MEGA MAN X: THE SOUND OF MAVERICKS
By Erico
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: OUTBREAK
"Almost…almost…" Hazil's grunting was loud, even as he looked through bloodshot eyes. "THERE." Brushing the sweat off of his forehead, he looked down on the table in front of him.
Drill Man, the last Robot Master who had recruited for upgrades was lying below, silently examining his stats.
Unlike the others, Hazil had opted to leave his power core alone, instead focusing on improving the strength of his armor and drills. The bombs naturally were more powerful because of the shrapnel effect they would create with the stronger metals, some scrapped from the Melee Moth and the rest created by Hazil's portable Replicator.
He shut the chest compartment of Drill Man shut with a definitive snap, then made sure the armor was still working. Hazil nodded, blinking sleepily.
"Thank the good Bub above you guys aren't as complex as Rockman…I wouldn't like to do HIM…and you're tough enough as is." Hazil stepped back and nodded to Sergei Cossack. "All right, Doc. LIGHT 'ER UP!"
Cossack used his ever present remote control, and pushing a button reactivated Drill Man's primary systems.
The eyes flickered to life on the comical half head, most of it replaced by the giant drill bit atop of it. It raised its arms for a moment, unsure of itself. Then it checked its self scans, announcing the outcomes to his audience.
"Drill Synthesizing systems have been improved indirectly with local equipment. New alloy…accepted. Primary systems running at full power, medical repair systems at full power." Drill Man blinked. "This unit is now operational for combat duty."
Hazil clapped his hands together.
"IT WORKED." Hazil said, his eyes glittering with pride. Cossack laughed and waved his hand.
"Hazil, let it be said by me first that you are a true genius in the ways of robotics." Hazil scratched the back of his head.
"It wasn't no backyard accomplishment. So where's the rest of our merry band?"
"Right here." Hazil and Cossack turned to see the other improved Robot Masters walking towards them. Pharaoh Man was smiling, something that Hazil found odd.
"Hey Pharaoh, what's with the grin?" Pharaoh shrugged.
"Considering the jubilation you and our master express, it seemed most prudent on my human interaction protocols." Hazil snorted.
"Hell son, you coulda just said you FELT LIKE IT." Pharaoh shrugged.
"You say potato, I say potahto." Pharaoh motioned to Drill Man. "Drill Man, are you fully operational?" Drill Man lifted an arm.
"All systems are nominal, Pharaoh Man." Pharaoh nodded.
"Good."
As Drill Man walked over to join the rest of his group, Hazil watched them all. Cossack's children…and Hazil's charges.
Pharaoh Man was one of the more traditional to fix up. Once Hazil had installed a larger supercoil for his Weapons Matrix, it was a simple matter to up the power of his specialized plasma/laser hybrid tenfold without problems. The Cage, as Cossack called it had been an ample source of new body armor for Pharaoh Man, who now had a glittering shade of silvery gray over the black, and even his goldenrod mainstay had been altered to some degree by the new means of protection.
Ring Man, back when he was pitted against Mega Man, was a formidable foe. All the Robot Masters who had recruited had excellent jumping abilities--save Drill Man, but with his burrowing techniques, they weren't needed that much. Ring Man was much like Drill Man. All it had taken was an upgrade in body armor, and a higher model of dense metal alloy for his Ring Boomerang synthesizers. Going out on a limb, Hazil had also programmed a diagnostic scanner into Ring Man's helmetlike headgear.
Bright Man had been the most trouble. While improving his plasma cannon was no different from Pharaoh's operation, Hazil found it a great pain to try and create a new bulb on the top of his head. In a move of desperation, Hazil had yanked a super-conducting Coil from one of the Skeeters and twisted it into a filament. Taking a new bulb and inserting it into position, Hazil had borrowed Dust Man to create the necessary vacuum for it. A long process, and one filled with uncertainties. However, a test demonstration of the bulb afterwards showed it worked.
Hazil had been blinded and disoriented for fifteen minutes.
Toad Man was one of the quirkier designs Hazil had ever had to work with. Once more, an armor improvement was used, although he had the greatest leaping abilities of any of the Robot Masters. Unlike any of the others, he didn't have projectile weapons or energy weapons. Instead, Toad Man had informed Hazil with a total lack of emotion that back when Wily reconverted him to fight against Mega Man, his main attacks were to try and land his heavy body onto the Bomber, and to launch pods up into the air that would coerce innocent air molecules to form into a cloud and rain down a powerful acid rain.
So, by a brilliant use of insight, Hazil had used Cossack's powerful, but outdated computer network to surf the internet and pull out the latest scientific research on advanced corrosives.
The downside was that with such a powerful rainmaker, it was possible that the other Robot Masters on the team might be affected as well. So Hazil had taken an extra step and altered the design from rainmaker, to low level dispersal pods with the acid already stored inside.
"Like a fraggin' acid grenade."
Hazil brought himself back to reality.
They DID look like a team, he noted.
"So what are you going to call yourselves?" Hazil grumbled. "If you use your names now, people are gonna get wise. Shoot, just the simple fact you're walking about kind of pins the source on this Citadel." Pharaoh Man shrugged.
"Then I guess we work outside of the public eye. As for our name…" Pharaoh Man looked at his four followers and shrugged. "I was thinking a prime name for us all would be…The Foregone Five." Hazil blinked, blown down by the genius within its simplicity.
"Geez, Phare…" Hazil whistled. "THAT'S PERFECT." Cossack nodded.
"DA! Phare, that is a good name."
Just then, Hazil's comm began to wail in a klaxonlike fashion, and Hazil's eyes narrowed.
"Oh, CRUD." Hazil pulled the comm out, and Cossack raised a hand.
"What is that, Hazil?" Hazil shrugged.
"It's my comm to the Hunters. It would only ring under two things. Another Uprising's begun…or there's trouble back at base." Listening in to the broadcast, Hazil sighed.
"It's the second. Cossack, I gotta get going. If anything comes up, I have your number. Pharaoh, are your teleportation systems working perfectly?" Pharaoh nodded.
"All Robot Masters present have fully functional teleportation systems. Just go back to where they need you, Hazil. You've done enough for us today."
"If there's a call for action, I'll give you a call."
Pharaoh nodded.
"We'll be waiting."
With that, Hazil activated his teleportation matrix, vanishing in a ball of white hot fire rising up through the roof and through the ground into the air, before turning and making tracks towards Tokyo, Japan…
To the Maverick Hunter HQ.
Back in Washington D.C, Emilius Cristoph was wasting no time in making his presence known.
Arriving in a huff back from the most recent meeting of the GDC at the Hague, the elderly white haired man was sour, as usual.
Once more, his viewpoints had been shot down by the others members.
"Too radical…too racist." Cristoph growled. "Those fools…If this planet's to survive, we must eliminate all reploids. ALL OF THEM." He was walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, passing in front of the White House, unchanged since its reconstruction in the early 1800's.
But then, familiar faces began to appear. Cristoph's scowl vanished, instantly replaced by a gentle smile of an old man.
"I say! Is that Emilius Cristoph walking down our fair city streets?" Cristoph grinned wider at the oncoming pair of voices.
"Senator Johnson, Senator Kelly!" Cristoph laughed falsely. The three men shook hands, slapping each other.
Senator Johnson, a well built African American man was warmly dressed in a designer coat, his handgrip firm.
"So how is the GDC coming along these days?" Johnson asked. Cristoph sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, you know how it is. Some people are still accusing me of being racist against reploids." Johnson frowned.
"Oh, come on. Be serious, man! We've all seen what the reploids have amounted to: Mavericks. I believe you, Cristoph. They are a menace…and it's your job in the GDC to make them see that." Cristoph shrugged.
"I'll try." Cristoph smiled again. "So tell me, where's the best place to eat around here? I've been gone a while." Senator Kelly raised his hand, letting his thick Irish Accent carry over the Frigid November air.
"Oh, that'd have to be Patty O'Malley's Yardarm!" Cristoph clapped his hands together.
"Splendid! Are you paying?" Kelly sighed.
"It's a small price to get some good Haggis. AYE!"
The three powerful political men made tracks towards the forementioned eating estabilishment.
Now, there was a new kind of prejudice in the world. Reploid prejudice.
And it was much worse than human conflicts of the past.
No one would have ever thought about bringing genocide to colored human beings.
Reploids…mere robots, however…
Well, that's a different matter.
"Are the reploid synthesizers completed?" Sigma asked, his frowning face looking down on his cohort down below. The cackling maverick nodded.
"Almost, Sigma. If you wanted to, you could go and inhabit your new body now." Sigma nodded.
