Megaman X2: Eternal War

Chapter 20: Infiltration part 1

By Genoscythe

Teacher, my dog ate my disclaimer.

" This is the last security checkpoint inside the city, so if you need to do anything, do it now." A gruff hunter said to Megaman X. He and the other four hunters decided to stop at one of the security checkpoints set up by the Maverick Hunters in case there was a large scale maverick assault. " Look, we estimate a huge amount of mavericks infesting the city beyond this point. We have all the latest weapons and equipment, so tell your people to pick up as much firepower as they can carry,"

" I will," X said, giving the reploid a curt salute. " Thanks," He rejoined his modest battle group at the ammo storage tent. Predictably, Calliope was absorbed in examining a new type of grenade, Drake was rifling through the ammo boxes and VR was conversing with one of the other hunters inside the tent. Mobius was running reconnaissance in the city ahead to estimate what they would be going through, but it looked like he had already taken a pair of shotguns from the rack.

In minutes, everyone was ready. Drake had too much ammo to carry, so he had to get a belt from one of the hunters inside the ammo tent. By the time they left the storage tent, Mobius had returned and was waiting less than patiently with the commander of the defense force.

"You're telling me that the whole area is swarming with mavericks?" Mobius asked, seemingly ticked-off.

" That's right. I could pull it up on the scanner right now," The commander replied coolly.

" Bull crap. I just flew from here to the Central Control and back, and I didn't see any life signs at all! No heat signatures or anything!"

" How could you really know if there were mavericks in the area or not?" The commander sighed. Mobius leaned in close to him.

" These eyes see more than those puny little scanners of yours," The bat said cryptically. The maverick hunter glared at him.

" We'll see who's right when you charge into a storm of enemies just waiting to tear you apart,"

" Well, I'll be sure to send them your way, then," Mobius said with a cruel laugh. He walked over to his companions near the ride chasers. " I haven't had this much fun in years!" He exclaimed, waving a pair of fully automatic shotguns in the air. X smiled at Mobius. He was glad they had made the right choice concerning the bat's job.

***

"…And the weird thing is, the only heat signatures I'm getting are from the Central Control," Mobius was filling the hunters in on his reconnaissance trip. " Some of the buildings around here have electricity, but if there was any kind of activity, I'd know about it,"

" Well, I guess that's good news, then," Calliope said. Then, as they were riding past one building, she saw that the lights were on. Even more importantly, she noticed that there were four chairs lined up in front of the window, with four torn-up human corpses sitting in them, as if to watch a great spectacle outside. Calliope screamed, and inadvertently swerved, almost clipping Mobius's wing.

They all turned to look at her, but she just shook her head. " I don't want to talk about it," She said. The others understood, but they were on edge now. Speeding through the streets, X could feel that they were very close to the Central Control. At the next turn, they would be in view of the mega particle cannons placed to guard the large tower. X gave the signal to speed up.

Suddenly, an intense beam of energy blasted through the nearest building, barely missing Mobius. The hunters immediately pressed down hard on their turbo buttons and raced to reach the last turn. The first beam was followed by a wave of others; only pure luck kept the hunters alive and unscathed. X began to slow down a bit, right as a beam skimmed the front of his ride chaser and another flew past his head. He wanted to look back and make sure everyone was alright, but if he diverted any of his concentration, he would be blown apart. The building, now completely pulverized, toppled over, sending rocks flying into the air. VR thought a beam had hit his ride chaser, but he didn't take the time to look. He tried to speed up, but his chaser had been seriously damaged.

X turned the corner going at full speed, and the hover units on his chaser began to attract to the wall of the building he was turning from. The moment of fear as he turned sideways quickly passed as the chaser righted itself. Still squeezing the turbo button as tightly as he could, he jetted for the towering Central Control. He felt his mechanical body take control of him as he dodged burst after burst of energy beams.

In the back of his mind, he could feel the ride chaser speeding up; apparently he had broken the Speed Limitation Gear. He was going fast enough to be crushed like a tin can if he ran into a wall, but as long as he kept dodging the laser beams, he didn't care how fast he went. He knew he was getting close, that he was heading straight for one of the huge mega particle cannons in front of the entrance. X closed his eyes and murmured, " Time to see what this new armor is really worth,"

Impact. X crossed his arms over his chest, covering his face. Metal and circuitry flew everywhere, soon followed by a massive explosion, enveloping his body in fire and debris. He smashed through the back of the cannon, trailing ash and smoke. The force of his impact severely lessened, X careened into the wall of the huge blue tower with just enough speed to puncture the wall. As he landed, he began rolling and didn't stop until he slammed against the far wall of the entryway. He stayed curled into a ball for several moments, then unfurled himself to check the damage.

He was extremely sore in several places, but the new armor had unbelievable shock absorbers and impact countermeasures. He checked the back of his arm plates, which took the most damage. They were scarred and dented, and more than half-charred. His chest and leg armor were also burnt and cut. His head was surprisingly unharmed. One of the energy spikes on top of his helmet was nearly gone, but all other damages were minor.

