X stood still, Buster aimed. He watched his opponent warily.
"Please don't make me do this."
'Manic Monkey' kept his hand near the explosives' trigger.
"You don't have to do anything, X. I'll do it for you. HE helped me see, don't you get it? HE showed me. Humans are a scourge on this planet. I won't have them continuing to damage it. Only reploids deserve to live…"
X shook his head slowly. "But you're a human too."
The man in the very strange armor grinned.
"But of course! Who better to purge the earth of our mistakes than one of us? It's perfect! You can't stop me, you know."
The blue Hunter frowned. "Bull. That thing you're wearing wouldn't stand up to a popgun."
But X was still wary. The explosives the man had planted ran all through the office building. If he hit the trigger, this building would crash down, falling on a number of other nearby buildings- and they hadn't been cleared out yet. At the least, he had to stall long enough for those people to escape.
The man at the detonator grinned like his nickname.
"So you say. But let's see how you stand up to the MONKEY MASHER!!"
As he shouted, he lifted his free right arm, and the oversized fist mounted on the armor launched straight for X.
Who simply jumped over it.
The fist continued on, bashing its way out through the wall, and then a window, continuing beyond the building's interior.
Amazingly, the flimsy armor that the man wore reconstituted another outsized fist, although much slower than a Buster would do something similar.
'Manic Monkey' let out an insane laugh, then launched another Monkey Masher. X jumped this one as well, and was surprised when it turned and smacked him in the back of the head, knocking him down. The fist returned to its place on the armor.
"Ha! Gotcha!" Giggled the off-kilter man. "That'll teach you! Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Radio message."
Silently, X got back up. Monkey Masher indeed. That hadn't even been enough to make him use any internal operations energy. The man in the maverick suit was busy tinkering at the control panel now, facing away from his supposedly downed foe.
Quietly, the blue-clad reploid snuck towards the man.
Suddenly, Manic Monkey found himself stuck in a rock-solid headlock.
"Hey! Get offa me! Grrr…"
X began dragging the man bodily away from the radio. It was surprisingly difficult- although the man's armor didn't provide any real protection, and the helmet was patently useless, it somehow boosted his body strength far beyond that of a normal human. It wasn't quite up to reploid strength, but it was about the maximum a human bodybuilder could achieve.
The end result of this was that X could only move awkwardly with his flailing captive, and relatively slowly. At least, so long as he wanted to keep the human in one piece. X easily kept his cool, slowly hauling the loony back to a place where he could be safely tied up. He still would like to know who set off the Maverick Alarm, though. Anyone with any knowledge could tell that this man wasn't a reploid. He was bleeding slowly from a self-inflicted wound where he had apparently tried to plug in a computer cable for whatever reason.
Then X stepped in something wet, the carpet squishing oddly underneath his heavy metal foot. Looking up, he saw a multiple-decapitation victim strung up from the ceiling, the separated limbs and head each wrapped almost entirely in some sort of a fiber. The horrified look on the face was unobscured.
"What the frack?!?" Exclaimed the New Blue Bomber. "How the hell.."
There was a clattering noise as a strange robot clambered along the wall, heading for the panel the detonator switch had been attached to. It looked like some sort of a mechanical spider. On it's bulbous abdomen was the Maverick symbol, brightly colored and prominent.
X blanched. "Organised Mavericks? But that means Sigma… and he died in the Final Weapon!"
A niggling little voice in the back of X's head reminded him that Sigma was destroyed those other three times as well, and kept coming back. Why should this time have been different?
Quickly, X slung the man in the monkey suit under his right arm, firing at the spider-bot with his left Buster.
It wasn't quite fast enough.
The spider hit the switch just before the ball of plasma ate straight through its body.
X had just enough time to state "Frack."
Then…
Nothing happened.
X sighed in relief, staring at the still-standing spider-robot.
It turned to X. It spoke in a horrid voice, the sound of insectoid chittering multiplied. "Sigma sendxxx greetings, X. Anxxxx a bzzztning. Never trust huma-ggzzk work. Shoddy as geeik-" and detonated, slagging the control panel it had been clinging to.
X raised his arm to speak into his comm, then remembered Manic Monkey. He looked at the oddly limp man under his right arm.
Who was dead, his neck snapped by the swiftness with which X had transferred him to that position.
Shuddering, X dropped the corpse. "No… I… I didn't!"
Elsewhere, in a small cave deep underground, a seldom-used set of strange blue capsules flared their readouts into action for the second time within the last few minutes.
Each of the capsules was eight feet across by fourteen tall, with a solid blue top section, a solid blue bottom, and a center area closed off by a pale blue energy barrier. On the top of each capsule was a glowing red hemisphere, and metallic parts and wires jutted occasionally from the solid blue sections.
Readouts fired off, and crosstransmissions were sent.
Capsule 1: ERRORERRORERROR! X monitor notes 'dismay at death of human'.
Capsule 2: Initial response of 'relief and minor joy' taken in error. Suggest termination of program 'LGHT/D'
Capsule 3: Negative. Program cannot be terminated at this point- will terminate upon completion.
Capsule 4: Double-check readout from monitor chip.
Capsule 1: X monitor chip second readout confirmed. 'Dismay' present. Also registering 'disbelief', 'sorrow', 'fear', and 'disgust'.
Capsule 5: Relative success rate of initial primary function of 'LGHT/D' program under trigger parameter 1 estimate at 70%.
Capsule 3: Success level exceeds safety requirements for survival of necessary unit given current situation. Suggest modifying portions of program 'LGHT/D' prior to segment activation. Prevention of 'LGHT/D' program success priority, expected resulting success chance of initial primary function estimated below 10%.
Capsule 2: Expected resultant success possibility acceptable. Modifying program 'LGHT/D'. Replace string: 'ACTIVATE BLITZKREIG'. Using suggested replacement string: 'ACTIVATE DEEP SHADE'.
Capsule 5: String replacement successful. Activating optional subroutine 'DPLGY'.
Capsule 4: Activation complete. Message delivered. Prepare to follow primary directive Y/N?
