The Voice in Your Heart
Page 84: Broken Mirror
Searching the remains of shops and corporate offices proved fruitless. It looks like everyone had moved away from Giga City. Not that Axl or Epsilon could prove it, of course, given how cut off they are from the outside world. Sometimes, they had mused together, that often times you really don't realize how valuable something is to you until it's gone.
Part of Axl had wished for complete and utter disconnection in his psychological desolation. Technically he can just waste away until his hardware expires and die just like the world think he has. But like this? It's something he does not want. Maybe, he thought, his friends were right after all and what he really needed was a long, long rest.
Occasionally he'd let himself grieve over the good memories of his friends looking after him: X, Zero, Alia, Douglas, Pallette, and Epsilon himself. All this time, they had cared for him, though not in the way he wanted. And that was exactly why he had not noticed it for the longest time.
It hurt.
Epsilon noticed that in Axl. And from there he was able to remember that Axl, too, cared for him in a way that did not align perfectly with what he had wanted. But if Axl had allied with him back in the Giga City incident, they'd have died together. Axl would have probably died in X and Zero's hands, and Epsilon does not want that.
Ultimately, he was glad that Axl stayed true to himself, but Epsilon regretted his choice again. How come is it that when he followed his heart, things start breaking? Jakob. Axl's heart. The Liberion. And now, Giga City and Force Metal.
Left with no one else but each other, Axl and Epsilon had plenty of time and opportunities to talk and reflect – have the conversations they should have had, but never got to have.
"I guess I can't run away anymore, huh?" Axl remarked as he pedalled the bicycle he found on the street.
"Mmmm, I have no comments. While you technically did run away from yourself, I can't really blame you. Back then, we left the Maverick Hunters together. We were supposed to go on adventures. But then I blew it all up. I broke your heart. And like with Jakob, I broke this city." Epsilon replied.
Axl sighed, "Well. I can't deny the truth in what you said, either. It's regrettable. But there's nothing that crying can fix at this point."
The two of them had searched even the old Giga City Maverick Hunters base and found nothing. It is likely that the equipment and employees within were moved and transferred to other bases that need them. The excess equipment probably went to storage, while the… extra employees were either transferred to different departments, or laid off. Regardless, the building was completely empty save for a few old furniture and power outlets.
After the Maverick Hunters base, they went to the government offices. There was nothing of use except for some old documents. Not a single tablet was found. Whichever governmental official owned it must have returned it to the office, assuming it isn't a device that they personally own. They managed to reach New Hope, and found that Central Tower is similarly empty.
Undeterred by the lack of results and driven by muted despair, both Axl and Epsilon continued to explore the area until they found the surprisingly still thriving Gaudile Laboratory.
When they arrived, it was barricaded. Their first thought was if the Professor was the only one remaining in Giga City along with Cinnamon, conducting his Force Metal research like a mad scientist. Axl and Epsilon were not sure whether the lack of answer from the doorbell is an affirmation or the opposite.
There were security measures, but Axl managed to bypass it – he's not an S-class maverick hunter for nothing, and he was stealth-based in the first place.
Entering the laboratory was like discovering an oasis. For the first time in… days? Weeks? It can't be more than three weeks or a month. Regardless, it's been so long since they found a functional structure in Giga City.
Gaudile's trees were thriving and the machines providing them with sustenance still worked wonderfully. The mechaniloids were still around and cleaning the place. However, there was a notable lack of… ongoing projects in display. When Axl went to Gaudile Laboratories during the Giga City incident, he could at least see a few works in progress in the place. Part of him hopes that it's just because Gaudile built himself a basement, or he's just working in fewer projects after the crackdown on Force Metal.
Right, the dispute surrounding the ore broke the industry, in which part of it was due to Gaudile's anti Force Metal technology.
He was a polarising figure on the subject; on one side, he is one of the most prominent scientists in the field, advancing it greatly in its heyday. On the other side, he created the Anti Force Metal gun, which obviously caused… some debate.
Just like how Force Metal can be used by individuals or industries, the anti Force Metal technology can also be used reliably against them. A phone, computer, or factory powered by Force Metal can easily be disabled or outright destroyed by an anti Force Metal gun. Because of this, Force Metal was declared ineffective and it ends up being heavily regulated like its opposition.
With time, it was discovered that Force Metal was more like a very long lasting battery. Even the few surviving pieces of Supra-Force Metal slowly faded into a simple shiny hunk of metal after prolonged use. And with that, the Force Metal bubble burst, and Giga City faded away.
And so has Gaudile, as Axl and Epsilon found out. After going deep into the core of the laboratory, they found Gaudile, utterly and completely deactivated. He was discovered in a sitting position on a couch, leaning against an equally inactive Cinnamon. If Axl and Epsilon had not known they were dead, it would have been a mundane and heartwarming scene of father and daughter having fallen asleep in front of the TV or something.
A brief scan from Epsilon revealed that their main CPUs had been fried, but not their memory chips…
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I feel like the more I write, the more I see the light. Or maybe sometimes, I just need to pull away and then find the energy and courage to walk on. I had been contemplating timeskips, but I want to do it... in a way that does not make the story feel rushed. This chapter feels contemplative; it is a mix of a different-perspective summary of the old story arcs, a timeskip to cut down on redundancy, and an echo of my own self-reflection.
This story must be bizarre if binge read from the beginning until now. But then again, so has my life been since Nov 2015/when I started this story until now.