Induction (Part 2 of 3)



by Tremor3258



Signas was starting to bang his head in exasperation against nearby walls as he watched the current group of cadets dissolve the highway sequence into madness. The group guarding the downtown section had done well, but didn't take advantage of the one edge they had against heavily armed drone legions: intelligence. They had stood trading shots, instead of setting up traps, luring drones into breaking formation, and otherwise pitting wits against relatively simple programming. They had stopped the first few waves, but then the computer ruled Sigma launched two of his Generals to attack the group. Sting Chameleon and Boomer Kuwanger were two of the most dangerous foes, and you were going to get hurt taking them down, but the Hunter cadets had soaked up too much damage and didn't have the endurance for a fight against an actual Hunter masked as a Maverick General for the simulation.



Launch Octopus was always ruled by the computer to be directly running the drones in the dock districts, and so they behaved a little more intelligently. Plus, Launch showed how dangerous he could be by scattering the cadets apart with a few Bee Bladers, and then energy drained or torpedoed them to death one by one. However, Signas felt better for that group, since without experience backing you up, morale is a shaky thing. A little more training would hone them down. They had actually eventually gotten back on their guard to regroup and take down the Maverick. Now the survivors were wandering towards the park, rather too cautiously from Signas's deity-eye perspective, but doing rather well.



The highway was always a mess. Technically, keeping the entire highway open was a near impossibility, and X had arrived too late, as the Crushers had already begun breaking the highway apart. The lightly armored drones should have been dealt with quickly, as the Hunters were deployed slightly earlier on June 4 than when X had arrived. Several Hunters had broken ahead in a rampage, and a small group stayed back to watch traffic and guard humans. Actually, it was pretty sensible to do, but there was no coordination between groups, and little coordination in the attacking group. Most of the group had been taken out when a group of ignored Bee Bombers had surrounded them with motion detector mines, and then a few of the launcher mechs had walked up and shelled most of them to death. The few survivors were continuing, though they were doing a better job about eliminating everything in their path. Still, casualty rates were astonishingly high, with eleven out of the original fifty Hunters left. Thus, Signas was beating his head, since most of the group had qualified well enough to perhaps one day be called Hunters after enough extra training. That meant Signas would actually have to keep working on these idiots!



"You know, Signas, that's a load bearing wall. I suggest knocking your head against something a little less necessary, like the cadets' heads," said Zero, who had walked into the simulator control room to watch the proceedings and was now watching in amusement. His Unit had a few openings, and the wilderness and stealthy Ninth Unit occasionally had some cadets that Zero liked to pick out for his elite unit.



Signas sighed and flipped up stats on all fifty cadets, being relayed to the computers, as their processors were tied into the simulator systems, so they really felt like they were being hit, though at about half normal strength, and were taking apparent damage and seeing it as holographic overlays. The system could be overridden at any time by the cadets, and it was quite heavily guarded, since the system tied in so closely with most of the ways the a Reploid could perceive the world, and tampering with it could lead to dire consequences. Signas would have suspected the simulator system as the virus input into the Hunters but Sigma would have a better chance of walking around in public without being noticed than to crack this security.



However, most of the displays were flashing red, and Signas's battery of instructors were going through the tedious process of debriefing the various downed cadets. Zero reached over and called up one display, of a feline based model, probably off a tiger. Zero noticed the damage received to given ratio and whistled, "Who's this guy?"



Signas noted the codes and explained, "He calls himself Ajax. Built as a tracking unit for a bounty-hunting group in India. He's an amazing shot. Took out a Bee Blader copter from beyond effective maximum range of his buster with a single level two charge. Cut into the rotor assembly, fried it, and the Bee Blader plowed into the ground at almost three hundred kilometers an hour. Still, I'm not sure about him. He's a real loner, and he encouraged the other hunters into treating it like a video game, so that's why the highway group was cut off and surrounded, they were focusing on the heavy armaments and ignoring the cloud of little stuff until they were surrounded. Unfortunately, he's good enough to have made it out of the attack. Simulation indicates he's about to drop off into the park to attack the airship. I don't suppose you'd want him? Lone wolves like him aren't the most useful in a scouting unit."



