Megaman X: Elysium Rising

Chapter 8: Target practice and Metools

By Genoscythe

AN: Dragon Man had a great idea, so thank him for this chapter.

"Okay Marx, we've completed preparations. Please step into the holo room now," Axl's voice came from a speaker in the wall. Marx stood up and looked as a door slid open, leading to a blank white-walled room. He stepped inside, and as soon as he did the walls and floor began to change. The white faded to a deep gray, and the floor morphed into the semblance of a neocrete roadway. In no time at all, he had been transported from Maverick Hunter Headquarters into the middle of a city. The ceiling seemed to expand above him and transform into a starless night sky, complete with passing airplanes.

"This is all a hologram?" he wondered into his comm link.

"Everything here is a hologram. Even some of the enemies."

"Then how do I know if I'm being hurt or not? And for that matter, how do I kill a hologram?"

"Same way you kill anything else. Our holo tech is pretty advanced, and it can detect any shot you make," was Axl's reply. Marx shrugged and stepped forward, but then the floor began to rearrange itself. Directly in front of him, the street jutted upward above his head.

"So this is an obstacle course too?"

"It can be, if I keep messing with the controls..."

"Axl!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to have a little fun with it," Axl said.

"I'm starting to think you're not really over the whole 'me shooting you' thing."

"Well, stop thinking and get to work, rookie."

"Yes ma'm," Marx sighed. Jumping and grabbing the edge of the pillar before him, he swung himself up and came face to face with what appeared to be a mining hat lying on top of the pillar. He bent down and grabbed it, but when he tried to lift it up he found there was something small and black under the hat. His momentary confusion bought the comical little robot time to fire an energy bullet into his chest, which he shook off and subsequently kicked the robot off the edge of the pillar and down into the pit below.

"What kinda joke is this, Axl?" he asked.

"I thought you might want to start small."

"Crank it up, then. I don't have all day."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Axl sneered. Marx jumped down into the pit where he had kicked the little robot into, where he found the little creature rolling around on its hat, trying to stand up.

"Easy there, little guy. Looks like you need a hand," he taunted it, grabbing the brim of its hat and setting it back on its feet. It gave out a warbling cry and took cover under its yellow hat. Marx chuckled. The mechaniloid was starting to grow on him. Leaving it in the pit, he jumped up and climbed out. No sooner had he done so than a silver-clawed fist collided with his stomach, knocking him back into the pillar.

Before him, as he fell back into the pit, he saw a tall, crimson reploid modeled like a dragon. He landed next to the little robot, which was pitifully trying to attack him. As he tried to push himself to his feet, the dragon slammed down on his back and pushed him into the ground. He grunted, briefly wondering how a hologram could inflict physical force on him. Before his thoughts could continue, the dragon's claws closed on his head and pulled him to his feet. He pulled a handgun out of its holster, but before he could bring it to bear he was punched again.

Marx stumbled back against the wall, instinctively jumping as the reploid called out, "Hadoken!" and sent a fireball his way. He grabbed the edge of the pit and hoisted himself up where he had more space. This reploid sounded familiar. It jumped up and stood before him, watching him with slitted eyes. Now he remembered! This was Magma Dragoon, the Maverick that destroyed the original Sky Lagoon, whose infamy had long outlived his brief rebellion.

Realizing he had dropped his handgun in the pit, Marx decided to go with plan B, although he hoped he wouldn't have to pay for any structural damage to the holo room. He brought up the shoulder cannon program, and he felt the armor casings on his shoulders fold vertically backward to reveal the cylindrical guns beneath. His targeting reticule dropped down over his right eye and three thin red laser beams flickered to life from an extension on his helmet.

He braced himself as Dragoon rushed at him, firing his shoulder cannons at point blank range. The discharging plasma boomed with sledgehammer intensity throughout the holo room, and the cylindrical cannons snapped back after firing to reduce recoil. Two pulsating plasma slugs slammed into Dragoon's chest, and his entire torso blew apart. As bits of metal and wires rained down on him, he was sure this wasn't a hologram.

"Got any more for me?" Marx asked casually.

"Where...where'd those shoulder cannons come from?"

"I play my cards pretty close."

"They aren't standard issue," Axl stated matter-of-factly.

"You're right. They came from a good friend of mine who didn't believe in self-fulfilling prophecies." When Marx didn't elaborate, Axl dropped the subject.

"I take it you want to continue?"

"Yeah, but I wanna ask you a question. Why wasn't that Dragoon clone a hologram? I'm pretty sure that little hat thing wasn't a hologram either."

"You're talking about the met? Yeah, since mets are so simple to make, we deploy real ones. And, since Dragoon was supposed to be the final enemy in the training session, we make him out of real components for a greater challenge. Of course, the parts and armor we use are the cheapest on the market so we can make a bunch of them."

"Okay then. I'm just supposed to keep going straight?"

"You'll know what to do." Marx nodded, then realized that Axl couldn't see him, and sheepishly replied into the comm link instead. He stepped forward, and suddenly reploids began running out of the walls and into the street. Most of them had glowing crimson eyes symptomatic of Maverick Virus infection, so Marx began firing his plasma cannons at them. As each energy slug hit, the target would dissipate in a cloud of pixels.

He noticed that they were firing back at him, but when a bullet hit he didn't feel anything. Of course, he thought, they're holograms. Soon though, the crowd of Mavericks disappeared suddenly and the walls returned to the original white. "You idiot," Axl said through the comm. "You took too many hits. Just 'cause you can't feel them doesn't mean they don't count. There's laser sensors in your armor that can pick up the light from the bullets, like laser tag."

"..Damn. Now that you've made me feel like a dumbass, can I give it another shot?" he asked. There was no reply. "Axl? Hello?"

