Megaman X: Elysium Rising

Mission 4: Intercept Maverick Bio-weapon

Chapter 19: Last Resort

By Genoscythe

Big thanks to everyone who keeps this story going: windwingxs for constant patience and positive comments, Dragonman (who I swear can read my mind; I was thinking about putting Zero's weapons in about the time I readhis review) for contributing so many ideas for me to steal, Darkzero 12 for keeping my rampant will to writein check, Princess Zidet forbeinga master at making a writer feel good about himself, Zero Asakura for showing his support (your english is fine, don't worry about it. Better thansomeamericans I've seen), and everyone else that keeps this thing moving (sorry if I didn't mention you, it's getting late and I'm having trouble sifting through reviews for people I haven't mentioned yet. Just know I'm equally thankful for your support). Now, on with theway overdue show, eh?

The entropy was almost oppressive in the dark room. However, Sigma was used to such entropy. In fact, he quite thrived on it. He drank in the smell of death, the smashed machinery, the massive claw marks raked into the walls. The shattered test chamber was like a work of art, and if Sigma's dream were to come true, the whole world would be a reflection of this chaos, this misunderstood beauty.

Sigma didn't have much time to reflect on his visions as Tread Havoc appeared at his side. "We lost Kinetic Arachno somewhere in the city, but if this is any indication of its power," he swept his armored hand around the room. "That may be more good than bad."

"What kind of damage did it do to the base before it escaped?" Sigma asked, cutting right to the point.

"Uh...well, it's a 'she' now," Havoc muttered, not sure if that was something Sigma needed to hear or not.

"Explain." Sigma was in no mood for small talk.

"I'll start at the beginning," Havoc stepped forth into the light, and he now stood amidst the chaos. Lesser mavericks were combing the rows of computer consoles on either side of him, picking through dead bodies and debris for anything useful. They were in a low-ceilinged viewing room that led out, through a massive rectangular portal on the other side of the room, to a long test chamber.

"The techs were running target finder simulations on the subject, showing it hostile images and practice drones shaped like Maverick Hunters. However, I can only guess that the target data and that of the scientists themselves matched too closely, and the subject attacked them during the trial."

"How? Didn't the window protect them?"

"We thought it would. But...it looks like we underestimated its abilities. It must have made one of the technicians open the viewing window, and then..." Havoc looked around at the carnage once more. "Someone sounded the alarm, and security was able to contain the thing inside the test chamber. It managed to grab one of our men and...attach itself to his back."

"How?"

"I don't know the specs on this monster. You'll have to ask Tempest. Anyway, it flew out of control when it attached to his back, and it blew the security force away. From there, it used the host body to access the base's AI system."

"And that's why it's a 'she'," Sigma concluded.

"Yes. It downloaded the base's AI, and then she took off toward the city. But, since the AI is a modified form of your virus, she has the instinctual need to kill humans. This could be our lucky break."

"And what about the base? Without the AI, most of our facilities are inoperable."

"A backup system is already being installed. We'll only be running at 48 of normal capacity, but it should serve us well enough until we can re-install a permanent AI."

Sigma growled, a deep guttural sound that was almost feral. "This couldn't have come at a worse time..."

Havoc raised an eyebrow beneath his olive helmet. "And what time is that?"

"I may have found a way to rid us of the humans. All of them." Sigma beckoned for Tread Havoc to come closer. Sigma's subordinate conceded, his form fading into the shadows. "I have seen Elysium." Sigma whispered. Havoc's eyes widened, and his breath quickened.

"How do you know..."

"I will explain later," Sigma gestured toward the midst of the test chamber, three massive claws emerging from the darkness. "This work of art is a bit distracting," he concluded. Havoc shuddered slightly. I may share Sigma's burning hatred for humans... he thought, but I could never share his admiration of entropy.

Marx spun about, his eyes darting back and forth. The inside of the factory was darker than he had assumed on his way in. A lot darker. Having to rely on Night Vision mode was something he had always dreaded in a real fight. Especially when I can't kill my target. Every indistinct green blob looked like every other, and he feared that if he actually found the maverick, he would mistake it for a piece of machinery and fire on it.