Capsule 5: Negative. Trigger Alpha Omega is off. Power reserves average below 50 %. Suggest shutdown until trigger switch to conserve power, Capsule 1 to remain active. Consensus program 'Cascade Activation' suggested.
Capsule 1: Confirmed.
Capsule 2: Confirmed. Initiating shutdown.
Capsule 3: Confirmed. Initiating shutdown.
Capsule 4: Confirmed. Initiating shutdown.
Capsule 5: Confirmed. Contacting Capsule Alpha, triggering message transfer to Capsule 6. Transfer complete. Initiating shutdown concurrent with program 'Cascade Activation'.
The two Hunters guarding the path to the front doors of MHHQ waited uneasily.
"Remember, " began the slightly taller of the two, an orange-armored turtle reploid. "Sigma's out and about. At the first sign of something fishy, grab your comm."
The shorter, thinner humanoid reploid nodded. "Understood sir."
Suddenly, with a grunt, he was sent flying by some invisible force.
"Holy crap!" The turtle opened his com. "This is Turtlava. Uni-" He cut off as his comm sparked and melted, as if struck by a plasma weapon.
Only there was no plasma there. Looking about, he heard the whine of a Buster charging, although the sound was oddly distorted and quiet. Homing on the sound, he spotted the strangest looking reploid he'd ever seen. If it was a reploid. A scant 4' 11", it was mostly covered in a deep blue cape, almost black. Poking out of a fold was a strange-looking Buster, some sort of a Buster/turbofan hybrid, it looked like. The feet were rather large for its size, but the helmet/head was wierdest of all. It had a piece where a mouth would be that looked like an old steam train's cowcatcher. The top of the helmet was strangely peaked, centered behind what looked like a soft-purple control chip cover. Two fins stuck high to the sides off the head, reminiscent of a devil's horns. A second pair of fins, more like wings, stuck straight out to the sides, making the whole head assembly look like a demented miniature space-fighter. The nearly- black visor over the cowcatcher did make an odd match for some sort of cockpit cover.
The figure raised the Buster slightly, and there was an almost silent firing sound. To the Hunter's surprise, there was no visible shot from the buster. Instinctively, he turned one armored forearm to where the blast might have been, and got lucky, as he felt the invisible plasma spend itself against the heavy plating. Apparently, the Buster's power was lower than a typical model, or it would have had more effect on the plating. Turtlava raised an arm, forming his own buster, but stopped when the figure began waving its own weapon in a circular pattern.
The weapon waved once in a very fast circle, and a firing sound was released somewhere. The Hunter skipped to the side, and charged towards the figure, dash jets on full. His opponent dashed straight towards him, and then to his surprise, changed directions abruptly mid-dash, going straight up, then forward over him. Faster than he could turn, the figure landed behind him. It froze, and he whirled.
A shot rang out.
"For the last time, X…" Grumbled a thoroughly disgruntled Reploid doctor in a sky-blue bodysuit. He was a couple of inches taller than X and bald, with hair that would have been reminiscent of Dr. Wily's had it been gray instead of brown. "IT WAS AN ACCIDENT. Anyone could have made that mistake. Considering what might have been at risk, the price was all right."
"That's just it, though…" Stated X, solemnly. "It wasn't at risk. And I didn't even notice I'd killed him until after, when I went to contact the others. I should have been paying more attention to his wellbeing. Are you sure there's nothing wrong with me?"
The doctor just stared at him. "When I said 'for the last time', I meant it. And no, you're not going maverick. Now will you please get out of my medical bay? I have other things to-"
The alarm sounded just then, cutting the doctor off. Both reploids looked up at the alarm.
"What the-"
"X! X, are you there? This is Cain."
X opened up the comm on his left arm. "This is X. What's going on here? Is Sigma attacking?"
"No, it's worse and better than that."
X blinked. "Beg pardon?"
"Just get to my office. NOW."
"Great." Grumbled X. "And I still haven't figured out what we're going to tell the GDC…"
Gatstar, the short, bald-pated humanoid doctor reploid sighed as X booked it out of the medical bay. "I hope whatever it is distracts him enough to let him settle that. Dammit, I'm not a psychologist." He turned to go get a beer, when one of the Unit Commanders stumbled in, supporting two unconscious Hunters, one with a plasma burn on her face, the other with a shattered helmet.
"What the frack!?!?"
"…is going on?" Asked a thoroughly puzzled X.
Cain turned his mini-viewscreen to X. "See for yourself."
On the screen was one of the halls at the other end of the MHHQ. Right then, a number of Hunters armed with Busters were crouched behind handy support posts, taking potshots at a strange figure smoothly striding down the hall towards the camera. Every time a shot was about to hit, the figure would dash.
What was strange was how it avoided the follow-ups. Anytime a shot was about to peg it mid-dash, it would simply change direction, sliding left or right, seemingly devoid of inertia. Eventually it reached a Hunter.
With ruthless efficiency, the possibly reploid lashed out from under the cape with a massive, three-clawed battering ram of an arm, and grabbed the erstwhile Hunter by the head. Almost casually, it smacked the reploid against the wall, leaving a dent. Then it threw him over its shoulder into another wall, leaving a second dent. The Hunter slumped to the floor, out for the count. The figure resumed its steady progress.
"You want me to stop it, right Cain?"
"Yes, but there's more… it gets wierder. So far, it hasn't killed any hunters, reploid or human. That means it isn't a maverick we're dealing with. Strangest of all, it's left a few of the reploid hunters conscious- and each time it asked them where you were."
"So, whatever it is, it's looking for me?"
Cain nodded. "Right. Oh, there's Zero. Finally."
And indeed, there he was, right in front of the camera. The mystery entity had made it halfway down the remaining hall by now.
X hurried out of the office, to go intercept whoever-this-was. Zero would probably stop them, but he wanted to be able to get in first questions.
Zero grinned almost ferally. Whatever this thing was, it was going down now. The Crimson Hunter would pound it into scrap, and that was that.
As the unknown robot stepped past the last of the unconcscious Hunters, it found itself on the receiving end of a beam saber swing. Quickly, it dashed sideways, loosing a shot.
