MLaaTR: Maverick Hunter X
By Drewmaster
22. Chapter 22
On their way to where Ms. Wakeman was, Jenny could tell changes were taking place inside of Grace's body, especially since she had trouble keeping still.
"I…wish I could make carrying…me easier for you, but I can't keep my body…still," Grace said frantically.
"Don't worry about it. It is a little more difficult than usual to concentrate on flying properly, but it's not too bad," Jenny said.
Suddenly, they were both hit with a powerful blast of wind sending them both spiraling towards the ground. By the time they slowed down a little, it was too late for Jenny to execute a smooth landing. The landing was so rough that Grace slipped out of Jenny's grasp. Jenny rolled a few times before stopping. She quickly rose to her feet and looked up to see a male reploid that had a humanoid shape with the head of a bird and large mechanical wings.
"And who might you be?" Jenny asked.
"The name's Storm Eagle, and I'm sure you've guessed by now, that I've been sent here in response to Axel's death by that girl's hands. My mission is to destroy both of you, and in no particular order. Prepare yourselves," S. Eagle replied.
Jenny thought that now was a good time to try out her buster arm transformation. She pointed her right arm at S. Eagle and activated her buster.
"That was not expected," S. Eagle said.
"That's right. Thanks to X and Zero, a way was made for me to be outfitted with a certain degree of reploid technology. I call it the J-Buster. I'm still getting used to it," Jenny explained.
"But will it save you?" S. Eagle said as he dashed after them from the air.
Jenny fired the weapon at S. Eagle but the blast was dodged as he ascended. Jenny was still trying to get used to the recoil and the timing. She continued trying to aim at him as she discovered how fast his flying was. He maneuvered so easily. Jenny began firing smaller blasts with her other arm as she began focusing on trying to aim her buster properly. S. Eagle swooped down and landed behind Grace with his weapon pointed at the back of her head.
"Bastard!" Grace yelled.
"That's not fair. Fight me like a man," Jenny demanded.
"This is war. There's no room for fighting in a gentleman-like manner. I bet there's no way you can stop me in time," S. Eagle challenged.
X's voice sounded from the top of a roof saying "Don't even try it, Storm Eagle."
Not attempting to take his eyes off of Jenny, S. Eagle said "I know you have your weapon pointed at me, X. Tell me, how is it that you managed to show up in the nick of time? It's eerily like a scene from a movie. Never mind that. I wonder…if either of you can actually save this girl," S. Eagle said.
"What exactly are you getting out of this anyway? Why did you change so much?" X asked with a concerned tone.
"The real question is what are you getting out of this, X? You say you want peace: an end to war. You say you want to see a world where everyone can get along with each other: a world where people can look past each other's differences and work towards a bright future. I want the same thing. The problem is that not everybody shares that same vision. I don't understand people. No one really seems to care about each other as much as they claim to. What I've witnessed is a disgusting endlessly repeating cycle of everyone trying to find ways to get over on each other. Everyone's always trying to get the biggest slice of the pie even at the expense of others. By defeating us, the only thing you'll really accomplish is preserving that terrible cycle. If we win, the cycle will still continue. People don't really change. It doesn't matter if you are flesh or robot. There is, however, one thing about Commander Sigma's plan that I admire. He has realized that the main reason why people fight each other so much is because of a lack of resources. If you read your history, so many wars have been fought because both sides lacked the resources they either required for survival or what they felt they were entitled to. Sigma plans to eventually eliminate the resource problem, and believe it or not, he's managed to make progress," S. Eagle explained.
Zero's voice was heard from another rooftop saying "Listen to yourself. Even if that were the case, how does that justify killing humans? Wouldn't it be better to share this well of unlimited resources with everyone: human's and reploids?"
"Sigma knows that in order to make that dream a reality, the humans must be exterminated. They have been proven to slow down progress and ruin everything they manage to get their hands on. They behave like viruses," S. Eagle explained.
"Viruses? What the hell do you mean?" Jenny asked.
