Chapter 10: Attack on Doppler Town I: The Godkarmachine

Back at the Maverick Hunter HQ, X has long since returned from facing Neon Tiger and Vile, and he was in the middle of watching Zero face Blast Hornet. But it wasn't very long until suddenly the holographic projector in the middle of the room turned on against anyone's will, with the grid of the government figures and Dr. Cain appearing, this time with a projection of Dr. Doppler's face on one of those holographic squares appearing as well. "Maverick Hunters! There is something we must address to you at this very moment. Halt whatever work it is you're doing and pay attention to what we have to say." One of the government figures remarked.

X, Alia and Iris turned to look at the holographic projection, with everyone else in the room doing the same. Another government figure mentioned to the Hunters as Doppler grinned in anticipation "We are here to have you witness the moment that we fully sign off on diplomatic immunity for Doppler Town. With this, you can be rest assured that we will take efforts to make sure that less and less Reploids will become Maverick." As X, Alia and Iris expressed concern with differing expressions, Doppler chuckled happily and said "I am honored to be a part of this deal."

X grit his teeth slightly and clenched his fists, hoping that Zero would make it in time to stop this madness. His wishes were swiftly answered, as Zero forced the doors open with a hard thud and exclaimed "Stop the deal! Doppler is guilty!" Zero was carrying the remains of Blast Hornet's body over his shoulders as he ran into the room, the core of his body under his right arm as well. He then stood in front of the holographic projector as one of the government figures sighed and stated "…Are you going to waste our time again? Unless you have evidence…"

Zero placed Blast Hornet's body on the ground without hesitation and swung the core up in the grip of his right hand, looking rather annoyed as he exclaimed "You want evidence?! Here it is! This is the evidence that implicates Doppler for his crimes!" The figures on screen pause and look at the core for a moment, with Doppler in particular looking unconcerned. One of the government figures said to Zero "You expect us to believe that a Reploid's core unit is enough evidence?"

"It's not the core unit I want you to look at. It's the chip attached to it." Zero said, trying to keep his cool to better get his point across. Doppler's holographic form suddenly raised one of his eyebrows and remarked "A chip you say? …Zero, send the chip to my location, I want to look at it for a moment." "Dr. Cain, this is a waste of time…" One of the more feminine government figures remarked.

Zero ignored the comment of the government figure made and walked over to the console, using a pad on it to teleport both the core and chip over to Dr. Cain's location, while Doppler still looked completely calm. But as Doppler was remaining calm, Alia kept typing away at her keyboard while murmuring "You aren't getting away with this one Doppler…" After a few seconds, Dr. Cain receives the core and chip, using a pair of robotic arms attached to his projection pod to pick it up and take a look at it while Doppler briefly flinched with a surprised look on his face.

Cain examined the chip in particular for just a little bit, humming in intrigue before he remarked "…Zero, this chip feels as though it's too low-grade to be something Doppler could have made." Zero and X both widened their eyes and thought that such an analysis was impossible, and Doppler could only grin and remark "As it was said…This was a waste of time, Zero."

Dr. Cain closed his eyelids and then remarked "…Of course, I do believe I recall teaching you that there's nothing wrong with creating low-grade technology, Doppler. Not to mention your insignia is attached to this chip…Zero, what is going on here?" The moment Cain showed suspicion towards Doppler's chip and asked Zero that question, Doppler subtly scowled. Zero glanced at X and said to him "You can go first X. Lets start from the beginning."

X glanced at Dr. Cain and the government figures and remarked "We've been investigating the facilities on the outer part of Doppler Town since they weren't diplomatically immune yet. First I met up with Blizzard Buffalo, who did seem genuinely happy at Doppler Town at first until he all of a sudden went Maverick. He mentioned something about getting something that would prevent him from going Maverick, specifically from Dr. Doppler." Zero then folded his arms together and remarked "Doppler also willingly invited a Maverick criminal named Toxic Seahorse, who was planning to poison the dam close to Doppler Town."

