Megaman X: Elysium Rising

Mission 2: Secure Hostages

Chapter 5: Duel on Highway #3

By Genoscythe

Mission 2: Secure Hostages

Maverick Leader: Hail Magnum

Main Objective: Minimize human casualties

Secondary Objective: Retire all Mavericks in the area of the Sky Lagoon and Highway #3

Commence Operation

Marx had negotiated a room upgrade with Zero after the Hunter had come out of the medlab. Now, he had a regen capsule, a worn-out desk, AND a bed. Not much of an upgrade. His room was still windowless and the door was reinforced. Fortunately, now he had something to occupy himself with. He was presently laying on the bed, looking at the book Nephtis had given him. It contained an exhaustive record of Egyptian mythology, complete with hieroglyphics and ancient drawings. So far, he had found no references to her name, and considering the tome was apparently filled with every myth the ancient Egyptians had come up with, he didn't expect to find it any time soon. All he could tell was that they were crazy about animals; most of which were extinct, Marx realized, except for cats.

Finally, he got to a section on Osiris, the god of the Underworld. He was about to skip ahead when he picked out the word 'Nephtis' in the midst of the page. A knock echoed out from the door, startling him. "Damn it," he said aloud, slamming the book shut. A moment later, the door hissed open and Zero walked in, dressed in full combat armor.

"How'd you like to start earning your keep? We've got a mission, and we could use you." Zero told him.

"Oh, thanks. I've been waiting for the chance to repay you for locking me up, and I was thinking that a reploid killing spree would be perfect for that." Marx's voice was dry enough to penetrate Zero's aura of calm.

"You know, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I don't know why, but I did. I thought you could turn the attitude around and join us."

"What made you think I'd do something like that, Red?" he asked innocently.

"Obviously it was a mistake. Don't worry, you won't get the opportunity to gain my respect again." He turned around abruptly and walked out the door. It closed and locked behind him. Marx got up and moved to the door.

"Hey! Zero! Are you gonna let me out of here, or what?" he called. There was no reply, either because the Hunter had already left, he was choosing to ignore him, or the door was too thick for his voice to penetrate. Marx returned to his bed and flopped down with a sigh. "The good doctor always said I'd blow it at the interview..."

"Where's Marx?" X asked.

"He isn't coming," Zero replied curtly.

"Why not?"

"To be perfectly honest with you, X, I think he's a coward. Either that, or he's too damn stubborn for his own good. We're better off without him, at least for this mission," Zero said. X looked over his shoulder, and the blonde Hunter knew what he was thinking. "We've gotta go. Don't bother trying to talk sense into him."

"Okay, but I want to find Axl first."

"This is supposed to be your day off. I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't even at the HQ."

"I understand, but I want to check one more time. Like you said, we need all the help we can get."

"Fine. I'll meet you at the Sky Lagoon," he said, with a resigned sigh. X nodded. Within moments, Zero was a speeding ball of light, disappearing into the ceiling. Immediately, X walked in the direction Zero had come from. He came to the door that Marx was being held behind and opened it without knocking. The mercenary was flipping through a book on his bed.

"I don't think you know the situation here, Marx," X said. He didn't even look up.

"You want me to help you hand out pension plans to some of our fellow reploids," he said bitterly.

"What?" X asked, momentarily bewildered.

"Y'know. Retire them."

X took a deep breath, bracing himself for a difficult argument. Perhaps Zero was right, but perhaps Marx just needed a softer touch. "There's been a riot at a mall in the Sky Lagoon. The security force has been wiped out, and the Maverick leader there is threatening the humans he has trapped. We aren't going there to retire those Mavericks, we're going to protect and rescue the trapped humans."

"Of course, that sounds like the PR answer I'd expect from – " When Marx rolled on his side and looked into X's eyes, all he saw was sincerity. The words caught in his throat; he had never seen purity like that before. "I don't want to kill anyone," he mumbled cautiously.

"It's entirely up to you," X said. "But I've learned from experience that it's sometimes unavoidable."

"You really just want to save the humans," Marx stated.

