CHAPTER 28

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

08:17 March 12th, 2151

"Holy shit."

"Yeah."

"Holy. Shit."

"Mmm-hmm."

Shandor's mouth was agape as he stared down the bloody hallway. He wondered if maybe his optics were malfunctioning, giving him a false reading, sending his electronic brain a deceptive signal. In an effort to clear this he did the only thing available for him to do, an all-too-human action: he rubbed his eyes. Another look, another rub, and one more for the road. No matter how many times he tried to clear his vision of what seemed like something derived from the mind of a twisted and deformed madman, the vision remained: a passage full of dead and tortured bodies, conductive fluids and human blood mixed and smeared on the wall.

Noticing his stance, Midnight eyed his brother slyly. "It's not... making you uncomfortable, is it?"

"Hell no!" came the raven-haired Reploid's quick lie, but he uncomfortably shifted his weight and fiddled with the hilt of his deactivated beam saber. He had drawn it because he expected some resistance; instead, he found a massacre. It did make him a bit queasy, he hated to admit, but it even made him a bit... sad. Sorrow was not an emotion that he was familiar with.

His purple-clad brother idly flicked a piece of lint from the tip of his thumb. "Good," said Midnight. "Because you really should see Reaper's swathe..."

"What?!" Shandor whirled on his brother, his eyes wide. "You mean this isn't Reaper's hall?!" A shake of the wide-brimmed hat provided his sibling's response. "But... then who went this way?"

"Tome."

The raven-haired Reploid visibly paled. Tome had always struck him as the nice one, the one who didn't like violence as much as his brothers... even though his Hunter kill record was at a none-too-modest number of 643. But to think that even the youngest Eternal was capable of such destruction was shocking. Admittedly, the more vile side of Shandor was admiring the form: while there was a lot of plasma scoring and headshots, there were a significant number of hand-to-hand injuries as well, suggesting that the red-and-blue armored Eternal wasn't afraid of getting up close and personal.

I always figured him to be purely a ranged fighter, Shandor thought with a shrug as he and Midnight started to walk through the blood-slicked corridor.

After a minute of walking and several more gruesome murder scenes, the raven-haired Locke attempted to make conversation. "How..." he began, hesitated, and started again. "How is it that you can stand this, Middy? I mean, as sadistic of a bastard as you are, I'm still surprised you're able to stomach this."

There was a long pause before his brother replied. "I've... I've seen things like this before."

"No foolin'? I mean, I remember what happened to Dad and that you were there, but that was only once."

The purple-clad Locke didn't reply out loud. No, that doesn't count, he thought somberly, Because I perpetuated that murder...


Hillsborough, New Jersey; United States of America

14:33 June 29th, 2144

The apartment was dark. As in, really dark. The blinds were closed, the shades were drawn, and it didn't help that outside it was overcast. There was no thought of rain, but it was your standard New Jersey summer day. Of course, being dark also helped cool it down a little but did nothing to dampen the humidity, a fact that Midnight realized was one of the causes of his reluctance to come here often.

However, the old man that resided here was also a primary reason.

Dr. Jay Anthony Locke, growing decrepit and arthritical in his old age, shuffled across the grey carpet, maneuvering his aging body around obstacles such as a chair, a table, and even his mechanical "son" in order to get to the computer. He had more than one of these "wind-up children", as he himself had said, but this one was the only one present, the only one that he could really trust to do what he was supposed to. But that was why his purple-robed "son" was there that day.

"Father," he said, using a cautious voice. What he was talking about was sensitive, but the silent and gloomy atmosphere of the entire apartment seemed to demand no voices be raised while within its boundaries. "Allow me to speak my mind."

The doctor grumbled as he eased himself into his chair. "Fine, but make it quick; I have a lot of work to do."

"What you are doing is rash," Midnight continued, "You know I have concerned myself only with the Balance this past decade, even going so far as to forcefully enforce it among my siblings. But what you are trying to accomplish now is madness. I fear for your safety... and for your mental health."