Easily deflecting the invisible, but panicked shot, Zero grinned and took another swipe, this time with a crosswise follow-up, and a third, rising vertical strike. The figure sidestepped the first, jumped the second, and dashed to the other side, avoiding the third. Thrusting the heavy arm out, it tried to grab Zero by the head.
The wily hunter wasn't that easy, however, and met the arm with his own fist, stopping it cold.
The figure paused a moment, and that was all Zero needed. One swift saber slash later, the figure should have stood without a head.
Instead, it had caught the saber on its claws, having wrenched its arm away from the Crimson Hunter's fist.
Zero noted to his surprise that the claws, while not TitaniTefloAlloy, were somewhat resistant to plasma, as his saber bit, but did not cut through them.
Both combatants jumped back a short distance, Zero giving the unknown a wary gaze. Suddenly, he kicked on his dash boots, charging in for a swift slash.
But the figure swirled its cape, and disappeared. Zero skidded to a halt, dismayed. Then he heard something behind him, and ducked, whirling about. He looked up at the strange buster behind where his head had just been.
Sticking out of the wall.
"What the?"
The buster instantly faded back out, and Zero was left looking around on his toes again. Where on earth had that thing gone?
As he returned to his original facing, he got his answer in the form of a somehow dash-boosted kick to the rear end, which sent him skidding down the hall on his front.
There was a 'beep', and the strange figure faded back into view, foot still raised. It put its foot down, and dashed after Zero.
Zero kicked on his own dash boots, narrowly avoiding a wicked flying kneedrop. That thing had spiked knees! The whatever-it-was sprang back to its feet and ran after him, dashing to catch up. Zero somehow flipped to his feet, and dashing away from it, manifested a small energy pellet.
This was the Rakuhouha pellet, a small container of unstable plasma which, when sufficiently disturbed, shattered and sprayed plasma spheres over an area.
Turning his body, continuing his mad dash down the hall, Zero flung the pellet at his pursuer.
He continued his dash, determined to be out of the blast radius when the darned thing went off.
To his surprise, it burst rather close to him.
As in, by impacting his back.
Zero was blown clean out of the building, totally out of it for the moment.
The figure straightened up, letting go of its cape, which it had used to catch the pellet and fling it back. Turning, it resumed its progress down the hallway. It had not escaped unscathed, though. There were a few scorch marks on the buster and one head-fin, and the end of the cape had been eaten ragged by a stray plasma sphere.
The intruder continued towards the area currently occupied by the 17th and 00th units.
X rushed into hall 20, just in time to see the strange figure clothesline the last conscious Hunter, forcing him to join his comrades-at-arms.
Slowly, it turned to face him. The cape had been mostly shredded now, no longer serving to cover the figure.
And a strange appearance it had, indeed.
The three-clawed pistonlike arm was the right arm, and near the elbow on the forearm were two oblong crystals. The left arm, containing the odd buster, had two oblong crystals, and a couple of strange spike/fins, one simple, cutting a half-crescent, the other zigzagging like a rounded lightning bolt, ending with a point aimed back and outwards. The body of the machine was strangely bulky, entirely solid. Obviously, this intruder could not rotate at the waist. The center of the abdomen was decorated with a huge, red, shield-like hourglass shape, bracketed on both sides by yellow bands of armor like were on X's Paladin armor set. The left shoulder was covered, the cape attaching to the front of it. The right, however, had the cape apparently pinned to the top of it, revealing an odd, armadillo-like shoulder guard. Where a shirt would have lapels, the neck also had them, but they were long half-crescents, like some sort of a broad barrier. The lower leg sections had, instead of a simple upward-jutting knee guard, twin curved spikes that reached a full third of the way up the thighs of the mechanical monster.
The entire thing, aside from the banding and hourglass, was rendered in shades of black and deep green. Were it not for the sheer bulkiness of the warrior, the design would have seemed optimum for infiltration, but with the impressive thickness of all the parts, it stuck out like a spoon in a knife drawer.
As it raised its buster to point at X, the blue Hunter noticed that the small barrel was at an angle to the rest of the buster, making it seem like the cannon was aimed where it actually was not.
Both warriors held the charge on their busters, preparing full-power shots. The indicative sound hit peak for the intruder earlier than for X, and at a lower note as well.
Suddenly, the soft whine of the intruder's buster ceased, and X dodged on an instinct. He winced as he heard plasma hit a wall behind him. Either the shots were incredibly fast, making them invisible, or the special design of the buster was to keep the plasma from emitting light.
The figure traced X with its buster, otherwise unmoving. This time, the charging whine lasted less time, but hit the same pitch. Both unleashed their shots simultaneously. Midway between them, X's blue shot, tinged pink, roiled as it overcame a smaller mass of plasma. The figure dodged, however, dashing under the shot.
Only to catch a small shot in the side of the head. A new scorch mark adorned the side of the helmet. Continuing the dash, the figure shot forward, slamming the claw-arm out. X jumped his opponent, and the "hand" slammed into the wall, embedding itself in the metal.
With a gradual creaking sound, the intruder ripped its arm free, seemingly none the worse for wear, just as X landed behind it, firing a level two shot at its leg. Even as it stumbled, a new scorch mark on the back of its left leg, it span, just enough to fire at X's arm.
X caught the shot on his armband, noticing that it was definitely weaker than the level three shot. His Internal Operations Energy read at 95%. He remained wary, however- this thing had managed to at least temporarily disable Zero, otherwise it wouldn't have gotten this far. There had to be something up its thick metal sleeve.
The intruder swung its piston-claw at X, in a backhanded blow. The blue Hunter ducked, and came back with a solid punch to his opponent's midsection. As the intruder fell to the floor, X noted that his hand had suffered some damage from that- nothing serious, but obviously physical combat was as likely to damage him as it was his opponent- maybe moreso.
X jumped back, charging his buster as the figure clumsily began to get to its feet- a demonstration in how a waist is imperative to human motion. As soon as he reached the green blast level, he released the shot, nailing the intruder in the side of the head.
The armored robot fell on its side as the upper left fin on the helmet snapped off, almost cleanly, leaving a few ragged fragments still sticking out at the top left side of the dark visor. A spray of light shots followed, smacking into the intruder at mostly random locations. It got to its feet, the smaller shot lacking enough force to move it, but one of the knee-spikes was shattered.
