MEGA MAN X: END OF A DREAM
By Erico
CHAPTER SEVEN: PERIL IN THE PARK
Zero awoke in his familiar prison; the dank room which he had first found himself. But he was weak, not from lack of power but from the effects of the anesthetic Sigma had slipped him with. Sigma.
Why had Sigma told him his origins? Zero now looked at himself as more of a curse than a blessing. Zero had taken a look at an old datafile on Wily. Wily was an insidious man, gone crazy by a lab accident. Stealing Doctor Light's original robot masters, he went on a rampage across the globe, taking life and bringing only misery. Only Mega Man, X's ancestor was able to stop Wily, time and time again. Nothing good ever came from Doctor Wily's lab, not even Bass. And now Zero knew who he was.
"Morning, my reploid prince." Zero jerked his head up, but almost fell back from the wooziness. It was Sigma again, smiling oddly at him. Zero turned away then managed to choke out a halfhearted,
"What do you want?" Sigma turned the lights on, blinding Zero temporarily.
"It's not what I want, Zero. It's what Wily wanted. For you to be an unstoppable killer. And now I am going to help you fulfill that role." Zero twirled around, his sickness gone. His eyes burned, and his voice was low.
"Never." Sigma laughed.
"Oh, but you don't have much of a choice now. Vile!!!" a familiar helmeted figure with a shoulder cannon and warp boots(able to let him shift from place to place without changing the direction he faced in) walked in the door and chuckled.
"Hello, Zero." Sigma guffawed at Zero's confusion.
"Oh, I had him rebuilt after the Doppler incident. I could have used him in the Repliforce takeover, but then he would have…gone up with the ship, I believe is the saying." Vile chuckled. He lowered his arm cannon and fired a restraining bolt of energy at Zero. It hit head on, and Zero found himself frozen to the spot. Sigma's smile vanished.
"Take him to the training grounds."
Meanwhile, X was running over the incident report back at Maverick HHQ. But somehow he couldn't focus. Zero's absence was worrying him profoundly. Zero had pulled stunts like this before(like when X poured chili pepper sauce down his beam saber shaft and shorted out the weapon for a week) but he had always come back a few days later. It had been a week, and still no sign of the red demon. Just then Cain walked in, hobbling on his stick. X looked up in surprise.
"X, we have another confirmed maverick master sighting. It's over in the National Zoo of the Chinese Republics. It appears to be a gigantic koala form. Worse, he's sealed off the park and trapped at least fifty hostages according to our estimates." X slapped down the paper.
"Boy, Doc. Its never a halfway with you. It's either all good, or all bad." Cain frowned. X liked to crack jokes in tense situations, and it bothered the serious man. Cain coughed loudly, then replied,
"Well, get going. I suggest you put on your Retribution armor for this. Apparently, their forces are stronger than Nitro Narwhal's was. They're expecting you this time." X shrugged.
"Hey, they can't all be stupid. See you, doc. If I make it back alive." X began to walk away, but Cain whistled loudly. Every reploid head in the building turned. Cain lowered his head, embarrassed, then tossed a sub-tank to X.
"Just in case, X. You be careful." X smiled warmly at his mentor, then shifted into his Retribution armor. Then he turned and walked away, slowly fading away as he warped to his destination.
X flashed into being right over the seal pond.
"Woah!" he shouted, as he fell down into the shallow part of the pool. A loud splash could be heard, and seals barked noisily at their intruder, who sat on his butt, sopping wet and very disgruntled. One seal swam up to him and looked at him, twisting its head. X growled and scared the silky monster away. X walked out of the pond and jumped over the railing, drying himself of the last of the water.
"Last time I just pop in the middle of things. Next time, I'll walk a freakin' mile to avoid getting wet." X grumbled. But then he heard screams far off. His humorous visage vanished as his arm cannons began to charge with plasma. The air around the end of his weapons glowed brightly. X had first found the ability to use two arm cannons in unison during the Second Maverick Uprising. One of the good Doctor's capsules provided him with a very useful tool, but like all his capsules, did not give X the basic knowledge of his family that he craved.
X shook his head. Now was not the time to be thinking of the past. The present was now, and people needed him to save the day.
"Sometimes, X…" he muttered to himself. "Sometimes this is like a video game."
X's Targeting Helmet located the captives quickly. They were being held in an underground bunker, and the bulk of the mavericks were above. This meant to save them, X would need to be silent as possible. Any plasma fire on his part would cause them to become aware of the situation, and it would take several rounds for his cannons to do the trick. X sighed and began to power down his shots.
Then it hit him. X closed his eyes and activated his special weapons array. He armor turned a shade of forest green as the Narwhal Cannon activated. X's face was dead straight. He only got one shot at this. X charged himself slowly, not to make any noise and alert them. It took longer, but it was worth it. Then it completed the charge, and X became covered in a thick brush of deadly, explosive needles. X crept to the edge of the tree cover and focused his needles on the reploids standing and looking around carefully. X took a deep breath, then fired.
The deadly shower of explosions wiped out all the forces, destroying many and causing others to shut down. But before the first needle exploded, X was back to plasma, charging the bunker with his dash. He swept down the stairs, only to be met with plasma fire.
