PAINT MY GOODBYE RED
Chapter 40: Gone

It's done. Red is dead, and he had made sure he won't ever be brought back to life by self-destructing the arena. And now, the entrance to the arena was blocked by the resulting debris.

Now, all I have left to do is kill the damn Professor. He ruined my life, he ruined my family. He took everything from me, except for my life. For payment, I'll take his.

As soon as we left the arena, I guided X and Zero to search for the Professor and his "messed-up circus". X did ask me to "let it out", but it's no use. Until the Professor's dead, I can't rest. Who knows, maybe he's installed a few traps around here or something.

After a while of searching around the place, I found a room that the Professor had altered beyond recognition—all there was in there were tombstones—teleporters to fights against the Professors' flawed replica of the Red Alert generals.

He wanted to drive me insane with that? Or did he want to tempt me to join him by showing me that he can "rebuild them"? He can't be serious. They sound and behave like zombies. We made short work of them, and why the hell would I go insane over those flawed copies? If anything, it just made me more determined to kill him. It just convinced me that he's not so all-powerful after all.
And now, we finally found him, sitting in one of the old warehouses.

"So you came." the Professor spoke, his back turned towards us. Now that he has no cloak obscuring his face, the three of us can see his whole armoured body—he's even bigger than Red. That voice…it's definitely Sigma.

"Sigma!" Zero cried out. "Why won't you die?"
"You keep on ruining lives." X hissed. "You deform people and make them either want to die or become mindless mavericks! What do you want? Why do you keep doing this no matter how many times you fail?"
"What I want is not your business." Sigma answered as he turned his ugly face towards us. "But I know I need the two of you to be mine. And I needed Axl for it."
"If it was that simple, then why didn't you spare the others?" I questioned.
"I didn't know it would be that simple. It was only after so much research that I found out I could utilize the DNA data you could extract. If you hadn't escaped, I would've completed my research." he explained.
But honestly, who cares anymore? Everyone's dead. Knowing what he wants won't change anything. Killing him, however, will change something.

I drew my guns and instantly opened fire, shooting his head. The bullets burned a hole into his head, but it only burned the skin—I didn't get to his electronic brain. I tried shooting more, but he blocked it with his huge hands.

"Enough talk." I growled. "I don't care what you want. You killed my family, and now you're going to pay."
"Oh? I thought you prefer the peaceful way? Talking and resolving conflicts? Maybe if X and Zero just surrender themselves to me, the fights and crises will stop." Sigma tried to tempt X and Zero.
"Sigma." X hissed. "You've caused a total of seven crises. You destroyed Abel City, headed the X-Hunters, infected Dr. Doppler, destroyed Sky Lagoon before framing Repliforce for it, masterminded the Eurasia crash, manipulated Gate, and now this. Do you really expect us to trust you anymore, after you've caused the deaths of countless people and destroyed this planet?" he ranted.

Well said, X. Very well said.

"Oh? Is the kind, peaceful X going to kill me without even trying to solve my problem without violence?" Sigma taunted. It's grating on my ears. "Didn't your dear Dr. Light told you to only use that armour for good?" he continued, gesturing at the Glide Armour X was wearing.

X said nothing at first, but he didn't hang his head. His gaze was focused on Sigma, but I could see the faint glow of his three small green buster barrels—he's charging something. All of a sudden, he quickly raised his buster arm and huge bubbles were rapidly launched from the buster, at Sigma.
It was a charged Splash Laser—it's much different than the spurt I got. It was an army of bubbles easily the size of huge beach balls, and those things surrounded Sigma like an army of angry hornets, and Sigma screamed as if he was a human being swarmed by bloodthirsty wasps. I just grinned at the spectacle. What delicious schadenfreude. Let's see you scream for once.

"He gave me this for good, too." X retorted, placing his buster in front of his chest. "If he didn't know or understand that you have to just fight sometimes, he wouldn't have given me this."

Bravo, X. Bravo. That was fantastic.

