"I'll secure the perimeter; you head inside." Zero couldn't shake the feeling they were being followed. He wanted to have a look around prior to entering the research facility to ensure they were not compromised. This would give X an opportunity to look for Dr. Doppler inside.
He proceeded along the glass wall and after the first corner, he quickly lost sight of X at the entrance. The trek around the exterior was not much easier than the trudge through the jungle as the thick vegetation grew right up to the structure. Zero scanned as far as he could see into the jungle, but was unable to detect anything out of the ordinary. Everything was fairly quiet. Through the transparent walls of the lab, Zero could see some researchers working at their computer terminals. With the trees and shrubs in his way, there was not much of an opportunity to dash, and he progressed slowly with simple walking.
After completing his circuit around the whole complex, Zero arrived back at the entrance. What he saw next was a big shock to him. A reploid, emerging from the front sliding doors, looked identical to Zero from head to toe. The reploid paused to look back at Zero. Everything from their thick red and white armour plates, to their long, golden hair, the pointed ears of their helmets, their white gloved hands, and the crystal mounted to the forehead of their helmets, were completely indistinguishable. The notable difference was the flabbergasted look of astonishment as opposed to the grin on their otherwise identical faces.
The imposter dashed into the thickness of the jungle using the same exhaust boot technology Zero was equipped with. Zero accelerated after him. He had to figure out who this was and why they're here. Zero was certain they were up to no good. It was an awkward chase, with not much space to speed up using dash boots. Leaps over vegetation had to be carefully controlled, little hops to avoid overhead branches.
Zero was closing in on his double. Rough terrain up ahead also meant that his target was running out of options. The imposter suddenly stopped and lashed out with a plasma sabre as he turned around. Zero was able to evade this surprise attack and respond with his own sabre. The other Zero quickly leaned one way, then the other, avoiding the strikes. His opponent may have looked like Zero, but his swordsmanship was not quite at the same level. The swings of his blade were a bit slower. He took clumsy retreating steps to avoid Zero's attacks. Eventually, his adversary stumbled backwards as Zero managed to make contact with the sabre across his upper arm. As he fell to the ground, his whole body began to shimmer in a dazzling light. Zero could see the shape of the reploid changing. Finally, the bright white light began to fade, leaving behind a reploid in dark blue and gray armour. Zero recognized the leaner, youthful looking reploid as Axl, the Red Alert agent.
"You're a shape-shifting, transformer reploid." Zero was astonished. Having discovered Axl's ability, he began to reassess their previous interactions. "That's how you were able to move through the Maverick factory so easily. That's how you were able to abort the raid on the military train undetected. And now you used this ability to follow us here, but why?"
"I had to snatch Doppler's antivirus before you guys got your hands on it." Despite being bested in the duel, Axl struck a cool, defiant tone. "It's much safer with Red Alert."
Zero was finding these conversations with Red Alert quite annoying. "Are you so certain about Red's motives?"
Sitting on the ground, Axl was leaning back, supported by his hands behind him. "Motivate this!" In one quick motion, he swung his arms out in front of him, revealing a plasma pistol in each hand, and began firing.
Zero took a quick leap backwards to avoid the stream of rapid firing plasma bursts. Axl was now up on his feet, still firing towards his opponent. Zero dashed one way, then the other, to avoid the continuous salvo, while getting closer to Axl. Axl performed a leaping dash onto the side of the trunk of a nearby tree. He attached himself to its surface with his thick, metallic boots, in a similar fashion to X and Zero, all while continuing to fire his weapons. Zero continued to evade the stream of bursts, while getting closer, and leaping up onto the side of a tree to gain some height. Watching as Axl performed a kick off the tree, climbing higher into the air, Zero timed his own wall-kicking leaping dash, buzzing his plasma sabre through the air with an overhead swipe. To Zero's surprise, Axl's trajectory through the air did not arch downwards as he had expected and the attack came short of reaching its mark. Landing back on the ground, he could see Axl hovering in the air with jet streams blasting from his boots. Maintaining the same altitude, Axl drifted sideways while rapidly firing another round of shots down at Zero.
Zero leapt from tree to tree, struggling to gain elevation while avoiding the numerous small plasma bursts that littered the air, trying to get anywhere near his adversary. Axl, sporting a huge grin, calmly floated through the air while constantly firing away with his pistols, occasionally resting on the side of a tree. Zero was frustrated by the terrain which seemed to suit his opponent. He also found Axl's cool demeanour irritating and wanted nothing more than to wipe that smirk off his face.
The duel brought them near a troop of robotic monkeys hanging from tree branches, who immediately scattered as the feuding reploids approached. Zero noticed Axl was momentarily distracted by this and chose this moment to strike. Zero had to apply maximum power into the leaping dash from the tree to close the distance to his opponent. However, it was not quite enough, and Axl managed to float out of the way. As Zero hurtled back towards the ground, he noticed Axl once again transforming in a bright glow. After landing back on the forest floor, he looked up to see nothing but the monkeys dispersing throughout the tree canopy. Axl had gotten away. Another Red Alert operative had escaped his grasp. Zero was fuming.
"Zero! What are you doing?" X was trudging through the foliage towards where the duel had taken place.
"It was Axl. He's a shape-shifting transformer impersonating me." Zero turned to face X. "He got away."
X took a moment to process this. He was relieved to learn that Zero was not responsible for the death of Doppler. However, it was clear now that Doppler's powerful new inventions were in the hands of Axl, the Red Alert agent. "He murdered Dr. Doppler. Doppler had developed an antivirus for Mavericks. Axl has taken the only copy of it."
Zero let the significance of this sink in. This could be a powerful weapon in the war against the Mavericks. However, Zero couldn't help being sceptical. Would it really work? Would there be a practical way to apply it to Mavericks? Either way, he couldn't ignore it. They had to get it back.
"It gets worse," X continued. "Doppler had also developed some sort of man-machine interface device that can be used to infect humans with the Sigma Virus. Axl has that too."
Zero's eyes widened as he thought about the implications. He could slay any reploid the Mavericks threw his way, but Zero was not programmed with any protocol to deal with humans infected by the Sigma Virus. The stakes just got much higher. "How did they find us here? And what does Red Alert want with this device?"
"I don't know," X replied. "But this is our fault. We led them here. Now, they hold the power to win this war for either side."