Chapter 3: "Cutting Vines"

A blue glimmer of light shot down like a single raindrop from the mild clouds. It hit, bulged, and burst open to reveal X's crouching form. He raised his head, steam rising off the ground around him, and he saw the weather-control facility looming beyond. Part fortress, part lab, and part walled-off park, it was a massive edifice. The dark metal wall with lightning-rod spires ahead of him was not what made X's insides twist with nausea.

The field he had landed in just outside the facility was littered with bodies. Mostly human, though a few Reploids were scorched and broken among them. By the charcoal streaks across the ground and the nature of the bodies, it was clear a sheet of lightning had come down on them as they were fleeing the facility.

Even with their features mostly charred away, they were frozen in horror and pain. One particular body was locked on the ground, reaching out, trying to crawl away as the face screamed silently in a deathless echo of its owner's last moments.

X's fists clenched, and he ran forward. He pinged his sensors across the area, but wasn't really surprised when no active heartbeats or core-pulses reached back. At the large metal ingress at the foot of the wall, X touched the control on its right frame, and reached to his audio receptor. "Alia, I'm at the facility. Do we have any data on its security protocols?"

"I'm sorry, no. The information was deliberately limited off the island due to concern of terrorist attacks. This was before Mavericks became a major threat. You're not interfacing directly, right? At least a buffer in place?"

X smiled faintly at her concerned tone. "Just like you taught me, don't worry."

It was an internal buffer, but it allowed him to network with a device without exposing his internal data core and processor. His hand glowed faintly as he began, the console shimmering in response. Rapid calculations scrolled through X's view, working on cracking the code-lock.

Eyes tightened, X realized, "It's readapting the code every ten-thousand permutations. Sophisticated stuff. Was this island some kind of brain-trust?"

The adaptive code would make direct cracking impossible. He had to determine the algorithm, or bypass the door entirely. Announcing himself spectacularly by blowing the door out wasn't the best start to infiltrating a possible hostage situation (he tried to ignore the voice whispering how unlikely it would be to find survivors). Instead, he changed tactics. He wasn't cracking the code to get in, he was battling with it to learn its method, backward engineer the algorithm.

It was like watching two schools of fish try to crash into each other in a confined space. Dizzying, maddening minutiae constantly adapting, changing, shifting.

"…There it is," he whispered at last. The permutation was adapting in cycles in predictable ways. A clever trick, but not as sophisticated as he'd first feared. I wonder if it was a scientist showing off more than a security precaution.

With the pattern revealed, he modified his permutations, and actually turned the security against itself. In a few more second, it gave him the code by its own adaptation, and the console blinked to life, ready and waiting.

The glow faded from X's hand, and he just pressed the main control key. The door hissed open with surprising ease, and he walked inside. "Alia? I'm in."

"Quick work, X. I'm impressed. Maybe you don't need an operator these days?"

X smirked. "Right. Now what can you tell me about weather-control system here? I'd prefer not to let the island flash-freeze if we can avoid it."

"Exactly. The data we hacked and finally got released from the authorities gives us a pretty good idea of the system. It was a network of control systems routed throughout the facility. They should basically resemble spheres on pedestals, with control consoles nearby. Likely in secured rooms. I'm sorry for the lack of detail. I have an old map of the facility, but our satellite feed already shows its woefully out of date."

X stepped out of the dark entry hall, and into an almost tropical rain-forest area. The immersion would have been complete if not for the glaring white metal walls and ceiling. "Toss it my way. It's better than nothing."

"You got it."

The map reached his data display, and overlaid with his view. Red shapes formed where the map was clearly wrong, expecting walls or hallways that weren't there. However, it did seem to mesh with the wall further ahead, behind some trees, and it indicated where a chamber awaited. "I think I have a place to start. X out."

"Be careful."

"I will."

Keeping quiet, X flitted through the brush and trees without his boost-system. Despite the occasional ping or hiss from his body, he was surprisingly silent.

