Talking

Thinking

As a side note, I'm using the actual Earth as a reference point for locations. It just makes my life easier.

I don't own this fantastic series or any of it's deviations.

Chapter VI: The Quest Begins

"It had to be somewhere cold first didn't it?" Chip grumbled to his partner, hugging his arms close to his body.

"Well the closest one did happen to be just across the border in Canada." X shrugged on-screen, "And you DID ask for the closest one."

"I know I know..." Chip rummaged through his old jean's pockets and pulled out a sausage that he began to gnaw on hungrily, "I'm so glagh that Alfregh hadh so mucgh storgh foodhg."

"Repeat?" X shook his head, but couldn't keep a grin off of his face, "I can't understand you while your mouth is full."

Chip swallowed, "I said: I'm so glad that Alfred had so much stored food. I haven't eaten this good in months!"

"Ah."

"So, how close are we?" Chip hated how wet his feet were getting. It was not pleasant to walk through a foot of snow in sneakers.

"A couple of miles out at this point." X replied.

"Alright then, let's go ahead and cross fuse." Chip stowed the half-eaten granola he had just pulled out of his pocket, "Don't want to get caught off guard."

"You just want to get warm."

"I'm not even gonna try to deny that." Chip initiated the cross fuse and let the warmth of the fusion wash over himself "Ahhhhh... that feels so much better. Why didn't we do this hours ago?"

"That's... a good question." Chip could almost feel X's facepalm in his head, "Why did we disable it when we made it across the border?"

"It's pretty heavily guarded." X muttered grimly, "We'll probably have to go in swinging."

"I'd rather have it this way personally." Chip replied grimly, "It's not like the bastards deserve any mercy for stooping to work for Wily."

"...I guess." X said hesitantly.

"What's up with you?" Chip asked, "I need you to be working together with me or this is going to be a lot harder."

"It's nothing." X reassured, "Let's get this done as fast as we can."

"That's the spirit!" Chip got out of his crouch and shot down the hill, "X activate max thrusters on our legs, I want to just blow through these guys and get out of here!"

"Got it. Setting thrust to max and setting a navigation arrow on your HUD."

"You got those preloaded chips ready?" Chip kicked one surprised cross fuser in the head before blowing it off and back flipping over another.

"Yup."

"Activate LongSword chip!" Chip sliced a surprised cross fuser in half before he could get a chance to shoot. "X can we run up walls!?"

"Er... yeah actually." X replied, "It's actually one of the built-in features of my programming. Just run up the wall and start jumping. The back thrusters will push you back towards the wall so you can keep going higher and higher."

"Got it."

"Why do you ask."

"You'll see." Chip dashed to the front of the cylindrical base and started climbing up it.

"You aren't planning on blowing up the top of the spike right?" X asked, "Nothing we have is strong enough to blow it up. Alfred told us we had to aim for the reactor core."

"Nope. Not planning on blowing up the spike." Chip reached the spike in question, "Feed me a sword chip."

"Alright..."

Chip took his sword bearing arm and shoved it down into the metal of the base's roof. As he had hoped, it cut through like butter, so he quickly cut a circle big enough to fit through and kicked it in.

"Hey nice!" X shouted through their link, "This'll let us get to the core really fast!"

"I hope so." Chip jumped down into the newly opened hole. Seeing that the core was still below him, he cut through a few more floors until he met solid stone. It would take forever to cut through it all.

"X what gives?"

"The core appears to be down a shaft dug deep into the stone. You're gonna need to head down that corridor to find the staircase."

"I shoulda figured it wouldn't be that easy." Chip took off down the hallway, following it until it turned into a giant room, "So where from here?"

"There should be an opening in the back left corner." X was interrupted by a bird like screech, "What was that!?"

"You think I know!?" Chip looked around the room wildly, "Are your sensors picking up anything!?"

A massive flapping noise was the only alert Chip and X received before a pair of massive claws raked across their back causing the both of them to scream out in pain. When they turned to face whatever had attacked them, they saw a giant blueish-white mechanical bird flapping it's wings and staring very angrily at them. Chip cursed angrily under his breath and immediately shot a few buster shots right at its head. It didn't even scratch the beast.

