Chapter 10: "Churning Metal"
The smashing, grinding sounds of the processing facility echoed through the hills of junked metal as usual. A new sound started abruptly as one of the shield-toting security mechaniloids started to inspect one of the hills rather aggressively, bashing and scraping at it with his shield, his blank optics focusing, clearly hunting for a target.
Abruptly, a Reploid burst out of the metal, pieces flying everywhere as he kicked the mechaniloid in the head. Leaping past the distracted bot, the Reploid landed running. Oddly, he seemed modeled after an old man, with whiskery mustache and overlong goatee of white hair, his body comprised of dull gray and white plating with boxy limbs.
"Teach ya to mess with MY junkyard, ya useless Maverick bots!" he shouted over his shoulder as he ran.
While that mechaniloid recovered and started to run after him, the Reploid laughed, pumping his legs as fast as they would carry him. Something red blurred past his front, however, and he shouted as it cut his left arm during its upward swing. The impact also twisted him around, and slammed him into the foot of another hill of junk.
Another mechaniloid of the same type reached up from the top of the opposite hill, and caught his bladed discus. He leapt down, thudding to a halt in front of the Reploid, and raised his shield up, clearly intending to ram it down into the Reploid's head.
The Reploid glanced at something in the pile to his right, his left forearm sparking faintly.
"Don't count me out just yet, bucket-head."
The mechaniloid paused from some subroutine that required processing a response before attacking apparently.
The Reploid snapped a gas cylinder out of the junk with his right hand, cracking the valve at the top, and aimed it at the mechaniloid over his left forearm, right over the sparking, torn plating. The impromptu flamethrower engulfed the mechaniloid, causing it to screech and stumble away, parts of its system popping and bursting open from the lack of temperature shielding.
Twisting and running, the Reploid held his injured arm to his stomach and kept going. He heard the sounds of more mechaniloids starting to charge down over the hills behind him. "Well… sounds like this might be it then," he muttered, sprinting for all his worth.
That was when he saw the blue splash of light rip down in front of him. He skidded as it hit the ground, but his boot caught a pipe in the junk beneath him, and he tumbled forward, belly-sliding right up to the feet of Megaman X.
"Nice work," X started, smiling for the old Reploid. "Just stay down for a second, please?"
The old-man Reploid blinked, and just gave a mild nod, unable to speak yet.
X's colors snapped to blues and purples as he step-twisted over the old Reploid, his twin busters unleashing a storm of plasma-cutters from Overdrive Ostrich's weapons system. The Reploid turned onto his back, watching X's strangely fluid dance of sweeping volleys, all of them searing glowing lines through the junk and mechaniloids, the mechaniloids joining the hills they were running over before they could even fire off their discs.
Drawing to a halt, both busters up and braced into a combat-ready stance, X's optics scanned around, verifying he hadn't missed one that might still threaten the civilian he'd just startled. His new sensors revved up, quickly pulsing the area, confirming nothing else was active. At least for the moment.
X let his colors and hands revert, and hurried back to the Reploid, offering one hand. "I think you've shown me how it's done long enough for one day, don't you think, sir?"
With his good arm, the older Reploid stood up from X's assistance. "Heh, nice work, son. You're one of the Maverick Hunters, I hope?"
"Yes, sir. Name's X."
"Just 'X'?"
"Yep," the Hunter replied with a light smile.
"Fair enough. I'm Doran. I used to run this place before that Maverick horned in on my business."
"Understood. I'm hoping to get him out of here without too much-!?" X cut himself off, twisting around with busters up.
Doran focused past his new companion, but his optics quickly widened with alarm. The junk was churning up in a storm as something came ripping through just beneath it, clearly intent on the two of them.
"Doran, no offense, but mind if my team gets you out of here?"
"You say jump…" Doran started the idiom, but realized he was already being basked in teleportation light. "Stay safe, kid!" he shouted before he was pulled out of the fight.
X didn't open fire yet, he realized he wasn't sure what was actually ripping toward him. He'd also killed his higher senses when his busters triggered to avoid an overload. He wasn't eager to repeat much of what he did in the geothermal plant…
At first, he boost-dashed to the side, diving out of the way. Arcs of junk splashed down around him. He tumbled and recovered to a crouch, watching the thing turn around wide, and start to rush toward him again.
