Chapter 8: Master of Magnets, Magna Centipede
Though X had successfully taken out Morph Moth, he was left with a grim warning of events to come by the Maverick, events that he would quickly find more about as he returned to the HQ and quickly ran to the central command center to check up on the situation with Alia, who called him at the end of the mission in an uncharacteristically concerned tone. The sirens were blaring inside the room as X entered, and he ran right towards Alia's computer without hitting a single one of the panicking Reploids.
Alia was busy looking at a monitor of the map of the island, but now the Maverick mug shots had been taken away and replaced with some slowly expanding sonar waves. X quickly inquired as he looked at the map in shock "Alia, what's the status report?!" Alia was trying to keep herself calm compared to everyone else, but nevertheless did not soften the news for X as she told him "The X-Hunters have activated some high-level energy signal across the entire island. I don't know how, but the Reploids within the range of the waves have started to go Maverick."
"What? Every last one of them?" X said while his face was frozen briefly in surprise, and though hesitant to do so Alia popped up another computer screen and revealed a group of once innocent Reploids in the city X saved from Wheel Gator's tank were now rampaging across the ruins of the city, going after humans who were trying desperately to flee. Alia shut off the screen right before one of those Reploids shot a hole through one of the fleeing humans, but the implication of that sight was enough to make X quiver in disbelief.
"H-How are they doing this?" X stuttered out in hopes of getting an answer, and thankfully for him and all of the Reploids who had not yet been put within the range of the energy waves Alia quickly said "Unfortunately, it appears to be Magna Centipede's doing…" X widened his eyes in a curious but worried manner, folding his arms together before remarking "Magna Centipede? …Isn't he one of the most powerful Maverick Hunters? I heard he went MIA months ago around the time of Sigma's rebellion, but hasn't been seen since…"
"…" X didn't take long to put the pieces together, and with a melancholic tone of voice he quietly remarked while hanging his arms low "So even he went Maverick…But why…? He was very dedicated to his job, almost as much as Storm Eagle was…" Alia shook her head and said "I don't know X, but you can't worry about that now. These waves are going to turn all the Reploids and Maverick Hunters on the island into Mavericks unless you get right into the computer base Magna Centipede is running and shut the system down."
"Is Magna Centipede the only one there? Morph Moth said something about the last X-Hunter commander Serges organizing this distraction…" X commented on, and Alia remarked "I have no idea X. I'm not getting any other signals in the computer base. Either Serges is somehow blocking my readings, or he's operating from another location…You can't worry about him right now though X. Every second counts in this case, cause until you can take down Magna Centipede, we can't send in any unaffected Maverick Hunters to quell the situation."
"I'm not hesitating here Alia…I just want to have all my facts straight before I go into enemy territory. If the X-Hunters are this desperate, this facility has to be more heavily guarded than any of the others I've gone too so far." X commented, and Alia nodded her head and remarked "I agree with your concern X…But the computer facility is already heavily protected by motion-sensor defenses and turrets that very few other places have, so I imagine the X-Hunters are willing to put their faith into those defenses to either stop or stall you while their waves continue to make more Reploids go Maverick."
"Then I'll just have to act quickly and without hesitation. Setup the coordinates Alia, I'm going in." X said confidently, turning back around to make a run for the teleporter room as Alia does exactly as X wanted, remarking in a somewhat worried tone "Be careful X…" X made it into the teleporter room and was sent off to the computer facility via a beam of light. In a matter of seconds, X was dropped off into a very well-lit room with cybernetic walls and floors and a gigantic holographic projector showing off an aquamarine hologram of the planet suspended in mid-air, and X assumed that it had just been recently activated.
Caring not about the projection, X gripped his right arm cannon for a moment and then sprinted forward across the floor until he had to leap up onto a slightly higher elevation. There was a patrol drone with protective plating in the way of X's path, but as it spread the plating apart to reveal it's eye cannon X charged up energy in his own and fired it point blank into the drone to destroy it and then continue moving on without pause. He caught the attention of another drone up ahead, but this time charged up a shot from afar to destroy it before leaping onto the floor it was floating over and running past the smoke and broken parts left from it's demise.
