Mega Man X: The Mist Enigma

Chapter 11: Under the Sea of Deceit

"Hey! How the hell did you get the girl?" When I got back to HQ, a bandaged Axl screamed that in my face. "Not only do you already have a wife and kid, you're a woman! Explain that to me."

I shook my head. "I'm just that much better at women than you." Steam came from where Axl's ears would be.

Signas stopped Axl from hitting me in the face, although I was more than capable of doing it myself. "Stop it Axl. Concentrate on your task."

"Yes sir," Axl moaned.

I called to X and Zero, "Who do we fight next? Marymer or Kappaphi?"

"Good question," Zero said as he looked to X.

X responded, "I'm just as in the dark as you are. Let's just take one at random."

"How do we determine that?" Axl asked.

I pulled out a quarter from my pocket. "Like this. If it's heads, we'll fight Kappaphi. If tails, Marymer." I tossed it over to X. He proceeded to flip it into the air. After a short hang time, it came down into Zero's waiting hand. He threw that hand onto the back of his other hand, then took it off.

The tails side was up. Zero looked to Pallette. "Send us to the Calm Reef, Pallette."

"Roger dodger," she said as she typed in the coordinates. The three Hunters teleported out, as did I.

We touched down on top of a cliff. Not to far below was a vast ocean, clear as a crystal. Layer contacted us. "Below this ocean is the Calm Reef. Reports say that the Mist is infecting it, killing all the marine life that lives in the area. Find Gleam Marymer and stop this infection." Contact broke.

I asked the Hunters, "What did you guys get from Gryfflion?" X politely changed to yellow and red armor and created an electric sphere around him. "Pulse Barrier."

Axl whipped out a futuristic sniper rifle and fired a stream of lightning into the sky. "Shock Rail."

Zero didn't demonstrate his move. "Rakudenha. It's a Giga Attack."

I nodded. "Cool. Now, are we getting wet?"

"Yes, we are," X said, "but do you need some scuba gear or a breathing apparatus?"

"Taken care of." I walked to the edge of the cliff and closed my eyes. My body blinked blue for a second. Using this power, I could breathe underwater.

"Let's go then!" Axl cheered as he jumped off the cliff into the water. Zero and X chuckled and did the same.

I started to jump to, but I stopped. "Don't want to get my clothes wet. They're all I got." I stripped down to a bikini, jumped off, and did two backward somersaults into the drink.

While I swam, the Hunters were running below me. We saw what the Mist had done to the reef. Black, dried up, crunchy, dead. I tsk-ed in pity. After a mile or so, the ground began to rumble. We looked around to see what it was. I swam further out to see an underwater valley. A large mound of dirt was in the middle of it. It had a really odd shape. Mist then began to gather above it.

Gate had appeared again. "Fancy meeting you here."

X snarled. "Why are you doing this, Gate?"

Gate chuckled. "Revenge, my dear Mega Man X." X held out his Buster directly towards Gate. Axl and Zero aimed their weapons as well. Gate shook his finger. "No, no. You don't fight me yet, eager beavers. First, play with my pet." Gate disappeared without a trace. The Mist entered the weird mound of dirt. The ground rumbled even more. The dirt disappeared revealing a robotic dragon, decayed and damaged. It roared loudly. The water around us parted and the dragon flew into the air. I heard Gate laugh in the distance.

Zero and I jumped to the dragon and slashed at its face. The dragon winced, but threw us off. Axl fired his Shock Rail into the air. The dragon dodged it effortlessly and blew a fireball at the young prototype. X ran in front of the blast and negated it with his Pulse Barrier. He then threw his arms forward, causing the barrier to do so as well. It crashed into the dragon's stomach and shocked it with incredible force.

"Lucky," I said softly. It floated closer to the ground and retaliated with a large beam of energy from its mouth. I flew in front of it and slashed it in two. That let Axl fire the Rail again. This time, it hit, causing the dragon to crash into the ground. It fired beams from its eyes, hitting Axl in the chest. Zero raised his hand into the air and swung it to the ground. Hundreds of lightning bolts came rocketing down on to the dragon's back. That was his Rakudenha. It screeched until it ceased to function.

The ocean fell back into place soon after. I helped Axl up. "Thanks," he said sheepishly. "And sorry about that crack earlier." I smiled.

A voice called in the distance. It was sweet and melodic. "What is going on around here?" It was a humanoid Reploid with a fish's tail in place of legs and long red hair. "Oh." She was surprised to see us. "My name is Gleam Marymer. What brings you boys here?" She tilted her head and smiled.

Axl's jaw was on the floor. "Woooooooooah! She's the purtiest gurl I ever seen!" I turned away from him with a red face. I saw X was the same way, but not as ecstatic. Zero was just blank.

"Come with me and tell me what was going on." She waved them over and swam away. They followed her like loyal dogs. I tried to stop them, but something hit me in the lower back.