"I never set out on a mission preparing to retire Mavericks. I only think of the innocent lives I can save with my actions."

"Whether you think about it or not, you're still killing," the mercenary pointed out. "It's disgusting no matter what kind of spin you put on it."

X bowed his head before speaking again. "You're right, Marx. It's disgusting. I hate it, and if I don't concentrate on the good I can do, it becomes...overwhelming."

"Have you ever thought about a career change?"

"I've tried that. It's just not meant to be," he whispered. "They won't let me live in peace."

"Who?"

"Everyone."

For once, Marx was speechless. He had no idea a person could pursue an ideal with such conviction, and yet be so repulsed by it. In that moment, he could see how vulnerable the famous Maverick Hunter truly was, and in the face of X's torment, all of his excuses seemed petty and weak. With a grimace, he stood up and shut the book.

"Where's my combat armor?"

Half an hour prior

A human in a loose shirt and pants walked slowly toward Hail Magnum's hiding spot in the back of the store. Once the human was sure he was in the shadows, he lit a long tube that Magnum was certain was some kind of illegal drug. The human had not yet noticed him, though they were standing fairly close together. Magnum decided now was as good a time as any to start the riot.

The human's eyes widened as the darkness in front of him exploded in a flash of heat and light. He died instantly as a large bullet blew his chest open and knocked him back into the light, where the clothing store was instantly consumed by screams. Hail Magnum barged into the center of the store, covered from head to foot in creamy white battle armor. He raised his arms and let loose a torrent of bullets, bathing the store in steaming swaths of blood.

It didn't take long for mall security to notice the clothing store being torn up. However, the storm of bullets prevented them from entering the store, and they were forced to pile up on either side of the shattered glass display windows. One guard activated a commlink and called the Neo Tokyo Defense Agency. In the middle of his call, the squat Maverick ran through the entrance of the shop and blew away his partner with two shots. Forgetting about the NTDA operator he was talking to, he grabbed his gun and fired at the reploid's back. The bullets barely scraped his armor.

Hail Magnum turned around and, shielding his unprotected eyes with one cannon-arm, he silenced the guard with the other. However, the guard's call had already been partially broadcast, and more armored security guards were closing in to slow him down further. He looked over the railing at the plaza below, bustling with humans and reploids trying to escape the firefight.

Now, as the security guards tightened their net, Hail Magnum decided to make his play. Out of his dull gray backpack came a long, thin grabbing arm clutching a tiny capsule. The grabbing arm flicked the capsule over the railing, then he opened fire in both directions at the guards rushing at him. The blue armored humans fell in waves before the capsule hit the ground near the fountain below and shattered.

Despite all the activity above them, the single action that halted all movement in the main plaza was the breaking of the small glass capsule. Following the capsule's descent came the Maverick with autocannons for arms. He landed in the midst of a group of people, shaking the ground around them. The guards on the catwalk above ran for the escalator.

Suddenly, every reploid in the mall dropped to the ground, clutching their heads and wailing. The humans began panicking, but none of them dared to move. Hail Magnum looked about in contempt, and soon he was once again faced by mall security. "Deactivate your weapons and surrender!" one of the kevlar-protected humans said as they all raised their handguns. "The Maverick Hunters are on their way. Give up now, and you will be tried as a free reploid."

"But I'm not a free reploid!" Hail Magnum howled. "Not yet. I won't be free until they're all dead."

The security guards were moments away from firing at the short Maverick when he suddenly deactivated his cannon arms and held them up vertically. The security guards closed in on him, and he waited patiently. If it weren't for the white faceplate covering all but the slits of his eyes, they would have noticed his wicked grin and realized what Magnum had done. As it stood, they were completely unaware of the catastrophe brewing around them.

A human woman screamed, and it was all the warning the security force would get before one of the guards was tackled by a nearby reploid. The machine began savagely beating the human on the head, reducing it to a pile of bloody mush as the other mall security turned in horror at the new development.

