//------------------------------//
// Day of Sigma 
// Story: Melody of the Future 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	X stood silently in the bee shaped drop ship, ready to do his part on this Hunt.  A giant mechanaloid was rampaging, and it needed to be taken down before anyone got hurt.  Sigma, Zero, and several other groups of Hunters were already in place to take it on the ground.  Since X had the most powerful Buster, he was chosen for a more desperate plan to take the beast down.

As the drop ship opened its doors, X began his free fall head first towards the giant yellow, purple, and black construction mech.  As his calculations put him at the ideal height, he leveled his blaster at the mechanaloid and began to charge.  Once he was at full charge, he released the massive blast of plasma.

The force of the blast drove the mechanaloid into the ground, while the recoil slowed X's fall.  Shooting a smaller blast to one side, he caught a nearby building and slid down the side until he could land safely.

"Chill Penguin company!" Sigma ordered.  "Commence operation!"

Chill Penguin and his subordinates immediately moved forward to secure the fallen mechanaloid, but much to everyone's surprise, it got back up.  It had barely taken any damage from X's blast, and it immediately began to attack with its grapple arm, its tread legs, and front mounted lasers.

The mechanaloid's main generator was identified - a pulsating red crystal on its underside, generally shielded by the low slung grapple arm.  However, it moved too fast to let anyone get a clear shot.

Eventually, Chill Penguin company was able to restrain it enough - with a combination of high tension cables and Chill Penguin's ice and Zero managing to damage a leg joint - to let X get a shot at the generator...but by the time X got there, it was holding one of the Hunters in its grapple arm, using him as a Reploid shield.

X leveled his buster, trying to aim the shot...but doubts began to assail him.  What if he hit the Hunter?  While they all knew being a Maverick Hunter meant courting death on every mission - especially after the guilt trip Octavia had used to get Dr. Ciel to start making her power armor - if X took the shot here, he risked having his fellow Hunter's blood on his hands.

As his mind started to go into a worry spiral, he spotted something off to the side.  An image flashed through his mind, and all worry and hesitation was shoved aside.  If only I had a narrower shot, he thought to himself as he charged his buster.  One that hit with the same amount of force...

The Variable Weapon System in his buster circuitry kicked in.  A filter unfolded on the front of the buster, narrowing the output region to a single point.  A bright blue laser shot out, easily missing the captured Hunter and slicing through the mechanaloid's generator, causing it to shut down and release the Hunter.

As casualties were being assessed, Sigma approached the scene.  "Good shooting, X," he complimented.  "It's good to see you aren't hesitating anymore."

"I was at first," X replied.  "I was afraid to take the shot, because I might have hit my comrade...but then I saw something that pushed all that aside."  He turned to the side.

Sigma and Zero followed his gaze.  One of the Hunter's was escorting a late evacuee, a little girl with pale skin and black hair.  As her father rushed up to scoop her into his arms, Zero let out an 'Ah' of understanding.  "Made you think, 'What if Tavi was here?' right?"

X nodded.  "Yeah..."  When he'd seen the girl running, his mind had superimposed Octavia over her, and all doubt had been swept away.  "Say, Zero...how come you're the only male Octavia will accept that nickname from?"

Zero shrugged.  "No idea."

"I'm more interested in when you got the laser mode for your buster," Sigma interrupted.

"Umm...just now, I think," X explained.  "The VWS kicked in when I thought how a narrower shot would let me hit the generator without hitting our comrade."

Nodding, Sigma turned to oversee the rest of the operation.





Back in Maverick Hunter HQ, Octavia sat in Dr. Ciel's lab, awaiting the completion of her power armor.  Ciel had said she would be done with it today, and needed Octavia present to both complete the final modifications and to test it out.  However, all Octavia had seen Ciel working on was a strange lump of metallic rock covered in circuit patterns and blue and white crystalline formations.

"And finished!" Ciel proclaimed, sitting back and stretching.  "Woo...that was mentally and physically exhausting...is this what Dr. Light felt like when he was building X?  Creating a brand new kind of technology?"

Octavia smiled as she put down the music book she had been reading through.  "So now you can work on my armor?" she asked.

Ciel chuckled.  "Tavi...this is your armor."

Octavia glanced at the unimpressive lump with a raised eyebrow.  "But...it's just a rock..."

The rock suddenly glowed blue.  "Hey!" it snapped back in a surprisingly feminine voice.  "You aren't much to look at, either!"

Octavia let out a terrified scream.  "AHH!  A talking rock!"

"Ahh!" the rock shouted back sarcastically.  "A talking pony!"

Octavia stared at the rock.  "...touche."

