Maverick Hunter X – Next-Level Insurrection
Chapter 3: Burning Down the Heavens
(A/N: I know that this took way longer than it should have-almost a month, in fact-but Chapter 3 is finally here. I got distracted and busy with real life, which is why it took so long, and I also intended to have Sigma's rebellion happen here, but I felt it would be poorly paced. So it will have to wait. Anyway, here goes the chapter)
DISCLAIMER: It is heavily advised that this story be read with awesome Mega Man music playing in the background. I do not own any Mega Man X related characters or themes. All characters from Mega Man, Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man Legends are all owned by Capcom. Please support the official release!
21:00 – SKY LAGOON
X, Zero, and Nellia were to work hard and fast for this mission. Mavericks were attacking the floating city of Sky Lagoon, and if it were to be destroyed or crash, the results would be disastrous. The trio landed on a highway and series of buildings. They saw the futuristic and high-tech city, and it was not looking good.
Several buildings were catching fire or crumbling a lot, some civilians trapped underneath the rubble, and the city seemed to be on lockdown. The Hunters had to work fast and get the city clear. X, not even waiting, dashed through his boots into the mission, ready to stop the Mavericks.
Nellia jumped off as well, and ran off towards her lover's home. She needed to find Lena quickly. She lost contact with her a bit before they arrived and was fearing the worst. As she rushed through the city, wall-jumping back and forth, she saw small Mechaniloid Mavericks. Though Maverick Reploids were not uncommon, Maverick Mechaniloids were far moreso, because they had no sense of will and were mostly just machines. As such, it was easier for Mechaniloids to turn, as opposed to the normal Reploids.
Nellia wasted little time in attacking. She punches, chopped, kicked, and wailed on any Maverick that came within striking distance. Some human-like Mavericks shot at her and she spun like an upside-down top towards them, hitting them with repeated kicks in this manner like a Hitmontop, until they were on the ground, unable to get up. Spiky wheels also rolled towards her, but she spun and thrust kicked them with a fiery passion.
"KOMANUU!" she shouted, crushing them.
Zero had to deal with airborne enemies coming through from the skies. Some were trying to collide with buildings or at the innocents in the city, so Zero had to work fast and not doddle around. Fortunately, Iris had been getting slightly used to the navigations to provide him enough help to get him through.
"Zero, bogies at 12, 3, and 6 o'clock!" she said.
"Not for long." Zero said confidently. Without much of a second thought, Zero jumped up into the sky, ignited his saber, and slashed at the Mavericks with peak precision and speed, destroying them in one group, then another, and finally the last. From the corner of his eye, he noticed a bigger Maverick with four legs approaching injured people, and dove down to spin-slash before Iris could even point it out.
Iris was in awe of Zero's finesse and power, how he was able to destroy the Mavericks in great timing. She felt her heart skipping so many beats, as if it were going to burst in mere moments from now. She let out a blissful sigh and began to realize she was in love….
"So dreamy…"
"I'm sorry, why are you dreaming?" asked X.
Iris blushed like mad. She just realized she was talking through her headset while daydreaming. "N-N-No reason, X! Forgive me! It's been a long night."
"It's about to get even longer, ladies!" said a hunter. "We need air support soon to evacuate the civi—AAAGH!"
X quickly jumped to try helping a few of the hunters, but most of them had been shut down by incoming standing ball Mechaniloids. X immediately started shooting, but they curled up in a ball, deflecting the shots all over.
"X, those Mavericks' shells are made of hard Wiltanium metal!" Nana said. "You need to shoot the center pieces when they pop up!"
"Got it!" shouted X. He bided his time, then carefully and decisively shot at the cores when they popped, destroying the Mavericks.
Nana put her headset on one-way silent so that her voice wouldn't go through for now. She turned to Iris for a minute. "Quite unprofessional of you." She said teasingly.
Iris blushed again, and turned her radio off to speak with her. "I apologize. It's just…I heard stories of how amazing Zero was. But I never seen him in action until now. He acts with such precision and finesse. He's awe-inspiring to look at. I think… I might be in love."
