Chapter 14: "The Kaiser"
Just getting down that far was time-consuming, even with X rushing at full speed. It was probably entirely purposeful. With Doppler as the primary source of all threats, his lab would always be the primary focus of invading forces. Putting the virus' secret, true base on the opposite end of the fortress made sense only in that way. That much effort to hide it may have been the source of Doppler's hesitance about it only being a branch of the virus.
Once deep enough, X found the basement lab was only barely hidden. He was, however, deep enough that teleportation and comms were down again.
X glanced around, pausing to assess the basement level. He wasn't given much time before missiles came flying toward him. With a few pulse-blasts and a blast of thrusters, X was flitting between the missiles while others exploded.
Missile launcher mechaniloids, adhered to platforms and bulkheads all around the large 'hall' X was following, continued to fire volleys at him. X changed colors, firing off one gravity-well. The missiles started to get sucked down into it, and he built up power while his weapon changed again.
Flipping over the exploding, compressing mass of missiles, X landed, red and white, and unleashed an empowered version of the spinning blades. It was a massive, single spinner, larger than he was himself, and it extended on an elastic-style polymer chord. X wrenched his arm as he dashed and flitted about. The tremendous death yo-yo of a weapon snapped from point to point, roaring from its size and speed, splitting the mechaniloids to pieces.
X dropped to a heavy landing, crouching, with his weapon arm across his front. The blade tore through one last mechaniloids, and then the chord and blade went limp before starting to deteriorate into useless components.
Shifting his colors back, X stood up, eyeing a set of service ladders going up to a heavily armored chamber above. His sensors were having difficulty reading much from it.
"It's me."
X was glad Zero said something, because the sudden awareness of another Reploid had X snapping around, just shy of aiming his buster thanks to the voice.
Zero stood just out of the shadows some distance from the ladder's other side.
X cycled his respirator. "Surprised you're not in the middle of a brawl with Sigma."
Zero half-smiled. "Was deciding my plan of attack when explosions started down the hallway." Then he turned more serious, gesturing up at his sheathed Z-saber. "I have the anti-virus installed, but by this point you've fought Sigma more than I have. Should we just hit him hard from the get-go, or should I hold back?"
X blinked. He hadn't expected Zero to be so... flexible on the tactics needed for this fight. "Doppler indicated the new battlebody he made for the virus is extremely powerful. Probably best to save our trump card for a surprise. I'll hit first."
Zero nodded. "That chamber above is massive, like a tower below ground. Leads almost all the way up to surface level. Think you can hold out enough for me to get up top?"
X tipped his head. "I believe so."
Zero gave a mild salute, casual in form, and bolted back into the shadows.
X looked up again, and then started to climb the ladder.
Unsurprisingly, as soon as X stepped off the ladder onto the floor of the towering chamber Zero had mentioned, the ladder itself was locked off by a rapid-shutting hydraulic bulkhead. He specifically kept his hands out instead of his busters as he looked around. His sensors confirmed the design Zero explained, with the chamber, though not tremendously wide, stretching upward dozens of meters into pitch darkness.
He also sensed a Reploid body dropping toward him. X boosted back, placing himself opposite the other's landing point.
Sigma crashed down to his haunches with a faint smile. His head kept the usual design with a bald head, a crimson forehead gem, and a formidable, square jaw. He seemed built to sneer.
His body, however, was quite different from before. Thinner, taller. He rose up to a commanding height, at least twice X's, with a thin cape of metallic strands down his back, and a large, rippled shield hanging from his left hand. The right hand was replaced fully with some kind of large-barrel buster weapon.
"Megaman X, you never disappoint."
X sharpened his eyes. "You can stand down, Sigma. I know you're just a clone fabricated by the virus. You can be your own Reploid if you power down for me now."
Sigma frowned grimly this time, none of his usual proud humor. "You do seem to know more than I expected. Though I doubt it's quite as much as you think. It will be inevitable. Your defeat by my hand. Simply from attrition." Some kind of power ignited within his buster, burning with orangish light. "You'll run out of allies sooner or later. When you're truly alone, you'll break."
It did rouse nightmares within X, but X faced those daily. He only remained serious himself. "So you believe I'm simply unaware of your nature? That I won't be able to track all of you down before you wear me down?"