X reactivated his sensors, pulsing the area again. This time, it was clearly some kind of robotic entity, spinning at insane speeds, tunneling through the junk to chase him. Spinning as violently as it was, even his fully activated, Light-upgraded sensors couldn't catch the details of its shape or function yet.
While he dove aside one more time, X activated his comm with an internal command. "Shimmer, Dex, you seeing this?" He ducked a chunk of debris that was a bit larger than the rest.
Shimmer responded, "Yeah, got it. I'm comparing that to data on the Maverick team." /According to Pyrostrike,/ he started to add privately, /that IS Morph Moth. Apparently his name is more than just consonance. He likes to modify his body based on his environment./
X raised an eyebrow. /Thanks./ "Just let me know what you get."
This time, when he dove aside, he fired down in front of the Maverick. He knew his shot wasn't powerful enough to trigger what resulted, so he immediately braced down for a fight as the thing burst out of the junk, and flipped up, over, and down into the far hill.
The thing that landed confused X for a moment. It resembled a rudimentary spider, a central disc of armored skin for a 'body', with dozens of spindly gripper legs beneath it. A pair of crimson optics were the only other feature.
"Morph Moth?" X chose to try.
"Ah, so you do research your prey, Maverick Hunter. I'd've been disappointed if not," the spider called back with an unusually muffled, echoing voice. "Quite a remarkable resource this junk yard is. Surprisingly well-crafted items. Raw materials the likes of which you'd rarely find."
"So why the junky new body?"
The optics over the legs narrowed. "You'll see, Megaman X."
X started to build power over his frame.
Then the spider's optics flared wide, and the legs jerked inward. Air howled like a buzz-saw whirring, and X's sensors flared alerts. Startled, X twisted around, and then immediately flew into an array of hops, flips, and dodges as arcing blades of floating junk came ripping toward him from every side. It was like the junk was alive, flying out toward Morph Moth in animate geysers from every possible angle, arcing into him like a black hole sucking in meteors.
As the junk came hurtling inward, Morph Moth started to whir into a vortex again, but he didn't move this time. X kept flipping and rolling out of the paths of the dancing junk, and activated his full sensors again. Ultrasound, radar, and digital mapping came together in a multi-color view of his environment, and clearly showed Morph Moth's body was getting bigger by the second.
He's processing the raw materials and adding them to his structure in one action? That's mind-bogglingly sophisticated, and he's wasting it on a weapon system? That kind of tech could make field repairs and emergency medication accessible at almost no cost! X had to realize, pained by the waste of talent.
Taking the risk, X kept his sensors revving, back-twisting through another arc of junk, and fired a one-two blast of his fully charged busters shots.
They hit the mark, but he watched the plasma distort and burst apart in odd patterns, barely any able to actually surge through and damage Morph himself. So I need something that lingers a little more. Moth… flame… hm, oddly poetic.
X's colors flipped, fiery oranges and reds taking over his armor. As he twisted, flipped, and ducked around more arcs of junk, he fired off with both busters in lashing sweeps. Dancing gouts of fire ripped forward like bolts, borrowed from Flame Stag's weapon systems.
The flames coated the flying junk as much as splashing into and wrapping around the whirling blender that was Morph Moth. The Maverick crashed down to the side, screeching inhumanly as it ducked and rolled around the junk, trying to put the fire out.
X started to dash forward in the lull of flying junk. "That's a magnificent processing system, but it's a little hard to incorporate something that's already burning, right?"
"Shut your trap, you arrogant little bomber man!" Morph roared, lifting himself out of the junk on his legs with a glare.
"Bomber man? Really?" X returned with dry humor as he came rushing forward.
Morph whirled into a fresh vortex.
This time, X kept rushing closer, but he had to jump, side-twist, and flip through more of the ripping arcs of junk, which became faster and more intense the closer he got to Morph. He started to fire blasts of Speed Burn into the arcs as they flew past him, effectively looking like he was dancing with the revving lines of junk as his arms joined the unexpectedly graceful series of acrobatic stunts he had to pull to stay alive. He was also starting to build energy over his frame as he did so.
