MEGA MAN X: DEMONS OF THE PAST
By Erico
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: FROZEN RAGE
If there was anything positive that the members of the Maverick Hunter Headquarters could decide right off of the bat about Signas, it was that he was punctual.
At precisely 1:00 and 05 seconds P.M. on June 21st, 2131, Signas exited a public hoverbus outside of the MHHQ in its circular driveway and calmly began to walk towards the front door in earnest. The sunlight streaking down from above glinted off of his metallic uniform, a semi-armor designed to resemble an officer's regalia. However, the dark black shade of it seemed to draw in the light, creating an aura of shadow about him.
Some of the groundskeepers found themselves looking up from their pruning and beautification duties to watch the approaching newcomer with interest. Puzzled, they stared at the tall and imposing reploid before recognition flashed into their eyes, and they realized that at long last the would be 'replacement' for the beloved James Cain had arrived. His eyes were cold and expressionless, his mouth drawn thinly shut, betraying nothing but an air of superiority, aloofness, and a dronish confidence. Not once did he force one of his hands to brush on his legs to eliminate dust, or to see that his 'cap', or the helmet dolefully designed to look like one, was firmly in place.
Signas marched with an air of cold purpose, one that caused all outside of the great and majestic halls of the hallowed MHHQ to shudder involuntarily before dropping their heads back to their work and doing whatever they could to look busy. They did not want to even contemplate having to talk with the reploid.
The hydraulic doors seemed to respond slower, open louder and with more protest as Signas approached than they'd ever done before. The reploid did not frown at the expensive crystalline panels as they slid open, tempered to withstand light plasma fire. But his gaze did shift to watch them, his unresponsive eyes slowly swiveling from side to side as if frowning at the doors in his own, indifferent way.
A datapadd lay clenched firmly, but not nervously in his right hand as his steady marching gait took him through the front lobby and towards the hallways. But unlike the outer doors, these did not part for him.
All the Hunters, Techs, and data crunchers relaxing in that outer room froze up as Signas' steady gait stopped abruptly. All eyes on him, the professional ice man turned his expressionless face about until he was looking at the nervous and somewhat flustered reploid behind the main desk.
Gayle, the female reploid currently stationed at the main desk swallowed briefly to hide her fear before she reached a trembling hand down and pushed the release button for the sliding doors. Instantly, the doors in front of Signas parted.
"Sorry about that." Gayle mumbled meekly. Signas merely blinked once, perhaps not in recognition as much as an automatic response, before swiveling his gaze back straight ahead. He walked on once more, the cold shadow of his presence lifted from the main lobby. All breathed a little easier in the room…but all were left with goosebumps.
News of his approach spread quickly throughout the facility, and even though all had been prepared for this eventuality, the undeniable truth seemed to strike at them harder than ever.
Signas took a long and roundabout way through the circular corridors of the multilevel MHHQ structure, as if extending the time of everyone's torture so he could draw in more data about the location he would call home in mere minutes.
Wherever he walked, crowds of reploids bustling about at their duties paused and froze, pressing themselves tighter and tighter against the walls, like an oppressive force permeated from his body in all directions, crushing their spirits to mere frightened wisps of themselves.
Some watched him with fear, like Jad and Kol. Others, like Doan, watched with cold interest, showing no fear and allowing no intimidation. There were even those like Hazil, who waited just outside of the War Room's southern set of entry doors who leaned up against the wall and glared at the approaching reploid as if he was a disease, an insect, to be scorned and mistrusted.
And yet Signas held the same response for them all. Cold, unblinking stares that did not direct themselves at the fellow inhabitants of the MHHQ, yet seemed to bore into them all the more powerfully for that.
At long last, the hydraulic doors to the War Room parted, and Signas stepped into his world.
All transmissions, all voices, all conversations and smiles and laughs ceased as Signas's steady gait once more ceased and he found himself staring about the interior casually with a look of quiet disdain, as if rating a house for a realtor's price listings.
Mega Man X was the first to approach him, Zero a few feet behind. The two of them had been expecting this day to come…with dread. Hazil quietly slipped in behind Signas and moved off to the side of the room, folding his arms and glaring with a bitter stare he reserved for a select few.
"You are Mega Man X, prototype for all reploids and leader of the 17th Maverick Hunter Unit." Signas stated flatly, with a pronounced baritone pitch to his quiet, and somehow mechanical voice.
The Blue Bomber of 21XX gave a brief nod of his head, and Signas continued without missing a beat.
"I am Commander Signas of the GDC's Repliforce Liason committee. By order of the Global Defense Council, I hereby take command of all activities associated with the Maverick Hunters and the Maverick Hunter Headquarters in New Tokyo, effective June 21st, 2131 at 1:01:17 P.M." Moving as if forcing himself to, Signas jerked his arm up and presented the datapadd in his hand to Mega Man X.
Quietly, bitterly, Mega Man X accepted the datapadd and scrutinized the contents.
All was signed, all was legal.
And then the truth became undeniable as Signas did not wait for X to vocally confirm the transfer of authority, and walked over and sat down in the reclining chair set high above the dim of activity…James Cain's command chair.
