Chapter 44: Homecoming

            "No offense to you," Erich Zegmann said to Archer, "but Reploid blood reeks." He would know. The big man had fired a shot that split a Maverick throat, much to Zegmann's dismay, since he'd received the geyser of fluids right in his torso.

            "I have a feeling," Archer retorted, "that yours doesn't smell much better."

            "Who smells blood anyway?" Mason piped up, rushing up to join his fellow commanders. "Other than vampires."

            "Mr. Kuwangner, that's who." Zion butted his way through them, leveling his gaze at the damaged structure that was Maverick Hunter Headquarters. "So if you all don't mind, I'd like to kick his ass out of our home, before he starts going apeshit on whatever hostages he's taken."

            "You really think there are hostages?" Jasper had to ask, joining the party. He'd figured that the Mavs would kill anyone they found. Hostage taking seemed like too much work at this stage in the game.

            "I hope not," Zion said at length. "But the more I think about it, if the Mavs don't have hostages, they're gonna wanna take 'em. It's not about winning for them now—it's about escaping."

            "And the more time they can buy, the better," Archer finished with a solemn nod. "Well, the gang's all here, so what do you say we cut their time in half?"

            "Sounds dandy." Zion produced a pocket holography device and brought up an image of the HQ floor plan. "All right. We've got this bigass hole on the north end—the end we're facing. That's probably what the enemy used to enter the place, since our internal defenses would be for shit."

            "Then that's also where their major defenses will be," Jasper realized aloud. "Well, a rear assault is always a possibility."

            "That's about what I was thinking," Zion agreed. "Except if we march the whole goddamned army back there, they're gonna redirect their forces."

            "Split up?" Zegmann suggested. "Just like back there on the streets?"

            "It should work," Archer piped up. "Send one unit to invade the back while the main force keeps their main force busy. It worked once, and the Mavericks won't have enough forces left to send a worthwhile interception force for that one unit."

            "It's not the Maverick counterattack I'm worried about," Mason said dourly. "You said it first Zion: they want to escape. They'll probably be using the teleporters we have inside the base, assuming they're still there, or they'll be trying to get to the pad where most of our forces left from earlier. The blizzard is still going strong. They'll have cover."

            He was right. Archer tilted his head up at the white sky, made whiter by the residue from the nuclear blast. His eyes moved involuntarily towards the small mushroom cloud that still hovered stubbornly in Icarus's final position. "The way these winds are blowing," the alabaster Hunter worried, "what are we going to do about fallout?"

            "There's nothing we can do," Zion said quickly, but with a grimace. "Not until we've reclaimed this base."

            "Neutralizing enough of the enemy force could make them surrender," Mason insisted. "The east exit is closest to the outdoor pad. Send one team there to intercept the Mavericks trying to escape."

            "And one to the south," Jasper restated, "to get a squad in the base."

            Zion studied the blueprint for a few more seconds and then closed it, replacing the holograph in his armor compartment. "All right. Here's what we're gonna do." He turned to Jasper. "I sent you last time, but this time we need a bigger force at the front. I want Units 17 and 15 backing up 20. Erich, bring up the rear. I don't want to use artillery here unless we have to—why damage the base any more? Mason, take Unit 3 and lie in ambush at the east quadrant. If something changes, you'll get the signal, and you'll invade through the east side to rendezvous with the main force inside the building." He looked next to Archer. "Bring Unit 5 to the south wall and infiltrate. We know our building, so we have home court advantage. Infiltration…hey, that's right. Castle! C'mere!"

            The black and gold Hunter surfaced from the mass of Hunters behind the commanders. "S'up?"
            "Listen," Zion approached him. "How many of Unit 8's soldiers are functional?"

            "Stromm is dead," Castle fairly growled. "The bastards shot him up back at Asimov Lane. We haven't found Damia yet, but we assume she's with Signas and the others. Other than that we're okay."

            "Shadin took a fall," Jasper put in suddenly. "I've sent a squad under Scylla back for her."

            "And they'll return when?" Zion asked with an annoyed expression.

            "Soon," Jasper said sheepishly.

            "All right." The field commander took a deep breath and looked back at Castle. "Follow Archer. Unit 8 will help with the infiltration. Once inside, wait for special orders. I'm sure there'll be some Maverick plot we'll need you guys to disarm."

            "That's a rog'," Castle nodded, the adrenaline clear in his expressions. "Those bastards got it coming big time tonight."

            "So we all understand?" Zion asked. "Zegmann, Jasper and I will attack the front and keep the Mavs busy up here. Archer and Castle are going south, and Mason's going east. Any questions? Goodie. Now let's move." He raised his eyes to the HQ. "I have a feeling this one's gonna get pretty bloody."

            Inside the HQ, things were already bloody.

            Gravity Beetle hadn't known this kind of despair before. In the past he'd been just another Maverick—a general, yes, but that had been as a security officer in Doppler Town, under Bit and Byte's surveillance. Now he was in charge of an army…a losing army. Half the Mavericks who came into the base from the battle outside were wounded in some way or another. It was obvious to Gravity that he couldn't possibly mount a successful defense with the force he had. About all he could do was stall for time until his troops could escape. They were already piling into the base teleporters—the ones that still worked—but it was clear that it wouldn't be enough. Gravity didn't even know if Seraph Castle was a safe haven anymore. Gredam hadn't returned with Marauder yet, and he wasn't answering his communicator. This left the big beetle more than a little nervous. If they were about to teleport into a deathtrap…

            At least he still had Geddon. The monstrous Maverick was somewhat brutally forcing the frightened troops to fall into line. He was keeping organized what would otherwise have been a madhouse.

            "Brutish, that one," Boomer Kuwangner said to his brother as he sidled up next to him.

            "But effective." Gravity turned to his lanky sibling. "We can't stay here long. The Hunters won't be far behind, especially now that they've recovered that leader of theirs."

            "Signas!" Boomer hissed. "What a fine hostage he'd have made! And that old man, too. Alas, it seems Gredam was not as extra special as we were led to believe."

            "Why do you hate them?" Gravity did what for him passed as raising an eyebrow. "All you do is belittle their efforts. They've done great things."

            "And yet," the bitter bug retorted, "we're still the ones on the losing end. Christ, we had NUKES! And we still LOST!"

            "Worry about it later!" Gravity said with a glare. "For now let's just concentrate on getting out of here alive."

            "Like that'll happen." Boomer chuckled and shook his head. "You don't know enough yet, Gravity. You don't have enough experience. When the Hunters come, we die. Then it's all a matter of waiting for Sigma to revive us. He always does, in time."

            "So you'd rather be a roach than a beetle?" The blue Maverick crossed his arms. "I'm not about to call it quits just yet."

            "Oh really?" A smile formed out of Boomer's mandibles. "And just what could possibly keep the bastards at bay?"

            "Mines." Gravity grew annoyed at his brother's unchanging expression. "Look, it's not much, but it WILL buy some time. I've set Gravity Wells on the lower floors. When I activate them their force will crush the key structural points and bring the rest of this loathsome building to the ground."

            "Assuming they don't deactivate them first."

            "As I'm sure they will," Gravity said without missing a beat. "Because we're going to make damned sure they know about the mines."

            "What? Why?"

