Megaman X2: Eternal War
Chapter 6: Tragedy
By Genoscythe
Disc: Yeah, I own Megaman. I own Megaman X too. In fact, I own all of Capcom, and I'm going to start making a Megaman X anime soon. Yeah, I even own the anime production companies, such as FUNimation and Sunrise. I even own you. And your pathetic little world too! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!(suckers)
X fell hard on the ground, his helmet clattered on the rocks a few feet away. The large maverick pulled back its flaming fist again and let loose another punch. He skidded back several more feet and pulled out his blaster. He fired several shots at the maverick, but he dodged to the right, as X suspected. He immediately shot up and used the last bit of energy from his boosters to tackle the maverick. He kicked him in the chest and jumped back, aiming his blaster again. When X fired though, the maverick was nowhere to be seen. Curious, he walked to the edge of the cinder cone and found a near-vertical wall. Below it was a pool of lava, and in it were about five pillars leading to the larger part of the volcano. Clinging to the wall was the maverick, digging his gloved hands hard into the cliff wall.
" You think you can eradicate me so easily, hunter. I'm afraid you are sorely mistaken. Flame Stag answers to no one!" At uttering his name, the maverick pushed off the cliff and began hopping from the wall to the nearest pillar and back again. He continued the zigzag pattern until he reached the top, and immediately began shooting fire at the azure hunter. X rolled to the side, but the maverick expected him. With a knee kick to his chest, he was sent sprawling. A beep resounded from his boots, alerting him that his dash booster was recharged. A moment later, he shot off again, with doubled determination.
V.R.'s hands shook as he tried to assemble the rest of the sniper unit. He couldn't assume that X was dead, but he also didn't know if he could make it in time. He fumbled one of the pieces and cursed under his breath. Then, he got an idea. He began whistling a tune that he had learned long ago, and it soothed him. It was an old blues tune that his creator, whoever that was, had taught him. He always found it comforting when he was distressed. Still whistling, he picked up the last sniper piece and fit it together. He held the enormous weapon up to his face and he began zooming in. He could see X, dashing along at top speed with the maverick behind him. V.R. breathed a sigh of relief; X wasn't wearing his helmet, so his comm. link must have just been knocked off.
Zooming in even more, he locked onto the maverick. The tune played in his head as he pulled the trigger once, twice, then a third time.
X jumped as he heard an explosion behind him. He looked back and saw Flame Stag clutching his chest. Then, two more bright beams of energy slammed into him, sending him into the ground. The maverick twitched several times then stopped completely. He looked to the right, where V.R. was positioned on a cliff. There was a flash, and then V.R. was next to him, slightly grinning. X smiled back at him. " I guess I can trust you after all." he said.
" Thank you," V.R. said, saluting. " I suggest we return to the H.Q. I do not wish to stay here any longer than necessary."
" Amen to that," X said, and with that, they both disappeared in brilliant flashes of light.
** " Do it," The dark haired man grunted. With a sigh, Drake raised his handgun and fired into the old man's chest. His eyes went wide and he crumpled to the floor with blood spilling freely from his wound. Drake closed his eyes and shook his head. The man bent down and pulled out the old man's wallet. Suddenly, a door flew open, and a reploid girl with brown hair, barely twenty, rushed out.
" Father!" She screamed as she rushed over to her creator. The dark haired man snickered and snapped his fingers.
" There can be no witnesses. Kill her, Drake." He stared at his master dumbfounded. He could easily kill a crime lord or a small mob of gangsters, hell; he could even kill this old man. But they were all wicked, corrupt souls. How could he kill a frail young woman like this?
" No," He said.
" What did you say?" The dark haired man hissed.
" I said no," Drake repeated. " She's just a girl! We don't need to kill her," He glanced over at the girl, who was now weeping softly over her creator.
" She could alert the authorities, Drake. They would be on to us in no time! Do you want to spend the rest of your life in jail, my friend?"
" No, I can't. This isn't right, killing innocents. I don't want to be a part of it!" He shouted.