But as X drops down into a more vast hallway, he is suddenly caught in a ray of yellow light coming from an unknown location, which sets off the alarms in the entire facility and makes the atmosphere take on an ominous shade of bright red light as X looks around for a moment and sees a steel block fall down from above his current location. This cybernetic block lands on the ground and immediately crumples down, revealing a small antennae that fires a powerful but small electrical ball straight at X.
As X dodges the electrical ball by leaping as far to the right as he could, the sirens proclaim throughout the facility "EMERGENCY ALERT! EMERGENCY ALERT! Prepare to repel intruder…Repeat…" The warning is repeated exactly one time over before it stops, and by that time X has fired off a charged shot at the block that was firing his way. But even with the full might of his charged shot the block didn't even get dented, making X quickly realize that it would be a waste of time to take down the defense system.
X thus turned around and began to sprint further into the facility, but security made every effort possible to slow X down while he advanced. More drones were sent in to prevent X from jumping over platforms, more blocks were dropped down to pincer in X's movements on the ground while he shot down the drones with charged shots, and at one point X was caught off-guard when the floor gave way below his feet in an instant, forcing him to grip onto the edge of the floor in front of him with one hand while switching to Overdrive Ostrich's colors and using the Sonic Slicer with his free arm cannon to slice through any drones while he pulled himself back up.
Once back on solid ground, X sprinted forward and leaped up onto a platform suspended in place in mid-air by a thin metal plate, using this moment to briefly gauge his next move. There were a few blocks spread out across the ground, but X noticed that the crumpled up blocks were more vulnerable to attacks from above due to their cybernetics being exposed around the antennas. X was about ready to leap from the platform and strike the cybernetics while the blocks didn't seem to notice him, but all of a sudden a turret dropped down from the ceiling behind him and rapid-fired a string of bullets into the back of X's armor.
X was only aware of the turret's presence when the turret began to whir to life, but being aware of it's presence only allowed him to quickly get off of the platform before he took too much damage from the backside. His armor was buffeted with the bullets enough as he leaped backwards to put some visible holes within the surface, but they did not reach deep enough to actually touch his body. Considering the efforts Morph Moth put into harming his armor did nothing, X was surprised that the bullets from the turrets were able to do that much damage and quickly learned to exercise a little more caution in this facility.
Turning around immediately after that lesson, X watches as the three blocks he saw earlier fire upon him, but X had just enough time to leap over them while switching to Bubble Crab's colors, using the Bubble Spread to hit all of the cybernetics within the blocks at the same time and short-circuit them to the point that they explode once X performs a mid-air flip and lands safely on the ground away from them. Moving forward, X sees a passageway to the next part of the facility at the top of a high wall, but ends up running into the next obstacle right away as a large cybernetic block drops down from the ceiling and slides along the ground in front of X to fit perfectly into the divot a few feet away.
X pauses for a moment as a block slides out of the passage and drops down beside the other one, followed by two falling from the ceiling in rapid succession. X leaps atop these blocks while looking up to make sure another one wasn't on the way, and thankfully only a violet colored block drops down in front of him. The blocks were clearly there in an attempt to crush X, but so long as he paid attention to the environment they wouldn't get the drop on him anytime soon. X leaped atop the violet block and goes into the passage, but finds another block in his way.
X cautiously approached the block, but his presence caused it to slide forward out of the passage and drop down into another divot. X waited patiently for the remainder of the blocks to drop into the divot, but unfortunately found his path blocked by two violet blocks because of that. Though he didn't dismay, as a part of him felt that he'd be able to break through this type of block with a charged shot. And if that didn't work, he'd use Wheel Gator's power.
Luckily for him, he didn't have to waste much time as his charged shot broke through both blocks with relative ease and allowed him to just leap across the remaining blocks to make it to the next part of this defense system. This time a block drops from the ceiling and then tries to ram X right into the ledge behind him, but X leaps over that and accidentally goes over another block as well, allowing him to making a run into the passage.
A violet block rapidly rams itself towards X, forcing him to quickly use both of his arm cannons to rapid-fire shots into the block to destroy it and allow him to continue forward unimpeded for just a few more seconds. A block suddenly drops into a hole to seal it up, but as X steps on top of it another block and a violet one both drop down from hidden pockets in the ceiling and try to slam X between them. X leaps over them in the nick of time and moves forward, making a quick leap over the pit to make it to the other side before more blocks got in his way.