"I understand." Nana said. "I can relate to that. I get a little warm-hearted when thinking of…certain hunters, too. But I try to stay on task. It's not viable or professional to think of our comrades as potential partners. Regardless of how kind, strong, or…sexy…they may be…"
Nana immediately shook her head from her thoughts. She needed to stay focused, and immediately turned her radio back on. She glanced over to Iris, who had a mischievous look on her face. She knew Nana had something on her mind…or rather, someone. But she turned her radio back on. She had to concentrate.
Nellia raced through the city, getting as many people clear as she could. But her girlfriend's safety was what she was focused on most. After leading a family out of the city, Nellia dashed through, reaching Lena's apartment building. "Lena!" she shouted.
Nellia looked up and shouted her name again, hoping to see her in the window. To her shock, she did see Lena in the window, but it wasn't a pretty sight. She was hanging over the window, barely conscious, and looked severely injured. Before doing anything, Nellia noticed Lena slightly moving and shouted again.
"Lena!"
Lena slowly moved and looked down and saw her Hunter girlfriend, silently reaching for her from five stories up. Nellia was about to enter the building when she heard a loud roar.
"Nellia, we got a big Maverick reading! A huge one, in fact!" Iris said through her radio.
"How huge?" asked Nellia. Her answer came all too soon.
She saw a giant dragon-like mechaniloid flying right towards her. It was green in color with bronze accents, silver jet wings, sharp claws and red eyes. This was the Eregion, and it was big and mean, and tearing the city apart.
"Strike that last comment from the records." Nellia said.
"Will do." Said Nana, nonchalantly.
Nellia saw it tearing apart the city with its blue beams that it shot out of its mouth. She knew she couldn't save everyone from it, but she had to at least save some of them. With all the strength and speed she could muster, she ran up the apartment walls, trying as fast as she could to get her lover out. She was able to run half-way up until she got a warning from Iris.
"Nellia, it's gonna fire at the building!" she shouted. "Watch out!"
Nellia was forewarned and just before the Maverick could fire, she leapt up, her arm stretched out for Lena. Her girlfriend's hand was stretched as far as she could, and Nellia was in fingertips of her grasp…but it was not to be. The Eregion's beam hit the building, and the ones around it, flinging Nellia back down towards the ground. Before she could hit ground zero, though, she was caught by someone. When she opened her eyes, she saw her savior: an officer of Repliforce.
The Reploid in question was a white Pegasus-inspired young man, with red accents along his wings, eye lids, and vest. His upper torso was in the shape of said vest, but with a royal prince theme to it. He also had a black undersuit, black and red armlets, gold and blue belt, a green gem on his nose, and the Repliforce insignia on his head. He was a young but serious captain of Repliforce's Air Force, and he answered to The Skiver.
"Looks like we made it, m'lady." Said Skiver.
Nellia looked up at him, happy to see Storm Eagle and Repliforce come through, but also upset they could not have come sooner. Her girlfriend was now dead with several others, as Repliforce was now in a big fight with the giant dragon mechaniloid. Their commander, Storm Owl, unleashed a furious twister attack at the beast, which only slowed it down at best. The beast attacked with its claws at the fighters, knocking some down.
On the surface, however, X and Zero felt some rumbling as well, from the underground engine chambers. They quickly rushed there and were horrified to find many dead bodies of guards. It didn't take a genius to realize that this was no random Maverick attack; this was a very carefully planned terrorist attack. They eventually reached the engine room, where they found explosions and broken equipment everywhere, along with a fellow Hunter they recognized.
He was a red dragon-based Reploid, with blue hands, black eyelids, a silver chest armor, and green bean necklace. He was Magma Dragoon, one of the strongest and most dependable Hunter that could be found. He turned over and saw X and Zero, then had a solumn look on his face.
"Dragoon. What are you doing here?" asked Zero.
