Chapter 11: "Crush and Cut"

Gravity Beetle adjusted a few controls at one of the forward stations surrounding Crush Crawfish's disturbingly quiet base of operations near the waterway facility Acid Seahorse had controlled. "Ugh... sensor grids 7 and 10 are still on the fritz. This is what happens when logistics get rushed. Shoddy equipment."

Dex popped out from under the console to his side. "That's why I'm out here instead of back at HQ," he delivered dryly before slipping back under the guts of the console.

Quickman chuckled from his perch just above their heads, scanning the surroundings the old fashioned way. Some of the forested area was still present at the fringe of Crawfish's territory, and that's where most of the outposts were holding. "Easy, Beetle. Dex is one of the more reliable techs we have, let him work."

Gravity Beetle rolled his optics under his massive cutting horn. "Only reason I haven't gravity yanked him out of my work station."

"Hey!" Dex muffled back in dismay.

Quickman snorted, but then blinked as the two other members of their unit came jogging up.

Tunnel Rhino and Barrel didn't slow down until they were close.

"Are those sensors still on the blink?" Barrel started seriously.

"Yes!" Beetle and Dex chorused with similar annoyance.

Tunnel Rhino smirked, but his tone remained grim. "There were odd tremors out there. Are we certain it's just damaged equipment and not sabotage?"

Quickman leapt down, suddenly dead serious himself. "Kind of tremors?"

Gravity Beetle was already modifying his scans to focus on seismic activity.

Barrel gestured to Rhino, who answered, "Persistent, low intensity, and traveling. Would make sense with something moving underground. Something heavy."

Gravity Beetle raised a hand. "We've been scanning for heavy drilling-type seismic disruptions, but something just traveling through an already-existing tunnel is quieter. Once calibrated, I'm seeing traveling signals across our entire area of the perimeter."

Dex popped out again. "Tell the other teams to adjust down to a lower threshold on the seismic sensors!"

Quickman touched his audio receptor. "All perimeter teams, this is Unit 53. Adjust seismic detection down to half strength and confirm if you're seeing moving signals converging on the target facility!"

In a matter of seconds, they had comm blasts from every team confirming it.

Tunnel Rhino pinched the bridge of his optics. "Hell of an oversight. They've been resupplying this entire time!"

Quickman nodded and changed channels. "Commander Signas, we have a problem!"


The water-edge facility was massive, as if it were a full ocean port, though it had appeared quiet from outside. All the huge cranes and dolly systems had been silent. Large mechaniloids with twin mace-launchers ambled around, as well as cannon mechaniloids.

Atop one of the cranes, a faint warp in the air shifted to look down toward the waters below. Shimmer decloaked, his large optics narrowing as they zoomed their focus. "Shimmer here, there's motion under the water level, but we can't access it without cutting through most of the sub-levels of the facility."

Airstrike circled high above the defense sensors as he heard Shimmer's report. "So whatever they've been working on is beneath the water. Depthcharge, how's our data from the service station?"

Depthcharge actually swept his legs down at the bottom of the service station's massive reservoir, running in stealth to minimize his traces in the water. "Still not sure how we don't see it from here, Airstrike. I'll have to breach the perimeter to physically verify."

Inferno, further off from all of them back at the outpost his unit had started at, tapped on the console in moderate annoyance. "Shimmer, what was the main reason your cloaking tech failed in water, again?"

Shimmer replied simply, "Hard to refract photons correctly with the additional shifts in the fluid at the contact point. Forces the generator and response systems to be unwieldy. Would be feasible for a facility, not a soldier."

Airstrike nodded to himself. "So they're just cloaking something huge in the water."

"More than likely," Shimmer affirmed.

Inferno frowned to himself. "So no real way to tackle this without triggering an ambush on someone, somewhere."


Signas leaned over the main display console as various reports came in, Dex's seat noticeably empty. "So we'll be forced to perform an omnidirectional strike. It's the only way to ensure no single team is overwhelmed."

Alia glanced back over her shoulder to him. "Considering how much they're relying on stealth, maybe it's defenses are minimal?"

Signas shrugged. "Want to bet lives on Sigma's forces being that passive?"

Alia winced, then nodded, and looked back to her console.

Iris lifted her hand, and Signas blinked. "...Just speak, Iris, your input is respected."

She blushed, but quickly went on, "It may be possible to force the cloaking down prematurely, sir. If they are countering the water disruption as Shimmer implied, then all we have to do is alter the water behavior enough."

Signas and Alia both stared at her for a beat, then snapped back to their consoles, Signas ordering, "Long-range weapons, all units! Disrupt the water as heavily as you can from safe distance!"

Alia was already plotting a map overlay for the best position for explosives to apply maximum current disruption, and sending it out to the various units.


Airstrike snapped over himself to aim down, his turbine-blasters blasting off a combination of hawk-missiles and vortex blasts toward the water. Blast Squirrel started unleashing volleys of rifle-fire from an opposite point to Airstrike. Cadis, perched on a high tree at the distant perimeter, calibrated her aim, and started to rapidly pulse-blast toward the closer side of the water.

Blast Hornet, Storm Owl, and other flying Hunters joined the barrage shortly thereafter, unloading drones, blasts, laser fire, and then Depth Charge unleashed a full volley of his torpedoes, up toward the surface, before jetting off to reposition and observe.