Zero teased, "Well, I don't know. The Ninth could use a little shaking up. They throw the lousiest winter holidays of anybody in the whole Headquarters. I mean, they actually guarantee unspiked eggnog! Where's the fun in that?" Signas rolled his eyes. Zero had paid enough dues to act like a jerk by anyone's count. Zero sobered a little, "Still, let's see how he deals with Vile and I might take him. How's the city doing?"



Signas checked the statistics, "Most of the city's reasonably intact. Sigma's exhausted quite a bit of his initial drone supply. He's dispatched Flame and Chill already to start collecting resources, and he may have to start Mandrill's operations soon." Zero examined the statistics and nodded, impressed. Though the damage the cadets had soaked up was incredible, but they had given out far better than they had gotten, even when one puts the inherent advantage of intelligent machinery versus dumb machinery.



Signas continued, "In fact, except for the highway, the city's sustained almost nothing worse than cosmetic damage. The Park Bypass route, though, has been leveled. In fact, that's slowing down the second group of Hunters. A few of the last cars got stuck on the other side of one of the pits."



Zero asked, "So a bunch of humans are still in the line of fire? How are they dealing with it?" Slightly amused, Signas punched up the cameras.



"Can we do that again, Mr. Wolf-man?" asked the computer's representation of a young girl. She had just cleared the world record for a long jump by a human, courtesy of Laser Wolf's dash thrusters. The group, having dealt with the Spikies and Crushers coming at them through a fairly impressive blaze of firepower and then Jazz and Bebop using their claws to cut some crushers in half and swing the spiked portions into large concentrations of drones, was now dealing with the damage the Crushers left behind. The Crushers had overflown several convoys of cars, and shredded the roadway. They then started pounding after the cars, and several smashed in engine blocks displayed the grim, brutal power available to the hover drones. However, before the road got redecorated a carmine shade, the group had arrived. What was extremely dangerous to a car could be cleared by the cadets without even using dash thrusters. Well, Wolf had used his, due to his greater mass in order to clear it, and they easily landed on the other side, and were prepared to start ferrying people over.



Except the support structure for the road they were standing on had evidently been undermined, and only a quick leap onto the nearest support column had saved them from a several hundred meter fall. Alia had small durasteel claws she could extend to a length similar to Jazz and Bebop's in retracted form, as she had worked in the great outdoors, and claws make easy climbing. Laser Wolf had displayed the latest in wall-gripping technology with a molecular adhesive system he could turn off and on at will, and the others were a bit envious. Instead of assaulting their auditory systems with a screech as they gradually clawed down the column, Wolf could just hang there easy as please, despite the fact he weighed almost as much as Jazz, Bebop, and Alia combined. (Author's Note: I think the Gaea armor in X5 has this ability to stick without sliding. Otherwise, it's a nifty upgrade.)



Now, Wolf was busy ferrying people over the divide, as he was really the only person big enough for the humans to get a grip on during the massive acceleration of a dash. Alia's dash thrusters had been recently installed, and she wasn't quite sure on her feet with them yet, and Bebop and Jazz's armor didn't make for a very comfortable seat. If they could have flown, it would be easy to pick them up and drop them over on the other side, but their wings had been clipped for the current purposes. Which made sense, after all, it's really easy to attack an airship if you can just hover and launch missiles into its cockpit.



So, while Wolf played jump the effectively bottomless pit, the other three were standing around on sentry duty. They had taken out a few small walker drones, and Alia's lightning gun had proven its use against the light bee-like bombers that they kept seeing. That said, having to play defensively with the humans meant they were racking up more hits than they should, and Alia's area-effect weapon system meant she was on the front lines more than her builders had intended, and though Jazz and Bebop were tossing more than her fair share of salvaged energy capsules at her, she was getting ground down. A few more light buzzing sounds alerted Alia to another approaching wing of bombers, though the noise started to cut down thanks to the alert shots of the other cadets. The problem was that with their weapon power limited, Jazz and Bebop could only take out three or four at a time. Each homing missile or X-ray laser pulse took out a bomber in one hit, regardless of charge level, but each missile was only good for knocking down one bomber. And they were being most unsporting about lining themselves up to be fried all in a row. Once the bombers got closer, Alia dashed from hiding as she had for the past ( six? seven?) waves and morphed her arm into a cannon. Her systems had been upgraded by the Hunters from an original light taser to keep something from trying to snack on her to a weapon that could, at maximum charge, deliver a cone of lighting centered on the weapon's throat. Sadly, it's range wasn't nearly as good as plasma, and she had to close sufficiently that the motion detectors on the bombers got near her.



