As the trio arrived in the final area of the Fortress, they took in their surroundings. The chamber was wide open with pale blue floors and ceilings, the distant walls shrouded in shadows. A large capsule was visible in the distance, containing a massive combat reploid body.
"Think that's Sigma's Battle Body?" Zero asked, flexing his hand around his beam saber.
"No," Octavia countered as she scanned it with her visor. "It's missing some critical components. It's just...yet another source of materials. It's probably being kept in the capsule as a source of spare parts, in case we do more damage to Sigma than he expects."
"He expects to win," X commented dryly. "He overestimates himself."
Only the most basic of defensive mechanaloids guarded the path inward, eventually leading to a narrower area with ladders leading upward...and a somewhat damaged wall.
"I need to go through here," Octavia stated bluntly, gesturing to the wall. "I managed to download the map while we were in Doppler's chambers, and there's a power generator in there feeding power directly into Sigma's battle body. If I don't take it out, his battle body will have a limitless supply of energy to draw from."
"Then I should take it out," Zero countered. "I can go alone, and-"
"If Sigma's any kind of tactician, he'll have designed his Battle Body to fight everything he's seen us use so far," Octavia interrupted. "That would be each of our standard abilities, the sub weapons we've brought with us, the Hadouken, the Shoryuken, and my Classic Adapter. Which means if we want to beat him without risking excessive damage or possible death, we need to hit him with things he hasn't seen in full action." She gestured to X. "While he's seen the Golden Armor, he's only likely to have formulated a battle plan around it, rather than designing his body to counter it."
X nodded worriedly. "But he hasn't seen the Piano or Timbre Adapters in effect, because we haven't used them. Still...are you sure you can handle whatever you face back there alone?"
Octavia smirked as Classic beamed in. "Who said I'm going to be alone?" Grinning, she blasted the wall open and dashed in, Classic hot on her hooves.
Knowing that standing around would only draw attention to her, X and Zero clambered upwards towards where they knew Sigma was waiting for them.
As Octavia dashed towards the power generator, she glanced about at the narrow, machine lined corridor. "...where are the defenders?" she asked, confused.
"Doppler is sending them a false signal indicating that you are attacking from the other direction," Varia explained. "He also informs me that he has completed the anti-viral program, and sent it to one who is already in motion to assist. The Neural Computer's been disabled so it can't alter anyone new, and destroying the power generator will shut it down completely."
"Huh," Octavia muttered. "Good to know."
As X and Zero made their way through the final door, they entered a tall, box-like chamber that severely limited movement. It wasn't long before they came face to face with Sigma's new body...a humanoid reploid body in a riot of purple, yellow, blue, and green. The purpose of the dreadlock-like spikes coming off his back wasn't readily apparent, nor that of the horns rising from his shoulders. The glowing shield in his hand, however, was obviously for defense.
"We meet again X, Zero..." he growled out. "I had no idea it would be so easy to amass such power from a viral form. So many months of careful planning, wasted..." He chuckled a bit. "And if the Hunters hadn't sent you in so soon, X, I would have gotten away with it...and figured out how to corrupt and control even you. But it seems the three of us are destined to battle each other over and over..."
"You talk too much," Zero barked out. "Timbre! Merge!" He lifted his hand into the air as Timbre beamed down onto him, surrounding him in an aura of black energy. When the energy faded, Zero unfolded his wings to reveal his new form.
Hovering in the air, he flapped the massive wings sprouting from his back, the black membrane feathered in a pattern of orange circuitry. His armor was a mix of dark blues, deep purple, and pitch black, with a solid red crystal pulsing in the center of his chest. Smaller blue wings fanned out to each side of his head. His hands had turned into crimson claws, and tooth-like protrusions marked his feet.(1)
"Impressive," Sigma admitted. "It seems I'm not the only one with new tricks-"
"Piano! Merge!" X shouted out. Piano warped in above him and dropped onto him, converting partially into energy as the adapter kicked in.
