Chapter Five: A Tower of Jack Straws



"I don't believe it!"

Riptide's voice tore through the morning air. Upon finding out the events of the night before, she had become furious. She had been almost appeased when she had discovered that Gambit was to be terminated, but this was too much. Somehow, and with no explanation, he had escaped, got away scot-free.

"C'mon, Riptide. It happens. There's not a security system in the world that someone can't get by. I'd say we're lucky that he didn't try anything else," Pete said soothingly.

"Lucky nothing! This just proves it: the Hunters are the most mindless, naive, book-bound, and softest 'military organization' in existence! If you had just let me dispose of him in the first place, they would never have had this problem! Idiots!" Riptide ranted.

Louie flinched. "Be reasonable, Riptide...they did everything they could. He's gone now...can't you just let well enough alone?"

"Never," she snarled. "Since these Hunters are too weak-spined to cope with killers, I'm going to do it myself. YOU can deal with the Mavericks your way. Because I QUIT!!"

She stormed out of the room and down the hall, knocking aside anyone who got in her way. Idiots! There's only one way to deal with killers. Death! She heard a sound next to her as she strode out the door. Spinning, she saw it was none other that Cyber.

"So you're really leaving?" he inquired mildly.

"These guys can't cope," she sneered. "Of course I'm leaving."

Cyber shook his head. "Hate to lose a fighter like you..." Riptide snorted. He blinked. "Really. And Riptide, I know you're upset over what happened, but there's nothing they could have done." She moved restlessly. "No, hear me out. The Hunters have a code, and they uphold it at all times. They can't just kill someone out of hand, not another Hunter like Gambit was. The trial was necessary...and the subsequent vote. Not everyone does things the way you do, and -sorry if this insults you- you've got to realize that your way is not always the best way. You've got to have the whole case to be justified in making that big a decision."

She frowned. Did she smell amusement on him? "What's so funny?" she demanded suspiciously. He shook his head.

"An inside joke," he replied softly. "Please, Riptide. Think about what I said. And... we'll miss you. I hope to see you again, on friendly terms."

Riptide could think of no reply, so she simply nodded and walked away. She did not see Cyber shake his head once more, half regretful, half understanding as she never would. Someday, Riptide, maybe I'll be able to tell you the joke...but for now, it'll have to stay with everything else buried inside. Knowledge hurts sometimes.

"CYBER!!" bellowed Louie. "C'mon back inside before you rust standing there!" Sighing, Cyber took one last look at the retreating figure in the distance, and turned away. Somehow, he had the feeling that the next time he saw Riptide, she'd be very different.

Inside once more, Cyber made a beeline for his room. Once there, he noted the green message light flashing at the computer. "You've got mail," he softly quoted to himself. From Dawn, maybe? He smiled as the image of his creator and keeper of his heart shimmered in his mind. Keying his password, he checked almost absentmindedly, an attitude that vanished moments later. Quickly affirming that he was alone, he opened the link and read the message.

Cyber,



Didn't want to leave you hanging after how you helped me out. Thanks to you, both Cipher and I are safe now. They're not getting their hands on him again.

Speaking of which, because of my unwanted employment, I know a lot more about the Renegades, as they call themselves, than you do. I realize that the Hunters would benefit from this information, but as you know, I'm not a welcome figure at this time.

Perhaps you can pass it on for me.

I hope that someday the Hunters can let what I've done go. I do not want to have to fight them...but I will if pressed. Farewell to you...and use the information I have attached.



Gambit



The information he had attached was miniature bios on the five Renegades and the powers that Gambit had known or guessed that they possessed, as well as their extra weapons and forces. The only thing that was an unknown was the location of their main base of operations. They hadn't trusted him quite that much even with a hostage.

Saving the information to disk, Cyber left the room quickly. The Commanders needed this as soon as possible.



"How's he taking our companion's precipitous departure?" Ray inquired.

"Cold, quiet, and sardonic. What do you expect from Cyber? Tears and fits of rage?"

"Too right. Our Cyber is not one for emotions, eh, Louie?"