Amidst the storm of fire, the mechaniloid defenders started to react, charging out toward the perimeter, but it would take them several minutes to reach the Hunter blockade so far out. Soon, the water beyond Crush's facility turned into a storm of crashing waves, smoke, fire, plasma, and debris.

Shimmer jerked further forward, hanging by only two limbs from his high perch as something began to warp and distort in the water. His optics quickly widened as he realized what it was.

"Submarine Carrier! It's a siege weapon! And it's mobilizing now!"

Signas punched part of his display console. "Slag it! We can't let it engage civilian populations! All units! I repeat, all units! Engage, engage, engage! That siege vehicle cannot be allowed out of that reservoir!"


Cadis fired off a grapple and rode it down to rejoin Tripwire, Spikesaw, and Snapvice as they started to charge forward.

Quickman and Gravity Beetle started to flicker or float forward rapidly, while Dex with a rifle, Tunnel Rhino, and Barrel charged after them.

Turbo flickered across the terrain, Acid Seahorse, Pyrostrike, and Blast Squirrel swooping down to join the charge.

Airstrike dove hard, watching Shimmer start to flicker and drop down toward the water level, while Inferno and Depthcharge started to rush in from the perimeter at their respective points. Inferno had his fire-blasters already primed and distorting the air over his fists.

Deepfreeze and Blizzard Buffalo created an iceslick to skate along at high speed, Volt Catfish belly-sliding after them with Overload shaking his head at the sight, running along as well.

Blast Hornet actually rushed down, and picked up Warp Turtle to charge forward as Neon Tiger and Mapteron either magnet hooked forward or leapt from tree to rock or platform in rapid succession.


The siege submarine finally revealed it's response in the expected, explosive fashion. Amphibious rockets volleyed out of its flanks, dozens upon dozens of them, and surged out in fanning swathes to reach high into the air and out through the depths as Maverick Hunters started to reach the edge and dive in.

Explosions ripped along the dock grounds, filled the air with fire and smoke, and turned the reservoir depths into a rippling mass of shockwaves that were a nightmare for even the most veteran navigators.

Airstrike dove and spiraled through several explosions as he shouted into comms, "Anyone have an opening!? We have to get to the submarine itself!"

Even X, Zero, and Colonel were stalled for the moment, forced to cut or blast torpedoes apart before they tore the ranks of charging Hunters to shreds on the dock line.

But Depthcharge saw something in the storm beneath the surface. "Acid Seahorse! Snapvice! Fire everything your weapons have on vector seven-seven-nine!"

"That's just gonna hit you!" Acid returned in confused alarm as he preppped to fire.

"Trust me!" Depthcharge returned as he started to power forward, pulsing through some of the explosions around him.

Snapvice swirled around nearer the surface, aimed his arms down, and snapped his powerful vice-grips like machine guns. They somehow emitted shockwaves through the water, very much like buster-fire. Acid Seahorse growled in frustration, but knew they didn't have time to argue. Hoping Depthcharge wasn't suddenly suicidal, he lunged through the water, spraying a jet of high-powered acid, causing rippling rushes of chemical reactions that started to intersect with Snapvice's shockwaves.

The chemicals altered the water, and the shockwaves started to reverberate with the explosions of the torpedoes... right as Depthcharge flipped over and fired his own torpedoes into the meeting point of the weapons he'd called for. A strange wave pulsed out of the meeting point, somehow killing the momentum of the other shocks in that area... effectively punching a hole through the storm that allowed Depthcharge to shoot through like a bolt himself.

Spinning over, Depthcharge slammed his feet onto the bottom hull of the carrier submarine. He punched both fists into it sharply, his acoustic sensors trying to map what they could of the inside.

"Carrier's using high-strength titanium-aluminum alloys, but something even harder is in the center of its mass! I can't get a solid reading other than it has to be running hot with how it's messing with the sonic reading!"

Zero slashed down through another torpedo, "Can we get it to surface somehow!?"

Depthcharge started to dodge and weave away from torpedoes again, but so close to the carrier, he examined it as he swam so swiftly. "...If we can cause a hullbreach along the top portion of the carrier, it'll be forced to surface to avoid losing too much integrity to flooding!"

X unleashed a tornado blast to blow a gap through the torpedoes himself. "Tunnel Rhino, Barrel, Spikesaw! I'll get you an opening, you open that!"

Sharp affirmations resounded, and the three Hunters broke from their formations to converge toward X, who started lashing out with chain-grippers, ray-splasher, and homing-torpedoes to intersect dozens of more torpedoes trying to crush down into them, all four rushing toward the dock-edge.

Zero nodded to Colonel's glance, and they blasted over to help, slicing and destroying torpedoes on the flanks of X's impromptu formation.


Cadis tracked long, zooming to spot X's charging team, and then panned her scope just enough to start popping mechaniloids trying to intercept them. Tripwire was still whip-slicing through the further out mechaniloids, but he watched her shots fly, nodding to himself.

Zero and Colonel paused briefly as several of their attackers crashed or halted from pinpoint, high-power plasma bolts.

"...That's Cadis, right?" Zero confirmed as he renewed his charge on X's team's flank.

X kept blowing out waves of charging foes that couldn't be sniped due to the angle as he replied, "Top marks for aim among most of us!"

