-29-
He swam slowly, overlooking the Tunneler-D16 as it continued boring into the rocky ocean floor. He went even deeper with a quick move of his tail and once near the bottom, the reploid turned and increased his speed, completely destroying a large crystal corridor as if it were nothing, severing the only passage connecting the Deep Sea Laboratory's two sections. Pleased with his handiwork, he spun around and extended his arms and legs in a triumphant pose, for he was the master of this ocean… Tsunami Mako!
=0=
X arrived to the Deep Sea Laboratory and looked around, glad that no hostile mechaniloids were in this storage room, the only one where he had been able to teleport in. It would give him time to sort his thoughts. He still felt uneasy about Vile being part of the mission, but he decided to put that aside for the time being. If he betrayed them, as he was sure Vile would, they'd deal with the traitor, simple as that.
The hunter took a few steps toward the door leading to the next room, finding it lead to a corridor with large windows he could see the deep sea through. This reminded him of how much Splash Woman had insisted in coming with him to this mission, and how difficult it had been to dissuade her until she had promised she would stay at HQ…
"X, can you hear me?" Alia said over the communicator. "Satellite readings indicate the laboratory has suffered structural damage further ahead, be careful, you may find flooded areas."
"Thank you, Alia, I'll keep it in mind," X said. "Please let me know if you discover something else."
"Will do, Alia out," the navigator promised.
Performing one last self-diagnosis and finding all his systems were at 100%, X finally entered the corridor.
=0=
"Is there anything I can do?" Splash Woman asked. She was sitting behind Alia, and was bored of simply watching how she and the other girls helped their assigned hunters navigate the areas they had been sent to. Layer was busy giving Zero information about the mechaniloids he was encountering, Pallete focused on providing Axl with the layout of the terrain he was traversing and Scarlet on giving Vile a list of locations where Ride Armors could be find in his area.
"I'm afraid not, Splash Woman, I'm sorry," Alia said. "I know you want to help, but this situation is so far under control."
"I understand that, it's just that…" The Robot master sighed. "I don't like feeling useless."
"You aren't useless," the blonde navigator said, turning to face her friend. "Remember Gate's lab? Without you there we may not have survived."
"Yes but… that was then," Splash Woman said. "This is now."
Alia tapped her chin and nodded. "I guess if you want to help, you could go and see Douglas. He's working on X's armors, since they were made around the time you were active, there may be things you know that we don't."
"Oh, yes, X's armor system!" the mermaid smiled. "I'm a little bit familiar with it, I remember seeing schematics of some of the armors Doctor Light was planning to create for him. Which armors do you have? I know there are at least nine sets of them."
"X has found more than those," Alia stated. "But many were destroyed during his fights with Sigma and Lumine, only a few have survived."
"Really? Which ones?"
"The Blade Armor, The Glide Armor and the Gaea Armor," the navigator said. "But the Gaea Armor is on maintenance so that one can't be used now."
"None of those sound familiar," Splash Woman admitted. "Perhaps if I could see them. Hm… I think you're right, Alia. I'll better go see Douglas."
"Can you find his workshop on your own?" Alia asked. "I'm afraid I can't leave my post."
"I'm sure I can, don't worry."
=0=
The buster shot hit the crustacean-like mechanilaod right in the middle, destroying it in one hit. It was the last of an enemy barrage that had tried to block X's path, and he was glad it was over. The little robots weren't powerful, but they had been numerous. According to his calculations, X had destroyed seventy five of them.
"I must be getting close to my mark," he muttered. So far there'd been no flooded areas and he had managed to reach the top of the laboratory. Going by his map of the facilities, he was only two rooms away from the underwater corridor which connected section A of the lab to section B. Something he would need to do since the Tunneler was digging behind section B.
"X, do you copy?"
"Yes, Alia, something wrong?"
"I was able to get a clear view of the lab, the interference in the area is gone, now," she said. "I'm sorry but the underwater corridor was destroyed. You can't reach section B from where you are."
"…Are you serious?" Asked X, looking at the sea bottom from one of the large windows. "I can go by foot, but it'll take me at least an hour!"
"Hm… perhaps you won't have to," Alia said after one instant. "I'm seeing a list of the vehicles that were in the lab. You can find maintenance submarines near the corridor. If you can use one…"
"I can reach section B!" X completed, "That's great!"
"You're welcome, but be careful out there."
=0=
The maintenance submarine handled well and X had no trouble navigating the space between the lab's sections. No trouble, that is, until something rammed the submarine from below with such force it was sent spinning off course, crashing right outside section B's gates.
"What was that?" X said as he climbed out of the wrecked submarine. He checked his systems and found the impact had caused him minimum damage, as his power core was now at a healthy 96%. He looked around, expecting to find an Utuboros nearby but no. What he found was Tsunami Mako approaching him at incredible speed.
"Greetings, X," the shark reploid said once he was close enough. "I wasn't expecting you."