Hearing propeller blades above, X flattened against a tree, and looked skyward. A strange mechaniloid security drone was hovering along. It looked like a humanoid torso with a claw where the waist would be, holding some kind of glass device. It lingered over him ominously for several moments, and then finally drifted off.

X shook his head, and snuck further along. The 'chamber' he discovered made him pause and blink. It was like a giant tree-trunk, but with a hallway cut out of its core. And inside that hall was a slightly larger area, serving as a control room of some kind. One of the sphere-devices was waiting in the center.

Glancing around for patrolling bots, X leapt across the open span of field, and ducked into the hall silently. Once he was sure it was still clear, he moved to the chamber, and took stock. Consoles lined to the two walls, with thick piping leading into the base of the glass-like sphere. It was a strange, metallic, almost cloudy material, and he could vaguely see machinery within it.

Hoping to scan the device, X's hand reached out, but he froze, eyes sharpening. His system flared with warnings from a deeply embedded core program. A gift from Dr. Light. The sphere would react badly to touch, even just for a scan.

Giving up on that method, X moved to the nearest console. It was inactive, which meant he had to turn it on to make any progress. Starting to turn things on would draw far more attention than he wanted yet.

Beyond the fake jungle, the facility was disturbingly silent. The quiet of death was starting to unnerve him, especially after the carnage outside.

Calibrating a secure comm-channel, X spoke without using his vocal emitter, /Alia, do you read me still? I found one of the orb-devices, but it's completely inactive. Security is tight here. Any information?/

/Alia here, X. I'm sorry, the information just isn't out there. The facility was basically dismissed by the human authorities just before the Sigma uprising, and so no follow-up was done. I think you made the right call to leave it alone for now. Without any understanding of their current security protocols, it's probably better to try to get deeper into the facility and find something more accessible./

X frowned at the room around him. /Roger that. Moving out./

Cutting the connection, he moved through the room, to the far side, and took a glance around for patrolling hover-bots.

Then alerts chimed through the chamber, making X's eyes flare. He snapped around, bracing for a fight. The orb was starting to crackle and shimmer with electrical power.

With a quick look out again, he saw that the hover-bots in the distance were not moving any faster yet. They were simply maintaining their routine. "…Then what's—!?" X cut himself off and dove out of the room, rolling into the bushes as the orb exploded with power.

The entire chamber filled with crackling, surging energy that channeled up the tree-like pillar surrounding it, and then burst out across the roof.

X looked up, realization relaxing his expression. Storm clouds were swirling to life inside the large garden-chamber, and rain began to pour down in cool, refreshing sheets. Of course! I'm an idiot. It's a weather-control lab! It must be doing an automated test. I have to get deeper then. This station won't have facility-controls, just maintenance data.

A bit relieved at the information revealing itself for him, X quickly shifted through the rain-soaked jungle, toward the opposite side of where he entered. It was just a guess from the size of the facility. If there was going to be a hall or doorway leading deeper, it was likely there. At least he could start there.

A screen winked on in darkness. It was of similar style to the ones around the orb X had visited. And this one was glistening in the reflection of two optics, sharp in design, and the color of human blood in their irises. "Better at sneaking than I'd calculated," a highly filtered voice rasped, as if it was coming through a low-quality speaker. A respirator was heavily cycling with it, as if speaking was difficult.

"No matter. Time for the direct approach. Lab security to full alert. We have a terrorist infiltration in hydroponic weather lab five."

Before X could reach the far side of the lab-forest, klaxons filled the air, echoing awkwardly through the trees and rain. He froze, glancing down and around for hidden sensor bars he had somehow missed. There was nothing. "How did—!?"

He didn't look, he heard it above him. X dove forward, rolling through a wall of brush as one of the crystal balls fell down from a hover-bot. X risked a glance through the hole he tore in the plants, and saw the ball shatter on impact, leaving a cactus-like plant that was crackling with electrical energy.

Thunder rolled above, but it was oddly tinny. Thunder in microcosm.

"Grounding source!" X exclaimed, and shoved himself up and backward, twisting to dash full-speed for his destination.

At least eight different forks of lightning came ripping out of the sky, and tore into the jungle all around the lightning-plant. It was like a targeting system for the storm.

