.
Get your own
Free Website now!
It was a normal day for the maverick hunters. Those that were not on missions were cleaning the base, resting, training, or just enjoying the day. One reploid, however, was not able to enjoy himself.
“Stupid Dr. Cain…” Zero mumbled to himself as he mopped the floor of Dr. Cain’s lab. The lab was fairly large and had monitors lining two parallel walls. These monitors displayed everything from maverick locations to information on projects the old doctor had yet to finish. One wall had an electronic map showing different landmasses. The remaining wall had various pieces of lab equipment leaning against it. Near the center was a door, the room’s only exit besides teleportation.
“Why is it that every time someone spills a beer in here I’m the one that gets punished?” The crimson reploid complained as he worked.
“Probably because you’re always caught while doing it,” the old scientist answered. “Now hurry up! The sooner you get the floor clean, the sooner you can get to work on the monitors!”
Zero rolled his eyes. “I can hardly wait…”
Just then, one of the monitors beeped. A yellow dot appeared near the top right corner of the map, a short distance away from the area that represented the city MHHQ was located in.
Dr. Cain sighed. “That’s the fifth maverick we’ve picked up today…” He walked to one of the monitors and pressed a few buttons. “X, this is Dr. Cain, can you hear me?” The scientist waited, but got no response. “X?” More waiting. Still no response. “X! Darnit, I know you’re still here…”
The red reploid smirked. “He’s probably playing his music too loud to even hear himself think.”
Dr. Cain turned to Zero. “In that case, why don’t you go tell him he’s got a job to do?”
“Why do you need X so bad?” Zero asked. “I can take care of the maverick just fine!”
The scientist shook his head. “You have another job to do. Now go get X before I double your punishment.”
“Fine, fine!” The reploid dashed away from Dr. Cain and out of the lab.
The old scientist watched the reploid leave, then sighed and shook his head. “How do I put up with those two?”
“Well, you can tell by
the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or
whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.”
The music blared from the stereo in X’s room and could be heard throughout much of the Maverick Hunter Headquarters. The aforementioned reploid was clad in nothing more than a pair of briefs with small teddy bears printed on the otherwise plain white cloth. He was dancing to the song and singing along loudly and slightly off key. Around him was a mess of clothes, CDs, stuffed animals, bed sheets, and a pillow. Another pillow rested on top of his otherwise bare mattress. On the walls were several torn posters advertising videogames and popular bands. The reploid was singing as loud as possible; too loud to notice the knock on his door.
“D---! Does he have to play his d--- music so loud?!” Zero complained as he waited by the door leading to X’s room. He waited a few minutes, and then sighed in frustration. “X, I’m coming in whether you want me to or not!” He opened the door to his partner’s room.
The red-clad reploid’s jaw almost dropped to the floor as he caught a glimpse of X singing and dancing in his underwear. The shorthaired reploid did not seem to notice him. Zero snickered for a moment, then laughed hysterically, nearly collapsing from laughing so hard.
X stopped singing as his friend’s laughter made its way to his ears. He looked at Zero and blushed a deeper red than his partner’s armor. “ZERO!!!!”
Zero blinked at X and laughed even harder. “Oh man, X! I wish I had a camera on me!”
X opened the top drawer of a dresser near his bed and pulled out a pair of jeans. “You know, you could have knocked first!” He said to his friend as he dressed himself.
“I did,” the red reploid replied, “You REALLY need to learn to keep the volume on your stereo down.”
The shorthaired reploid shrugged. “What brings you here, anyway? Usually you don’t come into my room unless you want to steal something or have a message from someone.”
“You have a mission,” Zero answered.
X groaned. “MORE mavericks?” He sighed. “Where THIS time?”
The red reploid shrugged. “In the country somewhere. I’m guessing some of the farmer ‘bots got infected.”
The shorthaired reploid hurriedly clad himself in his armor. “The sooner this is taken care of, the better.”
“Hurry back.” Zero grinned at his friend. “It’s no fun around here unless I get to annoy you.”
