They appeared in some kind of futuristic temple. The metal walls and floor were ornately decorated with designs no-one in the group had seen before, but considering it was Sigma they were up against, it had some kind of historical significance that completely went over their indifferent heads. They were here to kick ass and take names, not study architecture. Before them lay a forked path.
"We take the right path," Hannah said and waited for them to move.
"How do you know that?" Axl enquired.
"They've already released the videogame for this war. You live in a world where wars are elaborately constructed for the amusement of the masses," Hannah said matter-of-factly and with a perfectly straight face.
"Don't try to understand, kid, let's go," Zero ordered, and the four of them moved on. While the reploids dealt with the armour-riding guardians of the area, Hannah hummed Beauty of the Beast and milled about. The teleporter to the next area appeared and they went through to find robotic wolves patrolling the exit.
"Why does Sigma set up these traps and then leave life-restoring capsules lying around?" X wondered, "Sometimes he leaves them right before we fight him, so that the fight's fair, or something."
"It would be easier to trap us in a room and set off a few thermonuclear devices. That teleporter back there could have teleported us into the sun, or into a lava pit, or above a spike pit; there are so many ways he can dispose us with little to no difficulty but he chooses to engage us in combat instead," Zero told Axl, who gulped and said nothing. After the wolves were disposed of (once X and Axl shot them from far away, the wolves did not even bother to counterattack, as if they knew their existences were trite) the reploids and human entered a reploid graveyard. X walked up to one of the eight obsidian tombstones that were veined with glowing light. Beside each was a teleporter.
"I suppose this is the security system that's been used since the days of Dr. Wily."
Hannah unloaded her backpack. She removed eight small boxes that she attached to each tombstone. Axl blinked at her.
"What are you doing?"
"The scouts reported that these tombstones were the power supply for the security system. Usually, you would have to go into these teleporters and kill all eight bosses all over again to destroy them, but that's why I'm here. Douglas rigged these jamming devices to interrupt the signal between each tombstone and its teleport pod."
As confused as ever, Axl watched her install the devices.
"Alright, when the signal's interrupted, the security system will think the bosses have been destroyed."
She whisked out a remote control, pressed the button and all eight tombstones crumbled to dust.
"Sigma may be a supervillain, but we have hackers," Hannah smirked as the final teleporter appeared at the far end of the room. The three reploids left Hannah to call HQ for a pickup.
"You ready for this, Axl?" X asked.
"Uh, I'm not sure. I wasn't even able to help in the fight against Red…"
"Until you relied on X for support. That was some good thinking back there. See, Sigma's nowhere near as smart as most believe him to be. His attack patterns are incredibly predictable; he'll fight you in a regular reploid body, then he'll turn red and become ten times bigger," Zero informed him.
"Really?" Axl sputtered.
"No, but he has this thing for big battle forms. I think he's compensating for his baldness."
Just before they entered the teleporter, the ghost of Dr. Light appeared before them.
"X…"
"AH! Dad! Don't scare me like that!"
"X, why didn't you pick up any of the armour upgrades?" Dr. Light asked in a mournful tone. X scratched the back of his head.
"Well, uh, see…"
Behind them, Hannah spoke into her comm. device, "Hang on a sec!" and went to the group.
"Dr. Light!" she said in an imperious tone. The hologram quailed.
"What did I do?"
"Your armour upgrades for this war suck, that's what! What do they do?"
"Well, uh, the helmet allows you to recover more energy when you find energy pellets…"
"And there's an upgrade that we already got that does the same thing," Hannah pointed out. "Continue."
"Th... the body armour reduces damage by fifty percent, and allows X to do the Giga Crash…"
"First of all, there's an upgrade for reducing damage, secondly, we have another upgrade to extend the invincibility after receiving damage, and thirdly, the X Buster is so incredibly overpowered this time around that a Giga Crash is nothing more than a formality," Hannah counted off fingers.
"But the arm upgrade!"
"What about it?"
"It allows X to charge all his special weapons and charge the X Buster to a fourth level!"
"Didn't I just say the X Buster is overpowered this time around? You can kill the strongest mechaniloids in less than three shots!"
"Well I think the leg armour is fantastic. It allows X to glide."
"To glide?"
"Yes, to glide," Dr. Light said with a satisfied smirk. There was a ten second silence during which X's jaw dropped, Zero facepalmed, Axl blinked and Hannah shook her head. Dr. Light was no longer smiling.
"What do you think this is, Dr. Light; Kingdom Hearts? Peter Pan taught you how to glide in that one. Do you see any magical flying fairy boys in this world, Dr. Light?"
"No? But it's similar to the Falcon Armour's flight function!"
"The Falcon Armour was the most mobile armour you ever made. I have not the foggiest idea why you did not incorporate that flight capability in all your future armour models. X was able to fly clear over any obstacle in his way, ignore every enemy he came across and laugh at bottomless pits. You mean to say gliding is comparable to flying?" Hannah cocked an eyebrow. Dr. Light lowered his eyes.
"Fine. I'll do better in the next war."
"The next war?" X echoed, "There's more after this?"
"Well, obviously. If you kids didn't go to war I'd have to retire, and since I'm immortal in this hologram form, do you know how boring it would be playing Bingo for eternity?"
Dr. Light faded away and left them to confront Sigma. Hannah bade the three of them farewell and, with a satisfied grin on her face, teleported back to HQ.