Sigma nodded. "So you have been paying attention. Good. I'm still furious you've delayed me so long." He abruptly braced, shield held up and back, buster forward, optics manic and predatory. "I know things that would bring you to your knees!"
Sigma fired a volley. Burning streams of unstable plasma, which flew at insane velocity for how fluid and amorphous they appeared to be.
X was prepared for a vicious fight, however. He flickered, warped, and closed toward Sigma with every shot. "So why hold back?" More dodging. "You want me on my knees, don't you?"
"Simple!" Sigma roared back. "I want to see what this new body can do, first!"
X flickered right up to Sigma's side, but the fire-buster was aiming straight at his face, Sigma sneering fully down his own arm over it. X booster-blasted himself back out before the shot could sear through his head.
And he instantly had to fold backward as the shield came ripping at his neckline. It sang across his chest and face with his dodge, and X watched it arc through the air on its own power. He had to twist over and boost away from a second pass before it finally returned to Sigma's waiting arm.
"I've had to wait in hiding so long, I want to enjoy this!" Sigma taunted, finally bursting into a clearly manic laugh.
X braced partially, and just as Sigma started to aim his fire-buster, ripped forward at full speed. Sigma blinked, and immediately wrenched his shield down into a low throw that would rebound upward if X tried to undo his committed rush.
"So forward this time-!?" Sigma cut himself as X twisted just aside from the driving shield.
It all but scrapped along X's front, and X raised a leg to re-boost himself back at Sigma... jamming one buster against the head with an uncharged blast.
Sigma barked, stumbling away with smoke and char on the side of his head, but he wasn't a complete fool. The shield was already rebounding thrice back to X, and Sigma was aiming his buster up at the Reploid even while reeling from the hit.
X was too far to deliver a point blank follow-up, so he had to dodge. He flipped backward under the shield, barely avoiding it again, then had to twist, booster-corkscrew, and rush toward Sigma between the fire-plasma blasts the Maverick leader was unleashing.
Sigma gritted his teeth, spinning just enough to reach to his shield as it returned, still firing under the grab, and immediately drove his shield down at X's diving mass.
X actually had to snap his hands up to grip the edge of the shield as he twisted under it again. This time, Sigma started to twist his buster-arm down at the elbow so he could fire straight into X's flank.
X drove one arm up between Sigma's limbs, while his legs boosted below folded knees. It effectively sideways-somersaulted him backwards... just as he fired into Sigma's face.
Sigma's blasts hit the flooring, the shield swung backwards, and then both arms fell forward as the impact from X's shot made him reel.
X didn't let up, boost-coasting around at full speed to put himself behind Sigma. Aiming right into Sigma's upper back, energy started to build in his frame.
Blind for the moment, Sigma wasn't helpless. He gave a roar of effort as he swept the shield backwards to throw it. That forced X to twist away instead of firing.
While the shield bounced off the wall, Sigma aimed down at X's twisting form, and fired a volley of blasts.
X had to fully back-flip, stand on one hand, twist, and as the blasts sailed around his body in all directions, he drove his hand up with the end of his flip, just barely deflecting the shield up higher rather than having it crash into his side.
Sigma glared as his optics cleared enough to see again. He caught the returning shield, and kept his buster ready, while X cycled his respirator heavily, waiting, watching.
After that moment, Sigma suddenly blurred from raw mechanical speed, whipping his shield at the wall behind him. As it started to bounce at nearly sonic speed around the walls, he opened fire with his buster, starting to leap skyward.
X had to dance madly around the shield ricochets as such speed, regularly only touching the ground with a single hand or foot, and the plasma flares from Sigma were spreading over the ground like little shockwaves, giving X all the more he had to jump, hop, flip, and twist over.
"There's only so much a processor can take! Even if it was made by Dr. Light!" Sigma taunted as he finally reached the opposite wall, rebounding with his legs to continue his barrage.
X couldn't argue the point, pushed as close to his limits as he already was, but that wasn't the only thing keeping him occupied.
This body is impressive, but it can't be what Doppler was worried about. It has variations on Vile's new body, as well as Bit and Byte's weapons combined into the shield and plasma buster.