"Well said, X." I complimented him—because my hands are full—and Zero gave him a thumbs up.
"You heard that. We're going to fuck the shit out of you." Zero spat.
Sigma got up with a grunt, and his body fizzed with electricity. "Then you leave me no choice." he said as he manifested a gun slightly taller than his own body.
"I'm going to beat all of you into submission, if you're just going to solve this with violence. So much for peace-keeping, huh X?" he's still taunting X—is he persistent, or just plain stupid?
"It's no use talking to you." X argued back. "It's no use trying to talk to a wall, so I'm just going to treat you like one."

Damn, how did X get these sick lines? It really boosted morale.
That's right, just treat him like a wall. Just treat him like something mindless. Just focus on the fact that he needs to be destroyed.

I loaded Splash Laser into my guns—I should've loaded Splash Laser when I fired those sudden headshots, but nevermind. I won't make the same mistake. This time, I'll definitely fuck him up.

Sigma started shooting—the shots were small and few, so they were easy to dodge. They ricocheted off the walls, but disappeared soon afterwards.

Zero jumped overhead, and switched his Z-Saber with the D-Glaive, and thrusted down on Sigma's gun, breaking it into half. Sigma threw it aside, only to pull out a bigger gun, and Zero's face was inches away from its barrel!

"Zero, watch out!" X cried out, and leaped towards Zero. X then took Zero by the hair and dashed away.
"X, that hurt!" Zero yelled at him.
"Sorry, Zee, I have no choice!" X apologised as he stopped when it seemed that he was out of range.
Sigma pulled the trigger and fired a huge laser beam. Thankfully, X and Zero were indeed out of range. But Sigma knew that too, and started moving the gun slowly, and the fired beam moved with it.
I just lay down on the ground, also out of range as Sigma was focusing on X and Zero, who were running around trying to hit him. With a barrel easily the size of Sigma's own head and such a big laser, too, it's a very troublesome weapon to deal with. I just need to shoot at the right spot to disable that titan…
His body may be weak to the Splash Laser, but what about the gun?

I transformed both guns to the G-Launcher—it's the gun with the biggest shot, so it can hit pretty hard. It seems that there are two cables at the butt of the gun, one on the left, one on the right. It looks pretty small from here, like a grain of rice—but the big shots should take care of it. I shot at one of the cables, and it hit.
All of a sudden, liquid started dripping down the broken cable, and the laser was shrunk to half its size. Jackpot, it really was a cable used to transfer energy around the gun! It looked like it was too big to be inside the gun—there's got to be a reason why it was sticking out. Now I just need to shoot the other one…

"Great job, Axl!" X cried out.
Sigma just growled loudly, he sounded like he was going to burst.
Good, suffer some more. Experience the pain I felt. You deserve it.

I quickly shot the other cable, and even with the fluids leaking out of the gun, it was still too big for Sigma to move quickly, and I hit the second cable. More fluids leaked out, and in the end the beam suddenly shrunk to the size of a toothpick before disappearing entirely.
Sigma roared and threw the leaking, broken gun aside. And of all people, I would know that if a gunner ever loses their gun, they have nothing but their own body to attack with. And just as expected, he ran after X and Zero like a brainless, bloodthirsty beast.

X just fired the charged Splash Laser at him, and no matter how he tried to pop the bubbles, it was just a stupid move. Instead of popping, the bubbles caused him extreme pain. He should've known that contact with the bubbles are dangerous to him. He's probably just desperate.

Wait, holy shit, he may be desperate, but he's not stupid. He picked up the broken big gun I had disabled, and threw it at the bubbles—and they actually popped!

"Hahaha…hahahahahaha!" Sigma laughed maniacally. God damn it, he can circumvent the Splash Laser now!
He's focusing on X and Zero—I had been lying on the ground. If I can sneak up on him, I'll cut his head open and shoot him right where it hurts the most. While Red was splashing around in the electrified water trying to find a platform to climb, I had hit him with the Copy Shot. I have his DNA, and he has just the right weapon for me to cut his head open from a nice distance. I'll show you Red Alert, bitch.