"I will not be insulted," Locke began, but was interrupted by a coughing fit before he resumed. "I will not be insulted by my own creation. I know you think this is risky business, but I know what I am doing. I designed your minds, after all. I know how you think and how you will react to almost everything... the almost is only because you are a Reploid, and designed to mimic a human's behavior almost perfectly, including the unpredictability."

"Please listen!" Midnight clasped his hands together as his voice went up an octave, displaying an unprecedented amount of emotion. "If you keep doing this, father, my siblings will rebel! I can handle two, maybe three of them at once, but if they all band together, I won't be able to keep you safe! This could kill you! The Threadfallen is too volatile of a glitch to be properly controlled--"

"IT IS NOT A GLITCH!" roared the old man, pounding a fist on his desk with such intensity that the purple-robed Locke feared that he might have hurt himself. "It is an evolutionary tool! Your birth nanites were the result of that so-called 'glitch'; if I had not collected the proper data on your reaction, I would never have been able to format the nanites properly."

Midnight felt his blood begin to boil. "Don't fool yourself. Threadfallen never could be controlled; it drove Aurora insane right up until the end, and has already begun to takes its toll upon Shandor. You cannot use it to control the Balance; Nova is gone, and Lafteroth is suspecting something. I wouldn't be surprised if she traced me here when I left."

"Posh," Locke commented dryly. "She is nothing but a ditzy girl. Designing her A.I. to be like that was my greatest mistake in an otherwise flawless design; she is far too naive. The Fell-Deluxe strain of the Threadfallen shall straighten her out." His son clenched and unclenched his fists silently within the folds of his robe. While he was known for being apathetic and cold, he did have a special place in his heart for Lafteroth: she was special to him, and he didn't want to see her harmed.

"I will not allow you to inject her with FDX," he said simply, crossing his arms.

His father smiled slyly. "I'm afraid you are too late for that, Midnight." The Reploid's purple eyes went wide, a move not unseen by Dr. Locke and one that elicited a chuckle. "You didn't know? How do you think I got it into Aurora? Or Shandor? Do you think they came willingly and subjected themselves voluntarily to this treatment? I have been using you, son, as a delivery system."

Midnight's jaw went slack as he stared into the cold, uncaring face of his father. The steely grey eyes that stared back were filled with apathy, and he made no attempt to conceal his pride; it shone in his pupils like a beacon on a hill in the dead of night. The purple-clad Reploid's eyes narrowed, out of pure and unfettered hatred for the first time as he came to a conclusion: "You bastard... you're a monster!"

In a fury, Locke rose from his chair. "Do not speak like that to me! You are infected too; the only reason that you show no sign is that I have designed the Threadfallen to ignore your core structure, but with the mere utterance of a simple phrase, I shall set it loose upon your systems!"

"I should have realized so long ago," Midnight continued, taking a step forward. "So long ago, that you were mad, that you were so foolish that you would cross us. Now I see that you have no shame, and are concerned only with your precious Balance."

"One which you helped me craft," Locke grinned, but took a step back.

"I did it because I believed it would help the others; I see now that I was wrong." He took another step forward.

Locke stepped back once again, but bumped into his desk. "Don't come closer, or I'll let Threadfallen loose!"

Another step.

"THE EAST IS BLOSSOMING, FOR IT IS MO--" Suddenly, Dr. Locke couldn't finish the sentence. No moral reservations stayed his tongue, nor did mental affliction distract him. He couldn't finish it because suddenly his throat was closed. In front of him, Midnight's hand was raised in a simple grasp of nothing, both his palm and his eyes glowing a brilliant purple in the darkness.

"Silence. I speak." Locke struggled a bit for air, but found none forthcoming. "Father, your foolishness astounds me," the purple-clad Reploid said. "You think you can cross me? In your name, I ended the lives of Fritz, Furion, and Nova; you think I cannot kill a simple human? The blood of my siblings has stained my hands; show me some sign of remorse, or I shall end you."