By this point, she knew what to expect, and dash-jumped, managing to keep her balance as she landed, over the first wave of mines. The bombers exploded even as they dropped them, as Jazz and Bebop kept firing, not charging in exchange for a high rate of fire. Alia needed to deal with the main group. She was surprised at how good she was getting at this sort of thing, as she easily dashed in short spurts. The preprogrammed attack runs were working against the bombers, as Alia reached effective range, jumped and shot her charged attack.



A wave of yellow energy, crackling bolts shot through it, emerged from the gun. Alia was pushed backward by the recoil, not quite compensating, and barely avoided having her head blown off by a mine. As it was the shrapnel took her systems down another few notches. Meanwhile, the electricity overloaded the trigger systems for the bombers' on-board loads and most of the bees went up in one simultaneous detonation. Jazz and Bebop managed to take down most of the rest of the stragglers as Alia shot a bolt of lightning, her normal attack, at one who tried to kamikaze at her.



Following standard behavior, she went over and looked to see if any energy capsules could be scavenged from the destroyed drones' fusion tanks. Not a very good selection, but the bees didn't have very large reactors, so much of the energy typically dissipated with the explosions.



She staggered back over to the other cadets, who looked a little guilty at playing sniper while she ran up. Jazz said casually as she extended her claws from their usual small gripper mode out to a battle length of about dagger-size, "You know, we can take the next round, slice-and-dice." Alia shook her head. Jazz and Bebop were good, but the drones would ignore the Hunters once they caught sight of the humans, and Wolf still had five people left to ferry. At about thirty seconds per transit, that came out to another few minutes of assaults.



Still, Alia reflected, in between attacks while they were scanning the roadway, they had talked a lot. Despite Jazz's brash and gung-ho attitude, she was an amazing fount on topics, and Bebop shared her interest in reploid mechanics. Jazz was fairly knowledgeable there, but mainly since she wanted to know where to hit, or what upgrades she could get, as she wasn't interested in leaving the front lines of duty.



The three waved an 'all-clear' to Wolf as he started dashing across with a middle-aged man with a death-grip on his neck. Alia and the other two went back to scanning with optics in zoom modes. The three gasped in horror as a Bee Blader assault helicopter, armed with drones, missiles, and a chaingun, started flying towards their section of roadway, but then it simply hovered there. Bebop was getting ready to snipe it, as his lasers had the best effective range of the three, when the Bee Blader left. Two megamechs, carrying missiles and small electro-plasma launchers. Alia grinned and made a 'go out' gesture with her hands, "Well, you wanted to take them." Bebop and Jazz groaned, and started moving forward, taking advantage of pits in the roadway for minor cover as they slunk forward, charging their systems.



A few meters away, Bebop reached over, squeezed Jazz's hand once, and then leapt up and dashed towards the elevated highway's shoulder. In response to their simple preprogrammed directives at the obvious moving target, both twisted and target the black and green Reploid, opening up their shoulder-mounted launchers and shot a set of missiles after him in a high-low pattern. Jazz responded by quickly popping up and firing one of her missiles at each drone. With the launchers exposed, the otherwise thick armor was useless as the missiles slammed into the launch cells and shredded them, the backblast driving splinters through the tiny minds on each megamech. The two froze in position, their ability to fire or move destroyed.



