Chapter 5: "Hunter, X-Hunter"
"Why did I do it?"
Screens flickered and displayed the launch silo opening, a dim room around them marked by the blinking lights of the consoles below.
A golden fist slammed onto one console. "Because the damn humans need to be wiped out!"
The voice's owner groaned, his hands reaching up and grasping his head, his frame shaking with strain. "This is madness! STOP IT!"
His bladed back cut through the dim chamber as he wrenched to one side, and slammed a fist into the wall. "Silence! The humans must be slaughtered! Our vengeance—IS INSANITY! Fight! STOP THIS… STOP… ugh… can't…"
He grabbed his own head again, crashing to his knees.
"Rgh—LAUNCH the blasted missile! NO! Do NOT fire! C-close the… silo…"
The Maverick roared, his blue optics flashing red, and slammed a fist into the floor this time. "…Humans…" His beak fell shut, his expression darkening. "Kill them."
Overdrive Ostrich stood up, walked to the console, and pressed the blinking red confirmation button. "Kill them all…"
Sand swirled around the large metal gate sliding open in the middle of the desert. The roof of the half-buried base was splitting a gaping maw, revealing the devastating missile as it raised into launch position.
A shimmer of blue light cut through the sky, and slammed down into the metal and sand just to the side of the silo, X forming out of it, his armor glistening in the harsh sunlight. His optics tightened, his buster snapping into form as he saw the venting coolant around the missile already.
"It's starting to launch already. Alia, any luck overriding the commands?"
"No time, X. Airstrike is bringing the carrier, but it's slower. I'm piloting a combat shuttle to your position. We'll probably have to blow that missile out of the sky."
X hissed, and ran forward. He heard thrusters venting. "What's your ETA?"
"…About a minute now."
The missile roared, starting to shake and lift.
X burst into a full dash, leaping across the silo and clamping onto the nose of the missile with his arms. "This was a dumb idea," he muttered tightly as the missile ripped skyward.
Alia had the control interface gripped tightly in her hands as she drove her shuttle to its limits. She saw the missile just flying free into the air, and her optics flared. "You jumped onto it!?"
"You can chew me out later," X retorted tightly.
On the missile, X gripped part of the structure with his left hand, and reformed his right hand out of his buster, trying to pry open a plate near the tip of the missile as it started to bend off to the South.
Trying to download the schematics as he rode the missile was proving fruitless. The data he needed was still encrypted by old protocols, and Alia had been right, there was no time to crack through them.
Finally ripping the plate free, he looked at the circuitry, and his expression turned dismal. "For a think-tank, they sure worked hard on weapons." He touched his audio receptor. "Alia, I can't disarm this. The wiring has several layers of redundancy I can see, which means there's several more hidden. Hang back at safe distance, but let me know when we're over water with enough range to avoid fallout damage to the island."
"X, don't be insane! I can blow that missile out of the sky, just jump off! I'll be able to pick you up on the way down."
His eyes looked at the exposed wires again, an oddly dark look on his face. I don't think that's going to work. "…Alia, I can't explain how I know, but I get a strong feeling this missile has anti-air countermeasures."
"W-what…?"
His buster reformed. "Are we clear?"
Alia grimaced, but her shoulders sank at her controls, and she eased her shuttle back slightly. "Ten seconds and counting."
"Thank you."
She gave the missile a dry look. You better jump off properly, or I'll chew out your parts for dying on me, X…
Power washed over X as he built a charge. Once the final second for his timer ticked past, he braced, and fired the plasma-shockwave over the missile as he leapt back with a full-power boost.
The warhead warped from his attack, and the explosion tore across the sky away from X. He was still thrown violently back the other way by the force wave released.
The sky dimmed from the power of the blast, and X blinked his optics to refocus them as he hurtled down through the air. "It's done, right?" he had to check, shouting over the roar of the air still.
Another howl of wind made him look to his right, seeing the red and white shuttle Alia was flying, diving at his side. She was close enough for the two to share a look, her expression rather akin to a grumpy parent about to reprimand a child. "I'll open the cargo hatch and turn it to you. Think you can get inside without pulling another crazy stunt?"
X did an overly bright grin, and nodded.
