SUMMARY
Information has been received that Sigma's army has been hiding in the depths of the South Pacific Ocean as part of a transport operation, and X is sent there to investigate. X notices a mermaid-looking female Reploid being caught by a Anglerge. X tells her to get down, firing a shot destroying the Anglerge as the force sends them both flying back. X catches her, and she screams for help grabbing X tightly. She says that she's being targeted by Launch Octopus, and X replies that he's after Octopus so he can help. The female Reploid tells X to head towards Octopus' whereabouts, but X tells her to stay back and she asks if it's because she's a girl. X says that he'll take her to a safe location, only to be slapped by her tail fin. She turns around, saying X is still 10 years early to be playing the role of a knight, calling him a youngster. X is annoyed at her arrogant tone, but follows her anyway.

X struggles to keep up with the mermaid-designed female Reploid, unaware that she intends to hand him over to Octopus in order to preserve the ocean paradise. Several enemies appear as X shoots them all down as the female Reploid is impressed at X's strength, but says he's off-balance afterwards, which X responds by saying it's because he's not built for marine mobility. X asks her if this route really is safe, which she replies annoyingly saying X is suspecting her. X says that's not what he said, but the female Reploid leaves angrily. X gives chase, but is attacked by a Utuboros from underground. X attempts to dodge, but is hampered by being unable to move freely underwater. The Utuboros burrows underground as X watches for it, the Utuboros resurfaces and X fires a shot at the body only to have it deflected. X is then bitten by Utuboros' fangs, but is able to get a shot at its head. X falls back, with several holes in his body from the bite. The female Reploid watches as X is leaking from his wounds, as she calls for him to run away while the enemies are nowhere nearby. X however stands back up, and charges his buster as the female Reploid shouts at him saying he doesn't stand a chance. She asks if X is scared, and X says he's scared but feels an emotion stronger than fear that allows him to stand. The female Reploid thinks X is just acting cool as the Utuboros reemerges, X says that if he compromises by running once he won't be able to stand against the enemy the next time. X fires his charged shot, which goes through the Utuboros's head. The female Reploid is impressed, and tells X that she'll patch X up saying that she's can help as she's a rescue-type Reploid.

X and the female Reploid arrive at the underwater base as X fights off a swarm of enemies. X sees a nearby cave, and tells her to hide inside. As X turns around fighting off a few more enemies, he asks for the female Reploid's name but is interrupted by incoming attacks. X heads towards the base while the female Reploid tries to tell him her name, but stops as she feels guilt about the trap she led X into. X shoots his way into the base, and falls into a sinkhole. X sees several fish torpedoes heading his way, and fires his buster only to watch it dissipate halfway. One of the torpedoes hit X, making him fall backward. Launch Octopus appears, telling X that the room they're in contains a Sidos Solution, a liquid that nullifies buster shot energy. Octopus tells X that without his buster he's easy pickings for him as he jumps above X and hits him with an Energy Tornado stopping X's movement as he uses his tentacles to drain X's energy. As Octopus drains X, he tells him that he was using the female Reploid X encountered, and she deliberately wasted X's energy during their journey to him. X refuses to believe it, and says her eyes were too pure to be working for the likes of him, and collapses as his energy is drained. Octopus says X now lacks the strength to stand, but X continues by saying she isn't the kind of person to deceive without reason. Octopus says that it doesn't matter as he would proceed to destroy him and the rest of the ocean. Having snuck in, the female Reploid overhears this and says Octopus promised to spare the ocean if she were to cooperate with him. The female Reploid grabs a trident from the wall, and rushes towards Octopus. Octopus reads her data, and launches his tentacles at her. The female Reploid dodges several times, saying she's a mermaid-modeled rescue type that can't be caught so easily, but the tentacles change direction quickly and several of them impale her. Octopus explains that his tentacles are made to automatically home into energy traces, and that a rescue-type cannot compete against a Special-A Rank hunter-type. X grabs Octopus from behind, and Octopus tells X that he has no reason to save her as she deceived him. X responds by saying she only did it to protect to oceans, and that X cannot forgive Octopus for getting her involved in such a ploy. X shouts at the female Reploid to hurry and escape, but she tells X that she won't run as it means she would never be able to stand against a threat again if she compromises. The female Reploid continues by saying that she is tired of always running away, and that she wants to fight for her own freedom. Octopus silences them by vibrating his tentacles, causing the female Reploid to be torn apart. Octopus then turns towards X and throws him aside, wondering what in the world Sigma wants with an emotional Reploid (referring to X) that cries and gets angered. X stands back up, charging his buster as Octopus says that this is a useless gesture as he inputs X's energy, making his tentacles home in on him. X looks downward, and fires down at the ground causing the female Reploid's remains to shoot upward, containing traces of buster energy. Octopus' tentacles are torn apart by scattered energy readings, and Octopus attempts to escape saying his own abilities were used against him. But before he can finish, X impales Octopus with the trident dropped by the female Reploid.

With Launch Octopus defeated, X watches as Octopus' impaled body lands on the ground, saying that Octopus' not worthy of Special-A Rank for being defeated like this. X lands on the sea bed, exhausted as he looks up, seeing the last piece of the female Reploid as he grabs the data chip, lamenting that he's still powerless as he can't even protect one girl, or even had the chance to know her name. The data chip then responds by saying her name is Marty. X is relieved that she's still alive, and she tells X to hurry and take her to a computer room. X arrived at a data center, and manages to preserve her. Her face appears on a large screen as she says her name is Marty, and for X to make sure he remembers it. X tells her to stop calling him a kid, but she refuses saying X deserves it for being unable to even protect her body. She asks if X is sure he can bring peace, and that if it happens he would promise to restore her, and to make sure it was the same as before.

COMMENTARY
Again a standalone story arc which is pretty much self-contained. This time, an original character is introduced as the mermaid-styled Reploid called Marty (or Martie), a tomboyish character who is good at heart but just so happens to have the misfortune of being used by the villains as part of a ploy to defeat X. Though it is easy to feel dubious about Marty given her tsundere crush-like interaction with X, I didn't really mind her as she does not appear enough to be a spotlight stealer (so to speak). From my understanding, she has quite a bit of popularity among the Japanese fandom, especially since there were little to no female characters in the X series at the time. Also considering that Marty was the only original character not 'killed', it is likely to expect her to return in some form later assuming X restores her inside a new body. One part I found hilarious is that the data chip containing Marty bears an eerie resemblance to a simplified Neural Net CPU from the Terminator franchise. I wonder if a Reploid manufacturer just so happened to be called Cyberdyne Systems...

The battle between X and Launch Octopus was decent, and was interesting to see some pragmatism on the villains' end. Instead of fighting X on directly, Octopus' scheme was to have X deliberately weakened from fighting towards their base, and have him trapped in an environment which nullifies his buster attacks. In spite of this massive disadvantage, X still manages to play it resourcefully by turning Octopus' abilities against himself, even if it is only thanks to Marty showing up in time to sacrifice her body in the process. Also despite X having a special weapon that Octopus is weak against (in this case, Armor Armarge's Rolling Shield), X still manages to fight and defeat Octopus without it. Though I like how this shows X isn't reliant on the weapons he obtains from others, it does seem that X hardly ever uses his enemy's special weapons despite explicitly obtaining their weapon data. That little nitpick aside, I liked how fitting Octopus's defeat was given his character.

Lastly since some people asked: Yes, typing up the summary of Marty falling victim to a mass of vibrating tentacles did feel dirty.