Disclaimer- Any and all characters portrayed in this story do not belong to me, yet.
-
Chapter 2 - Lunar Struggle II: NexGen
Sigma's body stood in front of the two Hunters. X and Zero looked at him with angry expressions while he looked at them with a look of surprise.
"The Maverick Hunters? How did you know I was here?" said the reploid. The voice came from his body but the lips didn't move. It wasn't even possible to tell where the lips were.
"...You're not Sigma...!" said Zero. "You sound nothing like him!"
"Indeed. I'm nothing like Sigma." The voice came from somewhere inside Sigma's body.
"You look just like him!" said X mockingly. A small shadowy body became visible inside Sigma. Suddenly two eyes flashed on its head.
"A New Generation Reploid?" said Zero, both to X and the impersonator.
"No. A 'Next' Generation Reploid. I am but the first of the series." Sigma's body then got into a punching stance. "But I'm still more than enough to demolish the both of you."
He lurched forward at tremendous speed, knocking both X and Zero onto the ground. The two jumped back on their feet and got their weapons ready. X's buster was humming violently and Zero's saber sizzled in the air.
"Next Generation Reploid or not, we'll still destroy you, Maverick!" said Zero. X nodded in agreement.
"You'd hit a child? My, the Maverick Hunters are more ruthless than I was told. I hope you two think about that as I crush you both into scrap!"
The child jumped into the air above the Hunters. X shot a charged attack, stopping the Sigma body in mid-air. Zero jumped after the Sigma body and sliced the neck. The Sigma body merely punched Zero back to the ground.
"What!" said Zero, getting back on his feet.
The body pointed to his neck, to the odd liquid energy. Zero immediately understood.
"We have to destroy the parts that are actually solid, X," he said.
"I know," said X.
The Sigma body had already landed back on the ground and was walking slowly towards the two. X began shooting and Zero dashed forward.
"It's no use," said the child, he dodged Zero's first strike and some of X's attacks. "As long as I have this body, neither of you can kill me."
After a second, failed attempt, Zero finally landed a strike to the Sigma body's shoulder and stabbed his saber into his stomach.
"AAHH!" yelled the child. He punched Zero up into the air and took out the saber that was stabbed into him. He began running after Zero's airborne body to gain momentum and held the saber in a harpoon-ready position. Zero was spinning in the air too quickly to notice what the Sigma body was doing, but X realized it immediately, and shot at him furiously.
"C'mon, C'MON!" he thought. But the shots were not enough to stop the kid's plan. The child speared the saber at Zero, landing it perfectly into his chest.
"What...?" thought Zero. He looked down at the pain in his chest and found his saber planted there. "My...saber!"
He hit the floor and reached for the hilt of his beloved weapon with trembling hands.
"No...your not...meant...to kill...me!" he tried to pull the saber out, but found himself out of energy and stopped moving entirely.
"Zero!" X shouted. The kid started laughing hysterically.
"What a weakling this Sigma must've been to be destroyed by the two of you! A single attack and one of you is down for the count!" The child then looked at X. "Your turn!"
"You...!" X looked down at his buster and his armor-less body. "If only...!" He'd forgotten to prepare his Ultimate Armor.
The Sigma body ran at him and X unloaded a charged buster shot at his stomach. The body just stopped in its tracks for a split second and proceeded to ram into X. X kept on his feet and began unloading more shots at the Sigma body, dashing around to keep his distance from his attacks.
"Gotcha!" the child shouted gleefully. X's back ran into a wall. He just realized that he wasn't even paying attention to where he was dashing; the child must've been leading him to this the entire time. The Sigma body then got his arm ready to punch X.
"No you don't!" X jumped onto the wall and wall-dashed into the Sigma body, knocking him to the ground. He walked over him and pointed his buster to the Sigma head. "This ends now, 'Next Generation Reploid!'"
"You'll have to kill me to end it!" said the kid. His voice showed no fear.
"Zero...!" thought X. "So be it!"
X shot. A large cloud of smoke gusted out from the ground, making X back away from his victim. He kept his buster pointed down to where he last saw the Sigma body. Finally, the smoke disappeared from view and so did the Sigma body.
"So weak!" said the voice behind X.
- - - - -
"X," said a calm and kind voice.
X awoke.
He was surrounded by pitch-black space, nothing else, no stars, no light. The only thing he could see was his own armor-covered body which at the moment was giving its own mystical glow.
"Light..." said X, half-conscious, half-asleep.
"Sorry, I can't do anything about this. It seems darkness and your own inner-light is customary of every dream," said the voice.
"No...not that..." said X.
"Hohoh," said Light, actually managing to sound like Santa Claus. "I'm sorry, X. How's your head?"
"It feels dizzy."
"That's alright, I'm sure your friends will have that fixed in no time."
"What am I doing here?"
"I needed to tell you something, X."
"What is it, Doctor?"
"X!"
"Huh?"
"X! Wake up already!"
"Who's...?"
X woke up in his normal room. Axl was standing next to him.
"Finally! Alia said you'd be awake an hour ago! What's taken you?" Axl said. Despite his worrisome words, he didn't seem worried at all.
"Axl, you're alive? I mean- you're awake!" said X, his vision was just beginning to focus itself, but he could already tell it was Axl.
"Yeah, for like two hours. Most annoying hours of my life. All this 'How are you, Axl?' this and 'Are you sure you're okay?' that. What's with everybody?" he said.
"I'm sure they're just worried. I was about to ask you the same thing. Reploids with their crystals broken don't usually recover in just 2 days."
"Yeah, well I'm a New Generation Reploid. A broken jewel's nothing to me."
"You were still out for two days."
"Ah, whatever!"
"Seriously, you sure you're okay? You seemed really out of it after Lumine knocked you out."
"Yeah, I'm fine. But my doctor says he wants to check up on me every day. And check this out-"
Axl lifted his arm to reveal an unusual pearl white stain on a red part of his armor.
"They tried spray painting over it, but it just keeps reappearing."
"Weird..." An image of Lumine popped into X's head.
"C'mon, lets go meet up with the others."
Another image suddenly popped into X's head.
"Where's Zero!" he shouted. His head began spinning suddenly.
"Um...he's under care...But Alia said there shouldn't be any reason to worry. She said that he'll be up and running again faster than I was..." X quickly calmed down and began laughing. "I swear, you guys worry too much..."