Note: Hello! A heads up, I now have a Twitter account, so updates will be posted there if anyone's interested, as well as previews too! Thank you guys for all of your support with this, and while I only have one more part of the 'Day of Sigma' to go, I hope I still please you with this newest addition to the story. With that said, please feel free to comment/critique, and tell me what you think and how I can improve!

Chapter 9: Day of Sigma Part 5

Mega Man X (c) of Capcom

Roll was unaware of how long she allowed herself to remain in the state of shock that had thrust itself upon her, yet the second she registered the wet sensation assaulting her backside, she knew all too well it meant ANYTHING but good for her or Dr. Cain.

"M…Mmmm…." She didn't look behind her, she quite literally was nearly driving herself insane keeping her head forward, yet to her dismay, her lips began to try and form words. "Mmm…Mi…Mister?" she stammered, rising to her knees. "Mister, are you okay-"

SLAM!

Pure reflex took over, her head turning to the source of the loud impact against her will, her once voiceless throat beginning to go through the beginning stages of developing a scream.

The Hunter that had served as her guard of sorts had apparently sealed his fate when he shoved her forward. Currently, he lay splayed out on the tiled floor, a rather sizable injury on the upper part of his back, of which she assumed had looked the same on the front of him as crimson, red oil flowed freely creating a large puddle from underneath him. If she hadn't known any better, she would've assumed that the substance was indeed human blood.

Yet amongst the sickening sight that lay before her, her senses caught another anomaly…

The light drips of a liquid was emitting from somewhere. It took her no time to discern of its source, as the same red oil that dwelt within the recently slain Hunter had let itself trail a couples stray drops run down his brightly colored helmet, the great contrast in color drawing her attention instantly.

"Yoo-hoo! Up here!"

Instinct once again seized her body, head thrusting upward and forcing her to further comprehend the true jeopardy both she and her human 'master' were truly in. Above her, though she at first immediately deemed what her own eyes were seeing impossible, was a long, segmented appendage coated in what she assumed to be the Hunter's fluids, though the liquid was the only thing alerting her of its existence as, to her befuddlement and confusion, it appeared to be 'invisible'. The appendage uncurled quickly, flicking the red substance onto her face and chest, the action seemingly intentional.

Roll thought at first there was possibly nothing that could surpass what she was seeing, until she then saw that the appendage began to reveal itself, a bright green appearing from underneath its fresh coat of red. The helper bot realized then that the mysterious appendage was in fact, a long, barbed tail, its owner also steadily allowing his metal shell to disregard the camouflage it had previously donned. Above her hung a reptilian-like Reploid, Roll theorizing that it was a chameleon of some sort given its split forearms and ability to disguise himself by literally changing his body's color to become one with the environment itself, though unlike the actual reptile, he seemed to be able to freely control it without being bound by emotions or hormones. Yet the one feature of the newly revealed intruder were the very instruments he used to look down upon the paralyzed robot and the elderly man below: the lizard's eyes were large and spherical, bulging outward akin to the species he was modeled after, yet only one bore any sort of resemblance to an actual chameleon's eye. His right eyeball was simply a silver sphere, the segmented covering pulling back and revealing a ruby, glowing orb from underneath.

"Well hello there!" he greeted, though his voice bore anything but pleasant intentions for Roll, she in turn drawing herself closer to the trembling human near her. "My, my…don't you just look…" he took a moment to allow his long, segmented tongue to trail itself along his lips. "…delicious."

Abel City, Downtown

At the very least, X found that he could find some semblance of comfort in the fact that the roads down below the elevated highway he rode upon was filled with speeding vehicles, indicating that at least a good portion of the city's inhabitants had received the message to evacuate as quickly as possible. Yet for the few hundred that dared or were forced to trek the road above, they were not as fortunate. Gun Volts were releasing surges of electricity generated from inside their bodies along with small torpedoes shot two at a time. Though small, this factor deceived those around them that didn't clear out of their way in time as the explosions they released were far larger and more damaging than their demure size lead on.