At long last, Signas's face showed a few creases of a frown as he picked himself back up and purposefully adjusted the seat to a wider setting, sitting back down and then proceeding to personalize all the controls of the chair's keypad and micromonitor.
The age of the Maverick Hunters under James Cain was gone.
A new age…perhaps a nightmare…had just begun.
Tours at Sergei Cossack's Citadel had ceased three days ago. But upon thinking about it, Bright Man came to the conclusion that perhaps that was for the best. Kalinka had ordered them stopped temporarily…she had said it was just too painful.
And that didn't unnerve any of the robots that much. Tourism had been slowing down a lot since March, and it was just beginning to become a chore. One that none of them felt like doing.
The bright orange colored robot slowly walked down away from the elevator in the Fourth Ring and towards the center of the underground structure. In one direction, there was the hangar, along with all its scrapped guardians and various other tinker projects. In another lay the eternal mausoleum dedicated to the long since nonfunctioning body of Mega Man, along with the final 'information' capsule sent to Doctor Cossack by Doctor Light as a permanent fixture. In still another lay the underground bedding facilities, where Doctor Cossack had once…
Bright Man seemed to jerk as that thought ran across his mind, slowing down until he plodded along at a jerking, unsteady pace. Finally, he pushed himself past that troubling thought before it could cause any serious damage to his circuits. Death was a painful issue, even for mere robots…
Bright Man found Toad Man at the gigantic computer and its oversized monitor that had once served as the watchtower for all the Citadel. Now a mere computer with closed circuit camera abilities, a private and untraceable linkup to the net, and a fast waning supply of memory and RAM, it was a memorial piece that none of them were able to part with, that had long since turned obsolete by stronger supercomputers of the day.
"Any new reports?" Bright Man asked his comrade. Toad Man gave his equivalent to a headshake and continued to stare at the screen. Bright Man's usually lit smile faded somewhat. "Any new missions for the Foregone Five?" Once more, Toad Man shook his head. "You know, a verbal response might be more appropriate, Toad Man." Bright Man finally mumbled.
At long last, the robot turned, a weary look on his face…what existed of it.
"Bright Man, I have not been functioning at full capacity since our creator passed away."
"None of us have. Why, even Pharaoh Man has been affected. More than any of us, perhaps." The robot with the bulb attached to his head looked around. "Speaking of which, have you seen him anywhere?"
"The last word I heard from him, he was off to the residential corridors of the upper floors. Looking for Kalinka, I presume." Toad Man replied with a slight croak. "I also presume that he will hail us when he deems fit. Until then, you may assist me with the status reports on Dust Man's efficiency ratings. The newest readings seem to indicate he requires a new turbofan."
Up above ground, in one of the massive spires in the mighty Citadel of Siberia, a certain goldenrod and silver(Once black, but not now, with his armor upgrades) robot who slowly was becoming more than just a robot walked through the hallways. Back before Wily had arrived and kidnapped Kalinka and added onto this Citadel, it was little more than a small mansion with one impressive spire. This was that spire, untouched by Wily's insane machinations and layouts for the ultimate deathtrap of Mega Man. That plan had, of course, failed. The demand for tourism required that Wily's additions be left intact for the wonder and awe of the paying public…but this section of the Citadel had always been cordoned off, always off limits.
Kalinka had lived up here for most of her young life…back when Mega Man was still alive, and when she was a little girl. Her bedroom, warm and soft and full of old, musty memories from the stuffed animals and lace pillows. Memories of how she was so carefree as a child, memories of a mother she only knew until the age of five, when the entrancing blond haired woman died from a genetic defect in her heart…
Painful, saddening memories of a childhood lost to a world that held so much joy…and yet so much more sorrow and anguish. Wily had come along and kidnapped her, keeping her cramped up in that cold, dark space, as she grew weaker and weaker because of Wily's demonic ways, from lack of wholesome food and warmth, and all the time being guarded by robots who wouldn't have thought twice about blowing her to atoms if she just as sneezed wrong…
A childhood barely redeemed by the coming of a certain gray and red robot with a black visor that hid all of his eyes, and a yellow, slightly worn scarf trailing out behind him as he blasted his way through the gaggle of guards assigned to her…
Of being brought back to her father's Citadel, and being dragged down to its lowest level, all the while weak and on the edge of collapse…
And watching in horror as a dismayed Sergei Cossack fought an embittered and powerful Mega Man, Wily's War Machine that Cossack piloted showing holes and sparks and jagged tears, all the while threatening to blow apart…
Save for Protoman, Sergei Cossack, and she herself could have been lost on that late night. And then the carefree father, the quiet, smiling father Kalinka had known vanished in that instant…
Gone was the gentle parent, replaced by a bitter robotics genius working side by side with Doctor Thomas Light to improve Mega Man, to defeat Wily, to make the world safe…
"Daddy, come take a look at my painting!!"
"Not now, Kalinka, daddy is very busy…"
"But papa, you've been working for hours…" Kalinka had whined.
"ENOUGH!!" Sergei shouted, turning about from the worktable, all of his appearance disheveled, weary, a half completed schematic for an upgraded Mega Buster module lying on his desk. "Kalinka, I don't have TIME for your stupid paintings! I'm trying to make the world safe from that madman who kidnapped you!!"
