X looked down at the battered, lifeless thing before him, reaching down for the storage compartment that had popped open upon Twim's demise. Inside of the hold was a small, red metal box. A stylized 'H' had been painted on the lid.
X carefully undid the hasp on the front of the box, lifting the lid facing away from him. He would take no unnecessary risks. When nothing happened, he turned the box around. Inside was a small orange device, a datapad with a holographic transmitter. Taped to the roof of the lid was a note card, upon which were written the words, 'PLAY THE VIDEO'.
X sat down amid the scrap and wreckage, set the datapad on top of the box, and tapped the display. Only one icon came up, a thumbnail image of a ghastly looking red and white mechanoid who appeared to be styled after a medieval demon knight of some sort.
X tapped the thumbnail. Light spilled out of the projector, and a 3D image hovered in the air before him, that of Hephaestus sitting in a robotics workstation.
"Hello, X," Hephaestus rasped, his voice cultured but gravelly, like he'd been gargling oil. "If you are watching this, then Twim is dead. That makes three of my kinsmen you've killed, though this is the first one done in entirely by your own hands. At what cost, though, have these victories come? Thousands of humans are dead, and your Hunters Organization has suffered many losses. Surely you can't afford to be besieged by my forces much longer. By now you realize why I had Shinobi steal your VR records. If you haven't yet, it will be clear very soon. Now, I've managed to keep you very busy, and you are about to find out why."
The image changed to a globe with dozens of small red dots scattered around several countries. Hephaestus's voice continued. "Here you will see a number of pin points, each one representing an old Wily operations site. Some were Robot Master domains, some were work stations, and a couple were Wily Manors. You might well already know that.
"What you didn't know, however, was why these particular sites were so important, and why they are important to you now." The image returned to Hephaestus, now standing by a command console. "My forces now occupy and control these sites. Hidden beneath each of these zones was once a nuclear missile silo. Much like the one you found in the old Skull Man ruins."
X felt himself going numb with dread.
"I am not yet ready to launch these warheads, but I will, if I must. There is, however, one way for you to stay my hand. I have erected a Wily Manor of my own. Find and come to the Manor, and face judgement for you and your predecessor's choice to always follow the way of Dr. Light, for ever failing to see the wisdom of Dr. Wily!
"Do not attempt to send any of your Hunters against these sites, or the missiles will all be launched, the loss of life staggering.
"When this video is finished, the device will send a signal to me to let me know it is done. From the moment that signal is received, you will have five days to find the Manor. Your first clue rests on the assassin's weapon. Know this, X, as well. Five of my kinsmen remain, and three await you in the Manor, but they are the least of your worries here.
"You have only five days, X. Find me, or more humans shall die by my hand than ever did when you faced Sigma."
The projector glass on the datapad went dark, and the device let out a high-pitched whine, causing X to flinch back. When it ended, the datapad burst apart from the inside.
X got slowly to his feet. He had just five days to play this sick little game of Hephaestus's, to find out where the new Wily Manor lay. He was a warrior, though, not a sleuth.
"But I know one," he muttered.
Thrash had remained quiet and out of sight, his thoughts spinning round and round uselessly in his mind. Sitting around never suited Quick Man, and it didn't suit his new incarnation, either. He wanted to be doing something, anything! Poseidon, the arrogant, blue-hued, shark-like mechanoid, had been allowed out of the compound on multiple occasions. "Why him and not me," Thrash groused aloud to no one. "I'm just as capable, just as deadly!"
He wouldn't care, except that Poseidon lorded the fact over him like a child showing off his new toy to all of his friends. He did it for the simple joy of making the others envious, particularly Thrash, Orbous and Paladin. On Paladin, it didn't work. The knight-errant was frustratingly calm most of the time, unflappable it seemed. Orbous only seemed mildly jealous, but the arachnid mechanoid seemed content with his surveillance and network operations.
It was with Poseidon's latest bit of bluster that Thrash had been pushed over the edge, coming to one decision; he would slaughter Poseidon. He would have to do it soon, though. In five days' time, Hephaestus wanted them all in place throughout the sprawling complex. If he didn't act soon, he would lose his chance.
"Thankfully, speed is my thing," Thrash muttered, exiting his private quarters.
In the deepest level of the base, Hephaestus sat on his throne, constructed with meticulous attention to detail by Caretaker. He rested his chin on one fist, looking at the holographic monitor slightly forward and left of his seat.
The throne room was otherwise barren of display or decoration. There was the tile floor, the slightly raised throne platform, and the throne itself, all closed in by a set of double doors. Like the throne itself, they were made of fused human bones, taken from the victims of Hephaestus's long plans.
"Thrash seems agitated," Hephaestus said to his knight-errant, his only company in the chamber. Paladin stood stiff, ready for his master's command. He felt drained from the previous day's training; his new weapon taxed him greatly, but he was adapting to it well enough.
"Thrash is always agitated, sire," Paladin quipped. "It is in his nature."
"I may well have made a mistake in choosing him," Hephaestus mused aloud. "My contingencies are not perfect, Paladin. If he should do something rash, there may be terrible consequences."
"What would you have me do, sire?"
"Go back up and keep an eye on him. He knows I cannot watch him at all times. Ensure that he stays in line." Paladin saluted, then strode out of the throne room. Hephaestus wondered how X was doing, now that he'd watched the message, thus beginning the next phase of the plan.
He hoped the Blue Bomber was terrified.
"I don't understand why he'd go to these lengths," Marlow said, seated next to X in the high-speed transport the reploid had requisitioned from a small operations warehouse in downtown Topeka. "He clearly hates us humans. Why not just launch the nukes?"
"I don't know," X replied, flying the transport only two-hundred yards above the tallest trees of the area. "I think this is more about a vendetta against me than anything. Me and Dr. Light."
