"Just shut up and run!" Death Star snarled and passed Wildfire, taking the lead in the mad scramble. Rounding the corner they just passed were twenty angry Mavericks firing their blasters at them. "I told you hacking into their computer games and writing they were dumbasses was stupid!" He rounded another corner with Wildfire and Brian hot on his heels.
"You can BOTH shut up!" Brian snarled. He turned around and threw a grenade down the hallway they were just in, listening to the eeks and screams as the explosion went off. The three Hunters dived through a door, slamming it shut after them. Looking around, Brian entered the closet, Death Star dived behind the curtains, and Wildfire hid under the desk.
All was quiet for a few moments until the door opened up and ten Mavericks ran in, looking around the room. "Do you see anything, Omega?"
The purplish reploid shook his head. "Nothing, Alpha."
"You think we should look down the hallway, Delta?"
"Nah, Omega."
"So they must be in here, then?"
"Perhaps, Alpha."
"I'm Alpha. He's Delta."
"That's what I said, Omega."
"Alpha!"
"Er, right, Delta."
"...idiot."
Death Star smacked his forehead with his hand at the stupid conversation. The three mavericks looked around suspiciously and began to walk towards the closet. Just as one of them were reaching for the handle, Death Star cleared his throat. "I already checked there, Delta."
The reploid stopped. "Oh, Alpha?"
"I'm Alpha. He's Delta."
"Right."
The three Mavericks moved onto the desk. Brian coughed and said. "All is clear there, Omega."
"Really, Delta?"
"I'm Alpha."
"You're Omega."
Right."
The three mavericks then moved onto the curtains. Wildfire smirked. "I already checked there, Bravo."
"Bravo?"
"Uh..."
"Who's Bravo?
"I think the guy under the desk is Bravo, Alpha."
"I'm Delta."
"Right."
The three Mavericks quickly exited the room and the three Hunters emerged from their hiding places. Death Star scratched his head. "How could anything so stupid possibly be created?"
Wildfire shrugged. "I think they were default models."
Death Star glanced both ways down the hallway. "Coast is clear." He stepped out into the hallway and thumbed his saber to life, glancing around the corner. "There's an elevator. Lets go for it." The three scrambled onto the elevator. "Okay, Wildfire, logically, where would the central computer of the base be?"
"In the heart of it. That way it couldn't be reached easily by an outside attack from any side. Since we're a floating island, it could be attacked from all sorts of different angles. By placing it in the center, it would reduce the chances of an enemy reaching it quickly and give Sigma the fair chance of victory," Wildfire answered.
Death Star nodded. "Alright, what would be the chances of Sigma's location?"
"I would have to say possibly in the center of...the...base...near the...central computer..." Wildfire came to a stop. "Oh, fuck. I swear, if we come across Sigma, I'm so bugging out of this mission."
Death Star pressed one of the middle floor buttons. "Don't worry. He wouldn't have a fight right at the master computer. That would allow his attacker to fire at the computer and damage the base, which would indirectly end any chances of a glorious battle for Sigma. No, we'll just go past Sigma's lair and into the computer chamber. It's easy."
Brian scoffed. "Yeah, a walk in the park."
"Hush, Carter."
Standing up, he got his first surprise. Before him Boomer Kuwanger appeared and went into a battle stance. "Buh-But I killed you!"
Boomer Kuwanger said nothing but dove head first at X. The startled Hunter bounced off the wall and landed behind the Maverick. Think, X....think. He can't really be Kuwanger. This must be a hologram program of Sigma's to slow me down! Firing a level 3 shot into Kuwanger's back, X leaped high into the air as the Maverick vanished and reappeared elsewhere in the room. This maverick was fast. Too fast. And a lot faster than the real one.
Landing on the ground in a roll, X turned his blaster to face Kuwanger and fired a barrage of missiles into the Maverick. To his pleasure, he watched the Maverick fly back from the damage, sparking. Obviously this hurt him. A lot.
