Maverick Hunter X – Next-Level Insurrection
Chapter 10: Ascending to Darkness
(A/N: Hey folks, happy new year and happy one-year anniversary to this story! This one took longer for me to do, but I'm proud how it came out once more. I must preface with a warning, however: this chapter is going to have references to real-life events that some readers may find offensive or unsettling. If you are among the types that would get offended by these references, then I advise you skip ahead or not read. Thank you and enjoy!)
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!
MAY 3, 2053
19:15 – MAVERICK HUNTER HQ
About an hour had passed since taking Dynamo in for questioning. X was keeping a close eye during his "interrogation" in the other room. The mysterious Reploid had just an hour ago shown up and beat Launch Octopus like it was nothing. X was struggling with the Maverick himself, yet this guy just stole his kill without breaking a sweat. He was annoyed but intrigued.
Unfortunately, the Hunters weren't getting much of anything from him. Dynamo was speaking very little, had his legs folded onto the table, and seemed to be taking it less of an interrogation and more of a friendly gathering or relaxation time. X was getting impatient. His frustrations with the conflict were bad enough for him, but now he was truly having to restrain every bit of himself to not charge right in there and start beating some sense into the new guy.
"Look, dude. I told ya already…" said Dynamo. "I don't know nothin' about a Sigma, Mavericks, or whatever the hell you're sayin'. I just woke up one day, few years back, and I been roaming the submerged town doing whatever comes to mind. So you can quit the hostilities, pal." Mac, a purple Maverick Hunter with a visor lens for optics, didn't seem too convinced. "Much as a cool guy you seem, Dynamo, I have my orders. I am to remain here and keeping a close eye on you. Even if what you say's true, we don't wanna take any big risks."
Dynamo shrugged and laid back on the chair, looking bored. X got annoyed, but walked off from the scene. He wasted enough time on this, he needed to get back to business. X walked right into the control room, where Nana and Iris were still high at work, but Iris jumped at the sight of X. She still hasn't gotten over X snapping at her before. Nana, as usual, tried maintaining a professional face as she turned to X. But inside, she was hurting. She knew from Professor Rimmer that X was on the verge of going Maverick, and each mission during this conflict has changed him for the worst. Little by little draining his humanity, she had to do something fast.
"Four down, four to go…" X said, thinking of who to fight next. He felt he had some time. If he planned well, he could finish the remaining four in quick succession. Kuwanger was the closest, occupying The Shard in London. He was well equipped to the task, so he would be next. After that was tricky. Storm Eagle would be difficult, since he can be unpredictable and has the proverbial high ground. Flame Mammoth didn't seem too bad, and he just unlocked Water Form. However, his large figure may provide issues and X didn't know what else the big guy had up his trunk. Thus that just left Sting Chameleon, who was hiding in South America. Then X chose to map out Storm Eagle immediately after, then Flame Mammoth.
Now that he had a plan on how to go about it, it was time for X to mobilize. He began to walk out, but Nana called out to him. "X! I think it's best you rest a bit. You've been on edge all day…" she said. She knew the kinds of dangers this could pose. If X kept fighting at the rate he was going, the chances of him going Maverick would become more and more inevitable. She had to stall him any way she could.
X, on the other hand, was having none of this. Rest up at a time like this? Any small amount of time wasted could mean disastrous consequences and more civilians in danger! That was something he couldn't allow! "….are you questioning my judgment, Nana?" he asked coldly.
"No, X. I'm questioning your sanity." She said stern but concerned. "You've been acting awful since this rebellion began. Your mental health seems to be deteriorating too quickly. I must advise you let Cinnamon take a look at you before you do anything crazy." X turned to her with a stern look. "I don't have time to waste with you or our little nurse when people are dying out there! I'm going after Kuwanger at The Shard, then Chameleon and the others afterwards, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"
"Listen to yourself, X! You're starting to sound no different than a Maverick! Now please, just settle down and let Cinnamon run diagnosti—" Nana was unable to finish her plea. X was getting very irritated and punched her in the chin, sending her a few feet across the room. Nana sat up and rubbed her chin, hurt a bit, but was more shocked and afraid than hurt.