"I have been cramped for far too long. Let it be so." The Maverick below him nodded, the red eyes flashing for a brief moment.
Ten feet away, inside one of the six synthesizing chambers bubbling angrily, a metallic behemoth slept.
As Sigma's face vanished from the screen, the giant in his container opened his eyes. The bushy tailed maverick nodded for a moment, then removed the matter making liquid from the tube. With the fluid gone, Sigma gently pushed a button on the inside, causing a side of the capsule to slide down and allow him to walk out.
The new seven foot tall body was well built.
It was an exact replica of the body Sigma had used during the Fourth Maverick Uprising…and so far, it was the deadliest one Sigma had ever used. Equipped with eyebeam superlasers, temporary hoversystems, gravity repellant shoulder homing blades with regenerative capability, and perhaps most grating, a beam scythe, capable of emitting powerful ground crawling electrical bursts.
X had found it very difficult to face Sigma in this form. It was too bad that Sigma's secondary, more deadly bodies were restricted to base for their drastic power needs.
For his explosive entrance back into the playing field however, this would suit him fine.
Sigma flexed his hands, finally grinning.
"This pleases me." Sigma said, with that superior tone of sinister intentions in his voice. He looked over to the cackling maverick who had kept him alive for a year and nodded.
"Ferret, you have done me…done us all a great service. Were it not for you, I would have perished…and the Mavericks would be no more."
The maverick finally fully revealed himself into the light.
With a six foot tall body, he was about as imposing as Zero. However, the power lay in his hands and face.
The whiplike tail served to balance his finely tuned wire thin body. Like a giant sinew, the maverick stood calmly. His claws were primed out, serving as his hands all of the time. With their TitaniTefloalloy construction, he was capable of batting away plasma shots with ease before rushing in with lightning speed for the close kill. And if that failed, his powerful jaws, perfectly mimicking the viselike grip of his animalian cousins could latch on to a foe, refusing to let go as their lifeblood drained away. It was this function that had allowed this one particular maverick to almost kill Commander X during the Fifth Uprising.
It had been Bastion who had saved that troublesome Hunter's life that day. By an incredible stroke of luck, the new Hunter had smashed through the side of their combat chamber with a Chimera Mech, slamming the Ferret maverick into the wall and knocking him out cold.
"It is my duty, Sigma. I am your servant." Sigma nodded.
"You are one of my most loyal then, Fluid Ferret. More so than that fool Vile…even if he did die protecting me."
"Darn tootin. So…" Ferret flashed his powerful serrated teeth. "When do we get the ball rolling?"
Sigma flexed his hands again.
"It will still be a while until the other Maverick Generals are finished being constructed. Another six hours from now, I would say we'll be ready."
Fluid Ferret smashed his teeth together, shaking his head.
"A lot can happen in six hours." Sigma nodded.
"We had best make the most of our time. Are the transports ready?" Ferret nodded, grinning.
"I sent out the psychic signal a while back. The reploids I infected with the low level servant Virus are now taking actions to ready the transports. It will only take a transport of a Maverick General with the Berserker Maverick Virus to complete the transition and give us our armies."
"Military depots have been spotted along the way for armament?" Ferret nodded.
"Perhaps humanity's greatest contribution to their own downfall is countries continuing to fight amongst themselves while we threaten to kill them all." Sigma grinned evilly.
"So true." Sigma began to cackle, growing louder all the time. "And so the scourge is resurrected…"
Ferret joined in the laughter.
Hundreds of feet underneath the ground, no one above could hear them.
But the Mavericks were back.
And they had returned with a vengeance.
"BLAST! Where would Horn be?" Doan grumbled, as he and Wycost charged through the hallways. It was five seconds since Wycost had chillingly announced that the leader of URFAWP was the target for the two escaped reploids, Allegro and Andante.
As they passed by the detention block, Wycost skidded to a halt to take a quick look inside. He frowned at what he saw.
"Hey Doan! Are these guys the Trio I keep hearing about?" Doan paused in mid-dash and reversed himself, taking a look inside the door that had been blown out by the escapees. The grim gray reploid nodded.
The three half dead figures inside, all knocked into stasis by some kind of blow were indeed Jad, Kol and Gavin of the 21st. Wycost chirped his teeth, then shook his head.
"No time to worry about them just now. We have to catch up to our fugitives…and Horn as well." Wycost turned himself about, his scanning goggles lowered over his eyeballs.
He was stopped dead in his tracks by five X-Busters pointed at his chest. Doan's face went deadpan at the sight.
Wycost just blinked. Five angry Hunters growling at him was an imposing threat, but Wycost was past caring about his own life anymore. As far as he was concerned, if they shot him dead, it was no big loss.
"Well?" Wycost shrugged. "Are you going to shoot me, or stand aside?" One particularly vicious Hunter began to charge up his Buster, letting the whine fill the air.
"If you so much as BLINK, I'm gonna frag your traitorous carcass." Wycost returned the glare, folding his arms.
"Traitorous? Listen bub. As we SPEAK, those two new reploids Bastion and Zero picked up on Horn's island are off playing hide and go slag with the unknowing J.K. Horn. I plan to stop them. And right now, you have two options. Step out of my way and let me go save his hide, or I force my way through you all." Doan clacked his teeth together, backing away slightly.
"Wycost…" Doan said through clenched teeth. "This isn't exactly how we score brownie points…"
"HOLD IT!" A thundering voice suddenly echoed through the hallway, shattering the tense situation.
Wycost, Doan and the ringleader of the Hunter squad in front of them turned their heads about to spy Mega Man X running down the hallway, his face flustered. Wycost grunted.
"Joy. If it isn't the Blueboy." Wycost raised an arm. "Hey X, would ya mind explaining to these second rate putzes I have a job to do?"
X held back a few paces and shook his head.
"Tell me what you're doing up and around, and why you're here at the scene of the crime." Wycost held his tongue in check, grasping for words.
"X, I don't have time for this! But seeing as every trigger happy Wycost hater in this place would be more than happy to blow me away, I'll tell you. Inside is the aftermath of Allegro and Andante's escape. The Trio is stunned, but they'll live. As I stand here USELESS, J.K. Horn is about to taste death from the furious beam staffs of Allegro and Andante. SO…ARE YOU GONNA LET ME THROUGH?"
The other Hunters still held their Busters leveled at him. But finally X nodded, abdicating the truth in Wycost's words.
"Go. Go save Horn." Wycost grunted in response, then activated his thrusters.
The few Hunters who didn't move aside fast enough soon found themselves eating the floor, knocked down by his burst of speed.
Doan took off in hot pursuit of his mean green ally, leaving X to wonder just what the Hell was going on.
He activated his comm.
"Zero, Bastion!"
"Yeah?"
"Whassup, X?" X frowned.
"Wycost's up and about. He says that the escapees are planning to end J.K. Horn's life. Mobilize and keep an eye ready." X shut off the comm, stepping inside the ruined detention block.
Checking the Trio, X nodded.
"Wycost was right. They'll be just fine. A few bumps and bruises wiser, but no worse for the wear." X stood up, glaring.
"I just hope I did the right thing letting Wycost go." He shrugged, turning to face the grimacing Hunters walking in to secure the area.
Either way, Wycost wasn't alone. Doan was with him…
And Doan wouldn't let anything bad happen.
When the initial rumble of Allegro and Andante's escape, caused by Allegro's hidden explosive charges was made audible through the entire Tokyo HQ, J.K. Horn was walking along the hallways, moving towards the general direction of the Training Facility.
Two seconds after the beginning bang, Horn was picking himself up off of the floor, wondering what the Hell had just happened.
Five seconds after that, as unarmed Hunters all around him tried to no avail to seek an answer through their comm systems, which were all busy, J.K. Horn suddenly heard a blood curdling cry reach his ears, a pair of ragged screams that he knew.
"Oh no…" Horn said gravely. "The twins…THEY'RE FREE!" And within himself, Horn knew that they only wanted one thing.
His death. For reasons unknown to him, but suspected by everyone else, he was a target in their deadly game. So, he did the only thing he could do.
He ran. He ran in the opposite direction from where the pair of cries had emanated from, in an attempt to avoid their wrath.
Of course, when Hunters are buzzing about, unsure of what's happened and growing more paranoid by the minute, one's speed decreases greatly. Horn cursed himself for not having some form of an emergency accelerator system like dash thrusters.
"HORN!" A powerful, booming and ANGRY voice rang through the air, causing the aforementioned reploid to skip over a cycle in fear.
Horn sped up, slamming through wave after wave of Hunters. There was only one escape for him now.