Standing up, X continued to fire missile after missile into the Kuwanger doppleganger, sending him further into the wall until finally he was wedged completely in. Walking calmly over, X stuck his blaster against Kuwanger's head. "I'm glad you're not real...I hate to imagine I took your life away twice." He then fired a level 3 blast straight into Kuwanger's head, blowing it clean off. The maverick exploded to dust once more.
On the other side of the room, a door exploded open. So this was a gauntlet. X looked up into the air. "WHAT'S YOUR LITTLE GAME, SIGMA!? WANT TO SEE IF I CAN RUN YOUR STUPID GAUNTLET AND LIVE!? I'M COMING FOR YOU, SIGMA! WE HAVE A LOT TO TALK ABOUT AND YOU HAVE A LOT TO ANSWER FOR!" he shouted at the ceiling, knowing Sigma was monitoring this.
He ran through the hallway and began to make quick work of the small robotic mavericks that were attempting to slow him down. Blasting his way through them, he arrived at another door and entered through it. Landing in a dark room similar to the one he encountered Kuwanger in, the lights flickered to life with four poles running up and down. "What---?" X muttered.
Suddenly energy bars began to run through the poles and a giant robotic spider dropped down. "AAAH! SPIDER!" shouted X, leaping back. "I hate spiders!" He began to charge his blaster to a level 3, watching the spider move down and around the poles between the energy bars. As it arrived close, it launched a bunch of little spiders from it at X. "EEK!" X fired the blast at the tiny spiders, destroying them, only to see the big robotic spider had worked it's way back to the top again.
"Grrr." X began to charge his blaster again and fired at the spider as it began to drop again. However, it's tough armor merely deflected the blast, except for a red spot on the spider. Getting an idea, X quickly dodged the little spiders it launched and watched it go back to the ceiling once more. As it began to work it's way back down, X fired a level 3 blast straight at the red spot on the spider, only to see his blaster had a null effect. "Oh ... damn..."
Switching over to his ice cannon, X leaped back as the small spiders leaped out. Quickly jumping over him, he watched the big spider start coming back down. Firing the ice shot into the red spot, he watched with great pleasure the damage it caused the internal systems of the spider. It quickly retreated back to the top of the ceiling. He had found the weak point of this monstrous creation.
Watching the spider drop once more, X dashed under it as the spider tried to impale him to the floor. Flipping around, X fired three more ice shots into the red spot, causing the spider to begin to smoke and spark with damage. Just a little more...
Dodging the small spiders that were released, X began to charge the ice weapon in his arm, waiting for the spider to drop once more. The spider began to drop, with incredible and vicious speed, attempting to nail X once more. The Hunter strained, but didn't budge, waiting. The spider continued to come down like a monster, with X the fly, but the azure reploid in white armor leaped up at the last moment and fired the charged shot of ice into the red orb, blowing the spider up in a brilliant light.
Landing on the ground, X looked out a window of another tower of the fortress. The gauntlet led there. He teleported over.
He turned around, his cape flapping behind him. "Yes, this Hunter could very well be the only thing on this miserable planet that can stop me. I must monitor him carefully. X hasn't quite yet reached his full potential. I can still crush him." His robotic dog whined. "Don't worry, my pet. I'll let you have the first shot at him. I promise."
Death Star stopped firing his blaster and activated both his sabers, running forward toward a giant bee robot that was blocking the entire hallway, hacking away into it. Brian followed his example, but focused on firing at the large robot mavericks that were firing missiles their way. Wildfire, however, did his speciality in reprogramming the elevator into crash landing in the basement of the island so no one else could come by and cause them trouble later.
Finishing his slicing, Death Star jumped back as the bee exploded, leaving the hallway with just enough room to navigate now. "Lets go!" he shouted and ran through. Brian dived after him, rolling along the ground and firing his gun into the nearby computers that controlled the gun turrets, causing them to misfire. Wildfire chased after them, dropping a couple of proxity mines that he picked up from a few dead mavericks.
The three worked their way through the hallway, which was strangely quiet now. Death Star raised his hand to signal them to stop moving. "There's trouble brewing. The central computer node wouldn't be left this unguarded."