Turning, it dashed straight for X again. X jumped once more, and was surprised when the intruder suddenly changed directions, heading straight up at him. One leg swung up in a dash-boosted kick, which clanged heavily into the armored seat of the blue Hunter. X was sent flying, while the intruder tumbled out of control. Apparently that fin had been somewhat important. Both landed on their heads, X more mortified than damaged. His opponent, however, lost the tip off the other top fin to the unforgiving ground.
As he scrambled to his feet, charging his buster, X glanced at his internal operations energy reading, getting a swift reply of 85%. Quickly drawing a bead, X released a full-powered shot at the intruder. It, however, fired off its dash boots, sliding across the ground with a grating sound, spraying sparks from the friction. Sliding under the plasma, it released its own invisible shot at X, who caught it in the gut. X stumbled back, coughing slightly. His Internal Operations energy had dropped another 5 percent, and it didn't look like he'd caused any serious damage to the intruder yet.
The intruder stumbled to its feet, and the two took aim again.
Then, with absolutely no warning, Zero came in from behind the intruder, lashing out at its buster. Swiftly, it spun, but the blade took the smaller fin off.
The piston-claw swung in a wide arc, and Zero caught it on his shin, pulling on the arm from either side of the impact point with his elbows. There was a wicked 'greeenchKRAK' sound, as the forearm bent at a 45 degree angle, the metal splitting opposite Zero's leg. Something inside had obviously been broken as well. The figure stumbled, and lashed out in a mule-kick, catching Zero in the gut as he came back down from his short hop.
The Crimson Hunter impacted a wall, hard, and was forced to rest there a moment, to recover from the two impacts.
That thing had kick.
The intruder spun to face X just in time to catch a plasma supershot full in the face. Flung backwards, it smacked into the wall to one side and somewhat above Zero, and fell off, landing on its feet. The lower left fin was now missing a good half its length, and the longer spike on the buster had cracked at the last bend.
As it wobbled forward, X hit it with another flurry of small plasma shot, in the same places as he had earlier. This time, armor began to crack and melt under the plasma fury. The buster raised to fire another shot at X, and received a flurry of plasma all its own. Several of the internal fins broke, and the armor on the buster cracked and burned as well, a hole eaten in one spot.
The upshot of this was, that when the intruder released its shot at X, this time he could see it. The ball of plasma was faintly green, and very close to totally translucent, but X could see it well enough to jump it, continuing his barrage. Lashing out with a kick, X finished the forward jump, cracking the visor on the odd helmet, now bereft of all but one fin. Landing neatly, X was surprised when the piston claw swung up again, despite being broken, the talons aimed at his face.
He was saved from some rather nasty synthflesh wounds by Zero, who interposed his saber from the side. This time, two of the talons broke off raggedly, and the third sustained a crack in the base. The intruder moved its arm the other way, intending to elbow the Crimson Hunter in the jaw.
Zero was prepared, however, and caught the blow in his left hand, swinging his own knee up into the chest of the intruder, leaving a serious dent. His right arm lashed out in a vertical slice with the saber, which the figure stumbled back out of the way of, but not quite in time. Zero's saber bit through the 'toe' of the figure's right boot, removing that portion of the appendage entirely.
Now seriously unbalanced the figure stumbled back, only to be bowled over by another level three shot from X. The blue hunter began charging as the intruder slowly got to one knee, and dash-jumped over it, avoiding the faint green shot unleashed in his direction. As he moved overhead, the figure spun as well.
X leveled his buster at the intruder, aiming for its main body- better to be sure of taking it out at least temporarily.
The figure noticed, and crouched slightly, preparing to jump up over the supershot-
Which sizzled in too fast, and the figure caught the searing plasma in the right side of its head. There was an explosion, and the armored figure was sent flying back into a wall, crumpling the metal plating badly, before falling to the ground. The buster's last fin caught on the wall, snapping off as the figure fell, the still-whole left foot landing flat on the floor. The other leg stretched out in front of it, sparking where the toes were missing. The shoulder armor and the entire right half of the helmet had been pretty much vaporized. The visor and cowcatcher had shattered, and the face of the enemy was finally open to scrutiny.
X and Zero did a double-take.
The reason why the armor had been so bulky was apparent- the reploid wearing it was also wearing a normal suit of armor under it. Her eyes were blank, and she was obviously unconscious. This was probably something of a mercy- slightly off-color purple reploid blood flowed slowly from her mouth, and her right eye was almost totally swollen shut, surrounded by plasma burns, which also tracked along her inner helmet, to the now- destroyed side-vent 'ear'. The right shoulder-pad was badly cracked as well. As a matter of fact, all of her armor, inner and outer, now bore a resemblence to a jigsaw puzzle, cracks everywhere. The turbofan/buster had slid free of the left upper arm, exposing a small part of her arm from underneath the armor. Even her light purple control-chip cover was badly cracked, but luckily for her, still intact. The cape, however, had given up the ghost, and only a small shred still clung to the 'pin' on the front of her armor's left shoulder.
The two top Hunters gave each other the exact same look at the exact same time, and said the exact same thing.
"What do we do with her?"
WAHAHAHAHA! You may never know!
Unless I write the next chapter of this.
In which case, you'll know then. Anywho… this fic is an AU of sorts. It seriously diverges from the standard MMX timeline a little while after X4, although the point of actual divergence is way, way back there.
Before I end this chapter, however, I have to say…
ARIGATOO, ERICO-SAN!!!!
I am using the technology/timeline/world- view presented by Erico in his fics, with some add-ons I discussed with him. Thanks Erico, for prereading, and also for taking the time to discuss my ideas with me. Thanks to the Bard of Science (whose name escapes me for the moment), for coming up with so many wonderful ideas.
REVIEW THIS!!!! IF YOU ALREADY DID AND SOMETHING CHANGED REVIEW IT AGAIN!!
Oh, and btw… if you like Ranma ½ also, please to check out my other two fics, Passenger and Out Of My Hair. They are also on FF.Net.
Till next time, Jaa ne!
"Commit random kindness and senseless acts of beauty"
-A really cool bumper sticker.
