MEGA MAN X: END OF A DREAM
By Erico
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE FLAMES OF HATRED
X wandered about New Tokyo, his mind in a daze. Somehow, Zero was with the mavericks. And worse, they were doing something to him. To all outward appearances, X looked like an ordinary fourteen year old. Underneath his Trenchcoat was his normal armor. The only thing he wore was his dash boots, just because he was so used to them.
X was so lost in his mind about Zero, he bumped into a young man, obviously drunk.
"Hey!! You better watch (hic) where you're going, boy!" the man drawled. X frowned and moved away from the man. Dr. Cain always told X how human he was turning. Reploids usually didn't walk into people, for their higher computing power prevented such occurrences. But somehow, X had just done something…human.
X shook his head. Maybe a trip to the theater would help. But then a scream broke his trance. X glanced around. No one else was nearby. X wandered over to where the sound was coming from, a dark alley.
In it was a woman fighting for her purse, while four men, well built tried to twist it from her hands. X continued to look and realized that from the looks of things, they had been taking huge doses of supersteroids, a refined version of the natural testosterone booster banned from all athletic sports some time ago. Available only on the black market, it could give a person ten times their natural strength. X glared at them. The habit was even more addictive than nicotine, a drug long since made illegal, and it cost lots of creds to keep the drugs flowing. X managed to smile on top of all that was happening. Sometimes it amazed him how little things had changed, from the old digital movies and archives. People still got mugged. X shook his head and walked over to the group.
"HEY!" X shouted, loud enough so that it even was heard over the woman's scuffling. The men looked over at him, a mere boy with short black hair, cloaked in a bulky coat.
"Beat it, shrimp. This doesn't concern you!" one of the four shouted, growling and pumping a fist, his arms bulging at the mere gesture. X remained quiet, then walked over and plucked the woman from them and walked her over from them. A rough hand grabbed his shoulder, turning him around, until another hand clenched in a fist shot like a cannon and sent him flying into the side of dumpster. X crumpled, his neuro-receptors telling him he had taken a pretty light blow.
"I told you, BACK OFF!! Now get outta here before I REALLY hurt you!" the man bellowed. The others laughed, and continued to search the woman for any valuables.
"Gosh, you're a cutie. Maybe we should take her home, eh boys?" one of them, with a spiky green mohawk giggled. The woman's eyes filled with fear, and X could take it no longer. Jumping up from his perch, he ran over to the closest one and sent a powerful uppercut to the man. It lifted him off the ground about an inch. The man grunted.
"Hey boys! This one got spunk!" X's eyes widened with surprise. A blow like that would be enough to snap somebody's neck. But then again, these were pumped up freaks. The man grabbed X and flung him against the stone wall, holding onto him all the time, applying maximum force. X broke through the wall, his trenchcoat turned to ribbons by the rubble. The man laughed.
"I think I bwoke his wittle arm!" the others chuckled. But then the rubble inside moved, and a figure stood up. The man turned back and looked on in surprise. X dashed out, his boot thrusters charring the mortar. X plucked the man by his collar and jumped up, effectively crunching the man between a rock and a hard place.(some people in Japan called him Rockman X, due to his obvious relation with his predecessor) the others gasped, now fully realizing that what they faced was no boy, but a reploid, and a fierce one at that. With their leader crumpled, a rib broken from his wounds, the others ran off. The woman shook convulsively, and X walked over to her.
"Are you all right, ma'am?" X asked, his face smiling, even though a flap of his synth skin dangled loosely, revealing the metallic framework underneath. The woman did not answer; she just stared in fear. X's smile vanished.
No matter how many times some people saw reploids, they viewed them as abominations, vile demons. Zero had ran into this problem, and now X was faced with it, in the form of this frightened woman.
Just then, his commlink clicked on.
"Commander X, this is Cain. Report to Maverick HHQ immediately. We've received an emergency distress call from the Hawaiian Volcanic Geothermal Plant." X clicked it off, then shut his eyes as he warped back to home.
While X faced the problem of a street gang, Zero had a more difficult task in front of him. For two days straight Sigma had sent in maverick after loyal maverick, each with only one thing on their mind; kill Zero. Sigma knew that Zero would overcome them, but the process was long. Vile walked up to him and stared through the one-sided glass. Zero was facing the reconstructed Chill Penguin. Chill slid across the floor, and Zero narrowly dodged the attack by grabbing the wall. Zero dropped down, his boot ready to slam into Chill's face. But Chill saw the attack coming and blew out a potent breath of humidified air, that crystallized instantly, forming an ice shoe around Zero's leg. Zero fell to the ground, held down by his chain. Chill quacked in joy as he blew out more freeze breath and encased the red demon in a casket of ice. Vile gasped, and looked closer. But Sigma smiled and held his commander back.