            "It wouldn't be much of a time gainer otherwise, would it? It'll draw some strength from their main force if they have to send a squad to neutralize the Gravity Wells."

            "It's not much, bro…"

            "But it's something. What have you come up with? And don't say hostages."

            "Hostages wouldn't work anyway," Kuwangner said defensively. "Not unless we had someone big, like Signas or Cain. Anyone else, they can just call our bluff, and the instant we kill or release the hostage we're dead, if some special ops nut doesn't do the job beforehand. I propose the good old fashioned way—run like hell."

            "I'm sure we'll have to," Gravity admitted. "But let's at least lengthen the time till then as much as possib—what's that? Hello?" He frowned as Doc Volvar began transferring information through his internal communicator. "Already, they're inside?"

            "No," Boomer shook his head in thought, getting the same information. "These Hunters have been here. Volvar, what's going on?"

            "There's been an encounter," Doc Volvar responded. "We intercepted a squad of…stowaways. We don't have enough forces back here…they're pretty heavily armed."

            "Where are they now?" Gravity asked urgently.

            "South quadrant. I'm pretty sure that's where they're going."

            "I'll send reinforcements," Gravity replied, breaking communications.

            "You'll send reinforcements?" Boomer shook his head slowly, in some form of awe. "Brother. You do know how to assert yourself! But I'm the scavenger among us…not you. Man the troops up here. I'll lead the squad."

            Gravity gave his brother a once over, scanning for some ulterior motive. Finding none, he nodded slowly. "Finish it quickly, then get back here. It won't be long now."

            "Of course." Boomer stood cryptically still for a moment. "Stop worrying so much," he finally said as he turned away from his brother. "What looks like the end of the road is…often just the beginning." With that he started off.

            Gravity watched Boomer go, noting that his brother's squad included a sleek orange Maverick named Quasar, whom Gravity was acquainted with. He patched into Quasar's com-link. "Keep an eye on him," he ordered. Quasar flashed a very brief thumbs up in reply before vanishing into the Hunter hallways. It was pretty bad, when you couldn't trust your own brother to behave in a crisis.

            Gravity spent the next ten minutes giving a short speech to the assembled Mavericks. He explained the situation and assigned different squads to their duties. When he had secured a workable evacuation plan—which relied heavily on Boomer's "run like hell" philosophy—Gravity stepped back and Geddon approached him. "You're sure?" the behemoth of a humanoid asked.

            "Sure I'm sure," Gravity replied statically. "Unless you've got any ideas?"

 If Geddon did, he didn't have a chance to voice them. He patched into his communicator and frowned, turning back to his commander. "We got trouble."

            "The Hunters?" Gravity said, dread creeping up inside of him. "Already?"

            "They began their approach a minute ago," Geddon's frown grew deeper. "I think we'd better call our forces up front."

            "Agreed," the blue Maverick said as he activated his communicator. "Boomer, come in. We need you back here. …Boomer?" The feeling of dread grew stronger—there was no answer. Just when the Maverick was about to really start to worry, another line broke through. "Quasar? What happened?"

            "That no good bro of yours ditched us," Quasar responded. He sounded like he was in pain. "Gave me a good gash when I tried to stop him, too."

            "What?" Gravity was aghast.

            "He has betrayed us, then?" Geddon asked, deadpan as usual.

            "No," Gravity said sharply. "He's just…gone AWOL. We'll deal with him later…god damn it, Boomer, this is not the time!"

            "Boss," Quasar went on. The sounds of combat were starting to seep through the radio waves. "We've encountered the enemy!"

            "Gaaahhh…" Gravity threw up his hands in frustration. "Finish them! Quickly! And then haul ass back here! We gotta focus our defenses—Geddon, focus the defenses, dammit!"

            "Consider it done," the brutish Maverick said, turning and moving towards the Maverick soldiers.

            "Volvar!" Gravity tried Boomer's associate's frequency, again coming up cold. "Damn it, him too?" His eyes darkened. Those two were playing one of their sick games. He just knew it. "Now is not the time for your childish bullshit!" He spun in frustration, staring at the remnants of the wall the Buzzbomb had blasted its way through. He could now indeed see the major Hunter units coming right for them. "Dammit," he swore, feeling the rage boiling up inside him. "We won't go down without a fight. All units!" He patched into every communicator. "Begin the evacuation! Hold the fort until the order is given—we will prepare the way." He felt his fingertips tingle as gravitational energies clustered around them. "It's on now," he promised the advancing Hunters. "Just you wait."

            Damia came slowly back to the land of the living. The environment reappeared as a big blur that slowly regained focus and transformed into what appeared to be the Hunter medical ward. Great, the Huntress thought, somewhat depressed. Back to square one. Briefly she recollected the events that had brought her here, culminating in the brief encounter with Doc Volvar. Where was the bastard? And more importantly…why wasn't she tied down somehow? She felt no restraints on any parts of her body. That didn't make any sense…had the Mavericks just left her here? She found that very hard to believe. Becoming aware of the bright lights overhead, she felt her eyes growing tired of the glare and tried to blink.

            Her eyelids wouldn't move.

            Whaa…? She tried again, failing just like before. In fact, she realized, she couldn't move any part of her body. Am I…paralyzed? That explained the lack of restraints, then. She tried to move her eyes themselves, and enjoyed precious little success, but at least they twitched. For the first time she was able to notice a strange machine over her head, humming softly as it performed whatever actions it was supposed to perform on her. She did a quick internal scan and learned that with the exception of a few sore circuits near where she'd been shot earlier at Seraph Castle, she was doing just fine. Her motor skills, though, were shot to hell because of…something.

            "Ah, she awakes."

            Damia tried to turn her head to face her new friend, and was frustrated when she remembered that she couldn't. Doc Volvar approached slowly, his red lab coat trailing slightly behind him. There was a small smile on his whiskered face—an eerie smile that immediately put Damia on guard. "So volatile and dangerous in combat," Volvar whispered, looking her over. "But so fragile and helpless in sleep." The Maverick surgeon chuckled lightly, looking right into her open eyes. "And probably fiercely brave all the time…aren't you?"

            Go screw a dead camel, she tried to say, but her mouth wouldn't open. No sound even came out of her vocal unit. That really scared her. Volvar apparently noticed. She couldn't tell how, but she figured she must convey more through her eyes than she realized.

            "Yes, I'll bet you have a lot to say to me," the doctor said, his smile remaining. "I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about it, though. You'll never make another sound again, I'm afraid." She tried to remain stoic, but Volvar easily saw the worry that flickered briefly through her eyes. "Oh don't worry," he said, his smile growing bigger. "Your voice box is just fine. As is the rest of you. For the time being."

            Doc Volvar got right next to the operating table and patted the device Damia had noticed earlier. "This little doohicky…it's quite useful. What it does is, it acts almost like a faulty anesthesia. It paralyzes your body, but leaves your senses awake and alert." He couldn't resist another chuckle. "You see, I got the idea after reading some very old medical journals. Anesthesiologists didn't always do their jobs well." The Maverick sat on the edge of the table, getting comfortable. "Most of the time, they got it right, but every once in a while a horror story emerged wherein a surgical patient went under, but woke up before the operation began…only they were too doped up to let anyone know about it. So, heh, yes, they felt everything that was happening to them, and they had no way to make their discomfort known. They couldn't even scream." The dour look on his face vanished and he brightened up. "Now, of course, modern medicine has advanced to the point where this is no longer a problem. There hasn't been a case like that in decades, and certainly no cases at all involving Reploids." He reached over and traced a fingernail down Damia's cheek. "Unfortunately, my dear, there's a first time for everything. And you're it." He drew his nail sharply down and put a deep scratch along the Huntress's cheek, leaving a thin trail of blood. "Oh, you felt that, didn't you?" Volvar smiled, catching the look in her eyes. "Excellent."

