Part 25: Bullet Drive

The bridge of the Faith was a flurry of activity with Aile at it center, leaning over a holographic map of the combat area, spewing orders out as fast as the battle reports came in. Nothing escaped her, and she had a solution for every situation. Fleuve and the three operators were all surprised at how authoritative the girl was being - not to mention how incredibly well she was doing - but none of them had time to question it as she barked out orders in rapid succession. Fleuve just figured Model L was coaching her along like she had the last time.

"Have squad seventeen fall back to this area here, while squad thirteen advances to this ridge to give them cover fire. Tell them to watch out for that laser weapon; if they do it right they should be able to destroy it without ever letting it fire a shot. Tell squad nine to move west to cover their flank."

"Squad twenty-two was just hit by an aerial bombardment, reporting heavy losses," Gardenia said. "They're falling back."

"Who the hell said they could do that?" Aile exclaimed angrily. "If they fall back we could lose that entire line! Tell them to hold until reinforcements arrive!" She turned on her communicator. "Zero! Trouble in combat grid E-four, need you to drop in. It should be on your way."

"Affirmative," came the reply, with the sound of exploding mavericks in the background.

"Squad nineteen is reporting they're under heavy fire, it looks like a few enemy units have grouped together to make a push."

"What?" Looking down at the map, she saw that there were now an abnormally large number of red dots swarming over squad nineteen's postion. "Bloody hell, I missed that. ...Okay, tell nineteen to unload everything they've got, then fall back to...right around here. Bring our starboard cannons around and unload everything we've got on their advance. How long before-" The ship shook slightly as the Sword of Hope fired, answering her question before she could ask it.

"Direct hit on the eastern troop carrier, it's going down," Tulip reported. "Looks like impact will be in...grid F-six." The operator blinked. "Right on top of the artillery battery."

"Damn I'm good," Aile allowed herself a satisfied smirk, then glanced across the map again. "Okay, tell Silure his next target is...this one here, grid B-six. It looks like it's going to try and drop something, and I don't intend to-" She stopped midsentence when she felt someone lightly grab her arm. She spun around and found Fleuve standing beside her, a mix of conern and curiosity on his face. "What is it Fleuve?"

"Aile, are you...feeling all right?" He asked carefully.

"What the hell kind of question is that?" She replied angrily, shrugging him off. "I'm trying to save as many lives as I can in a war that, by all rights, we shoudl have already lost. How do you think I'm feeling?"

"It's just that, well...you aren't exactly acting like yourself."

"That's ridiculous, I'm always like this, you've just never-"

Model L!

She cut herself off abruptly as she realized what she was saying. Sorry, I got a little carried away.

You're the one who wanted to keep this a secret. I don't see why we can't just tell everyone you're in control of my body right now.

Because Fleuve would start asking far too many questions, and we don't have time to answer any of them. Trust me, it's easier this way.

Then stop screwing it up. He's watching you...I mean, me. ...Whatever. Stop making it look like I'm insane!

I'll remind you that this was your idea.

Well it only makes sense. You're the one organizing everyone anyway, it's faster if I don't have to dictate for you. Now pay attention!

Seeing that Fleuve was, in fact, staring at her like she was a lunatic, Model L replaced the scowl on her face - Aile's face - with her most reassuring smile. "I'm sorry, Fleuve. You're right, I'm not acting like myself, and I know it. It's just that I'm not quite used to doing stuff like this, and I'm afraid Model L is rubbing off on me a little. I assure you, I'm feeling..." Model L tried to think of something Aile would say here to reassure the little man, but failed to come up with anything. Luckily, Aile sensed her distress and filled in the blank.

"...Peachy." Somehow she managed to not to wince. I can't believe I just said that.

Oh come on, it's cute, and it's totally something I'd say. You want to pretend you're me, you have to act like me too!

...I'm starting to think that maybe keeping this a secret wasn't such a great idea after all...

Heehee.

Fleuve gave her a quizzical look, but seemed to take her at her word. "I understand. I don't feel particularly comfortable doing this either, but there's nothing we can do about it. I was simply worried for you, that's all."

Model L smiled. "That's very sweet of you Fleuve, but really, I'm fine. Let's just do our best to get this over with so we can go back to doing what makes us comfortable."

