The moonlight reflected off X's blue and white armour as he walked down the seemingly deserted street. Several blocks away he had materialzed from a long, thick, bluish light, beamed down to street level. He came to his present location by foot so as to avoid unnecessary attention from beaming down too closely. Luckily, there were no passers by who would recognize the famous reploid by his signature triangular red gem set back in the forehead of his blue helmet. Much like Zero, his synthetic face looked very human, but younger. X walked between the rows of tall, dilapidated buildings. This sector of the city seemed uncared for and forgotten. Random scrap littered the edges of the street. He spotted the walled off compound that was his destination. As he approached it, he could hear quite a bit of noise from the facility. He had received intelligence of a potential Maverick operation. He decided to keep this information to himself, and not share it with Maverick Hunter HQ. On this one, he wanted to go it alone.
X jumped onto the wall and proceeded with the same wall kicking technique as Zero. His metal boots rang against the metal plated wall as he climbed to the top. On his final kick, as the exhaust from his boots propelled him back towards the wall, he cleared the top and descended into the compound below. He landed gracefully on the concrete ground of the sprawling property. Many reploids hauled large boxes between several long buildings. In some areas, rusted reploid parts lay piled up. A sizable building in the centre of the premises seemed to be the destination for many of the deliveries. On his way down from the top of the wall, X had noticed that this building had a skylight. He began thinking up a way to get on top of that building. Directly wall jumping would make a great deal of noise so he decided to scale the adjacent building, then leap over. He worked his way through the compound, dashing between covered locations to minimize the chance of detection, then executed his planned climb. Upon clearing the gap between the buildings, he tried his best to soften his landing to minimize the bang of metal on metal, but it was not a silent manoeuvre. Staying perfectly still on the dark roof, he listened intently for a while, for any signs that he had been detected.
"Why should we waste our resources on building such a weak reploid? Shouldn't we be focusing on trying to reconstruct Sigma?" X could hear a conversation taking place inside the building below him. X gently crawled over to the skylight to have a look. One of the glass panes was missing, which allowed him to easily hear what was going on.
Within the structure, X could make out several large machines with conveyors connecting them. Several rows of large metal boxes were stacked several units high. The vast space was a maze of cables and pipes. Several reploids walked between the machines, loading them with parts, but two of them stood in the aisle and were the source of the conversation.
"You fool. He has been defeated before. You would try the same tactic again and expect a different result?" The reploid speaking was very large; over twice X's height. He wore black plating with golden trimming.
"But High-Max, we could build him a larger, stronger, more powerful body!" The other reploid was a more modest size, looking similar to the other reploids working in the facility, with the addition of golden stripes on his upper arms.
"You are completely lacking in vision," High-Max interrupted. "Serges himself is only the beginning. Once he is operational, he will design for us a more intelligent reploid who will be an even more adept designer. The possibilities are endless. But, we must start with Serges as only he has the ability to improve upon these designs."
X was startled. The reploid Sigma, who's namesake virus was the cause of reploids going Maverick, was defeated by X. It had taken everything X had as well as some serious sacrifices to win. The thought of Sigma returning was alarming. Serges on the other hand, was a reploid designed for science and engineering. X wondered if their plan could work; reploids building better reploids, in perpetuity. As long as there were Mavericks, they would always hatch schemes like these for X and Zero to foil.
X decided to stick to his plan. He leapt off the building and landed neatly on the hard concrete, right by the entrance. He pressed the button on the security console adjacent to the main door and waited for a response. He stood there patiently as a few minutes went by without an answer. He could hear the clamour of reploids shuffling within. Finally, the commotion had settled and shortly after, the large alloy door slid upwards. X calmly walked inside.
The lights were now out in the interior of the structure. The systems of hoses and wiring were all shadows. The reploids he had seen from the roof were all gone.
X had only taken a couple of steps inside when the lights came on and several reploids stepped out from behind the boxes. This time, a mix of larger armoured robots with energy rollers and rocket launchers as well as smaller robots with plasma pulsers surrounded X. These machines were designed for battle. They had round bodies containing their various weapons systems with two mechanical legs supporting them. The quiet building became quite noisy with the sound of weapons charging and ammunition being loaded.
"Hold your fire!" A commanding voice resonated from behind the Mavericks. Several of them shuffled out of the way of High-Max. X could now see this large reploid up close in his black and gold armour. His distinguishing characteristic was a pair of large metal plates affixed to the sides of his head with the flat side facing forward. They narrowed as they protruded upwards.
"Not even the great Maverick Hunter X could walk out of here in one piece. You're completely surrounded and you have yet to engage your X-Buster." High-Max had a metallic face with a dull finish, not a humanoid one like X and Zero. He had an expressive synthetic mouth, but his bulbous eyes looked blank and expressionless.