X twist-fell through a set of plasma-flares and the rebounding shield, allowing his eyes to lock on Sigma's maliciously pleased expression.
"So where's the real body?"
It had the desired effect.
Sigma caught his shield, landing with a dark set to his face. X seemed worn, down on one knee, panting, but his eyes were razor focused.
"Are you presuming to TOY WITH ME, X!?" Sigma abruptly roared with animalistic intensity, his frame shaking from the vehemence.
X slowly stood up, seeming heavy on his joints, but mobile. "Not at all. That body is impressive, but it's not even the most powerful frame you've used before. I see the logic in focusing on agility and area control, but that wouldn't strike fear into the hearts of humanity. You want your prey to suffer, don't you?" His eyes sharpened, his intent truly addressing the virus itself rather than the clone-body host. In Sigma's case, it was almost the same creature with how directly the virus puppeted the identity it stole from Signas.
Sigma clenched his one fist harshly enough to cause metal creaking. "...What happened to that naive young Hunter I knew so well, hm?"
X snapped both arms into busters. "He has too much blood on his hands." He started to draw energy in, plasma building around his frame from the sudden flux of power flow.
Sigma sneered out of his rage. "Turning into one of us, after all, X?"
X twitched, but nodded. "That's a very real danger, yes."
They both flickered into attacks, Sigma wrenching his shield down while firing with his buster, X's right arm firing... but it was strange this time.
X's blast was an amorphous mass of multi-color plasma, Sigma watching his plasma flares crash into it and actually get sucked inside it.
"I need to neutralize that other body, Sigma, I can't play games anymore today!" X shouted in explanation... driving his other buster forward, and firing again.
The intense blast of plasma somehow ignited the cloud of it already in the air. It was the key to his cross-charge blast Dr. Light gave him.
Catastrophic plasma energy, shockwaves, and heat erupted, engulfing the side of the towering room instantly before back-blasting around X.
As the energy finally settled, the entire chamber steaming around X's grim expression, only a faint flicker of dust remained of Sigma's initial body.
"Now that... was downright murderous, X."
Sigma's voice resounded throughout the chamber, echoing from above.
X looked up, only to widen his gaze. He had to leap back just before the chamber thundered.
A hulking beast of a body crashed down to its haunches, taking up nearly a third of the floor unto itself, leaving dents in the flooring that had survived X's blast.
Sigma widened his stance, the huge boots compressing with loud rushes of hydraulics, heavy, bulbous arms lowering down on the sides. The chest was a tiger-like facade with glowing optics of its own. More obvious than his actual head were the tremendous shoulder mechanisms that resembled some kind of thrusters aimed to the sides. His actual head was down between the base of the shoulders, already sneering again.
"And what if I stood down now, hm?" Sigma challenged, his voice reverberating up the chamber.
X clenched his fists for a moment. "As long as you disabled your weapons, I'd help you."
Sigma laughed. "You mean THESE!?"
Segments down his back opened, unleashing a volley of missiles upward, while bomb-drones fired out of his huge shoulders. Additionally, chunks of his arms separated and rotated forward, starting to charge huge waves of plasma that would span the room.
X's eyes flickered across all the projectiles, then the fields of building plasma discharge. He had to fold back with a twist to dodge the first missile, thruster-blasting himself along the floor stride by stride.
Bomb-drones swept down for him, just shy due to his sheer speed, and exploded with shocks of force and fire in his wake. All the while, missiles were hammering into the wall and flooring nearest him.
Sigma twisted, his optics tracking X with a malicious expression of satisfaction. "Can you dodge THIS!?"
And the discharge fields ignited. Sigma was a towering island amidst an almost instantly growing ocean of volatile plasma.
But X appeared rocketing straight out of the field, backflipping at the end of the boost to crouch against the wall from his inertia.
Sigma roared, starting to aim his weapons back toward X.
X leapt off the wall, thrusters firing full force. He was carried to Sigma just as the missiles and bomb drones were airborne. X hand-flipped off Sigma's right shoulder-launcher. It confused the bombs and missiles enough to make several fly upward and crash into high walls, the rest exploding around X as he slammed to his haunches against the opposite wall.
Sigma had his plasma field emitters aimed up this time. "So busy dodging!"