"Hopefully the hangar isn't locked down…" Horn said raggedly as he pounded down the hallway.
"THERE HE IS, BRO!" Horn winced as he heard the voice. Turning his head, he saw his worst fear.
Allegro, thrusters providing full thrust down the hallway, was smashing his way through the Hunters, most of whom had plastered their bodies against the wall to avoid the duo. Close behind was the larger, more docile of the twins, Andante.
But both of them were homed in. Horn turned his head back around and finally saw hope.
"The Hangar Doors…" Horn slammed it open quickly, his frenzied eyes looking for hope.
There were five hovercycles out and ready. Horn chose the nearest and wasted no time in activating it. Repulsors lifted the metal skimmer off the ground, showing what made this a hovercycle. On a thin layer of air, Horn revved the motor up and charged away.
The hangar door had finished shutting itself as he had run in, a part of the emergency response caused by the twin's outbreak. Horn gritted his teeth and pushed the thumb trigger for the hidden plasma cannon in the nose of the craft.
Thankfully, the trio of blasts the nose cannon fired blew the garage exit to smoking shreds, allowing Horn escape.
Allegro and Andante sliced the hangar door open as they came in with their beam staffs, then seeing Horn's vapor trail as he blasted out, also quickly hopped on to two more of the cycles.
"Come on, bro!" Allegro growled, his eyes narrowed. "This time, the snake shall die!"
"And with him the venemous infection…" Andante said. They gunned their engines, flying out of the hangar as quickly as they had entered.
Horn had a head start on them.
Five seconds later, the empty and smoking hangar received its third unwelcome set of visitors, as Wycost and Doan barreled in.
Wycost's eyes narrowed at the damage, and he had to shut them for a moment.
The destruction…such useless destruction. Doan hopped on a cycle and kicked its power on. The grayish reploid turned in stony annoyance to his green comrade and jerked his helmeted head.
"Camaaahhn!! They're way ahead of us!" Wycost flexed his powerful hands into and out of fists, then he opened his eyes and nodded.
"Just one more mission…" Wycost breathed. He hopped onto the final cycle and followed Doan's huge dust trail.
There was to be a reckoning soon.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!" Cain bellowed, his cherubic features a bright shade of newborn baby pink. The varicose vein in his forehead pulsated angrily as his comm spritzed and fried. Finally, a voice of reason came on the line.
"X here. The Trio is stunned, but they'll be all right. Gavin came to a bit ago, and he said that the twins Allegro and Andante had concealed Electromagnetic Pulse Emitters in their chest compartments. Seems that our scanning technology isn't as wonderful as we think it is." Cain bared his teeth.
"Keep me posted."
"Hey, this is Bastion!" Another voice came on the line, somewhat less controlled. "I'm in the Medical Bay with Bristol. I've picked up Hazil's incoming warp transmitter signal, and he's still two minutes out, but coming in like a bat outta Hell. The Bay's ready for wounded, if we have any." Cain nodded.
"Zero?" Cain queried.
"Yeah, my great captain Fogey?" Zero grunted, chittering his own comm into life. Cain grimaced.
"Knock the crap off and give it to me straight, Zero!" Zero snorted.
"Fine. Undiluted, Allegro and Andante made with all speed out of the detention block in a direct line around the HQ. The only injuries to the Hunters were those who weren't smart enough to move out of their way. I keep hearing that they were yelling Horn's name, and once they'd found him they kept a direct bead."
"Where did they go?" Cain asked raggedly, not wanting to ask if Horn was dead now. Zero drew in a breath and frowned from his end of the line.
"Well, all I had to do was follow the broken china, because those three booked it out of here like a bull in the flatware shop. Horn had some sense in him, because he headed to the hangar. After swiping one of our cycles, he blew his way out of the metallic bay doors and is somewhere zooming around Tokyo's exterior Highway System as we speak. Allegro and Andante followed him as well. However, there's one good piece of info to this." Cain felt like slamming his head into his desk.
"Oh, really? Just what makes this a good thing?" Zero harrumphed.
"After X defused their imminent situation, Wycost and Doan booked it to the same locale, hopped on the final two cycles and are now chasing after those three. Downside: We can't follow them."
"Correction: YOU CAN'T." Bristol suddenly chittered in with a voice between worry and eagerness. Don't forget that Bastion has a new Flight Armor almost ready for him." Zero snorted.
"Flyboy, you serious? Do you think you can catch up to them?" Bastion coughed for a moment, then shrugged on his end of the commlines.
"Zero, I'd consider it a test fly of this sucker. Bristol, is it ready?" Bristol sucked on a paperclip, frowning a bit.
"Almost. We just need Hazil to pull it out of the replicator and hook it up to the underside of your saber recharger pack."
"Right where the Powerstorm went…" Bastion mused thoughtfully. He shook himself out of it.
"When is Hazil planning to get back again?"
Even Cain could hear the distinctive 'ziiing' of an incoming warp signal land in the Medical Bay. Bristol gasped in shock for a moment, and even Bastion let out a grunt of surprise, reaching for his beam sabers.
Hazil blinked at what he saw.
"Woah, hold on there big slugger. It's just me." Bastion let his hands drop away from his sabers and frowned.
"Hazil, I need you to get my new Flight Armor operational…NOW." Hazil blinked for a moment, then pushed the question he thought up out of his mind.
Speed was of the essence.
Putting everything else unimportant to his current task out of his primary thought patterns, Hazil set to work, pounding away on his keyboard.
The nearby replicators acknowledged the command, and set to work building the Flight Armor with little fuss.
It took thirty seconds, thanks to the intricacy of the microcircuitry and backup systems in the suit.
But when Hazil pulled it out of the constructor pod and held it aloft, Bastion found himself grinning again.
His wings were back. Hazil turned Bastion around, then activated the magnetic clamps on the back of the Armor's encasement pack. Enclosed in this smoothlined, tapering squarish rectangle lied the wings and the main brain of the very suit itself. This was why the encasement pack was heavily armored, able to deflect everything from depleted uranium slugs to Firebursts to electrical blasts to plasma supershots with ease.
Hazil connected the pack to the small of Bastion's back, and felt it tug into place right underneath the saber recharger port, being pulled into place. Hazil grinned. That was the streamlined design again, and he loved it.
This particular Flight Armor design was unique, for it was designed specifically for Bastion, and only his back body construct would fit it. In that respect, it was like giving Bastion a pair of custom built hands.
Hazil stepped back, pulling out a remote control and pushing a red button in the corner of it.
Bastion's new wings slid out like a pair of razor blades. And with the remarkably thin width and the way the necessary metals for the Electromagnetic Repulsion effect were reflective, they also shone brightly, almost blinding the good doctor.
"Shiznits and fluffernutters!" Hazil winced, covering his eyes. "Bastion, if this thing wasn't deadly enough, now you're gonna be giving people sunglare. They might mistake you as a UFO under bizarre conditions." Bastion activated his connection to the Wing's subsystems, bringing up the command and diagnostic menu of the wings into the corner of his left eye.
"It needs power…an initial charge." Hazil chuckled.
"Just let me grab my power cord here." Hazil ran over into a far corner of his Bay, opening up a drawer. He removed an almost antique orange plastic insulated power cable, then plugged it into a wall outlet. Hazil examined Bastion from all angles, furrowing his brow.
"Hey Bastion, where do I plug this sucker in?" Bastion blinked for a moment, also as unsure as of what to do.
"For once you got me stunned." Hazil scratched his head, then a giant flash of light came from his face.
"DAMN! Bastion, if you aren't a fraggin' genius of the third kind!" Hazil ran back over to his equipment drawer and pulled out a pair of heart electroshock defibrillator pads, that looked oddly reminiscent of a pair of old fashioned steam irons. Bastion frowned at what he saw.
"Ehh…Hazil, what'yre doing there?" Hazil grinned from ear to ear.
"You should be able to reroute excess electrical power from your main system into the Flight Armor along your uplink. If I make it a small charge--like from this here human heart restarter, it should be enough to jumpstart your engine." Bastion frowned.
"Be serious, Hazil! Those things HURT!" Hazil gave Bastion an evil crazy old man stare.
"Oh, believe me. I AM serious. Now…OPEN WIDE!" Charging electrical power into the paddles, Hazil gave them a test burst into each other, then grunted in acknowledgement as the scent of ozone came into his nose.
Bastion removed the shock buffers from his wiring, then directed the upcoming overflow's path to go to the Angel's Advantage Flight Armor.
The poor Hunter didn't even have time to suck in a breath of air before Hazil unleashed the defibrillator's power upon him.
