Tire, strain, frustration, bewilderance. Magma Dragoon's normally strong body and mind were feeling an awkward mix of all these feelings. There was a mix of loneliness as well - a yearning, a want, an extreme desire for something completely unattainable. He knew that he was alone in that darkened room, except for a blue figure that stood beside him.
It was a cold room - chilled with the sorrows of neglect and sadness. Two powerful reploids, two Dragoons, left alone and abandoned in a small development room. As if it were a hazy nightmare, a vision of a mysterious man came to Magma's sight. A man with a desire to create the world's strongest breed of reploids. A man who wished to be recognized for his works. A man who wanted to build a mighty army, invincible from death and injury.
Magma knew well of his heritage. He knew of those who had died for him, those who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their great creator. He knew of the fall of the mighty Dragoons, forgotten in the Reploid Wars and never heard from again.
But now, there were only two. Two reploids, confused, helpless, and very much alone.
ut of nowhere, Magma could feel a sharpening pain in his neck, unlike any kind of pain he had ever felt before in his life. It spread throughout his back, consuming the power of his legs and arms. His blue partner had been feeling the same pain, as Magma could hear his wails or terror, and could hear him eventually collapse to the cold laboratory floor. The mighty Dragoon refused to give in, but the pain was so unbearable, he could hardly move.... and he then released a loud, terrified scream.
In an instant, Magma came back to his senses. He opened his heavy eyes to find himself sprawled on the ground, his torso lifted. The light glow of the morning sun beamed luminously through the translucent windows of the training room. He had fainted during training due to extreme fatigue, and he still felt weak in his limbs. The pain he had felt was now gone - he was breathing heavily from the shock of the vision, still fresh in his boggled mind. He recalled how real it felt, still being able to re-enact the horrible scene in his head. He had only had the vision once before, when he was much younger. Though it seemed clearer to him now what had transpired, he was still confused.
Still aware of his position, Magma managed to lift his bulky body off the padded training floor. Thankfully, the room was empty, as many were just waking up. The sun felt good and warm against Magma's now matted lightweight armor, rather than the stiff chill that engulfed the room in his dream. He shook off the dirt that had covered the lower part of his body and flashed a smirk. He knew more than the other Hunters would have believed.
Magma had been keeping tabs on his comrades over the last few days, and obviously had heard of the discovery that ex-general Wiedl had made. This contributed greatly to Magma's motivation, and led him to train much harder than before, which apparently had been too much for the Dragoon warrior. This was too tough for Magma to swallow, so true to his nature, he spit out the belief. His goal had not been clouded by his failure. He would still train on, fighting for his belief. And one day, he would defeat the Lord of the Mavericks himself.
Magma Dragoon's brain was clouted with this single belief as he began to do a few warm-ups. He shook his limbs around freely to loosen his cramped joints, with a few cracks here and there. He stretched out his arms and legs, feeling slightly weaker since his last training. He would improve upon this, however. He wasn't done yet.
Sigma wasn't Magma's only goal, however. There were others that he still wished to fight. Those who had defeated Sigma before, the seemingly most powerful reploids on Earth. They were his prime targets, even more so than the leader of the Mavericks. He was training to defeat them.
One final thought crossed Magma's mind before starting another blistering training session:
X, Zero, I will defeat you... even if it means death...
Note from the Almighty Spyda: Hello, my loving slaves... I mean, readers! As you know, Sigma named his new recruits Sean, Chad, and Juju. So during the course of the story, Siggy is gonna refer to them by those names. Just remember... Spike Rosered = Sean, Jet Stingray = Chad, and Dark Necrobat = Juju. We clear, compadres? Excellent! Let's get back to our wonderful little tale, shall we?
Admiral Agile observed as the four Maverick recruits trained harder and harder. The three seemingly mutated recruits, Sean, Chad, and Juju, obviously were well prepared for the tasks they had to face. None of them compared to Dynamo, however, who had passed all of Master Sigma's tests with flying colors. The arrogant reploid was sitting in the corner and scowling at his "comrades".
Agile had noticed that Dynamo seemed very different from the rest of the group. Not just in power, but moreso in attitude and motivation. While the other Mavericks trained diligently in the firing ranges and training rooms, Dynamo would usually train for about an hour a day and sit things out for the rest. He also wasn't great in the communication department - advancing anywhere near him would provoke the visor-wearing 'ploid to tell you off in a folly of well-planned cursing. The Admiral had deep suspicions of that recruit in particular. He was still confused why his Master had welcomed him in so hastily. It was certainly an oddity.