"Then there's Tunnel Rhino, who was a well-known digger…He had also been forced to become Maverick. Volt Catfish, a friend of mine, was tricked by Doppler to come to Doppler Town, where he was also made to become Maverick." X added on without hesitation, followed by Zero mentioning "Then there's Crush Crawfish, a known criminally insane Maverick…And Doppler clearly had him in charge of his submarines."

"Neon Tiger was made a Maverick too." X said, followed by Zero remarking "Gravity Beetle and Blast Hornet, both proud Hunters, were made to go Maverick thanks to Doppler. Any instance where a Reploid was not already a Maverick…It was all because Doppler implanted the very chip I just gave to Dr. Cain into their bodies and forced them to be under his control."

"And how exactly can you prove that those chips do that?" Doppler remarked while gritting his teeth slightly and having a tone of annoyance at the situation. Zero bluntly pointed a finger down at Blast Hornet's body and exclaimed "Is my ally's dead body not good enough?! I was forced to kill him because YOU placed one of those chips inside of his body! He was never a Maverick until he went to Doppler Town, he never had a chip in his body until you placed it there! How DARE you try to worm your way out of this one, Doppler!"

"This is ludicrous! I am completely without fault here! Leaders of the human world, you must realize that these two silly Hunters intruded upon my property…I told you how they blew up one of my research facilities and damaged my property, and now they have the gall to accuse me of criminal activities? I am but a kindly Reploid who has wanted nothing more than to help this world." The very moment Doppler finished speaking, to the surprise of everyone involved it was Iris who suddenly spoke out against him and said "Then why do you need an army?!"

"I beg your pardon?" Doppler said while gritting his teeth a little, and Iris quickly pulled her chair away from the computer before showing the government figures a series of images she had collected throughout X and Zero's missions, showing off the stuff like the Mechaniloids being created, the submarines Zero had mentioned earlier, and various other things. After that, Iris showed footage of Zero's battle with Blast Hornet, specifically the part where the Doppler Army was mentioned, and went on to say "Why would a Reploid trying to keep other Reploids away from a war need an army of his own? You aren't trying to protect anyone Doppler! You just want to turn the Reploids you lure to your town against the humans, against us! You're not savior Doppler…You're nothing more than a fraud!"

"Silence girl! Have you heard nothing of deterrents?!" Doppler tried to defend himself, but let a little of his anger go through. This time it was Alia who came in defense of Iris' words, remarking bluntly to Doppler "So did you revive the criminal Vile to act as your deterrent as well? Were Bit and Byte hired to act as deterrents? No Doppler…You've been using all three of them to make sure X and Zero wouldn't eventually find out the truth about what you've been doing."

"…What's this about Vile being revived?" One of the government figures took interest in that part of the conversation in particular, and before Doppler could weasel his way out of that one X explained "Vile was revived by Doppler. He and I fought at the facility that blew up within Doppler Town…But it was Vile who was responsible for it's destruction, not me or Zero. I had no idea the building was in the diplomatically immune part of town, since I went there via a teleportation capsule in Neon Tiger's reserve."

"Then that means…" The government figures were at the point where Doppler's lies held little wait, and Doppler quickly began to realize that. For the coup de grace though, Alia pulled away from her computer screen and revealed a lot of data she had compiled, stating to the government "To top it off, I just finished intercepting an attempt by Doppler to directly hack our teleporting systems so Zero wouldn't be able to hand the chip off to Dr. Cain. He's trying to cover his tracks at this point, basically…"

Zero and X both glared at Doppler directly, with Zero saying to him "It's over Doppler." "You've lost." X followed up with, the bluntness in their voice further emphasizing just how confident they were in their victory. And by all means, they had earned the right to this victory after all they had to do, and it seems the government agreed on such as one of the figures quickly remarked "…It seems as though the evidence speaks very much on your true character, Doppler. In light of this new evidence, we will have to revoke our deals immediately and label you a Maverick."

Zero and X relax themselves at that moment, letting out a sigh of relief before X in particular remarked "…We did it Zero…" But as Zero pointed out as he lifted his head up to look at the rather eerie grin on Doppler's face "But it's nowhere near over yet X. We may have stopped his diplomatic immunity…But it seems Doppler still has something up his sleeve."

