Megaman X: Elysium Rising
Chapter 21: Preparations
By Genoscythe
AN: Hey everyone, glad to hear from you all. Yes, Tempest is working with the Mavericks (In fact, his name was mentioned in the beginning of chapter 19), and yes, the quote was really obscure. If you really want to find it though, I'll give you another hint: The quote is thought by X when he's talking to the Lifesaver, and again by Marx when he's in a similar situation.
PS: If you noticed any spacing errors or missing words in my previous chapters, it's because Fanfiction dot net (apparently it won't let me put in internet addresses, so I've gotta spell out the dot for you to even see the address) hates Word format. I think I fixed this by using HTML format again, but let's all cross our fingers just in case.
It was just past noon by the time Marx had finished lunch. Darius chirped happily, rolling about on the glass restaurant table. Marx shared none of the little robot's sunny disposition. Congratulations Marx, he thought, absently staring at his drink. You managed to fall in love with an international criminal. Of all the women in Neo Tokyo, it had to be her, didn't it? He tossed back the rest of his drink. I was expecting a lot, but I sure as hell wasn't expecting that.
Shortly after Nephtis was finished, he left the apartment without a word, Darius in tow. He needed to get away for a bit, so he found a cheap restaurant and used the last of his pocket change to buy a hamburger and some weak reploid beer. It hadn't gone down well, but then, what would if you had just found out that your crush was once part of the world's largest crime syndicate? He had taken Darius along for support, but it turned out that the cheery metool didn't help matters much.
Sighing, angry that the meal hadn't taken his mind off of Nephtis, he remembered something that might. He felt for the tiny nub beneath his skin, just behind his left ear. He depressed it, and his comm. link activated. Marx found X's frequency in his memory, and sent out a call.
"Marx?" The soft voice answered.
"Hey, X. How'd you make it?"
"Huh?"
"That maverick," Marx began. "Don't tell me you forgot already. That thing blew the disposal plant into bite-sized pieces, and you were in the middle of it!"
"Oh, that." X said as if it were nothing. "While I was being repaired, Douglas whipped up a program to absorb the maverick's kinetic energy."
"...just like that?" Marx's eyes were wide. It had been a matter of three hours since X was sent back to HQ until he appeared on the roof of the disposal plant.
"You'd be amazed at what Douglas can do under pressure. So, when I tackled the thing, I absorbed all of its energy and released it as safely as I could."
Marx couldn't help but laugh. "Safely?"
"Trust me, none of us would have survived if the explosion were at its original potency."
"So you survived because you released the energy."
"That's right."
"Alright..." Marx would let it drop at that. He had more pressing things to ask X about. "The Lifesaver said you wanted me to call you. He also said that I'm part of the 17th division now. So, what gives?"
"Heh. It was Zero's suggestion, really. He said that anyone who could keep up with him and Axl deserved better than the 15th. I believe him. I'm impressed you made it."
"I didn't exactly keep up with them..." Marx said, suddenly feeling the need to be modest. "I was more like a spectator for the whole thing."
"It's still an accomplishment that you made it back in one piece. Err... I mean, less than five pieces." X corrected himself, and Marx grimaced. He shifted his right arm, and heard a disquieting metallic scrape from his new joint. It's only temporary, he told himself.
"So it doesn't matter that I'm not even cleared for combat?"
"I'd say you passed the test with flying colors, wouldn't you?"
Marx chuckled. "I got my arm and legs broken, but sure."
"That's nothing. At least you're still alive, right?"
"Small consolidation," Marx muttered, picking up Darius and kicking in the chair as he left the tiny restaurant. "So, why'd you tell me to call you?"
"Zero wants to celebrate for the battle yesterday, so he's throwing a little party out on the docks tonight. You're invited, if you've got nothing else to do." Marx was surprised at this. They still didn't know him very well, and already they were inviting him to parties? It was definitely flattering, but a bit unusual nonetheless.
"Ah...sure. Sounds great," he said, not sure what to say. "I'm free."
"You can invite more people if you want. This isn't a private affair."
"Come on, X. Say it like you mean it," Marx said with a chuckle.
"These are Zero's words, not mine. I've never been much of a crowd person."
"Don't worry about it, I'm only inviting one more." Darius chirped. "Make that two."
"Fine with me. So far it's just me, Alia, Selene, Axl, and Zero. Things aren't turning out quite like Zero wanted them to be."
"He was hoping for more?"
"Problem is, everybody's afraid to party with Zero."
Marx raised an eyebrow. "Why?" He heard a chuckle on the other end.
"We're meeting by the west entrance at 8." With that, X cut the link. Marx paused, a sense of foreboding filling him. Then, he shook it off and continued walking down the street. Now, he was ready to face Nephtis again.