Bebop, meanwhile, shot his charged blue blast, which consisted of an energy wave from each of his arms. The lower missiles splintered under the rough caress of the energy beams. Bebop, still running to the shoulder, jumped over the guard railing and hung on for dear life to the side of the highway. The higher missiles, detecting a proximity fuse, exploded near the edge of the highway, but the explosion was blocked from hitting Bebop by the heavily reinforced concrete of the roadway. Placing his feet against the wall and igniting his dash thrusters, Bebop jumped back onto the surface, and looked at the smouldering 'mechs. "I really, really, hate those things," the Reploid remarked, brushing a few singed chips of concrete off his shoulders. Jazz nodded in agreement, a few wisps of smoke still rising from her launchers.



The two walked back over to the set of cars the Reploids had arrived into crude fortifications. Alia gave them a thumb's up, and Laser Wolf was standing beside her, looking a bit beraggled. He had been gripped tightly about the neck while shooting forward at blinding speeds for several minutes. Wolf asked, "Well, I completed our initial mission of getting the humans out. Now what? Do we wait for orders, or go kill some holograms?"



Alia looked pale, as she was apparently looking past Jazz and Bebop. The two whirled, and didn't see anything in the area. "Look up. That Bee Blader's back." The four dove out of the way as the helicopter tore through, chain gun firing. Alia's readings continued to filter in and she gasped her realization out loud, "It's being remote piloted! It's a lot smarter than most of them." Instead of merely relying on its heavy armor, this Blader was going to use its flight maneuverability to the fullest extent. Some flight-capable Hunter in the control room was driving the copter, intent on putting a few holes into the cadets' color schemes. The smaller reloads of the group charged up and fired as it came on the next pass. Lasers, electricity, and missiles merely splashed against the armored killer's hide, taking off a layer of armor, and this time, the Blader had homing missiles of their own, knocking down the lighter reloads.



"Enough of this," muttered Wolf. He had been part of Repliforce, and it was time to show the Hunter behind the controls what exactly that meant. Wolf concentrated his energy up for a few minutes, and then the various gem-like structures on his shoulders and chest flared, and the Wolf lived up to his name by unleashing a heavy laser barrage that made Bebop feel impotent in the firepower department. Unlike Bebop's weaponry though, the laser wasn't the guide light for a high-powered particle stream, but instead sheer directed brilliance. Taking an impressive shot considering the angle and the difficulty to brace, the lasers cut into the damaged side, and ruined the launchers on that side, sending rivulets of molten armor sliding down. The Blader's body seemed to radiate fury as it spun around and dove so fast the rotors howled, chain gun spitting flames.



Wolf then reached behind him and activated his beam saber. Triggering his dash thrusters and then jumping carefully, he sliced through the rotor assembly, sending it spinning off to crash in the park below. Alia, Jazz, and Bebop watched in shock as the Blader crunched down as it collapsed onto the roadway, skidding several meters before it exploded outwards in a burst of flame, leaving a hollowed out shell of its former self. Jazz reached over and said to Bebop who was examining his weapon barrels with an envious expression, "Relax, I still like you better, I think," she teased. Bebop reached over and smacked her on the back of the helmet.



"If the comedy show is over?" Wolf asked, "This location is fast becoming indefensible. I got pretty lucky with taking out the missile launchers. I guess we can assume the signal was given when the young hellions charged ahead." The younger, well, looking anyway, reloads chuckled appropriately, and walked past the Blader's corpse.



Zero nodded at the screen, "I'm not surprised. I've seen Repliforce in action. Notice he didn't mention that incredibly perfect saber slice: that was the lucky part," Zero commented. Repliforce made ego-boosting into an art form. Zero said, "Still, they're not moving as fast as X did, but then, casualties are lower. Pity they didn't want to serve in my unit. How's Ajax doing?" Signas nodded to a technician, who punched a few buttons, shifting the screens to observe another cadet in action.



Ajax was loping along the street, and had grabbed a couple a couple hover drones and thrown them into the first wave of Road Attackers as they appeared, along with a seasoning of plasma shots, causing a firestorm of mutual destruction between the drones. Now, he neared Sigma's floating airship, hanging menacingly over the city. The shot would be difficult, but Ajax figured he could brace correctly if he was careful. Now, if was lucky, there wouldn't be any more Road Attackers, since his operations energy was at about forty percent after slugging through everything.



