Chapter 16: Two Different People, Two Different Fates
In a flash of spectral light, Mega Man X and Zero had appeared within the main chest cavity of the giant Uni-Sigma robot. Inside of this robot was a twisted mass of wires, pistons, and pipes, but what was more awe-inspiring about this setup was the giant reactor standing before the two Reploids. It had a glowing ball of green energy in its middle, and the wires sticking out of both ends revealed it had been feeding energy to all areas of the robot, giving it incredible power.
"Wow!", said X in astonishment, "I guess this is the main reactor of the giant robot."
Zero added, "X! This looks similar to a nuclear reactor. If it exploded, the blast would be enough to destroy half of the world!"
"You're right, Zero.", replied X, "We'd better watch ourselves when we fight the final battle." Suddenly, as X finished that last sentence, a bubble of pure energy had formed around the surprised two and had raised them up towards the top. As they looked out of it, they could see that the ceiling above them was massive, and they could see the exposed top of the main reactor.
Zero turned towards his friend and said, "X."
Mega Man X turned to face his friend and replied, "What is it, Zero?" He strained his ears to hear what Zero had to say:
"Whether we win this day or not........if something happens to me, I want you to know this. Even though we never were friends in the past, I'm glad that we did become friends now. I want to say that.......it was great to fight alongside you, and I'm so glad I became your best friend."
X had smiled at Zero's little speech, and replied to him, "I'm very lucky to have a friend like you." They then hugged each other like brothers, and had high fived just as they reached to the very top of the Uni-Sigma robot.
They both ended up in the main cockpit within Sigma's skull, and the bubble popped, dropping them to the ground with a thud. X and Zero had quickly gotten up and looked towards the end of the cockpit to see Dr. Albert Wily standing before them. He got down from the platform and said to the two, "Welcome......to my NIGHTMARE!"
"Aw, c'mon Wily!", said X sarcastically, "Be a little more original with the villain cliches!"
"Silence you azure fool!", yelled Wily, "You have no idea how long I've waited for this moment! Now at last I have the power to destroy you, Mega Man X! My worst enemy!"
"Give us your best shot, Doc!", said Zero.
Dr.Wily turned towards his former creation and said to him, "Ah, Zero! When I put you in that capsule those many years ago, I expected you to follow in my footsteps! Now I see you have become f-f-f-FRIENDS with that blue dweeb! Instead of destroying you myself, I will leave your fate in the hands of my greatest achievement ever!"
Suddenly, after Wily finished that sentence, swirls of light had gathered around Zero and he had suddenly disappeared.
"ZERO!", screamed X.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Zero had reappeared and suddenly found himself back into the reactor room of the giant robot. Just before he could climb himself back up to the main cockpit, a figure made completely out of gridlines had appeared before him. In a flash of lightning and energy, this familiar figure had taken a solid form.
It was Sigma, suited up in his (very first!) Battle Body.
"Zero!", said Sigma.
"Sigma!", said Zero.
"Remember when I had this Battle Body, Zero?", said Sigma. "It was when we first met, in that warehouse, when you were a Maverick and I was a Maverick Hunter. Now I think it is time that we finish the battle we had all those years ago, and determine the TRUE victor!"
"Alright then, you bald retard!", replied Zero as he unsheathed his Beam Sabre, "LET'S DANCE!!"
Sigma had smirked, unsheathed his Beam Sabre, and had uttered his battle cry as he charged towards Zero with blinding speed. Zero had blocked his advance with his Beam Sabre, and had spin-slashed Sigma, only for him to avoid it. They continued to swing at each other with their Sabres in a true swordfight. After a few minutes of slicing, blocking, and ducking, they both charged again and upon impact, their Sabres locked, as well as their determined stares. They finally jumped away from each other after a moment of friction. Sigma smirked evilly at Zero and had fired several rounds of energy balls from his forehead towards the Crimson Wonder. Zero had ran, backflipped, and jumped to avoid this latest onslaught, which met with great results as he avoided them all gracefully, except for one stray energy ball which managed to hit Zero square in the stomach, causing him to double over in pain. Sigma again smiled evilly at Zero's misfortune, charged at him, and had smacked him in the head with his forearm, forcing Zero against the railing near the reactor. Fortunately, Zero managed to regain his bearings just as he was about to end up at the receiving end of Sigma's Beam Sabre. He dodged just in time to see the Sabre dent the railing next to him, and he retaliated by kicking Sigma in the chest.