            Never in her life had Damia despaired. As a guerilla fighter, she'd been captured more than once, and tortured on occasion, but never effectively enough to break her. Her mentality was simply the opposite of everything interrogators hoped for—there was little fear to be found in her at all. She'd risen through the ranks slowly but surely, encountering many a crisis but pulling through with the same thought pattern: deal with it, and then castrate the bastards later. This time was no different. She listened to Volvar reveal his plans for her, and while it did put a chill in her spine she was far more enraged than she was afraid. Who in the hell did this guy think he was? What kind of sicko paralyzes chicks and vivisects them? Her anger spread much further than her own situation. This guy had Mavericks who were apparently under his control. Where the hell were they now? The Hunters had to be on their way. Was this asshole just abandoning them to play his stupid little game?

            Doc Volvar laughed again when he saw the rage in her eyes. "Just what I hoped for. I'm not interested in someone who's going to lie around and think 'oh, woes me'. I want to break someone." He patted the contraption above Damia again. "I designed this thing as an interrogation device. The idea is to torment the victim for a while, and then release them from the hold long enough for them to decide whether or not they want to talk. If not, well, back to hell they go." He picked up one of her limp arms. "As you can see, though…you're not restrained. That's because we're not interested in anything you have to say." He let the arm fall. "We just want you to pay. For every Maverick life you've ever snuffed out. And frankly…this is the worst way we can think of for you to die." He shook his head sadly. "I would have preferred Signas, or, by some miracle, X, but I guess you'll do." He looked away from her when a door opened. "Ah, Boomer!" Volvar stood up. "You made it."

            "Volvar." Boomer bowed his head slightly, and then looked to Damia. His expression became, for lack of better term, bug-eyed. "That's…"

            "The guerilla commander." Volvar cracked a satisfied grin. "Strong enough for you?"

            "Volvar, you are a piece of work." Boomer stepped forward and approached the paralyzed Huntress, nearly shaking with excitement. "By the powers…it's the perfect subject." He glared at her. "Remember me, you bitch? We met once, a long time ago. One of your goons put a big hole in a friend of mine." Quick as a flash he took his Boomerang Cutter from atop his head and held the cold steel to Damia's scratched cheek. "Perhaps it's time that I return the favor, hmm?"

            Damia had a thousand words for him, but as she couldn't vocalize any of them she just threw him back the hardest glare she could. She diverted her energies to her optic functions to keep them going despite the light and her inability to blink. She saw Boomer move his weapon down, but couldn't follow it. Then she felt the tip of his blade push through the bodysuit covering her stomach—they'd left her in her armor, she realized suddenly, but there was none of that around her midsection. The chill grew worse, and she focused hard on remaining in control of herself, even when the blade pushed through the suit and continued down through her flesh. Unable to even grit her teeth against the sting, she lay still, though she did feel a shudder roll through her as Boomer dragged the blade downward. A burning line was soon drawn across her abdomen, and the Huntress quickly lost her restraint. Her eyes burned with anger again, this time mostly anger about her inability to change the situation. Boomer knew exactly what she was thinking, and fitted both points of his boomerang in the surgical opening he'd created.

            "You think you're mad now?" The Maverick hissed and drove the blade slowly down into Damia's stomach. Her eyes widened as much as the paralysis would allow, and this time the pain was evident. "I've waited years to get one of you Hunter bigshots back," Boomer hissed again. "I mean, really get you back. You're standing in for all the others…get ready for a long day."

            You bastard, she raged mentally. Hate was not even the right word anymore for her perception of these two.

            "Hate us if you like," Doc Volvar said from his perch near the head of the table. "You Hunters have been doing it ever since conception…hating us, like we're all monsters. Well…it's about time we did something to really deserve that label, eh Boomer?"

            "I think the nukes did that nicely," Kuwangner said, not looking up from his work. "But if not, this will finish the job." He twisted the blade sharply to the right, and that really did it. Another shudder went through Damia, and along came an immense desire to scream, but it couldn't get out. That was a serious shock to her systems. She had never known silence could be such a horrible thing.

            "You think that sucked?" Boomer laughed, twisting the blade harder and savoring the agony in his victim's eyes. He ignored the blood that dribbled out of the wound, getting his hand all dirty. In fact, he savored it. "We're just getting started, my dear. Pray to whatever gods you may worship for another nuke…cuz that's about all that's gonna save you now."

            Alan Seitz had made it his job to more or less baby sit Cain, who wasn't exactly the best sprinter in the world at his age. Cain had a pistol, but Seitz doubted that the old man could use it well, and as such had his own pistol up and at the ready.

            Dr. Carlton was doing a pretty good job of keeping Krysta and Nightchaser up and running. Chase actually needed less and less attention as time went on. His natural adrenaline was catching up to him, and Seitz wasn't all that worried about him if a battle sprung up. Krysta was still feeling miserable but she could swing her axe if need be. Dr. Ledyard was bellicose as ever, his machine pistols out and ready. He led the party, with Cain and Seitz close behind and Carlton and the others bringing up the rear. Seitz really, really missed Damia and Tiberius, but he'd seen neither hide nor hair of them since they'd left the armory through the vents.

            Now they were inside the electrical center of the base, where the generators were all mostly activational. From here it was a short distance to the southern exit…and god knew what awaited them outside, Seitz thought nervously. Whatever it was, it had to be better than what was in here.

            Ledyard came to a sudden halt. "Someone's coming."

            Seitz listened, and Ledyard was right—heavy footsteps were coming their way, fast. There was no way those footsteps could belong to a human.

            "Now?" Chase moaned, drawing his saber.

            "Wait," Cain ordered, stepping forward slightly. "I think that's…"

            "Tiberius," Ledyard glared at his approaching boss. "You scared the bejesus outta me!"

            "Thank god you're still around to scare," Tiberius said, out of breath. There was no joy in his eyes at reuniting with his friends, however. Something was making him very nervous.

            "Boss?" Carlton asked, seeing his superior's expression. "What's the problem?"

            "Where's Damia?" Seitz asked suddenly, noting her absence.

            "They've got her," Tiberius growled. "I mean…last I saw her, she was distracting the enemy so we could get here…but…" He shook his head. "I don't think she escaped. I've still got her signal, though, so she's still alive."

            "Where is she?" Cain asked worriedly. He knew all the unit commanders on a personal basis.

            "Medical ward," Tiberius responded. "What's left of it, anyway."

            "That's where we started," Chase moaned again.

            "Yeah," Ledyard said, though it clearly pained him to say it. "There's not much we can do for her, boss."

            "Well we've gotta do something!" Tiberius clenched his fists. "No way can we just leave her here."

