MLaaTR: Maverick Hunter X

By Drewmaster

27. Chapter 27

Multiple reploids were spotted in Tremorton. The report was that they were dropped in from above from odd looking air ships. Jenny and the others responded to the disturbance immediately. Plenty of military personnel also accompanied them. It was also made painfully aware to Grace that since so many Mavericks were so close by, she had virtually no choice but to stand and fight. Being on their wanted list, if she tried to run, she would likely be caught by them.

When they all arrived, the Mavericks were standing right out in the middle of the street waiting for them.

"That's not good. He's here too," XJ6 said.

"Looks like they finally arrived, and yes, I'm here too," Blaze Heatnix confirmed.

"And by the way, military guys; don't bother asking us to surrender. That's not gonna happen," a huge reploid named Flame Mammoth said.

"I thought all you guys looked different from each other," a male soldier yelled.

Zero then explained "About that. There are a lot of reploids that were made to look roughly the same. They were all made to serve the same purpose as your soldiers. The one's that have only a rounded black surface for a face aren't reploids at all though. Those are mechanilloids."

"Look who it is. It's been quite some time since we last met, hasn't it, X and Zero?" another huge reploid named Duff McWhalen asked.

"It has been quite a while. Two questions. How do you keep coming back after we've defeated you, and what are you planning on doing here today?" X asked.

"That question again? If you want to know how we keep coming back…you're gonna have to go ask Sigma that yourself. But onto the business of the day. I'm sure by now, you all are pretty pissed about that attack on the Presidents life. You don't have to answer. I can see the anger in your faces. Fear mongering is an excellent tactic for making mass numbers of passive human's panic. The best part is, that even if we tell them that that was the purpose, they would still panic because of our power. I know you wanted to make your country seem like a better place to live by not forcing your people to serve in the military, but look at the consequences. You have a bunch of pathetic people whose only way to defend themselves is to cry out for help from a few people who aren't even human. I can hardly call that curious case that looks like she was manifested from an old fairy tale illustration over there a human, and you military people are basically nothing but target practice. The business of the day is as follows: while you are using what limited amount of resources you have to fight us, more of our partners will be destroying things in other parts of the world," B. Heatnix explained.

"That's not fair!" XJ7 yelled.

"We gathered a large enough force into this one spot to lure you all in and to make it virtually impossible for you to split up. It's really too bad you don't have a way of detecting the movements and whereabouts of all of us. Not only that; your odds aren't looking very good at the moment. You're up against about eighty soldier reploids, about two hundred soldier mechanilloids, twenty four battle reploids, and…and old friend of Jenny's," a roughly human sized beetle reploid named Dr. Izzy Glow explained.

Suddenly, The Lancer flew into view from behind a building. His appearance was a bit shocking.

"Wow! He's been upgraded quite a bit," Jenny said surprised.

"Don't look at me in that manner. I'm not a sell-out. I hath never been one of you to begin with. It just so happens that I lived here all my life. It's time for my revenge. I challenge you to our final duel, XJ9," The Lancer yelled.

"Fine. I accept your challenge, Lancer," Jenny yelled.

"Before we get started; I have one more question. Even with your boss's ability to reproduce you from the scrap yard, how is it that he was able to build so many of you in such a short time?" X asked.

"Interesting question. When you stormed our base in Sector 4, you have no idea how many of us were already there at the time. He didn't build us all at once in a matter of weeks. He's been doing this for a long time now. The truth is, that quite a large number of us were sent through those portals, including a lot of our equipment. Surprised? Thought you had us figured out? Thought our resources were too limited to pull it off? Fate has been smiling down upon us for quite some time now. There's your answer. You decide what to do with it," Blaze Heatnix answered.

Both sides stared each other down in silence wondering who was going to make the first move. Both X and Zero took deep breaths and started absorbing energy into their bodies. The Lancer flooded his lance with electricity. Blaze Heatnix surrounded his body in an aura of visible heat. All of the available XJs raised their energy outputs to one hundred percent, and so did the reploids.

Jenny suddenly rolled to her left and yelled "Now!"

When she rolled, it was revealed that XJ2 was behind her the whole time. XJ2 fired a powerful laser blast directly into the center of the Mavericks ranks. The Maverick in the middle happened to be Gravity Beetle.

The center ranks broke up as soon as they saw the laser and then started flying towards the other side. G. Beetle didn't expect such an attack, which caused him to barley dodge the attack leaving him with a badly damaged left arm. He stared at XJ2 and growled wanting revenge.

The battle sprung into full action. Bullets and lasers went flying through the air. People charged after each other. It seemed as though there were going to be heavy casualties on each side.

