Alone.
At the edge of the hole, he was as he always had been: without another.
"This is the place Zero, or an energy output resembling his, was detected. The Nightmare activity is, well, nightmarish, so there's no hope of a signal getting through once you go down there."
"I'll be fine."
He had the Shadow Armour. Nothing in the world could stop him. For the past five wars, nothing had.
So he fell. His body was designed to withstand tremendous strain, and a little thing like falling several hundred feet wouldn't damage him.
Spikes. Why wasn't he surprised? The walls, floors, ceilings were spiked. Even the wallpaper had a spike pattern. He climbed without preamble. Some wolfish reploids were spewing their minty fresh breath, but he ignored them. He wasn't here to mince small fry. He was after The Big One. He guessed that, had he equipped any other armour, the stage would have been difficult, what with the spike motif, the moving walls and the encroaching doom of a self-scrolling stage. The enemies there were mediocre at best. But the Shadow Armour was all about mobility. After revisiting every stage with the utilitarian Blade Armour and rescuing captive reploids (not to mention finding Dynamo and bribing him with Nightmare souls to show where the rest of the reploids were), X had equipped the Hyper Dash, Speedster and Quick Charge. He was a speed junkie, and he loved it. He was a blur, a ghost, a shadow that no trap could close around.
So much for the first Gate stage. Hannah told him to expect a biological Mechalinoid at the end, assuring him his Crescent Blade Slash had enough reach. He walked, fully charged, into the garage, but it was quiet. No blaring WARNING sign. No Mechalinoid pulse.
"You've come prepared this time."
"And with the antivirus rearing to go. You have to fix your virus buffer, and stop your diet of Nightmare Souls!"
He descended… a dark angel to the earth. The twin Mechalinoid eyes X should have fought were revolving around him, bathed in the same purple glow he was. They were liberated of their biological shells.
"So, little ninja, can you take on three at once?"
"If I must. You know I never face fair odds."
"True. But I don't go for unfair. I go for overkill."
One of the Mechalinoid eyes covered the floor with flames. X clung to a wall, firing shuriken at it. The second eye emitted an energy beam, whereupon X rocketed off the wall, gaining considerable airtime from the Hyper Dash, bringing down his saber on the eye, striking it with such force that he vaulted forward again, clinging to the opposite wall and firing more shuriken. Zero brought the two eyes to bear and they launched a flamethrower. The flames vanished from the floor, so he dropped, dashing under them while letting them have it with his shuriken.
"Slippery snake."
Zero threw one of the eyes at him, and this time the attack connected, knocking X to the floor. The other eye tried its energy beam, but he rolled out of the way to stick a shuriken in its pupil.
"You can't hide behind them!"
"But I am wearing you down."
"Haven't caught my second wind yet," X boasted, somersaulting clear over the eyes, slashing them with his powerful golden Crescent Blade. They fizzled out and crashed on the floor, dead husks.
"Now, are you going to be serious?"
"I never hesitate."
Gone.
"That won't work this time!"
X disappeared, just as fast. Sparks exploded suddenly in midair, gold grinding against red.
"How did you get so strong?"
"I'm not telling you!"
They bounded around the room, gauging one other. Neither could afford a hit, as X could not withstand the damage and Zero could not withstand the antivirus in that saber, the same antivirus program he had used years ago.
"How ironic. Only Zero can defeat Zero."
"I'll use your true strength against you, you faker!"
Blades connected but never cut, their bodies moved at speeds that boiled the dust underfoot. The walls were no different from the floors; they went up and up, ever higher in Gate's laboratory, the ground forgotten far below, while their sparks glittered in darkness.
"You will make a mistake."
"Not while I'm saving someone!"
Zero laughed, countering with blade as well as words.
"Save yourself."
Arm cannon blasts were dodged. Shuriken were deflected.
"Give up!"
A second beam saber appeared, and X felt its bite. He fell.
And fell…
And fell.
As Max Payne once said, that was the genius of the hole. No matter how hard you worked to the top, you could fall all the way back down in an instant. And that second beam saber, that unknown factor, was that instant.