After some more sprinting, X notices that no more blocks were getting in his way, leading him to take up a more cautious pose as he advanced into a secluded room with another one of those projectors set up to the left. The way ahead was suddenly sealed off by a sliding steel door, and the projector activated in a matter of seconds. The projector creates a wireframe representation of a standard sword and makes it flail around a bit before it floats in front of X.
The sword then flails up and down a little before spinning violently in circles for some reason, confusing X as he stood back a bit to avoid getting cut by the tip. X charged up his arm cannon, but instead of deciding to target the sword he realized that going for the computer keeping the sword projected would be a better move. However, after spinning around for a few seconds the sword suddenly flies at X while lined up with the ground, forcing him to leap over the sword before he's impaled.
But the erratic sword quickly turns around and manages to cut X across his arm cannon, digging past the metal and touching just one wire within. X grunts a bit in pain before he lands on the ground and quickly fires the charged shot at the computer, making a direct hit onto the control panel to blow it up and make the wireframe sword break apart as it tried to go for another thrust towards X.
The steel door slides open, but as X turns around he lays a hand atop the scar on his arm cannon and realizes that between this and the turret shot holes on his back he needed to be more careful since his armor does not make him invincible. With him having no idea how far he has to go to reach Magna Centipede's location, X took a deep breath and regained his focus before exiting the room and going towards a large shaft down into the deeper parts of the facility.
While falling down the shaft, X had to shoot his arm cannon at some two-legged spiked drones and aerial drones, alternating between walls to descend and leap his way down, his final time of descent ending off at around thirty seconds. Once on the ground, X moves forward just a little bit more and watches as the alarms suddenly shut off, the atmosphere returning completely back to normal much to X's surprise. But his attention and shock would then be focused on something else entirely as he looks at a wall of monitors in a wide-open room up ahead and sees some blueprints being displayed on a couple of the monitors.
But they weren't just any blueprints…As X soon saw, those blueprints belonged to him. "W-What? Why are MY blueprints on these monitors? If this is an X-Hunter base…Shouldn't it be Zero's blueprints they are looking over?" "An excellent question, Maverick Hunter X…One that you will not find any answers for from me." A familiar voices calls down to X, and all of a sudden the monitors containing X's blueprints along with all the rest activate and reveal a close-up of Serges' robotic face on all of them.
X turns to look at the monitors, with X exclaiming "Serges…So you are here! What is the meaning of this?!" Serges rubbed his metallic mustache and remarked "What is the meaning of this, you say? Tell me…Are you referring to the energy wave turning Reploids into Mavericks, or the blueprints of you that I just so happened to be displaying at the moment of your arrival? You only get to question one of those, X." With that ultimatum given as the X-Hunter laughs, X raised his arm cannon up and stated "What are you doing here?!"
"Ohohoh…You chose a third question. Hehehe…If you want to know so badly…" Serges lifts his hand away from his face and snaps his fingers, and all of a sudden a series of metallic drop bulge out of the ceiling and solidify into blocks that would certainly squish X if he did not get out of the way, all the while Serges laughs and says "Then come and see me! Hehehe!" Serges' voice echoes through the monitors as he watches X make a mad sprint across the floor towards the passage at the very bottom of the room.
X couldn't make it to the higher passage in time, but it was clear that he was never intended to go that route once he fell into Serges trap. X performed a slide along the floor to make it into the passage ahead right as he was about to get crushed. He then sprung onto his feet and looked back, seeing that the way was sealed off. There was no turning back, but if this detour meant what he thought it did then he wasn't wasting time for no reason. Walking forward, X entered through a sliding door and entered a solitary room.
Inside he found Serges hunched over in front of a series of computer screens, a couple of them showing blueprints for X while the rest showed blueprints for Zero. Before the large central monitor was a sphere containing the last of Zero's parts, his head. The recreated head had it's eyelids shut, but other than that it looked perfect. Upon sensing X's presence in the room, Serges shut off all the monitors and summoned forth a mechanical claw from the ground to pluck Zero's head from the air and pull it into the ground for safekeeping as the robotic man turned around and looked at X, his body still wrapped up in a cape.