"Please don't make me do this."
'Manic Monkey' kept his hand near the explosives' trigger.
"You don't have to do anything, X. I'll do it for you. HE helped me see, don't you get it? HE showed me. Humans are a scourge on this planet. I won't have them continuing to damage it. Only reploids deserve to live…"
X shook his head slowly. "But you're a human too."
The man in the very strange armor grinned.
"But of course! Who better to purge the earth of our mistakes than one of us? It's perfect! You can't stop me, you know."
The blue Hunter frowned. "Bull. That thing you're wearing wouldn't stand up to a popgun."
But X was still wary. The explosives the man had planted ran all through the office building. If he hit the trigger, this building would crash down, falling on a number of other nearby buildings- and they hadn't been cleared out yet. At the least, he had to stall long enough for those people to escape.
The man at the detonator grinned like his nickname.
"So you say. But let's see how you stand up to the MONKEY MASHER!!"
As he shouted, he lifted his free right arm, and the oversized fist mounted on the armor launched straight for X.
Who simply jumped over it.
The fist continued on, bashing its way out through the wall, and then a window, continuing beyond the building's interior.
Amazingly, the flimsy armor that the man wore reconstituted another outsized fist, although much slower than a Buster would do something similar.
'Manic Monkey' let out an insane laugh, then launched another Monkey Masher. X jumped this one as well, and was surprised when it turned and smacked him in the back of the head, knocking him down. The fist returned to its place on the armor.
"Ha! Gotcha!" Giggled the off-kilter man. "That'll teach you! Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Radio message."
Silently, X got back up. Monkey Masher indeed. That hadn't even been enough to make him use any internal operations energy. The man in the maverick suit was busy tinkering at the control panel now, facing away from his supposedly downed foe.
Quietly, the blue-clad reploid snuck towards the man.
Suddenly, Manic Monkey found himself stuck in a rock-solid headlock.
"Hey! Get offa me! Grrr…"
X began dragging the man bodily away from the radio. It was surprisingly difficult- although the man's armor didn't provide any real protection, and the helmet was patently useless, it somehow boosted his body strength far beyond that of a normal human. It wasn't quite up to reploid strength, but it was about the maximum a human bodybuilder could achieve.
The end result of this was that X could only move awkwardly with his flailing captive, and relatively slowly. At least, so long as he wanted to keep the human in one piece. X easily kept his cool, slowly hauling the loony back to a place where he could be safely tied up. He still would like to know who set off the Maverick Alarm, though. Anyone with any knowledge could tell that this man wasn't a reploid. He was bleeding slowly from a self-inflicted wound where he had apparently tried to plug in a computer cable for whatever reason.
Then X stepped in something wet, the carpet squishing oddly underneath his heavy metal foot. Looking up, he saw a multiple-decapitation victim strung up from the ceiling, the separated limbs and head each wrapped almost entirely in some sort of a fiber. The horrified look on the face was unobscured.
"What the frack?!?" Exclaimed the New Blue Bomber. "How the hell.."
There was a clattering noise as a strange robot clambered along the wall, heading for the panel the detonator switch had been attached to. It looked like some sort of a mechanical spider. On it's bulbous abdomen was the Maverick symbol, brightly colored and prominent.
X blanched. "Organised Mavericks? But that means Sigma… and he died in the Final Weapon!"
A niggling little voice in the back of X's head reminded him that Sigma was destroyed those other three times as well, and kept coming back. Why should this time have been different?
Quickly, X slung the man in the monkey suit under his right arm, firing at the spider-bot with his left Buster.
It wasn't quite fast enough.
The spider hit the switch just before the ball of plasma ate straight through its body.
X had just enough time to state "Frack."
Then…
Nothing happened.
X sighed in relief, staring at the still-standing spider-robot.
It turned to X. It spoke in a horrid voice, the sound of insectoid chittering multiplied. "Sigma sendxxx greetings, X. Anxxxx a bzzztning. Never trust huma-ggzzk work. Shoddy as geeik-" and detonated, slagging the control panel it had been clinging to.
X raised his arm to speak into his comm, then remembered Manic Monkey. He looked at the oddly limp man under his right arm.
Who was dead, his neck snapped by the swiftness with which X had transferred him to that position.
Shuddering, X dropped the corpse. "No… I… I didn't!"
Elsewhere, in a small cave deep underground, a seldom-used set of strange blue capsules flared their readouts into action for the second time within the last few minutes.
Each of the capsules was eight feet across by fourteen tall, with a solid blue top section, a solid blue bottom, and a center area closed off by a pale blue energy barrier. On the top of each capsule was a glowing red hemisphere, and metallic parts and wires jutted occasionally from the solid blue sections.
Readouts fired off, and crosstransmissions were sent.
Capsule 1: ERRORERRORERROR! X monitor notes 'dismay at death of human'.
Capsule 2: Initial response of 'relief and minor joy' taken in error. Suggest termination of program 'LGHT/D'
Capsule 3: Negative. Program cannot be terminated at this point- will terminate upon completion.
Capsule 4: Double-check readout from monitor chip.
Capsule 1: X monitor chip second readout confirmed. 'Dismay' present. Also registering 'disbelief', 'sorrow', 'fear', and 'disgust'.
Capsule 5: Relative success rate of initial primary function of 'LGHT/D' program under trigger parameter 1 estimate at 70%.
Capsule 3: Success level exceeds safety requirements for survival of necessary unit given current situation. Suggest modifying portions of program 'LGHT/D' prior to segment activation. Prevention of 'LGHT/D' program success priority, expected resulting success chance of initial primary function estimated below 10%.
Capsule 2: Expected resultant success possibility acceptable. Modifying program 'LGHT/D'. Replace string: 'ACTIVATE BLITZKREIG'. Using suggested replacement string: 'ACTIVATE DEEP SHADE'.
Capsule 5: String replacement successful. Activating optional subroutine 'DPLGY'.
Capsule 4: Activation complete. Message delivered. Prepare to follow primary directive Y/N?
Capsule 5: Negative. Trigger Alpha Omega is off. Power reserves average below 50 %. Suggest shutdown until trigger switch to conserve power, Capsule 1 to remain active. Consensus program 'Cascade Activation' suggested.
