Mega Man X: Paradise Lost

by Captain L

Chapter 9: X-Hunted

Chapter 9: X-Hunted

Teleportation is a very odd sensation. For unicorns, the act of teleporting involves using magic to open a small hole in the fabric of space and time to instantly move to another location. The Trans Server that the Maverick Hunters had developed worked a little differently. The “ripping a hole in existence” part was still there, but it split the molecules of the object being teleported, and reassembled them at the destination point. The very prospect of this method would be terrifying if it hadn’t been tested to perfection with Changeling prisoners.

Once the teleport had finished, Zero and Axl collapsed into the deep snow, short on breath. X stood straight up, realizing his body had been created with measures to prevent teleport unease. He helped Zero up, while simultaneously using his magic to pick up Axl. Feeling the effects of the chill, wind, and snow, Axl transformed his body into Rainbow Dash’s, giving him the necessary resistance.

With all three Maverick Hunters standing, they looked in the distance, taking in the awe-inspiring sight on the horizon. The sun was in the sky, its light shining on the Crystal Empire castle, refracting onto the snow. It would be a wonderful thing to see, if the Empire’s borders weren’t surrounded by blackness, which could only be one thing.

“There’s no way we can fight through an army that size,” Zero said. “We need to get in quietly, find the Crystal Heart, and get out just as easily.”

“Oh no, we’re at an opportune moment here, Zero, and I’m not letting this moment pass. This is going to be the best chance we’ll have at killing the queen, and I plan to follow through with it.” Axl was passionate about his plan.

X nodded. “He’s right, Zero. Even if we could find the Crystal Heart without alerting the Changelings to our presence, what are we going to do with it? If it isn’t where it’s supposed to be, they’ll know we’re behind it. And then we’ll have that entire army right at Hunter Base’s doorstep. But, if we stop the queen now, the rest of her forces will disband.”

Zero sighed. “Alright then, we find the Crystal Heart, send it alone back to base, and then we kill the queen. We can’t risk losing it in the fight. Axl, you’ll blend in with the army, sneak in through the main path, and me and X will go through the back.”

“That won’t work, Zero. Changelings have a hive mind, remember? Even if I look like any other Changeling, I’m marked. They’ll know if I’m in their midst. Besides, I’d prefer not to be exposed to the cold again. The only way I’m getting through the front would be some form of distraction.”

As if on cue, a series of large explosions set off in the blackness, sending Changeling bodies flying through the air, and the rest convening on the blast points.

Axl took the opportunity, speeding off to the Crystal Empire. Zero smiled. “Thank you, Vile. His massacre should be enough to get Axl through. So, we need to sneak around the back, X.”

They threw snow over their bodies to work as a cover, and slowly snuck around the Changeling army, keeping their distance. Thankfully, despite their power, Changelings were not masters of tactics. All of their forces were concentrated in the front, making the back end too easy to walk in.

X and Zero still had to sneak through alleyways, as a few Mavericks were standing guard. But their low numbers made infiltration on a mission this scale simple. The sounds of their hoofsteps were silenced by the layer of snow that covered the streets. Despite its location in the arctic, the Crystal Empire was never subject to the cold. But the shield that had previously protected the castle had fallen, letting the natural elements take their toll.

They reached a back entrance, a door up on a balcony. X used his magic to levitate Zero up, and followed by climbing the wall. “That wall-climb is always cool,” Zero said as X jumped onto the balcony. The two of them slowly opened the door, and quickly went in before they were noticed.

Once inside, Zero asked the obvious question. “Alright, this castle is big, and it’s probably got its fair share of secrets. So, how do we find the Crystal Heart? Where do we even start looking?”

X questioned the same thing, until he remembered one of his new skills. He activated the radar function on his helmet, scanning the castle layout, but didn’t find anything. “I can’t locate it. Are we too late?”

