Megaman X2: Eternal War
Chapter 10: Back to the Campaign
By Genoscythe
Disc: Is it really worth it for ANYONE to sue me over a stupid disclaimer? I mean, who would actually put the time and effort into winning a lawsuit which could go on for months and months. Besides, Capcom's so dirty freaking rich that they wouldn't even need the money.
A.N: Things are slowing down again, but not too much. In this chapter Drake and a few others of the 17th join with the 15th to destroy the occupied greenhouse, so you'll get to see my new maverick in a little bit. Woo hoo! Ahem… on with the show.
The walls of Maverick Hunter HQ were torn and the floors were strewn with glass from shattered windows or light fixtures. Still, that did not slow down Genoscythe in the least as he walked swiftly into the command center. It was pitch black, save the tiny beams of light coming from several cracks in the wall. The commander mentally adjusted the brightness of his eyes so he could better view the scene before him. In the center, Dr. Cain lay motionless on the floor, with a small amount of blood trickling from his forehead. He walked over to the doctor's body and put a gloved hand to his chest; to his relief he was still breathing.
His eyes flicked across the room, and he spotted Commander Briggs picking himself up from the ground. He walked briskly over to the wounded commander and waited patiently for him to get up. In a few moments, he rose and faced the red eyed commander. " What happened? Why did they stop?" He asked while rubbing his right arm, which was bent at an odd angle.
" We have a new problem on our hands, or rather X's hands." He quickly explained all that had happened outside on the battlefield. Briggs made a frown, then grimaced at his injured arm.
" They're probably lying. I wouldn't let him go if I were you."
" Yeah, well you aren't me. I have great faith in X's abilities, and so should you. After all, you were in the First Maverick War, weren't you?" Briggs frowned again.
" That's exactly why we can't let him go. We need him alive in case of another emergency."
" This is a goddamn emergency!" Genoscythe was losing his patience now. Briggs seemed to rethink things for a moment.
" Okay, you win. He's only allowed to go if we send him plenty of backup, though." He managed to stand up and leaned on the wall for support. Genoscythe turned to leave, but then remembered another question he had for the 15th's commander.
" Hey Briggs, didn't we send units through the underwater passage to take the mavericks from behind?" he nodded. " Then how come they never got there?" Now his eyes widened.
" What are you talking about?"
" The surprise attack team never got there. As in they weren't there at all. As in the sneak attack never happened. As in-" Briggs cut him off.
" Okay, I get the idea. I'll send another team down to investigate."
" You do that." Genoscythe said as he walked out of the room and down the hall.
'Will this war never end?' This was a question that X found himself asking frequently. He was starting to think that the war never would end; that reploids would keep turning on the humans until the hunters were unable to stop it. All he knew was that he would keep on fighting until he could fight no longer, and he still desperately prayed that one-day he could stop fighting. He even knew exactly where he would go once the fighting stopped. X pulled out a picture from his pocket; one he and Zero had taken while flying a patrol on a helicopter. It was a small forest on the outskirts of the city, with beautiful evergreen trees and lush grass. In the picture, he could see several animals through the trees. Near the edge of the forest was a small hill that flanked a beautiful clearing bathed in sunlight. Zero had called it 'The Last Forest', which wasn't too hard to believe, since almost all trees on the earth were either cut down or mechanically altered in some way. It was so bad that humans had to build oxygen-producing factories to sustain their atmosphere.
X stared at the picture longingly, then heard soft footsteps behind him. He whirled around and came face to face with Calliope. She smiled at him sweetly. " What were you looking at?" She asked.
" Uh… nothing! Nothing at all." He tried to stuff the photo back into his pocket but she was too fast, and grabbed it from his hand. She stared in blank amazement at the picture of beauty.
" Wow… this is amazing… where did you get this, X?"
" I, uh…" There was no point in hiding it now. " Zero and I were doing an aerial patrol of that area, and we happened to pass over that spot. Since we had some photographic equipment on board, I couldn't resist taking a picture." She smiled at him again.
" Do you remember where it is?" She asked with an air of curiosity in her voice. He nodded. " Great! Do you think you could take me there sometime? I've never seen a real forest before." She stared in bewilderment at the picture once more; shivering as the cold ocean air whipped her hair around her angelic face. She stepped closer to him and watched the sun set as they stood on the edge of the cliffs near the HQ. He folded his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. He returned her warm smile.
" Yeah, I think I can do that," He said softly.
Never tiring, Genoscythe was quickly able to track down Drake and VR, who were in the arcade in the back of the HQ, which was miraculously undamaged. He found VR resting peacefully in a chair; apparently he had been watching Drake play an old classic: Virtua Fighter 6. He was not in such a comfortable position, however. Drake had fallen asleep on the machine, his right hand still gripping a levitating joystick. On the screen, it said GAME OVER in flashy, seizure inducing letters. Apparently, he had just fallen asleep recently.
