Tides of Corruption
Long after everything had quieted down onboard the Ziggurat, Sigma awoke from his chamber and went through everything noteworthy. On this look around, he found several interesting places that were hidden from the Assassins Guild. Several chambers that were hidden behind false walls, that led to secret compartments at which there was no security or no possible way for them to find him.
Moving quickly, Sigma teleported into the old dilapidated lab of Dr Wily and took parts from there to reengineer a new lab. Working flawlessly, he put together a lab in no time... Finishing it up and then eyeing up his work, Sigma smiled at how ingenious he was for putting together such a spectacularly updated work area along with an alternate power source to power it all. Concealing his lab was easy for it was hidden from prying eyes and to further hide it he installed a series of protocols that would hide energy signals. Sigma walked away from his secret cove and pushed the button to shut the area off. Lucky for him to do such because as soon as the wall silently clicked into place, Typhus crept through the area where Sigma was.
"Good morning Typhus," Sigma yawned cheerfully, "You have a nice sleep?"
"Listen Sigma," Typhus growled, "Maybe you can fool Xephyr and them about all this but you don't fool me one bit. Now stop with the charades and let's get down to business. You and I both know you want to eradicate the Hunters so it's beneficial for you to join us. When this is done, you're going to back stab us like you've done to many other Reploids!"
"I knew there was a reason why I liked you," Sigma grinned evilly, "See here's where I interject with my own morsel. I know about your own agenda Typhus. You're only in this until Xephyr rids the world of the human race and then you're going to start a rebellion against him! You shouldn't bite the hand that fed you all these years! You never know what it'll get you."
"You'll pay for that comment Sigma!" Typhus shot a disgusted glance at Sigma, "You don't have any underlings to take the hits for you now so don't be shocked when you wake up in limbo one morning. I will be watching you for the slightest inkling of deceit and then I will have you!"
"Keep dreaming young one," Sigma cackled as he walked off, "Oh by the way, you have something on your nose... you ass kisser."
"I'll pay you back for your comments and more Sigma," Typhus hummed as he went toward his own lab, "You'll get your come-upins soon enough! Sigma won't even be a bug when I overthrow everything. Well... for now I will just contend with this small sample I stole," Typhus toned down his voice as he entered his lab, now with a vial in his hand, "Let's just see what my viral scan will say about this sample of your Sigma virus." Typhus started work with dissecting the virus... After a few moments, he finally came to the conclusion that he had hoped... "Ahhhh! Now this is very interesting! It's everything that I had hoped and prayed for. I won't have to wait as long for Sigma to finally die out! It's all a matter of time now!"
Around the same time elsewhere, a small flash of light highlighted the hills of a small town as it illuminated things for miles. A bright object streaked across the skies and landed in a remote area away from everyone... Crashing into solid ground, the object did not make so much as a sound as it slid to a stop... Smoke still emanating from the trail it blazed into the ground, a capsule laid smoldering unscathed from reentry... A loud hiss resounded as it depressurized and released its contents. A familiar looking hero stepped out of the capsule and shut his eyes to find X. A moment later, he sighed knowing that X was safe and in a blur of azure light he vanished with his capsule. By the time anyone knew what had happened, the trail and everything had been wiped clean leaving only small wisps of smoke behind him...
After wiping another trail clean, he then moved on to more pressing matters. Quickly gathering himself after hiding his capsule, Zenith rushed off to find X and Zero. The journey was not half as long as he had thought for in a blink of an eye he found himself outside of their base... Clunking the door open of the secret compartment, Zenith stood panting in front of X and Zero, who were talking with Ciel about Sigma's escapades.
"X..." Zenith gasped trying to get his breath, "I have... I have the most grave of news!"
"Ummm," Ciel looked at Zenith, "Welcome Dr Light model!"
"Who's this young lady X?" Zenith bowed and kissed her hand.
"She's Ciel," X shook his head, "Dr Cossack's her creator. I guess it's a stretch but she's almost our sister," X hesitated for a moment and then quickly regained himself, "What the hell is wrong this time?"
"I think it best for all three of you to sit down," Zenith's expression deepened.