Alia rolled her optics, and started to adjust some controls as her shuttle pivoted. It turned its belly to X, and the belly opened along a set of hydraulic doors near the aft section. X angled his descent so he would coast closer, gripped the edge of the opening, and then pulled himself inside.
"I'm in!" he shouted over the roaring air toward Alia at the front of the shuttle.
Alia started to level out as the doors closed, and X walked up to her as she turned toward the base again, parts of the missile still raining down into the ocean below.
"Body-slamming a thermobaric missile? Really?" she had to challenge, her head shaking.
X cleared his throat meekly, and sat down in the console to her left. "I was a bit pressed for options, you know."
Alia sighed, her private relief at his safety hidden by her admonishing tone.
"Mind dropping me down at the base?" X asked quietly, scratching the back of his head with a nervous smile.
The pilot gave him a semi-playful glare, but nodded, and started to angle down. "I'll patrol the sky in case he launches another missile. You know, assuming you don't dive into any of them again."
"I'm not living that one down, am I?"
"Nope. You don't get to scare me like that and get away with it, Maverick Hunter."
He chuckled. "Fair enough."
The shuttle eased only a little over the only visible entrance into submerged desert-base. X came hurtling down, and slammed to his haunches on the metal plating mingled into the sand, looking ahead to the open hangar.
Touching his comm, he said, "I'm good, Alia. Update me if any missiles launch."
"Will do, X. …Stay safe, okay?"
"As much as I can." His reply was softer.
With a quick rush, he was sprinting into the hangar. Natural rock walls had been incorporated into the otherwise metal super-structure of the base, and it was lit in sparse patterns.
Just before he reached the actual depths of the hangar, a defense barricade snapped up in front of him. He only stuttered a half-step, energy building over his frame, and snapped his Buster forward. A shock-wave of plasma fire slammed the barricade down, and he dash-boosted over it.
A mono-wheel mechaniloid modeled like a hog-head was revving toward him, but it had calculated poorly. He soared over it, and blew its tire out, letting it squeal off harmlessly.
X dashed on, quickly reaching a hatch release in the flooring near the back wall of the hangar that was the only obvious path out of it. The oddity of the design struck him, but he just shook his head, and slid down the ladder.
More hog-wheels tried to rev him into him the metallic hallways below, each lowering down by another ladder.
"Who designed this place?" X had to mutter to himself as he let the back-blast from a fully charged Buster shot vaporize a hog-wheel behind him, and saw it plow through the next three rushing up ahead of him.
Finally, he reached another large hangar, and this one was truly massive. Dropping down from the ladder, his brow creased as he looked around. Hoverbikes were lined up for rapid deployment, and the rest of the hangar, spanning for dozens of meters beyond, was formulated into jagged spikes, including the slope back up to the surface with burning sunlight peeking down.
"Alia, did another opening appear?" X asked, touching his comm. There had been no openings of that size before, and the shuttle had a broad view of the desert.
Static came back.
X firmed, and ran to a hoverbike. With practiced ease, he revved it up, reversed, and then burst out over the spikes. The bike was designed for just such terrain. It was a physical defense for a launch-bay, to avoid letting infantry charge in from outside and stop the dispatch.
The scale of this base is mindboggling. Why would a think-tank build something like this before any kind of infection or military control? Or was it really a military installation from the beginning? That would make much more sense. His eyes narrowed. I might have to have Alia dig into this. The government should have notified us as soon as this place went dark, if so.
He revved up into the sunlight, slamming down onto the sand, and immediately saw the source of the comm static. A sandstorm had kicked up in the few minutes he'd been inside.
Keeping his head below the protective windshield of the bike, he revved ahead. The missile silos were further ahead, which meant the base had been split apart by design.
"I bet they only exposed that one entrance to buy time for this stand storm. This is too convenient to be natural," he rasped to himself over the howling wind, grating sand, and revving hover-engines.
His eyes dilated when he heard additional hover-engines.
X wrenched around, twirling the vehicle as its hover field let it keep gliding the same direction as before. His buster snapped out just as two mechaniloid bike-riders ripped through enough sand to become visible through the wall of the storm.
Two quick pulse-blasts left their bikes smoldering, bucking the two drivers forward. X didn't try to terminate the drivers. They crashed helplessly into the sand, and slowly picked themselves up. They were unarmed without the bikes, and just watched him go with muted optics.