"Wait for it." And true enough as Sigma predicted, Zero's boot thrusters turned on, melting away the ice by his feet. Chill was merrily doing a jig, being one of the members on the maverick riverdance team, so he did not notice the event. Eventually, enough ice melted so that the thrusters provided motion, moving the iceberg forward, then hurtling itself at the maverick.
When Zero hit Chill Penguin, it sent Chill slamming against the wall, and shattered his prison. Zero shook the ice crystals out of his hair and looked around dizzily. He was down to 20% operating power, and sorely needed to go into stasis mode for a while. Chill turned around and growled, charging at Zero once more with his slide technique. But Zero looked down and picked up the sharpest shard of ice he could find. When Chill got close enough, Zero dashed to the side and jammed the shard in Chill's back. Chill's system shorted out from the water, not to mention Zero's strength had severed the critical reploid arteries in Chill. Chill gurgled purple fluid from his beak as he slammed into a wall headfirst, then spun off, a motionless shell. Vile nodded in approval. Sigma looked on in earnestness. Zero shook his head, screaming for a while.
Something inside of him was trying to take over. It was familiar, but it was evil. And if Sigma was telling the truth, Zero knew it was the Maverick Virus trying to re-establish itself in Zero's main databanks. Zero shook it off, but every time it got more powerful, more insistent. Each time, his memory jarred him back to his senses by remembering Iris. And as he grew weaker, it became more and more difficult to prevent it. Still, Zero got up and stared grimly at the black window that stared at him. He knew Sigma was behind it.
"I will not yield, Sigma. DO YOU HEAR ME!?!" Sigma reached over and flipped the mike switch.
"You will join us, Zero. You will. Just give it time." He turned the mike off.
"Are you sure this will work, boss?" Vile asked. Sigma nodded solemnly.
"No reploid, no matter how strong, can resist the maverick virus for long. Look at me. I was the strongest, and it took me in time. He WILL join us, Vile. He will. It's only a matter of time."
X walked into the main room of Maverick HHQ and looked around. Everywhere was a flurry of activity, with reploids running in every direction, commlinks blirping on and off, and there shouting the loudest was Doctor Cain, a vein on his forehead bulging. X ran over to the doctor, his face covered in amusement.
"Ehh, what's up doc?" Cain smacked X on the head with his walking stick. "Oww!" X shouted as he rubbed his helmet. Even if he didn't take any damage, it still hurt. Cain frowned at him.
"X, you pick the worst times to be funny. Listen up. I already told you that the Hawaiian Geothermal Energy Plant had been taken over. It just got worse. The reploid in charge calls himself 'Pyrotech Python' and he's threatening to let the whole thing blow up." X raised an eyebrow.
"Can he do that?" Cain nodded, clicking on a console button. A map of the plant complex popped onscreen. Cain pointed to a blinking light by a big pipe.
"That X, is the main pipeline. Cold water goes down, hot steam comes up. The hot steam becomes water after turning the turbines above, then is pumped back down for another go. This blinker right here is a high-pressure explosive. It is estimated its total life is now at about three hours. If it is not disarmed in that amount of time, it will detonate and destroy the pipeline. When that happens, the controlled reaction disappears and we get instant geothermic shock. When THAT happens…" the image turned into a map of Hawaii and a few hundred miles of water. "When that happens, the tectonic plate will tear apart and pour hot lava out of the volcano. Now that normally wouldn't be a problem, being as Hawaii is constant with volcanic activity, but the bright bulb who built the plant also had backup Plutonium stores in case it failed. When the lava hits those stores in the complex, it will release a cloud of radioactivity, obliterating the upper atmosphere and ionizing everything within a 1000 mile radius. Since we don't know where the Plutonium stores are, we can only disarm the bomb." Cain turned it off and looked at X intently.
"Listen X. This is one mission we can't afford to goof up on. DAMNIT!!! Where the HELL is Zero?" X shook Cain back out of his maddened state.
"THE MAVERICKS HAVE HIM." The statement surprised Cain immensely, and he stumbled back into his chair. Cain pulled over his walking stick and whistled, quieting the room down.