Colonel spinslashed through a few other mechaniloids, while Spikesaw tore apart a couple that slipped through. Barrel and Tunnel Rhino just tore through any that made it to them, and shared a grim smile once as they finished a set together in unison.

But then a volley of high-arced shots came rushing down at X's position. Sniper-blasts took out several, but couldn't fire fast enough to hit them all.

That was when a boomerang cutter sparkled through the air from sheer speed, slashing apart most of the missiles in formation... followed by a gravity warp that crushed them all mid-air.

Gravity Beetle and Quickman, along with Dex using an assault-rifle, run up a bit out from Colonel.

"I thought top marks was my line!" Quickman shouted almost jovially.

X rolled his eyes. "Right, right, just keep them off the drill team!"


Airstrike, Blast Squirrel, and Blast Hornet became an oddly effective team as they swept down through volleys of multi-function torpedoes. Squirrel pin-point blasted the projectiles, while Hornet peppered blast fire at them and sent out small swarms of mecha-hornets to suicide-ram others, and Airstrike kept them clear to do so with rushing blasts of vortexes and eagle-missiles.

Airstrike looked down, and saw X's force charging in, as well as the pattern of mechaniloid defenders' formations. "Deepfreeze, Tripwire, Turbo, Mapteron! Converge your units to points eight-seven and ninety! You'll ease the pressure on the drill team!"

Deepfreeze, Blizzard Buffalo, Overload, and Volt Catfish suddenly wrenched sharper toward X's team, and combined their weapons to freeze and then explode dozens of mechaniloids on the route.

Spotting part of the cranes above the point Airstrike called out, Volt Catfish pointed sharply. "Bring that down toward X's position! It'll crush the mechaniloids!"

"What about OUR teams?" Overload shouted even as Deepfreeze started to lead them toward the very crane Catfish pointed out.

Buffalo replied, "He's right. The angle will drop it just outside of their formation, but will cripple the mechaniloids!"

Deepfreeze just leapt out, froze himself a sliding path, and then snapped his arms forward to start freezing the crane's first right-side support strut. "Blizzard! Hit the second one! Overload and Volt, shatter them!"

Blizzard Buffalo ripped forward and freeze-snapped the second leg in a dash-by with Deepfreeze, followed almost instantly by Overload hammered into Deepfreeze's strut with crackling power over his frame, and Volt leap-punched a full-charge shock into the second before they all darted out to the far side.

The crane came crashing down with a thunderous groan of metal and lines before it crushed most of the left side of the defending forces.


Turbo flickered past several ranks of mechaniloids, only to snap around and fire off plasma cutters into their backs, opening plenty of space for Pyrostrike to leap through and incinerate the others around him.

"We don't have a handy crane like the other side," Turbo started as he spun back to face the defending robots. "Tripwire, Mapteron, your teams coming?"

"Oh, they're coming," Pyrostrike added as he blasted down a few more.

Waves of magnet mines shot out and impossibly arced sharply into mechaniloid forces, sending rippling blasts chaining down the ranks. Mapteron crashed down to his feet, pincer-grabbing another robot only to send it flying off like a bolt into another. "Not all of us are turbocharged, speedy!"

Waves of distortion swept out next, but it somehow ignored the Maverick Hunters, and only slowed the mechaniloids down out to a tremendous range.

Warp Turtle stepped forward, and calmly pulled a cannon out of his back-armor, which he used to shock-blast too-slow targets with a grim determination that made his lack of speed seem all but moot.

And then Neon Tiger flashed past Turbo. "Race ya!"

Turbo cackled, and shot forward with the recovered Reploid, both of them slashing and dicing through mechaniloids very much as hot knives through butter.

Tripwire finally appeared by whip-snapping mechaniloids higher into the air... where Cadis promptly punctured them with precision shots.

"Considering half of our respective units are either airborne or in the water, we're doing pretty well!"

Cadis returned on the comms, "Maybe kill more yourself, I'm covering too big of an area!" Her words ended in an almost playful wail as she kept firing.

Tripwire just answered by spearing several mechaniloids on his wires, then violently whipping them apart as shrapnel into other robots.

"Thank you!" Cadis chimed.

Pyrostrike actually paused as a huge mass of flames ripped past him, flash-melting dozens of mechaniloids. He looked back to see Inferno stomping forward at full-speed.

"We've almost got the area controlled!" Inferno added sharply as he joined Pyrostrike properly.

And then something stranger happened. Distortions of varying kinds rushed down and crushed dozens more of the mechaniloids. With the others already crushing the enemy forces, it ended the fight for their portion of the field.

Finally, Shimmer dropped into view from on top of one of the distortions... and finally various chunks of wreckage revealed themselves.

Tripwire narrowed his optic a bit. "That was a bit creepy, Shimmer."

Shimmer actually finger-gunned at him while deadpan.


X skidded to a halt as his colors snapped to purples and grays near the water-edge. "Mapteron! Every mine you can fire, out at the water, high!" And he suddenly unleashed a twin-arc barrage of magnet-mines himself.

Mapteron twirl-flipped into view from the side, his arms wrenching out to send more mines of his own design flying out toward the sky.

X's plan was made more clear as the others reached the water-edge the next second, as a full volley of amphibious torpedoes slammed into the mines or had the mines suddenly swerve into them with the magnetic functions, detonating everything in a sprawling conflagration of light, smoke, and debris.