"X, Zero. The Mavericks have just taken out the city's engines and control schematics." He explained. "I tried to stop them, but it was too late. This city is going down in a few minutes…."
X and Zero looked at him shocked, but unsurprised, then looked at one another. They had a hard time struggling to believe his entire story. It was easy to accept that the room was damaged and the engines were done. What they could not believe was that any Mavericks of this caliber could have come this way and done this, and left a massive trail of bodies behind as well.
"Dragoon, where is this Maverick?" asked X. "You're the only one we saw, and not just any random Reploid could have done all of this."
"Not to mention you weren't called here, and the trail of dead bodies leading up here…" Zero explained. "They had some scathing burn marks. And the damage in here doesn't look like something any Maverick can accomplish…"
Dragoon took a step back. He was not so easily prepared for them to figure this all out just through those observations and hints. In fact, he hadn't even realized he left so many obvious hints. He was caught red-handed now. Chuckling, Dragoon looked at the two and began laughing.
"You two aren't as stupid as you look!" Dragoon shouted and threw a ball of fire from his hands, which Zero barely countered with a buster shot. Zero gritted his teeth at the Hunter-turned-traitor.
"Traitor…you're gonna kill thousands of lives!" he yelled.
"It will be worth it soon." Dragoon smirked.
"Why, Dragoon?" X asked. "Why are you doing this?"
"I was promised a fight against you, X. Now here we are….a true fight to the death!"
"You went Maverick just to fight me?! That's pathetic….!"
Zero looked on with contempt. The mere fact that Dragoon betrayed his fellow hunters, turned Maverick, and was going to commit mass genocide all for the sake of fighting X sickened him to his core. Zero was ready to fight, but knew there were more pressing matters to worry about. He felt the ground shaking, as the aerial city was beginning its plummet. Zero went for the controls, but found them busted and the screen totally broken. There was no way to stop it now and no known way of redirecting it.
"Iris, the controls are busted!" he said through the comms. "How much longer do you think we got?"
"According to these readings…" Iris said, inputting something on the computer. She paused when she found the answer. "…just about 10 minutes until impact."
Zero closed his eyes and looked down. It wasn't enough time to evacuate everyone. This was a difficult thing he had never done. His responses were many, but he couldn't find a clear one.
"X, we need to start getting people out!" said Zero.
X didn't respond. He looked at Dragoon with a grim look. He was deadset on the treasonous Reploid, and fuming over his betrayal. There was no way X was going to let Dragoon get away with this.
"X, come on! Let's go!" Zero shouted.
"You go ahead." X said. "I'll take him down…"
"Forget Dragoon, and let's move! We have to help evacuate everyone!"
"I can't. I can never forget what he's done. We called him our comrade and he turned on us! He has to pay, and if this place goes down, he's going with it! I am not allowing anyone to die because of him or me!"
"X, we don't have time for this!"
"Just go, Zero! My mind's made up and you can't change it!"
Zero wanted to argue again, but saw it was no use. He could see X had his own goal set and it was to take down Dragoon. Nothing he could say would deter X from his motive. Sighing, he patted X on the shoulder and dashed off, hoping to help Repliforce get as many people out as possible.
X stared down Dragoon angrily, ready to strike. Before he was realizing it, his optical sensors glowed a bit, beginning to analyze his opponent from top to bottom. X payed no mind and charged at Dragoon. The Maverick blocked with his fists and kicked X away across the room. X stumbled, but got right back up and shot pallets of energy at him. Dragoon stood his ground, blocking and taking the shots, before sending a fire wave at the Hunter.
X jumped right over it, but was uppercut for his troubles by Dragoon. It was not even a normal one—he used fire energy in it, making X fly through the ceiling. The Blue Bomber charged his buster for a semi-charged shot, but the traitor sidestepped and flew up to meet X. X decided to play his own game and threw some punches and kicks his way. Dragoon blocked or countered all of them, but X had some improvised counters of his own. He was analyzing Dragoon's style and adapting neatly to it.