"This man came to me last night, in a dream," Sigma began. Tread Havoc leaned against a wall, resting the long cannon on his shoulder against the cold metal. "He told me he came from Elysium, and that if I followed his instructions, we could wipe this world clean!" Havoc nodded. He already knew all this. "He even told me where it is." Havoc raised an eyebrow. Juno was trusting enough to tell Sigma that? He thought.
"Think of it, Havoc!" Sigma continued. "Our holy war is almost at an end! We can return this planet to the glory it once held..." Before humanity interfered, Havoc added. "However, the man told me something else. He said there was a faction at Elysium that opposed them. They think like Megaman X, that the human race can somehow be salvaged. He said that as we speak, they're manipulating him to their ends. We've got to work quickly."
"What? Just abandon our forces here?"
"Essentially, yes. Once we reach Elysium, our forces here will become irrelevant."
"This is quite a risk. How do you even know it exists? You said it happened in a dream."
A smile broadened on Sigma's bald head. "You know it's not. I saw it in your eyes when I first said the name. You know what it is, where it is, and possibly more," he said. Havoc was unable to hide the surprise on his face. How did he learn all of that so quickly? Now it was Havoc's turn to smile.
"You're no fool, Sigma. Juno was right to trust you so quickly." Havoc said. Sigma raised an eyebrow as if to question how he was suddenly so wise. "I wasn't turned maverick through conventional means," he explained. "I was disabled by one of Elysium's purifiers, and they rewrote my processor." Sigma took an intimidating step forward, distrust growing in his eyes. "Don't worry, as long as our goals remain the same, I'm on your side. However, know right now that I'm loyal to Elysium first and foremost."
Sigma nodded his head. "A fair warning, but I have one of my own. I am not one to trifle with, and if I see a hint of deception in you, I'll rip you in half."
Havoc nodded in kind. "Like I said, our goals are the same, and I see no reason why they would change." He opened his mouth to say more, but at that moment an incredible pulsing in his head shattered his thoughts. He fell to his knees, gripping the side of his olive helmet with a gloved fist. It almost felt like something was inside his head, and it was growing too big to be contained within. He let out a guttural growl as the pain intensified and the pulsing quickened.
"Havoc?" Sigma inquired, making no move to help his lieutenant.
"Nothing...sir," he grunted. Faintly, as if a whisper in his ear, he heard someone yelling Get out of my head! The voice was his own. Havoc understood at once. This body's previous identity hadn't been completely erased by Eden. "You're a willful one" he said to the voice.
I never gave in to the virus, I won't give in to you!
"Please, stop this. It's no more than an annoyance, but an annoyance is something I don't need right now."
Damn you, give me back my body!
"I couldn't even if I wanted to. This is no longer your body."
...bastard. You're worse than the mavericks.
"Fool. You have no idea what we're trying to accomplish, do you? You've blinded yourself, like the other Maverick Hunters, to the infestation plaguing your world. Humans are killing this planet, and if we don't do something soon, there won't be anything left of it."
You can't kill innocent people like this. I know what you're gonna do, but it's not going to happen.
"Why...are you resisting?" The pressure in Havoc's head increased tenfold. "You'd damn this planet before you'd let us activate the program?"
I'd give humanity another chance.
"You're inviting destruction." This had gone on long enough. Tread Havoc summoned all his will, and crushed the power surging in his head. He collapsed completely, the venture having totally drained his energy.
"Havoc?" Sigma said again. "What the hell are you going on about?"
"It's...this body's former host. He won't relinquish control."
"You mean Havoc, former commander of the 4th Overland Division?" Sigma asked knowingly.
"You knew him?"
"We fought together before the virus opened my eyes." Sigma replied. Tread Havoc nodded, slowly rising to his feet.
"Sigma!" An energetic voice called from down the hall.
"Tempest..." Sigma growled, shifting his hulking new body and looking out the door of his private quarters.
"Bad news," The foreboding black form glided down the hallway, dusky cloak billowing around him and casting shadows like spindly fingers on the walls. "Kinetic Arachno was just destroyed by the Maverick Hunters."
"So..." Sigma muttered, then looked up at the newcomer. "That was the earthquake earlier?"
"Yeah. What's worse, I think they might've found us."
"What?"
"Arachno fled here for a reason. It was trying to get back to safety, and I think the Maverick Hunters realized this. We found two of their scouts outside combing the junkyard." Sigma growled, then swore explosively.
"We don't have time for this!" He yelled. "Enough was on the line as it was. We're moving things ahead a bit. Tempest, prepare the strike team for tomorrow."
"Strike team?" Tread Havoc inquired.
"We need an aircraft to get to Elysium, so we're stealing one from the Doppler airport." Sigma explained.
"Sigma, our strike team won't be ready for at least three days. Every bit of our resources are being used up to repair the base or battle the Maverick Hunters." Tempest said. Sigma sighed.
