battle."
"Yeah," a more sober Byte agreed after a moment of silence. "Byte out."
"Chipper lads, you all are," the unflappable Diavus said in a monotone.
"He's an impulsive fool," Malevex said, shaking his head. "Bit was the one that made sense."
"We work with what we have," Teytha suggested. "You think it'll be enough?"
That made the ebon Maverick blink. "Call Mortar," he said to Diavus. "I want him in here pronto. Also call Sigma. It's time to bring him in on this. So long as those Hunters are around," he said, now to Teytha as they moved away to another module, "it'd probably be best to keep everyone together."
She nodded, feeling the same shiver that had prompted Malevex to summon Mortar to the control room and relative safety. "This isn't how we planned it," she observed, betraying her nervousness.
"True," he agreed, resting a calming hand on her shoulder. "But at least we planned for things not going to plan. Time to see if any of it was worth the effort."
____________________
Byte leaned heavily on a wall in a secret chamber in Seraph Castle's lower levels. His brother Bit laid on a medical table hooked up to a charging bay that would, hopefully, encourage his nanobots to mend his wounds faster. It was really all he could do for his brother, and it infuriated him.
The whole operation had been nothing but chaos, the large red and gold Maverick reflected. The Hunter air force had pounded their outer defenses and wounded both Bit and Byte with shrapnel. Now the internal defenses were failing. But it didn't make sense! How come Billo didn't close the garage gates on the surface? How could it be possible that the Hunters happened to be right there when the ship launched? …No, that was impossible, because they would have attacked a lot sooner. The airship had already been gone for nearly twenty minutes, after all. So what had gone wrong?
Something obviously had, and his brother was half dead because of it. Bit and Byte were not exactly emotionally linked, like Colonel and Iris had been, but they still got pissed off when the other got hurt, and Byte found himself taken by almost an insane desire to pound Mega Man X into the dust. However, Malevex had been right. He was one Maverick, and there were seven Hunters. If only they'd been able to immobilize at least one of them! But there was nothing he could do about that except developing a new plan.
Just because he was half unconscious and in a world of pain, Bit's mind didn't stop working. The Maverick with the charred golden armor breathed heavily and shallowly, his only conscious action being to resist the void that beckoned him. There was also a growing rage in the back of his mind that he just couldn't shake, and so he embraced it, letting it fuel his desire to live. Where had X come from, anyway? One minute Bit had been fighting that guy with the pistols, and the next minute…this. How could he have been so careless? But it wouldn't happen next time. And there would be a next time, he promised himself. No way would he let himself die like this.
"Is that so?"
"What?" said Bit, in his mind.
"Am I not speaking clearly?"
"Who are you?"
"I asked the first question."
The pain and the hatred suddenly became second only to confusion. "No, I will not die like this."
"Talk is useless. Watch this."
What happened next was like a voyage into a nightmare. Bit's pain receptors went into overdrive, and the Maverick's body shook violently on the table. He was vaguely aware of his brother frantically fretting over him and trying to figure out what was the matter, but then everything went black.
"What's this?" Bit asked mentally.
"The end."
"The end?" Bit was actually scared now. "This isn't the end. I've died before. This isn't it. What are you doing to me?"
"Why do machines pretend to comprehend death and dying?" The voice in his head was nondescript, but Bit thought of a male speaking the words. They also conveyed quiet power and authority, more than even Sigma ever had. "You are a mixture of gears, oil, and circuitry. You cannot 'die'. And so you are correct. This is not death. It is what I said it is. It is the end."
"What the hell is going on?" Bit asked, somewhat frantically. "Who do you think you are?"
"I am the one who will decide your fate."
"Bullshit!" Bit's mind raged. "I decide my fate! I am a Reploid!"
"As am I. I like you am capable of making my own decisions. And so, I am deciding whether or not I should give you another chance at this life. I can cut off your life support or I can fight to save you. It really is a simple decision for me, though I do not use effort for just anyone."
"What do you want?"
"You want to destroy Mega Man X. You will need power."
"I have power," Bit replied defiantly.
"You have nothing," the voice replied scornfully. "You are a weakling compared to that man. If you are to kill him you will need the power that only I can offer you."
During the whole conversation Bit was feeling his inhibitions slipping. Little by little this mysterious mental invader was taking over his mind, making him more and more submissive to his whims. At the same time, Bit's internal processes were rapidly increasing, nanobot programs included, as Byte noticed happily back in the "real world". Now that Bit was actually seriously considering the mystery man's "offer", it was time for an increase in the stakes.
"I can speak to Reploids on the brink of death. The worthy find themselves energized. The unworthy die. Without my help, you and your unworthy brother will die at that man's hands."
"No," Bit insisted. "Byte can't die. I won't let him."
"Then you must help him."
Bit's remaining inhibitions caught the hidden meaning behind those words. "Who are you?" he asked one final time. The voice then took on a whole new meaning of power.
