Author's Notes: Funny how I get so inspired for these chapters when I'm tired, and end up not sleeping until I post my new chapters. The last two chapters were made very, very early in the morning. This one, however, not so much.

Disclaimer: I do not own any officially licenced Touhou characters

"One of the eight unknown Maverick signals had vanished... did another hunter get to it? But why is it that we couldn't get to the area those signals originated from?"

X was climbing up the Youkai Mountain, where various thunderstorms had suddenly risen. The path had rainwater washing down from it, making her trek a lot harder, but she pushed forward. She had to to get through to Brava-Agra, where her next target, Iku, was waiting for her. It got harder when she found herself confronted by Mechanaloids based off of electric eels. However, after a few shots, she was able to make it through the cloulds to Brava-Agra. However, she was not done, as the path she had to take seemed to expand over the clouds. "... Can this day get any worse?"

As X made her way through the cloud path, fighting off more Mechanaloids, this time looking like miniature versions Tenshi Hinanawi, she suddenly felt something calling to her, and looked over to see a capsule on a far-off cloud. Instinctively, she took a dash jump over to the capsule, using her mid-air dash to cover the rest of the distance. As she landed, the Mima Hologram appeared. "I knew you would be able to make use of the legs upgrade I made for you. This capsule contains an upgrade for your hat. It will allow you to use it like a sharp boomerang, which will come in handy in situations where you can't use your main weapon."

The hologram vanished, allowing X to step inside. Once the capsule closed her in, a jolt flew into her, but she didn't feel any different. As she left the capsule, the hologram re-appeared. "You know what to do with it." The hologram then vanished, and the top part of the capsule fell down, making it unusable. X looked up to see that her hat had donned a silverish blue color, showing she had the upgrade installed. She thanked her in her mind just before making it back onto the path using her combined Dash Jump and Mid-air Dash.

After what felt like hours, despite it only being about half an hour, X finally finds herself at a cloud-like battlefield, where Iku was standing in wait. "So, you're here.", Iku said. "Iku! What is going on here?!" "I've had enough of being the dragon's servant! It's time I take charge!" Iku quickly directed a bolt of lightning at X, who barely dodged the attack, countering with a chain of Plasma Shots. However, Iku dodged those herself, striking X as she was vulnerable. However, X didn't give up. Her outfit then turned a cyan blue as she began to freeze the air surrounding her into icicles and sent them at Iku. They grazed her, cutting holes into her syntheflesh, and revealing a small portion of the mechanics underneath. However, being a Reploid herself, X wasn't surprised by this, and sends another set of icicles at Iku while she was vulnerable, this time landing a direct hit.

The icicles barraged her, and the final one had pierced through her chest, and was sticking out of her back. "Th-This... can't... be..." Iku's eyes then became blank as she fell over, only to be caught by X, who dashed over. Just like before, she was upset that she had to kill one of her own friends, but didn't shed any tears. Actually, it was more like she COULDN'T shed any tears, because as a Reploid, she was unable to cry. It only lasted for a moment as X began to absorb Iku's power. "Iku... please forgive me..." were the last words spoken before Iku's body dispersed into millions of pieces and scattered throughout the wind. "... This is X... I'm returning to HQ now."

Author's Notes: Funny how we say that technology can do just about anything... but it's really not true.