Mega Man X: The Mist Enigma
Chapter 19: Hell Fire and Grim Stone
Usually the hunches I have are dead wrong. For instance, I could have sworn that Maverick Hunter X and MM: Powered Up would come out the same day as the X Collection. Not so. But this time I was right. Gate was making us visit past areas from each conflict the Maverick Hunters had experienced.
We landed at the top of a fiery cave leading downwards. It was where X and Zero fought Burn Dinorex. Without a word, we began jumping down through the cave. There weren't any enemies or fire spitting things along the way, which was relieving and suspicious at the same time. The cave began leading forward.
The heat was getting intense. I pulled on my collar to cool down.
"Why's it getting so hot all of a sudden?" Axl asked.
Zero wiped his brow. "Didn't you get a look at where we are? This is an active volcano."
Axl's jaw dropped. "Well then why are we down in it? If it erupts, we're gonna die!"
"Not necessarily," X said. He pointed to the protrusions of land along the floor and ceiling. "Those are cool spots. If we stay behind them, we'll be safe."
The ground began to shake. "I hope you're right!" Axl cried as he flew up to a cool spot on the ceiling. I did the same, while X, Zero, and Dynamo ducked in another one on the floor. Lava rushed past us at incredible speed and power. When it stopped, we began running.
"There's a way out at the end of this tunnel," Zero said. "When we get to it, we'll be completely safe."
Dynamo panted, "Don't you mean if we get to it?"
Zero turned to him. "Don't get all pussy on us now! We'll make it." The ground shook again, so we all ducked in another cool spot. The lava rushed by again even quicker. When it stopped, we dashed on through.
Normally at the end was a door that could be destroyed. When we got there, a giant boulder of hardened magma was blocking it. "Shit," I grunted. The ground shook again, violently, as if it wanted to char us alive. "Double shit." X quickly looked around for cool spots. None. He looked up to see that part of the ceiling was crumbling. He nodded and jumped up toward it. He quickly let off a Mach Dash into it. The rocks crumbled and fell at our feet. There were enough for us to jump to the top where X was. And we did so just as the lava came barreling though.
The rocks up here were much cooler, almost blue opposed to red. Dynamo and Axl sighed heavily. Zero smiled at X, who smiled back. "Guys," Pallette called from the Bulbrite, "look at the ceiling!"
I looked up and saw a portion of it was greenish in hue. "Over here," I pointed to it. The Hunters came to see. "What can you use to break that?" I asked.
"I think I know what," Zero said as he walked to it. "Renyoushou!" He jumped up with sword in a rising cut fashion and a green glow. Think Ryuenjin without the fire.
Through there was another capsule. "Zero," Dr. Light said as the capsule activated, "much like Axl, I can't give you a new set of armor, but I can give you your Black armor. Plus, I shall give you the all powerful Sigma Blade. Use them well."
Zero stepped inside. His armor changed to black and his hair grayed like Dynamo's. In his hand was a large sword with green crystals all over it. This was Sigma's weapon when he was defeated last. Zero stepped out and swung it. A whoosh cut the air. "Thanks, Dr. Light."
The lava finally stopped flowing below us, so we jumped back down. "Zero," Dynamo began, "do you think that you're able to..."
"I'm way ahead of you, Dynamo." Zero raised the Sigma Blade over his head and slashed it across the giant magma boulder. It was sliced in two even pieces and fell to the sides, revealing our way out of the lava. "Piece of cake," Zero smiled as he ran through. We followed.
Beyond that hole was a room riddled with rocks and teeth. Two bosses were here, and I knew exactly who they were. "Blaze Heatnix! Hell Sanhound! Get out here now!" I called. A phoenix Reploid flapped its way down to us. His eyes were as fiery hot as the lava. He spread his wings and crowed loudly. Sanhound punched his way though the wall and roared. Heatnix latched onto his shoulders and flew upwards. Purple lava came flowing from the sides. We jumped to avoid it. As we did so, Heatnix and Sanhound spit out flaming boulders at us. Dynamo and I slashed them away.
Again, we had to figure out Sanhound's new weakness. Axl fired a fully charged Terra Bomber. The two were not fazed. The purple lava continued to flow in. X changed to yellow and green armor and fired a spear made of some sort of plant type material, his Marsh Spear, again to no effect. Zero used the Hieiryuha and rammed into the two Mavericks. They were stuck in the nearby wall. As the Lava began to recede, I teleported to the two and repeatedly punched and kicked them into submission. This was all to let X charge the Stun Tag.
When finished, he summoned thousands of small sutras that combined to form a scythe. "Death Tag!" he cried as the scythe slashed Sanhound and Heatnix nearly in half. Heatnix and Sanhound crowed/roared one last time and surrounded themselves with orange flames. They began flying towards us in Nova Strike fashion. X did his own Mach Dash in their direction. The two forces met each other in a blaze of energy. X came out the other side unscathed. Heatnix and Sanhound fell into burning pieces.
The two screamed as they seemed to burn away. The room began warping again. We reappeared in front of a large computer with a spherical screen. "The X Hunters base," X groaned.
"So this isn't a Maverick's stage?" Dynamo asked.
"No, it is," I answered. "Magne Hyakulegger was stationed here. That means we'll be fighting Shieldner Sheldon and Destruct Gryfflion." I noticed I was covered in purple flames. I changed to my female form. "Let's go. The sooner we get out of here, the better."
To be honest, I wasn't worried about Heatnix to begin with. Every weapon stunned him, which made fighting him very simple. I'm sure that the Mist could have fixed that problem, but we killed him and Sanhound too quick to find that out. I wasn't too concerned about Sheldon either. Come on, he's pink. He's a pink pushover. A mild pain at best. This shouldn't be too bad. I was still dreading Mijinion though. That was gonna be the real test.