"Hehehe…Right you are Zero. You really think that by getting rid of my diplomatic immunity that I am just going to accept my fate?! No…It just means I'll have to move my plans ahead of schedule." Doppler said, his voice becoming rather cold and callous as he put an unnatural grin on his face and then remarked "Tell me…Do you remember the device the X-Hunters were going to use against your HQ?"

"What?!" Everyone, government figures and Dr. Cain included, show shock at Doppler mentioning this, followed by Doppler telling them all while laughing calmly "I took it upon myself to take the technology they used and incorporated it secretly into all the facilities you've been investigating, X and Zero. With eight conduits to use simultaneously, all I have to do is power the systems and before long I will create a shockwave that will spread across the very continent, forcing all Reploids to become Mavericks regardless of whether they carry my special chip or not!"

"The whole continent? That'll turn millions of Reploids into Mavericks!" X remarked in stunned disbelief, and Dr. Cain bluntly exclaimed "Doppler! Stop this insanity! This isn't like you at all! Why have you chosen to go Maverick?!" "It's the logical choice in this world, my dear, dear friend! I will subjugate humanity and create a Reploid paradise with what remains of the planet, and then that will be the end of all wars! Hehehehe…HEHEHEHEHEHE! Try and stop me if you want, Maverick Hunters…But not even your forces will be able to match the might of the army I've built to defend the conduits!"

Doppler quickly shut off his holographic screen, with the government looking rather panicked now that Doppler has given his ultimatum. Amidst their panic, Dr. Cain suddenly exclaimed "Pull yourselves together! This is no time to panic!" The government silenced themselves, and Dr. Cain suddenly turned to look at X and Zero and told them "X, Zero…If the Maverick Hunters and Repliforce pool their forces together, we should be able to handle the conduits with minimal causalities. While we do that, you two need to infiltrate Doppler's main laboratory and put an end to whatever other madness he has planned!"

"We don't really have any other choice at this point, do we? We'll stop Doppler for good Dr. Cain, you can count on that." X commented with a confident look on his face, and Dr. Cain remarked after letting out a temporary sigh "…Once more, I have lost a close friend to this Maverick insanity…"

"Are you going to be ok doctor?" Zero inquired empathetically, and Dr. Cain stared at Zero and said to him "Do not be concerned about me Zero…You need to remain the utmost focused on this mission." "We won't let you down Dr. Cain." X stated with confidence again before he and Zero turned around.

Alia and Iris looked at the two, with Alia remarking bluntly "Doppler won't be holding anything back with his defenses…Bit, Byte, Vile…they are all going to be there waiting for you two to show up." Iris happily told Zero as she laid a hand against her communicator "We'll be providing support to the very end Zero, so please make it back safely!"

"We're not going let Doppler stop us, but thanks for the concern Iris…Alright X, lets get going!" Zero exclaimed after acknowledging Iris' remark, but before him and X made their way to the teleporting capsules X turned back around for a moment and laid a hand on Blast Hornet's body to take his power, causing his armor to change to a combination of yellow and white for a moment. X then stood upright and remarked "Ok, now we're good to go…" before him and Zero made their way to the room, getting into the capsules and after a few seconds they are simultaneously sent off to Doppler's laboratory to confront the madman once and for all…

It didn't take long for X and Zero to be dropped down inside of Doppler's laboratory, landing close to the entrance of the place with their arm cannon and Z-Saber respectively at the ready. It was a good thing they did that too, as Doppler already had a welcoming party ready in wait for them in the form of roughly five of those bipedal red missile launching Mechaniloids and five of those purple grenade lobbers. All ten Mechaniloids fire upon X and Zero, with X quickly working up a charged shot to shoot down the grenades while Zero ran forward and widely swung his Z-Saber out to cut down the missiles.

X then leaped off of Zero's back as he lurched forward from the sword swing and switched to Gravity Beetle's colors, a combination of violet and beige, and fires off a black and purple lightning sphere towards the ten gathered foes. An abundance of heavy gravity rips apart the Mechaniloids and drags them to their destruction quickly within the Gravity Well, and it vanishes upon X's command once he lands on the ground. "I knew he wasn't going to go easy on us…" X remarked as he gripped his arm cannon, and Zero replied as he stood up and swung his Z-Saber out beside him "Good…Cause we aren't either."