"I think it would be proper for you to introduce yourself first," Ciel responded bluntly turning her nose into the air in disgust, "It's rude to burst in unannounced and demand things!"
"I'm Zenith," Zenith forced out in a hurry, "Better? Now SIT!"
All four of them sat down in the lab and began to chit chat. The impending silence in the room foretold the topic of concern because no one could have ever guessed what was revealed next. There were only two people who needed to be filled in on what was going on, Ciel and Dr Cossack. Yet that was not needed as much as they had thought... for both Ciel and Dr Cossack knew of his terror...
"Black Talon?" Ciel was taken a step back, "He's back? I thought he was defeated..."
"Well," Zenith sighed, "I thought so too and so did most of my precinct but it seems like he has cheated death somehow... That is if we can call what happened to him cheating death... From the news I've been receiving, Black Talon's on the point of death but he's slowly making progress... He's drawing his forces out from hiding and it's been said that he's coming back to erase everything short of a few minute particles of Earth."
"It would seem that you have your work cut out for you," Dr Cossack muttered, "Black Talon was a formidable foe for anyone to take on. It won't be a simple task taking him on now... Will it?"
"With everything else that's going on," X uttered as he threw his arms into the air in disgust, "It seems about my luck for him to be here amidst all this. An unstoppable supervirus, Sigma, the Assassins Guild and now Black Talon... Oye... I tell ya it just keeps getting better!"
"With your optimism, you could almost take over Signas' job," Zero joked trying to get a laugh. Everyone's face turned to meet up with Zero as no one laughed. Stammering a bit, Zero quickly continued, "This sorta stuff is normal if you had stayed with the Hunters X. We get this stuff all the time! It's just another field day for us. Just keep calm and things will be fine!"
Coming out of hiding, Alia found herself at the Neo Hunter Headquarters where she took up her old residence and started to dispatch again. They were very short of help on dispatch because most of the people were out on the field trying to find the Ziggurat... With the first declaration of war for nearing a century, the Hunters found themselves unprepared for the thought of such a thing. Yet no matter how hard things would get or how hard things would seem, everyone within the Hunter base would stick together and reason it all out. There was only one person who seemed to be at the brink of insanity from this declaration, Signas. Signas was already wound tightly before anything had happened but with open war, he found himself questioning why he had to keep fighting such unfathomable odds. Douglas and Lifesavor were both too preoccupied to even care about the declaration. Lifesavor had his check lists and medical prep for oncoming wounded when it was needed, while Douglas kept designing weapons and methods to shorten the war to the best of his abilities. All in all, things within the Neo Hunter Headquarters could not get anymore hectic even if a meteor threatened to level everything...
Looking up onto her computer screen, Alia's hands started to shake under the stress and pressure of this line of work. Alia shook off her doubts and cast aside her mixed emotions as she tuned out of everything. She tucked the picture of X into a corner of her desk and looked through the monitors to help the Hunters with their mission. Rubbing her eyes and sticking the ear piece in her ear, Alia officially had reentered the fold and had given everyone new hopes... This was all due to the fact that gossip had flooded the entire base. Seeing how Alia had just reenlisted her help into the war, they rationalized that X had also joined the ranks even though they could not get any denials or anything from Signas. Even now in these times, the people looked to X to save them from danger. X was their savior every time and now was even more so...
Suddenly amidst all the preparations, sirens blared through the installation. Hunters that remained on staff at the headquarters were quickly assigned on duty as a special message was delivered through the PA system. Amidst the flashing red lights and earsplitting sirens, Signas stood alone with a solemn look on his face and shut his eyes as he made his announcement to everyone...
"Hunters away from the base... return immediately! We're under attack! The Assassins Guild is actively engaging all our forces and are, as of right now, trying to get access to the base! I repeat! We're under attack! Return to base immediately Hunters!"
Signas opened his eyes as he turned off his communication line and he stepped aside. No one would notice the tear sliding down his face as he realized that everything had been lost... There was no one who could save them now...
Aboard the Ziggurat, Xephyr's face lit up with delight about the fire storms he had ignited and continued to line up his contingents on the battlefield. Coordinating his attack, Xephyr thought of all the good he would create with taking out the Neo Hunters, the only line of defense for the government. Turning to his general, Xephyr started to talk about the changes that were soon to come...