"I'm not sure if I find that creepy or clever," X muttered to himself as he blazed, trading legs in long, lunging strides with booster thrusts from his feet.

More hover-bots came diving down, dropping their crystals like small bombers. X twisted, rolled, somersaulted, and dashed through the small barrage, and finally broke through enough brush to see his theory was right. A doorway waited in the wall ahead.

As soon as he reached the small clearing around the doorway, however, patches of grass lifted up, revealing large, golden orbs on rising poles. They were starting to crackle of their own power. They were also rotating to track him.

Somewhat. As his optics caught site of the devices, he also realized they weren't targeting him directly. They were aiming near him.

"The grounders," he realized, and did a dash-powered side-flip just as they fired for the first time.

Each golden orb device unleashed a bolt of lightning, and each struck a different lightning-plant. The ground became a network storm of star-hot light.

X looked 'up' as he flipped fully upside down, the glow casting him into stark relief. Calculations whirled through his processor, and he knew he would land IN the energy rather than past it. His colors snapped as his buster aimed out and down.

First a tornado ripped out, churning into the ground and ripping a small hole in the writhing energy thanks to the mounds of dirt it forced up. Then a swirling rolling-shield burrowed down after it like an obedient mole-bot.

X dove in after his own rolling-shield, vanishing into the earth. Hover-bots came hurtling down, trying to fill the hole with lightning-plants, but X was long gone.

Those red optics in the dark room narrowed at the screen. "…Now I see why they were concerned." Something dragged and slipped across the flooring in the darkness, joined by the unmistakable sound of blades sliding over metal. "I'll be stepping in if the system doesn't finish the job."

The dark metal hall beyond the doorway X had been striving for was ominous in its own right, but the deep, haunting thrum that filled it suddenly was akin to some kind of howling beast. Again it sounded. The flooring trembled with another, the sound sharper and more clear.

And finally X's armored head tore up through the flooring with a building grunt. He started to tear portions of the hole out further with his hands to make himself a big enough hole as he muttered, "I appreciate the armor, Dr. Light, but using my head to dig is… awkward."

What followed was a dismally comical few minutes of X failing to tear enough space for himself, and having to restart with various phases of his body extricated from the hole. By the time his boots were finally free and standing on metal again, he was hunched over, breathing heavily. "I can dodge entire security systems, beat master combatant Mavericks in a fight, and a HOLE keeps me busier. Well that took me down a few pegs."

Shaking himself free of the situation, X touched his ear. "Alia, do you read?"

His expression clenched when no response came. X closed his eyes, and let his sensors test his connection. Jamming. It must've started with the security system alert. Damn. Alright, time to get serious.

He dashed ahead.

It was like a surreal nightmare, he realized. After leaving the hall for another jungle-lab, blistering heat so intense is was visibly distorting the air around him snapped to soaking torrents of rain and lightning with the oddly tinny, mini-thunder. This all combined with groups of hover-bots and lightning-conductor pods blasting attacks at him from every direction.

Even with a body designed by Dr. Light himself, the extreme shifts were taxing X's systems. He found himself running out of breath faster, his core pulsing erratically from the excessive strain.

It didn't take long for him to find another pedestal-orb chamber. This one was brimming with radiant, fiery power similar to the blistering heat that had just returned.

X started to build power as he dashed around lightning-plants and bolts of power from pods. Shimmering with blue-purple light, he snapped his blaster out, and fired at the orb just as he reached the little chamber.

The orb proved oddly durable. Its energy absorbed the bulk of the wash of plasma power, but the weather did calm as the orb's field dissipated partially from the assault. X landed in front of the orb from a final dash-leap, and started to unload plasma-bolts into it. A flash of light rushed over its surface with every bolt, more and more of its power washing away.

At last, the thing shattered, its inner mechanism breaking apart.

The weather immediately snapped to pouring rain and thunder.

X lowered his buster and glanced out. More patrols of hover-bots were rapidly moving toward him despite the rain and intensifying wind joining this storm. Likely the system was compensating for the attack on one of its power systems.