Wildfire panted. "You call this unguarded? That little surprise party back at the elevator was quite enough for me..."
Brian glanced around. "Death Star's right. There should be more mavericks. Any strategist knows you want to guard your most valuable points instead of throwing everything you have before it out at the enemy. There's more lurking around here."
Wildfire gave in. "Fine. But where?"
Death Star looked around over his shoulder. "I say either in the hallway outside the computer room or just inside it. That way, when we open the door, blam, we're dead."
Brian nodded. "Alright then, if that's the case, what should we do then...?"
Looking up, Death Star saw an airvent. "We take a detour."
Running past the attacking mavericks, he worked his way up a few latters where more mavericks awaited to bash him. Firing off several level 3 shots, X finally reached the top of the first area and stepped through the door. Entering a room which seemed all too familar to him, he found it no surprise this time when Chill Penguin appeared before him.
The Maverick quickly dived at him, but X knew his game this time. Leaping over the sliding maverick, he switched over to his fire weapon. "Lets see if this fire will melt your ice, bird." He let lose a fire storm on Chill Penguin. The maverick caught on fire, running around in pain. X then fired a level 3 shot into Penguin's side, sending him sliding off into the wall where he exploded.
Running through a newly opened door, X worked his way out toward an open tower area. "I seem to be getting further away from the base...?" he muttered to himself as he jumped out onto an open platform. Working his way across, he suddenly felt a pain blaze down his back. Landing on his stomach, X slid towards the edge of the platform, his vision turning red.
Pushing himself up, X turned around to see Storm Eagle flapping there. Damn, too careless. I should have known why Sigma was leading me out into an open area... Charging his blaster to a level 3, X rolled to the side when Storm Eagle dived at him, smashing into the platform and bouncing off. He aimed his blaster at the maverick and fired, knocking him off the edge.
Hopping to his feet, he began to charge it as Storm Eagle flew back up silently. "Yeah, I know. You fly, stupid." He fired a level 3 blast into the maverick's head as he reappeared, knocking him back off once more. "But I learn, stupid."
He began to run towards the edge, thinking Storm Eagle would have been defeated by those blasts, but skid to a stop when Storm Eagle swooped at him, almost taking off his face. It seemed the Maverick had more in him than X took him granted for. Flipping around, X leaped back as Storm Eagle fired a tornado blast at him to knock X off the edge.
The two stood there, until X finally raised his blaster and fired off another level 3 blast, nailing Storm Eagle right in the head. The maverick fell back and exploded in a brilliant light. "Three down...five more to go, eh, Sigma..." X whispered and dived off the platform into the next tower.
He worked his way up to the top area and entered another door. Landing in a room with a maverick sign in the background, X glanced around. "Empty..." He let his tense body relax a little. Perhaps the gauntlet didn't continue here. However, a grinding sound quickly snapped him back to reality. The wall slid open, revealing a face like thing on the wall. "Good God..."
X switched over to Storm Eagle's weapon and stepped back. Suddenly one of the eyes opened up an began to fire a stream of flame at him. Firing Storm's eagle, he found it very useless, so he switched to Sting's laser and fired it into the eye, noting that it caused a fair amount of damage to the edge.
Rolling along the floor, X fired off three more lasers into the eye, causing it to explode. Bouncing off the wall, X blinked as the next eye opened up and began to fire a stream of attacks at him. Rolling under them, X pointed his blaster upward and fired off three laser shots into it, knocking off pieces of the eye.
Rolling back to the right, X leaped back and let lose two more shots, blowing the eye up. Panting with relief, X heard a grinding noise again and noticed the walls were closing in and the floor was opening up into a spiked pit. Grabbing onto the walls, he held on as the floor was now nothing but spikes. Suddenly the mouth began to move around, trying to ram him.
Leaping back and forth between the walls to dodge the creation, X slid under it and fired a few shots off in time. Leaping over to the left wall, X fired off two more lasers, quickly running out of stamina to keep this attack going. Bouncing up the wall to avoid being nailed, X was hit by the mouth, causing him to slide down the wall towards the spikes. It was all about to be over...sweet relief would be his and he would join Zero...