"Very well then. We'll deal with one crisis at a time. Right now X, you take Bastion and head for that plant! Bastion can disarm the explosive while you find this 'Python' fellow and eliminate the threat. And take your Force armor set. I have a feeling the hover capability might be of some use." Bastion ran up next to X in a rampage of orange armor and saluted X. X took a breath and phased into his dark bluish/purple armor, then warped off to the plant, with Bastion's orange trail following him like a vapor.
When X arrived, it was not on solid ground, but instead in a deep ocean. X struggled to reach the surface, and then when he did he was suddenly bogged down by a sputtering and soaking Bastion.
"Hey! Hold on, will ya?" X grumbled, clicking his hover boots on. Instantly, he was floating two feet above the waves, with Bastion holding on for dear life. Bastion spat out some water and pulled a fish off his intake, then smiled.
"Thanks, commander. I wish I had spiffy stuff like you did." X looked ahead, where there stood the Geothermal Plant, placed deep inside the volcano. The smoke that emerged was leftover steam, not the actual fumes of the peak. Pyrotech Python must have placed an ion shield around the complex. Smart move, as it prevented rapid warp-ins. Scattered particles, like a warped substance could not penetrate the shield. A lot like those little holes in a microwave that let you see in, but stop microwaves from blowing up your head. X looked down at Bastion and smacked him on the head. This was necessary, as the noise made by the surf and the hover thrusters stopped normal communication. Bastion looked up and X mouthed out his sentence.
"You disarm the bomb. I'll deal with Pyrotech Python." Bastion nodded, then replied,
"But what if this boss maverick is guarding the bomb?" X thought for a while, then shook his head. For once, X was out of ideas. Maybe it would come to him when they hit the shore. Just then, a warning beep went off on his cannon. X looked down to look at his fuel gauge. It was about empty. X struck Bastion on the head and shouted,
"Hold on!" Bastion grabbed even tighter, climbing up until he was riding piggyback on X. The booster fuel ran out, and X began to drop. Just as he hit the surface, X activated his basic thrusters. The question was, would they make it to the beach? X could withstand the water, but Bastion was not so well built. The both of them shot off towards the island, skimming the water, vaporizing the surface. X could feel the thrust decrease, then he took what little power was left and jumped up. Usually X could clear thirty feet during a thrust jump, but X could tell he had at least another fifty to go. Then an idea hit him. Focusing for a moment, he activated his weapons array and selected the Narwhal Cannon. Bastion's eyes grew wide as he saw the surface fast approaching. But X fired a shot, and when it hit the water, it let loose with a mighty concussion. Enough of one so that X and Bastion were hurtled through the air the remaining distance.
While X landed safely on the beach, finishing with a roll, Bastion was flung off of X and smashed into a palm tree. It was a bio-mechanical one, but still it released a few coconuts, pounding Bastion's head in a way you would usually see in a cartoon. X got up and walked over to Bastion.
"Come on, Bastion. We don't have much time left!"
X ran into the building, his X-Buster fully charged. Although he could have chosen the plasma extension, which would harm armored targets, he had chosen the stock function for this mission. That meant he could release four fully charged plasma blasts before recharging. All Bastion had was a basic Buster, based on X's original design. But in any case, the both of them were ready for any attack.
And it seemed life would deal them just what they had been dreading. From the ceiling porthole above came dark flying probes, probes which would have, under normal operating conditions maintain the facility. Now they came armed with plasma torches, which had shorter range, but were extremely deadly. X frowned, as he had seen similar makes before.
"Watch your head, Bastion!" X shouted to his orange companion. Bastion ducked just as a sweeping shower of sparks skimmed the air where he had just been standing. Bastion rolled to his side and focused in on the opposing probe above. He squeezed off his shot, and the probe exploded, the loose pieces falling harmlessly to the ground. X meanwhile had been dashing to one of the tunnels. The probes were still pouring out, and things were getting cramped in the facility's welcome area. X raised his cannon as he leaped upwards and popped off a stock shot, which flew up the tunnel and apparently exploded with the remaining droids. The effect was immediate, as the tunnels acted as dampening agents, shaping the chain reaction of explosions upwards and downwards in a powerful pillar of destruction. All the other tunnels in the room blew flames out of them as well, and X knew he had effectively destroyed the probe hangars above, as well as any other oncoming probes. Bastion picked off the last probe with an uncharged blast, that struck it lazily on the side, spinning the droid out of control ands into a wall, where it left a charred mark. X recharged his cannon to full stock and walked over to Bastion.
"They got this place well guarded, sir. It might take my entire squadron to eliminate the entire threat." Bastion told X as he wiped probe parts from his intake. X nodded.
