Ch. 7 - The fall of a beast

Whoa, de-ja-vu... I was staring at the ceiling of the hospital room. Hesitantly, I sat up, almost expecting Protoman to punch me, as I glanced around. No one was there... why was I alive? Slowly standing, I took one more glance around before I moved to a window. Only three stories up; not a problem. The following ten minutes were spent trying to open said window before I simply broke it with my fist in frustration and leapt out. If they weren't going to kill me, I just had to do it myself. Suicide's a great thing, huh? Rolling on the ground, I began to run again, towards a nearby city. It wouldn't be long before they realized I was gone, so I had to move fast. Hitching a ride on a leaving train, I climbed to the top of it, watching the city quickly disappear as the train picked up speed. Kneeling, I looked forward, towards where I was going. The middle of nowhere, without any weapons: peachy. Laying on my stomach, watching the wasteland approach, I closed my eyes. I must've dozed for a bit, because a heavy jolt caused my eyes to open in surprise, and it was dark once more. It had been two days since Sai had been killed, I realized... The train wavered dangerously, and a plasma blast hit it's side, forcing it to derail. Leaping off before I got crushed, I watched the darkness for a moment before backing up, away from where the blast had come from... Only to have a heavy hand come down on my head, dazing me before I dropped forward.

Was it just me, or was I developing a bad habit of blacking out? With a grunt, I tried to move to find several cables seemed to be connected to my armor, weighing me down quite a bit. And my armor itself was... different... It didn't feel the same... Opening my eyes, I was startled to see everything I could see had a reddish tint to it. Then I realized my helmet, which seemed to weight much more than it used to, now had a red visor. Tilting my head slightly, I noted that once more, I seemed to be contained in a cell of sorts, but I automatically knew I was no where near Hunter Base. A hum came from the walls of the hexagonal chamber, wires connected everywhere, forming a spider-web pattern around me, suspending me in mid-air... which was only a half a foot or so off the ground. If I could of moved, if I reached out, I would have been able to touch the walls and ceiling without stretching too far. But I couldn't; I could only hang there, wondering what the fuck was going on. A low chuckle echoed throughout the chamber, causing me to tense up. But even that hurt; my body was unusually sore... like I had been beaten senseless multiple times in my sleep...

"So you're awake, Khayox." This voice was the one of one who had been a Maverick quite a while, and it sounded amused.

"Maverick..." I murmured subconsciously. "My name's Maverick..." Even speaking that small bit left me drained... almost gasping for breath.

"It doesn't matter to me; you're simply an object to be traded for another." He said with another of his creepy chuckles. Then what does he do? The typical bad guy thing: he starts spilling his evil guts 'cause he's positive he's going to come out on top. "I was a bit surprised when you and your friends emerged from the faulty teleporter... I was about to behead the programmer who screwed it up when I discovered this new world could aid me. Of course I was skeptic; it isn't logical for 'another world' to be connected to ours. But it was easy to find a likable businessman... One World Wide Network for one enslaved world... of course, we both needed to find a certain something to develop what we needed in order to take over." A pause for dramatic effect, I think, then another one of his chuckles. "You... you hold the data we need... There shall be not one but two Khayoxes in existence!" His chuckle climbed to a laugh, and if I could of, I would have twirled a finger and said 'whoop-dee-doo'. But I couldn't, so I didn't. My energy was draining, so as I half passed out again, I missed what Mr. Chuckles had said after his laugh.

"Stand up, Khayox." The order reached my mind, and I had a 'what the fuck' thought: I couldn't move. But the order came again, and something in my subconscious reacted by trying to stand. The chamber thing gave a jerk, and gravity tugged at me for a minute before it stopped. Something stirred within me once more before it took over, and I was suddenly just a passenger in my own body. The walls seemed to go transparent, offering a view of what was outside. A large, bald Reploid was laughing: Mr. Chuckles... he had what looked to be a ton of armor, and some scars on his face. He had probably lost more than once to the Hunters before running away.

Within a moment, I knew what was going on... I was within the body of a beast, quite literally. Powerful wings swept forward in a test of their functionality, a tail snaked across the ground. Blades were at major joints, turning the body itself into a weapon. There were blades even attached to the skull, curving backwards. I seemed to be balancing on my toes, the legs jointed differently, more like a bird's or lizard's than a human's... Claws flexed on a subconscious command, digging into the metal flooring as though it were dirt. A roar escaped the creature, as if threatening enemies away, and Mr. Chuckles laughed once more.

"Khayox... destroy! Destroy those who oppose the Mavericks!" Mr. Chuckles said, throwing his arms in the air as he started to laugh. His answer was another roar, and I closed my eyes as the world stared to move. It wasn't long, though, before a human scream caused me to open them in shock. A woman picked up her child and ran towards the center of the busy city... the ground quaked as the beast landed, it's claws slicing through the steel structure of a building as though it were mere paper. The building collapsed upon itself, and Khayox opened it's mouth... streams of plasma streaked forward, hitting random targets. I tried to close my ears to the terrified screams coming from the people dieing as the body moved forward again. I wasn't in control. It was not long before I recognized those who stood in front of me, on top of the ruble of a building I had destroyed, ready to try to take me down. My energy hadn't recovered, but the body had an abundance of it. It roared at them before going to take them out. The battle itself was just another blur in a half-conscious mind, but they were strong... every blow against Khayox was a blow against me... and it was painful... Megaman and X attacked at a bit of a range, along with a spiky-haired, dark-armored Hunter with an 'X' scar across his nose that I didn't recognize; he looked young, and he was a good shot... Zero and Protoman came up close, moving a bit faster than Khayox could, trying to avoid the bladed body while dealing damage.

