Chapter Nineteen: Conquest

The following day, the atmosphere at the HQ was quite gloomy. The place was really dark so all lights were switched on, bringing bright yellow light to the entire place. Affairs still went on like usual. Most Reploids didn't notice something till it was today: it started snowing since yesterday.

White blankets of snow covered everywhere. It was so cold that no human or Reploid was in sight on the roads and streets. All were staying in their homes to avoid the freezing air. Even Reploids can feel cold, since the mechanisms are advanced.

Axl woke up, also feeling the extreme cold. It seems that the warm night's sleep has made him forget the entire affair in the cinema yesterday, so he was cheerful and also trying to find a good source of heat. Unfortunately, Iris and Lumine couldn't forget any single detail.

Axl retreated to the central chamber, a huge hall where its doors branch out into various resting chambers. Axl grabbed a seat in the hall and enjoyed the heat. He still hadn't spoken to anyone yet so he busied himself with the screens.

It seems that X had confirmed that the source of moral decline among Hunters was May, as she constantly preyed on kind male Hunters and did exactly what Axl experienced himself. So now, she is a wanted criminal as her Hunter status was stripped and had fled the HQ last night.

Uprisings are now rare, as most Maverick Reploids have been recycled, except for the attacks of brainless Maverick Mechaniloids. The Jakob Tower had been dismantled to about 20 percent its original height.

Meanwhile, Iris and Lumine were having talks Axl wasn't aware of.

"Well, at least now you are fully aware of what that psycho was trying to do to Axl. Next time, don't reply back to any sick moves."

Lumine was relieved. "Should I go and apologize?"

"Yeah, I think you should. Axl didn't return his reply to your apologies so it's best if you repeat it again." Iris stood to watch him.

The white Reploid approached a relaxing Axl. Axl gazed up at Lumine and in turn, stood up to face him. "Yeah, what is it?"

Lumine scratched his head a little and meet his host eye to eye. "Axl, dear boy, about yesterday in the cinema…I'm sorry. Really, really sorry. I didn't know that she was doing something bad back then…I may immense strength but I don't even have this knowledge…I'm sorry."

He hanged his head down in shame but his shoulders met Axl's hands.

"It's okay. I didn't blame you. I guess you didn't know anything about the situation at the time. C'mon let bygones be bygones." Axl embraced him.

Lumine was stunned and touched by Axl's big heart. His eyes glittered again. He closed his eyes and embraced Axl in return. After a short while, Axl let him go. Iris was very happy for the both of them and approached them nearer.

"Right now, we can only hope that father is able to trace his ex-consultant Bob and that X is able to trace down disgusting May."

Iris stared at the white Reploid. "Seems you've had many emotional accounts."

The reply: "Dear Axl has a big heart. How can I not be touched?"

Axl didn't hear the slightest bit of this conversation.

Axl opened his eyes again and resumed enjoying the nice heat. Barely a minute after forgiving Lumine, the alarm rang. This time, it was big trouble.

"All Hunters please report to the central chamber immediately! There has been a massive rebellion everywhere in Big City!" That was Alia's anxious voice.

Axl was surprised, as there was a rebellion in the middle of the winter. More Hunters entered the central chamber, waiting for specified orders and explanations.

As soon as all Hunters have gathered, the screens turned to display massive Mechaniloids marching along roads, firing and burning everything insight. Certain areas were severely damaged with huge flames and smoke.

Axl was getting angrier and nervous. "What's going on?!"

Alia resumed speaking. "There have been reports that Mechaniloids and Mavericks alike have turned berserk the last hour and started attacking various facilities in Big City. Given the terrible weather, they are gaining victory here and there."

"Oddly, they seemed to have organized themselves into groups that attack and precede control over various key facilities that can threaten the City's systems. They are now marching across streets armed with stolen weapons."

"All Hunters are now required to assemble in their respective resting chambers and await orders from respective leaders given by Commander X."

There was a huge scramble here and there as Hunters are running to their various posts. But suddenly, the screens in the ENTIRE HQ and City went berserk and stopped everyone's movements.