Drake was the second to make it, and by the time he got to the entrance, his chaser was trailing smoke and it had several large holes punctured near the engine. It was going at half the normal speed, so he just deactivated it and ran through the door. His face wore an expression between joy and bewilderment at seeing X sitting against the far wall of the modest lobby.

"…You…you're alive!" Drake exclaimed excitedly.

" It takes more than that to take me down," X panted.

" Yeah, try an atomic bomb,"

" How's Cal… I mean, how's everyone else?" X asked.

" I don't know. I was behind you, and I couldn't do anything but try not to get blown to hell." Drake said exasperatedly. Apparently, he was as worried as X was about the rest of the hunters. " Should we wait for 'em?"

X was about to reply when Calliope crashed through the door on her ride chaser, nearly crushing Drake in the process. He had to jump out of the way as reinforced metal plates flew at him. Calliope jumped off of her chaser at the instant it hit the doors, and she landed gracefully on the tile floor. Immediately, when she saw X propped against the wall, she ran to him and flung her arms around him.

Drake turned around and muttered something about getting a room, when he saw Mobius and VR desperately trying to dodge the incoming fire from the remaining particle cannons. They were in the middle of the expansive parking lot, but VR's ride chaser was trailing a dangerous amount of smoke. Immediately, Drake ran outside towards the nearest particle cannon. As he ran, he heard X call, " Drake! Where the hell are you going?" Then, he saw VR and Mobius. He started to get up, but Calliope gently pushed him back down.

" I'll help him. You rest and try to repair yourself," She said as she spun around and ran after Drake.

Drake climbed up a service ladder on the side of the nearest mega particle cannon, until he was at the top. Pulling out his assault rifle, he began firing blindly at the control panel, tearing apart metal and wiring. The cannon began to slow its rate of fire, and its targeting was off. When he ran out of machine gun rounds, he switched to shotgun mode, not wanting to waste time reloading. One shot from the shotgun caused a large explosion from the main battery than flung Drake off the side of the hulking cannon.

He got up in time to see Calliope running back inside the building. " Get in here!" She called as she ran past. He followed her, and just as he got inside, he heard a huge explosion that would have deafened a human. He poked his head outside to see that the reploid woman's explosive had not only destroyed two beam cannons, but it had also seriously damaged a third and had blasted an incredibly large hole in the wall.

Now, only two gun batteries remained firing at the two hunters. Mobius was able to easily slip through the cannons' blind zone, but instead of going inside, he decided to go after the remaining cannons. Mobius looked back and saw that VR's ride chaser was completely demolished, and he didn't have much time. He flew on top of the first cannon and began tearing through the metal plating above the beam generator. He quickly tore his way to the generator and, grabbing it with a strong vice grip, ripped it free of the cannon and hurled it at the other remaining cannon.

The resulting explosion was large, but nothing to rival Calliope's new explosives. VR, seeing that the cannons had been taken care of, ran toward the tower to join his friends. Once they were all assembled, X began to go over the plan with everyone else.

" Each of these parts are solo jobs, except for the hunters taking out Magnas." Calliope glanced at him as he said this, and he nodded to her.

" I'll take the ventilation shaft to the elevator controls," VR said.

" I can track down that generator thingy," Drake said.

" The power generator?" X asked.

" Yeah, that one," The green reploid muttered.

" Remember not to blow it until we get to the Mainframe," X reminded him. Drake just nodded.

" Then, I guess I'll secure an escape route for you guys," Mobius put in. " I don't really feel like taking on that Magnas freak, anyway,"

" Then it's settled. You all know what you have to do," X said as Calliope helped him to his feet. Drake and VR started off down the hall, and Mobius ran outside and flew up to the roof to scout out possible escape points if the entrance was blocked. Calliope and X started to walk down the hall to their left.

" I can't believe we all made it in," Calliope said.

" Talk about pure luck," X agreed. " I guess we've improved quite a bit since we last tried that little stunt,"

" Yeah, but that was the easiest part…" Calliope trailed off as they came to a junction in the hallway. It was the same place where Magnas had betrayed the hunters before. To Calliope's horror, all of the corpses of her comrades had been nailed to the wall, with sadistic grins painted on their lifeless faces. X's eyes narrowed and he growled, " Son of a…"

Then, they noticed a scribbled message written in pen on the floor in front of a familiar corpse. Calliope recognized it as Jett's body. The note read:

Dear miss Calliope,

I went through the trouble of having my minions take this hunter's body from the medlab during our little siege on your base. It was quite troublesome, but do you know why I went through all this? I wanted you to remember me, and all the fun we had the night I joined the Purifier army. I also wanted to thank you for being so kind to me then. Consider this a memento to remember our time together by.

I suppose you've come to hunt me down now, have you? It couldn't be helped, but I must kill you to insure the success of the Purifiers. It's nothing personal, and just to show you that I mean it, I will kill you first, so that you will not have to watch your comrades die. Please don't think I'm evil, for it is the humans who have corrupted this land and subjected our race to torture who are the wrongdoers. We must purify this world of those scum, and if you will not be a part of it, then please know that I am sorry.