"Hehehe…Of course you survived my trap, X." Serges remarked, leading to X quickly raising his arm cannon up and stating "What's going on here Serges? Start talking!" Serges pulls a hand from his cape and rubs his chin, remarking in a humored tone "Demanding answers while pointing a weapon at me…I suppose that trait was never meant to be taken away between generations…"
"I said, start talking!" X exclaimed again, being one second away from charging up energy in his cannon before Serges said to him "You are in no position to be demanding answers from me, X. Now put that arm cannon down before you blast into the floor and destroy Zero's head. You wouldn't want that now, would you?" X had to listen to the point Serges brought up as much as he didn't like to do so, and Serges grins at that obedience before stating "Good little robot…"
"So…You want to know what I want from you, is that it? It's not so much what I want, but rather what you want from me…You want the last of Zero's parts, do you not?" Serges states with a sly tone of voice, and X remarks calmly "Not just that, I want to stop whatever it is you're doing with the computer facility to make Reploids go Maverick." "Hehehe…Ah yes, I suppose I'd be foolish to ignore that little detail. It's such a fascinating move, isn't it? While you were busy dealing with the other Mavericks, I prepared the satellite dish to transmit a signal that would turn Reploids into Maverick with ease. I bet you're just itching to know how we pulled that off, aren't you?" Serges said, trying to play into X's inner curiosity.
But it worked to no avail, as X was more focused on stopping the situation than learning more about it, and said to Serges "I don't care about that. I'm going to put an end to it." Serges raised his metallic eyebrows in intrigue and remarked to X "Well in order to do that, you're going to have to destroy Magna Centipede, since we programmed him to run the facility. But you can't even make it to him without first getting past me, X. But that shouldn't be too difficult for you in the end, and you'll get Zero's last part at the end of it all."
"Hrrmmm…" X grumbled internally, leading to Serges remarking "It's quite funny how much of an effort you've put into piecing Zero back together. I suppose you Maverick Hunters need his help to survive, since at the end of the day Zero is far superior to you, X." X remarked in response to that while sounding a bit offended "That's not why I'm trying to save Zero."
"So you claim. It's a shame really…In the end, Dr. Light's last creation cannot bring himself to admit that there is a robot superior to him. Such a thing was always his fatal flaw…His inability to admit his inferiority being transplanted into whatever robots he created." Serges' words struck a sudden cord in X's robotic heart, specifically the mention of that one name that he'd never expect to hear from anyone else. "W-What? How do you know Dr. Light?" X stated, and immediately Serges' robotic mouth curled into a tiny grin.
"Interesting…So Light did not put any information of me inside of your mind. Lets just say that I am an 'old friend' of the doctor who has transcended death. Hehehe, but don't bother asking your little assistant Reploid to look up information on me. I've already wiped all known data from history of both myself and Dr. Light off the databanks of the internet." Serges commented, and X bluntly inquired while gripping his left hand tightly "Fine then, I'll just ask the other two X-Hunters about you then."
"Hehehe…You really think they know who I am? Oh poor X…You look so flustered by what I've just told you. He would always look at me just like that as well. I must admit, it makes me feel quite nostalgic…" Serges then snapped his fingers and caused the computer screens to disappear as the wall flips around to hide them away. He then performs a short leap and lands on top of a platform with a spiky underside as two spiked balls levitate around him. With another grin, Serges remarks "It's been a long time since we've had some fun like this, blue boy. Show me a little more of what Dr. Light has made you capable of doing."
X immediately starts off by firing a charged shot at Serges, but he uses a spiked ball to intercept the attack and let the spiked ball blow up from the impact. A couple spikes are launched from the ball at X, and they pierce right through X's leg armor easily. After grunting a bit in pain, X switches to Wheel Gator's colors and fires a Spin Wheel right through the air at Serges through the smoke, but the man swerves to the side to avoid it while remarking "Fascinating…You can copy abilities just like him…But you seem to get more powerful weapons than he ever did."
