Megaman X2: Eternal War

Chapter 11: Part 1: Raptors, Parasites, and Love

By Genoscythe

Disc: I don't own blah, okay?

A.N: I need to make a huge apology to all of my fans. My birthday has come and went, so I was plenty busy with dealing with all of that business. But anyhow, Christmas vacation is here (Yay) so I'll have enough time to get through this chapter and on with the story. Also know that, unless I specifically say so, this story will not be discontinued and I'll keep writing it until I'm done. Kudos to Annihilation Strife for your continued support.

Drake's group had doubled back when they heard gunshots from the foliage. Now, they stared into the mass of green in front of them with renewed curiosity. Briggs, who was leading the group, gave a few hunting calls, but still no reply. After taking roll, they discovered that Carter the Newbie was missing.

" Of all the… and this is his first mission, too!" Briggs yelled in frustration. He took out his sub machine gun and hit it against a tree angrily. As if in response to his attack, the jungle seemed to open up and a claw darted out and grabbed a hunter. Several of the reploids screamed as two more claws grabbed them.

" Shit! It's a trap! They've got the advantage here, so open up on my mark." Briggs instructed his troops. Unfortunately, nobody was paying him the least bit of attention, and they all began firing into the thick jungle. Only Drake and a few other experienced fighters began to run for it. He, Commander Briggs, and three others ran through the foliage to what they thought was safety.

***

Within minutes, they made it to a large clearing bathed in moonlight. The canopy covered part of the sky, so the cracks of moonlight came through in ghostly spotlights. The five hunters stopped in the middle to take a breath. By then, the sounds of battle had completely stopped, and the hunters were ready to expect the worst. What they didn't expect, however, were to see three badly wounded hunters hobbling towards them through the thicket.

" We beat them off," The lead one said. Briggs squinted at the reploid. His voice had an unnatural tone, and his words were slurred. What was more amazing though, was that the man had no eyes. Suddenly, Briggs shot up and shouted to his companions.

" Parasites!" He hissed. Parasites were one of the few well-known mavericks, largely due to their brutality and rarity on the battlefield. They were small creatures, about the size of an eye socket, with four legs and one large, mechanical eye in the front. When they find a wounded enemy, they gouge out the eyes and worm their way into the skull from there. They have little nodes along their body that are used to connect to the crucial nervous systems in a victim's body. After dislodging the brain, two Parasites enter the cranium while a third sits in an eye socket and tells the other two where to go via high-frequency sound waves.

Once the Parasites have gone where they want to go, they inject the body with a highly flammable mutagen. Then, they purposely overload themselves and catch fire, thus blowing the body and most anything around it to pieces. Now, Briggs and the others rose, weapons ready to tear apart the unwelcome visitors. A hail of bullets and laser beams brought down the would-be intruders without much trouble.

" Wow," Drake gasped, inspecting the fallen bodies. " Why the hell did they bring Parasites all the way out here? What could a tiny greenhouse like this have that's worth protecting so badly?"

" Territory." Briggs stated. " Those bastards are trying to gain as much ground as they can so they can build up their forces." Suddenly his expression became quizzical. " Maybe it's something else. Some sort of new weapon, perhaps?" Before he could finish his musings, though, the thicket opened up again and something rushed out of it, but it was going too fast to see. It rushed at the nearest hunter and brought a claw to his throat. Gouts of blood washed over the creature's face, and it stopped for just a moment. It had a long reptilian face, much like that of the ancient dinosaurs. It stood upright on clawed feet encased in shimmering black leg braces, with its upper body slightly hunched. The claws on its hands were terrifyingly long and sharp. They were now drenched in blood.

Commander Briggs yelled and fired his sub machine gun at it, but it was blindingly fast, and it leapt out of the way. The raptor tore across the distance between him and the commander in the blink of an eye. It bit down on Briggs's gun, snapping the casing with its lethal jaws. He dropped the broken weapon and took a step back, his hand quaking in fear, his men doing the same. As soon as the raptor had stopped its rush, five more appeared by its side with scimitars and halberds. They were all smaller and lighter colored, while the leader was darker and more foreboding. The leader stepped forward now and flicked its lithe tail in Briggs's direction.

" You. Your name." It spoke in a gravel-like tone. Briggs stood defiantly, though he was slightly trembling.

" What's it worth to a maverick like you?" He spat. In an instant, the raptor jumped through the air and brought its claws down on his shoulder. Just at the last second, it curled its claws before it cut off his shoulder and caught on his flak vest. The maverick pulled him so close that he could smell the beast's acidic breath.

" Which do you think is more important, your name or your life?" It snarled at him. Drake saw Briggs cringe and ball his fist.

" C- Commander Briggs W-Wilson of t-the Fifteenth Rookie Maverick D-Division." He managed to stammer. So, Drake thought, Briggs is a coward after all.

"Good," it said harshly. " You are now in captivity of the 127th Reptilian Strike Force of the Purifier army. My name is Velocity Raptor, and if you do not obey me…" Suddenly, one of the raptors disappeared. A moment later, one of the hunters was impaled on a long, serrated spear held by the smaller raptor. " I do hope that you cooperate."

3 days later…

Megaman X was trying as best he could to prepare for the date, but so far it had been a nightmare. He had decided to buy flowers for Calliope, but he didn't know what to get her. He ended up just buying her some sunflowers. Later, he discovered that they were fake, and he had paid full price for them! Angered, he threw away the pseudo-flowers and skipped ahead to clothing. He had no idea where they were going, so he had quite a bit of trouble deciding how to dress. Finally, after much debating, he went and got a plaid button-up shirt with a small, cheesy bow tie and matching long pants. Anyone looking at him would have thought him mentally disabled.