"Sadly Captain, we lack the time to do such a thing. Besides, the ion shield would prevent warp-ins as you remember." Bastion suddenly smiled widely. Pulling his Buster up, he walked over to a console and drew up the plant blueprints.
"There!" Bastion announced confidently. X squinted and looked at the screen confusedly. Bastion continued, unaware of X's befuddlement. "Sir, the ion shield is being run there. It's drawing power from the main system. If I can get there, I can disable the shield and warp in my troops!" the idea hit X head-on. The plan was so simplistic, it had to work. X patted Bastion on the back.
"Can you get there, Captain?" Bastion nodded.
"It'll probably be guarded, but if I'm careful I should be able to do it. If I run into the boss maverick, it'll be over pretty quick." X started to run away, to the original location.
"I'll attach a PTU to the bomb. When you get that shield disabled, WARP IT THE HELL OUT OF HERE. I'm pretty sure Pyrotech Python will be guarding the bomb, not the shield generator. I don't think anybody was bright enough to realize that possibility."
"And if I fail, sir?" Bastion asked, fear in his voice. X turned around, a tired look of desperation on his brow.
"Don't."
X dashed madly through the halls, pausing only to recharge his Buster and check his map. In this labyrinth of tunnels and control rooms, there was no room for error. According to his clock, he only had another twenty minutes before the bomb went off, taking the facility, the atmosphere, and him, with it. And he still had another two hundred feet to go before he reached the bomb, placed strategically by the main pipeline. And he was in a lunchroom. X was jolted back to reality as a vending machine next to him became scorched by a heavy plasma blow. Ahead was a menacing walker, with an unhappy maverick at the controls. X growled and rolled under a table. It wouldn't buy him much time, but just enough to charge the Giga Attack. The walker pounded the floor as the hydraulic legs went up and down, pumped by the raw power of its ancient but still effective engine. The attached beam saber on the mech's left arm turned on and sliced the table in half, then the blade came back for a second destructive swipe at X. but the walker never managed to even begin the hacking swing, as X charged out of his hiding place, screaming like a madman as the Giga Attack unleashed him, dashing forward like an insane fool. The Giga Attack was designed by Doctor Light, with the instructions placed carefully in a capsule X found during the Repliforce Uprising. With it, X became invincible, able to plow through anything for a short period of time. The only downside was the immense amount of time it took to charge the necessary components.
X burst through the walker's back and continued to dash down the halls, his frame already building up a second. Behind him, X could hear the loud crash as the disabled walker, torn to pieces fell to the ground as scrap metal.
Bastion was having no better luck, but he had a shorter distance to go. Only fifty feet stood between him and his goal, but then again he had more to deal with. Fast flying probes made several runs over his position, while floor drones designed to walk along and then self-destruct scurried along. In short, the flyers were keeping him pinned until the drones could fulfill their objective. Bastion checked his systems; twenty percent damage, and several microfractures.
"GODDAMNIT!!!" Bastion cursed. He had had enough. Bastion leaped out from his foxnest and dashed toward the waiting drones. He fired off his shot directly parallel to the ground. The massive energy wave annihilated the floor critters, and the explosions from that were enough to destabilize the gyros on the probes. But he still had a few probes to go. An idea hit him, and so Bastion dashed up onto the walls. He grabbed one by the thrusters. The probe's immediate response was to activate its plasma cutter, but Bastion had been expecting this.
"All right you little gnats. Let's see how YOU like it!" Bastion muttered. He jumped off the wall, and using the probe like a beam saber slashed them all into scrap. With a final shot from his cannon, he destroyed the one in his hand. Bastion sighed, and walked down the hall to the room with the shield generator.
The generator glowed brightly, and Bastion walked over to the back. He smiled, then he pulled the plug. The effect was immediate, and the humming noise wound down, much like an old air raid siren. Then there was silence. Bastion walked over to the console in the room and turned it on.
"Computer, scan for PTU signatures." PTU's were short for Personal Transport Units. You simply clipped it onto something and it would warp it to anywhere you desired. The computer responded with a simple placid male voice.
"No signatures found. Be advised, warp outs are not possible at this timetimetime…" Bastion blinked. He had just turned off the shield generator, so it should work. Any why did the computer screen look so distorted?
"Computer, explain."
"Gamma radiation emissions in the vicinity shortshortshort circuiting transport software." Bastion blinked again.
"Identify location origin of gamma radiation."
