THE TENTH DISK
By blackhart
copyright MM Abacus Fiction, revised 6/26/2001

Chapter Twenty

Zero

I gave Iris and X the good news quickly. They related it in turn to the
others. The morale end of the scale definitely took an upswing once
everyone found out. Even Gilley looked happier, and that was saying
something to me. Everyone practically leaped for joy when Chakra announced
he had found who the first person through the portal was.
I dashed over to the panel to meet him, grin etched on my face. "Wily,
like we thought?" I asked.
He nodded, gestured to the screen. Clear as crystal. There's the old
guy himself."
On the monitor was displayed a frontal picture of Wily, eyes set in that
eternal frown, but with a look of surprise. "Didn't expect to show up a
hundred years in the future, I don't gather," Chakra remarked as he noticed
this.
"I see what you mean," I replied. "Any luck on the second one yet?"
"Computer's still working," he said, bringing up another window with a
progress bar moving slowly at its bottom.
"Keep up the good work, buddy," I said, patting him on the back as I
waltzed back over to the others.
"Wily?" X asked immediately.
"Wily," I nodded. "The other one's almost for sure Mega Man. He came
through two months later, so Dr. Light had to've worked major overtime on
building his own time machine so Mega could follow Wily."
"Still a question of how he knew what time to travel to," X said. "Mega
Man, I mean."
"I'm developing ideas about that as well," I said quickly. "Have the
Hunters back on the surface found any trace of Argyle yet?"
He nodded. "They're following a trail of ionized carbon particles that
led away from the explosion back at Sky Lagoon. They're sure to find him, if
they keep looking."
"Good," I said. "Keep `em on it. I have a bad feeling about Argyle now.
Very bad."


* * *
X

"Progress?" I asked as I found Chakra hard at work.
"Ah, X. Great to see you," he said, pulling up a window with an image in
it. "See for yourself."
A picture of our suspicion had finally materialized. From the ridged
crest perched atop his helmet to the large blue boots, not unlike mine, it was
him. The stopper of robotic evils in 20XX. The hero of all robots, Mega Man.
My eyes held an interested look, though I tried my best to conceal it.
This guy was like a past life of mine, practically. So this was what I had been
before. This was my blueprint. This was the hero who had saved so many.
"Kinda frightenin' to see yourself mirrored, ain't it?" Chakra said,
breaking me out of my trance. "Mirrored in a hundred-year-old robot's
person. Spooky, if you ask me."
I smiled. "Spooky's definitely the word, Chakra. Thanks. I'll notify
Zero, and you keep at it."
"Will do, X."


* * *

Raising my voice slightly, I spoke to the entire group. "Chakra's just
confirmed the second traveler. It's Mega Man. We presume he came here to
search for Dr. Wily, who was, as you well know, his sworn enemy, and that of
his maker as well."
Zero gave me a nod to continue. "Now, I'll let you in on who Zero and I
have been thinking the last individual from 21XX is. We've been entertaining
different thoughts for a while, but it seems logical that..."
But I couldn't finish. An alarm sounded in my mind, warning me of
intruders. "Zero," I said, jerking a thumb toward the door, "we got company.
Take some of `em out and take care of whoever it is. We'll stay here and
cheer Chakra on."
He nodded. Rallying Iris, Enker, and Netrix, he loped over to the
crumbled wall and began removing the stones again from their path. "You
know, there's gotta be an alternate exit outta here," I heard him mutter.
"But Commander X," Chakra said from his seat, "who do you think the
other one is?"
I shook my head. "For now, it doesn't matter. Keep finding those
people's pictures, Chakra."
"As ordered, sir," he said reluctantly.
I radioed across the large room. "Good luck, Zero. Make it back safe.
Call for help if you need it."
"I hear ya, bud," he said back, as he and the others disappeared out the
hole.
"Confirmed, the third traveler is Dragoon," Chakra called to me.
"There's the next-to-last, Commander. You gonna tell me who you think the
other is now?"
I shook my head, smiled. "Nope. Find it out for yourself, my man."
He grumbled, but continued typing and clicking. "Yes, sir."