Reploids all throughout the mall began to rage out of control and fly at their human companions. The security guards were swarmed upon and torn apart, and Hail Magnum cackled gleefully as the mall quickly became a charnel house. However, when he was satisfied, he held up one of his arms and yelled, "Stop!" Immediately all of the reploids froze. "I have plans for the humans left alive! Bring anyone you can find back to me!" Mindlessly, the infected reploids began picking up battered and occasionally unconscious humans and hauling them to lay cowering before the Maverick leader.

Axl walked down the smooth, metal walkway of the rebuilt Sky Lagoon with Selene at his side. They were both excited to be visiting the new mall installed over Highway #3; it was the last segment of the new hovering bazaar to be completed since the Maverick attack that destroyed it and sparked the Repliforce War over thirty years ago. To acknowledge the event that set off the most horrific conflict between uninfected reploids the world had ever seen, the mall was having a sale. "I hope you're taking me to a fancy place for lunch. I had to beg Zero to give me the day off too, and it wasn't easy," Selene said, pressing her hand into his.

"If it was that much trouble, then we didn't have to do this," Axl replied. Selene merely laughed.

"I was joking, Axl. It really wasn't easy to get the day off, but I don't care."

"I'll bet Zero was pissed."

"He was, until he decided to double my recon hours for next week."

"Ouch. Sorry."

"I told you, dummy, I don't care!" she cried gleefully. Axl didn't know what it was about sunlight that lit up her personality so drastically – it was as if she were a lantern, dark and hollow inside until she had enough illumination to give off her own light. "And don't worry about lunch either, I've heard of some good reploid restaurants here."

Axl suddenly became aware of her hand intertwined in his. Color rising in his face, he looked away at the buildings they were walking next to. Due to the openness of the Sky Lagoon's walkways, he had a clear view of the office and apartment buildings outside. He was forced to look back when Selene pointed out a flying ad soaring over their heads. He was surprised to find that she was also struggling to control a blush.

"It's too bad Commander X still has duty," Axl spoke up.

"X wouldn't know what to do with free time if he ever let himself have some," Selene replied.

"Does he have any hobbies?" he asked.

"I don't know. You're in his division. What does he talk about when you're not talking about Maverick Hunter stuff?"

Axl had to think about it, and even after he had, there wasn't much to say. "He seems to like birds."

"Does he ever go birdwatching?"

"No, he just...likes them. Hey, don't look at me like that, it's all I can come up with."

"X must be so lonely," Selene concluded. "And he's old, now. How is he still sane after all these years?"

"Maybe he used to go birdwatching, but he got tired of it."

"Cute, Axl. Why doesn't he ask Alia out on a date? Everyone knows she's after him."

"I brought up X's love life with Zero one time. He hit me and pretended I hadn't said anything."

Selene laughed again, involuntarily this time.

"What's so funny about me getting punched by Zero?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sure it's a lot funnier in my head than it was in real life," she said.

"Yeah! He wasn't laughing, and neither was I," Axl muttered. "Nobody thinks it's a big deal whenever I get beat up."

"Are you still upset over that mercenary? He shot you once, and it wasn't even that bad."

"I'm not upset over being shot anymore. I'm upset because Marx is a pretentious jerk, and it doesn't seem to bother anyone but me. He acts like he's better than us, he calls us murderers – like that guy's never killed anyone before – and then Zero turns around and says he might make a good Hunter!" Axl spat. Selene sighed and shook her head.

"I think you're still upset over being shot," she said. Axl took a breath to begin another tirade, but she put a free finger to his lips. "Luckily for you, I find it endearing and not annoying. It's a fine line, though."

Axl heard the veiled warning, and nodded mutely. Selene released his lips and gave him a disarming smile. "Hey, I think we're close to the mall," she pointed out, looking at a directory as they walked past. The crowd had thinned out completely, and the abandoned concourse set Axl on edge. He decided to turn up the sensitivity in his ears, and almost instantly, he picked up something he never expected on his day off.

"I hear screaming!" he hissed to Selene. "Turn up your volume."