When Dragoon threw a hard fire punch, X caught it with both hands and threw him up and used some buster shots, which got Dragoon good. The former Hunter was surprised at how quick X was learning. He was adapting and learning the more they fought. X smirked, feeling confident in a sense. He was almost starting to like fighting. Almost.
"I don't want to fight, Dragoon. I dislike it." Said X. "But I know I have to. Like I said, I won't let anyone—neither in this city nor anywhere in the world—to be hurt or killed! I will defeat any Mavericks that dares to cause the Earth harm!"
"X…" Nana whispered. She was extremely touched…and then had an idea.
She began typing on her control panel rapidly, as if hacking into systems at a mad rate. And that's exactly what she was doing. She was hacking into the Sky Lagoon's engine and navigational systems, or what was left of them.
"X, Zero, everyone! Hold on tight!" she screamed.
"Nana, what are you going to do?" asked Nellia.
"I'm hacking into the city's engine systems. We can't stop it from crashing, nor can we stop all the casualties. But if I position this right and time it perfectly, then the city will crash just a bit outside the city of Sunderland."
"Does that even work in our science?" asked Iris.
"We're about to find out!" Nana said, determined.
X heard her through his comms and was impressed by her quick thinking and tenacity. But most of all her selflessness. X was slowly becoming a bit more attracted to her from this, but he put those feelings aside for now. He braced for impact as he fought Dragoon, now more ready than ever.
Four minutes remained. Repliforce was doing all they could to get the civilians out, but they had so much room to cover and so little resources to get the entire populous out. The biggest obstacle in their way was the Eregion mechaniloid, which was making evacuation very tough. The beast was blasting and clawing at any evac vehicles it could, downing or destroying many of them. It thus fell in Skiver, Storm Eagle, and Zero's hands to deal with the monster.
The Eregion launched lasers out its mouth at the group, but Zero spinjumped out of the way and slashed at its head, dealing a fair bit of damage. Skiver launched some twister attackers from a fist thrust which dealt more damage, as did Eagle's signature Tornado attack; Storm Tornado destroyed a great chunk of the armor, allowing for Skiver to use his energy blade to dice it down for good. The monster had been dealt with, but only with three and a half minutes left. The ground began shaking eastward, away from the city below. Nana's plan was working.
X smiled at her handiwork, but moreso at how he was driving down Dragoon. The Hunter turned Maverick was on the ropes but not backing out. Dragoon flew up and put his palms together. Similar to Nellia's own attack, a fireball formed, from which he released to attack.
"HADOUKEN!"
Within X's optics, scanning reticles appeared and focused on the attack and its power. From this, his systems began to download analyze the attack. X was noticing this, but had little time to question it. He jumped out of the way of the Hadouken and countered with several charged shots. Dragoon was hit mightily with them, and seemed finished. X stood over hi, looking at the fallen Maverick Hunter…. only to be punched in the gut and double kicked into the air.
Dragoon was merely feinting his defeat to lure in X. Before the Blue Bomber could recuperate, Dragoon flew up and hit X with several strikes and kicks, the last one being a fiery Blaze Kick from a foot away. Dragoon's foot kept onto X's chest as he kept it on, onto the rural parts of Sunderland below. X sustained heavy damage from the attack and was on his side. He hadn't realized, however, that X's systems were downloading the move, even during collision.
Dragoon laughed triumphantly. "X, X, X… You're so goddamn soft. I don't get what Sigma sees in you. He keeps prattling on about your 'potential', how you can be the strongest of us all. Pff! What a joke!"
X grunted, trying to get his bearings. He looked up at Dragoon with fierce determination. "I don't care…. What Commander Sigma… says about me. You, Dragoon…you are a Maverick. You hurt this planet…its people… and I won't let you….. get away with this!"
Dragoon rolled his eyes and stomped on his chest further, causing some immense groans from X in pain. The Maverick was clearly enjoying this. "I was promised an unbelievable power, and a worthy adversary. So I destroyed Sky Lagoon! I killed those people to be the greatest Reploid in existence! Everyone else is just pawns and bastards, and I'll kill them all…!"