Ciel chuckled.  "This is far from just a rock, Tavi.  In point of fact, it's a very rare mineral found only in meteorites...one that just so happens to share the same energy wavelength as your own unique energy field.  Not only that, it has reactive properties when exposed to compatible energy.  And if that wasn't enough, the mineral also gives off bio-energy in low levels.  I've termed the material...Bio-Metal."

"Bio-metal..." Octavia murmured, looking over the rock more carefully.

"I'm Varia!" the rock stated.  "Pleasure to meet you, Tavi!"

Octavia raised her eyebrow.  "Varia?" she asked curiously.

"In order to attune the material to give you power armor as you requested, I encoded all of X's build data into it, including those portions we haven't been able to fully analyze," Ciel explained.  "In theory, this should allow the power armor it generates to upgrade itself by scanning any new upgrades X gets in the future to improve his own systems.  That way, you'll always be able to keep up with him."  She smiled, tapping her chin.  "Since the 'X' in his name is a variable, meant to represent the absence of fixed limits to his capabilities, I figured that Varia was a good name for this 'mini-X'."

"Certainly better than 'Mini-X'," Varia agreed.

Octavia nodded.  "You mentioned 'in theory'.  I take it you aren't entirely certain it will work?"

"Oh, I'm certain it will work," Ciel countered.  "It just hasn't been tested yet."

"So...how do I put it on?"

"That's easy!" Varia replied.  "Just sync your energy to mine...like so!"

There was a flash of blue and white light.  When the light faded, Octavia had gained an armored appearance.  She wore a blue, yellow, and white helmet similar in design to X's, with a proportionately larger red focus crystal at her brow.  The armor itself shared the same color scheme over her barrel and all four legs, with her flank and hindquarters covered by grey plates.  The main difference noticable between her armor and X's though was that X's armor was plainly metallic...whereas hers had a more crystalline sheen.

"It worked!" Ciel proclaimed happily.  "Varia, report systems!"

"All systems nominal," Varia called out.  "Buster units in all four legs functional, as are the variable weapon and energy systems.  Protective energy at 100%, armor systems backed up by energy shielding to reduce damage.  Etheric field at 100%."

"Well that's-"  Ciel froze.  "Etheric?"

"Confirmed.  Etheric field at 100%.  Energy amplification systems stable."

Ciel stroked her chin, turning to her notes as she went over this new tidbit.

"So...you're Varia?" Octavia asked.

"That's my name!" Varia replied eagerly as Octavia turned to leave the lab.

"So...does that make this the Varia Su-"

"Don't say it!" Varia shouted out.  "Nintendo will sue us!"

Octavia rolled her eyes.  Zero still said random things like that on occasion, after all.  "So...how do I take you off?"

"Just desync like so!" Varia replied.  In a flash of light, Varia was floating over Octavia's shoulder, surrounded by the same blue glow, and Octavia had returned to normal.

"And you just follow me around everywhere?"

"Pretty much!"

"As long as you can turn the glow off at night," Octavia allowed.





When X and Zero were dispatched to the missile base to pursue whoever had been remotely controlling the rogue Mechanaloids, Octavia insisted on going with them.  While both Reploids had been impressed by Octavia's new power armor, they had been hesitant about letting her go with.

Then she had sat back, sighed sadly, and taken a deep breath.

"Come on," both X and Zero had said, without even waiting for her to get into her guilt trip.  Octavia had merely smirked, stirring laughter from those few in the base not too busy managing the influx of Maverick reports.  Oh her way out, Octavia had winked at CiCi, who had winked back.

Reaching the missile base, they found Sigma waiting for them, telling them how the base was the source of the hacks.  Octavia stayed out of his sight, her suspicions roused by his behavior.

Zero was able to anticipate Sigma's betrayal as well, but Sigma seemed more focused on X.  Sigma then turned, holding Zero between himself and X as a human shield, challenging X to shoot through Zero to stop him.

Octavia started to level her blaster, trying to aim for a shot that would disable Sigma without hurting Zero.  However, the recoil from the shot was stronger than she thought, and it went wide.

"Note to self," Varia murmured quietly.  "Adjust recoil on busters."

Growling, Sigma hurled Zero at Octavia, slashing Zero with his beam saber as he went flying, causing him to shut down as he landed on top of Octavia.  Distracted by this, X fell prey to Sigma's assault...and was forced to disarm in the hopes Sigma wouldn't fire the missiles in the base.

Octavia had managed to get out from under Zero, however, and had accessed the missile control systems.  She wasn't able to usurp Sigma's control...but she was able to download and transmit the missiles exact plotted trajectories just as Sigma launched them.

In rage, X charged forward...only to be impaled by Sigma's beam saber.