"But I'm all right, daddy, everything's all right…" Kalinka shushed him comfortingly. Even then, Cossack's hair was beginning to show signs of gray, all the stress and anguish already heavy on his proud brow. His rage evaporated as soon as it had come, replaced by quiet resignation and frustrated silent pain.
"No, it isn't. And it won't be until Wily has been dealt with…" Every step seemed a mile then, as a young Kalinka watched her defeated father slowly trod back and drop his head onto the workdesk, leaning on his arms. "Just go play somewhere else, Kalinka…please…" He never had time for her after that, never had the energy…
Parts of her life made her hate him all the more for that…Losing her mother had crushed him, and when Kalinka had been kidnapped, the final chord of strength seemed to fail. He seemed to distance himself from everything of his former life, including Kalinka to a large extent…He found a new life, new children in the rebuilt works of his Robot Masters, pieced back together without a trace of Wily's dark influence within them. He found a new mission, to work with Light to help build ever grander and more potent equipment for Mega Man to face Wily with.
As if he had abandoned her for THEM…
Kalinka buried her now tear stained face into the tiny lace edged pillow of her bed, utterly frustrated, but the tears denying her the release she so very desperately needed.
Pharaoh Man, unaware of any of this, gently knocked on her door.
"Kalinka??" He queried unsteadily. "Are you in there?"
"Go away." Kalinka managed to say, with only a few traces of her despair. "Leave me alone."
And Pharaoh Man, merely following orders, did just that, turning back around and walking back towards the elevators and corridors to take him back to the Citadel he knew and walked every day. A part of him still hung there…and the robot left himself a mental note to check up on Kalinka later and ask her why she was so moody.
And Kalinka was once more alone…
Alone in a room frozen in time with her frozen rage.
"You're sure we're ready for this??" Cumulus Bull asked Kazok nervously. "I mean, going to the middle of nowhere Montana was one thing, but this…"
"We're more than ready, my clouded companion." Kazok replied, cutting Cumulus's sentence short. His cold gray eyes burned into every one of his allies around that table, making sure that they knew he was serious in his intentions. "Far too long has this world not trembled at the power of Mavericks. What we do now shall be something that none of them could have ever expected."
"Predictability?" Dolph Reach piped up, lifting his bottlenose capped head up to appear more alert as he spoke.
"That'd be my guess." Dash Blade purred. "Any time that someone thinks of Mavericks, they associate with them a certain plot. When they arrive, they have a purpose, a desire to control and dominate an area."
"Yup, so I take it we'll be doing something completely different then, boss?" Burst Scarab asked quietly. Shell Butane merely drew his head into his shell a notch, saying nothing.
Kazok reached a hand up and ruffled his short and spiked black hair.
"Precisely. We'll be doing the inverse of Sigma's normal game plan. He brought us here to do just that, and I'm seeing far grander possibilities here." Kazok's jaw seemed to seep into a frown before he added, "Perhaps more than Sigma is capable of." He turned about and sighed. "Did we inventory our loot from the raid on the 17th yet?"
"We did." Dash Blade echoed back quickly. Kazok harrumphed.
"All right. Pull out a pair of Landchasers then. Cumulus, Dash, I want you riding those."
"Just where are we going today?" Shell Butane finally asked. Kazok's grin was positively seething as he looked to Shell.
"We're going to hit the beach. Quite literally." Kazok turned about and started walking towards the connecting underground corridors. "Round up the gadgets and meet me topside in five minutes."
"Won't we be spotted?" Burst Scarab asked. Stunned, Kazok turned about to look at his comrade.
"In the middle of GREENLAND?? You're out of your fecking gourd." Kazok sighed and kept walking.
He had to tell Sigma what he was doing before they left.
Sigma and Iris were in one of the larger rooms in the underground URFAWP structure, training.
Kazok could figure out that much just as he approached from the hall and began to pick up the sounds of plasma blades twisting and slamming against one another. A feminine voice was grunting from the strain of the battle, almost gasping as the plasma weapons crashed together.
Concerned, Kazok peered his head through the open doorway.
Sigma towered over the smaller frame of Iris, barely using any of his strength at all as the newest Maverick recruit tried to block his own beam saber.
What Kazok found surprising was that although Iris was amazingly outclassed, her face held a look of grim determination, inextinguishable by anything. Even if she wasn't as strong as Sigma, she wasn't going to give in.
Sigma had two wrist gauntlet sets. His left one was TitaniTefloAlloy claws, and his right set controlled a beam dagger setup of some sort. It was the right one Sigma was using for this training simulation…although the usual set of blazing claws had been somehow replaced by a straight bolt of yellow light…a beam saber. It was an adaptation Kazok couldn't remember seeing before, but then again, this was Sigma.
Sigma brought his saber down in a final swing, fully expecting Iris to raise her own pink bladed beam saber up and block the strike with a weak parry.
For once, Iris surprised him, as she took advantage of her smaller size and dashed away from him, then dashed in again and did a two leg kick that knocked him to the ground and sent his arms sprawling away from his body.
When Sigma cleared his eyes of the stars in them, he found himself staring at a thrumming pink plasma blade, jammed precariously close to her throat.