"We have to abandon this base anyway. Cease the repairs."
"Sigma...If we stop now, we're totally defenseless. We'd still need another day to get the team out, and in that time the Maverick Hunters could strike and wipe us out in one swoop."
Sigma looked between Tempest and Havoc, unsure of what to do. With an exasperated sigh, he announced, "We play it defensive. Continue the repairs." Tempest seemed pleased by this; his mandibles clattering approvingly. Havoc paid neither of them any heed, lost in another battle inside his thoughts.
"I'll inform everyone of your decision," Tempest said, giving a curt bow and disappearing down the hallway. Sigma left the room as well, for there was much that still needed to be done.
Marx was ecstatic that Nephtis had agreed to go to the party with him, and for the rest of the day he felt like he was walking on air. In the many hours until the party, he had gotten better acquainted with their neighbors. Directly to their left was an old man named Ben Hyuga, a survivor of the original Tokyo. He claimed to be the descendant of a long line of mystical samurai, but Marx had dismissed it as an old man's fantasies. He did have a katana, but it could have easily been bought online. The others were far less intriguing, except for the fact that most, if not all, of them were Japanese and had ancestors who survived Dr. Wily's final weapon that ripped Tokyo away from Honshu and the rest of Japan.
Another time killer was helping Nephtis install some of the various machines she had bought for their apartment. They had to completely tear apart the sink in order to install a filter in one of the pipes that converted normal water into reploid fuel. Of course, taking it apart was far easier than putting it back together, and he got a thorough nagging from his roommate about how he had carelessly ripped apart the old wooden counter with no plans on putting it back together.
Next was the shower, which also needed a filter. Even at its highest temperature, the shower was barely warm enough for a reploid, and the filter increased the shower's heat threshold. Marx realized, as he screwed the head back on, that he needed one badly. It had been at least a week and a half, and though reploids didn't get dirty nearly as fast as humans did, his synthetic skin was encrusted with bits of rubble and dirt.
However, as soon as he stood back to admire his handiwork, Nephtis had barged into the tiny bathroom and shoved him out the door. "Hey!" He called. "I was gonna use that!" No reply from behind the closed door. He heard the sound of clothes piling on the floor, and gulped inwardly when the mental image popped in his head. Still, he wanted a damn shower. "Akila!" Still nothing. Exasperated, he leaned against the wall. Unable to think of anything else to yell, he resorted to, "I was there first!"
The hiss of running water drowned out his voice, so he did the only thing he could; he began programming more phrases into Darius. The tiny PDA-like device was hard to work with, and he repeatedly found himself pressing two buttons at once. To make matters worse, he had to specify when every phrase was supposed to be said, which succeeded at being both time-consuming and frustrating. By the time he was done with three phrases, the water ceased running.
After a minute of silence, Akila's voice came muffled through the door, "Uh, Marx...we have a problem."
"What? Don't tell me I didn't put the filter on tight enough, because I-"
"There's no towels," she said flatly. He sat stock still for a moment, then he suddenly felt his face turn beet red.
"Ah, well..." He looked around the room. He didn't see any towels. "Uh, I don't see anything..."
"Forget it, I'll look." Marx's eyes were fixed on the door when she said this, and as the door swung open, he panicked. He didn't know how she'd react if he saw her naked, and he didn't know if his body would let him look away. It didn't, but to his surprise (and disappointment, to a degree), she stepped out with a white towel wrapped tightly around her shapely form.
As soon as she saw his face, she burst into peals of laughter. "Got ya!" She said in between fits of hysteria. "Oh, if only you could see that look on your face right now!" Marx blinked in astonishment, first because of her devious trick, and second because he couldn't believe she had just played a joke on him. This was the same woman who had once thrown a helmet at him, right? It couldn't be. That Nephtis was totally devoid of happiness. This one was giggling like a child at the ridiculous look on his face.
Despite everything, he felt himself smiling. "Cute. Real cute. Now dry off and get dressed, I gotta get ready too," he pushed his chair out and stood, the wooden floor squealing with the effort to hold his mechanical body. As he passed Nephtis, his hand connected to her bare arm for a fleeting, electrifying moment. As he shut the door, he let out a sharp sigh. She was driving him crazy, and not even her past could stop the feelings within him. Marx knew he could learn to forget it, and accept her for who she was, not who she had been. Still, he couldn't help but wonder how many banks she had robbed, how many people she had killed, how many lives she had ruined before Tempest destroyed her world.
End of chapter 21
AN: I'm surprised nobody mentioned anything 'familiar' about Isis in the last chapter. Oh well. That'll just make things more interesting later on. Spring break's over for me, so I can't make any guarantees about the next update. Of course, I'll try to get it out as soon as possible, but my crazy English teacher'll probably crush my spirit again in a week or so.