"GEEYAACK!" Bastion cried out, his body twitching involuntarily to the pulse. Hazil cackled like a mad scientist for a moment as he read the diagnostics on Bastion's Flight Armor. The power level was climbing slowly, for the electrical charge was small.
For the Armor's purposes, anyway. Bastion was twitching like a rabbit with an electrode in his head. Hazil noted the incredible pain the Hunter was in, and when the Armor reached 5% power, he removed the paddles.
Bastion crumpled to the floor, still twitching. Thankfully, Bristol was there to catch him and help him to a slow descent. Bristol turned her face up to Hazil and glared angrily.
"That was uncalled for, you sod." Hazil blinked, then snorted. Putting his equipment away, he shrugged.
"Short of a lightning bolt, I couldn't think of any other way to give him an instant powerup." Hazil shrugged. "I'd give him a lollipop, but I don't think it'd make him feel any better."
Bastion groaned, his eyes opening back up. Hazil stepped down beside him and ran a quick scan of his systems. The grouchy doc nodded slowly.
"You'll be all right, bub. Maybe a little woozy for the next few seconds, but short of your pride, nothing got obliterated. Your wiring is top notch, buster…and that's probably because I had to REPLACE HALF OF IT." Bastion finally shook himself to his senses, then picked himself up to his feet.
Or tried to. His hands were still suffering from the raging impulses, and the limbs weakened from under him. Bristol caught him again, and Bastion chuckled weakly.
"Come down here often?" Bristol shook her index finger, then flipped the tip of his nose with a wry smile.
"Let's keep focused on one thing at a time, eh luv?" Bastion sighed.
"All right. So, will this thing run now?" Hazil clacked his teeth together.
"It's got enough of a charge to get you airborne for about ten seconds. But if you don't pick up speed and get those Thermodynamic Friction Rechargers working for you, there'll be one less Hunter and one more grease spot on our roof…or wherever you crash." Bastion grinned for a moment at the thought.
"Taking risks. It sounds like fun." Bastion's eyes darkened, as he reattained the serious gaze. "So which way did our plucky five go off?" Hazil flashed a thumbs up.
"Cain keeps tracers on the hovercycles. We're seeing that Horn's leading them AWAY from the city, and into the mountain highways." Hazil tossed Bastion a datapadd, and the Hunter caught it easily. Hazil shrugged.
"That sucker has a direct link to the tracer feeds. Just don't drop it, and you should be able to catch up with them easily." Bastion frowned.
"They have a huge headstart on me, Hazil." Hazil wagged a condescending finger and pointed it at Bastion with a wink.
"You're flying with the power of electromagnetics now, Bastion. Not thrusters. You were able to get up to…what, 600 MPH on a good day, using your boot thrusters as well?" Bastion nodded. Hazil cackled.
"This thing can get 1000 MPH easy. Of course, if you went any faster than 600, you might get a nasty case of friction burn." Hazil nodded. "So until we get THAT detail worked out, don't try it."
Bastion flexed his hands for a moment, grunting in acknowledgement.
"Roger. I'd better get going then." Hazil held out his hand, shaking his head.
"Some prelim figurework has told me that it'll take at least 5 minutes of flight time before your primary thrust batteries are charged up. After that, it'll start shunting power into the weapons system of your Flight Armor…the lightning bolt emitters." Bastion couldn't help but laugh.
"Bristol, that was natural genius there, adding electrical discharge capabilities." Bristol shrugged, smiling widely.
"You DO lead the 'Lightning Strike' Hunter Unit, Bastion."
Just then, Cain's comm chittered.
"Bastion, do you plan on getting your sorry carcass out and chasing the merry parade of doom?" Bastion winced at the rash voice of the Hunter's leader.
"On my way."
It was a short dash to the outside of the HQ. Readying his wings into their position, Bastion took in a deep breath.
"Ten seconds to get these rechargers working…Wish me luck, Bristol." Bastion activated the wings, and suddenly felt a powerful force lift him into the air about six inches. With his legs dangling uselessly beneath him, Bastion noted the near quiet hum the wings produced. Most intriguing was the fact that light seemed to emanate from the wings, spiraling outwards.
"So that's how they work…" Bastion mused. But he had already used up two seconds of his time…Bastion decided it was time to get airborne.
However, in a small gesture of military genius, Bastion didn't soar high into the clouds. Instead, he maximized his chances of survival and skimmed along the ground, only two feet above the hard roadways.
Bastion found the new Flight Armor to be unbelievable. With his eyes wide open, he realized that by a simple mental command, he was in control of it.
"It's like a new set of hands…" Bastion said in stunned amazement. He raised himself up another five feet and did a slow barrel roll, maintaining his height.
He was cruising at a speed of 150 MPH, enough to whip his hair back and wish that he had some eye protection. As an afterthought, Bastion hit the comm on his chest.
"Hazil!" The doctor came on with a gruffish woof.
"Yeah, Bastion?" The Hunter squinted his eyes a bit more.
"I think we should investigate the possibility of a set of contacts for my eyes. I'm having to squint them." Hazil chortled.
"It's nothing you didn't have to deal with when you had your Powerstorm on."
"It bothered me then, too bub. I just figured if we're upgrading, we might as well go all the way." Hazil chortled.
"You whiner."
"WHINER?!" Bristol's voice came over the line in a cry of shocked annoyance. "Whine about this, you limey!" Bastion winced, clearly hearing the definitive crack of Bristol's fist smashing into the side of Hazil's jaw, and the sickening smack as the reploid doctor once more slammed into the wall, leaving a dent. Bristol's voice came on the commlink and sighed. "Sorry you had to hear that, luv. That was also for him shocking you to heaven's door." Bastion chuckled.
"Aah, s'all right. So tell me, can you help me out with this contact lens problem?" Bristol nodded.
"Give me a quick second…Land, won't you? It'll make it easier for me to warp it to you." Bastion did as he was told, noting thankfully that the friction rechargers were working, granting him a 25% charge in his Flight Armor.
Bristol's fingers were loud as they typed away on the Medical Console, bringing up the necessary schematics. She hummed a merry little diddy as she worked, and Bastion blinked.
"Are you humming God Save the Queen?"
"I AM British, luv." Bristol giggled for a moment as she stopped typing. "Done. I based them somewhat on Wycost's sunglare goggles, but with some definite differences. They have a light red tint to them, and they're based on the sides of your helmet." Bastion grunted in approval.
"Sounds good. Upload the new designs now!" Bastion's helmet suddenly flashed as a warp signal, vanishing. Bastion knew that it had merely become a warp signal, a piece of computerized code that had vanished into his warp matrix's primary memory block. The additions from HQ would be uploaded to the existing designs, and then dewarped back into his helmet as a piece of matter that he wore.
Sure enough, ten seconds later, the helmet reappeared on his head, even managing to leave his hair as complete as before. Bastion ran a quick scan of it, and found that it did indeed have the new protective eyewear. He pushed a button on the side of his helmet just below his comm switch, and found that a pair of red tinted crystal sheets slid from the sides of his helmet, completely covering his eyes and providing a complete, but comfortable seal.
"What the…?!" Bastion suddenly exclaimed. Bristol giggled again.
"They also have a Heads Up Display built in. Nothing new, and I thought you might like it. It'll save you time on examining your systems stats during battle." Bastion laughed loudly.
"Sounds good! Bristol, that's another one I owe you!" Bristol sighed.
"Oh, I'm sure I can find a way for you to pay me back…" Bastion blushed visibly, and chortled in embarrassment. Bristol slapped her arm. "Well, what are you waiting for? Those five are ahead of you." Bastion nodded, glad to be back in a situation he knew how to handle.
"Roger. Bastion, signing off." Bastion ended the connection, then activated the Flight Armor's Repulsion Actuators and once more began to skim along the highway, following the Tracer Signal on his new red ruby flight goggle's HUD.
His power was climbing…Bastion allowed himself a grin. It did feel good to be back in the air again.
"The Desert Hunter has evolved…" Bastion mused. He grinned even wider as he decided to get some serious altitude, shooting up away from the earth with ease on his silent propulsion.
"The Desert Hunter flies again. Only this time, I'm something more." Bastion allowed himself a small comparison to some of the Muslim teachings of his past. "I am more now. I am Heaven's Fury."
"Move, Damnit!" Horn shouted at his hovercycle. But the piece of transportation didn't listen to him, and chugged along at its own pace. Horn gritted his teeth and looked behind him again.
Allegro and Andante were still hot on his tail…and were making their presence known. They had already fired one barrage of plasma shots from their hovercycle's nose cannons, and managed to melt the seat padding only inches from Horn's posterior.