Actually, she was hurt. But most of the pain was emotional than physical. She was afraid to really believe or think it would happen, but knew it was a possibility. X's action just now cemented it: his status as a Maverick was drawing close, and it hurt her. She looked up, looking scared. X turned over to Iris. "Anyone else have a problem with me and my judgment?" he asked. Iris was terrified now. She said absolutely nothing, just typing in something at a hurried pace. "That's what I thought."
X was done wasting time. He rushed straight through into the Ride Chaser bay, activated his bike, and rode off into the night. Nana struggled to get up. The physical pain was next to zero. But the emotional scars were harsh. X had just attacked her, and now it was clear she was to either stay in line for him, or be a victim of him. Sigma's goal was working all too well. The Maverick Hunter X was quickly becoming Maverick X.'
"Damn you, Sigma…" she said, shedding a couple tears. "DAMN YOU TO HELL!" Iris walked over and hugged her. She cried too. The two were fighting emotions this whole endeavor. Much like X, they had been driven over the edge and couldn't take it. Their pain had only just begun…
20:25 – THE SHARD – SOUTHWARK, LONDON
Riding on his signature blue Ride Chaser across the panicking streets of London, X was deadset on ending Sigma and his fanatics for good. He needed to be quick, innocents were dying even as we spoke. X put his bike into turbo velocity, quickening the pace. Very soon, he was near England's tallest building, but it was not how it once was.
The Shard building was once a beacon of British hope and pride. But ever since Sigma began his rebellion, it has been used as a fortress of fear. Boomer Kuwanger had taken over the building and converted it into a fortified pyramid of Doom, complete with heavy defenses, inside and out. As X came closer to the building, several defensive turrets and guards came into view. Getting in would not be easy.
The minute X was in clear view of the Mavericks, they set up a defensive perimeter. The turrets and snipers opened fire onto the Maverick Hunter. The Blue Bomber didn't slow down one bit. Instead, he increased his speed, barely moving his chaser as he closed into the tower. X used his Chaser's weapons to return fire, blasting several guards and destroying two turrets. His vehicle closed in on his destination when he decided to leap it off a nearby ramp, ramming it through the defenses and into the building's 7th floor.
"Come in, X! Do you read me?" he heard a weak but professional voice say. X rolled his eyes, knowing who it was. "What is it now, Nana?"
"I'm going to help you, any way I can. Even if I disagree with your methods or mental state, I know you have your reasons. So I'll guide you best I can." Said Nana. X chuckled a little bit at her dedication. "Glad to hear it. Kuwanger is a ways up. Do you know how high he is?" he asked. "Our sensors have detected two major Reploid readings on the 72nd floor. Odds are that Kuwanger is one of them." She said. "So 80 floors up. I don't have much time, so better get moving!"
"Boomer Kuwanger. SA-Rank Hunter from the—" Iris timidly began her report, but was cut off. "I KNOW WHO I'M DEALING WITH HERE!" X screamed over the intercom. Iris flinched and cowered underneath the desk. Now she was really afraid of X. "Iris is trying to help, X! She doesn't know our former friends like you and I do!" Nana said, slightly raising her voice. X just ignored her and continued across the building, dealing with the guards on the next two floors, jumping from floor to floor.
Hoganmers and Disk Boys went on the frontlines to play defensive purposes. X switched it up and went to Electric Form for a more straight method. The Disk Boys threw their disks at the Azure Hunter, who just flicked them away effortlessly. X jumped up, which gave a Hoganmer an opening to attack, but X followed through with a Spark Pound. The result shorted out all the Mavericks on the floor. "This is too easy." X grinned
"Don't underestimate the defenses yet, X! I'm getting readings of high level Mechaniloid Mavericks on the floors above you!" Nana advised. It wasn't long after that X felt some rumblings from upstairs. He quickly clung up the elevators to get up and saw missiles headed for him. He returned to normal form and dealt with them using a charged shot. X quickly kept climbing up, until he reached the 30th floor.
"Mega Tortoise units and laser security systems on this floor, X. Proceed with caution!" Nana warned him. "I don't have time for caution right now, Nana!" X yelled, dashing through. Nana wanted to scream at the Hunter right now. How could she navigate with someone who was being impossible to work with, and sounded like someone on substance abuse. All she did was pout and cross her arms, almost cutely. Iris seemed to crack a smile at Nana's reaction.