"I've won." Iris declared triumphantly, pulling her beam saber back and shutting it off. Sigma's usually somber, or snarling face gained a genuine smile at that, and as Iris stepped back and let him get to his feet, he found himself chuckling softly.
"This time." Sigma said, with a little more joy in his voice than he usually allowed. "Obviously, you've learned how unpredictability can serve you well in battle…"
"Unpredictability isn't everything in battle." Kazok finally spoke up, stepping inside the makeshift training room. Sigma and Iris turned, both surprised at his coming. Kazok gave them both a hard emotionless stare. "If you want to be truly successful as one of us, Iris, you have to learn what every single one of your weapons can do. You need to become versed in all of them. Fighting should be next to breathing before you EVER think about going outside."
Iris was a little hurt by the comment, but her wounded pride bounced back as she drew herself up taller and stared right back at Kazok Gravor.
"I WILL get better. You just wait." Kazok seemed to smirk at that, then folded his arms and began to walk back out.
"Sure you will." Kazok mumbled as he left, waving a hand over his shoulder.
Sigma rebuilt you because you're eye candy, beautiful. Not because of how you can fight. He didn't say that of course…merely thought it.
He wasn't more than halfway to the surface exit before he felt a powerful and menacing hand clamp down on his shoulder.
"And just WHAT was the meaning of that little display??" Sigma growled, his hot exhaust breathing down Kazok's unhelmeted neck. Kazok paused, betraying nothing.
"What display? I was merely offering some advice to Iris." Kazok said back innocently.
"And INSULTING HER." Sigma snarled, turning Kazok around. It wasn't that hard of a task, Sigma was large, powerful, and very much in control.
For now, anyway…
"You had just better watch yourself, Kazok. Your attitude doesn't impress me." Sigma warned menacingly. Kazok shrugged, only to find an unsheathed set of TitaniTefloAlloy claws pressed against his neck.
And they weren't Dash's.
"If you're done giving me reasons not to sleep at night Sigma, I have to go lead another assault on the world in the name of our great and powerful group." Kazok retorted, not amused at the threat on his life, yet distant from it as well.
Sigma begrudgingly pulled his left hand back and nodded.
"Just don't say that kind of crap to Iris." Sigma said. Kazok parted his lips a bit to show the sharp teeth within.
"Oh, yes…God forbid anyone should hurt the basket cases' feelings." He brought his gravicrystals online and commanded them to surround him in his field. In a bolt of pure kinetic motion, Kazok Gravor shot up the exit hatch and away from the newly flustered Sigma...
Away from the artificial neon lights and the enclosed claustrophobic walls of Sigma's womb, and into the early morning starry open skies and the snowy fields of Greenland.
His team was already waiting for him, their two Landchasers warmed up and their warp generators ready, figures in the darkness shining with a hollow light.
"Had some trouble with the boss??" Burst Scarab surmised, landing on the ground and folding his wings up in their protective shell. Kazok shut off the gravicrystals and directed them to reattach to his waist, then frontflipped through the air under his momentum a few times before landing on the ground and skidding to a halt in front of his merry destroyers.
"Nothing too serious, or anything you should worry your misshapen head about." Kazok advised the explosive carrying Maverick. "Come on, let's get to work. This place is starting to give me a headache."
It was 2 A.M. on the 22nd of June for the Mavericks leaving Greenland. For the residents of Eastern Alaska, it was only 6 at night of the 21st of June.
Retracing Bristol's footsteps wasn't an easy task, especially considering how mobile and skittish she was in the first place.
"Bastion, you shoulda tagged her with a homing beacon." Wycost muttered disgustedly, taking a lazy dash jump across a ten foot wide river. During the winter months, Alaska was as cold and harsh as common beliefs made it. However, the southern regions, at least, became temperate during the summer months. Which made for some green foliage, chirping birds, and an overall pleasant experience. Wycost lazily slipped his hands back into his leather jacket's pockets and blinked through his glasses, taking a moment to breathe easy.
It was weird, this free time he suddenly found himself with. All his life he'd lived with restrictions, boundaries, barriers. Places he couldn't go, things he couldn't do.
He held no allegiances now, no duty. The MSWAT had been his home for more than ten years, and he was gone from that now. The Mavericks had had him twice, for very short durations. And the Hunters had had him for a straight year, from the Fifth Uprising to only a splash of days before "Sigma's Sixth".
Now the only thing he was forcing himself to do was go on this spirit quest. It entailed preserving the life of Bristol for a very good friend, to make up for all the lives he had taken over his career.
Sure, they'd been Mavericks. But that didn't change much of anything, at least in his mind.
Over his years, Wycost had developed an instinct, an ability to sense danger when it drew near. Suddenly, it began to scream at him.
He froze where he stood at the edge of the bank for only a moment before scurrying silently into the bushes, well hidden by the dense foliage. To further his disguise, he dropped his sunglare glasses into place.
The waiting was the toughest part of the entire trial. Endless minutes went by, making Wycost very thankful that his unorthodox sense of calm about danger allowed him to face this sort of thing without sweating profusely or breathing so much he might give himself away.
And sure enough, another figure did appear, face and body hidden within the confines of a great billowing overcoat and hood. Wycost felt his reploid adrenaline finally kick in…he waited until the foolish tail had looked about some and started to walk on, then he stepped out from behind the bushes and silently made his way behind the easygoing figure.