Capsule 1: Confirmed.
Capsule 2: Confirmed. Initiating shutdown.
Capsule 3: Confirmed. Initiating shutdown.
Capsule 4: Confirmed. Initiating shutdown.
Capsule 5: Confirmed. Contacting Capsule Alpha, triggering message transfer to Capsule 6. Transfer complete. Initiating shutdown concurrent with program 'Cascade Activation'.
The two Hunters guarding the path to the front doors of MHHQ waited uneasily.
"Remember, " began the slightly taller of the two, an orange-armored turtle reploid. "Sigma's out and about. At the first sign of something fishy, grab your comm."
The shorter, thinner humanoid reploid nodded. "Understood sir."
Suddenly, with a grunt, he was sent flying by some invisible force.
"Holy crap!" The turtle opened his com. "This is Turtlava. Uni-" He cut off as his comm sparked and melted, as if struck by a plasma weapon.
Only there was no plasma there. Looking about, he heard the whine of a Buster charging, although the sound was oddly distorted and quiet. Homing on the sound, he spotted the strangest looking reploid he'd ever seen. If it was a reploid. A scant 4' 11", it was mostly covered in a deep blue cape, almost black. Poking out of a fold was a strange-looking Buster, some sort of a Buster/turbofan hybrid, it looked like. The feet were rather large for its size, but the helmet/head was wierdest of all. It had a piece where a mouth would be that looked like an old steam train's cowcatcher. The top of the helmet was strangely peaked, centered behind what looked like a soft-purple control chip cover. Two fins stuck high to the sides off the head, reminiscent of a devil's horns. A second pair of fins, more like wings, stuck straight out to the sides, making the whole head assembly look like a demented miniature space-fighter. The nearly- black visor over the cowcatcher did make an odd match for some sort of cockpit cover.
The figure raised the Buster slightly, and there was an almost silent firing sound. To the Hunter's surprise, there was no visible shot from the buster. Instinctively, he turned one armored forearm to where the blast might have been, and got lucky, as he felt the invisible plasma spend itself against the heavy plating. Apparently, the Buster's power was lower than a typical model, or it would have had more effect on the plating. Turtlava raised an arm, forming his own buster, but stopped when the figure began waving its own weapon in a circular pattern.
The weapon waved once in a very fast circle, and a firing sound was released somewhere. The Hunter skipped to the side, and charged towards the figure, dash jets on full. His opponent dashed straight towards him, and then to his surprise, changed directions abruptly mid-dash, going straight up, then forward over him. Faster than he could turn, the figure landed behind him. It froze, and he whirled.
A shot rang out.
"For the last time, X…" Grumbled a thoroughly disgruntled Reploid doctor in a sky-blue bodysuit. He was a couple of inches taller than X and bald, with hair that would have been reminiscent of Dr. Wily's had it been gray instead of brown. "IT WAS AN ACCIDENT. Anyone could have made that mistake. Considering what might have been at risk, the price was all right."
"That's just it, though…" Stated X, solemnly. "It wasn't at risk. And I didn't even notice I'd killed him until after, when I went to contact the others. I should have been paying more attention to his wellbeing. Are you sure there's nothing wrong with me?"
The doctor just stared at him. "When I said 'for the last time', I meant it. And no, you're not going maverick. Now will you please get out of my medical bay? I have other things to-"
The alarm sounded just then, cutting the doctor off. Both reploids looked up at the alarm.
"What the-"
"X! X, are you there? This is Cain."
X opened up the comm on his left arm. "This is X. What's going on here? Is Sigma attacking?"
"No, it's worse and better than that."
X blinked. "Beg pardon?"
"Just get to my office. NOW."
"Great." Grumbled X. "And I still haven't figured out what we're going to tell the GDC…"
Gatstar, the short, bald-pated humanoid doctor reploid sighed as X booked it out of the medical bay. "I hope whatever it is distracts him enough to let him settle that. Dammit, I'm not a psychologist." He turned to go get a beer, when one of the Unit Commanders stumbled in, supporting two unconscious Hunters, one with a plasma burn on her face, the other with a shattered helmet.
"What the frack!?!?"
"…is going on?" Asked a thoroughly puzzled X.
Cain turned his mini-viewscreen to X. "See for yourself."
On the screen was one of the halls at the other end of the MHHQ. Right then, a number of Hunters armed with Busters were crouched behind handy support posts, taking potshots at a strange figure smoothly striding down the hall towards the camera. Every time a shot was about to hit, the figure would dash.
What was strange was how it avoided the follow-ups. Anytime a shot was about to peg it mid-dash, it would simply change direction, sliding left or right, seemingly devoid of inertia. Eventually it reached a Hunter.
With ruthless efficiency, the possibly reploid lashed out from under the cape with a massive, three-clawed battering ram of an arm, and grabbed the erstwhile Hunter by the head. Almost casually, it smacked the reploid against the wall, leaving a dent. Then it threw him over its shoulder into another wall, leaving a second dent. The Hunter slumped to the floor, out for the count. The figure resumed its steady progress.
"You want me to stop it, right Cain?"
"Yes, but there's more… it gets wierder. So far, it hasn't killed any hunters, reploid or human. That means it isn't a maverick we're dealing with. Strangest of all, it's left a few of the reploid hunters conscious- and each time it asked them where you were."
"So, whatever it is, it's looking for me?"
Cain nodded. "Right. Oh, there's Zero. Finally."
And indeed, there he was, right in front of the camera. The mystery entity had made it halfway down the remaining hall by now.
X hurried out of the office, to go intercept whoever-this-was. Zero would probably stop them, but he wanted to be able to get in first questions.
Zero grinned almost ferally. Whatever this thing was, it was going down now. The Crimson Hunter would pound it into scrap, and that was that.
As the unknown robot stepped past the last of the unconcscious Hunters, it found itself on the receiving end of a beam saber swing. Quickly, it dashed sideways, loosing a shot.
