Part XVII: Never Touch A Burning Dog(Or Fox, For That Matter)
Lunging at Blitz, Spin Scorpion fired off twin blasts, which came hurtling at X while he landed square against Blitz's chest, knocking the large Hunter to the ground with a single arachnid foot planted on him.
X, hit by Spin's energy, went spiraling off into a nearby dumpster.
I guess that's why they call him Spin Scorpion. That hurt like-
He was about to curse that Maverick when Blade Gazelle appeared above him, jumping down with all the metal gears on his body whirring out of control. The force of the blow would have split X's head like a melon, but thankfully he had moved by the time Blade's rotors had smashed into the trash deposit.
Activating the Crush Armor, X readied the Gravity Crush attack to use. Since Eclipse Falcon was the only airborne robot, X figured it'd be easier to take him out first.
"Now where is that thing?" he wondered, glancing around, even up to the rooftop where Bit had been standing... "Oh no. Where's Bit?"
"That's none of your business!" a voice shouted from behind him. Turning around, X's face met Eclipse's fist with gigantic force. Flung into the pavement, X couldn't help but wonder why he'd even bothered doing this for a living.
"You're underestimating one thing, Falc."
"What's that, blue boy?" Eclipse was obviously not impressed.
"This!" X screamed, activating the Gravity Crush at point-blank range. Falcon's body couldn't resist the power that the field of heightened gravity and energy was creating, and was all but vaporized in the blast. Luckily for X and Blitz, Blade Gazelle was also caught in the energy storm, dismembering the Maverick's body swiftly.
"Hey!" Gazelle's head shouted at X. "Come back here and fight like a man!"
"You're just a head!"
Looking down, Gazelle didn't seem fazed.
"So what!? It's just a flesh wound."
"Okay. Stop. Rewind. Cut."
X pointed his blaster at the ground and fired, blowing Blade's head into the air and into the remains of the dumpster that he'd sliced apart. X could still hear him screaming.
"Ah, c'mon. Face me! I'll bite your ankles!"
X sighed, looking over to Blitz.
"See what the Maverick Virus does to reploids?"
Blitz's surprised expression said it all. "For a minute there, I thought we were gonna get caught up in some British comedy skit."
"We'd better go after Bit."
"Yeah. Let's go," Blitz replied. "Maybe we can get some clue on what they're doing."
Bursting into the warehouse, X and Blitz looked around. Bit or Thermal were nowhere to be seen, as was Spin Scorpion, who had disappeared shortly after Blitz had thrown him across the courtyard outside the storage facility.
"Just keep a look-out for those three and be careful," X advised. "They're a lot more dangerous than they seem. Especially Bit."
"Looking for me?" a sinister, venomous figure said from the shadows. As he stepped from the darkness, X could see Bit was holding some sort of very large optical device in a plasma net behind him. In a twisted, sadistic way, he looked like he was trying to imitate Santa Claus.
"What are you trying to do, Bit? What is all this for?"
"For your information, X, I am more than able to explain this operation, and so I shall. We were sent here for optical equipment. That is all you need to know."
A blast of energy came hurtling through the air behind X's back, unbeknownst to the Hunter, spinning him right into Bit's grasp.
"Now, isn't this a change of scenery? Isn't this the way you had a hold of me before you tore me to shreds that time? Now, X, it's your turn."
Bit passed the plasma net over to Thermal, who signaled quickly to Spin and commanded the arachnid reploid to entangle Blitz in his stinging tail.
"X!" the large reploid Hunter yelled, as Bit began charging up a ball of fire and purple energy.
That's not good. Something must have happened to him. Fire is not compatible with Bit's technology. There's something else in his systems! X thought, then it occurred to him.
Activating the Speed Burner, X propelled himself into Bit, knocking over the slender Maverick and landing in another set of crates which were subsequently set ablaze. In all the confusion, X's Crush Armor deactivated, returning him to his normal blue color.
"You'll pay for that, blue boy!" Bit screamed, jumping to his feet and flying toward X. The dazed robot was lying motionless on the ground, unconscious. Bit's raised energy saber would sear X's body in half, and he was readying himself to do just that when a bolt of electrified plasma collided with it, redirecting the saber into a nearby gas main. The air became thick with the stuff very quickly.
Thermal's fiery pelt began to burn brighter. She sniffed the air.
"That's hydrogen, you idiot!" she shouted to Blitz. "You'll blow us all to Kingdom Come!"
"You're wrong, about that," Bit said, grabbing her by the arm and teleporting away. Spin, whose grasp Blitz had broken by driving a hard elbow into his abdomen, was stuck, tail tied around a suspended walkway.