X chuckled. “I’ll try.” He ran out of his room and toward Dr. Cain’s lab.
“Dr. Cain!” X ran into the lab, stopping next to the old scientist, who was still watching the electronic map.
Dr. Cain turned to face the reploid. “THERE you are! “I was beginning to wonder if you got my message.”
The reploid nodded. “Where do I need to go?”
The scientist pointed to the yellow dot on the map. “There’s a patch of farmland to the northeast of the city. I’ll set your teleporter.” He walked to the consol to his right and pressed a few buttons.
X nodded to Dr. Cain. “I’ll be back soon.” He teleported out of the lab before the scientist could respond.
“Whoa, nothing but corn and the occasional farmhouse as far as the eye can see…” X said to himself as he looked around at the area he teleported into. A few houses, barns, and machines could be seen from where he stood, but the land was mostly one large cornfield after another. “Now, where’s that maverick Dr. Cain said was around here…”
Just then, the reploid noticed movement within the corn stalks.
‘Must be the maverick…’ X got into a fighting stance and prepared to battle.
After a moment, a female reploid ran past the hunter. The reploid’s armor was mainly red with black upper arms/legs, a black stomach with pink trim on the bottom, pink shoulder armor, and black hands. Her helmet had black trim and a black decoration that started above and between the eyes and continued upward and outward, ending in five points a few inches away from where it started. A small red gem rested near the bottom of the decoration. Medium-length black hair poked out from a hole at the top of the reploid’s helmet and ran down to the middle of her neck, covering the back of her helmet. The sides of her face were red, as were the stripes running from the sides to the middle of her nose and above her crimson eyes. The red parts of the reploid’s armor looked to be made out of gems. The reploid paused for a moment to fire a plasma blast into the cornfield.
A second reploid leapt above the blast and out of the cornfield. This reploid wore white armor with light blue upper arms/legs, stomach, and hands and medium blue trim. The white parts of her armor looked to be made of diamonds. On the front of her helmet, between her eyes, was a light violet decoration similar to the first reploid’s. On the decoration was a dark purple gem. A solid black visor covered the reploid’s eyes. She wore a light violet bandanna around her neck and has a bright pink beam saber strapped to her back. She fired at the first reploid as she chased her.
X followed the two reploids and held his arm out as if to fire, then hesitated. “Which one’s the maverick?” He stopped, sighing. He would have to wait and hope the non-maverick could hold it’s own until the maverick revealed itself.
“It’s no use, Crystal,” the red reploid said to the white as they ran. “Defeating me won’t bring the doctor or our siblings back to life.”
“Maybe not,” the white reploid replied coolly, “But it’ll stop you from taking any more lives!”
‘The red one,’ X thought to himself as he listened to the conversation. He started to raise his arm cannon for the second time, and then lowered it. ‘No, this is a personal battle. I’ll let them fight it out and hope I don’t have to destroy an already weakened enemy.’ He watched the two reploids, being careful to stay out of sight.
The red reploid stopped and spun around. Crystal stopped in front of her. X hid in a cornfield and waited.
The red reploid shook her head at her pursuer. “I don’t see what the big deal is. The doctor was a human. A stupid, flesh-and-blood HUMAN! And the others were serving humans! It’s disgusting! We reploids are far superior to those overdeveloped monkeys.”
The white reploid growled. “You forget, Ruby, humans built us! If not for them, we wouldn’t exist.”
“And now we do exist and don’t need them anymore,” the red reploid replied simply.
“We can’t just kill them off,” Crystal said to Ruby, “Like I said, it’s because of them we exist. We OWE them, sis.”
The red reploid smirked. “There’s no way I’m going to change your mind about this is there?” She charged her arm cannon. “It’s so like you to do things the hard way, Crystal, but if you insist…” She fired a fully charged plasma blast at the white reploid.
Crystal jumped over the blast and drew her beam saber. She ran at Ruby, slashing her across her stomach.
The red reploid winced and leaped back. Jets built into the bottoms of her feet ignited and she rose a few meters into the air. “Nice, but let’s see you dodge THIS!” She dove at full speed toward her sister.