"Dr. Light's been dead a long time."
"But his teachings aren't. This Hephaestus, he's ideological. You said yourself that this cult of Wily claims his journal is authentic, that he was a servant of Dr. Wily."
"Yeah."
"Well, part of his message was about how Megaman and I always served Light instead of seeing Wily's plans as some kind of wisdom. I think he wants me to side with him. He wants that more than he wants wanton destruction."
The two flew in silence then for a while. Marlow finally broke it, asking, "What's the clue again?"
"The first clue is on the assassin's weapon, he said." X grunted. "I assume he means that Shinobi bot, but his gear was pretty much blown to hell and back."
"What about the weapon you recovered," Marlow asked. X laughed aloud, a jarring sound, but pleased.
"I'd forgotten about that! We'll take a look at it as soon as we get back to HQ." X patted Marlow on the shoulder briefly, returning his hand to the control stick after. "See?
Not every bot will treat humans as inferior."
"You're a rare exception, X," Marlow said quietly. "The one who does treat us like that has his hands on those nukes. Let's hurry up."
X let the transport open up to its full speed then. Someone else could clean up the cockpit if Marlow threw up.
Hephaestus changed monitor views, looking in on Paladin. The elevator in sector 3 had malfunctioned, forcing his knight-errant to redirect himself through a section of the Manor assigned to Thrash upon the conclusion of the waiting period. None of the drones gave him any trouble. He, Caretaker and Hephaestus himself all had free access to the entire compound.
The others had specific instructions to utilize the hidden elevators and passages to get to their area. Orbous, Thrash and Poseidon had access only to their own areas. All other bots, the drones had been ordered, were to be engaged and destroyed on sight.
It would take Paladin an extra fifteen minutes to reach the uppermost levels of the compound, but that didn't worry Hephaestus. He tapped his hand on the arm of his throne, summoning Caretaker from the corner of the room, where he'd been standing since Paladin left and he crept in.
"Are the chains in place," Hephaestus asked with a sigh.
"They are."
"And all of the panels have been calibrated?"
"Yes, of course. May I go play with my toys, now?"
"You may," said Hephaestus. "Careful not to break too many of them. I can't get you more today." Caretaker, ghoulish and dreadful, hissed his thanks and slithered from the throne room.
Poseidon had just ducked into the entertainment pod, probably going in to watch human news coverage of the assault he'd spearheaded in Atlanta. Thrash snarled in his own head, that should have been me! He's built for the water for Wily's sake! Why does he get chosen?
Thrash stood in the corridor around the corner from the entertainment pod, weighing his options. He was swifter than all of the others, even faster than Shinobi had been. If he blitzed Poseidon, he could get in the first few blows without fear of retaliation.
But no, Poseidon's body armoring was impressively durable. Thrash had already seen some of the video that Orbous's camera drones had sent back, and he'd seen numerous Maverick Hunters' weapons hit the shark-like mechanoid with little effect.
Yet, he knew, there was a weakness, a flaw in the water-themed man. His ballistic seeker missiles required he open two hatches in his shoulders in order to launch. In the moments those hatches were open, Poseidon was highly vulnerable. He had to essentially bare his own throat in order to attack with them.
"I'm not just quick on my feet, you overgrown fish," Thrash whispered, coming around the corner. "I'm quick of wit, too."
With three more levels to ascend, Hephaestus stopped watching Paladin and changed the view to seek out Thrash. He used the locator program, and found the view of the entertainment pod's main camera. Poseidon was seated on one of the couches, Thrash standing back by the doors. Something about the speed specialist's grin did not bode well.
"Hurry up, Paladin," Hephaestus rasped, all but certain that something was about to go wrong up there. Yes, Quick Man had been a poor choice. Ever rebellious, starting fights with the other Robot Masters before finally turning his attention to his own zone when Megaman took down Wood Man. Hephaestus should have moved on, should have let Quick Man's spark continue to fade out.
Mistakes, he mused, never belong to just one side of a war.
"How many times will you gloat about this, I wonder," Thrash said as he walked loudly into the room. Poseidon half-turned towards the other bot, eyes narrowing to slits.
"This is my first viewing. I just returned a couple of hours ago, after all. What have you been doing, meanwhile, hmm?"
"A lot of nothing, and it's killing me," Thrash replied.
"Then ask the master to give you a mission," Poseidon blurted, facing the television again. "Complaining about it to me solves nothing."
"Ah, but I think I know why you've been sent out a few times already," Thrash said, languidly easing around the couch at the end opposite Poseidon. "You see, I think it's because you're the more expendable. If you should be destroyed, no great loss," Thrash cooed with a smile. Poseidon surged up off of the couch, facing him squarely.
"Bite your tongue, fool! You are simply left behind because in a real scrap, the only thing you'd do better than me is die!"
"Oh, is that a threat, you overgrown fish?" Poseidon loosed a roar, then did exactly what Thrash had been hoping he would; he opened his shoulder panels.
Thrash had seen the clamps loosen, and in the split second it took for them to release the panels, Thrash drew out a small explosive, whipping it into the missile bay and dashing out of the room using his hyper speed leg thrusters.
Poseidon blinked, and the fool was gone. Yet something felt odd as he started closing his missile panels. By the time he started to sit back down, his internal sensors were raging.
"Oh, shi-" BOOM!
Paladin was one level below when the explosions rocked the compound. He stumbled into a Hard Hat bot, apologized, and started running for the nearest hidden stairwell. Hephaestus came over his internal intercomm, shouting in rage.
"Thrash has betrayed us! He's heading for the teleporter room! I will lock it down, and when you spot him, use the Flasher! When he's down, bring him to me, alive!"
Paladin did not reply; there was no need to.
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