Before they get a move on, Alia and Iris contact them at the same time, causing them to pause and answer the call, with Alia remarking to them both "I just received word from Signas and Colonel that they already have an air fleet rallied and ready to attack the conduits. Turns out Dr. Cain was suspicious of Doppler's behavior the whole time and had planned to launch an attack on Doppler Town once any evidence sprung forth. He had faith in all of us you two, even if it wasn't obvious from the start…"

"Dr. Cain…" X was surprised to hear this from Alia, and Zero remarked in turn "So that means Signas and Colonel will get here soon?" "Yes! The air fleet will be led by Repliforce Air Division Leader Storm Owl, while my brother and Officer Signas will lead a ground assault. Jet Stingray of Repliforce has the waterways covered, and Alia is going to prevent any teleporters from operating…Doppler is pinned in, now it's just up to you two to stop him before he can hurt anyone else!"

After Iris finished informing the two of the whole situation, X smiled and said "This is going to be everyone's victory here today. We stop Doppler, we'll be that much closer to ending the Maverick threat." Zero glanced at X and told him "But we can't get too overconfident X. Lets go!" X nodded his head in agreement and the two turned around and began their advance through Doppler's laboratory. They noticed that beyond the walls to the left and right of them were piles of scrapped Mechaniloids, the pile still growing larger with every second due to a tube depositing parts from above.

The duo were disgusted by what Doppler was doing to all the Mechaniloids he acquired, but he already had more than enough crimes piled onto him to justify his destruction, so the two lingered on this matter for only a bit before encountered a set of turrets popping out from the ceiling. They fired electric shots at the two, but X took the front and quickly switched to Blizzard Buffalo's colors while having energy charged up. He used the Frost Shield to protect himself and Zero until there was an interval between shots for Zero to leap out beside X and use his sword to cut through the turrets, hitting them even when they retracted into the ceiling due to the long reach of his blade.

Once on the ground Zero made his way over to the nearby ladder and climbed it, with X dropping the Frost Shield onto the ground and following close behind. The two then make their way up to the next floor by wall jumping, with Zero cutting down a couple more Mechaniloids in the process. The two then sprint towards a seemingly harmless hallway, with only a spike ceiling that was way too high to reach unless they were knocked up into it being in the way at the moment.

But not long after moving forward, a part of the ceiling comes down partway to try and catch the two of guard before they planned to leap over a nearby gap. With that effort to surprise them having failed, the duo nodded at each other and proceeded with caution through the rest of the hallway. X took the lead and used the Tornado Fang from Tunnel Rhino to take down whatever Mechaniloids planned to snipe them from the platforms, but when he went ahead too far too quickly a ceiling came down prepared to impale his head.

Zero reacted to this by throwing his Z-Saber out like a boomerang, slicing through the spikes and giving X enough room to make the jump with the top of his helmet just nicking the bare ceiling in the process. X lands on the ground next to Zero's sword and picks it up as his ally makes the leap, looking a little embarrassed as he turns around and hands it back to him, but Zero just smiled slightly and was willing to look past the error since they survived. The duo then ran on unopposed by any Mechaniloids as they found another ladder and scaled it to the next obstacle.

Once past the ladder, one of the walls began to close in on the duo, forcing them to quickly scale their way to the top of the shaft before they are crushed. It was nothing more than a simple scaling challenge for them in the end, and they make it to the top right as the last wall slammed into place, sealing the way behind them. Not that such a thing mattered, as the duo had no intention of going back until this was all over. The two moved on, and crossed one of those Mechaniloids with those spiked balls on it's shoulders.

Zero took the lead this time and swung his Z-Saber forward to block one of the spiked balls as it's fired out, and while he's pushed back X swings around his friend's body and prepared a charged shot, thrusting his arm cannon out and letting go of the charged shot to obliterate the Mechaniloid with the large and four small shots that come out, blowing a hole through the wall behind it at the same time. With another enemy down, the duo climbed up to the next floor and moved on to a small secluded hallway past some steel doors.

