Chapter 25 - Guest of Calamity
The cloaked figure set his hands on the head of the metal table, where the completed Reploid known as Trigger was laying. He reached his hand out over the table and closed Trigger's chest panel, sliding the armor back over that small part. He had yet to activate the Reploid made of spare Hunter parts, but he knew that the Reploid would obey him and do as he wanted him to do, no matter what. His programming didn't exceed past that of a normal worker Reploid.
Trigger has no hands, only cannons in the place of where hands should be. The shots fired from his hand-cannons are called 'Ripper Beams' and they can pierce through almost any type of material. It is believed that they can even pierce through the purest of Metool alloy, tearing a hole the size of a softball into the metal.
Atop Trigger's left shoulder is another cannon. Trigger was built for power, to destroy anything and everything without having to worry about the consequences. The shoulder cannon's blast was about six times larger than that of the 'Ripper Beams' and was capable of destroying the entire bottom floor of a building if he aimed it correctly.
Trigger, though made from spare parts, looked the part of a Hunter. He had silver armor that gleamed, even in the florescent lighting of the room they were in. The carbon rubber suit beneath was a soft golden color, which was also the color of the spikes upon his helmet, the tips of his boots, the joining parts of the armor on the lower portion of the boots, and the design upon his chest.
'Well, Trigger.. The only thing left to do is activate you.. I hope that you actually work.'
The rusted old doors to the factor creaked as they began to open, steam exploded from the joints, wafting out into the beginning of the factory. The smoke stayed low to the ground, for it had no place to escape to. Some of it drifted up to the rafters, billowing outward into the rest of the factory. The man in the cloak heard nothing as a long figure strolled into the factory, the doors sweeping closed behind him.
Sigma had built a Reploid at the beginning of the Sigma Wars, and all of the experience that he had acquired throughout the years was directly transmitted from him into the programming of his Reploid. The purpose of this Reploid was to take over where Sigma left off, no matter when it was, but each time that Sigma had lost, the activation of this Reploid never occurred because the Mavericks had discovered that Sigma was still alive before they could initiate the activation of him.
The Reploid was placed levels beneath the bases that Sigma acquired all through the Sigma Wars. Each time Sigma was destroyed, rebuilt, and established a new fortress, the pod containing the Reploid was moved as well. After being destroyed for the fourth time, Sigma finally came up with a name for him. He named him.. Azazel.
In Sigma's final moments with Zero in the base he had constructed in Calamity, Sigma had set about inputting the codes Azazel's pod. The activation sequence shouldn't have taken more than five minutes, ten minutes tops, but what with Zero self-destructing the entire base, the final code was left half-finished and the computer had to randomly insert codes to finish it off. It had taken almost two hundred years to finally get the last three digits into the code, but it had been done.
Azazel was finally free, and he was finally going to do what Sigma had built him for. He was going to start where Sigma left off, and wipe out the humans from the Earth. And then, he was going to destroy the Maverick Hunters. X and Axl were on the top of his list, and he wasn't going to let them get away.
Azazel's pod was empty in the sixth level beneath the Maverick factory. It had taken him a few weeks to finally get free and upon doing it, came in contact with his very first Reploid. He couldn't defeat this one in combat, so they 'allied' together and decided they would work together for their goals.
The two of them had activated the factory, though the other Reploid had gotten the call. They had both done their part in getting the factory up to par for mass-Maverick production. It had taken from two, maybe three, days to complete all the necessary protocols to get the factory up and running efficiently, but they had done it. And now they were on their way to becoming two of the richest Reploids ever. Though money meant nothing to either of them. Money was not power anymore, intelligence was power.
Azazel made his way up the rickety staircase tot he office where his 'partner' was located. He stood in the door way, creating a shadow across the room. The man in the cloak looked up from his work and shook his head. Azazel was bigger than the other Reploid, despite the cloak shrouding the other Reploid's form. Azazel knew who he was.
"How goes the progress?"
Down beneath the factory within Calamity, down lower than even Azazel's pod. Deep within the basement levels of the factor.. A single computer lay dormant. The computer screen suddenly came to life. The screen was flashing a dark red repeatedly, displaying erroneous messages in black text against the red background. The screen suddenly went black, and then came back up as blue.
