Megaman X: Elysium Rising
Mission 5: Destroy Maverick Headquarters
Chapter 27: Immortal
By Genoscythe
"I guess this is goodbye...old friend," Axl said, holding the soda can up high for all to see. Then with a flick of his wrist, the can flew skyward and Axl raised the Napalm Cannon. A second before he fired, a silver blur snatched up the can and flew back to the ground as if yanked by a string. Axl looked down at Zero, P Killer attached to his arm. The soda can was speared on one of its blades. "Damn it, Zero! Let me have my moment!"
"Watch the language, kid," Zero chided, spinning the soda can on his only available forefinger.
"Oh, you think you're tough?" Axl retorted, throwing down the Napalm Cannon and grabbing for the massive black gun at his feet. "Then dance!" Zero's eyes widened as the gatling gun's barrels began to spin. He took off at a sprint just as the first few bullets blew fist-sized chunks in the wall. As Marx watched, the neocrete around the bullet holes began to freeze over.
"That must be what the cryo rounds are for..." he said, almost to himself. Nephtis was too busy laughing and watching Zero prance about the roof of the parking structure to notice.
"Boys, boys!" Douglas cried, waving his stubby arms in the air. "These aren't toys!" With a sigh, Axl let go of the trigger and Zero slowed to a jog. "If you're going to shoot at something, shoot at the car I found a few levels down!" Axl and Zero took off, boosters ignited. It was a race to see who would get to blow up the vehicle first. Nephtis laughed again, and Marx pulled her to her feet. He ran after them, with the chocolate-haired woman on his heels.
When he finally caught up to them, he saw them both standing stock-still in front of the car. Marx didn't understand why, it was just a cheap sedan.
"What's up, Zero?" he asked.
"...this is the car Alia rented last night," Zero responded, seeming unsure of what to do. "I'm sure of it. I saw her with it when I went to X's."
"What were you doing at X's at night, huh?" Marx said with a grin. However, the joke wasn't well received. Zero whirled around and pointed the P Killer at his head.
"Make another crack like that and we'll have to clean you off the ceiling." His voice was dead serious. Marx found himself unable to reply, so he merely nodded. With a small sense of urgency, he grabbed Nephtis by the hand and led her off to a corner where it was safe to watch.
"So...what do we do about the car?" Axl queried.
"What do you think we do? We blow it to bits."
"But it's Alia's car. X'll maul us!" As if on cue, the elevator nearby opened, and X stepped out of it. He immediately spotted the group of reploids and the nearby pile of weaponry. He made his way over to them, and looked from the gatling gun, to the P Killer, to Alia's car.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"We're doing you a favor," Zero replied, and gave Axl the signal to fire. In a blaze of light and whistling projectiles, the car became Swiss cheese. Frozen Swiss cheese. The crimson Maverick Hunter had already powered up his weapon, and he launched it at the frozen sedan. With the blades spinning, it took several seconds longer to reach the car than if it were closed, but that only allowed them time to savor the moment.
As the spinning wheel of death made contact with the iced car, they all looked away as huge ice chunks were sent toward them. A sound like metal scraping on a chalkboard filled the parking structure, and when the warhead returned to Zero, they all turned back. What remained was an eviscerated pile of ice chunks.
"Uh..." X said slowly. "That was Alia's car, right?"
"Mmhmm," Zero said proudly.
"Do you think she'll mind that it's a pile of frozen metal now?"
"Yeah, but we can fix that," Zero gave Axl a nod, and the little hunter picked up the Napalm Cannon again. He centered the remains of Alia's car in his sights, and let loose one of the four missiles loaded in the barrel. As soon as the first had left the gun, another slid up to replace it. The missile exploded, and a wave of fire sprayed out in every direction. When the smoke cleared, only about half of the car was left. However, what was left was completely frost-free. "There. Now it's just a pile of metal."
X opened his mouth to yell at them, but suddenly stopped himself. "Wait a second. I don't have to worry about it anymore."
"That's the spirit, X!"
X suddenly looked downcast. "You're not mad anymore...Zero?"
"You'd be amazed at what a few new gadgets will do for stress relief." Zero replied, waving the P Killer about haphazardly. "Wanna try some of these beauties out?"
"No thanks, I've gotta get ready to..." he paused. "Go somewhere," he finished, casting an apologetic glance at Zero. "Where's Marx? I heard he was down here."
"Over here, away from the blast radius!" Marx called out, waving a hand from over Nephtis's shoulder. X strode leisurely to their position on the floor, and for the first time Marx noticed a ratty brown bag slung around X's shoulder.