Unfortunately for the azure armored Reploid, one of those missiles had begun making its way in his direction.

There was no time to swerve out of the explosives way, X knowing well that while it would cost him his Ride Chaser, ultimately, better that he was a target than the evacuating cars passing him by. Seeing that the torpedo was only mere feet away at that very moment, he released his hold on the handlebars, his descent from the bike's seat not the most graceful or impressive, yet it did its job as the Ride Chaser had lost its titular 'rider' just in time before the explosive projectile made contact, the impact happening only moments later and engulfing the piece of equipment in a cloud of smoke and flames.

The bulky machine's attention was drawn to the oncoming, burning vehicle that fell on its side after a short journey without its rider, its systems registering that blue Reploid that was approaching him as the owner of the destroyed Chaser.

A couple of vehicles attempted to speed past the two machines, the Gun Volt unleashing a couple of missiles in their direction, of which it found were obliterated by two small shots of golden plasma. X aimed his buster towards the larger machine, his teeth grinding on his bottom lip as he felt his processor begin to flood his mind with the event in where he had become aware of the existence of the certain branch of drones that currently stood before him.

'It…it has to be done.' He reasoned, his buster charging, the surges of energy resonating throughout his body. 'Both sword and shield…this time I have to.'

As quickly as he allowed himself to unleash the charged shot, the wide wave of sea green energy blasted through the Gun Volt, tearing through its center and taking out a rather large amount of its upper half. The cars that had been blocked off by the larger of the two machines sped off by X, he catching a few waves and silent shouts of thanks from behind the windows, he looking to the damage he had done.

'Just this once.' He inwardly chanted, thankful that at least he was gifted with being able to finish the Gun Volt quickly and end its existence quickly. 'Just this once…I can't let myself hesitate to pull the trigger.' He inwardly chanted, the mantra in itself possibility impossible for one such as himself, a fact that he loathed, yet, as ironic as he found it, his 'former' Commander's words continued to repeat themselves in his mind, though at least he could slightly lift his spirits in the sense that it was for the preservation of however many lives still remained at the HQ…Dr. Cain included.

For the blue Reploid however, his trail literally came to a halt only a few feet further, a large object smashing its way through the pavement and the entire structure making up the above ground highway, its owner hovering above him and signaling to a few of its nearby companions to join it in disposing of the small, blue object attempting to move forward.

Maverick Hunter HQ

Roll hadn't nor the time or the voice to begin questioning her protector's assassin as the entrance way to Cain office was violently widened by a large, massively built Reploid that had squeezed his way into the room, sporting armor of mostly red and silver and apparently modeled after an elephant, his long, segmented trunk and large ears signs of this.

"Flame Mammoth! Sting Chameleon!" Dr. Cain hollered, finding himself drawing closer and closer to Roll. "What-What's the meaning of this?!"

"Exactly what you think it mean, Doc!" the towering behemoth trekked over towards the trembling human, Roll wrapping her arms around and securing him to her. "We're doing, what'd you might call, some overdue 'remodeling'."

He reached forward towards the elderly man. "And the big boss said that you're definitely gonna have to go, you pathetic piece of wrinkled flesh…"

Abel City, Downtown

Taking the opportunity given to him, X fired at the flying demolisher, severing its connection with its other half. The other two it had summoned flew to its comrade's aid, seeing that its tool of destruction had been lost. X assumed that they didn't take this news too well as one immediately plunged its spiked crusher downward, tearing through the surface of both road and steel underneath. Seeing the pavement beginning to splinter and crack, the blue Reploid thought his only chance was to bring this one down, only to feel the ground underneath his feet begin to feel…unsteady.

CRACK…

His green eyes widened in horror, realizing that the other flying robot had done the same procedure on the opposite end of him.

CRACK…

Another horrifying discovery came to X just then: this part of the elevated highway that the two robots had just punctured through…there was no support underneath his particular spot to hold it up if such a thing as this occurred. It would merely fall to the city below.