Nature grew quieter as the two individuals drew nearer to each other, until when Wycost finally snapped his left arm up straight and morphed it into his Buster, not a single bird chirped.
But just as Wycost pulled his own menacing weapon to bear, his opponent did the same, whirling about and raising its arm up straight ahead. Unlike Wycost though, the forest outcast had no Buster…Just a very odd looking arm gauntlet with what looked to be a pair of launchers jutting out of them.
The figure's hood jarred loose and fell behind its head…At long last revealing the all too familiar features of a pair of burning green eyes and blazing red hair.
"WILLOW!" Wycost hissed tersely. Willow was tensed for whatever might follow the initial drawing of swords, but her face was calm.
"Wycost. Funny bumping into you again. I'm almost beginnin' to think that we might be after the same wee lassie." Willow said easily. Wycost's glasses were still lowered, so the only indication she got as a response from him was the corners of his mouth twitching.
"You are really beginning to grate on my nerves, you know that." Wycost growled.
"Oh, stuff it, will ye? Just talk straight with me for one moment and admit we're both trailing Bristol." Willow snapped. At long last, Wycost reached up with his free hand and lifted his glasses back up into his hair.
"You stay away from her." Wycost growled menacingly. "I left a promise with a very dear friend that no harm would come to her while she was on this mission." Willow seemed to smirk at that, a smirk that held an edge of deep rooted intensity.
"If she continues on this course, she will come to harm. It might already be too late."
Wycost said nothing, prompting Willow to look down at his Buster with a dry chuckle. "And just what were ye planning to do with that, then? Smoke salmon?"
"That isn't exactly a Hallmark card dangling from your wrist either." Wycost retorted. "I mean it, this is your last warning. You leave Bristol alone, and never cross my path again."
"Or what? You'll kill me??" Willow asked flatly. Wycost grew still at that, silently battling the question within himself…
Would I kill Willow to protect Bristol…
"Think about it some more, won't you lad?" Willow finally sighed. Wycost blinked and looked back up, to find Willow's other arm pointed skyward. His mouth parted in surprise before she shook her head and fixated a somber gaze on his face. "Wycost, your Bristol is in more trouble than she realizes. And the problem is she doesn't remember a blessed thing."
Her upraised arm released a shot of some sort, which flew up into the air and exploded in a violent flash of light. Wycost cried out and shielded his eyes, quickly dropping his glasses back down.
But the damage was done. His retinas began auto-repair sequences a fraction of a second later, but for those precious few moments he was blinded and useless. If Willow had so chosen, she might well have been capable of ending his life then and there.
When he was finally able to open his optics again, Willow was long gone. Wycost cursed to himself inwardly, pounding his palm against a tree trunk.
"Stupid, stupid…Can't believe I let my guard down…"
Wycost sighed and started walking again. "Guess I'd better watch out for that fireworks display next time…"
Wycost left that clearing…But Willow was still waiting when he left.
Waiting to make sure he was long gone, she finally sighed and pulled herself from some tightly packed foliage. Her eyes were still as cool as ever, but there was a hint of increased sadness about her.
"Wycost, you're a good lad, I know that. Good enough you're not some heartless monster." Unlike Wycost, she knew exactly where to go and how.
Her warp generator came online, surrounding her with a locus of light as she was scanned for warp transport.
"I wasn't going to kill you with my wrist plasma launchers. The Weeping Willows don't take innocent blood. But I have to follow Bristol, Wycost. I have to stop her from continuing this…it might well lead to her destruction, and we almost suffered that just getting AWAY from them."
Willow shook her head and calmly pulled her hood back up, standing tall as the generator finished its initial procedures.
In a blink of light, she was gone…
Hopefully, not too late.
"You have more than two hundred individuals at this base at any given time." Signas stated flatly in the conference room. The multifaceted collection of all the Unit Commanders stared at his stony face as he continued. "One would think that precise status reports would almost be a given."
They took a look at one another before turning to stare back at him. The initial fear had now almost simultaneously grown into distrust and bitter contempt.
"We're not all that regular with them, we know that." Zero grumbled, speaking for all those in the room. "But considering that we're almost always continually faced with an impending Maverick threat of some sort or another, we don't exactly have the time to be the perfect little paper pushers. Cain understood this."
"Cain is no longer here." Signas retorted, no trace of humor in his almost robotic voice. "I however, am. You will all see that status reports arrive at their biweekly intervals, or your pay will be docked."
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" Sirius demanded, pounding a fist on the table. Sirius led the 7th Unit, a lower level group whose task was mainly training the greenhorns. Signas lifted his mighty head and bored his stiff gaze into him.
"I am your new ranking commander. If you do not agree with my policies, you are free to resign your post and leave the Maverick Hunters." It had taken all of two hours for Signas to go from suspicious newcomer to hated enemy. A fuming Sirius sat back down, his angry catlike face reddening even through his fur.
"There will be several changes to be made to the MHHQ in these first few days." Signas said icily. "However, I believe you will find them to be necessary for smooth operations of this base."
Thankfully, the all too familiar klaxon wail of trouble afoot in the world saved the Unit Commanders from further bureaucratic nonsense.