Instead of stopping to fight, X dashed through the chamber, to the far side. He found himself in a darkened, large chamber, and immediately had to stop again. The flooring was gone. A small lake of steel spikes were waiting for him, with security sensor pods floating back and forth over it. Likely there to verify any intruders' demises.

"Bit harsh for a bunch of scientists to design…" X muttered, but was already glancing around. Using the security pods as platforms to jump across the chasm seemed his best bet, but there was also a maintenance ladder back to his left, just aside from the orb-chamber he'd left.

A door hissing open made his optics snap further to his direct left, toward the far side of the larger chamber.

"Over here! Quick!"

X gawked.

A Reploid was leaning out of the door, waving frantically for him to come to her. She had a simple armor-design of white and gray, and had long, free-flowing, thick black hair around a pale, human-type face.

Not pausing any longer, X dashed at full speed, gave her a quick nod, and they both ducked back into the room she'd come out of.

The door rushed closed, locking after the Reploid typed in a quick set of commands at the controls.

Immediately, she looked at him. "W-who are you?"

X let his respirator cycle gently, and smiled at her. "X. I'm with the Maverick Hunters."

Her expression froze for a moment, then she seemed to deflate, sinking against the wall beside the door, and sliding down with soft scrapes of her armor. "…Of course."

X blinked, then softened his expression, kneeling down at her side. "I know how insane this all is… are you hurt physically in any way?"

She looked up at him with empty brown eyes. "…I'm the Maverick you came here to kill."

X stared, then blinked. This was no Maverick. Her eyes were dead from shock and trauma, there was no rage-haze he saw in infected Reploids. "I'm sorry?" was all that came to mind to ask, utterly perplexed.

The Reploid grabbed her head, crying. "I-it's my fault! I killed them! I always thought Mavericks knew what they were doing, but I just couldn't stop it!"

X's thoughts started to collect again, and he focused. "Easy, easy," he breathed, his hands gesturing open and down. "You're no Maverick. Listen… what's your name?"

She blinked up at him, a pitiful moue on her lips. "…C-Cadis…"

X smiled, and offered his hand. "Nice to meet you, Cadis. I'm sorry the situation is so terrible."

Both confused and overwhelmed, she mainly reached up and shook his hand out of social habit. "Y-you… too."

X tipped his head, and let her hand go. "Now, from the top, what happened to you, Cadis?"

She swallowed, probably a learned social habit from human friends, and glanced out at the room. It was a control chamber, but lacked an orb. Consoles lined the walls, and along two islands in the center. "I was… doing maintenance rounds a few days ago. Duncan saw a weird power surge in the weather-control labs, so I came to check the readings and adjust them." Her voice steadied a bit, calming as she focused on reporting information.

"I got here, and started some basic maintenance processes. T-then the… the system just went nuts!" she gasped out, her eyes tightening with tears. "The entire system, not just the labs. It was going haywire! I was trying to shut the systems down, but everything I did went wrong!" She grabbed her head. "I saw the security feed outside! I saw the lightning come down as they were running!"

X's face broke with empathy, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "…Cadis, it wasn't your fault."

She stared up at him. "I was the only one with access to the systems! Something I did cause…?"

X was shaking his head to cut her off gently. "Cadis, it was an off-site compromise. The systems were hacked under you. You're not a Maverick, Cadis… you're a victim of a Maverick attack."

Cadis' eyes widened, a painful mix of hope, relief, and new guilt brimming up in their depths. "…I didn't…?"

X shook his head again. "You were just doing your job. Your efforts to stop the system are likely what saved hundreds of lives, too. The facility's system was used to attack a city thousands of miles to the South. That's what alerted the Hunters."

"A city…? Survivors… did you find anyone else here?"

X turned grave, and answered, "Not so far. I'm sorry."

Cadis' head fell back against the wall, her optics staring up at nothing. "Matt… Duncan… G'd, the last thing I said to Nathan was a giant fight over Reploid rights."