Not wanting to disturb the lad too badly from his sleep, Genoscythe kicked him in the shin and he toppled backwards, pulling the joystick with him. He groaned, shifted, and…fell back asleep. " Why is everyone trying my patience today?" He asked nobody. With a twist, his fist shot out and hit the arcade machine squarely in the center, sending it flying back into the wall, and setting off an ear-piercing alarm. VR shot bolt upright and pulled out his magnums, his reactive shots barely missing his commander's head. Drake was much slower to react, but still got up, his ears ringing.
" Jesus Christ, why'd ya do that?" He yelled over the cacophony.
" Because," Genoscythe began to reply, but then punched the machine again to make the noise stop. " You fell asleep on top of the console." Drake wiped spit from his mouth.
" Okay, okay, I get the idea. So wassup commander?"
" 'Wassup' indeed. While you were lying stoned on top of that machine, we were trying to make sense of all of this chaos. When we lost the power, all of the machines in the medical bay turned off, killing every single patient there." They both gasped, and for once, Drake couldn't think of a powerful enough swear to say.
" Are you sure all of them are dead? VR asked softly.
" Yes. Even the ones that weren't dependent on life preserving machines. They were all found with gaping holes or claw marks in them. To make matters worse, Mobius is nowhere to be seen." Genoscythe knew that this was a crushing blow to Mobius's already unstable psyche, and he feared that his disappearance and the death of the remaining patients were connected. He looked to Drake.
" Get up. We still have a campaign to continue, along with basic repairs. I trust you're up to the job?" He asked. The black haired reploid gave a cocky smile.
" Of course. You ain't gonna find a more capable pair of reploids than us, right VR?" The stoic reploid nodded.
" I shall help repair the power generator with the other techs." He said. Genoscythe raised an eyebrow, though nobody could see it due to his faceplate.
" What other techs?"
Drake spent well over an hour looking for X, but he was nowhere to be found. He could swear that he looked through every nook and cranny, but neither he nor his female friend could be located. Finally, he met up with Genoscythe and told him the situation. With a chuckle, the commander simply pointed outside. Drake banged his head on the wall for his ignorance. He quickly crossed the barren expanse between the base and the cliffs.
There, lying on his back, was Megaman X, with Calliope nestled in his arm. Drake smiled to himself. Today musta been too hard on 'em He thought. Then he remembered how he had fallen asleep on the arcade machine and frowned. He bent down and put his mouth next to his ear. He didn't want to startle X, so he spoke as quietly as he could. " HEY LOVER BOY! WE GOT WORK TO DO!" He shot up like an arrow, almost hitting his companion on the head. Calliope shifted and rolled off of him, giving off a big yawn. X looked around at his surroundings and swore under his breath.
" What, you thought we'd let you freeze out here in the cold?" Drake asked with a mock hurt expression. X's eyes narrowed.
" Since when have you cared about anyone's health?"
"…Okay, I was just kidding about that. Genoscythe wants you losers to help repair the HQ. There'll be time for sleep later." Calliope groaned and reluctantly sat up. X helped her to her feet and they began walking back to the HQ. On the way, Drake informed the two of their current situation, from Mobius's disappearance to the missing unit in the tunnels.
" So that's why those units never gave us any backup," Calliope said. " Hasn't HQ sent anyone down to find out what happened?"
" Commander said they sent Mac down to check it out, the poor fella." Drake replied. Everyone knew that Mac was claustrophobic, which made them all wonder why they sent him down to find the missing unit.
" I swear, HQ will never hear the end of this," Mac grumbled as he squeezed through the incredibly small tunnel under the building. " If I were a maverick, I'd kill every last one of 'em." He muttered before hitting his green visor on the hard rock ceiling. " OWWW!! Freaking bloody hell!" He yelped while rubbing his head. His foot slipped and he gave another cry as he fell backward onto the slippery rocks. Unfortunately for him, he kept sliding down the tunnel. He tried to grab onto a rock, but he missed and slid down even farther. Mac got quite a surprise when he bumped into something soft. Trembling, he propped himself up to a sitting position to see what had stopped him. It was a corpse. Mac let out the girliest scream he could muster.
The body had no head, and the chest was torn apart through to the rib cage. It was missing an arm and both legs, but Mac could tell that he was a maverick hunter by his suit. Judging from the emblem on his shoulder plate, he was from the 15th Rookie Hunter Division. When Mac got some of his courage back, he looked over the corpse and got an even bigger treat. There was a huge reploid crab latched onto the hunter's other arm. After closer examination, though, he found that it was dead. It had only one pincer and there was a large hole in its chest. Its green eyes were now dark and uncolored, signaling that the reploid was either dead or dying.