When the light faded, X's golden armor had changed to crimson and white. His busters were nearly double the size, and massive thrusters glowed on his back and on his feet. His new form radiated indomitable speed and raw, unchained power.
Unfortunately for X's pride, it was also covered head to toe in thick, fluffy fur.(2)
Zero attempted to stifle his laughter, especially at X's chagrined expression. Sigma made no such attempt.
Falling onto his back, Sigma let out peal after peal of uncontrollable laughter. "It's...you're...he's so fluffy!" he finally managed to gasp out, rolling over to pound his fists and feet against the floor, his entire body shaking with his laughs.
X stared at him with a miserable frown until the laughter started to subside. "...are you done?" he asked in resignation.
Sigma started to stand up...but then he caught sight of X's face and burst into laughter again. "Like a pouty lion!" he gasped out as his whole body shook, rolling back and forth on the floor in laughter. All at once, the laughter and movement stopped.
"...huh?" X began, confused.
Zero hovered over to examine the body...and began to snicker. "X...I hate to tell you this...but he died laughing."
X could only groan and facepaw...only to groan even louder as he realized that yes, when not a buster his arms in this form ended in massive paws.
The lights went out as the power generator was destroyed, and Zero returned to X's side as he felt something shift. "Well," Sigma's voice began softly. "That was certainly my most embarrassing defeat yet, though I'm not sure if for me or you, X." Two glowing eyes appeared in the darkness. "However, that will not suffice to destroy my new and improved battle body!"
As the light returned, the massive shape was revealed. The legs were each thick and tall enough to completely contain X or Zero, even in their new forms, and colored a dark blue with yellow and red markings. The upper body had a face on the chest that was somewhere between a gorilla's and a lizard's in configuration, and marked the divide between the blue lower body and the pink upper body. Massive laser cannons and missile launchers were mounted on each flaring shoulder, and Sigma's tiny head could just be made out at the peak.
"Behold the might of my new invincible form!" Sigma declared loudly. He then blinked. "Wait...where's Zero-"
Appearing behind him, Zero performed a spinning kick that tore Sigma's head from its position on the new body, sending it flying towards X. X leveled both busters at the flying head and released a fully charged shot from both. The immense wave of firepower blasted straight through Sigma's head to take a chunk out of the battle body and the wall behind it.
"Watch where you're shooting, X!" Zero snapped as he blurred back into place beside X as the massive battle body exploded. "You nearly hit me there!"
"Sorry!" X responded, chagrined. "Didn't realize how much power these babies had." He stared at his new busters in amazement. "Think Light went a bit overboard here..."
"Amazing..." Sigma's voice murmured. "What power from such ancient machines. Only one option for it...I shall possess you both to rule this world!"
The new sensors that allowed X and Zero to see when a Reploid was under the Neural Computer's control picked up something new appearing in the air above them. It looked like the wire frame projection they'd faced after beating Sigma the last time...but they could tell that was only how their minds were interpreting the visual data. It was actually a viral concentration...Sigma's attempt to possess them.
The fortress beneath them began to fill with lava, flowing up towards them as Sigma sought to trap them. The room above narrowed as it ascended. "There is no escape-"
Sigma's rant was cut off as X and Zero both shot upwards with the air boosters their new forms had equipped, rapidly outstripping him, leaving him to spout curses.
Eventually, however, the pair reached a dead end, and Sigma appeared behind them. "Give up! There is no escape! When I possess your bodies, I shall become truly invincible!"
"GROUND CRUSH!"
"What-"
Before Sigma could react, the ceiling behind him broke, and a figure came down like an avenging angel. The humanoid reploid was built on a massive scale, nearly twice as tall as X or Zero normally were. His armor was a mix of white, black, yellow, blue and red. His face, while normally open and honest, was twisted into an expression of fierce determination and fury. The only real clue to his identity was the hat with the Repliforce insignia emblazoned in bronze above his brow. His beam sword was built to his scale, and the pink blade slashed easily through the entire cloud of the Sigma Virus, disrupting it as a new signal was left in its wake.