"What do you mean, I don't..." As she increased the sensitivity of her audio equipment, the faint whisper of a shriek registered from the building ahead. "Oh god. It's coming from the mall."

They broke into a run, releasing their hands from each other. As they came closer to the mall, they heard more screaming, getting progressively louder as they went. As they reached the wide, open entrance to the building, Selene put a hand to her mouth to stifle a scream of her own. The bright, warm blood of humans spattered the floor of the main plaza and dripped from catwalks above.

They could make out a stocky figure standing above a mass of reploids. The figure looked like a walking bomb shelter, with thick, wide shoulder plating, a rounded chest plate and an anvil-shaped helmet with a full face guard. The thing about this reploid that stood out was that its arms appeared to be two large autocannons. The mass of civilian reploids surrounding him were apparently in some kind of trance. Both of the Maverick Hunters knew what was going on. The combat reploid had instigated a Maverick Virus outbreak.

Axl pulled Selene through a side door in the mall and they came out near the entrance, behind a wall. Axl pressed his back against the wall and drew something out of his pocket. Selene gasped. "You brought a gun on your day off?" She whispered frantically.

"Zero taught me to never be too careful," he replied, checking the clip in the base of the pistol.

"Careful, yes, but this is just paranoia!"

"You can't say it didn't pay off though, right?"

Selene sighed in resignation. "This time. You don't have any armor, though, so be careful." She gripped his shoulder, rumpling the white cloth of his plain t-shirt. He nodded, saying nothing. He looked out from behind the wall. The infected reploids stood completely motionless, massed together encircling something in front of the combat reploid with the cannon arms. Looking closely, he thought he saw moving forms inside the circle of Mavericks.

"It looks like they have human hostages," he whispered.

"We need to free them first," Selene said.

"'We'? What's this 'we' stuff? I'm not gonna let you out there without a weapon."

"I can't just sit here! I'm a Maverick Hunter too."

"And what are you gonna do without a weapon?" Axl asked.

"Don't worry about me. I have my own ways of helping out." Selene shifted her weight against the wall. Axl peeked around the corner and looked again at the Maverick leader. He went through every plan in his head, but none of them ended up with him and Selene alive at the end. Before he could make up his mind and get them both killed, Fate handed him a freebie.

Zero materialized on the Sky Lagoon, standing amidst an empty walkway. He assumed he was near the mall, but he was too far from Maverick Hunter HQ to ask for confirmation. The accuracy of the Instant Transit system had taken a drastic hit from the recent communications blackout, so he counted himself lucky that he actually landed on the Sky Lagoon rather than in the middle of the highway network below. Not a moment after he started assessing his surroundings, he received a shortwave transmission from Megaman X.

"We're on the roof now. Are you near the entrance?" the soft voice inquired. Zero cast a glance at a map nearby.

"Yeah, I'm close. You and Endy start your infiltration now, 'cause it won't take long for me to get the party going."

"Draw those Mavericks away from the hostages! That's our first priority."

"Affirmative, Commander Obvious," Zero said with a smile. He heard a groan on the other end. Switching off his comm. link, he turned on his thrusters and dashed off down the walkway. In a matter of seconds, he could see the mall, and through its open entrance he could see a crowd of Mavericks. More importantly, he could see their leader standing above them, between the mall's fountain and his audience. Calculating his speed, he was sure the Maverick couldn't evade him.

The Maverick's eyes widened a bit when he saw a red streak moving down the walkway in front of him. That streak became more defined as it moved closer, which it did with astonishing speed. The crowd of Mavericks began to turn around as the crimson Maverick Hunter jumped on top of one and pushed off of its shoulders, flying at Hail Magnum with his saber flashing out. As Zero struck downward, the Maverick stepped aside and he sailed past harmlessly. What was worse, he kept moving and careened into the fountain, skipping once across the surface before his momentum died out.

"Do you want to entertain us some more, Maverick Hunter, or shall we put you out of your misery?" the leader asked as Zero stuck his head out of the water, weighed down heavily by his soaked hair. He turned around and the leader could see a supernova of fury in Zero's eyes, and for the first time in his relatively short life, Hail Magnum was beginning to feel fear. There was something in his eyes, something living behind his eyes, as he stood up and shook off the water cascading down his armor. This Maverick Hunter was home to a caged demon.

