The Next Stage

[Mega Man X]

In the operation room of Pokute Palace, Mega Man X sat with solidarity on the cot he's previously been laid out upon. The sustained damage to his frame had long since been repaired- rather excellently so, to the android's surprise and satisfaction. Even afterwards, he still flexed and rolled the joint motors in his arm and hand out of some certain marvel. The injuries were no longer X's concern, safe to say.

The void of concern, however, instead filled itself with thoughts of Nebula as a whole. News reports confirmed that the dark organization's operations only yet persisted in the Vasty Deeps, and that expert teams were already working to destroy the stronghold. Given the apparently present nature of time dilation within Nebula Space, X couldn't be sure how long the mission would take. As much as he wanted to help, his training as a Maverick Hunter spoke otherwise, knowing better than to barge in on a fellow agent's work without warrant.

Another present issue came from the other side, regarding Dr. Regal. Ever since X had first received that message regarding Nebula, the android had obtained no other word from the doctor, not even in response of the news that the Greens had been liberated. Perhaps there were some complex circumstances behind this, or perhaps not- X had no way to know for sure.

The android's pondering took him back to some interesting new data he had acquired after being ejected from Nebula Space. There were two sets of files, apparently corresponding to Hornet Man and Plant Man- the living programs encountered in the forest stronghold. A brief virtual examination of the files revealed mostly weapon data relevant to those Darkloids. That explained why the machine now possessed this information: it was probably acquired by the Variable Weapons System when activated.

Any other data beyond these weapons, however, seemed to be corrupted, essentially useless. So, with a bit of work, X could probably reconfigure these files into weapon data he could use. However, this raised a curious question in the hunter's mind; could these animated programs such as Plant Man possibly contain valuable information regarding Nebula?

It seemed like a plausible guess, but it couldn't be confirmed with what X possessed at the moment. Moreover, considering that last mission in the Deeps seemed to be in it's final stages, there was no telling if such information could even be helpful in the present or future. Nevertheless, X found himself compelled to try- this idea could have the potential to prevent future invasions from Nebula, or whatever else might follow in their image.

According to travel services, in each Verse supposedly stood Gates likes the ones in the Nexus, which instead opened into adjacent Verses. Not considering any odd space-time implications, this meant X could theoretically travel around the gated Verses together in a cycle. With one Nebula site in each Verse, X could obtain data from each site, and at the same time observe more of the Omniverse as a whole.

It would be just like making a really big loop around the world, except the world in this case was actually eight or so worlds stapled together with dimensional gateways.

After thanking the Chansey for their work, X dismissed himself from the operating room, and began making his way out of Pokute Palace. As grateful as the android was for the expert repairs, he held no other real purpose to be here in Ambrosia now- at least, not currently. For the benefit of the Omniverse, the Maverick Hunter would move along, to try and uncover the secrets behind Nebula. If his information were accurate, the closest gate to the next Verse would be a small journey west of the city.

Then again, that journey would be smaller yet if X had a ride of some sort...

[Mega Man X]

Only when X stepped beyond the grounds of the palace did he start working on his next objective. The blue bomber had already learned to summon something relatively simple- now it was time to try something more complex. Though the effort would easily take longer, he hoped the end result would save him much more time in the long run, so to speak.

Indeed, the process did take much longer than any before. He activated a stopwatch again and began to concentrate, but even without the time tracker, X could feel the minutes slipping by. The sounds of people, vehicles and other activities crept at his sensors, but the android continued to devote all his attention to the image formulating in his mind. Though he didn't remember the exact specifications of the schematic, X felt himself capable enough to fill in the details just by imagining what he wanted out of it. The nature of the Omniverse seemed to be rather forgiving in that regard- following the spirit of his desires rather than the letters and numerals.

Still, it took much time and effort to accurately construct every piece of the proverbial puzzle in the machine's mind. By the time the Mega Man finished his creation, the timer he had set up clocked at 27 minutes and 44 seconds. Having now gone through this process, X felt a couple of minutes could be trimmed off of that result the next time he attempted it.

With the newly-made hoverbike in the Maverick Hunter's possession, his travel to the next gate would be made much easier.



By the time X realized a couple things, he already had traveled about 15 minutes out of Ambrosia.

The first thing was that the android had left his travel cloak back in the palace. Oh well, that was a small loss. He could always make another one in short time, should the need necessarily arise.

The second thing was that X never connected with Kelly MacAryn over the Dataverse or any other means. This detail was slightly more significant, considering they worked relatively well over the matter of Nebula in the Greens. Though the android didn't anticipate them needing to get back together any time soon, having that link with previous allies provided a modicum more of security here in the Omniverse.

Come to think of it, X never established any sort of similar connection with Desco, either. Perhaps that part was for the better, though; what personality he knew of her seemed rather conflicting with itself, and the Maverick Hunter still knew too little of the creature to make an overall judgement.

At any rate, X pushed these concerns aside for the meantime as he neared the location of the gate to Camelot. The blue bomber couldn't be sure of what he would find or where it would be located; he could only hope it would help secure the fate of the future.

To be continued in Camelot...