Author's note: I didn't show X's reaction to Storm Eagle's death in "Grounded" because I didn't want to make an insanely long chapter.
I have had some idea of what I wanted to write before I started "Variable X", so this one will probably be over relatively quickly.
Hunter Base, the next day
X sighed and pulled a picture out of his pod, where he had been resting after being repaired. So far, the Hunters had been unable to locate Storm Eagle's remains per X's request. The only place they hadn't checked was where the Death Rogumer finally landed: in a power plant that Spark Mandrill was known to be fortifying. X looked at the picture: it was him, Storm Eagle, and Sigma after X's indoctrination into the Hunters. Before Storm Eagle had met Teal. Before Sigma had his fateful duel with Zero.
X heard footsteps and saw Zero walk in. His friend didn't say anything; he just placed his hand on X's shoulder and stood with him for a few minutes, determinedly not looking at the picture. Not so much out of jealousy at his best friend having other compaions as guilt for causing the rebellion that had now claimed two of the three occupants of the photo. Zero figured X needed to think about something else. "Dr. Cain said he might be able to adapt your dash boots into your standard feet. Something about a provision for it being included in their design. Look, X...we need to get moving again. Those Maverick armies aren't going to stop themselves. I'll go with you this time if you want." X looked up in surprise.
"We can't afford to wait on account of your emotions, X, and I figured since we'd throw you back in one way or another you should have someone accompany you until you recover. Besides, Sigma got wise to me spying on his fortress so I can't go back for a little bit."
"Zero...thanks. But I'll be fine. You could help more by taking on another Maverick general at the same time."
"Sigma's put out a red alert for me; I can't step anywhere near one of those places without drawing every single one of his minions within a twenty-mile radius. At least let me keep an eye on you in case you get in trouble. Now who were you planning on going after next?"
"I was thinking either Flame Mammoth or Boomer Kuwanger."
"I'd go with the former; you know the slag that he flooded the floor of his factory with? It's frozen somehow; that'll make it easier for you to get through. And Kuwanger's a quick bastard; if you can barely keep up with Storm Eagle you're going to get slaughtered." At the mention of Storm Eagle, X turned away. Zero cursed his lack of tact. Though he considered himself good at conversations for a combat robot, Dr. Wily hadn't exactly built him with development of those functions in mind. "C'mon X, remember that the world's counting on you." At his friend's reminder, X stepped out of his pod and took one last look at the photo in his hand.
"I won't let your sacrifice be in vain, Storm Eagle. I just hope we can find and rebuild you before Sigma does..."
Reploid Production Plant 3, Industrial Sector, Abel City
The first thing X was aware of was a lack of heat. He was standing on a section of floor that had been raised before the factory was flooded with slag, or what had once been slag. Now, cool, hardened metal coated the factory floor in its place. X looked ahead and almost immediately felt sick. Not on account of his emotions, but at the sight in front of him. Half-completed Reploid torsos, outfitted with crude laser cannons on their heads, were being dropped from several vents in the ceiling. The assembly line conveyor belts were still working, but several sections had been removed, and the half-finished Reploids were unceremoniously dumped off the side, where they shattered against the solid metal floor.
If anything could've worsened X's depression after Storm Eagle's death, this was it. Taking advantage of this, a Sky Claw suddenly nabbed him and began carrying him across the expanse of the factory floor. X didn't resist and stared blankly ahead, refusing to take in the horrifice waste of Reploid life surrounding him. As it reached another elevated section of floor, the Sky Claw self-destructed. The shrapnel was mostly deflected off of X's thin energy shields, but several pieces managed to lodge in his armor. The reactive plating on his armor tried to repair the breaches, and one of his Heart Tanks suddenly kicked into action, diverting its energy reserve towards the regeneration. The exertion left the tank unable to be recharged by reactor power alone; it would require functioning power cells to jump-start its recharging, but it had done its job well. The shrapnel was absorbed by X's armor and the material repurposed into a seamless patch. Within seconds it looked as though there had never been any damage there.