The next character displayed: mister Prez himself. Prez was wearing a thick overcoat and a huge furry hat. He looked very evil and if all Hunters are observant enough, his entire face seemed swollen.

Axl was shocked to the core. His kind-hearted creator?

"Fellow citizens and Reploids of the Big City! One this cold morning, I m declaring that all of Big City is now under my rule! My berserk Reploids and Mechaniloids have revolted to serve me! To help me achieve my long-desired ambition: to rule the world!" He released an evil laugh then continued.

"All Reploids who don't want their skins to be ripped off are advised to come out and join me! Join me for your better sakes! Together we shall march on and cleanse this world! This new world will be pure of Federation idiots!"

"Yes, the new world shall be created! All humans are idiots! The world of the Reploids is near! With my guidance, we shall rule this world all for ourselves!"

Then the image of a scared Reploid blasted to pieces was projected.
"I have shown you what I will not hesitate to do if I round up any dissidents in my pure world! It so happens that I will do this to all those Maverick Hunters!"

Another image was shown: this time armies of huge Mechaniloids and Reploids were organized with weapons outside the Hunters HQ.

Now Prez was projected as standing on top of a platform. "I give you my last warning! Resistance is useless! Surrender to me and I may spare your lifes! Gahaha!"

The screens became blur again. The HQ soon became chaotic. Everything became disorderly as troops were quickly scrambled into positions. Axl didn't do anything, he was so stunned he just dazed at the screens.

"Axl, please! Get a move on! Go to your assembly line!"

"Iris, let me try! Axl dear boy, please calm yourself down!"

Axl stuttered a few words. "Calm myself down?! That's our father! I won't hurt him, no matter what! This is insane!"

Lumine shrugged. "That's it, I'm taking you to the assembly line!"

But Axl was quicker this time to snap Lumine away. Axl pushed Lumine away, causing him to drop on the pitch-black floor roughly.

"Axl! Are you out of your mind!?" Iris tended to Lumine. "Are you okay, Lumine?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Lumine got to his feet. "It's just a little rough push. Dear boy can't hurt me that much."

"No. I'm not going to the assembly line. I'm going to have a talk with him. Yeah. That's it! I have a talk with him! Knock some sense into him!"

Axl opened his eyes and fled from the central chamber. Minutes later, he arrived in the main plaza hall. "I know where he is! I'll teleport there! Then I'll try to knock sense into him! Lots of them!"

Both Iris and Lumine felt they could do nothing to stop him now.

Then, a rough hold on his shoulders stopped him: Zero.

"Zero! Leggo of me! Let me talk to that Prez!"

"Axl, no! This could be dangerous! Way too dangerous for you, even me, to handle! The Federation's most influential man is now the most dangerous! With that army of Reploids, who knows what he'll do to you!"

Axl snapped his hands away. "No! He's my creator and I'll deal with him myself! This time it's personal!" He roughly teleported away.

Zero returned to the command room. "It's too late! I can't stop Axl!"

"It's okay. Pallette has him locked on the scanners. Where is Axl now?"

"X, I have him spotted on 35 miles away north from the HQ... Wait! That's the grounds of the Prez Corporation factories! And back here…the battle's already begun! His armies are attacking the HQ.

"Axl's right! We need to deal with Prez first! He's controlling this entire swarm of berserks from his factories! Alia can you teleport us there?"

"Teleporting X and Zero-! No! One of the missiles hit us! The satellite's down! I'll try to use another satellite!"

The whole thing got even messier.

Chapter Twenty: Assistance

It was total chaos around Big City, the Federation capital where really a lot of Reploids and humans co-exist, well previously. Now there was imminent danger where anyone could be killed. So the humans ran for their lifes and so did the Reploids that are not Maverick. Government offices began evacuating quickly thanks to the technology Prez had sold to them.

But this time Prez, being the ever-influential and smart guy as if he owned and knew the City's systems from dust to tower, had managed to block all teleporting systems and barred up the borders of Big City. So virtually everyone is easily taken hostage by Prez's organized Maverick armies.

The only problem was that he couldn't connect to the Maverick Hunters HQ teleporting systems and their personnel's, so Axl teleported freely.