Meanwhile, in the cockpit of the giant robot....................
"Well, Wily?", said Mega Man X, "What are you going to fight me with? One of your stupid Cloaking Machines?"
After that sentence, the mad doctor outstretched his arms, yelled out in pure battlecry fashion, and he was suddenly bathed in a bright white light. X shielded his eyes from the light, and looked on in astonishment as Dr. Wily began to transform himself with the power of the Orion Crystal. After a few moments of cool special effects, X looked to see that Wily was transformed into a robotic, metallic version of himself. As his ominous red eyes glowed towards Mega Man, he said to him, in a pure robotic and unholy sounding voice:
"Who needs a wussy Cloaking Machine when I have the power of an entire galaxy under my command! The Robot Creator has now become the Robot Master, no! THE ROBOT SUPREME!!"
With that, Wily then fired a blast of purple energy at Mega Man X from his hands, forcing him back to the nearby wall. Wily then charged at X with an amazing burst of speed, and X had dodged to avoid his powerful punch. X then kicked Wily in the back and had jumped back immediately to fire a Level 4 X-Buster blast at the mad doctor. The blast caused Wily to reel back, which only made him angry, and then he slammed his fist in the ground, causing energy spikes to form all around X. As X jumped out of the virtual prison of energy, he was suddenly hit in mid-air by Wily's metallic punch, which caused him to fall violently to the ground. X charged his weapon as he regained his composure, and he fired a huge, Level 6 blast at a charging Dr. Wily, which forced him to the nearby wall upon impact. Growling with rage as X dashed towards him, the insane man-robot had outstretched his arms and unleashed four purple orbs of luminous energy towards his foe. The orbs converged towards Mega Man and were practically unavoidable, and they hit Mega Man with such force that the blue Hunter was forced to the ground in sheer pain. He groaned and remained kneeled to the floor as Dr. Wily walked towards him, cackling evilly all the while.
As this was happening, back in the reactor room, Zero wasn't doing all that well. With their Beam Sabres dropped, both he and Sigma began an old-fashioned fist fight. While Zero fought bravely and valiantly like a true warrior, he was no match for Sigma, who's strength had been augmented by the Orion Crystal's power. Sigma continuously punched Zero in the stomach, and gave him a blow to the head with his forearm. Zero fell to the ground flat on his back, coughing up circualtory fluids and trying in vain to get back up, but most of his strength was gone. Sigma smirked in glee as he pushed his foot square on Zero's stomach and with the wave of a hand, had brought his Beam Sabre to his hand telekinetically. He said down to Zero, "Dark Phantom was right about one thing, the future IS inevitable! My future to rule this human-infested Earth, and your future to die like a dog!" Zero groaned in sheer pain as Sigma stepped down harder on his stomach.
At the same time, Metal-Wily stood over a still-kneeling-and-in-pain X and gave him an uppercut square to the jaw, making him fly and crash into the cockpit's platform, and fall down to the floor face-down, weak and barely conscious. Wily laughed maniacally and walked towards his adversary casually as he said to him, "I never did find out what Dr.Light saw in you when you were Rock! Now I see you are now nothing more than a pathetic shell of your former self! And after all the years and all the times I was imprisoned, humiliated, and nearly killed by you, I can finally repay the favor! IN SPADES!! MWAH HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
"Here it is, guys! I found it!", shouted Buzzsaw as he came out of a nearby brush.
Buzzsaw, Auroran Flash, Royaltie, Scorch, and Duo had managed to find the spot in the desert where Uni-Sigma stood silent. It stood right in front of the crumbled remains of Skull Castle. The four Reploids and Duo all ran to its location, and Royaltie said as they all looked up, "I don't like this, you guys. I don't like the feel of this one bit."
"You're right, Roll.", added Scorch nervously, "X and Zero are in danger. I can feel it."
"Duo? Can X and Zero win against Sigma and Dr. Wily?", inquired Aurie.
Duo wore a melancholy look over his face as he replied, "No. Not until I could break the link between those two and the Orion Crystal."
Buzzsaw yelled, "There has to be SOMETHING we could do?!"
Duo changed his look to a look of pure determination. After a moment of thought, he said to the four Hunters, "Go back to the nearby desert brush and hide Stand ready in case Uni-Sigma activates again. I'm going to help X and Zero."