The young Reploid groaned as a platform started to descend from the airship. Then, the robot's eyes narrowed. That was a weak spot in defenses. "It's not an attack, it's an opportunity!" rationalized Ajax. As the platform dropped, a car started to drive off it. At the same time, Ajax dash-jumped up on to the car. The drone quickly pushed a button sending a wave of electricity through the car's surface. Ajax groaned, his energy taking another hit, down to about 34 percent, but he recovered long enough to dash-jump up into the platform. It closed around him, and Ajax barely skidded to a stop inside the darkened hanger area of the Death Rogumer.



"Well, well, what do we have here?" said a voice in amusement. The lights brightened to show Storm Eagle standing casually by a set of armed and ready Road Attacker, small plasma cannons primed for the attack.



"I think I took the elevator to the wrong floor," muttered Ajax, charging his cannon. This was going to hurt.



"Oof!" the rest of the former Team Gamma slammed into the side of the crumpled and shredded roadway. Claws scrambled for purchase before the four could haul themselves on the relatively stable roadway surface. Apparently, the Crushers had been busy before reaching their location, since much of the highway was broken up into sections of varying heights, and the whole length was fortified.



"Oh great, everyone be quiet, and hope your weapon is charged," muttered Jazz. A mute megamech stood in front of them. After a moment of not being jolted by electricity, the group took a few cautious steps forward. Wolf, of equal height to the weapons platform, walked over and tapped it. The Megamech dropped onto its back. Alia walked over and hit it with her fully array of sensors.



"I really don't believe this, guys," she said in an amazed tone, "but someone got really lucky when taking this out. It's basically intact except for the tiny control center."



Wolf said, "Well, we can tell the others made it this far. Though that was one lucky shot. Still, one less fortification to blast our energy down with. Shall we go?"



Bebop held the big guy back with one hand, with a cunning grin on his face, "Oh, no, not when we can use this!" he remarked, pulling the others in closer as he whispered a plan to them.



Signas looked at Zero in amazement, "Does that fit into the rules to do that?" he asked.



Zero shrugged, "Seems all right. Technically, that's not a special auxiliary unit there using. I think it shows innovation," commented the Hunter. For on the screen, the four, using a little basics robotics knowledge, and the fact that Alia was capable of remotely handling her drone scouts, unable to be deployed in this mission, to turn the megamech into their own personnel walking fire support. Zero added, "Of course, the brains on those old things are simple enough, any one of them could have probably handled it. I wish I'd have thought of that idea."



Supported by a person who was willing to take more careful risks about when to expose the delicate innards of the megamech, the four made much better time against the weak drones, who couldn't stand up to the firepower of one megamech, let alone 4 Hunters. Plus, it allowed them to let the drone take the heat and conserve energy, since Wolf, with his heavy armor mitigating the blows, was down to 43 percent, and he was in the best shape.



Soon, the group reached the park, and then dove for cover as the airship's cannons opened fire. Evidently they were through playing games, and chewed the faithful megamech to shreds even as it bravely impacted a few missiles against the flying machine's armor. Alia barely withdrew her mind from contact with the machine before it was destroyed. Then, a platform came down from the mighty carrier, carrying a modified version of the old Chimera, with one of the more dangerous of all Mavericks riding inside it: Vile.



Wolf said, "I've read about this. That carrier is one of the toughest ever, with no expense spared. I heard Zero found a weak spot though."



Jazz said confidently, "Let the people with scanning abilities see it. Still, I don't think beam sabers were common in this period, best to have it ready." Wolf nodded, putting his hands behind his back, similar to a stretching exercise. Meanwhile, the electronics Light had stuffed Bebop and Jazz's armor with came up, while Alia hit with everything they had. Jazz's smile dropped after a moment and she said, "Wolf, time for Plan B. He's jamming, somehow."



The simu-Vile crossed his arms behind his transparent, but nearly invulnerable, cockpit shield and laughed. "I saw your little run up to now, and I saw you control that megamech. No way I'm letting you get your hotshot electronics into me. As long as the Rogumer's active, you don't have a chance of piercing my jamming."