There was another spiked ceiling in this room, but at the moment it didn't seem to want to come down. There was also a larger Mechaniloid in this room than usual, this one having thick bipedal legs that also operated as pistons, three steel-toed feet, a dinosaur-like fanged face, and a standard Reploid piloting it. Once X and Zero were fully situated in the room, the ceiling trembled and began to descend upon them, making it clear that the enemy before them had to be defeated before they were crushed.

The ceiling moved in intervals, but Zero noticed something on the other side of the room and said "I think I can stop the ceiling. I'll leave the Mechaniloid to you while I try this out, X." Zero then dashed forward past the Mechaniloid with X giving him a faithful nod of the head, switching to Neon Tiger's colors and holding both of his arm cannons up as the Mechaniloid opened his mouth open and prepared to fire upon X with powerful red bullets, only for the first impact to not even dent X's armored chest and simultaneously activate the shield to protect him from any further attacks.

X grinned slightly and then fired two waves of Ray Splashers upon the Mechaniloid, bombarding it with hundreds of tiny sparkle bombs that explode upon it's armor and quickly obliterate it, removing the need for Zero to even begin tampering with the controls for the spiked ceiling. X switched back to his normal colors and then met back up with Zero, who quietly remarked "Never mind…" before he opened the doors out of this room and the duo continued on their way.

Another spiked shoulder Mechaniloid was in the way, but the two just used the same method as before to deal with before scaling a couple walls to make it to what appeared to be the top of this current part of the laboratory. The way down had many wall-crawling Mechaniloids that filled the air with electric spheres, but from up above X decided to try out the weapon he got from Blast Hornet, charging it up and causing a series of targets to appear in his vision, and once he had locked on to every Mechaniloid he threw a bomb out that exploded and sent out enough mechanical hornets to fly through the air and latch onto the Mechaniloids.

The hornets then blow up and clear the way forward, with X and Zero making a big enough leap to land down at the very bottom of the gigantic steps, though the heavy fall did shake their legs a little once they did so. They were quickly fired upon by a marching group of screwdriver head Mechaniloids, with Zero swinging in front of X and holding his Z-Saber out to hold the projectiles off while X prepared a regular charged shot to shoot over Zero's head and take down the group save for one, who had enough intelligence to duck down.

However, Zero just cut this one down with a downward stroke of his blade, and the duo moved on without any further delay. Dropping down a small shaft, the two inadvertently end up in the junk piles Doppler has been building up within his laboratory. Now the tubes were dropping spiked balls into the area, with the ramps rolling them down to the duo's locations. The two leaped over them in tandem and blew up the drilling walls in the way until they made it through this horrible junkyard, dropping down a shaft and ending up in front of another set of steel doors.

X and Zero had a good idea of what to expect once they made it through the passage beyond those doors, but bravely went on ahead without hesitation. Once there, the duo find themselves in a more wide-open room than what they had been dealing with so far, complete bright lights and a large glass pane revealing the chaos going on outside. With the rain still falling from earlier, there was still a clear view of an armada of powerful airships going on the assault of Doppler Town, with Doppler swarming the ships with his own armada of battleships and insect copters.

"Looks like they are handling things well on the outside…" Zero commented on as he held his sword beside his body and glanced that way, but then he and X both sensed a tinge of lightning in the air and turned on ahead to see the foes they had to face there. As the duo suspected, it was Bit and Byte once more, both of them coming into the area while riding on a cloud Byte created from the bottom of his feet. Bit had his arms folded against his chest and a glare focused entirely on X, while Byte smiled at Zero and nodded his head respectfully.

Once close to the ground, Byte pulled his pike up and dispelled the cloud, the two of them landing on the ground and looking at X and Zero, with Bit starting off the conversation by remarking "So you ended up finding some evidence to implicate the doctor after all. Hmph, I would've done it much sooner." X quickly glared at Bit and remarked "So you're getting in our way again, Bit."

