Disclaimer: Blah blah blah. I don't own Megaman X.

Chapter 3: The Pain of Warfare pt. 1

Day 2
MHHQ, Dorms
Time:
-06:45-

Locke was awakened by a series of desperate knocks on her door, followed by bloodcurdling wails. She stared at the door as the noise faded. It came back, louder than ever. This time the knocking almost shook the doors from its tracks.

"What?!" Locke screamed, half out of surprise, half out of annoyance.

"Locke! Let me in please! Hurry, they're going to get me!" She recognized the voice, even though he was practically shrieking.

"Is it an attack?" She asked while shuffling around her capsule for clothes and a weapon.

"Yes! Damn it! Hurry! Please!" He yelped. She jumped over to the door and slowly opened it, gripping her pistol tightly. Zero wasn't having this and yanked the door open as he dove through.

He stood up and dodged a flying pair of scissors that came close to chopping off his beloved ponytail. He turned to Locke and asked her a random question.

"Will you say 'Stop' as many times as possibly can?!" He dodged the feisty cutting tool as it whizzed by.

"…wha?"

"Please!"

"Fine! Stopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstopstop," She started, confused as all hell.

"What do you do at a green light?!"

"Go, duh!" Locke answered. Zero cursed loudly.

"Locke! You're supposed to say to say 'stop'!" He almost bawled as he ran for his hair down the hall. Locke looked on as he sped around the corner, screaming at X.

"What the flip?" She pondered as she headed toward the bathroom.

Zero murdered X's door when he got to it. He now had no less than five pairs of 'Maverick Scissors' chasing his ponytail. The door opened just as soon as it was pounded on, felling the tall blonde. He looked up and saw X standing in front of him with a remote control. The brown haired Hunter smiled evilly.

"What the hell, X?! Make it stop!" Zero pleaded. X chuckled.

"No way! Not until you do what the note tells you."

"What did I do?!" Zero panicked.

"You put a block of ice in my armor locker, diphead!" X turned the crazed scissors off and picked them up.

"So what?! It's not like you use that…wait. You don't have a fridge down there?" X shook his head furiously. Zero narrowed his eyes as he thought back to why he had the ice there in the first place. Then he buried his face in the small note.

"So are you going to apologize or aren't you?" X broke the silence. Zero finally gave in when the shears hovered back to life.

"Okay, man! I'm sorry I put expensive ice in your armor locker. There I said it! And when you see Alia, tell her I said sorry for 'something I did to her a long time ago.'" X smiled as Zero turned to leave. He eyed the blades of doom, waiting for X to deactivate them again. They hovered there, swaying back and forth. After a few seconds Zero nervously turned back to X. "Come on, X! Turn the damn things off, for crying out loud!"

"I'm not in control." X said slyly. Zero looked at his hands and saw no remote. He began sweating again. "I think you better pay Alia a visit."

"Damn it!" Zero shouted as he took off towards Alia's room. X laughed robustly as the once fearless prankster ran for his life from a pair of cutting tools.

X was interrupted from his hysterical state when he received a message from Douglass. He immediately gulped, knowing that the mechanical mastermind would have a 'wonderful' surprise for him. Sighing, he changed into uniform and contacted the rest of the 'group'.

Stryke walked briskly down the lengthy hall as he adjusted the collar of his shirt. He slinked his way past numerous Reploids as he journeyed. He had heard stories about Douglass' mishap inventions, and now he was getting one. The thought of something backfiring chilled him, but he continued on anyway. He ran into Leyna on the way. She seemed just as nervous.

"Sup, Stryke."

"A whole lot of nothin'."

"Yeah. I guess we all get new weapons or something. I'm not thrilled about it though." Leyna's voice dropped off as she thought about the stories X told her. He had four cannons malfunction, three of which exploded. But something else bothered her, and it wasn't Douglass' mishap creations. It was Stryke. She may not show it, but something on the inside bothered her about him.

"Leyna? You ready?" Stryke asked, breaking her from the disturbing thoughts. She shook her head and realized that they were standing in front of the entrance to the R&D Lab.

MHHQ, R&D Lab
Time:
-07:18-

The last two Hunters walked in the lab, faces unsure of what they would find. The lab was filled with numerous tools and gadgets, both complete and unfinished. Different armors, weapons, and even not combat items such as headset communicators and marking beacons, lined the perimeter. Most had tags on them, indicating the date and description of its malfunction.

"X! Over here!" Douglass shouted. He seemed rather proud of whatever it is he was about to unleash on poor X. The famous Hunter reluctantly walked over to Douglass, who was standing in front of what could be an armor capsule.

"Stryke, over there!" Douglass happily pointed to another armor capsule. It was unceremoniously sitting next to a pile of failed healing canteens.

"Oh, shit…" He muttered as he walked over to the capsule.

"Leyna, next to Zero!" Douglass commanded. She spied a small box next to Zero, who was already playing with his newly enhanced Z-Saber. The blade was about a foot longer and was adjustable down to the size of a small combat knife. A button on the side caused it to morph into a pistol shaped buster when pressed. He placed it in the holster on his hip and grinned.

"This is by far the coolest thing you've given me, Doug." He stated with amazement.

"Really?!" The stout designer elated. Zero nodded his head.

"Yeah! I mean, I've had it in my hands for more than a minute and it hasn't blown up yet." Douglass grunted at the fake compliment. He turned his attention to Locke, who was now wearing a pair of lightweight gauntlets. She held out her arms and watched as the top half of the armguards slid apart and a motorized short range plasma emitter sprung up. Handguards slid out as the emitter spun around and produced energy blades.

