Mega Man X: The Mist Enigma
Chapter 16: It's a Dirty Job
I awoke a short time later. So did everyone else.
"Where are we?" Axl asked as he rubbed his head. We were in a long trash compactor with junk strewn all over the floor.
"We're in Metal Shark Player's Recycle Lab," Zero said.
"How'd we get all the way here?" Dynamo asked.
"Simple," X answered. "It's the Mist creating another illusion." The ceiling began to drop and rise just over our heads. "A rather accurate illusion at that."
I began walking forward. "Well, just standing here isn't going to help. Let's get out of this place." We began walking. Indentations in the ground had made navigating a little difficult, despite the fact that they were in the exact same positions as when X and Zero originally fought MSP. The ceiling soon began sporting spikes, making navigation torture. Luckily, a "RAIDEN" model Ride Armor wasn't too far away. I jumped in it and drove it to a high embankment of junk. I jumped on top of it and out of the Ride Armor. It kept the ceiling from dropping more than two feet. Zero gave me a thumbs up. We continued going forward.
I smiled. "I always wanted to drive one of those things." Less junk was on the ground, revealing a conveyer belt. As soon as we stepped on it, it began working. It was moving in the opposite direction we wanted to go. The Hunters and Dynamo ran on it like a treadmill while I hovered nearby.
As we went on, I noticed a tear in the treads. "Look at that," I pointed out.
X rubbed his chin for a second. "A break in the tread. Maybe we can destroy it." He used the Tyrant Fist on the tread, but to no effect. X let out a hmm.
Zero snapped his fingers. "I got it." He ran back to the Ride Armor and climbed in. He came to the broken tread and slashed at it with the armor's energy sword. There was a secret room underneath, so we jumped in it. Zero got out of the Ride Armor first, of course. In it was one of Dr. Light's capsules. It opened and the doctor's image appeared.
"I'm so glad you were able to find this capsule, X."
"Thank Chris," X said. "He pointed it out. And Zero for opening it."
Dr. Light nodded. "Thank you, Satoryu. Thank you, Zero."
"Think nothing of it," I modestly said.
"On the contrary," Dr. Light continued, "this is of the utmost importance. This capsule and several others in this area contain the parts for your Ultimate Armor, X. Specifically, this one contains the arm part. It shall enable you to use the almighty Plasma Shot. Now step inside."
X did so. Beams of light encircled X as the outline of the armor appeared. The parts materialized onto X's arms. X stepped out and shook his fist in accomplishment. "Thank you, Doctor."
Light smiled. "Good luck to all of you, and keep a sharp eye out for my capsules." The capsule closed. We jumped out of the room and continued running down the conveyer belt. After more spike pits and indented ceilings, we were in the clear.
Or so we thought.
A purple ceiling came rocketing down on top of us. It was the same mini-boss from the first fight with MSP. We quickly crouched to avoid being squashed. It stopped just above our heads, but began shaking again. "This is different," I shouted over the rumbling.
Dynamo took out his dual edge saber and used it to keep the ceiling in place. "Go get rid of this thing!" he called to us.
X took that duty and crawled out from under the ceiling. On its front side was a face of sorts; an obvious target. X jumped into the air and charged his Buster. "Plasma Shot!" He fired a large blast of pulsating energy into the face. It went through it and came out the other side. The blast left behind an energy field that damaged the face even further. The ceiling began exploding and rose back up to whence it came.
Everyone got up and ran to the boss door not too far away. We went through it, duh. More junk was on the ground than ever. Some of it began spewing towards the sky. Out from it came a hammerhead shark Reploid with an anchor in his hand. Metal Shark Player. Axl asked, "Why do they call him Player?"
I had always joked that he was a pimp on the side, hence his "cane." But the honest answer was, "I dunno."
MSP did something I would have never expected. Sort of. He summoned junk into the air, which is normal. The junk revealed itself to be Shadow Renaraid, the kitsune we killed previously. Again, that's kind of normal. But what really surprised me, and the Hunters, was that Renaraid assimilated with Player creating some weird shark fox combination with spell tags and anchors all over the place. "Whoa," we let out.
"I thought we were going to fight just Player," X said.
"I thought we were going to fight all the Mist bosses," Zero said.
"Apparently," I said, "we got both at the same time."
The new Maverick swung one of his/her anchors at us, creating smaller anchors that bounced towards us. One hit Axl and exploded on contact. Axl wasn't damaged very much by it. However, he was covered in sutras. He had difficulty standing up. "What's going on? It feels like I way a thousand tons!"
Dynamo called out, "It must be all those spells on you." He dashed over to get them off. When he touched one, it burned with purple flames. Dynamo drew back. "Damn! That stung!"
"Am I stuck like this?" Axl asked nervously.
"Maybe," I answered, "until we get rid of this thing."
The Maverick then dove into the junk. We looked around for it by blasting at the ground. Zero used the Suiryujin to try and dig the Maverick up. It did, but it wasn't damaged by it. "That's weird," Zero wondered. "Player was weak to water attacks, wasn't he?"
"Yeah, he was," I called as I slashed at the Maverick with an ice slash. That too did not affect it. "Guess we're going to have to figure out what its new weakness is. The bastard." I then tried fire, light, and electricity in that order. The electric slash stunned it slightly, causing it to kick me into Dynamo.
"We have got to stop meeting like this," he joked to me.
I wasn't enthused. "You owe me again." I created a lightning bolt in my hand and threw it to the Maverick. The bolt pierced its chest and brought it to the far wall. X and Zero dashed to it with weapons ready. Before they reached it, it disappeared. A moment later, it reappeared behind them and headbutted them into the wall. It then continued to warp around as they regained their footing. Zero used the Rakudenha, knowing that one of the bolts would have to hit it. And one did, causing the Maverick to fall to the ground in an electrified fit. X charged the Pulse Barrier. His body surged with electricity. "Pulse Crash!" Lightning bolts shot in every direction, many of which hit the Maverick. After lying on the ground for a few seconds, the Maverick got up and grew to gargantuan size.
"I ain't falling for that one again!" Axl cried. Apparently when the Maverick was stunned, the sutras covering Axl were dispelled. Axl fired the Shock Rail into the behemoth's heart. It shrunk back down in size and shed its junk coating revealing a messed up Player and a messed up Renaraid. "Sons of bitches! Keeping me out of the action like that is a sin!" I rolled my eyes.
The two didn't explode. Instead they changed back into Mist and circled around the center of the room. The room began warping shape. We looked at it in question. "What the hell now?" Axl stubbornly queried. We glared at him. "What?" he asked, "I was just in that kinda mood." The room became Mist and spiraled downwards again. It took us along for the ride again. I didn't know where we would end up again. Are you tired of me saying "again?" I am.