At last, the two were almost on top of each other. Morph Moth snapped out of his spin, roaring and snapping several legs up at the Maverick Hunter. X started to dive into that attack head-first… and then unleashed fully charged version of Speed Burn. His body ignited, turning into a living inferno, as it propelled him forward at jet-speeds, his boots adding even more after-burn.
X was past Morph Moth, skidding and twisting at the end of a valley he'd scorched through the junk, his optics locking on the Maverick. A chunk of Morph Moth's spider body was missing in the same path of the valley X's body had dug.
"You can stand down, Morph Moth," X called back firmly.
Shivering where he stood, the Maverick's undamaged optic sharpened to a bloody slit, still facing away from X. "There is no standing down, not from this. Enough games!"
A strand of something shot out of the Maverick's head, hitting a far hill. X tried to dash after him, but the maneuver was lightning fast, ripping Morph Moth out of site like a thunderbolt.
X growled, and started to dash in the direction he'd seen the body fly. He boost-flipped over a last hill, and crashed to one knee. There he froze. His optics widened at the torn open remains of the spider body.
A rush of air above him made X dive to his left. Morph Moth shot down, and smashed his fist into the ground where X had been kneeling, blasting debris everywhere.
Easing back from the strike, the Maverick faced X in his fully actualized body, massive wings idly flapping behind him, large, frilled antennae over his head, his body colored in yellow, silver, and gray. "Well, you pay attention, I'll give you that."
X tipped his head, and started to build power over his body again. "I'll say it one more time. You can stand down, Morph Moth. I'm not here to kill you unless I have to."
"Spare me!" Morph snapped, his hands snapping across his own front. A blast of metallic pink dust ripped forward.
X tried to dodge back, but the dust still splashed over him. His sensors overloaded, and he had to deactivate them. He started to grimace, as parts of his systems tried to tell him he was burning, taking heavy damage, while others insisted he was fine, and nothing was hurting him.
A thundering blow to the side of his head made all systems agree, and he crashed through the junk with a shout.
"Sometimes paying attention hurts, doesn't it?" Morph called out, a loud flapping sound cracking the air.
X picked himself, his optics still hazed by the dust. Risking it, he reactivated his sensors. He gasped from pain, his frame shaking, but he did sense Morph Moth hurtling down at him again.
"True enough," he chose to respond, and then ripped skyward with a full-powered Speed Burn ramming attack.
Morph Moth shouted in surprise, twisting to one side, but his left wing was incinerated while his flank was badly scorched.
The Maverick crashed down hard, grunting and rolling. X landed to a crouch, and turned around, his eyes still closed. "Overdrive Ostrich nearly broke himself free. You don't seem to even try, Morph Moth. Are you that weak willed?" It was a tactical risk. If the peaceful approach was failing, perhaps prickling the real Reploid's sensibilities could help him crack through.
Morph Moth started to stand up, growling. "I was one of the first. He was one of the last. It doesn't matter either way. I'm still going to tear you in half!" He started to charge forward.
X's brow creased. The duration of the infection was different? Interesting… He fired once Speed Burn, then twisted and stepped as his colors reverted, firing a pulse-blast at the Maverick's head.
The burning blast hit Morph's second wing, making him jerk and shout, trying to put it out… just in time for the pulse bolt to punch through his weakened head-plating. The body stumbled slightly, and then crashed down, the wing still burning.
"Sorry," X muttered, grimacing at the body. He exhaled, and walked over, making sure to collect Morph's personality processor and buffer. He touched the body's shoulder for a moment. "Thank you for the information."
Morph's digital self came aware with a start. "Who-what… huh?"
X's digital presence appeared with a wan smile. "Sorry about the wings."
"You… pulled my personality chip. You knew it was an infection?"
"Exactly. I have a lot to explain, but I wanted to ask you about something you said. You mentioned Overdrive was one of the ones infected last?"
Morph Moth nodded, realizing what X was getting at. "Yes, I'm glad you realized how important that was. It took just about everything I had to get those words through."
"I'd suspected that. Again, sorry about the fight. I know how the infection works, so I couldn't really play nice."