The underground mavericks had caught on. Normally, X would be seriously damaged by the attack, but in his explosive armor, he absorbed the plasma blasts without taking a hit. X smiled as he saw that the captives were cowering in a far corner of the room, away from the attackers. X activated his plasma cannon, drawing on the absorbed energy, then focusing it so the plasma would cut, not explode. Any concussion in the crowded and shielded interior would kill everyone. X fired his massive cutting arc, slicing the mavericks in half, and scouring the wall two feet above the prisoners. X sighed. He walked over to the group then smiled.
"Hello, I am X from Maverick Hunter Headquarters. I am here to save you." X said politely in a calming voice of Chinese. The group stopped shaking as they realized they were out of danger. But X was not. There was still no sign of the controlling maverick, which meant X would now have his hands full. Anyone around for miles would have heard the intense battle. X took another breath, then spoke.
"You stay here. It is not safe to leave yet." The group nodded, then X took off. X smiled. If he did manage to get the first shot, he could pull off his dragon punch.
X emerged from the bunker, fully charged and ready to fire. And he didn't have to wait long. The ground beside him suddenly became shredded as something with high velocity sliced it to ribbons. X dashed to the side and tried to get his bearings on where the shot came from. Then, a figure dropped to the ground, and stood up.
He was not enormous, but he was not small, either. About a foot taller than X, the black with white spotted maverick could contend with many from the looks of it. He had big ears, powerful legs, and long arms with claws and some kind of shooter attached to them both. The maverick growled, baring white jagged teeth that looked as if they could sever X's head.
"So, you're Mega Man X. I was alerted you were on the prowl. I'm Killer Koala." Koala's sentence was finished with a shot from his arm blaster. Out emerged a whistling, high velocity shaped piece of metal. X dashed back, just barely avoiding the shot.
"That was a piece of TitaniTefloalloy in the shape of a eucalyptus leaf. Even koalas get hungry." Killer joked as he fired another shot. X dodged that one too, but Killer Koala was charging him, his slashing claw upraised and ready to disembowel X. X dashed into the air, trying to avoid the slash, but Killer jumped up as well, towering over X's frame.
"Uh-uh. No running, pal. You're mine." Killer smiled as he stretched back his arm. X closed his eyes and let loose with a powerful dragon punch he had attained from one of the doctor's secret capsules. Instantly, his fist burned intensely and he shot up, catching Killer Koala squarely on the jaw with the uppercut. Both fell to the ground, but X landed on his feet. Killer Koala was severely damaged from the attack, his fur was singed and X could see sparks shooting from the circuitry underneath.
"I guess I wasn't running, eh?" X harrumphed, charging both his arm cannons. Killer Koala growled, but it turned into a scream. Raising both hands, he fired a salvo of metallic slicers. X was unprepared, and the attack caught him. Not all the slicers hit, but X was now leaking reploid blood from his wounds, and losing energy fast.
"Ha! Let's see you pull off that fancy punch now, hot stuff!" X tried to keep his footing, but it was tough going, his energy was down to 20%. Killer smiled, then walked slowly over to X to deliver the final blow. X couldn't believe it. He had been in scrapes before, but this was one of the tougher ones. Even when he had been trashed by Vile, Zero came along and overloaded the walker, giving X enough time to take the paralyzing energy and turn it into systems energy.
Systems energy! It hit X. He had a sub-tank loaded in his chest compartment. All he needed to do was access it, and he could be at full power again. It just meant he only got one shot at taking Koala down, while the maverick thought X was helpless. X selected Narwhal Cannon from his special weapons array, and waited.
Killer Koala saw X's color change, unaware of the consequences.
"Hey, X! You're really sick, huh? Now you're even turning green!" X kept the same look of helplessness on his face, waiting as the sub-tank filled his body with the required energy. Then, it completed the transfer. X smiled as he looked at Koala, a mere ten feet away. Koala looked back in befuddlement. X was going to die, so why was he smiling? X shot his arm cannon up, then fired an explosive needle at the ground underneath Killer Koala. The blast didn't harm the maverick's thick hide, but the explosion shot him in the air, defenseless and hanging like a piñata. X switched back to normal and dashed to Killer's position. He leaped into the air and screamed with intense rage as his dragon punch sent him straight up. The massive blow punched a hole in Killer Koala's stomach. The maverick collapsed to the ground, weakened and only a few cycles short of shut down.
X walked over from his landing position and picked up Killer Koala, whose arms hung loosely at his sides.
"All right, pal. I wanna know why you're doing this. What's Sigma's game this time?" Killer laughed softly, coughing as he spurted reploid blood over X's face.
"You think you're good? Just wait until Sigma is done with Zero…" X's face turned to surprise.
"Zero??? What is Sigma doing with Zero? What is happening to Zero?" but before Killer Koala could answer, he shut down. X exploded.
"NO!!!" X threw the hollow shell into the air and fired a huge plasma blast. The sky lit up intensely as the maverick's parts fell to the ground, singed and melted. X walked over to an arm and activated his weapons array. An icon appeared on his menu; Koala Slash. X walked away, his battling emotions fighting each other in his body. X began to warp back to base, but he managed to utter one sentence;
"Zero, where are you?"