CRACK!

He felt the piece of bridge give way, the ground sinking slightly before gravity took hold and dragged the piece of highway downward.

The hovering copters had at first thought they had accomplished their task in avenging their sibling, yet a swift, hard tug on the cable of the one nearest the continuing road signaled that the blue menace hadn't perished at all. X gripped hard on the thick wire, hoisting himself upward as his eyes studied to where it was a decent enough height to jump to new ground.

In an attempt to simply crush him, the copter began to raise its crasher, unintentionally allowing X a chance to leap to safety on a section of road that hadn't been damaged by the spiked weapons. Wasting no time, the blue Reploid fired, a medium charged shot of sea green plasma severing the copter's connection with the crusher, leaving them only able to hover around defenseless.

X saw no point in continuing the skirmish as his attackers were left weaponless, so he began sprinting the opposite direction, his goal of reaching the HQ having resumed.

If only he could be so lucky, he wished.

The copters, all three of them now, had not taken kindly to quite literally being separated in half, the airborne machines diving down towards the smaller android and attempting to seemingly crush his tinier form underneath their own mass, they allowing themselves to simultaneously drop dangerously close to the solid surface of the highway below them, knowing that as high as they were allowing themselves to drop from, the impact could very well be more than slightly damaging to their internal systems.

"Get out of here!" X bellowed, aiming to have his demands sound serious and without any tolerance for this chase continuing any longer, though he failed to fully disguise its true form as a plea. "I'm warning you! You don't have to be terminated if you leave now!" he raised his buster. "You got off lucky! Don't test me!"

BLAST!

A stream of bright plasma exited his cannon, not hitting the copters, yet it was mere inches from making contact with them. X waited for a few moments, hoping and praying that they would take his warning shot for what it was and escape with their lives…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

From over his head, X witnesses to his shock three speeding torpedoes firing from what he assumed to be from over his head, each torpedo ripping through the metal shell of each copter, tearing through their core and cutting off all functions, the damage so great that each of them exploded in a flurry of smoke and fire.

'That... that could only come from…' Turning around, the cerulean armored Reploid had confirmed his hypothesis on the shooter's identity.

Flying incredibly close to the highway's surface, its pure green 'eyes' of glass reflecting his own awe-struck and shaken expression back at him, the violet colored, massive Bee Blader blocked his way, its size removing any possibilities of just running away from it, lest of course X could perform an impossibly high leap above it.

Maverick Hunter HQ

"No!" Roll screamed, her grip on the old man slipping as the larger, far stronger elephant gripped her by the collar of her neckpiece and without any effort on his part, tossed her aside, leaving Dr. Cain without either a companion or a shield to possibly defend him, though the old man was praying that the assistant wouldn't let such a thought come to mind.

"Dr. Cain-AHHH!" Roll began to call out, hoisting herself from her back to sitting upright on her knees, yet she didn't get the chance to even move one step as she felt a foreign object coil itself around her ankle, she finding herself being dragged upward and losing contact with the ground.

"Ah, ah, ah!" her captor playfully scolded, her aqua irises spotting the chameleon's rather exuberant and jovial smile, all the while waving one of his splayed digits at her. "No crawling off now!"

Roll immediately began prying at the segmented tail wrapped around the lower part of her boot, slender, ivory fingers clawing and grasping at the coiled appendage, working desperately to either find or create a small gap of some sort that would allow her digits underneath so she could have a better leverage at dislodging its grip.

"What are you waiting for?" Flame Mammoth questioned, his patience having apparently already run dry. "Just kill her and be done with it!"

"And as always, hose-nose, you're no fun at all!" Sting Chameleon took a moment to study his captive, the small, ruby iris of his right eye scanning the squirming assistant bot vertically, taking in and registering every individual detail of her smaller, weaker form. Then he allowed his lips to curl. "I wanna keep this one intact."