"Ahhh," Xephyr laughed, "I love the smell of charred Reploids! That is if we can call those traitors Reploids! They sold out their race by helping those pathetic humans! They'll pay!"
"Indeed they will Lord Xephyr," a large heavily clad Reploid bowed, "Everything is going according to plan. Once the Hunters are crushed, Sigma will unleash his virus to wipe out the human race. We will be victorious all in a matter of time!"
"Yes we will," Xephyr nodded happily, "How are things going on the lines Nemesis?"
"They are sending in more Hunters to the slaughter and they will never see our final strike," Nemesis inserted, "The Hunters will be too preoccupied with the attack to realize that the Ziggurat has any weapons. Once we are in range of the base, we will fire the main cannon and incinerate all of it!"
"Very good!" Xephyr was delighted at hearing this and went off to work with some other things. Nemesis teleported down to his legions and continued to coordinate the attack on the base. Everything was coming down to the last detail as all of the things that the Assassins Guild had prepared for came to fruition... Just down the hall, away from the decisive actions of its leaders, Sigma was running into some problems that would most assuredly slow down his progress. It would seem that the fourth virus would not adhere to the others to bind them together. Instead, it would just sit there and not do anything. Through his observations, Sigma tracked the cause down to his own virus and with the equipment at his disposal, he started to rectify the problems with his own virus. Eyeing it all up in his microscope, Sigma gasped at his latest findings and slammed his fists into the table.
"DAMN YOU TO HELL!" Sigma cursed, "That wretched Black Talon has worked his will into me again! That blasted Sigma Protocol has corrupted my virus and is rewriting it. Damned abomination... It would seem that it has mutated and taken on a life of its own! I'll just have to rework the programming of the virus Black Talon had done to correct the problem. There's no way around it. The deadline is fast approaching and I must keep up my end for everything depends on this virus... A virus that will spell the end of everything... For now my masterpiece, I will allow you to rest and await the proper time to awaken the true power of it... then everyone will suffer under the wrath of Sigma!"
Long after everything had quieted down onboard the Ziggurat, Sigma awoke from his chamber and went through everything noteworthy. On this look around, he found several interesting places that were hidden from the Assassins Guild. Several chambers that were hidden behind false walls, that led to secret compartments at which there was no security or no possible way for them to find him.
Moving quickly, Sigma teleported into the old dilapidated lab of Dr Wily and took parts from there to reengineer a new lab. Working flawlessly, he put together a lab in no time... Finishing it up and then eyeing up his work, Sigma smiled at how ingenious he was for putting together such a spectacularly updated work area along with an alternate power source to power it all. Concealing his lab was easy for it was hidden from prying eyes and to further hide it he installed a series of protocols that would hide energy signals. Sigma walked away from his secret cove and pushed the button to shut the area off. Lucky for him to do such because as soon as the wall silently clicked into place, Typhus crept through the area where Sigma was.
"Good morning Typhus," Sigma yawned cheerfully, "You have a nice sleep?"
"Listen Sigma," Typhus growled, "Maybe you can fool Xephyr and them about all this but you don't fool me one bit. Now stop with the charades and let's get down to business. You and I both know you want to eradicate the Hunters so it's beneficial for you to join us. When this is done, you're going to back stab us like you've done to many other Reploids!"
"I knew there was a reason why I liked you," Sigma grinned evilly, "See here's where I interject with my own morsel. I know about your own agenda Typhus. You're only in this until Xephyr rids the world of the human race and then you're going to start a rebellion against him! You shouldn't bite the hand that fed you all these years! You never know what it'll get you."
"You'll pay for that comment Sigma!" Typhus shot a disgusted glance at Sigma, "You don't have any underlings to take the hits for you now so don't be shocked when you wake up in limbo one morning. I will be watching you for the slightest inkling of deceit and then I will have you!"
"Keep dreaming young one," Sigma cackled as he walked off, "Oh by the way, you have something on your nose... you ass kisser."