X dashed ahead and shot several buster pallets at the Mega Tortoises, which did significant damage. The Mavericks didn't take it well, firing off missiles at him. The Blue Bomber changed up to Shield Form, blocking the slow projectiles. Rushing through, he jumped up and used a Rolling Shield to crush one, then threw an energy based one at another. X kept the form as he dashed through, ignoring the red security lasers he tripped up, which resulted in him getting shot at by small turrets.
"I hate to say I told you so, but…" Nana said, almost teasingly. "Oh now you decide to chime in, just to mock me?!" X snapped as he ran through, still not caring about the security as he climbed up. "I told you from the start, but someone isn't listening." X was getting quickly tired of her commentary. "Maybe start helping a bit more and we wouldn't have this conversation!"
"Fine! There's a nearby elevator that can take you up to the 68th floor, but heavy resistance will be a guarantee, so be careful. Satisfied?" Nana asked, in a semi annoyed tone. "Extremely." Said X, running to the elevator and dropkicking the guards. He changed back to normal and pressed commands to take him up. X crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently as he awaited his destination. Nana began getting irritated yet increasingly worried with X's attitude. It was getting worse as the mission proceeded, and all she could do was adapt to it.
As he was almost up, he heard Nana ring in his ear. "X, I'm getting at least a dozen Maverick readings right in front of the 68th floor's elevator door. Kuwanger must have been monitoring you this whole time." Nana warned. "Thanks for the late warning. I'm almost there, but I think I have an idea how to deal with it…" X said, irritated. If Nana weren't so disrespectful to him, he could swear she was just Alia in disguise.
The elevator reached it's destination. As Nana anticipated, a large group of Maverick Mechaniloids stood before the elevator door, ready to ambush X and take him out. However, as the doors opened, there was no one inside. Several Hoganmers looked puzzled and slowly stepped in to look around. There seemed to be no one in sight. That was where X jumped down, hiding on the roof of the elevator, and hit a Blaze Kick that trashed half of the troops.
'WATER FORM'
X very swiftly changed to his new form. The color was dark blue, with ocean and water decals all around, and a wave like shape on the edges of his helmet. The oncoming enemies were swiftly dispatched with Marine Tornado, an attack in which a whirlpool surrounded him, giving him small movement, and then at a release arm motion, released the whirlpool, wiping out all opposition.
"A more efficient way of dealing with these pests!" shouted X. He continued onwards, running upstairs as he found turrets placed in inconvenient places. Using Homing Torpedoes, he took care of them with little trouble, then finally reached the top floor, which had seemingly turned into a large computer room. At the center was Boomer Kuwanger, facing off another Reploid; it was a blue rhinoceros beetle Reploid with sharp clear shards on his horn. This was his brother, Gravity Beetle, and he was on one knee in pain, staring off his red sibling. It was as if he couldn't believe his own steel and oil had betrayed him…
FLASHBACK
Being a Maverick Hunter was not easy, even when you were a built speed demon like Boomer Kuwanger was. When not on the battlefield, Kuwanger was always in the control rooms, retrieving history and data. He believed the more he and the Hunters learned, the more essentially their knowledge would be in combat. His work would often make the navigators superfluous due to his extreme speed and haste.
In recent weeks, however, he was off duty more than usual. It was concerning to many of the squadrons, as many times that his speed would be essential he was nowhere to be seen. In truth, Kuwanger was intertwined with his research and data analysis. He was recently looking thoroughly at mankind's own history, and had been shocked at some of his discoveries. Centuries of war, greed, selfishness, and hate was found. Kuwanger had trouble believing it. He needed to know how and why; he must know all of it!
But the more he learned of certain events, the more horrified he was. Among his many findings were legendary disasters and tragedies that were ultimately preventable, but came to pass through negligence, arrogance, and complicity. The Space Shuttle Challenger incident in 1986 was one of the first he found. The rockets and equipment were ill-suited for the task of launching in predictably cold weather in January, even in a warm place like Florida. The engineers knew the rocket boosters were falling apart and would not make it into space, but NASA managers ignored their pleas. Seven astronauts, including a civilian school teacher, were killed when the rockets and shuttle disintegrated 45 seconds into launch. Carelessness and arrogance sprung disaster. How could they?