Marx had tracked the maverick down to an abandoned factory in the wastelands outside Neo Tokyo City, and Zero and Axl had caught up to him on ride chasers. They had entered the abandoned factory and fallen into some kind of pit while searching for a light switch. This brought them to their present situation, groping in the dark for a possibly non-existent light switch with a deadly reploid lurking nearby. Giving up on trying to find the enemy, he lowered his gun and tapped his comm. link.

"Zero? Axl? Any luck?"

"Can't see a GOD DAMN THING!" was Zero's reply. Marx waited, but nothing came from Axl.

"Axl? Did you pick up a trail?" Still nothing. His proverbial heart rate increasing, he asked again, "Where are you, Axl?" He had barely formed the last words when his eyes were awash with white static. He quickly switched out of NV mode, and found that the lights were now on. Marx's skin paled when he realized where they were. They were standing in the midst of a waste disposal plant for dead reploids.

Torn, shattered torsos, heads, arms, and entire bodies were piled high around him. Bloody faces leered at them from under their comrades' corpses. He looked down a narrow alley dug through the bodies to see Zero, looking equally disgusted, around at their surroundings. "I knew we were in the Maverick Disposal plant, but I didn't know we were actually with the disposed mavericks..." Zero muttered, making his way to where Marx was standing.

A clatter sent both hunters twirling to their left. Atop one of the trash piles stood Axl, triumph beaming on his face. "I found the light switch!" He called down to them, and Zero gave a thumbs-up in response. The young hunter skidded down the sloping heap and came to a stop in front of his companions. "So how does something so big and reckless manage to hide from us for so long?" Axl inquired.

"Maybe it's not hiding," Zero offered. Almost as quickly as he said this, the ground between them exploded and flung each of the hunters in different directions. Marx landed on his back and flipped over, his legs throwing sparks off the ground as he tried to kill his momentum. He looked to his right as Zero landed near him.

"How'd you know?" Marx yelled over the roar of another explosion.

"Just a hunch," Zero offered as he looked up. The factory was shaped like an oval, and for the most part, hollow. However, suspended platforms hung overhead like mechanical clouds, used by the workers of the plant whom had long ago abandoned the dying factory. On one of these platforms clung the maverick, its single red eye blazing furiously. Its head snapped back, and the heap of reploids next to him flew apart, raining bloody reploid limbs in all directions.

Marx raised his automatic pistol, but then lowered it. He didn't trust his accuracy, not when so much was on the line. Instead, he ran through the rows of dead reploids as the creature continued raining down invisible destruction on them. On his left, Axl did the same. However, he saw Axl stop out of the corner of his eye, and he stopped as well. The ebony Maverick Hunter got down on one knee and began fishing for something in a small belt that Marx had never noticed before.

Axl pulled forth something that looked like a silver cube, but when he pressed a button on the side, it opened and elongated on both sides into a small rifle. Marx's jaw hung open as a handle and trigger slid out the bottom and Axl grabbed it in one hand. Steadying it on his left arm, he fired a needle-thin blue laser beam that struck the creature's platform, piercing the propulsion engine.

With a wail, the platform sputtered, shook, and came crashing into a soft bed of reploid corpses. Marx and Axl stood with baited breath, waiting for a concussive blast to tear them apart. None came, and they loosened a bit. However, since there was no explosion, the maverick was still alive. An unearthly howl filled the plant, and the pile of reploids was blown apart with blinding power. A reploid torso slammed into Marx, and he was sent sprawling onto the bloody metal floor.

His vision awash with static, his left hip rotor damaged, he made no move to get up right away. He heard more shots, presumably from Axl, and heard the pounding of heavy footsteps, or clawsteps ,as it were. Groaning, Marx got to his feet with his pistol ready. He caught a glimpse of the maverick scaling the far wall, screeching and throwing invisible balls of kinetic energy at Axl.

For a brief moment, Marx wondered where Zero had gone. Then, as soon as the thought occurred to him, he noticed a flash of red running across one of the platforms above. Zero leapt from platform to platform, and just as the creature reached his height, he jumped and slashed downward with his beam saber. The maverick fell backward, but one of its legs refused to follow it, as Zero had hacked it off. As Zero fell, he turned off his beam saber and jammed the hilt into the wall, puncturing the weak metal and effectively stopping his descent. He hung, one arm on his beam saber hilt, and began raining plasma bolts on the falling maverick with his other hand.

