Relic from the seas

by Dr Facer

She was found at the bottom of the ocean, where she slept for over a hundred years. Finding herself in a future where everything she knows and cares about is long gone, Splash Woman must now face the challenge of discovering a new purpose, as well as dealing with the repercussions her awakening has caused to the lives of X and Alia...*On hiatus until I finish my master's degree.

25. Chapter 25

Relic From the Seas

By

Dr Facer

-25-

Zero screamed in rage and jumped towards Vile, saber ready to strike with a deadly slash. The crimson hunter was only apparently acting rashly; his actions in fact obeyed a simple yet effective for him strategy: overwhelm Vile without giving him a chance to do anything. What Zero failed to consider, unfortunately, was that this time his adversary wasn't alone.

"Oh, I think not!" Scarlet shouted as she shot an Electric Shock Bullet from her shoulder cannon, striking Zero in midair and dropping him to the ground, completely paralyzed. "You should be glad I didn't blow you up into little pieces, Zero!"

"As for you…" Vile began, looking in Layer's direction, "We really need to make sure you don't cause any trouble."

The purple-haired navigator was still shocked by seeing Zero trapped and, due to her own lack of combat experience, could not react fast enough to avoid the charging ride armor on time, ending up a captive in the massive armor's powerful fist.

"No!" Layer wailed struggling hopelessly, only noticing the armor was not actually hurting her after her efforts got her nowhere, she was simply being restrained. "Release me!"

"Layer!" Zero screamed. "Let her go, you bastard, I'll never forgive you if you hurt her!"

"Now, now, calm down," Vile said, jumping down the ride armor and crouching so he could stare straight into Zero's angry eyes. "I'm not interested in fighting you, old friend. I'm busy right now and can't afford to waste my time in a stupid scuffle with you."

Zero snarled in rage and managed to kneel. The electric charge keeping him in place still held, however. "I… I'm not just going to arrest you. I'll retire you right here!"

"Hah. You know, Zero, despite everything I've always had some respect for you," Vile said as he walked to his ride armor so he could better look at Layer. "So you got another partner instead of X? You shouldn't have brought her with you. It's obvious she isn't battle-ready."

"Release me and I'll show you how battle-ready I am!" Layer snarled much to Vile's amusement.

"We both know you couldn't defeat us, so just be quiet," Scarlet interrupted, leaning on the armor's control panel. "It's in yours and Zero's best interest that you let him speak."

"As expected from the Vile fanatic," Layer huffed. "He was the only thing you ever talked about."

"Don't blame me for recognizing the good stuff," Scarlet grinned. "He is a real man."

"If you have something to say, say it," Zero spat, understanding then that if he got Vile talking it would give him time to gather his strength and break through the electric field. "It's not as if we can stop you from boring us to death."

Vile laughed and leaned on his vehicle. "If only X had your sense of humor he wouldn't be as aggravating as he usually is."

"Just get on with it!" Layer demanded, trying fruitlessly to reach her rapier.

"Very well, then," Vile said. "Look at me Zero, don't you notice something different?"

"You got rid of that green and yellow paint job and returned to your usual armor, so?"

"No, not just that," the former hunter said. "I thought you'd notice it during the Jakob event but given everything that was going on at the time I'm not surprised you didn't."

The crimson hunter studied Vile and then reviewed his memory files, reviewing the fights he and X had with him during that disaster. Vile had been more talkative then and far less psychotic than he was during Sigma's first war or during the Doppler Town incident. Frowning as an idea started taking shape, Zero studied the way his rival moved and talked. It matched with how he acted before the problem with his electronic brain turned him unstable.

"You sound less crazy than usual."

"Not the word I would use, but yes," Vile conceded. "Any guesses why?"

"You got that rotten brain of yours fixed, didn't you?"

"Exactly!" Vile said with a laugh, his arms crossed as he walked to where the hunter was. "You know, Doppler could have fixed me when he brought me back. But the damned old bastard was so infected with Sigma Virus that he had turned completely sadistic. He not only refused to fix my brain, he also dared pump the body he gave me full of the virus! Do you know how painful that is, Zero? You are angry and going insane, it's not pleasant."

"No wonder you acted like a raving lunatic back then," Zero observed.

The purple armored reploid made a pause and grunted in annoyance. "It wasn't enjoyable, and all I wanted then was to get even with X. If I hadn't been going crazy, with the upgrades Doppler gave me I could have won."

"Lucky us you didn't," the crimson hunter answered with a mocking grin. "You've always been a very incompetent Maverick, Vile."

"Hah! True it is, ponytail," Vile said. "I was built to kill Mavericks, after all. Anyway, X defeated me and left my inactive remains to rot in Doppler's base, where I remained for years… until he came and took me to his lab."

"Who helped you?" Layer asked.

"Gate, of course," the former hunter answered without looking at the navigator. "He wanted to use the information in my electronic brain to learn Sigma's stats so he could build him a new and improved body, and to see if I knew how to contact that bald idiot."

Vile chuckled then. "Unfortunately for Gate, he couldn't access the information he wanted without fixing my electronic brain first, and that is what he did. After he got what he wanted, he put me in a cell, and I would have stayed there but your battle with him damaged the power generator in his lab and my door opened, allowing me to escape."

"Well, that explains why you've been around for years," Zero said, discreetly moving his hands and finding he could move them more; soon he would be able to escape the electric field. "But it doesn't explain why you always side with Sigma."

"I didn't exactly join him the first time he went Maverick," the former hunter said. "He simply cut me loose and asked me to unleash chaos, which I did because I wanted to prove I was stronger than X. You already know what Doppler did to me."

