MEGA MAN X: END OF A DREAM
By Erico
CHAPTER FIVE: A FAMILIAR DISEASE
Zero groaned. How long had it been? Where was he? All he remembered was an evil presence that guided him…
He shot up, his eyes wide open. It was a dark room, but he lay on a cot. A bare lightbulb hung from a frayed wire casting shadows into the room. It all made sense now. Someone had managed to control his thoughts and body, bringing him through the sewers into this place…
"I see you're awake." Zero jerked his head to the side. There in the doorway stood a tall and massive figure. He stepped closer, one step at a time, in no real hurry. Slowly the light revealed him. Green armor, blue armbands, red boots, a red crystal embedded in his chest. Sigma.
Zero jumped off the cot and reached for his beam saber, but his hand grasped empty air. And his arm cannon was still back at the Maverick HHQ.
"I assume you were grasping for this?" Sigma pulled out Zero's, or rather, his, beam saber and turned it on. The bright green beam of plasma contained in the field lit up the room a tad more. "You've kept it in good condition. I thank you." Zero glared at Sigma. In his current unarmed condition he stood little chance against this threat. Sigma chuckled as he put the saber back in the holder.
"Oh come now. I wouldn't bring you all the way here just to execute you, my friend."
"FRIEND? You're about as friendly as a pit bull!" Zero countered, keeping his eyes on Sigma's hand. "And if you didn't bring me here to destroy me, why then?" Sigma chuckled.
"You're still blind to what destiny has foretold, eh? You always were stubborn. I know of your past, Zero. I know where you came from, and I know why. X even had some indication, but he never mentioned it to you! I blurted it out to him at the end of the Second Maverick Uprising!" these words hit Zero at home. He had never known his past, but somehow his dream's images seemed…familiar. But was he able to take Sigma on his word?
"I guess I have no choice." That's what Zero said, but he thought to himself of how he could take Sigma down later. Sigma's response was immediate.
"Oh, come now. I can read your mind. The link we share is very powerful. There will be no opportunity to destroy me, I have made sure of that." Zero finally realized the bleakness of his situation. He lowered his head and followed Sigma out of the door.
What was presented to Zero in the next room was amazing. Here, Sigma had rebuilt the maverick base. The main chamber held the communications center, with mavericks pouring in and out of tubes that connected to the interior. Sigma chuckled.
"Welcome, Zero. Welcome to my home." Zero glared. With all the mavericks around, any hostile action would be suicide. But still he wondered how Sigma had managed to live. After all, didn't X take him out in the Repliforce Space Station?
"Yes, he did. But just my body. I transmitted my data from my reploid control chip into this body. I have placed several like it everywhere in the world. Even if I am defeated, I can rise again to continue my mission. And now I am here." Zero to say the least was stunned. Now he believed without a doubt Sigma could read stray thoughts. He would have to do his best to quiet the storm in his mind. Sigma whistled, and eight mavericks stepped forth from the fury, lined up in perfect military fashion. Sigma motioned Zero toward them.
"Meet my newest controller mavericks. We are planning an invasion soon, and these will head the operation. Let me rattle them off, seeing as you have nothing else to do." The first one stepped forth, two capsules looking like batteries strapped to his thin but strong back. His eyes shot sparks, and his smile was positively electric.
"This is Megavolt Meerkat. I built him after Spark Mandrill. He has the same power, but his greater speed and smaller size will help him to avoid injury in battle. Megavolt, you will take platoon B and head to the World Power Plant." Megavolt nodded with a silly grin, then blasted off to a tube with such speed it left a shock wave of sound behind him. Zero stumbled back a few steps from the force. Then the next maverick stepped out.
"Zero, this is Fluid Ferret. Able to swim and channel water with his streamlined body and water condenser tanks, he will go to Tokyo's Water Refinery. Shutting down the water supply will turn a few heads, eh?" Sigma whistled then threw a piece of scrap metal at Fluid Ferret. The blue and brown bushy tailed midget jumped up and snatched the metal between his teeth, chewing and gnawing continuously. Sigma chuckled.
"Just like a real ferret. He never lets go. By the way Zero, that was a piece of TitaniTefloalloy there." Zero gasped. Even X's most advanced armor was made of the almost impenetrable substance. Should X face this demon, he wouldn't stand a chance. Fluid Ferret snarled then walked out to the same exit tube.
Over the next few minutes, the last six maverick masters were introduced. Pyrotech Python, Killer Koala, Strobe Stallion, Bladed Beaver, Airborne Albatross, and Nitro Narwhal(whose name Sigma explained was more of a joke than anything.) And it became increasingly clear to Zero how tough it would be to overcome the odds.
"Wait a second." Zero turned to Sigma and glared at him. "If I am being shown all this, and you're not going to destroy me, then why?" Sigma smiled.
"Why Zero, I thought you would have figured it out by now! You're joining us!" Zero jumped away and growled.
"Never. I'll never join the mavericks. I am a maverick hunter." Sigma smiled that same smile of superiority that scared Zero.
"Oh come now. You are a Hunter, period. Besides, surely you've recognized a certain pattern of rage that takes over you…one in which you destroy everything?" Zero's jaw dropped. "It's quite common. Did you know for instance Zero, you carry the Maverick Virus inside of you?" Zero's jaw now went slack. Sigma laughed.
"Oh, you poor, poor fool! Progenitor to the Maverick Uprisings, and you didn't even know it! You infected me, and I went on my way. My, how destiny is an odd thing!" Sigma's mocking tone, combined with the new evidence was too much for Zero, and he dropped to his knees.
"But…how could I…" Sigma continued, interrupting the red hunter.
"You woke up in Maverick HHQ, but that was not where you were found. The two of us fought an intense battle, one in which that same unthinking rage of hunting was all you had. You lopped my arm off, but then something inside of you glitched. I took the opportunity, punched you in the forehead and breaking the protective crystal covering your control chip port. Unfortunately, not only did the strain cause you to go into stasis, but it also infected me in the process. You could say that the virus had been welling up inside you, and when I opened the exit for it, I became the host. Your maverick madness vanished, and you became the hunter you are today." Zero realized how true this all sounded.
"As a matter of fact, when we discovered you, you were in the excavated remains of a very prominent scientist many years ago. I assume you might have a slight indication of who I am referring to?" Zero's memory of his dreams flooded back, and the shadowy white haired figure emerged, his face hidden from view.
"That scientist created you with the sole purpose of destruction, to inflict pain and suffering unto all living things and robots. Your specific target…was X." Zero was now fully within Sigma's spell.
"Before we found you, the maverick bug was merely a few scattered reploids taking their new ideals to a far reaching extent. After your maverick virus spread, things became much worse. Your version of the maverick virus penetrated all systems, causing intense hatred to all things unlike other mavericks. I know what you're thinking…who would create such a deadly virus, with the express purpose of destroying X and all other things?" Sigma's question hung in the air, tormenting Zero. "Well, guess what, my red and yellow demon. Your creator was none other than the infamous and hated…Doctor William Wily." Zero's trance was broken, and he screamed out as he realized everything. For the first time, Zero's past was complete, but the past was a dark one. Sigma laughed. He pulled out a reploid anesthetic and injected it into the sobbing Zero's arm. Zero slumped, still shaking with his wracks of agony. Sigma smiled.
"Welcome home…father."