"What...how...?" Sigma demanded. "Who are...?"
"Colonel of Repliforce, reporting for duty!" the Reploid barked out, his voice firm and strong with a slight British accent. "Dr. Doppler was able to create an anti-virus program based on what he'd found of Dr. Light's research into corruptive programs and X and Zero's brain wave scans. The Hikari Antibody has been uploaded into both my systems and my beam saber as an attack program."
"This...isn't...possible!" Sigma screamed out. "You...all...will...pay!!!"
The virus cloud began to erupt with explosions, as did the Fortress. X, Zero, and Colonel immediately beamed out to the nearest safe coordinates.
When the trio landed on a plateau overlooking the Fortress, they found Octavia waiting for them alongside Classic. Zero disengaged from Timbre so he could stand on solid ground again, to reassure himself that the mission was actually over. X plopped down beside Octavia, not bothering to defuse from Piano just yet...though he groaned a bit when Octavia chose to bury herself in his new fluffy coat.
"Not gonna disengage the Adapter yet?" Zero asked.
"Light implied that the process might not be entirely stable when he installed the chip and Adapter," X explained. "I want to wait until we're back at the base so I can be under proper observation when I disengage it...just in case."
"And you want to know how Alia will react to you being so fluffing adorable," Zero teased. X was glad his crimson fur concealed his blush.
"Speaking of, Zero, I need to discuss something with you," Colonel pointed out.
"Oh?" Zero asked, turning to face him. "What's that?"
"Regarding my sister..." Colonel suddenly drew his saber. "Defend yourself!" he shouted as he charged in with an overhead swing. Zero's saber leapt to his hand to block.
X debated whether or not to step in and interfere. The debate lasted until Timbre returned with a bucket of popcorn, which settled the debate.
(1)For those who don't recognize the inspiration for the design...
(2) Any artists out there, I'd love a picture of Fluffy X.
Well, Alia will have a lil' X-Fluff plushy soon...At least in my mind....
CLassic hot on her hooves
1. Extra capitalisation.
I can just imagine how super fluffy Mega Man is, and damn Zero looks cool...by the way did you just...end four through eight of the mega man series? Cause Sigma is dead if your anti bodies thing actually did kill Sigma...just making sure cause I checked the story's 'summary' and it didn't say how many games you'll be going through.
6767209
It's the exact same anti-virus Doppler creates at the end of X3 in cannon. The only difference was who delivered it.
6767218 Oooooh~. Sorry I don't remember if I ever actually played X3 or watched a playthrough of it so my bad. Sorry about that and continue doing good my friend
I'm not sure Pinkie Pie would be proud or horrified...
and when X merges with Piano does his paws have claws?
6767305
No.
A very enjoyable chapter. Great job.
6767293 Depends on whether or not it's the PWNYverse Pinkie... Though I'm sure the other Pinkie's wouldn't mind once they realize Sigma isn't actually dead.
Ah, the command mission hypermodes. Does that mean you'll be incorporating the game into this timeline?
6767439
...yes.
Rather than question how something that can't breathe dies by laughing within a minute as opposed to 36 hours, let's see just how anticlimactic this fight is.
Spoiler Alert: Eh, it's sort of funny, I guess.
So what was it that destroyed Sigma in the end?... Or rather, put a temporary end to it in the first place?
Wait... what was that?
Hmm... well, thanks for the MMBN reference, I guess.
Well, I guess if you're going to make this guy a recurring character, you might as well make a connection to the fact that Zero's going to be dating Iris, and that Colonel is Iris' sister.
6767445
In regards to the question you didn't ask, the spasms of laughter caused a badly soldered connection to his primary plasma core to break apart, resulting in catastrophic systems crash.
6767470 ... Ah, so it's because he wasn't smart enough to fix something (Or get someone to fix it) that could very well kill him if he didn't see to it that it was fixed?... Somehow, I accept that as an answer... and I'm disappointed in myself that it's come to that... But wait.
