MEGA MAN ZERO: SHADOWS OF A HUNTER
A Novelette by Eric "Erico" Lawson
Epilogue: Relics
April 10th, 2220
Neo Arcadia
11:15 A.M.
Copy X considered it a
normal day; he reviewed the previous day's statistics, established
what inefficiencies in water, food, and power consumption existed in
the harmonious world and utopia within the walls of his charge, the
heavily defended Neo Arcadia. It was a place he had a certain pride
in, as he should. Here, wars were not fought. Here, he commanded an
unstoppable force. Here, humanity survived beyond the ruins of the
last traumatic century.
All the same, it was not often he
slipped out of his martial, militaristic role. Today had been one
such rare occurrence, as he had looked at some of the new petitions
from the Neo Arcadian citizens for a new park for the younglings. In
the peace and quiet of his throne room, as it could only be called,
the overseer of Neo Arcadia deliberated long and hard over the
qualities of a slide complex or a tire climbing wall.
And then
the entry door chimed. The reploid blinked his red eyes a few times,
slowly lowering his datapadd and looking towards the door. It chimed
again.
"Enter." The overseer barked, putting the
petitions away for the time being. The hydraulically motivated doors
shifted open, allowing a bright green and white figure to stroll into
the room, marching with precision step and a disciplined gait. "Aah,
Harpuia." The blue reploid said calmly. "What can I do for
you today?"
"I have an update on yesterday's mission."
Harpuia began, blinking his stoic, but fiery eyes at the figure from
whom he took his orders.
Copy X blinked at him. "Oh, yes."
He mused after a long moment. "So then, Ciel is safely returned
to Neo Arcadia?"
Harpuia looked slightly uncomfortable,
shifting his stance. "Well...not exactly, sir."
Now
the blue reploid's otherwise placid demeanor turned cold and hard.
"And...perhaps you would be willing to explain to me why not?"
"The 47th Pantheon Division met with substantial resistance.
Ciel was able to make it to a hidden Trans-Server in the ruins and
escape backup forces." Harpuia explained cautiously.
"Aah,
perfect." Copy X growled. "And let me guess what's
next...she scrambled the Trans-Server destination codes just before
transmission, so we still remain dispossessed as to their current
whereabouts."
"We believe that the Resistance lies
somewhere outside of Neo Arcadia, in the city ruins." Harpuia
said quickly. "However, we do not have a more accurate fix...and
so far, their base has escaped the detection of the 29th Pantheon
Divison stationed there."
Copy X seemed to fume for a
moment, or as close to fuming as the cold and seemingly soulless
entity could get. "We were this close to ending this pointless
resistance, you know." the blue reploid explained. He lifted a
finger and pointed it at Harpuia. "Seeing as it was your troops
that were dispatched to capture Ciel in the first place, the failure
rests solely on your shoulders."
Harpuia's face burned with
anger and disappointment, but mostly anger. He lowered his face, if
only to keep himself from staring defiantly into the eyes of his
commander. "Very well. So what is to be done?"
"For
now, you will continue to search for this resistance base of
theirs...other operations will continue as normal. This is a minor
setback. An annoyance. We will continue." Copy X replied,
picking up his datapadd and waving the Wind Warrior away.
Fuming
at the cold audacity of his commander, Harpuia stood and waited a few
moments, looking up at the figure which had been built to replace
Master X.
The duplicate lowered his datapadd enough so his
bright red eyes could glare over the top and look down at his
subordinate. "Is there something you wish to say, General
Harpuia?" Copy X asked warningly.
Harpuia clicked his heels
together and threw a salute. "No, sir." He turned and
walked off, glad to be rid of that task. He had better things to do
than put up with an aggravating duplicate.
Master X would
never have approved of you, Copy...
Once the hydraulic
doors had shut behind Harpuia and left Copy X in silence, he put the
datapadd down again, then closed his eyes. "All right, Phantom.
Come out, I know you're in here."
In a soft hushed blast of
wind, and the briefest flicker of darkness, a figure in tight black
and gray appeared, a thick mask covering his eyes. A massive four
pointed ninja star was attached to his back, and he folded his arms
beside Copy X's throne. "You are getting better." Phantom
noted darkly. "Two months ago, you would not have noticed me."
"Call it intuition." Copy X said, looking at his fourth,
most secretive general. Unlike the other three, Harpuia, Fefnir, and
Leviathan, Phantom had never fought under the original Mega Man X in
the Cyber Elf Wars. Phantom was a product of Copy X's reign in Neo
Arcadia...a defense measure against any machinations those three
troublesome Generals might throw at him. Phantom was quick, silent,
deadly...