* * *
Zero

I walked cautiously out into the corridor beyond the time chamber,
noticing that the bats that flocked here only hours ago had suddenly
vanished. That's never a good sign, I thought. Drones aren't exactly the
smartest creatures alive, but they know when to run.
"Could this be Argyle?" Iris asked quietly.
"There's a good chance," I said. "An overly good chance, if you ask
me."
However, when we turned a few corners later and stepped back into
the drain room, it wasn't Argyle we came face-to-face with.
It was Sigma. Though in a somewhat smaller body than when last we'd
met, he still had the same scarred face and calm eyes.
Iris began to rush at him. I shot a hand forward, grasping the edge of
her blue cape, tugging her back towards me. "So this thing is good for
somethin' other than style," I said.
She looked at me with a look of pure anger on her face. "Zero, it's
SIGMA!" she boomed. "He made me fight you. He made you fight defenseless
humans! He made X fight you!"
I looked her straight in the eye. "Have you forgotten what happened
back at the fortress?" I said through gritted teeth. "He was civilized with
me."
"But he said his viral programming reverts!" she spouted.
"Excuse me, if I may," he spoke up, moving towards Iris. She shrank
away, but he pulled her slowly toward him. "Look into my eyes, Iris," he said
gently.
She obeyed unwittingly, casting a pure icy gaze into his green (green?)
eyes. "It's not him," she said forcefully. "It's not the virus Sigma."
"I understand how you feel," he said, "but anger towards just my form
isn't helping anything."
I pulled her back over towards me. "But an interesting question arises
here, Sigma," I said. "Why are you here? If your viral programming didn't
bring you here, what's your intent?"
He nodded. "A fair question, Zero. One that, fortunately, I'm able to
answer. As myself, I was going to make sure everything about the sending
of Wily back through the portal turned out just as planned."
"I hate to break it to you, Sigs," I said, "but as long as you're here and
your viral programming is still intact, you remain a danger to everyone here.
I have no choice but to ask you to leave."
"Of course," he said, considering this. "But come now, surely you must
want to know why my other half called Dragoon back through the portal?"
"You knew about that?" Netrix asked.
"I knew," he said. "However, I was not permitted to say anything about
it until after he reappeared to you," he said, tapping his head.
Enker nodded. "Go on."
"Dragoon was brought back to try to break up the Hunters again," he
said. "That succeeded. You were in two groups for a while."
"So what was that plan's purpose?" Iris asked, now intrigued.
"I can't say. However, it was part of Sigma's original plan, so now he's
having to ad-lib."
"And a Maverick without a plan is like a rabid dog without a muzzle," I
said. "We're definitely gonna hafta stay on our toes."
He nodded. "Absolutely." Suddenly, the legs of his body began to give
way, and he sank to floor rather quickly.
"Sigma?" I asked, concerned.
"The body... It's losing power fast," he said. "The virus is trying to get
me out of here, trying to keep me from telling you anything else."
"He's draining its energy?" I asked. "What would that profit for him?
He loses faster transportation and a better chance of beating us," I said,
hoisting him to his feet, resting his arm on my shoulder.
"Maverick... doesn't always think straight," he said with a pained smile.
"That's your advantage. Keep a cool head and think logically. He's losing his
cool." His eyes began to flash green, then blue.
I nodded. "Are you gonna leave before he reverts?"
He struggled to gain some energy back, finally waving my hand off his
shoulder. "I can teleport away. Get someone to activate the anti-portation
field once I leave. It's on the time machine's main controls."
I nodded at him. "Will do," I said. Radioing Chakra, I ordered him to get
ready to activate that. "On my word," I said.
"See you again, Zero," Sigma said as his body was enveloped in a green
shaft of light.
"Good luck, Sigs," I said as I gave Chakra the word. I could've sworn I
heard a loud curse from outside just seconds later.