"I'm glad you didn't. I fully intended to tear you to pieces at the time," Morph Moth listed off with some morbid, dry humor. More serious, he went on, "You can thank Crystal Snail, truthfully. He somehow realized what was happening to us before we became fully Maverick. His research focuses on relative time perception and how various forces can actually affect time and its influences. He basically found a way to slow down the infection. We weren't all infected at once, however, so some of us were already much further gone. Overdrive was the last one, at least that I'm aware of."
X was astonished. "Crystal Snail actually slowed down the virus' processing functions?"
"Slowed our entire processing system. The virus uses the host's hardware, like always. We became less effective, but we were able to stay aware a little longer. We were trying to find a way to stop the infection, and we fully intended to destroy each other if we couldn't, but apparently we lowered our defenses at the wrong time." Morph shrugged. "Truthfully, that's all I know about the situation. …I'm glad you got Doran out. He was always a good Reploid. Grumpy, but a kind soul."
"You knew him before?"
"Indirectly. We were on the island as an observation team. There was concern that the island might try to rebel as an independent nation, so the human authorities dispatched us as infiltrators."
X's eyes widened. "You were sent to keep the humans from rebelling?"
"Scouts, information gathering, but I'm sure that was the end-goal, yes."
X crossed his arms, one hand stroking his chin. "…Disturbing. So they knew how dangerous this place could get, but still never told us, even after it went dark."
"Maverick Hunters were the last forces the humans wanted on this island, X. I think they would've preferred no one knew the island existed."
X frowned. "I fear you're right… Still, that's a problem for another day. I have a proposal I'd like to run by you, Morph Moth."
The digital antennae perked up. "I'm listening."
"X, thanks for coming," Alia greeted happily.
He walked into a lab in Maverick Hunter Headquarters with a fond smile back, waving casually. "Of course. I thought you were supposed to be on leave for recovery for a day or two yet, though?"
Alia giggled, still tapping a few controls on her console. "Well, staying at home for a few days tends make me go batty, so I got permission to work on some 'unrelated to Hunting projects'," she listed out, complete with finger-quotes.
X chuckled, and came up beside her. "So what did you want to show me?"
"A concept," she began simply, gesturing up at her main screen.
The display showed a generic template of a Reploid body, and quickly zoomed in to the central processor and system buffer.
"What usually actually kills a Reploid in combat is the feed-back surge into the processor from other systems failing unexpectedly," Alia explained the grim information calmly, academic at the moment. "After our… talk the other day, I got an idea." Her hands adjusted a few controls.
X watched, intrigued as the processor and buffer literally disconnected from the systems around them, while mechanical structures closed them off. "…Physical isolation of the core components," he muttered.
"Exactly," Alia confirmed. "Basically, with some very simple hardware upgrades, and a new subroutine I'm developing right now, a Reploid's body would first react to possibly lethal damage by actually pulling the processor and buffer out of the data loop entirely, also securing them in a type of black-box system. Obviously, you can't fight like that, but it would make your core systems easier to recover and much harder to destroy."
Turning to X, she finished, "So far, I'm calling it Emergency Stasis."
X faced her as well. "It's simple and effective. Sacrifice the body to save the mind."
"When the body is on the verge of total failure anyway, yes." Alia shrugged a little. "It seems like a good idea, and… might help with certain recovery operations on the field?" she finished with a meaningful glance at him.
X half-smiled, and then nodded to the console. "It's a great idea, and more importantly, it's going to save lives. I'll definitely give it my note of approval on the official side. You going to run it by Dr. Cain?"
"Already did," Alia replied with a grin. "He loves it, too. Once I have a workable prototype put together, we'll test it live, and then mass-implementation if the tests are promising."
"Great work," X replied, a hand coming up to grip her shoulder. "Thanks."
She caught the deeper current in his optics, and smiled warmly. "Any word on promising new recruits?"
X chuckled as he eased away. "Not just yet, but I have a good feeling. I'll make sure to toss you any promising ones I spot, okay?"
"Sounds good. Stay safe, X. I'll be back on operations duty tomorrow."
"Looking forward to it. You stay safe, too, lieutenant."
Once he was out of the lab, Alia smiled faintly up at the screen. He was doing much better. That terrible weight was easier on him, she could tell. How much of it was really just wanting to tell me? The idea made her grave, and she looked down at the console near her hands. All the more reason I'm glad he finally did.