"What will you do, Duo?", asked Scorch.
"I'm taking a big risk, but there is no time left. I will break the Orion Crystal's link THROUGH X and Zero. Now, go! HURRY!" With that, the Hunters heeded Duo's request and ran behind the desert brush almost a mile away. As they stood there, they watched in surprise as Duo transformed into pure energy and said as he hovered in the air:
"My people! My galaxy! For their honor I must not fail! EnnnnnnnnnnAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
As he screamed in his otherworldly tone, he suddenly spilt himself into two comet-like balls of fire and had swirled around in a virtual dance for a few moments. The Hunters could do nothing but gape in awe as the two comets flew up and headed up the sky, towards the head of Uni-Sigma.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Sigma still kept his foot pressed against Zero's stomach as he raised his Beam Sabre over his head, ready to deal the final blow. At the same time, Metal-Wily stood over the limp body of Mega Man X within the cockpit and had raised his fist to give his own strike. They both declared, almost in unison with each other:
"DEATH TO ALL WHO STAND AGAINST ME!!"
Just as they were about to finish our heroes off, the two comet-like fireballs had crashed through the ceiling of Uni-Sigma's skull, and one had rammed into Wily, sending him flying into the nearby wall. The other comet flew down to the reactor room almost immediately and had careened right into Sigma, sending him flying also into the nearby railing. With that accomplished, the two comets moved themselves into the limp, unconscious bodies of Mega Man X and Zero, bathing them in bright blue-colored flames of energy. As the energy burned within them, the two Reploids regained consciousness and felt their wounds healed and their energy restored. And as they thought in unison as to what just happened, they were both soon met by the presence and the voice of Duo:
"Mega Man! Zero! I have split my power upon the both of you to help you finish this war! Through you, I can break the link between Wily, Sigma, and the Orion Crystal. Through me, you can defeat them forever! Find the inner strengths within yourselves, and make the wishes of this dying world come true!"
With that said and done, both X and Zero got up off of the ground and wore pure looks of determination on their faces. X charged his X-Buster, while Zero picked up his Beam Sabre, and the mother of all final battles has begun:
As he continued to charge his blaster, X made a dashing punch towards Wily, who avoided it, and had retaliated with his own punch. X moved his head to avoid Wily's punch with the swiftness of a karate fighter and had grabbed Wily's arm and threw him over his head, sending him flying and landing in the middle of the room with a loud thud. Wily obviously did not take this lightly and had unleashed a fury-packed blast of energy from his hands, which X had quickly avoided. He wall-jumped to the ceiling and used his Dash-Boots to get to the other side of the room, but not before blasting Wily with a Level 5 X-Buster Blast on the way there. Weakened and infuriated, Wily unleashed another set of converging orbs at Mega Man, but X, using his newfound speed, managed to run from the blasts and they followed him as he dashed continuously. He decided to give Wily a dose of his own medicine as he dashed towards Wily and backflipped over him, allowing the converging orbs to hit the insane doctor instead, stunning him. Wily growled in sheer anger and cursed in a million different languages as X stood before him, charging his X-Buster again.
While this was happening, Zero charged towards Sigma with a furious burst of speed and with Beam Sabre drawn, only for the advance to be blocked. Again another furious swordfight has begun between the two, and after a few minutes, Sigma had cleverly kicked Zero in the leg, and had unleashed an electrical blast of lightning from his hand. Fortunately, Zero had seen this coming and had jumped the second before the shock reached him. He reached and clung to a nearby wall, and had jumped down to avoid another one of Sigma's blasts. Upon landing, Zero saw that Sigma was about to again fire his forehead blasts again. Holding his Beam Sabre, Zero batted the balls back at him in true Mark McGwire fashion, and the spread fire hit Sigma in all places at once. As he stood there stunned, Sigma was not prepared to see Zero charging towards him, and in the blink of an eye, one of Sigma's arms (the one holding the Beam Sabre) was chopped off. Sigma reeled back in absolute pain and felt his injury as Zero charged again and screamed, "THIS IS FOR MY BROTHER!!"
At the same time, X took aim at Wily with his X-Buster and yelled, "THIS IS FOR DR.LIGHT!!"
What happened next? Zero drove his Beam Sabre square into Sigma's heart, and X fired a Level 6 X-Buster Blast right in Wily's chest, leaving them badly damaged and surprised as they felt their power slip away.
