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I do not own Megaman or any of its characters (even though I want to). They are property of Capcom Ltd.
However, I do own my original characters, so :p
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Titanium Showdown: Tale of the Zero Clones
Chapter Thirteen: Enter the Madmen
Standing in front of X, among the sea of Enforcers, was X, or at least another who seemed like X. The two reploids were alike in every regard: eyes, height, build –but when the newcomer spoke, one knew exactly who was who.
"Let's play a game." There was a maniacal gleam in the copy's eyes, and a wicked smile on his lips. "I win, you die. You win -we all die. The rules are simple –whoever dies first, is the loser." The X clone loosed a mighty bellow and charged the small group in the middle of the room; the enforcers followed close behind.
Without a moment's hesitation, X met his copy in close battle and fought with all the strength he had. The others in the room did their best to stop the endless waves of enforcers from overrunning their position where X fought his duplicate.
Virus kept up a constant hail of energy blasts against the enforcer masses, taking out small groups of three and four with every shot. He could hear fleeting cries of pain from X, the others, and the copy, but those faded as quickly as they came, never staying more than a second. At one point, his buster cannon was so overloaded from the constant fire that it looked as though it would melt into his wrist. The pain was terrible.
When he thought he could take no more, Virus caught a glimpse of X fighting the duplicate. The two were singed from boot to hair from point-blank energy blasts, they had bruises and cuts of all kinds on every inch of their reploid skin. The copy seemed to be taking a grotesque pleasure in torturing X, and being tortured equally in turn. It was a grim sight, but Virus knew that if X would take that kind of a punishment from his enemies and not stop fighting, then he too would have to bite down and bear the pain.
'The lives of the few remaining humans balances precariously in our hands…' Virus had not considered the human lives involved until just then. He knew that if they failed in their endeavors, the last remaining human hideouts, if indeed there were any left at all, would be systematically hunted down and eradicated. Virus would not allow that. With renewed strength, he began to fight harder, taking down more and more enforcers along the way.
Suddenly, as if from nowhere, Virus heard a terrible scream. It sounded almost like X, but there was a trace of pleasure in it that could only mean it had emanated from the artificial throat of the copy. Wheeling in time to see the copy fall, Virus blasted his way back to the small group he had come in with. When he got to the group, Whistler looked genuinely worried for him. He noticed that the blaster had indeed melted into his wrist, but he felt no pain from it now, his autorecovery systems cutting off the return-impulses from the hand.
The enforcers stopped about twenty feet from the group of reploids. It was only after each had settled that the copy spoke again. "You win. Hehehehaha… And now… you die!" The horridly disfigured copy howled a mighty cackling, and began to glow –the first sign of a powerful self-destruct mechanism.
Acting on impulse alone, Omni started frantically slicing a hole in the floor. The enforcers rushed at the group again. X, Virus, and Whistler all held them at bay for what few seconds Omni may have needed. Within seconds of starting, Omni had sliced a clean circle in the floor, and was throwing X into it, jumping in himself just afterward. Virus and Whistler fell through together with no time to spare.
Just as the small quartet scattered on the floor below, the copy's self-destruct mechanism ignited, incinerating the enforcers in the room, and blasting superheated air through the tiny opening in the floor. After recovering from the slight shock, the four had a quick moment to get a hold of themselves on the desolate floor. The sounds of battle drifted up the stairwells to their ears, and they instantly began to run to them.
There were no enforcers guarding the stairs. Every last ounce of enforcer might seemed to be pointed squarely at a single alcove. Virus could see his friends struggling to hold their hopeless position, mere yards from the Trans. room. When extra firepower came from the previously unblocked stairs, the enforcers started to lose ground on their enemies instead of gain it. Within seconds of their arrival, Virus and the others had successfully taken back the hallway, and with the help of End, Hunter, and Sapphire, they were beginning to close on the Trans. room.
Enforcers never ceased to come through the wide-open doorway, walking into an equally ceaseless hail of weapons fire. It seemed there would be a stalemate at the entryway, until a lucky shot from Hunter took out sixteen enforcers simultaneously. This short pause was just enough for the small invading force to enter the Trans. room.