Serges then performs a backflip to avoid another Spin Wheel while opening the top of his hat to send out a multitude of golden shots at X in a stream. X leaps to the left and dodges the attacks while switching over to Overdrive Ostrich's colors, firing two quick Sonic Slicer shots at Serges, predicting where he was going to land so he'd get a guaranteed hit. But Serges moved his body to the right immediately after landing so the attack only cut through his cape slightly.
"A hundred something years have passed, and nothing has really changed…Someone points you at the enemy, and you attack them without question. Tell me X, how many Mavericks have you killed since becoming a hunter?" Serges calmly inquired while X fired another Sonic Slicer his way, this time Serges throwing a spiked ball out retaliation as the attack cut through another part of his cape. X widened his eyes a bit in frustration at the man's question before he ran forward, getting close to Serges' platform and switching to Flame Stag's colors.
X fired two Speed Burners at the platform in rapid succession in hopes of overheating it, but it only served to get Serges to once again leap off of the platform and fire another stream of shots at X from his hat. X leaps back and stops firing Speed Burners, leading to Serges then summoning forth two more spiked balls from pockets in the ground to protect himself. Minus the attack from his hat, X noted that Serges was not launching much of an offensive on his own, instead relying on his machines to do the dirty work for him.
X had to destroy the platform because of that, and with the platform still suffering from some degree of heat on the bottom X quickly switched over to Bubble Crab's colors and fired off a Bubble Stream at the bottom of the platform to make it cool down at such a rapid pace that it broke down the metal into a blackened mess quickly. Serges commands one of the spiked balls to fly at X, but he sideflips to the right to avoid it while preparing a charged shot in both of his arm cannons, holding one of them behind his back so Serges wouldn't notice.
As X fired one of the charged shots at Serges' platform, Serges sent his other spiked ball out to protect himself, only for X to thrust his other arm cannon out to send another charged shot past the spikes and smoke to hit Serges' platform square on. The weakened metal is busted through like paper, and X annihilates the core of the platform with his attack, rendering it completely unable to maintain levitation. The remainder of the platform drops to the ground, and Serges raised an eyebrow and remarked nonchalantly "Well well…That's a new trick…"
Serges leaps up and lets the floor open up with a snap of his fingers, landing on the ground as it seals back up and putting his arm back into his cape as X locked his arm cannon towards him. "Hehehe…Yep, that certainly brought back some old memories, blue boy…And once more you have your arm cannon locked on me as though you actually think you have what it takes to put an end to my 'meance'." X didn't shoot though, and with a minor grimace he said "Just who are you really, Serges?"
"It's as I said…I am an 'old friend' of yours. Perhaps it's not me you should be asking that question towards though, X. Or perhaps I should just drop the formalities and call you by your full name…Mega Man X." Serges said, and X flinched for a moment and said "M-Mega Man?" in a confused stutter, followed by Serges remarking "Looks like you have a lot of questions you're going to have to ask Dr. Light…But I bet you all the bolts in the world that he will brush them all off. Hehehe, you still have a mission to complete here X, so go ahead…Take Zero's head and use the teleporter I'll leave behind to go to Magna Centipede's location. I didn't need to look over Zero's parts for long, since I am quite familiar with them."
Serges snaps his fingers again and makes Zero's protected head pop-up from the ground, simultaneously starting the process of warping himself out of his room as he leaves X with a smile and a remark of "I shall see you again soon, last remnant of Dr. Light's legacy…" Serges vanished from sight, and X was left wondering what left him to hesitate in pulling the trigger to take down the enigmatic X-Hunter. His body shook unnaturally now that Serges was gone, and seeing the last of Zero's parts on the ground in front of him was barely a comfort considering what Serges had said.
"…I-I don't know what to think about all of that…Urrrk…" X whispered as he raised a hand to his helmet and remarked "Alia, I'm sorry I've detoured from the mission, but…but I encountered the last of the X-Hunters and got Zero's head back. You can pick it up whenever, I'm going to get back to the mission." "X, you sound tired…Are you ok?" Alia remarked in a concerned tone.
X shook his head and then said "It's ok Alia. I-I'm just glad to know that Zero is going to be put back together now." X quickly signed off before Alia could inquire further, and he then stepped onto the warp panel Serges left behind to be sent out of this room. After a brief jump through the facility, X is dropped into a secluded room at what appeared to be the core of the facility, considering there was a large, very durable looking motherboard sealed behind an equally strong glass wall. The motherboard pulsated energy through the walls at an equal rate to the waves being sent through the satellite dish.
