MEGA MAN IRIS II
THE SAGA CONTINUES
Written by ker-plop
In the year 22XX...
It has been two weeks since the defeat of greedy businessman Ivan Ribosome IV, and things have calmed down a bit.
Ribosome's plans may have been crushed, but Iris Thorne and her friends, both old and new, still have to adjust to their new lives as museum-dwelling Maverick Hunters.
Lead by information gained by Professor Smith, Iris and her friends have located a rare group of fossils out in Death Valley. There they hope to fulfill their museum obligations by excavating and obtaining the bones.
Little do they know that the REAL war is just about to begin...
CHAPTER 1
UNEARTHED
From its place in the perpetual blue sky, the sun mercilessly beat down on the forsaken Death Valley. Sweating, tired workers hiked in and out of a blindingly white tent, grabbing digging tools or bringing in intriguing slabs of earth.
Inside the enclosure, Professor Ross Smith studied the dirt samples intently, sweating from excitement as well as heat. "Amazing..." he whispered as he looked over the readouts his spectrograph was producing. "What's this?! Hey, Snake Man!"
A Reploid wearing a labcoat and a green snake-shaped helmet and carrying a shovel walked into the tent. He was also sweating and covered with dirt. "Yes, Professor?" he asked. "Have you found what you're looking for?"
"Not exactly," Smith said as he pulled out a map of the dig site. "Where was this sample found?"
"I think Hobson and Michaelov got that piece from location 3-V," Snake Man said as he pointed at the map. "Would you like us to excavate further?"
"Yes," Smith answered. "Also, work on the surrounding areas."
"Do you think we're close to finding those mesozoic plant fossils?" Snake Man asked.
"No idea," Smith replied. "But this could be something big... Tell the Maverick Hunters to get here, quickly!"
"All right," Snake Man answered. "...If I can find them, anyway."
"What do you mean?" Smith asked. "Geez, have they run off again?!"
"Zero and X are digging in locations 4-G and 7-T, respectively," Snake Man reported. "I have no idea where the others are, though..."
"Jeez!" Smith snorted. "Don't they realize this is part of their job? If they slack off any more, Peabody will sack them for sure!..."
On the far side of the dig, three characters sat around a big rock, trying desperately to get some shade. "Ohhh..." Darren Lucas, a friendly technician with a backwards baseball cap, groaned as he took another swig from his water canteen. "I can't take this anymore!"
"Amen," the red-armored Reploid girl called Sharon Doherty muttered as she tried to fan herself quickly enough to get a decent breeze. "I'm a fire-type Reploid and this is too hot for even me."
"Well, we are helping Professor Smith with his job," Iris Thorne, a short girl Reploid with dark, brown hair pointed out as she pulled off her red beret and mopped her brow. "It's the least we can do. Besides, I think it's nice that we're doing some normal work for a change..."
Darren nodded in agreement; Iris and her friends had just survived a dangerous ordeal against the tyrannical Dr. Ivan Ribosome when he'd tried to capture Iris for still unknown reasons. Iris had defeated the merciless businessman and saved her friends from him, but nobody knew what had become of him.
"Well, that's a good thing, I guess..." Sharon grunted as she fanned even harder. "But I'm gettin' restless."
"Hey, be lucky we're this bored," Darren pointed out. "You wouldn't want a scorpion to come crawling into your pants, would you?"
"No scorpions live out here!" Sharon retorted. "They all got too bored!" She huffed and sat back down on the rock. "I sure wish something would happen."
While Sharon and Darren argued, Iris turned and stared out over the lifeless plain. Suddenly, something caught her eye; a group of people were coming towards her. As Iris squinted, a whirring object grazed her head, and a gold-plated shuriken embedded itself in the rock. A few strands of her hair fluttered to the dirt. "Be careful what you wish for..." she gulped as she stood up nervously.
Everyone turned and looked; the dark shapes on the horizon were getting closer even faster, and then a throng of thug Reploids came into view, riding "Ride Chaser" hovercycles, laughing maliciously and shooting off firearms in every which way.