"What about the Jakob incident? You helped Sigma then, did he infect you again?"

"Ah. He did try, but somehow my programming adapted to the virus after fighting it until deleting it during the years I spent buried in Doppler's Castle. The Sigma Virus can't affect me anymore, or at least that is what Gate said," Vile explained. "The only reason I helped Sigma when he attacked the Jakob elevator was because he paid me well for my services."

"I would have thought you helped him so you could fight X and I," Zero challenged.

"If I wanted to fight you, I could have done so during Gate's little game or when Red Alert went Maverick," Vile indicated. "I didn't. After getting my brain fixed, I was finally able to think clearly again and lost interest in fighting the two of you."

"But you resurfaced and started working as a mercenary after Red Alert's rebellion," Layer said then. "I read that in your file, you are classified as a dangerous criminal."

"Correct, but think of it, woman. I am a combat model and while my brain is not malfunctioning anymore, I do believe in fulfilling my purpose, and that purpose is hunting mavericks," Vile declared while looking at Scarlet. "And your friend Scarlet there, she understands it, too. That is why she searched for me and joined me after you forced her to quit the Maverick Hunters with your stupid orders."

"And trust me, joining Vile has been the best decision of my life," Scarlet interjected.

"Anyway, I know the electric field will fade soon," Vile revealed, interfacing with his ride armor so it lowered Layer to the ground. The armor detached his massive fist, leaving the annoyed navigator on the ground but still very much trapped in its firm grasp. "So we'll let you and your woman here while we go on our way. Oh, and be warned, Zero… I will fight you Hunters if you get in my way, so don't interrupt my businesses."

"You're not going anywhere!" Zero screamed as he stood up, dissipating the electric charge and leveling his saber at Vile. "You're coming to HQ with me!"

"You escaped the electric field sooner than I expected," Vile conceded, pointing his shoulder canon at Zero's chest. "We don't have to fight, you blonde moron. I'm no longer interested in that!"

"What were the questions you wanted to ask, Zero?" Scarlet interrupted as she jumped down the ride armor, landing between the crimson hunter and Vile. Scarlet was confident Layer was no threat, but she did know how powerful Zero was and didn't want to take her chances fighting him. She hoped her offer would placate the hunter, and going by how both Zero and Vile lowered their weapons, it seemed she had been correct.

"Dynamo attacked the Orbital Observatory," Zero said flatly and still very much on guard. "He used something called the Nightmare Drive to gain extra power. We want to know who hired him and if possible, who gave him that drive."

Vile crossed his arms and nodded. "Dynamo, yes, we saw that idiot a while ago; he wanted us to go and meet some guy he called 'the Doctor'. He said he could give us that Nightmare Drive you mentioned, that it would make us stronger than both you and X, and that all we had to do was helping him test it."

"As you can imagine we refused," Scarlet added.

"Because Dynamo said that special 'drive' or whatever is powered by Nightmare Souls," Vile provided. "And after meeting Gate I know those things are bad news."

"Only a fool would willingly get infected with them," the red haired reploid said. "Vile and I may like combat, but we're no fools."

"You are not lying, are you?" Zero said, not detecting any traces of duplicity in Vile's or Scarlet's demeanor.

"No, we're not," Vile started, "Why would we? Look, I don't…"

The screen hanging on the wall to their right came alive then, interrupting the former hunter as it showed the blurry image of a reploid who started talking, saying the following:

[Greet**gs, p**ple of… th*… E*rth... my n*me is ******. af**r m*ch… th**ght… I h**e… d*c*d*d… th*t t**s wo*ld… ne*ds to… be… clea**ed… of all imp*ri**es. W*ak h*mans and r*ploids m*st be el*m*nated a*d for this I sh*ll p*rge t*is pla**t! A new a*e w**l beg*n w*th me as the cr**tor and r**er of a be**er wo**d that on*y the st**ng and wo**hy will in*e*it!]

The monitor overheated then and switched off, smoke coming out of its sides.

"The signal was strong enough to fry that screen even this deep underground," Layer offered as she tried her best to get free from the gigantic fist restraining her. "Interesting, considering how unclear it was. A shame I couldn't record it to analyze it later… and could somebody please release me? I'm tired of being held by this stupid fist!"

Scarlet pressed a button on her small headpiece and the fist opened its fingers. "There, now stop complaining, we have something more important to deal with."

"Indeed," Vile said, hands on his hips as he regarded Zero. "Seems to me that message was way too aggressive, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I didn't like it at all," the hunter agreed. "At least it didn't sound like Sigma."

"Well, what will it be, Zero?" the former Maverick Hunter asked. "Will you waste time with me and Scarlet or will you go back to HQ to see what the hell is going on and play the hero again?"

"Don't test me, Vile," Zero warned. "This seems more important than you and your 'girlfriend' so even if I go against my better judgment I'll let you go… but if I find out you are working with the person who sent that message, I'll send you straight to the junkyard!"

The purple armored reploid laughed at the threat, but his laughter lacked now the malice it once held. "You mean you will try… and I wouldn't expect any less from you!"

Notes:

Thanks to Adam for beta reading this chapter.

The Electric shock bullet is the special shot Vile uses to paralyze X in the first game in the series.

Also, about Vile, it is never explained how he came back in X8, but it is hinted that he's been around for quite a while, so for plot related reasons, I decided to tie his return with Gate. It also helped me explain the obvious plot hole in X6 regarding how Gate discovered a way to contact Sigma.