Utopia

Chapter 3: Vengeance

X spent the rest of the day destroying mavericks and taking down boss mechaniloids who had gone crazy from the virus. Zero did the same. By the time both hunters returned to base they were exhausted. They had destroyed a hefty number of mavericks using the various weapons they had obtained from previous mavericks.

X thought about the battle with Blizzard Buffalo and that mysterious girl named Jade he had met. ‘Who is she? Who does she work for? Why is she looking for us? What is her motive? Should I tell Zero? What did she mean by show me what we were fighting for?’ X thought to himself while walking down the hallway with Zero.

“You ok X? You look spaced out” Zero commented while looking over at him.

“Huh? Oh yeah sorry”

“Well quit it. I hate it when you’re like this. You bore me.” Zero snorted heading to his room.

“Zero… Wait… Come to my room for a second. I need to tell you something private.”

“Ok.”

X and Zero entered the room as X shut the door behind him.

“Now before I tell you this you have to promise not to tell anyone else.” X whispered.

“Fine, I can keep a secret.”

“Nobody understand?”

“What’s your point X?” Zero said impatiently.

“I ran into a girl during my first mission. She was apparently looking for me and--”

“Awww X has a girlfriend!” Zero winked jokingly cutting his friend off in mid sentence.

“No! She was looking for the both of us; me and you. She wants us to help her with something important, but she won’t say what. She wants to meet you, but she wants us to keep our meeting and everything a secret. Only the two of us can know about this ok?”

“This sounds suspicious to me. Are you sure she isn’t a maverick?”

“She helped me in the battle against Blizzard Buffalo. I can’t see her being a maverick. I trust her and I want her to trust me. Us too”

“I’ll go along with it because you are X, but I’m not keeping my guard down.”

“Ok, see you later.”

“Later X.”

The next day X and Zero split up again to look for the remaining mavericks throughout the city.

X had one final destination to go too. An old abandoned factory in the more rundown outskirts of town. He was told that a maverick was residing there, but the deeper he wandered inside the darker and more deserted it became. There was nothing more then rusty, beaten down assembly lines, computers, pipes and the like.

“I don’t see any mavericks around here…”

X arrived at the back of the factory and found seemingly dormant ride armour. A click sound echoed around him as a laser blast shot through the air hitting his leg and making him fall onto his backside. Standing on a high window sill stood Vile, laughing manically as he jumped down into his ride armour.

“Hehehe you’re trapped X!” Vile held a timer in his right hand “See this? It’s set to blow this place up in minutes! Until then I’ll keep you occupied.”

“Vile… you bastard”

X rushed to his feet only to fall back down catching himself with his hands.

“Shit my leg!”

X stood up again this time putting all his weight on his good leg. He aimed his X-buster and shot random blasts at Viles armour carrier making small dents in the metal.

Vile shot back sending X flying onto one of the assembly line tables. He jumped landing in front of X. X shot at Viles head, but Vile dodged it gracefully. His machines giant mechanical arm grabbed X by the throat lifting him off the ground.

“Meet Goliath my newest weapon. He and I will defeat you! Vengeance is mine!” He sneered as he watched the painful expression on Xs face “Did you think you could get away with what you did to me? way back then… You’ll pay… I’ll send you to hell where you belong.”

Vile raised X up to his level. He locked the settings on his ride armour and stood on the front ledge. He took his arm and started punching X in the stomach making him vomit and cough up blood. Xs face turned white as his airways compressed leaving less and less room for oxygen to flow. Vile kept punching and kicking him; beating his body like a punching bag. The room was starting to turn hazy when suddenly he heard someone yell.

“Vile that’s enough!”

“Leave some for us!” A second voice responded.

“Go fuck yourselves! He’s mine!” Vile snapped.

The reploid duo deactivated the bomb and proceeded towards Viles armour Goliath cutting the arm that was holding X off releasing him from the robots grip.

“What are you doing?!” Vile screamed angrily.

X fell to the ground gasping. He shook his head regaining his vision and aimed for Goliaths open wound using the Parasitic Bomb weapon. The armour carrier began to explode into a pile of fire and circuitry while the decapitated arm lay lifeless on the floor.

“We are the Nightmare Police! Bit and Byte! I am Bit” A short thin reploid announced with gold armour.

“And I am Byte! We keep order in this town under Doppler!” A tall chubby reploid continued with red and green armour.

“This reploid is ours to destroy!” Bit said.

“I don’t think so! You’ll never destroy him as long as I’m alive! I’ll be back!” Vile stated looking in Xs direction before teleporting out of the factory.

The two reploids turned towards X smiling deviously.

“You’re ours now Maverick Hunter. Prepare to die!” Bit grinned.

“That’s right. Two against one is fair for someone with your battle record boy!” Byte joined in.

X used the Ray Splasher to stun his two enemies while he planned his next move. Byte fell to the ground, but bit jumped out of the way heading in Xs direction. X shot an Acid Burst upwards hitting Bit in the face. He grabbed his face screaming as the acid burned through his eyes.

Byte stood up and threw a mini-bomb at X. X pushing himself onto the floor rolled out of the way using his good leg. Bit, now blind, shot sprays of lasers all over the room hoping to hurt X wherever he was. X used the Triad Thunder to cancel out the laser blast and counter-attacked with the Gravity Well causing them both to collapse onto the floor under extreme force.

“Fuck I can’t move!”

“Speak for yourself I can’t see or move!”

X hopped towards them using his leg and arms. Once close enough he leaned over and stabbed them both in the head with the knives from his Spinning Blade attack.

Bit and Byte lay motionless on the floor as X used one last Parasitic Bomb to burn their corpses.

X teleported back to base. Zero was there to greet him. Zero ran over to X once he saw the condition he was in and called the on-site medics for immediate attention.

“How did your missions go?” X asked lying on a bed in the infirmary.

“Successful.” Zero replied sitting beside him.

“Any more information on Doppler?”

“Dr. Cain thinks he may have found something, but he wants to wait a few days until you are well enough to fight again. So rest up and get better fast.”

X laughed and closed his eyes drifting off to sleep. His last conscious thoughts focusing on when peace would finally come…