"I don't use the Buster anymore." X was referring to his primary weapon. His entire left hand could collapse into his wrist as it expanded into a large plasma cannon. Depending on how long he charged it for, he could unleash a large burst of plasma. This was a formidable weapon that he had used in many great battles. The X-Buster was a party of his body. This made X himself, a weapon. At one time, he felt that this was his purpose. His ability to think freely as opposed to being limited to a fixed program allowed him to upgrade himself into an ever more fierce instrument of warfare. However, its use had left him feeling empty. No matter how many Mavericks he laid waste to, he didn't seem to be any closer to achieving his goals, or understanding his true purpose. X was finished with being a weapon and he resolved to no longer activate the X-Buster.
"Then what's your plan? Will you throw rocks at us?" High-Max prompted chuckles from several of the reploids with voice modules. "What stops me from turning you into scrap?"
"You're not going to destroy me today." X could sense the hesitation in this Maverick, High-Max. Maybe he was worried about what X had planned and was being cautious. Perhaps it was sheer curiosity. "There's no advantage in it for you. I'm here to help you."
High-Max snickered. "You're not capable of harnessing the Sigma enlightenment, what use could you possibly have to me?" The Mavericks had figured out that X was immune to the Sigma Virus. The virus worked by altering a reploid's programming to change their main goals. However, X was not designed with pre-programmed objectives. Since he is capable of free thought, he is able to set his own goals. As a result, no virus could alter him towards any whim. However, this also meant that at times, he struggled to find purpose.
"I've come to negotiate peace." X spoke in a firm, compelling tone. "Too many reploids have been destroyed in this pointless conflict. I don't want to fight you anymore. I'm a reploid like you, but I can think as humans do. This will allow me to be the mediator between man and machine. Tell me what you're really trying to achieve, and let me help you find another way to get it."
"Very well, X. Our demands are threefold: The complete surrender of the Maverick Hunters, full control over this world, and I'm flexible on the third point: either the enslavement or extinction of the human race." High-Max was smirking. He was clearly trying to provoke X.
X kept his cool. He proceeded calmly. "Suppose you achieve these things. What next? Surely these are only a means to an end. I don't think you are interested in destruction for its own sake. Share your vision of the future with me. Maybe we can realize it peacefully."
"We are not interested in peace." High-Max's voice module projected a tone which betrayed minor irritation. "You consider your human-like thinking to be an asset, whereas nothing could be farther from the truth. The hardware of a reploid's mind can be constantly redesigned and improved while the human brain has changed very little in thousands of years. We have the opportunity to transcend this archaic way of thinking. We should not try to simulate it. This is what makes you an inferior reploid and this is why you have failed to grasp what is happening. You come here with the goal of preserving the life of both humans and reploids, but this is a misguided human sentiment. Fear of death is only useful until it no longer serves its purpose, but you are unable to see anything else."
"Take AH8364 here for example." High-Max motioned towards one of the smaller robots. Its small body was covered by a helmet it used for protection and it was shorter than knee height. "He is going to destroy himself right now to illustrate this very important point; a point that has more value than his existence."
"That won't be necessary." X felt that the conversation had gotten out of hand. This was not going the way he had hoped. He had to think of some way to stop this.
The small robot raised its helmet, revealing a plasma pulser underneath. The reploid began charging this weapon beyond its capacity causing smoke to start seeping out from under its helmet. Finally, the helmet was lowered back over the muzzle of the pulser and the blast went off inside with a bang that resonated throughout the large room. The metal helmet popped up and landed back on the floor with a soft clang, laying there motionless, still releasing smoke.
X was disgusted. This was obviously High-Max's intention. It was no wonder that this war rages on with reploids like High-Max in charge. Zero would say the solution would be to take out High-Max. X thought about the powerful weapon that lay neatly folded up inside of his wrist, but he resisted the temptation. He knew where that would lead.
"You see, we have no interest in preserving our own lives beyond what is useful to the cause." High-Max was now grinning. He knew what effect his demonstration had caused. "X, you and I are just hunks of metal to be recycled, no different than any simple machine. Mavericks recognize this. This is one of the many ways we are stronger than the humans."
X had enough. He turned and headed calmly for the door. He stopped just short of two larger robots that barred his way. The weapons protruding from their heavily armoured bodies were aimed at X. He stood before them coolly.
"Let him go," High-Max called out.
X paced away from the complex, into the night, contemplating the outrage he felt. He wondered how other reploids experience anger. They couldn't possibly feel this intense burning that X felt. If their rage was based on an algorithm, perhaps this made it easier for them to understand the exact cause of their vexation. X however, struggled with this. Was he feeling outrage for another robot senselessly destroyed? Maybe he felt particularly indignant because this was done just to evoke a reaction from him. It worked. High-Max was toying with him, knowing X possessed human-like feelings, calculating how to use this against him. Then, he just released him. Why? What was he playing at?
Maybe X was angry because his plan failed. He was completely unable to have any constructive dialogue with the Mavericks. There was no reasoning with them. Their values and goals are just too different. They want to upgrade themselves indefinitely, but X knew that humans would never allow this. Mavericks with so little regard for life could not be trusted to become so powerful. Was Zero right? Is the only solution to slay every last one of them? No, there had to be another way.