Megaman X2: Eternal War

Chapter 2: Trouble's a brewin'

By Genoscythe

Disc: Capcom owns everything, yadda yadda. I'm not gonna repeat myself, so get over it. Besides, who cares if I write a disclaimer or not? It's not like Capcom's gonna sue me for this, right? *Gets dragged off by the police* Well screw that.

A.N. Hello fellow reader(s). I decided that my earlier chapters needed more work, especially this one, so I rewrote most of it. If you really don't care what the hell I do to the early chapters, that's fine, but I tend to over-criticize my own works, so I thought it needed to be done. If you actually do want to read it, then enjoy.

Usually during the day, the Techno Nights bar was completely deserted. Since the majority of its patrons were Maverick Hunters, they came later after their missions were complete. At night, the bar was full to bursting with reploids and humans alike, getting stone drunk and trying to forget all of their woes. This was one of those nights. It was packed with drunken humans and reploids, some dancing, some drinking, some vomiting. Megaman X sat at a table near the back, far away from the main group of people. Drake sat across from him, and both were in their casual human clothes.

X absent-mindedly took a sip of his lemonade (Drake had insisted he get hard lemonade) and leaned back in his chair. " Y'know, you've gotta relax once in a while, man. Take a deep breath, meditate, shit like that." Drake said to him. " I think you spend more time worrying about everyone else than you do yourself."

"I don't need to worry about myself," X replied. " There are thousands of lives that are more important than mine."

"Don't say that, man. You beat Sigma! You're the greatest maverick hunter since Genoscythe!"

" Just because I was a hero once doesn't mean my life should be put above others. We still have a job to do, if you remember our little desert fiasco. We can't afford to act like heroes."

" Yeah, well…" Drake began, then took one last swig of his drink. " I'm gonna go get some more, you want anything?" X shook his head. Drake got up and walked off to the counter. Meanwhile, X surveyed the bar. He spotted a few familiar faces here and there, but then he stopped when he saw a very familiar face. On the other side of the bar, Calliope sat talking with some human hunters. Her streaked brown hair cascaded down the length of the chair and the light fixture seemed to make it shine with an unearthly brightness. Her dark blue eyes nearly cast their own glow, like infinite dark light bulbs. She seemed so indescribably beautiful at that moment. X couldn't take his eyes off of her. He was surprised. He had always liked Calliope; maybe even had a bit of a crush on her, but not to this degree. He suddenly turned away and gulped down all of his lemonade as a distraction from his mind, which was playing dirty images of her over and over. He coughed and sputtered as a result of drinking too fast and the surge of alcohol in his system. That's it, He thought, It's this damned alcohol. Just then Drake walked back to the table with a cocktail in hand. " Hey, uh… X?" He waved his hand in front of X's face. " YO!" X grabbed the side of his head.

" Huh? What's going on?" He asked.

" You just kinda zoned out there, buddy. You okay?"

" Uh… yeah, I'm fine." He took one last look at Calliope. Drake noticed this and looked in the direction of his gaze. He quickly caught on to the meaning of the stare.

" Oh, I get it." He gave X a knowing smile.

" What?"

" I see who you're staring at."

" Staring? I have no idea what you're talking about." X said, but he blushed, giving him away.

" Whatever. Look, if you need any love advice, just ask the love machine himself!" Drake pointed to himself.

" You? A love machine? I think you've had too many beers."

" Come on, you're implying that I'm not as irresistibly hot as I think I am? Drake asked.

" Yes. Yes I am." X replied.

" Man, you're cold."

It was nearing one o'clock in the morning, and all of the humans had left. Now all that remained were the reploids that had nothing better to do. Several new people had come in, a humanoid and a beetle reploid, but other than that, it was emptying out. Drake was out cold. His head was on the table and saliva was pooling under his mouth. X had long ago given up drinking alcohol, he wasn't a heavy drinker. Instead, he tried to focus on other things. Anything that would get his mind off of Calliope. He had debated with himself whether or not he would talk to her, but he found that he didn't have the courage. From across the table, Drake stirred quietly. X sighed. It was going to be a very long night.

The beetle reploid that had come in earlier was eyeing Drake suspiciously. X wondered what he was up to. Suddenly, it slammed its fist on the counter, smashing its mug. It stomped over to the two hunters, making large dents in the floor as it walked. Drake sleepily opened his eyes and shook his head. The beetle towered over him, reaching a full 13 feet. Its back was covered in nondescript silver armor, with razor sharp gauntlets on its arms and bracers on its legs. It only had one eye; the other had obviously been shot out due to the burn marks on the artificial skin of its eye socket. Under the armor, the reploid had a thick brown carapace. Now, the large creature made a grab for Drake.

"Man, I just had the freakiest dream," He began, but then he felt a tremendous hand on his head. It grabbed a tuft of jet-black hair and yanked the poor reploid up roughly, so he could see the beetle's face.

" I knew it was you, Drake. I told you never to come sleazing around this bar again!" The beetle's voice sounded like gravel on steel. " I remember clearly what you did to me, and I feel I need some retribution." Drake squirmed briefly, but was clearly overpowered. Many of the patrons got out of their seats to watch the possible bar fight; they needed anything to keep them occupied from their own sorrow.

" Look, man, I don't know what you're talking about, or who the hell you are, so just buzz off!" He futilely kicked at the behemoth, but to no avail.

" Awww… you don't remember good old Jawbreaker? If you would recall, you seemed to have a little problem with team spirit back when we were working with Emilio. It cost me my eye, and my checkbook, if you could remember."