            "What about after we link up with the others?" Carlton asked hopefully. "I mean, they've gotta be coming…right?"

            "I should hope so," Cain said, though weakly. Then his eyebrows raised. "What's…?"

            "I hear it," Ledyard agreed, raising his machine pistols. There were metal footsteps coming their way…lots of them.

            "Shit," Tiberius winced, checking his pistol's ammo. "All right, then, we have no choice…let's move! The exit's right down there!"

            No sooner had the Hunters started moving than the Mavericks appeared. "There!" one shouted, and the rest quickly followed suit. Shots began to fly, and it quickly became clear that the Hunters would have to fire back if they wanted to buy the time they'd need to escape.

            "Carlton!" Tiberius barked. "Get the wounded out of here!"

            "Not me," Nightchaser growled. "I'm not sittin' around when there's killin' to be done!"

            "Whatever." Tiberius flashed Carlton a hopeful look that the Reploid doctor returned to the best of his ability as he escorted Krysta and Cain away from the battlegrounds. "Right," Tiberius said, turning to Ledyard, Seitz and Chase. "Scatter!" He raised his pistol and fired a shot into an advancing Maverick's skull. The enemy dropped, but others came after him. It seemed like a whole squad had been sent their way.

            The Hunters divided and hid behind the generators scattered throughout the room. A Maverick must have been trying to use a grenade, but someone who sounded authoritative yelled "You idiot! It's their own auto-defenses that are keeping them outside! Don't blow the generators!" Tiberius peeked out long enough to get a look at the Maverick in charge. He was an average looking Reploid in glossy orange armor. Hoping to cut the head off the snake right away, Tiberius leveled his pistol and fired.

            Quasar saw Tiberius just before the shot was fired, and stepped quickly out of the way. The shot landed harmlessly in a nearby wall, and Quasar responded by sending a group of three Mavericks towards Tiberius's position. "Find the bastards!" Quasar ordered. "Smoke 'em out!"

            "Smoke this," Seitz whispered from his hiding spot, gunning down two of the squad with a rapid-fire pistol attack. He was an excellent shot.

            Quasar sent Mavericks to Seitz's position, but Chase was on top of it. He leapt out into the open and barreled into the advancing Mavericks, lashing his sword out into each of them, felling the surprised enemies easily. Then he just as quickly retreated, ignoring the pain when his wounds started acting up.

            "Enough!" Quasar raged. "He motioned to Tiberius's position. "Attack! Everyone!"

            "Shit," Tiberius observed. Knowing of no other option, he ran away from the main force, retreating backwards. "Think the others are out yet?" he yelled.

            "Who the hell knows?" Ledyard called back. "We can't do this much longer!"

            Tiberius was about to respond when he turned and saw Quasar looking right at him. The orange Maverick thrust his hands out and a strange, pulsating white concentration of energy flew into Tiberius's chest. It exploded upon impact and threw the surprised medical chief clear across the room, imbedding him in a far wall. "Ugh," was all he managed, slumping to the floor.

            "Liked that?" Quasar asked, grinning. "Just wait." The Mavericks began moving en masse towards the downed Tiberius.

            "Not so fast!" Ledyard snapped, rushing out with his machine pistols on full blast. He moved clear across the room, dropping most of the vanguard force, and then vanished behind another generator. "Someone else, please?" Ledyard asked, nervously, when he saw that Tiberius still had yet to get up.

            "Let's go, biznatch!" Chase called out, rushing into battle behind the Mavericks. This time they attacked him back, and it wasn't long before he had to fall back. Seitz helped by sniping, taking potshots at Quasar, who eventually pinpointed his position.

            "What's this, little human?" the Maverick asked with a sneer. "You want to play in the big leagues?" He shot a bolt of his gravitational energies at Seitz, who dove out of the way. The generator he'd been hiding behind took the blow, and went a little haywire. "Oops," Quasar said, then shrugged. "Well, that's why there's more than one." He ran straight for Seitz, much to the human's horror, and launched into a martial arts combo that Seitz knew he had no chance of countering. Quite desperately, he threw himself into a roll, bringing his weapon up with him and firing. By some miracle, the shot embedded itself in Quasar's unarmored abdomen, causing the Maverick to double over in pain. "Oh, you're in for it now," he hissed.

            "Is he?" Nightchaser asked, rushing up behind Quasar with his sword poised to kill. Quasar hissed again and sprang backwards, much to Chase's surprise. The wounded Hunter stumbled, and Quasar blasted him almost point blank with his energy. Chase grunted in shock and shot all the way up into the ceiling. The impact jarred his sword from his hands, and it rolled out of reach. The Hunter himself came crashing down seconds later, a big moaning wreck.

            "Ha!" Quasar laughed. "Is this it? Is this all you guys have left?" He drew his foot back to put it through Seitz's chest. Then his question was answered—the southern gate literally exploded off its hinges as Unit 5 poured inside. "Holy shit!" Quasar had time to exclaim before a massive concentration of red energies slammed him against a wall. He slumped to the floor, in much worse shape than Nightchaser.

            "Nice to see you're all having fun," Commander Archer said, deadpan, the energy still radiating from his buster cannon. "Mind if we join in?"

            "Thank God!" Tiberius said, getting shakily to his feet. "A few more seconds and we'd have been toast!"

            The Mavericks weren't sticking around. What remained of Quasar's force turned and fled. Archer didn't pursue them. "They're not going anywhere," he assured Tiberius when the medic stared in shock. "Zion's coming in the front and Mason's guarding the best exit. We've got 'em boxed in."

            "A slaughterhouse, then?" Tiberius asked, somewhat disapproving.

            "Why not?" Archer responded airily. "They did nuke us. Have you forgotten?"

            Back in the mass of Unit 5 Hunters, Cain and Krysta had found the squad medic with Carlton's help. Krysta forgot about her wound, though, when she saw a silver figure standing in a corner with a somewhat vacant expression. "Vulcan!"

            Focus returned to Vulcan's eyes when he turned to face the owner of the voice. This turned out to be a good thing, because Krysta rushed right into him, nearly crushing him with her embrace. "Jeez," he managed, hugging her back. His eyes regained full focus when his hand grazed her nasty side wound. "What…what happened?"

            Krysta didn't answer. The night's events had been much too hectic for her, a rookie, but until now she'd been under the knowledge that a breakdown meant death. Now that she was in safe hands she was free to have that breakdown, and sobbed into Vulcan's shoulder.

            "She's had a rough night." Vulcan looked up to see Dr. Carlton standing nearby. "Some wanker named Scythe went batshit. She's one of the two who stopped him, but she got herself a bad wound in the process."

            "Scythe?" Vulcan blinked, nearly dropping Krysta. "Scythe went insane?"

            "Well, not really that," Carlton said, unsure why Vulcan was so surprised. "Seems this Scythe fella was a spy from the start. He's the one who deactivated our base defenses so we couldn't stop the Buzzbombs."

            "Scythe was…a Maverick?" Vulcan still didn't believe it. He'd have suspected Chase before Scythe any day.

            "We got him," Krysta whispered. "The bastard."

            "We?" Vulcan frowned, looking back at Carlton.

            "Yeah." The doctor nodded. "She and this Nightchaser guy did the job. He got himself busted up too, but he still fought." Carlton looked back to the battle scene and winced. "Matter of fact, I think that's him plastered on the floor over there…excuse me."

