Ninetails

"My strength is unparalleled!"

- Ninetails

Ninetails is a boss from Mega Man X: Command Mission. He is the strongest enemy in the game and quite possibly one of the most powerful Reploids in the X series. He is either the leader of the Tails clan, or its single member with the others possibly being clones (see next paragraph). He and his clansmen/clones are imprisoned in the Central Tower Basement. To confront him you have to get the Central Key and face all the other Tails (Onetails, Twotails, Threetails, Fourtails, Fivetails, Sixtails, Seventails and Eighttails). He has a large array of moves, making him hard to defeat. He can heal himself automatically when it's his turn. His attack "Nine Fragments" refers to his nine tails, which he stabs into his enemies rapidly, causing 8991 points of damage (9*999), which generally kills whoever it was used on. Furthermore, he has the ability to completely drain his enemy's weapon energy with his Puncture Arrows, and the Annihilator Hadoken, a large and devastating energy beam, sweeps over the place and inflicts heavy damage to all of his opponents, and has a 60% chance of being an instant kill, compared to the other clansmen/clones. Because of these attacks it's not a lie when he says "My strength is unparalleled!"

Clan Member Differences
As all members of the Tails clan are based off the same Reploid, they share some basic abilities. However, there are some notable differences between them and how they fight, all of which can be tied back to previous enemies X's party has faced during the command mission.


 * Onetail possesses regenerative capabilities (like Rafflesian and her Belladonnas or Great Redips with his Supra Force Metal fragments) and the ability to use Tera elemental attacks (like Incentas).
 * Twotails fights starting in two bodies (like Duckbill Mole) and changes element every turn, complete with Ultra Giga elemental attacks (all like Incentas apart from the two bodies).
 * Threetails fights starting in three bodies, can use Life Gain 25 (like several types of Preons and Mechaniloids, especially nurse/doctor/healer types), and can use Cryogenics to attack and possibly freeze his victims (like Silver Horn).
 * Fourtails has stronger attacks than the others, save Ninetails, and alternates between defending against Combat and Shot attacks (like Scarface).
 * Fivetails is relatively weaker than the others, but fight starting in three bodies and can clone himself further by using SOS (the same technique several Mechaniloids, guards, etc. use to summon alike allies), plus in each body he can use Self-Destruct to hit off tens of thousands of damage (like a Preon S Botos, with power on the scale of a Meltdown's Atomic Fall).
 * Sixtails has the most LE of all the forms and regenerates it all every ten turns with Life Gain Max (similar to how a.Meltdown needs several turns to do an Atomic Fall).
 * Seventails fights starting in two bodies, has regenerative capabilities and gains in strength with every attack done to it (all like Rafflesian's Belladonnas).
 * Eighttails fights starting in two bodies and can clone himself further by the aforementioned SOS, and fights using attacks all but exclusive to Gimialla Mine globs, S-Preons, high Rebellion Cadres, clone version Rebellion bosses, and other Tails.
 * Ninetails has the highest stats in all areas, save for LE which Sixtails has more of, and the above mentioned moves.

The Tails Clan - Real or Fake?
The game is not clear on whether the other Tails members are "real" Reploids or merely lesser-tailed shadow clones of him. Evidence to the latter theory includes the following:
 * Some of the Tails apparently possess the ability to indefinitely clone themselves.
 * Most of the other Tails, as pointed above, are basically stronger versions of past enemies. The only attacks indicating otherwise would be Puncture Arrows and the Annihilator Hadoken attack. Ninetails can do both, however, and the latter attack was taken from the fellow Capcom-produced Street Fighter video game series.
 * Each of the Tails actually has the same nine tail spaces visible on their back no matter how many tails are actually there. In fact, the amount of tails is the only difference in all of their appearance.
 * Ninetails is the only Tails boss Axl gets a DNA attack from.
 * The Resistance soldier at Shaft 999F who explains why the area where the Tails are found is off limits says that "apparently a savagely strong prisoner is being held below", hinting towards the idea that there was only one.

In either case, he is an immensely powerful Reploid imprisoned by the Resistance in a special sealed section of the Tower which requires the Central Key to open, indicating possible allegiance to the Rebellion or some other highly dangerous form of Maverick activity. This is most likely the latter, as he does not mention the Rebellion or have their emblem anywhere on his person. Moreover, he seems to have no grudge with the Hunters, and wishes only to fight them for the challenge of it.

Instead of normal armaments, Ninetails and his clan/clones utilize a form of robotic chi manipulation similar to that of human martial arts that allows them the ability to utilize powerful energy attacks and techniques without the need of an outside power source. Upon encountering X's team, each of the Tails simply challenges them to a fight, with the exception of Ninetails himself, who, as aforementioned, claims with good reason that his strength is unparalleled.

Trivia

 * Ninetails seems to borrow heavily from the same Japanese fox-spirit folk tales as anime, manga, and/or video game characters such as the Pokemon creature Ninetales and the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox from Naruto. One could say that Ninetails and his clan/clones would be the game makers' brief attempt at a reploid take on the kitsune legend.