Chapter 9: Glorious Crystal Gleam, Crystal Snail

By the time X had returned to the Maverick Hunter HQ, the alarms and red tinted lights to signify the danger of the situation had passed, and everyone had gotten back to work with little comments regarding Magna Centipede's death. It seemed the only one affected by his death was X, ironically the one who had to pull the trigger in the first place. After X got his body healed up, including regaining the ability to reuse his right arm cannon, he made it back to central command and immediately went over to Alia.

Alia was looking on the map, which only had the last Maverick mugshot present on it and seven squares of static. She was focused on her work as usual, but upon realizing that X had walked up behind her she turned her chair around slightly and gave him a hesitantly melancholic glance before quickly looking back at the computer screen and trying to avoid the subject of the fallen Magna Centipede by stating "Only one Maverick commander left X, and then we can probably find where the X-Hunters are situated."

X paused behind her chair while glancing down at the ground with a very distraught look in his eyes, quietly asking her "Why is no one talking about Magna Centipede's death?" Alia didn't say anything for a few seconds, but then let out a sigh and asked X "X, I know his death affected you, but you can't linger on it." X lifted his head up slightly and said "Easy for you to say when you were demanding I kill him."

"X, please don't blame me for just trying to do my job." Alia remarked while keeping her cool and continuing to type on her keyboard, but X raised his voice a little bit and pointed out "He could've been saved!" "Maybe he could've X, but you have to consider the risks here. We don't know HOW he was mind-controlled, and not only that there'd be a huge risk of him causing damage to the HQ while we try to fix him. You should know better than anyone X that we don't hold Mavericks or suspects prisoner here anymore, not since Sigma broke Vile out." Alia comments, remaining calm and rational as much as she could.

"We should've made some attempt to try. He could've been kept in the computer facility until we could bring someone in to help." X suggested, but Alia shook her head a bit and closed her eyelids, telling him to the best of her ability "X…I know you hold compassion towards others, but you have to face reality sometimes. We're Maverick Hunters, and our job is exactly that…We aren't supposed to let any Maverick survive if they threaten the peace of innocent Reploids and humans. Magna Centipede said as much before he died that he was basically a Maverick at that point. We'll remember him as a brave Maverick Hunter, but the rest of the world will only recognize him as a Maverick who threatened their lives…"

At that point X surprised Alia by suddenly slamming his right fist down on the side of her keyboard, breaking a couple of the keys while making a loud enough sound that everyone else in the room stopped what they were doing and focused their eyes on X, who was trembling a bit and gritting his teeth in anger at how he was forced to handle Magna Centipede's situation. Alia looked up at X, and in a moment of tossing aside her work mentality she said to him "X…I am genuinely sorry that things ended up like this. Maybe I can't ever understand what it's like to take a life…But I do know what it's like to be unable to save someone."

Alia then lifted a hand up and laid it on top of X's own as he clenched it into a fist, telling him as he looked at her "But you have to keep going X. Magna Centipede may be dead, but he made the sacrifice necessary to give us a chance to quell the Mavericks created by that signal wave and let the innocents continue to live their lives. But that peace will be threatened if the X-Hunters get a chance to attempt something like this again."

X lifted his head up all the way and despite having a melancholic look on his face he nodded his head and said "…No, I-I suppose you're right. I shouldn't be getting mad at you Alia…It's the X-Hunters that put Magna Centipede under their control. They're the ones who forced him to fight me…I have to take the fight to them. Not just for Magna Centipede's sake, but for all the people and Reploids on that island as well. Alia, put in the coordinates for the last Maverick location, I'm going to head off."

Alia smiled a bit as X seemed more ready to go back to work, and with a nod of her head she pulled her hand away from X's own and began to type in the coordinates for the last destination. It was a good thing X hadn't broken any of the keys she needed, so she was able to get to work right away, remarking all the while "The final Maverick is known as Crystal Snail. I'll give you the briefing now since it's rather short. He's another unknown, just like Wire Sponge and Morph Moth, but what we do know is that he's been mining rare gemstones for the X-Hunters."