Alia cursed, surprisingly fluently for such an easy-going person, before saying, "I'm not sure my remotes could burn through that, even with all of us. I guess we'll do this the old-fashioned way then."



Bebop nodded, and, charging up his lasers, asked, "Can we survive the old fashioned way?" No one answered, readying their cannons as Vile hunched over his controls.



Up over their heads, Ajax was facing the fight of his life. However, Ajax quickly realized that the simulation had made a critical error when Storm Eagle had come to attack the intruder: Storm Eagle depended upon his agility for much of his strength and was built for combat at altitudes where a few drafts of air could tumble you to your doom. On a nice, solid platform, with little room to build up diving speed, Storm Eagle's effectiveness was as clipped as Zero's at a peace conference.



Still, it was Storm Eagle's turf and pride and joy. He was the pilot of the Rogumer before and after becoming Maverick, and it was his baby. He was an eagle defending his nest, and that made him a tenacious foe. Equipped with the goodies in the Rogumer's cargo bay, Storm practically didn't have to do anything but send in the drones, with the occasional flap to direct Ajax into the path of a plasma cannon.



Ajax meanwhile, was showing off his incredible accuracy again, not that it mattered. Every shot hit its target, usually smashing the target to scrap, and the occasional energy capsule dropped was enough to keep him working. The occasional potshot at Eagle kept him honest, and Ajax continued on his running fight through the cargo bay, looking for something that would turn the tide. As he blew a few bats up, he noticed a down checked Bee Blader concealing a door. Only the flash of his cannon had illuminated it. Ajax quickly ran over, and read the nameplate with satisfaction. "Engine room, huh? Gee, no wonder this copter is in the way. Storm Eagle's smarter than he looks, even if he'd be an easy kill without his drones. Oh, well, I'll just let myself in." Ajax released a charged plasma blast, but an energy shield was protecting the door, and the plasma energy was harmlessly absorbed by the energy. Suddenly, a squadron of Spikies came around the corner of the Bee Blader. Ajax started firing, but Spikies' spikes gave them sufficient armor to take several hits. Ajax was driven back step by step, until he ran up against the energy field, the jolt knocking him forward, luckily out of the way of a damaged Spiky that exploded against the shield, which survived the experience intact. Ajax groaned, "Great, I'm an idiot, I can't even maneuver with all these Spikies in the area."



"Agreed," said Storm Eagle, stepping around the corner, holding his turbofan blaster high, "I see you've noticed what the shield does when something hits it. Let's see if you can laugh off being blown around with slow death at your back." Only centimeters separated Ajax from the field, and he fired off his dash thrusters and kept them on as Storm Eagle's Storm Tornado tore at him. The various Spikies battered him and dropped him ever close to unconsciousness. Once he slipped, but felt reenergized right before he hit the door. Risking a look behind him, he saw the Spikies had left a few energy capsules behind.



"You're wrong Storm, I can win this yet!" proclaimed Ajax, before opening up with his blaster. Storm was driven back a step, before Ajax shoulder slammed into the tall Maverick, sending him tumbling down. Ajax fired again and again, battered and half his systems running off backups, there's a limit to how much auto-repair can handle, but Storm's situation was far worse. Now on the defensive, Storm scurried off, flapping his wings slightly as he leapt from his position to start running. Ajax grinned. Now the real Hunt began.



The Hunter playing Vile's role grinned. Frankly, Vile's riding armor was equivalent to playing a shooter game with the god mode codes enabled. Unless you hit the weak spots at the joints just right, the armor could take a ferocious pounding no regular riding armor could hope to withstand. He hadn't even seen the need to activate Vile's circuit scrambling weapon. So intent was he on his task he didn't notice the data feed going into the simulator cut for a moment, before the lights shone green again. However, this time, the technician wasn't the primary intelligence behind Vile.