And unquestioningly loyal.
"All right then,
Phantom. Perhaps you could tell me a little more about this failed
mission yesterday...seeing as Harpuia is obviously trying to hide
something." Copy X folded his arms.
"There was a team
of golems dispatched with the 27th Pantheon unit as well."
Phantom stated.
"Really?" Copy X mused, lifting an
eyebrow. "That should have solved any problems in a hurry."
"It would have, but only one golem was actually able to give
pursuit inside the ruins."
"All the same,
the Resistance's weapons are incapable of dealing any serious damage
to the Golem units. They're the strongest frontline Mechaniloids we
have in such remote regions."
"Yes." Phantom
agreed. "But...not strong enough in this case."
Copy X
leaned on an arm, looking to his last general. "Just...What was
out there?"
"Ruins." Phantom explained. "Ruins
from the last century...And I have a feeling that Ciel was relic
hunting. If such is the case...then she apparently found one."
Copy X's eyes darkened. "Sigma? The Maverick Virus?"
Phantom chuckled. "Oh, you do amuse me some days, Master. No.
Something...perhaps far worse, I think."
The blue reploid
snorted, shaking his head. "Come now. What could be worse than
the resurrection of the great evil that my predecessor spent the
better part of the 22nd Century fighting to destroy?"
Phantom folded his hands together. "I've taken the liberty of
transmitting a video file to your mail account."
Wordlessly, Copy X opened up his mail and found the file. He opened
it, blinking as the feed began.
It wasn't a typical kind of
footage. "What is this?" Copy X queried.
"Something
Harpuia didn't want you to see." Phantom noted quietly. "This
is the digital memory image of the golem that made it inside of the
ruins." The angle changed, and a flash of pink clothing and a
beautiful face strewn with tangled blond hair appeared in the
mechaniloid's hand. "As you can see, for a moment, Ciel was
obtained. However, while the good scientist had had her entire
Resistance scouting contingent obliterated by this point..."
The angle changed, and a flash of red appeared on screen, jumping up
the wall like a crazed monkey to avoid the crumbling ceiling blocks
created by the golem's destabilization laser.
"...It seems
she was able to find a different kind of help."
Copy X stared harder
at the image on his main overhead viewscreen, leaning in closer and
craning his neck.
It...That figure...
Red armor...long
blond hair...There was something familiar in how he held himself, in
that basic design.
"Ciel became a relic hunter for the
day...and she found herself one Hell of a relic." Phantom
explained coldly.
Transfixed, Copy X watched as the strange
reploid in red armor bounced about the room, sinking shot after weak
shot into the golem's weak point, its head. But no, that's not
nearly enough damage to take a golem down...
The warrior was
weakening. He was realizing how useless his efforts were.
But
then, it all changed.
As Copy X watched with slowly dawning
horror, a strange, but familiar silver and white cylinder spun
through the air, gushing bright eldritch green fire from its maw as
it embedded itself in the ground in front of the weary red warrior.
"The old stories...The really old ones, before the
Reconstruction, tell that for a long time, Mega Man X did not fight
alone in his struggle for peace." Phantom explained. "They
say that another walked beside him...just as deadly, just as
devastating, perhaps even more so than our great liberator. This
second "Maverick Hunter", as they called themselves back
then, had bold red armor the color of fresh blood,long flowing blond
hair, and piercing green eyes. But even more than that...The one
defining characteristic, the legends say, was the cast of his weapon.
Often, it was the only part of him his enemies ever saw. A glowing
green beam saber."
Phantom leaned down next to Copy X's
ear, his breath tickling the sensors there. "The Z
Saber."
In the golem's video footage, the red warrior
grasped the newfound green beam saber in his hand, jumped up the wall
for a bit, then leapt through the air with a bloodcurdling warcry,
his weapon held above his head.
One massive swing later, the
video footage suddenly blinked into static and critical error
messages before the screen went black.
Copy X, for a moment,
felt his cold blood freeze hard in his veins.
"Ciel had a
purpose in those ruins. She found the second Hero of the Maverick
Wars...The Crimson Hunter."
Zero...
For
the first time that day, Copy X rose to his feet. He looked at
Phantom, his bright red eyes dancing with something that the fourth
general had not ever seen on his commander's face before.
Fear.
"Harpuia's mistakes have complicated
everything." Copy X began slowly, looking about.
The walls
of Neo Arcadia didn't feel as safe as they had ten minutes before.
END