"And I wasn't expecting you to go Maverick, Mako," replied X. "Why did you join Lumine?"
"My reasons are a secret," the shark answered. "Now let's fight X, show me if you really are worthy!"
"Worthy of what?" X asked, but had no time to follow the question as he was forced to dodge Mako's ramming attack. The blue hunter had to dodge three more times as he analyzed Tsunami Mako's speed, all the while charging his buster. Once X had calculated his foe's speed and probable patterns, he spun in the water gracefully and unleashed a charged energy shot at the hostile shark-based reploid, hitting his enemy in the back. He kept the pressure on, and sent several other solar bullets at the Maverick, all of them hitting him in the arms or legs.
Mako was forced to go up in order to avoid the continued fire, his systems telling him he had received severe damage from X's barrage. His power core was now at 65% and his armor cracked. Unsurprising, he wasn't heavily armored to allow for his extra speed; the only part of his body that had solid protection was his head and jaws. He circled X from out of range a few times, considering his situation. He had joined Lumine months before, mostly because he knew Lumine was too powerful to defy and, also, because he estimated that living underwater gave him optimal chances to survive his nuclear holocaust. Splash Woman and her interest in X, however, had given Mako an additional motivation. He now supported Lumine hoping it would mean X's destruction, because he believed that would help him make Splash Woman his.
He was then hit with a charged shot again, this time in the chest.
"How the…?" Mako winced as he was alerted that his power core was now at 45% and his chest armor was pretty much gone. How had X managed to reach him? A quick look revealed his adversary had climbed section B's walls until he reached a ledge from where he could shoot him again. "Damn it! I can't beat him without better preparations, two more hits like this and I'm gone!"
"Give up, Mako," X warned. "This is the only chance you'll get!"
"Curse him!" Mako thought stopping and floating motionless, arms up as he regarded X and analyzed their fight, hoping to find a way to win. He understood his mistake had been not making sure the submarine blew up after his initial attack to cause additional damage to X. That error had cost him the element of surprise and now he just couldn't do much. X's buster shots were devastating for someone with light armor like himself and if he continued fighting he would be destroyed for sure and Splash Woman would never be his.
"This isn't the right time to take my sweet mermaid from him…" He decided. "I'll yield, help him a bit, make up some excuse and then, if I'm lucky, Lumine will kill him for me and if he doesn't, I can always prepare a better trap later… yes, I think that's the best I can do for now."
"If I give up, do you promise to defeat Lumine?" Mako asked, doing his best to appear remorseful and more injured than he really was. "The only reason I'm helping him is because he said he would spare the city where I was built if I did."
"I promise," X said, lowering his buster. "I'll stop him, he won't hurt anyone."
"Very well, I give up," the mechanical shark said, smiling in triumph as he confirmed X was as trusting and naïve as he had heard. Glad his strategy had worked, Mako swam to X and shook his extended hand. "Now come with me, I'll help you."
=0=
"You have to deactivate the Tunneler from this room," Mako explained as he pressed a large yellow button. They were in a large room located at the very top floor of section B, overlooking a large area where the Tunnel Boring Machine had been working. The nuclear bomb was also there, waiting to be carried deep underground.
"Good, then that takes care of this one," X smiled, pleased that he had completed this mission without having to retire another reploid. "Thank you, Mako."
"Yeah, don't mention it," he said. "Once Lumine hears of this he'll try to turn me into scrap."
"You can go to HQ; you'll be safe there and even get repairs."
"No, that's not necessary. I have friends who can fix my armor; after that I'll just hide in the deepest parts of the sea, he surely won't find me there," Mako said with a shrug.
"As you wish, but if you change your mind…"
"HQ is always there," Tsunami Mako completed. He didn't show it, but the Maverick was quite pleased his little ruse was working so well, so he decided to add the last touch to his plan. "X… why don't you copy my weapon? I'm sure it will be useful."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, go ahead," the shark said extending his arm.
X placed his right hand over Mako's forearm and activated his Weapon Copy system. In less than a second, X had successfully copied the shark's special weapon, the Tsunami Wave, which would create a powerful water stream.
"Thank you, Mako."
"Eh, don't mention it. Well… see ya'round, X… see ya'round," the shark said with a low voice as he walked out of the room, entering a special depressurizing chamber that opened into the ocean.
"I hope the others have it this easy as well," the blue hunter mused as he saw Tsunami Mako swimming away. Once the shark reploid was out of sight, X called Alia and requested that one of the bomb squads High Command had facilitated to the Maverick Hunters was sent to his location.
Notes:
Thanks to Adam for beta reading this chapter.
There's a reason why Tsunami Mako wasn't destroyed but we'll get to that later in the story.
Speaking of Mako, his introduction at the beginning of the chapter is based on the animated intro sequences for each Maverick in the PS1 version of Mega Man X3. I thought it would be interesting to try doing something like that.
The Utoboros are the big snake mechaniloids that serve as minibosses in Launch Octopus stage in the original Mega Man X.