X was unaware of the fantastic workings his body was performing to counteract the damage. He simply stood there, anger boiling inside him as he watched Reploid after half-completed Reploid smashed against the hardened slag on the floor.
From the plant's security office, both Flame Mammoth and Vile watched X with distaste.
"Huh, guess those victories of his were just luck after all. Though it must have taken a heck of a lot of luck to beat...hey, what are you doing?" Flame Mammoth noticed Vile was adapting his arm-mounted flamethrower for the latter's own use.
"Just shut up. I didn't harm you. Now, for some target practice." Vile began testing out his adapted weapons systems and weighing which adaptation he should use for each system. After a little while, he settled on a final arsenal. "And now, time to give X a wake-up call."
"Hmph!" Flame Mammoth watched Vile leave before examining his flamethrower. Vile had held to his word for once; he could detect no signs of damage, visually and with a self-diagnostic.
Vile crept quietly along a catwalk above the factory floor and arrived just in time to see X drop down to the lower level of the factory. Vile cursed his luck and began searching for another way down.
X's scanners were begging to get his attention, but he ignored them, a task made easier by his raging emotions. He simply walked forward like a mindless zombie, his mind drowned in a sea of rage and sorrow. When he came to the edge of another frozen slag pit, he stopped and looked around. There were no Reploids here, just several dozen Degravers, the successor to the highly successful Picket Man invented by his father. They didn't seem to be paying him any attention, so he took a moment to calm his emotions. Just then, Vile dropped silently down the shaft X had taken. Before he could get any closer, Zero short-teleported off to his side and shoulder-bashed Vile into a wall. Without a word, Vile teleported out before he was thrown into the wall. He couldn't go back to Sigma damaged again.
Zero collided with the wall with several curses of frustration and pain as several dense cubes of scrap fell from the ceiling onto him. The noise startled X, and he whirled around to see his friend.
"Vile's trying to pick a fight again. Looks like he's looking to avoid direct confrontation this time; maybe Sigma's tired of footing his repair bill." X forced a smile at Zero's attempt to cheer him up. "Damn blocks...they're a hell of a lot stronger than they look..."
X looked up at where they had fallen from. Suddenly he realized why his sensors had acted up. He just needed to find a way to get up there...
Zero watched incredulously as his friend headbutted the scrap blocks and they shattered like glass. Eventually X reached the top of the pile and disappeared. Zero continued to monitor the small horde of Degravers for any aggressive moves. Suddenly they began to fan out. Zero was about to ignite his saber to cut them down when he realized they were resuming defensive positions. "X, they're moving into defensive posi...X? X?!" Zero became increasingly worried when his friend didn't respond. "C'mon, don't tell me you need to be saved again!" Zero short-teleported to where he'd seen X disappear...
...and was almost slammed in the face by the strangest-looking plasma blast he had ever seen. It consisted of two massive chains of large red plasma shots, each about half the size of his charged shot, moving in a sinosudal pattern. "Geez, you're the one who's going to need saving soon if you keep doing that, Zero." Zero suddenly noticed X's buster had changed...now it was identical to his own.
"When are you ever going to stop being a copycat?" Zero joked.
"Maybe Dr. Wily copied Dr. Light like he always does." Zero realized X had taken his joke seriously.
"Sorry X, I didn't mean to insult your father...anyhow, that small army of Degravers down there has taken up defensive positions."
"Perfect. I can have some target practice with charged weapons." Zero wasn't quite sure what X meant until he noticed the latter had changed from his standard blue scheme to a purple one.
"X, wait!" Before Zero could stop him, X jumped down from the Light Capsule's room and dashed to meet the Degravers head-on. X realized they were scattered on platforms of different heights. Perfect, if the weapon data he had copied from Storm Eagle was accurate. As he jumped over a pair of the pickaxe-wielding droids, X unleashed a massive vortex of wind around his body. The column of raging wind quickly expanded, and within a second a massive floor-to-ceiling column of tempestuous wind had shredded more than a dozen of the surprised Degravers. Yes, it was.