"A gem digger then. Understood. I bet he was created by Sigma just like Wire Sponge was, so I'll make sure to be careful." X remarked before turning around ready to head for the door, but before he left he paused and held his arms down beside him while remarking "…Alia, I'm sorry again for snapping at you." X then left the room and went for the teleporters, while Alia blinked a couple times and looked back at the computer, remarking to herself "…I almost thought for a moment that X was going Maverick, but it seems all he was doing was being himself…I wonder if it's even possible for him to go Maverick? Hmmm…"

X gets sent straight to the place that Crystal Snail was occupying, immediately being greeted by a powerful radiance all-around in the atmosphere thanks to the clear abundance of gemstones that made up the walls, pillars and ceiling of this cavernous zone. X was taken aback by the radiance for a moment, especially as it flashed between differing colors with every second, though at the very least the tint in the atmosphere was dull enough so it wouldn't distract him for too long.

X prepared to move forward, though not before letting out a momentary sigh, as he still couldn't fully absolve himself of the guilt of killing Magna Centipede even after Alia's attempt to get him focused back on the mission. Though upon thinking about his navigator, X is shocked out of his train of thought when she contacts him via his helmet and he lifts his hand up to answer the call as she points out to him "I'm detecting one more Dr. Light capsule in this area, but it's pretty far in. Other than that, you're free to handle this however you wish X."

X nodded his head and then shut off communications without saying another word, and he slowly went for his arm cannon before moving on ahead through the glistening caverns before him. As expected of a cavern, there were more of those bat Reploids hanging around on the ceiling as X pushed on through into a narrow passageway, though naturally they were nothing more than a minor distraction for X as he used standard buster shots to take them out one at a time, especially considering they weren't gathered in a swarm.

He then leaped onto a green glass platform and moved forward a little bit, only to be greatly surprised when he starts losing his footing and goes sliding forward the moment he steps onto the hollow slope. X goes sliding down towards a pit, but uses his high momentum to leap over it and land on top of another slope, this time going straight down towards an abandoned Ride Armor at the very bottom. X decides to land right into the cockpit of the Ride Armor instead of leaping over it, and after stabilizing himself he turns around and sits down ready to pilot it.

This Ride Armor functioned exactly the same as the one in Wheel Gator's tank, and with it X makes an immediate U-Turn and activates the jet boosters on the back of it to propel himself forward through the cavern. He quickly makes it to a chasm leading further into the cavern, and with how narrow the path was there was no other way to go put down. X leaped off the edge of the platform and fell down quickly due to the weight of his machine, but along the way he used the drill arms to break apart some crystal covered turret drones so his Ride Armor wouldn't get damaged.

The Ride Armor lands on a bed of spikes at the bottom of the gap, and in front of X were some weak blocks of gemstone that he broke through by spinning the spiked fists out in front of his body. However, there was a very thick extension of purple stone above the ledge in front of him that prevented him from taking the Ride Armor any further for the time being. X cautiously leaps out of the Ride Armor and lands on the ledge, leaping forward off of that to land on a purple metal incline.

This one was thankfully not slippery like the last slope was, but there was the matter of a gigantic emerald block preventing X from continuing any further for the time being. X planned to use his charged shot to destroy the block, but it only took a couple seconds and a little noise for X to watch as the block began to slide down straight towards him, perfectly fitting between the incline and the gem-encrusted ceiling as it made it's way down. X dashed forward and slipped into a gap between two slopes to get underneath the stone before it could crash into him.

The stone goes on by and slams against the purple stone from earlier, crushing it into dust before it fell down into a grand chasm below the edge of the slope. X poked his head out of the gap and saw that he could now take the Ride Armor with him further into the cavern if he so wished, and considering the presence of the destructible gemstones X made the wise decision to go back and leap over the gap, grabbing onto the ledge to pull himself up and then make it back into the Ride Armor so he could use it to continue any longer.

Proceeding past where the giant green emerald was, X used the Ride Armor to destroy more crystal turrets and bat Reploids, casually dashing over the spike floors until he came across a problematic obstacle. There was a gigantic wall made of gemstones leading up to what appeared to be a metallic ledge further into the caverns. But with how uneven the gems were there was no way X was going to be able to wall-jump right up.