Easily deflecting the invisible, but panicked shot, Zero grinned and took another swipe, this time with a crosswise follow-up, and a third, rising vertical strike. The figure sidestepped the first, jumped the second, and dashed to the other side, avoiding the third. Thrusting the heavy arm out, it tried to grab Zero by the head.
The wily hunter wasn't that easy, however, and met the arm with his own fist, stopping it cold.
The figure paused a moment, and that was all Zero needed. One swift saber slash later, the figure should have stood without a head.
Instead, it had caught the saber on its claws, having wrenched its arm away from the Crimson Hunter's fist.
Zero noted to his surprise that the claws, while not TitaniTefloAlloy, were somewhat resistant to plasma, as his saber bit, but did not cut through them.
Both combatants jumped back a short distance, Zero giving the unknown a wary gaze. Suddenly, he kicked on his dash boots, charging in for a swift slash.
But the figure swirled its cape, and disappeared. Zero skidded to a halt, dismayed. Then he heard something behind him, and ducked, whirling about. He looked up at the strange buster behind where his head had just been.
Sticking out of the wall.
"What the?"
The buster instantly faded back out, and Zero was left looking around on his toes again. Where on earth had that thing gone?
As he returned to his original facing, he got his answer in the form of a somehow dash-boosted kick to the rear end, which sent him skidding down the hall on his front.
There was a 'beep', and the strange figure faded back into view, foot still raised. It put its foot down, and dashed after Zero.
Zero kicked on his own dash boots, narrowly avoiding a wicked flying kneedrop. That thing had spiked knees! The whatever-it-was sprang back to its feet and ran after him, dashing to catch up. Zero somehow flipped to his feet, and dashing away from it, manifested a small energy pellet.
This was the Rakuhouha pellet, a small container of unstable plasma which, when sufficiently disturbed, shattered and sprayed plasma spheres over an area.
Turning his body, continuing his mad dash down the hall, Zero flung the pellet at his pursuer.
He continued his dash, determined to be out of the blast radius when the darned thing went off.
To his surprise, it burst rather close to him.
As in, by impacting his back.
Zero was blown clean out of the building, totally out of it for the moment.
The figure straightened up, letting go of its cape, which it had used to catch the pellet and fling it back. Turning, it resumed its progress down the hallway. It had not escaped unscathed, though. There were a few scorch marks on the buster and one head-fin, and the end of the cape had been eaten ragged by a stray plasma sphere.
The intruder continued towards the area currently occupied by the 17th and 00th units.
X rushed into hall 20, just in time to see the strange figure clothesline the last conscious Hunter, forcing him to join his comrades-at-arms.
Slowly, it turned to face him. The cape had been mostly shredded now, no longer serving to cover the figure.
And a strange appearance it had, indeed.
The three-clawed pistonlike arm was the right arm, and near the elbow on the forearm were two oblong crystals. The left arm, containing the odd buster, had two oblong crystals, and a couple of strange spike/fins, one simple, cutting a half-crescent, the other zigzagging like a rounded lightning bolt, ending with a point aimed back and outwards. The body of the machine was strangely bulky, entirely solid. Obviously, this intruder could not rotate at the waist. The center of the abdomen was decorated with a huge, red, shield-like hourglass shape, bracketed on both sides by yellow bands of armor like were on X's Paladin armor set. The left shoulder was covered, the cape attaching to the front of it. The right, however, had the cape apparently pinned to the top of it, revealing an odd, armadillo-like shoulder guard. Where a shirt would have lapels, the neck also had them, but they were long half-crescents, like some sort of a broad barrier. The lower leg sections had, instead of a simple upward-jutting knee guard, twin curved spikes that reached a full third of the way up the thighs of the mechanical monster.
The entire thing, aside from the banding and hourglass, was rendered in shades of black and deep green. Were it not for the sheer bulkiness of the warrior, the design would have seemed optimum for infiltration, but with the impressive thickness of all the parts, it stuck out like a spoon in a knife drawer.
As it raised its buster to point at X, the blue Hunter noticed that the small barrel was at an angle to the rest of the buster, making it seem like the cannon was aimed where it actually was not.
Both warriors held the charge on their busters, preparing full-power shots. The indicative sound hit peak for the intruder earlier than for X, and at a lower note as well.
Suddenly, the soft whine of the intruder's buster ceased, and X dodged on an instinct. He winced as he heard plasma hit a wall behind him. Either the shots were incredibly fast, making them invisible, or the special design of the buster was to keep the plasma from emitting light.
The figure traced X with its buster, otherwise unmoving. This time, the charging whine lasted less time, but hit the same pitch. Both unleashed their shots simultaneously. Midway between them, X's blue shot, tinged pink, roiled as it overcame a smaller mass of plasma. The figure dodged, however, dashing under the shot.
Only to catch a small shot in the side of the head. A new scorch mark adorned the side of the helmet. Continuing the dash, the figure shot forward, slamming the claw-arm out. X jumped his opponent, and the "hand" slammed into the wall, embedding itself in the metal.
With a gradual creaking sound, the intruder ripped its arm free, seemingly none the worse for wear, just as X landed behind it, firing a level two shot at its leg. Even as it stumbled, a new scorch mark on the back of its left leg, it span, just enough to fire at X's arm.
X caught the shot on his armband, noticing that it was definitely weaker than the level three shot. His Internal Operations Energy read at 95%. He remained wary, however- this thing had managed to at least temporarily disable Zero, otherwise it wouldn't have gotten this far. There had to be something up its thick metal sleeve.
The intruder swung its piston-claw at X, in a backhanded blow. The blue Hunter ducked, and came back with a solid punch to his opponent's midsection. As the intruder fell to the floor, X noted that his hand had suffered some damage from that- nothing serious, but obviously physical combat was as likely to damage him as it was his opponent- maybe moreso.
X jumped back, charging his buster as the figure clumsily began to get to its feet- a demonstration in how a waist is imperative to human motion. As soon as he reached the green blast level, he released the shot, nailing the intruder in the side of the head.
The armored robot fell on its side as the upper left fin on the helmet snapped off, almost cleanly, leaving a few ragged fragments still sticking out at the top left side of the dark visor. A spray of light shots followed, smacking into the intruder at mostly random locations. It got to its feet, the smaller shot lacking enough force to move it, but one of the knee-spikes was shattered.