Crystal jumped as Ruby approached and landed on the red reploid’s back. She leapt off before Ruby could shake her off and slashed at the red reploid a second time, this time leaving a long gash across her back. The white reploid landed gracefully on the ground, and then jumped back to avoid a plasma blast her sister had fired. The red reploid flew upwards a few feet and fired several semi-charged plasma blasts at her opponent, who alternated between dodging and knocking them off course with her saber.
‘Wow… She’s good…” X thought to himself as he watched Crystal fight.
The white reploid whistled. A canine reploid teleported in front of her. The canine’s design was not unlike Rush’s and its armor was similar in color in texture to its summoner’s, even to the bandanna and visor.
Crystal looked down at the canine. “CD, fusion mode!”
The canine barked and jumped into the air. Its body glowed a bright white in color until neither it nor its partner could be seen. After a moment, the light died down, revealing what looked like Crystal with CD’s head and tail and a pair of large angel-like wings. The tops of the wings were white and looked to be made out of the same material as the white parts of Crystal’s armor. The feathers were light blue in color and varied in length; the ones near the top being only a few inches long and the ones on bottom a couple feet.
“I knew you’d summon your robo-pooch SOMETIME, Crystal.” Ruby smirked at her sister. “You can’t defeat me by yourself so you call for help.”
The white reploid leapt off the ground and flapped her wings to keep herself airborne. “Can’t let you keep your advantage for too long, now can I?”
The red reploid laughed. “Your being able to fly won’t help you all that much.”
“We’ll see about that!” Crystal darted toward her opponent, beam saber held in front of her. Ruby flew over her opponent and aimed her arm canon at one of her wings. The white reploid spun around slashed at her sister, cutting one arm completely off.
Ruby roared in half pain, half anger as she clamped her remaining hand over the exposed circuitry in what little was left of her other arm. “You are going to pay for that.”
“We’ll see.” Crystal put her saber away and started to charge her arm cannon. Ruby did the same. The two sisters fired at the same time. Their blasts collided with each other, causing a massive explosion that engulfed Ruby and sent Crystal flying back a great distance before crashing into the ground.
X watched as the white reploid was thrown back by the explosion, then ran in the direction she had fallen, not even bothering to dodge any cornstalks in his path.
‘I hope she’s okay…’ the blue reploid thought to himself as he ran. He had always hated seeing anyone, human or otherwise, die. He certainly did not want to see that now.
As the maverick hunter neared the end of the cornfield he was currently running through, he was met with a low growl. He looked down to see the canine reploid standing in a defensive position in front of the humanoid reploid, who was lying on her back, seemingly unconscious. Both looked to be in bad condition.
“Easy…” X approached the canine cautiously. “I’m here to help…”
CD snarled at the hunter as he approached.
“You want your friend to get repaired, don’t you?” X continued to approach. The canine reploid snapped, almost biting the blue reploid’s fingers off.
“CD…stop…”
CD stopped growling and turned to look at Crystal. X kneeled beside the humanoid reploid.
‘She’s conscious. That’s good, at least…’ X helped the reploid to a sitting position. “It’s okay, I’m with the hunters. I’m gonna take you back to headquarters for repairs.”
Crystal looked up at the blue reploid. “My sister… The red reploid I was fighting. Where is she?”
“She was engulfed by the explosion,” X replied. “I haven’t seen her since.”
The white humanoid reploid nodded slightly. Her body rested limply against X as she lost consciousness.
X frowned, noticing the reploid’s condition, and turned to CD. He held his hand out to the canine. “You should probably come as well. You look almost as bad off as your friend here.”
CD approached the blue reploid cautiously. X laid his hand on the canine’s back and used his teleporter to transport himself and the injured reploids to Maverick Hunter Headquarters.
Chapter 2 in progress
Go Back
You are listening to Spark Mandrill's theme from Mega Man X 1. This MIDI was sequenced by Jarel Jones and taken from vgmusic.com.
|
This website is hosted for free by .
Get your own
Free Website now!
|