Zero followed him, diving as an eagle to a raven, blonde locks rippling, twin sabers streaming their neon glow in his wake. At a disadvantage, X tried to blast him on his way down, but Zero was the more aerodynamic of the two, and shifted his position in midair as fast as X fired. Mere feet above ground, Zero began a crosswise slash, but X saw it and grabbed Zero's wrists. They smashed earthward, X taking the brunt, shocked from his fall long enough for Zero to wrench free and slice deeply, forming a bright red X against the black armour.
"Guaaahh!"
Zero flipped backward, landing in a habitual crouch. The triumphant gleam in his eyes offset the burn of his thirsty sabers.
"Now I will be the only one!"
Never slowing down, Zero performed one final extreme speed assault, because he knew X would dodge anything less than maximum power. X did, indeed, push off the ground with one hand, beam saber brought from behind in one blurring motion to hit the empty air in front him where Zero had been a millisecond ago.
But Zero was behind him now.
"YOU LOSE!"
KZASH!
"AUGHH!"
Where had that come from! X had slashed forward, not backward!
"You forget, Zero… I have a Giga Attack to compensate."
X turned, circulatory fluid dribbling from the corners of his mouth and the cross on his chest.
"It takes the energy… accumulated from severe damage… to create a Crescent Blade Slash wherever the beam saber moves… and I brought mine full circle… you should have… attacked from the air…"
More than pain was the disbelief etched across Zero's face and shoulder in the form of a bright shining scar. The antivirus was ravaging him.
"Damn… you!"
Technology had failed yet again. Technology had not calculated that desperation move. Technology had not taken measures to counteract it. With scars neither of their auto-repair functions could restore, the technology both warriors possessed entered suspended animation.
888
Something reactivated X. A restraining field held him fast. He looked around at the high-domed laboratory, bristling with scientific analysis equipment and reploid test pods. Zero was awake, still wearing the scar, but under the strain of a massive force field that dominated the centre of the room, crackling with purple bolts of energy. The ground under Zero was dented and cracked from the enormous pressure he was exerting against it, but the field kept him down amidst his flurry of curses and grunts. Gate, the usual smug grin on his face, clapped his hands as he walked towards X.
"Good. I want you to witness my rebirth."
X ran a quick self-diagnostic that revealed critical damage was repaired, but he was not whole. The cross still marked his chest, a cross he would have to carry for the moment.
"Are you that afraid of us, Gate? Why didn't you fix us fully?"
"Do you take me for a fool?"
"Yes!"
"Wrong! I can't have you at full power, because I know you two! I studied you both all my life! You'll find some way to break out of those force fields before long, even if you're halfway dead! But I only need a few seconds!"
"Boy, you sure know how to monologue like a real villain."
"Why, thank you. Eloquence is what I pride myself on… other than being the world's most brilliant scientist!"
"Yep, this would be the boasting stage of the monologue."
"Silence! You are weak! Helpless! Soon I will be invincible!"
"The taunting stage. Could you please skip the…"
"Muahahahaha!"
"…Evil laughter. Damn it, Gate, if you're going to kill us, spare us your mouth!"
"As you wish!"
Procuring the sample of Zero's DNA from his lab coat… X interrupted!
"You're going to kill us with the Atari cartridge for Tron?"
Gate stamped his feet.
"Bloody hell! I surround myself with imbeciles!"
He ran to a console to flip a switch.
"Full power!"
With a mighty thunder crack Zero was embedded in the floor, the force field a purple fist grinding him downward. Gate danced over to him, plugging the sample of Zero's DNA directly into the scar on Zero's face.
"He has to be awake, and active, for the DNA to transfer!"
"THAT'S MINE!" he roared.
"Not anymore!"
When Gate removed the shard, it shone with unnatural purple energy. It reflected in Gate's manic eyes.
"His DNA… along with the Virus - that ancient Dark Energy that Wily pulled from the heavens - is mine!"
"You're mad!" X shouted.