"Whaaaagh!!!" Darren cried out. "Who are those guys?!"
"Darren, get back to camp and sound the alarm!" Iris ordered as she drew her purple beam sword, the I-Saber. "Sharon, I'll keep them busy while you go get X and Zero!"
Sharon and Darren dashed off in different directions as the bikers surrounded Iris and drove around her, laughing and making sick gestures. Iris set her jaw and gripped her I-Saber. "So, what are you guys up to?" she asked. "You're a long way from Sturgis..."
"Heh heh heh... We've got a smart one, here!" one of the bikers laughed. He wore yellow armor, magenta sunglasses and seemed to have lavender goo flowing through his joints. "You must be Iris! I'm Double, leader of the Biker Bladers gang!"
"Yes, I am," Iris retorted. "We've got an archaeological dig going on here, so would you all mind riding elsewhere?"
"Well, ain't that a coincidence?!" Double sneered. "We're here for a dig, too! Just so happens, though, that you're diggin' in our spot! So..." He turned around and motioned to his gang. "Rough 'em up, boys!!!" he yelled.
With excited war-whoops, the bikers tore past Iris and straight for the encampment, firing at whatever was moving. The diggers panicked and tried to flee, but the bikers were too fast for them.
"What are you doing?!" Iris cried as she watched. "Y-you guys are Mavericks!!!"
"An' proud of it!" Double laughed. "So, it looks like it's just you an' me now, dollface! I-"
Iris had turned and started running back to the dig, her I-Saber raised and her arm plasma cannon out and firing. "Hey!!!" Double yelled. "I wasn't done talkin'!!!"
"Oh, crap!" Darren gulped as he looked out of the tent. "Those bikers are coming right this way!"
"We'd better prepare for the worst," Smith said as he grabbed a box, pulled out several gray tunics and threw them at Darren. "Give these to all the diggers!" he ordered. "They're Shield Vests Professor Olson invented; they'll protect humans from Reploid weapons!"
Darren quickly slipped one on and rushed out of the tent. Smith slipped one on and turned to Snake Man. "Help me get this stuff to a safe place!" he said.
"Hey, Zero," kind, blue-armored Mega Man X asked as he set his pickaxe down and wiped his brow. "Have you found any fossils yet?"
"Not since the last time you asked," collected, red-armored Zero replied as he cleaved some rocks into bits with his green-beamed Z-Saber. "These plants are hard to come by, apparently..."
X smiled at his friend's method of excavation; Zero was a Maverick Hunter through and through, and he treated digging up fossils just as seriously as taking down an onslaught of bloodthirsty robots. "Never thought we'd be doing this for a living, huh?" he asked.
"Iris had the heart to find me," Zero answered. "I'll repay that in any way I can."
X nodded; he knew as well as anybody that Zero and Iris had deep feelings for each other. Zero was cold to most people, but he always opened up to her. In gratitude for finding and reactivating them, X and Zero had stayed on to work at the Science Museum Of Minnesota, where Iris and her new friends were employed. Even though X was a tour guide and Zero a security guard, they had been chosen to help with the Death Valley excavation because of their well-proven Maverick Hunter abilities.
"Still..." Zero continued, breaking X's recollections. "I wouldn't mind a more exciting line of work..."
Almost as soon as Zero had said this, a roaring motorcycle vaulted overhead, its driver laughing and firing plasma shots every which way. Then another came over, and another.
"What the...?!" X asked.
"Trouble," Zero replied as he turned his Z-Saber to the enemies.
Another biker started over the gorge, but he never made it to the other side. He separated into two parts and exploded, and X and Zero leaped out onto the sands. The other bikers swerved around and charged, but Zero's swordsmanship and X's gun skills took care of them quick.
"Something's up..." X said as he looked around. "Why would bikers attack a dig?"
"Hey!!! X!!! Zero!!!" Sharon shouted as she ran in from nearby. "The dig's under attack by some-" She stopped and glanced down at the smoldering shrapnel surrounding the pair. "...Oh. Uh... I guess you know already."
"Is everyone safe? Where's Iris?" Zero asked quickly.
