The Next Day

Signas looked at the giant screen with a stern look, thinking of where the base could be, being attacked in the waste land to the west of Abel city. His desk behind him, stacked high with records of the wasteland dangerously close to an avalanche, was the only thing hiding him from any who would enter his office.

There were several promising locations, which survived the Eurasia crash, from the records, but he was able to narrow it down to two:

The Cameron Facility – A defunct R&D lab that failed to produce an effective reploid that could par to any one of the prominent members of the Repliforce without going Maverick.

The facility was large enough to house a small army and they had the necessary resources, but had an insufficient power supply to maintain long term operations.

The Weiss Satellite Station - Formerly still active until the crash, this was the Weiss Company's greatest achievement, a powerful Earth-based satellite station that could receive and send signals from the base to anywhere on Earth or to the space colony Eurasia, a simple modification would allow them to transport themselves anywhere.

The facility would explain how Vile and Dynamo were able to intercept X and Axl as well as steal the remaining Supra Force Metal from the Redips Incident, but it didn't have the necessary tools to repair any injuries of a hunter class reploid.

Signas adjusted his hat while he collected his thoughts and assessed the current situation: X and Axl were just sent back to the Medical Bay, Zero was still recovering and most hunters are still down. He couldn't send in any of the navigators to check out the possible hideouts for Vile.

He had to make a decision, the base was severely strained, and he had to clear one of the two facilities. He got up from his chair, opened a small compartment in his arm rest and took out a small gun. Strafing through the corridors Signas passed through the rushing staff, without anyone trying to stop him.

"I know this is risky… No one will be able to take my place…" He thought as he got on the elevator to the hangar.

"But there is no other choice…"

He walked over to a ride chaser and drove out.

Maverick Base

Vile got up from his bed, removing the various wires from the side of his helmet, moving his joints around, testing if there were any problems. He look around the room, it was partially repaired compared to when they started, there was power running through the facility now though it was barely enough for their needs. The walls were still covered with dust and there floors were occupied by broken computers and tables.

He walked out of the room and down the hall, with nothing particular to do, passing a room with several dozen pods inside that caught his interest. Staring at the pods, he noticed that there was nothing inside but a glowing green liquid. While looking into the green liquid his mind began to drift, drifting back to yesterday, the source of X's strength. He's heard that humans, in dire struggles, would always find a great strength by finding something they want to protect.

"They did always say X was almost human…"

"Impossible!"

Vile in his rage from the thought, punched one of the pods, completely destroying the glass with the green liquid spilling out and covering him.

Having this conflict of thought, Vile wandered throughout their base, trying to find the answer to his problem.

"Sir!"

Vile looked up and saw two new-gen. reploids guarding a door gave him a salute. He ignored them and simply continued on his walk until the door behind them opened.

"Vile! How are thing?" Dynamo asked in his usual playful tone.

"Dynamo…"

"What? Still upset about the fight?"

"That doesn't matter anymore…"

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot, Sigma told you to add these in to your system." Dynamo reached in a compartment and pulled out five large pieces of Supra Force Metal. Looking at the glowing pieces of metal, Vile reached out for them.

"Oops, I'm really getting forgetful today…" Dynamo quickly closed his hand and pulled his hand away.

"What is it?" Vile knowing Dynamo; would have some kind of back bite to anything.

"Don't you want to see our guest? She worked really hard to make these." Dynamo gave his usual smirk and walked in. The room had been improved since they left, a lot of the junk was removed and the machine that Cinnamon was hooked up to seemed more advanced, but Vile's gaze a directed at Cinnamon.

The nurse reploid had a dazed look on her face; she was covered in dirt, parts of her body had burn marks from the electrical surge from the previous machine and her heart shaped chest plate was left on the floor, obviously ripped by someone with greater strength than Dynamo.

"What happened to her?" Vile looked at her current state and thought of the difference from when he first saw her in Giga City and now.

"Simple; we hooked up a new machine; it kills the consciousness of whatever's hooked up and grants a full access hack."

"I mean the ripped chest plate…"

"Oh, THAT… Well, to tell the truth it was already like that when I got here…" Dynamo had a serious face for the first time in Vile's presence.

"You didn't check her memory banks?"

"No, I don't want any Nightmares!" Dynamo quickly reverted back to his normal self, much to Vile's dismay.

"Besides, I haven't seen anyone else here with anybody else here with our level of intelligence, so it might have been the boss."

"I hope so…"

Dynamo offered the Supra Force metals again, to which Vile quickly snatched them from his hands and absorbed them.

Vile started to feel a surge in his body; he felt excitement, like whenever he is in a battle with X, the feeling was exhilarating.

"How is it?"

"Just right…" Vile turned to leave before he was stopped by Dynamo.

"Hold on, why don't you test it out?" Dynamo showed the handle of his twin saber, to which Vile responded by lowering his shoulder cannon. They walked out of the room and into one of the many spare rooms in the base.

They placed a distance between each other as soon as they entered, took their positions and stared at each other.

"No holding back now!" Dynamo brought down his visor and took his usual stance.

"Wouldn't have it any other way…!" Vile fired five rapid shots from his shoulder cannon.

Dynamo quickly dodged the shots, he jumped and rolled to a corner and threw three spinning sabers in to the air, blocking any other shots. Vile continued to fire without rest, noticing that on his HUD that the shots weren't taking as much energy as usual.

"Come on, Dynamo, is that all you have, after the upgrades?" Vile started to put pressure on Dynamo's position.

"If only you knew…"

Vile quickly turned around only to find a pink light quickly running up to his head. He leaned back as much as he could to dodge the slash, only to have a part of his cannon to be sliced off.

"What the-!"

Vile grabbed Dynamo's arm as quick as he could and threw him to a wall; he quickly ran up to him and punched Dynamo in the stomach.

"Got you this time."

"Agh-" Dynamo retaliated, punching Vile square on the face. The exchange of blows continued for a few hours, before catching the attention of Sigma, looking over their fight; recorded them and gathered data on their performance with upgrades. He allowed them to continue for a while, before got bored.

"Surrender!" Vile kicked his opponent on his head, sending him across the room, and shot some of his shoulder rockets. Dynamo hit the wall and was smothered with explosions.

Vile looked into the smoke cloud, only to be shot at by two blue lights. He wasn't able to dodge them all. He became paralyzed as soon as it shocked him, leaving him in a dog like position.

"I'd call this a draw…Wouldn't you say, partner?" Dynamo, stuck horizontally on the wall, looked at Vile, who wasn't able to move, from across the room.

"Yeah, I'd call it a draw…" Vile looked at his partner and knew they couldn't continue, but felt that Dynamo had earned least some of his respect. They looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh, due to their awkward positions.

"I wouldn't call it "over"." A voice said from outside.

Both Vile and Dynamo quickly looked at the doorway, watching as a large figure slowly creped its way to the door. They both tried to move from their predicament, only to no avail.

"It's been a long time, Vile…"

They watched as the figure put both of its hands together and pulled them back.

"Hadouken!"

From that single attack, the room was instantly filled with fire. Vile then recognized the mystery reploid.

"Magma Dragoon…" Vile, let out his name, before he became engulfed the fire.