"Drill team, go!" X shouted urgently.

Barrel, Tunnel Rhino, and Spikesaw dove past him, and used spinning limbs or modified weapons to rush themselves to the top of the sub-carrier. A few torpedoes started to swerve toward them from the depths, but Depthcharge came rushing into view, unleashing his own volley to counter the explosives amidst the shockwaves storming the water in every direction.

Spikesaw jammed one of his arm-saws into the hull to catch himself, reaching out to give Barrel and Rhino an easier grip. Once they were pulled to the hull, all three of them rammed weapons into the metal armor of the vessel, Barrel's arm glowing and bubbling violently from his energy roller.

Rhino pointed with his normal hand. "Full speed!" he shouted through the water.

They charged forward, slowed by the fluid, but each specialized for enough torque that they wrenched three claw-like tears into the massive vessel's top broadside in only a few more seconds.

Snapvice, Depthcharge, and Acid Seahorse rushed in, grabbing the three drillers, and carrying them back to the dock-line as the sub-carrier roared with alerts, and started to surface rapidly.

The Maverick Hunters paused for a beat as the massive vessel crested the waves, but saw a bigger problem just as fast.

Now exposed to the air, the top portion of the carrier was revealing huge defense cannons, which were already swinging around and charging crimson plasma blasts in their cores.

Zero roared desperately, "SCATTER! TAKE COVER!"

The entire Maverick Hunter force, air, sea, and ground, had to burst apart from each other as crimson bolts joined the torpedoes, filling the entire area with explosive death.


Alia scrambled her hands across her console, looking over the readings from the battle. Her eyes danced across various readouts. "...That's it!" She snapped on the comms. "All units, those turrets are drawing directly from the carrier's main power core! Based on Depthcharge's data and what I can read via satellite, it's the super-dense, hot portion of the carrier's internal structure!"

Signas looked up to her from the display console while he heard the report as well. "Can the ship move while firing them?"

Alia looked back to him. "Unknown. Without specific readings on the power core itself, I can't tell how much of its generated power is going to the guns. I'd just be guessing!"

Signas nodded, but Iris chimed in, "Lieutenant, may I please see the heat data from Depthcharge?"

Alia's response was sending the file over instantly.

Iris quickly checked several things, as well as a thermal read of the battlefield. "The heat plume from the carrier is significantly drained by each cycle of cannon fire! It's using at least 70% power!"

Alia and Signas blinked at her, then Alia focused to Signas, "That has to affect it's ability to move, there's too much mass not to!"

Signas nodded, activating comms as well, "All units, the enemy carrier can likely only move slowly, if at all, while firing that barrage!"


Airstrike arced, swept, juked, and rolled through a series of explosions and plasma blasts as he heard the updates from HQ. "It doesn't really need to move when it can fill the void with plasma!"

Blast Squirrel nearly got clipped, and fired a blast into a plasma bolt to shove himself off instead of taking a direct hit. "No kidding!"


From below, X was ducked behind a hefty chunk of the fallen crane, though it was rapidly starting to melt down. "Gravity Beetle! Can your gravity weapon slow down plasma!?"

Beetle was hover-diving behind some crates further off, Quickman using his cutter to slice through several of the closest blasts at the same time.

"Not at the scale I can generate! Photons can still escape the time-space disruption!"

"And that facility-scale one?"

"Even that! It's a quantum difference between moving high-mass objects and photons, X!"

X jerked aside as part of a plasma bolt ripped through the crane past him.

Zero, ducked down near X with Colonel and some of the others, glanced over the crane. "This isn't good. We need to make an opening!"

X frowned as he thought quickly, his mind desperate for some answers. Time-space... His optics snapped forward, and he activated his comm, "Warp Turtle! How large an area can you disrupt with your spacial phase!?"

"If you only need once, I can probably clear half a square-kilometer, but I'll be comatose after as my system recharges!"

Gravity Beetle was catching on. "Slow the area down, so the photons become more stable, and thus easier to shift with a gravity impulse! But we need more power, X!"

X started to suck energy into his frame, Zero and Colonel easing back from him. "I've got the power covered. Warp Turtle, on your mark!"

Warp Turtle spread his arms as he stayed in cover for the moment, his bulbous forearms separating and opening out as distorted air evanesced between each small blade of their expanded configuration. "...Ten... seconds..." he groaned from the system drain he was causing throughout his body.

Zero and Colonel both started to leap toward X as they saw a plasma-blast ripping straight toward him. The crane wreckage wouldn't hold at X's position.

X snapped a hand up to stay them, and they both stared as the bolt ripped through, and exploded... around a bubble that had snapped into existence around X's body, which was still pouring over with building energy.

"How...?" Zero had to breathe out.

"MARK!" Warp Turtle roared as he spun out from cover and rammed his arms toward the carrier.

A huge bubble-wave burst out from Turtle's frame, but it grew forward rather than around him, expanding outward and upward with explosive speed. The entire Maverick Hunter line paused for a moment as they could watch it slow and warp the barrage on the dock-side of the carrier substantially.

And then X flickered out to the fore, amidst the bubble, and his dark purple and gray colors returned as he rammed both arms forward. A black, rippled sphere formed ahead of him first, then ripped across to the water between the huge ship and the dock... which then started to violently yank everything down into it like a mad spiral in every direction.