"...uh, not right now. Can you come back to the control room?" Marx could hear voices behind Axl's.

"Sure," he said, beginning to walk back through the hall. Near the entrance, he found the little met walking about in circles, warbling and tripping over its own feet. With a smile, Marx took off his helmet, picked up the met and placed it on his head. He felt the little robot's feet shuffle about on his shock of brown hair, then settle down so it looked like he was wearing the miner's hat.

He stepped out of the holo chamber and into the waiting room where Zero stood, looking through a clipboard of papers. "Alright Marx, I've got some details about joining the Hunters that you need to work out," he said, without looking up. "First off, I need you...to..." As Zero looked up, he noticed the new helmet Marx was wearing and words stopped coming out of him. He opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again, only to decide that it was better left shut. Without another word and with his eyes locked onto Marx's bizarre new fashion statement, he turned around and left the room after depositing the papers he had on the coffee table.

Marx chuckled and swiped the papers off of the table, forgetting that he had a robot on his head as the met was making itself quite comfortable to wear. He scanned through them quickly, then opened another door and walked into the operations room where Axl was sitting. The young reploid was hysterical. "I've never seen Zero look so surprised before," he said between fits of laughter. "You blew his mind."

"Is it really that easy to do?" Marx asked, arching an eyebrow for emphasis. He couldn't resist an appreciative audience.

"The new hat looks ridiculous, by the way."

"I kinda like him, now that he's stopped trying to attack me."

"Once the holo room is deactivated, metools become docile. You're not the first person to keep one for a pet," Axl said, standing up.

"But the first to wear one as a hat, I take it."

"Definitely the best." Marx merely shrugged. "Do you wanna know your score?"

"...My score?" he echoed.

"I mean, how well you did in the holo room. You need a certain score before you pass."

"Why would I need to pass?"

"To go on missions."

"Well, what's the point of being a Maverick Hunter if I can't go on missions?" Marx argued. He was aware that, if he failed, it was an excuse to avoid killing again, but the thought of being told what he couldn't do was more unbearable than the thought of retiring more Mavericks.

"Most Hunters work in the hangars until they pass the test. Besides, you said you had reading to do, right?"

"I guess so, but..." Marx wasn't really looking forward to being near Nephtis just yet. Distantly stalking was okay, but working with her was not. "Did I pass?" he asked hopefully. Axl glanced at the control console.

"Well...you need 250 points to pass, and you got 293."

"Sweet!" Marx exclaimed, but Axl cut him off.

"Minus the points taken off for getting damaged, that equals about 143 points."

"What? You're kidding, right?"

"Marx, you just stood there. This isn't a game. Even if it was a game, you're still not supposed to let yourself get shot – "

"I know! I just wasn't thinking."

"...unless you have a lot of extra lives or something, but you still suck if you're not even gonna – "

"Look, in real life, I would have taken cover!"

"Then be glad you can do this over again," Axl said with finality. Sighing in defeat, Marx turned around and left the room with Axl behind him. He scanned through the papers he had taken off the table.

"New room, division assignment...looks like I'm in the 15th. I've never heard of that one before."

"That's because the Rookie Hunter Division doesn't do anything but menial tasks – "

"Wait...rookie? What does Zero think I am?"

"Stop cutting me off," Axl snapped. "I was placed in the 15th for a little bit too. Everybody's gotta do it. If you're good enough, they'll put you in a real division soon," Axl explained.

"Great..." Marx muttered.

"You gotta crawl before you can walk."

"Did you steal that line from Zero?"

"It's true."

"Yeah, but why do I feel like I'm getting the shaft here?"

"It's all part of the initiation. I've been here for two years, and I feel like they still don't take me seriously." Axl snickered as he said this, realizing it would be even harder for his fellow Hunters to take someone wearing a met on their head seriously.

"I'm gonna go check out my room. Where do all of you eat?"

"There's a cafeteria to the right of the lobby. Me, X, Zero, Selene, and a few other Hunters meet there at 18:30 every night. I guess you're gonna be there?"

"Yeah. I'll see you," Marx said, stopping as they walked by an elevator.

"Alright, later then," Axl called back as he kept going. Marx hit the 'up' button and soon the sleek elevator doors opened and he stepped inside. Once he arrived at his room, he found the door open and the interior dark. The bed against the right wall was just as spartan as the one in his last room, and the regen capsule next to it was just as nondescript. A metal table stood opposite the bed, lavishly equipped with a lamp on a flexible stand. Lying in the lamp's shadow was Marx's only possession, Nephtis's book on Egyptian mythology, which someone must have moved from his cell.

Also, the far wall was made of glass, though the drapes pulled over it obscured most of his view. He tugged them open and light spilled into the room. The metool on his head warbled and stood up, looking with big saucer-eyes at the city in the distance. Marx walked to the bed, took the little robot off his head and set it on the soft material. "Now I've gotta name you, don't I?" he asked it. The primitive mechaniloid didn't respond, but seemed rather transfixed with the lamp on the desk. "Okay, then. How 'bout Darius?" The metool blinked in response. "Yeah, Darius it is."

He grabbed the little robot and pulled it towards him. After looking around, he found that the little cross on its helmet was a button. The button slid open a panel on the met's head, and the little machine shut down. Marx found a small, PDA-shaped device protruding from the metal casing of the metool's brain, which he pulled out and began to tinker with. Eventually, he input the name Darius into the PDA and slid it back into his new pet. The panel closed and Darius's eyes flickered back to life.

It began to look about the room, but when Marx called out its name it snapped to attention like a balloon-sized soldier. He chuckled. "I'm making friends already, old man."

End of chapter 8