" I am sick and tired of this, Drake. Your loyalty is wearing thin, and I think you are forgetting what a dangerous man I am," The man smiled wickedly. He pulled out a small gun and pointed it at the young girl, who was now staring at the pistol with wide, tear-filled eyes.
" NO!!" Drake yelled as he swatted the gun away and pointed his own at the man's head. " I won't let you kill her," The man sighed in resignation.
" Fine, just let me do one thing." He brushed the reploid aside and strode over to the fear-stricken girl. He put his hands together and brought them down on her head with a sickening crack. She fell over, unconscious. He walked to the door and swiveled his head around to face Drake, who was still standing in the corner, unmoving. " She's just unconscious. With any luck, she won't remember a thing. Now hurry, we have some rent to pay off." He said, holding up the wallet. Slowly, Drake began walking across the room to the front door, with a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.**
Drake shot up out of his bed. He clutched the side of his head and moaned. He had had another dream about his past, ones he had been having for the past week or so. He had just taken a small nap before his mission would start, but even then, the dreams haunted him. It was getting to the point where he couldn't sleep peacefully at all, lest he fall victim to his dreams. He groggily rolled out of bed and put his shorts and a shirt on, not bothering to shave as usual. He felt that if he talked to X about it, he would feel a bit better.
X tossed off his armor and uniform and put on some casual clothes. He laid the armor by his bed for the servo droids to pick up and take to the maintenance hangar. He found that one of the few perks of being a captain in the maverick hunters was that a servo droid or two would come around every other day to fix armor, clean the room, usually tasks that the hunters would never bother doing. Suddenly, the communicator on the wall began beeping. He walked over to it and pressed down on the voice stud. " What is it?" X asked, and it came out much harsher than he'd intended.
" X, this is Dr. Cain," An elderly voice said through the comm. speaker. " I need to speak to you, please." His voice sounded urgent.
" Alright, I'll be right there," X said as he let go of the stud and ran off for Cain's office. Several minutes later, he entered the room and sat down on a chair across from Dr. Cain's desk. His office was a rare sight, especially in a technologically advanced building like this one. The walls were metal, but they were covered with wood and wallpaper to recreate the old style of building used in the 20th century. A simple fan hung from the ceiling, providing a slight breeze in the hot room. " What's the problem, Doctor?" X asked.
" I'm afraid that we've been betrayed. The Central Control unit was led by Magnas, the hunter from special unit 0, but he turned on them and destroyed them." X stopped breathing. His heart caught in his throat when he heard the news of the team, the team that Calliope was with! It was all over, X knew, she was dead, the one person that meant so much to him was gone for good. He hung his head so that Cain wouldn't see the tears welling in his eyes. Slowly, he began to get up, but Dr. Cain stopped him. " Some of the hunters survived, though," X didn't move. " Two survived, to be exact,"
X wheeled around, his expression hard. " Who survived?" He asked rather calmly. Cain fumbled through his paperwork on the team's members.
" Calliope and Jett," Cain said. X breathed a long sigh of relief. He gripped the side of the chair and sat down again.
" How is Calliope? Is she all right? Where is she?" Dr. Cain merely smiled at the barrage of questions that he had concerning his female companion.
" Slow down, boy. She's fine, just a bit rattled. She was in the medical lab attending to Jett, but she left fairly recently, and I don't know where she is now," Then Dr. Cain smiled a small, slightly crooked smile. X cocked his head.
" What?" He asked. Dr. Cain just continued to smile.
" You seem awfully concerned about her, X. Could it be that I may be having grandchildren anytime soon?" Though the good doctor wasn't related to him in any way, they always considered each other family, hence Cain's reference to grandchildren. He looked mortified at his 'grandfather', though his blatant remark was true, and he blushed a deep crimson.
" I have no idea what you're talking about!" X shouted.
" I think you do. Come by my office later and we'll talk about it. Now, I'm afraid that I have quite a bit of paperwork to do, so shoo!" With that, Dr. Cain playfully shoved X towards the door. He waved to his good friend and ran out the doors towards Calliope's quarters.