Once inside, they blasted at the large, bulky machine in the center of the enormous laboratory. There was another massive explosion, but the innumerable fallen enforcers prevented the bulk of the blast from effecting the insurgents. When the dust settled, there were only a handful of scientists in the room, obviously only trained to maintain the machine.
"Are you armed?" Whistler's voice had a slightly menacing tone to it. The uniform reply came, "No." With that, the group of reploids turned to the door. They walked down the now silenced hallways, looking for any evidence of Zero. X seemed to be moving with purpose, as if he knew where Zero would be.
When they came upon a gigantic room that stretched two floors upward, X halted. The lights were dim from all the explosions, but X could tell, this was where he had seen Zero before. On the far wall, there was an enormous window. Almost reverently, X walked up to it, the others following close behind. Three out of the group of six reploids had never seen the legendary hero of X's memories; only X and Sapphire had ever known the red reploid, and Virus had seen him only once. Hunter and the others had a fairly good idea as to what Zero looked like –after all, they were all based on his design.
X stopped a few feet short of the window looking dumbfounded. The group closed on the window, and saw that Zero was not inside. It was heartbreaking. They had fought so hard, and come so far, to find their champion missing. X destroyed the window with his fist, and climbed through it. He looked around. It was, unmistakably, the same room he had passed before. The machine was there, the table was there, the massive computer array –this was the room, but Zero was nowhere to be found.
In the far corner, the was a red light above a dimly illuminated switch. The plaque above the switch read "garbage lights", and the red bulb was next to "off". Slowly, in a dreamlike manner, X flipped the switch. Behind him, an archaic light bulb that swung from a cord flickered into life. With the dim glow it provided, the group could see that the garbage pile was nearly empty, save for a large object covered in a heavy brown canvas.
With a mixture of hope and terror, X slowly drew the canvas back enough to see a portion of what was under it; the sight both frightened and gladdened him. Zero, his friend and fellow hunter, was beneath the canvas, but his face was bruised and his hair had been cut short. He looked as though he had aged greatly, though aging was impossible for reploids. With a shaking hand, X tried to rouse Zero from sleep.
After what seemed like an eternity, Zero's breathing became steady and normal, and he awoke. When he saw X, Zero gave a weak smile, but then his expression changed violently. His face became contorted in pain and he convulsed. X was terrified, and so was the rest of the group. Omni seemed impassive, his expression inscrutable. When Zero regained control of himself, he looked at the others in the room. The sight of his duplicates seemed to make him insane, and without so much as a word, he stood and jumped directly upward into a ventilation duct.
No one had expected that, nor had any of them thought Zero capable of such a feat. The ceiling was at least twenty feet up. X felt tears well up in his eyes, and from behind him, Omni's voice came flatly and uncompassionate.
"Irregular Madness. A rare side-effect of Maverick Virus exposure." The group stared bewildered. "Sigma has been experimenting with the virus for many years now, hoping to unlock all of its secrets. His experiments have killed hundreds, with only six cases of Madness; each occurred after very long periods of exposure…" Omni let his sentence trail off.
After a long pause, X spoke. "And?" Omni closed his eyes and shook his head.
"100 percent fatality rate. Zero may not be affected the same way however… he is the… source of the virus." X seemed appalled; he had never seen this reploid before now did he think that Zero was the source of the evil Maverick Virus. "It was likely our presence that threw him to Madness… it requires a sort of catalyst."
A loud crash stole everyone's attention from Omni to the room behind them. Two short reploids, armed to the teeth in heavy weaponry, had deliberately gotten their attention.
Woo! A both a chapter and a review! Things are looking up!
Reviews from Chapter Twelve:
Reviewer – Thank you very much for your review. I will endeavor to make these last few chapters as powerful as all the previous ones.
What is this mysterious Madness, and how will it affect Zero? Who are these two war machine reploids? Can our heroes recover from their shock? Will there be a climactic battle? How will X handle the situation now that his hero is certifiably insane? Will this cliché continue indefinitely? Will this narration run on another few sentences? Find out, when I find time to write the next exciting chapter of: Titanium Showdown!