Across the bottom of the screen, a download bar appeared and it began the process of downloading whatever file had just been sent. It was transmitting rather quickly for a three hundred year old computer. The blue background began to shimmer, and then suddenly shattered.
In its place, static erupted. The center of the screen began to blur and then the static was pulled into a small black-hole type thing. The bottom of the screen suddenly changed to a dark toned flesh color, and a face slowly began to develop as the file downloaded more and more. As it neared completion. The computer was still displaying messages in illegible text, all of them appearing off to the side, away from the head.
When the download had gotten halfway completed, and the head was almost half done. The mouth began to move, mouthing words that couldn't be understood, even if you could read lips. The erroneous messages vanished and a small bar appeared below the download bar. Words began to flash inside this little text box, where the face was obviously communicating to me from.
Out of all of the words that appeared on the screen, only one of the words could be made out. Even in the illegible text, this one word was always understood. The word was the name of one of the largest horrors ever to be known by the Reploid Era. That word was the name of.. Sigma.
"How goes the progress?"
The cloaked figure came out from around the table, pulling the black sheet back over the body of Trigger. He hadn't been expected Azazel for at least a few more days, he didn't think that the 'Maverick Prince' was going to endure his presence if the need wasn't necessary, but apparently, he was wrong.
"The Mavericks have been coming out as quick as they can. And no machine has begun malfunctioning."
"Mmm.. That is good, very good indeed."
"Have you found what you were looking for yet, Azazel?"
"The search continues, but I believe I may be getting close to my goal. Hopefully, my search is well worth it in the end."
"We can only hope."
"That is true, Z-" The cloaked figure lifted his hand away from his side, the cloak streaming down his arm, stopping Azazel, "No."
"Hmm.. No?"
"That is no longer my name, Azazel." Azazel set his arms across his chest, tilting his head forward slightly, "Then what would you like me to call you?"
"I have taken upon the name of this town.. Call me.. Calamity."
"... Of course.. Calamity."
The download began to quicken as it finished off the last few pieces of data that were being transferred from some unknown computer elsewhere on Earth. The download suddenly finished, and the face upon the screen slowly tilted backward, revealing the bald head that of Sigma. The singular red gem within his forehead gleamed upon the screen. He curled his lips into a sneer and began laughing, slow and evil. He pursed his lips into a fine line, his eyes drawing into dark slits, the purple scars across his eyes moving with his eyes.
"I have return once more to haunt your dreams, Hunters.."
"Prepare to meet your end at the hands of.. SIGMA!"
Sigma's head tilted back on the screen and through his pale, metallic lips, the most sadistic laugh strove forth, piercing through the silence of the deepest level of the factory. Sigma continued to laugh, three more downloads appearing on the screen. Each folder that appeared upon the completion of the download held his previous battle armors and those that were yet to come.
"I won't go down that easily this time, X.. Or you either Zero.. Both of you are going to feel the power of a TRUE MAVERICK!"
As Azazel made his leave from the office within the factory, Calamity set his hands lightly upon the desk on the opposite side of the room. He peeled his cloak off, revealing dark red armor, with golden armor strewn across his chest in an 'X' pattern, and golden armor had been added to reinforce the ankles of his boots, as well as the lining of his shoulder pads. He turned back toward the table containing Trigger, his mane of blonde hair sweeping along behind him.
'Now is going to be the best time to activate him.. But why do I have a sudden feeling of dread..'
Calamity slid the panel off of Trigger's chest armor and opening the paneling. He flicked a switch and slid both the paneling and chest armor back into the place. He took a step back as Trigger began to activate. A sudden spark exploded from his neck and he rose from his table, leaping off and landing heavily beside it. The newly activated Reploid let out a single, blood-thirsty shriek, before running from the room.
"SHORYU! YOU'RE MINE!"
Across the room from the computer, four pods began to rise up from the ground. Each one containing a different looking Reploid than the one before it. One of the Reploids was a female, while the rest were shorter and male.
"You four.. Are the perfect group of X-Hunters, I have ever seen.. You will serve me well.. You four are capable of doing what Agile, Violin, and Serges failed at doing all those times before.. Fail me, and your fate will be worse than death."