X was grim, not panicked, watching the fields stretch out and wide, engulfing everything above Sigma's waistline.
As the fields ignited, X just let himself drop... and draw in energy.
Sigma cackled within his own storm as the power ignited. He held it for several seconds, and only dispersed it after. His optics promptly widened in shocked alarm.
X was down on one knee, but was absolutely overflowing with power. Excess plasma was coiling and writhing off every centimeter of his frame, his optics all but glowing from the background charge in his entire system.
"Seems you modeled those field emitters a little too closely to my buster system. It's practically a buffet." Even his voice was distorted by the overload in his system.
Sigma wrenched his arms back and roared in fury once more. This time missiles and bomb drones utterly filled the air, spiraling around him like a storm. "Come on then! Let's finish this!"
X lunged to his other leg, arms crossing. His vision was filled with warnings and alerts about his overcharge, pain surging through him, but he roared against it to keep his focus.
As the missiles and bombs started to writhe outward to annihilate him, X snapped his arms out, firing both as they uncrossed.
Blindingly brilliant swathes of light burst at the meeting point, and continued to draw from his busters as they spread out to the sides, coiling and rebuilding on themselves as nanoseconds ticked by.
The resulting discharge engulfed the direction beyond X, stormed up the entire massive chamber, and curved back around, nearly encasing X himself.
X sank to his knees, his respirator pulsing desperately to help cool his overtaxed systems. The energy began to fade more and more, leaving distorted air evanescing from heat and steam purling off the surfaces around him.
At last, Sigma was visible. The hulking frame was charred dark in many areas. Some seemed to have withstood the onslaught of power, but the head that had been roaring was practically skeletal remains.
The big body started to crash down, and parts of it shattered off as it settled limply on the now shaking floor.
X started to push himself up, but his eyes widened as Sigma's voice roared from the distance, and seemed to close in from above again.
At the same time, his sensors registered a tremendous spike in temperature under his feet. X snapped his eyes down, realizing the flooring was starting to shimmer with raw heat. As he dashed violently to the closest wall, a darkly familiar shape dropped down into view.
Sigma's hard-light projection. The skeletal version of his face that had tried to consume and infect X during the X-Hunter debacle.
"I'd apologize for rigging the game, X, but you seem more than up to the CHALLENGE!"
The hard-light construction rushed at X, maw open. X had to ram-jump his boots, trading legs, with fully blasting thrusters, just to climb the wall fast enough not to get enveloped again.
"Neat trick. I can't even find the projectors!"
X had to leap back and boost skyward as Sigma tried to ram him again during the quick retort.
Sigma growled as he missed again, and started to chase X higher... as the floor below liquefied into molten metal, rapidly decomposing into an orange-white flood surging upward after them both.
X kept thruster-blasting himself stride by stride, digging his boots into the bulkhead with each desperate drive up. Sometimes he had to jerk diagonally, zig-zagging, as the hardlight construct tried to bash, absorb, and infect him. Unfortunately, the molten heat from below was rising so fast, he could spare little time to actually try to disrupt the image.
Sigma floated upward parallel to X for a few seconds, glaring. "Simple enough, X. This entire chamber is a massive, contained projection system. You'll also find it makes me significantly more durable than our last encounter!"
The wall jutted inward just above X, and Sigma used this, blitzing toward X with tremendous speed. X strained with effort, thruster-blasting himself off the wall, into a backflip just over Sigma's head.
In the open air, X ignited his thrusters again before he started to fully drop, flying higher and able to catch grip on the new, closer wall without falling to his death.
He heard Sigma's frustrated roar as the molten metal engulfed the hardlight, but X had to keep rushing higher and higher. He finally saw an opening to one side, and sped for it.
Tumbling into a side-roll from pure desperate speed, X charged down the hallway he'd found, needing another path up, but literally screeched, sparking metal, to a halt as his eyes widened at a clear dead-end.
Strangely, he sensed something, and twisted. The molten surge stopped just a meter or so from the lip of the hall he was in that moment. His brow creased.
Sigma's hardlight form returned, just above and ahead of X with a satisfied smile displayed. "It took an entire facility of incredibly expensive resources to trap you, but I find it entirely worth it for this final moment, X. Once I infect you, I'll become the most powerful thing in this world. Surpassing his last creation..."
