Mega Man X: Paradise Lost

by Captain L

Chapter 3: Traitor of the 14th Unit

Chapter 3: Traitor of the 14th Unit

“If the Maverick Hunters are constantly dealing with threats all across Equestria, then why do they make us walk? Isn’t there any kind of faster way that isn’t flight?”

“HQ says that they’re working on some kind of teleportation system. Twilight can use her magic to perform a natural teleport, but it’s too complicated to teach to any other unicorn. So, until that trans system is up and running properly, we’ve gotta walk. Just be thankful that Ponyville is relatively close, X.”

“I guess you’re right, Zero.” The two Maverick Hunters were walking through what was once Ponyville. Though a small town, it had still seen its fair share of action and excitement. Now, even the rubble had been blasted to pieces. “Ponies lived here once?”

“It wasn’t particularly big, but it was a pretty good town a long time ago. It was one of the first to be attacked by the Changelings. The Elements of Harmony lived here, so it was a prime target, and it offered the most resistance. Actually, right before I joined the Hunters, this was where HQ was located. The Changelings found out, brutally attacked the base, killed any ponies that didn’t make it out fast enough, and then burned the whole town down out of spite.”

“They certainly sound like monsters. So, how long ago did you join?”

“It’s been about 8 years now. I was just a colt off the streets of Canterlot, except for this thing on my belt. It’s the reason I’m still alive today.”

“I noticed that the first time I saw you. What is it, anyway?”

“It’s my Z-Saber. It’s a blade of energy that cuts through Changeling like it’s nothing. I got it when I was a young colt, an object to ensure that I would grow up strong. I suppose I was going to be trained in it formally at some point, but plans change…” Zero trailed off, lost in thoughts about his past before reality snapped him back. “Anyway, Twilight found me close to death after a year on my own. Once I had recovered, I showed her my combat skills, and she was impressed enough to let me join. She stepped down a few years later, and I’ve been commander ever since.”

“Twilight was commander?”

“Yeah, she founded the Maverick Hunters and was acting commander for most of its existence. She controlled the actions of the group and went on missions of her own. She lost a lot in the original attack, possibly more than the rest of us, and she wanted to make sure that nopony else had to suffer like she did. But she cracked under pressure, and started to go crazy. She stepped down to Captain to keep her sanity. She doesn’t talk about it, but I think thoughts of vengeance against the Changelings were getting to her.”

“If you two are done gossiping about the Captain, do you want information about your current mission? It’s probably not a good idea to go into a Maverick fight blind, Zero.”

“Lightning Dust, how long have you been listening?”

“What? I like to listen to your conversations. Do you know that you have a tendency to talk to yourself a lot?”

“Who I talk to and how I do it is none of your concern, Lightning Dust. Are you going to give me the information or not?”

“Alright. You see that mountain up ahead? Because if you can’t, you need glasses more than you need me. So, the Maverick we’re hunting is up at the summit. We don’t have any data on who it is, so I hope X is good at thinking quick, for both of you.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Now stop listening in on me. Goodbye.”

“You’re signing off without saying ‘I love you’? What kind of stallion are you?”

Instead of answering the question, Zero reached into his ear and shut off the communicator. He noticed X looking at him, confused and slightly amused. “Lightning Dust is a bit on the strange side. I don’t even know why I love her.”

The confusion took X’s center stage, pushing any sort of amusement out of the way. “You and Lightning Dust? Really? I’ll admit, I don’t know her very well, but she doesn’t seem much like the kind of mare that you’d want to date.”

Zero nodded. “She really doesn’t seem appealing, I’ll give you that. On paper, she’s pretty awful. But there’s just something about her. Anyway, can we not talk about my love life? She said that the Maverick we’re looking for is on top of that giant mountain outside of town, and that’s all the information they’ve got. We’re on our own for the rest.”

“What kind of pony stakes themselves out at the top of a really tall mountain? Even a pegasus would have trouble flying up there, with the low air pressure and all.”

“You’re a science kind of stallion, aren’t you?”

“Whoever built me, they must have been pretty smart. And they programmed in the basic knowledge of the world I have, so it only makes sense that they would have added more technical information.”

Zero accepted the explanation and kept silent for the rest of the walk. The base of the mountain got closer as it was finally right in front of their faces. Both X and Zero looked at the top from the bottom, truly noting the distance. X looked around and asked “So, how are we going to get up there?”

Boulders and other chunks of rock littered the base of the mountain. “It looks like whoever’s here doesn’t want to be followed. They blasted away whatever kind of walkway there was at one point. It takes quite a bit of energy to destroy that much rock. What exactly are we dealing with here?”

