Chapter 13: "Housecall"
Airstrike upswept from his dive, watching the last defense cannon blow itself apart in a fresh display of light and power. "Alright, people, I think we finally dealt with the exterior defenses!"
A wearied cheer rose up on the comms.
Signas took a breath, and then spoke up, "Well done, Hunters, but we've still got two of our best in there alone. Work on making reliable exits, in case this gets even messier."
Affirmations returned as Alia focused on trying to break through the signal jamming and degradation blocking X and Zero from her readouts.
Dex frowned in his optics. "Alia, the seismic readings indicate fighting has been steadily going up the fortress, but the amount of signal jamming would demand a higher power draw than I'm getting from anything that high up..."
Alia paused, and shifted to look at the same data, her eyes sharpening. "You're right. And no exterior power lines detected yet?"
Iris chimed in here, "No, sir, but I've noted that the heat at ground level is slightly above what ambient temperature should be maintaining."
Alia and Dex quickly double-checked what she was explaining, and then both paused in troubled silence.
Signas looked between all three operators for a moment before speaking up again, "So we have more of the fortress below ground?"
Alia nodded as she turned back to him. "But it doesn't make sense. Separating the power source from the command area that severely is a weakness not a strength of defense. It means we could've gone down and killed the power to all the defenses before ever reaching them, if we'd thought to try it."
Signas looked up at the hologram of the fortress. "Unless the command center is a diversion..." He reached over to activate broad comms again. "All units, hold. I want a perimeter line around the fortress. We may have more surprises coming, and I don't want us caught out."
X disabled a few mechaniloids putting up a paltry defense of a hallway, and looked around suspiciously as the hall opened up into a new, larger space. "That might've stopped a kid, but no Hunters. Buying time?" He wasn't convinced of his own idea.
Keeping his sensors on high, X moved through the chamber. It was almost the same scale as the room where he disabled Vile, though lacking windows.
Just as X reached the center of the space, the hallway he'd come from sealed off with a hydraulic rush and slam of interlocking, armored bulkheads.
X paused, but only looked from side to side rather than fully tensing for a fight.
Out from him, in the ceiling, openings split, and Reploids dropped down in varying ways. X frowned, bowing his head as he realized who they were.
Clones. The virus' favored technique once again. Neon Tiger, Gravity Beetle, Blast Hornet, Blizzard Buffalo, Acid Seahorse, Tunnel Rhino, Volt Catfish, and Crush Crawfish all glared at him, surrounding him in a giant ring.
They each either bared weapons or powered them up, but X remained standing passively for the moment.
"You all know you're clones, yes?"
Volt Catfish sneered as he crackled with power. "But of course! We are just as powerful as our namesakes, however."
Acid Seahorse whipped his head in preparation. "We're going to melt you down for parts."
Buffalo smashed one fist into the other palm, "And then Doppler will take the world for Sigma."
X breathed slowly. "If you all stand down, I'll do everything I can to help you make your own lives. New frames, let you make your own names and memories."
Neon Tiger winced, and glanced down faintly, but the rest simply raised their weapons or braced to charge.
X looked to Tiger, eyebrows softened, and then had to snap his gaze toward Tunnel Rhino as the behemoth came ripping toward him, drills whirling.
For now, X dodged. He deflected Rhino's arm out with a quick guard gesture, then flipped around him. X immediately had to flip over an acid-splash from Seahorse, then dash out of an electrical shockwave from Catfish.
A small swarm of hornet-bots made X flip back a few more times, Blast Hornet rushing overhead. Blizzard Buffalo came charging at X that instant, while a wave of gravity started to shove X down to the flooring.
X flowed with the crushing force, and actually slipped between Buffalo's legs, dodging the downward punch from the brute on the way.
A glint of metal was the only warning for the giant cleaving claw shooting down at X's neck, and the Hunter had to twist himself into a ball to dodge it enough.