"You sold out your friends….and innocents for power?" X asked. "That's the real joke, Dragoon. You Mavericks… care about nothing…but power."
"But I'll be the one large and in charge, not even Sigma or Repliforce will be able to resist! So…any last words, X?"
"Yeah, actually…." X said before he unexpectedly drew his buster to Dragoon's face and prepared a charged shot. "GO ROT IN A SLAG HEAP!"
Dragoon gave a scared and surprised look. Before he could even scream in protest, X fired off a charged shot so intense that his entire top half was blasted clean off, with no signs of remains. All that seemed to remain was his legs, unattached to anything. As X got to his feet, he heard a female voice from his systems.
"DOWNLOAD COMPLETE. FIRE FORM UNLOCKED. HADOUKEN AND BLAZE KICK OBTAINED."
X looked confused and opened some sort of holographic menu from his X-Buster. From there he could see several listings of "forms" and abilities. One was labelled "Normal" and highlighted, another was labelled "Fire", while many others had question marks under them. This was his reaction. He would definitely need to see Nana and the others about all this.
Speaking of whom, he received a call from his favorite navigator. "Nana to X! Are you okay?"
"Affirmative, Nana!" he responded. "Just grazed is all, I think. How's it going up there?"
"Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I was able to find the perfect landing spot for the soon-to-be destroyed city. It will collide in just under 30 seconds."
"That's at least fine. And the bad news…?"
"The crash site is right on top of you."
"…What?"
As X looked up, he could see the Sky Lagoon's remains falling down closer and closer to him. Nana clearly didn't anticipate Dragoon taking his battle with X outside to the rurals, nor did she think X would be caught in the crossfire. Panicking, X hurridly dashed as fast as possible away from the debris' shadow. He did not want to get crushed, not after what he went through. X barely was able to dash out, but was blown back by the explosions and colliding debris.
X stood up after about a minute out cold. He witnessed the wreckage scattered throughout and many first-responders around the scene, and many others trying to clear the mess and find the bodies of those lost. X just looked about in sorrow; none of this should have happened. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are dead and dozens more are without homes and loved ones. All he felt was guilt and sadness.
"X!" called out Zero. X looked over as Zero and Nellia rushed over to him. "Glad to see ya made it."
"If only everyone else could…" X said solemnly. "How many…?"
"12,689. That's how many are dead." Said Nellia. "But about 5000 were evacuated… but….."
X, Zero, and the other hunters looked down in mourning. Many people lived in Sky Lagoon and many were lost. For many, they were ordinary people, no one of note. But to some like Nellia, they were the whole world to them. The ones lost were friends, family, lovers… and they would never be seen again. It hurts badly to hear people killed, but the hurt is far worse when it's someone you loved.
Sigma and Elpizo arrived and looked over the damage. Sigma directed traffic in clearing out the debris, helping out all the injured, and attending to others. As Elpizo approached the scene and scanned through, Nellia just gave him a deep, dirty look. She didn't see anything of value or sympathy towards the lieutenant, she saw someone that indirectly caused her girlfriend's demise, and the deaths of thousands more.
Elpizo looked at the hunters and bowed. "Forgive me, Maverick Hunters. This disaster should not have happened. Had I known the severity of the matter, I would have given clearance far sooner."
"Like hell we would!" shouted Nellia. "Storm Eagle was calling you and Owl for big help, and you take your sweet-ass time?! We didn't have enough help as is, you should've moved your ass sooner!"
"You must understand, Nellia, these kinds of actions take time to prepare and execute. In a military operation, standard procedure is paramount. Violating that would only cause panic and disorder, and we cannot chance it."
"Not even on innocent lives? Even people in need?! Is it really so disorderly to actually get off your lazy asses and save lives for once?!"
"Nellia, stand down!" shouted Sigma. "Repliforce did all we could. Perhaps if you did a more adequate job of rescuing the civilians, the casualties would have been lessened."
