Mega Man X: The Mist Enigma
Chapter 8: Dig, Dig, Dig
"As always, job well done," Signas said to us as we reentered the Maverick Hunter Headquarters. We began hearing a fizzing kind of sound.
"What is that?" I asked.
"It's you," Pallette almost screeched.
I looked at my body to see many purple flames surrounding me. Renaraid's dark magic was tainting my body. So I used my self-purification to become a man once again and destroy the flames. "Problem solved."
Alia typed into her keyboard. On the large screen above, the eight Maverick's profiles were displayed. Unicrown's, Choujean's, and Renaraid's were blacked out. "Where to next?" Alia asked us.
X put his hand to his chin. "Let's think about that. Keep the screen up Alia." He walked over to it. Zero and Axl followed. "Now that we have three different weapons each, I think it's time we start thinking about what the remaining Mavericks are vulnerable to. The probability that one of the weapons we have now will work on one of these Mavericks isn't high, but still a majority. We have weapons of light, darkness, and wind. We have to decide what the Maverick's attributes are and what would work best on them."
Zero looked up to the screen. As did Axl, who began hypothesizing. "Well, the Cerberus one must be a fire elemental. And either the duck or the mermaid is water elemental. The other two I'm not sure of."
"Exactly what I was thinking," X said, "so one of those water Mavericks should work best on Hell Sanhound. Everything else could go any way."
I was trying to figure it out in my head. I'll admit; when it came to the games, I never figured the weaknesses out on my own. But they usually stay consistent. Fires are vulnerable to water, ice, and wind. Ices are weak against fire. Waters are weak against lightning. But I couldn't figure out some of those Mavericks. With the possibility of two water types, it really screwed me up.
After a while, Zero spoke up. "Crash Minotank. He's stationed in a gold mine. Mines tend to either be dark or have artificial lighting. It's possible if he's exposed to real light, he could be blinded."
I floated over to them. "That's good thinking. I would never have thought of it like that."
Layer called to us, "So can I transfer you to the Gold Mines?"
"Yep," X nodded, "do it now."
"Roger." They warped out. I followed.
We touched down outside said gold mine. There was a bunch of demolition Reploids out side. "What's going on here?" Axl asked one of them.
"A big bull Maverick came running through here and butted us out," one said. "Then he barricaded the entrance with giant boulders."
Another one shouted, "They're so big and heavy, we can't break them!"
I walked over to the blocked hole. It felt like it was under a dark spell. "The Mist is strengthening the boulders," I said aloud. "I'll dispel it, then you can probably break through it."
"Okay," they said. Some were overzealous, and some were skeptical. But I held my hand out and sent out a wave of pure ki. The Mist weakened greatly.
"Do it now!" I called.
"Alright!" Four of the Reploids were driving a large drilling machine, running at full power. It ran into the boulders and crushed them with little effort.
"We'll take it from here," X said to them. The four of us then ran into the deep mines. As Zero guessed, the caves were rigged with dim artificial lighting. The mines were very large. As I looked at a map X had displayed from his Buster, this mine went very deep underground. We continued to run through. "Minotank must be at the bottom," X said.
"Damn," Axl sighed. "That's going to take forever."
I stopped and looked back. A mine cart was set up at a crossroad behind us. "Maybe not." I flew to the cart and pushed it over to the Hunters. "Hop in." They did so, and I continued pushing.
It was actually a very easy ride down. There were only a few sharp turns and boulders in the way. When we were at the halfway point, we noticed that gold littered the cave walls. I was amazed at so much gold. But my shock was cut short when we felt a rumbling. We looked around to see where it was coming from. Axl looked over my head and shouted. "A giant drill is chasing us!" I quickly turned my head to see it. It was as big as the caverns, which were already larger than normal. It was speeding up too, so I began flying while still pushing the mine cart. Axl fired his pistols trying to knock the drill off course. X downloaded the Gold Armor from the fight with Dr. Doppler. He charged both X-Busters and fired both to make the combined Charge Shot. The drill kept coming.
Zero let out an "Uh-oh!"
"What?" the three of us shouted.
"The bridge is out!" Before we knew it, we were in the air. I got under the cart and flew to the side. The drill fell to the bottom of a giant hole.
X looked at his map. "Minotank should be right below us. Follow that drill!"
"Yes sir," I said without hesitation. I slowly descended with the mine cart in my hands.