"All right, since you're a real Maverick Hunter now, you'll need a real Maverick Hunter's weapon." X dug through the bag, and pulled out a weapon that looked like an elongated black sub-machinegun. Two immediate differences were the grenade launcher attached to the bottom of the barrel and the large extension resting on top.
"What the..." Marx muttered, taking the weapon in his hands. "It's ancient."
"It belonged to a good friend of mine," X said, sighing heavily. "His name was Drake, and he was killed in the Doppler Rebellion." It was then that Marx found a small disc taped to the side of the weapon.
"This is...?"
"A recording of my optical feeds from the moment he died. Watch it before we leave tonight." X turned around and made for the elevator.
"Why?"
X glanced back, and he could see his face contorted in anguish. "You need to know that we aren't immortal." He looked as if he wanted to say more, but instead he hurried off toward the elevator. Nephtis suddenly sprung up out of Marx's lap and ran after X.
"Commander! Wait!"
"...what?"
"I'm coming with the 17th tonight." She said, a hard edge to her voice. Perhaps she already knew what X was going to tell her.
"Not a chance," he said flatly. Marx stood when he saw the look on his love's face.
"X..." She began, addressing him without his rank for the first time. "If you could give me a good reason, I might listen to you." He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. "However, I know you can't. I know what you're going to say."
"You're a non-combat reploid."
"I'm a woman, you mean?"
"I never said that."
"But you know it. Whether you realize it or not, you automatically think a girl isn't strong enough to take on a maverick."
"Nephtis..." Zero warned from afar. From X's expression, he could tell it was too late.
"Nephtis, you can't imagine..." He rounded on her. "You can't imagine how wrong you are. She was as strong as any of us..." X then noticed that he wasn't making any sense. "I'm sorry. I can't let you come along. You can't fight."
"Bullshit," Nephtis countered. "I'm a custom reploid. I can fight just as well as anything."
X closed his eyes. "You don't have any experience."
"Like hell, I don't!" Marx had caught up to them, and he laid a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off. "I've..." She stopped, realizing that she couldn't tell anyone about her past. "I've had experience." She finished with.
"That's not good enough. I'm not gonna send any more people to their deaths than I absolutely have to." X entered the elevator and shut the doors before Nephtis could reply. Marx gently gave her hand a squeeze.
"It's alright, Akila," he said, while Axl and Zero exchanged worried glances. She returned the squeeze.
"Of course it is," she said, turning around and walking back to their corner.
"So you're going anyway?" He asked, knowing that she wouldn't be so happy otherwise.
"Of course I am," she replied. "And I think I know how to get X to calm down a bit."
"Don't blame him," Zero said, as he had walked over to the two of them. "He was serious about not judging you by your gender. His old girlfriend was a Maverick Hunter, and a damn good one."
"I see," Nephtis murmured. Marx lost interest in the conversation, and he began fiddling with the new weapon X had given him. It wasn't anything special, at least not until he found the two switches above the safety. He flipped one, and suddenly the extension on top of the gun fell forward and locked over the barrel. He turned the weapon over in his hands, and discovered that he now held a shotgun, and not a machine gun.
"Sweet," he muttered, and both Nephtis and Zero gave him a glare. Apparently he was deep into explaining Calliope's death to her, and Marx had interrupted one of the more emotional moments. "Sorry," he said disarmingly. Well, might as well watch the recording, he thought as he picked up the small disc and slid it into the back of his head. As he fell into a comatose state, he could hear a gruff voice talking to him.
"A damn trash heap, of all places," the emerald Maverick Hunter muttered, wading through a pile of reploid corpses with Megaman X close behind him. "Zero'd better know what he's doin', or I'll light that mop of his on fire." X chuckled, and Marx was viewed a glimpse of Zero running about with his hair on fire, most likely a mental image that X had conjured up at the time.
"I'm sure he found a way in already," X said. "Why else would he tell us to go this way?"
"For shits and giggles? I dunno." Drake kicked a reploid torso out of the way. "Swear to god, after this I'm done. No more killing, no more running around, no more wading through shit..." Another mental image came up, and this one caught Marx by surprise. A woman with cinnamon hair, brown with lighter streaks swirling through it, lay on a stark white bed. Her round face broke into a smile, and she reached out a slender hand to grasp X's.
"Come back soon," she said, barely above a whisper. Then, the image snapped back into reality, and X picked up the pace.
"Let's hurry," X remarked as he passed by Drake.
"No, I'd rather slow down. Ya know, enjoy the scenery a bit," he commented dryly.