It didn't take very long for X to look up and watch as a plate in the ceiling slide away, allowing X's target to descend from above. It was a Reploid with four arms crossed in front of his narrow segmented chest, each arm having pinkish yellow gauntlet and five-fingers hands. The Reploids head was shaped like a centipede's own, with two pincers beside it's closed plated mouth and slanted eyes with blank red eyes. He had a segmented tail attached to the back of his head with two stingers attached to the sides of the last one, and thick armored boots with pointed feet.
Magna Centipede landed on the ground and looked straight at X, but oddly enough did not say anything at the moment. X inquired bluntly "Magna Centipede, why have you of all people gone Maverick?!" Magna Centipede suddenly said in a clean but very robotic tone of voice "Target identified as Maverick Hunter X…Operating at full capacity to defend the computer facility…" X widened his eyes and said "W-What's going on here? Magna Centipede…Are you ok?"
Magna Centipede pulled two arms away from it's chest and held them out at X, unleashing an air distorting magnetic pulse from the palms to try and pin X to the ground. X's armor projected the same field that protected him from the magnetic force in the junkyard, leading Magna Centipede to remark "Option one not recognized as a viable method…Switching to option two…" Manga Centipede swings it's tail forward and detaches two segments from it, sending them right at X's arms. The segments gave out a magnetic pulse, but this time they were strong enough to break through X's field and attach themselves to the middle of his arms in order to pull right straight back to the wall behind where he stood in an instant.
As X was pinned to the wall, he grunted a bit to try and pull himself free from the magnetic segments, while Magna Centipede remarked "Option successful…Preparing for viral insertion…" Magna Centipede then began to slowly walk towards X, lifting it's tail up beside his head and pointing the pincers towards his neck while they were pulsating with streams of dark red data. X grunted even more, and began to slowly pull his right arm away from the wall, switching his hand into an arm cannon right as he rips the magnetic segment away from his body and firing a charged shot right down at Magna Centipede with a frustrated look in his eyes.
Magna Centipede suddenly teleports away before X's charged shot hits, reappearing while standing upside-down on the ceiling as he pulls his two segments back to his tail and remarks "Resistance from target detected…" Magna Centipede then teleports again back down onto the ground and pulls a few shuriken from it's body, holding them in all four of it's arms as it remarks "Threat level deemed at SSS+ rank…Termination required under orders of Master Serges…" X gripped his left hand tightly and with a distraught look on his face as he landed on the ground he exclaimed "Magna Centipede! What's going on?! Listen to me!"
"X…He has to be under mind control from Serges…You have no choice, you have to terminate him." Alia remarked without hesitation, but X exclaimed as he lifted his arm cannon up to repel a couple of the shuriken with regular shots "No! There has to be a way to free him from mind control! He hasn't become a Maverick, I can't just leave him like this!" "X! It's either him or all the Reploids and humans on the island! I know he was a revered Maverick Hunter…But right now, he's just another threat to peace…" Alia was cold in her words, but she was absolutely right, which is what hurt X the most of all to think about.
X didn't have any more time to try and work things out with Magna Centipede, as the Reploid swung his hands out to send multiple shuriken at X, using his magnetic powers to guide them around in different directions while keeping the momentum flowing strong. X could only shoot a few of them back before he was forced to flip to the side to get out of the way of the others and put himself in a better position to shoot them down, but during that time Magna Centipede teleported behind X and used all four of his arms to wrap around X's body.
X lifted his right arm out just enough to stop that from getting wrapped up as well, and prepared to attack Magna Centipede's head with regular shots, but the Reploid moved his head to the left to dodge it all while raising his tail up ready for another stab. X switched to Wire Sponge's color and fired a Strike Chain at Magna Centipede's face, creating an electric shock to his body that forces the Reploid to let go of X's body. X then pulls forward on the Strike Chain to try and pull Magna Centipede over his body, but the Reploid applies enough magnetic force to his feet to keep himself still and force the Strike Chain to snap off.