Horn's robotic eye focused in, noting with dread that their cannons were reactivating again.
"Oh, sheeeooot!" Horn wailed, grabbing onto his handlebars with an even tighter grip. He was going to have to try his best to avoid the assault, and that could pose problems.
Horn and the twin reploids behind him were the one abnormality in the serene calm of the Highways leading away from Tokyo. Green grass grew on the sides of the road, accompanied by occasional patches of wildflowers. The sun was high in the air, seeing as it was around Two in the Afternoon.
Horn didn't have time to notice those.
Nor did he have time to notice that only a mile behind his bringers of death, two Hunters on similar hovercycles were booking it at incredible speed to them all.
Doan and Wycost skimmed along, using their cycle's dash burner function to catch up. When this was used, the front end of the cycle came up and you literally popped a wheelie. The fact that this also exposed the vicious slicing plasma blade underneath the front end, which never failed to slice through anything, helped matters a bit.
Unfortunately for the bloodthirsty in the Hunters, there was nothing to slice through at the moment.
Doan looked over at Wycost for a moment, sparing his eyes a continual run on the road. His calm seeking eyes probed Wycost's face for a long moment, trying to discover an answer.
For better or worse, Doan knew, Wycost had gone through a life change. Who he was before would never return. At least, the part of him that fought for blood and revenge.
The new Wycost had made it very clear he wished not to fight any longer.
The fire in Wycost's eyes was gone. Of course, the green Hunter was wearing his sunglare optical visors, with all the new functions included in them.
His mouth wasn't tightened up in any form that would blatantly show Doan that Wycost was clenching his teeth together. Even the green Hunter's hands seemed loose on the handlegrips.
But the one thing Doan did notice in Wycost was the fact that the hawkish intelligence, the demeanor and spark given off by his body posture had not vanished.
At least his mind was still in the conflict…for now.
But there was something else troubling Doan. It troubled him because it involved the Revenant use he had completed a while back. The memories, the powerful visual images that Doan had seen in Wycost's troubled, barren and soulless existence, held a clue to everything.
It held a clue to Allegro, Andante and J.K. Horn…And that common clue involved the cloaked figure that had attacked Wycost on that URFAWP transport to India.
"Hey Doan!" Doan blinked, bringing himself back to reality. Wycost was up ahead of him, and using their bike's short range comm system to reach him. Doan toggled his own transmitter.
"Sorry, Wycost." Doan shook his head. "I was just thinking."
"Think later." Wycost replied. "Those two are playing shoot the fish in the barrel with Horn, and if we don't catch up, he's gonna be one dead SOB." Doan grunted.
"Here I come then!" Doan activated the Dash on his cycle, and his front end lifted up into the air.
He instantly reached a position next to Wycost, and when he dropped his front end back down, he gave Wycost a thumbs up.
"Wycost, I have a question…" Doan said, loudly enough so the other Hunter could hear him over the blowing breeze. Wycost raised up his black glasses into his helmet, staring into Doan's eyes.
"I think I know what you're going to ask." Doan shifted his handlegrips uncomfortably, biting the inside of his cheek.
"Eh? What do you think I'm going to ask?" Wycost looked ahead, not able to look directly at Doan.
"You're going to ask me if I know what all of this is about. Where Horn, those two, I and the Maverick Virus fit in the grand scheme of things." Doan blinked, stunned at the accuracy to Wycost's retort.
"Damn..." Doan shook his head. "So what's the answer?" Wycost still didn't look at Doan, shaking his head.
"Quoting specifics won't help anyone. But I'm gonna give you a vague statement, and you should be able to trace what I'm saying…with what you know from the inside of my head." Doan waited, and finally Wycost looked straight into his face. Wycost's eyes glistened with a calm blue sea of understanding, not the fire of before. "Allegro and Andante went through the same thing I did on that transport, only they were able to escape. They think Horn's responsible for it all…but truth be told, Horn's just an oblivious dreamer whose vision has turned into a nightmare. The infection…the Maverick Virus…Horn isn't responsible for it. Hell, the poor twip isn't even aware of it, and those two are after his hide. The Virus came from the outside, because we failed to eliminate all the Mavericks in the Fifth Uprising. It was a simple matter for the one surviving maverick to find Sigma and harbor his main program in his brain."
Doan frowned.
"I thought you, X, Bastion and Zero totally trashed them all!" Wycost shook his head, sighing sadly.
"We missed one. And thanks to that one, the nightmare was able to restore itself." Doan finally realized what the green Hunter was saying, and it dawned on him like a ton of bricks.
"Oh, God no…" Wycost raised a finger.
"I'm not done yet, Doan. There is one good piece of news."
"What's GOOD about this?"
"At least the GDC's ultimatum will have to be retracted now. If the mavericks are back, so's the need for the Hunters."
"It's a lousy victory, Wycost." Doan replied sourly. "No matter what the Hunters do, our victories are always tampered down by some aspect of defeat." Doan could feel the pessimism begin to restore itself in his head, and the sour cloud of his basic mood restore itself.
Wycost looked over from his own cycle and frowned.
"When I was in URFAWP, there was one reploid I got to know quite well. He went by the name of Isaiah, and one thing he pointed out to me is something I still remember."
"What?" Doan snorted, popping a wheelie to gain speed. Wycost flung his own cycle forward to catch up to the gray Hunter, setting his jaw.
"Isaiah taught me that if you get too serious all of the time, eventually you're going to hatch an egg of gray hair." Doan blinked at the odd statement, then stared at Wycost with wide eyes.
"And just what was he smoking when he said that?"
"Might have been Siberian Crabgrass…" Wycost mused, cracking a small grin. He shook his head, looking forward again. "Come on. They're catching up to Horn."
Doan set his jaw.
"Showtime, then." The two of them finally pushed their cycles to their limits, bursting ahead.
The targets were getting jittery.
"This foolishness ends now…" Allegro growled. Andante looked over in surprise, wondering what his rash twin was doing.
The answer came as Allegro pulled the trigger on his hovercycle's cannon three times. Once more, Horn deftly avoided the plasma storm, but this time it was different.
Just after his final shot, Allegro activated the speed dash on his cycle, his front end raising up into the air as he aimed the deadly underbelly of the hovercycle at the back end of the maneuvering Horn.
Horn only had time to turn his head around for a quick check, gasp in audible shock at the oncoming foe, and brace himself for the imminent impact.
The rear end of Horn's cycle was torn to shreds within milliseconds, the raging plasma underbelly blades slicing through the lightweight armor and seat padding.
Allegro swerved to the side and backed away from the now chewed up cycle that Horn was riding on.
For a few moments, Horn's cycle continued on, the back end now deprived of its rear repulsors.
Then the bike's shredded tail smashed into the concrete roadway, squealing horribly as sparks flew like mad.
The sparks lit the fuel line that had once fed power to the rear main thruster.
It took the hovercycle .262 seconds to explode, hurling J.K. Horn off of it mercifully, and slamming him like a skipping stone along the pavement as his unarmored body took the horrible strain of slowing from 200 MPH to zero all at once.
Horn's scream was loud as he flew through the air. When he hit the ground, the air got knocked out of him, and only the scraping sounds of his synthflesh being torn off his body could be heard.
Allegro and Andante turned their own cycle's thrusters off, coasting down to a halt beside the now almost dead leader of URFAWP.
Horn slumped onto his back, letting his shredded right arm cross his stomach as he looked up through his normal eye, his robotic one having shorted out.
"Noo…" Horn wheezed, his breathing labored as his medical repair system tried fruitlessly to heal his wounds.
Allegro hopped off of his cycle, walking slowly over to his former leader with rage filled, angry eyes. Taking his beam staff from its electromagnetic connection on his lower torso, the rogue reploid lit only one blade on it.
"Why, Allegro?" Horn asked, his one good eye starting to blink out of life. Allegro growled and slammed the saber's blade through Horn's right leg.
Horn's screams could be heard by Doan and Wycost as they still approached.
Wycost frowned, readying his trigger thumb.
"We go in, cannons shooting. Let's blow those cycles up and get their attention." Doan nodded, double checking to make sure his beam lance and X-Buster were still in place.
Allegro pulled the contained plasma blade away from the now shorted out limb of J.K. Horn, kicking it aside. Shards of melted metal flew out of the wound, accompanied by a pooling of red reploid blood.
"You monster." Allegro growled, activating both sides to his staff. "You built URFAWP under a ruse, fooled everyone into thinking your intentions were good. Then, slowly you used your dark servants to carry out your true mission."