"That way!" Sharon said as she pointed towards another swarm of bikers. "We'd better help her!"
"No kidding!" X said as he started towards the 20-something thugs racing for them. "What are they after?!"
Iris ran as fast as she could, but she couldn't catch up to the biker goons. "Hey, stop!" she shouted as she fired several shots from her I-Buster, but they missed completely.
One of the bikers looked back and saw the girl feverishly running after them. He decided that it would be fun to scare her, so with a cruel grin, he whirled his hovercycle around and barrelled straight for her.
Iris yelped and rolled away as the biker tore past her. Buzzing her wasn't satisfying for him, though; he now figured it would be just as fun to put her out of her misery entirely, so he swiveled again and flew back at Iris.
"Not this time!" Iris yelled as she leaped up at the hovercycle and swung her I-Saber. The biker gurgled as the blade cut through his chest, tumbled onto the fast-moving ground and rolled off into the distance.
Iris wriggled her way into the seat, grabbed the controls and sped off towards the other goons with her I-Buster ready.
"Hey, where did Skunk go?" one of the bikers asked his posse.
"He's just doggin'," another one grunted. "He's right behind us, see?"
The first biker turned around. Skunk's hovercycle was quickly approaching, but the rider certainly didn't look like him...
"Hey, dudes, that's not-" the biker started to say when his cycle took a powerful purple blast. He spun out of control, smashed into a mountainside and exploded.
"The little rat got Butch!!!" another biker yelled. "Get 'er!!!"
The bikers circled around to face Iris, but she sped right into the middle of them with her I-Buster firing. Biker after biker tumbled to the ground, their cycles blindly smashing into anything they came across. Shrapnel and wires flew every which way as Iris finished off the last of the thugs. Relieved sweat gleamed on her face as she rode around, searching for any stragglers. Her eye caught one lone biker still going towards the dig. Immediately she gunned her engine and rode towards him.
Suddenly, three more gold-plated shuriken buried themselves in the side of Iris's hovercycle. She looked and saw Double riding right next to her. "Didja forget about me, baby?!" he laughed as he rammed her. "I'm gonna grind you into the dirt!!!"
Iris frowned and returned the ram. "Leave us alone!" she shouted. "What do you want?!"
"Ain't 'bout what I want!" Double snorted as he produced a purple-glowing dagger and swung at her.
Iris dodged the slash and countered with one of her own. Double deflected the I-Saber's blade and swung again, catching her on the chin with his wrist. Iris grunted in pain, but stayed on the cycle.
The two combatants exchanged blows with neither side getting the upper hand. Finally Iris swung her sword at Double's face and he instinctively slapped it downwards... right into his cycle's control panel. Sparks flew and smoke poured out of the sides, and the machine swerved violently out of control.
"Shit! My hog!!!" Double swore and quickly slammed into Iris's hovercycle. The bikes hooked onto each other and became jammed together just as they veered right towards a steep cliffside.
"Nice work," Double snarled. "You're gonna bite it now!!!"
Struggling to stay on the bikes, Iris and Double exchanged sword blows as the mountain loomed dangerously closer.
"This bike's gonna be yer coffin, babe!!!" Double yelled as he caught Iris on a headlock and brought his sword up. Iris gasped for air and braced herself.
Suddenly, a burst of blue plasma collided with Double's sword, shattering it into violet fragments. "Whaaaa?!" he yelled, looking around angrily.
Iris saw her opening and took it. "HYOURETSUZAN!!!" she yelled as she plunged her I-Saber, now swirling with cold mists, into Double's leg. The yellow-armored crook screamed as his entire leg became a block of ice stuck to the cycle. Iris wrenched free of his grip and jumped away. Tumbling through the air, she watched the two cycles crash into the mountain and envelope it in a giant fireball.
A moment after the explosion, Iris landed on two rough things; she looked up to see Zero's face staring down at her. "Are you all right?" he asked with a touch of concern.
"I'm OK," Iris answered as Zero carefully set her down. "But we have to get back to the dig! There's one more!"
"What are they after?..." X, who had fired the shot that broke Double's sword, asked.