"Humans do very…little to…preserve nature's balance. If it weren't…for…the very small percentage of us…that do try…the rest of us would use…up all of our resources and we'd become extinct. Jenny, when was the last time…any human you know…personally even took the time out to grow so…much as a flower or vegetable? Do they know…how to raise animals that aren't pets? Most people these…days are totally reliant…on that small portion of the population that…prepare our food and living arrangements…to do it for them. Isn't that why you…were created: to do our dirty work? Isn't that…why the humans…of their world built them? And what do…we do to show…our thanks? We discard them…once their…usefulness has run out. We don't…behave exactly like viruses, but we are very similar," Grace explained.
"You are one of the few humans that seems to understand this. Even so, evolution will take far too long for all of you to learn this. By then, you will have already destroyed and ruined so much. There are many times more of you than us, and that adds up to the likelihood of a lot more destruction than what we'd be responsible for. That's why we have to do this," S. Eagle added.
"Destruction is still destruction, and killing is still killing, regardless of how you try to justify it or dress it up. Yes, there are going to be those who make bad choices either based on their circumstances that society doesn't see, and yes, there are going to be those who kill for personal gain, but there is no justification for killing them," Zero explained.
A furious expression shown on S. Eagle's face and he yelled "What the hell are you talking about? You've killed many times the amount of reploids that I've killed in humans, and you're trying to make me seem like the monster here. And don't you give me that 'I had no choice' crap."
Jenny then yelled "All right! Stop the bullshit. I can see that you can't be reasoned with. I made a commitment to take her with me somewhere and to further prepare for the war, so I no longer have the time to waste with you. I'm gonna have to end this now."
S. Eagle focused his attention on Jenny and asked "My weapon is pointed directly at the back of her head, so what makes you think you think you can do anything about this in time?"
"I plan to do it like this," Jenny yelled as several blades that obviously looked like Jenny's technology erupted from the ground and shredded his arm cannon into many pieces.
S. Eagle then yelled "I didn't know…you were capable of that."
Grace took this opportunity to run for cover.
S. Eagle then screamed "I WILL FINISH MY MISSION!"
Within that moment, Jenny saw the veins in his eyes swell up. His body glowed with an almost blinding light as everyone else prepared for the worst. He let out a final scream as his body exploded. The next thing Jenny, X, and Zero knew, they were all inside of a huge swirling vortex with shards of his body and everything else the wind could pick up crashing into their bodies. Grace hid herself inside of a dumpster, so she was fine. After taking quite a bit of damage to their armors, X fired several high powered shots at the base of the tornado casing it to disperse.
"_I'm not going to like this part_," X thought to himself.
At the moment of dispersal, all three of them were sent flying in different directions. X was sent high into the air and landed on a roof about a city block away. Jenny and Zero were sent, to both their surprises, into the same apartment. Fortunately, it was vacant with a bunch of empty cardboard boxes lying around to reduce the force of their impacts. A moment later, Jenny asked "You okay over there, man?"
Zero laughed a little and replied "Yeah…I'm fine. That was a move that I know he didn't have the last time we met. What an upgrade? You think it's time we checked up on your classmate?"
"Mmm…hmm!" Jenny answered.
As they regained their composures, Zero said "Don't worry about X. He'll be here soon."
After jumping out of the window and landing, they headed over to where Grace was. They were a little surprised to see that X was already ahead of them helping Grace out of the dumpster.
"You're pretty quick, X," Jenny commented.
"I guess so. I didn't think about it that way. I was just concerned about her safety. Thanks anyway," X replied.
When Grace's feet touched the ground, she looked around at all of their damages and said "I envy you. You don't feel pain…the way we…do."
"Wait! That injury was just recent, wasn't it?" Zero asked while pointing at the dried blood on Grace's face.
Grace rubbed her face and answered, "It was."
"That's why I'm carrying her to see mom. As you can see, this is a total surprise to her as well. I can't think of why she was able to heal so quickly," Jenny explained.
"I was wondering about the same thing myself. I just didn't decide to ask about it," X added.
"Okay then. I think it's time to head back," Jenny said.
"By the way, Jenny. That was smart thinking. You managed to save her life," Zero complimented with a smile.
"Thanks," Jenny said with a slight blush that didn't show on her face.