"Mission…" Horn's voice trailed off, his right arm slumping to the ground weakly. "What are you talking about?" Allegro gritted his teeth, a slow scream worming its way out from between his teeth.
"ENOUGH LIES, HORN!" Allegro screamed. Raising the beam staff above his head, he stared straight into the pained and half dead face of J.K. Horn, founder of URFAWP. "It ends here, bastard." Allegro said. "No more will you bring suffering to all who you see."
Thankfully, Horn's death was not to be. A pair of guardian angels saved his bacon from imminent crisping in a blast of fury that seemed to come from the heavens themselves.
In truth, it was just Doan and Wycost, finally caught up to the conflagration and making their presence known by blowing the rogue reploid's hovercycles to smithereens.
"COMPANY!" Andante howled, whipping his saber out and igniting it. Allegro whipped his head around, in stunned disbelief.
"What?!" The explosions had jarred them out of their murderous stupor, but it had done nothing to harm them.
So Wycost and Doan brought their hovercycles into another wheelie, a final wheelie, charging the deadly underbelly of their streaking metallic missiles towards Allegro and Andante.
Of course, the twin reploids couldn't be stopped that easily, and they dashed out of the way with little effort.
However, what they weren't expecting was to have Doan and Wycost leap off their cycles as they approached, coming down towards them at a speed of 175 MPH as blurs of metal.
"NO!" Allegro yowled, readying his saber. Wycost made a blazing path for him, his eyes quiet, if not somber and contained. Allegro noticed his Buster was raised, and the wily reploid dashed aside to avoid the bodily impact the green Hunter would have most likely inflicted upon him.
But Allegro was wrong. Even if his heart no longer wanted to cause death, Wycost was a skilled, dangerous and deadly Hunter, unpredictable and because of that, at the top of his game. Wycost kept his Buster's bead on the dashing figure, his mouth tightening as his eyes glimmered underneath his goggles.
"Not today, pal." What Wycost released was not a powerful burst of plasma, but instead a high energy flash of light in the Candelabra Units of millions. It was his Strobe Flash, attained from the final Maverick General in the Fifth Uprising more than a year ago.
Allegro's optical photoreceptors overloaded instantly, sending a painful amount of signals to his main neuroprocessor. In response, and so that the rest of his systems could still function, the neuroprocessor shut off the connection to Allegro's optics, and sent in repair energy, equipped with maintenance nanobots to patch up the blown wiring. It would take some time, though.
In effect, what happened was that Allegro was blinded until his optics were fully repaired.
That still didn't stop him from screaming from that one blinding moment of overpowering light. Wycost landed on the ground beside the reploid, shifting back to his normal Buster's plasma function.
"Pathetic fool." Wycost muttered. "You're trying to destroy the wrong reploid."
Doan had been sparring with Andante for the brief three seconds it had taken Wycost to disable the unsuspecting Allegro. His beam lance, longer than a regulation beam saber had to be used with both hands, but it also gave Doan the advantage to keep the fight at a longer range from his body than others.
For the moment, he was close to par with Andante, whose double bladed beam staff gave him twice the potential for chaos.
But the Strobe Flash Wycost let loose also struck Andante, though not as severely. Doan's back was to Wycost's own fight, and so he was not blinded like his sparring counterpart.
Andante squinted through his optics, still feeling the retinal burn from the shorted out optical circuitry. Doan gritted his teeth and pulled back for a moment, holding the lance in his right hand while his left shifted seamlessly into his X-Buster.
Firing off a small barrage of blasts, Doan ensured that Andante would have to either evade or repel the assault. True to colors, Andante readied his staff and began to twirl it, creating a rotating shield of protection for the shots.
What Andante most likely wasn't expecting was that Doan would be following it with a dash strike.
Ducking low as his boot thrusters slammed him forward through the air, Doan gripped his beam lance firmly and finally slammed the blade into the rotating melee of Andante's defense.
Contained plasma met contained plasma, and the rotations stopped. A small blast of plasma that hadn't been deflected yet zinged by the now motionless beam staff blades, slamming into Andante's shoulder.
The reploid cried out in pain as the plasma fizzled away, leaving a slightly scuffed and melted piece of slag where his shoulder cuff had been. His grip on the staff weakened, and Doan easily slammed the enemy reploid's weapon aside.
He rushed inwards with another burst of his dash thrusters, slamming his helmeted head up into the gut of Andante. Andante's scream died out as the air was knocked out of him, and Doan followed it up with a punishing uppercut, using the handle of his beam lance instead of his hand.
To add a final threat, Doan held the plasma blade at Allegro's throat once he had finally crashed to earth.
Through cold menacing eyes, Doan held the lance level, the plasma illuminating the tiny beads of sweat on Andante's brow.
"You move…you die." Andante's breathing was labored, and he looked right back at Doan.
"Why don't you just kill me now?" Doan readied his Buster, pointing it at Andante and pulling his lance back.
"Because some people who carry around plasma blade weaponry don't just eliminate supposedly rogue reploids without a darn good reason." Doan jerked his head to the flaming husks of the Twin's hijacked cycles. "Move."
Andante did as he was told, unceremoniously shoved next to the still blinded Allegro, cursing and spitting as his hands tried unsuccessfully to loosen the powerful electromagnetic shackles.
Doan stepped next to Wycost, speaking softly from the corner of his mouth.
"So now what do we do with them?" Wycost blinked, raising his sunglare goggles up.
"You keep that Buster trained on them. They move, blow out a kneecap. I'm going to check on Horn…" Wycost looked over, sucking on a tooth. "Something tells me that he's not in the best shape of his life after they got through with him."
As Wycost trod over slowly towards the motionless Horn, his fears were confirmed. The reploid was indeed in bad shape. Most noticeable was the saber wound in his leg, a gaping hole with rivulets of melted metal and severed blood veins. His entire body however showed the signs of a severe case of road rash. Wycost had to shut his eyes for a moment to push the swelling rage of emotions back down.
"No…" Wycost grunted to himself. "Horn, can you hear me?"
Horn's good eye fluttered open, trying miserably to focus in on the green blur above him.
"Who…Who is it?" Horn slurred. Wycost groaned.
"Aah, Cripes. Horn, do you have a Chest Compartment with Sub-Tank technology?"
"I…Yeah…" Horn wheezed, his eye beginning to snap shut again. Wycost activated his own Chest Compartment and pulled out a Sub-Tank.
"Then open it, damnit!" Wycost demanded. Horn groaned for a few moments, and finally with much effort, Horn's own Chest Compartment opened up. Wycost slammed the Sub-Tank home and set it to feed, then shut the Compartment up again. "I hope this works, Horn. It was only half charged."
The energy feed became apparent quickly, as Horn's optic shot open, and he sucked in a breath. The wound to his leg sealed the blood flow, although it would take repairs by a doctor like Hazil to close the wound completely.
Horn raised a hand up, finally focusing in on his savior. He blinked in surprise.
"You're…you're…"
"Wycost." The Green Hunter reached his own hand down and pulled Horn to his feet. Horn shook his head, now close to fully recovered. At least he could speak now.
"You…saved me! But you were on that transport in India that the Hunters said went maver…" Wycost held up a hand, his stern face silencing Horn midsentence.
"Horn, I know it's not you that is infecting URFAWP."
"WHAT?!" Allegro yowled from his seat. Doan leveled his Buster and growled.
"Don't move." Allegro addressed the gray Hunter with a shrewd look and gazed over to Horn and Wycost.
"Whaddya mean he isn't responsible? HE'S THE SNAKE'S HEAD!" Wycost turned around, pointing a sturdy hand and a sturdy index finger at the hotheaded reploid.
"WRONG." Allegro sat back, as if pushed by the force in Wycost's voice. "I was infected, yes. And I surmise you were also threatened with that fate. Yes, URFAWP is where the problem is stemming from. But it isn't J.K. Horn that is causing it. He is oblivious to everything."
"I get the feeling I'm not going to like where this conversation goes…" Horn clucked. Wycost shook his head.
"No. you won't. But you two…Allegro and Andante, Horn isn't the one you should be threatening with death."
Suddenly, a rustling of air blew past the stalled scene from above. All eyes turned to the sky above, and a darkened figure settled down to earth.
The long brown and rustling hair of Bastion settled onto his shoulders and upper back, and his blindingly radiant wings whined down from their flight, reluctantly slipping into the darker, more heavily built backpack that they could not see.
Bastion took a look around himself, calmly soaking in the situation. Then he turned to Wycost, blinking silently.
"Bastion." Wycost said calmly. "You got here a bit late. The cavalry already saved the day. Horn's safe."
"For the moment, at least…" Bastion mused, his eyes darkening into a glare as he looked past the green Hunter to the trembling metal man.