"I am Ares. I am War."
"Ares?" Bit repeated the name of his new benefactor. "War?"
"…I exist to bring war to this world. That is my mission. I have accomplished it throughout the years with the help of worthy Reploids like you. Joining with me will provide you with power beyond your wildest dreams…just as it did for your friend, Cyber Peacock."
"So that's it," Bit made the connection. "That's why he was so interested in Doppler's lab…"
"You think fast." Ares gave the essence of a smug smile. "Now, you have a choice. Will you join your friend among the ranks of the worthy? Or will you allow yourself another undignified death at the hands of that man?"
There was, of course, only one real choice.
Byte was tending to the monitors on his brother's life support systems when it happened. Bit sat up slowly as though in a trance, and shifted his weight to leave the table. His armor was still rent along the left side, and it sparked as the nanobots sought to heal his wounds, but he was for the most part fixed inside…something that really should not have happened. Byte did not care about such things when he saw his brother standing, however.
"Bit!" he exclaimed. "What happened? You got messed up pretty bad." He blinked, noticing his brother's strange state, as though he were a newly activated Reploid trying to adjust to his body. "Are you okay?"
Bit raised his head, his eyes gleaming with even more intelligence and vigor than usual. "I'm fine, Byte. Fine. I can't really explain it, but…I'm just…refreshed."
"How are your battle programs?"
"I don't know," Bit admitted, motioning to the cable still running into his left arm. "How are my battle programs?"
Byte turned sheepishly to the monitors and checked his brother's combat readiness…and promptly stood ramrod straight and nearly choked with shock. "This…there must be some mistake…"
"What's wrong?" Bit asked, approaching his brother from behind.
"Your power levels…" Byte shook his head in amazement, still looking at the screen. "They're almost off the charts! Something's charged you big time…no way this can be healthy. Most circuits can't handle this much power…Bit, are you sure you feel all right?"
But Bit wasn't listening. His body trembled slightly as voices swirled around in his head, voices that blended together only once and allowed him to hear only the words Ares wanted him to hear, those words being the "suggestion" he'd made earlier.
"Help him."
Byte saw it coming by the reflection in the monitor, but he was too startled to do anything about it. He turned with a look of shock on his face, just in time to see Bit's blazing fist slashing down into his chest, and then there was nothing for him but pain…and blackness…
…And then a voice.
____________________
X and his party advanced slowly and cautiously down this final hall. They'd trudged up several flights of stairs after neutralizing camera after camera, knowing that they'd already exposed themselves by letting Bit, Byte, and the other three Mavericks escape. Enemy reinforcements would be coming, and they couldn't allow themselves to walk into an ambush like they had before.
"According to my map," Delates said quietly, tapping into his CPU, "we're somewhere underneath the second ring, not inside of it."
"I agree," X replied, just as quietly. "Looks like this isn't going to be as cut and dry as I thought it would be."
Up ahead of the main party, Acrystos was making good on the offer that had gotten her into this little party in the first place. She had crept ahead of her comrades to scout, and the supply-littered hallway provided plenty of places to hide. The stealth equipped Huntress held in her hands a pistol of sorts that fired not lethal lasers but a static charge much like Vile's but this one knocked most opponents unconscious with a single hit. She found this much more suitable to her purposes most of the time, since anyone could fall asleep on the job and not raise much of a fuss, but if a dead body was found things were much worse. In this case, she just favored the weapon for it's one-shot capability, which would allow her to creep up and deliver the killing blow silently and without danger to herself.
The halls were getting longer and were taking more of an upward slant. They had to be at least in the middle sectors of the base now, though they were still underneath any rooms of importance. They had to find a way into the main castle halls…well, X did. She was more concerned with finding an elevator or something to take the rest of the team to the lower levels.
Her investigation ended another purple security gate. "Commander X," she paged him quietly. "I've located another security door. There aren't any cameras in the vicinity." She anticipated his next question and checked an internal scanner. "I'm not picking up anything inside, sir."
"Don't go in," X ordered anyway. He knew just how reliable those scanners were from unpleasant personal experience. Many were the times he'd charged into a room after picking up nothing on the scanner only to find a grinning Maverick commando waiting to duel him on the other side. "See if there are any hidden doors." Farfetched as it might have seemed, X had indeed made use of several of those in his time.
Acrystos, however, was not so lucky. She backtracked slowly, picking over every inch of shadow-covered wall but by the time she met back up with her advancing comrades she had nothing to report.
"Guess we're going in, then," X breathed.
"Let's try to be ready this time, eh?" Cort insinuated dryly.
The Hunters retraced Acrystos's steps and prepared themselves for battle. X pressed his hand on the door and it opened with a hiss, revealing a very large, square room with what looked like several hallway exits. The inside was also vacant except for some heavily armored power cables running along the walls. There weren't enough of them for this place to be a major power center for the base, but X remarked that the cables might be worth destroying anyway.