Fleuve nodded, then returned to the captain's chair, ordering Margeurite to bring the Faith around for their next target.

See? I told you he's a nice guy, once you get to know him.

Maybe, but I bet if we told him I was controlling your body he'd drag us down to his lab for analysis before we could blink.

I'm not taking that bet.

Somehow Model L managed to keep the victorious grin off her face. Apparently, as part of the Biomerge process, Aile and Model L discovered they could communicate through thoughts directed at each other, but only while Model L was in control. It was proving to be quite beneficial, both for rapid sharing of information and the occasional entertaining banter. And best of all...

Backed up against a wall, odds against us, the fate of the world on the line, and it's up to me to keep everyone alive...Model L couldn't help but smile and crack her knuckles as she bent back to work. It feels good to be important again.


Vent felt bad for everyone else as he sailed down the rails towards the Hunter Camp. They were all out on the field fighting and dying, and here he was, safe inside the lead car of the high-speed passenger train, cruising down the rails without a single maverick in sight. He knew why he was here, of course, and soon he would be in more danger than anyone else in the entire Guardian Corps - aside from Zero and the other Mega Men - but right now he felt helpless.

"How much farther to Hunter Camp?" He asked the Guardian at the controls for what was at least the tenth time in the past five minutes

The good-natured reploid soldier humored him, only giving an exasperated sigh and rolling his eyes as he replied, "another ten minutes, sir."

"Sorry, I'm just a little nervous," Vent said sheepishly. Normally he would have told the soldier not to call him sir, but this time his mind was too preoccupied with other things to notice.

This is it, the point of no return. Either we stop Thomas and keep the damage contained to Legion, or we fail and his maverick army spreads the virus to the rest of the world. Or worse, he finds a way past Fleuve's innoculation, and we'll just make things worse when the entire Guardian corps gets infected. No point in worrying about that now though, all we can do is push ahead and hope that-

The train suddenly rocked violently, enough to make Vent and the others in the room stumble and brace themselves against the wall. The worst of it was over quickly, but Vent could still hear a loud hum in the air that hadn't been there moments before. "Does anyone else hear that...?"

He was answered when someone in the next car yelled, "Maverick drill transport approaching! Keep them off the train!"

"What?" Vent pushed a soldier aside as he rushed back a car, arriving just in time to see a hole get blown in the side of it, sending several Guardians flying against the wall, some of which didn't get up again. The ones who managed to recover began firing as Galleon landing parties appeared in the opening, using the jumper packs strapped to their backs to leap over from their small, lightly armored transport. Within seconds of landing the first two mavericks were riddled with bullet holes and stumbled backward out of the car, smashing to pieces on the ground as it sped by, but the two behind them were already firing, forcing the Guardians to dive behind what little cover was available, mostly in the form of scrap metal or ruined seats. Vent dashed forward and blew away that pair and the next with his two charged Buster shots, then looked out the gaping hole in the side of the car just in time to see a plasma grenade - what had likely been used to damage the car in the first place - hurling through the air towards him. He shot it out of the air with one hand, making a bright flash of light in the air that was quickly left behind as the vehicles sped forward.

With Vent's Buster shots providing heavy cover fire, the Guardians quickly had the Galleons pinned down inside their own transport. The two sides continued to exchange fire, but neither side were taking any casualties, and any attempt the Galleons made to cross the gap was met with a deadly plasma crossfire. Seeing that the situation was essentially under control, Vent told the soldiers to keep up the pressure while he went to check on the other train cars.

Not counting the lead car, which held the engine and only a handful of troops, the train was five cars long. The first four each had one full squad of Guardians, while the last one was occupied by a group of Hunters. The Guardians in the second and third cars were engaged in firefights with more mavericks through the windows, while the fourth car hadn't heard the initial attack and had been caught by surprise by another transport bursting from the ground on the other side and blowing away nearly half the car before the Guardians inside even knew what hit them. Vent arrived just in time to keep them from being overrun, successfully fighting them back off the train, but they had already taken heavy casualties. He knew if he left they would quickly be overwhelmed again.

"We should pull our forces out of these cars and into the others," Model X advised. "If we then detach the cars we may be able to increase speed and outrun the transports."