"I think that we should stop talking about him, as he's coming now. But I disagree. He's got to have emotions like everyone else...he just doesn't show them. Hey Cyber! Where's the fire?' Louie called.

Cyber grinned. "No real fire, except for the one I think I'm about to start myself. Have you seen the Commanders? Or Dr. Cain? I've got something for them."

Army stirred. 'I think they're up in Cain's office, doin' something or other," he yawned.

"Then I'm off again, I guess. Listen, I'll catch you guys later, all right? I mean, I don't want you to get the impression that I'm ignoring you or anything, but duty calls first. In this case, duty is to disturb the big dogs up there...though if what they're doing is important, you'll have to pick up the pieces!" With that, he was off.

Louie shivered uneasily. Pick up the pieces...why is it that all these innocent phrases give me such a bad feeling? he wondered. It was probably nothing. Besides, he was missing out on the joke-fest that his friends had started. Time to be dreary and fatalistic later.

"That's all we know about their position, Cain," Zero stated. "There are two of them, positioned near Fort Tejon, California, which is located on the San Andreas Fault. It's a pretty dangerous situation; the fault lines around Fort Tejon are all slow creepers, and the one directly under it is due for a major earthquake to relieve stress. If a maverick were to set off a large explosion in that region, it would set off quakes in all of the intersecting fault lines - the San Andreas, the Carrizo Plain, the White Wolf, and the Garlock faults - which would devastate California and kill thousands. It would probably rate a 10 on the Richter scale, so it's absolutely necessary for someone to go, and fast...it's a pretty delicate situation. Still, it shouldn't be too much of a problem - I think a couple of specialists, working together, could handle it easily."

Cain nodded. "Any preference, Zero? Want to do it yourself?"

X coughed. "There aren't that many specialists, people who could take care of a Maverick General on their own, Cain. Just myself, Zero, Bastion, and Wycost. I guess it's just a matter of picking a pair that are willing to go. So, who do we send?"

"Send a Unit," a voice said from the doorway. Turning, they saw Cyber, looking at them intensely, seriously.

"You again?" queried X. "What is it this time?"

"And why bother with a Unit? It's not necessary," Zero added.

"With due respect, sirs, you're sending a couple of people up against at least two Mavericks with unknown powers. You're not even certain who these guys are! Plus, the situation's so volatile, you can't be sure that there won't be a need to send extra help!" exclaimed Cyber. "And before you get too skeptical, I came here to give you this." He handed X a disk. "It has the information you'll need about those Mavericks, who by the way call themselves the Renegades."

"And where did you get this?" Cain said, frowning.

"A friend of mine who had an unfortunate encounter with them." Cyber replied evasively.

"Well, thanks for the straight answer," Zero said sarcastically. "Since you're so worried," he continued as he read the contents of the disk, now shown on the screen in front of him, "your Unit, the 21st, will be the one to go. Should be more than enough...and now we know that the two you'll be facing are Magnitude Minotaur and Siren Sphinx. Go on, now. It'll be official before you rejoin your friends."

Cyber nodded grimly, and, neglecting to salute purposely, turned and walked away.

Twelve minutes later, Bastion's Unit arrived at the San Andreas Fault. "Spread out, but stay alert," Bastion ordered. "Horace, what's the reading for the Mavericks?"

"Well, sir...they're...not showing up. It's possible that in their uninfected state they would not register on our equipment. But if I reformat it to look for reploids of the provided statistics, we should be able to find them."

"Then do it," Wycost cut in, "we don't have forever to wait for ya." He shifted slightly. Waiting, and worse, staying in one general area when there were mavericks around somewhere, was not his thing. If the sensors had not already picked the Mavs up, they should have just started looking for them the good old-fashioned way.

"I've got them now, Bastion, sir. They're approximately 200 meters away, together," the unit member stated.

"Alright, let's move it. If we do this right, we should be done in time to get back to base for lunch." Bastion said calmly.

The resistance they met along the way was negligible. They can't be that uninformed of our presence, Wycost thought suspiciously. We were as obvious as the sun, warping in. So why so little fight when there are two Generals present? "Commander," Wycost alerted Bastion, "we could be walking straight into a trap. This is too easy."