In the simulator, it was a bit less pleasant, and it looked like it would get worse. At this particular time, Jazz had found her claws could scratch the cockpit cover, but couldn't reach Vile. Then she noticed that there were some exposed wires when the shoulder joint moved, but before she could reach them, Vile picked her up with one massive ride armor hand, and tossed her into Bebop, sending them both down. Bebop stole a quick kiss from the surprised Reploid before hitting back with both lasers, aimed directly for the cockpit, but the cockpit window darkened in response, and the lasers spent themselves impotently.



Jazz yelled urgently as she let loose some missiles to keep the auditory circuits on the armor busy with the explosions, and effectively cover her words, "Listen, there's a weak spot, when he rotates the shoulder, the armor sometimes moves clear!" And then Jazz, looking a bit burned, turned to Bebop grabbed him, and practically floored him with a kiss. She then got back in a battle crouch as Vile's cockpit faded back to transparency, "By the way, that's how to steal a kiss," she murmured, before yelling, "Listen, if we can cut through his cables, then that armor will redirect your energy right to him, Alia." The two feline-Reloads jumped away from each other, ready to assault from the sides.



Alia, a bit woozy, shook herself and nodded, and steadied her aim, as she circled to Vile's back, ready to coat the armor with electricity. If her vision wouldn't stop blurring. She estimated thanks to recharges, she had spent roughly 500 percent of her system's total available auto-repair energy, thanks to recharges, and there was a limit to what nano-reconstruction of systems could do. She knew the others were probably in as bad shape if not worse, since most of them had extremely powerful close range options, with either claws or sabers, and that meant getting in punching range.



Wolf saw Alia was ready, and sheathed his beam saber, before moving to stand directly before the armored monstrosity. He called, "Now, Vile, it's time to see how real Hunters fight." This had the desired effect of getting Vile to charge forward, according to the script of Vile's reactions. Wolf once again blazed away with his impressive light-based armament, bombarding the body of the Chimera, and causing the cockpit to fade to opacity to save Vile's optics.



Instantly, the two cats dash-leaped forward, landing on top of the armor. When Vile realized what was going on from the shifting of the balance, he lifted his arms to fling the two away. He succeeded, but not before the two had snagged open a thick bundle of hydraulic cables, stiffening the arms into immobility for a moment and pressure was rerouted. Wolf signaled Alia even as he aimed the final bits of his salvo for the openings presenting themselves. Alia released the stored charge with a thought, the energy playing over the surface. Circuits crackled and popped, and the sound of dying electronics was audible even to the dazed Bebop and Jazz, lying in some bush clumps on opposite sides of Vile's mech. Smoke started to issue from the vents in the structure as it froze into immobility.



Vile's reaction was invisible, not because of his mask, but because the cockpit was still locked in opacity, due to the failure of the electronics that normally would restore it after the glare ended. What could be heard were the thumps as Vile pounded upon the ride armor's cockpit bubble in futile rage. Wolf laughed in relief at Vile's helplessness, "Now let's see how much you like your super-strong composite armor, Vile." The three others made noises of agreement, before staggering to near the larger Reploid, who himself was finally showing exhaustion, despite the facade. Bebop figured it was something in being a leader to not show fear or fragility. He shook his ears, it sounded like Vile's thumps were getting larger, but the cockpit still looked intact, so Bebop shrugged it off



Alia asked hopefully, voice starting to slur as she fought an auto-shutdown, "So, are we done?"



Jazz started to reply before the thumping sounds volume doubled several times in a few moments, ending with the roar of an explosion. The four stared at the immobile armor that showed no further damage before ash started to fall on them. Looking up, they saw the Rogumer had a large explosion near its engine cores at the back. Starting to slowly drop, the Rogumer began to flee the park, headed towards the mountains in the west. Bebop grinned, "I think I'll have to buy a drink to whoever did that." The others nodded.



Ajax probably would have liked to take them up yet on that offer. He had chased Storm Eagle through the complex, slamming a few shots into him here and there, as the bird panicked into flight. Storm wasn't even taking the time to activate more drones. Finally, Storm managed to collect himself to a degree, and evidently find an energy capsule or five, as the Maverick looked much refreshed when he reappeared in the middle of the cargo bay, dropping from a concealed hatch in the ceiling. Ajax hit him with a charged shot, and realized, despite the danger, he was doing quite well against a dangerous and well-trained General. True, the simulation picked a relatively easy one, but nonetheless, he was doing well.