Then he read up on more and worse tragedies: the fall of Yugoslavia, and the war and genocides that would follow. Millions murdered for ethnicities and loyalties, and women made concubines to the perpetrators; the Hillsborough disaster where corrupt and imbecilic police were unable to control large crowds at a football match and caused a human crush that killed 96 fans, then pushed the blame on the fans; the MV Sewol sinking, the captain and his mates abandoning ship and leaving 250 Korean students and others to drown; the Gallipoli battle in the first World War that was nearly costly for the Allied Powers, and caused the deaths of more men than they could count; and the Tiananmen Square protests that the FAR had only recently lifted a ban on discussing. Thousands upon thousands of innocent people murdered or arrested for defying the Chinese government. Humans murdering and mistreating their own kind, covering up their actions, and acting with disgusting pride. It was baffling to him.
But he froze up on one particular subject, one the Earth had thought completely lost to history after World War 3—the Holocaust. In March 1933, an evil man known as Adolf Hitler was appointed as Supreme Chancellor of Germany and spearheaded a campaign of military and racial supremacy, segregating those "undesirable" from the parts of western Europe occupied by the Nazi Regime. As his rule began to spread across most of Europe, his administration signed "the final solution" to finally exterminate all Jews, Gypsies, Poles, disabled peoples, homosexuals, and anyone else that were unfit to live. The death toll was over 11 million people in Europe, and their deaths were committed in ghettos and concentration camps.
Boomer Kuwanger was in a state of shock, his eyes faltering. He couldn't believe what he was reading. The databases said most of the evidence of the Nazis crimes was gone, either destroyed or covered up by the Germans themselves, and most of the death camps were most likely destroyed by virtue of the damage caused by World War 3. Nonetheless, Kuwanger had to find proof of this. He could not truly believe that this genocide really occurred. He rushed out to find substantial proof, at one of the former sites: Majdanek.
His superspeed allowed him to reach the remains of the former camp in about an hour. He looked around the ruins of the camp; to say it was a dump would be an understatement. Many bunkers were worn out, half of the buildings damaged beyond believable repair, and even the gateways were struggling to stay up. Kuwanger quickly but thoroughly began analyzing and exploring through the ruined death camp, hoping to find even a clue of what happened here. But most of the gas chambers were almost nonexistent anymore, and traces of human activity was completely erased from the war. But he still needed to find something. He regretted trying to in hindsight…
Kuwanger found it after 5 minutes of surveillance. In one of the gas chambers, he discovered a canister of some substance that had been irradiated. The canister's marker identified it as "Zyklon B" and had some sort of warning labels written in German. From what little he could understand, it appeared to be some kind of poisonous gas. He saw some kind of primitive van nearby, which had a similar can, but it was totally broken.
Out of morbid curiosity, the stag beetle Reploid slowly opened the van's back doors. What he saw was horrific: a massive pile of rotting corpses from the victims and the remains of their clothing. It came to him that this gas was used to kill the victims, either in the large Chambers or in the bans he found them in. He was stunned, but his own curiosity and refusal to accept this overwhelmed him. There had to be more. Kuwanger raced to the subcamps and eventually uncovered far worse: more clothes, dead corpses… and ashes.
He found them in train cars, the crematories, museums honoring them, and even underground. A harsh and malevolent truth consumed him: they weren't just gassed, the victims were tortured to death. They were shot, overworked, set ablaze, and even probably experimented on. Even worse, the Nazis attempted to hide every bit of evidence, so that no one like him would find it. All things considered, the Hunter wished he hadn't.
It was true. All of it was true. The humans had committed mass genocide for over 100 years against one another, and tried to deny their transgressions. Kuwanger fell to both knees, in despair and disbelief. His eyes watered with tears of sorrow and hate, he screamed in denial. What he discovered at the abandoned camp was horrifying. It had broken him.
"It's worse than I had assumed…" said a voice behind him. Kuwanger looked up behind him, and saw the sad face of his commander, Sigma. It was as if even he couldn't believe what he was witnessing. "I had been aware of humanity's crimes against us for some time now. Even against one another. But this… this is a whole new level… of unspeakable terror…"
"Commander Sigma… why?" Kuwanger asked weakly. "Why did this happen? How could humans be… s-so cruel to each other? 11 million murdered… by other humans for just… existing?! How can we protect them if they can commit such atrocities?!"
"We cannot." Said Sigma. "Nay. We will not! If humanity can do this to one another—gassed, raped, tortured, worked to death, shot, burned, experimented, MASSACRED! Then what kind of atrocities can they possibly do us; the Reploid race who have no rights nor any wills to them?! This cannot happen again, Kuwanger! They must be stopped!"