Zero released his energy into his saber. Electricity surrounded the energy blade. He ran through the ranks of weaker soldiers and started slashing them apart wildly.

X fired a powerful buster shot at an oncoming laser attack from Izzy Glow. He was surprised to find that Izzy's laser broke right through his blast. He dodged it as fast as he could.

"Time to get serious," X yelled.

He jumped into the air and a bright energy ball surrounded his body. A few seconds later, he emerged from the ball revealing his new appearance. His armor was radically different from before. Its color scheme was black and gold. He now had large claws coming protruding from the end of his buster with electricity charging into the claws.

"So that's the X-Hyper Armor I heard about. Impressive; but it won't help you," Izzy yelled as he fired yet another laser.

"_We'll see about that_," X thought to himself as he prepared to attack.

Jenny was surprised at how accurate a shot The Lancer had become. His attacks were also a lot more powerful and rapid than before as well. She spent most of her time dodging.

"Hold still, wench!" The Lancer yelled angrily.

"Just keep calling me that while you still can, you bastard!" Jenny yelled angrily as she transformed her body into the same huge saw blade he used against Phoenix. The Lancer's blasts were being cut in half as she headed straight for him. He dodged surprisingly easily.

Heatnix was surprised at just how strong XJ8 was. He could also tell that she was terrified of her based on how frantically she was trying to take him down.

Melody was holding her own pretty well with the help of her upgrades. She also found herself playing the protective roll again with some of the weaker XJs.

Vexus was the first to actually destroy one of the battle reploids. She quickly discovered that a reploid named Grizzly Slash's weakness was that he was simply too slow because of his size. She waited until he attacked and jumped over it and onto his shoulders. She put a whole lot of effort into pulling his head off with her bare hands. He didn't expect such a wild attack.

Grace and Sheldon fought next to each other, figuring that if they kept each other alive, they'd have a better chance at success.

After dodging a few attacks, Sheldon said "Try hitting me now."

Suddenly, he appeared to have duplicated his body several times. Each body ran in different directions from each other and disappeared. Sheldon was nowhere to be found. This surprised everyone who witnessed this. Wasting no time, with the help of his battle armor's strength enhancements, he began attacking the weaker enemies. The enemies directly involved became confused and very nervous. Several of them fired suddenly as they saw Sheldon reappear. What they didn't count on was that Sheldon placed the holograms directly in front of their teammates. As soon as they fired, the holograms disappeared followed by an echoing laugh that sounded as if it was coming from many different directions. The Mavericks watched helplessly as they realized that they had either killed or seriously injured their allies.

Grace smirked as she couldn't help but admire how much Sheldon improved his technological skill. She joined in on the fight as she began attacking the Mavericks herself. This was Sheldon's first real combat experience, so this was very intense for him. Even though Grace experienced war once before, this was still very intense for her as well.

Jenny was relieved that Sheldon seemed as though he would be safe for the time being.

After exchanging a few attacks, the Lancer yelled "Pay attention! Worrying about thy boyfriend will get thee killed. I am generous. As soon as I'm done with thee, I will put him out of his misery next so he won't have to mourn."

"Big talk coming from a weakling like you," Jenny retorted.

"What?" The Lancer asked insulted.

"I've quickly discovered that your so-called upgrades just aren't nearly enough. You may have had an advantage if you were fighting the old me, but not now. There's just too much at stake for me to restrain myself. It's unfortunate that you got yourself mixed up in a group of people that have driven me to the point where I have to fight to kill and not just to win. You can run now if you want, but if you continue to attack, the next move you make will be your last," Jenny threatened.

"Ha! Thou art too soft-hearted to back up those words, and I hath more than enough power to destroy you," The Lancer yelled confidently.

The Lancer charged his weapon again and began aiming at Jenny again. The colored portion of Jenny's eyes became only black outlines as she charged him running at full speed. Surprised, he fired at her without thinking it through very well. She ducked and slid under the blast.

She stopped and looked up at the head of his armor, and then asked in an angry regretful tone "Why couldn't you just listen?"

As soon as the question ended, she fired long lasers from her eyes. She then immediately jumped to her feet and headed towards other enemies. The little man inside the armor had been completely disintegrated along with the armor's head. Both arms fell limp as the armor continued floating in midair. The armor's power was not being drawn from the head.

Ms. Wakeman monitored the battle from her computer. She felt a sudden ache in her heart that reminded her of the first time she was forced to kill someone.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to this. I hate murder; even for a cause," She said.

Jenny's thoughts appeared on the screen as text saying, "I don't think I ever will either."