Ajax's self-satisfied air disappeared when Storm showed another trick of his as he coughed up a purple egg that split into four smaller birds that kamikazed themselves into Ajax. He stumbled backwards, glad he didn't have a shield behind him this time. That struck off a thought in his head, and Ajax started running back for the engine room door. Storm Eagle pursued after a moment wondering how he had gotten the advantage that easily. Still, he was able to tap the security cameras and trace Ajax back to the Bee Blader. Storm Eagle figured the Hunter was trying to break in and take down the airship.



However, when the purple former Air Calvary member got there, he found the area apparently deserted. Soon, Eagle wandered over to inspect the shield and make sure it was intact. That was when Ajax ducked out of the Bee Blader's cockpit and opened up with plasma blasts, knocking Storm Eagle into the shield. Caught between the fire and a hot place, Eagle screamed in pain. Ajax continued firing, closing in before he slammed up against the Maverick, holding him against the shield. Storm Eagle gobbled incoherently for a few moments before he collapsed. As he did, Ajax's systems did a data scan of the now unprotected weapon systems, grabbing the weapon. Ajax turned purple as his weapon system merrily announced acquisition of the Storm Tornado. "Ha! That was a nice reward of the simulator. Time to try it out!" Standing still, Ajax unleashed the razor wind against the shield, throwing Eagle's downed body against it, and the metal and wind force pushed together before the shield gave out in a shower of blue sparks.



Ajax ran over, slammed open the door and started firing indiscriminately. Consoles went up in pretty fireworks as they overloaded. As status screens and the ever-present hum of repulsor units cut out, Ajax gave a cheer in triumph and started dashing out, ready to jump ship. As his thrusters ignited, the area around him writhed into blackness, and a skeletal hand reached out. To Ajax's credit, he started firing immediately, but a deep voice merely laughed and said, "You're in my game now, young hunter, but don't worry, you won't be alone." Blackness surrounded Ajax and overwhelmed him.



Down below, the cadets were wondering why the simulation wasn't ending. Jazz said for the fifth time, "Okay: Objectives: Rescue humans, check. Take out airship, check. Bonus objective of surviving, double check. What now?"



Wolf theorized, "Our victory is incomplete. The Rogumer is making a controlled landing to the west."



Bebop sighed, "I really hate to think you're right, and we have to go hike over thirty kilometers," Alia practically sobbed at the thought, and Wolf actually grimaced. He had several nasty plasma burns, and one of his dash thrusters had started to give him trouble, probably partly because of his overuse earlier, but Bebop continued relentlessly, "It'll take an hour to hike there, and then they'll probably have some traps left to go take down some more Maverick Generals? Whoever designed this program was sick."



Jazz's words were loaded with irony she would become all too aware of later, "Well, thank goodness the game designer is on our side." Well, he was for now, in the sense of who set up the situation that the scenario was based on.



The more direct creator of said scenario, one famous saber-swinging Hunter, saw a different view that 4 Hunters trudging after a downed airship. He saw a group of hunters engaging in a long, slow running battle through the streets against the might of the Rogumer. Zero looked at a clock and then shrugged, "We've got another three hours logged into the simulator, I say let them play it out. Back on Sigma's first day for the other team, we didn't get this close to taking out the airship." Signas nodded. Of course, only a few Hunters had been active in comparison to the now massive ranks.



Meanwhile, the simulator was being reshaped by the last person the Hunters wanted in their data banks. And 'lo, Sigma did laugh as the Hunters began walking right where he wanted them to.



To be continued...



Author's note.



First of all, raise your hand if you saw Sigma as being a villain in a Megaman X story.



Hmm, Sigma in the simulator. Someone's head is going to roll for this! Hopefully not any of the good guys. Especially since the good guys with a power level capable of taking down Baldy have no idea what's going on.



Bwhahaha.



Well, we'll see what happens in the Third and final part of the Induction arc with who's standing and who's falling.