The Hunters marched slowly inside. Only a single pale blue ceiling light illuminated the room, giving it an eerie atmosphere. X stood front and center after assuring himself that there were no threats to deal with, looking at the massed group of Hunters under his command.
"Okay," the champion said with a nod of finality. "Use your compasses. There's an elevator on the southern end of this ring. One of the three exit hallways here will get you to it…I'll have to take a different one, probably the central hall."
"We're in the left hall," Feldspar stated after doing a quick check of his internal compass.
"You're SURE you can handle things alone?" Delates asked for the umpteenth time.
X just grinned. "This is the last act, pal. I always put on a stellar finish."
Delates had to grin back. He wasn't used to seeing X act this confident. Usually this was Zero's role. It was kind of interesting, the current boss of Unit 0 thought, that X was acting more like Zero than Zero was. He wondered what implications THAT might have? Well, he could think of one… "Look, X, about the big bosses…don't lose your head, all right?"
X's smile faded. "Yeah, I know. That thing with Byte…it won't happen again."
"Oh, of course not! Commander X is much too in control of himself for a slip like that."
Every Hunter whirled towards the sound of the new voice, which turned out to reside in the center of the room not six feet behind X. It was Byte, the Maverick strongman they'd faced earlier. His crimson armor glowed an interesting violet in the dull blue light, and his voice was familiar and yet strikingly different—it was still gruff and chilling, but now there was a trace of…amusement? Yes, that was it, Byte was enjoying himself. Already this didn't bode well for the Hunters.
"Byte," X said with an icy stare in the Maverick's direction. He noted the gash in his stomach orb, and a deeper gash in his chest…had that been there after the fight? The wound was also pulsating with nanobots, and it seemed to X that they shouldn't be able to work so fast without overloading.
"Tell me, X!" Byte boomed in a voice that was huge and somehow at the same time also moderate and saturated with covert sadistic glee. "How do you intend to mete out justice this time?"
"It's no different," the Blue Bomber responded, keeping a firm hold on his emotions. In truth he was feeling rage that he'd never felt before. Nuclear terrorism was just a line that in his mind should never be crossed, and these bastards had done it…no, there would be no mercy for such fiends. "You'll all be deactivated, as with all Mavericks."
"Rather a violent opinion for a pacifist," Byte observed, keeping his hands at his side and staring at the Hunter with a curious expression.
"Maybe I'm not the person you take me for," X suggested, quietly charging his X-Buster.
"Maybe not," Byte agreed. "Maybe you're not the person you take yourself for, either. You consider yourself an instrument of justice?" He laughed when he didn't get a response. "Good, then. I can't wait to see your 'justice' once your home is atomized and scattered in the wind. And all your friends, too, with just one little kaboom!"
"You won't live that long," X declared as he raised his cannon and quickly fired the massive stream of blue plasma at the hated Maverick. Byte didn't even blink. Rather, he smiled eagerly and with a sharp "Yaa!" thrust the palm of his hand outward. The plasma impacted and spread like a pancake, eventually dissipating without proceeding any further.
X and the Hunters stood slightly dumbfounded at the scene. Byte himself pulled his hand back and examined the damage…his protective glove and synthskin had been melted away, but his hand was mostly functional. He had the powers…now he just needed the new armor. First things first, though, he decided as he lifted his head to face X and company again.
"Nice try," he grinned. "But I've got all the secrets on my side this time, Hunters!" He continued on in an almost conversational voice that nevertheless resonated throughout the whole chamber. "Well, so much for the orientation. Now it's time for the main event. Do it now."
As soon as the words were out of Byte's mouth, three shots rang out from each of the three halls. Acrystos let out a yelp as a laser tore into her right shoulder, not destroying the joint but definitely leaving a wound. Delates grunted as a laser hit him right in the chest. Even X was taken by surprise, receiving a shot in his helmet, right above the gem. However fortune was with the Hunters, because the Mavericks were again the victims of themselves: they were using shitty guns. Delates was wearing enough protective armor that the laser energy diminished before doing any real damage. Acrystos would have a slightly weakened arm but she wielded two weapons, not just one, so she wouldn't be at a huge disadvantage. X was perhaps the worst off, because the shot had disoriented him severely—he was not wearing any of his special armors, but he by now had much more durable regular blue armor, and the shot didn't penetrate his helmet.
Nevertheless the surprise attack threw the Hunters off completely, and the unaffected nervously tried to snap back into action to ward off a second strike. Surprisingly, however, Byte was not interested in this, and simply waved his wounded arm and said, "Go". The Hunters heard three sets of feet running away—the survivors from the last fight—and then it was just them and Byte, who was no longer just standing and smirking.