            Vulcan let Carlton take his leave, and then turned back to Krysta. "Are you…gonna be all right?"

            "Yeah," she whispered back, still shivering. "Thank God you made it…"

            "Shh." He ran his fingers through her long white hair. "It's all right now. …Rykov's all right, too."

            "Good." She clutched him even tighter and was still, and for a second Vulcan thought she might have fallen asleep. Well…let her.

            The Rykov in question was watching from a distance. Hawkins sidled up next to him, viewing the same scene. "How is he?" the squad leader asked.

            "I think we're gonna have a problem," Rykov said at length, frowning. "He was fine when he saw her, but before that…" He shook his head. "I don't know. Ever since he got all gooped up with Derringer mush, he hasn't been…well, he's not all there."

            "Hmm." Hawkins hated it when this happened. "Well, you're his friend. Make damn sure he gets help if he needs it. Hopefully she'll do the trick for us, but if not, be on your guard. War nightmares can just destroy a guy."

            "Yeah," Rykov agreed, watching his friends standing quietly. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

            Castle of Unit 8 decided to torment the most colorful Maverick he could find, and that turned out to be Quasar. "Well lookie here," the guerilla said with a big grin, hoisting Quasar to his feet and slamming him against the wall. "An unwound Fruit Roll-Up. What's the word, citrus man?"

            "I have…nothing to say to you!" Quasar wheezed.

            "Really. Well ain't that a beaut?" Castle drove his fist into the Maverick's wounded gut. "Listen. You tried to kill Cain. Cain and I, we get along. He's a good guy. I don't appreciate what you just did. So I'm gonna try again—what's your game?"

            "Escape," Quasar choked out. "Was it…that…hard?"

            "Yes." Castle said, nodding. "Yes it was." He let Quasar drop. "And thank you for clearing it all up for me. Hey, we got a live one here. Someone break out the shoestring and tie him up." The Hunter strolled over to another corner of the room, which was where Tiberius got his attention.

            "Boy am I glad to see you," the doctor blustered, calling up a holograph of the base.

            "What's going on, sir?" Castle asked, getting serious. Tiberius had never much liked his sarcasm.

            "That," Tiberius responded, pointing to a blue dot in the medical ward, "is Damia. And these two dots are Mavericks."

            "They've got her?" Castle asked, getting really serious.

            "She tried to distract them." Tiberius looked embarrassed.

            "Only two of em, eh?" Castle mused aloud, already making plans.

            "Yeah, but this one here is giving off large energy readings. …I think that's Boomer Kuwangner."

            "Boomer Ku—rrrriiiiiight." Castle spun on his heel, understanding exactly what was going on here. "Wallace! Everett! Dantz! Deluge! Fall in! We just got invited to a party!" He looked to Archer, whose attention had just been perked. "Yo, uh, we're gonna…go now."

            "Where to, may I ask?" the Commander queried.

            "Medical ward." Castle's Unit clustered around him. "We'll be back in a jiff."

            "Medical ward…" Archer logged the info and nodded. "We're going to rendezvous with Zion up front. Meet us there."

            Castle needed no further confirmation. He turned and sprinted off, his unit in tow. Along the way he explained the situation to his friends, and they were similarly enraged. This guerilla team had spent far too much time together to not be close pals. To mess with one was to mess with all.

            The last thing Archer did before marching his unit onward was to shut off all the power generators. MHHQ once again became powerless, which meant that the automated defenses installed to keep Mavericks out wouldn't have the same effect on the invading Hunters. Then they marched on to reclaim their home.

            Hunters would say many things about Commander Zion, but one thing they all agreed on was, the man definitely knew how to make an entrance.

            Zion knew that the Mavericks had to see him coming. To hinder their sight, he ordered all the Hunters to shield their eyes until further notice, and had Zegmann's gunners fire large strobe flares at the damaged base wall. They had the desired effect—the Maverick defense ring fell back in disorientation. Almost immediately Zion ordered his frontline to open fire, dropping several Mavericks before they even had a chance.

            "Return fire!" Geddon bellowed, and the Mavericks did so. Their shots were poorly aimed due to the strobes, but some unlucky Hunters still took hits. "You do NOT fall back. You hear me? You're all dead if you do!"

            "We're all dead if we don't!" one Maverick shouted, and the others began to chime in their agreement.

            Gravity Beetle stepped slowly forward, pushing to the front of the crowd. "Not just yet," the Maverick Boss declared, raising his hands to the sky. Gravitational energies clustered around his fists and shot out to a point at the center of the approaching Hunter mass. More and more energy grouped together, until eventually there was a black hole of sorts sitting there. "Now let's welcome them properly." The energy portal began to rain blasts of gravity down on the Hunters, blasting crowds of them into the air like children's toys.

            "Shit," Zion said with a wince. "We don't have time for this…" He contacted Jasper. "Get your sergeants together. We're rushing."

            And rush they did. The Hunters broke into a mad run, mostly to get away from the energy portal, and try as they might the Mavericks knew they'd never stop this rush. They quickly became discouraged and, despite Geddon's orders, turned and ran.

            "Dammit!" Gravity Beetle raged. Why weren't the auto-defenses working? "Quasar!" he shouted into his communicator. "Quasar, come in!" No answer. "Oh, no…" The Hunters must have already gotten there. It was an ambush, the Maverick realized, and he was sitting right in the crosshairs. He looked outside to see Zion himself approaching. "Well, at least I can send you a message."

            In the basement level of the HQ, a silver orb came to life, emitting a strong gravitational field that slowly began to compress the structural material around it. Zion watched in surprise as a small section of the base collapsed in on itself. "That was just a sample," Gravity Beetle's voice hissed into his communicator.

            "You," Zion narrowed his eyes. "What's the meaning of this?"

            "You come in here," Gravity threatened, "and I bring the whole place down. Have a nice day." The connection broke.

            Zion frowned and patched into Jasper. "Change of plans, pal. Take Lariat and a few squads and go downstairs, once we enter."

            "Scylla's back," Jasper informed him. "She just rejoined us."

            "And Shadin…?"

            "She's badly hurt but she's alive. What's the problem?"

            "I think our bug friends have left us a surprise. A Gravity Well brought down that sector…I'm sure of it. Disarm any that you find down there."

            Jasper checked something before replying. "Roger. We've got scanners for those things. We'll handle it."

            Zion broke the connection and looked at the opening, which he was quickly approaching. "Sorry, Grav, but I'm coming in anyway."

            Gravity couldn't hear him, but the sentiment was clear. Geddon appeared behind his leader and brought him out of his thoughts. "Sir," he rumbled. "We have to leave."

            "Right," Gravity replied, sounding very tired. "They'll probably have the east exit guarded. Let's try to punch out the west with what troops are still within earshot."

            Geddon nodded and started off to collect a squad. Gravity followed, a cloud of anger hovering his mind. It was anger at the Hunters, anger towards his brother, anger towards the situation, and anger at himself for not being able to change anything. He knew how this was going to end. The law stated that Maverick Reploids must be deactivated. The Hunters were going to surround them and butcher them like cattle. It would be a bloodbath, and there was little he could to stop it.