"Didn't the two of you do your jobs already by checking on us so you could give data to Doppler?" Zero inquired to Byte in particular, and with a respectful nod of his head against Byte calmly stated "We have done our job, yes…But Doppler it seems did not wish to see us leave his sights yet, as he quickly hired us back to do something else for him."

"He wants you both to stop us from reaching him, doesn't he? He must be getting pretty worried about us…" Zero remarked afterwards, but Bit glared at him and said "Don't get that arrogant Zero. He said that he'd rather not waste his time with you both, so he sent us to deal with you instead." "You don't have to do this you know. If you just walk away, then you can survive this mess and live another day. Doppler's the criminal here, you don't have to accept whatever money he's giving you!" X bluntly pointed out.

"We always finish our job, regardless of the client. To ask us to stop what we do is the equivalent of spitting in our faces, Maverick Hunter X!" Bit remarked in a sincerely offended tone of voice, and Zero pointed out "Then you're ok with this Byte? When you still haven't found your answer?"

Byte laid his pike down on the ground and said "You make it sound like this is the end of my journey…The beginning of one journey, always happens at the end of another. If I do not find my answer here, then there's always next time…" "But for now, we're going to stop you from advancing further. Brother, it's time for Advance Combination: Inary!" Bit exclaimed, and without a single word Byte nodded his head and clapped his hands together.

An echoing sound of thunder roared through the room as lightning struck both Bit and Byte, the entire room rumbling as their bodies becoming bright white and start pushing together towards one another. The two whirl together into a mass of white energy that grows out to form a new creature entirely. After a few seconds the energy disperses like a gale of wind, leaving behind only a glorious being. This creature combined the traits of both Bit and Byte while adding in new flourishes to it's form…

Byte's body had been converted into the four-clawed wolf, complete with ravaging claws and even thicker legs. Where Byte's head used to be now was a cylinder of pure iron connecting that lower body to the upper body of Bit, which had now grown in size to accommodate the size of this new creature. The fingers of the machine's four hands were now tipped with lead nails, with the ring on Byte's back now standing upright on the back of this creature's shoulders, with eight conductor spikes sticking out around the edge. Finally there were the creature's two heads, the first being Byte's head now taking on a red color and having the expression befitting an untamed, beastly war god, and then there was Bit's head on top of, which has been transformed into that of a fearsome and savage wolf, complete with piercing slits for red eyes.

This combination of Bit and Byte opened their mouths and spoke to the surprised X and Zero in a voice that fused the two's together and gave it a majestic echo "WE…Are the Godkarmachine O Inary! The messenger of heaven…the gatekeeper of hell! We exist in a perfect balance, a machine that cannot be stopped or conquered. Do you want to stand and face me still, Maverick Hunters X and Zero?!"The duo did not hesitate to nod their heads at each other before facing the Godkarmachine with their weapons drawn. Nothing could stop them at this point, not even this supposed 'ultimate combination' that towered over them.

For the beginning of the battle, the Godkarmachine pinched it's thumbs and pointer fingers together and then snapped them one at the time, causing lightning to strike down across the battlefield, specifically close to where X and Zero were positioned. They were forced to split off from one another to get away from the lightning, leaving the hands who had snapped their fingers to then detach from the arms and fire forth while they were clenched into fists. X gets punched in the gut with one punch, but when the shield pops up for the second one flicks it's fingers against the barrier and causes a larger lightning bolt to come down and crash upon the shield to break through it and smite X slightly.

"G-Ghhh!" X grunted in pain as the lightning made his body twitched, which distracted Zero a little as he ran forward and alternated the side of his body he swung his sword on to deflect the punches coming his way. Though it was only a second he was distracted for, which just gave the Godkarmachine time to bring all four of it's fists together around Zero's body. The fists all then open up and release a blast of electricity upon Zero before he could leap out of the way, the only thing saving him from taking heavy damage was X leaping directly next to Zero and activating Triad Thunder to create the necessary protective pyramid.

The lightning erupted into a heavy pillar around the pyramid, but during the fading of lightning X quickly charged up energy in his buster and fired a charged shot right at the Godkarmachine's chest, which dealt a direct hit and made it stumble back a couple inches. The machine attached his hands back against it's arms and then clapped them together in front of it's body, splitting them apart a moment later with electricity streaming between the palms, all of it hardening into four lances of pure lightning that the Godkarmachine grasps tightly.