"I want to see Calliope again..." X said wistfully. "Before we left, she was talking about taking things a little farther." Drake let out a loud whistle.
"It's about damn time," he said with a snicker. "I guess this means you can't die yet."
"Yeah..."
"Hey, speaking of Calliope, there's something I want'cha to tell her."
"Why me?"
"For one thing, I don't think I could do it myself. For another, I may not get the chance."
"Don't say stuff like that."
"I'm not stupid. I know I can't keep up with you, and this Doppler guy's a bona fide psycho. Who knows what kinda crap he has waiting for us?" As soon as he said this, the trash in front of them exploded, and two figures leapt out. Figures X thought he had seen the last of.
"Bit! Byte! What the hell are you doing here?" X growled.
"Hello again, X. If you don't remember..." Bit began.
"...you never killed us," Byte finished. "The good doctor's given us upgrades..."
"...and this time we're playing for keeps."
"You know these cunts?" Drake asked quietly.
"Nightmare Police," X replied. Both Bit and Byte suddenly became awash with light, and the two forms melted into one. Slowly, this mass took shape, and when the light faded away, there stood a four-legged, Anubis-headed monstrosity. A serrated, golden halo floated behind the upper half of the creature.
"The Godkarmachine," they said, their voices merged together. "You can't kill a god, X."
"What about me?" Drake said as he fired an explosive shotgun round into the Godkarmachine's face. The Anubis head snapped back from the blow, and it gave out an ear-rending howl. A moment later, an energy sword was in its hands and it was leaping at the two Maverick Hunters. X rolled to the side, bringing up a buster that looked far different from the one he had now. He began charging up, and watched as Drake dodged a swipe from the beam sword.
Drake fired once more, and the shot glanced off of Bit's shoulder. The Godkarmachine growled and one of its arms came free of its socket. X fired his charged shot, but by then the fist was already upon the green hunter. It grabbed Drake by the waist and slammed him into the ground, and the Godkarmachine turned to X. The charged shot had barely done a thing.
The arm returned, and this time it fired at X. He tried to dodge, but it swerved and grabbed him nonetheless. The appendage hovered for a moment, as if unsure how to proceed. Then, it flew into the wall and pinned X there. "It should be a treat to watch your friend die," Bit and Byte said. X's eyes widened.
"NO!" He screamed, tearing desperately at the hand that held him against the wall. "Drake, RUN!" Ignoring his cries, Drake fired a grenade at the enemy. Bit slashed it in half with the beam sword and charged through the smoke. Drake tried to jump through the monster's blind spot, where its other arm was supposed to be. It reared up, slashing him with one of its front claws. He was knocked into the ground, a jagged cut washing his face in blood.
He tried to get up, but the Godkarmachine bashed him with the hilt of its sword and sent him sprawling again. He was just toying with him. X fired his buster at the beast, but he had a bad angle and most of the shots missed. "Enough," Bit and Byte growled, and they slashed down with their beam sword at the prone hunter. The single blow cut straight through his chest, sending up a burst of blood and electricity. The energy sword had cleaved his reactor in half.
Now, the Anubis-headed mechaniloid turned to X, its front half awash with Drake's blood. X tried to scream, but found that he had lost his voice. Every fiber of his being was filling with rage, and he grabbed the hand around his waist. X crushed the appendage like a tin can, and Marx was startled to find his vision growing red. X dropped to the ground, holding the massive arm in his hand. Bit's face twisted into a snarl, and they galloped at him. X waited as they approached, then threw the arm with all his considerable might.
It smashed the Godkarmachine in the chest, and it was thrown backward. X wasted no time, and jumped onto its back, wrapping his normal arm around Bit's neck and charging his buster arm. Bit stabbed backward with the sword, but X saw every move before it happened. With his buster fully charged, he pressed it against the beast's torso and let loose. Bit roared as he was separated from Byte, and was flung into the trash heap beyond.
Byte, headless, bucked and thrashed as it tried to dislodge X from its back. The Maverick Hunter shoved his buster into the hole that Bit's torso had been attached to, and fired a continuous stream of energy. Byte thrashed once more as its insides lit up, then keeled over on its side. X now strode calmly to Bit's torso, clambering desperately to escape the hunter with murder in his eyes.
X's foot crashed down on Bit, and he was pinned to the ground. He stabbed in futility at the Maverick Hunter, but then X's hand descended and tore Bit's chest open. With his other hand, he grabbed the ovoid reactor core inside and ripped it out with savage ferocity. As soon as Bit stopped twitching, X dropped the reactor and his vision returned to normal. Immediately, he ran to the fallen hunter a few feet away.