Stubbornly, X raised his trembling blaster once more and fired, blowing up the mouth, then allowed himself to drop towards the ground of spikes.
The two Hunters behind him sneezed. "Aw, dammit, who's idea was this again..." muttered Wildfire.
"Shut up..." Death Star hissed and continued to shift forward. He glanced out another vent and saw a bunch of mavericks in a room, guarding some papers and documents. "Great, mental note, don't disturb them..."
The three shifted on through the cramped vents. "I hate this..." complained Wildfire.
"Stop whining!" Death Star snarled.
They continue to shift along slowly. "I have a scratch," Wildfire announced.
"God, geeze...going to kill him!" Death Star howled.
Brian shifted between the two. "Down boys! Dow--" he stopped when he heard the vent groaning from Death Star trying to scramble at Wildfire. "Wait, STOP!" The vent collapsed and dumped them in the middle of ten mavericks who were cleaning their weapons.
"This is all your fault," Wildfire declared.
"Go to hell, bastard." Death Star flipped to his feet and activated his two sabers. He slashed forward, cutting two of the mavericks' blasters off. "Fight now. Whine later." He twirled around and slashed the two mavericks in half.
Brian hopped to his feet and brushed the dust out of his hair. Grabbing his gun, he fired into a maverick's face, knocking them back. "You two are seriously ticking me off..." he told them.
Wildfire and Death Star turned to Brian. "STAY OUT OF THIS, CARTER!" they shouted together. Brian groaned and shrugged, whacking them both with his gun, then began to fire into the mavericks.
Death Star slashed one maverick in half and then rolled toward the door. Opening it up, he glanced out the hallway and saw the computer central node room at the end. "We're almost there." Brian finished off the last of the mavericks and stepped up behind him. "Amazing. We got this far..."
Wildfire dusted himself off. "No thanks to him."
Death Star paused. "..." He then slowly turned around. "THAT'S IT!" He tackled Wildfire into the wall. Brian sighed at the sounds of the two bashing each other around.
Checking himself over, he saw that while his armor was bashed a bit, he was alright. The exhaustion of the last battle took more out of him energy wise than pure damage it seemed. Now, though, he had to pick up the pace. He had no idea how long he had been out or how the battle with the other Hunters was even going. At this rate, this war could be over already and everyone dead.
Moving slowly through the hallway, he looked up and saw some mavericks on patrol, but not totally lax. Almost like they were expecting him. Glancing around the area, he spotted a camera that was trained on him, the red light on. "So, watching your little show, Sigma? Then that must mean the Mavericks aren't totally defeated yet."
Looking back at the mavericks, who now seemed to be more alert than ever, X charged his blaster up. They are going to expect me to come up through here, in accordance to that camera telling them my every move... He aimed it at the camera and fired, blowing the piece of surveillance up. The mavericks looked puzzled for a moment, then started heading for his location.
X jumped straight up and grabbed a handle on the roof, pulling down on it with all his weight, praying this led somewhere. With a groan, the handle popped open a trap door to some vents. Leaping up, X reached back down and slammed the trap door shut just as the mavericks rounded the corner.
Holding his breath, X listened to the sounds of talking and marching below him. They seemed to be going away from him. Looking around the vent, X opened the trapdoor a crack and peeked out, seeing the area was clear again. Obviously Sigma thought he decided to go some other route and was moving to counter him. Like playing a game of chess.
Jumping down to the ground, X marched up the now empty hallway and opened the door, stepping out into a small room. The door shut behind him and locked itself. "Oh damn..." X muttered, turning around slowly. Armored Armadillo teleported in, grinning. "Well, here's the next one on the list..." He raised his blaster, switching over to the Electric Spark attack he gained from Spark Mandrill, and fired. Armadillo raised his arms to shield his face, but the blast still impacted, shocking his entire body. The maverick stumbled backwards, smoke rising from his armor. However, unlike the original Armadillo, this one looked more pissed than hurt.