The Godkarmachine swings a couple of those lances down at Zero and X, but Zero is able to bring his Z-Saber up to defend against the attacks regardless of how huge the lances were. He repelled the lances for a few seconds while X charged both of his arm cannons up and fired two huge buster shots at the machine, with the Godkarmachine having to use a couple of it's lances to block the charged shot. The left side of the machine was now vulnerable, and Zero sprinted past the other two lances and swung his Z-Saber along the left side of the Godkarmachine's body, putting a large glowing slash mark into the metal through both of it's legs and the body itself.

Zero then quickly turns around and is hit in the chest by a backhanded swing of the lance, knocking Zero back and sending him headfirst into the nearby wall. Zero grit his teeth upon impact and began falling to the ground, with X running over to the wall and grabbing his ally as he fell before the Godkarmachine could impale him with all four of it's lances. X then leaped up the wall while carrying Zero for a bit, and he switched to Tunnel Rhino's colors and began charging energy as the machine tried to thrust the lances forward.

Once the attack was charged, X leaped forward while still carrying Zero in one arm and used the charged Tornado Fang to turn his right arm into the drill, thrusting himself as fast as he could through the air by using his Air Dash boots to push himself in combination with leaping off of the wall. The drill collides with the four lances of lightning as the Godkarmachine turns itself around and raises them in front of it's body, but with the heavy rotation of the drill it only takes mere seconds of X to break the lances up and strike the machine's chest.

He drills at it for a few seconds and manages to dig into the metal just a little bit and created enough force to push the machine along the ground, ending with X retracting the drill and then landing on the back of the Godkarmachine's body. Zero then starts flinching a bit, making X decide to let go of him so he could stand on his feet and contribute to the battle once more. While X dropped Zero off on the ground, the Godkarmachine lifted it's upper right hand as high as it could and materialized a larger version of Bit's beam katana into his grasp.

He swung the katana horizontally towards X, sending out a beam wave at X, which lashed against his arm cannon and chest and put a slight slit into his armor while simultaneously knocking him back. X ends up off the back of the Godkarmachine, but because the machine was distracted with X…Zero was able to wake up and immediately stab his Z-Saber through the center of the Godkarmachine's lower body. Zero then lifts his sword up while it was gripped in both hands and after a little bit of a struggle he rips through the metal of the machine and puts a large gash into it's backside.

The Godkarmachine immediately reacted by using the jets on it's legs to lift itself off the ground and then flip it's lower body back around, followed by it thrusting itself backwards and putting itself out of reach of Zero's blade. While it was floating in the air, it summoned another copy of Bit's katana and began rapidly swinging them out, sending waves of beam energy down at the duo of Hunters. Zero is able to cut the waves down, but X had to leap and slide over them, the waves impacting the ground and breaking it apart to make the battlefield more uneven to navigate.

X kneeled down on the ground and aimed his arm cannons at the Godkarmachine, firing upon it with a couple charged shots, both of which are cut down with ease with the beam katanas. The machine then raised it's sword in front of the ring on it's back, and lightning shot through the nearby window and attracted itself to the ring, which then focused the lightning into the katanas to increase their power greatly. The Godkarmachine then swung his katans out, grinding the energy against it's other to generate even more electricity and greatly increase the size of the attack it was about to unleash.

It fired off a large "X" shaped burst of electricity through the air, and it plummeted rapidly through the air and crashed down directly upon X and Zero before they could get out of the way. The ground is torn apart in a violent manner and X and Zero are flung to the back of the room with plenty of debris following them. An "X" mark is left in the ground, with it sparking occasionally as the Godkarmachine looks down and knows that his opponents had to have survived that attack. Therefore, it raises it's katanas up again and prepared for another attack.

X and Zero find themselves sitting with their backs against the wall, some decent damage done to their bodies from that last attack while their armor was scuffed by the dirt raised up and the rocks that flew against their arms and legs. But they start to stand up in a few seconds and look up at the Godkarmachine, realizing that as of now the machine could not move whole it was preparing it's attack. Zero then slightly glanced at X and said "You thinking what I'm thinking, X?"