"Good idea," Vent agreed. He told the Guardians still in the train car to hold their positions for a moment while he went back to check on the Hunters. He fired another pair of Buster shots to cover himself as he ran across the open gap, keeping the Galleons from firing back at him until he was out of sight on the other side. He opened the back door of the car he was in and stepped out into the open air between the two cars, where a pair of heavy magnetic locks held them together. The door slid closed behind him again as he passed through, and as soon as he approached the other car its door slid open to admit him.

Vent wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to see inside the last car, but he had expected it to actually be there. Instead, the entire back half of the car was missing, and he saw a large number of Hunters huddling behind broken seats that had been piled up haphazardly near the door - he couldn't come up with a number at a glance, but it seemed like they were mostly all accounted for. Through the large gaping hole that was now the back of the train, a number of Galleons with high-powered plasma rifles and grenade launchers were firing into the train, and as soon as the door finished opening, several of them turned their weapons on it and fired. Vent sent off a few blind shots to cover himself as he dove and rolled into the nearest group of five Hunters.

"Nice to see ye drop in," a large, grey-bearded Hunter remarked casually, then lifted his rifle over the edge of the seats and fired blindly, pulling it back down again a couple seconds later when the other side of his cover was pelted with plasma. "Good thing these buggers are made o' ceratanium, heh? If'n they weren't we'd all be filled with a bunch'a wee holes by now."

Vent recalled hearing that Innerpeace had become increasingly more paranoid about maverick attacks, and as such had been using more durable materials in the construction of public utilities. Ironically, he'd always thought they had been taking it a bit overboard with the plasma-resistant public transportation. "Yeah, no kidding. So, what's the situation? Apart from the obvious."

"Dang blasted thing came outta nowhere!" Another Hunter yelled from behind a different set of seats, flinching every time a plasma burst hit the other side of his cover. "We're all sittin' around shootin' the breeze when suddenly there's this ripping sound so loud you woulda thought the world was ending, and whoosh, half the car falls off!"

Someone else behind a third pile of seats picked up the story as the second came under Galleon fire again. "We all got off before the whole thing bounced away, but these Galleons have been keeping us pinned down under cover, shootin' like crazy whenever one of us goes for the door."

The large man Vent was crouching beside spoke again. "The funny thing is, they's not tryin' too hard to be gettin' on board, y'hear? Mostly just blastin' their jimmies at us and keepin' us from gettin' out."

"Vent, look over there," Model P's voice interrupted, giving him a mental nudge. Vent looked in the indicated place and immediately saw what had caught Model P's attention - there were seven large, thick, metallic cables going from the Galleon transport to the jagged sides of the train car. Just as he noticed them, a Galleon fired an eighth out of a launcher. It latched onto the left side, making four cables on each side.

"Well would ya look at that," the large Hunter beside him remarked. "What do ye think they're tryin' to do wit those?"

The Hunter's question was answered by the screeching of grinding metal as the Galleon transport slammed on the brakes, jolting the entire train backward as it dragged the transport along behind. Through the entire length of the ship both Guardians and Galleons alike were tossed around by the sudden loss of speed, but Vent and the Hunters, having already been crouched against a wall, didn't go far.

They're trying to drag the train to a stop! Vent realized the boarding parties were just a diversion - if enough transports managed to attach themselves to the train, eventually they wouldn't be able to drag them all and the train would grind to a halt, making everyone on it a sitting duck.

An ear-piercing scream of twisting metal rang through the air, followed seconds later by all the windows in the train car shattering. Vent shielded his eyes, then looked up to see holes starting to appear in the sides of the car. Or maybe they'll just tear the whole thing to shreds first.

He looked to the Hunters still crouched beside him. "We need to get out of here, now!"

One of the smaller Hunters gave him a sarcastic look. "What do you think we've been trying to do?"

"I'll keep them busy while the rest of you head for the door. Once you're out, detach this car, and head up the train. Spread the word for everyone to get into the front two cars, then get the train to accelerate. Hopefully we can outrun these transports."

"If we start detaching the cars, how are you going to get back?" someone asked, followed by another screech of metal as the sides of the car strained even further.

"Don't worry about me! Just go!" He fired a pair of charged shots out the back of the train car, followed by a series of weaker shots to cover himself as he jumped into the open, drawing fire from most of the Galleons. "I said GO!"