            "Except die trying," he corrected himself. His wings unfolded and the thrusters came online, blasting him down the hallway after his fleeing companions.

            "A shame she can't scream," Doc Volvar observed. "I'd love to hear these screams."

            "Musn't be too greedy," Boomer Kuwangner reminded him, slowly removing his bloodied blade from his prisoner's body. "Think of it this way…by keeping everything inside, we're forcing her mind to turn on itself in order to keep it active—it has to keep active, else it'll have nothing to do except focus on the pain." Boomer wiped the blade off using Damia's hair, chuckling at the paralyzed guerilla as he did so. Her pupils fluctuated in size—the only reaction she could give to the pain coursing through her body. "Madness is an escape, my dear. Not a hindrance. Try it. Trust me, you'll like it!"

            Even if Damia could have spoken she still couldn't have answered him. She'd stopped hearing coherent words a while ago now. Her vision was about useless, but she didn't mind, because she wasn't sure she wanted to see what they were doing to her. The scariest part was, all this thinking, all the conscious thought, it was all being done with an increasingly smaller portion of her mind. The rest of it was occupied by a red haze that grew larger as the agony did. That really frightened her. The pain was hideous, but pain could end. Madness, though…madness was something that was much harder to get rid of. Her mind seemed bent on madness, though. Her CPU screamed warning messages that had all started to blend together—in fact, everything was blending together. She thought she was losing consciousness, but she still felt everything that was happening to her, so no, she knew, she was still fully awake.

            "I believe it's time to go to work," Volvar opined, as though everything else had just been play, producing a scalpel-like object. Boomer politely stepped aside and Volvar stared into the gaping wound his friend had created. Lord knew what Boomer had ground up in there, as all Volvar could see was a wet mass of coolant and occasional wires and steel. "Well, this makes things hard…" The quack doctor began poking around inside Damia's abdomen with his tool, finally finding what he was looking for—one of her internals. He checked to make sure it wasn't anything overly important, like her generator, and used his blade to actually make a slit in the organ. "This is the torture I talked about earlier," Volvar said to Boomer. "Now, watch the eyes…" The blade of his scalpel retreated, and in its place was a filament of sorts. Volvar inserted it into the organ and thumbed a button, creating a brief electrical surge.

            Damia's eyes, already bloodshot, grew wider and her body shuddered. Boomer stepped back. The look that flashed through his victim's eyes suggested she may break through the paralysis after that one. "My friend," the Maverick chuckled. "I think you have succeeded."

            "I thought as much," Volvar smiled, stepping back from his patient. "This tool's designed to go with this paralysis…one shock like that, and any Hunter will break!"

            Volvar wasn't too far from the truth. The last reserves of Damia's strength shattered after that shock, and for the first time in her life a wave of despair shot through her. What did that mean, she wondered. Had she broken? If so, the feeling of submission didn't last long before something else dominated it—a frenzy. All the rage she'd been building up shut out her consciousness and took over her mind, bathing everything in a red glow. Her breathing accelerated, her optics began to shiver, and her blood, unfortunately, began to flow faster, puddling up worse in her shredded midsection.

            "You're logging all this?" Boomer asked, replacing his blade atop his head.

            "Of course." Volvar frowned, hearing the sounds of battle outside the medical ward. "Assuming we don't survive, the test results are being sent back to my archives, where the Gold Serpent can access them."

            "The Serpent?" Boomer frowned. "Why not Sigma?"

            "Sigma never bothers with things this intricate. The Serpent, however, operates a wide network. It'll spread better there."

            "I see." Boomer frowned again as the sounds of battle grew closer. He looked pitilessly at the ruined Huntress on the operating table. "Well, seeing as we don't need anything from her…think of something creative, Volvar. And think it up quick. I don't think we have much time before guests arrive."

            The Hunters poured through the ruined wall to their home base, pleased to see that nothing fired at them as they did so. Jasper and Scylla took a large squad from Unit 17, leaving the others in Lariat's capable paws. The squad raced to the lower levels of the base, picking off three straggler Mavericks as they went, and Jasper turned on his scanners. They were equipped to detect anomalies in an area's normal energy field, and gravitational disruptions counted as anomalies.

            "I count five," Jasper reported loudly. "Damn, that bug's been busy…all right, I'm marking the positions on your scanners…now."

            "How do we deactivate 'em?" one flustered Hunter asked.

            "There's one up here," Scylla announced, taking charge. "Observe." A Gravity Well was a steel orb that when activated separated slightly to reveal a fluctuating core that began to compress the surrounding matter, in this case structural material. "Gravity Wells are harmless unless detonated," Scylla informed them, removing the Well and slamming it onto the floor, shorting it out. "Yes, it really is that simple."

            Jasper frowned. "This was…probably just a time waster, then."

            "Yes." Scylla agreed. "But it's still a threat."

            Jasper nodded his assent and they separated into two teams. Jasper hadn't gone far when he detected more Gravity Wells…above them. "Shit," he hissed. "They're gonna bring the roof down, one way or another."

            Vulcan and Rykov remained behind with Tiberius and Lifesaver while Archer and company zoomed ahead. Vulcan wanted to keep an eye on Krysta, and Rykov wanted to keep an eye on Vulcan. At the same time, he found a woozy Nightchaser and got him to relate the night's events.

            "That crazy schmuck," Chase grumbled, of Scythe. "Woulda killed us all, if I hadn't put a sword up his arse…yer friend there helped, I guess, choppin' off his legs an' all."

            Rykov smiled, despite himself. Now that the danger was passed, Chase was doped up on tranks again, as was Krysta, while Lifesaver fussed about repairing them. The Hunters had set up camp in the power chamber where the fight with Quasar had taken place. Quasar himself was tied up with some of the other surviving Mavericks, and Rykov looked without remorse at them. They were all quiet. They knew their fate. Maverick Reploids were deemed a danger to society, and would be deactivated as soon as it was convenient to do so.

            "It's kind of sad." Rykov turned to face Vulcan, who'd appeared out of friggin nowhere, and was having the exact same thoughts.

            "What's sad? Them?"

            "They don't have a chance." Vulcan leaned against a wall, looking at the comatose Quasar. "Their memory files will be pulled, and then they'll be executed."

            "They're terrorists," Rykov pointed out. "What do you want? A jury? Even human terrorists don't get juries."

            "How often does any Reploid get a jury?" Vulcan queried.

Rykov had to stop and think about that one. Vulcan had a point. Even when Reploids did get juries, they were composed predominantly of humans. "It's because of assholes like these that normal Reploids don't get fair treatment," Rykov decided.

            "But the more you exterminate them like this, the more they'll pop up," Vulcan insisted. "This can't be the way to go."

            "It's not," Rykov agreed, sighing. "But it's not up to us to save the world, Vulc. We're just not powerful enough. Sigma could have done it, years ago, but he chose the opposite path instead. X and Zero might do it, if the wars end. It's up to us to help them end the wars, the only way we can." He inclined his head towards Quasar. "And if that means shutting down assholes who use nukes, that's just fine with me."

            "Maybe." Vulcan stared a little longer and lowered his head. "It's still sick."

            "Yeah," Rykov agreed. "But what else are you gonna do? You saw how bad it was out there. It's up to the bigshots to make sure it doesn't happen again, but if it does, we gotta make sure it stops as soon as possible."