With a huge burst of electricity, an explosion followed. Izzy wasn't particularly weak against electricity, but X actually punched through his chest plate and released the charge inside of Izzy's body. The force of the release exploded like a bomb destroying most of Izzy's body.

"We must've missed a lot since we've been out of the picture. Since when do you fight so ruthlessly, X?" Flame Mammoth asked.

"Ever since Mavericks like you made it clear you wanted to destroy the entire human race," X yelled angrily as he began charging for another attack.

XJ2 was having a difficult time fighting Gravity Beetle. She was not an experienced warrior. Though her armor was tough, she was sustaining damage. She had hoped her first attack would've defeated G. Beetle, but that obviously didn't happen as planned. Beetle knew she wasn't a warrior, so he hadn't bothered to use his gravity attacks yet. The entire time, he'd been seeing how long she could survive his electricity spheres. She figured her only hope was to try and outsmart him.

"I shouldn't be having this much trouble defeating this large woman," Heatnix yelled frustrated.

XJ8 charged him again, and then Heatnix yelled "Enough warm up!"

He flew high into the air and began raising his power to maximum. XJ8 was surprised at how fast he was at flying.

"I'll finish this now!" Heatnix yelled as he surrounded his body in a ball of flame and flew straight downward after XJ8 like a meteor.

At the same time, Grace had been hit by a powerful explosion caused by a proximity mine placed by a Maverick that she had chased into a building. Everyone heard a loud scream that made the battle come to an almost complete hault. Even Heatnix stopped in midflight.

"Oh no! That was Grace," Sheldon yelled as the building collapsed on top of her.

"Looks like that's the end of her road. You should've known not to send a handicap into battle…even if she was a strong one," a male reploid named Dark Dizzy said.

Suddenly, everyone felt a strong surge of energy pulse through their bodies.

"Felt like…a vibration," Zero yelled.

Somehow, everyone knew…that Grace was still alive. The ground began rumbling in the area where the collapsed building was. A few seconds later, rubble was thrown in all directions besides straight up away from the building. What everyone saw…was not what they expected. They saw what looked like hundreds of long blood red spikes protruding everywhere from the center point of something they couldn't recognize.

"What the…?" Jenny asked in a shocked whisper.

The spikes then slowly retreated into the center. The core took form and revealed a completely unclothed Grace. Her muscle size had returned to normal, and her hair hung in front of her face as she slumped forward as if she were tired.

"What in God's name is going on?" a soldier yelled.

Grace took a few quick deep breaths, bent backwards some, and let out an impossibly loud yell for a human. People were becoming very nervous at this point, especially since she took no visible damage. She then slowly pulled all of her hair over her back with both of her hands as she started laughing. Her skin color then began to quickly change into the blood red color from before, but only in uneven patches all over her body. A strange constant crackling sound was heard coming from her body as her skin's color kept rapidly changing from red to normal in patches all over her body.

In a loud deep strange sounding version of her voice, Grace yelled in a confident tone "You should have killed us when you had the chance. You were so close."

She continued laughing as before when the reploid that tried to kill her before ran over to her yelling "How do you expect to beat me if you keep your eyes closed?"

He tried to stab her with a long pole he found on the ground. A long spike instantly protruded from her left shoulder and impaled the top of his head.

"Holy shit!" Melody yelled surprised.

The spike retracted pulling the dead reploid towards her. She grabbed his neck and held him up in the air.

She then threw him to the side and said "Worthless!"

She then turned around and looked straight up into the air and finally opened her eyes.

Staring at Heatnix, she yelled "You'll do nicely."

Her skin color suddenly returned to normal as she jumped up into the air as fast as a bullet.

Surprised, Heatnix yelled "Crazy fool. I'll kill you!"

He charged after her to meet her head on. At the last second, she stretched out her left arm and punched through his abdomen and pulled out a large device of some kind.

Surprised, he stopped his attack.

Holding onto his left ankle with her right hand, she then yelled with a sadistic looking grin "I believe this your heat generator. Now you're mine."

He screamed and tried attacking her, but it was already too late for him. She began wrapping her body around him like really long snake. She began laughing maniacally as her body began absorbing his. No one else could really tell what was going on. Her eyes glowed bright yellow as they both fell towards the ground.

As soon as they crashed into the ground, Heatnix screamed out for help.

"I could really use some protection," Grace yelled.

The remaining Mavericks began trying to help Heatnix as Jenny and the others began shielding Grace. They weren't really sure what was going on, but they did know that Heatnix's screams sounded horrible and gut wrenching.