He dodged and weaved as best he could in the cramped confines of the train car, taking every opportunity he could to fire a charged shot off, but for every Galleon he actually managed to destroy another one took its place. He tried firing a shot or two at the cables as well, but that proved useless. The power of his shots was too spread out to affect the material, and the shots simply passed through like the cables weren't even there. A high-powered beam weapon like his ZX-Saber may hve been able to cut them, but he doubted that either of Model P's weapons would be strong enough to cut through it in time to stop he train from being torn apart.

After a few seconds that felt like minutes, Vent spared a glance back to see how many Hunters had escaped. To his dismay, most of them were still in the car - despite his best efforts to create a distraction the Galleons were still managing to cover the door, allowing only a few Hunters the chance to escape. The wheels of the train screamed ever louder in his ears, and Vent knew it wouldn't last much longer.

Time for a change in tactics. He switched to Model P and dashed forward, covering his advance with a shower of kunai. He tried his best to dodge the flurry of Galleon plasma bullets as he shot forward, but took a few hits before he jumped off the back of the car. He activated Model P's Overdrive just before he landed on the transport, passing through the assembled Galleon troops as a purple blur. He spun on the landing area and unleashed a flurry of knives at the nearest Galleons, turning three of them into pincushions as switched his Overdrive off again.

At the back of the landing deck he saw a small hatch that descended down into the transport, where a steady stream of Galleons was coming up onto the deck. As much as he wanted to go down and stop the mavericks at their source, he needed to keep the ones on the deck shooting at him so the Hunters could escape the train car. Kunai appeared in his hands as he dashed towards the closest Galleon who was still firing into the train, leaping over two who were firing at him. Within seconds all three of them were blown to pieces, and Vent was moving towards his next targets.

It didn't take long to clear the deck of enemies, but more continued pouring out the exit hatch - Model P's scanner estimated there were at least twenty more inside. Vent spared a moment as he ducked past plasma shots to wonder how that many Galleons could be packed into such a small space, but it didn't matter; they were all focused on him now, which means the Hunters could escape. He glanced over at the train car and saw the last few of them escaping, which meant it was time for him to bail; he couldn't afford to be stuck on the transport while the train sped off into the Hunter Camp.

He turned to jump off the transport just as he heard a loud ka-CHUNK from the train car as the Hunters disengaged the magnetic seal, allowing the transport's towing cables to drag the entire car down. Not wanting to be left behind, Vent leapt off the transport and onto the roof of the rapidly slowing train car, dashing against the air as it pushed him backward. He reached the far side of the car with the intention of jumping to the next, but by the time he got there his car had been dragged too far back, putting the next car out of his reach.

"Dammit! What am I going to do now?"

"Vent, try this," Model P said, followed by a brief download of data. "It should suffice."

"Nice! Why didn't you show me how to do this earlier?" Vent exclaimed, seeing the operating instructions for what looked like a retractable grappling hook flash across his vision. He could apparently materialize it in a similar way he did his throwing knives, but only from his left hand. That left the right still available to toss kunai at opponents as he swung by.

"It was unneccesary," Model P replied plainly.

Vent took a few steps back to get a running start, then leapt off the car and shot the hook forward. As soon as he heard and felt the solid thunk of contact he reeled the line back in, pulling himself across the distance in a flash. Clinging desperately to the side of the train car, he knocked several times on the door leading inside. After a moment the door slid open and Vent swung in, landing at the feet of the large, grey-bearded Hunter he'd been sitting beside a few minutes ago.

"Hey. How's it going." Vent said nonchalantly.

"Pretty great, thanks t'ye. I gotta say though, ye sure were cuttin'er close. Ye only had aboot seven seconds ta spare."

"Seven seconds until what?" Vent asked, and had his question immediately answered as the train car he'd just jumped off of exploded in a massive fireball, undoubtedly taking the attached maverick transport with it.

"The boys an' I figgered we'd make sure none o'them maverick chaps could come after us," the big man explained sheepishly, realizing that he'd almost detonated the young Chosen One as well. "I did'na think you'd be comin' back that way."