Twilight came in on the communicator. “No, your helmet just isn’t calibrated to the special type of energy the Crystal Heart is emitting. It’s searching for electrical power, while we need magical energy. I have a program that includes the energy signature. Sending it now, stay where you are to prevent a loss in connection.”

X and Zero stood still, waiting for a confirmation of data arrival, when a wall further down the corridor erupted in an explosive burst, smoke only revealing a pony silhouette, walking out of the carnage. The stallion was wearing a purple helmet, completely obscuring his face, eyes behind a thin eye slit. His armor was a matching color, and fully armed. A giant cannon on his shoulder, machine guns on the front hooves, a belt of explosives, and bombs on the back legs. Only one pony could ever be this crazy with weapons.

“Vile.” Zero glared at the stallion. “You’re here to stop us, aren’t you? I never would have put you as a Changeling ally.”

Vile laughed. “Ally? You should know me, Zero, I work alone. Always. I’m here to prove to the world that I am the ultimate, and I’m ready for all the killing that comes with the title! But Changelings aren’t any fun, it’s nothing more than squashing bugs. You two will be different, though. I’ll blow your bodies to Tartarus, and paint this empire with your blood! And then, when the Maverick Hunters have fallen through my work, anything still alive after this pitiful war will see me as the perfect warrior I am. I am the potential of the pony race, their future!”

X was appalled by Vile. “You think you have potential? You’re insane, Vile!”

Vile hadn’t paid much attention to the blue robot, not until he spoke up. “You must be X. The Mavericks you two threw into prison talked about you. You’re the newest soldier. I know your type, you’ve just entered this war, ready to fight for justice. You’re naïve if you think that, honor and heroism won’t solve anything. Power is our only future! But you don’t believe me, do you? You’re going to try to arrest me, like you always do. But you’ll fail!”

X looked at Zero, who simply nodded and spoke. “No, Vile. You’ve been a problem for too long. We’re now authorized to use lethal force. Understood, X?”

X nodded with intention, and Vile laughed again. “But that’s only if you can manage it! Those ancient weapons won’t be a match for my fully armored body! Show me what you can do!”

Vile shot a tornado attack out of his shoulder cannon, and the fight began. X and Zero dashed across the room to meet Vile, who jumped into the air when the Hunters got close and released a bomb from his legs. Upon hitting the ground, it burst into a wave of green fire, which ran along the ground. While X and Zero dodged it, Vile was propelled further up from the blast, pointing out his front hooves and firing bullets rapidly.

The bullets hit the crystal floor, bursting in small sparks upon contact. X and Zero ran to dodge the attack, quickly lifting their hooves to avoid the bullets. Vile laughed. “Dance, puppets! Dance!”

Upon landing, Vile continued his onslaught with another tornado pointed at X, yelling “Straight Nightmare!” It hit X, forcing him against the wall, crushing him under the pressure. Dazed, he collapsed on the floor, forced to watch the ensuing battle. “You’re the Maverick Hunter that had the Changelings running? You can’t save the world, you deserve nothing better than to die here!” He pointed his machine gun hoof at X.

Zero leapt in to defend his friend, saber bared, making a broad swing at Vile. He ducked under it, and spun his lower body for a sweeping kick. Zero hopped a foot to avoid it, and swung his saber downwards, which Vile blocked by holding his leg out to stop Zero’s.

Any time Zero tried to attack, Vile countered without letting the saber touch him. He was a master at hoof-to-hoof combat, expertly blocking Zero’s sword with each swing. Zero didn’t let up, keeping the two fighters in a stalemate, until Zero performed his signature triple slash technique. First swing, blocked. Second, jumped backwards out of the way. The final, largest slash, Vile slid to the side, giving him a perfect opening while Zero recovered. He uppercutted the saber out of Zero’s grasp, and headbutted him to the floor.

Out of the corner of his eye, Vile saw X standing back up, pointing his horn directly at him and charging it. Vile, completely aware of X’s personality type and its flaws, grabbed Zero and held the Hunter in front of him, pulling out a knife and holding it against his captive’s throat. “Give up, X! If you want to shoot me, you’ll have to hit Zero, killing him in the process!”