It could have been minutes, or it could have been hours, before Khayox fell to them, the beast's body failing to respond to commands. And then... A single plasma bullet shattered the outer armor, hitting the wall directly in front of me. I don't know who shot it... but Khayox retreated deeper into my programming, the beast-body shutting down... Someone walked up to the body; I couldn't tell who because the visuals had failed, but someone else was yelling something at them. A hand broke through the wall, pulling me free of my imprisonment, holding me close, and I welcomed the darkness that came over me, as it brought much-needed rest...

For the third time in the half a month since we had arrived in the Hunter's world, I awoke to find myself in their base's hospital wing. With a groan, I again sat up. My peripheral vision caught a quick movement towards me, and I instinctively flinched away. I was a nervous wreck; when the gentle hand landed on my shoulder, I jumped and tried to pull away. The hand got caught on part of my armor, and a familiar scent caused me to gag. If I could of, I probably would of vomited right there.

"Glad to see you're awake... how do you feel?" A familiar, cool voice asked me, and I turned to face him. Almost angelic in appearance, his white and light blue armor was decorated with what seemed to be bladed feathers and spikes... I couldn't see his eyes behind his dark blue visor, which looked purple to me.

"You... you..." A few memories tried to surface at the same time, leaving me light-headed. He was the one who had told me to run when Sai was being attacked... he... killed me..? He gave me a small, sad sort of smile...

"Me... yes, I told you to leave your PET. I had witnessed the power of Khayox before, and I didn't want it to return."

"You killed me before, didn't you?" My question was low, shaky. He bowed his head for a moment, as if he regretted his past actions. With a sigh, he replied.

"Yes, and no... Twisted by hatred, I attempted to disband Khayox. How dare they create something to attack me? With their main weapon destroyed, there would be little they could do to threaten my power... But I couldn't finish it. Part of the creature escaped, and was found, mistaken for a nearly destroyed Navi, before I could find it. I knew you were Khayox when I first saw you not two weeks later, running around the Undernet as though it was your home. But..." He paused, hesitating. "I saw myself in you, but you seemed so... happy... you confused me; I'll admit it, and as I watched you, over time, I tried to figure you out. You knew you were capable of destruction, and many times you almost answered your calling, am I right?" At the pause, I nodded mutely. When my temper had almost run out, I often wanted to bring death upon the source of my anger, but I responded instead with my randomness... "But you didn't; you went on with life, whereas I simply tried to destroy everything in my way..." Khayox... they had chained me down... so I couldn't fight back while they tortured me, keeping me in check...

"Serphan..." Now I knew who he was... We balanced eachother... one couldn't exist without eachother... Both created at the same time, but one locked away in the Undernet. Both capable of mass destruction... and violent in our emptiness. I'm more than sure Megaman, and others, had run into him during their travels... Stories lingered about the Fallen Angel, Serphan, and how twisted and evil he was... "Everyone has to deal with what happens in their own way; there is nothing to be sorry for if it was the best thing for you to do at the time. The past is behind us for a reason; if we look back to try to change it, we'll stumble and risk loosing our future too." I gave him a grin, and a shrug. "Eh, who am I to dabble in philosophical crap? I want to know what the hell has been going on!" I moved to stand up, and he put one hand out to stop or support me.

"Khayox-"

"I'm not Khayox! I'm Maverick!" A small grin tugged at his lips, I placed a hand on his shoulder, and he helped me stand as I gave a laugh. "Right now, I want to get out of this armor; I feel like a walking blender." Swiftly, he wrapped an arm around me, my arm wrapped around his shoulders, and he helped me walk to the door. "Why're you helping me?"

"It's no use trying to keep you down; might as well make sure you don't collapse and hurt yourself, eh?" He said with another grin. It was obvious to me he rarely had anything to smile about, so I gave one shoulder a squeeze.

"Aww, but it'd be like my own little suicide mission! Me vs. the floor! I still don't know which parts of me are pointy, though, so I'd probably stab myself..."

"Well, that would probably be a bad thing, and you'd end up back in the hospital hall."

"Yeah, I seem to end up there a lot, huh?" I chuckled and shook my head. "Serphan... you weren't always like this, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's always stories to listen to, y'know... you seem to of recently changed... I always hear about how you were evil, twisted, cruel, demented, vengeful... and you seem to hesitate when talking, as if you're not used to simply saying something..."

"Guess I deserve the reputation..." He said with a shake of his head. I jokingly dodged the spikes on his helmet, and he chuckled. "But it's like I've been given another chance... the world feels a bit brighter, y'know..? Maybe it's just an effect you have on people..." Megaman approached though as he turned the corner, and he gave Serphan a glare. Immediately, I could feel the rise in tension, and I almost groaned.