X nodded his head and remarked "We only have one shot at this. Lets do it Zero." He kept quiet enough that the Godkarmachine could not hear him, and then he ran to the hill built by the debris and held his arms down in front of his waist while kneeling down slightly. Zero ran forward and leaped onto X's hands, promptly being flung into the air as Zero gripped his Z-Saber in both hands and charged it up with all of his strength. As the Godkarmachine prepared to swing it's katanas downward, Zero brought his Z-Saber down with all of his might, ripping through the center of the katanas and all of the energy built up within, simultaneously cutting a large gash down the center of the machine's large body.

Zero landed on the ground and then flipped back, exclaiming as he did so "X, now!" As Zero did his part, X had been busy scaling the wall close to the piled up debris while charging up another Tornado Fang. He leaped right off the wall and thrust himself forward, using both the Air Dash and the propulsion of the charged drill to make his way over to the levitating Godkarmachine, where his drill dug into the gash Zero had created earlier and ripped apart the internal machinery, quickly tearing it down until the two halves were split apart from one another.

X immediately dropped to the ground after that while returning to his original colors, and him and Zero stepped back as the two halves of the Godkarmachine crashed against the ground. After a few seconds of the machine letting out a pitiful whimper, the two halves glowed and then went back to being the bodies that composed it. Byte was now sliced in half horizontally, while Bit had a large gash from the top of his face to the bottom of his waist. Both of them groaned in pain, and X and Zero ran over to check on them. Bit remarked in a slightly bothered tone "G-Gah…We…We lost? I thought…The Godkarmachine…Was invincible…"

"…Hehehe…Nothing is…ever invincible…brother…We…We appropriately met our match today." Byte remarked, glancing at X and saying to him "After all…Your name stands for infinite potential, does it not…Maverick Hunter X?" X widened his eyes in surprise to hear that, and remarked to Byte "H-How did you know that?"

"…Doppler…Told us…He's done his share of research on you it seems…Both you and Zero…Hehehe, he's quite fascinated with you two, perhaps to the point of jealousy…" Byte remarked, but then proceeded to cough up some oil from his mouth, showing just how damaged his body truly was. Zero then looked at Byte and said "…I know this is probably stupid to ask…But how are you feeling, Byte?"

"I…I feel warm…Is this what death feels like? It's funny…I expected a cold embrace, from what I heard of humans deaths…I guess in the end though, we aren't the same as humans…At least not all the way. Hehehe…So there is likely no afterlife for us Reploids…That's not the answer I wanted, I suppose, but…At the same time, I'm not angry to be wrong…" Byte remarked, a smile crossing his face as he just laughed at his inevitable demise, leading to Bit doing what he could to turn his head and remark "S-Shut up brother…We're not…Not going to die here…"

"Bit…It's ok to accept what's coming to us…We lived decent lives…I just wish we could have thanked our old employer…For saving us from being decommissioned…" Byte remarked, and Bit relaxed a hand atop his scarred body and remarked "…Heh…Hehehe…Yeah, I suppose we have owed that idiot a few thanks…"

X looked down at Bit and said his name in a melancholic tone, and Bit bluntly replied with "D-Don't…Give me…your pity…We did our jobs…We aren't…Ashamed of anything we've done…You two…Just need to get going…And stop…Doppler…" X did not feel happy with the idea of leaving them behind to die like this, but Zero quickly looked at his partner and remarked "He's right. There's nothing we can do for them now X. Doppler is still out there…And so is Vile. We have to keep going."

"R-Right…" X said with a degree of hesitation, and he stood upright and turned himself around, noticing a door behind the debris from earlier that would lead further on into the laboratory. Him and Zero prepared to head on their way, but before they made it to the door Zero glanced over his should and looked at Byte in particular, letting out a quiet sigh before he followed X through the door. Bit and Byte, with their grievous wounds, perished only a few seconds later, though at least they died with the solace that they were together in their final moments…

Next Time: End of a Legacy