"It ends here, X!" Byte roared, rushing forward suddenly, shifting all his weight onto his forward thrust in his devastating dash attack. X's eyes widened and he leapt nimbly to the side, as he'd done in the past…but the normally clunky Byte stopped on a dime, spun around with his arms out and clotheslined the Hunter, sending him skidding across the floor.
The other Hunters hadn't been just standing there. Cort withdrew both pistols and began rattling off rounds aimed at Byte's head. The strongman took two hits before recovering enough to make a move in another direction, thrusting out his hand and sending a projectile flying through the air. Cort did his own bit of nimble dodging, and the projectile—a mine—slapped onto the floor somewhere behind him.
Feldspar, Tyclammel and Lyon all raised their arm cannons to open fire but they realized all at once that X was also in their line of fire and they began to relocate. However Byte gave them no room for error, throwing many more mines after the one he'd lobbed at Cort. The three Hunters suddenly found themselves dancing frantically around the deadly objects, and soon began to trip over each other, making them easy targets for the bigger Byte. He cried out and dashed again, impacting Feldspar hard and sending the Reploid clear across the room. Tyclammel and Lyon immediately pointed their cannons at the enemy, but they were off balance as it was and Byte simply threw himself to the ground and actually rolled away like a big log, letting the two Hunters briefly attack each other. That stopped quickly, but disorientation was achieved.
Delates and Acrystos, recovering from their earlier injuries, raced into action. Both had their melee weapons out, and they decided to take the fight right up to Byte. The big Maverick just laughed a big, booming laugh and charged right at them, not minding the sword slashes Delates was inflicting or the constant beating of Acrystos's energy hatchets on his flank. He stuck out his fists and floored both Hunters simultaneously, and then stopped to collect himself, laughing and bleeding at the same time. He was still in relatively good shape, and his nanobots were still working overtime. He was only getting started.
Mega Man X got to his feet in complete shock. This Reploid, Byte, who had not been all that difficult an opponent even in the earlier encounters in Doppler Town, had just barreled through all the members of his team. What was more, X had never taken that kind of damage from a simple fist attack before. His breathing was hoarse and he was still seeing stars, and his internal power was trying hard to restore itself. The Hunter shook his head to clear the final cobwebs, checking for the hell of it to make sure that his two Sub-Tanks were full. They were. He then looked up at the gloating Byte and employed his internal scanning system. The results…
…The results were horrifying.
"Impossible," the Hunter breathed.
"What's that, X?" Byte boomed, delighting in the awestruck look on his enemy's face. "Something you'd like to share with us?"
"Impossible!" X repeated, louder. "There's no WAY your systems can handle that kind of power! They should be overloading! Your power levels are…"
"Off the charts!" Byte finished, quite maniacally. "You don't have to look so shocked, X. That's just one of the surprises we have in store for you!" Every Hunter who could still think stiffened at the use of the word "we".
One who couldn't think just yet was Feldspar. He had never been hit so hard in his life, and the entire front of his ornate armor was bent and crunched inward. His chest was on fire, and his pain and damage receptors were screaming. He had received the full brunt of the powerful Byte's charge, and there was no way he could have walked away unscathed. He was just now getting to his feet, and he looked ahead and caught his friend Tyclammel's eye. That eye suddenly got very wide, and Feldspar soon learned why.
A golden demon fell from the ceiling rafters where he had been watching all the while, amazingly escaping notice from the Hunters when they'd examined the room upon arrival. He fell head-down, his fist a blaze of fire, and his boots ignited to send him right towards Feldspar's back. The new enemy swiped his fist just as he passed the Hunter, causing a lightsaber effect that cut Zero's soldier in two. Then the Maverick touched down near Byte, the fire in his fist dying and his eyes looking up with glee towards the Hunter he'd just defeated.
"Bit!" X exclaimed, again shocked to paralysis. "But you were…"
"Destroyed?" Bit chuckled and shook his head, displaying his cruel delight in a characteristically subtle manner, much unlike his brother. His gold armor was rent along the left side where X had attacked him earlier, but like Byte's chest wound it seemed to pulsate with energy of some sort. He was also notably missing his shield. "No, X. I'm not quite defeated yet."
"Not yet," agreed Delates in a hoarse voice, slowly turning from Feldspar's twitching upper body to face the security officers. "But why wait any longer?"
And just like that, the shock shattered and chaos began anew. Delates launched himself towards Bit, his saber poised to kill. Bit, however, dashed to the side in the blink of an eye, and Delates, prepared for a speedy retreat but not THAT speedy, found himself tottering off balance as he tried to redirect himself. Then suddenly a ring of fire trapped his legs, spilling him onto the floor and trapping him on the spot. Bit let out a laugh of surprise, not expecting things to be this easy, and launched himself through the air at Delates, planning to halve the commander in the same manner as with Feldspar.