The doctor only struggled to get air to his lungs. Midnight slowly shook his head.

"So be it." Immediately after this was said, Locke's throat was open. Before he could say anything, however, he felt an indescribable pain worse than even his most painful arthritis attacks. Every molecule in his body felt like it was going in a different direction, and as he looked down at himself, he found that was indeed the case. He was slowly coming apart, being messily unraveled by his own creation's powerful telekinetic field. Dr. Locke had not enough air in his lungs to scream as it happened.

As such, the Threadfallen FDX did not affect more than two of Midnight's siblings, who in a stroke of irony were the only ones to survive.


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

08:19 March 12th, 2151

The feeling flowed over him in waves of heat and energy. Taggs reveled in the thoughts and pleasures that came with passing the 700 marker: everything was so much simpler. If it moved, it died; if it stopped moving, it died some more; if it was no longer in one piece, it was dead, and he moved on. Pain, misery, and death were the he brought, the only thing for him to consider. There were a few off-limits things for such a focus of destructive energy, namely his brothers, but they suffered the same, so they were fine.

He dashed down the hallway and sliced through another guard. Others standing nearby, even those heavily armed and armored, began to turn and flee. Despair... that was another emotion he could bring and it was easy to invoke too. Just kill someone loved, and watch the lover fall apart. Those two Hunters that had been caught half-naked in the supply closet when he appeared had been a perfect example of that. Unlike his brothers, he did not grin as he went through the nasty chore of bringing death; his face was grimly set in a scowl, slicing through a non-com.

Somewhere in the back of his mind was a voice. It spoke to him, told him which targets were acceptable and which weren't, which ones deserved the beloved destruction. He had listened to that voice for a long time, even right up to the start of the hour, but now he found the voice boring and restrictive. Who could tell him who would die? He showed no hesitation, no remorse; these things would slow down the pain, the misery, and the death.

However, someone dared intrude. A shot rang out, and a small ball of plasma ricocheted off his shoulder armor. Taggs stopped mid-stride and turned on his heel, finding himself face to face with another Hunter. This one, however, was different than the others. He had a pointy helmet, red and blue, with a shining blue gem on the forehead and a tuft of orange hair protruding from the back. Small, thin wings sprouted from a thruster pack on his back that was linked to his armor, which was also red and blue, but he wore a grey jumpsuit underneath. In both his hands he clutched identical devices that seemed to be blocky versions of his own Magnum Buster. He seemed really young, and had an interesting X-shaped scar on the bridge of his nose.

"That was just a warning shot, Maverick," the youthful Reploid growled, "My name is Axl, and I'm here to place you under arrest."

Taggs blinked a moment and considered what he had said. Suddenly, a light went on in his head. "Axl! Yeah, I remember you. Did Little Boy Blue send you? I was itching for a good fight, since my primary target won't last long."

"Why are you here?" Axl questioned, ignoring the seemingly inane blather.

"To kill," was the only response the Hunter got before Taggs rushed forward, arms stretched out in front of him and his hands balled into fists. He struck the young prototype in the face with one, and twisted the other downward to inflict a blow to his chest. Stumbling back, Axl fired off his two pistols, but Taggs was moving already.

In a blur, Taggs was behind the youth, grabbing him by the neck and flinging him backwards over his head and into the floor. Whirling around, the black-and-gold armored Eternal brought up his Magnum Buster and fired a shot, but the scarred Hunter had quick reflexes and rolled out of the way, firing as he went. A few shots pinged off Taggs' red chest plate, causing the insane Eternal to giggle before slicing downward with his beam saber. Axl kept rolling and jumped to his feet, barely slipping out of the way of the saber and bringing his knee up into Taggs' gut. The black-and-gold armored Eternal stumbled a bit as the youth brought his elbow down into where a kidney would be if he had them. However, the more experienced combatant was quick to recover and smashed a fist into his face and a foot into his groin. As Axl's knees buckled, Taggs seized him by his hair and slammed his face into the wall twice.