"—ead me!?"
X gripped his comm again. "Alia!? I copy!"
"Tha-… d… stor-… not natur-…-ue East!"
X's brow creased. Was there a generator due East? "Not sure I got that, Alia. Try again?" He revved his bike more directly East as a precaution.
"—erator! …-East of y-… -ition!"
"I hope I copied that right," he chose to respond, and revved harder.
His optics caught it after a moment more. There was a much more intense wall within the storm, the sands ripping across each other far too violently to be natural.
X changed his weapon as he began to build up power, making his frame glow as the highlights of his armor shifted to light pink.
Another barricade burst up in front of him, but X just narrowed his eyes and triggered his bike's blaster, ramming the barricade down. Ripping up the side of the barricade, X sailed the bike toward the storm-wall.
The charged version of Armor Armadillo's rolling shield burst to life around X's body, and he dug through the storm-wall with the bike. The eye of the storm finally burst free around him, and he dove the nose of the bike down toward the massive brown cylinder that was blowing a vortex into the sky to summon the storm.
X back-flipped off the bike, arms out, and watched the vehicle slam down into the generator with jets at full burn. The vehicle bore a hole into the heart of the machine, and then both tore themselves apart in a cluster of explosions.
X ducked some wreckage, and almost casually snapped his Buster out to the side to blow the forward hover-field out from under another mechaniloid rider.
The bike drifted to a halt as it restored its field, but the mechaniloid was buried half in the sand, wiggling pathetically.
"Do you read me yet!?" Alia's voice finally came through clearly.
X marched over to the mechaniloid. "Yes, finally. Sorry about that. Any missiles airborne?"
"No, I'm glad to say. I've got some weird readings, though. There's a power surge in the part of the facility further ahead, beyond the cliff-canyon we flew over on the way in. Also, one of those X-Hunters just teleported down in the part of the base you got that hoverbike from."
X pulled the mechaniloid out of the sand, and let it run off. The Reploid's expression was darker at the mention of the virus' X-Hunters. "Thanks for the heads up. I think that power-surge is a more direct concern with those silos still working. I've got another bike here. Keep me posted, alright?"
"Will do, Alia out."
X hopped onto the new bike, revved the power system, and burst ahead. The canyon flew closer to meet him, though not before another barricade tried to snap up in his path. After it fell under his fresh plasma blast, it provided a very helpful ramp. He boosted over the high edge of the far wall, spotting the new base entrance that had finally revealed itself directly against the silos. Controlling his dive onto the sand and rock, he sped on.
"X, watch out! Your left!"
His own sensors had caught something, but Alia's voice made him twist and skid to a halt, buster aiming.
It was only the fight with Boom Kuwanger that gave him enough experience to catch even a hint of what happened.
Reacting on instinct, seeing a rushing, glistening mass, X dove off his bike to his right. Before he even hit the sand, the bike flew apart amidst a geyser of churning sand from some single, lightning fast impact.
"Light, he's fast," X hissed, flipping to his feet, Buster ready.
Another faint sense made X twist and fire to his new left as he dodged ahead. This time he clearly saw Overdrive Ostrich in that core-pulse of his buster firing.
The Maverick folded just under the pulse-blast, a fist striking the sand where X's feet had been.
The two rushed apart amidst a geyser of sand from the fresh impact, Overdrive too fast to follow.
X rolled with his motion, and came back to his feet. He's using looping dashes so far. Will he try the same side again? Can't be sure, and the only idea I've got would only work once on someone with his speed. One more try then. Come on, show me your speed.
The instinct pinged.
X lingered just a moment longer, to sell that he was still falling for it, and then dove ahead. Sure enough, Overdrive ripped past his left, the sand tearing apart.
That's as much confirmation as I'll get.
X's colors snapped to pale blue and yellow highlights, his buster venting mist.
The instinct thrilled his core again.
This time X rose, twisted, and fired behind himself.
The sand snap-froze from Shotgun Ice along a path to his left, right up against his boot.
Overdrive gave a howl as his one leg that was landing for that bound struck solid ice and slid out of his control. He shot straight past X, the two locking gazes for just a moment before the Maverick went crashing into the sand, skipping through two dunes beyond.