"Twentwentwenty feet behind you." Bastion turned, a thought forming in his mind, but he couldn't realize it. It couldn't be…
It could.
"HOLY…!!!" Bastion gasped as he opened the closet door. There, packed carefully in crates was the Plutonium. So that's what was happening. The gamma radiation was disrupting the computer. So he had to get rid of it.
Bastion reached in his chest compartment and pulled out another PTU. Quickly, he dialed in coordinates that were familiar to him. He placed it on the top crate and set the transfer radius to three meters. Then he clicked the ten second fuse and dashed back. No way in hell he wanted to go where this stuff was headed. The timer beeped, then the air distorted as the plutonium, crates and all vanished in a beam of particles and light. Bastion smiled, then walked back to the console.
"Computer, locate the main thermal pipeline." Instantly, the screen gave him directions to where he needed to go. Bastion logged it into his memory banks, then tore down out of the exit. X was going to need help.
X finally arrived at the main shaft with the pipeline. The shaft only had about ten feet of clearance space around the main pipeline. X took a breath, then jumped on the side and began his slow slide down the shaft to the bomb. Total time left before the explosion; five minutes.
His internal conditions sensor started to send droning signals to his helmet. X smacked himself on the side of the head, and a screen popped up in a corner of his eye. Thermal readings in the sector were off sky high, which meant X was slowly being drained of energy needed to maintain optimal temperature.
"Crap." Was all X said, in a dry and droning voice. This meant two things to him. One, he would be low on energy when he ran into Pyrotech Python; and two, he might shut down before he even reached the bomb. X could withstand minor extremes, but this pushed his endurance to new levels. For once, X wondered if he should have worn his Golden Hyper Armor. The super helmet would have recharged his energy to max within seconds, making up for any losses sustained during the trip.
"What the hell." X muttered, leaping lightly off the surface and dropping. This would get him there quicker, he just hoped he'd survive the landing. The wall vanished in front of his face, and instead X saw an open room. With not a moment to spare, X activated his hover boots, which had been recharged since his beach excursion. But his velocity was intense, and soon X found himself expending all his hover fuel just trying to slow himself down.
"Come on…" X pleaded with his feet, as he braced for impact. But it never happened. His fuel ran dry just as his toe touched the cement. X rolled away from the pipeline and examined his energy. He was down to 75%.
"Not good. Not good." X grumbled. But then the sound of an incoming transmission shut him up. X rolled underneath a table and crouched. Someone was going to answer that, and he didn't want to be seen. A rattling sound filled the wide room, and X realized two things. One, he was in a loading dock and two, Pyrotech Python himself was slithering onto the scene. A dense mass of coils, colored red and metallic gray, slipped into the room. Pyrotech Python was long, but his height was less than that of X. Still, X knew that were they to fight, it would be intense and one sided. And X was going to try his hardest to avoid that. Pyro clicked on the viewscreen, and standing there was Vile, in all his masked darkness.
"SSSssss. Vile, itssss ssoooo good to ssseee you."
"Quiet, snakeboy. Listen up. Sigma wants to know how things are going."
"Thingssss are running smoothly. The bomb isss placed, and I will be warping out of here sssoon."
"I'm afraid that will be impossible, my friend." Vile chuckled, in such a dark manner, even X shuddered, safe in his hiding place.
"What do you mean, Vile?"
"I mean this, stupid. I placed a man down there who set up an ionic shield. Nobody can warp in…and nobody can warp out." Pyrotech Python quaked in anger and fear.
"Why?" Vile laughed.
"Come on, now. You know as well as I do you've been sucking up to the boss. That's my turf, pal. And because of this, you must die." Pyrotech got so angry, his tail knocked over a pack of crates by X.
"How dare you! I will disarm the bomb!" Vile laughed again.
"I'm not your average maverick, Pyrotech. When I shoot somebody in the back, I eliminate all areas of escape. That bomb CAN'T be turned off. And here's another thing. Even if you DID manage to find the shield generator in time, that puppy has its own personal ionic shield. You can't warp it away. And because it is welded to the pipe with TitaniTefloalloy, there's no way in hell you can pry it off!" Pyrotech Python screamed and writhed in anger, smashing the screen to bits, while X suddenly realized how grim the situation was. Even if he could attach the PTU to the bomb, it would take the pipe's side with it. Of course, he couldn't even do that.
"Hey, boss dude! EAT PLASMA!!!" a voice rang out, boldly and a bit awkwardly. X looked up in surprise to see a war-crazy Bastion jump down from a tube above, while firing off his cannon wildly. Pyrotech Python turned swiftly, murder in his eyes.