On the third try, the scarred Hunter put a foot out to stop himself and fired his left air thruster, throwing himself into a spin and forcing the Eternal to let go. Outstretching a hand, he seized Taggs by the face and continued to spin, pulling him up and up until finally running his opponent's head into the ceiling. Dropping back to the ground, he fired several shots at the Reploid, but Taggs dropped to the ground and rolled, bringing up his own weapon and charging it. Axl continued to fire, and despite the fact that a few of the projectiles found their mark, the black-and-gold armored Eternal completed his charge and fired the plasma blast. The sheer force of the detonation slammed the young prototype's body back into the wall, snapping his neck backward and causing him to fall to the floor.

As the room darkened for the young fighter, Taggs stood up fully and walked over to the Hunter lying on the floor in front of him. Looking down his nose with his burning golden-white eyes, he felt a small twinge of compassion for the Reploid. He reminded him a lot of X when they first fought.

...eh, what the hell, he thought. The kid's learned his lesson. I'll let him live, for now.

Reaching down, Taggs seized the two pistols and picked them up, examining them. They were well-made, obviously based off of the design of the prototype he stole years ago, and even had some of the improvements he had made to it. With a quick motion, he removed both power sources and crushed them in his hand, dropping the now-useless weapons back down to the boy.

"I was using hand-held weapons before they were cool," he said simply, turning and walking away. Next target: Calibur.


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

08:20 March 12th, 2151

Upstairs of both Taggs and Reaper, Coal and Tome together finished off the last of the elite Hunters. Tome held the limp body by its head in front of him as his grey-armored brother took careful aim with his arm buster. He held the firing contacts for a few seconds, charging up an armor-piercing shot before releasing it straight into the soldier's chest. It penetrated deep, burning away the core's containment field and allowing the energy to spill out in a wonderful and morbid light show.

"Goodnight, Alriik," Coal said simply as his brother released the body and let it crumple to the floor. He looked at his brother who gave him a thumbs-up, and he returned the gesture. "Is our target nearby?"

Tome closed his eyes for a second, remembering the map of the base they had consulted before arriving at the base. They were now on the fourth floor, after cutting a bloody swathe of destruction through their respective sectors. At one point their paths had crossed and they joined up to double their speed and power. When the squad of elite Hunters had jumped them, they easily gunned down two of them; the third fled. They put up chase, not believing in the scare tactics of their brother Reaper. Straightforwardness had always won them the day, so why change ways now?

The red-and-blue armored Eternal tapped a finger on the door that they stood in front of. "He's in there?" Coal queried, to which he received a nod. Tome was never talkative when he passed 700; neither were Rook or Nox, but they hadn't gone that far in years. It was a liberating feeling, Coal had to admit, but it still felt... wrong. However, he wasn't quite beyond 700 yet; he was only at 695. The proximity to it dragged on his mind, but he could still formulate plans that Tome would be able to follow.

"Alright, on the zero..." Coal began, arming his buster and beginning a charge. Tome's buster formed on his arm and the red-and-blue armored Eternal switched the mode of fire to rapid. Each put their backs to opposite sides of the door.

"Three...

"Two...

"One...

"ZERO!" the grey-armored Eternal shouted, and each threw their weight against the door. It crumpled like tin foil and each leveled their busters and prepared to fire. However, as they did that, a sudden and gigantic eruption of plasma erupted from just beyond the doorway, enveloping both brothers and hurling them back against the wall. A grinning Calibur stepped out into the hall, his arm changed into a glowing, steaming buster.

"Heh, you guys should learn to be a bit more quiet when trying to break into somebody's office," he said as the two brothers struggled to get up. "Someone important might hear you coming. Now, it's time for some real fun!"