Churning water, torpedoes, plasma bolts all spun down through darkened air and wrenching metal as parts of the carrier were also crushed down toward the gravity singularity.

Zero snapped over the crane, his buster formed on his left arm. "Blow out every cannon or torpedo bay you can hit!"

Part of the Maverick Hunter force unleashed every ounce of firepower they could muster even as poor Warp Turtle crashed to his front. Blast Hornet rushed down to join Mapteron in yanking the hero of the moment back into cover.

Of course, most of the now-defending Hunter forces were still pinned down by the carrier's fire from the rest of its hull, but enough damage was done on the one portion of the battle. Suddenly there was breathing room there.

And before anyone could shout a fresh order, X jetted toward the dock edge, and leapt mightily, clearing the waters somehow before smashing into the side of the carrier, and using long, boosted strides to dig his boots into the armored hull and rush toward the opening that the drill team tore open.

Zero rolled his eyes. "Oh for the love of... Colonel, anyone who can, with me! X is diving in alone. AGAIN!" And he rocket-dashed off, Z-Saber ready.


X didn't leave much for his comrades to clear in his wake. With every second putting more lives in danger, he couldn't spare automated mechaniloids much mercy. Both busters kept unleashing mildly charged bolts, ripping apart cannon-hoppers, spike-wheels, and other small targets as they tried to swarm him in the corridors of the ship.

Finally mace-walkers blocked his path, forcing X to rush to one side, dash-rush under, and unleash a volley of mid-charged blasts until they finally crashed over as he flipped past them.

Zero, Colonel, Depthcharge, and Deepfreeze followed a few seconds after, desperately trying to catch up. Zero glanced around at the wreckage in X's wake as he ran.

"Don't see him push this hard that much..."

Deepfreeze was the one who replied, "He's not the only one in harm's way this time."

Zero blinked. That was the distinction he'd somehow kept missing. X wasn't hot-headed. He was desperate... His eyes tightened as he kept rushing on.


X leapt through a sphere-lock door's wreckage. It hadn't exactly opened for him like they had in the past. That only told him he was going the right direction.

Looking up as he stood, X glanced over a massive power source. It made the entire chamber thrum with passive vibration, and it was definitely the heat-source Depthcharge and the others had confirmed.

Leaping closer, X pressed his hand to the otherwise burning-hot power system that towered above him and filled the huge engine room from side to side. Closing his eyes, his sensors fully activated.

The carrier was a mobile base, dozens of levels and weapon systems ready to be brought to bare if the cannons and torpedoes failed. And this power source was heavily armored and reinforced, not only for its own function, but in case exactly this situation arose—an enemy combatant trying to destroy it.

Unfortunately for the designers of the carrier, Dr. Light had improved X's weapon system to an entirely new level.

However, X had to break off his sensor feed as the cacophony of Zero and his comrades leaping into the room nearly overloaded him.

"Well that doesn't look breakable," Zero muttered dryly, looking up at it himself.

Deepfreeze and Depthcharge hurried up, checking it with X, while Colonel braced with his sword to watch their exit.

Depthcharge whistled, "Layered alloys with carbide reinforcement molded into the structure itself. They had to mold this thing in one piece..."

Deepfreeze nodded, grim. "Even reducing the temperature to near absolute zero wouldn't make it brittle enough. It's just too dense."

X started to glow with in-flowing energy. "You all should leave. I'll kill the main power source, but it won't be safe for anyone else in here." Both of his busters snapped into form, venting on their new angular designs gushing with the flows of power.

Zero frowned as Depthcharge and Deepfreeze only blinked, then started to retreat at X's word. Colonel glanced, deferring to Zero's orders, which the red Reploid appreciated distinctly in that moment.

"X, we just established that that thing isn't going to crack open with a plasma blast."

X looked over his shoulder to Zero, quite serious. "It will for this, but it could kill anyone else in this room at least. Please go."

"You seriously think you can just blow this problem up!?"

X exhaled slowly, then looked forward, "I can't delay any more. Deepfreeze, Depthcharge, please go, I have no authority over Zero's unit."

The two just nodded, and leapt out of the room.

Zero growled, but said, "Colonel, go."

Colonel saluted, then leapt out of the room as well.

"When you screw this up, I'm going to carry you out of here, X," Zero explained easing back from X.

X closed his eyes, and shifted his stance somewhat. He had to try to make sure none of the backwash hit backwards too hard.

Practically glowing with power, X suddenly raised his arms, crossed, and wrenched them open as he fired. One buster unleashed a strange blob of raw plasma energy, floating and building on itself even as it shimmered there, while the other buster sent a massive discharge straight into the blob.

On impact, the two merged and re-exploded forward, immediately filling the engine room, creating a wall of volatile power in front of X, and leaving Zero jerking back in controlled horror at the raw destruction the other Reploid had just unleashed.


Outside, the carrier suddenly lurched, as if something had hit it, and all of its weapons just halted, the cannons dropping limp.

The Maverick Hunter forces eased warily, the fliers hovering, everyone anxious to confirm just what was happening.

At HQ, Alia, Iris, and Signas were all just staring in mute shock at the energy reading the systems had registered from inside the carrier.

Dex's voice popped over the comm, "Command, what happened? We've got no visual out here!"