It is said that a cornered animal shifts into a wild beast, a creature which follows the basic instruction instilled in them since birth; SURVIVE. With reploids, it is no different. And now Bastion was crazy enough to mess with the very thing that X had emphasized time and time again to avoid. A crazy maverick that has realized it's going to be destroyed. Pyrotech Python took the hits, and screamed out in pain. But then his tail shot up and wrapped around Bastion, squeezing him tightly and bringing him down to Pyro's level. The snake beast's eyes glinted with anger as he opened his jaws.
"Pathetic whelp! Now, taste REAL firepower!!!" X finally realized he could hold on no longer. Dashing from underneath the table, he shut his eyes and activated the Giga Attack. A blazing light surrounded him once more, and his dash boots shot out more flames than had been expelled in the last hour. X covered his head with his arm, and plowed straight through Pyrotech's lower tail, slicing it clean off and freeing Bastion from the death grip. While Pyrotech screamed out, firing his massive flames wave towards the ceiling as he fell backwards, X was beading his Buster, and squeezing off super shot after super shot. All in all, Pyrotech Python was dead before he hit the ground, and he exploded, the flammable liquids inside of him ignited by the onslaught. Pieces of reploid snake flew everywhere, and X stood back. He took a moment and looked at his clock: Ten seconds. He turned to Bastion, and smiled.
"Well, Bastion. It's been nice working with you." Bastion gave smile of superiority, then dashed over to X, grabbing him tightly.
"It ain't over yet, sir. Just hold on!" Bastion shut his eyes, and then everything became a blur.
Then it became clear again, only now they were on a small island a few miles from the plant. X looked in surprise and horror as he mountain facility blew up, releasing billowing waves of smoke and steam into the air. He turned to Bastion and stared for a moment. Bastion beamed proudly and began to speak.
"While you were doing who knows what, I disabled the shield generator. And guess what I found by it?" X looked on, wondering why Bastion could be so happy when the earth's environment was being poisoned as they spoke.
"I found that batch of Plutonium. I used a PTU on the whole mess and warped it to the sun's orbit. It'll be drawn in and put into the fusion process." X sighed as the new facts calmed him. Then he frowned.
"Where'd you get a PTU that had coordinates for the sun's orbit?" Bastion's smile vanished, and he looked down, shifting his eyes.
"Well, promise you won't tell anyone, but a buddy of mine and I took it from the depot at Maverick HHQ. We were thinking, what would be the craziest place to warp something? I came up with the sun. I was holding onto it when you volunteered me for this mission." X laughed, a pure laugh that he had not had for some time. X slapped Bastion on the back, and something clinked off X, making a loud noise as it hit stone beneath them. Bastion looked down in surprise and picked it up. It was a piece of Pyrotech's head.
"Well, well. It seems our friend left us a momento." X grabbed it, then used his weapons array to download his new device; the Dante's Inferno. Bastion looked on in awe.
"Damn, I wish I could do that. What did you just do, commander?" X smiled as he shifted into his new red coloring.
"I just obtained the ability to create a Dante's Inferno." Bastion and X walked down the island bluff to a small town below. There, they could recharge and give a full report.
"Hey, how'd you learn those sweet shooting techniques, sir?" Bastion asked. X chuckled and shifted back into his regular X4 armor.
"Practice. When we get back to Maverick HHQ, I'll take you to the training deck and show you. In the mean time, RACE YOU!!!" X took off, his dash boots leaving behind flattened grass. Bastion smiled.
"You wish, commander! I'M the hot rod in this outfit!" with that, Bastion and X, the saviors of earth on that day sped their way into the dim glow of night, and the promise of a new, fresh day ahead.
Sigma walked up behind Vile, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. Vile looked up, then grudgingly gave a salute.
"What's the progress on Pyrotech and his group?" Sigma asked. Inside his helmet, Vile gave grin of pure evil, but from the outside no one could tell.
"It seems X showed up and destroyed them all. The bomb exploded, though. I'd wager our blue friend escaped, though." Vile sounded sad, but Sigma knew Vile by now. Sigma picked up Vile roughly, much like one would with a sack of potatoes.
"You listen up, Vile. I'm sick and tired of your crap, and so is everyone else. So shape up, and don't lie. GOT IT?!" Vile gulped, and weakly nodded. Sigma put a smile back on and dropped Vile to the floor. Then he walked to his quarters.
"It's only a matter of time now." Sigma chuckled crazily. "One way or another, it will end."