Vent had been almost blown up enough times that all he did was shrug, then stopped to examine the situation. The mavericks had attempted to board this train car as well, but with the extra Hunters as backup they were essentially trapped inside their transport by a hail of gunfire. They had successfully attached one of the docking cables to the side of the car, but that wasn't enough to drag the whole car down.

"We're dropping this one too," Vent said to those close enough to hear him. "Spread the word for everyone to start moving into the next car. When this one's empty, do the same thing you did to that one." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"Aye mate," the Hunter said with a nod, then they all went to plan a coordinated retreat. Vent headed straight for the next car to make sure everything was under control there as well, stopping briefly at the hole in the wall to shower the maverick transport with kunai.

In the next car he found the situation was still under control. The Guardians he'd left in charge had rearranged some seats to provide better firing positions on the mavericks. He found the captain he'd been talking to earlier hiding behind a nearby seat. "How are we holding up?"

"It's tough keeping them under control, but so far so good. They've basically stopped trying to get on board and just keep trying to attach some giant hooks. We've been mostly trading plasma fire and grenades while we shoot down those cables."

Vent nodded in acknowledgement. "Good job. We're detaching the rear two cars, so in a minute you'll have plenty of backup. After that I want you to all to keep heading up the train - the fewer cars we have, the better off we are."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Hunters and Guardians began streaming in behind him. Before anyone could say anything, however, a Guardian soldier burst through the door leading to the engine. "Sir, we've got a problem!" He yelled over the din of battle. "There's something blocking the tracks a few clicks ahead!

"What?" There's no way they could have blocked off the rails that fast. What could it be...? He managed to sneak a look outside a window without being shot at and, using Model P-enhanced vision, saw another train coming down the tracks, far ahead of them. It was only one car, but that was more than enough. He estimated it would only be a few minutes before they collided.


Model L was about to ask Gardenia for another report on squad twenty-two's situation when she received a signal from Vent on her communicator. As soon as she turned it on he was yelling at her through the earpiece. "Aile, I'm in trouble! There's a train car heading out from Hunter's Camp on the same rail!"
"Damn!" She glanced down at the map, which showed her the position of Vent's train, but showed the rest of the track clear. "I don't see...wait, there it is!" A big red mark appeared farther down the track. "How did they hide that from us? ...Can you turn around?"

"They waited until after I passed the last switching station to show up!"

Model L growled under her breath as she tried to hurriedly puzzle out a solution. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she really hadn't considered the scenario - an oversight on her part that was about to cost a lot of lives. We don't have time to think like that, Aile scolded. Think! We need to find a way out of this!

Hey, aren't I supposed to be the "cool under pressure" one around here? You trying to take my job?

Just pay attention.

A quick glance at the map had the situation looking grim. They were already deep in maverick territory, being swarmed by transports, so jumping off was a pretty futile gesture - they'd be doomed just as fast as if they'd hit the train. She had no doubt that Vent would be fine, but there was little chance of the rest of his forces getting out alive. The trains could only turn around at specified switching stations - Vent had said he'd just passed one, and the next one wasn't until the Hunter Base. They were travelling too fast for Zero to get there in time - he wasn't supposed to arrive until after the train - and if they used artillery fire they would destroy the tracks too, which would probably have just a disastrous an outcome when Vent's train reached it.

"Sis? I could use some advice here!"

"I..."

"Don't worry, I got you covered!" Ashe's voice came over the communicator.

Model L blinked in confusion, then looked down at the table, ignoring for the time being that Ashe had somehow been eavesdropping. "How? You're almost three kilometers away, and you've got" - she did some quick distance calculations in her head - "three minutes to get there and get it off the tracks!" She noticed another red blip on the table right beside Ashe's position. "And you're currently fighting a pseudoroid! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh, him? This guy's nothing, really. Kind of embarassing. Hey, pointy-face, over here! Yeah, I'm talking to you. Wow, your aim is terrible. Anyway, it's just one car, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then don't worry! One measly little train car is nothing compared to the Model A Mega Man! I'm friggin' awesome! I'll be there in a minute, so just hang tight!"

Model L only thought about it for a moment - as impossible as it seemed, she didn't really have any choice but to trust Ashe could do as she said. "All right, get moving. You're down to two minutes and fifty-three seconds."

"I'm on it!"

"I'm counting on you, Ashe!"