It was not to be. Bit's aerial charge was rudely interrupted when high-powered laser blasts slammed into his body, foiling his assault and dropping him roughly to the ground. The gold Maverick looked up in annoyance to see Cort standing there with smoking guns and a lethal look on his face. The gunman fired again, but even his speed was no match for Bit's…the Maverick's speed rate was off the charts, like his brother's power rates. Bit was back on his feet and rushing at Cort in no time at all, bringing his foot forward in a swift kick. Cort parried it nicely, bringing a pistol up and rapping Bit hard in the side of the head. More annoyed than hurt, Bit struck back with his fists, driving Cort back a little. But the Hunter surprised the Maverick by holstering his weapons quick as a flash and countering Bit's martial arts onslaught with one of his own. His trench coat flew with him as he turned for a spin kick, and while Bit blocked the kick the coat enveloped him and he momentarily lost equilibrium.
Before Cort could capitalize on this, Delates did the job for him, leaping at the Maverick and bringing him down with a feral roar. Bit hit the ground hard and took two steely punches in his masked face before rebounding nicely, slamming his hands onto Delates shoulders and charging both with plasma laced flames. Delates recoiled with a yelp and Bit kicked him unceremoniously away. He leapt to his feet with another laugh of triumph…just in time for Cort to plant a gun on his chest and fire.
Byte hadn't been taking a sojourn. The bigger Maverick was handling Acrystos and the enraged Tyclammel and Lyon. Lyon sent twin missiles flying amidst Tyclammel's laser spray, and Byte was hard pressed to dodge them all. Still, while he took wounds he just kept on going, lobbing mine after mine and forming a little minefield on the east end of the room.
"Just stay the hell away from it!" Acrystos shouted, but Byte would give them no such leisure, keeping them fairly cooped up in that end of the room. Before long someone would step on a mine, setting them all off and cooking all three Hunters at once.
X didn't let it get any further than that. The Hunter not for the first time felt rage taking over. Feldspar was a dead man. He'd lost one of the seven Zion—and Zero, in a way—had trusted him with, and they hadn't even begun. These two brothers…their power levels were inexplicably high, but why bother explaining what couldn't be explained? There was only one thing to do now…X had to live his legend.
A curtain of energies surrounded the Hunter, and when it cleared he was no longer the man in blue everyone pictured him as. An alabaster suit of armor with multicolored trimmings and a crested X-Buster and helmet now adorned him. He had donned Fourth Armor, the newest and most powerful armor package Dr. Light had bequeathed to him. And now it was time to do his thing.
X, without so much as a peep for a battle cry, approached Byte from behind, charging his X-Buster to the maximum limit…that in this case would have an interesting effect. Four blips resonated in his sound receptors, and he nodded to himself as he raised his cannon and fired.
Byte roared in shock and actual pain as the energies tore into his back. He spun around just as X unleashed a second charged plasma burst, which further wrecked the green orb in Byte's gut. Eyes widening, Byte tried to dash to the right, but X was a step ahead of him, unleashing the third blast. Byte took it in the lower torso and staggered, no longer able to dodge. X stepped forward and fired the fourth and final charge right into the chest wound that glowed with that mysterious energy, seating Byte on the floor and actually doing the first serious damage of the battle.
Bit didn't take Cort's point-blank attack well, but he got right to his feet when he saw his brother in trouble. He jumped into the air and dashed through it towards the strangely armored X, his fist blazing once more with fiery energies.
X saw the attack coming before it even started. He took to the skies, air dashing to meet Bit in the air. Along the way he loaded a weapons program, and his shining white armor took on a color combination of yellow and black. Combatants stopped what they were doing and watched the two opponents collide.
The result was a bright flash of golden light, and then X was standing on the ground and Bit was suspended in the air trapped in a pulsating web of golden energies. X let out a laugh of his own at his successful Lightning Web attack, and converted back to his normal weaponry, also instructing his CPU to switch his cannon function from a four-burst mode to a program that channeled all energies into an incredibly large, powerful plasma blast. He raised his cannon and began charging.
But that would have been too easy. Bit's thrashing suddenly took on a reddish hue, and he brought his blazing fist through the strands of the Lightning Web, ripping it to shreds and dropping to the floor just as X finished charging his weapon. Every Hunter pointed their weapons at the Maverick, but Bit surprised them all by fading somewhat and splitting in two…he'd teleported again. Byte had done the same thing, they realized. Once again, the brothers had retreated from battle.
For a while no one talked. X kept turning nervously around the room, his cannon still fully charged, looking for the brothers to reappear. Delates did the same for a while before stopping, a huge weight crashing down on him suddenly. He turned to see Tyclammel beating him to the punch by kneeling down beside Feldspar, their dying comrade.
Everything from his mid-abdomen down had been hacked off, Delates noticed as he too knelt beside his long-time squad mate. The body still pumped blackish robotic blood out, though at a diminishing rate. A trickle of the same blood was running out of Feldspar's mouth, and the Hunter was shaking and rattling like an old air conditioner.