But X had the bright idea of using the Ride Armor to pound into the wall with the drill function of the machine's arms, slowly building up a slope that he climbs with every bit of effort he makes while standing up occasionally to shoot down any bat Reploids that plan to disrupt his progress. After a few minutes of constant effort, X's Ride Armor has allowed him to make it to the very top of the gem wall, but not without the cost of it breaking down from overuse. As it broke down and crumpled up, X leaped right out and patted the front of it, thanking it for a job well-done.

X then turned forward and dashed across the metal floor until he reached a small enclosed room, which by now signaled him to the fact that he'd come across a more troublesome enemy. This time the enemy came in the room of a sentinel orb-shaped drone buried within a large, thick crystal wall that blocked the way further ahead. The drone activated with a widening of it's eye, and from the ceiling it summoned forth two bolt-shaped miniature drones with a light on the front of their bodies that act as laser firing devices.

Though X knew that the job would be made easier if he still had a Ride Armor, he quickly realized he had a faster option to break through the crystal wall to reach the main sentinel. Switching to Wheel Gator's colors, X ran past the lasers fired from the drones and fired a Spin Wheel directly against the crystal wall. The wheel sticks to the front of the while and rapidly grinds against it, and X leaps back and weaves around the laser fire while his weapon does it's work, with it breaking right as it opened a hole straight to the drone.

But X was caught completely off-guard as he prepared both of his arm cannons for charging, with the drone using it's eyes to fire a gigantic laser in self-defense straight at X. X ended up taking the laser right to his chest and was pushed back, his thick armor keeping him from taking too much damage as he feels the full brunt of the laser. Once the laser was finished striking X, he raised his arm cannons and fired two shots straight at the drone, both fully charged despite the disruption he faced.

Both shots impact cleanly with the drone's body and caused enough damage to make it slowly self-destruct and break apart the rest of the crystal wall around it, breaking the way open for X to continue onward. X destroys the smaller drones with regular shots as he moves onward, leaping onto the ledge and finding himself face-to-face with another one of those green metal slopes, this one going a long way down into the caverns. Being more prepared for this slope, X gets to the lip of the top of it and sits down, so he can slide down it and keep himself in the perfect position to aim up at any bat Reploids that were in his face and shoot them down.

However, as he began sliding down, X heard a heavy impact behind him and glanced back, watching as another chunk of emerald rock falls from the ceiling, broken free from it thanks to the explosions caused by the drone X just beat. The weight of the rock allowed it to quickly slide down and start catching up with X, but X had enough distance away from the stone that by the time he reached the bottom of the slope he was able to press his arm cannon against the ground and use a charged shot to propel himself up onto the nearby ledge.

But the threat wasn't over yet as the gemstones was thick enough to break through the floor beneath X's feet, forcing X to run forward and leap off the edge of the ledge over to a purple metal slope as the emerald rock crashed against the gemstones and broke right through in a matter of seconds. X turned around and watched the rock fall into the gap afterwards, and thanks to the fallen and broken gemstones the rock was able to fill in the gap below, conveniently making itself even with a hidden passage down below.

Remembering what Alia had said about there being a capsule in this area, X decided to leap down onto the emerald rock and walk forward, using Wheel Gator's power to break the crystal turrets on the floor and ceiling as he made his way over to a clearly visible capsule at the end of the passage. As usual, X stepped in front of the capsule and let it activate, the holographic visage of the kindly doctor appearing before X with a bit of a smile on his face before he said "Hello again X. I see you have made it to the final armor capsule. This one contains the Helmet Part, which will allow you to find out an enemy's weak point and hidden items in an area. Of course, since you have all the armor parts, I suppose that second feature is particularly useless now…"

X didn't say anything at first, as he was thinking back a bit to what Serges was saying, especially the stuff regarding his possible connection to Dr. Light. However, the big thing that made X hesitate greatly was what Serges had said about Dr. Light possibly not being willing to reveal anything about who Serges was. With X standing around in silence, it didn't take long for Dr. Light to politely inquire "Is something bothering you, X?"

X widened his eyes and looked up at Dr. Light, saying to him in a stuttering tone "I-I'm sorry Dr. Light…I was just thinking about something and…" "And? If something is bothering you, you're more than welcome to ask me for advice. I will be more than glad to help." Dr. Light said with a smile and a fatherly tone of voice, but even with that X couldn't bring himself to ask about Serges. There was something else though that he wanted to know, something that would perhaps dissuade some of the doubts on his mind regarding how he handled Magna Centipede.

