Mega Man X: The Mist Enigma

Chapter 5: Blown Away

I arrived in Wind-Swept Valley along with the Hunters.

"Nice to see you made it," X said to me.

I nodded. "Yeah. This should be a walk in the park." Despite the name, it wasn't very windy where we were.

Alia contacted us. "Further down the valley, high levels of the black wind are present. Plus, the normal wind in that region is spreading it to your position. Be careful."

"You bet," Axl said. With that, we ran into the wind's path. The wind met us quickly. And it was strong, too. I was losing my footing all the time, so I just floated for the rest of the time. The Hunters were having trouble too, but not as much. It got dark and thick in a heartbeat.

"What the?" Zero shouted. "I can barely see!"

"It's too dark!" X called back. "We have to get above it!"

"I'm way ahead of you!" Axl called. An orange flash emanated from his position. Through the Mist, I saw the outline of a Flier Maverick in his place. Axl flew above the Mist. He let out a shocked "Whoa!"

"Whatsamatter?" Zero asked.

"There's a giant flying battleship coming our way!"

"Must be Choujean's," I said.

"It is," Layer said over intercom. "We've just learned that she is planning to use that battleship to attack the nearest city, which is a mere fifty kilometers from you current location. Stop it at all costs."

"Right," I said. "Grab on, Zero." He grabbed my hand and I flew above the Mist. A blue light rocketed out as well.

X downloaded the Falcon Armor from the Colony Crisis. "Let's take that ship down," he said. We flew over to engage it.

This battleship was riddled with turrets that didn't hesitate to fire at us. X and Axl fired away from afar, while Zero and I boarded it. We ran to the deck and slashed a few Mavericks aboard. I ran to the navigation console. It was locked in autopilot.

I grunted, then turned to Zero. "We gotta stop this ship by force!"

"Right," he called as he ran towards the engine room. I followed. Zero contacted X. "Get ready. This ship's goin' down!" We hacked away at the six large fuel tanks that kept the battleship in air. As you'd expect, they blew up. We cut open the hull and jumped out, me catching Zero in air. The whole ship began to blow up and descend into the Mist. We watched from the air as it disappeared.

Suddenly, a large whoosh rocketed across us. X's eyes widened. He was arched forward like he was punched in the kidney. He fell into the darkness. "X!" Axl called. Another whoosh and his head was turned as if he was slapped. He fell after X. Zero decided to go after them, so I let him go. One more whoosh was coming from behind me. I turned around and held my Kaiser blade, a broadsword with a bladed knuckle guard, in front of me.

The whoosh revealed itself to be a harpy Reploid. One of the wings on its arms clashed with my sword. "You got lucky, human," it said in a Brooklyn accent.

"I'm guessing you're Dive Choujean?" I presumed.

"Yeah," she answered, "what's it to ya?"

"I'm taking you out."

I heard X and Axl getting up and moaning.

"Ow." "That hurt."

Zero's voice was next. "Where are you guys? I can't see a damn thing!"

"Follow my voice, Zero!" X called.

"No good," Zero replied. "This stuff is masking it."

"This stinks!" Axl whined. His tone suddenly changed. "Wait a minute. I can blast this stuff away!" A trigger was pulled and the Mist around Axl disappeared. He used the Nova Flare to nullify the Mist. He did the same to free X and Zero.

"Nice work," Zero said with a thumbs up.

While that was going on, Choujean and I were amidst a vicious air battle. We countered each of each other's blows until Choujean stopped. "You're not even trying!" I actually was. The Mist was hindering my ability a little bit. She waved her wing toward me. "Quit playing around!" A cloud of Mist amassed itself around me. I felt my strength weakening. The Mist was entering every opening in my body. My organs felt like they were being torn apart. Choujean laughed, "That shows you for being cocky."

The Hunters watched from below. "Oh man!" Axl cried. "It's gonna kill him!" He started to fly up to him but X held him back. "What the hell, X? You want him to die?"

"He can handle it," X said. "Just watch."

My body, my mind, my soul were being tainted by the Mist. I had only one option to stop it. And that was my most powerful ability, self-purification. The light within my soul blanketed myself and destroyed the Mist. When the light disappeared, my figure had changed. My body was no longer of a man. I had changed from the dark to light, the Yin to the Yang. I was a woman. My strength was returning rapidly. The Mist around me was dissipating.

Choujean stared in confusion. "What the... What did you just do? Who the hell ARE you?"

I calmly looked at her and said, "I'm Satoryu, the Connector of Worlds."

I teleported behind Choujean and held my hand out. She was frozen. "What are you doing?" she screamed.

I smiled. "The question is: What are THEY going to do to YOU?" I let go of her. She fell down to the ground where X, Zero, and Axl surrounded her.

X held his Buster out. "Dive Choujean, you have been classified as a Maverick. For threatening the environment and attempting to hurt civilians, you shall be terminated."

Choujean stood up. "Shut up!" Thin whirlwinds rocketed from the sky towards the Hunters. They each rolled out of the way.

More continued to come. X and Axl ducked behind a boulder to avoid the winds. Zero cut them apart with no effort. Choujean held her hand/talon out and fired it to Zero like a grappling hook. It latched onto Zero's hand and pulled him to her. Choujean spun with arms extended. Her blade-like wings cut across Zero's chest. He drew back as she spun faster. A giant tornado appeared around her. It moved towards Zero, who was holding his chest in pain.

I motioned to stop Choujean, but something else stopped her before me. Axl had fired a bullet into her neck. She held it in agony. "You...bastard!" she choked.

"Finish her, X!" Axl called. X jumped out from behind the boulder with a fully-charged Buster shot ready. He fired the Falcon Armor's thin blue arrow shot with no delay. It also went through Choujean's neck, knocking her head off its shoulders. Her body fell limp and exploded.

Her head was still there, twitching. "It...doesn't matter," she said in a cracked voice. "It doesn't matter... what you do. You can't... stop... his plans. He... WILL kill you... This... time..."

Her head was smashed by my foot landing on top of it. "Whoops." Light from Choujean's remains entered into the Hunters, just as it did after Unicrown was destroyed.

"Great job, everyone," X said.

"Another one down," Axl grinned.

Zero chuckled softly.

I looked up to see that the Mist clouds were disappearing one by one. The sun shined once again on the valley. We all looked at the scenery that was created. I thought with a smile, "If only you could see this..." I said to the Hunters, "Let's get back now." They nodded and warped out. I followed.

I then better understood what the Mist could do. It was a very serious threat to all life. I gradually felt it get weaker, which was a very good sign. I also felt myself getting stronger bit by bit. But I was worried. Dive Choujean's last words were buzzing in my head. "He will kill you this time." Who was she referring to? My first suspicion was Sigma, but I couldn't feel his presence anywhere. Either he's hiding very well, or there's a different enemy out there to worry about. Dare I say it, someone worse than Sigma?