A minute later, someone yelled "I figured it out. She's absorbing him."

The battle stopped again and everyone looked to see that Heatnix was barely recognizable. He was definitely dead because there was no longer any sign of struggling. A few moments later, Grace stood up and began reshaping her body back to normal.

"What the hell is she?" someone else asked.

"I weigh about seven hundred pounds right now. Crazy, aint' it?" Grace yelled followed by another maniacal laugh.

When her body returned to its normal shape, her skin then became fully red, and then she replied "What am I, you ask? That's a very good frickin question. Even Grace doesn't really know what I am. That's right. I've been living inside her for a long time now. That's why I said 'us' earlier. It's strange how I came to be. You see, a long time ago, she was attacked by a madman who broke nearly every bone in her body and then tried to stab her to death. He was then found and gunned down. She was only five years old at the time. Her grandfather, the inventor of this world's first real nano-machine technology, used his invention to restore her health. At that time, I was just a simple machine. He attempted to get me out of her body, but a fault in the programming made it impossible without killing her. He then realized that if I stayed in too long, she may die anyway. These surgical scars you see on different spots of this body was his attempt to insert new nano machines with a programming that would turn off the old ones permanently. It worked. Within a matter of days, I developed a consciousness after being connected to her brain. I decided to make it seem as though I was still offline, and my deception worked. By the time she was six and a half, her mind had changed forever from the trauma of our symbiotic relationship. She then lost all memory of the attack and her grandfather, even though she was living with him. She wondered off somewhere one day and her grandfather couldn't find her. She only correctly remembers that she was almost killed and that she was nursed back to health by whomever was taking care of her. The earliest clear memory she can recall is being found living in an abandoned house and being dragged away to live in a psychiatric hospital. She only became aware of my existence within the past year. She never mentioned that part to anyone because she didn't want to seem crazier than she already does. Also, in case you're wondering why I don't appear metallic; it's because the machines used were made of flesh. When your nano-machines were made, they were made of metals because of the difference in cost."

Her voice then returned to normal, and she yelled angrily "Why the fuck didn't…you tell me before? Why have you been silent…all this time?"

Her voice then changed again saying "Honestly: for purely selfish reasons. I know you're a little more than upset. It was only within the past two years that I began to think like a human being. As an infant of sorts, I was selfishly trying to leach off of you for your experiences both mental and physical. If I were you, I would be mad too. I realize that now. It took me a long time to realize that what I was doing wasn't exactly right. I'm developing softer emotions now and I'm finding myself regretting ever putting you through all of this without ever giving you anything in return. You may never forgive me, but I apologize."

"What do you mean though? I thought Dr. Kingston invented the first nano technology. Grace is not a Kingston, she's a Harnell," Jenny argued.

"Dr. Kingston stole the idea and patented it before her grandfather did. That's why you never heard of him. Kingston was the famous one. Dr. Harnell was lost to the pages of history. Good luck actually finding those pages though. Even I don't know where they are. I never knew his first name. I only know him as Dr. Harnell. What's worse is that the fact that he tried to delete me was traumatizing enough for me at the time that I later deleted a lot of my memory of him so I wouldn't be burdened by such terrible thoughts. Little did I think at the time that maybe…just maybe…Grace might need to know these things later on in life," she explained.

Her voice changed to normal again, and then she said in an irritated tone "Well thank you for ruining my life…for the past decade. At least you had the decency…to apologize. Can you please leave…my body and take that bird…with you? You seem to be able to…take care of yourself quite…nicely."

Her voice changed again saying "That's impossible. Believe me; I want to leave your body so I can end your suffering, but I've been in you for too long now. The merger is permanent. I don't think there is such a being alive that can transform the way we did and absorb and entire being and still be able to separate the way you're talking about. It's about seven years too late for a separation without both of us dying in the process. I know you feel like crying. I'm sorry that things turned out this way. If I could change it, I would. I can't do anything to change the past, but I can try to make this worth your while. I took so much from you, and now I intend to return the favor. Ask of me, and I will give you what I can."

A few seconds later, Grace said in her normal voice "The past cannot be changed. You're right. If you're going…to live in me, I expect you to cooperate with me. I have people I wish to protect. Help me do that. What is…your name, by the way?"

Her voice changed again saying "I'll tell you, but first…"

She levitated about ten feet off of the ground and heat waves began emanating from her. Her body began expanding in size, and she began to change into something no one else has seen before. It looked as though thousands of vein-like structures protruded from her body wrapping around her like a snake. She became about eight feet tall in the end of her transformation and her skin remained completely blood red.