Both of the Mega Men turned off their communicators to deal with their respective problems, and Model L went back to barking orders around the command center, trying to get three steps ahead of her opponents. But inside her own head, Aile couldn't think of anything but her brother's safety.

Please Ashe, don't be too late...


"Ashe, I sure hope you have a plan," Model A said.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine! I got this all figured-"

"NO ONE IGNORES ME! DIE, PUNY HUMAN!"

Ashe dove sideways as lightning arced past her, continuing on until it reached a small maverick vehicle, which promptly blew up, destroying everyone inside. Having done this several times before, she knew to immediately leap sideways again as the pseudoroid she was battling charged right through the spot where she landed, destroying a few nearby mavericks as he shot past her harmlessly. Despite all his yelling she hadn't caught his name yet, but he was a quadruped, with wheels on all four legs that he used to charge forward and try to impale her on the massive foot-long spike on the end of his long, narrow head. He was also over twice her height and probably weighed more than a small building.

"Man, this guy's a piece of work," Ashe remarked casually as she came to a halt beside the wreckage of a maverick tank. "He only does two things, and always in the same order. Even Fleuve could dodge this guy."

"I HEAR YOU, PUNY HUMAN!" the pseudoroid yelled again as he turned himself around, which itself mangled another few mavericks. This guy has the exact opposite of style, Ashe thought to herself, as the pseudoroid continued ranting angrily. "I AM BLITZ THE RHINOCEROID, AND I WILL DESTROY YOU!" He decided to forego the use of his lightning cannon attack and instead charged forward again.

"Okay, so maybe he's a bigger threat to the mavericks than us, but he's going to be a serious problem if we want to go help Vent!" Model A said. "He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would just let us go!"

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll figure something out by the time I get there."

Ashe did a forward-flip over the rhino as he charged under her, smashing head-first into the tank wreckage. Despite being possibly four times his weight, when Blitz and the tank collided, it was the tank that went flying, leaving Blitz looking none the worse for wear.

Which gave Ashe an idea so devious she couldn't help but grin.

She landed gracefully and immediately spun on one foot to look at the rhino. "Hey, badger-face, or whatever it is you're supposed to be. Can't you even catch a little girl like me?"
"SILENCE!" The pseudoroid roared. "I WILL NOT BE MOCKED BY A-"

"'Puny human', yeah, we get it. If I'm so puny, why am I kicking your ass?" She fired off a charged Reflect Laser, which hit him square on the nose, then bounced off and hit a couple of nearby mavericks. At this point, most of them had begun to steer clear of the two fighters for fear of becoming collateral damage.. "Come on, weakling! Shoe me what you got!"

"INFIDEL! HOW DARE YOU CHALLENGE THE MIGHT OF BLITZ THE RHINOCEROID! I WILL CRUSH YOU BENEATH MY MIGHTY WHEELS LIKE THE BUG YOU ARE!"

"Oh yeah? You couldn't catch a Galleon on a hoverscooter!"

Blitz let out a mighty roar and stamped his front feet several times. "ENOUGH! PREPARE TO BE DESTROYED!" He charged forward, the wheels on his feet touching down to give him the speed of a small truck.

"Just try it!" Ashe yelled, then spun around as she A-Trans'ed into Argoyle and sped in the direction of the train tracks at top speed, Blitz hot on her heels.

Ashe soon realized that this may have been a bad idea. While their top speeds were more or less the same, she was losing ground to the rhinoceroid by weaving around all the mavericks in her way, while Blitz simply crashed through them without even slowing down.

"Ashe, he's catching up!" Model A yelled.

"Well, if he squishes me flat, at least we can say he took down a lot of mavericks to do it," Ashe remarked, mostly ignoring her biometal's panic, as always. Model A, of course, completely missed the humor, and continued to freak out.

She got a lucky break and gained some ground when the ground dipped into a large rut, forming a slight half-pipe. Ashe shot down one side and back up the other, rocketing into the air with a flip and sailing over several clumps of mavericks. They all stopped to fire at her but were quickly obliterated when Blitz crashed through them a few moments later.

Looking for obstacles, Ashe veered slightly to the left so that she was headed straight for a Crushpactor.

Okay, let's see if I can handle this...