Suddenly, Mac knew who it was. It was Bublos, a member of the 6th Marine Hunter Division. Months ago, he had gone maverick and fled the HQ. Nobody knew where he had gone, but they had feared that he had joined with the maverick's main forces. Apparently, they were correct. Fear-stricken, Mac desperately tried to climb up the steep wall, but it was too slippery. He screamed for all he was worth, trying to get the attention of the hunters above. Finally, he gave up and sat down with his back against the corpse. " Why me?" He muttered. " Why do you always have to pick on ME?" Suddenly, he began to hear faint voices above.
" Now he's talking to himself. That sounds pretty crazy to me," One voice said.
" Ya gotta understand how claustrophobic this guy is. 'Sides, we don't know what's down there yet." Another voice argued. Mac could barely see shapes in the tunnel above. It appeared that they were climbing down on ropes. He began to wave to them and they came to him shortly. " Mac!" One of them yelled down. " What the hell are you doing now?"
" What do you mean? I just slipped and fell."
" Doofus! Why weren't you holding a rope like you were told to?"
" A…rope…huh?" Mac was getting very confused. He couldn't remember anyone giving him a rope. He just remembered a big pile of ropes near the entrance to the caverns… " Damn it!!!" He yelled as he stomped his foot on the ground. One of the hunters sighed.
" C'mon, let's get you back up so we can report this to Cain."
Several days later, X and Calliope had been assigned to repairing the observation tower with a few others in the 17th. They were both welding together some of the framework when an idea came into X's head. " Hey, Cal. Did you mean it when you said that you needed me, back when we were trapped by those mavericks?" She gave him a hard stare.
" Of course I did! Why would you think otherwise?" She asked.
" I dunno, I guess I was just… unsure." He said, trying to think of an explanation.
" Unsure of what?" She cocked her head to the side. He shook his head.
" Nothing… just forget it." He said. She gave him a worried expression. Calliope could tell that he had been under plenty of stress since the maverick uprising. If there was anything she could do, it was relieve stress.
" I think you need to relax, X." She said coolly. " I know of a great place for us to get away from all of this." She swept her hand out across the base, indicating the ruins of Maverick Hunter HQ. X also noticed that she said 'us' instead of 'you'. However, he didn't hesitate to respond.
" Alright, I think we deserved a night of rest anyway." He stretched his arms. " What place?" He asked.
" That, is a secret." She said tauntingly.
" Great, just when I get a lucky break, something like this happens." He grumbled.
" C'mon, it'll be fun!"
" How do I know that? For all I know, you're really a maverick in disguise and you're going to take me away to their fortress so they can torture me to death."
" Relax, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Besides, you're going with me, so it'll be fun no matter where we go!" She said cheerfully.
" Oh really?" He cocked an eyebrow playfully. She pouted and put her hands on her hips, trying to look mean.
" What, so you're saying that I'm not a fun person to hang out with?"
" No, I just seem to recall a certain brown haired hunter trying to strangle someone the last time we were out together."
" That was totally in self defense! If I hadn't distracted that bug, then you would have been blue paste."
" I would not. I had that situation totally under control."
" Would too,"
" Would not,"
" Would too,"
" Would not,"
" Would too,"
" I feel like I'm talking to a child."
" What's that supposed to mean, pretty boy?" She asked, raising a fist at him.
" Nothing, just forget it." He waved his hands at her in a disarming fashion. " So… should I meet you…"
" Thursday outside the building, eight 'o clock sharp." She said quickly.
" Wow, you really thought this out, didn't you?" He asked. She blushed and nodded her head.
" Date, then."
" Yeah, date."
" How the HELL did I get roped into this?" Drake asked himself as he and the rest of the team pushed through the thick jungle of the Botanical Observation Lab, better known as the 'Greenhouse'. The huge, curved dome stretched over three kilometers wide and one kilometer high, entirely filled with all sorts of jungles, forests and plants. Recently, though, it had also become filled with wildlife. All of the hunters were on edge, every twitch of a bush made someone jump.
Carter, a newbie in the 15th Rookie Hunter Division, was in the back of the group when he spotted something in the bushes. He couldn't make it out, but he assumed it was a maverick. He thought of calling his comrades, but he wanted to kill this one by himself to gain the recognition he deserved. Carter saw the bushes stir a little way to the right, so he ran after it. Suddenly, the rustling stopped. He stood there, staring at the spot where the bush had moved. Then, he fired a shot from his shotgun. Nothing. He fired again. Nothing. Suddenly, he saw a flash of jaws, then he felt nothing at all.
End
AN: Yes, after all this time, I'm still working on this story. I can't believe I almost made 8 pages with this chapter… that explains why it took so long. Anyway, there isn't'much else to report, so I'll be off then.