He launched himself at X, who dived to the side as the rolling ball that was once Armadillo sped past him, bouncing off the wall and into the air, coming back down at X again. Struggling to maintain his balance, X leaped back as Armadillo collide with the ground, denting it, and bounced up into the air again. Charging his blaster without really thinking, X kept backing up. Armadillo twirled in the air and come rolling down towards him at an incredible speed. Without thinking, X raised his blaster and fired a charged Electric Spark into Armadillo. The weapon, morphed into a much deadlier attack, smashed into the maverick and sent him crashing to the ground, more smoke rising up.
Recovering himself, X aimed at him. He fired multiple Spark attacks at him, each one colliding into the armor, until it finally exploded and sent the maverick spinning into a wall. Struggling to get up, Armadillo looked at X with a look on his face that showed he knew what was coming. X almost felt sorry for. Almost.
The next blast killed the maverick and X went through the next door that led him on in his little gauntlet. Stepping into the next hallway, X worked his way slowly through the traps set out by Sigma, blasting away the little amount of resistance that was there. It seemed that either this was getting easier, which meant trouble in most battles or that Sigma was cutting back on the mavericks, just so X could reach Sigma. He didn't know which idea made him uneasier.
Stepping through yet another door, X noticed some vines and other plants on the ceiling. "Uh oh...not him..." X muttered, glancing around the room. It seemed totally empty...Bracing himself, the Hunter kept glancing around, cautiously. Nothing moved...nothing stirred.
Charging his blaster, X continued to strain to hear sounds over the whine of the blaster. He knew that cutting down on his hearing was dangerous, he needed an attack ready for when the attack did happen. Hearing a rustling sound, X spun around and looked up, seeing nothing. Realizing he had been tricked a moment to soon, he felt a painful impact on his back, that sent wave after wave of pain through his entire lower back area; a hot, burning sensation of a pain, X screamed out. Falling to his knees, X had to blink his eyes, his vision circuits overloading from the pain circuits in his back. When it finally stabilized, X turned around only to be hit in the head, sending him crashing into the wall. Stumbling, X raised his blaster almost blindly and fired, nailing Sting Chameleon in the chest, sending the maverick colliding into the opposite wall. The two stared at each other.
X launched himself off the wall and fired a level three shot at Sting, who dodged immediately. Before X even finished touching the ground, however, he fired off a quick level two shot, followed by a volley of quick shots. Sting, hit in the side by the level two blast, was too stunned to dodge the volley of fire that kept nailing him. He tried to block as many as he could, but he felt himself sliding back from the impact of the shots; his armor began to melt or shatter apart as each shot connected and his internal circuits began to fail on him. Falling to his knees, Sting tried one more offensive, launching his new spiked tail at X, who quickly stepped to the side and fired off a level three shot at Sting, blowing his head off. The maverick crashed to the ground, then exploded.
Wiping some battery fluid from his mouth, X turned to the newly opened door. "Three more to go..." he said in despair. Killing his brethren over again, despite their being evil, was wearing him mentally down. But, perhaps, this was what Sigma was hoping for. X stepped through the door and slowly worked down the hallway until he had to start working his way down. When he reached the bottom, he saw the next door. Stepping through, X found himself in yet another large, empty room.
Mandrill dropped from the ground and threw a punch at X's head. Seeing as Spark Mandrill's fist was the entire size of X's head, X knew better than to let it collide. He ducked the punch, letting Mandrill lodge his entire arm through the wall behind X, successfully neutralizing the Maverick. "Sorry about this, Sparky..." X said mournfully. He switched over to his ice attack and placed it against Mandrill's head, firing. The Maverick froze, his internal circuitry failing due to the range and position of the attack.
X stepped back, calmly surveying the Maverick. There was no need to finish the job, X decided and walked away, the door refusing to open for him. "What!?" he shouted, glancing back at the still frozen Maverick. Then he understood. Sigma wanted him to kill Mandrill before he'd let him past. Bitterly, X raised his blaster and fired off a level 3 shot, shattering Mandrill into hundreds of pieces. He then looked at the camera on the wall. "Bastard."
