2. True Forms Revealed
Satisfied that I had taken care of the other mavericks, at least temporarily, I rushed at Vile. He wasn't hard to miss in his huge black and silver armored carrier. His peculiar behavior in the fight before was most puzzling. He chose to watch me take on the other mavericks instead of help. If he joined in I would have been dead for sure. The only way I won against so many able opponents was I used my superior speed, and skill to isolate them. I only fought two at a time, no more.
But that was behind me. Vile in his powerful carrier was in front of me.
I used one of my capacitors to bring my X-buster up to charge. I wanted to fire with out waiting. I let out the pent up energy in one huge blast. The pink spheres of energy slammed into Vile's torso, knocking him back, pausing his charge at me. I rushed in head long like before.
But while I was the smartest of the Maverick hunters, Vile was not stupid. He was quick, crafty, and most of all sly.
Once he recovered from my shot, he crossed his arms in front of his massive torso. He then hunkered down, bending his legs at the knees, and bringing his boxy torso close to the ground. He slid forward on rockets attacked to the back of his carrier and slammed into me. When he hit me he swung both his arms out, and I was send flying.
The shock of such a hard blow was enough. Then I slammed into the ground head first, and slid for two hundred feet. My helmet had a huge crack in it, my visor shattered. My actual head burned with the fire of a thousand suns, and deep scars were scored in the armor on my back as I slid. The once sliver and blue metal was dark and scuffed.
I climbed to my feet despite the waves of pain, and faced Vile again. He was rushing at me with the surprising speed of his massive carrier. I rushed at him again. This time I charged up my X-buster the old way, I had plenty of time before we met.
I shot again, and again the massive blast of energy only slowed him momentarily. The distance between us was cut down, and we met in close quarters combat once again. He swung his massive right arm at me. I ducked under it, but he followed it up with an even harder left punch. I managed to get my hands up, but the force carried through. I was tossed backwards again, but didn't slide as far, because I managed to get my hands behind my head and flipped into a back handspring to absorb the impact.
Vile followed up his attack with a pair of missiles from his shoulder mounted launchers. I waited until the last second before I leapt backwards. That way the missiles couldn't change course in time, and connected with the ground. They exploded, but my backwards jump took me out of their range.
I landed, but was forced to jump backwards again. Vile's fists retracted into his arms, and double high energy phasers shot long, and powerful beams of pure destruction at me. They cut deep canyons in the ferrocrete.
This time my backwards jump took me to the building behind me. I gripped the side momentarily with my anti-gravity boots. I braced my self for only a second or two. I also charged up my X-buster for a little bit while I was going backwards, and even more while I paused.
Then I pushed of with my powerful legs and launched myself at Vile. I fired the semi charged burst. The blast took Vile in the shoulder, but he didn't even recoil. His entire upper torso swung around like his body was a one Lazy Susan, Keeping his elbows strait, he connected his fists with me. I hit the ground hard, and boy you should have seen me bounce.
The whole area shook as I hit the ground the first time. Then I came down again and again and again.
My armor was penetrated in some places. Internal components were sticking out. Some emitting sparks, others not damaged so bad. My left shoulder was completely exposed. That was my human arm covered with armor. So when the armor was peeled away it revealed a bloody and torn mess.
This time I climbed unsteadily to my feet. My legs could barley support my weight. After a moment or two I regained some strength. I took deep calming breaths to try and ease the burning in my head. I shook it, hoping to clear my vision. That just made the pain in my head double.
"One maverick hunter down. All's well in the world." Vile sneered.
"Yea all's well when your sitting in that carrier. If I ever catch you on the ground I'd make short work of you." I yelled back. The strength in my voice didn't fit with my battered body.
"Is that so?" Vile asked mockingly. "Since your going to die anyway, I might as well humor you. This will be fun." He said. He powered down his carrier, and leapt from the controls.
It occurred to me that I had never seen him in his true form. All files on him were classified, and he spent al his time in that abominable carrier.
He stood tall and thin, his entire body covered with purple armor. He had red in the middle and his fists were silver. He had no blaster on his hands, but one mounted on his shoulder. A purple helmet with yellow and red stripes covered his whole head. The purple looked good, and the paint was untouched because he was protected behind his carrier.
"This should be very interesting." He said, and we charged at each other.
He sent blasts from his cannon, I sent them from mine. Nothing charged, just small ones. We both dodged as we ran, and soon the distance between us was down to a few feet. He both lunged at the same time. Our fists locked and we began to struggle.
I was damaged but still strong. He was more suited to working the controls of his carrier, but in no way weak. We struggled to knock the other over by brute strength, our hands locked together. And he had another advantage I would learn a second later.