Back at the HQ, the grounds in front of the entrances have turned into a heavy battle zone. Tanks and missiles were operated and aircraft machines constantly fired ballistics. But the HQ's force field blocked all those so all infrastructures surrounding the HQ were the victims of destruction. Hunters were doing a very good job at blowing up berserk Mavericks.

At the highest rooftop of the HQ, Layer was hastily making repairs to a satellite damaged by a ballistic attack BEFORE the force field was activated.

"Almost there…just a few wires to connect…and also re-establish the range of teleportation…WHOA!" Layer was interrupted by a ballistic attack from an airplane but was shielded by the force field.

"There! All done!" Layer held her communicator high. "Alia, forget about the other satellite! This one's fixed!"

"Got that! X, Zero! I'm teleporting you to exactly where Axl is last seen!"

"Okay, let's go get him back!"

In an instant after Alia pressed a red square button, the two vanished away.

X and Zero had officially and for the first time, entered the grounds of the plants which created most of the Reploids and everyday goods for the world. They had no idea where they are but they do know that Axl did a great deal of damage to indirectly secure them.

Piles of metal, pipes and glass were scattered on the floors in front. Walls too have been blown up and flames were trying to melt the scrap below them.

"Axl's definitely here. Lumine would have done much more damage if he was on the move and in a raging anger." Zero said.

"Alright. Let's move!" Both Hunters dashed ahead.

Routes much further ahead of them, Axl was furiously destroying all Reploids that were blocking his way. Purely he did all the damage, as Lumine and Iris dare not interfere with his fury.

Iris sulked a little. "Isn't there anything we can do to calm him down? We still have to do something!" She turned to the white-clad Reploid.

Lumine preferred to remain calm and observant.
"I know, but bursting out our actions now isn't appropriate. Timing is important, in spite of everything. We first have to find out what exactly is going on with our father."

"But, Axl will-"

Lumine pressed hardly on her shoulders.
"Listen! Like I said, we still need to find out exactly what's going on. Then we'll take necessary actions. Axl won't hurt himself, I promise."

"Relax, Iris. I'll protect Axl. He's our host and friend. I won't let anything harm him, I promise."

Silence prevailed again in Axl's brain and even if Axl heard their little talk, he didn't care. His first priority was to settle this whole issue with Prez.

At last after much time spent to destroy all obstacles, he was facing the final gate that will direct him to the compound where Prez is standing on a platform. The only obstacle this time is a huge ape-like Mechaniloid,

The Mechaniloid tried to smash Axl with its huge fist pounds on the ground but Axl knew better and dashed here and there. Firing wildly at it, the Mechaniloid soon exploded. Now, facing Axl was the metal gate.

"Right. Then bust through this chunk of metal and I'll deal with Prez personally, even if it means busting through another army of Mavericks!"

This level of violence in his tone of voice shocked his other two inhabitants and prompted Lumine to take control and calm him down at the same time. But he was about to do that when the Bee helicopter appeared in front of Axl.

Instead of attacking Axl, it revealed a giant magnet thus forcefully pulling Axl to it, being helpless, and rammed into the gate.

"Gah! My body's stuck! PREZ!"

Axl, attached to a giant magnet below the Bee helicopter, found himself faced with Prez directly, though it was a great distance around 500 meters. The Bee flew forward and suddenly dropped Axl into the grip of two Mechaniloid's giant fists.

The Mechaniloids then pinned him against a sturdy brick wall in the middle of the compound grounds. Axl's hands and legs were stretched out and strong cuffs tightly held him in place. All this, the red-blue Hunter endured silently.

Prez smirked at him. Waving his black overcoat a little, his hands rubbed his face, apparently itching very painful.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? My very own creation, exploding anger in my plants? Haven't you got your manners right?"

Axl's angry look glared at the man. "Why are you doing this? After all this while when you have peacefully contributed much to this world?!"

"Ah! That's the point! Look back all this years! My technological contribution has made this world prosperous! Since I have engineered a perfect society for the world, I do have the right to claim this world as my own!"

Prez walked on from left to right, still talking.