X's expression became almost dismally dark, and his busters snapped into form... with different weapons. Tornado fangs were ready in one, the other ready to use frost-shield. "I won't let you threaten the world like that. I know you and I aren't done yet, but you're not gaining more."
Sigma grinned, then started to rush down at X with open maw. That was when green light sparked above, making both Sigma and X jerk to stare up at it.
Green plasma ripped through the ceiling, and instantly wrenched around in a ring. Something slammed it down violently, and Sigma had to jerk his form to one side.
Zero was riding the chunk of bulkhead down, ponytail streaming, Z-Saber out, and eyes locked on Sigma's digital face.
Sigma started to roar, but Zero snapped his arm across.
It seemed to do nothing at first, Zero finally landing to sheath his blade. Then Sigma's form warped, shivered, and started to writhe into broken shapes and frustrated shouting.
X slightly eased, glancing between the two.
Zero finally smirked. "A Sigma Anti-Virus. Hardlight has some pitfalls, Sigma. If you're solid enough to hit something else, there's a trail of data to backhack. I figure you've got about... oh, ten seconds? Before whatever processor you're hosted on here is completely overloaded."
Sigma growled and snarled, the eyes of his form locking on Zero. "I... know your... secret... You're destined... to..."
And his shape finally burst apart, in the same moment as the facility starting to rumble violently.
Zero twisted to X. "Place is going down without his processor to keep it stable!"
X reverted his colors and hands. "Make enough of a path for a teleporter signal?"
Zero shook his head. "But follow me, we'll get to a high enough point this way!"
Zero boosted himself into a vertical leap, X following instantly, the two rushing along together.
Rushing through the ventilation and service tunnels Zero had been using, gouts of flame and chunks of debris forced each Replid to twist, leap, dive, and juke as their thrusters continuously traded blasts, striving for enough elevation to cut through the facility's physical dampening.
"Why do virus bases always start blowing themselves up, anyway!?" Zero had to gripe in controlled anxiety.
X had to chuckle a bit, breathless as he was. "Makes you wonder how much worse their armies could be if they spared the resources, huh?"
"Good point! I rescind my complaint!" Zero barked back as he ducked a pillar crashing down into their current path.
X slid under the pillar in Zero's wake, when his comm line finally crackled.
"-X! ...an you... ead me!?"
"Comms almost solid! Alia's trying to reach us!" X reported quickly, then used his internal systems to reply. /We're trying to reach teleport range!/
The channel expanded as Zero touched his head as well.
Alia returned, "Thank Light! Okay! You need... ten meters up!"
Zero skidded, whipping his beam saber out. "X! I'll weaken a point, you blow it!"
X started building power, both arms snapping into busters. "Hold, Alia!" he added quickly.
"Copy, any reason to delay teleport if I read you both?"
"Nope!"
"Ready!"
Zero was already airborne, leaping high and X-slashing the ceiling with a quick blur of his form. He landed into a roll out of X's way.
X braced, crossed his arms, and then lashed them out as he fired. Zero stared in mild awe as the plasma cloud and trigger blast ignited, but somehow focused into a tight, blindingly bright beam into his X-cut in the ceiling. The backblast made all the dust and debris around X pitch up into the air, but, just as fast, it was clear X had torn a massive hole upward.
"Sides are too hot, one second!" X continued, his busters changing. He suddenly fired several shots of frost-shield up, into the tunnel.
Zero watched, and raised an eyebrow as frost shield turned into alternating little foot-catches near hypercooled metal. "...Looks good, go!"
X boosted up, Zero behind, and they leaped from point to point. Zero blinked, then smiled as X leapt up, only to vanish into a teleportation field. Zero made the same jump, and felt the energy wash over him.
Author's Note: I absolutely hated this Sigma fight in the game. Always forced me to use the double-dash upgrade instead of any of the others so I could get over first-body Sigma, then to dodge Kaiser Sigma enough. Bleh. This was honestly one of the easier chapters to write, entirely thanks to this story being based on the game. All I really had to do was connect the required dots with some catchy action, and voila. Hopefully, seeing Zero and X actually be comrades is a nice detail for the readers that dislike my current take on their dynamic.