The Admiral was seated with his large X-Hunter ally, Commander Violen, in the back end of the Maverick Training Room. Serges was attending a meeting with the technicians involving his General's restoration. Agile really hated hanging out with Violen, as he was somewhat of a doofus.
"Y'know, I stuck a pen up my nose once," the Commander said in a just-to-let-you-know sort of way.
Agile sighed. "You don't say."
"No, I do say. I say lots of stuff." Violen said moronically.
The Admiral put his fist against his forehead and leaned down. "I know that, Violen. It's just an expression."
Violen remained silent. He eventually let out a feeble reply.
"It....it hurt."
Agile didn't respond; he just buried his face in his hands. "Violen...spare me, please."
The brutish Commander was confused. "Spare you? Of what?"
Agile grunted. "Forget it! I can't stand this anymore! Why can't we check in on Vile's development? Why is Serges an exception? Does Sigma prefer him over us, or what?"
Violen shook his head. "Dunno. I think Serges is in to that technical stuff, though. Before he became an X-Hunter, he was one of Sigma's top technicians during the first Reploid War. He loves developing that scientific hoo-hah, and I think that's why our Master chose him over us. He's experienced in that field. And with the help of M-24 and the other technicians, they make an excellent team."
Agile rocked his chair to and fro, putting his hands behind his head. "I'm still confused about this whole Vile thing, though. Is it really that important to revive some run-down psycho who was killed by X and Zero twice? I just don't understand it. There are plenty of our other fallen colleagues that are even stronger than him. Why not just rebuild them...?"
Violen knew why. "Vile's different, Agile. He was developed with a unique irregularity."
Agile was befuddled. "Say what?"
Taking a breath, Violen began to speak in an authoritative tone. "You see, it goes like this. Most combat reploids are developed with their power balanced perfectly, no strings attached. This would prevent them from gaining and immense amount of power and going on an unholy rampage. It's different with Vile, though. Not many people know it, but Vile was mistakably developed with an immerse energy inbalace. So much so, however, that I doubt even Master Sigma himself could contain him. As a result, his power was compressed a great deal. Sigma has known this from the beginning."
I was starting to all make sense to Agile. "So what you're implying is..."
"Yep. I have reason to believe that Sigma's gonna release all of that power. The catch is, however, is that he may toy with his emotions a bit. He's gonna modify his feelings so that his only objective is to destroy everything that moves, with the exception of us. It would be hard to truly call him a reploid anymore. But at this point, I don't think the Master cares." Violen took a silent breath.
Agile was surprised at Violen. His usual idiotic comments had come to a halt for a little while during that speech. "Where did you learn all of that stuff?"
Violen beamed. "I read a lot of books."
"Whatever." Agile replied. Their conversation was cut short when they heard a loud crash coming from the side of the room, followed by a flow of profanities. The two X-Hunters lifted themselves up to see Dynamo yelling at poor Spike Rosered, who had just mistakably whipped a pillar in back of the visored reploid, causing it to collapse behind him. Rosered was now backing away slowly as Dynamo finished his string of cursing and returned to his seat in the corner of the room.
"Uh oh. Looks like I'd better talk to him," Agile said with a frustrated tone in his voice. Violen gave him a small salute, signifying some sort of good luck wish.
The Admiral staggered over to where Dynamo sat and cleared his throat. He knew that his attempts to reason with him would be futile, but he might as well give it a try.
"Err... Dynamo? Shouldn't you be training?"
Dynamo kept his head down. "Shove it."
Agile scowled. "Excuse me? I don't find it wise for you to speak to your superiors in that manner."
He lifted his head and gave an angry look. "Listen up, clown boy. I don't need some stupid jester telling me what to do. I'll train when I feel it's necessary for me to do so. Now leave me alone, you rejected circus boy."
Though badly shaken, Agile figured that further reasoning with Dynamo was totally pointless. However, he felt that he needed to ask one more question.
"Dynamo... why did you join us, anyway?"
The sleek reploid looked at Agile with a look of surprise. His face then shifted into its normal look. "I have my reasons, but it's clearly none of your business. Now, for the last time, leave me alone."
All Agile could do was sigh and walk away. It was gonna be a looong day...