"Dr. Light…Back in your day, was a war ever won without any lives being taken?" X inquired, and immediately Dr. Light closed his eyelids and let out a bit of a sigh before remarking "I'm afraid not X. As much as we would have liked to, humanity always had to make sacrifices for the sake of winning wars." X hung his head low a bit and said "E-Even so…If there was ever a situation in the middle of a war where you had to take out an ally of yours to prevent a big disaster, would you try and save the person if the possibility existed, or would you take them out because that's the safer choice?"

"…A difficult question you've proposed to me, X. Honestly, I don't know how to respond to that in a way that would perfectly satisfy you." Dr. Light admitted with the utmost honesty in his voice, and X nodded his head and said "I'll take whatever you can offer me. I just want to know if I made the right choice…" "I suppose the closest thing I can say is that it's better to consider the needs of the many over the needs of the few…In simpler terms, choosing to save the lives of everyone else compared to that of a single man or Reploid." Dr. Light remarked.

"But if not a single life could be lost, then wouldn't that be the best option?" X inquired, and Dr. Light nodded his head and said "That is very true, but that isn't always an option X. Being your creator, I understand why you are thinking these things…But do not push yourself too hard. Save whoever you can, but don't forget those whose lives have been lost. I honestly cannot give you anymore advice than that."

"Yeah…Yeah…I get what you're saying Dr. Light. Someday, all of our efforts will lead to peace, and then we can honor the lives of those who died in battle…Both fighters and victims. In the meantime, we should try and reduce the casualty count as much as we can." X stated with some confidence in his voice, and with a proud smile Dr. Light said "I wish I could still be alive to see that day come X. But alas, I must simply resort to being a spectator of your efforts. Now then, take the final part of your Second Armor, and use it to bring the peace the innocent people and Reploids deserve to have. Hopefully, you will not have to seek out my capsules again, X."

X leaped into the capsule after Dr. Light's hologram went away, and after one more data processing session X comes out of the capsule with a white and red helmet that perfectly fits with the rest of his armor. Dr. Light then reappears, saying to his creation happily "Best of luck X. And just know that I could not be prouder of you." The hologram then disappeared for good after X gives Dr. Light an appreciative nod, and with his Second Armor fully completed he sprinted out of the passage and climbed up the walls of the gap to get back to where he was before.

Making it to the purple metal slopes, X advances through the rest of the cavern while finding his way blocked by some thick purple crystal blocks. He saw another emerald rock sliding down his way, but confidently leaped up to grab onto a ladder nearby and climb it to get out of the way before the rock broke through the crystals and the bottom of the ladder. After that, X climbed up the rest of the slope and jumped between a couple of walls to make it to the entrance of a metallic compound.

After one more emerald rock slid down to give X passage forward, he made it to the familiar sliding steel doors that were attached to the floor and ceiling of an advanced looking compound, one that was presumably used for storing the gems and rare stones that were mined from the caverns, and for certain the place where Crystal Snail was waiting. After walking through the passage between both doors, X ended up in a room where the crystal glimmer did not reach, and at the far end of the room was an orange metallic snail shell lying on the ground with glistening green lights around the inside of the spiral.

Upon X entering the room, the being within the shell wakes up and stands upright, revealing it to be a metallic creature with small feet with shells for ankles, hands of blue, and rounded shoulders of red. He had an oddly shaped head with two antennae on top and something resembling snail's eyes extending out from it's chin, and between it's two regularly slanted eyes was a plain as day Sigma symbol. The Maverick looked at X and didn't say anything, but X said to him "So you're Crystal Snail…Were you created by Sigma?"

"…" Crystal Snail still didn't say anything, looking blankly at X while blinking it's metallic eyelids twice. X raised his eyebrows in surprise and said "So you aren't very talkative. Do you understand why I'm here?" Crystal Snail did nod his head slightly in response, and X held his arm cannon out to the side of his body a bit before stating "Then that makes this a little easier. You're the last Maverick I need to defeat, Crystal Snail."

