* Dodges balls of fire, rocks, arrows, spears, missiles, bullets, plasma, sharp sticks, tables, chairs, rotten fruit, small children and everything else thrown at him by rabid readers screaming at him to WRITE FASTER. *
Huff, Huff…Dear God! If I had known I would have gotten this kind of response…I still would have written it. J
Ok, here we go. The long awaited third chapter of Paths of Life. I would have had this done sooner, but I've had a case of writers block from hell, and then it's in-laws came for a visit. Sorry for the delay, I'll get right to this.
Authors blathering: Well now… It's been a while now, hasn't it? To get this thing moving again, chapter three takes place during the end and immediately after the end of chapter two. So, here is Chapter Three of Paths Of Life. Brought to you by the one, the only, the great, the illustrious, the * smack * sorry, brought to you by Veritech.
Send C&C to: max_sterling83@yahoo.com
By the way, I've taken a vow of poverty; so if you want to annoy me, send money.
Again, the disclaimer is in chapter one. If you want to read it again, go there.
Paths of Life Ch. 3: Knight in Shining Blue Armor.
Part One: Agony
It was 3:27 A.M. A time that Samus considered absolutely asinine to be awake. But awake she was. Not because she wasn't tired, she was practically dead on her feet actually, but because of a pounding migraine that had stayed under the radar until it came at her from left field. She had been asleep, knowing it and loving it, for about four hours when this beast of a headache had slammed into her, well, head-on. It took quite a bit to wake Samus up, but this throbbing head pain had dragged her from the land of blessed sleep to the land of the living with all the preamble and softness of a baseball bat to the face. Samus had never woken up screaming before, so this was a first, until the sound of it seemed to rebound inside her skull, making the pain worse. Even the light hum of the ships' engines was agonizing.
Stumbling to her feet, Samus staggered towards her door. Every movement seemed to increase the searing pain in her head, but as she moved, Samus discovered that it wasn't just her head that hurt. Her sleep-muddled nerves had awakened to their own world of pain. It hurt to move. Samus felt like she was being torn apart from the inside out. Somehow, even her skin hurt.
Samus knew damn well this wasn't just a case of nerves. Something was very, very wrong with her, which was why she had moved from her room to the corridor, staggering towards the ships' well-equipped medical bay in hopes of finding out just what the hell was wrong. While she was moving, what was extreme pain rose up to outright debilitating agony. Her head suddenly felt like it was being slowly split in half, and an unmistakable twisting sensation radiated from her midsection. Falling to her hands and knees, Samus' mouth was wide open in a silent scream, her nerves seeming to have shut down. Erupting into an excruciating sting of liquid coughing Samus felt and saw blood spraying from her mouth on the corridor floor. The blood was so dark that it was almost black.
Then it came to her. [No…NO! It's happening again… the virus; they said I was immune to it now…]
It was her last coherent thought before she collapsed and lost consciousness.
Nearby, the blood Samus had coughed out onto the titanium floor began to move congealing into a small circular puddle barely two inches in diameter and oozing down the corridor towards the armory.
The crew of the RCN Stormrunner had seen many things in their careers, but none of them could remember the last time they had seen their Commander charging full tilt down the corridors, that is, if they ever had seen X exhibit such behavior. X rounded a corner and stopped before the door to the launch bay. The door bisected down the middle, then slid open. X ran into the cavernous hangar and spotted Bastion standing next to the open hatch of a shuttle.
Bastion saw X and saluted "Sir, I was told by Lt. Commander Vesping to meet you here. I assume this has something to do with that Terran ship"?
X nodded his head as he climbed into the shuttle's pilot seat. He gestured Bastion in. "Yeah, we're going on a rescue mission".
Bastion's curiosity was piqued as he climbed in. "Rescue?"
X began an abbreviated preflight check. "One human, we'd normally leave this be, but that ship is practically glowing with the X-virus. And I want you with me because I want a good pilot in control of this thing when I go aboard."
"Go aboard!?" Bastion was more than a little startled. "But if the ship is infected"-
"I'll be fine" X interrupted "I've been immune to all the virus' mutation so far, so I'm the best choice."
Bastion couldn't really argue with a true statement.
Giving the controls one final once-over, X called the bridge. "X to Vesping."
The reply was prompt. "Vesping here sir."
"You're in charge until I get back and out of decontamination Vesping."
"Yes sir."
"Good. We're ready for launch."
"Opening bay doors."
"Sir!" a voice broke in "Lt. Palus here, from Astrometrics. I've got a better sensor lock on the ship. It's totally suffused with the virus, but there is a much denser concentration of it moving about a room in the ship."
X nodded, even though Palus couldn't see him. "Good job Lt. Anything else?"
"Yes sir, the human contact is stationary, and has gone very faint."
"Is it still active?"