Drake was utterly still. Any life he had had, it bled out during the fight. "...Drake?" X said tentatively, not wanting to believe what he saw. His vision suddenly started to blur, and Marx realized that they were tears. "Wait. Don't die yet..." He felt for any sign of life, though his reactor was clearly sliced apart. His breathing became short, mortified rasps as cold reality set in. He stood and tapped his comm. link.
"D-Dr. Cain..." He spoke, choking back sobs.
"What is it, X?" Dr. Cain's worried voice came through.
"Drake...He's dead." X's voice sounded hollow. On the other side, all was silent. After what felt like eons, X said, "Dr. Cain?" No response. X felt too heart-heavy to try again. "No..." he whispered. "You had something to tell Calliope..." He reached out and shook the dead hunter. "Why won't you speak? Heroes are...at least supposed to say something before they die..."
X stood up, wiping away the tears collecting in his eyes. "Dr. Cain, I'm going to bury him here."
"...no..." was the weak reply.
"Why not? He deserves a proper burial."
"...don't think you're the only one who cared about him," Cain said. "I want to see my son again."
"I understand...I'll come back for him when this is over..." The recording suddenly cut to a scene outside, on the parched ground surrounding Doppler's secret lab. X looked back at the collapsed ruins, then forward at the two gravestones fashioned from metal debris. One read 'Drake' and one read 'Doppler'. One was buried in body and one in spirit. X hoisted Drake's corpse over his shoulder, and called for an IT back to HQ.
END RECORDING
When Marx's vision faded back to normal, everyone was gone. At least, all the men. Nephtis remained at his side, resting against the wall with her eyes closed. "Playtime's over?" Marx queried. Nephtis nodded.
"It's almost time," she said shakily.
"What? You, nervous?" He gave her a lopsided grin. "Never thought I'd see the day."
"And you aren't?" she retorted.
"Never," he lied. Although, he had to admit, the recording he had just watched put a damper on his resolve. X is right. At any time, one of us could become another Drake... he thought. Nothing like watching someone else die to remind you of your own mortality.
"...and he just pops out of nowhere and starts slicing people up!" Mystic cried, swinging her fork about for emphasis. X merely nodded, more interested in this woman's endless well of energy than the story she was telling. He became lost half-way through anyway, but he was fairly certain she was talking about the maverick that had attacked her, and later Cain Labs.
"So what did you do?" he asked.
"Well, I definitely didn't go up and ask him if he had any spare change. I ran like hell. What would you have done?" She said, and he tapped his buster arm in response. "...oh, right. Hey, that reminds me. What's it like to kill someone?" her question seemed innocent enough, but X thought he picked up a darker tone beneath it.
"It's not something I'd recommend trying," X said with a sigh. "Once you've killed someone...it does something to you. It numbs your brain, to the point where you don't really care anymore."
"About killing?"
"About anything," X nearly whispered. "Sorry. The past ninety-three years haven't been kind to me," he said apologetically. An awkward silence ensued as each picked at the remains of their meal. "So...what did you do before Stealth Claw chased you into that maverick attack?"
"I was a hooker," she said calmly. X very nearly choked on his glass of water.
"You don't look the type," he finally said.
"Of course; I'm a reploid. A lot of reploid women fool around for money. It's not really the same as being a human whore, at least it's not a full-time gig or anything," Mystic explained, reciting the cover story that Diamond Edge had fabricated for her. "If you had the chance to make some money and have a little fun at the same time, wouldn't you do it?" She realized that now it was Diamond talking, disguised with her voice.
"Sorry if it sounded like I was criticizing you, it's just...odd."
Mystic giggled and twirled her fork about in her hand. "We've already established how odd I am, haven't we?"
"Yeah..." X trailed off as his eyes caught sight of his watch. "Great. I was supposed to meet with the 17th half an hour ago..." He rose from his chair and threw on his jacket. "I'm sorry, but I've gotta get going. Can you get back by yourself?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Mystic replied, standing as well and smoothing out her crimson dress. X moved to activate his comm. link, but she held out a hand. "Hey, next time you don't need to apologize so much."
"There's gonna be a next time?" X said, surprised and hopeful.
"Why not?" She asked. X vanished in a flash of light before he could reply.
End of chapter 27
AN: Well, that's the last of the buildup. Next chapter, the fight's finally going to the mavericks. Stay tuned, I'm on a roll!
PS: Not really sure what overly used line you're talking about, windwing. I'll try to fit it in if you're more specific.