"Any ideas X?" Chip dodged a beam of something blue from the bird's mouth, "Really anything at this point!"

"I'm scanning it for weaknesses calm down for just a sec!" X replied.

"It's trying to blow my head off!" Chip screamed back, dodging yet another blue beam by dashing up a wall, "How the hell am I supposed to stay calm!?"

"In case you forget its technically my head too at the moment!" X snapped back, "And I think I might have a solution, though you might not like it."

"Hit me with it!" Chip rolled under another one of the bird's dives.

"If we fire an ElecPulse down its throat it might shut it down!" X replied, "And if that fails we can always shove a couple of bombs down its throat. Its insides are pretty fragile. You'll have to do it before or after it fire one of its beams off."

"Well okay.." Chip shot off towards the bird to try to get close enough to it, "I'm gonna trust you on this one."

Dodging another one of the beams, Chip leapt up onto the top of the bird's neck and jammed his arm into the bird's mouth. Using his elbow and fist to prop it open, He immediately fired an ElecPulse fired by several MiniBombs. Not wanting to get caught in the explosion, Chip immediately flipped off the bird and took off running in the opposite direction.

The ensuing boom that followed moments later made Chip sigh in relief.

"Looks like it worked buddy." Chip's voice trembled slightly because of adrenaline and relief, "Let's hope we don't run into many more of those."

"I would bet on it." X replied, "I'm sensing something really nasty down in the reactor area. It's definitely a cross fuser."

"Got it." Chip popped open the hatch and jumped down, "I'll watch my back."

Chip walked down the narrow hallway, noticing the gradual drop in temperature as they seemed to go miles down into the earth.

"Hey X is this temperature drop natural or artificial?"

"Well..." X seemed to be in thought, "It seems to be natural, but I'm seeing that its sort of blooming out from some giant unnatural source."

"Do you think it's stemming from the core?" Chip stepped around a pipe and ducked under a loose piece of ceiling, "Man this place is run down. When was the last time someone came down to maintain this decrepit place?"

"Unlikely that it's stemming from the core." X replied, "The data I received from Alfred was for a heat based source of energy for this particular spike. Maybe the cold is from something keeping it cooled down?"

"Maybe." Chip stepped over yet another pile of debris, "You know more about this stuff then I do."

"Well we're about to find out." X said grimly, "The core is right around the corner."

The entrance to the core was fairly average for what was probably held inside. It was simple metal door that had somehow become frozen over by a layer of hard ice at some point in the past. Chip quickly shattered the ice with a quick punch and kicked the aged door in with a resounding thud.

A dull green glow from the core feeding the spike covered the entire chamber.

"That's a big energy source." Chip walked up to the core in awe, "You sure this isn't going to kill us when we make it go boom?"

"As long as we place a TimeBomb and book it we should be fine."

"Well well," a soft clapping made Chip freeze in his tracks, "I DO commend you on making it to this chamber alive and well. I'd have thought my pet would have done away with you.

Chip spun to the source of the voice and saw a light blue looking man covered in a skin-tight black outfit. He also had large ice crystals sticking out of his shoulders and the sides of his legs

"Who the hell are you?" Chip brought the X-Buster to bear, "You the guy in charge of this base?"

"You could say that," the blue skinned man tilted his head to the side, "My name is FreezeMan."

"This guy's the power I sensed earlier!" X shouted in Chip's mind, "And the source of the cold. Be careful this guy isn't some random cross fuser!"

"Got it." Chip began charging the X-Buster, "So I'm gonna assume you aren't going to let me just blow up this reactor and go? Or are you as clever as your creator's ability to make names?"

"I'm afraid not." FreezeMan turned his left arm into a massive ice sword, "Shall we begin?"

Yeah more or less reassuring everyone this fic is indeed back by writing a new chapter right away. So incredibly sorry for the wait. On a different note, I find myself loving having X for Chip to talk to. It makes some scenes way easier to write.

-Forscythe