"Yes sir, but very faint…and sir?"
The shuttle left the ship and accelerated on an intercept course toward the Terran ship. X didn't like the confusion in Palus' voice. "Spit it out Lt. We're on a tight time as is."
"Well, sir, the virus infecting the ship is a mutation of the X-virus…but it's, uh…well, it's a biological signature sir."
If X was surprised, Bastion was thunderstruck "Biological? Are you sure your sensors are right?"
"Yes sir, Colonel, it's a pure biochemical signature. No questions about it."
X spoke again. "Good job Lt. Palus, thanks for the heads up. Anything else?"
"No sir, that's it, I'll try to get a better reading on the human contact."
"Good, do so. X out." X turned to Bastion. "This changes things."
Bastion agreed. "So what now?"
"I'll go aboard, as planned, and you'll stay here to pilot. But when I come back with the human, we'll stay in the troop compartment. Under full bio-lockdown, and we'll stay there until we reach the base orbiting Antiga." X activated communications again. "Vesping."
"Sir?"
"When we return from the Terran ship, I'm going to remain in full lockdown with the human here in the shuttle. When we land, teleport in medical, food, and water supplies, then lay in a course for Antiga. Understood?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. X out."
By now the shuttle was nearing the Terran ship. X was about to call Vesping again, but she apparently was thinking thing the same thing he was. A tractor beam shot out from the Stormrunner and latched hold of the ship. The ships' engines, suddenly pushing on an immobile object, went to emergency shutdown. Then the shuttle drew close to the ship, and X teleported aboard
It was a tense experience. X was now onboard what was possibly a hostile vessel that was infected with the X-virus. And he was alone. Looking around him, X saw that he had come down in what appeared to be the living quarters of the ships sole crewmember. The bed was empty, and then X moved to an open door, looking into a small, but efficient bathroom. Judging from the personal effects on a dresser, the human he was looking for was female, not seeing her, X went through the only other door in the room. Coming into the main corridor, X immediately found Samus lying unconscious on the deck, running up to her, X knelt next to her.
"X to Bastion".
"Bastion here".
"I've found her, prepare to receive."
"Yes sir." Bastion looked back to make sure the bulkhead was sealed, and that the pilot compartment was totally sealed off from the troop compartment. "Compartments are sealed, ready to…Sir! Watch your back, I have movement! Large concentration of viral material moving in on your six!"
X jumped to his feet and spun, bringing his X-buster up. What he saw was a tall, humanoid form. Obviously armored in a gold armor suit, with a blue overlay and red helmet. He could not see through the faceplate. He wasn't overly concerned with the face anyway, he was more worried about the cannon it had for a right arm. He barely had time to dodge before it lunged at him, diving to the deck and rolling back to his feet X turned to face his opponent. It wasn't aiming at him. It had lunged to force him away from the woman, and was now aiming at her. A blast of energy came from its cannon, but X had already moved. The charge blast hit him on the frontal ridge of his chest plate causing very little damage. Although it would have incinerated organic flesh. The armored wielder of the cannon tried to raise its' cannon to him, but X had already fired. The plasma shot took it full in the chest, and sent it sprawling. It immediately rolled to is' feet and fired again. This time X dodged, but he was more than a bit alarmed.
[That shot should have blasted through it like cheap tin!]
"Bastion! Get ready, we're coming over!" X put one hand on the woman's shoulder and raised his buster. He fired, and then both he and the woman disappeared. The plasma, however, was not aimed at X's attacker. It was aimed at the hatch it had landed next to. The shot slammed into the control panel, and the door flashed open. Explosive decompression sucked the armored form off its' feet and out the hatchway before an emergency cover slammed over the opening. The ship was once again silent.
Outside, the reincarnated form of SA-X drifted in space. It was unharmed, for it would take more than a mere hard vacuum to kill the X-virus. The viral construct knew what to do. Silently, it sent out a signal, a signal that would be received by it's lord and master. Yes, the return of SA-X would please its' master greatly.
Thousands of light-years away, Zero awoke from a nights slumber, and smiled. The signal had been near instantaneous, not only did it provide a location to find his latest subject, it also provided images of all it had see and done thus far. Samus Aran, an unwitting, but certainly worthy, enemy of Zero and his virus. She had continually bested one of Zero's greatest creations, the Pirate guilds and Mother Brain. She had even defeated 'SA-X' once before. But now her ultimate nemesis had returned. She had almost been taken care of, but who should come to her rescue but none other than X. Yes, now things would get interesting.
"Welcome to the front lines, Samus. I do so hope that you're as capable as your rescuer has been. I know we'll have a lot of fun together."
Well, there ends chapter three. Four is up and coming-I HOPE.
Megaman X belongs to Capcom, Samus and Metroid belong to Nintendo. I'm not making money off this, SO DON'T SUE!