As Sigma used the broken tall gun like a big stick to wave around at X and Zero to try to swat them around, I crawled around the old warehouse—this is my turf.
I know this place very well. I had guarded this place with my brothers on the day the assassin attacked us, of course I've gotten a real good look at the place, even if I wasn't in charge of logistics.
And as an assassin, I know how to crawl without making any sound. I know how to move fast, undetected, without a cloaking device.
Sigma won't know what hit him until it was too late.

"Axl! Some help—wait, what the fuck?" Zero called out to me, only to trail off when he noticed I had disappeared.
"Where'd he gone off to?" X yelled.
"He probably ran away, hahahahahaha!" Sigma laughed as he swung the tall gun even quicker, even stronger.

Don't worry. I'm right here…behind Sigma.
I transformed into Red, and my guns transformed into his double-scythe.
Even if Red only had one good eye, I could still see X and Zero grin and giggle like schoolgirls when they saw "Red" behind Sigma. Sigma, seeing "Red's" shadow, turned back as well—even better. I can see his pained expression this way.

I quickly swung the scythe sideways, chopping his big ugly arms off, and they fell down like kicked garbage bins. Zero got the memo, and used the D-Glaive to stab through his knees, forcing Sigma to kneel.
Yes, good job, Zero. Kneeling really suits him.
I slammed the tip of the double-scythe on the burn marks from when I shot his head earlier, and carved his head open, and peeled the outer layer of his head like an orange. Now, I'm not going to take any chances or make any mistakes.

Transforming the double-scythe into my Splash-Laser-loaded normal dual guns, I pointed them point blank at the inner machinery of Sigma's head.
"This is for Red Alert, motherfucker." I declared, in Red's voice.
And then, I squeezed the trigger. The Splash Laser melted the inner machinery as Sigma screamed. The scream only lasted about 1 second before it stopped, and his head was filled with nothing but water and dissolved metal, like a water bowl.
The Splash Laser melted his eyes, too, and then it flowed down his face, making it look like he was crying. Eventually, it melted the rest of his head, too. The dissolved metal made the Splash Laser look murky and rust-coloured—it looked like he was crying blood.

Yes, this is a fitting end for you. Too bad it wasn't slow, but at least, this way, I'm sure you're dead. Because of the blood you have shed, it's only fitting that you cry blood.
This is for the tears that we have shed from the torture you have inflicted on us.
The fight is over, and we have won.


AUTHOR'S NOTES: Holy shit. I finished PMGR, holy shit. Now I just need to write the multi-part epilogue, but either way, it's done. Wow. I'm so happy.

First things first, though, I'll have to explain why I had to remove a few things, because I did.

1. I had to cut the boss rush. Initially I wanted to write about it, put it in. I used to have a scene where ZXA finds the Crimson Palace graveyard and Axl goes absolutely batshit crazy when he found out he had to kill the Red Alert members again.
But in the end, somehow it wouldn't work. Axl didn't react as intended, while the purpose of the scene was to show that. Because it's not working, I skipped it.
2. I had to cut Sigma's second form, mainly because the fight wouldn't make any sense. He would just destroy the floating platforms. And even if ZXA can climb over him, he'd squish them one by one like ants. I know that bigger animals can die when ants swarm them, but three isn't a swarm. Have you ever killed three ants separated from their colony with just your own fingers? I have, and it's bloody easy.
3. I had to change the ending scene where Axl shot Sigma with his back turned. It was stylish and I wanted to put it in, honestly. But it would be out of character, not to mention stupid, for him to just shoot like that without making sure Sigma ended up dead. By X7, literally everyone and their dog would know about this big bastard who kept stirring shit and kept coming back to life. You'd want to make sure he's dead, and it would be stupid to just let him fall down and not pursue him as he fell. Chances are, when he's landed, he can limp somewhere and disappear, only to reappear again when he's gotten repaired.

41 chapters...should've made Chapter 1 a prologue instead-but eh, I don't feel like editing the numbers of all 41 non-bonus chapters. Maybe sometime.