"You obviously don't know the meaning of the word," Zero growled. "I'll teach you misery."

Without another word, Zero flung himself at Magnum, grabbing him by the helmet and slamming him into the ground. He didn't realize that he was now prone to the Maverick's cannon arm. A large slug grazed his hip as he rolled to the side and drew his beam saber. He snapped his arm forward, rending the air with his swift sword stroke as Magnum hopped backwards. The blow sheared off a slice of Magnum's armor, but the blade didn't do any harm. He leapt forward again, but a concussive force took him in the gut and he was thrown back, tumbling to the floor and dropping his saber. Zero looked down at his own chest to see a smoldering crack in his armor.

Standing up slowly, Zero felt detached, like he was watching himself fight. For one thing, he didn't feel any pain from the bullet wound, and for another, his body seemed to be moving almost independent of his own thoughts. Now, he watched himself charge before Magnum could fire again. He watched himself grab one of the Maverick's arm cannons and swing him toward a pillar, where he smashed into it and crumpled to the floor. The possessed Maverick Hunter walked slowly over to where the Maverick lay, his sword drawn.

Hail Magnum seemed to have been deactivated by the blow. Zero raised his sword to finish the job, but out from behind the body a thin, wiry arm shot out and grabbed him, holding him up in the air. The Maverick stood and raised his cannons, intent on blowing Zero apart in the air. Instead, the Hunter slashed the grabbing arm in half and he fell on top of the Maverick, elbow first. The well-armored reploid slid out from underneath his captor and turned to the exit.

He ran. He ran! Zero was so infuriated by the Maverick leader's cowardice that he completely forgot about the hostages and gave pursuit. He chased Magnum along the edge of the floating walkway for a moment, but he was far faster than the clunky Maverick. As he was about to catch him, Magnum jumped over the edge. Without a thought, Zero jumped after him, and the ground below him fell away. They were directly above Highway #3, and the dark gray expanse was just starting to fill with traffic.

He spotted Hail Magnum falling toward the highway. The Maverick landed on the hood of a car in motion, crushing the hydrogen engine and popping the rest of the car into the air from the impact. He looked up icily at the diving Hunter and began firing thick slugs at him, though most of the shots went wide. The lowering sun was making it difficult for Magnum to see his hunter. Cars skidded to a halt and began beeping loud horns. Unbelievably stupid. But then again, theses are humans, Magnum thought.

Zero crashed to the ground a few short feet away from Hail Magnum, fairly covered in bullet holes on his chest and shoulders. Blood seeped from several of them. Wearily, the crimson Hunter ran at the Maverick, who was reloading. He slashed horizontally, and Magnum jumped back. Unfortunately for him, he had jumped back into the divider. Zero followed up his previous slash and cut downward, shearing metal off of the Maverick's leg armor.

Hail Magnum rolled to the right, but Zero's saber found its way to his left arm joint. The appendage crashed heavily onto the neocrete highway and the Maverick howled in pain. He kicked Zero in the shin, and the Hunter stumbled before his next strike. Another one of Magnum's grabber arms shot out of his backpack and snatched Zero's saber handle. The arm returned to his backpack, carrying the deactivated beam saber with it.

The Maverick Hunter didn't bother to take his attention off the Maverick before him. He simply watched as Hail Magnum walked back slowly, his remaining cannon arm pointed at the Hunter. "You're Zero," Magnum said. "You must be..."

"That's right," Zero said icily. "Surprised it took you this long to figure that out."

"I just wanted to make sure. I can hardly imagine what kind of upgrade my superiors will give me once I bring them your corpse."

"Pretty optimistic for a one-armed freak," Zero taunted.

"See this armor? See this magnificent weapon?" Magnum asked, thumping his cannon arm against his bunker-quality chestplate. "I earned it by carrying out ten successful raids against the humans. I was responsible for the Tanaka Square bombing."