"The bird had wings. Why not us?" Grace asked.

Slowly, odd looking wings began sprouting from her back.

When they were fully formed, Flame Mammoth yelled "We don't know how powerful she's becoming. Why are we just standing around like this? We need to kill her now."

Realizing that he was right, the Mavericks began firing at Grace. She flew straight up into the air to avoid the attacks.

"My name? I'd like to call myself…The Red Angel," Angel yelled.

Grace then said "That's a fine name. We are one in the same. We should not view…ourselves as completely separate. How do you feel about…me carrying your name as a…nickname?"

"Sounds good to me," Angel said.

Both of them yelled out loud from the same mouth saying "Together, we are The Red Angel!"

"I hope she's still on our side," X yelled.

Grace started flying downwards towards the Mavericks launching balls of fire. All but one of them managed to dodge the fire balls. As he burned to cinders, they all began firing at her. She dodged every shot pretty easily. She finally reached ground level and started wildly destroying every enemy she could find. Her allies finally joined the fight as well.

Dark Dizzy narrowly escaped Grace's rampage, and then yelled "Things are not going as planned. What are we supposed to do now?"

Suddenly, Jenny stopped in mid-battle and her entire body started trembling. She began laughing very giddily and extremely excited. This made everyone stop again.

"Oh my God! This is just too good to be true," Jenny yelled while laughing.

"Don't mind her. Continue the assault," Flame Mammoth commanded.

Jenny laughed even louder than before, and then yelled "I haven't gone crazy. I didn't think they'd actually pull it off so soon, especially not in the middle of a struggle like this. Help is on the way."

Suddenly, Jenny's body vibrated so heavily, that the street below her started to crack. Without warning, large spheres of energy that resembled the portals from before appeared one after the other in different spots all over the area. Time seemed to slow down for a few seconds until the spheres disappeared. As they disappeared, they revealed many different reploids.

One in particular spoke out confidently saying "Time to mop the floor with these Mavericks!"

"Axl! You made it. It's good to see you again," X yelled happily.

"Aw…shit! They actually figured it out. Half the damned Maverick Hunter forces are here. We need to call off the attack and leave this place now," Dizzy yelled.

"Oh no you don't! You started this, and we're gonna make you finish it. Let's take em' down," Zero yelled.

The battle resumed. The Mavericks were outmatched. One after the other, they fell like flies. A few managed to escape.

When the action finally stopped, Jenny performed a scan of the area, and then said "The coast is definitely clear. Too bad some got away. According to the data I'm receiving from satellites, the other attacks around the world have stopped. They're running back to their master."

Axl walked over to Jenny and said "So, you're Jenny. I can tell by your voice. Thanks for taking care of our buddies."

"I feel more like they've been taking care of me. I didn't expect you to look so young," Jenny commented.

Axl grinned and said "Hey, Zero! Looks like you won that bet. People always assume I look older before they see me. I guess having a good record and rank like mine gives people that impression. You were right."

Zero could only laugh.

Axl looked around and asked surprised "Oh! What the hell is that?"

Everyone looked at Grace. The one's that didn't notice her before were also surprised. She only frowned.

"No offense lady, but talk about the elephant in the room, and I'm not making a fat joke. I really need to watch my mouth," Axl said ashamed of himself.

Grace sighed and said "Don't worry…about it. I can see…that we all have some explaining to do."

A blond female reploid made her way over to Jenny saying "She's right. We need to find a place to talk about our future plans."

"Jenny, say hello to Alia," X said.

"Hello Alia. It's nice to finally get to meet you," Jenny said.

"I'm glad to meet you too. I didn't expect you to be the same shade of blue as X," Alia commented.

A few seconds later, XJ6 said "Awkward silence."

Before anyone responded, they all heard the footsteps of someone running towards them. A younger looking blond female reploid ran over to the crowd yelling "Don't be alarmed. It's me, Palette."

Everyone calmed down.

When she finally stopped running, she complained "Why did I have to be the one to get sent about a couple miles away from here?"

"I'm glad you could make it too, Palette. Where's Layer?"

Most of the Maverick Hunters, including Alia and Palette lowered their heads and frowned.

"Dammit! I can't believe she was a Maverick this whole time. I had my suspicions, but I didn't really think it was true," X said disappointed.

"She had been caught giving us false information for about a few months. Commander Signas confronted her about it; she retaliated by attacking him with a rifle, and the commander subdued and arrested her. She's in prison right now awaiting her trial," Alia explained.

X took a deep breath and said "Okay. It won't help us to worry too much about that right now anyway. We need to get out of here. This has been one hell of day!"