            Vulcan glanced up. "How long did you practice that…?"

            "I read it somewhere," Rykov allowed himself to grin. "Hunter promo, I think. It makes a hell of a lot more sense now than it did when I first read it."

            "Yo," Lifesaver piped up, remembering Vulcan and Rykov from the quarry. "You two still remember anything about saving lives?"

            "No," Rykov confessed. "But we can learn again."

            "Then c'mere." The humorless medic stood and motioned to a Hunter who was wounded relatively mildly. "If you guys can fix broken limbs up, it'll free Tiberius and I up to deal with the major wounds. I have a feeling we're gonna have a lot of work today."

            Castle veered around a corner expecting trouble. Finding none, and vaguely disappointed because of it, he took the vacant corridor at a sprint. Damia's signal was starting to weaken. Castle didn't know exactly what was happening to his commander, but if Boomer Kuwangner was involved it couldn't be good. He reached the end of the hallway and checked to see that his team members were keeping up, and of course they were—Dantz, Deluge, Everett and Wallace were always on top of things. If Acrystos were here they'd be all the better, Castle reflected, but she was busy doing her duty elsewhere. He wondered how that was faring.

            A ringing communicator stopped his wondering. "Castle here. Speak now or forever hold your peace."

            "As you wish," Jasper replied hurriedly. "Look, Castle, there are Gravity Wells placed as mines throughout the base."

            "Oh, shit."

            "Yeah, shit, lots of it. We're taking care of the ones downstairs, but there are some on your level."

            "I'm picking them up," Castle said, feeling a bit sick because he knew where this was heading. "There aren't many."

            "But there are still enough to finish what the Buzzbombs started. Where are the ones you're picking up?"

            "Some are just planted in corners, and two…" Castle reeled. "The vent shafts? How the hell did Gravity Beetle get something into a vent shaft? He's not a small guy!"

            "He probably floated them up there," Jasper suggested. "And in any rate, who cares? Just deactivate the ones you can find."

            "Roger," Castle said, deflated. Dammit. Now he had to split his forces. Boomer Kuwangner was no easy foe, and given his disposition Castle figured that bringing humans into the battle was a bad idea. "Everett, Wallace," he said, turning to his team. "New assignment."

            "What's that?" the lanky medic Everett asked.

            "Bombs," Castle said, hastily explaining the situation. "I need you and Wallace to take them out…you have your scanners, right?"

            "Of course." Wallace, a tall, powerful man, produced the portable handheld scanner the human Hunters were issued. "What do we do? Just smash the things?"

            "Sure, why not?" Castle shrugged. Then he frowned. This place was crawling with Mavericks now…just sending two humans, however stealthy they were, probably was a bad idea. "Deluge, go with them." The blue and white Reploid nodded assent and used his internal scanner to see what the humans were seeing. Then they were off.

            "And what do we do, then?" a rumbling voice queried.

            Castle smiled at the remaining Hunter, the huge, red-armored heavy gunner known as Dantz. "We go save our commander, that's what. She's in the medical ward—so is Boomer Kuwangner and some other jackass. I have a feeling this is gonna get personal, so let's screw the whole 'caution' idea and just kick some bug ass."

            "I couldn't agree with you more, sir," Dantz smiled in turn, transforming one of his powerful arms into a menacing cannon. Dantz, big as he was, was in fact an excellent guerilla. He was a beast of burden, so to speak, carrying with him all the squad's heavier weapons when the mission required them. He was surprisingly agile, and an all around good soldier. Castle figured that he and Dantz stood just as good a chance against Kuwangner and his buddy as any other Hunters would.

            "Right," the acting commander said as he turned towards the nearby medical wing. "Let's get this over with."

            Unit 5 proceeded hurriedly towards the base's control center, not knowing that Gravity Beetle was already retreating into their path. Archer, leading the pack, turned to Hawkins and motioned for him to move within speaking distance. "How's the medic squad?"

            "Still there," Hawkins responded confidently. They'd left a squad of their numbers to guard Lifesaver and Tiberius while they tended the wounded, a squad that included Vulcan and Rykov. "Where's Zion? No offense, boss, but this little party here isn't gonna hold off the whole Maverick force."

            "Tell me about it," Archer said through clenched teeth. "Zion's taking his time. He's 'evacuating' all the Mavericks from the front of the base and he's counting on us to keep them busy while he runs after them. It doesn't add up. Oh well," the alabaster Reploid said with a shrug. "We can always call in Mason from the east."

            It was about thirty seconds later when the first shots were fired. Unit 5 briefly became a disorganized shouting mass, but Hawkins thundered once and silenced them. "Mavericks sighted," he reported to Archer, arming his cannon. "It's time for action."

            And it was. The Mavericks apparently were just as shocked as the Hunters had been, and had just reorganized themselves. Spearheading their assault was the huge humanoid Geddon, who let loose an animalistic snarl at the sight of the Hunters. Archer was mildly intimidated. "He's their leader."

            "And he's gonna take some time to bring down," Hawkins added. "Hunters! Attack!"

            The two bodies of forces rushed at each other, but there was a definite difference in their sizes. Unit 5 was only one small sect of the Hunter force, and their forces had already been split. The Mavericks, though, kept on coming, and it was clear that this strategy would not work—the Hunters were being pushed back dangerously close to the medics.

            "Zion!" Archer bellowed into his communicator. "Let's get a move on! We're not gonna be able to hold them for long!"

            "We're right behind them," Zion assured him. He sounded breathless enough that Archer was sure he was hurrying.

            "Right," the commander said, breaking his communication and lifting his sword into an attack position. No sooner had he done so than something knocked him flat against the wall, driving his senses from his body. When his eyes refocused he beheld Geddon lowering his huge mace weapon, Hunter blood smeared all over him. The behemoth turned slowly to the stunned Archer and a wicked smile twisted his already unpleasant facial features. Then he roared in pain when Hawkins' charged blast struck him in the chest.

            "Didn't like that, did ya?" Hawkins taunted, firing off another round.

            Geddon roared again and swung his mace out in front of him, actually deflecting the plasma shot into a nearby wall. "You," he growled, "you're all the same. But now it's our turn to have some fun."

            "Then let us entertain you!" Archer chimed in as he rejoined the battle, clearing his head and diving at Geddon with his sword. The monster of a Reploid barely winced as the lightsaber cut into his armor. Instead he lashed out and punched at Archer, who deftly dodged only to dodge again as the mace swung his way. "Damn it," he realized aloud. It was not wise at all to fight this guy at close range.

            "Uh, boss," Hawkins said shakily. "I think…we have a problem."

            "What?" Archer leapt away from his foe, who was chuckling. "What do you—oh, hell."

            While Geddon had stalled for time, the Mavericks behind him had massed into one main group—they were now reorganized. "Like I said," Geddon boomed, "you're all the same…all fools. Now let's have that fun I was talking about. CHARGE!"

            Geddon's voice was almost as big as he was, but it was still drowned out by the collective war cries of the Mavericks behind him as they rushed into the disorganized Unit 5. Geddon himself swung his mace from side to side, plastering ruined Hunter bodies on the wall and brutally smashing anyone else who got in front of him. Both Archer and Hawkins were powerless against the Maverick assault, and soon the devastated unit was just hacking and slashing at any enemy they could find. The Maverick stragglers—which were most of the force, actually—continued to fight for their lives against the increasingly desperate Hunters.