X touched her shoulder again, waiting for her eyes to meet his. "…Fights happen every day, Cadis. Everyone knows how those go. None of this is your fault. In fact," he began afresh, offering a gentle smile, "since you're an expert on the systems here, I could really use your help."

Cadis blinked, finally more of her conscious self coming to the surface. "Help how?" There was a quiet eagerness in her voice. If she could finally do something to help fix this insanity, maybe she wasn't a failure after all.

"I want to stop this facility from being a threat, but I don't want to destroy it, or the whole island will suffer. Is there any way to do that?"

Cadis swallowed again, a steadying gesture this time, and started to stand up against the wall. X stepped back and rose with her, watching her eyes dance over the chamber, across the various consoles.

"…The core controls system. If we can access it still, then I can use the command codes to lock it into the standard system. The site will lose any security, but it also can't be deviated from pure weather synthesis. Nothing extreme, just normal seasons and weather patterns in the base program."

X smiled. "Sounds like that's our plan. Do you have an up to date map of the facility? Can you show me where we need to go?"

Cadis nodded, and rushed to the closest console, booting it up as her hands danced over the controls. X stood by, watching with some satisfaction as she came more and more to life, drawn out of her despair. Hiding in a dark room for days, believing yourself the cause of all your friends' deaths was not a fate he'd wish on anyone.

"Here, this area," she began fresh, pointing at the screen.

X leaned in, his optics scanning the data in detail. "Thank you. That large vertical shaft, is it still accessible?"

"I'm honestly not sure. It's the equipment elevator. I used it all the time before this attack, but it unnerved most humans because it lacks sides. With the attack… I have no way of knowing how safe it is."

X stood up. "Fair enough. Can you give me the codes?"

Cadis stopped, seeming to realize something. "…Yes, but there's another problem."

"Go on?"

"The system will only accept those codes from an authorized user. Duncan… Dr. Gold didn't tell anyone that he authorized me for it. A Reploid isn't supposed to have those codes."

X touched her shoulder, drawing her eyes to his. He smiled kindly. "While I'm sorry he had to keep it secret, I think that secret is about to save a lot of lives. Do you trust me, Cadis?"

She wasn't sure why she answered so immediately, "Yes."

"I'm going to get you to that console, and I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you safe. It's a dangerous situation, so I won't lie about any guarantees of safety… but I think you need this chance for yourself, don't you?"

Cadis looked back down at the screen, her eyes tightening. All her friends… Even that annoying Nathan… She nodded, and gave X a faint smile. "So what do we do?"

X grinned, and then started to explain his plan.

A security pod focused down on a set of spikes that were suddenly frozen over with ice. It began to drift over, and then reeled back as something heavy slammed into it at high speed from higher up. Its sensors recalibrated just in time to watch X shove off of it, and fire his shot-gun ice blasts into the spikes below as he arced to the next pod.

With a quick network pulse, the entire security pod system was focused on X, and following him. The console in the dark chamber showed the combined views to the overshadowed watcher as they did so.

"Disappears from my grid, only to show up again guns blazing? What are you playing at?" the overshadowed optics rasped.

X bounded from pod to pod, firing shotgun blasts down into the ice as he did. It only took a few seconds overall for him to reach the far side, the base of the equipment lift structure. Frog-like mechaniloids and a few hover-bots were trying to rush after him from holes in the ceiling, but he switched weapons, his colors turning bright orange around his white armor, and he seared through the sealed doors in a few seconds, dive-rolling onto the platform beyond.

The optics in the darkness narrowed with pleasure. "And mistake number one. Good bye, X."

The lift started to rush upwards, maintenance mechaniloids leaping in to attack from the exposed sides, their drill bit noses whirring.

X whirled into a display of tight acrobatics, almost like a break-dancer as he twisted on his shoulder or knees, firing precise blasts to blow the small bots apart as the lift careened to the ceiling above.

Below, Cadis was running along the path of ice X had forged in the spikes. She was sprinting all-out, and rolled off the ice-path to hit the wall near the hole he'd made in the thick doors. The security bots were trying to follow or break off to find another way to meet X, and she saw an opening. With a quick dash, she was inside the hole, and climbing a maintenance ladder inside the shaft.