Alia started to reply, paused, and then finally answered, "We just... registered... Nevermind, I'll just send you the data."

At the battle, Dex blinked his optics as the data came through, and then he slowly lowered his gun. "Light's Labcoat... what... could possibly generate that much power inside that?"

Quickman reattached his cutter to his helmet, but remained braced. "...Megaman X."


Deepfreeze and Depthcharge jerked, stumbling as the carrier lurched from X's attack.

"...He wasn't kidding," Depthcharge muttered, glancing back as he recovered.

Deepfreeze rasped through his respirator. "Does the kid ever? Now we just have to-!?"

The bulkhead behind Deepfreeze blew apart around something moving at incredible speed through such heavily armored metal. Deepfreeze was still twisting to calculate how to dodge, but Depthcharge saw it from the start.

Diving into his comrade, Depthcharge shoved Deepfreeze out to the side, but took some kind of huge pincer-slice into his torso. He sailed back, crying out, and slammed into the opposite bulkhead was still being cut into by the massive... claw.

Crush Crawfish whipped his tendrils on either side of his face, cracking them on the flooring, his tiny optics snapping up with a flash and chime as his low-set, crimson-armored body uncurled, scraping Depthcharge up the bulkhead by the huge claw.

Absurdly enough, Crush's claws were nearly bigger than his entire body, and he apparently had the torque to use them, as he was hefting Depthcharge clean off the flooring, despite being a third the Reploid's size.

"None of you are leaving this ship alive," Crush's voice poured out like thick fluid around pipes.

A crystalline snap resounded, and then Crush roared as he was suddenly taken out at the legs. It flung Depthcharge aside as Crush slammed to his back.

Deepfreeze stood up from skating past below the Maverick's leg-line, freezing the flooring into a slick. "I've heard worse from bigger."

Depth Charge groaned, trying to sit up, but clutched at the cavernous gash cut through his torso from shoulder to hip. "D-Deep... get backup... I can't..."

Crush Crawfish leaped to his feet, massive claws flowing with insane ease for their girth. "You tripped me up, not bad, but it'll take a lot more to STOP ME!" And he suddenly jumped for Deepfreeze, left claw forward and open.

The entire carrier started to shake from the Maverick Hunters able to open fire and try to create more holes, but that would take minutes, and Deepfreeze had nanoseconds.

Folding backwards, Deepfreeze snapped his hands up, back, and down, flash-freezing the sharp edges of Crush's claw before it could hit him.

The resulting thickness added to the claw bashed Deepfreeze away rather than cutting him in half, and he was out of range before it could snap shut... shattering the ice off instantly.

Crush sneered over his arm at Deepfreeze. "You're just stalling, you can't inflict any damage."

Deepfreeze shrugged. "Yeah, well, whatever works."

And then he dove to the side as a plasma blast ripped down the hall toward Crush.

The Maverick snapped his claws into the attack, blasting it apart around his body... but holding him still long enough for Zero and X to appear in the dispersing light. X was already gathering power into his frame, and Zero's saber was burning bright.

Colonel dropped down from behind Depthcharge, and twirled his blade into ready position as well. "Your expeditious surrender is advised, Maverick."

X added with a little nod, "As he said. Stand down, and you will not be harmed."

Crush Crawfish chuckled. "I'm curious, X... has that ever actually worked?"

X angled his head down as Zero and the others glanced his way for a beat. "Doesn't matter, the offer stands."

And Crush ripped toward X and Zero in response.


Outside, Airstrike rushed down, firing off missiles and vortex blasts into the rear portion of the massive, if dead, carrier. "Blow out the engines! Make sure it can't get moving again!"

Signas added on the comms, "Follow Airstrike's lead, all units. Neutralizing that siege vehicle is priority one!"

Iris worried her lip as she kept moving through data pouring in from the battle. "...I can't get through to my brother or the others inside! The hull must be too thick for standard sensors!"

Alia had noticed the same problem, but Iris commenting made an idea spark in her processor. "Iris! Get a tight-beam link ready!"

Iris jerked, then nodded, her hands flying across her console. "Ten seconds!"

Alia touched her audio-receptor. "Shimmer, do you read?"

"Copy, Lieutenant. What's on the agenda?" Shimmer returned as he fired off stingers from his arms toward the engines beneath the water.

"Do you still have those drones for area mapping?"

Shimmer paused in confusion. "You mean for my camo prep?"

"Yes, do you!?"

"Y-yes, but-!?"

"Can they receive tight-beam data transmission?"

"Of course, where do you need it?" He just ran with it at this point, she clearly had a plan.

"Get one into that hole they tore through the hull!"

Shimmer bolted forward. "TRIPWIRE! WHIP ME TO THE HOLE!" he roared across the field.

Tripwire twisted, spotted his comrade, and fired a chord to the big-eyed Reploid. Once Shimmer grabbed on, Tripwire twist-wrenched his whole body, sending Shimmer whipping toward the hull.

Shimmer slammed onto the hull, pulled a small sphere-device from his torso, and chucked it into the torn hull. "Alia, you're go!"

Alia looked back to Iris instantly. "Send it to those coordinates!"

Iris confirmed. "Signal broadcasting!"

The sphere lit up inside the hall it landed.