"I'll pay you back for your comments and more Sigma," Typhus hummed as he went toward his own lab, "You'll get your come-upins soon enough! Sigma won't even be a bug when I overthrow everything. Well... for now I will just contend with this small sample I stole," Typhus toned down his voice as he entered his lab, now with a vial in his hand, "Let's just see what my viral scan will say about this sample of your Sigma virus." Typhus started work with dissecting the virus... After a few moments, he finally came to the conclusion that he had hoped... "Ahhhh! Now this is very interesting! It's everything that I had hoped and prayed for. I won't have to wait as long for Sigma to finally die out! It's all a matter of time now!"
Around the same time elsewhere, a small flash of light highlighted the hills of a small town as it illuminated things for miles. A bright object streaked across the skies and landed in a remote area away from everyone... Crashing into solid ground, the object did not make so much as a sound as it slid to a stop... Smoke still emanating from the trail it blazed into the ground, a capsule laid smoldering unscathed from reentry... A loud hiss resounded as it depressurized and released its contents. A familiar looking hero stepped out of the capsule and shut his eyes to find X. A moment later, he sighed knowing that X was safe and in a blur of azure light he vanished with his capsule. By the time anyone knew what had happened, the trail and everything had been wiped clean leaving only small wisps of smoke behind him...
After wiping another trail clean, he then moved on to more pressing matters. Quickly gathering himself after hiding his capsule, Zenith rushed off to find X and Zero. The journey was not half as long as he had thought for in a blink of an eye he found himself outside of their base... Clunking the door open of the secret compartment, Zenith stood panting in front of X and Zero, who were talking with Ciel about Sigma's escapades.
"X..." Zenith gasped trying to get his breath, "I have... I have the most grave of news!"
"Ummm," Ciel looked at Zenith, "Welcome Dr Light model!"
"Who's this young lady X?" Zenith bowed and kissed her hand.
"She's Ciel," X shook his head, "Dr Cossack's her creator. I guess it's a stretch but she's almost our sister," X hesitated for a moment and then quickly regained himself, "What the hell is wrong this time?"
"I think it best for all three of you to sit down," Zenith's expression deepened.
"I think it would be proper for you to introduce yourself first," Ciel responded bluntly turning her nose into the air in disgust, "It's rude to burst in unannounced and demand things!"
"I'm Zenith," Zenith forced out in a hurry, "Better? Now SIT!"
All four of them sat down in the lab and began to chit chat. The impending silence in the room foretold the topic of concern because no one could have ever guessed what was revealed next. There were only two people who needed to be filled in on what was going on, Ciel and Dr Cossack. Yet that was not needed as much as they had thought... for both Ciel and Dr Cossack knew of his terror...
"Black Talon?" Ciel was taken a step back, "He's back? I thought he was defeated..."
"Well," Zenith sighed, "I thought so too and so did most of my precinct but it seems like he has cheated death somehow... That is if we can call what happened to him cheating death... From the news I've been receiving, Black Talon's on the point of death but he's slowly making progress... He's drawing his forces out from hiding and it's been said that he's coming back to erase everything short of a few minute particles of Earth."
"It would seem that you have your work cut out for you," Dr Cossack muttered, "Black Talon was a formidable foe for anyone to take on. It won't be a simple task taking him on now... Will it?"
"With everything else that's going on," X uttered as he threw his arms into the air in disgust, "It seems about my luck for him to be here amidst all this. An unstoppable supervirus, Sigma, the Assassins Guild and now Black Talon... Oye... I tell ya it just keeps getting better!"
"With your optimism, you could almost take over Signas' job," Zero joked trying to get a laugh. Everyone's face turned to meet up with Zero as no one laughed. Stammering a bit, Zero quickly continued, "This sorta stuff is normal if you had stayed with the Hunters X. We get this stuff all the time! It's just another field day for us. Just keep calm and things will be fine!"