X finished one particularly fast shoulder-spin, three mechaniloids blowing around him, and he dash-rolled off the lift, slamming his back against the doorway that came into view just a core-pulse before. He grunted on impact, grabbing hold of some ridge in the plating with his fingers just as the lift smashed into the ceiling, pieces of it raining down into the shaft after the deafening bang.

Cadis cringed and held tight to the ladder, feeling something fall past her head and tug her hair, but nothing hit.

Nursing his back, X managed to clamber around, and scorch a hole through the next door. Just like old times, hm? Wonder what Quickman would say about this?

Slipping through, X found himself in a fully industrial section of the facility. A large hallway waited, and he heard the sounds of mechaniloids gearing up for his approach. He didn't risk looking back, but he listened, and heard Cadis climbing up. She'd be at this point soon.

Time to make a hole for her, he told himself, and shot off at full speed, boots blazing.

Cadis heard explosions and metal crashing off walls and flooring in a morbid chorus. Part of her took satisfaction it, but another was still haunted by the violence. Reaching the top level, she eased around to the hole X made, and snuck through herself.

Mindful of security cams, but relieved to see all the ones she knew focused keenly ahead on X, she hurried forward, slipping into a maintenance hatch just under one of them. This would get her almost right to the command center safely, especially with X drawing all the fire.

X dashed through the exploding remains of a two-legged cannon-walker, spraying plasma bolts across at three more drill mechaniloids. As they flew apart, he skidded to a halt at a sphere-lock door ahead of him. "Even here, huh?" he muttered at the similar design.

Hearing a soft thump on a vent to his right, X glanced sidelong, and saw Cadis' pale hand waving faintly. He looked forward, but nodded, and reached out, touching the lock.

This one remained steady. He smirked, and changed colors again, starting to scorch through his flamethrower once again.

With a hole big enough made, he kicked the center out, and marched through, buster ready. There was too much security in place to relax at the command bunker. He hoped Cadis would stick to the plan as she had so far, and wait until he gave an all-clear.

After a short hallway, the space opened into a large, cubicle chamber. Opposite and above, he saw the windows for the control chamber, but the room itself was lined with vines all along the walls. Odd vines, seeming a mixture of organic plant-life and synthetic armor.

And then a shape disturbed the roof, and dropped down with a heavy slam ahead of X. The Maverick Hunter braced, his eyes sharpening at the new Reploid before him.

A mixture of green armor and purple details, the strangely designed Reploid stood up from the crouched landing, crimson eyes angrily sharp. Synthetic leaves draped down over the head, which was melded into the torso without any visible neck, a heavily armored faceplate where a mouth or nose would be. The arms were gripping vines like the ones lining the walls, but these terminated in cutting blades with stabbing points on the tips.

Those red eyes had the haze.

X firmed, his still visible fist clenching. "Stand down. This doesn't have to be any more violent."

"Oh, but it does, X," the Maverick rasped, twirling the blades with his hands, flowing into a quick demonstration of martial finesse with his arms and legs, dropping into a fighting stance. "I can't let you proceed, and this facility is too important to hand over to you."

"Important to what?" X persisted, not raising his buster to aim yet.

Cadis was listening intently just outside the short hall, her back to the remains of the melted door.

The red optics slanted with a dark smile. "You're never finding out. I'm going to BURY YOU HERE!" Mad excitement made the eyes stretch wide, and suddenly the ceiling rushed over with clouds and lightning, storming down into the Maverick, his body erupting with power like an effigy of lightning.

X's eyes widened with shock, and he dashed to his left.

The Maverick whipped around, throwing the blade-tethers with sharp snaps. The lightning charged vines ripped out, and X had to duck and slide under one that drove into the wall just ahead of him, the other glancing his flank.

X cringed, his body surging over with energy from the minor touch. It had gone through his armor cleanly, too. Those attacks are incredibly fast. His body is slower, but those vine-blades remind me all too much of Boom Kuwanger.