"You?" he scoffed. "Don't make me laugh."

"Hard to believe, isn't it? And to think, I'm a Model 4, lowest of the low. I was born on an assembly line." Hail Magnum fired, and Zero dropped to one knee as the bullet flew over his head. "This is my body. There are many like it, but this one is mine." Magnum continued to fire as he chanted, and Zero dove across the center divider for cover. The bulky Maverick blasted fist-sized chunks from the divider, but a gray sedan suddenly roared out of the traffic jam and crashed into him. The weight of his armor kept him on his feet, but his cannon arm was trapped under the hood of the car. A grimly-determined man in a business suit sat at the wheel, digging his expensive shoes into the accelerator and slowly pushing Magnum backward.

"This is my body..." Hail Magnum repeated, less coherently than before. The glow in his eyes intensified, and he began to lift the sedan with his arm as leverage. "There are many like it, but this one is mine!"

He bellowed inarticulately and flipped the car onto its side. Proximity alerts went off in his head, and he whipped around with his cannon outstretched. However, it stopped in mid-arc as Zero's hands clamped down on the barrel.

"No. It's mine, now," he growled, bringing the cannon arm down on his knee and shattering it in the middle. Hail Magnum flailed the cracked and broken bits of his arm at the Maverick Hunter, but Zero merely grabbed him by the shoulder and thrust him against the pavement.

"You have something else that belongs to me, too." Zero ripped open the Maverick's backpack, and dug through the contents until he found what he was looking for. Without removing the Z Saber, he activated it, and a beam of green energy lanced through Hail Magnum's torso, up his spine, and out the top of his flat helmet. The wriggling Maverick went still, and Zero pulled the weapon out casually.

As he felt the possessing rage subside, he noticed the overturned sedan behind the retired Maverick. Striding evenly, still oblivious to the craters Hail Magnum had left in his armor, he gripped the side of the car and turned it upright again. The human businessman had a bloody gash on his head, and the adrenaline rush that had been keeping his terror at bay was fading fast, but he was still in one piece. Good enough for Zero. He tapped his comm link and set it to X's frequency. "X, I'm pulling out," he said. "The highway is clear." On the other end, all he could hear was the sounds of battle. He knew X and Endymion could handle the hostages by themselves.

Axl was still trying to come up with a plan that wouldn't get both him and Selene brutally killed when Zero appeared, flying at the Maverick leader and drawing the mob's attention. Axl knew this was the best chance he would get. He jumped out from behind the wall and, momentarily distracted by the sight of his mentor in one of his blood rages, fired a bullet through the nearest reploid's head. All Mavericks turned to him, ignoring the fight embroiled behind them. Axl at first was relieved, because then Zero could concentrate on the leader, but then he realized that the Mavericks were intent on tearing him apart. Though they had no weapons, he had no armor, and their sheer numbers could easily overwhelm him.

He ran along the wall, firing at the crowd of Mavericks as they swarmed after him. He didn't have to aim; they were crowded so close together that any bullet would have hit something. Axl immediately noticed that he was near the escalator, so he took a chance. Suppressing the stampede of mad reploids, he ran out from under the alcove, weaving around a column, and jumped onto the escalator. He felt hands grabbing him, nearly pulling him down, but he was rising and soon they couldn't get high enough to reach him. At the top of the escalator, he positioned himself at the railing of the walkway and began shooting at the Mavericks as they ran up the escalator one by one.

Even if they made it onto the catwalk, it was only wide enough for a few people. Axl considered himself safe. Then he was suddenly being tackled from behind, and he and his assailant smashed through the railing and fell to the ground below. He rolled over and blasted the Maverick at point blank range. Getting to his feet, he realized he was doomed. Nothing stood between him and the horde of rapidly-approaching Mavericks. Just then, a flying trash can smashed into the crowd from the right, and every head, including Axl's, whipped toward the source.

Marx stood atop the walkway along the far wall, hefting a potted fern and preparing to toss it at the Mavericks below.