In order to use my hand I had to retract my blaster. His, being mounted on his shoulder, could be used anytime. He sent a small blast right directly into my exposed shoulder. The energy coursed unchecked through out my entire arm. My grip weakened, and he flung me to the ground.
He then grabbed me, picked my up, and tossed me back to the ground again. He charged at me once again. This time I was ready. I pushed off with my hands, and brought my body into the air. I connected my feet with his face. He stumbled backwards, but I continued to fly through the air.
I landed a few feet away and spun to face him again. He was rubbing his face where I hit him.
"I didn't see that coming. But I will make no further mistakes, you can count on that!" He swung his fist into a punch that caught me in the chin. My head snapped back, and he preceded to knock me to the ground, and pummel my body and face. Shards of armor flew off of me in torrents, and what parts of me that were human bled profusely.
He paused for a second in his pummeling to gloat, and that was a mistake. I discharged one of my capacitors and charged up my X-buster to full in less than a second. I stuck the barrel right up to his chest, and let fly. The spheres of energy flew out and pummeled him for a change. He was thrown up into the air away from me. Armor flying from his body in molten sheets. His circuits shorted out as energy was bled from the components. A scream escaped his lips and pierced the air.
But even amid all the destructive energy, he managed to recover. He flipped over to bring his shoulder mounted blaster in line with me. And he fired a big ball of energy from it. Even with all my damage I managed to leap to my feet in a vain attempt to avoid the ball. But since I was too slow it struck me. However an odd thing happened.
Instead of damaging me, the ball split open into a net, and encased me with an energy net. I was helpless, only able to crouch under the strain of the net. I knew if I were to try and escape I would get zapped, and that could be fatal with my damaged circuits.
Vile finished his fall, landing back in the cockpit of his carrier. He walked over to me and picked me up in one of his massive fists. The energy of the net was absorbed directly into his body, but he didn't notice. And it was even worse for me. His crushing hand was far worse than the net would ever be.
"Well I'll admit that was amusing, but it is time to rid this pitiful world of you!" He laughed as he squeezed tighter and tighter. Amid all the pain from his crushing grip, I thought I heard a blaster charge up partially. And just then Zero jetted in and fired a semi charged blast that struck Vile right in the shoulder joint I had damaged before I fought the other mavericks. The joint exploded, and broke free. His grip relaxed, I pried open his fingers with ease, and climbed unsteadily to my feet.
Zero charged at Vile, already charging up his blaster again. But before he could shoot, Vile's gigantic ship swooped out of the sky. The massive jets of the ship stirred up such a dust storm that Zero held up his arms to protect his eyes. A platform dropped, and Vile was whisked away in his ship.
Zero wasted no time. He turned to face Sigma again, thinking he would be coming in for a kill shot from behind. But Sigma was just standing there.
"Two against one, we can take him." Zero said to me.
"I'm not up to fighting standards." I replied.
"I can keep him busy, you can finish him then." Zero said.
"If you think that this is anything close to my actual ability, then you are sadly mistaken." Sigma replied. "This isn't even a fragment of my true power."
"He's bluffing." Zero said confidently.
"Am I?" Sigma said, his voice deadly cold. "True form change!" He screamed, his arms spread eagle, his head towards the sky.
His red maverick hunter's armor glowed orange. Starting at the center, and moving out in a spider web pattern, going all over his body, and head. It flashed even brighter for a second before exploding outwards in a shower of melted armor.
And thus Sigma's true form was exposed. His body was dark green. The torso was thick and muscular looking, but the arms and legs were thin and wiry. He now towered over all of us, nearly doubling us in height. His head was bald, and his face had red streaks down it. His eyes were gray and cold, and his hands the color of steel. He reached to his belt, and his hand came out holding a laser sword.
"If you think you have even the slightest chance to defeat me, bring it on." He said, his voice cold and shrewd.
"I'll go left you go right!" Zero shouted. He ran to the right. As he did so, he reached to his back, and drew out his own laser sword. Sigma and Zero both ignited the blades at the same time. Both were bright neon green.
I ran to the right like I was instructed. Zero was our new leader, so I had nothing to gain by disobeying his orders, even in a situation like this. I fired several small blasts. Hoping to distract Sigma enough so that Zero could run in and sever his head. I distracted him all right, but it was no where near enough.
As my shots got to him, he deflected them with his sword, sending them all over. The last one however, he swung at instead of simply blocking it, so it came directly at me. I sidestepped to avoid the shot, but he anticipated that and followed it up with a second attack. He pointed his free hand at me, palm forward. And suddenly his hand came flying right at me. I was already in mid-dodge, so I couldn't dodge any more. The hand struck me in the shoulder as hard as one of Vile's fists would have. I was flipped over backwards and landed on my head hard. I was down for the count.