Iris clapped her hands. "It worked! Getting data—Oh no! Depthcharge is dangerously hurt! X, Zero, Deepfreeze, and my brother are facing off with Crush Crawfish!"

Alia pulled up other data on her console. "Depthcharge, you need to get out of there!"

"T-trying... lot of main servo hubs were lost with this cut..." the wounded Hunter managed with the comms reconnecting.


Amidst a fresh explosion of plasma light, Crush, X, and Zero flew backwards to different parts of the hallway, while Deepfreeze and Colonel shifted to pulling Depthcharge back from the fight.

Zero had a sparking wound on his arm, Crush had scrapes along his upper body... and X was shimmering in shield-energy, otherwise untouched.

"Zero, help the others get out. I'll keep the Maverick contained."

"I'm not leaving you ALONE, X, that isn't how we operate!"

Crush smirked, then ripped toward the two once again, right claw out, open, and glistening toward Zero's neck.

Zero was shifting to block with his saber, but X flickered between the two from a gush of thruster force, and just blocked the cutters with his forearm and glowing shield layer. The impact force spread through X's braced legs, and shook the hall subtly... but X didn't budge, staring down Crush over the meeting limbs.

"Zero, please..." The words seeped out of X's tense jaw.

Zero seemed grim and deadpan at once, but finally just boosted around the two, and rushed along to join the others. "Let's go!"

Crush smiled slowly. "That was unwise. I'll be delivering you to Doppler in pieces!"

The other claw snapped in, and X twist-flipped between the two huge appendages, elbow-ramming Crush to one side as he landed.

"Don't worry, Crush. You won't hurt anyone else."


With Zero, Colonel, and Deepfreeze helping, Depthcharge was carried out of the carrier amidst a blast of thrusters, raw jump-force, and an ice-slide being forged as they flew. With a thunderous crash, they landed on the dock, though it looked more like a junkyard from the battle so far.

Zero twisted with his saber flashing. "Depthcharge needs medevac! X needs backup! We shou-!?"

He cut himself off as the entire Hunter force froze, Airstrike and the other fliers yanking to a halt.

The carrier's smoking engines were starting to sink, hard and fast, pulling the nose of the ship upward.

Alia saw it on screens, and snapped her hand to the comms, "X, the ship is sinking aft first!"


Inside the ship, Crush Crawfish cackled as he backflipped from X. "Your friends really don't seem to worry too much about you, Megaman!"

X just waited, even as the ship started to keel violently, the wreckage of the power core lifting upward behind him, his feet starting to lose grip.

"What's the matter!? Light got your tongue!?"

Crush dove at X claw-first again. X suddenly braced to the flooring (becoming a wall rapidly), and thruster-blasted himself as if to meet Crush directly.

Crush sneered, angling to snap X's head off as the armored Reploid started to glow with charging energy. Right before contact, however, X's hand shot up, arced down, and drove Crush's claw away while X used it to hand-flip straight over the Maverick.

All this just as the ship went completely vertical and started to sink down. Crush somersaulted into a hard landing, glaring back over his shoulder as X twisted down into a thruster-blast that carried him back to a perch on the 'ceiling'. Water was already starting to churn up toward them from below.

"All the resources poured into this damn ship!" Crush began as he whipped around. "All wasted because those fools couldn't keep you busy!"

X shrugged a little. "You guys don't seem to coordinate so well while losing your tempers at everything in sight."

"ENOUGH!" Crush roared, his flank opening and firing off small metal bands that shot out like violent boomerangs in every direction. "Your buster can barely touch me, and you're trapped in here!"

X rebounded off the wall, watching the blades crash, rebound, and spark off the walls and rescatter after him. A thruster-boost carried him across the crashing water below, and he fired a mid-charge blast at Crush.

This time, he watched as Crush just ducked, letting it disperse over his body like it was fire on stone.

X landed, but Crush cackled as he dove into the water, and the rebounding blades caught one of X's legs, locking it to the surface it touched like a clamp.

X grunted, looked down and fired a bolt into the clamp, and just barely managed to flip up the wall to avoid another three clamps doing the same thing.

And then Crush rocketed out of the water with tremendous speed, clearly somehow enhanced by being submersed, both claws reaching out to tear X to pieces.

"They really should've called me Cutter!"

X braced, but wasn't just dodging. His optics and sensors were revved to the highest degree while he could still function, and as he dash-boosted just over Crush's claws, he watched how the water flowed over Crush's frame. It wasn't just hydrophobic, the water somehow accelerated while it was on Crush's body.

X landed, Crush twisted with a snarl, and X's colors snapped to blue, purple, and red, his busters reconfiguring into his hands... with gaps in the palms.

"Oh, what's this?" Crush asked quietly. "Gonna keep trying things 'til they stick?"

"Educated guess about your armor layer," X calmly retorted just before he had to leap out of the path of more clamps.

Crush narrowed his optics, then dove sharply into the water. X braced, but before he could capitalize, he had to thruster-dash away from more clamps... which put him mid-air while Crush came rocketing up at him.

However, X didn't seem panicked. He snapped his hands out, and three drone-like devices shot out of his hands, whirling around him in a blink. Crush all but ignored them, going for cutting X in twain, but the drones suddenly crackled with power and then erupted, creating a network of lightning immediately around X.