Clutching his flank, X dove and rolled again, successfully avoiding the next pair of lightning charged strikes. He fired off a pair of bolts, but they dispersed into the aura of energy still clutching the Maverick tight.

Yanking his weapons back, lashing them around for another assault, the Maverick laughed, "This is too much fun! I'll bring your burnt pieces to the master as an offering!"

X hand-flipped with one hand, barely dodging the next strikes. His optics focused up, seeing the storm that was still pouring energy down into the Maverick. The control chamber was what he needed to kill the storm, but he could barely avoid the attacks, yet alone run for the chamber's ladder.

A painful reminder of the danger ripped across his buster-arm, X barking as his system was shocked and the inner workings of his upper-arm flashed to view. X fell away from the vine that buried in the wall near him from the passing strike, and tried to roll. He felt the air sizzle from the second strike near his face, but it missed as well.

"Almost!" the Maverick exclaimed. "Let's try this again!"

X's body began to shimmer, his eyes half-lidded as he focused on his adversary. With lightning-vines lashing around, the Maverick cackled, whipping them forward again.

X burst-flipped, higher and further than usual, his buster aiming and firing a full blast. Plasma ripped around behind him from the back-wash, an undulating surge writhing through the air toward its target.

The Maverick braced, yanking his vines back and starting to dive aside, but the wave stuck anyway. It writhed and surged, but dispersed over the lightning on the Reploid's body.

X landed heavily, grimacing at the lack of effect.

"Oh this is priceless! I've got you!" The Maverick braced down, his head-leaves trembling before small pods shot out, flying over toward X.

X dove and rolled, watching the balls hit the ground, dig themselves in, and sprout razor-spines that angled toward him like eager snakes.

The Maverick was spraying them all of the room, turning into a mass of enemy-seeking spines. "Nowhere left to dive, Hunter!"

"You sure?"

X and the Maverick halted at the new voice.

Cadis was running along behind the Maverick, fire in her optics as she sprinted toward the far wall.

With a roar of fury, the Maverick spun around, lashing his whips. "I'll slice you apart!"

X was there, diving into the whips, grabbing them with his hands as his colors snapped to golden highlights.

Cadis watched in shock as she ran, X dive-tackling the weapons into the ground before they could fly much past the Maverick's own body.

"Go!" X shouted. "Kill the storm he's using! Then enter the codes!"

Cadis managed a nod, and kept running.

The Maverick roared, yanking X to himself, aiming a knee-strike as the storm energy coursed over them both, trying to burn X even as his body was adapting.

X blocked it with a knee of his own, and then head-butted the Maverick. Energy pulsed out from the warring bodies, and the Maverick reeled.

Cadis scrambled up the ladder, and into the chamber, rushing to a console. Her eyes had to glance up and over, seeing X fighting so fiercely. She'd meant to distract for him and help, but she'd just made it worse… and he'd gone to her aid so instantly. She focused. That storm would be gone for him.

X gripped the vines searing his hands. It was too much for his adaptation, even ready for electrical power as he'd made his drives. Despite that, he gripped, and yanked, wrenching the Maverick around with a grimace and roar of effort.

The Maverick lost his footing, but corrected in mid-air, and landed on his feet on the other side. "Impressive, but I'm not losing to a whelp like you!" And he wrenched around himself.

X went flying, but held fast, and snapped his body in, ramming a boot straight into the Maverick's face.

For some reason this caused a feedback surge. The storm power intensified over both them, and started to shock and burn both of their bodies. X's eyes were wide, but focused, and his groaned through the pain, holding tight. "You're… not… hurting… anyone else!"

Cadis slammed her hand into the final activation sequence. "There!" she shouted, hoping it was loud enough.

The storm in the room dispersed.

The energy crashed down and blew the two fighters apart, X slamming into the wall under Cadis' room, the Maverick just against the hall's opening.

X pushed himself up, his body steaming and scorched in places, his colors reverting as his buster snapped to life, power flowing over his body. "Stand down!" he gasped out, haggard. "I don't want to kill you!"