Kuwanger wiped the tears from his eyes and stood up, staring in anger. He knew Sigma was right. These crimes were to other humans, but what they could do to the Reploid race could be far worse. If mass genocide is what the humans want, then he will give it to them in full. "In a sense, we are agreed. But they should not be stopped, Commander. They must be eliminated. I suggest we give them a taste of their own medicine and murder every last one of them for their crimes! Even if I turn Maverick, I would rather be the lesser of two…"
"I am glad you understand this, Kuwanger." Said Sigma, whole-heartedly. "Such deeds cannot go unpunished. We will make them pay for the deaths they caused here…." Kuwanger and Sigma shook hands fiercely, all the more determined to destroy humanity.
END FLASHBACK
"Brother… how could you…?" asked Gravity Beetle. The injured Hunter stared at his Maverick brother with contempt and confusion. "You make it sound like I am the villain here, Beetle. But I am just a martyr trying to do the right thing." Said Kuwanger. "The extinction of humanity is necessary for our race, and our world, to survive!"
"You're full of it, Maverick!" shouted X. His sensors began their scan as quickly as X began firing Homing Torpedoes. In mere seconds, Kuwanger was gone in a flash. The Blue Bomber looked around quickly for the Maverick, but in the next instant, Kuwanger was beside him, laying his boot into him. X was flung to the other side, before Kuwanger sped over and uppercut X to the ceiling, then run there to Pele kick him into the ground.
X was already getting pounded into the ground, as he barely stood up. His sensors were barely able to scan and download Kuwanger's quick movements. Unfortunately, he didn't. Kuwanger struck with a fury of chops and kicks that were almost impossible for the naked eye to see. The damage X received was worse at this point, but he knew he couldn't grab a Subtank when Kuwanger could strike before he could grab one. X chose to charge at the Maverick for a punch, but Kuwanger easily sidestepped.
"Hmph! I thought you would have been smarter than this, X." Kuwanger said, stomping on X for added insult. The Maverick Hunter was not taking too kindly, so he quickly unleashed a Marine Cyclone to send Kuwanger flying across. It worked, but the Maverick landed on the ceiling and grabbed the horns from his head, flinging them at X like a boomerang. X's sensors scanned the boomerang, but X himself was trying to blast it. The horns bounced off his every shot and, too full of anger to dodge, took a few hits as Kuwanger dashed to his horns, regaining them. Then he used his horns to grab X and fling him down several floors down.
The Azure Hunter quickly took a Subtank before Kuwanger could speed down. He managed to gulp it all down and was powered back up just as Kuwanger sped down. "X, pay attention to his movements! Kuwanger makes a subtle motion before he's about to speed through!" said Nana. "Are you always this good at stating the obvious? TELL ME SOMETHING INTERESTING FOR ONCE, BOLT-BRAIN!" X screamed. He was growing increasingly impatient with Nana's instructions. But while he was continuing to heckle his navigator, Kuwanger snuck several hits with well-placed kicks. X was unable to react in time. He took quite a bit damage, but stood up and threw his arms at Kuwanger like a madmen but the Maverick evaded each one, before superkicking the Blue Bomber up the next floor.
"It's funny how you classify me as a Maverick, X. Because I doubt you even understand the meaning of the word." Said Kuwanger, speeding back up and standing over X. The Hunter gritted his teeth, trying to stand up. "Mavericks… are Reploids that… commit crimes and… and hurt others! You're the definition of it, Kuwanger…!" X screamed.
"Is that so? I thought the same at once, but I now believe it could just be Reploids that commit treason against humans. Ones that refuse to do as those monsters command and must be put down." Said Kuwanger. "I've seen the atrocities the humans have committed, yet you seem to ignore them. Or do you enjoy being their puppet on a string? Doing as they command without asking why… You're a fool X!" X prepared his buster and launched some buster shots, but Kuwanger sped up to evade, then kicking X down again.
But before he did, X noticed something in Kuwanger's movements. Just before he rushed, the beetle wings on Kuwanger's back opened up. X realized from Nana's nagging that there was a cue to attack Kuwanger. After getting up, X waited for Kuwanger to make his next move. The Maverick was unnerved, anticipating X's new move in turn. The Azure Hunter knew he had to bait Kuwanger somehow, so he prepared his buster. "It's time we finish this, Kuwanger!" said X.