"Oh my dear sweet Bengay…" Horn said, his voice fluctuating in dismay. A shaky hand raised itself, pointing to Bastion. "That's…that's…"
"My new Flight Armor. Angel's Advantage. Designed and built by Bristol and Hazil of the MHHQ." Horn gulped down a breath of air, looking for all the world like an aged fish out of water.
"No…Angelus De Morte…" Horn whispered softly, his knees beginning to go weak. "The Angel of Death…And I helped to create him!" Bastion furrowed his brow.
"Eh? What are you jabbering about, Horn?" Wycost reached over, grabbing Horn under an arm so the reploid would still be standing.
Horn wiped his sweaty and scraped brow with a hankie, then shook his head incredulously.
"What I'm saying, Desert Fire, is that I helped to program the Electromagnetic Repulsion Actuators. And now you're probably going to kill me with that suit." Bastion blinked incredulously.
"Why would you help build my new Flight Armor, Horn? The two of us are mortal enemies, for Fryin's sake!" Horn finally stood tall and sucked in a breath. Staring at Bastion in a look of futility and hopelessness, he shrugged.
"At the time, all I was doing was helping out your girlfriend Bristol."
"GIRLFRIEND?!" Wycost hollered, looking first at Horn and then Bastion, who even as his cheeks began to match the fiery red of his armor, shook his head.
"A lot's happened while you were gone, Wycost." Wycost shook his head, then slammed a fist against it.
"What fun…" Horn tapped his uninjured foot on the ground, being careful not to place weight on the stabbed one.
"So Bastion, the question remains; now that your new jumpjet is operational, are you going to kill me with it?" Bastion frowned, looking at Horn.
"Both you and the twins have crossed me before. But eliminating you by using this suit, as something that you helped to build, would be wrong. No, Horn. I will not kill you with this suit, and for the duration of this conflict, we're just going to have to learn to shake hands and cooperate." Horn sighed, looking to Wycost.
"Can I trust him?" Wycost blinked.
"With your life." Wycost suddenly realized the chipper statement was slightly off kilter, seeing as in recent minced words, the two were enemies. He shrugged. "Sorry, I'd trust him with my life. But he'll keep his promise…He always has."
Horn stepped away from Wycost, walking towards the Desert Fire, now Angelus De Morte. Putting his weakened arms on his waist, Horn looked up at Bastion through his torn and ragged shorts and Hawaiian T-shirt. The two stared into each other's eyes, calmly, probing for some aspect of the other's discomfort.
"So what can I do next?" Horn asked softly. Bastion looked over at Wycost, who raised his hand.
"Bastion, Horn isn't the one who's infecting URFAWP. He's being set up as the patsy." Bastion frowned.
"You sure?" Wycost flipped his glasses down, putting his face back into a blank stare of solemnity.
"DEAD sure." Bastion raised his chin up.
"All right, Wycost. I trust you. But as for those two twins…" Bastion frowned and looked over to Horn's attackers. "I still have some questions concerning how I was nearly killed a while back chasing after Canark." Wycost blinked in surprise.
"You were almost wiped out?" Bastion jerked a thumb at them.
"They're the most likely suspects." Doan stepped forth, putting his beam lance back in it's quirky diagonal shoulder to waist recharger, much like a sheathe for a traditional katana.
"If I may interject, I think it's in our best interests to get everyone back to the HQ at the moment."
After re-rounding up the posse, Bastion, Wycost, and Doan activated their warp generators and took the haphazard group of innocent, suspect, and ruthless reploids through the vapor trails of the air with them o their way back home.
There were still questions, yes.
But none of them knew that five minutes from now, they would all be answered in a resounding chord that would shatter the world's sense of peace.
"We got warp signals inbound!" Bristol yowled from her console. "It looks like Bastion, Wycost and Doan got their escapees."
Sitting high on his command chair, Cain nodded sagely, being careful not to overexert himself.
"How long until they get here?"
"Ten seconds." Cain nodded again. At that moment, the Trio of the 21st walked in the door, and Cain noticed their approach.
"Aah, you're all alive and well I see." Cain said placidly. "Well, have a seat." Gavin stepped forth, shaking his head.
"Considering those two troublemakers got out on our watch, I think it's best if we stand for a while." Cain shrugged.
"Suit yourself, boys."
Just then, the warp signals came home, rematerializing in the warp chamber on the side of the Command Center. Dragging the twin reploids in chains behind him, Bastion walked out grimfaced. Following was Doan, then Horn, then Wycost.
"Cain, Wycost shared some news with us all that may come as a surprise…" Bastion started. Cain raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? Wycost, care to elaborate for the rest of us?" Wycost blinked for a moment and stepped forth.
"Cain, in the short time since I left here about a month ago, I've seen enough stuff to turn a penguin all white. Most frightening was the reappearance of the Virus…which I fought off." Wycost waited, then Cain shrugged.
"Continue." Wycost took in a breath.
"Cain, Horn here isn't the one who is responsible for the Virus's reappearance. The person who is…"
Wycost was cut off by a powerful wailing cry that turned the lights in HQ a powerful red, klaxons going off by their own accord.
Clamping his hands over his ears, Cain gritted his teeth and turned to Bristol.
"What's happening here?" Bristol was also disturbed by the noise and flashing lights, but she had enough sense to bring up what the computer was telling her. Blinking, she looked at Cain.
"We've just received a transmission…it's a planetwide transmission!" Bristol shook her head. "We're not the only ones to get this. Everyone on earth in range of a TV, an Internet connection or a vidwindow will be seeing the same thing."
"Where did it come from?" Cain grimaced. Bristol glared as she typed away.
"Unknown. Whoever did this bounced it off a few hundred communication satellites in orbit…and each one is transmitting."
Cain felt that queasy feeling in his stomach again, that empty gnawing demon inside. Wycost finally released a frown, a glare, baring his teeth to the telescreen above.
"It's him…They're moving sooner than expected." Cain ignored Wycost for the moment and waved his hand in the air.
"If someone wants us to watch their vacation movies so badly, we might as well. PUT IT UP ON THE SCREEN."
With a few swift keystrokes, Bristol opened the data feed to the message.
When the first image flickered to life on the giant screen overhead, a dead silence filled the bay. Even the klaxons turned off because Bristol had started the transmission.
Nothing but silence.
Nothing but a still, unearthly hollowness filled the room. No one could respond, all stunned by what they saw. Everyone but Wycost, who knowingly nodded his head and watched like the rest of them.
The figure that stared down at them was a familiar one. One that chilled the bones of all humans, and one that caused many Hunters to mutter audible threats.
With a pair of jagged colored scars coming down over his eyes, a bald synthskin head, and an all too familiar sneer, Sigma looked down at them.
"This message is being broadcast all over the world at the same time." Sigma's raspy voice began, pausing for effect. A dimmer figure stood behind him, but the shadows kept it concealed, and even its shape couldn't be made out.
"First of all, my congratulations to the Maverick Hunters. In my last great Uprising, they almost succeeded in killing me." Sigma sneered again. "ALMOST. You can never completely kill me off…kill off the mavericks, unless you eliminate all the other carriers." Zero choked on that statement, pointing a finger at the screen.
"Impossible! He was the only one left when we walked out of that sewer!" Wycost raised a hand, his eyes growing dead, but also with a calm fury to them.
"Look behind him. Don't you recognize that form?"
No one in the room, not even X could identify it. Wycost sighed. "Might as well let the man finish then."
True enough, Sigma's broadcast began after another three second gloat.
"Behind me is the only maverick that was left standing after that conflict. Were it not for his diligence, his ruthless, and his loyalty, the world would indeed be fully rid of all the Mavericks." Sigma raised his right hand. "Servant, step forth so the home audience can view you again."
A short pause on Sigma's end. Finally, the shadowed figure stepped up. He was garbed in a thick brown cloth cloak, but underneath his hood, a pair of bright red eyes flared into life.
And then the cackle.
That cackle chilled the bones of everyone in the room, but it put one person to clenching his fist.
"Not him…" X whispered fiercely. Instinctively, his arm reached up for his left shoulder, feeling where once before, he had been thrust into the brink of death.
Finally, a pair of clawed hands reached up, and removed the hood.
The figure's eyes were sunken, beady and a bright red. A pair of ears, metallic yet still covered in fur, twitched oddly at the new sensation of air against them. And then it smiled.
His mouth was full of razor sharp spines.
"Shit." Zero cursed under his breath. "The one that got away…"
And finally, it dawned on the Hunters.
Their victory in the Fifth Uprising was as hollow as any before it.