Zero and X were the first on their feet, eyes burning from instinct alone.
"Come on, fellas. Let's go see what's new in the world!!" The Unit Commanders gave a shout of approval and rushed out of the conference room, leaving a befuddled Signas to sit for a moment longer before shutting down his datapadd and tucking it away.
"Strange." Signas finally said to himself as he made a motion to leave and follow after them. For all my higher rank, Mega Man X and Zero possess an air of prestige and trust about them that overrides my own authority…
Perhaps they would become trouble later on. But for now, Signas thought as he shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the now abandoned room of change, it'd be best to see how the Maverick Hunters operated during an actual mission.
"Crikeys!" Doan muttered, shaking his head up at the viewscreen. All the Unit Commanders and on call officers were staring in dismay, but also focused intent. They were all used to being warned of Maverick attacks in this fashion, finding out almost too late that something was going down. For a while, before Sigma's Sixth, they had begun to grow soft. Now with his looming influence once more controlling the battle, their swords were sharpened for battle.
By the time Signas had rolled in, the Unit Commanders and on call techs at the various monitors had summed up what the newest threat consisted of.
"We've got six Mavericks wreaking havoc on the shores of Australia by the populated sector." Bastion called out to all those in the room listening. "Two of them, a female feraloid and a big bullish fellow are riding Landchasers…It looks like the bunch that hit the 27th Armory in Montana is testing out their new toys." He looked up to X and Zero and shook his head. "Not good, but expected."
The question came now of who to send. Of course, Zero volunteered his merry go-getters right off the bat, and X volunteered himself to go along with them, seeing as his own 17th Unit still wasn't reconstructed after Sigma blew all of its members(Save Doan and X) to shreds in Washington D.C. during "Sigma's Sixth". X had survived, and Doan had been in Cairo.
But as an intrigued, and always learning Signas watched, all the veteran team's efforts to offer themselves to face the challenge were slammed down by an overly emotional Sirius.
"Guys, I never ask for that much. But I'm asking you now to please let me and my Unit handle these guys."
"Sirius, you're a good fighter and all, but the 7th Unit is composed of GREENS!" A nearby Tech offered. "We've seen these guys in action before, and they totally overwhelmed that GDC base defense force!"
"Correct. A GDC FORCE. Not a Maverick Hunter Unit." Sirius snapped. He moved his gaze around the room, taking a bit longer to glare at Signas in all his emotionless presence. The movement wasn't lost on the newly appointed Commander of the Maverick Hunters. "My guys may be greens, but they'll stop these guys as good as any. We've got HEART, by God, and in the end, that's all that matters. How much you can do when you're pushed into action, NOT how often you get your stupid status reports in on time." Sirius's message was obvious to any of those that were present in the conference only minutes before.
And perhaps the Maverick Hunters wanted to show this upstart GDC flunkie a thing or two about the way they did things, and how they weren't going to change anytime soon.
"All right, Sirius." X finally spoke up after a brief lull. He looked into the fiery Hunter's eyes with all the calm he could muster. "If you think you and your guys are up for it, you can lead the mission."
Sirius gave a sharp salute and headed out of the War Room towards one of the transport rooms. As he left, a nearby tech activated the building wide comm system.
"Attention, all members of the 7th Unit report to transporter room two for immediate departure. I repeat, all members of the 7th Unit to transporter number two."
Signas stood there a moment longer before turning to Zero.
"From his comments, it seems he hasn't warmed up to me." Zero rolled one eye and guffawed at the comment.
"Well, no shit…"
The six Mavericks attacking the beachside residences and resorts by the populated sector were having the time of their lives.
"Boy, it's fun when they start running, you know what?" Shell Butane finally guffawed, pulling his head back before belching out a powerful stream of ignited flames. A nearby robotic fast food vendor on a hoverplatform was hurriedly making its way out from the conflict, but Butane's fireblast melted it into fizzling slag, humorously releasing the smell of well done hot dogs. Butane wrinkled up his nose. "Bratwursts'r better."
Burst Scarab calmly made his way up above the scenery, occasionally releasing an explosive and watching with interest as it careened groundwards.
"Aaw, camaaahn, hit baby hit…" He watched his explosive plummet and smash into the rooftop of the limousine below him. Pumping his fist, he yelped triumphantly. "Score!!"
Cumulus Bull commed in over the Landchaser and scoffed.
"Oh, that doesn't count for 200 points. I'll give ya fifty."
"FIFTY?! SCREW THAT!!"
"There weren't any humans in it. The fershlugger was empty." Cumulus snorted. Burst quieted down some at that, and the Bull chimed in to another one of his comrades. "Hey Dolph, how you holding up?"
The dolphin Maverick looked over, his arms upraised and a glint of very sick humor in his eyes. As the familiar locus of energy danced about his hands, he chittered in what might have been construed as a laugh.
"You should ask, what AM I holding up?" Sure enough, his large extended electromagnetic field pseudo hands, floating effortlessly in the air thirty feet distant of him, was holding up a private sports car and shaking it back and forth with ease. The terrified passengers inside were jolted every which way, and Dolph was truly enjoying himself.