Unrolling some meters away, X braced, and only then activated a buster. "I know you're programmed to kill me, but you also have personality drives, simulated or not! I will help you, if you stop this!"
Gravity Beetle crashed down in front of X, optics glinting. "I'd rather watch you fly apart!"
X started to dodge back as Beetle started to bring his bladed head-horn down, but everyone froze in shock as the blade sparked and chimed off of Neon Tiger's right-hand claws.
Tiger looked to X. "New body, new name. You give your word?"
X smiled, deeply relieved. "Yes!"
"Traitor!" Blast Hornet roared from further off, starting to jet in and fire off more hornets.
Neon Tiger shoved Gravity Beetle back, and dashed out of the hornet volley, using his tail to fire off at several of the other clones. They were mild attacks, none could have killed them.
With the virus-loyal clones forced back for a moment, X braced beside Neon Tiger, but kept his buster aimed down.
"Surely he's not the only one that realizes Doppler's lying to you all? We can end this. I'll stop Doppler, the virus, and get you all the help you'd need!"
Volt Catfish leapt forward, steaming with energy. "SHUUUUT UP!" bellowed out as he slammed one fist down into his landing, unleashing a blast-wave of electrical power toward the two unlikely allies.
Neon Tiger wedged his claws forward as if he would part the electrical surge like water, while X jet-boosted straight up. Tiger's plasma-claws seemed to react to the charge of the surge as he'd prepared, splitting it around his frame. X landed past the wave, but still didn't aim at his adversaries.
"Please, this doesn't have to end like this!"
Neon Tiger dove out to the side, rolling to a halt to watch in controlled alarm as the other seven clones surrounded X. "X, they're not buying it!"
Indeed, they weren't. Volt Catfish unleashed a charge blast, while Blast Hornet started to dive with his spike ready. Blizzard Buffalo fired off several Frost-Shield generators toward X's feet. Gravity Beetle launched a gravity-well drone behind the Hunter. Crush Crawfish sent a wave of grippers along the ground from the other side. Tunnel Rhino fired off three Tornado-Fangs from X's side. Acid Seahorse was cackling as he fired off a fresh glob of acid from beside Catfish.
X's expression fell slack for a core-pulse. Then he suddenly jet-hopped into a mad twist-spin. The frost-shields scattered below him, the acid hurtled past his flank, splashing down into the ice. The tornado-fangs whizzed past his shoulder, hip, and chest just as the grippers crashed into the ice and acid.
Just as the gravity well started to trigger, X actually reached out and grabbed it. He swung it up into Blast Hornet's diving thorax, which gave him enough leverage to dodge the impaling strike... while the charge-blast from Catfish slammed into the mess of weapons below.
X leapt off Blast Hornet as the Maverick clone crashed down to one side with the gravity-well, and X narrowly flew out from the corrosive mess that was the exploding mass of grippers, acid, ice, metal, and other shrapnel in a lightning storm.
Sailing past Tunnel Rhino and Acid Seahorse, X flipped down and skidded back as the clones had to scatter back from their own attacks.
Neon Tiger just lifted his optic ridges at this. Clearly, he picked the right side.
X shouted firmly, "Last warning! Stand down!"
Some of them nursing acid burns or shrapnel damage, the clones glared as they recovered, all of them prepping their weapon systems once again.
X frowned. "...I really did try..."
Neon Tiger activated his claws again. "What do you need?"
"You to stay alive!" X shouted back, and then thruster-boosted himself straight for the rest of the clones, each of whom started to rush him in response.
Blizzard Buffalo charged in to throw a powerful hook at X, between Acid Seahorse and Tunnel Rhino. X corkscrewed under the punch, his colors shifting, as he fired a parasite bomb right into Buffalo's arm at the elbow. A split-second after that, X, still twisting, shifted colors and fired frost-shield straight into Acid Seahorse's stomach. This crystallized over Seahorse, jerking his head back just as he sprayed acid past Buffalo, and into Tunnel Rhino's driving drill arm.