Zero stared in shock, his eyes as wide as those of the remaining Degravers. Several of the mining bots backed off the side of their platforms and fell to their demise in shock. X turned around and broke into a grin at seeing his friend's expression. He then noticed a pair of Mets two platforms above him were regarding him uncertainly. He also noticed a stack of scrap cubes adjacent to them, embedded in the wall. Taking advantage of the minions' uncertainty, X jumped to the wall and ascended it before breaking the blocks with his feet and head. "So I found a way to break 'ceilings' with my feet after all," he thought with a slight smile. Inside, X found another subtank.
"Figures that a mighty glacier like Flame Mammoth would need one of these; must be hard to dodge when your body weighs more than a speeder bike..."
As X picked up the subtank and installed it in a separate crevice in his chest out of habit, Zero radioed him: "Feeling better?" X looked down at his friend and gave him a thumbs-up. "Good, because these minions are starting to recognize me. I'll lead as many of them away as I can; you go after Flame Mammoth!"
"Good luck buddy, E-Tanks are on me when we get back to Hunter Base," X replied.
"Bah, we get those for free anyway. Besides, we're on permanent duty until this blows over." X could already hear shots in the background as Flame Mammoth's army chased Zero and made a noise somewhere between a chuckle and a sigh. Leave it to his friend to end a conversation that way. X suddenly spotted a Heart Tank in the corner of the now-empty room and went over to grab it.
Flame Mammoth watched incredulously as his minions disobeyed his orders and purused Zero, leaving only a few Hoganmers, several pipes leaking acid, and the immovable Rolling Gabyools as defense. Though he knew they wouldn't be enough to stop even a C-ranked Hunter, he was still taken off guard when X easily crushed the first two Hoganmers with a massive red blast...no, a massive chain of red plasma shots. He had no idea how the blue bomber had done it, but that didn't matter. He smashed the wall of monitors in frustration and walked out to meet X. His defenses might be a cakewalk for X, but he was an A-ranked Hunter. He would not admit defeat to a such a weakling so easily.
X dash-jumped over the last Hoganmer guarding Flame Mammoth, ignoring its taunts to fight him chivalrously in barely-understandable medieval English. He grudgingly appreciated Sigma's penchant for small historical references such as those and stepped into a massive room with a conveyor belt and what he presumed used to be lava in the background. Now the floor had hardened into a massive sea of spikes. Flame Mammoth was waiting for him.
Upon seeing X, Flame Mammoth gave a trumpeting laugh. "I didn't expect the Hunters to send you of all people."
"Flame Mammoth, I came because I though I could convince you to return instead of fighting you. The Hunters need a fighter like you in times like this."
"Do you even realize from who's mouth this is coming from? A weak, overemotional, spineless B-class Hunter that Sigma falsely believes in."
"Why do my characteristics matter to you? The point is I don't want to fight my fellow Hunters if I can avoid it..."
"...Because you know I'll stomp your skinny blue ass to dust if you try! If I hadn't seen that little trick you pulled against some of my guards earlier I would consider you a waste of my time."
"If you must know, Flame Mammoth, I came because no other Hunter would have given you the chance to come back. We know that not all of you are working for Sigma of your own accord."
"If the Hunters know so much about me, they wouldn't send a weakling with a mouth bigger than his gun. Do you miss your friend Storm Eagle, X?"
X felt his emotions rising again and fought to keep them down. He couldn't lose control again. "Yes, I do, Flame Mammoth. He...was working for Sigma too...I killed him..."
Flame Mammoth's eyes widened by a fraction of an inch, but his voice was all bravado. "Then let me organize a reunion for you two: in the scrapheap!"
The massive Reploid shot a glob of oil from his trunk, and followed up by spraying more at X from his right arm. X was caught in the viscous spray and slipped on the conveyor belt. Thankfully, it was extremely wide to handle Flame Mammoth's weight and also extended from wall to wall along its thin side, so rolling off the side into the slag spikes on the floor wouldn't be a big concern. He suddenly noticed the slick of oil almost connected him and Flame Mammoth. As soon as the thought registered, the latter ignited the slick with a fireball, from his arm, and the conveyor belt was suddenly engulfed in flames. X screamed in agony as the fire began to melt his armor and tried to ignore the pain as he charged a Storm Tornado. Once he released the attack, the winds quickly doused the flames and blew the remaining oil off his partially-melted armor.