"Ohmigod! Awesome!!" She beamed at her new weapons. She resisted flailing her arms for fear of killing one of her teammates. Douglass smirked at his invention.

"I call it Kinetic Justice!" He threw a triumphant fist in the air. She deactivated the weapons and watched as they reverted back into the gauntlets. Leyna suddenly phased in from thin air.

"Active camo. I like it." She smirked.

"I thought you would! Now, X and Stryke, last but not least, you two have my best creations." Douglass alluded.

"Douglass, why did you bother to make all of these?" X inquired. The lights flickered a bit. "We haven't had an attack in about a year." Stryke nodded his head in agreement. The short engineer scratched his chin.

"Well, you ever get that feeling that something BIG might happen?"

Cliffs
Time:
-07:24-

"Okay. We have two guards. Which one to pick?" Rayne concentrated on the targets as she lay prone in the grassy overlook south of the MHHQ. She thought about wind resistance; it was high. Snow was starting to fall in sheets. Percent error was high. She had one shot.

"Rayne. Teams are in position. Take the shot." Scar spoke softly through her headset.

MHHQ, Security Perimeter
Time:
-07:24-

Pico hated guard duty. He was constantly being stationed there. "Sometimes, I think I was built for guard duty. No other reason. Just this shit. I have other things I could be doing, 'stead of just standing here bored outta my fricken mind. Oh yeah, I also hate snow." Terra looked at him with a drawn out face.

"Hey, it's either this or paperwork. Your poison. Personally," She paused. Pico waited for her to finish her lecture.

"Personally, what?" He asked turning his head towards her. He only had time to gasp at the sight of Terra's half-missing skull staining the ground with blood before Echo materialized in front of him.

"Sorry, dude. Should of stuck with paperwork." She teased before bringing her tonfa blade through his neck. She jumped down in front of the door and smirked as her squad of Mavericks materialized behind her.

"Let's do this, 13th!" She roared.

MHHQ, R&D Lab
Time:
-07:25-

'Attention all Hunters! Report to the Assembly Hall ready for dispatch, on the double! We are under attack! This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill! Attention…'

The group of Hunters looked around the room, shocked by the blaring klaxon and monotonic message confirming their fears. They were under attack.

"Somethin' like this, Doug?" Zero said, a feeling of anxiousness welling inside of him. He pressed a forefinger to a panel on his gauntlet and phased in his infamous crimson armor. "What better time to test drive these things than a time like this?" He exclaimed as he dashed out the door.

"Right. You guys should go!" Douglass declared before giving Stryke and X brief instructions on their new toys. X would receive an upgrade to his buster cannon and Stryke would get a large metal object meant to attach to his armor. They gave him a quick nod before grabbing their gear and shuffling out the door.

MHHQ, Assembly Hall
Time:
-07:27-

X and Stryke rushed into the Hall, finding the same group they were just with. Signas was staring at a video feed of Terra's head exploding and Pico's beheading. Then a large group of Reploids and Mechanoids appeared out of thin air.

"What's the situation?" X asked the High Commander.

"A sneak attack. Right at our front door. They punched through our frontside security. Hunters, we must stop them!"

"Mavericks?" Locke asked for everyone. Signas nodded his head.

"Without a doubt. They took out our sentries by sniper and cloaking fields. I've got Special Unit 0 checking the nearby mountain and hills for possible marksmen." Signas stated.

"I'll go with them!" Zero blurted. Signas shook his head.

"No, Zero we need you here, inside the base."

"But…"

"I'm sure the 0th will be fine, Zero. Have faith in them." Zero crossed his arms and thought long and hard about the situation. Signas, meanwhile, informed X about the 17th's whereabouts.

"The 1st, 14th and 17th are locking horns with the enemy here, here and here. The rest of the Hunters are providing backup." Signas pointed at the main entrance, southwestern lot, and cafeteria. "I'll leave it up to you five where to go. Move out!"

"Sir!" The group saluted and dashed off, ready to defend their home. All of them but Zero.

"Zero, what are you," Signas started to reprimand but stopped when Zero shot him a murderous stare. He gulped.

"Signas…If I lose my unit again…I won't be able to hold back…sir." Zero alluded before he warped off in an angry flash of crimson. Signas thought about his words for a moment before heading towards the Navigation Sector.

MHHQ, North Corridor
Time:
-07:36-

The Hunters warped outside of the blast door leading to the mess hall. They assessed the situation after contacting their individual units and divisions.

"Where's Zero?" Alia's voice emanated into X's head.

"I don't know. He didn't warp with us. Probably checking on his unit." X offered.

"X, I don't know about you but I have a bad feeling about this attack."

"I know. But we have to stop them." X said clenching a fist.

"Okay. Be careful, all of you. There is a high possibility that they have unseen weapons."

"Roger that, Ally!" Locke chirped over the headset.

"Okay. Locke and Stryke will take the southwestern lot, Leyna and I will head for the cafeteria." X commanded. They all nodded.

"What about Zero?" Leyna asked.

"I'm already engaging them at the main entrance. I'll meet up with you guys later!" Zero chimed in, multiple weapons fire and shouts heard in the background. An explosion drowned out his voice before he cut the comm link.

"Alright, let's move!"

Alright, stay tuned for part two!

Till Next Time!