"No!" Dr. Cain began to cry, finally having found his voice. "Don't! Please, I beg of you-"

"SHUT IT!" the behemoth elephant ordered, one large hand harshly slapping the elderly man across his cheek, though due to his size, his palm was around the size of his head, so the very force of it sent the venerable human a good few feet across the room.

"DR. CAIN!" Roll screamed, her struggles to free herself becoming even more violent. "You…you…" she stammered, her tongue nor her processor able to even consider a word to describe what she had just seen. "You vile monsters!

"Oh, sticks and stones…" her captor chanted, reveling in how powerless both his catch and her 'human' in a sense were at that moment.

"It's over, Cain…" Flame Mammoth told the cowering human. "Commander Sigma's ready to usher in a New Age…" to his horror, the old man saw that from inside the elephant's trunk, a glowing, bright hue had began to develop. "And you're not in it."

"YOU CAN'T!" the ponytailed Reploid hollered, still struggling to pry herself free. "The Laws of Robotics! You…you can't break the Laws-"

"Oh, can't we now?"

She was rendered silent, her eyes widening in abject horror at what inevitably was about to take place before her, and to her chagrin, she was completely powerless to stop it.

"No, that's the biggest lie that this bag of flesh and every other poor sap that's been brainwashed into that ideology doesn't understand." Mammoth roughly told her. "Tell me this: are we Reploids not built with the capacity to determine and in turn, conclude our own decisions?"

"I…but you are-"

"ARE WE?!"

"Y-Yes! Yes, we are! But-"

"Then it's simple." He continued to speak, feeling his trunk beginning to heat up from inside its silver chambers; it aimed directly at the human beneath him. "There are 'Laws' set in place, but like humans with their own 'Laws'…" the light from inside his elongated nose was now almost blinding. "We're not obligated to follow any of them. And last time I checked…" he glowered his ruby red eyes down at Dr. Cain. "The stronger of the two doesn't have to fear the consequences of breaking those 'Laws'."

Roll remained in place, hanging upside down and gazing on in sheer horror at the sight that was taking place before her. It was inevitable now: her 'master', her responsibility and very reason that she was brought into this world, was going to be executed before her very eyes, and she, his assistant and helper, was rendered helpless and powerless to stop it.

'You useless piece of scrap…' she inwardly lamented. 'You could've saved him if you were stronger! You could've saved him if…' she paused her silent tirade, visions of a blue Reploid flashing before her eyes, soon followed by the long-haired Hunter and the majestic bird she conversed with on the balcony. 'If you were like them…'

Abel City, Downtown

Though his eyes couldn't see the pilot through the large insect-like aircraft, X could at least safely assume that though it was Maverick Hunter property, whoever was operating the Blader was NOT on his side.

That being confirmed upon a flurry of bullets being released on the area where he stood.

Leaping to the side, X allowed his buster to release a charged shot, yet due to the Bee Blader turning its aim, the ball of plasma merely scrapped the side of the aircraft, the metal visibly damaged, yet it was far from what was needed to take it down.

CLUNK!

The copter had released something: a large, silver ball rolled out of the underside of the Blader, the ball soon rolling itself out until two, long, segmented strands of metal that it hoisted itself up on, using the strands as makeshift legs.

'Ball de voux?' X observed, perplexed. 'But…those things were put out of production months ago!'

More of the round, walking spheres soon joined its 'sibling', the Ball de voux troop soon creating a small blockade to shield the Bee Blader. He already pressed for time as it was, X merely released a shot upward, and aiming for the rapidly spinning propellers of the aircraft, yet his action did not go without consequences.

A couple of the Ball de vouxs rushed forward, long, flexible legs kicking upward and attempting to charge at the azure colored assailant. X was fortunate enough to jump out of one's uppercut, he failed to account for the one that had charged, it having apparently decided that unlike its 'sibling', decided to use its leg's winding feature to its advantage.