I couldn't feel anything from the neck down. I looked to my left to see Gate. "What did you do to me?"

"I've paralyzed you temporarily. I don't want you interfering with your comrades' deaths."

My eyes grew in shock. "What?"

Gate looked to Marymer and the Hunters. "Don't you see? They're all taken by her beauty. They don't have a care in the world besides her. They're helpless. I told Marymer to do that in order to kill them. It's a very simple plan."

I snarled. "There's no way they'd fall for it!"

"Oh? Look for yourself." The mermaid Reploid had already begun to punch and fin-slap the Hunters. They didn't retaliate; they just smiled with love struck eyes.

The camera Bulbrite came to us. On the video projector, Alia's face appeared, concerned and slightly angry. "Gate. Is that you? What happened to you?"

"Besides being brought back to life and given complete control of the Mist?" Gate asked. "Nothing. How's about you, my dear Alia?" He fluttered his eyes to her.

"Stop playing around," she shouted. "Why are you doing this?"

Gate rolled his eyes. "Weren't you paying attention? To get revenge on X and Zero. Why else?"

"No. Why did you leave the base? How did you leave?"

Gate grunted. "If you must know, my master let the Mist sneak past your defenses and into the broom closet where my dead body was. It revived me and gave me even more power than before. Happy?"

"But why did you leave?" Alia asked.

Gate continued, "If someone was that powerful, I had to see it for myself. So I sought out the Mist's creator, who will remain nameless, and pledged my loyalty to him. With that, I gained control over the Mist and was given second in command. That's why I left." Alia shed a tear.

"Oh, boohoo." Gate called to Marymer. "Finish them now."

Marymer looked to Gate. "Yes, my love."

I cried, "What!"

Gate replied, "I guess I didn't make it clear. Marymer will do absolutely anything I tell her to. Kill a living soul, jump off a bridge, comfort me. ANYTHING." Alia chuckled weakly.

"What's so funny?" Gate asked her.

"I knew it," she muttered. "I knew it right from the beginning."

"What? That your doom is upon you?"

Alia looked Gate in the eye. "I knew that you're not really Gate!"

Gate and I both gasped "What?"

Alia continued, "The real Gate would not blindly pledge himself to anyone. Nor would he take an innocent Reploid to be his personal slave. You're just a product of the Mist using his body."

Gate laughed loudly. "Sure, Alia, whatever you say. But what you see is what you get."

Zero dashed to Marymer and slashed her in the face. She held her damaged eye. "How? How did you break free?"

"I wasn't under you spell in the first place. How did you ever think I'd be taken by your cheap trick?" he growled. "No matter how alluring you make yourself to be, it won't faze me. I'm already taken, sister." I read his mind. Iris. That's all he was thinking about. His memories of the one he loved protected him from being swayed away by Marymer. He ran to his teammates. "Hey guys, wake UP!"

They snapped back to their normal selves. "What just happened?" they asked.

Marymer responded, "You've just sealed your fate, you poor excuses for men."

She waved her arm and released twenty bursts of water to the Hunters. None of them hit. X changed to the Hermes Armor and activated its X Drive. He used his increased speed to distract the Maverick. Axl fired the Shock Rail into her back, but to no effect. She dived to him and stabbed him with her tail. X fired a Triple Shot to get her off of Axl. She swam to X and pulled out a sword covered in scales. She swung it over her head aiming for X's head, but the Z-Saber blocked it. Zero proceeded to perform a Douryuken in front of the Maverick. She swung her sword, nullifying the wave. X changed to silver armor and fired the Helix Twister. The two whirlwinds circled around Marymer and stopped her dead. Axl switched out and fired the Grapple Talon into her stomach. She screamed in pain as her lower torso was cut in half.

Zero then jumped into the air. "This is for you, Iris!" He spun around and performed the Senpuugeki. The wisps chopped Marymer up even more.

Her head cried, "I'm sorry, my love!" I think you know what happens next.

After the explosion, Gate had left as well. I gained control of my body again and swam to the Hunters. They checked their weapons. Axl's hologram had a machine gun that fired water bursts like Marymer's. "Ocean Sniper!"

Zero's jumped in the air and held its sword downward. It crashed into the ground and created two waves from the impact. "Suiryujin!"

X's changed to teal armor and swung a sword. The sword created a blast of water that shot forward. "Hydro Slash."

"Cool," I said. "Let's see how the reef is." They nodded. The reef had already returned to its natural flourish of color. Some fish were also brought back to life as well. We smiled and teleported back to HQ. After I went back to get my clothes from the cliff.

Alia was probably right. That wasn't really Gate, just something using his body. How cruel. But I asked myself, "Why would they take Gate's body?" It could have been a psychological tactic, or perhaps just a random action. Regardless, this fake Gate and the Mist must be stopped. As soon as possible.