"Oh now this is my fault, sir?!" said Nellia, incredulously.
"Not entirely, but you are acting out of turn. You need some time to cool off. Return to base, you're being confined to quarters until further notice. Is that clear…?"
Nellia gritted her teeth, but relented after a minute. There was nothing more she could do or say otherwise at this point. She was basically lashing out in pure grief at everyone she saw, indiscriminately. Nellia realized Sigma wasn't going to change his mind and confining her was the best option right now.
Nellia sighed in irritation and left, glaring in contempt at every Repliforce soldier she passed. She gave one last deadly glance at Skiver, who just looked away in shame, before teleporting off. Sigma then turned to X and Zero.
"To be truthful, I should be the one apologizing." He said. "You see, I was watching everything unfold and could have acted far sooner. But I saw you two in this and stood down. I wanted to see how you would handle this, especially you X. Now I see I was wrong to do such..."
X said nothing, looking down at the ground. He still had trouble processing Dragoon's betrayal. He looked up to his commander and stood straight. "I did what had to be done. It's just a shame not everyone could be saved tonight…."
"You cannot save everyone, X. Neither can Zero nor I. What can be done is to nullify the amount of casualties, so that the losses are not significant. You and Zero did a commendable job at that."
"Thank you, sir." Zero said.
"But we couldn't have done it ourselves." X added. "If not for Nana's quick thinking, the casualties would have been worse. She deserves full props for this mission."
Nana felt her heart skip several beats and her face turn red. Hearing X commend her to such a degree was both satisfying and heartwarming. All she wanted to do was squeal with absolute joy and lose all her composure, but that wouldn't feel beneficial.
Sigma nodded. "You two had a long night. Return to base and get some rest. Something tells me this may only be the beginning…."
X and Zero nodded and walked off. Sigma grinned as he and Elpizo remained the only two left at the scene. The first phase was complete.
"That turned out better than I anticipated, my lord…" said Elpizo.
"Your acting abilities are superb, Elpizo." Said Sigma. "You should join Hollywood."
"You humble me, sir. Our plan to destroy Sky Lagoon worked to near perfection, the thousands dead and no one alive knows the truth. But why involve X in all of this?"
"This is going to be a test… a test to push X past his limits, to make him the strongest Reploid. Then once the dust settles, he will be at his full potential and at our side to deliver righteous judgment."
Elpizo raised an eyebrow. He still didn't fully comprehend what Sigma was saying. A mere one Maverick Hunter couldn't possibly be the key to unlock the full potential of Reploids or their goals, especially one that could learn their agendas.
"You plan to turn him against humanity?" asked Elpizo. "I don't understand, my lord. He's just a simple Maverick Hunter, and a B-Class at that."
"Elpizo, were you not paying attention?" said Sigma, condescendingly. "X's abilities to learn and adapt as he fights were shown here, and destroying Dragoon did more than just add to his resume… it added to his arsenal. He now possesses Magma Dragoon's powers, they are his to command. But furthermore, he has a true purpose to fight. Now say that purpose were to be twisted…"
Elpizo's eyes lit up. He could see what Sigma was talking about, and where he was going with this. Perhaps X was more than meets the eye. "I see. But I doubt X will willingly join Mavericks like us."
"Don't worry. By the time we're done, he won't know the difference between Maverick and Reploid. But enough of that. It's time we prepare the next phase of our plan. Recruiting Reploids to our cause…namely my own. Find as many of your men and prisoners as you can. We will need everyone."
"As you wish, Lord Sigma…" Elpizo bowed and left. He gave one last smirk. His own agendas were moving fast, and the next steps were in their foundations…
TO BE CONTINUED…
(a/n: I can't believe this took a month to finish, but here we are. Chapter 4 is where Sigma drops the proverbial bomb onto everyone and the events of MMX begin proper. However, I won't write it right away. i recently got Kingdom Hearts III, so I may waste my time there in between or before writing. Meaning it might take another month to get that done. But I hope you liked this one, enjoy and see ya next time!)