X stared up at the far-too-familiar visage (or lack thereof) that was
gazing malevolently down at him.
"Vile." He stated calmly. "I should have expected as much."
"Hah!" Exclaimed the psychotic reploid, his baleful crimson orb never budging from the face of his hated enemy. "What did you expect, you pathetic pacifist! You come charging after us and expect not to find us? How ridiculous."
Kimiko glanced warily between the two. The tension that was building up was something that she didn't think was very good.
I see. Thought the blue prototype. It really is a corrupted version of the normal training files. This isn't going to be easy- I hope I can keep Kimiko from being hurt too badly.
Indeed, X remembered all too well that both of the times he had fought Vile in his ride armor during the first Uprising had resulted in an easy win for the purple Bobba-Fett look-alike. However hard it would be for him, his unwitting companion on this little trip into danger would find it an order of magnitude harder with her lack of training.
Carefully, remembering the rules she had learned, both from X and from the datafiles in the MHHQ, Kimiko began to charge up her buster.
Vile chuckled at the slowly rising whine of the green prereploid's weapon. "Sounds like your little friend there is eager to get things started, X. Who is she, by the way? I don't recall any hunters looking like her."
Kimiko began to sweat, cursing herself for a fool. She had, in her moment of nervousness, neglected to recall that busters make a sound when being charged.
X narrowed his eyes slightly. "Kimiko, stand down. This is my fight- I doubt you can do this yet."
Somewhat reluctantly, Kimiko released the charge, the plasma in her buster dissipating harmlessly into the air as she stepped back, giving the purple demon in ride-armor quite some distance.
Vile chuckled again. "Good to see she has some sense." He grated. "Too bad I can't say the same for you! Do you really think you can take on my Ride Armor, you rattling old prototype?"
X readied his buster, starting the charge. "Actually, I don't know. But I guess we're going to find out, regardless, aren't we?"
Vile gave the impression of grinning evilly, which was an impressive feat given his only discernible feature was a glowing red eye. "Oh, you are soooo right, X.."
******
Zero tried the combination again.
Error. Authorization code not recognized. Please try again.
One of his eyes twitched as he glared at the monitor.
Taptaptaptaptap.
Error. Authorization code not recognized. Please try again.
"Alright, that does it."
The Crimson Hunter turned on his helmet comm. "Sylvia, are you there?"
"Yes, Zero?" Replied the intra-base communications officer, one of the human staff members.
"Can you patch me through to the techs? I think something's wrong with the simulations suite."
"Urgent?"
"I believe so." Answered Zero.
"Right. Patching you through to Turk."
******
The semi-holographic Vile glared coldly at X.
The New Blue Bomber looked calmly back.
Kimiko, meanwhile, was staring at the severed arms of the Chimera ride armor, which were lying on the ground between the two combatants.
"Lucky idiot." Rasped Vile.
"No," said X, "I just happen to know the weakness of the Chimera. Now then, I suppose we should end this?"
"HA! This is far from over, blueberry!" Crowed Vile, jumping the Ride Armor up onto the lift being lowered from the Death Rogumer. "You haven't seen the last of me.."
Kimiko walked over to one of the severed arms.
X glanced around. "Now, let's see. This should be over in about thirty seconds."
The green prereploid examined the severed shoulder joint on the arm. The accuracy impressed her even more up close- a precise half-circle burn mark ran out from the edge of the metal towards the arm.
Suddenly, the world shifted.
******
Turk looked up from the exposed circuit board at the impatient Zero.
"Could you, perhaps, please stop that?"
Zero stopped pacing, looking over at the crouched ceratopsian reploid. "Hn?" He grunted.
"Pacing." Said Turk, returning his eyes to his point of focus. "Makes it hard to concentrate. Ah! There we go. That should do it. Give the manual a try."
Zero gripped the handles on the sliding doors firmly, and pushed outwards to open the door.
Then he pushed harder.
Nothing happened.
The crimson hunter turned and gave the green-armored techie a questioning look.
Frowning, Turk pulled a large datapad from his belt, one that was rather thicker than normal. Sticking it to the wall, he carefully pressed a few buttons before removing one of his fine-manipulator extensions. "Let's see what. What on earth???"