The Maverick picked himself up, similar steaming and marked, but his blades were spinning in his hands. "I'm Wire Sponge, kid. I don't stand down for newbies who got lucky. Stand down from THIS!"

Wire Sponge whirled around, throwing one spear up into the ceiling and leaping off the ground in one gesture. He was swinging toward X, his other blade lashing out, more coiling out from under his arm to let it fly free.

Fully charged, X's body glowing, the Hunter shot forward to meet the attack. With a tight duck to one side, X's hand snapped up, grabbed the attacking vine just behind the blade, and rose with a twisting yank. It pulled the wire around himself, and wrenched Wire Sponge down, into the waiting buster barrel.

Wire's face slackened as he realized he was too out of control of his descent to actually dodge the blast. And with their bodies as weakened as they were by the storm-surge, the plasma wave would be more than enough. "…Not just a whelp after all."

X fired, the plasma-light fracturing over his dark expression.

The Maverick was practically blown in half. His armor fractured and shattered, his body folding over itself as the plasma wave tore through his primary systems. He collapsed into a heap of charred parts as X released the vine finally.

Closing his eyes at the sight, X turned, and looked up to the control chamber. "How's it going up there?"

Cadis gave a thumbs up, smiling a bit through the window.

X nodded. "I'm going to see if I can pull the command codes for any mechaniloids from his system. Sorry for the morbid part."

Cadis nodded more seriously, and focused on her screen.

It gave X his excuse. He knelt down, searched for any command codes, and after quickly copying them to make sure the mechaniloids stood down, he took the core processor and system buffer, stowing them in his cargo port. Restoring you will have to wait, sorry, Wire. I can't get back to the bunker on this island. Not with the task force on the way.

"You do this for a living, huh?"

X looked up from Wire Sponge's remains to see Cadis standing just back to his right, a sympathetic smile on her lips. "I suppose so. How are you holding up?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, honestly. I'm glad we stopped this. …Thank you, X."

X stood up, and smiled for her, dusting some soot off his hands. "And thank you. You saved my plates back there. I wasn't expecting the storm to give him that kind of capability enhancement."

"I know. I'm sorry about spoiling the plan, but I saw the fight, and realized you might need a hand."

X offered his hand. "You made the right call."

Cadis shook it more naturally this time. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Are you the X? Megaman X?"

X blushed a bit, rubbing the back of his helmet. Having this kind of conversation with a Maverick's shattered body at his heels was decidedly morbid and confusing for him. "Y-yes…"

Cadis flushed, but nodded toward the hall. "Let's get out of here. This lab is shielded, so I doubt comms are working. You need to contact your base, right?"

"Exactly. Thank you. Come on, we'll make sure you've got somewhere to charge until you can settle on a long-term plan for yourself."

Cadis tipped her head. "Thanks, X. I'm… very grateful."

"Say we're even."

They shared a warm smile, and they hurried out of the lab.

Author's Note

This chapter resulted in a lovely surprise. Cadis. I always try to add something to the specific from-game missions so that it's more than just X goes to point A and kills Maverick B. This goal results in some really fun story and adlib sessions, and Cadis is just further proof of that paying off. The idea of a Reploid thinking they're a Maverick out of guilt was too precious for me to pass up. She's a great Reploid, and I look forward to working more with her. (Yes, this isn't the last you see of her)

In regard to Wire Sponge, I deliberately jumped the fight mechanics around to make it a high-threat, high tension battle. A slow build-up to his overload could have worked, I don't deny that, but it would've felt too slow for my taste, and I think the battle that we have here is quite satisfying. Characterizing Wire Sponge was difficult for me, because I honestly always found his in-game persona annoying (probably because he's always my first target, and he's a little difficult with a buster and starting health). So I decided to completely set that aside and go full-on scary-cool. Hopefully that worked for folks.

Oh, and side note, I hated those darn weather orbs. I always crystal-shot them on revisits so the weather would go misty and stop annoying me. As another side note, the story will be remaining on the two-week update schedule for the foreseeable future. Hit some minor slowdowns on other plans, so it's still progressing, but I can't accelerate yet.