Sigma screamed as his robotic body was suddenly decomposing and wasting away before Zero's eyes. Soon, all that remained was the gridlined, virus form of Sigma. As for Wily, his body suddenly went into convulsions and he was soon bathed into a bright light while he screamed in terror. After a second, the light dimmed and he was his normal self again. All of this meant only one thing:
Duo had done it. Through X and Zero's true fighting spirits, he managed to break the Orion Crystal's link to the two villains. Their immortality and infinite power was no more, but it was not over yet.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO! MY BODY! MY PRECIOUS POWER! HOW COULD YOU HAVE DONE THIS TO ME!, yelled Sigma as he stood before Zero in his viral state.
"You've lost, Sigma!", said Zero, "Your immortality and power is gone! There's nothing you can do now but give up!"
Sigma merely smirked and replied, "Oh no, you're wrong Zero! As long as I am this virus, I can never be destroyed! I am STILL and always will be a GOD! Now I will do what I should have done in the first place, and possess YOU!" With that, suddenly, in a surprising burst of speed, Virus-Sigma had charged and entered the body of an unprepared Zero, and Zero suddenly felt as if all of his internal components were burning as he kneeled to the floor.
Inside of the network of wires, synapses, and framework that was Zero's body, Virus-Sigma had flew through the body's virtual data stream and had headed for Zero's mind. Just as Sigma was about to enter Zero's mind and take control of his body completely, suddenly, a gold strand of light had come out of nowhere and had taken Sigma by the arm, paralyzing his arm. He roared in pain as he tried in vain to take the strand off of his arm, but to no avail, as touching it caused more pain. As he screamed, "WHAT'S GOING ON??!! WHAT'S HAPPENING??!!", thousands more golden strands came out from all areas of Zero's internal complex and had covered Virus-Sigma's body like wrappings on a mummy, leaving only his head exposed. As Sigma yelped out in agony at this turn of events, he was suddenly met by the mental image of Zero:
"Z............ZERO!!"
"Yes, Sigma! It wasn't a bad plan to try and possess my body, but you made one fatal mistake! You failed to realize that when I carried the virus, I was protected from it with my own anti-virus program. That day when we fought in the warehouse, the "W" that appeared on my forehead was a warning, meaning that the anti-virus was weakening, and retreating into the corners of my mind due to the stress of our battle, leaving me open to the virus. If it hadn't been for you or Dr. Cain, the virus would have taken me too. Luckily, my anti-virus was never found, and all it took was Dr. Doppler's anti-virus to reawaken it again!"
"N...........NOOOOOO!! YOU.........TRICKED............MEEEEEEE!!"
"No Sigma! You tricked yourself when you thought you were invincible, and when you thought you were greater above all else! Now you will pay for your crimes against humanity! WELCOME TO HELL!!"
With that, the mental image of Zero disappeared, and more golden anti-bodies appeared and covered Sigma's head as he yelled these last words:
"I AM A GOD! I CAN'T BE..........DESTROYED!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
As Sigma continued to scream forever in agony within Zero's body, back in the reactor room, Zero himself had laid down to the floor, still groaning in pain. Zero had done it. Zero defeated Sigma! But it seems he would not be around to savor this victory, as he felt his body shutting down slowly because of the overwhelming power of the anti-virus. He laid there, still groaning but not moving.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
"W.....Wha? What happened to my beautiful power?!", cried Dr. Wily, very much a human again.
"Wily!", said Mega Man X as he walked towards the grounded doctor. Wily crawled away from Mega Man as he walked, and had reached the wall just as Mega Man said, "Your power is gone, Wily! This war is over! Make it easier on yourself and give up!"
Wily first looked scared, but then wore a look of anger as he picked up a nearby metal rod and got up. He smacked X in the head, leaving him reeling in pain as Wily said, "I will NOT lose to you again, Mega Man! Not now! NOT EVER!!" He then continued to swing at X furiously, while X moved away from each swing. Their dance moved from the cockpit room to the nearby balcony, where after a few more swings, X had finally grabbed the rod in mid-swing, threw Wily towards the nearby railing, and took the rod out of his hand. He hit the railing with such force, he suddenly rolled on it and over the balcony, sending him falling down. X ran to the balcony to see that Wily had caught the lower rung of a nearby ladder and is hanging on several feet over the open hole in Uni-Sigma's reactor.