She summoned Urgoyle just before she reached the giant mechaniloid, placing him in just the right place that she could jump up and, at the height of her jump, have Urgoyle jump up below her and give her a swift kick, sending her soaring even higher, like a soccer ball - just high enough to clear the Crushpactor.

"Woohoo!" Ashe yelled in triumph as she rained spiked balls on the mavericks waiting on the other side, clearing herself a landing space. She winced a bit as she landed on the sore spot where she'd kicked herself, but didn't let it slow her down as she kept going at top speed. Blitz crashed into the Crushpactor shortly afterward. The mechaniloid went flying off to the side, knocking out a not-insignificant number of mavericks and other mechaniloids, while Blitz was barely phased, slowing down slightly, and only for a moment, before continuing to barrel mindlessly across the battlefield after her, taking out anything in his way.

"This guy's unstoppable!" Model A yelled. "He just knocked that Crushpactor out like it was made of paper!"

"That's the plan!" Ashe grinned as she dodged, leapt, and wove her way through the chaos of battle. In several places she came close to the Guardian line of advance, with Blitz destroying large swaths of mavericks behind her, giving the Guardians she passed a welcome respite.

Ashe sped up a small hill and shot into the air, sailing over a few more mavericks and giving her her first view of the train. She could see Vent's train on her left, speeding towards one massive engine car on the right. "Time?" she asked her biometal, landing with a thud.

"Forty-eight seconds! Ashe, we're not going to-"

"Yes we are! Now start yelling something insulting to keep the moron's attention!" Blitz crashed over the top of the hill moments after her, crunching an entire line of Galleons under his massive bulk, but Ashe didn't have time to think about that. She sped as fast as she could towards the spot where she thought the two trains would meet on the tracks, Model A spouting degrading phrases and insults over her shoulder, all followed by the monstrous crashing sound of Blitz charging down on her.


The farther the train went down the tracks, the more mavericks managed to get on board. Vent and his mixed squad of Hunters and Guardians had their hands full fending them off and keeping the train going - if it stopped they'd be overwhelmed for sure. Several maverick squads had set up gun emplacements at the side of the tracks - Vent spent most of his time taking them down before the train reached them, while occasionally using Model P's shuriken to slice apart anything that got on board.

Time was running out though. He could see the maverick train car heading towards them. Model X did some calculations and told him they had less than thirty seconds before impact. The train was also headed between two small cliffs - if they were going to jump out, they needed to do it now. "Ashe, where are you?" he yelled into his communicator, trying to keep the worry out of his voice, though it was quickly becoming panic. He waited a few more seconds and fired a couple more shots, and just when he was about to order his unit to jump, he got a reply.

"Don't worry, I got you! Watch this!"

Vent looked ahead at the maverick train, which was just reaching the other side of the cliffs. The rocky terrain blocked his view of the land beside the tracks, so he didn't see Ashe approaching until she did a jumping backflip off a maverick and sailed across the tracks, pausing breifly to look down the rails at him and wave happily. Nor did he see the massive pseudoroid barreling after her.

Fortunately for them both, Blitz was a very stupid pseudoroid.

So intensely focused on smashing Ashe and her annoying, insult-spewing biometal into paste, the Rhinoceroid was blind to everything else. He didn't notice the train tracks, nor did he notice the train until it passed by only inches in front of his nose, at which point it was too late for him to do anything about it.

The Rhinoceroid collided with the middle of the maverick engine car at full speed. With the screaming sound of ripping metal the train was lifted clear off the tracks and thrown sideways into the cliff wall, the combined remains of vehicle and pseudoroid smashing to a halt in a mess of dust, rock, and scrap metal just to the side of the tracks.

Two seconds later, Vent's train cruised down the now-empty tracks, still heading towards its destination. He stared back at the rising dust cloud for a few seconds before his mind fully absorbed what had just happened. "Ashe!" he practically screamed into his communicator, watching the dust dwindle into the distance. "ASHE!"

He received a bit of garbled static, then, "Hell YES! Did you see that? How awesome am I? THIS awesome!"

Vent practically collapsed as he heaved a huge sigh of relief. "You're crazy, you know that?"

"Oh come on, this isn't nearly the craziest thing I've ever done."