"I hear ya, Wycost. The thought had crossed my mind, too. Everybody, keep your eyes open. And be ready for anything."

It was odd, thought Ray, that this mission, his first with his Unit, wasn't making him nervous as even his days on the watch had made him when something was up. In fact, he dreamily mused, he felt remarkably calm...it was even sort of relaxing.

RELAXING? He straightened and shook his head. I'm not paying nearly enough attention to my surroundings... he looked around. And neither are the others...it's like the quiet is zombifying us or something... Then he heard the sound. Soothing, hardly even audible...and totally unnatural. Siren Sphinx! "Commander!" he cried out, "WAKE UP!! Plug your ears! We're in sonics range for that Mav witch to project! She's..."

BLAM! An explosion went off somewhere to Bastion's right, and suddenly the air was filled with plasma fire. It had been a trap, all right; and they had been coaxed right into it by Siren Sphinx. Minor mavericks erupted from everywhere, some blasting away with Busters and then diving behind cover, and some attacking more directly, charging with seemingly reckless abandon. Seemingly only: beam sabers, ice- and flame- throwers, grenades, and other weapons of destruction were much in evidence.

The 21st, alerted by Ray's shattering cry, were quickly on their guard. Training took over and they, too, dove behind cover to return fire. Those with sabers used the cover fire provided by their teammates to launch a direct attack. Bastion and Wycost concentrated on punching through the maverick lines to get to the Generals, waiting a safe distance away. It was tough work, and several times they were forced to fall back. Cursing, Bastion ducked behind a boulder to avoid a ice-thrower spurt which threatened to freeze him where he stood. Nearby, Wycost plucked a grenade out of the air and quickly tossed it back at the one who threw it. Finally, Bastion selected ten of his unit to help them, and charged.

It was incredible, Ray thought as he continued popping buster shots and cringing away from the return fire, rather like the "Charge of the Light Brigade." They were hopelessly outnumbered, the mavericks had far more firepower - and where did they get all of that equipment? - but Wycost charged on, having taken the lead from Bastion, who was hot on his heels, the pair blasting and slicing everything that came into their path, skilled and deadly. Ray shook himself once more out of his introspection. There was work to do, and now he saw that the Commander and his second were soon going to be in trouble: their ten were mostly down, unable to match their leaders in the necessary finesse.

"Blimey! They're going to need help!" he cried, losing the sophisticated edge in his British accent to fall to the middle class. "Cyber, any ideas? You get them most often in the simulations!"

"As a matter of fact, I happen to have one. LOUIE, PETE, ARMY! OVER HERE, ON THE DOUBLE!!" he summoned his friends to him. "We're going after them. Remember, same as the sims: Pete, far-shoot for Louie and the rest of us, Army, power through, Ray, behind him and protect his sides. Louie and I'll deal with anything that gets too close otherwise. Ready? Let's do it!" Cyber flicked his saber on and turned a small, non-regulation dial. Instantly the blade turned into his favorite mace. Swinging it to get some momentum, they blitzed after Bastion and Wycost.

For Wycost, this was child's play. The mavericks had firepower, they had numbers, but he had his skill, his buster, and his quest for revenge. He needed nothing else. It hardly took him a minute to demolish the wall of mavericks between him and his goal, and then they were past the main force and the next thing they knew, they were confronting the leaders of the motley band of attackers.

"Give up, Mavericks," Bastion cried, noticing his newest unit members coming up a bit to his left, "there are only two of you versus the seven of us, and the rest of your forces are going down. We've got you!" One of the Maverick Generals laughed.

Louie shuddered. He recognized that Maverick: it was the same one who had destroyed his town by earthquake, with only the most minor of fault lines available, who he now knew to be Magnitude Minotaur. The destruction if he was allowed to exert that power here would be far worse. That couldn't be allowed to happen.

Magnitude spoke. "Correction, Hunter Commander. There are FIVE of us. Look up!"

Bastion looked. Sure enough, now wheeling in the sky were Razor Griffon, Polarized Phoenix, and Thunderbolt Roc. Glancing back, he also noticed that there was a fresh outpouring of maverick grunts that had also been hiding, waiting for the signal. That was all he had time for before the fresh forces attacked.