"Silly humans! What have they done? Corrupt people polluting the rivers! Killing the wild animals as if they are nothing! Arrogance everywhere!"

"You see, my policies are always correct! I will make sure that they encompass the world then I will rule it as my own! This time for the Reploids' prosperity! And I can't let you stop that!"

All Reploids present held up their guns, aiming at Axl and the brick wall, ready to fire on Prez's command.

Prez rubbed his face again and continued speaking.
"But of course, there is an alternative! JOIN ME! Join me by my side and we will rule the world! I'm sure that your friends will join us sooner! Why not now? The pure Reploid world awaits us, Axl!"

The last sentence sparked a raging anger from inside the calm Lumine. Releasing a big portion of his anger, he shocked Iris and Axl by gaining control of Axl too fast. Lumine is now seen cuffed tightly to the brick wall.

Lumine's eyes shone crimson red brightly and began cursing Prez.

"You traitor! You are not the creator I knew! The creator I knew is loving and kind! Caring for all of mankind and Reploid-kind! He wouldn't change overnight and suddenly destroy the gentle environment he helped create and massacre all humans! You are not Prez!"

Prez merely laughed at the white-purplish Reploid.

Lumine began to accumulate strength to break free of the cuffs. But the Reploids on standby aimed their guns and electrocuted him to silence.

Lumine's health status declined significantly but that didn't immediately tire him out. He continued his more evil and furious look at Prez on the platform.

Prez laughed again. "It's pointless to struggle. I might as well take you out!"

Standby Reploids began charging up the bullets to eliminate the trio-in-one Reploid. Lumine's shield couldn't be activated because of the handcuffs.

"Gwahahaha! So long, s-! GAAHH!"

A charged Buster shot come out from a nearby balcony, blasting the platform to pieces. Prez fell to the ground below and his overcoat and hat fell off too.

X appeared on the ground, much to Axl's delight. But Lumine was totally in firm control that he couldn't express it. Then, Zero appeared in front of him too, holding a familiar man on his arms.

"Father!?" The sudden outburst from Lumine astonished X and Zero. But that didn't stop Zero from slicing all standby Reploids to pieces, thus leaving all of them to confront the other Prez.

The other Prez, earlier standing on the platform, now lay on top of jagged rubble with huge cuts on his skin. The overcoat and Hat were blown away so it revealed a Prez donning brown suit and pants.

Then, the swollen face of Prez fell off, revealing the ex-consultant Bob.

"Yes, it is Bob all this while." The real Prez folded his arms. "I discovered that he had been the true villain all this while, from Axl's kidnapping to the most recent Reploid attacks on the City."

"I think he seems to have forgotten that I would prefer to let Reploids and humans co-exist, rather than Reploids alone, and I would prefer to let all citizens decide who sits in power of the Federation government, instead of attempting world domination by force."

This made Bob really angry and he couldn't curse anyone, so he decided to flee via an exit on his left. Prez then disables a machine that has too collapsed on the ground, which it the machine that controls all the Mavericks.

In no time at all, all 'Mavericks' woke up from a daze. The widespread attacks in the City stopped suddenly and peace resettled in a turbulent place.

"You all quickly go catch Bob! I'll go get a device that can arrest him so I can take him to court!" Prez turned to Lumine. "Be strong." He then left the compound.

This fuelled Lumine with more confidence than ever. He then gathered a big portion of his strength again and released them all, in the form of spherically-expanded aura, forcefully breaking free and also destroying most of the structures in the same area to mere rubble.

X and Zero looked on Lumine, who is now floating in the air with fury and revenge. "Let's go get that bloody heck of a human!"

Silently, Axl congratulated Lumine and allowed him to proceed forward, also stunned by Lumine's 'bad words'. Now all three Reploids began to chase the human who caused every trouble since Axl's time in a long route ahead of them.

Chapter Twenty-One: Battle

The three Reploids pursued the man behind every single menace the Federation experienced since Axl's kidnapping: Bob. It was a really long route and had many left and right turns at certain lengths. Zero guessed that he must be going somewhere specific, judging from the signs on the brown-grey walls ahead.