"You!" Axl seethed, even as he hurled the fern and knocked one of the Mavericks unconscious.

"You forgot to say 'thank!'" Marx yelled, waving his arms and causing the Maverick mob to surge toward him instead. "It's thank you!"

"In your dreams!" Axl replied, firing at the retreating crowd. Half of the mob continued scrambling up the down escalator, and the other half broke off to charge at Axl again. This time, they were stopped by a ripple in the air that slashed through their group and left a trail of dead reploids behind. Whirling around in confusion, they soon spotted a cloaked form covered in dark reploid blood crouching to their right. From the silhouette, Axl could tell it was Endymion. His cloaking field flickered off for an instant, revealing aerodynamic silver armor and two wide blades extending from his gauntlets. He disappeared again, and this time the blood on his armor was swallowed up by the stealth field as well.

Marx hoped he had bought enough time for Axl to escape, but he didn't have time to check. Nearly a dozen Mavericks were scrambling up the escalator at him, and he resisted the urge to take out his pistol. That was a last resort. Instead, he grabbed a nearby bench and shoved it down the escalator. The direction of the escalator lent the heavy object speed, and it swept away all but two of the Mavericks.

Marx readied his fists, hopping back and forth like he had learned to do in the underground reploid boxing circuit. As much as he hated killing, he had no problem with inflicting crippling amounts of pain, and he had been forced to prove himself in the ring to avoid being laughed out of his merc band on several occasions. It was one such occasion, when he beat the odds and lost his erstwhile comrades large sums of credits, that led to his abandonment in the wasteland near Vulcan Stinger's hideout.

He ducked under the first Maverick's wild right hook, firing off two quick punches that doubled the reploid over. With the second Maverick approaching fast, Marx sent a straight into his first opponent's head, and the blow flung him over the railing and onto the floor of the mall beneath them.

The other Maverick tackled him before he could react, and they both rolled across the walkway, with the Maverick ending up on top. She grabbed him by the helmet and began smashing his head against the floor, but he tucked his knees under her chest and pushed, sending her tumbling over him. He got up, preparing to knock her out while she was still down, but the Maverick recovered faster than he expected, and she backed up against the railing on the far side of the walkway.

Then, surprisingly, the Maverick grabbed the guard rail and swung herself off the edge. Marx ran to the edge of the catwalk, and he could see the Maverick sprinting back toward the entrance of the mall. No, not quite the entrance. She was making a beeline for a dark corner filled with huddling shapes. The hostages! Marx realized. Shit. He knew he wouldn't be able to catch up to the Maverick, and he was out of mall decorations to throw.

Sometimes it's unavoidable, he thought, whipping his pistol out of its holster. I didn't really believe you, X. Shows how much I know. A targeting visor slid down over his right eye, and he lined up a shot that would put an armor-piercing bullet straight through the Maverick's head. He tried not to think about that, and focused instead on the fact that he would be saving dozens of human lives by ending this reploid one.

Marx fired, and the Maverick jerked forward, collapsing like a stringless puppet. Pieces of her CPU and globs of coolant rained from the back of her head, scattering grim confetti along the floor as she slid to a halt. Marx shoved his pistol back into its holster, sickened by the sight and the knowledge that he was the one who caused it.

He only hesitated for a second, but in that time, a set of bloodstained hands managed to close around his neck, pulling him back and attempting to rip his head off. Marx twisted and jerked, but the Maverick only tightened his grip. Desperately, he turned his pistol around and pressed it against the body squirming behind him.

Suddenly, a thunderclap issued over Marx's shoulder, and the Maverick was thrown off his feet. The mercenary stumbled forward, then spun to check on the Maverick. An energy burn had punched a hole clean through his torso.

"One is enough for today," Megaman X told him, walking up from the direction of the noise.

"I would've shot him, too," Marx said, and the horror of his words took several moments to sink in. "Well, you've done it, Maverick Hunter. You've turned me into a killer."

"You were already a killer, Marx," X replied, and Marx's eyes widened. "Don't act so surprised. I've lived almost my entire life around killers. I know how to spot them."