I reached the floor and set the cart down. The Hunters got out and began looking for the Maverick. I felt another rumbling. This time, it was beneath me. I jumped out of the way as something came up from the ground and stabbed its way through the mine cart. It was a minotaur Maverick with long horns and a large upper torso. Without a doubt, Crash Minotank. He grunted in a deep gruff tone. "Why did you come down here? Do you want to fight me?"
Zero pointed the Z-Saber at him. "Evacuate now or we'll be forced to terminate you."
Minotank blew out smoke from his nose. "I'm too strong for you weaklings. I'll crush you like tin cans!"
He stomped his hoof on the ground hard. Small rocks fell from above. They rained on top of the Hunters. I avoided them and watched the small pebbles become a mountain on top of them. But while I was looking at them in concern, Minotank had charged into me. His right horn dug itself right into my stomach. I screamed in extreme pain. Minotank ran me into a wall and released his horn of my body. I slid down to the floor and held my giant wound. I tried to heal it, but the Mist was contaminating it. It was like the gash in my leg from before. I couldn't do anything else except watch X, Zero, and Axl deal with this powerhouse.
The three had freed themselves easily and engaged Minotank in a chase. Axl put his pistol away. "I ain't playing around with you!" He reached to pull out the Nova Flare, but Minotank ran into him with his shoulder. The Nova Flare went spinning across the cave floor. "Rats!" Axl cried in disgust. Minotank then punched Axl in the face. The young Hunter went flying across the room into a wall. X turned to see if Axl was still able to fight.
Minotank immediately grabbed X's face and lifted him off the ground. "Don't turn your back on me!" Behind him, Zero slashed at his leg. The sudden swipe caused the Maverick to let go of X and lose his balance.
Zero picked X up. "You alright?"
"Yeah. How about Chris and Axl?"
"They'll be fine."
Minotank lost his footing completely and fell down on his back. The force of the crash caused the cave to tremble. More rocks fell from the ceiling. Eventually, the entire ceiling fell. All that was left was a bright patch of sky and sunlight. Minotank looked up and screeched. "Ah! Too bright! Too bright!" He was covering his eyes. Zero's theory was one hundred percent correct; Minotank was vulnerable to sunlight.
X's armor changed to white and gold. He held out his Buster and fired two Solar Saws. They each caught onto one of Minotank's arms and dragged him to the wall I was resting on. Coincidentally, I felt the Mist in my wound disappear. The hole in my stomach healed on its own, just like before.
Zero charged to Minotank with his sword facing him and flashing white. "Hitenjin!" He thrust the sword forward into the Maverick's chest. He screamed with pain, even after the force had left. X helped me up. Zero reared back and attempted to perform another Hitenjin. Before he could, a large blast of light went directly through Minotank's heart.
The three of us looked to see Axl on the ground with Nova Flare in hand. "Gotcha!" Minotank exploded and light entered the Hunters. I know, the same thing again.
To my surprise, the Hunters immediately teleported back to HQ. "No weapons this time?" I asked nobody. I warped to the base to find everyone in the repair hall. I didn't realize X and Zero's injuries were that critical. But as I got a better look at them, it made perfect sense. The Mist was starting to get to them as well.
"What can we do?" Alia asked Lifesaver.
"The effects aren't life-threatening yet. As long as we keep them here, the effects should subside. Just give it time."
Signas nodded. "Fine. Just keep watch on them until then."
"Roger."
"Everyone else," Signas turned to the Navigators, Douglas, and me, "take a break. But be on high alert."
Douglas and the Navigators nodded with a "Yes sir." They walked out of the hall, as did Signas.
I looked at the Hunters. They got like that just from being near the Mist. They were affecting them as bad as they were me, maybe worse. Now all we could do was wait. This gave me time to think. As I walked to the living quarters, my mind was working full force with questions. Is the Mist this powerful? Can it get any stronger? Who made it? Could it really be Sigma? We were halfway done, yet our problems were only beginning. I knew then that our problems were only to get worse. My thoughts turned to my family. It's probably been almost a day since I've been here. How worried are they? How sad? How angry? How confused? My head was throbbing because of all these questions. I tried to feel my wife's spirit within my heart. Nothing. The Mist was blocking me from my loved ones.
Maybe that was their plan all along. To separate me from my family. The Mist was even more of a threat than I realized. It figured out my one real weakness.