That is, until Kazok Gravor leveled a supercharged plasma blast at the vehicle and blew the car and its human inhabitants to sliced atoms. The leader of the six grimly stared at Dolph before clucking his tongue.
"How many times do I gotta tell you not to play so rough with your toys?? Christ, Dolph, we're trying to make a point here, not make Candid Camera!"
Dolph sulkily shut off his weapons system and turned about to look at Kazok, floating effortlessly as he was suspended by the gravity negating field of his gravicrystals.
"And just what is our point, boss?"
"That we're ruthless, dangerous monsters that shouldn't be underestimated, that should strike fear into the hearts of everyone who walks the planet."
"Right, right." Dash Blade harrumphed, finally speaking up. She pulled her TitaniTefloAlloy claws back in from their use, which had involved driving by screaming civilians and chopping them into shreds as she passed. "And just how are we supposed to do that by busting up the local clambake?"
In response, a mass chorus of light beams appeared in a gigantic cluster two hundred feet distant, each sound and air distortion unmistakable as a relatively powerful gust of wind kicked the beach sand up over the Mavericks.
Kazok calmly brushed the particles of silicon off of himself before grinning at the sight.
"By having a little fun with them, that's how."
The members of the 7th Maverick Hunters Unit took a moment to blink and get their bearings. Then they realized that six imposing figures were calmly staring at them in the mid-afternoon sunlight…
Sirius raised his hand to them, morphing it into a Buster as it swept up in its grand gesture.
"MAVERICKS!!" The Commander of the 7th bellowed. "Your reign of terror ends here!!"
Kazok stood at the front of the pack, or more precisely, hovered as he was surrounded by his cloud of gravicrystals. Nonplussed at their bravado, his quizzical gaze soon turned back to a grim mocking smile as he realized how very shallow it was.
"Christ, they didn't send X or Zero. The Hunters must really think we're a bunch of goofs…" He wasn't at all disturbed when all his fellow Mavericks chuckled a bit at his comments. Cumulus Bull eased back further on the seat of his Landchaser and sighed.
"Well, boss, I guess we'd better show 'em that they're not messing with a gaggle of rookies now, are they?" Kazok looked at Cumulus Bull, who up until now had only been using the nose cannon of his Landchaser. The poor Maverick hadn't found an occasion to really use his special weaponry.
Until now.
With very little fanfare and only a few sparks of electricity, Cumulus Bull began to create an ionic disturbance above him.
Only a few seconds later, much to the Hunter's addled surprise, a skewering superbolt of lightning flared out from the small pack of Mavericks, downing five in their front ranks within less than a second.
"CHARGE!!" A surprised, but now infuriated Sirius commanded. The remaining Maverick Hunters were stunned for a few more moments, but then charged on ahead, their Busters and magrifles raised for battle.
But they were too few…too unprepared, too untrained for what came.
Burst Scarab flew in above the charging pack, dropping a salvo of explosive bombs that blew some of the Hunters into oblivion, and scattered them all across the winds from the shockwave.
"Now you Hunters are gonna bite the dust!" Dash Blade yowled angrily, pushing her Landchaser into a wheelie and plowing through another Hunter. She held her right hand out and skewered another Hunter straight through his neck, dragging his gasping frame along as her Landchaser proceeded away from the now disoriented, disorganized, and unprepared greenhorns.
She grimaced somewhat as the purple blood from his veins slowly began to trickle down her arm gauntlet.
"You're bleeding on me…" She growled, glaring murder into the gasping, horrified Hunter's eyes. "DON'T BLEED ON ME!!" She dropped the Landchaser to its normal riding position and brought her other claw to bear, bringing the plasma gauntlet to life and slashing his head clean off. Without the structure of his head to grasp onto her other set of claws, the rest of the now destroyed Hunter slipped to the ground, freeing Dash Blade from her freshest kill. She shook the slick fluid off of her left hand and held it out to let the wind do the rest of the cleanup job, grimacing. "Stupid Maverick Hunters…"
As Shell Butane tipped onto his shell sideways with all his limbs pulled in and rolled through a dense pack of rapidly firing greenhorns, Kazok Gravor set his sights on the leader of this batch of Hunters.
Sirius was beginning to show signs of wear. His Buster was up and charging, but somehow the black armored Maverick with no helmet and surrounded by the floating gems was completely keeping him on the defensive. There wasn't that blood-crazy glint of madness in the Maverick's eyes, either, a glare Sirius had long associated with the Mavericks. No, there was definite intelligence in this one, a cold, calculating rational mind bent on a wrong path.
"You know, I was hoping they'd send us someone prestigious to tangle with, like X or Zero." Kazok chuckled a bit, firing off another semicharged bolt of plasma. Sirius ignited his dash thrusters and pushed himself out of the way, not failing to notice the mass of beach sand turned to a glassy pulp by the radiant shot's power. "But all the Hunters bother to send us is a group of rookies and one outdated and underpowered Unit Commander. Please, you're almost not worth my time."
Sirius lifted his Buster up and fired its stored supershot, screaming at the top of his lungs. "SO WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE?!!"
At the range they were fighting, the shot should have hit despite any efforts to evade…
But with a blur of movement Sirius couldn't follow, Kazok shifted away from the shot and just in front of Sirius. Startled, the Maverick Hunter tried to take a few steps back…but he couldn't.