Bob kept running and running. Sweat dropped here and there. Now he was planning to operate his most devilish Mechaniloid in action. Boy, did he ever wanted to test it out; it took him months to complete, along with his other secret projects.

X managed to ask Lumine a question, which answers the relationship between the trio-in-one Reploid and Prez, the mighty industrialist.

"So, how come Prez is your father? Reploids don't have genetic parents."

Through a rage of anger, Lumine calmly answered back. "Well, you know the effort he took in creating us three. Means a lot to him. He never had a family so he improvised, I guess."

"But Prez created Iris?" Zero's turn to ask.

"You already know how he rescued her in space and created Axl."

At last the three Reploids found themselves confronting Bob in a wide-open space. It seems to be an area designated to test the fighting abilities of newly created Reploids. The walls were brown-grey, standing nearly 30 meters high and a greenhouse-like ceiling covered the space. The total area is a square, equal 200 by 200 meters. Bob had nowhere else to run.

"Human trash! Give yourself up now or else I'll just have to vaporize you myself!" Lumine held out his left hand, preparing some energy in the form of a glowing red sphere of laser.

The others were shocked because a Reploid is not allowed to kill a human and that meant immediately destruction. Lumine was ready to face terrible consequences just to kill the man that corrupted his life.

Bob smiled evilly and laughed out loudly.
"I'm afraid I can't do that. I will make sure that I will one day rule the world! I was so close until you meddling Reploids stepped! I can't turn back now so I'm going to just to have to destroy you all, especially Axl that idiot!"

The ground suddenly shook beneath them. Only X and Zero had problems maintaining their balance on the ground because Lumine is floating in the air.

Bob has activated some sort of machine with a control in his pocket. Then the ground opened up, revealing a really big Mechaniloid that Bob engineered himself. It is a giant sphere of red and brown, had a big orb-like circle as a glass and propellers.

A hatch opened at its lower side and Bob hastily entered it. He first buckled the safety belt on his seat and activated all cannons, ready to fire at his given command. He again laughed out madly, mad enough to be called drunken.

"YOU WILL ALL PAY! GAHAHAH!"

The battle starts by the firing of many homing rockets from the small side cannons. All were directed at the three Reploids. Predictably, X and Lumine would run in any direction possible to ward them off, shooting the Mechaniloid at the same time.

At the same time, Zero chose not to run but prepared energy on his saber to slice off the missiles. There were twenty of them, so Zero released a giant wave of saber energy slash. But, the moment all missiles were perfectly cut into half, their reactive contents exploded, their energy hurting Zero a lot.

"Gahahah! These missiles are meant to explode whether they're apiece or not! I know the way you robots fight!" Bob laughed hysterically.

On the other side, X and Lumine weren't doing so well either.

X was slightly damaged although he managed to take out all missiles by simple Buster shots. Lumine, equipped with his force shield, avoided all explosions but because of the intense amount of energy in the explosions, the shield leaked a little and hurt him too.

Nonetheless, Lumine fired many laser rounds at Bob's machines.

"Grr…You white brat! I'll show you!" Bob pulled down a lever.

A tiny gun surfaced at Bob's orb glass and fired a thin but powerful ray of red beam and did considerable damage to Lumine.

"Urkk! Human trash! See how you can avoid this!"

Lumine fired a thicker ray beam and totally destroyed the laser gun. Bob's machine was then unstable, giving the trio time to fire ahead at the Mechaniloid.

"I'm gonna smash all of you! See how you like fresh rubble from the walls!" Instantly another plasma projectile blasted the surrounding walls, causing more explosions and truly creating giant rubble. Smoke of dust covered nearly everywhere. The three couldn't see so well. Bob used the chance to slam them hard.

Lumine was hit the hardest because he shoved X and Zero aside and absorbed all of the shocks from Bob's slam. Fearing extreme tire, he abruptly gave body control mechanisms back to Axl, surprising him rudely.

"Hey, what gives?! Argh!" Axl was slammed onto a wall due to the force.

"Sorry, Axl! I need to charge up now for later! Good luck!"

Silently, X and Zero thanked the white Reploid for saving them, this time charged with confidence, blasting their shots at Bob. It still seemed as though Bob's machine is not damaged at all.

