Sigma was bored and mad. There was nothing to do except complain to himself about everything that had went wrong in the past year and about his own, current, misery. Constructive thought wasn't an option... It was too cold for a reploid to think straight.

He pulled the hood of his parka down tightly over his head and gritted his teeth in a futile attempt to escape the freezing, sub-zero temperatures of the northern Himalayan mountains. These rugged peaks being the home for Sigma's "new and improved" fortress.

Sigma briefly thought about the piece of propaganda/coat he was wearing. It was a Maverick Hunter standard issue parka...custom made. It still had all the identification patches on it that it had back when he was "one of the good guys". He never quiet got around to removing them for some reason. Not like he really cared much....it was keeping his system temperature from dropping below the critical line. It also kept the wind off his back rather well.

Sigma's memories of his days at the Maverick Hunter Academy came flooding back to him. He especially remembered how much they stressed keeping warm in extremely cold conditions. He remembered the Arctic Operations Instructor lecturing on the two reasons why the cold can be deadly to a reploid. The first, and as the instructor called it "the most important of the two", was that a reploid, or robot in general, can't enter sleep cycle correctly. Well, they can enter but then it's a question of "when" or "are they" ever going to wake up. "Sleep" for a reploid causes it's systems to slow down and it's operation temperature to drop. When a reploid's operation temperature drops below a certain temperature for any reason, it causes permanent system shutdown. The outside temperature could push the operating temperature at any time just low enough to cause shutdown (especially during "sleep"). The victim of this can be revived... but not without permanent program damage.

The Second thing for any reploid to remember is that the hydraulics system of a reploid can freeze in extremely cold conditions, making movement absolute hell. And it didn't take long for this to happen. Only about 10 minuets in -50 degree fareinheight conditions would make the toughest reploid as stiff as a frozen fish at the supermarket.

Sigma recently decided that he had become an expert on the subject of reploid mobility problems in an arctic environment. If he wasn't struggling to walk down one of the hallways then he was slipping on the ice which lined them. And it didn't help much when most of the hallways were built at an angle. So not only would he slip but he would then go sliding down a corridor. He had accidentally killed several metools in this way.

The stronghold was always prone to an awful draft as well. Sometimes it was as cold and windy as the outside minus the snow. Sigma occasionally wondered if it was from the 1000 or so mistakes made during incredibly speedy and careless construction of the fortress or from some sick joke a higher power was playing on him.

"All of this is that damn Doppler's fault....", Sigma growled to himself.

The Maverick's fall-back point was strategically built into the side of the second highest mountain in the world. It was based on Dr. Doppler's blue prints for the "perfect fortress". Every detail about the fortress was of Doppler's own design... Even the bright idea not to include a heating system in the construction of a building located in one of the coldest areas of the world.

Why, you ask? Sigma had asked himself this question many times but as Doppler himself put it, " X and his lackeys will never think to look for us in a part of the Earth this uninhabitable, they don't think we're that crazy. But if one of there scanning satellites picks up any traces of heat from a place naturally this cold they will definitely be suspicious. No matter where we are or what we do, the Maverick Hunters will always be watching. "

"They'll find us if we have a heating system!", Sigma mocked to the metal walls of the room. "Oh forbid that I might die honorably in battle rather than freeze to death in the middle of nowhere!"

Sigma decided early in his stay at the K-2 fortress that he would never forgive Doppler for this. That is, if there was enough of him left to hold a grudge against. Sigma had drawn the conclusion that Doppler had been blown to kingdom-come with little hope for reconstruction. Thanks to X and Zero, of course.

"All Doppler had going for him was that blasted neuro-computer....It made a fool a genius. Pure knowledge and not a drop of common sense to temper it." Sigma thought to himself as he began his walk down the main hallway to the communications room.

He had nothing better to do except continue the train thought currently occupying his mind as he tried to keep his footing. "The one thing I fail to grasp is why Doppler was so easy to corrupt. It was almost as if he submitted willingly...."

At this thought Sigma stopped in his tracks, sliding a few inches before totally coming to a halt. "Could he actually have wanted to serve me?!? No, perhaps not....But maybe he had something else in mind...hmmmmmmm." He pondered for a moment and resumed his trip to the communications room at a brisker pace than before. "Why would he simply submit like he did? I can't believe I never saw this before! He could have put up a good fight against my attempts to control him....It wasn't like he was helpless. In fact, if he had wanted to he could have probably...." Sigma stopped again, "..killed me..."

Sigma continued to walk. Along the way he was thinking out loud to himself, "Could he have killed me? Would he have? Yes, I think he could have! After all he created the vaccine for the Sigma virus. He could have easily used it on himself....It would have wiped my programming clean...."