X looked at the cliff face they would have to climb, and he felt some kind of instinct telling him what to do. This is the same feeling I got when I figured out how to shoot. It’s like my memories are hinting at my abilities. So what is it now? X had no rational reason to try it, no confirmation that it would work, but he ran at the cliff and climbed. Not in the usual way, but kicking his legs against the wall to gain altitude. After making it up 30 feet, he slid back down slowly.

Zero’s eyes were wide with surprise. “How? How did you climb the wall like that? No hoofholds, no strength, it looked like you just flew right up!”

“I…I really don’t know. I just got this feeling inside my head, something telling me to try it. I thought the same thing the first time I shot a Changeling, that nagging thought of my hidden strengths.”

“I guess we’re going to have to see how many other secret abilities you’ve got, that was awesome! So…do you think you could carry me with your magic while climbing? Odd thing to ask, but we need as much time as we can get, and this is the fastest way up.”

X thought about it for a moment. “Well…I could try, but I’m not very confident in my magic skills yet. What if we made it near the top and I dropped you?”

“Then let’s practice quickly. Just make sure that you can hold me confidently. If not, we’ll move slowly. Or I can catch up, if you think you can handle your first Maverick on your own.” There was a hint of teasing in Zero’s voice as he closed his eyes, ready to feel X’s magic wrap around his body.

X began to breathe heavy as he focused energy into his horn, not trying to shoot this time. The familiar feeling of energy collecting came back, and he visualized Zero standing in front of him, also imagining lifting him up to make it happen. His horn began to glow yellow, as did Zero’s body before his hooves left the ground. With Zero in his magical grasp, X backed to the mountain and climbed, making sure to keep Zero close to the ground. Once he was confident he could multitask, X brought the two of them up.

After a few minutes of climbing, the Maverick Hunters had reached the top, where a large flat surface of rock awaited them. Zero investigated the area while X rested quickly. “Strange…this plateau isn’t natural, but it wasn’t blasted out like the walkways were. It looks more like it was carved. But there’s no way a pony or Changeling could do this. So, who does that leave?”

X looked up and saw a silhouette in the sky getting larger and closer, coming to engulf them completely in its shadow. “That!” He fired off a shot, hitting its shoulder, but the creature grabbed X in its claws.

No longer above them blocking the sun, Zero got a good look at the giant attacking them. He instantly recognized its species. “Dragon!” Zero activated his Z-Saber and leaped up to face the green dragon, swinging the sword into its scaly chest. Dragon scales are known for their durability and invincibility, but either this particular dragon had some pathetic body structure, or the Z-Saber was more powerful than expected, because Zero cut straight through, drawing blood.

In pain from its chest wound, the dragon was stunned enough to drop X, who retaliated with a powerful shot to the face. The blast knocked the dragon’s head back, giving Zero the chance to attack once again on the dragon’s leg, making it fall on the rock. Zero regrouped with X, the two standing together to fight the battle.

Now suitably mad, the dragon let out a deep roar and opened its mouth, the back of its throat glowing, just seconds before it let out a burst of flames. With no time to move out of the way, X fired a blow below their hooves, creating a hole in the rock deep enough for them to hide from the blast. Once it had ended, X leaped out and fired a barrage of shots while Zero ran forward to the dragon and grabbed its scales, climbing upwards to the head. Once he was as high up as he could get, Zero jumped up and stabbed his saber straight down into the dragon’s brain. It let out a brief cry before being silenced.

Zero jumped down and turned his saber off. “So, how did you like your first taste of the action? Good practice round, I’d say.”

“Most practice rounds don’t involve fighting a dragon, even one as weak as this one.” X reached into his ear and activated his communicator. “Captain Sparkle, we’ve neutralized the Maverick. It was a dragon, but it fell easy.” While he was talking, he absentmindedly walked into a nearby cave, towards the dragon’s hoard. Zero followed, admiring the large amounts of gold present.

Twilight responded, a large amount of worry in her voice. “A dragon? Did it say anything? What was his name? What colors was he?”

“It was a pretty solid green, didn’t mention a name, and didn’t talk at all. You sound a bit worked up.”

Twilight sighed in relief, but still sounded disappointed. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Zero was pointing at a shining suit of armor amongst the hoard. “Hey X, how do you think you’d look in this Golden Armor?” He barely tapped his hoof on it, and the pile of gold and jewels began to shake. The items at the top rolled down as a figure burst out of the top, a smaller purple and green dragon.

The smaller dragon laughed. “What, you thought Eregion was the Maverick? Don’t be so stupid! He’s just the guard to take on whatever foolish ponies come up here! But you two are different. You’re Hunters, aren’t you? In that case, I’ll be glad to take you on personally!”