Magna Centipede then teleports away before X can turn around and attack with his other arm cannon, reappearing on the ceiling behind him where he fires off a couple of shuriken down at X. X feels as the shuriken puncture into his backside, getting past this armor and digging a bit into his circuitry before he turns around and fires a charged shot right up at the ceiling. Magna Centipede ends up taking the attack head-on this time, being knocked off of the ceiling and slammed against the wall behind him.
But he quickly recovers and teleports again, this time appearing right before X and putting his knee right up into X's gut. This makes X recoil in shock and almost fall to his knees, but not before he lifts his arm cannon up and switches to Bubble Crab's colors, attacking with the Bubble Spread to distract the Reploid while he stood himself back upright. But while he was blinded by the exploding bubbles Magna Centipede violently tried to attack with tail stabs, X dodging most of them as he moved back a bit, but one manages to strike his arm cannon and puncture through it.
X then tries to retaliate by switching back to his normal colors and going for a charged shot, but for some reason the energy wouldn't build up as he wanted it to. X noticed some of the data streams from Magna Centipede's tail creeping up on his arm cannon, and upon thinking for a few moments X knew that whatever was in that tail was responsible for this problem. X quickly looked at Magna Centipede and ducked down to avoid a roundhouse kick from him, but the Reploid then teleported away before X could fight back.
Magna Centipede appears on the other side of the room and prepares to pull out more shuriken, but X quickly comes to realize that he should focus on the tail first since it seems to have the ability to shutdown X's primary functions. Thankfully, X could still use his weapons normally, and he decided to test something out by switching to Morph Moth's colors and aiming his arm cannon up at Magna Centipede's tail. The Reploid throws his shuriken at X, but X simultaneously fires off a shot of junk bundled up by silk at Magna Centipede's tail.
The junk attracts the shuriken to it, and Magna Centipede seemed to be confused by the attack in question as he doesn't teleport out of the way in time. The Silk Shot hits the tail and breaks apart, wrapping the silk around it and pulling it towards the wall, forcing the tail to stick to it right as Magna Centipede chose to teleport away. But in doing so, he ends up causing his tail to rip off from the rest of his body, the many segments of it dropping to the floor as the silk melts away. Magna Centipede reappears on the ceiling, but his rear was sparking with electricity now that his tail had been pulled off.
Magna Centipede teleports a few more times across the room while saying in a more panicked robotic voice "Tail removed! Offensive capabilities lowered immensely! Switching to rampant assault!" Magna Centipede rapidly teleports around the room and throws shuriken at X, as though his entire strategy up to that point was so reliant on the tail that it's loss from his body left him with nothing but desperation to do something to X. But with all of the shuriken flying around the room, X was certainly getting pressured with each passing second, especially since Magna Centipede was firing off enough of them for X to be incapable of shooting all down with his arm cannon.
The shuriken went through his armor, putting many scars across it as X tried to turn around and get a focus back on Magna Centipede. He had to predict where the Reploid would end up so he could hit him with his left arm cannon's charged shot, but because of that he had to only use his right arm cannon's regular shots to hit whatever shuriken he could. After a few seconds of dealing with this, X pointed his left arm forward at the opposite side of the room and let his charged shot loose the moment Magna Centipede reappeared there.
The charged shot struck Magna Centipede right in his chest and caused the metal covering it to explode instantly, knocking the Reploid back against the wall and causing all of his shuriken to drop to the ground a moment later. X huffed and puffed for a few seconds as he kept his arm cannon pointed at Magna Centipede while he stood motionless on the ground after being pulled off from the wall, and though it took a few seconds the Reploid twitched and then began to raise it's arms up as though ready to another round.
But instead of using his magnetic powers, Magna Centipede gripped the sides of his head and murmured out in a more naturally mature if still somewhat robotic sounding tone "Urggh…W-Where am I?" Magna Centipede lifted his head up with his vision blurred and remarked "X…X? Why are…you pointing your arm cannon at me?" X was shocked that the Reploid was acting more like himself, leading to him stating as he lowered his arm cannon a bit "Magna Centipede? Are you feeling yourself now?"