Before possessing any reploid, especially one as advanced as Dr. Doppler, Sigma would try to do a bit of research on the target in question. He would attempt to get a good idea of the reploids personality, the way it thought, and it's overall moral standings including their views on violence if the target wasn't programmed as a war machine. In his studies of the doctor, Sigma felt nothing was really different when compared to the personality and overall demeanor of any scientist reploid.....Except perhaps the awful, short-fused, temper, the incredible fighting ability, the philosophy that "alls fair when done in the name of science or war".......OK, so maybe he wasn't just another carbon copy like the other scientist reploids Sigma had known.

Doppler wasn't afraid to use his fighting skills, either. Sigma had once heard of Doppler beating his assistant, Dr. Wolfgang Anthrax, in an unfair fight leaning in Anthrax's favor. And beating him bad at that. Wolfgang was a victim of pure insanity, and loved every minuet of it....And half human, half reploid to boot. Anthrax had almost taken both X and Zero out single handidly once but spared them because he felt "the game had only begun". For Doppler to defeat Anthrax and survive was a feat in its own. Doppler could be one tough cookie when he had to be.

"Perhaps Doppler would be worth rebuilding if I could find enough of him to rebui..." Sigma's thoughts were cut short.

"Boss?!? Boss?!? Yo, Sigma!!! Are you OK?!?"

Sigma was too buried in his own thoughts to notice that he had arrived at his final destination.

"I didn't want to have to do this but it's for you're own good...."

Storm Eagle's fist landed square on Sigma's jaw. It was a powerful strike but the blow only caused Sigma to take a few steps back and turn his head in response.

"What the?!?!" Sigma automatically blurted out while shaking his head and adjusting his jaw, which had been knocked slightly loose. "What was that for Storm??"

"Sorry sir but you weren't responding....Sooooooo I decided to wake you up a bit." Storm Eagle explained as he helped his master to his feet. "Hope you don't mind." He continued, cowering slightly.

"Yes, I do mind. But I think I'll forgive you because I needed that....I've been thinking too much lately...." Sigma slightly smiled at Storm Eagle and walked over to the communications counsel. "Have we heard anything from Vile or the others yet?"

Storm Eagle was caught off guard by the question....Storm had never seen Sigma smile in a way that wasn't completely menacing or totally evil. He was also expecting an extremely hostile response. Few people ever hit Sigma for any reason and lived to tell the tale.

"Nn n n n o.....er....No sir not yet. They probably just haven't had the chance to contact us."

"Fine....I just wait right here until they do."

Storm Eagle sat back down at the console and propped his feet up on a near by table, "Do you have something you need to tell Vile and the others? I'll do it for you, sir. I got nothing to do cept make sure the metools don't go berserk again."

"I'd rather give them the orders myself." Sigma took a seat across the room from Storm. "What the hell's taking them so long!!!"

Storm turned around and pushed a couple of buttons on the control panel. A map of the United Stated popped up and then zoomed in on two blinking dots to reveal a closer, more accurate map of a city. "I donno....Interference perhaps. They're located in what remains of Doppler Town." Storm punched a few more buttons. "I'm tracking Vile right now..." Then he paused for a second, tapped the side of his titanium skull with his index finger as if he were thinking, and asked Sigma, "If I may ask, what are you exactly going to order Vile and the others to do?"

"Why do you want to know?" Sigma replied in a less than thrilled voice.

"Ummmmmmm.........." Storm paused to think, "Because the suspense is killing me."

Storm knew that Sigma was in the type of mood that would allow him to get away with all wise ass comments in the world.

"I'll be killing you in a second if you don't shut up..." Sigma threatened, sounding extremely exhausted but every bit as serious. "If you really must know I want them to bring back all the pieces of Dr. Doppler they can find."

"What!?!?" Storm almost fell out of his chair. "He has...er....He had the knowledge to kill you and you're going to resurrect him for it?!?!?" Storm was now standing up and attempting to yell some sense into his superior. "Boss you need some rest. I think all this cold weather is screwing with your mind or something."

"We are going to do this even though the idea just hit me a minuet ago...If we have any chance of destroying X and Zero it will be with Doppler's help. Everything should work out fine as long as those Maverick hunting misfits stay low for a couple more weeks."

Then, just as sigma finished his statement, five blue dots showed up on the screen in pursuit of the purple dot that represented Vile. All five represented Maverick Hunters.

Storm ran back to the counsel to watch the ongoing action, "Well, speak of the devil. Vile's got Hunters on his tail!"