Crystal Snail nodded his head again and then held his arms out, blue electricity moving between his antennae before he was ready for battle. X started off by shooting some normal buster shots at Crystal Snail, but the Maverick turns itself around and uses it's shell to protect itself without any harm done to it. The Maverick then leaped up and tucked into it's shell, creating a small rocket boost to keep itself suspended in place before it spun itself around and prepared to point itself right at X.

X ran forward and got underneath the Maverick as it charged right at him, but instead of crashing against the ground Crystal Snail spun itself around again and prepared to fire off in a different direction. Meanwhile, X turned around and prepared a charged shot, firing it out with enough force to make his body recoil back a bit. But even the charged shot doesn't dent Crystal Snail's shell, forcing X to quickly realize that his best bet of dealing with the Maverick is to wait for him to come out of the shell so he could strike the main body.

X leaped over the Maverick as it charged at him again, landing on the ground and cautiously walking back as Crystal Snail pulled himself out of his shell and turned around to face X. X readied another charged shot, but then the Maverick leaped into the air while X tracked him with his arm cannon. Crystal Snail suddenly released more electricity from his antennae, only this time it had an adverse effect on the environment as the crystalline gleam filled the air and distorted the air from ceiling to floor in a wave-like pattern.

X fired his charged shot, but it moved very slowly through the air and ended up missing Crystal Snail entirely as the Maverick landed on the ground. X himself felt much slower than usual as well, which became more evident when Crystal Snail ran right at him and rammed against the front of his body, slamming X against the door and pulling back before ramming him two more times before the time slowing effect disappeared.

When X fell on the ground, he thrust his left fist out to punch Crystal Snail right in the gut, which sent the Maverick away and gave X enough distance from his opponent to prepare another attack. "I have to think of a way to separate him from his shell…" X thinks to himself as he considered all of the options available to him within the weapons he had acquired from other Mavericks. Considering how Crystal Snail was bound to his shell, X began to suspect that a magnetic force was at work there, and it quickly became clear what he had to do.

Switching to Magna Centipede's weapon colors, which were now in between the white and blue of his armor, X aimed his arm cannon at Crystal Snail and expected to fire one of those shuriken that Magna Centipede had used against him, but instead was surprised when a blinking mine launched out at the Maverick. Crystal Snail leaped over the mine and it attached to the wall behind him, and once more the Maverick launched a wave of time-slowing energy before tucking into his shell and launching himself at X with the rocket propulsion on his body.

As the Maverick hurtles towards X, he comes up with a plan on how to utilize the mine. X slides underneath Crystal Snail by using his rocket boots and ducking together, and then he turned around and waited for the Maverick to get out of his shell, taking his slowed down state into consideration before he fired another mine at the Maverick's emerging body. Crystal Snail widens his eyes as the mine connects and explodes, sending a negative magnetic pulse through his body that counteracts the magnetic force between him and the shell, and after a few seconds of twitching Crystal Snail's body is thrust out of the shell and sent across the air.

Time flows back to normal and X leaps over the body, flipping himself around and using his air boots to push himself backward while charging his arm cannon. Once Crystal Snail hits the first mine placed earlier and detonates it, X fires his charged shot at full force, and the magnetic disruption at this point weakened Crystal Snail enough that this attack was capable of destroying the Maverick in a single blow. Crystal Snail explodes on the opposite end of the room, taking his entire body with him as a glorious flash of crystal light fills the room for a few seconds.

Though it seemed like a careless move to destroy Crystal Snail's body when he hadn't acquired his power yet, X would quickly dash any concerns about that when he stepped off of the fallen Maverick's shell and laid his hand on top of it to get Crystal Snail's power that way. His armor only became a lighter shade of blue for a moment, and once he had turned back to normal he laid a hand on his helmet and remarked "That's the last of the Mavericks, Alia."

"Good work X. Now that they are out of the way, we should be able to locate just where exactly the X-Hunters are hiding. Come back and heal up, and then we'll finally take the fight straight to them!" Alia said with some relief in her voice, and after X nodded his head in agreement she prepared the teleporter for X to be brought back. Before the beam of light carried him away, X clenched his left hand confidently and for the sake of all the Reploids and humans that he was fighting for, knew he was ready to take down the X-Hunters…

Next Time: The Plan Crumbles