A shock ran through his entire body, and suddenly every part of Sirius seemed to weigh a ton. Breathing became a labored task, movement impossible…
And with a startling realization, one that was near impossible, the Maverick Hunter noted he was hovering six feet above the ground, facing downwards as his body lay flat against an invisible surface.
Kazok Gravor stood below Sirius, watching the Maverick Hunter struggle with one hand gripping at his chin and a wan smile gracing his face.
"Well, I'll be…I knew my gravicrystals could support me, but the one detail I hadn't worked out was were they capable of paralyzing my enemies…Thanks for being my guinea pig, Hunter!" Kazok said it so cheerily, an observer hearing only the audio might think that Kazok was as soon thanking Sirius for the loan of his car than keeping him held in a deathgrip.
"Gravi…crystals…"
"Yup, gravicrystals." Kazok Gravor chirped in response to the heavily breathing Hunter. He brushed back his short and bristly black hair and then set both hands on his hips. "I suppose the question now is, what do I do with ya…" He looked to his merry band of Mavericks, who had finished their gruesome assault and were now massed close behind him. "Any suggestions, team?"
"Fry the bastard!" Shell Butane said quickly.
"Let's shock his systems a bit." Cumulus Bull snorted, leaning back on his Landchaser with a cruel smile.
"Natch that. Let's stick one of my bombs on him and tell him to warp back to mommy before we blow him and whatever's nearby when he reappears into atoms!" Burst Scarab cackled, rubbing his hands together.
"Those are all fine ideas, I'll grant you. A little sick and twisted, but they'd get the job done. Still, there's a little more than just ending his life to be done in this scenario." Kazok looked up into Sirius's shattered and defeated face and grinned. "We're not sending him to be with the rest of his men QUITE yet…"
Everyone in the War Room of the MHHQ was waiting anxiously for a call back from Sirius and the 7th Unit. They were expecting at least some losses, with a group that untrained. But everyone in the room held high hopes that their group would emerge triumphant over the newest batch of Sigma's Mavericks. Even Signas seemed more alert and concentrated on everything as he sat in Cain's command chair, watching the spectacle with that air of superiority.
So when the chirping signal of a transmission coming in over the Maverick Hunter's primary combat frequency, all eyes lit up with hope. X's finger reached over to the nearby comm station and pressed the receive switch.
"This is Mega Man X at Maverick Hunter Headquarters. How did you manage, guys?"
"Quite well, actually." Came an unnervingly humorous voice. "The poor bastards didn't stand a chance." It wasn't Sirius, but it was probably one of his men…Cheers began to echo about the War Room, unsteady at first.
The voice on the other end of the line waited for the noise level to reach its maximum before continuing.
"Although, X, next time you should bother sending yourself. You don't send Greenhorns to mess with us Mavericks." The cheering stopped instantly, as every face in the room switched to incredulous disbelief and dread. "Or Zero. Or at least one of your better guys. I mean, COME ON!! We're raving, bloodthirsty ruthless messengers of freedom for our race against the human menace, and you send ERRAND BOYS? Christ. We've spared you their embarrassing return and killed them all off for you. Don't bother to thank me, I'm just doing my job." The Maverick on the other end of the line was having a genuinely fun time making this call.
"WHO IS THIS?!" Zero demanded, stepping next to X and glaring at an enemy he couldn't see.
"For the record, I suppose it's best to introduce me and my team. I'm Kazok Gravor. We also have Dash Blade, Cumulus Bull, Burst Scarab, Dolph Reach, and Shell Butane. And right now, your name is mud."
"Why, you…" X began angrily, bile threatening to rise up in his throat as he thought of all the Hunters wiped out by their duress.
"Aah, aah, don't go yelling at me for something that you do too, X. Consider this your wakeup call. The Mavericks are back in full force, and we're NOT to be underestimated. We'll be making several encore appearances wherever we feel like it, and you should be able to figure out where we've been by the smoking rubble left behind. If you feel so inclined, you can drop in on our next party. But, then again…If you aren't any more skilled than your Commander Sirius here, maybe it'd be better for you to stay home and keep curled up with your tails between your legs."
"DAMN YOU!!" Zero screamed with all the hated disgust he could muster, and then went on to swear in six different languages. Kazok paused for a moment, waiting for him to finish.
"Nice string of colorful metaphors there. Although, telling me to stuff it with a beam saber isn't going to solve your little crisis. I hope you can fight as well as you swear, Zero…We'll be waiting for a real challenge."
The conversation was ended as Sirius's comm, and most likely Sirius himself, registered the whine of a plasma supershot charging up and then being discharged…
The line went dead, and so did the War Room for several seconds.
Finally, Signas bothered to speak up.
"I believe your judgement was faulted in this scenario, Commanders X and Zero. You should not have sent such a poorly prepared Unit into that battle."
Neither Hunter felt like staring at Signas at that moment. Both thought that if they did, his head might very well roll onto the floor from the carnage they'd inflict on him and his damnable carcass.
But all the veteran Hunters and techs in that room knew then and there they were fighting a two front war from that moment on.
With Signas, and with the Mavericks.
And two front wars always meant defeat.