"Dunno, but we'd better get back!" Sharon replied as everyone ran back for the dig site.
"Here, put this on!" Darren shouted at a digger as he shoved the last Shield Vest at him. He looked around and sighed with relief; everyone was protected from the Maverick onslaught.
"Whew... It looks like Iris got all the Mavericks..." Darren said, glancing across the desert. "That's good... The workers are safe."
"Think again, scarecrow!" a gruff voice snorted. Darren whipped around to see the last thug, sitting on his hovercycle, his arm outfitted with a silver plasma cannon, aiming straight at him.
"Uh-oh..." Darren gulped. He tried to run, but stumbled over his own feet and crashed into the dirt.
"Heh heh heh heh!" the goon chuckled as he adjusted his gun. "When ya get to Hell, tell 'em Booster sent ya!"
Booster fired straight into Darren's back; the feeble human spun into the air and crashed down a few feet away.
Booster chuckled and turned to remount when a blue burst destroyed his hovercycle. "Aaaagh!!! Hey, what the?!" he snarled as he whipped around and Sharon sent a fierce kick into his jaw. He staggered backwards and angrily raised his gun, but a red flash flew by, knocked it from his hands and hit him in the back of his legs, sending him to the ground. Finally, a purple beam appeared under his chin. He looked up nervously and eyed his four assailants.
"I'd stay right there if I were you," Iris said quietly. X and Zero had their weapons trained on Booster as well. Sharon was behind them, helping Darren sit up.
"G'huh?!" Booster gulped as he saw Darren open his eyes. "B-b-but I got you right in the back!!!"
"Yeah, you did," Darren chuckled as he brushed himself off and patted his gray armor. "The crashdown hurt, but I'm OK... These Shield Vests are awesome!"
"Be glad of that," X said as he grabbed Booster's arms and put them behind his back. "Murder isn't something you want on your record..."
"Iris!" Professor Smith shouted as Snake Man and he appeared on the scene. "What's happened?"
"We stopped the bikers, professor," Zero said, motioning to Booster. "This is the only one left."
"Good work, everyone," Smith answered as he turned to the goon. "But why did you want to attack the dig?"
"Hah!" Booster spat. "If yer gonna lock me up, I don't see why I should cooperate."
"You little rat!" Sharon growled as she cracked her knuckles. "You're gonna talk, or-"
"Sharon, wait," Iris said as she lowered her sword and looked at Booster. "Listen, if you tell us what you know, we'll put in a good word for you. Please?"
Booster muttered something under his breath, then studied Iris over his shades. "You ain't talkin' bull, are ya? OK, then... I don't know much; we was hired to mess this place up. Don't know who hired us... Boss Man Double handled the details, an' you iced 'im already..."
"Well, what do you know?" Zero asked, folding his arms and glaring at the biker.
"Boss told us to rough up the diggers an' see if they've found some kinda energy..." Booster said. "...Said if we got our hands on it, we'd get enough dough for brand new Ride Chasers! You know how expensive those are..."
"Yeah..." Sharon replied. "I've always wanted one of those..."
"We're just freelance hellraisers," Booster finished. "We don't ask questions as long as there's cash."
"Energy?..." Smith asked as he scratched his chin. "What do you suppose..."
"Anything else?" Iris asked. "Think hard, now."
"Oh, yeah..." Booster replied with a shake of his head. "Double also said that there was an extra 10 grand for whomever iced Iris Thorne. That's all I know, honest!"
"...All right, that's enough," Iris replied with a concerned frown. "X, could you take him to the sheriff? Remember to say he cooperated."
"You bet," X replied. In a flash, Booster and he were gone. Iris sat down on a nearby rock and folded her arms.
"Well, this is a real mess..." Zero said, shaking his head.
"Whoever hired them must not like Iris very much," Snake Man pointed out. "You don't think..."
"I'll bet that Ribosome had something to do with this," Sharon growled. "Oooh, I hate that guy!!!"
"All this fuss has scared the workers..." Smith noted as he glanced around at nervous-looking diggers who had come to see their attacker be sentenced. "I think I'd better suspend the dig..."