Zero walked over. "What is it?"
Turk tapped the screen on the techpad. "There's some sort of electromagnetical field holding the doors shut. From inside."
"Meaning?"
"The simulation system's generating it. This isn't going to be easy. The system shuts off when the door is opened. But to open the door, we need to shut off the system."
".."
"Patience, Zero, patience. This system can't do anything that X can't handle. Though I'm not so sure about the lady."
******
X blinked. "Then again, I could be wrong."
Kimiko parroted her mentor, looking about. "Ecksu-san, what's going on?"
X shook his head. "I'm not sure. It seems like this thing just slid us to another simulation instead of terminating. This is more than a simple trap. I think we're dealing with a mole here."
The green-armored prereploid glanced around a bit as she approached X. "Mole? From whom?"
X shrugged. "You've got me. Looks like the only way out of this is through, though. This looks like the docks- the ones Launch Octopus took over."
With a thrashing of limbs, something swam by at high speed, kicking up a spray that soaked both of the prototypes standing on the dock.
X wiped off his face. "Speak of the devil." He tracked the wake as it headed off into the water a distance before stopping, the large, bulbous orange head sinking beneath the water.
"Looks like it's a trip to waterworld for us. Are you equipped for underwater?"
Am I equipped for underwater operations?
This unit is equipped for operations underwater to a depth of two hundred meters. All seams automatically seal once immersion exceeds five percent.
"Yes."
"Good, then. Let's go, and be careful- there may be an ambush."
******
X leaned against an underwater support to the platform above, banging his head against it. He could practically hear Zero, as though his old friend had been accompanying him.
"There MAY be an ambush." Zero would have said mockingly. "You just had to say it, didn't you?"
X wasn't sure about Murphy himself, but he sometimes got the idea that Murphy's Law was after him.
"Ecksu-san?" Kimiko asked via the helmet-comm, fingering the nasty dent in her right shoulder-pad. "Are you sure you should be doing that?"
X shook his head, stood up straight, and peered into the water ahead, over the many pieces of Gulpfer that littered the shallows. "No, but I really, really needed to."
Kimiko blinked. "I.. see." The charging Gulpfer had caught them both by surprise, though again, she had come out worse for it than X. He had managed to get out of it with a couple scratches- she estimated that at worst, his IOE had dropped all of maybe five percent.
She wasn't so lucky, having caught one fishbot in the gut, and another in the right shoulder. Her IOE had dropped another ten percent, leaving her at fifty-four. She would keep up, though. She was supposed to help X, and she couldn't very well do that if she neither learned from her mistakes nor kept in one piece through this. Following X's gaze, she saw a strange rotating door.
"Ecksu-san, what's that door?"
"Well," X mused, "My guess is that Launch is through that door. We're going to have to fight him."
Kimiko paled slightly. "But, wasn't he recognized as the most competent underwater specialist to ever work in the Hunters?"
X nodded. "And I had to fight and kill him before, on my own, with only a bit more experience than you've got now.. But then, I had some.. 'extras'. Hopefully, there being two of us will make up for that."
Kimiko nodded, not liking this one bit.
******
Zero stared at Turk for a moment, then at the door. Then he looked back to Turk, one hand reaching over his shoulder to rest on the handle of his beam saber.
"How about a more. direct method of entry?"
Turk shook his head. "Not through the door, we can't. The field will keep the pieces of the door in place. Unless we actually melt a hole through it, we're not getting in that way."
Zero's hand shifted to his chin, rubbing speculatively. "Wall next to the door?"
Turk sighed. "Two problems. First, we'd have to rerout everything running through these circuits. Second, that would take quite a while, even if we weren't worried about actual damage to the wall."
Zero grimaced. "Well, let's get started then. I want to get into there as quickly as possible."
**************************************************************************** ********** That's right, I'm NOT dead! And I'm still writing, too!
Anywhich, the plot thickens, and next time, X and Kimiko have to deal with Launch Octopus. Or was that Octopald? Hmmm.. And what about Ochre and Boron? Will Zero and Turk (and whoever else shows up to help) get into the room in time? Or will someone. (gasp) DIE?!?!?!?
Tune in next time, when some of these questions are answered, others aren't, and a few are dismissed outright!