X noticed Flame Mammoth's eyes had widened noticably upon seeing this. He dashed out of the way as the latter came crashing down on the conveyor belt, the heavy shock causing the machinery beneath to groan audibly and knocking X off his feet. He turned around to launch more fireballs at X, only to be met with a wind beam to the face. The gust of wind tightly wrapped his trunk around his head twice and extinguished the fireballs in their tracks. Flame Mammoth trumpeted and the conveyor belt switched directions, now bringing X towards him. Shaking his trunk loose again, Flame Mammoth began laying down another oil slick. This time, the fluid was less viscous and flowed more freely, and X scrambled to get away from the combustible liquid. Simultaneously, Flame Mammoth put his flamethrower to the ground and shot a fireball at the base of the slick. The result was a massive wave of fire that engulfed almost the entire conveyor belt. X yelped in surprise and quickly scaled a wall to avoid the inferno, but not before discharging another Storm Tornado.
Flame Mammoth growled in frustration and shook off the attack. He aimed his flamethrower and began lobbing fireballs. X dash-jumped off the wall to avoid the deadly firewall Flame Mammoth had set before hitting him with his newest weapon: the Spiral Crush Buster. Flame Mammoth's eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he was slammed by the massive chain of plasma shots. They struck his body without respite, rupturing his armor and fuel tanks. Flame Mammoth collapsed to the edge of the conveyor belt, leaking oil everywhere but still alive and very angry. As X approached, he lashed out violently with his trunk, trying to knock the blue bomber into the slag spikes bordering the conveyor belt.
"Geez, what the heck are you made of?" X asked as he leapt over the swinging trunk. He began charging another Spiral Crush as he spoke. "I'm giving you one last chance, Flame Mammoth. Surrender and I promise I'll take you back to Hunter Base to be repaired."
"Urgh...you win..." Flame Mammoth held out his hand and X grasped it, only to have the former throw him facefirst into the oil slick before setting them both on fire. "I will not fall to a wimp like you! I'm taking you with me, X!" As X flailed in agony in the midst of the inferno, Flame Mammoth grabbed him with his hand and prepared to throw him into the slag spikes. But before he could, X unleashed another charged Storm Tornado, extinguishing the flames and ripping apart the surprised Reploid. The conveyor belt ground to a halt and X lay prone for a few more seconds before staggering to his feet and copying Flame Mammoth's weapon data and teleporting out, in too much pain to say anything more.
Throne room, Sigma Palace
Sigma winced as he watched Flame Mammoth's last, desperate act. He had survived saber cuts, charged shots, and many more during his years as both Hunter Commander and Maverick leader, but he had always abhored fire the most.
Having noted X's distraughtness following Storm Eagle's death, Sigma was eager to see how it had played out in his actions. X's reaction to Flame Mammoth's taunt had certainly proven the incident would remain a touchy subject for years. As for X's combat abilities, Sigma was impressed to see that his emotions hadn't driven him blind following Flame Mammoth's insult. More interesting was the fact that X seemed to be accepting the increasing power he was gaining. Sigma had noted X's new combat abilities with interest; though he didn't know where or care how X had gotten his upgrades, they were increasing his power to levels that rivaled even his strongest minions. Previously, though, X would have shunned such power for fear it would go to his head and cause him to go Maverick.
"Yes," Sigma thought, "he does have the potential I see. And now I know how those feelings of his are affecting him. Any Reploid would go mad with the power that X has been bestowed; if not now, certainly sometime later. His emotions from previous experiences must be counterbalancing the influence of his power..."