It had been a trap all along, Wycost realized, but there was no time to bemoan the mistake. He rushed at the ground-bound Generals, holding back his shot until it was fully charged. Then he let loose, hitting Siren dead in the chest and sending her stumbling back. She retaliated with a blast of sound waves that knocked him flat. Leaping up, he transferred his attention to Magnitude, who had produced a nasty-looking, two-handed beam axe. A couple of deft swings scattered Louie, Pete and Ray, forcing them to scramble away from the deadly blade.

Meanwhile, Bastion had spread his Powerstorm wings and took to the air. He soon encountered Razor, and the two began a colossal air battle. "You can't fight a bird in flight, Hunter!" Razor crowed.

"Watch me!" Bastion retorted, and Razor had to swerve crazily in the air to avoid being spitted on his opponent's saber. He fired a round of his trademark blades in retort. Bastion winced as one sliced through his armor at the shoulder. "Oww..." he muttered.

Some small distance away, Thunderbolt Roc was playing cat-and-mouse with the Hunters below. ZAP! A small bolt of electricity grounded half a meter away from one of them. ZAP! Centimeters away. BLAM! A powerful direct hit. The Hunter dropped, disabled but not destroyed. Only a barrage of plasma forced him to abandon his strike for the kill.

And Polarized Phoenix was having the time of her life. Her utilization of magnetic fields repelled plasma shots back into the audacious ones who fired them, flung the explosive Ray tossed far away to detonate harmlessly, and crumpled non-essential parts of Hunters, disabling busters and disrupting sabers. It was near-useless to attack her, but they did anyway so she couldn't practice so freely.

Things were looking bad for the 21st. Having held them both off for some minutes, Wycost was beginning to get the worst of Magnitude Minotaur and Siren Sphinx, who were having no problems attacking in tandem. Knocked back by another sonic attack from Siren, Wycost could only watch as Magnitude's beam axe came down-

Only to be stopped by a bright green beam saber. Louie's face was a mask of determination as he strained against the stronger Maverick. The General gave a sudden, forceful push and Louie was on the ground. But he had bought Wycost valuable time and he let loose a charged shot right in Magnitude's face. Spinning around, he fired again at Siren, and spun back only to be stunned to see that Magnitude was already recovered. Seeing the problem from afar, Cyber triggered his Distortion Charge - for real, this time. But as an added benefit, he aimed to go through the minotaur maverick and cause damage to his semi-delicate circuits on the way. Roaring, Magnitude spun around and slashed down. Cyber took it on the arm, inadvertently crying out in pain as the blade bit deep into his forearm. His hand opened of its own accord and the handle to his beam weapon fell to the ground.

Ready once more, Wycost scooped the weapon up and ignited it, the saber automatically shooting out. Though he preferred busters to this any day, this was a close-in Maverick that the plasma shots obviously didn't faze. Together, he and Louie drove him back while Pete distracted Siren Sphinx. Huddling behind Army, who was destroying anything that got too close, Ray radioed MHHQ for help.

"This is Ray, from Unit 21 to MHHQ. Come in, MHHQ!!"

"We hear you, Ray. What's the situation?" the reply came calmly.

"Situation? We're getting slaughtered. Three extra Maverick Generals and a whole slew of normals showed up halfway in. We need help, and we need it now!" he called urgently over the sounds of battle.

"You've got it," was the response. "We're dispatching an extra unit now, the 00. Hang in there!"

"Right. Ray out." He ended the contact. "Well, that's just grand. I wonder how many of us will be left in ten minutes?"

He looked up. Bastion was becoming hard-pressed in the air, too. Razor Griffon had been joined by Thunderbolt Roc. He opened his short-range comm. "Bastion, don't ask questions or anything, but when I tell you, go for a mad dive. You've got to land. We can't help you up there, and we need to play the waiting game for ten minutes until help arrives." He pulled out a couple of components, assembling an explosive on the spot. Casting an anxious eye to the air, he called out again. "Ready? NOW!"