X reached for Wily, saying, "Give me your hand, Wily! If you reach for me, you can make it!" Wily took his free hand and tried to reach for X, but after a second, he suddenly wore a blank expression on his face and put his hand down. X screamed, "WILY! MY HAND!" He then heard Wily say:
"No Mega Man! In all the years I lost to you, I realize now that I could never match your power. Dr.Light was never a fool when he created you. I now admit he was a genius, and I am tired of this struggle. I'm glad I had the chance to fight one more battle against you, and now it is time I became one with the technology I so love! Tell Zero I died happily, and live well, Mega Man X!"
"WILY!!!"
With that said and done, Dr. Albert Wily, mad scientist and enemy to Mega Man, had let go of the ladder and made a glorious free fall into Uni-Sigma's reactor. He laughed maniacally one last time as he fell through the upper hole and into the reactor's core, disintegrating him completely.
Dr. Wily was no more. He was gone forever and could never come back.
As this happened, Zero regained what little consciousness he had left and had muttered, "Goodbye..............father.............." He then laid still.
X turned his head away from Wily's death, but he had little time to mourn as
he looked up to hear alarms ringing out from all areas of the Uni-Sigma robot. X
screamed out, "DUO! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" The image of Duo appeared before X and
said to him, "X! Wily's suicide had caused an imbalance in Uni-Sigma's reactor.
It is becoming unstable and could blow in a matter of minutes!"
X replied, "But! If it explodes........it could destroy half of this world!"
Duo said back, "I know X, but there is nothing we could do! We must leave NOW!"
X turned his head and began to think clearly about what to do. He suddenly thought back to when he spoke to Dr. Light's last recording in his old lab, and had remembered him saying:
"Now go down to the basement of this lab and gain the last enhancement I can give you. It is a complete body enhancement that will enforce your power a hundred fold, and it will give you a Giga Crush attack that will destroy anything within a 5-mile radius, but be careful using it, as it will use ALL of your systems."
Snapping back into reality, X now knows what he must do. He turns to Duo's image and says to him, "Duo! Pull yourself back together and get Zero out of here! I'm going to use my Giga Crush to absorb all of the reactor's energy and explode it harmlessly! It's our only chance!"
Duo's image replied, "But.......you could DIE!"
X said back, "I'm not worried about that now! I'm more worried about saving the people of this world! Go and get Zero out of here, NOW! GOOOOOO!!"
With that, Duo nodded his head in agreement and his image disappeared. The part of Duo within X had painlessly came out of X's body and had sped over the balcony down to the reactor. More determined now than ever, X pressed a button on his blaster arm, activating the damage-absorbing capabilities of the Giga Crush. Taking in a deep breath, and realizing he might not make it out of this, Mega Man X had sprinted towards the balcony and made a Herculean leap over the railing and towards the opening on top of the reactor.
Outside of the robot, as if they knew what X was doing, Scorch and Royaltie screamed, "MEEEEEEEEEEGAAAAA MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!"
Back inside, X made a perfect dive into the core of the reactor, and upon landing into it, he felt bolts of energy crackling all throughout his body as he floated within. As he felt extreme pain, he raised his blaster arm to see the G.Crush meter is halfway full. He gritted his teeth and moaned in agony, and felt as if every external and internal part of his body was about to burn up and disintegrate like Wily did. Finally, a bell sounded on his blaster arm, indicating the Giga Crush was up to full power, and nearly all of the reactor's energy was well-absorbed into Mega Man X. With true heroism painted on his face, he outstretched his arms and legs, yelled out the words "GIGA CRUSH!!!", and had let out a huge blast of incredible explosive energy from all areas of his body. He was engulfed in white light as the entire interior of Uni-Sigma's body began to explode.
Outside, Aurie said to Scorch and Royaltie, "What happened?! What's going on?!" Scorch looked at Aurie and sadly replied, "He's......." Suddenly, everything was interrupted as a LOUD explosion was heard coming from the Uni-Sigma robot. Aurie, Scorch, Buzz, and Royaltie took cover as explosion after explosion rocked the skeletal giant until finally, it blew up in an incredible blazing fireball, sending shockwaves that could be felt from Enlitia, to Mocpac City, to cities all around the world.
After that incredible display, all was silent. Like the calm after a raging storm. But what was to happen now?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________