"Quite." Said Kuwanger, matter-of-factly. X began charging his buster, appearing ready to use a charged buster shot. The Maverick stood ready to move. He knew X was going to foolishly shoot at him until his energy drained. The Azure Hunter grabbed his buster and moved it just slightly up, about to shoot. This was when Kuwanger's wings flapped and was about to speed up. "NOW!" shouted X.
In about the instant Kuwanger was gone, X stopped charging and fired off about five Homing Torpedoes at Kuwanger. Though they weren't particularly fast, they had good detection and hit their target dead on, knocking him out of his speed phase. Kuwanger widened his eyes. X baited him to think he was shooting aimlessly, but was waiting for him to use his superspeed. After staggering for a couple second, Kuwanger was on the defensive as X dropkicked him in the gut then traded a fury of punches and kicks which put them even, despite Kuwanger's reaction time.
After the two separated by two kicks, they glared at one another. "Very clever, X. Your specs are more impressive than I initially assumed. Lord Sigma was correct, you aren't any other B-Class Hunter." Said Kuwanger. He was genuinely impressed. "Is this all this is about?! Making me your guinea pig, Kuwanger! You're a fine piece of scrap metal, you know that?!" X yelled.
"You're the true guinea pig, X. Taking orders from these humans, who dictate who is a Maverick and who isn't." Kuwanger ranted. "Did you not take into consideration that maybe, just maybe, that they are the ones that should be hunted down?" X glared at the Maverick fiercely and fired off well-timed Homing Torpedoes. Kuwanger started dodging, but the projectiles began to hit him soon despite his speed. X was becoming more acclimated to his speed. "I don't give a damn your reasoning anymore, Kuwanger! You Mavericks are going to die now!" shouted X, charging his buster and rushing at him.
Kuwanger evaded fast and continued dodging at every turn, but after a few minutes he felt… light. He could not move in the slightest, as if gravity itself had betrayed him. The odd part is that it did. He was trapped in a small field of gravity, one generated by Gravity Beetle, who was using the last of his strength to keep him still. X took the opportunity to rush ahead and hit a charged shot point blank at Kuwanger. X expected such a blast to destroy the traitor. While the explosion was amazing, it didn't kill him. Instead, Kuwanger was thrown out the window and sending thousands of feet into the sky.
"DOWNLOAD COMPLETE. JUNGLE FORM UNLOCKED. BOOMERANG CUTTER AND TELE-DASH OBTAINED."
If X felt any other emotion besides rage, it would definitely be embarrassment. He overdid it and not in the best way. Not only did Boomer Kuwanger escape, but the Blue Bomber was the reason he was able to. "Oops…" was all he could awkwardly whisper. However, Hunter HQ was not laughing. Though another one was beaten, X was growing out of reason and Gravity Beetle was badly hurt. Cinnamon appeared without any call to start tending to the Hunter. X's awkwardness immediately faded away. "I don't recall requesting you here, Cinnamon!" he said, using a Subtank.
"You didn't, but I don't need a bell to know when someone's seriously hurt, X." said Cinnamon, already trying to fix up Beetle. "Don't give me that attitude! Beetle's fine, at least physically! Emotionally though…" snapped, X. He toned himself down, knowing how close he and Kuwanger were. "It's fine, X. We're Maverick Hunters. We did what we had to, regardless of allegiance. I'm just sad I couldn't have stopped him before he turned Maverick…" said Beetle. X could tell Beetle wasn't happy, but there was little he could do.
Still, there was little rest for the weary. He was already on his way out. "Just rest easy, Beetle. I'm going ahead to take out Sting Chameleon!" he said. Now the navigators were worried. "X, wait! You should return to base and conserve your energy faster!" said Nana, hoping to get through to X. "YOU SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH, BITCH!" he yelled. Cinnamon and Gravity Beetle looked up, aghast. They had never seen X so angry, or yell at his own navigators before. "CHAMELEON IS A DANGER TO EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET, AND I AM GOING TO KILL HIM AND EVERY LAST MAVERICK ON THIS PLANET!"