Her hands clenched for a moment, refocusing her thoughts, and she got back to work.
Dr. Cain sat at a large console of his own, but this one didn't have a view screen. Instead, it looked out over a self-contained construction chamber. The various body parts of Zero that X had collected from the X-Hunters controlled by the virus were already in position on a central table, being slowly and carefully put together by mechanical arms and tools arrayed on hydraulic lifts from all around the chamber.
His cane was hooked on the edge of the console as he worked, his face grim with focus, his eyes shifting around the controls as his hands adjusted them.
"Warning," the computer quietly began, "subject structural arrangement unable to process. Advise halt of procedure. Unable to calculate subject activation potential."
Dr. Cain smirked faintly, and kept working. "Indeed, isn't that alarming?" he muttered. "An unmatched creation, beyond my own understanding… recreated by a bunch of Mavericks."
The personality chip and system buffer X had retrieved were suspended over the body being constructed in energy bubbles.
"I do wonder what you'll say when you wake up, Zero. Will you hate me? Will you be yourself, or are there secrets hidden in this body that will spell doom for us all?"
Dr. Cain adjusted a few more controls, the torso and waist gently pulling together and getting the focus of the current work.
"X is playing things close to the chest, as always. He and I can't properly work together. I have to treat him like a common soldier, when he's the single most powerful Reploid any of us have seen. …Of course, except possibly for you, Zero." Dr. Cain looked out at Zero's passive face. "Am I just another scared animal, grasping for some imagined sense of control? Or am I bringing you back because you're one of our best? And I want X to have some backup that might actually make a difference? I don't even know."
A dry chuckle sounded in the lab as he continued. "Those 'X-Hunters' wouldn't just let this pass, either. If they haven't taken action, it means they're waiting for something." Dr. Cain focused on the processor floating in the room beyond. "You'll still be on our side, won't you, Zero?"
The lab just kept working, slowly, carefully putting the red Maverick Hunter back together. His unconscious face looked up at his own processor as the work continued, unmoving, unaffected… waiting.
Cadis flinched as part of the wall she was ducking behind exploded. She hefted a plasma rifle matched to her upgraded body's clean white and silver frame, a targeting lens over her left eye. With her hair tied back in a ponytail, she snapped out of cover, fired once, and ducked again, her expression focused.
One of the target mechaniloids blew apart before it could fire at her position again in the large, square training chamber. It was currently configured like an old war zone, ruined buildings providing plentiful cover, but dozens of mechaniloids floated around, ready to fire stun-bolts that would remove trainees from the session.
"Nice shot."
Cadis jerked, and then glanced to her right. "H-hi. Thanks. Blast Squirrel, right?"
The predominantly brown Reploid beside her nodded his obviously squirrel-like face. He had big, blue optics, and his body-armor was highlighted in blue and silver. Sharp fins of metal were folded under his arms and up his flanks, and he had a rather substantial plasma cannon latched onto his right arm at the moment.
"This position is getting a little swarmed, thought you might need a hand punching through?" Blast Squirrel added, aiming his cannon blind over the top of the wall and firing once. The purple-white blast somehow hit a target, they both heard it.
"Sadly," Cadis admitted, a rueful glance off to the left following. "The team in that building got wiped out before they could coordinate with me to clear out the targets."
"Eh, cocky brats. It's why we do these training sessions. I'll give a 3-2-1-go. On 'go' break across the wall and get behind that building. If you can take some out, great, but I'll try to draw them the other way." As he finished, his cannon detached from his arm, connected to his lower back, and his bladed fins snapped into flexile wings connecting his arms to his body.
"Copy," Cadis replied as she snapped a shot over the wall herself. Another target went down.
"3… 2… 1… GO!"
They split instantly, Cadis dive rolling, and firing once as she skidded sideways on her stomach. Her shot lanced two targets in one hit, and she twisted up to dive out of view as a few tried to chase after her.
Blast Squirrel shot through the air, swirling around the whole mass of mechaniloids hovering around. They blasted at him in volleys of pale blue light, but he just knotted them tighter and tighter together in his sweeping, looping patterns.
Cadis peeked out from her new cover, and gawked. Holy heck, he's a good flyer! Isn't he brand new like me? She touched her comm, "Need any suppressing fire or something?"