X boost-dashed after him, switching to his regular buster again.
Overdrive rose up, his optics lit with a crimson haze. "You aggravating little nuisance! I'll rip you in half and deliver one piece straight to Dr. Cain before I gut him!"
"You have to pull that off, first," X retorted, ripping forward, and firing a blast.
Overdrive flickered to one side, letting the blast glass some sand behind him, and he ripped forward with a bound.
X twisted and dove past the Maverick, but both twisted immediately to come back on each other. Another dodged blast and missed strike preceded the two rushing to full speed, X dash-boosting, Overdrive bounding, in a tight, insane storm of dashing attacks within the same thirty-meter radius, kicking up a small sandstorm of their own.
Abruptly, Overdrive halted, X aiming, but the Maverick snapped his arms out, and then ripped into a violent spin.
X slammed himself flat with a panicked expression as cutting plasma-blade ripped out in every direction.
Cuts of glass tore through the desert in a rippling cascade of plasma, the dunes immediately around the battle simply collapsing in on themselves in madly beautiful sculptures of jagged silicon.
X rolled, twisted, leapt, and pirouetted around as many as he could, but one sliced his left arm, making him grimace and duck under the next set.
With a quick dash-boost, X was just under Overdrive's spinning arms, however, buster rising up, streaming with charged power.
Overdrive halted his spin, locking optics with X, and X halted in that strange moment. The Maverick's eyes faded, returning to normal, and Overdrive just stood there.
"Finish it," Overdrive rasped.
Suddenly the desert was deathly quiet.
X's brow creased. "Overdrive Ostrich? Did you just… stop yourself?"
Overdrive twitched, one optics fading red, but he shivered, and slowly turned his head as the optic returned to normal. "I… am not… A KILLER! FINISH IT!" he roared down at the smaller Reploid.
X's face went slack with shock, his buster immediately easing. "F-fight it, Overdrive! It's just an infection, fight it!"
Overdrive suddenly roared, reeling back, and grabbed his head, thrashing left and right. "N-no! STOP IT! I will not… I will NOT KILL ANYONE!"
His hands released his head, but only so he could give a full-bodied scream of rage and pain down at the sand between himself and X. Red started to bleed into the optics again.
"FINISH IT, you damn Hunter! Do your job before innocent people get slaughtered!"
"And you're one of them, Overdrive!" X shouted, rising up, panic and hope lighting his eyes with the old glow that'd lacked since Sigma's war first started. "It's not your fault! Fight it! I understand what's wrong, I'll help you explain, just fight it!"
Overdrive roared again, his body shaking, a hand squeezing his own head-casing. "This is… all I can do! Kill me! KILL ME NOW!" he savagely growled at the smaller Reploid, bloody light burning into his optics again.
"I can't kill you when I see you fighting it, Overdrive! You're the first one I've seen actually fend it off!" X pleaded. "FIGHT IT!"
"You don't under—" Overdrive cut himself off, the optics burning red, the expression going cold.
A fist ripped out, slamming into X's chest with enough force to crack his Dr. Light-crafted armor. X grunted, flying back and slamming through a small hill of sand.
The Maverick stood up straight. "Fight me? You're too unstable to be of further use. As such," he lifted his arms up, gazing skyward. "I will rain death down on your entire world, just for your disobedience." His body trembled, but the virus kept hold this time.
"X!" Alia called desperately. "Every silo in the base just opened! I couldn't block the signal! I don't know if I can blow all of them down before they get out of range!"
X rose up, his body glowing with power, but his expression was dark. Overdrive's optics focused on him, and the pair locked gazes as enemies. X's buster rose up. "I won't forget this one, virus." His eyes softened faintly. "Overdrive, I'm sorry."
Plasma burst free, churning through the air and sand alike, leaving a river of glass before it embraced and poured around Overdrive's body.
Tall enough, Overdrive's long neck kept his head over the blast, and X watched the optics fade to normal… and ease, smiling weakly before power was lost, and the expression went blank.
X walked forward, and stood quietly for a moment at the charred feet of Overdrive's body. His sensors confirmed that one of Dr. Light's capsules was in the base section he was near, and he now shared the data Alia had noticed about the X-Hunter signature in the other section. That couldn't move his stoic sadness in that moment, however.