Blitz ran to X and carried him back to the hoverbikes. Revving up one, he sped away with X on the back, using the other's remote control to send it rocketing into the factory, detonating a few seconds later. Several more seconds later, a massive explosion rocked the area, tempting Blitz to look back. What he saw did not sit well with him.
A wall of pure fire was coming straight for them. Everything that stood in its path was being absolutely decimated, from cars to buildings to even fountains.
How much hydrogen had leaked in there? In any case, I gotta get us to safety.
Gunning the Chaser to full speed, Blitz saw a ramp of concrete debris ahead. With the rate of speed they would achieve by the time they got to the ramp, he calculated that he would be able to launch himself and X from the bike and use his air-glider wings to carry them both back to the Police Force's complex just ahead of the inferno. The shielding of the HQ could withstand intense beating, much more than this. He knew that for a fact, since he'd witnessed it several times before.
Flying up the ramp, Blitz grabbed X at the last second and used a combination dash and jump to fling himself into the air. His angle of ascent was great enough to make the buildings, but he still got nervous seeing those metal residencies fly within inches of himself and X. Glancing back, he saw the fire engulf the Speed Chaser he'd been riding, carrying it just like a tidal wave would. The HQ was only about a quarter-mile away, and there were a few Hunters on the balcony outside, looking over the city. They saw Blitz flying at them from a distance and waited until he crash-landed on the floor with a series of flips and skids.
He grabbed Zero and Iris, pulling them down below the protective wall of the balcony. Moments later, a sea of fire passed over them, raining down off the opposite face of the complex's metal shielding. The entire ordeal lasted only ten to fifteen seconds, but it felt more like an eternity for Blitz, who'd nearly been caught in it. X was still unconscious, and unaware of the destruction the shockwave had dealt to the industrial section and was currently dealing to the remaining half-mile of the fire's course.
Zero stood up, breathing heavily. "What the heck was that?!"
Iris cuddled up to him. "It's alright. We're safe and it's gone."
Blitz pointed back to the warehouse Bit had attacked. "They stole some sort of optical thing."
"Where did the big flame come from?"
"Bit tried to slice X in half, but I shot his saber and guided it off course at the last minute. It opened up a hydrogen pump."
"How did it ignite?"
"After Bit and Thermal left, I used the Speed Chaser remote to drive the other bike into it, and that's what did it. I couldn't think of anything else but getting rid of the Maverick that was still in there."
"Even with all the damage it would cause?" Zero retorted, sweeping his hand out over the scorched cityscape surrounding the warehouse.
"I didn't think there was that much hydrogen in there. Bit had only cut the main open just a few seconds before. There must have been another undetected leak somewhere else in the building."
Zero had cooled off. "Alright. Let's just go get some rest."
Following Zero back into the HQ, Blitz shook his head, watching a piece of Spin Scorpion fly past the complex at the balcony's level.
Sigma walked back through the doors to the central chamber of the HQ. After returning to the center during Bit's mission to the warehouse, he figured it was best to research the security the Police Force held around the Astro chip. Granted it was Bit's assignment, Sigma wanted to make sure that the path was clear for his lieutenant to steal the chip without resistance. And besides, if Bit failed, he wanted to know what he would have to do himself in order to get it.
Opening the files before him, Sigma took note of all the security fields surrounding the chip's storage facility. Neo-Arcadia had confiscated it from the old Maverick Hunter HQ's upper level before the Extermination Plot, and locked it in a building far beyond most of the likely places it could be found by Zero or the other rebels. That building was located not far from the HQ and was still intact, but unfortunately, so were the precautions that X had ordered, under Sigma's own control. There was a basic energy field, surrounded by an electric net and a force field to keep anyone who might try to attain the chip from even getting close to it. The screen that he was looking at was the size of the whole wall, and the schematics took up quite a bit of space, so maybe the scale was a bit off.
Sigma felt that there was someone standing behind him.
"Might I ask what are you doing?" a voice said, startling the Maverick high commander.
"Cirrus, what's going on here? Why are you looking at schematics..." Signas continued. Cirrus had pulled the layout plans from the screen almost immediately.
"Nothing, Signas, absolutely nothing," Cirrus replied with an innocent, idiotic smirk crossing his face. "I was just looking at a few Maverick hot spots so we could enhance defense."
"Okay. If you say so."
Signas seemed satisfied with that answer, and exited the room. Sigma slumped back into a nearby chair, sweating metal bullets.
That was close. He almost found me out. I think he might be onto me. Why else would he be asking those things. I have to make sure he doesn't interfere. I'll just have to dispose of him, that's all.