"It's all right, man," Tyclammel was saying, over and over. "It's all right. You done good. You done good."
"Sorry," the fallen Hunter managed to choke out. "I never…saw it…coming…"
"No one did," Delates assured him. "There was nothing any of us could have done…"
"They…" Feldspar went on weakly, struggling to keep his eyes open and on his comrades. "You…got them?"
"We're going to," Lyon said, joining the group solemnly. "We're going to get them all for this."
"Good…" Feldspar smiled, albeit without much energy. "You guys…you can do it. This…isn't…it isn't a…"
"No," Tyclammel agreed, clasping his friend's hand, not knowing what else to do. "It's not an impossible mission. And we'll achieve it."
"I know…" Feldspar coughed, and for a moment they prepared for a barrage of coolant, but none came. He settled down, his last energy waning, and looked up at X, who was just standing there respectfully, not saying much, feeling much out of place among Zero's unit. "X…get the Commander out…alright?"
"Yeah," X said with a promising nod. "We'll get Zero out."
"And…" he went on, "don't…don't let…don't let any of the bastards get away with this."
"Yeah," X repeated after a brief pause, a response that was echoed by the others.
Feldspar nodded one last time, finally exhausting what was left of his power. He still managed to muster enough strength to die as he had tended to live—with a little smile on his face.
For X, it was all too familiar—a Reploid comrade with half a body lying there in front of him dying. It was Zero all over again, but it wasn't Zero this time, it was one of Zero's soldiers, and more importantly one of Zero's friends. X had failed Zero by not keeping Feldspar alive…
And that would not happen again. He would not fail anyone else. He'd stop each and every Maverick in Seraph Castle…
And for one of the rare times in X's life, he did not even think of mercy. He was now a necessary Angel of Death, and he'd stop these wannabe tyrants from damaging any more lives than they already had.
It was, he thought quite rationally, what Zero would have done.
There was precisely thirty seconds allotted for mourning before the voices returned. "How touching," said one. "How inspiring," said the other.
Every Hunter snapped to their feet and looked to the center of the chamber. Four mirror images touched down, merging into two familiar forms…Bit and Byte had returned.
"It was a touching performance," Bit stated pitilessly. "But I'll save my tears, if you don't mind."
"Save them for yourself," Delates suggested, standing and drawing his sword. "You're going to need them."
"Is that a fact?" Byte chortled. "You know, they can probably dust us again."
"True," Bit agreed without emotion. "We have the power, but not the armor."
"That's fine. We only need the one."
"Time for talking is over," X responded, charging his buster and wishing he hadn't dissipated the first charge while he'd spoken with Feldspar. "I don't care how powerful you are. You're going down."
"Oh, can you defeat us?" Bit said in between low laughs, and the blood ran cold in every Hunter's veins, because Bit was speaking with his own voice but there seemed to be another voice intermingled…an eerie, crafty voice that conveyed silent power. It was not Sigma…that much they all could tell.
"Do your best," Byte suggested, his own words mixed with that same strange voice. "But I wonder how many of you we'll kill this time?"
Then the brothers moved, but it was not at the Hunters—they leapt into the air and both vanished in a huge flare of light that kept on burning bright.
"No…" X whispered, his eyes widening. "No…ATTACK!"
Every Hunter with a projectile weapon began to use it, unloading into the globe of light before them, but it was all to no avail. X fired his own charge, a huge wave of pulsating white-hot plasma, and after that the light died…
…But in its place was a behemoth, a veritable monster of a machine. It resembled an ornately armored Egyptian sphinx. The "human" portion resembled Bit, only he looked like a golden Anubis, the jackal headed god. The "animal" portion resembled Byte, the big four-legged base of the metal monstrosity. And so, Mega Man X found himself once more beholding Godkarmachine O Nary, the combined form of Bit and Byte, and in general one bad mother.
"Let's see what you've got!" roared Bit, Byte, and the mysterious presence all at once, and that was all the fanfare the Hunters got.
"Hunters, attack!" X shouted, charging his buster again. Tyclammel began unloading a spray of gunfire on the Maverick, and Lyon launched two missiles from his wrist gauntlets. Godkarmachine, however, was unfazed. The machine let out a roar of sorts and Bit's hands came off at the wrists, flying around through the air like little missiles. They found Lyon's projectiles and quite literally swatted them out of the air. They next flew into Tyclammel and grabbed him by both arms, stopping his attack and lifting him clear off the ground. Tyclammel began to struggle but to no avail. The hands began pulling his arms outward, and in shock the Hunter realized that Bit was trying to pull his arms out of their sockets.