Vent was too relieved to say anything else, and before he could, Aile came back over the communicator. "Nice going Ashe! Not sure how you did it, but we all owe you one."

"Yeah, you're really racking up the bill, here. You might break the bank on me if you keep this up."

"Can I just give you my brother instead?"

"Definitely!"

"Hey!" Vent tried to protest being traded like a commodity, but the girls ignored him.

"Okay, enough joking, keep moving. Ashe, can you still make it to Hunter Base on time?"

"Definitely, just let me-whoa! You're not dead?" There was a pause before she continued. "Guys, I've got a little bit of cleanup to do here, but I'll be at the Base on time, I promise."

"All right. Good luck Vent. I'll be seeing you shortly."

"Uh...right," was all Vent managed to say before Aile terminated her transmission. That was strange, Aile doesn't usually talk all business like that. And 'seeing you shortly'? That seems a little square for her. "Did Aile seem...different to you, somehow?" He asked his biometals.

"I'm sure it's simply the stress," Model X replied, while Model P remained silent.

"I guess." Whatever it was, he didn't have time to think about it as he saw the outskirts of Hunter Base come into view.

It was time for the next phase of the battle to begin.


Ashe couldn't believe it.

"I can't believe he's not dead," Model A echoed her thought.

"WEAK...PATHETIC...HUMAN!" Blitz the Rhinoceroid hollared again as he pulled himself out of the pile of train scrap and rock. From her vantage point ont op of the cliff, Ashe could see he'd taken quite a bit of damage from her stunt, but he seemed to be shrugging it off rather well, considering what he'd just been through. "YOUR TRICKS...ARE NO MATCH...FOR THE...MIGHTY BLITZ!"

"All right, Mr. Blitz, I've had my fun, and you're starting to get really annoying."

"WORTHLESS...SCUM!" Blitz finally heaved himself free from the debris pile and caught his breath. "I WILL TEACH YOU WHO THE REAL MASTERS OF THIS WORLD ARE, PUNY HUMAN!"

"Again with the 'puny human' crap. Look, if you'd rather fight another pseudoroid than a human, that's fine by me."

"YOU ARE NOT A-" Blitaz began, then stopped when Ashe A-Trans'ed into Bifrost. "WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU?"

"I'm pissed off, and I just put on my Rhino-stomping boots!" Ashe growled in Bifrost's low, rumbling voice, then jumped off the cliff. "Bring it on, horn-boy!"


Author's Note

Hey look, it's alive! Again!

Yes, I'm still here. I predicted life getting crazy after I posted part 24, which is why I posted it when I did, and I was right. There's a few more details in my profile, but basically, don't expect faster updates. I only have so much time these days. :\

Also sorry for not responding to PMs. I get email notifications so trust me when I say I see them, I just don't respond to most of them.

I know this one seems short, but trust me, it was going to be shorter. That entire scene with Vent was written, then I decided I didn't like it, so I cut the whole thing, but then when I wrote all the Ashe stuff I saw ho incredibly short everything was, so I put the Vent scene back in. I didn't want to come back from a year's hiatus with a 3000-word chapter.

Bullet Drive is the music from the Legion level in ZXA, the one where you fight Siarnaq and jump across the rooftops. I love this song. I keep thinking the song is called "Bullet Train" so I thought it would fit this chapter nicely.

This is my least favorite chapter of the story so far. It was incredibly not-fun to write it, and nothing really interesting happened, so I was just like...blah. If you don't like this one very much or find it boring, I agree with you.

Don't expect to see Ashe actually fighting Blitz. He's a moron so the fight is incredibly one-sided. I thought about writing it but was like meh, Ashe is going to kick his butt, why bother? Also, note that now I've written a fire (Ninetales), neutral (Black Widow), and electric-themed pseudoroid. Only one more to go! But who's going to fight it...? ;)

For the record, I have no idea where I got the phrase "blasting their jimmies" from. It sounds vaguely dirty and I'm not really sure why. It seems like something that guy would say though.

That's all for now. Thanks to all you crazy people who are still favoriting this fic, and to all the people poking me asking me to update. I'd really like to get more stuff out there too, since the finale at the Legion Tower is what I've been looking forward to writing most since the Omega fight, but I just don't have the time I used to. :\

'Til next time.