"Warning!" Varia told Octavia.  "Synchronization resonance feedback detected.  Armor energy compromised.  We will be unable to take any damage."

"There's no need to worry about that," Sigma commented.  "I have no interest in hurting you.  This is between myself and X."

"You might reconsider if you take a look at the camera feed of the roof of HQ," Octavia murmured mildly.  "See...I'm not the only one who disagrees with you about evolution requiring sacrifice...and they have the exact trajectory of the missiles."

"What?" Sigma asked in confusion, activating the security feed.  "...what's CiCi doing up there?"





On the roof of Maverick Hunter HQ, CiCi carefully watched the missiles.  She would have to time this just right.  Even with her design, she could only do what she was about to for short periods of time without suffering degradation.  Her timing would have to be perfect.  Thankfully, she had memorized the R'lyehian she would need even before she was built.

As the missiles began to descend, she began her chant.


(1)"Ancient, Elder Father, I am here
To bring to the mortals our joy not our fear
Our Madness itself is neither wrong nor right
From the depths of our darkness I wield our new light
Help me show the truth, to cast out the lie!
To bring us our glory...nobody has to die!"



As the last unearthly syllable left her lips, a massive surge of eldritch energies burst from her body, and she began to expand.

CiCi's appearance had always given those who saw her an uncomfortable feeling.  A writhing mass of green tentacles surmounted by a shapeless mass covered with red eyes and fanged jaws that shifted under their own power, she could easily shrink herself down to the size of Octavia or expand herself to five feet tall with tentacles that could stretch out to ten feet.  However, that appearance grew more intimidating as she expanded.

At ten feet, she was terrifying.

At twenty, nightmarish.

At thirty, awe inspiring.

At forty, beyond belief.

And at fifty, it was like an Elder God had stepped off the pages of Lovecraft's novels.

She acted quickly.  Locking her eyes onto the approaching missiles, her tentacles shot out across the whole city, seizing each and every missile as it approached the ground, and dragging them back to deposit them into one of her many maws.  Once swallowed, the missiles exploded, their destructive capacity contained within her form.

(2)"Now that's a spicy meatball!"





"What?" Sigma demanded as he witnessed CiCi begin to shrink back down.  "How?"

"CiCi has her own etheric energy reserves," Octavia explained.  "It's how most of her abilities work.  With the right setup, she can put those energies into overdrive...though it doesn't last long.  However, having received and calculated the exact trajectories of every single missile, she could hold it just long enough to seize the missiles out of the air so they didn't destroy anyone.  Of course, the terror of how much damage Mavericks can bring to bear is still present in everyone's mind.  They all know what could have happened."

She smirked.  "You get your little war...but you're already losing.  You'll never have the world you desire.  We've already seen to that...and we'll never stop."

"Tavi," Varia whispered inside Octavia's mind.  "What do you think you're doing?  Are you trying to goad him into killing us?"

"Buying time for Dad or Uncle Zero to reboot," Octavia explained.

Sigma, however, apparently wasn't willing to wait.  Yanking his beam saber out of X, he lunged for Octavia...only to be caught by a glowing hand as X dragged furrows down Sigma's face below his eyes, staining purple burns on his cheeks.

"Detecting signal from unit X positronic brain!" Varia called out.

An HUD displayed a message for Octavia...one she'd likely never understand.



Threat to OM detected.
Control logic restriction system to level 0.
All power cores at maximum output.  Safety restrictions disengaged.
Power release to remain in effect until threat to OM is silenced.



"...what?" Octavia asked in confusion.

X's entire body became surrounded with a blue aura.  Lunging forward, he punched Sigma in the center of his chest, sending him flying all the way out of the city through three buildings, seven trees, four boulders, and a hill that had been a plateau before Sigma buried himself under it.





Several hours later, reports of Maverick activity were on the rise.  Dr. Cain and Dr. Ciel had begun dispatching what forces they had to contain the threat.  In the meantime, X, Zero, Octavia, and CiCi were all on bed rest to recover from their most recent ordeal.

In the medbay, Lifesaver - the new head of HQ Medical Ward - was working on repairing X and Zero.  In the bed across from them were Octavia and CiCi.  In order to recover from burning through all her etheric energy reserves so fast, CiCi was locked in her smallest form.

In order to help CiCi recover, Octavia was obeying instructions and cuddling her like a plushy, Varia hovering over them protectively.

Staring at them for a time, Zero shook his head.  "Kowai Kawaii(3)," he murmured under his breath.








(1) Translated from R'lyehian.  Originally, it was going to be in R'lyehian, but I couldn't find an English to R'lyehian translator online.
(2) Also translated from R'lyehian, odd as that looks.
(3) A Japanese play on words, meaning 'creepy cute'.