"Listen to yourself, X! You're sounding no better than all the Mavericks you killed! I must insist for your personal and mental health, and for the sake of the Hunters that you return to base immediately, so we can—" Nana began to talk, but she was not allowed to finish. "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU ORDERING ME AROUND! I AM TAKING HIM DOWN, AND EVERY OTHER MAVERICK TOO! AND I AM DOING IT ALONE….!" He screamed. X then pressed a button on his earpiece a couple of times, to completely close off communication from Hunter HQ. Now he was free of that excessive noise from Nana and the others.
Cinnamon's look was one of terror. For as long as she had known him, X had always been so nice and lovable to everyone, even her. But Sigma has pushed him over the edge. Now he doesn't even seem like a shell of the once kind and tender Reploid she once knew. "Don't get in my way…" X said, looking over his shoulder venomously. "Understand?!" Just like that, X was now gone. He teleported off to South America, but both Cinnamon and Beetle had an awful feeling of what may happen…
21:03 – MAVERICK HUNTER HQ
"X, come in! Do you read me?! X!" shouted Nana, over and over. No response. It was clear to her what just happened; he had deactivated his transmitter and commlink. He was growing irate from Sigma's machinations and was pushing everyone away out of pure rage. Nana felt awful. Professor Rimmer forewarned this, but despite their efforts, they couldn't prevent it. X was now on the true road to becoming the ultimate Maverick.
"Yo, what's the noise for?" asked a casual voice behind them. It was Dynamo, accompanied by Mac. Iris was shocked that Mac disobeyed protocol, but Nana didn't even pretend to be shocked, since this was the least of her worries. "Mac, what are you thinking?!" asked Iris. Mac scratched his head. "Since he's hardly a threat, I didn't think it was worth locking him up or anything." He answered. Iris was flabbergasted, but Nana dismissed this. "We can worry about that later! We've got to get X and stop him!"
"But it doesn't make sense. Sting Chameleon is in the Amazon jungles in Brazil, there isn't much reason for him to be there other than to be left to his own devices." Said Iris. "Why would Chameleon even be stationed in the middle of nowhere with little to no resources?" Alia walked in after hearing the commotion. She was able to easily deduce what had happened. "It's probably to prey on X's declining mental stability. Now that he has gone past that point of no return…" Alia said. Nana knew exactly where she was going with this.
"Then we need to get X back and fast!" she said. Iris wasted no time getting on the comms. She was getting quickly adjusted to the work of navigation and mission control. "Hunter HQ to Zero! We have a situation! Zero, do you copy!?" she said. "This is Zero. We've almost found Sigma's location! We'll have it for you in about an hour…" answered Zero. "We don't have an hour, Zero!" said Nana. Iris put her hand up to her; she was going to handle this. "What's going on? What happened to X?!"
"We think Sigma's broken him. X has become so violent and unstable that he's… lashing out. At any Reploid or Maverick… even us…" said Iris, her voice getting weaker as she continued. "Dammit! That's what I was afraid of… where is he now?" asked Zero. "He's disabled his commlink and tracker, but we think he's heading for the jungle in Brazil to kill Sting Chameleon." Said Iris. "Zero, me and Nana are worried. We're scared that X may have jumped off the slope that no Reploid can return from! You have to stop him before he hurts anyone else!"
"Zero, I'll handle the post here. I can find Sigma's base easy on my own, but it is imperative that you save X!" said Magna Centipede. Zero looked to his friend, a little concerned. He wasn't sure Centipede was making the right move, but he did know him well enough. "Okay, my friend. I'll get X back and then we'll storm Sigma's base and put an end to this!" agreed Zero. "Iris, give me Sting Chameleon's location and I'll be on my way!" Iris nodded and loaded up the teleport coordinates. "Already there. I'll do my best to navigate, but be careful Zero!" she said.
Without another second to lose, Zero rushed out and teleported to the Brazilian jungle. Magna Centipede stayed his guard at his position, hoping to infiltrate and find the Maverick hideout soon. Both Hunters and the navigators could only hope they weren't too late…
TO BE CONTINUED…
(A/N: Wow, huh? I want to be honest, writing X as a psychopathic jerk has been uncomfortable for me, but it's something I wanted to commit to. Even when it stops soon, it will still be an important thing. But in truth, I want to thank people that have been following, reading, and reviewing this fic for the past year. Even if you didn't like it, all the support you and others have had has meant so much to me! I hope to keep this story going and series going to the end. As usual, reviews and critiques are welcome! See you next time!)