Bastion dove. Ray hurled a bomb that detonated right between the Generals, who had tried to follow him. They were forced to make a choice: abandon the strike or crash. They pulled up. Bastion landed safely, a little singed and cut up around the edges, but otherwise okay.

But Polarized Phoenix would not be taken in so easily. Having noted Ray speaking on his commlink for some time, she guessed that reinforcements were on the way. Oh well, she thought amusedly, it was just a test attack. Now we KNOW how they function. Excellent. She opened her own link to the others. "Blitzkrieg. Let's go."

The next thing the 21st knew, there were warp lights everywhere. A minute later, the mavericks were gone, the only traces being shreds of maverick grunt, shattered boulders, burning trees, and the injuries that none of the unit had completely escaped. When Zero's Unit warped in, there was nothing left but to aid Bastion's Unit to go back to MHHQ.

The concurrent debriefing was anticlimactic. Everyone had about the same story: it had been totally unexpected. They hadn't been prepared. And the ambush was definitely planned. There had been no losses, though well over half of the 21st had been severely injured, and everyone had been harmed somehow. The ones who had sustained the least damage were in fact Bastion, Wycost, (despite their intense involvement, as their respective levels of skill had kept them from serious harm) and surprisingly enough, Ray. He had spent most of the time sheltered behind Army at Cyber's recommendation, as a serious direct hit would cause his weapons-of-choice to explode.

"You were right, Cyber," X admitted. "We didn't know what we were sending you into. The mission's being billed a success, but what a cost." Pete came up next to them, working on first aid detail.

"You were hit too, Cyber. Let's take a look."

Calmly Cyber lifted his hand from where it rested almost casually on his other arm. X saw that his glove was covered with blood which was still oozing from the slash on his arm. "That must be pretty deep to still be bleeding. The nanobots usually take care of that sort of thing." he said. Cyber nodded, still betraying no pain.

Later, in Hazil's medical bay, Louie reflected that he had never seen Cyber show pain except for that one brief flash on the battlefield. Now Hazil was reconnecting various wires and repairing servos in his damaged arm while he looked on, patiently enduring Hazil's grumbles and retorting with a few choice remarks of his own.

"There ya are, bud. Good as new. Now don't come in with one of those for the next two weeks, or so help me, I'll..." he trailed off.

"It's not a habit I plan to get into, you know." Cyber paused, and then grinned devilishly. "Thanks, Mac."

"Why I oughtta..." Hazil muttered crossly. "Check yer mail, by the way. A priority one came through for you. Though why I bother tell ya when you've got no respect..."

Cyber shrugged. "I do respect you, Hazil. I just don't show it that much." He accessed the laptop Hazil handed to him, noting that the heading of the letter was priority and official.



Dear Sir,

Regret to inform you that Ms. Dawn Moranis, for whom you are listed as next of kin, was killed by anti-reploid activists. We her acting firm assure you that the perpetrators have been apprehended and no further actions can be committed by that party.

A copy of the will shall be transmitted to you at a later date. Should you wish any facet of said will to be explained to you, please do not hesitate to contact us by communication system or electronic mail.

We offer our sincere condolences in your time of grief.



A.H. Anderson & Sons Soliciting



Cyber looked up, face empty, eyes filled with sorrow and pain. Noooooo!! He squeezed his eyes shut, blocking out the world. Dawn! Not Dawn, anyone but Dawn! his mind pleaded. But there was no denying the words on the screen.

Louie was startled. Was this really Cyber? Cyber, who never showed the worse emotions, never was anything but optimistic, encouraging? He spoke hesitantly. "Cyber? Is anything wrong?"

In an instant, his face reverted to its normal expression. "Nothing, Louie. Thanks for the update, Hazil. Catch ya later, all." His words were perfectly normal, but to Louie's ear, they sounded hollow. Something had hit him, and hit him hard. Before Louie could press, though, Cyber was out the door and gone.

Louie's head spun as his own thoughts came back to him. A tower of jack straws, in precarious balance...straws are pulled out carefully, one after another, trying not to disturb the others in the stack...but there is a straw, a crucial straw on which everything rests. When that straw is pulled, the tower collapses...