X rolled into his landing as Buffalo's arm exploded and the other two reeled back from their damage. With no time to really take stock, X had to suddenly flip over an electrical wave from Volt Catfish, then shout as he tried to twist under a volley of fliers from Blast Hornet.
Gravity Beetle was sweeping in with his blade-horn, forcing X to hand-flip over it, still under the hornet-bots, and spray Ray-Splasher into the Maverick's head.
As X only just started to stand up, he saw Crush Crawfish's pincer closing in at his face-
Only for Neon Tiger's plasma-claws to grind into it from below, and force Crawfish back. Tiger then immediately leapt up, twisting violently, and used his tail to spray plasma bolts across the Maverick formation.
X took a breath. "Thanks!"
"Stop pulling punches. I know you can take them all apart. They're not listening."
X clenched his jaw. "You listened..."
Tiger looked back to him. "Take one out of eight as a win, would you!? No one else is gonna back a clone walking out of here. If you die, I'm tanked anyway!"
X tightened his fists, but nodded, especially as he saw the other clones showing all the greater rage as they rounded on his and Tiger's position again. "...Fire a distracting volley above their heads, please."
Tiger nodded sharply and ducked down, his tail aiming forward to start blasting across the arena.
X flickered, leaving a multi-colored streak amidst thruster fire as he closed on the now-charging clones.
With Blast Hornet forced to dive low to avoid Neon Tiger's barrage, the Mavericks were a solid line rushing toward X's flickering mass.
For X, his sensors revved as high as possible while still in combat, he was already pouring over with energy as he corkscrewed once again. This time, with his colors purple and dark, he rammed his fists into the flooring.
The impact was so violent even Neon Tiger had to stumble to regain his footing. The Maverick lines crashed other than Blast Hornet... and then the crackling shockwave of electrical power followed, somehow entirely focused forward.
Crush Crawfish was overloaded from his earlier damage, and all but blew apart. The others were stunned and jolted back other than Volt Catfish. Catfish leapt forward, crackling with power, only for X to rise out of the shockwave's wake, his arm a spinning drill of Tornado Fang's enhanced format.
X leapt through Catfish, and as that clone exploded in his wake, he dove into Acid Seahorse with Frost Shield, freezing and crushing the clone down into the flooring in one horrendous impact.
Tunnel Rhino, Blizzard Buffalo, and Blast Hornet tried to rush upon X that moment, but X was faster than them. He unloaded acid-splash into Tunnel Rhino's chest, snapped one arm out to fire a volley of parasite bombs into Buffalo's torso, and snap-twisted to fire a gravity-well straight into Blast Hornet.
Blast Hornet cried out as he was torn apart into a tiny ball, Buffalo and Rhino reeled back as their bodies flew apart, and X stepped through their collapsing forms to see Gravity Beetle trying to focus a gravity wave at him.
X aimed both arms forward, and unleashed a catastrophic volley of Ray-Splasher. Some shots were slammed down by Beetle's ability, but the majority plowed through.
Beetle was torn apart shot by shot, and finally crashed down as an underframe before exploding apart.
Neon Tiger twitched a bit, but his claws deactivated finally. "...Holy scrap, X..."
X was grim-faced, but dash-leapt over to Tiger again, and offered a small device. "Friendly signal tag with my code key. Make sure they detect this before you stick your head out, and the Hunters outside shouldn't harm you. I have to finish this."
Neon Tiger took the beacon. "...I can help you."
X shook his head, then finally smiled a little. "You already did more for me than you know."
They shared a nod, and then started running opposite directions.
Dex rapidly blinked his optics as his face plating fell slack. "What the...? Uh, Alia, Iris, Commander?" He asked as he sent his feed up to the main observation screen ahead of them.
It showed signal data alongside a video-feed. A verification signal from X's codes, while a second Neon Tiger came easing out of the fortress with his hands up, claws inactive.
Alia zoomed in on the device the Reploid had attached to his chest. "...That's definitely X's beacon."