Lunging at Blitz, Spin Scorpion fired off twin blasts, which came hurtling at X while he landed square against Blitz's chest, knocking the large Hunter to the ground with a single arachnid foot planted on him.
X, hit by Spin's energy, went spiraling off into a nearby dumpster.
I guess that's why they call him Spin Scorpion. That hurt like-
He was about to curse that Maverick when Blade Gazelle appeared above him, jumping down with all the metal gears on his body whirring out of control. The force of the blow would have split X's head like a melon, but thankfully he had moved by the time Blade's rotors had smashed into the trash deposit.
Activating the Crush Armor, X readied the Gravity Crush attack to use. Since Eclipse Falcon was the only airborne robot, X figured it'd be easier to take him out first.
"Now where is that thing?" he wondered, glancing around, even up to the rooftop where Bit had been standing... "Oh no. Where's Bit?"
"That's none of your business!" a voice shouted from behind him. Turning around, X's face met Eclipse's fist with gigantic force. Flung into the pavement, X couldn't help but wonder why he'd even bothered doing this for a living.
"You're underestimating one thing, Falc."
"What's that, blue boy?" Eclipse was obviously not impressed.
"This!" X screamed, activating the Gravity Crush at point-blank range. Falcon's body couldn't resist the power that the field of heightened gravity and energy was creating, and was all but vaporized in the blast. Luckily for X and Blitz, Blade Gazelle was also caught in the energy storm, dismembering the Maverick's body swiftly.
"Hey!" Gazelle's head shouted at X. "Come back here and fight like a man!"
"You're just a head!"
Looking down, Gazelle didn't seem fazed.
"So what!? It's just a flesh wound."
"Okay. Stop. Rewind. Cut."
X pointed his blaster at the ground and fired, blowing Blade's head into the air and into the remains of the dumpster that he'd sliced apart. X could still hear him screaming.
"Ah, c'mon. Face me! I'll bite your ankles!"
X sighed, looking over to Blitz.
"See what the Maverick Virus does to reploids?"
Blitz's surprised expression said it all. "For a minute there, I thought we were gonna get caught up in some British comedy skit."
"We'd better go after Bit."
"Yeah. Let's go," Blitz replied. "Maybe we can get some clue on what they're doing."
Bursting into the warehouse, X and Blitz looked around. Bit or Thermal were nowhere to be seen, as was Spin Scorpion, who had disappeared shortly after Blitz had thrown him across the courtyard outside the storage facility.
"Just keep a look-out for those three and be careful," X advised. "They're a lot more dangerous than they seem. Especially Bit."
"Looking for me?" a sinister, venomous figure said from the shadows. As he stepped from the darkness, X could see Bit was holding some sort of very large optical device in a plasma net behind him. In a twisted, sadistic way, he looked like he was trying to imitate Santa Claus.
"What are you trying to do, Bit? What is all this for?"
"For your information, X, I am more than able to explain this operation, and so I shall. We were sent here for optical equipment. That is all you need to know."
A blast of energy came hurtling through the air behind X's back, unbeknownst to the Hunter, spinning him right into Bit's grasp.
"Now, isn't this a change of scenery? Isn't this the way you had a hold of me before you tore me to shreds that time? Now, X, it's your turn."
Bit passed the plasma net over to Thermal, who signaled quickly to Spin and commanded the arachnid reploid to entangle Blitz in his stinging tail.
"X!" the large reploid Hunter yelled, as Bit began charging up a ball of fire and purple energy.
That's not good. Something must have happened to him. Fire is not compatible with Bit's technology. There's something else in his systems! X thought, then it occurred to him.
Activating the Speed Burner, X propelled himself into Bit, knocking over the slender Maverick and landing in another set of crates which were subsequently set ablaze. In all the confusion, X's Crush Armor deactivated, returning him to his normal blue color.
"You'll pay for that, blue boy!" Bit screamed, jumping to his feet and flying toward X. The dazed robot was lying motionless on the ground, unconscious. Bit's raised energy saber would sear X's body in half, and he was readying himself to do just that when a bolt of electrified plasma collided with it, redirecting the saber into a nearby gas main. The air became thick with the stuff very quickly.
Thermal's fiery pelt began to burn brighter. She sniffed the air.
"That's hydrogen, you idiot!" she shouted to Blitz. "You'll blow us all to Kingdom Come!"
"You're wrong, about that," Bit said, grabbing her by the arm and teleporting away. Spin, whose grasp Blitz had broken by driving a hard elbow into his abdomen, was stuck, tail tied around a suspended walkway.