Every shot connected with its arms, and it screamed. The creature crashed to the ground, contorting in spasms of pain. Zero ripped the beam saber out of the wall and he plummeted the rest of the way down, landing next to the writhing maverick. "Go for the arms!" he yelled as he re-activated his saber and took a slash at the creature's remaining arms. However, before he could connect a hit, he was blown back into a pile of reploid carcasses.

The maverick was on its reploid feet, and soon scurrying up the wall with renewed haste. Axl fired several shots, but they all went wide. Knowing that he would be useless trying to stop the creature, Marx ran to where Zero had fallen. He found the hunter on his feet, the now-familiar fire in his eyes. When Zero didn't' respond to Marx's presence, he tapped him on the shoulder.

This seemed to shake Zero out of his motionless stupor, and he wordlessly leapt into the air, grabbing hold of a platform and swinging himself up. He continued like this, jumping from platform to platform, until it made Marx dizzy to keep watching. He decided to seek out Axl, who he hoped was feeling more articulate.

"Hey Axl, should we follow him?" Marx asked, pointing upward.

"Do we really have a choice?"

"...guess not," Marx was hoping Axl would share his streak of cowardice, but such wasn't the case. Axl immediately spotted an elevator at the far end of the pit, lying against the wall. They hurried in it, and Axl pressed the uppermost button. The elevator lurched to life, and crawled up the side of the pit.

It picked up speed as it cleared the pit and became suspended in mid air. Marx watched as the layers of floating platforms below them faded away, and before long the elevator stopped completely. When the doors slid open, the two hunters were assaulted with a harsh red sunset. They were now on the roof of the disposal plant.

They ran out of the elevator and onto a catwalk clinging precariously to the edge of the building. Above and below them, catwalks and pipes criss-crossed into a veritable maze of steel. Axl looked to Marx and said, "I'm taking a look around. Stay here unless I call you."

"What, do you plan to-" Marx began chidingly, but his words died in his throat as a pair of paper-thin white wings emerged from the small of Axl's back. "...grow wings?" He finished meekly, and Axl chuckled. He leapt into the air, and a propulsion system that Marx had never seen before came to life on the sides of the ebony hunter's boots.

Axl was lifted into the air, and he wove through the maze of pipes expertly until he was hovering over the plant. "I see Zero and the maverick fighting on the roof. See if you can climb up the pipes," he said over the comm. link.

"Who do you think I am, Zero?" Marx muttered as he attempted to leap up to the pipe overhead. He returned to Earth instantly, having come nowhere near to reaching the pipe. He tried again, coming only an inch closer. The battle's gonna be over by the time I get up this first damn pipe... he thought as he tried again. Sighing in frustration, he looked about him.

His eyes came across a ladder hugging the side of the plant. Mentally cursing himself, he ran to the ladder and began hauling himself up three rungs at a time, the old metal bending under his heavy frame. This is about the most un-cool way I could possibly get up there...damn it, why didn't my old man think ahead and spend all his money on upgrades for me?

When Marx reached the top, he was greeted by an odd sight. The arachnid maverick was exchanging blows with Zero's beam saber, its claws glowing an ethereal green like the eyes of its host body. Axl stood by, looking helpless. Marx made his way to Axl and tapped him on the shoulder. "What the hell's going on? Aren't you gonna help him?"

Axl shrugged. "I tried, but I might as well shoot myself in the head. He's a madman when he's like this, and it'd be more dangerous for all of us if I tried to help."

"...so we just stand here?"

"For now. Wait and see what plays out. We still haven't gotten word from HQ on how to deal with this thing." When they had arrived at the factory, Zero had sent word to HQ and told them to send someone with a way to destroy the monster safely. So far, nobody had arrived. They watched on helplessly as Zero battered the thing with his saber; it looked as if he had set the power frequency to the lowest level so it wouldn't penetrate the maverick's skin.