Why should I care about what happens to THESE iterations of certain characters? If I really care about the characters I grew up with, I wouldn't let something like this get to me... which means that the best way to enjoy fanfiction in general isn't to fuss over what an author missed or got wrong, but to be excited over what they got right. I mean, I'd have to be a pretty petty person to get worked up over stories online based on other things... Huh... today has been packed with revelations.
6767520
More 'badly designed' than 'needing to be fixed'. Sigma built his first body himself from viral form by directly controlling construction machinery, and he's a terrible mechanic...but he thinks he's the best.
Thus why most of Sigma's first forms are easy enough to defeat, while his second ones are often a large spike in difficulty.
6767532 Ah, so Sigma's basically a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain who fails because of his own incompetency and the heroes getting end-game dlc?
6767560
...that's how it works in the games, anyway. Especially if you find the Hadouken, Shoryuken, Golden Armor, or Ultimate Armor.
6767573 Well sure, but I don't remember an option to win over Classic, getting your own adapters, and a witty equine sidekick who has all the answers.
6767599
But other than that?
6767618 Well, you also have the previous anti-villains of the series helping you from the grave in addition to just Dr. Light.
6767652
Dr. Wily does leave capsules for Zero in canon. It's how you get Black Zero in X5.
Other than that, they've only assisted Octavia...except for the Support Units, which were thrown in because I found the concept amusing and adorable.
6767657 vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/memebases-my-little-brony/images/e/e0/Objection.png/revision/latest?cb=20140123035541
It clearly states in the wiki as well as a video on Youtube that Black Zero is obtained by Dr. Light doing modifactions to Zero's armor in a BLUE capsule. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY TO THAT?!
6767692
Apparently my memories faulty. I clearly remember a capsule with Wily inside at one point in one of the games.
He gets back to base and someone zaps him with static electricity and all the fluff stands on end turning X into a walking fluff ball.
6767734
He blows raspberries in frustration.
Mega Fluffle X.
6767704 Wily... inside of a capsule?... Ah, you probably mean this.
If you're reading this, you're probably thinking "That's not the kind of capsule I meant." Well... that's because I couldn't find any proof of its existence. The likeliest possibility is that you've... well... you've supplanted your view of the original Wily with this new Wily you've created, and that Wily's never actually appeared before Zero in capsule format. Or maybe you were thinking of Wily in that dream sequence? I dunno, just a thought.
Poor X got laughed at by friend and foe alike, just like Blossom on her bad hair day in the Powerpuff Girls.
At least he succeeded in taking down his first form.
And so this game ends... and the 4th installment not far away.
And soon the first legitimately darker entry begins. Will this be where shit finally begins to hit the fan, or will the comedy continue?
Awesome Super Adapter forms for X and Zero, well done. And Colonel coming to the rescue is awesome, though I hope we get to see more of his attempts to neuter Zero via Beam Saber.
6767704
I think it's cool that Wily has a capsule in case his personality program inside Zero is lost. The fact that you made the multiple types of capsules interact with each other is awesome to say the least.
...also the bird brought popcorn. Dang, these are some party animals!
Nice.
Oh, how I want to see that fluffle X now. It sounds so adorable.
I can only imagine here, Tavi gasping like Fluffle-puff just before a *POMF* sound is heard as X is glomped.
ABSOLUTE ZERO!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!! (Uh...no homo.....screw it, ALL THE HOMO)
Oh... Well I guess I saw Absolute Zero coming?
FUCK YEAH, ABSOLUTE ZERO
(and what else could be be but a version of the Gospel Boost?)
At least is not cat girl X.
*falls off chair laughing, shares chapter, the internet breaks from all the sharing.*
7165823 can you send me a link to the image of it ?
LOL
Oops.
Another oops.
God, I would totally go looking for a Fluffy X artist if this story hadn't been written six years ago. It sounds adorable.
fluffy x will never be not funny, as the idea of him becoming this white adn red fluffy warrior with paws is just utter hilarity.