Mega Man Fan Fiction ❯ Death, A Mega Man ZX Fanfiction ❯ Chapter 01, The Withered Flower ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1:

~The Withered Flower~

 

Even from my small apartment in the outskirts of Innerpeace I could hear them. Short, barely audible bursts erupt from the nexus of the city rocked the streets with a barrage of tumult and debris; the headquarters of Slither, Inc. was literally falling apart. While I could hear them, I was far enough away from the chaos that the force of the explosions did little more than cause my table and chairs to move around and shake the windows. I'd hate to be one of those mistaken fools who thought they'd be safer living closer to Slither, Inc.'s main building. I steadied myself after the first couple of shocks, having caught me off-guard and knocking me back a couple steps. The explosions subsided after five minutes and my coffee table found a comfortable place near the front door to settle down. I began pacing around my one-bedroom making sure nothing is broken and a knocking came from the front door.

 

I turned to look at the front door and walked towards it, sliding the coffee table out of the way and unlocking the deadbolt. I swung the door open and stared my landlord in the face. No doubt he was here to see if anything needed to be fixed. He made the first move, “Hey man, is everything alright in here?”

He looked around me, hoping not to find anything broken or leaking, then looked me in the face again. “Yeah, everything's cool.”

A brief smile formed across his face before he realized he was subconsciously revealing his truthful motives.

“Good, I wouldn't want anything bad happening to my residents, ya know?” I looked at him for a second, his well-bought clothes, semi-tan complexion, and expensive haircut made it difficult to believe he wasn't interested in anything he may have to replace. “Nothing to worry about here,” I said flatly, throwing my forearms up and away from my body, subconsciously revealing the level of my belief in his statement.

Giving me a few small nods, the landlord told me to report any damages I may find and walks down the hall to the next door, looking back to me briefly with a nervous expression. I turned and closed the door.

 

Moving the coffee table back in front of the television, I grabbed the remote and pressed the power button only to stare into static.

“Dammit,” I quietly said to myself as I flipped through a few blank channels and turned the television off, resuming the pacing of my apartment to find any damages. Discovering nothing that wasn't already damaged by my negligence, I grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and decided that the landlord could fix the hot water valve I broke falling backwards into the shower during a break from an intense drinking match. I still managed to get back up and down the winning shot.

Twisting the cap off through my shirt, I sat down at the counter and sipped at the bottle liberally, knowing that another awaited me if I so wish. I leaned back, letting my arms hang below my waist, still holding my beer, and I let my head droop backwards, and as if Karma herself were reacting to my selfish thoughts, a deep rumbling manifested below me, intensifying every millisecond, knocking me backwards out of my chair, my head moving from a state of rest six feet above the floor to zero in two seconds flat, the remaining bottles of beer in my refrigerator fell out, shattering on the floor.

Damn you, Karma.

 

---

 

I awoke that night. However, it wasn't in my apartment; my eyes opened to a scene of ruin. I found myself clinging to life in a large, devastated room, surrounded on all sides by hundreds, perhaps thousands of broken capsules reaching towards a ceiling beyond my vision, while thick cables ran along a gray and blue stone floor, dancing around the countless rows of capsules and leaving through the walls; explosions rocked everything around me.

Destiny… Model W… evolution…; these words echoed violently through my head as I crawled across the floor, being little more than a metallic torso.

Hand over hand, this was all I could manage as excruciating pain throbbed from the deepest recesses of my body, threatening to stop me at any moment. I continued on like this for a few minutes, closing in on a door leading to safety, when their sudden appearance stopped me in my tracks.

Prometheus… Pannnndorraaaa…

 

I had somehow known the names of the two reploids standing before me, the boy Prometheus was holding a large beam scythe and wearing a skull-like helmet, and the girl Pandora held a large wand and wore white armor.

“Well, well Pandora, look at the dog trying to crawl away from his master. Isn't this quite the turn of events?” The girl, Pandora replied. “It is indeed.”

