CHAPTER 6

Maverick Hunter Base Epsilon, Detroit, Michigan; United States of America

16:15 March 10th, 2151

When the three Locke siblings had arrived at the base, they were immediately frisked of all weapons and possible recording devices. Lafteroth had to give up her scythe, beam whip, quad-busters, and armor gauntlets. Midnight was relieved of his Mettanium staff, and Shandor's energy sais were taken away and his sniper buster deactivated. The latter was allowed to keep his armor, though, as it was deemed to be purely defensive.

The lobby hadn't been lush like some of the other Hunter bases at all: in fact, the grey drab made it seem more like the military base it actually was, rather than an advanced hotel. Once inside, they were submitted to a series of rigorous examinations and scans. However, they managed to avoid a body cavity search because Midnight had a "talk" with the Hunter in charge of that.

Finally, they found themselves sitting in a cold and uncomfortable briefing room for a few minutes, until a black bird-based Reploid came in. He stood directly in front of them for a good few seconds in silence, giving each a once-over, before starting the briefing.

"Greetings, mercenaries," he introduced himself, "I am Lieutenant 1st-class Seize. I'm sure our representative was vague with the details?" The three Locke 'bots nodded. "Ah, good, then he has done his job. We were only trying to get you enticed, not give away the mission."

Shandor frowned at the Hunter's unprofessional manner, but said nothing as the Lieutenant continued. "I want you to watch this vid, spliced together using the recoverable footage from a Hunter unit's head-cams. This was at the U.S.-Mexican border." He moved aside, and a holoprojector somewhere in the room fired up, creating a holographic image that shifted and followed one Reploid as he tore through a large blockade of Hunters that were armed with heavy armor support. And, despite all opposition, managed to make it away with a Ride Chaser. Shandor and Midnight made note of certain battle tactics that their supposed target was making, choices of posture and opponents; Lafteroth found herself getting lost in the graceful movements that he made, moving smoothly from one Hunter to the next like a liquid. She caught herself a few times, but always managed to slip back into the same state. The white-haired Locke Reploid felt her breath get caught in her chest every time the camera angle switched because the Hunter that was filming was either incapacitated or killed. Once, it switched close to eight times in three seconds.

The clip ended, and all three mercenaries straightened up in their chairs but said nothing. Seize gave them a few moments before walking up to them. "What do you think?" he inquired.

"He definitely knows what he's doing," Midnight started, "Every move he made just seemed to lead into the next one and the next one and so forth. Every attack was linked to another."

Shandor nodded, then threw in his two cents. "And despite overwhelming odds and numerous possibilities, he's quite reliant on his own two weapons. I noticed several times when he could've taken advantage of another's weapons but didn't. He limits himself to a buster and a saber."

"That may be the mistake of a novice," the purple-haired robot piped up once again, "But he handles himself like a professional. It's obvious he's seen years of combat."

The black, raven-like Hunter nodded silently, then looked at Lafteroth. "And you?"

"Hmm? ... oh!" she snapped out of her dream-like state. "Um, yeah, he's definitely experienced. He uses both his beam saber and his buster at the same time, targeting ranged and melee targets simultaneously... I've only seen a few elite Mavericks do that before."

"Oh, this is no Maverick," Seize said matter-of-factly, "This is just an average Reploid that just happens to be exceptionally skilled."

"Bullshit," all three siblings said at once. After looking at each other, Shandor continued to talk. "Your representative informed us that this is an Eternal."

"He did? Then he wasn't as vague as I had hoped." Seize frowned a bit at the comment. "Regardless, here's as detailed a model as we could build, based on the information we have." The holographic video was replaced by a 3d holographic rotating figure. He was remarkably similar to X, especially in his helmet design. It looked like there was an inverted red "hatch" on his chest, which the hologram said was the location of his power core. His armor also closely resembled X's: the pawldrons, leg armor, and wrist guards were the exact same model and color. However, he had less armor on his chest, and only wore a belt instead of the full "crotch-armor" most Reploid warriors wore. The undersuit was gold instead of light blue, and he had red trim on his boots.

The three siblings stood up and examined the model more closely, each taking note of strengths and weaknesses. "From the armor design, it's obvious that he's based on the X-series. Less armor though..." Midnight mused.

"He must be designed for quick close-range combat. How else would you explain his tactics in that vid we watched?" Shandor put in.

Lafteroth circled the hologram itself, reaching out with her hand and allowing a finger to pass through the arm of their target. "According to these readouts, his Magnum Buster plugs straight into his hand and accesses his core. But his beam saber runs on its own power supply."

"Then why does he use it so often?" queried Shandor. "I mean, if his gun has access to his core that means it has infinite power, right? So why doesn't he just use that to decimate his enemies from a distance?"

"It might be an honor thing," commented Midnight. "He's pretty much an elite, no matter what level you put him on. So he might adhere to an honor code, or use a handicap on his enemies because he feels sorry for them?"

"I think it's because, if he did what Shandor said, he'd kill them," Lafteroth broke in, still circling the hologram.

"What on Earth are you talking about, sis?"

She shrugged in response. "Didn't you see him when he was fighting? He aimed for mostly non-lethal places: legs, arms, torsos. Hell, if you recall, death isn't a permanent thing for most Reploids."