X talked through his communicator again. “Never mind, Captain Sparkle. Engaging the Maverick now!”

The dragon stopped and stood still. His face looked as though it was in regret before laughing again. “Captain Sparkle? What’d you do to get demoted like that? You were never the type to take failure, not when I knew you.”

“Spike! What are you doing?” A few moments passed in silence before Twilight realized the issue with the conversation. “X, relay whatever I say!”

X did as he was told, copying whatever Twilight was saying exactly. Spike responded, “I’m not Spike anymore, Twilight. When we’re shown the truth by the Queen, we’re given names more fitting for our new existence. I am now Magma Dragoon!”

“You’re not, you don’t belong to them, Spike. You’re my number one assistant, as you always were. I trusted you!”

“And that’s your problem, Twilight! I’m a dragon! You kept me as nothing more than a servant! I’m finally doing something I believe in, and I’m not going to let you or any other Maverick Hunter get in my way! Power up, Hunters! Show me what you can do!”

Spike put his wrists together and pushed his palms forward, yelling “Hadouken!” On command, a fireball appeared in his hands, firing out at the Hunters. X rolled out of the way while Zero jumped over it to Spike. Spike’s reptilian eyes sparked, and he jumped into the air with a fiery uppercut, shouting “Shoryuken!” The punch hit Zero, sending him spiraling to the ground.

X fired a blast from his horn, colliding with Spike while he was still recovering from his landing. He laughed the attack off. “I’m a dragon! I’m fireproof! Do you think some plasma is going to hurt me?” He jumped into the air, coming back down onto X with a flaming kick, calling his attack with “Red Hot Kick!” X moved out of the way and returned with a roundhouse kick, powerful enough to send Spike flying towards Zero, who leaped back up with a Saber slash.

Spike’s scales were more resilient to the Z-Saber, but it still hurt. He was sent reeling to the ground in pain, breathing heavy. Opening his mouth, he began to charge up his own fire wave, but instead began coughing up blood. Taking the opportunity, X leapt to Spike with a swift punch to the face, bringing him down to the ground for good.

Spike looked up, eyes partially closed, panting. “How could I lose to you? I was promised victory! I was promised the riches I desired from opponents that lay dead at my claws!”

Zero brought his Saber up, prepared to swing. “This is the end of the line for you, dragon.” Spike closed his eyes, death the only way to remove the stain from his honor.

But X held up his hoof to stop Zero, and instead delivered another swift punch to the back of Spike’s head, knocking him out. He brought up his communicator again. “Captain Sparkle, Maverick Spike neutralized. Mission success.”

Twilight responded choked up words, as though she had been crying. “Did…did you…”

She wasn’t able to finish her question before X answered. “He’s still alive, knocked out. I don’t know what you can do to rid him of his ‘Maverick Virus’, but his fate is in your hooves. I couldn’t let him die when he was your friend.”

“Thank you thank you thank you!!! If you were standing next to me, I’d be giving you a hug! I’ll send in a team of pegasi to retrieve him.” Twilight cleared her throat before calming down. “But on a more serious note, there are two more Mavericks in the nearby area, and you two need to fight them. Try not to kill. There’s one in the Everfree Forest, and one at the schoolhouse. You’ll each be instructed once you’ve decided how you’re splitting up.”

“Understood.” X turned to Zero. “There are two more Mavericks nearby. We need to split up to fight them both. Twilight says not to kill them.”

Zero nodded and turned back to Spike, lying limp on the ground. He lightly kicked him, when he felt his body coursing with energy. It flowed through his veins, collecting in the hoof holding his Saber before moving completely into the weapon. Not completely in control, he brought out his Saber and performed a rising slash with it, the blade replaced with a fire sword. “I…I guess I learned a new move. X, try touching Spike and see what happens.”

X complied, tapping Spike before feeling the same sensation of energy. Once it had finished, his coat turned red, and he was able to perform Spike’s “Shoryuken” move. “Do Maverick Hunters always get new abilities from Mavericks we defeat?”

“No. These ones are special. But why do you think they’re different? I’d say that the Changeling Queen is planning something, and these are her ground units. All the more reason to keep moving forward with the attack.”

X and Zero made eye contact with each other, both yelling in unison “Then let’s get moving!”

Author's Note:

On Monday, there was a day off of school. Then on Tuesday, the Nostalgia Critic came back. On Wednesday, it was announced that Wind Waker was getting an HD remake. And today, there's an update to this. It's been a good week, hasn't it?

Comments

[Novo]

Great! I Actually needed this story to help the story come together with a reference!

[spiketen]

Love X and Zero's dialog here. Very well done. I can put the voices from Maverick Hunter X to them easily.