Finally, X found room 1724, Calliope's room. He stopped at the door when he heard some faint noises from the inside of the small room. He couldn't tell what they were from outside, so he knocked on the door. There was no answer. He opened the door and stepped inside. Calliope lay on her bed in a fetal position, her head buried in the pillow, crying softly. X took a slow step forward, but before he could move again, she spoke. " Go away," She said, her words slurred by her pillow and the tears.
" It's just me," X replied. She rose from the bed and pulled the covers tightly around her, for she was only clad in her undergarments.
" Weren't you on a mission or something?" She asked. " I'm sorry, I didn't think you would be back yet."
" S'okay. We finished that one early. What happened at the Central Computer?" He knew what happened, he simply wanted to know the details. With the remembrance his words brought, though, she started her weeping all over again, and X moved to her side to calm her. He put his arm around her, and held her tightly to him, letting her cry into his chest.
" I… I saw them die… all of them…" She finally managed to say in between sobs. " He tore them to pieces… smashed their heads in… he even ripped out their guts!" Calliope wailed. X knew whom she was talking about, and didn't press her on any more details. " Twenty four hunters died yesterday, X. I saw them all die. I knew them. I thought they would always be there, I never really thought that they…" She continued. He put a finger to her lips.
" Hush. Everything's gonna be fine, just watch. I'll show this freak what he gets when he messes with the Maverick Hunters." He smiled warmly at her, and she smiled back, in spite of her shape. Then, he tilted his head down slowly, and gently kissed her forehead. She blushed wildly and looked away from him, which was just as well since he himself began blushing like crazy. Determined to change the subject, Calliope raised her head up to look at him.
" I think we should go see how Jett is doing. When I left the med. division, Mobius said that he wasn't looking good." she said, standing up and breaking their embrace. She looked down at herself and sighed. " Oh god, I'm a mess. Just wait outside for a minute while I clean up." She gently nudged X towards the door, and he stepped through to give her some privacy. He leaned against the wall and began whistling to distract his mind.
Suddenly, he heard laughter behind him. He whirled around and found Drake behind him, clutching his sides and laughing hysterically. " What the hell are you laughing at?" X stared crossly at him.
" That… was… so… damn… pathetic!" It was hard for the black haired reploid to speak through his fits of laughter. After a few moments, Drake was finally able to get a hold on himself, and he regained his normal posture. " What you just did, that was pathetic," He repeated.
" You heard that?" X asked, staring horrified at his good friend.
" Duh. These walls are so damn cheap that you could hear a pin drop behind 'em." He wiped tears of laughter from his eyes and leaned on the wall. " Everything's gonna be fine, just watch," He said, mimicking X's words in a whiny tone.
" Quit it!" X stepped forward and cuffed him on the side of the head.
SMACK! " Ah crap! Ow… so much for pacifism," He rubbed the side of his aching head.
" What are you doing here, anyway? Aren't you supposed to be out with the 15th taking care of some more mavericks?"
" The deployment time was postponed. We're supposed to leave in about an hour. That means I've got an hour left to annoy the hell out of you!" Drake said gleefully.
" Great," X said, rolling his eyes. Drake walked over to him and slung his arm around his shoulder.
" Just one word of advice; don't try to act so cheesy next time. Act savvy and cool, and don't just give her what she wants, always taunt her with it, first. That way, she'll want it more," Drake said in his best 'smooth operator' voice.
" How could you say something like that?" X gave his a shocked look. " Well, at least now I know what NOT to do," He said, grinning.
" That… that's just cruel," Drake adopted a mock hurt expression. They both settled down and in a few minutes, Calliope came out of her room, wearing her usual tank top and denim jacket.
" Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She exclaimed, running off down the corridor, with X closely on her heels.
" Heh, kids," Drake muttered as he began following them at his own pace.
End
A.N: Whew, that was a long one. I'm glad that I've finally got the story moving along, and I HOPE that more people are reading it. If anyone is wondering, I'm going to make a short 'fic about Drake's past that's separate from this 'fic. That little part here was just a teaser. I'll have the first chapter up in about a week, so sayonara! (sorry if anyone was offended by the disclaimer; it was just a bit of fun.)