As ludricous as it sounded, Sigma knew that he was close to finding his answer. Storm Eagle had been the most powerful Reploid X had known until the latter had met Sigma, and for all of his power he had fallen to X. Not only that, Storm Eagle had died when he lost command over his power. It didn't take a scientist or his character judgement skills to put two and two together and surmise X had concluded that power meant nothing so long as you remained vulnerable in other aspects.
Sigma reflected upon all this. X was living up to his furthest-flung expectations so far, and he hadn't even taken down half of his armies. It would be very interesting to see how events played out. But first, Sigma had some business to attend to. He left the throne room and walked to the lift, ordering Velguarder to stay behind.
Prison, Sigma Palace
The door to Teal's cell was opened. She looked up as she noticed it was opened without its usual roughness. It hadn't even been a day since Storm Eagle's death and the guards and warden were back to their abusive selves. They still treated her respectfully, but their hatred was as strong as ever and it had reverted them to their "normal" selves in every other aspect.
Sigma stood in the entrance to Teal's cell, looking down on the black-haired woman inside with a neutral expression as Teal eyed Sigma with a look of pure hatred. The tense silence lasted for only a few seconds, but to Teal it seemed an eternity, for though she deeply hated Sigma, she knew there was only one reason why he would visit her personally.
"We have managed to retrieve Storm Eagle's body." Immediately, all of the hateful thoughts in Teal's mind dissolved and she stared at Sigma in rapt attention. "Unfortunately, there is...not much of him left. We will do our best for him, and we will allow you to see him when he reawakens."
"How do I know this isn't another mind game of yours, Sigma?" Sigma grudgingly admired the girl's defiance.
"Careful now, Teal. I may understand that you are emotionally distraught, but the guards may not." Teal continued to stare at Sigma, unsure of whether to believe his words. It didn't seem possible that the same being who had so callously blackmailed her lover into doing so many terrible things and forced her to watch Storm Eagle's demise could sympathize with Teal, let alone have any reason to bring her such hopeful news.
Sigma almost seemed to be reading her thoughts. "If you wish to see proof, you will not like it..." He opened his right hand. There was Storm Eagle's left hand, complete with the ring signalling their relationship. Upon seeing tears form in Teal's eyes, Sigma quickly folded his hand and turned to leave. "If you two want to...progress further, I will not speak against it," he said over his shoulder as the guards closed the cell door again.
Teal was glad he had taken Storm Eagle's severed hand from her. Though she thought she would have given anything to hold some part of her lover again, the sight of the severed limb was only a further reminder of his death. Despite Sigma's promises and the fact that he had her convinced at last, she dared not hold out hope only to have it whisked away...
Hunter Base
For the fourth time in three days, X found himself walking out of the repair bay. Zero was there to greet him.
"They should name one of the wards after you," he joked. "Now, let's go get some of those E-Tanks that you were talking about earlier."
X nodded. "I could use some quick energy to fill that subtank I swiped from Flame Mammoth." Though rendered obsolete in combat by the subtank, E-Tanks still had their uses. "You going back to your recon mission?"
"Yeah, just about. Reckon Sigma's got enough to worry about now with the fall of another one of his generals." General. It had never hit X until then how much of a difference his actions were making and how great a challenge he had taken on. His list of targets didn't comprise of just ordinary Mavericks; they were Sigma's eight best. Zero was right: he had been selling himself short...
X smiled as they got their E-Tanks and walked to the teleporter array, laughing at more of Zero's gallows humor. For the briefest moment, the two forgot about their duties and reveled in each other's company. In that moment, both of them silently vowed to fight with his friend to the last, and lay down his life if it meant saving his friend's. After all, it was what friends did for each other.
Author's note: So I tried to make this chapter end on a more positive note after the sinkhole I made the last one into. As always, please rate and review!
I tried to make Zero appear in here a little bit more and set the stage for what we all know is coming...
I'd especially like feedback on how I document the boss battles; I'm not entirely happy with how short Chill Penguin's was or how long Storm Eagle's was. Now with X having weaknesses and a super X-buster (without invincibility frames, horray!), I feel like I've narrowed the boss battles down to about the length I want, but I want to know what you think. After all, the story is for your enjoyment!