Sigma cackled again.
"World, I would like you to meet Fluid Ferret." In the most repugnant gesture he could make, Ferret waved to the camera and grinned.
"Hiya. I slice, dice, smash, and crush. How would you like to die?" Sigma cackled again, and Bastion had to fight off the wave of revulsion from their appearance.
"Oh, yes. Ferret is quite the busybody…or busy making bodybags." Sigma's eyes settled back down again, and he cracked his knuckles.
"While you all have been sitting on your laurels and disarming yourselves, I have been keeping very busy, planning for the day when I would return." Sigma grinned again, pointing at the camera. "I'm sorry that I missed our one year anniversary, Zero. I do so hope my belated present will appease you."
Eyes turned to Zero, but the red Crimson Hunter only glared at the screen, his fists shaking with rage.
"Damn you, Sigma…" Sigma laughed from his end of the line.
"Oh, I know you're probably cursing me out right now, my dear Crimson Hunter." Ferret tapped Sigma on the shoulder, and looked down at him.
"Can I spill the beans, boss?" Sigma shrugged for a moment.
"One way or another, the world will learn. No use in sugarcoating it." Ferret extended the claws in his left hand, taking a swipe through the air.
"Words to live by." Ferret grinned at the camera, flashing his deadly teeth. "Now listen good, y'all…you have been living in a fallacy. You thought you had taken us out. URFAWP…an organization you all supported, was our ticket back to power. Did you know that if a weaker version of the Maverick Virus entwines itself with the true Sigma Master Virus File, the weaker version will mutate?" Ferret clamped his hands together, laughing again.
"Oh yes indeedy. Thanks to that, the Virus took on a more subtle form. It would only activate on our command, and when it did, they would become our zombies, controlled by the code, obeying our commands. How did we infect URFAWP? Very slowly, choosing our targets."
"Noo…" Horn said, his eyes widening. "Not my baby…" Allegro and Andante looked over at Horn, incredulously. Then they looked at each other.
The message that passed between their eyes was a powerful one, and one which carried guilt.
We've been fighting the wrong guy…
"The thing about being evil is that no matter how strong the forces of good are, it's moderately easy to corrupt its less brilliant vestiges." Ferret continued, rapping his right clawed hand on the table. "J.K. Horn may be viewed as a hero to the world, but in Sigma's eyes, he's nothing more than an optimistic fool that we took advantage of." Ferret flashed a thumbs up and grinned even wider. "On behalf of all rampaging infected mavericks to be, THANKS HORN!"
The great J.K. Horn slumped to his knees. Finally, a beaten dog. His dream wiped away and replaced with a nightmare that by all rights should have died.
Sigma stood up, his eyes flashing for a moment.
"I think I should finish, Ferret." The wily maverick nodded, then jerked his thumb.
"I'll go get things set up." Sigma nodded, then looked back into his camera, smiling.
"Well, isn't that nice? Fluid Ferret CAN be good natured." Sigma relaxed for a moment, then gave that same superior sneer. "But we're not quite done using URFAWP just yet. There are bases all over the world in certain locales where URFAWP trainees can meet to learn the ropes. These bases have all been taken over by us. A thousand willing reploid…No, MAVERICK servants, with nothing more on their minds except what my lovely Virus tells them to do."
Cain's eyes went wider.
"Oh Jesus, God No…" Cain uttered feebly. Sigma cackled, as if he could almost hear Cain's response.
"YES! The Day of the Mavericks has returned to the world. As we speak, my reconstructed Maverick Generals are all leading their own attacks on various major cities of the world. I myself will be taking Ferret along with me on perhaps the most vital mission of all." Sigma cracked his knuckles. "Just so everyone knows, every major Military Base of the advanced countries in the GDC have already been attacked and infected with the Virus as well. Those URFAWP people do get around…" Sigma cackled. "Oh, I'm sorry to say, but the only hope for your puny planet now lies in the hands of the ever present, yet close to disbanded, MAVERICK HUNTERS."
Sigma stood up, and the camera followed him, maintaining the lens on his face.
"But the sad part is, there aren't enough Hunters for everywhere that I'm going to be sending forces. You're outnumbered, and outgunned." Sigma laughed loudly, priming his arms back.
"The world is indeed my puppet. In your pursuit of peace, you have provided me with a fountain of faithful servants, and helped to weaken the only true force that ever got in our way." Sigma grinned.
"So, X…Zero…And the rest of you who reside in Tokyo's famed Maverick Hunter Headquarters, I issue you a challenge. If you can find us, then come and face us." Sigma shrugged.
"Of course, then again this isn't as much of a challenge as it is a necessity." Sigma cracked his sneer again. "Tell me…are you up for the game?" Sigma walked over, until only his eye was in the camera, huge and grotesque.
"You had best be. For the fate of humanity, and indeed the civilized world under your ways of ruling it lies in the hands of the earth's final 'saviors'." Sigma sneered the last word, showing the scorn for it.
"The timer begins now, Hunters. I will be waiting for your retaliation."
The signal finally cut off, leaving nothing but static in its wake.
For a few moments, dead silence.
Then all Hell broke loose in the Command Center. Shouts, cries, angry voices and those filled with despair all mixed in a cacophony Sigma no doubt had hoped to create with his return.
It was the shrill whistle of Cain who silenced them all. He stood up, putting his great basso voice into its full power.
"QUIET! Don't you all understand? SIGMA WANTS US TO BE IN CHAOS!"
That silenced them all. Cain breathed heavily.
"First, we have to know where Sigma is sending troops." Horn raised a hand from where he was sitting, looking up with sorrowful eyes.
"I can help." Horn said raggedly. Cain raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure?" Horn walked over to Bristol's console, and brought up the planetary scanners.
Typing in a few commands, including one for tracing a specific kind of hovertransport, Horn finally hit the calculate command.
Within seconds, five flashing blips lit up a map of the world. Horn shook his head.
"That monster…" Horn muttered. "He's sending Mavericks to Moscow, Riyadh, Cairo, Rio De Janeiro…And Washington D.C."
"JEEZUS!" Gavin yelped. "FIVE locations? We can't match that!"
X raised his hand.
"YES…" X looked at all the stunned faces around him. He matched their gaze evenly, his own face tired and weary from the prospect of more fighting. "It will be tight, but we can do it. Right now, there's only Three Hunter Units fit for massive combat. The 17th, the 21st under Bastion, And Zero's #00." X continued. "But we also have an ace up our sleeve…None of you know this, and this information doesn't go beyond these walls…but I've been working with an old friend on creating a group of planetary defenders that aren't controlled by the GDC's whims."
"That still leaves us with only Four Units. One location is going to get nailed hard." Doan's voice carried out. X looked over at Doan, a Hunter from his own Unit. He then looked at Wycost, who raised a hand.
"No…there's still another way to cover that fifth place." Wycost said. All eyes watched him.
Wycost turned and looked back at the captive Allegro and Andante.
"You can't be serious…" Zero muttered. "Those two tried to frag Horn! And Bastion, as well!" Wycost turned to Zero, calm fire in his eyes.
"They tried to kill Horn because they thought wrongly that he was responsible for the Virus's place in URFAWP. They're not going to go after him again. And as for Bastion…" Wycost shook his head.
"I must have been gone that day. Nevertheless, we need all the help we can get." Wycost turned back to the reploid pair, his eyes pleading.
"Whaddya say, you two? You up for an attack on the RIGHT person, for a change?" Allegro looked over at Horn, his own face crestfallen and guilty. Then he frowned and looked up at Wycost.
"If you come along for the ride. You went through what we did…I'd only feel comfortable taking on the true threat with someone who's faced it all the way."
Doan stepped up next to Wycost, putting an arm on the green Hunter's shoulder.
"If you don't mind, X…" Doan said, looking at his commander, "I think I'd like to go along with Wycost as well. Four individuals stand a better chance of success than three."
Cain clapped his hands together. His eyes scanned the room, saddened, but with a spark of hope that he dearly held onto.
"That makes five, then. Now, we just decide who goes where."
"We'd best make it quick." X said. "Sigma mentioned his forces were on the move already." Horn raised a hand.
"The transports will reach their destinations at the same time…one hour from now." X nodded.
"Good to know." His usually calm eyes darkened all the way, and he formed his left hand into a Buster. "Let's get our assault teams set up then." Zero stomped a foot on the ground.
"Time to save the world again, all…"
For all that went between the faces of the Hunters and others in the Command Center, there was one general feeling.
Uneasiness.
Chances were that a lot of Hunters…and others…
Wouldn't be coming back home from this desperate counterattack.