Signas raised an optic ridge, then touched the comms, "All units, hold fire confirmation. Verified beacon from X on that... copy Reploid."
The actual Neon Tiger was dismal. "Did that animal Doppler actually clone me?"
Blast Hornet, Mapteron, and Warp Turtle were just near him in cover per the last orders, peering out at the new arrival.
Airstrike sailed down and smoothly landed near the clone. "We noted the beacon. Mind explaining?"
The clone nodded, only then lowering his arms. "I'm a clone Doppler made to kill X, along with the other Mavericks that used to work for him. X promised me help, if I stood down. I tried to help him fight, but he sent me out here with the beacon."
Airstrike had kept his comms open to avoid relaying manually, and just looked intrigued. X's action didn't surprise him at all, but a clone actually taking up the offer...
Signas felt similarly, and spoke on comms again, "Until we speak with X, see if he'll allow temporary custody without panicking. We'll make sure X has a chance to vouch for him before it goes further than that."
Airstrike nodded, clearly using his comms, and then faced the clone again. "With the situation as... tense as it is, would you be willing to go into custody temporarily until we can speak with X? I have word directly from command that X will be allowed to vouch for you before anything else happens."
The clone frowned, but nodded, and offered his wrists.
Airstrike thought for a moment, then pulled out a small device. "Just use this. X's beacon says a lot."
The clone blinked, and then took the device and stuck it to his one wrist. It locked out his weapon systems, but left him otherwise free to move. "Where should I wait?"
Airstrike gestured. "Just join my unit behind cover for now. As long as you stick with us, I'll consider it 'custody,' if anyone asks."
The clone nodded, and Airstrike led him back to the cover his unit was using.
Of course, Neon Tiger himself sat back down, grumbling. His unit had to suppress chuckles.
X stepped through a spiral-lock door this time, idly watching it spin shut behind him for a beat before he focused outward again.
It was a command station of some kind. Consoles, large screens, a few other doors around it, and above, in the ceiling, a huge eye-ball like device that was clearly wired into the entire system.
"...No Doppler...?" he asked the air quietly, his brow creasing.
The room thundered, and X jerked back in alarm... to watch the consoles snap apart and sink into the flooring, while the room split across the center in both directions, starting to expand out. While the screens folded away into armored bulkheads, the great 'eye' lifted higher, and remained watchful.
Dr. Doppler appeared near the new back of the larger chamber, lifting up on a small elevator platform. The towering pylons on his shoulders pulsed with slow waves of power as he narrowed his optics, keeping his hands in the pockets of his actual doctor's coat for the moment. "I'll admit my failure to properly estimate your power, Megaman X. Dr. Light's legacy is not so easily toppled."
X clenched his jaw, keenly mindful of the clones that had just died at his hands. "Stand down. Right now. Too many have died already, but you can end this."
Dr. Doppler slowly cracked his neck parts from side to side. "No." It was a calm tone, but it resounded through the chamber.
X narrowed his eyes as he noticed a strange kind of flicker in Doppler's optics.
Doppler continued, "I can offer you a position of great power. With your abilities, you could rule this world, X. All you have to do is bow to my master. ...Sigma."
X cycled his respirator. "I know you were a genuine genius, Doc," he even tried to be casual to some degree, "you engineered a whole new virus just to throw people off for it, after all. Unfortunately, I've had this conversation before, you're just not aware of it."
Doppler narrowed his optics and drew a hand up to stroke his oddly pointed beard. "Intriguing. So you truly are aware of the master's nature..."
That flicker again.
"It's an amazing feat, isn't it?" X asked softly.
Doppler blinked.
"The real virus. The thing that stole Sigma's name."
A faint smile showed on Doppler's face. "It is, indeed. The most complex program intelligence I've ever beheld, and it's my entire field of study. I would've said it was worthy of Dr. Light... if not for the limitations." His head twitched after those words.