Blitz ran to X and carried him back to the hoverbikes. Revving up one, he sped away with X on the back, using the other's remote control to send it rocketing into the factory, detonating a few seconds later. Several more seconds later, a massive explosion rocked the area, tempting Blitz to look back. What he saw did not sit well with him.
A wall of pure fire was coming straight for them. Everything that stood in its path was being absolutely decimated, from cars to buildings to even fountains.
How much hydrogen had leaked in there? In any case, I gotta get us to safety.
Gunning the Chaser to full speed, Blitz saw a ramp of concrete debris ahead. With the rate of speed they would achieve by the time they got to the ramp, he calculated that he would be able to launch himself and X from the bike and use his air-glider wings to carry them both back to the Police Force's complex just ahead of the inferno. The shielding of the HQ could withstand intense beating, much more than this. He knew that for a fact, since he'd witnessed it several times before.
Flying up the ramp, Blitz grabbed X at the last second and used a combination dash and jump to fling himself into the air. His angle of ascent was great enough to make the buildings, but he still got nervous seeing those metal residencies fly within inches of himself and X. Glancing back, he saw the fire engulf the Speed Chaser he'd been riding, carrying it just like a tidal wave would. The HQ was only about a quarter-mile away, and there were a few Hunters on the balcony outside, looking over the city. They saw Blitz flying at them from a distance and waited until he crash-landed on the floor with a series of flips and skids.
He grabbed Zero and Iris, pulling them down below the protective wall of the balcony. Moments later, a sea of fire passed over them, raining down off the opposite face of the complex's metal shielding. The entire ordeal lasted only ten to fifteen seconds, but it felt more like an eternity for Blitz, who'd nearly been caught in it. X was still unconscious, and unaware of the destruction the shockwave had dealt to the industrial section and was currently dealing to the remaining half-mile of the fire's course.
Zero stood up, breathing heavily. "What the heck was that?!"
Iris cuddled up to him. "It's alright. We're safe and it's gone."
Blitz pointed back to the warehouse Bit had attacked. "They stole some sort of optical thing."
"Where did the big flame come from?"
"Bit tried to slice X in half, but I shot his saber and guided it off course at the last minute. It opened up a hydrogen pump."
"How did it ignite?"
"After Bit and Thermal left, I used the Speed Chaser remote to drive the other bike into it, and that's what did it. I couldn't think of anything else but getting rid of the Maverick that was still in there."
"Even with all the damage it would cause?" Zero retorted, sweeping his hand out over the scorched cityscape surrounding the warehouse.
"I didn't think there was that much hydrogen in there. Bit had only cut the main open just a few seconds before. There must have been another undetected leak somewhere else in the building."
Zero had cooled off. "Alright. Let's just go get some rest."
Following Zero back into the HQ, Blitz shook his head, watching a piece of Spin Scorpion fly past the complex at the balcony's level.
Sigma walked back through the doors to the central chamber of the HQ. After returning to the center during Bit's mission to the warehouse, he figured it was best to research the security the Police Force held around the Astro chip. Granted it was Bit's assignment, Sigma wanted to make sure that the path was clear for his lieutenant to steal the chip without resistance. And besides, if Bit failed, he wanted to know what he would have to do himself in order to get it.
Opening the files before him, Sigma took note of all the security fields surrounding the chip's storage facility. Neo-Arcadia had confiscated it from the old Maverick Hunter HQ's upper level before the Extermination Plot, and locked it in a building far beyond most of the likely places it could be found by Zero or the other rebels. That building was located not far from the HQ and was still intact, but unfortunately, so were the precautions that X had ordered, under Sigma's own control. There was a basic energy field, surrounded by an electric net and a force field to keep anyone who might try to attain the chip from even getting close to it. The screen that he was looking at was the size of the whole wall, and the schematics took up quite a bit of space, so maybe the scale was a bit off.
Sigma felt that there was someone standing behind him.
"Might I ask what are you doing?" a voice said, startling the Maverick high commander.
"Cirrus, what's going on here? Why are you looking at schematics..." Signas continued. Cirrus had pulled the layout plans from the screen almost immediately.
"Nothing, Signas, absolutely nothing," Cirrus replied with an innocent, idiotic smirk crossing his face. "I was just looking at a few Maverick hot spots so we could enhance defense."
"Okay. If you say so."
Signas seemed satisfied with that answer, and exited the room. Sigma slumped back into a nearby chair, sweating metal bullets.
That was close. He almost found me out. I think he might be onto me. Why else would he be asking those things. I have to make sure he doesn't interfere. I'll just have to dispose of him, that's all.