What kind of torture was it for the Reploids caught in the virus' sway? He'd never realized it could be a violent master to a slave, punishing any thought of disobedience with worse and worse cruelty.
"The missiles are shutting down," Alia's voice confirmed with clear relief. "You did it again, X."
His eyes glanced to the side, his face cringing. This was a victory? He crouched down at Overdrive's side, collecting the core components just as Alia's shuttle became visible over to his right in the sky. "Primary mission accomplished. Thank you, Alia. I'm going to pay our X-Hunter a visit after I make sure these silos STAY disabled."
Alia's face fell as she looked at the comm on her controls. The deadness of his voice was disturbing. "…X, what's wrong?"
"…My arm is damaged, but it's repairing. Sorry to worry you."
Her brow creased. "X, come on. Talk to me. I can't leave you here alone with an X-Hunter. I'll land and deploy with-!?"
"No, please. I need to take care of this myself."
This time that voice had been pleading as much as pained.
Alia awkwardly twisted her shuttle back up into the air instead of diving for a landing. She'd never heard his voice like that. "X…"
He was walking into the silo-base, his eyes heavy. "Please…"
"…Okay."
His eyes closed. "Thank you."
Disabling the missiles' engines took some time, but X verified that the X-Hunter was still in the same part of the base even after he finished his work in each silo. Since the X-Hunter seemed content to wait, X located the source of the Capsule signal. It seemed to be behind one of the walls in a lowered part of the ceiling, possibly a case of the base being built around it.
X snapped his colors to a set of pale green highlights, and his buster turned into a radial platform with burning green plasma. With two sweeps of his arm, he fired off twin plasma-saws from Wheel Gator's weapon system.
The cutting wheels worked astonishing well, he realized. They ripped around together, and tore a clean, glowing hole deep into the wall for him. X simply followed them through, and stepped down into the rocky cavity they exposed.
Indeed, the capsule was waiting for him, glowing softly in the dim little cave. X let his colors and arm revert, his expression still drawn from the battle with Overdrive. Approaching it, the capsule faded to show a hologram of Dr. Light once again. X couldn't help some tears dripping down his face at the sight of his father.
"Megaman X. I'm sorry that your life hasn't allowed you to stop fighting yet."
X inhaled slowly, and asked, "Dr. Light, how did you know…?"
"I didn't, X. Because I knew I wouldn't be alive to help you, I spent all of my twilight years thinking and building for your sake. If needed, you will find yet more capsules, but I pray you never need find another…"
X nodded softly, and reached up, gently caressing the cheek of the hologram he couldn't actually touch. "Would you be proud of me? Or weep at the things I do?"
"…I've given these capsules some connection to you, X. The pain in your mind is clear. Do not blame yourself for the troubles you face. They are the responsibility of those that came before you, and I hope you will one day forgive me for abandoning you to face them without me there to guide you. The only way I can help is with these tools. This capsule will further enhance your acceleration system. It should now be powerful enough to boost you to full speed without a surface to react to. You can accelerate in mid-air."
X bowed his head, but smiled faintly. "Thank you, Dr. Light. I hope to use them well."
"Enter this capsule, X."
The hologram faded, and X did so.
Two more plasma saws churned through the rock in another wall. They dispersed as the rubble collapsed past them, and Megaman X stepped through the opening of the new tunnel. His boots pressed to the stone, their clean white plating now marked with crimson highlights and gold plating.
Before him was a modified sphere-lock door. His eyes narrowed, but he walked up to the door, and found it opened for him as effortlessly as they all seemed to.
The moment X stepped into the room beyond, the lights flashed on, and he locked gazes with a pair of mismatched crimson optics.
Serges stood on a floating platform, a black cloak wrapped around his hunched frame, and a boxy, hat-like helmet rising straight over his head. "So good of you to come. You seemed to take your time, however."
X kept his hands loose at his sides, but his expression was stony. "I was a bit busy cleaning up your Maverick's mess."
"Nice shoes, Hunter."
X's optics narrowed. "Where is Zero's component?"
Serges hovered to one side, where a capsule of green metal with a glowing transparent field held a flawlessly repaired copy of Zero's head.
Just seeing the passive, sleeping face of his dead friend made X relive that awful moment of Zero's sacrifice, tears burnt away in a power-core eruption.