X bowed his head slightly. "How it requires hosts to perform anything?"
"By design, apparently, yes. It can't just... control mechaniloids. It specifically melds into the system, understands it, adapts to it... and where intelligence born from self-aware AI exists, it can... unleash it. It's almost like a demon of the old human myths."
X watched, and saw more flickers. "...Doc, you know what's happening, even if you can't say it. Just tell me where this expression of the virus is contained. I can help you."
There was no flicker this time, Doppler smirking as he pulled his coat apart with one hand, dropping it as tatters as his red and black armored form glistened in the light of the chamber. "It will be contained in the body I'll make with your parts!"
And then Doppler snapped his arms out, legs braced, as orange-white energy began to storm into focus at his palms.
X reacted instantly, but didn't return fire. He flickered with single-leg boosts from side to side, rushing closer as he dodged each orange, storming orb of power Doppler launched.
Just as X reached him, Doppler grimaced, braced down, and suddenly engulfed in crimson plasma. X had to dive aside before Doppler rocketed past him as a living plasma bolt.
Doppler twisted as the energy faded, the orange power coiling down his shoulder-pylons and into his hands.
X's sensors were revving up, analyzing everything he could about Doppler's apparently combat-ready body, as well as parts of the chamber. As he juked, ducked, twisted, and slid around a fresh volley of the orbs, his 3D mapping confirmed the chamber was now sealed, and the passages available through the walls didn't seem to lead to any significant chambers.
Finally, X snapped his left buster out, firing bolts at the shoulder-pylons.
Doppler sneered this time, snapping his arms out, palms wide, and a green haze engulfed his frame.
The plasma bolts from X's buster stopped at the haze, then seemed to get absorbed through it, and Doppler's body resurged with fresh power.
X blinked, pausing. "...How did you overcome the overload harmonics of the plasma surges?"
Dr. Doppler raised an eyebrow. "So you do use that amazing data processor Dr. Light gave you. I'd share, but it's proprietary!" he snapped, unleashing another flurry of storming plasma orbs.
X backflipped, single-hand flipped, twisted, rolled, and then boosted out further, his sensors fully focusing Doppler's body.
He aimed with his buster, and Doppler snapped his absorption field up.
It was a stand off for a moment, then X suddenly spun around, his colors snap-changing through various weapons. Boomerang Cutters, Spinning Blades, Homing Torpedoes, and Crescent Cutters all flew out in streams of arcing weaponry, all curving in toward Doppler.
Doppler cackled, keeping his green field up, and the weapons plowed into it, all of them halting harmlessly before the field seemed to absorb the kinetic force of the impacts, and more energy resurged through his frame.
X didn't seem shocked, however, he was watching with almost violent focus. At last, his eyes sharpened. That's it. He has to shift all of his systems beyond basic life-support into that absorption field. It can soak almost anything, but he can't do much else while it works. So... is the reverse true?
Doppler chuckled more calmly, finally letting the field down. "I'll give you credit. I think most would be cowering after seeing so little result of such a barrage." And then he channeled his power to start firing off orbs again.
This time X instantly fired with both arms, even while Doppler was still throwing the orbs free of his own hands.
Doppler's optics flared, and he tried to dive aside, but several bolts scraped past his plating... no green field in sight.
Doppler rolled to a stop on one knee, growling in frustration. He knew the game was up.
X kept his busters formed, aimed down to either side as he started to walk toward Doppler. "I can help you. Doc. Fight it long enough to talk to me. Get through! It needed you to think to work for it, you can punch through, and tell me how to end this!"
Doppler clenched his fists, then erupted with plasma before rocketing toward X.
X flickered, folding just around Doppler's charging form, and fired into Doppler's back with a quickly charged burst.
It blasted Doppler straight-on, and he fell out of his attack, tumbling toward the far wall. This time he had his green field up as a defensive measure as he tried to pick himself up.
"You were never supposed to be a front-liner, Doppler! The virus knows that! You can't win this fight. Please, help me!"