The door unlocked and X walked through, firing at the mavericks waiting for him on the other side. He then saw the hallway end with a pool of water. Diving into the water, X sunk to the bottom and he slowly began to work his way through the flooded portion of the gauntlet. Firing at the fish that tried to attack him, X leapt over the spikes and obstacles conveniently laid out for his entertainment. Slowly, but surely, X arrived at the next door and stepped in.
Launch Octopus swam down and landed on the ground. X switched to Kuwanger's weapon and jumped back as Launch propelled himself at the hunter. Bouncing off the wall behind him, X slowly drifted over Octopus, aiming his blaster at him and firing down three spinning boomerangs. Octopus attempted to swim out of the way, but the first one cut off his right set of arms, spinning away. The second one missed his head and he quickly destroyed it with his left set of arms. However, the third boomerang came spinning along and sliced off his left set of arms, neutralizing the maverick's main attacks.
X landed on the ground and turned around, firing off a level three shot from his main blaster, nailing Octopus in the chest. The maverick began to spark and despite his armor being waterproof, some water seeped into his internal circuits, overloading them. The maverick exploded, sending shockwaves out through the water that sent X spinning backwards into the next door, which opened and dumped him in the hallway. The water drained out and X was once again in a dry hallway.
Standing up, X knew that there would only be one more "ghost" for him to fight with. Working his way up through the shifting hallway that served as a gauntlet for him, X arrived at the next door. Taking a deep breath, X stepped in, landing on a moving belt. Yep, definitely...Flame Mammoth slowly rode it towards him.
X leaped back as the maverick roared, switching over to Storm Eagle's weapon. Silently counting in his head as the maverick leaped towards him, X fired just before it could land on him. The blast nailed Mammoth in his weak underside and sent him backwards, landing on the moving belt with a thud. X then fired off another one, that sent it skidding down the belt away from him. Knowing all too well not to give the Maverick a chance to recover, X switched to his main weapon and opened up a volley of blasts, just as he had done to Sting Chameleon. As Mammoth sat up, the blasts connected, slowly blasting away his armor until he took heavy damage.
The maverick stood up, swaying from the movement of the belt, then fell over, exploding in a brilliant light. The last of the Mavericks was dead...again. X ran to the door and jumped through, walking down a hallway, through another door, and landed on the ground of yet another empty room. "What the..." X murmured, looking around. In response to his thoughts, a Maverick contraption straight out of hell materialized in the room. Perhaps it was a hybrid tank with a face from hell? X didn't know nor cared. All that mattered was that it was heading his way...and fast!
Leaping up in the air and sliding down the wall as the hybred tank collided with the wall, sending him falling onto the ground, X began to think of some type of plan. The tank rolled back and charged again, this time splitting in half as the bottom half rolled on and the top half hovered back some, firing at him. X leaped onto the bottom's half top, catching a ride, and fired off a charged level three shot into the head part of the tank, damaging it slightly.
Jumping off as the tank reassembled itself, X fired off another charged shot straight into it's head once more, again damaging it slightly. Hopping back as the tank rolled at him, X grabbed the wall and pushed off, flipping over the tank all together and landing behind it. Once there, he began to look around the room for something to aid him. Spotting some damaged wiring on the floor, hooked up to a power generator, X fired off another shot into the tank. It rolled around, heading for him.
"Here goes nothing, ugly..." shouted X, who cartwheeled away from it as it tried to smash him with it's top half. He began to edge away, leading it after him towards the power generator. The tank followed him, parking itself within distance of the generator. "And now, for the fireworks." X aimed his blaster at the damaged wires and fired an Spark shot at it, overloading the wires, causing the generator to explode next to the tank, blowing it completely up. X jumped away as th entire room began to shake. Looks like I put a little too much into that... he thought, almost in a panic. Looking around, he noticed on the computer, that was dying out from the overload, the location to the center of the base. Without thinking, X entered the location into his teleporter and beamed out of hell...right into Satan's lap.