Ignoring their commentary, I planted my cold, metal fingers in the stone floor and continued towards the door. They watched me like dogs as I passed them, dogs waiting for the word of their master for the kill. They continued to watch me as I drudged towards the door, their gaze never deviating from my metallic form.

 

Following a particularly powerful explosion, a boulder-like hunk of metal and concrete fell from above and pinned my hand into ground, halting my escape. Unable to break free despite my greatest efforts, I could hear Prometheus' cackling from afar.

“What an entertaining worm we have on our hands here. Let's go play with it.” Prometheus began walking towards me, beam scythe in-hand. I could only stare at him as he continued his march.

Standing before me, Prometheus knelt down and held my chin up, leveling my face to his. “I hope you realize that you can't leave the game at this point, you're already too involved,” Prometheus said to my face. “In fact, I think Model W has something to say to your cowardice, Serpent.” Prometheus pointed behind him to a colossal, gray and purple face, contrasting itself against the carnage as the only unblemished object in the gargantuan arena.

Awakening from its slumber, the massive face's pale green eyes lit up and stared directly at me, its forceful presence escalating by the second, its gaze piercing me to the core. “Ho, ho, he seems angry with you. Perhaps you shouldn't have failed him like you did.”

I continued staring into the epicenter of madness, the stern gaze of Model W offering little besides terror, inspiring nothing but an inability of movement.

 

“Prometheus, we should leave.” Pandora stood beside her opposite. “Indeed, we know how this is going to end.” Prometheus looked down and to the side at me. “Farewell, Mega Man of Model W. Maybe one day I'll send that little girl to visit you in hell.”

With that, the reploid siblings began to glow with a white aura and hastily departed, passing through the ceiling as they left. Turning back to the face of Model W, I was greeted with a beam of jade-colored light, tearing through my chassis and severing my good arm. When I caught sight of the second beam, it was only for a moment; I awoke on my apartment floor, vision blurred and my phone blaring.

 

---

 

Awakening to the melody of Beethoven's Fifth, the only respectable melody my piece-of-shit phone offered, I laid dazed on my linoleum floor, wondering what the fuck that infernal ringing was. Clenching my eyelids together in a vain effort to keep myself asleep, I officially awoke, sitting up to grab the phone sitting just out of reach on top of my counter. Failing, I resolve myself to stand up and answer the phone, the ringing beginning to piss me off.

“H, hello?” I say, not even bothering to acknowledge who it was that was calling.” Raimi, What the fuck are you doing? The cleanup crew was at the Slither, Inc. disaster site hours ago, why the hell didn`t you respond to my message?”

I looked at my phone and saw a received message icon. “I don't know, I mustn't have got it,” lying through my teeth.

“Well get the fuck out here, we have a lot of shit to take care of. You like getting paid, right?” Mother fucker… “Yeah, what of it?”

“If you don't get out here, not only aren't you getting paid, but you're fired as well. I've had enough of this late shit with you, Raimi.”

I scratched the stubble on my cheek, gathered by machismo and responded with a cooled response. “Alright, I said I'd be out there didn't I?”

“No, but I trust you will be, your salaried future with this company is depending on it.” With that, he ended the call and left me with a silenced phone to my ear. “Old, fat bastard.” I slid my phone into my pocket and headed for the bedroom.

I opened the door, turned right, and opening the closet, I browsed the jumble my closet had become as a result of the night before, and picked a work shirt from the floor and hastily replaced it with the one I was wearing. Turning around, I sighed a little as I walked around my bed to set everything back in its proper place; I picked up the lamp that had somehow landed into the space between the nightstand and the bed instead of on the floor. I fixed the angle of said nightstand and walked around the broken glasses that lay on the floor; I'll have to get those later. I thought to myself. Exiting the bedroom, I made my way into the better-off bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face with some water, grabbed the keys lying on the floor by the counter, then left through the front door.

 

I made it to the parking lot and nearly slapped my face after finding my car upside down on the edge of the knoll by the front gate. “Sonnova bitch!”