"Punch out the heart of their formation after my next pass."
"Copy," she muttered, taking aim already.
She watched his tail pass out of her cross-hairs, and then she flicked her rifle to auto, and unleashed a volley of her own. Her frame rattled with the staccato pulse-blasts.
This time Blast Squirrel had to hover up, pausing in astonishment. Mechaniloids were flying apart. Not a single shot of her volley missed a target. Every one struck true. An auto-fire spray with sniper-level precision? Damn, this rookie has talent. He twisted around a counter-shot from one mechaniloid, and snapped his tail down at them. A small spray of plasma erased a chunk of their formation, and he started to round them up into a tighter ball again.
"Nice job, Cadis. Ready for another barrel-shoot?"
She chuckled. So he does know my name. "Just let me know."
"NOW!"
Her cross-hairs focused, and she watched him pan up past her view this time. She fired another volley.
This one tore out most of the remaining mechaniloids, and Blast Squirrel whirled about, firing a volley of his own, pegging the rest of the scattered handful with quick work.
Cadis checked to be sure, then eased out of cover, rifle still ready. "Nice flying."
Blast Squirrel swept down, landing in front of her. He tail rejoined his arm, and his wings deconstructed out of his way again. He grinned for her. "Nice shooting. You've got some real talent with that rifle, kid."
"Kid?" she asked, chuckling. "You joined after me!"
He twitched. "Oh! Right. Whoops! Sorry, boss lady!"
Cadis laughed. "Whatever works." She jerked a little when the all-clear sounded over the training chamber. "Wait, that was it?" She glanced around. "Where are all the others?"
"We're it," Blast Squirrel explained, arms akimbo. "You were the last one standing other than me, Cadis. You did a dang good job holding out in that nightmare position. It's why I could get over here to help. Everything else was mopped up or in the penalty box."
Cadis let her rifle slump down finally. "We're the only two that passed?"
"Precisely," a new voice said from behind her.
She twisted with her rifle, bracing, but kept it down as she recognized a non-hostile target. Blast Squirrel shared a wry smile with Inferno as he came stomping up.
"Good reaction time, Cadis. You didn't assume the area was fully secured, but you also checked your target," Inferno went on casually.
Cadis snapped into a salute, which Blast Squirrel joined.
"Thank you, sir," Cadis replied.
"Just stating facts, recruit. You two will move on to the next level of training. The rest will get some remedial lessons."
Cadis flushed. "That's a relief, sir."
Inferno chuckled. "You may not think so once that next level of training starts up, Cadis, but I appreciate your enthusiasm. Blast Squirrel, you know the way to training class 13-A, right?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Go ahead and get your new desks situated for the first debriefing this afternoon. Then take a well-earned break."
Cadis and Blast Squirrel saluted, and Cadis happily walked along with her companion to do exactly that.
Inferno activated a private comm as he started to move around and help the defeated trainees out of their stun-lock. /New body seems to work well for you, Blast./
/Like a charm! Who designed this awesome wing system?/
/Airstrike, actually. He thought you might like it after Pyrostrike let him know a thing or two about your style./
/Hah! Good ole Pyro always has my back. I'll get Airstrike a charge on me!/
Inferno chuckled physically, and then swatted a recruit upside the head before he could complain about the stun bolts hitting too hard again.
Author's Note:
Early update! I'll be out of town this weekend, so I wanted to make sure this got posted before I completely forgot to!
Admittedly, this is a bridging chapter. It still accomplishes some very important elements, with the reference to human authorities wanting the island secret/observed, Crystal Snail's research, Dr. Cain's progress, Cadis' talent, and the Emergency Stasis system, which will be very important MUCH later.
I stole the name 'Doran' from some of the common starting items in League of Legends, actually. I recently started playing the game, and had it on the brain, heh. I think he was a surprisingly fun character for how brief his sojourn on the page was. I hope you share my view.
Again, thanks for the reviews, favs, comments, and other support, folks. It really does help keep me going, and I appreciate every one. I'm very glad last chapter worked for so many folks. I'm very proud of it, and glad to see others enjoyed it!
You'll see how this pans out in regard to Black Zero and how it works toward X3 as this Chronicle draws to a close!