Crush cried out in dismay even before he was struck, but his claw hit the power lines shortly after. His entire body crackled and stormed as he was flung away, slamming into the far bulkhead. He limply crashed down as X landed opposite, the Maverick shakily pushing himself up with his claws.

X's Triad-Thunder discharged out through the area around him, sending out a shock of power that disrupted most of the clamps as well. "Do you want to take that offer of surrender?"

Crush steadied on his feet. "How did you figure it out so fast...?"

X remained ready to fire again. "Water is being electro-magnetically accelerated around your body. I assume you're relying on a charge along the surface to push the water molecules, but I don't have the schematics yet, obviously."

Crush growled, then stood straighter. "I'll finish tearing you apart more carefully then!" And he leapt for X once more.

X started to charge over with energy, but leapt forward, and fired a normal triad-thunder set as he did, all but body-slamming between Crush's claws and shocking the Maverick off to the wall again.

Steaming from the water that got flash-burned around him, Crush snapped his claws in fury as he watched X land again, this time rushing over with light and plasma as the water churned up constantly to finish drowning the carrier.

"You really can stand down, Crush. It doesn't have to end with you wrecked."

This just seemed to drive the Maverick berserk. Crush roared, and dove into the water before rocketing up at X again.

This time X flowed to one side, just around Crush's diving claws. Crush tore into the armored metal behind where X had been... and X wrenched forward to drive a hammering punch into the same wall just beside the buried claws.

A catastrophic discharge of power exploded out as the entire carrier thrummed with the unnaturally powerful impact.

Crush Crawfish was engulfed in electrical power and throw skyward like a charred comet, slamming into the armor so hard he buried himself in a crater.


Outside, the Hunter forces had to brace along the dock-line or curl up in the water, as the impact shock pulsed through the area, and then waves of electrical discharge washed over the carrier violently. Several Hunters leapt out of the water, but realized that the charge somehow remained 'stuck' to the carrier.

Colonel finally lowered his saber, sheathing it at his hip. "...The power core was already destroyed. His power is such?"

Zero finally sheathed his own blade at his shoulder, grim-faced. "...Apparently so."

And just a moment later, the storm of power finally died down... just as the last remaining mechaniloids on the docks shut down. Overload lightly shoved one over with a little smirk, and then looked to the still-sinking carrier, though it would be fully submerged in a moment more.

X appeared, hefting Crush Crawfish's emergency-stasis locked body across his shoulders, stepping out of a hangar launch bay now facing the dock instead of the air.

"HQ," X's voice came over, pleasant, but clearly worn, "I think the dock is secured."

Zero and Colonel were the only two not cheering with relief from the debacle of the carrier. Even Dex relaxed his rifle back and chuckled at the good of it.

Instead, as X leapt to a landing on the dock, Zero and Colonel moved up to him.

"You realize you're not doing yourself any favors show-boating that much power?" Zero checked first.

X lay Crush down with surprising care for how harshly he'd hit the Maverick in battle. "If I could hide the energy discharge, I would."

Colonel frowned. "I lack the authority for it to be relevant, sir, but I find your dismissal of the chain of command disturbing."

X looked up to Colonel with a calm but resolute expression. "We're not soldiers, Colonel. We're peacekeepers."

Colonel sharpened his eyes. "Soldiers keep the peace, sir."

X looked back down, and made sure Crush's claws were secured safely if he reactivated somehow despite the stasis trigger. "I'd say soldiers help if we've failed, but let's just get this one home and treated for now, hm?"

Zero lifted a hand to stop Colonel's further retort, and the austere young Reploid obeyed. Zero leaned down, and actually surprised X by picking Crush up himself. "Signas, sir, I've got the inactive Maverick with me. We can start beaming back the wounded for repairs."

Signas' voice chimed across the entire force. "Well done, all units. Injured will be recovered first. Anyone feeling up to it, sound off on separate channels, and we'll begin clean-up operations."

X stood up, sounding off to help, as did most of the units that had members of his X-Hunters. Depthcharge's unit retreated with him to make sure teleportation didn't worsen his injuries.

Cadis hopped down from her perch at long last, stowing her rifle on her back to start helping, too. As she moved along to reach the actually disrupted areas, she frowned thoughtfully. I trust X, but after that display... I can't really blame anyone for being scared, if they don't know him well enough.

"Something wrong?"

Cadis blinked up at Tripwire, confused at his presence. "Oh! Sorry. I... thought you were way further over by the dock?" she had to ask, giggling from awkwardness.

Tripwire shrugged. "You went pretty quiet on comms, wanted to make sure you weren't hiding injuries over here."

Cadis tilted her head. "...You were worried about me?" She half-smiled, both teasing and appreciative.

Tripwire shrugged casually. "We're on the same team. Anyway, you're clearly fine. Shall we?"

Cadis smiled, nodding, and started off with Tripwire again.


Author's Note: This chapter took me a while to settle on conceptually. Crush Crawfish was always a little weird to me because of his weird design (seriously, those hands are so massive, how does he function?). I wanted to represent his fairly unique stage, but quickly realized the supporting cast needed to continue to be relevant as well. So I literally split the difference. I focused on the larger cast for the bulk of the 'war' around the ship, and then made sure to include the power-core and level-flip moments from the in-game level for reference and homage. Hopefully fans of both the core canon and the Chronicles unique touches will be pleased with this one.