X ran forward and unleashed his charged shot at the stationary target. Godkarmachine took the full blow, and the giant plasma shot invoked a wrathful yell from deep within its massive frame. It dropped Tyclammel to the ground and the hands rejoined the body. Bit's jackal eyes lit up with red rage and he produced a gold hilted lightsaber with a thick, blood red blade. At the same time the machine was moving, crawling rather speedily on its four clawed feet. Bit slashed his saber towards X, and the Hunter deftly avoided the surge of energy that sprang from the blade's tip. However the projectile continued on and hit the wall behind the Hunters, fragmenting into two separate waves that ran up and down along the wall, and then along the floor. Cort had to do a last minute dodge, foiling a shot that would have taken Godkarmachine in the head.
Godkarmachine let out another roar and thrusters on its underside came to life, levitating it into the air above the Hunters, gaining altitude slowly. It dealt nicely with the shots fired by the Hunters surrounding it, and Bit was still slashing and slashing, creating multiple waves of energies for the Hunters to dodge and laughing all the way. "Is that all you've got?" he boomed.
It wasn't. X's armor glowed red and he charged his new weapon, dashing underneath the Godkarmachine as he did so. Letting out a yell he released his gathered power, leaping up into the air as he came underneath the enemy and throwing a huge wave of fire upwards. He continued through the air and landed on his feet, turning just in time to see his Rising Fire attack slam into the underside of the giant Maverick.
Godkarmachine grunted and immediately fell hard to the ground. X, having seen this before, prepared to leap over the shockwave. However, when the machine hit the ground there was much more than just a shockwave. The entire room quaked, and electrical energies shot throughout the floor, damaging all the Hunters and even X, who came down from his evasive jump and landed right on a current of energy.
Godkarmachine laughed again with all its mingled voices, and Bit's hands flew out again, this time carrying the sword in one of them. The first target was Acrystos. The Huntress nimbly brought up her dual weapons to parry all the strikes the sword made, but the second fist came at her from behind, punching her hard in the back and sending her staggering towards the sword, which was now leveled towards her heart…
It never made it. Cort, recovering from the shockwave attack, saw the lethal strike coming and leveled a pistol at the small and moving target. He fired a single shot…and the son of a bitch hit the fist dead on, knocking the sword out of the hand and sending it skittering across the floor.
Lyon reacted quickly. The Hunter raced towards the sword and scooped it up, even as the fists were coming towards him. He let them close in and then dove right through the center, dodging both and bringing the sword up towards one of the projectile fists, making contact and badly damaging it. This caused Bit to cry out sharply and retract the wounded hand, but the other stayed. Lyon found out why when the sword in his hands began to burn red-hot. With a cry he dropped it, only to be punched hard in the face by the floating fist that then scooped up the sword and retreated to rejoin its master unit.
Godkarmachine was rising again, growling with rage. X's armor flashed red again, but before he could execute another Rising Fire attack Godkarmachine pointed its sword down at the Hunters and from it sprang an incredible concentration of energies. The laser hit the ground and caused an explosion of power that ripped into each of the mostly clustered Hunters, knocking them flat on their backs.
Godkarmachine was laughing again. "Pathetic!" its components boomed. "I'd expected something better. Now you can go join your friend!" Then the thrusters shut off, and Godkarmachine came down again to deliver the final, killing shockwave.
Mega Man X found himself once again surprised at the sheer power of the brothers' attacks. They had never been this powerful, but now wasn't the time to meditate on such things. X forced himself to his feet and looked in front of him, watching as Godkarmachine began its descent. Then his gaze lowered and he saw…something else, on the east side of the room. An idea flashed in his head, and he grinned as his systems reported that Godkarmachine's laser attack had not been entirely a bad thing.
"It's over!" Godkarmachine shouted as it fell.
"It's never over, Maverick!" X echoed Byte's words from the last battle as his armor reverted to its normal coloration and the Hunter leapt high into the air. A curtain of pure, white energy covered his body and began to expand, barely able to control itself. X glared at Godkarmachine, and just as it lowered to a level exactly in front of X the Hunter burst forward with wicked speed, appearing to the awestruck Hunters below him as a virtual comet.
"NOVA STRIKE!" the Hunter champion shouted just before making contact with the stunned Godkarmachine. The resulting explosion ripped through the Maverick's armor and pushed it back…far, far back. X hit the ground and kept his balance, looking up to see the results of his attack. The enemy, however, fell much farther away and fell very hard indeed…right onto the minefield Byte had sown earlier.
"Aaarrrrrghhh!" the mingled voices cried as the explosions destroyed much of Byte, just as the deadly Nova Strike—X's ultimate attack that converted damage to weapons energy and unleashed it in one huge body crash attack—had destroyed much of Bit. Most notably, the mysterious third voice the Hunters had detected earlier was no longer there.
An important detail to note is that when Godkarmachine set off its own mines, the explosion completely obliterated one of the power cables snaking up the wall. The result was a huge electrical flare and the blue ceiling light flickered and died, but came back to life after a few seconds of inactivity, and that was all the attention the Hunters paid to it, though another Hunter would soon find the incident to be quite convenient…but there were more pressing matters for these Hunters to deal with.