Zero yelled at his partner. “Don’t listen to him, X! Go ahead and blast him!”

X kept his horn pointed at the target, but a look of doubt came onto his face. He hesitated, moving between an attack position, and surrender. He knew that he couldn’t let Vile go, but he also couldn’t kill Zero. He was caught.

Zero, knowing that X wouldn’t pull the trigger, took matters into his own hooves. He used a hind leg to throw Vile off balance, giving him enough freedom to pull the pin off of one of Vile’s grenades hanging off his belt.

Vile, too full of anger, insanity, and determination to care, dropped his knife and held Zero as hard as he could. If he was going to die, he’d take the Maverick Hunter with him. X ran over to help, but stopped when Zero called out to him. “X, there’s nothing more you can do! It’s over!”

The grenade went off, and the area where the two of them were standing became nothing more than a pillar of smoke. Shrapnel from Vile’s armor flew out in all directions, but didn’t affect X’s titanium armor. When the smoke had cleared, Zero’s upper body was lying in a heap on the opposite wall, burned and bleeding. Vile was whole, only mildly singed, kneeling in the blast zone, and breathing heavy. His armor was gone, revealing only the purple earth stallion, his eyes overtaken by madness. “You…you can’t kill me that easily! You’ll join your friend soon enough!”

Vile charged at X, too stunned by everything that had just happened in the past 30 seconds to do anything. He plunged his knife into X, ready to savor the scream of pain and the bloodflow. But it never came. X was too consumed by something other than pain to feel it; rage. And Vile, who had just realized what X was, was also overtaken by a different emotion; fear.

X used his magic to pull the knife from his body, and dropped it to the ground. He punched Vile in the face as hard as he could, sending him staggering backwards. He held his hooves up for defense, but another swing from X broke through it. X kept punching, hitting Vile with each attack, until his face was bruised and bleeding. X stepped back, and pointed his horn at Vile, not charging. He instead fired a thin, but concentrated, blast of energy, shooting cleanly between Vile’s eyes. Vile let out a few soft sounds, before falling to the ground.

X, now thinking more clearly, ran to Zero’s body. He knelt down next to his friend. “Zero…Zero…Zero, it’s going to be alright!”

Zero weakly opened his eyes, and turned his head towards X. “You…you can’t hesitate, X. You have to…be quick…and decisive.”

“Don’t waste your energy talking, Zero! I’m going to get you out of this, I swear!”

Zero groaned. “There’s…no time for that. You have to…fight the queen. You can do it…I know you can.”

X was close to tears. “Z…Zero…”

“Go now…Maverick…Hunter X.” Zero’s head went limp, and his eyes closed. X wanted to scream, to yell so loud that the entire Crystal Empire would hear him, but he couldn’t. Even if he beat the queen, he had failed. His best friend had died because he wouldn’t shoot. He could have thought of something, some way to hit Vile without endangering Zero. But it was all too late now.

X’s communicator came back on. “Alright, X, I’ve finished sending the data. You should be able to use your radar to locate the Crystal Heart now.”

X didn’t want to reply, didn’t want to say anything, but he knew that he had to let them know. He was prepared to give a report, but could only say two words. “Soldier down.”

The other end was silent for a few seconds, before it went dead. They were all in shock. Why wouldn’t they be? They had known Zero for longer than he had, they knew what he had survived before, and they cared for his safety too. But were they really in the same pain X was? Not only had the two of them grown attached in the short time they had known each other, but they had to be next to each other when he died. It hurt. X laid down next to his partner’s corpse and cried.

Author's Note:

Confession time. I got choked up writing that last part. Wave that crazy awesome ponytail in heaven, Zero. Until Capcom decides you should be resurrected for no reason.

One last chapter, one final battle, I'm ready to write (maybe, it shouldn't be another 4 weeks before the next update), and X is ready to kill. X is fighting for so much, it's time to end this.