"Good idea," Darren replied as he stood up and dusted his legs off. "This heat is killing me!"
Iris looked up; something at Darren's feet glistened in the sunlight. "Hey, what's this?..." she asked, running over and kneeling in front of it.
"Uh, Iris, what're you doing?" Darren asked as he backed away from the awkward position. Zero glared.
Iris pushed some dirt away from the gleaning object and it emerged even more; it was a spherical container of some sort. "Help me dig this up!" she called.
Darren knelt down and started pulling dirt away as well. Snake Man and Sharon also joined in. After some forty-five seconds of digging, they unearthed the object; it was a transparent sphere, glowing with a faint, violet light.
"What IS this?!..." Iris asked as she picked the sphere up.
Smith ran a handheld spectrograph over the object and his eyes lit up. "This thing is giving off the same reading as the dirt samples!" he announced. "Amazing!"
"Let's get it back to the museum to analyze it," Snake Man said as he pulled out a bag. "Could you put it in here, Iris?"
Darren looked at the sphere, but then something else caught his eye. He walked over and picked up the weapon that Booster had dropped. He scratched his chin and pondered.
Zero stared hard at the sphere and small beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He said nothing, but something about the thing bothered him. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something about it that troubled him... Something about it felt evil.
Circuits whirred and monitors flashed to life as Professor Smith reactivated his laboratory beneath the Science Museum Of Minnesota in the heart of downtown Saint Paul. "Let's see what this is all about..." he said as screens' lights bounced off of his glasses, effectively hiding his eyes.
The Maverick Hunters and the professor approached the museum's newest acquisition: the iMarc supercomputer. Due to a surplus of donations that year, curator Peabody had purchased it to maintain the museum's systems more efficiently than before. Smith used it for all sorts of tasks, including record keeping, analysis and a few other things.
"Amazing how Peabody lets you use this so freely, considering he hates yer guts," Sharon chuckled.
The unshaven professor set the violet sphere down and hit some buttons. "I'm going to run a closer analysis of this," he said as he typed. "Maybe someone's uncovered this sort of thing before... But first, I'm going to check on our supercomputer's tenant."
"Tenant?" Darren asked. "Someone lives in the computer?"
"Sort of," Smith said as he hit another button. "Good afternoon, Colonel! How are you today?"
"Colonel?..." Iris gasped. "Professor, what do you...?"
The screen's hue darkened to a thick gray. Without a sound, two glowing, white triangles appeared on the screen, their light glistening coldly on everyone. "Who calls...?" a deep, rigid voice boomed from the side speakers.
"It's me, Colonel; Professor Smith. We talked before, remember?" Smith asked.
"Ah, yes..." the voice said. "We did, didn't we..."
"Colonel?!..." Zero asked in a voice no louder than a whisper. "But..."
"B-brother?..." Iris asked the glowing eyes, her heart ready to leap into her throat. "Is that really you?!..."
The eyes regarded Iris for a moment. "...Iris..." the voice said. "So, the professor was truthful... You are alive... It is good to see you again..."
"Brother!..." Iris repeated as her eyes spilled over.
"How did you do this, professor?" X asked as he turned from the eyes.
"Dr. Donnerstag gave us Colonel's control chip when we visited Russia," Smith explained. "I wanted to revive him, but seeing as how his original body was destroyed..." He shot a sad glance at Iris, who still stared at the screen, before he continued. "I called a friend who knows about AI programming, and she talked me through inserting him into the iMarc."
"Wow! Isn't this great, Iris?" Darren asked. "You've got your brother back!"
"Yes, but..." Iris said as she reached out and touched the cold, rigid screen. She turned and gave Smith a half-confused, half-angry look. "Why didn't you tell me about this?!" she demanded.
Smith scratched his head. "I'm sorry, Iris," he apologized. "I only completed the installation yesterday, and it was supposed to be a surprise..."