Closing his eyes down to one side, X calmed his emotions, and then looked again. The ceiling above the capsule was rigged as an opening. The bottom of the capsule also looked like it contained a thruster module. So that's the trick, eh? Alright, I see how it is.
"Are you ready to die, Megaman X?"
X locked optics with Serges again. "Why are you trying to bring Zero back?"
Serges wrenched his cloak off, revealing his small, but slender blue and red frame. "You won't stop the reunification!" A white-gloved hand pressed to his platform, and Serges suddenly ripped toward X, the platform hovering along with lightning speed.
X dove and rolled, skidding aside as he watched the platform lay ground-mines in its wake, Serges skating the wall with a cackle down at the Maverick Hunter.
Green tones washed over his frame, and X whipped his buster back across the floor, sending out a set of plasma saws to blow the mines.
In that same moment, X caught Serges' platform emitting a defense shield around the Maverick. It wasn't a surprising defense. What caught X's optic was the timing. It was triggering every time his buster began to fire. It was reading his body's own signals. His brow creased.
Then I can't underestimate this Maverick. If he can read Dr. Light's designs that well, he's far more deadly than anyone else.
"You're not just going to sit there all day, are you!?"
X dashed aside as Serges leapt off his platform, which rushed along the ground to keep under him, and the Maverick whirled into a somersault. His 'hat' unleashed a volley of plasma rings that ripped out and burst across the walls, ceiling, and floor in a spiraling wave.
Dashing and flipping in rapid succession around different points, X avoided the onslaught and more mines at the same time, firing a few normal pulse blasts at the mines to keep the ground clear.
Skidding on one hand, his feet finally landing after a flip, X looked up at Serges, and called, "So you didn't just find his parts. You rebuilt them."
Serges landed tightly, and turned with his hover-disc, a dark smile twisting his metal-mustache. "Clever boy."
"I'm more impressed by your hover board there," X continued with a little nod. "Very sophisticated for an exaggerated toy."
Serges cackled, and then twirled into the air again.
This time, X dashed to one side, plasma flowing over his body as he weaved between raining rings. The two fighters traded sides, and Serges immediately rebounded off his platform, plasma-rings ripping out.
X dash-leaped, his body bleeding power, and flew between Serges and his platform. As X flipped over, he aimed down his body. Serges looked 'up', optics flaring straight down into the fully charged buster cannon, X optics hard and focused beyond.
Serges wrenched himself out of his graceful speed, the unleashed shockwave of plasma churning through the air, grazing over his body instead of engulfing him. As a result, he slammed into the wall, and reached his hand out to signal his board to retrieve him.
X never finished his flip, however. His boots ignited, their new power cores giving a rushing hiss that thrummed through the air with a strange power, both quiet and ground-shaking. The Reploid ripped down through the air in a surface-less dash… straight into Serges' board.
The board was struck violently on one edge, X landing through the strike as it flipped over his head, and his hand caught it on the far side.
Serges was reaching his hand to his chest to click a glowing signal device there, his optics widening in shock as he saw what X was doing.
X spared Serges one, hard look as he twisted, wrenching the board around like a discus, and throwing it violently… but not at Serges.
The board flew out, and lodged into the wall directly above the capsule with Zero's head.
Serges hit his signal, and the capsule's thruster fired as the portal high above it opened, but the capsule just slammed into Serges' own board, skidding around its edges, and finally dropping lifelessly to the floor.
X walked over, and picked the capsule up, ripping the thruster mechanism out, then held the capsule under one arm as he looked over at Serges. "This is where you run like a coward, right?"
Serges just stared at the Reploid for a moment, some of the ground mines blowing up, but neither robot flinched.
The power in this Reploid… Serges wondered, almost trembling as X just stared at him sidelong. There was a cold anger in those eyes, some small tether of control just barely constraining a murderous rage.
Touching another control on his chest, Serges was engulfed in light, and tore up through the air.
X exhaled slowly, his core slowing down it's pulsations from combat. His buster returned to a hand, and he touched his comm. "Alia?"
"Yes?" Her voice was instant and alert, wary of a problem.
"It's done. Package retrieved." X specifically didn't look down at the capsule under his arm again.