Midnight looked like he was about to break in when Seize interrupted. "The young lady seems to have a good grasp on the situation. Let us move on, shall we? I feel you've studied the target well enough: now it's time for you to select weapons. Follow me to the armory, please."

Seize left the room first, leaving a surprised group of Locke siblings. They exchanged questioning glances, but nevertheless followed their CO for this mission. As she left, Lafteroth found her thoughts constantly returning to their target, but unsure why she couldn't get him out of her head.

Cain Labs, Michigan; United States of America

18:17 March 10th, 2151

Three armored Reploids stood at the bottom of the west-facing wall of the primary office building, staring up the large surface that was almost flat, save the windows that dotted as indentations in even rows up the side. Of the three, only one wore an open helmet, and his helmet (and his entire armor) was beaten and cracked from many combat situations and overuse.

"If what you say is true," said Coal, dressed in dark grey armor that looked identical to Taggs' with the exception of the helmet, "The Hunters will be coming after us very soon. And when they do, you'll need better armor than that scrap-heap."

The gold-and-blue armored Reploid flipped his brother off. "Shut up. Y'know, some of us were never that good at hiding our asses. We would rather help people out."

"Break it up," said Tome, cutting into their argument. "Now, how are we gonna get up this building?"

"How else? We're gonna climb," said Taggs. "It'll be just like in training down in the caverns."

"Yeah, but without safety equipment, and we're gonna have to latch on to the windows instead of protrusions in the rock," Coal added.

"Won't we get spotted if we do that?" Tome asked, a bit of panic trickling into his voice.

"That's the point," the grey-armored Reploid said, the red gem in the middle of his helmet glistening in the fading sunlight. "We want to get seen so that Artemis knows we're coming. If he doesn't, then we'll have to face security like we did last time we had to break out of here." The three Reploids suddenly went silent as a painful memory resurfaced. It took them a full four seconds before they were able to shake it off.

"Right; let's get going," Taggs said, and made room as Tome jumped up first, latching on to a window and pulling himself up to stand on the sill. There was a woman inside who was just turning towards the window as Tome made the jump to the next window. Taggs came up second and winked at the employee, whose eyes went wide. He made the next jump, and Coal came up last. Seeing the woman, he flipped her off, and continued on to the next window. By the fifth floor, the three of them could see bright red lights flashing as people in armor ran around in a panic. Security cameras were all turned towards the windows, and each Eternal waved as they passed. Finally, they reached the tenth and final floor. Tome, landing first, looked in and saw a lush office with a man in a padded leather chair. He seemed to be ignoring the alarms, totally lost in whatever he was reading. With a swift punch, the red-and-blue armored Reploid smashed through the window, rolling across the floor and snatching the man up from the chair. Next came Taggs, who immediately dashed towards the door and engaged the emergency lockdown mechanism. It would take the guards a few minutes to crack through it, but that should be enough. Finally, Coal came in, buster ready, sweeping the room to ensure no security devices were being activated.

Once all was clear, Tome released the man, who stumbled back into his chair. "W-Who are you people?!" he shouted, clambering over his furniture in an attempt to get to his phone. Coal snatched up the device before he could reach it. "What do you want?!"

"Are you Artemis Cain?" Coal asked darkly, the red gem now glowing in the twilight.

"Y-Yes!" Artemis stammered, backing away but only succeeding in bumping into a bookcase and sending the contents spilling onto the floor.

"Then we have a business proposition," Tome said, leaning on the man's shoulder. "But first, please turn on the lights." Artemis nodded, and clapped his hands twice. Immediately, all the lights in the room lit up, allowing the three brothers to see him in detail. He was about 5' 10" with auburn hair and pale skin. The man was very wiry, looked like he didn't care for physical fitness very much, and was wearing a blue robe with red and gold trim.

However, because they could see him, he could now see them, and he yelped in fright. "What's your offer?? Please don't kill me!"

Coal smirked under his helmet, but Artemis couldn't tell. "Oh, we just want you to make new armor for him," he said, gesturing towards Taggs, who was now walking over from the door. "If you couldn't tell, our brother Taggs needs some new equipment. His got pretty damaged constantly running from the Hunters."

At the mention of the name, Artemis' face transformed from fear to curiosity. "Taggs? That names sounds familiar... tell me, what series are you?"

The three brothers exchanged glances before Taggs spoke up. "We're from the Eternal series."

Now the man's face lit up. "Eternal? You're my father's Eternal series?" He seemed absolutely giddy. "Well, why didn't you just say so in the first place? Make yourselves at home!" As the brothers once again exchanged glances, Artemis practically skipped over to the intercom by the door. Punching it, he said, "Mary-Ann, tell security to cancel that alert." Not even listening for a response, he righted his chair, pushed a few papers off his desk, and sat down. Picking up a book, he flipped through the pages.

"Yes, I know you," he continued. "I read all about you in my father's personal logs. Ah, here we go! He really was fond of you, as he is all his Reploids. But you were definitely something special to him. In fact, in this entry right here, he says something about 'feeling awful for what I have to do, for it feels like I am betraying some large part of me by sealing these lads up.'" He closed the journal and looked up at them. "So, a new set of armor, eh? I think that can be arranged. Please, follow me." Artemis stood up, smoothed out his robe, and walked towards the door. The brothers followed, each one reeling from the entry he had just read them.

Did... did he really care that much? The three brothers thought as Artemis opened the doors... into a hall full of guards.