Quickly descending the flight of stairs, I approached the car, only to find out that it was indeed mine. “Fuck!” I said without care as to who heard me. I circled around to the other side. “Goddammit!” I kicked the upturned tire and started walking back to the apartment building in an agitated march, hands in pockets. It was at this time my miracle cashed itself in.

I continued in my self-concerned trance, wondering what's going to happen next to fuck my life over and when, when the sound of a car coming to a halt emanated from behind me. “Raimi! Hey, Raimi!” I heard from behind me. Turning, I looked through the passenger window to find one of my neighbors, Mick I think, looking in my direction. I walk to his car and rest my hands in the window opening.

“Hey, what's going on? Haven't seen you around lately.” I say, not even sure his name is Mick at this point. “Not a lot bro, is that your car over there?”

“Mick” cocks his head back to my upturned pile-of-shit excuse for a car. I look over his roof for a brief moment before returning my face to his level. “Sure is.” I say, inexpressively. “You wouldn't mind giving me a ride to work, would you? As you can see I'm in a bit of a situation.” He looks back at my car as if genuinely surveying it to make sure I wasn't lying. What a comedian. He pointlessly continued this for a few more seconds before returning to me. “Okay, get in.”

Mick unlocked the door and I promptly got in.

 

Fastening my seat belt, he put the car into gear and started driving to the complex entrance. Mick stopped the car and turned his head towards me.

“Where are we heading to?” I looked off slightly to the right and say to him, pointing: “Slither, Inc.'s main building, we're cleaning up the disaster site.” “Aww man, that's rough. You operate something?” He asked, taking a right as soon as he was clear. “Mmhmm.” I hummed slowly. “Lucky me. My boss will have me on something particularly nasty I bet, I was supposed to be there over an hour ago.”

I chuckle off the thought. Mick scratched the weak hair on his chin and laughed a bit himself. “Probably, I'd be mad too if I were him. What the hell were you doing? Looking at porn?” I look away from him to the road ahead of us. “Nah, not today anyways. I got knocked out last night and must not have heard my alarm go off.”

I continued to look ahead of me, taking in the disarray of my surroundings. Garbage bins lay on their sides on street corners, officers diverted traffic away from closed streets, numerous workers and their machinery sought to repair various lamp posts, and sewer lines. What caught my attention, however, was the line of upheaval I saw just before we left my apartment complex.

“Hey Mick…” I said without realizing I probably called him by a wrong name. Silence stood between us for what seemed too long. Turning his head toward me he spoke: “Yes? I'm sorry, I was looking at something.”

Thank fuck. I continued, unwavering. “What happened last night near the apartment complex? Something caused a shock that knocked me out cold.” “Oh, that,” he replied matter-of-factly, “I heard from a police officer that one of Slither, Inc.'s mobile dispatch lines went up last night.” Of course, Slither, Inc. has a series of tubes running under the city for a quick-response deployment of their security force, kind of like the roots to the main building, which ironically looked like a flower in the first place. “What did you say happened? You got knocked out?” I subconsciously rub the back of my head as Mick swerves out of the way of a small stretch of upheaval protruding into the street.

“I was just sitting back in a chair when the shaking knocked me over and…” I probably shouldn't tell him about the dream. “…the next thing I knew my boss was calling, yelling at me down the phone.” We were nearing the disaster site at this point. “That must be the pits, getting thrown around only to wake up to someone screaming in your ear.” An eerie smile crept upon his lips. “Oh, the good `ol college days.” Mick laughed to himself. I let him finish and I say to him, looking out the window to my side.

I eye the sidewalk for some time before saying to Mick, “right here will be fine, I can walk the rest of the way.”

I start unfastening my seat belt and Mick's car came to a stop. “Take care now, should I swing by later to pick you up?” I started thinking to myself. “Yeah, if you could, can you come by around 4? I need to drop by the store to get a few things.”

“Alright then, see you at four.” I reach into my pocket and turn my phone off and Mick's car is already turned around and beginning to drive away. I turn my head to the disaster site, face my body in the same direction, and started walking to the withered flower.