Doppler coughed as his respirator kicked, slowly rising to his feet. "You're... missing the point... X..." He raised his hands, his body shaking, but more plasma orbs formed. "It's not that... easy..."
X remained braced. "I never said it was easy..."
Doppler seemed to shiver faintly while he was there, his optics dimming between the haze of the virus and weary reality. But then he flared out with a snarl, spinning madly to unleash a volley of orbs.
X folded under the first orb as his sensors switched to maximum sensitivity. It was immediately catastrophic, the sheer data pouring into his processor enough to make him want to tear it out, but he'd chosen this to save a life, and he wasn't going to give up before it paid off.
Doppler's body was mapped out to the tiniest detail for X's system as he ran to the Maverick, plating joins, wiring, hydraulic tubes, venting, servos...
Doppler himself tried to keep throwing plasma spheres, but he had to watch X stream and flow between the attacks, closing in a core-pulse.
In a fluid rush, X jabbed fingers up into Doppler's right forearm, then a sharp blow to the same flank as he spun around the maverick. Behind his foe, X punched into the regulator at the base of one shoulder pylon, then the other, and elbow-rammed a set of stabilizers along the spine of Doppler's frame.
A sweep across the back of each leg, and a sharp double jab into the left flank and arm were X's final rush. He halted on Doppler's left side, leaned from his momentum.
Doppler grunted in an oddly delayed manner, then his body clanked, rattled, and slowly dropped to its knees as steam started to leak slowly out of most of his plating joins.
"...All weapons, and most of my motor functions... Well played, X," Doppler managed quietly. His weary optics seemed to lose the haze for a moment.
X eased upright, taking a breath before he spoke. "Can you talk?"
"...Sigma infected me long ago. Before the analysis was even submitted to my lab."
X's brow creased, but he didn't seem overly surprised. "How long ago exactly?"
Doppler seemed to cringe, but his systems were compromised enough that he could work through the virus a bit more easily. "A-almost... a year now. Not long after you first defeated him?"
X nodded slowly. "Do you remember enough to know why the virus targeted you?"
"My... field of study is... Reploid frame design, X. From the very beginning, my orders were to create the most unstoppable battle-body possible. Most of my designs up to now were... rough drafts."
X tensed a bit. "Up to now?"
Doppler nodded somewhat. "You understand. After you started carving through Doppler Town, I was given a much... firmer tasking. I've built him an abomination, X. A killing machine. It's... too late."
X slowly tightened his fists. "It's never too late to stop something from getting worse. Where is the body?"
Doppler shivered up to look X in the eyes. "There is... a hidden lab beneath us. Far below the surface level. ...I've doomed us all..."
X leaned down, and rested a hand on Doppler's shoulder. "The virus did this, you're a victim. I'm going to end this outbreak."
As X started to ease away, Doppler winced a bit to ask, "You're... so sure it's... just an outbreak? Not the source?"
X paused to look back at Doppler gravely. "The virus is a coward. It would never bet everything on a move everyone can see. Rest up, Doc. We'll help you once I get this under control."
"...Just let me... pass, X. I've done so much harm..."
X touched his audio-receptor, confirming something for himself, and then smiled up at Doppler. "Don't give up just yet, Doc."
Doppler blinked in weary shock as a teleportation field started to engulf him.
As he blipped out, X looked forward, leaning into a full-speed dash. "Sorry for the delay, Alia. The virus has a new battlebody in a basement lab. I'm en route."
"We've got Doppler and the... other Neon Tiger. You're sure they're good?"
"Doppler should be secured, but he's mostly in his right mind. The clone helped me fight, I vouch for him. See if you can't get him a new frame maybe?"
"Copy. ...You sure we can't send you back-up?"
"It would just put the others in harm's way. I'll mop this up."
"You better be right, but... Zero's still off our grids."
X's eyes tightened, but he didn't slow down. "Thanks, I'll stay alert."