Marx sighed. "My first time...it wasn't easy. That Maverick girl wasn't easy, either. Him?" At this, Marx tossed his head at the smoldering Maverick lying down the walkway. "He would have been easy."

"I don't doubt it," X murmured sadly. "Come on. We've finished with the pension plans. It's time to take care of the hostages." While X led Marx down the stairs, Axl surveyed the mall for any stragglers. He only had to look as far as Endymion, who stood amidst a pile of retired Mavericks, looking like windswept quicksilver and wiping down his blades with a t-shirt ripped from one of the dead reploids. If Endymion was cleaning the gore off his weapons, it meant all the nearby Mavericks were dead. He decided to check on the hostages, and he found they had been moved to a secluded corner, which was a relief until he saw that one of the Mavericks was standing in front of them, staring right at him.

Axl dashed to them, raising his handgun and yelling for the hostages to get down. "Axl, no!" the Maverick screamed, and he recognized the sweet feminine voice. His hand twitched and the bullet grazed the unarmored reploid's shoulder. He stopped, and the Maverick shimmered and became Selene again. She was breathing heavily and trembling as she collapsed to the floor. He ran to her and knelt down.

"Selene, I'm so sorry!" he gushed. "I didn't know...I didn't..."

"Axl, don't worry," she replied shakily. "You just startled me. There was no way for you to know."

"I didn't think you could transform without your armor," he explained.

"My disguise generator is built-in," she replied. "Just one of the many fine features Dr. Kikuta squeezed into this little body."

"Well, still, I'm really sorry."

"What? Sorry that everyone at this mall was massacred, sorry that your day off was ruined, or sorry that you nearly shot me?"

"All of those, especially that last one."

"Oh come on, Axl." She gave him a playful shove. "You can see I'm fine. What about all of this, though?" She swept her hand to indicate the carnage in the large, open mall. Then, she turned around to look at the human survivors. "Almost all of these people have lost loved ones today..."

"We're doing the best we can," Axl said defensively. Selene sighed.

"Our best isn't enough for me," She replied. Axl was momentarily distracted by the sight of Marx walking toward the exit, staring in dread fascination at the pools of bright, warm human blood mixing with the dark, viscous spatters of reploid blood-fuel. Saving his life hadn't softened Axl's murderous feelings toward the mercenary, but somehow, the expression of shame and regret on Marx's face -or perhaps just the vulnerability this expression represented – helped to ease his rage.

"You did really well, considering," X said to Marx.

"Considering what?"

"Considering you made the tough choice when it was presented to you, even though it went against every part of your nature."

"I take it you know what that's like," said Marx.

"There was a time...before all this madness," X began, and his eyes trailed off to stare at an unblemished point on the wall. "When I wasn't a Maverick Hunter. I was a researcher. I was Dr. Cain's assistant. I helped him create new reploids. Even after the first outbreaks, I just looked after the equipment for the real Hunters while they tried to fight off the inevitable."

"I know," Marx told him. "I've read up on your history. I figure it's something all reploids should do."

"History doesn't describe the hopelessness I felt when the virus came for us. I idolized Sigma, I even helped put him together, and then he turned on the Hunters, taking every one of my friends but two."

"Mr. Ponytail, and who else?"

"Drake. You wouldn't know him," X muttered. "He was never a very good Hunter. I couldn't just sit back and let the two of them chase down Unit 0 by themselves. I had to make the tough choice."

"And, for your efforts, you were nearly crushed to death by a Maverick in a Ride Armor," the mercenary pointed out.

"Sometimes it's unavoidable," X said, giving Marx an unexpected smile. "We've got a lot in common, Marx."

"What, almost getting killed on our first mission?"

"I'd like to think you've gotten more out of this conversation than that," he said, and with that, X headed for the exit. "Thanks for not trying to escape!" he called back, and Marx shrugged.

"Like I'd get very far."

Mission 2 status: Complete

Maverick Leader: Retired

Main Objective: Achieved

Secondary Objective: Achieved

End of Chapter 5