Iris took a shuddering breath. "Professor, I appreciate the thought... but reactivating my brother like this is awful! He has no body! He can't move or do anything at all! He's totally trapped... Do you do this to humans when their bodies are broken?! No one wants to hear their loved ones will only live on as a box!!!" Iris's eyes were dribbling with tears now as her whole body trembled. "How could you?! You're as bad as Ribosome!!!"
Smith's eyes widened in shock and hurt.
"Iris!!!" Sharon exclaimed; Iris's change of attitude had even surprised her. "You take that back right now!!!"
"Enough!!!" Colonel boomed, effectively ending the argument. The eyes fixed on Iris again, who had turned back to the screen. "Do not be angry with your savior, sister," he said.
"But brother..." Iris started.
"The Professor promised that as soon as he finds a way to give me corporeal form, he will do so," Colonel said. "Seeing that he was not lying when he told me that you were alive, I trust his words. In the meantime... Seeing that you are well is all that I need."
"Brother..." Iris whispered softly, putting her hand on the screen again.
"It's all right," Colonel replied, his voice carrying a strange twinge of warmth.
Iris turned and looked back at Smith, who looked away sadly. "I'm so sorry, Professor..." Iris apologized. "I didn't mean to..."
"It's cool..." Smith replied. "I should have known you'd get upset. I know I would be..."
"Um... Colonel, we have a very strange energy source that we'd like to analyze," Snake Man said, motioning at the sphere. "Could we use the computer for a moment, please?"
"Certainly," Colonel replied. "I shall speak with you again soon, Iris..."
The eyes faded and the screen returned to normal. Iris stepped back and stared at the ground, and both Darren and Zero instinctively put protective hands on her shoulders. Zero shot another glare at the human, but he didn't notice.
"OK, let's see what this thing is!" Smith said, resuming his cheery manner and pushed the sphere under a large scanning capsule and hit more buttons. The sphere was enveloped in several bright, colorful lights and the computer whirred excitedly. The screen lit up with two documents: one gave the energy's statistics and the other was a block of paragraphs, most likely from a scientific journal.
Smith looked up at the readout and his eyebrows lifted. "Amazing..." he said, glancing back at the sphere. Iris and the others looked at the stats, then over at the text. It read as follows:
"EVIL ENERGY"
This unconventional, alien energy source feeds off electronic waves that human brains give off when they think negative or violent thoughts and reproduces at variable speeds; the stronger the negative thoughts, the faster the energy reproduces. Mechanical beings' strength increases horrendously when injected with the compound. The only thing that can neutralize this energy is an equal or greater amount of "Good Energy" (see definition).
-Dr. Thomas R. Light, 20XX
ADDENDUM: This energy is suspect in being a key ingredient in the highly infectious Maverick Virus created by Dr. Albert R. Wily, who first came in contact with it in 20XX. Contact with it is highly unadvisable.
-Dr. Mephistopheles Ribosome, 21XX
"Well, whaddya know!" Sharon snorted, cocking her head to the side. "Ribosome again!"
"So, that's what this is..." X said, glancing at the sphere. "I've read about this stuff, but I never thought I'd see it... I bet this is what the bikers were looking for."
"This must be why I'm so uneasy..." Zero growled as his eyes fixed on Wily's name and his teeth clenched. "This stuff is what I was made from..."
"Zero..." Iris said quietly.
"This is starting to come together..." Darren said as he started counting on his fingers. "We get attacked by goons who were hired to look for this energy, and their funder wanted Iris dead..."
"I'll bet dollars to donuts it was Ribosome!" Sharon announced immediately.
"Perhaps, but we can't jump to conclusions," X reminded. "The obvious suspect isn't always the criminal."
"...But Sigma was behind everything you ever faced," Snake Man pointed out.
X scratched his head crossly. "You're not helping, Snake Man," he grumbled.
"Well, I still say Ribosome's behind it!" Sharon grunted. "Let's get to his fancy-pants office headquarters and take him down!"
"Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty?'" Smith asked crossly.
"We KNOW he's guilty!" Sharon yelled. "What more do we need?!"
"Proof, maybe?" Zero asked coldly. "Rushing off on a hunch is rarely good."