"Shoot! I gotta help them!" Axl ran circularly around the Mechaniloid and fired his famous non-stop bullet shots. Eventually large crack lines appeared around the red Mechaniloid.

Bob still had nothing to comment. He fired his homing missiles again twice, so around 120 missiles filled the airs of the grounds. Either by slicing or they've hit their targets, the missiles exploded.

The walls had their heights reduced a little, converted to rubble. All the three Hunters were pounded to the walls due to the immense force.

Axl fell to the ground, stood up a little dazed because of the effects of gravity and the fact he had been pounded a lot. Then he felt his tiredness disappear.

"Whoa! Who did that?" Axl closed his eyes and saw Iris channelling some pink aura to him. "You'll need it, Axl. Keep on going!"

Axl opened his eyes and resumed blasting with X and Zero. Suddenly, the metal skin of the Mechaniloid broken into large pieces, revealing engines which looked overheated and smoking really bad.

"What! I'm not going to let age-old Reploids defeat me! Watch my multiple combo attacks!" Bob pushed all buttons and levers repeatedly.

Many laser projectiles and those homing missiles were released in the air. The walls were greatly destroyed as rubbles of concrete flew everywhere, hurting the Hunters significantly.

Running wildly at the same time, Axl heard Iris and Lumine talk to him.

"Axl, let me help you! I'll need your left hand again!"

"Thanks, Iris." Lumine responded calmly: "I'd like to do the finishing blow, dear boy. That scum deserves something great from me."

"Sure, whatever you say."

Amid the multiple attacks, the Hunters continued their usual patterns of movements to avoid the enemy's attacks and weakening the enemy's health status.

Axl's left hand moved furiously as it fired pink fireballs of plasma energy at the Mechaniloid's smoking body. Axl ran to a corner, stopped his shooting and closed his eyes.

Iris looked really tired from her efforts to stay up and focus on firing at Bob. She noticed Axl halt and turned to him.

"Axl! Why have you stopped?"

"Iris, you're very tired! Take a rest first! I'll do the rest!"

"Axl, I appreciate your care for me but this isn't the right time! I've witnessed together with you all your combats and adventures and I must admit I've never seen a more menacing threat to peace than that Bob! He's even worse than Sigma! Do you know why?"

Axl paused. "…No, afraid not."

"Sigma strikes his vengeance only after some months or years, but this…this…this psycho strikes in a matter of days, I tell you that! I've got the feeling he'd do that! Besides, father had already eliminated Sigma 100 PERCENT! So he must be more urgently stopped!"

A limping Lumine approached them. "Hurry, dear Axl…Quickly…"

Axl was burning with a new lease of confidence.

"Thanks, guys, you're the best. C'mon let's go!"

Axl and Iris resumed fighting. They saw that now Bob's machine is swelling with smoke so thick that his attacks are slowing down.

X had already blasted it maybe with hundreds of charged Buster shots and Zero had sliced away important cannons and other guns. It was now all up to Axl.

"C'mon Axl! Take it down!" Zero yelled out.

Lumine saw the opportunity he was waiting for. He instantly grasped Axl's control mechanisms and a fresh Lumine is now standing in the grounds.

He flew fastly towards the orb glass. Bob is now struggling with malfunctioning buttons and levers.

"This one's for all of us."

He fired a long, thick beam of purple laser at the orb. All Bob saw was white light.

A giant explosion occurred as the Mechaniloid exploded to millions of metal scrap. All three, X, Zero and Lumine were blown backwards due to the impact of force. Seconds later, the fight ended.

The compound walls were reduced to 10 meters height and other neighbouring rooms were exposed, also damaged. Many equipment pieces were scattered here and there. In the fighting compound itself, rubble lay everywhere. Bob was found lying on the floor, badly bruised with blood trickling from his head.

The Reploids faced the man. X was about to arrest him when a big bullet shell hit them and they were bounced backwards.

May appeared. She landed herself on the grounds, with a huge machine gun as her right hand and still had her sword behind her back. She carried weakened Bob on her left arms.

"No one will harm my master, ever."