Love,

Magna Centipede

Calliope began shaking uncontrollably. X reached out to touch her on the shoulder, but suddenly she pulled out one of her beam swords and plunged it into the center of the message, burning a significant hole in the ground. She continued trembling with rage even as a tear began to slide down her cheek. Then, Calliope felt a gloved hand wipe away that tear, and she was suddenly aware that X was holding her close to him, whispering to her. For some reason, she couldn't hear what he was saying. All she felt was pure anger and hatred for Magnas, the traitor.

As suddenly as her reverie began, it ended. Calliope broke down into sobs while holding onto X for support. " I want to get out of here," She whispered. He nodded, and led her back to the lobby while they waited for VR to find the elevator controls.

***

Things were progressing smoothly for VR, and he hadn't encountered any resistance yet inside the ventilation shaft or out of it. He was crawling on his stomach, finding it difficult to move through the small shaft with his bulky armor and shield. He exchanged the shield for the weapon carrier he took on previous missions because this was more of a stealth mission, and didn't require the use of heavy firepower.

When he reached another turn, he was startled by a mechaniloid spider-crab, a machine used primarily to take over large, yet lightly defended civilian buildings. This was the main unit the mavericks had used to lure the Maverick Hunters to the Central Control in the first place. Once it spotted VR, it let out a piercing cry, almost like a hiss, and VR had little time to kill it before others heard the call. He pulled out one of his .375 magnums and shot the control casing, blasting off the mechaniloid's 'head'. However, it was too late. He scrambled to get around the corner, pushing the mechaniloid out of the way. However, when he turned the corner, he was met by at least thirty of the small machines, their pincers clacking wildly.

VR backed up to consider a plan. He couldn't take out all of them with his pistols, and without his weapon pack, he didn't have anything more useful. Suddenly, he remembered seeing a vent panel under the large crowd of mechaniloids. If he could shoot it, it might drop out and get rid of a few of the mavericks. Readying one of his guns, he carefully slid it around the corner so as not to excite the mavericks. He saw that there was indeed a panel. Taking careful aim, he shot one of the panel's hinges off, and the mavericks clinging to it fell with it.

The others, excited by the sound of the shot, swarmed at him. He began firing with both guns as he backed up. He took down a few, but they were moving too quickly to get a good shot at. Suddenly, he accidentally kicked open one of the vents under him, and he fell through to the floor below. He hit the ground in a roll, stopping with his back against the floor, holding his guns at the ceiling vent.

Everything was silent for a moment. Then, the sound of chittering claws erupted from the vent, and streams of mechaniloids fell through the hole, nearly landing on top of VR. He rolled backwards and onto his feet, blasting at the spider-like machines on the floor. He was firing as fast as he could, but he could not keep back the wave. Several latched onto his legs, and he immediately blasted them off.

As soon as he destroyed those, however, more jumped at him. He backed up until his back was pressed against hard steel. He took several seconds to see what he had backed up into. His hopes soared as he realized it was a door. In the seconds it took for him to look away, two mechaniloids grabbed his arm. With his other hand, he slammed the access button, and the door slid open. He jumped back, pressing the access button on the other side as soon as he could find it.

The door slid closed, almost crushing one of the mechaniloids. VR grabbed the two on his arm and threw them down, smashing them to bits with his heavily armored foot. The clattering of claws could be heard on the other side of the door as VR slumped against the wall, checking his surroundings. He was in a vast, open room with computers lining the walls. He walked over to one and looked at the large screen.

A green target reticule appeared to be scanning the hallways for something. The image VR was seeing must be coming from a remote sentry or floating camera, since it was flying through the hallways. VR's eyes narrowed as the image turned a corner and spotted Drake, who was calmly walking through the corridor, whistling and twirling his gun on his finger. The reticule suddenly turned red as it passed over Drake, and the screen began displaying large amounts of information.

VR knew that this could only be a bad thing, and he tried to shut it off via the console. Nothing happened, so he tried speaking through an intercom on the side of the console. No sound could be heard. Angrily, he slammed his fists into the computer console, severely denting the metal plating. Then, Drake turned around.

" What the hell…" He murmured as he studied the screen. Suddenly, he pulled up his gun and blasted the camera away, filling the screen with static. VR sighed. Now there was nothing he could do for his friend but pray.

End of part 1

AN: Really sorry about how long it took to get this chapter out. It was difficult finding time to work on the story during the holidays, especially since we just got a new HP Pentium 4. Of course, all my files are still on the uber-crappy old computer, and the internet is also hooked up to this thing for reasons that are too complicated and boring to explain. On the bright side, the new CPU plays all my games perfectly, has a whopping 160 gigs of hard drive space (The old one was 13 gigs), and it runs almost silently, so I no longer run the risk of waking up everyone in the house when I want to use the computer. Alas, my files are still on the noisy, crappy, video cardless, 13 gig computer.

All I'm really trying to say with this excruciating rant is that production will be a little slow, but I'm only planning on doing three(possibly four?) more chapters. Now, stay tuned for more lunacy0_0