-Selene Starblade
"Vile." He stated calmly. "I should have expected as much."
"Hah!" Exclaimed the psychotic reploid, his baleful crimson orb never budging from the face of his hated enemy. "What did you expect, you pathetic pacifist! You come charging after us and expect not to find us? How ridiculous."
Kimiko glanced warily between the two. The tension that was building up was something that she didn't think was very good.
I see. Thought the blue prototype. It really is a corrupted version of the normal training files. This isn't going to be easy- I hope I can keep Kimiko from being hurt too badly.
Indeed, X remembered all too well that both of the times he had fought Vile in his ride armor during the first Uprising had resulted in an easy win for the purple Bobba-Fett look-alike. However hard it would be for him, his unwitting companion on this little trip into danger would find it an order of magnitude harder with her lack of training.
Carefully, remembering the rules she had learned, both from X and from the datafiles in the MHHQ, Kimiko began to charge up her buster.
Vile chuckled at the slowly rising whine of the green prereploid's weapon. "Sounds like your little friend there is eager to get things started, X. Who is she, by the way? I don't recall any hunters looking like her."
Kimiko began to sweat, cursing herself for a fool. She had, in her moment of nervousness, neglected to recall that busters make a sound when being charged.
X narrowed his eyes slightly. "Kimiko, stand down. This is my fight- I doubt you can do this yet."
Somewhat reluctantly, Kimiko released the charge, the plasma in her buster dissipating harmlessly into the air as she stepped back, giving the purple demon in ride-armor quite some distance.
Vile chuckled again. "Good to see she has some sense." He grated. "Too bad I can't say the same for you! Do you really think you can take on my Ride Armor, you rattling old prototype?"
X readied his buster, starting the charge. "Actually, I don't know. But I guess we're going to find out, regardless, aren't we?"
Vile gave the impression of grinning evilly, which was an impressive feat given his only discernible feature was a glowing red eye. "Oh, you are soooo right, X.."
******
Zero tried the combination again.
Error. Authorization code not recognized. Please try again.
One of his eyes twitched as he glared at the monitor.
Taptaptaptaptap.
Error. Authorization code not recognized. Please try again.
"Alright, that does it."
The Crimson Hunter turned on his helmet comm. "Sylvia, are you there?"
"Yes, Zero?" Replied the intra-base communications officer, one of the human staff members.
"Can you patch me through to the techs? I think something's wrong with the simulations suite."
"Urgent?"
"I believe so." Answered Zero.
"Right. Patching you through to Turk."
******
The semi-holographic Vile glared coldly at X.
The New Blue Bomber looked calmly back.
Kimiko, meanwhile, was staring at the severed arms of the Chimera ride armor, which were lying on the ground between the two combatants.
"Lucky idiot." Rasped Vile.
"No," said X, "I just happen to know the weakness of the Chimera. Now then, I suppose we should end this?"
"HA! This is far from over, blueberry!" Crowed Vile, jumping the Ride Armor up onto the lift being lowered from the Death Rogumer. "You haven't seen the last of me.."
Kimiko walked over to one of the severed arms.
X glanced around. "Now, let's see. This should be over in about thirty seconds."
The green prereploid examined the severed shoulder joint on the arm. The accuracy impressed her even more up close- a precise half-circle burn mark ran out from the edge of the metal towards the arm.
Suddenly, the world shifted.
******
Turk looked up from the exposed circuit board at the impatient Zero.
"Could you, perhaps, please stop that?"
Zero stopped pacing, looking over at the crouched ceratopsian reploid. "Hn?" He grunted.
"Pacing." Said Turk, returning his eyes to his point of focus. "Makes it hard to concentrate. Ah! There we go. That should do it. Give the manual a try."
Zero gripped the handles on the sliding doors firmly, and pushed outwards to open the door.
Then he pushed harder.
Nothing happened.
The crimson hunter turned and gave the green-armored techie a questioning look.
Frowning, Turk pulled a large datapad from his belt, one that was rather thicker than normal. Sticking it to the wall, he carefully pressed a few buttons before removing one of his fine-manipulator extensions. "Let's see what. What on earth???"
Zero walked over. "What is it?"