X found that his arms were soon bound to his sides, the silver sphere's leg having coiled itself around his middle, the second leg seizing his lower half and forcing him to fall to the ground. More Ball de vouxs swiftly approached the fallen Reploid, they lifting one leg and slamming down on his trapped form, continuously stomping and beating their hard, heavy heels on him, he rolling his head to face the road beneath him to at least somewhat shield his red gemstone on his helmet, knowing well that if they had managed to strike that, his sight and just about every other sense of his would be heavily compromised.

Yet when X felt one cubic foot place itself on the back of his head, he knew that he had to untangle himself from the Mechaniloid's hold as soon as possible.

Though he usually decreed such a tactic as too unpredictable and an outright danger to anyone around him, this was one of those times that he was, to his dismay, forced to take such desperate measures. X began unleashing a flurry of small blasts of yellow plasma, the shots continually hitting and delivering shocks of pain to the Ball de voux that held him captive. After a few moments, along with he feeling his gemstone begin to slightly crack, the silver robot simply could not hold its prey any longer, the cerulean Hunter finally having his arm free and unleashing a large, teal charged shot towards the Bee Blader's propellers, the fired collection of energy dismantling the copter's ability to keep itself airborne, gravity seizing the massive aircraft and bringing it down.

Feeling the impact of the Bee Blader jolted X and the Ball de vouxs off their feet, all soon becoming aware that the ground underneath them was giving way.

X wasted no time trekking his way up the copter's fallen structure, his feet kicking off the aircraft and he swearing that for those brief moments, he had managed to somehow make himself become airborne before the pavement gave his knees a stinging reminder that unlike his obstacle, he was not constructed to fly. The cerulean armored Hunter had leapt not a moment too soon as the area the Bee Blader had fallen on became unable to support such a large amount of weight being thrust upon it at such a velocity or speed, the section of highway dislodging itself from the rest of the bridge and both fallen aircraft, and several Ball de vouxs being forced downward to whatever would be unfortunate enough to take the blow of their combined weight.

Seeing that the commotion was indeed halted for a time, X allowed his eyes to unconsciously look behind him, seeing first hand the destruction that lay in his wake.

"Nice job, hero…" he muttered to himself, glowering slightly at his implanted weapon. "Think you smashed more than they did…"

No! He shook his head. No time for that now! He had to keep going! It wasn't as if he reveled in the fact the once clean, managed highway trailing above the rest of the city was in shambles mainly thanks to him…it was for the human he had hoped was still alive at HQ.

'For Cain…' he chanted. 'For Cain…'

VROOM!

His repetition of the mantra to somewhat keep his nagging guilt down didn't last long as an ear-shattering hum echoed throughout the entire area, X immediately turning his attention to what was above him, emerald green eyes widening in awe and fear at what they met.

Flying above the city at a slow pace, mainly due to its actual size, a behemoth of a ship sailed through the darkening sky, its very mass seemingly ripping and tearing through the very heavens themselves, the violet colored aircraft heavily contrasting with its orange dock.

"What…what is THAT?!" X questioned allowed, not seeing much point in keeping it inside as no one was around to hear him.

Or so he thought.

Suddenly, the ship came to a brief halt, the orange underside opening slightly, apparently allowing an article of some kind to exit. What, or rather, who had descended from the aircraft seized X's very core, metallic spine chilled and struggling to not allow fear to completely consume him.

A large, considerably built body of indigo armor had leapt out from the ship's dock opening and landed in front of the far smaller Reploid, yet it was not the hulking mass of metal that drew X's attention the most. Rather, it was WHO was sitting at the controls that stirred terror in his deepest systems.

"Hey there, blue boy." Vile mockingly greeted, a red glow emitting from behind the darkness his helmet cast. "Wonderful day to start a revolution, right?"

Note: I hope I did the Highway stage justice as Mega Man X is one of my favorite games and X is one of my favorite characters. I'm sorry to leave at another cliffhanger, but the next chapter's going to have to have A LOT of development and exposition going on in it, and I don't think I have even half of the room I need to put it here. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this, and I'll see you next time!