And now, to top it all off, right as X was finishing buttoning up his shirt, klaxons began blaring outside in the hall. Angrily, he slammed down his bow tie on the modest dressing table Cain had bought for him some time ago. He undressed and got into his uniform, then headed to the main briefing room.

The briefing room was located just east of the indoor courtyard. It was approximately 23 meters high and 40 meters long, large enough to house almost the entire Maverick Hunter population. Rows upon rows of seats filled the floor and were separated into isles designated by unit numbers. The room itself was mostly barren, with the same metallic blue hue on the walls and ceiling. The floor was covered with a fine red rug. On the wall opposite the door, there was a huge video screen where important images were displayed. Below it was a podium, where the division commanders were now standing. Genoscythe, Magus, the leader of Special Unit 0, Fathom, leader of the 6th Naval Division, Corsair, leader of the 7th Air Force Division, and Dragoon, leader of the 14th Melee Hunter Division. Dr. Cain stood at the podium on a raised pedestal and cleared his throat to address the assembled Maverick Hunters.

X barely made it to the 17th's designated section before his grandfather began to speak. The only space left was on the end, and as luck would have it, VR was sitting next to it. He imagined that the other hunters were intimidated (and even a bit frightened) by his calm, emotionless manner and reclusive nature. People tended to relocate themselves once VR was around. But X was beginning to like the new hunter. Somehow, he knew there was more to him than meets the eye, and he treated him like so.

" As you all know," Dr. Cain began. " Three days ago, we sent a team of hunters to investigate a possible maverick infestation within the Botanical Observation Lab. They have not reported back since." Several murmurs went up from the crowd, mostly concerning why they sent rookies in to do the job. X went pale. Drake was in that group! Next to him, VR softly uttered, "Drake…"

" Now, I'm sure most of you are wondering why we've called you here like this." Magus, who was clad in black and red samurai style armor, said. " Yesterday, we picked up a strange radio signal that we couldn't quite decipher. It was coming from the BOL." Suddenly, the screen in the back lit up, showing an incredible image. It showed the BOL, but the Environmental Stabilizer was open at the top. There was an incredible beam of raw, red energy shooting from the hole into the sky. If one looked high enough at the still picture, one could see that the clouds overhead were disintegrating. Oohs and aahs were rising from the gathered hunters.

" Early this morning we lost contact with our IT (Instant Transit) satellite. We believe this beam phenomenon to be the cause of it. As you all know, without the satellite, Instant Transit will be impossible, so until we get another ITS up there, we're gonna need to use vehicles." Genoscythe said.

" With what we've seen so far, we think there's something very valuable in that greenhouse." Dragoon spoke up, tapping his long neo titanium claws on the podium. " We're assigning all of the 17th and half of the 14th to storm the occupied facility. We don't know how long it will be until this threat becomes serious, so all assigned hunters must scramble immediately!"

X sighed. There goes any hope of having our date tonight. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. VR was standing next to him, looking down at him. " Meet me at hover truck N-14 after you get your combat armor on." said he. X was about to protest, but VR cut him off. " No questions, just go!" With that, X sprinted off toward the armory.

***

Twenty-five minutes later, X arrived at hangar N, where VR and Calliope were waiting by vehicle N-14. Immediately, he started barraging them with a myriad of questions. " What's going on here? The rest of the strike force is in hangar D! You aren't thinking of disobeying the commanders' orders, are you?" Calliope just shook her head.

" I'm sorry we didn't tell you about this sooner, X, but there just wasn't enough time. VR knew something was wrong after three days, and he told me that he wanted to investigate for himself. I said that I couldn't bear to miss out on any action, so he decided to take me along."

" Reluctantly." VR added. "Those troop carriers are far too slow. If Drake is still alive, we would have a better chance of finding him if we traveled lightly." X shook his head.

" I guess you're right, but I still don't see how three hunters can get into that place when a whole team couldn't even make it out." Calliope laughed.

" C'mon, we're the best of the best! We shouldn't have much of a problem, should we?"

" Hurry, we're wasting precious seconds! Get in!" VR exclaimed. The two hunters complied, climbing into the swift hover vehicle. He climbed into the cockpit and started the initiation process.

***

Across the stretch of hangars, Genoscythe stood before the 17th division, who were neatly assembled within one of the large troop carriers in hangar D. The pilot was almost prepped for launch, when suddenly the emergency com system came on. " Unauthorized activation in hangar N! Unauthorized activation of unit N-14!" A calm computerized female voice said. In an instant, Genoscythe jumped out of the vehicle and stormed over to a security monitor on the wall. He typed in the security code for the N docking bay on a small keypad under the monitor. The screen flashed, and suddenly it showed what the security camera at N was seeing. The door was open on N-14, and he could see two hunters in the passenger area. He undoubtedly recognized them.

Genoscythe sighed. They don't know what they're getting into… he thought. Suddenly, the door slammed shut and the hover truck began to rise into the air. The hangar bay opened, and then they were out in the open air, nearly flying across the semi-arid wasteland that surrounded the HQ. " Damn it, they're insane." He muttered. He stormed back into the transport and opened the door to the cockpit. The pilot turned around in his seat.

" Almost ready, sir." the pilot said.

" Good, because we're going to follow them"

End