Turk tapped the screen on the techpad. "There's some sort of electromagnetical field holding the doors shut. From inside."
"Meaning?"
"The simulation system's generating it. This isn't going to be easy. The system shuts off when the door is opened. But to open the door, we need to shut off the system."
".."
"Patience, Zero, patience. This system can't do anything that X can't handle. Though I'm not so sure about the lady."
******
X blinked. "Then again, I could be wrong."
Kimiko parroted her mentor, looking about. "Ecksu-san, what's going on?"
X shook his head. "I'm not sure. It seems like this thing just slid us to another simulation instead of terminating. This is more than a simple trap. I think we're dealing with a mole here."
The green-armored prereploid glanced around a bit as she approached X. "Mole? From whom?"
X shrugged. "You've got me. Looks like the only way out of this is through, though. This looks like the docks- the ones Launch Octopus took over."
With a thrashing of limbs, something swam by at high speed, kicking up a spray that soaked both of the prototypes standing on the dock.
X wiped off his face. "Speak of the devil." He tracked the wake as it headed off into the water a distance before stopping, the large, bulbous orange head sinking beneath the water.
"Looks like it's a trip to waterworld for us. Are you equipped for underwater?"
Am I equipped for underwater operations?
This unit is equipped for operations underwater to a depth of two hundred meters. All seams automatically seal once immersion exceeds five percent.
"Yes."
"Good, then. Let's go, and be careful- there may be an ambush."
******
X leaned against an underwater support to the platform above, banging his head against it. He could practically hear Zero, as though his old friend had been accompanying him.
"There MAY be an ambush." Zero would have said mockingly. "You just had to say it, didn't you?"
X wasn't sure about Murphy himself, but he sometimes got the idea that Murphy's Law was after him.
"Ecksu-san?" Kimiko asked via the helmet-comm, fingering the nasty dent in her right shoulder-pad. "Are you sure you should be doing that?"
X shook his head, stood up straight, and peered into the water ahead, over the many pieces of Gulpfer that littered the shallows. "No, but I really, really needed to."
Kimiko blinked. "I.. see." The charging Gulpfer had caught them both by surprise, though again, she had come out worse for it than X. He had managed to get out of it with a couple scratches- she estimated that at worst, his IOE had dropped all of maybe five percent.
She wasn't so lucky, having caught one fishbot in the gut, and another in the right shoulder. Her IOE had dropped another ten percent, leaving her at fifty-four. She would keep up, though. She was supposed to help X, and she couldn't very well do that if she neither learned from her mistakes nor kept in one piece through this. Following X's gaze, she saw a strange rotating door.
"Ecksu-san, what's that door?"
"Well," X mused, "My guess is that Launch is through that door. We're going to have to fight him."
Kimiko paled slightly. "But, wasn't he recognized as the most competent underwater specialist to ever work in the Hunters?"
X nodded. "And I had to fight and kill him before, on my own, with only a bit more experience than you've got now.. But then, I had some.. 'extras'. Hopefully, there being two of us will make up for that."
Kimiko nodded, not liking this one bit.
******
Zero stared at Turk for a moment, then at the door. Then he looked back to Turk, one hand reaching over his shoulder to rest on the handle of his beam saber.
"How about a more. direct method of entry?"
Turk shook his head. "Not through the door, we can't. The field will keep the pieces of the door in place. Unless we actually melt a hole through it, we're not getting in that way."
Zero's hand shifted to his chin, rubbing speculatively. "Wall next to the door?"
Turk sighed. "Two problems. First, we'd have to rerout everything running through these circuits. Second, that would take quite a while, even if we weren't worried about actual damage to the wall."
Zero grimaced. "Well, let's get started then. I want to get into there as quickly as possible."
**************************************************************************** ********** That's right, I'm NOT dead! And I'm still writing, too!
Anywhich, the plot thickens, and next time, X and Kimiko have to deal with Launch Octopus. Or was that Octopald? Hmmm.. And what about Ochre and Boron? Will Zero and Turk (and whoever else shows up to help) get into the room in time? Or will someone. (gasp) DIE?!?!?!?
Tune in next time, when some of these questions are answered, others aren't, and a few are dismissed outright!
-Selene Starblade