Zero kept with the plan, and tried to take a swing while Sigma's attention was on me. However, Sigma proved to be just as fast as he was strong. He blocked his sword strike, and spun into a counter blow. Zero blocked that, but Sigma pulled the sword away, and moved it into a powerful upward slash that would have split Zero in half, if he wasn't so quick him self. However fast Zero was, Sigma was faster though, so he didn't escape unscathed. A big red, molten slash mark went right up his center torso.
Zero is one of the toughest fighters I know. Sigma was the most powerful of the maverick hunters, but Zero was the most ironclad. He never showed weakness, or remorse, or anything like that. He finished his tasks with ruthless efficiency. But hearing him scream like that chilled my bones and components alike.
Weakened from the mighty blow, Zero collapsed backwards. Sigma stood over him, his sword at his throat.
"I can sever your head anytime." Sigma growled.
"Then do it swine!" Barked Zero.
"I think a slow death, as I dismember you piece by piece suits you better." Sigma sneered. He touched the tip of his sword to Zero's arm and proceeded to melt the armor away slowly. Zero held on for a few moments, then gave into the pain and just sat there and screamed and screamed and screamed.
It was unbearable for me. Despite my injuries, I felt new strength throwing throughout my body. A rage like I had never felt before gripped me. It gave me strength and speed. A power unheard of surged through my limbs. For the first time I wanted to kill, not because I had to, not because innocents were at stake, not because my leader and one true friend was being tortured slowly. No I wanted to tear Sigma's head from his body because of what he had done to me. It was personal, and I had no idea where these emotions came from.
Wherever they came from, I knew what to do with these emotions. Point them at Sigma and pull the trigger.
I leapt to my feet with speed that surprised me most of all, especially considering the damage I had sustained. I rushed at Sigma faster than I have seen anyone move before in my life. He saw me coming, swiveled and fired his hand at me again. As it came at me, I swung my arm and batted it away. It didn't even slow my progress as I charged strait at Sigma.
Seeing I would be more of a threat than he anticipated, Sigma turned from Zero to face me. He swung his laser sword in an arch that would separate body from my legs, if I wasn't ready for it. I lashed out with my hand faster than Sigma swung his sword. I grabbed his wrist, and stopped him from swinging the sword. I spun, still holding onto his wrist and connected my other elbow with his chin. His head snapped back and he stumbled backwards.
I continued my spin, still holding his wrist in a grip that went a thousand times past vice like. I came around enough that I could slam my fist down onto his hand, forcing him to drop the laser sword. It bounced, then shut itself off.
I grabbed his arm with both my hands, spun him around once, then flung Sigma into the nearby building. He hit the wall, cracking it and tumbled down. I charged up my X-buster, a malicious look in my eyes. Sigma was so stunned that he couldn't get up in the time it took me to charge the weapon. I let go a mostly charged blast. It was one large sphere of energy that slammed into Sigma's torso and sent him flying through the already damaged wall.
I charged through the hole I had created after him. He managed to recover before I got there. He leapt to the walls and began to scale them by jumping from side to side. Even though he didn't have his sword anymore he was still powerful enough to force his way through the floor and to the story above. I followed him, using the same idea, but forging my own path. Not caring how much I damaged the building as I broke holes through the ceiling.
Sigma exploded onto the roof and I was just a few feet behind him. All around SWAT bots were arriving below us. SWAT bots are based on the maverick hunter design. Humanoid body with an arm mounted blaster. But these are all machine, and are considerably weaker than a true maverick hunter. But they are ideal to act as an every day police force. The real maverick hunters are elite.
In the sky, heading towards the building was a maverick hunter sky copter. Inside would be no less than four maverick hunters. Weaker than Zero and I, but still stronger than most.
Sigma was outgunned, outnumbered, and had no escape, and he knew it. He turned to face me as I rushed toward him. But before he got to me he leapt over me, and landed behind me. He ran forward and came to he edge of the building. He stopped, and I turned to face him once more.
"There's no where to go, give it up!" I said with more confidence in my voice than even I knew I could have.
"This is only the beginning. You have no idea what has been set in motion this day. This world will unit under my rule. All those who oppose me shall perish!" And with that he leapt off the edge of the building.
He landed on the top of Vile's ship that had come back between the buildings, so I couldn't see it. Despite it's size the ship shot out with great speed. I stood there and fired uselessly at it. It was far out of range, so my shots did absolutely nothing.
The rush of the rage passed, I slumped to the ground. And the first wave of pain that moving like I did with such damaged circuits, hit me. I collapsed to the ground in a smoking, sparking heap and sat there. My internal systems were making repairs, but they were not sufficient to handle the damage I had receive, and inflicted on my self.