Turning, it dashed straight for X again. X jumped once more, and was surprised when the intruder suddenly changed directions, heading straight up at him. One leg swung up in a dash-boosted kick, which clanged heavily into the armored seat of the blue Hunter. X was sent flying, while the intruder tumbled out of control. Apparently that fin had been somewhat important. Both landed on their heads, X more mortified than damaged. His opponent, however, lost the tip off the other top fin to the unforgiving ground.
As he scrambled to his feet, charging his buster, X glanced at his internal operations energy reading, getting a swift reply of 85%. Quickly drawing a bead, X released a full-powered shot at the intruder. It, however, fired off its dash boots, sliding across the ground with a grating sound, spraying sparks from the friction. Sliding under the plasma, it released its own invisible shot at X, who caught it in the gut. X stumbled back, coughing slightly. His Internal Operations energy had dropped another 5 percent, and it didn't look like he'd caused any serious damage to the intruder yet.
The intruder stumbled to its feet, and the two took aim again.
Then, with absolutely no warning, Zero came in from behind the intruder, lashing out at its buster. Swiftly, it spun, but the blade took the smaller fin off.
The piston-claw swung in a wide arc, and Zero caught it on his shin, pulling on the arm from either side of the impact point with his elbows. There was a wicked 'greeenchKRAK' sound, as the forearm bent at a 45 degree angle, the metal splitting opposite Zero's leg. Something inside had obviously been broken as well. The figure stumbled, and lashed out in a mule-kick, catching Zero in the gut as he came back down from his short hop.
The Crimson Hunter impacted a wall, hard, and was forced to rest there a moment, to recover from the two impacts.
That thing had kick.
The intruder spun to face X just in time to catch a plasma supershot full in the face. Flung backwards, it smacked into the wall to one side and somewhat above Zero, and fell off, landing on its feet. The lower left fin was now missing a good half its length, and the longer spike on the buster had cracked at the last bend.
As it wobbled forward, X hit it with another flurry of small plasma shot, in the same places as he had earlier. This time, armor began to crack and melt under the plasma fury. The buster raised to fire another shot at X, and received a flurry of plasma all its own. Several of the internal fins broke, and the armor on the buster cracked and burned as well, a hole eaten in one spot.
The upshot of this was, that when the intruder released its shot at X, this time he could see it. The ball of plasma was faintly green, and very close to totally translucent, but X could see it well enough to jump it, continuing his barrage. Lashing out with a kick, X finished the forward jump, cracking the visor on the odd helmet, now bereft of all but one fin. Landing neatly, X was surprised when the piston claw swung up again, despite being broken, the talons aimed at his face.
He was saved from some rather nasty synthflesh wounds by Zero, who interposed his saber from the side. This time, two of the talons broke off raggedly, and the third sustained a crack in the base. The intruder moved its arm the other way, intending to elbow the Crimson Hunter in the jaw.
Zero was prepared, however, and caught the blow in his left hand, swinging his own knee up into the chest of the intruder, leaving a serious dent. His right arm lashed out in a vertical slice with the saber, which the figure stumbled back out of the way of, but not quite in time. Zero's saber bit through the 'toe' of the figure's right boot, removing that portion of the appendage entirely.
Now seriously unbalanced the figure stumbled back, only to be bowled over by another level three shot from X. The blue hunter began charging as the intruder slowly got to one knee, and dash-jumped over it, avoiding the faint green shot unleashed in his direction. As he moved overhead, the figure spun as well.
X leveled his buster at the intruder, aiming for its main body- better to be sure of taking it out at least temporarily.
The figure noticed, and crouched slightly, preparing to jump up over the supershot-
Which sizzled in too fast, and the figure caught the searing plasma in the right side of its head. There was an explosion, and the armored figure was sent flying back into a wall, crumpling the metal plating badly, before falling to the ground. The buster's last fin caught on the wall, snapping off as the figure fell, the still-whole left foot landing flat on the floor. The other leg stretched out in front of it, sparking where the toes were missing. The shoulder armor and the entire right half of the helmet had been pretty much vaporized. The visor and cowcatcher had shattered, and the face of the enemy was finally open to scrutiny.
X and Zero did a double-take.
The reason why the armor had been so bulky was apparent- the reploid wearing it was also wearing a normal suit of armor under it. Her eyes were blank, and she was obviously unconscious. This was probably something of a mercy- slightly off-color purple reploid blood flowed slowly from her mouth, and her right eye was almost totally swollen shut, surrounded by plasma burns, which also tracked along her inner helmet, to the now- destroyed side-vent 'ear'. The right shoulder-pad was badly cracked as well. As a matter of fact, all of her armor, inner and outer, now bore a resemblence to a jigsaw puzzle, cracks everywhere. The turbofan/buster had slid free of the left upper arm, exposing a small part of her arm from underneath the armor. Even her light purple control-chip cover was badly cracked, but luckily for her, still intact. The cape, however, had given up the ghost, and only a small shred still clung to the 'pin' on the front of her armor's left shoulder.
The two top Hunters gave each other the exact same look at the exact same time, and said the exact same thing.
"What do we do with her?"
WAHAHAHAHA! You may never know!
Unless I write the next chapter of this.
In which case, you'll know then. Anywho… this fic is an AU of sorts. It seriously diverges from the standard MMX timeline a little while after X4, although the point of actual divergence is way, way back there.
Before I end this chapter, however, I have to say…
ARIGATOO, ERICO-SAN!!!!
I am using the technology/timeline/world- view presented by Erico in his fics, with some add-ons I discussed with him. Thanks Erico, for prereading, and also for taking the time to discuss my ideas with me. Thanks to the Bard of Science (whose name escapes me for the moment), for coming up with so many wonderful ideas.
REVIEW THIS!!!! IF YOU ALREADY DID AND SOMETHING CHANGED REVIEW IT AGAIN!!
Oh, and btw… if you like Ranma ½ also, please to check out my other two fics, Passenger and Out Of My Hair. They are also on FF.Net.
Till next time, Jaa ne!
"Commit random kindness and senseless acts of beauty"
-A really cool bumper sticker.