"Angry! I'm an angry scientist! Morals and laws, pathetic things of human creation, have repressed my superior genius for far too long!"
Gate lifted his helmet. What had been a full head of wavy lavender hair, which Alia had so often run her fingers through in times past, was now half-shaven, revealing a self-inflicted port directly into his central brain. The sight of it saddened X, as it reminded him of Sigma's self-inflicted 'improvements'. Reploids visited horrors upon themselves to gain power.
"I am become death, destroyer of worlds!"
He plugged Zero's DNA – the good and the bad – into his own. The results were mind-bending, to say the least, as Gate went through convulsions and contortions of agony that redefined what a body could withstand.
"I think I died… I think I'm dead!"
His form changed. Gold shone through his lab coat, which morphed into a flowing cape as the atoms of his being were redefined, given different parameters. Bulky armour burst through his small frame, devouring what had been a scientist.
"Ohh death is coming… it's coming!"
Clad in brilliant gold, Gate hovered above ground.
"Mu-ah ha ha ha!"
"Oi, not that laugh again," X complained. Gate flung his hand upward, and a surge of energy ripped through X, throwing him clear of the restraining field.
"You… can manipulate energy… like the Nightmare!" he gasped, staggering to his feet. He was still weak and now more damaged than ever. His force of will warded off the sleep that sought to shut down his systems until proper repairs were made.
"Look at you, you can barely stand, while I defy gravity!"
X smirked.
"I should thank you. That last attack was enough to recharge!"
"Recharge what, your Giga Attack? I saw it on camera, you hapless fool! It has limited range! You can't reach me up here!"
"I wasn't referring to myself."
Gate whirled to Zero. There was a Zero-shaped hole in the floor, under the force field.
"I guess your little trap backfired."
"Where is he!"
KZASH!
"CAGE ME, WILL YOU?"
KZASH!
Gate suffered two doses of extreme speed before realizing what was happening. That was the difference between a scientist and a warrior.
"YES! The antivirus finally immunized you!"
But the way Zero was acting all pissed and slashing with twin sabers, the only thing that denoted his return to 'normality' was the lack of evil purple aura. Gate smacked against a wall from the fury of Zero's dual saber mastery.
"Blasted… insect!" Gate rumbled. He caused an explosion that harmed him and blew away his attacker. Zero skidded to a crumpled heap beside X.
"Hey there…" he slurred.
"Zero! You're back!"
"Libera Te Ex Inferis. I saved myself. I resisted that damn virus. You helped too, I guess."
"Phfft. You're welcome."
"What do we do about Rocket Man over there?"
X shrugged and suggested, "Gang up?"
Zero sighed acquiescence.
"Sounds like a plan. I'm in way too much pain for smarmy retorts."
"What's with the dialogue? Fight me!" Gate taunted. X scratched his head.
"Uh… how exactly do we go about this?"
"Go 'round back. I'll ground him. Figure out the rest."
While X dashed under Gate, missing a red energy sphere to the head, Zero came up in the scientist's face
"Stop hitting yourself!"
Zero tore through the energy sphere Gate released, breaking it into three smaller ones that zapped the scientist, jarring him out of the air. On cue, X spun to release the Crescent Blade Slash, tearing Gate a new one.
"Yaaagh!"
Gate fell to his knees, his back lacerated.
Down, but not out.
"How did he survive that?" X wondered, coming around front to view the wayward scientist. Zero rested his twin sabers under Gate's chin.
"You're coming with us."
Gate shook his head side to side.
"Failed, failed! I failed him…"
"Who are you…?"
BZZZAT! KATHOOM!
"BWAAARGHHHH!"
X and Zero were thrown clear by a fusion blast aimed at Gate' back. Gold shattered. The cape disintegrated. Gate fell flat on his face in slow motion.
Down… and out.
Most of the laboratory had also been destroyed. Small fires circled the crater where a very dead Gate laid, his back and most of his head missing. X staggered to his feet. This was not his day.
"Where did that attack come from?"
"I did not expect his death-scream to be that bad," Zero commented. X's aural units popped.