Coming out of hiding, Alia found herself at the Neo Hunter Headquarters where she took up her old residence and started to dispatch again. They were very short of help on dispatch because most of the people were out on the field trying to find the Ziggurat... With the first declaration of war for nearing a century, the Hunters found themselves unprepared for the thought of such a thing. Yet no matter how hard things would get or how hard things would seem, everyone within the Hunter base would stick together and reason it all out. There was only one person who seemed to be at the brink of insanity from this declaration, Signas. Signas was already wound tightly before anything had happened but with open war, he found himself questioning why he had to keep fighting such unfathomable odds. Douglas and Lifesavor were both too preoccupied to even care about the declaration. Lifesavor had his check lists and medical prep for oncoming wounded when it was needed, while Douglas kept designing weapons and methods to shorten the war to the best of his abilities. All in all, things within the Neo Hunter Headquarters could not get anymore hectic even if a meteor threatened to level everything...
Looking up onto her computer screen, Alia's hands started to shake under the stress and pressure of this line of work. Alia shook off her doubts and cast aside her mixed emotions as she tuned out of everything. She tucked the picture of X into a corner of her desk and looked through the monitors to help the Hunters with their mission. Rubbing her eyes and sticking the ear piece in her ear, Alia officially had reentered the fold and had given everyone new hopes... This was all due to the fact that gossip had flooded the entire base. Seeing how Alia had just reenlisted her help into the war, they rationalized that X had also joined the ranks even though they could not get any denials or anything from Signas. Even now in these times, the people looked to X to save them from danger. X was their savior every time and now was even more so...
Suddenly amidst all the preparations, sirens blared through the installation. Hunters that remained on staff at the headquarters were quickly assigned on duty as a special message was delivered through the PA system. Amidst the flashing red lights and earsplitting sirens, Signas stood alone with a solemn look on his face and shut his eyes as he made his announcement to everyone...
"Hunters away from the base... return immediately! We're under attack! The Assassins Guild is actively engaging all our forces and are, as of right now, trying to get access to the base! I repeat! We're under attack! Return to base immediately Hunters!"
Signas opened his eyes as he turned off his communication line and he stepped aside. No one would notice the tear sliding down his face as he realized that everything had been lost... There was no one who could save them now...
Aboard the Ziggurat, Xephyr's face lit up with delight about the fire storms he had ignited and continued to line up his contingents on the battlefield. Coordinating his attack, Xephyr thought of all the good he would create with taking out the Neo Hunters, the only line of defense for the government. Turning to his general, Xephyr started to talk about the changes that were soon to come...
"Ahhh," Xephyr laughed, "I love the smell of charred Reploids! That is if we can call those traitors Reploids! They sold out their race by helping those pathetic humans! They'll pay!"
"Indeed they will Lord Xephyr," a large heavily clad Reploid bowed, "Everything is going according to plan. Once the Hunters are crushed, Sigma will unleash his virus to wipe out the human race. We will be victorious all in a matter of time!"
"Yes we will," Xephyr nodded happily, "How are things going on the lines Nemesis?"
"They are sending in more Hunters to the slaughter and they will never see our final strike," Nemesis inserted, "The Hunters will be too preoccupied with the attack to realize that the Ziggurat has any weapons. Once we are in range of the base, we will fire the main cannon and incinerate all of it!"
"Very good!" Xephyr was delighted at hearing this and went off to work with some other things. Nemesis teleported down to his legions and continued to coordinate the attack on the base. Everything was coming down to the last detail as all of the things that the Assassins Guild had prepared for came to fruition... Just down the hall, away from the decisive actions of its leaders, Sigma was running into some problems that would most assuredly slow down his progress. It would seem that the fourth virus would not adhere to the others to bind them together. Instead, it would just sit there and not do anything. Through his observations, Sigma tracked the cause down to his own virus and with the equipment at his disposal, he started to rectify the problems with his own virus. Eyeing it all up in his microscope, Sigma gasped at his latest findings and slammed his fists into the table.
"DAMN YOU TO HELL!" Sigma cursed, "That wretched Black Talon has worked his will into me again! That blasted Sigma Protocol has corrupted my virus and is rewriting it. Damned abomination... It would seem that it has mutated and taken on a life of its own! I'll just have to rework the programming of the virus Black Talon had done to correct the problem. There's no way around it. The deadline is fast approaching and I must keep up my end for everything depends on this virus... A virus that will spell the end of everything... For now my masterpiece, I will allow you to rest and await the proper time to awaken the true power of it... then everyone will suffer under the wrath of Sigma!"