"Excellent work. The carrier is almost here. Want me to swing down and pick you up?"
X tilted his head back, trying to calm the storm of emotions this day had given him in the last hour. "Please do…"
Alia's eyes softened at the comm. "…On my way, X. Hold on."
Dr. Cain finished placing the capsule in a storage mechanism, and commanded it to seal. He turned around, facing Signas, Alia, and X. They were in Dr. Cain's quarters of the carrier.
"A job well done, X. You seem tired."
Signas and Alia glanced at the other robot.
X kept his expression calm, and simply tipped his head. "I'll be going for a repair and charge cycle shortly, sir."
Dr. Cain glanced down at the Reploid's feet. "Your armor modification is impressive."
X lifted one foot to look at it himself, fully aware that Alia and Signas were watching closely. "The X-Hunter had some special equipment. I found them compatible with my system, like his hover-board I mentioned in the report. A very helpful adaptation."
Alia's brow creased faintly, but she didn't speak up.
Dr. Cain seemed just as incredulous, but slowly nodded. "Indeed… Go rest up, X. I'm going to coordinate with young Cadis to see if we can clear up the energy patterns over the island, and get true transportation matrices lined back up."
Signas only then spoke, "I might suggest Shimmer be involved, Dr. Cain. He's quite talented with spatial field disruptions."
"A suggestion I'll take, Signas, thank you. Dismissed."
To avoid any suspicion, Signas simply left the room with the other two and moved for the bridge. He privately glanced back over his shoulder as Alia followed X.
Ease down, X. You'll start to crack if you let yourself strain that much.
Alia waited a short time before she hurried past X and stopped him with a touch on the shoulder. His eyes found hers, openly puzzled, but seeing her concern.
"X… it's not my business, but I can tell when you're lying. What's really wrong?"
X sighed, closing his eyes. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, and then looked at her again, answering, "The fight with Overdrive was… troubling."
Alia's brow creased. "How so? I mean, more than usual."
X eyed her for a moment, and Alia realized he was making a decision about something. He finally glanced forward, and started to walk again. "He resisted it. He fought against the drive to kill me. He lost control again, and I had to take him out anyway."
Alia blinked, and watched him slowly walk away. "…He …resisted?"
"Haunting, isn't it?" X chose to continue before he walked around a corner, and out of sight.
Overdrive's consciousness came back with a rush of panic. He knew he was in a digital environment, but the battle was his last memory. "W-what in the!?"
"You can relax, Overdrive," X began, an image of him appearing before Overdrive in the digital void.
Wire Sponge and Wheel Gator's images joined him the next moment.
Overdrive Ostrich gawked at them. "W-wait… the… madness…"
"It's a virus," Sponge began calmly.
"And you fought it hard, old friend. We're proud of you," Gator added with a dry, but very real smile.
X tipped his head. "It's an honor to meet you for real, Overdrive. I've never met someone who fought it off on their own. May I please introduce you to a plan of mine? To end the virus?"
Overdrive slowly nodded, his digital eyes locking on X after taking his old comrades' presence. "I thought it was already over for me. You saved me?"
"Yes. You were just another victim, Overdrive… but I need your help to end this war."
The returned Reploid nodded. "Just tell me what you need. I'm not letting that madness kill anyone else, if I can do anything about it."
X offered his hand across the digital void. "Welcome aboard."
Overdrive Ostrich took the hand with a firm shake, nodding.
Author's Note:
This chapter was a sticking point for a long time. I wanted characterization for Overdrive Ostrich to make him more dynamic (he always bored me in the game, but I felt like there was potential there). In the end, I found it very appealing to have someone actually resist the virus, and show through.
The Serges battle I felt required two things. The platform's mechanics, and something to explain why the X-Hunters would be stupid enough to actually give X parts when they never wanted him to have them. The air-dash-into-platform moment I'm proud of, heh.
The sub-arc between Alia and X gets a bit more traction here, and gave me reasons to try and tackle Overdrive's desert base logically. It was never made clear enough for my liking why X didn't just zap straight down into the missile silo and boss battle since it was all open-air anyway. I also realized the missile threat was too immediate to match to the game and have it be last. I feel this order worked, but that change might annoy fans.
And yes, having X body-slam a missile was too ridiculous for me to pass up.