"Impossible!" came the wail of the Godkarmachine. "We're the agents of Ares…you can't stop us!" The sword came up in Bit's good hand, and the desperate Maverick prepared a last ditch laser attack.
Delates rushed through the smoky air created by the detonating mines and leapt right up at the Maverick. Screaming a battle cry he swung his saber down hard, chopping Bit's arm clear off. Then, even as the Maverick was crying out in pain Delates swung his saber again, decapitating Bit and thus destroying the brain of Godkarmachine. The Hunter then wisely leapt back and ran from the dying machine, just as its combined generators went berserk. A series of explosions rocked Godkarmachine, igniting the remaining mines and making the chaos even worse. The Hunters shielded their eyes and ears and ducked for cover as bits and pieces scattered by the explosion flew across the room. Then the smoke cleared, and Godkarmachine O Nary was no more.
"Thus, Feldspar, thou art avenged," Delates whispered, melodramatically but knowing Feldspar approved of melodrama.
X stared at the Godkarmachine's smoking remains, a deep frown creasing his face. There was something wrong about this entire incident. Bit and Byte should not have been able to become that powerful at the drop of a hat. And also, what was the idea behind their final words? "We're the agents of Ares!" Who was Ares? X had never heard of that Reploid…and he assumed it was a Reploid. A chill went down his spine as he pondered the incident as a whole, and he made several mental notes. Cain, and probably Caligula and Signas needed to hear about this. But they weren't the only ones.
"All right," X said to the others. "You guys know what you have to do. Be careful, though…I don't know what happened with these two, but their power levels were soaring. If any of the other Mavericks are like this, you'll be in for a lot of trouble."
"We'll handle it," Delates promised him.
X nodded after a second and the Maverick Hunters came together for a combined high five. Then X took off down his path and the rest of them went down theirs.
Delates and Tyclammel waited. When the others were gone they carefully lifted Feldspar's body and moved it to the darkest corner of the room, where he could go unnoticed. Then Delates almost ceremoniously removed the sniper rifle on Feldspar's back and strapped it to his own.
"Think it'll be of use?" Tyclammel asked gently.
Delates pursed his lips for a few seconds before replying. "Feldspar might yet have some bite left in him. Now, let's go, or we'll never find out for sure."
____________________
Seraph Castle's power system was a complex one. When Sigma had purchased the land from the dying Seraph weapons company, the base—then a factory—drew power from a central generator that sent power to the various sectors of the building. Sigma had added two more generators so there would be one for each security ring of his new fortress. Power was supplied via power cables that ran mostly inside walls, but in that power room that was now a tomb for Feldspar, Bit and Byte the cables had been exposed, since Revolver had often needed to alter the power flow to supply electricity for his airship project.
The cable that met its end during the Godkarmachine battle carried power up into the third ring of Hunter HQ, though one sector in particular. The power flickered and died for a grand total of sixty seconds before someone noticed it and redirected power from another source. Inside a small chamber in that sector, those sixty seconds altered the fate of many a Hunter and a Maverick because of what transpired.
The first thing Zero did was blink. The lights were out. Even when he was alone, the Mavericks had always left a light on. Now it was gone. What the hell was this? Then he noticed the bars: the familiar hum they gave off was gone. Moving almost against his will, Zero reached out his finger and poked a bar…nothing. He did it again and got the same results.
The Hunter jumped to his feet and grabbed two bars. He felt nothing. By god, the power was out! But for how long? No time to waste thinking about it, he decided, and began to pull with all his might on the bars, pulling them back and hoping to snap them. Thirty seconds into the blackout Zero was sweating and exerting more physical effort than he had in weeks, and the bars were now wobbling. They depended on electric currents for security, not strength, and ten seconds later they snapped. Zero's force was so great that once there was nothing to pull on he wound up throwing himself backwards HARD into the wall. He sat there for a few seconds, dazed, before coming to his senses and squeezing himself through the hole he'd made in his cage.
He was out…he was free! Zero somehow managed to refrain from letting out a whoop.
Seconds later the humming returned and the lights came back on. A shiver went down the Hunter's spine as he realized how close he'd come to severe electrocution. But that was the past now. Already he pressed himself to the door, listening out in the hallways and hearing nothing. He checked the door—amazingly it was unlocked. Well why not? He was supposed to be caged, after all. Finally Zero decided that no one was out there, and he opened the door and left the room, slinking into and down the hallway, going God-knew-where but going somewhere, and that was good enough for him.
And so, unarmed except for his fists and his wits, Hunter Zero escaped from his confines and set out to do what Malevex had feared from the start. He would take the Maverick war machine apart from the inside out.
"Who's laughing now, Sigma?"