Suddenly, a million things seemed to happen at once. First, Zero was hit hard by a flailing spider limb. Then, a flash of blue light erupted right in front of Marx and Axl. The light dissipated, and Megaman X stood between them and the monster. His buster arm looked different; it must have been swapped for an older part to complete repairs faster. Another change in X was that his armor was now a light shade of purple.

Marx didn't know why X's armor had changed color, but he hoped X had found a solution. Then, the creature roared and charged at the newcomer. X, however, remained still. When the maverick was close enough for X to sneeze on, his thrusters flared to life and he blasted forward faster than Marx thought possible. He slammed his buster into the maverick's single red eye, and the roar became distorted, now more like a cry of agony.

The roof appeared to be where the maverick parts were unloaded, for there was a massive hole in the middle that lead down into the factory itself. X's momentum propelled both he and the maverick forward, and over the edge of the hole. Marx held his breath as the infamous Maverick Hunter plunged into the darkness, his buster jammed into the maverick's head. He waited, and at length, he heard a loud crash resonate from below.

After moments of silence, a voice filled his head. "Get ready!" X yelled onto the comm. frequency. Both Axl and Zero must've heard it too, for they tensed as well. Then, all hell broke loose. First came a guttural rumble, then an outpouring of sound and force unlike anything Marx had ever experienced, and doubted ever would experience again. The building seemed to split apart at the seams, the air around him seemed to bend, and almost like a giant bubble ready to pop, everything stood still.

Then, the ground beneath them was sent flying into the air, and the roof snapped into a myriad of large chunks. Marx felt their little island teeter, and it began to tilt on its side. "Jump!" Zero yelled, leaping deftly to one of the other pieces of debris. Axl followed suit, and Marx did as well, though much less gracefully and came much closer to falling. The debris was suspended in the air for only a moment by the final release of force, then began the rapid plummet.

Zero ordered them to stand at opposite sides of their chunk to keep it from flipping over, and it seemed to be working, for a little bit. However, physics would not let them off easily, and the debris began to break up. Following Zero's example, Marx began jumping again, from odd-shaped block to flat sheet of metal, always moving to keep from being thrown out into the open air.

Marx looked down with horror to see that they were nearing the ground, and quickly. Axl jumped off his piece of debris and activated his wings. Zero seemed to be waiting for the right time to move. And Marx had no idea what the hell he was supposed to do. So, he resigned himself to watching Zero, waiting and hoping he could copy the legendary hunter's move.

Zero jumped, and a second later Marx followed him. He felt the wind tear at his body, and he noticed the ground was less than a hundred feet away. When he looked to Zero, he saw that he was in a rolling position. He's rolling to absorb the impact. Not quite as smooth as Axl's way, but I guess it'll work. We are reploids, after all... Marx had barely gotten into position when he collided with the ground, right arm first. He cried out as he heard a scrape, followed by several cracks and snaps. White hot fire shot up his arm and several other places on his body as he sank to the ashen ground. He tried to move his arm, but nothing happened, apart from an unhappy whirr and some more scraping sounds. Pain surrounded his body, and he had not the strength to fight it. Come to think of it, Marx was getting awfully tired. Before he knew it, he had shut down, and he could fight no more.

Mission 4 status: Completed

Maverick Leader: Retired

Main Objective: Completed

Secondary Objective: Completed

Note: Mission parameters would not allow for safe retrieval of data sample

End of Chapter 19

AN: Whoah. From 4 months of inactivity to an entire chapter (technically half, but the rewritten section is twice as long as what it was before). Oh well, finicky inspiration aside, I'm way more pleased with this chapter now, and hopefully all of you will be too (not like you ever knew what the original was, and you never will, because it's crap. Into the incinerator with ye!). Thanks for giving me the green light to remake this chapter, even though time turned out to not be an issue. I won't make any promises, not after what happened with this chapter, but I'll try my damndest to get the next chapter out in a week or two. Remember, next time is Nephtis's past, so you've got a lot to look forward to!

I'd also like to point out how ironic and sad my last comment was on chapter 18: "So, with any luck, it'll be a big boost to my will to write; not like I've never said that before, but one can always hope." This just proves that not only is fate a cruel mistress, but also one with a really twisted sense of humor. Thanks a lot, lady.