"I-I think so? …Last thing I remember was…infiltrating a secret facility Sigma was using…I feel so tired…Like something drained me of all my free will…" Magna Centipede said, and X prepared to walk over to help the Reploid out before he suddenly wrenched his head back and let out an incredibly agonizing scream of pain while black electricity seeps out from his open chest, forcing X to pull back while his eyes widened in surprise. "Magna Centipede! What's happening to you?!" X exclaimed, and the Reploid responded by slowly starting to lurch his body forward with some heavy resistance, his arms trying their hardest to move forward at the same time.
"I-It's happening again! T-T-They are t-t-trying to…Control me!" Magna Centipede remarked, his free will once more being drained away as his voice slowly became more robotic sounding. Magna Centipede stumbled around in a circle, trying to break the control by slamming the back of his head against the wall behind him but to no avail, and X was far too hesitant to raise his arm cannon up until Alia called in and exclaimed "X! What are you doing?! You can't let him be controlled again, so take him out!"
X then raised his left arm cannon up at that point, exclaiming in a pleading tone "There has to be a way to free him from the mind control! Alia, he's not a Maverick, I shouldn't have to destroy him!" "He may as well be a Maverick at this point X! You can't be showing hesitation now, not when thousands are counting on you on this very island!" Alia pointed out harshly, but she could not afford to hold back in this situation considering the stakes. X's right arm shook as he held onto his arm cannon, and he exclaimed in naïve defiance "Dr. Cain could fix him! Dr. Doppler could…There's still hope Alia! There has to be-"
"Hehe…X-X…It's ok…" Magna Centipede suddenly spoke out in his own voice, though the amount of weakness he showed suggested that he wouldn't be able to do so for much longer. X looked at the Reploid as he stood still, his arms slowly spreading away from the center of his body while they twitched to show his resistance. With a satisfied look on his face, Magna Centipede remarked to the best of his ability "…T-That was always the oath…We took when we became Maverick Hunters…To put our lives on the line to protect the Reploids and humans who…can't defend themselves…"
"Magna Centipede…" X whispered in a distraught but amazed tone of voice, and the Reploid grunted in pain before he continued on by mentioning "I-I always knew that there'd come a point where…I'd screw up and such…Only the maker knows how many innocent Reploids and humans I've brought harm to…W-While being controlled by the X-Hunters. P-P-Please don't get me wrong here X…I-I appreciate your compassion…Your desire to want to free me…But it's not possible…"
Magna Centipede hung his head a bit in shame and remarked "A-At this point…I'm just nothing more than another Maverick…X…Don't hesitate now…Perform your duty as a Maverick Hunter for everyone else's sake…And when you get Zero back…P-Please tell him that it was an honor serving under him…" X, bitterly gritting his teeth, nodded his head and charged his arm cannon, cause even though every fiber of his being still did not want to kill Magna Centipede he felt ignoring his last request was something he could never bring himself to do.
As X's charged shot went out, Magna Centipede closed his eyelids and accepted death, though the mind control defied his wishes and widened his eyes just enough for the robotic voice to say "Terminat-" but the charged shot struck his chest before he make a single move, and led to the Reploid's swift obliteration. Right as Magna Centipede's body exploded, X dropped to his knees and looked completely worn out and devastated, his hand barely held atop his arm cannon as the fallen Reploid's head drops onto the ground in front of his knees.
Magna Centipede's expression was blank, devoid of any irises or pupils, but X could almost tell that the Reploid had died content with the way things were. X hesitantly moved his right hand down to the head to copy Magna Centipede's power, feeling incredibly broken up about how this whole thing went down and thus not noticing as his colors switched to grey and yellow for but a moment. X then trembles at the life he had just taken until Alia calls in and remarks "X…The satellite dish's signal has been shut down. We can now send in a team to quell the Mavericks that were created by the signal…"
X didn't respond at first, and after a few seconds of silence Alia said quietly "…X…I'm sorry Magna Centipede had to die…But there was no way we could have saved-" "Alia…Just bring me back to base…The mission is over after all, right? X said blankly, and Alia just went quiet at that point, letting out only a sigh of regret for how hard she pushed X before using her skills as a navigator to bring down the teleporting beam that would take X back to the Maverick Hunter HQ, which X accepts as he slowly rises back onto his feet…
Next Time: Why Should I Fight?