" Oh yeah, now I remember. Sorry, your agenda didn't exactly meet with my needs. If you need compensation, I'll gladly loan you some cash." Drake replied coolly. Jawbreaker punched him hard in the gut, making him cry out.

" Sorry doesn't help with the cost of damages, now does it?" Up until now, X had been too shocked to react, but now he slowly reached for a mug. Jawbreaker punched Drake several more times and threw him against the wall. It began to trudge over to its victim, when a mug of beer flew at its face. The mug shattered and alcohol sprayed all over its eye. While momentarily stunned, X threw in a punch, which barely glanced off the beetle's armor. Suddenly, another form leapt upon Jawbreaker, slamming its fists into the beetle's neck. Yet another came in, armed with a taser.

The second form leapt at the mechanical beetle's back, jabbing forward with the long, electrified pole. Quicker than lightning, Jawbreaker spun around and smashed the newcomer in the jaw (pardon the pun). He flew into a table, knocking glasses and chairs down as he did so. Now, the beetle grabbed onto the reploid hanging on his neck, and with a quick thrust, sent her flying into X. He brought up his arms in a cross to cushion the impact. The stranger fell in front of him, barely moving him back a step. When he looked down, he recognized the beautiful features of Calliope, his fellow Maverick Hunter. Her eyes fluttered open, and he helped her up to a sitting position.

" Hey, are you okay?" He asked with notable concern. She brushed off her dazedness and stood up.

" Man, does trouble always follow you around, or is this just a bad week?" She asked cheerily.

" I take that as a yes," he mumbled. By this time, a large crowd had gathered and they were cheering loudly. Jawbreaker was moving in on Drake, who was still lying dazed against the wall. The two hunters ran at him, but almost like he had eyes in the back of his head, he jumped to the left and grabbed a table. He tossed it at the hunters, and X barely pulled Calliope out of the way before it hit her. Jawbreaker began throwing more miscellaneous things at them.

" So is this joker a maverick or what? He seems hell-bent on getting to your dirty little friend over there." Calliope said in between breaths, while she easily dodged the things being thrown at her.

" I don't know who he is, but I can tell that he's not a maverick. He said he wants Drake dead because of something he's done in the past." As Jawbreaker was backing up, he got closer to the stranger with the taser, who had recovered and was now sitting behind a table, ready to strike.

Calliope dodged left, right, then left again to avoid getting hit by some beer mugs. She dashed forward, ducked under an oncoming table, and rammed into the beetle as hard as she could. He staggered back, right onto the stranger's taser. The jolt went all the way up the beetle's spine, and it shrieked in fury. Its circuits fried, it fell to the ground in a heap. Calliope ran back over to X, eager to talk to her companion. The other hunter with the taser got up slowly and dusted off his clothes. He was barely taller than X, who was about 6 feet tall. He wore a clean silver officer's vest with gold trimmings and a red undershirt. On top of his head, he wore a white beret, with blond hair sticking out the back. He walked to X and held out his hand in a gesture of respect.

" Greetings captain X. I am Commander Briggs, leader of the 15th division. I've heard very much about your combat record, and I must say that it's very impressive. Do you have any idea as to what happened here?"

" I do!" Interjected Drake, who had gotten out of the corner and composed himself. He wiped blood from his lips and continued. " That guy you just buzzed is a mercenary reploid named Jawbreaker. I used to work with him, but they doublecrossed me and I had to retaliate. I took his eye and his wallet, and apparently he has some kind of grudge against me." He kicked the crispy reploid in the stomach. " Or had, but now he's deep fried thanks to you, commander."

"That was just on low power, he'll be back. I suggest you get out of here before that happens. I'll clean up here." Briggs instructed.

" Music to my ears. Thanks Briggs." With a slight wave, Drake sped off out the door.

" I think you two had better get back to the base as well. You both need to recharge; we have a long day tomorrow." Briggs said, addressing the remaining hunters. X shrugged. Now was his chance. He just needed to summon some courage.

" Mind if I walk you back, Calliope?" He asked, with a surprising note of calmness in his voice.

" Sure. Sounds great. These streets aren't safe to travel alone anymore, anyway." She smiled at him, and he began to go rigid. He gulped and they walked out of the bar.

" I thought you said production was on schedule. We cannot fall behind! Do I make myself totally clear?" A voice called out in the darkness. A single computer with a holographic screen lit the room. Three figures stood in the room, totally immersed in shadow.

" I did say that. Bypassing his security system was much more difficult than we planned. We are close though, all we need is his main power chip, which is stored at Maverick Hunter H.Q."

" And? Can't we just break in there and steal it?"

" Always the simpleton. Maverick Hunter H.Q. is the most safeguarded foolproof building in history. We cannot hope to break in by ourselves. We need more time to devise a plan. Contact our mavericks and tell them to buy us some time."

" But won't we be wasting needlessly? We need as many mavericks as possible if our plan comes to attack."

" We can't risk being discovered until the time is right."

" What about X? He poses a great threat to us. He has slain countless mavericks before him, even Sigma!"

" Do not fret. I have a plan that will rid us of him once and for all."

End

A.N. Well, here's chapter two version 2.0. I've added character descriptions, and changed the bar fight. It was much longer, and I like that. Here's where the romance comes in. This is my first time writing a romance, so those might not handle as well as the rest. I'll do my best, and if I do any more stories (which I probably will), I'll have some experience so you can expect it to be better. That's all for now, so stay tuned for chapter 3!