Sharon opened her mouth to object when the computer screen fizzled and went black. "Hey, what the?!" X asked, looking up suddenly.
"Hey! Did someone break it?!" Darren gulped as he ran to the machine and tried hitting random buttons, with no result.
"Oh, no..." Iris gulped as she rushed to the screen. "Brother! Are you all right? Speak to me!!!"
Suddenly, the screen lit up again. This time, though, a Reploid appeared. He had purple armor and blood-red bug eyes, and he stared out at the Maverick Hunters with a sneer on his lips. "Good day to you, noveau-Maverick Hunters!" he chuckled in a fluttery, high voice. "I just called to congratulate you on your victory over my hired hands! I see you have the Evil Energy I requested of them!"
"Who are you?" Snake Man asked.
"I know who he is..." X growled. "That's Agile, one of the X-Hunters..."
"X-Hunters?" Sharon asked. "Who're they?"
"Oh, let's save the history lesson for later, all right, old friend?" Agile giggled. He turned and looked straight at Iris. "I've heard of your skills, dear girl. Your victory over Dr. Ribosome was most impressive! You have my utmost respect."
"So that's why you tried to kill her?" Zero growled. "You're nothing but a coward."
Iris frowned into Agile's reflective eyes. "What do you want?" she asked.
"Why, what's mine, of course!" Agile replied with a carefree wave of his hand. "You took the Evil Energy I was after, and I want it back."
"No deal," Smith replied as he clutched the orb. "This stuff's too dangerous to hand over to a lunatic."
"A lunatic?!" Agile laughed. "Oh, dear, dear professor, I'm so hurt! See, I'm just doing a little experiment, and I need that energy... I promise you'll marvel at the results!"
"Sorry, Agile," Iris stated. "We won't give you anything."
"Oh, pooh," Agile mock-groused. "Ah, well. I can get back to that energy later! You see, I need more things than just that particular energy... Many more, actually! So, I'll send my other men out to collect the other ingredients while you think over my request. You're welcome to try and stop me! Just remember... If you don't stop me, well, I'll certainly stop you!!!" He laughed giddily, and the monitor shut off. The silence was deafening.
"Well..." Sharon said, scratched her head embarrassedly. "I guess it really WASN'T Ribosome..."
The monitor reactivated and showed a map of Earth. Red dots appeared at two locations: one was in the center of the Gobi Desert, and the other was directly on the North Pole. "Satellite data says that Mavericks are appearing at those areas!" Smith gulped as he checked the readouts.
"What do we do now?" Snake Man asked as he glanced over at the sphere. "This Agile guy means business..."
Everyone looked over at Iris, who was looking up at the map with folded arms and a hurt look. "Iris..." Zero said.
"It's your call, Iris," Darren said. "He's after you... What should we do?"
Iris gave a sad sigh; she really didn't want to fight any more people, but just like they did with X and Zero, the powers that were seemed to be forcing her hand. "If we don't stop Agile's men, innocents will be hurt," she said as she slowly turned around and unsheathed her I-Saber.
"You mean..." Sharon said with a crafty grin.
"Let's go," Iris said, nodding at Sharon's guess.
"All right!" Darren cheered. "That's the Iris I know! Let's go stop those nutjobs!!"
"There are six of us, and two targets..." X thought out loud. "We can tackle both at once if we split into teams of three."
"All right," Iris answered. "I'll take Darren and Snake Man to the desert and check things out."
Zero frowned again; Iris's team selection was... disappointing, to say the least. "I suppose X, Sharon and I will go to the North Pole," he said calmly.
"Hey, what about me?!" Smith asked crossly. "Don't I get to come?"
"Professor, you could monitor our progress and talk with us over the transmitter," Darren said. "You'd be very helpful, and it'd almost be like being with both groups at once!"
Smith winced at his sudden "demotion," but nodded. "All right..." he muttered. "Now, into the teleporter with all of you! We've got a crazy man to stop!"
The six Maverick Hunters ran off for another room as Smith sat down at the computer and donned a radio headset. "I just wish we knew what he was actually after..." he mumbled.