            "ZION!" Archer raged again. "Where ARE you?"

            "We're right behind you," Zion responded, just as the Hunter next to him shot one of the slower Mavericks in the back of the head. "Don't stand around, Archer…retreat. Get back to the electrical chamber…that's a much wider area for a battle. You'll be slaughtered in those halls. Besides…that place is gonna be battlefield soon anyway, and you gotta protect the wounded that are still there." He switched channels. "Mason, come in. You need to get inside…now. Proceed immediately to the electrical facility and move fast. We don't have any time to waste." Again he switched lines. "Jasper. How's the situation?" It was good. Jasper's team had dismantled at least half of the Gravity Wells and would be rejoining the battle upstairs very soon. "Roger that." He broke all connections and let out a long, tired sigh. "Please, God, don't let this fall apart now."

            Brant Everett was much more suited to crawl into ventilation ducts than the bigger Henry Wallace was, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

            "When I find this thing," he promised the cobwebs, "I will shove it up that big blue bug's ass and let it compress HIM. Ha ha," he laughed aloud. "Now there's a way to kill the bastards. A G-force enema." Crisis brought out Everett's creative side.

            A minute later he found the bomb, and realized he had no idea what to do with it. He didn't want to destroy it in here…it might go off, and there wasn't exactly any place for him to run. "Jesus Christ on a Ski Doo," Everett raged, crawling backwards with the deadly orb in his fingers. "I have all the fun. Hey Henry!" he said after patching into his comrade. "I got the present. How should I deliver it?"

            "Be creative," Wallace responded, four hundred feet away, as Deluge brought the last Gravity Well down with a geyser from his arm cannon. Wallace then placed the device on the shoulders of a headless Maverick body, giving it a new noggin. Deluge frowned at the crude display, but didn't complain. He was not very happy with the Mavericks at the moment, and desecrating their remains didn't seem like such a bad idea. Besides, he knew better than to question the wartime logic of humans. "Let's go," Wallace gestured towards the medical lab. "I have this feeling the boss needs us."

            Gravity Beetle soared above the heads of his comrades, his own head brushing the ceiling. He wanted to catch up with Geddon and the others. He saw that Archer and company had turned and were running back the way they came. He also knew that Zion was coming from behind them. They had this one chance to break through Archer's weakening unit, and they would be free. If they failed…well, Gravity didn't want to think about that.

            "My brother," a disappointed voice said on his communicator. "You're still here?"

            "Boomer!" Gravity raged, blinded by anger and nearly ramming into a wall. "Where the hell are you?"
            "Preparing to escape," the spindly Maverick responded, the essence of a grin in his voice. "As you should be."

            "We're almost there," Gravity growled. "No thanks to you."

            "You don't get it, do you?" Boomer sounded even more disappointed. "Get out of here…now. You and I both have short range warp devices. Warp outside and return to Seraph Castle."

            "Are you crazy? What about the—"

            "What about them?" Boomer hissed. "They're just foot soldiers, Gravity! Sigma can corrupt more of them in an hour than you'll lose today in combat. It's up to you whether or not you're going to go down with them."

            "You bastard." Gravity couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What the hell happened to you, brother?"

            "I grew up," he retorted. "Now do the same. Stop playing the idealistic commander role. Gredam tried that. Where is he now? God only knows."

            "I can't just abandon these people. We brought them into this fight—"

            "They brought themselves into this fight by joining with Sigma! It's not your problem!" There was an awkward pause. "You're not really going to stay in there, are you…?" Gravity did not answer. "Answer me," Boomer hissed. "Brother. Escape now, or you will die. There is no stopping those Hunters. …Gravity?"

            "Good bye, Boomer," Gravity finally responded, breaking the link. A feeling of dread settled into his gut. Boomer had deserted them. Gredam hadn't returned with the Marauder, which they desperately needed to win. Zion was boxing them in between a rock and a hard place. He…probably would die here, he realized, and probably for good this time. "But that's just the price I pay," he decided, zooming ahead. He had brought these people in here and it was his problem. The Hunters were going to massacre them all like cattle…but they were going to have a hell of a time doing it. "There will be blood tonight," Gravity whispered, catching sight of Geddon ahead of him. "And I promise you, Zion, some of it will be yours…!"

Doc Volvar felt a shiver go up his spine. It wasn't because he was revolted—far from it, actually. He was quite pleased with his work. He'd successfully invented and tested a groundbreaking new torture technique for Reploid prisoners. It was much more effective than the outdated Surger devices, he thought, and it broke even the strongest wills. The surgeon brushed locks of Damia's hair off her perspiring face, staring into eyes that had by now glazed over. They were windows into a frenzied mind. Blood trickled from her lips, having welled up inside her due to her ruptured internals. That, in fact, was what inspired Volvar in choosing a way to kill her. He sidled over to a medical cabinet and produced one of the stimulant agents Tiberius himself had used to kick-start Nightchaser and Krysta out of their medicinal slumber and approached his prisoner. The stimulant, he knew, would increase most of Damia's internal functions, including how quickly her blood flowed. Volvar and Kuwangner would boogie, leaving the Unit 8 commander to bleed herself dry on the operating table, dying not with a scream, nor even a whimper.

            "Fine!" Boomer Kuwangner suddenly raged into his communicator from the other corner of the room, startling Volvar something fierce. The doctor dropped the stimulant on the floor, where it rolled under the operating table. "Just go ahead and die then!" Boomer finished, breaking the connection with his brother and storming over to Volvar. "He wants to be the big hero to his men. Bah! He's just going to be gutted with the rest of them!"

            "Sounds like you're genuinely worried about him," Volvar said with a frown, crouching down to look for the stimulant.

            "He is my brother," Kuwangner glowered as though the thought upset him. "Even I have some standards. I'm sure he'll realize his folly sooner or later. I know I did."

            "Mhm," Volvar replied in half-interest, reaching under the table and finally gripping the stimulant. "Here we go." He stood up slowly and turned to present his plans to Boomer, and he at once realized that something was dreadfully wrong.

            Boomer Kuwangner tensed for perhaps a fourth of a second before snapping into ninja-like reflex mode, grabbing his bloodied Boomerang Cutter from atop his head and flinging it over Volvar's head. The doctor, with wide eyes, dove out of the way and scanned the room frantically for signs of trouble.

            Even after years of special operations, Dantz was unprepared for Boomer's speed. The red Reploid was only able to stand and watch as the Boomerang Cutter sped towards him and ate a chunk out of his chest armor before beginning its return path to Boomer's hands. "Oh, you'll pay for that."

            Before Boomer could respond, a searing pain exploded in his back. He stumbled forward and felt behind him with his spindly arms, finally finding and removing the energy dagger Castle had planted there from afar. "Nice," Boomer said in genuine appreciation of the Hunter's craftiness, though his voice was still laced with hatred.

            Castle was about to respond, but what he saw stopped his words in his throat. Now that Boomer was out of the way, he had a full view of the operating table, and the sorry condition of its occupant.

            Damia was under a sea of numbness caused by the simple fact that the pain had become her whole being. As such it no longer bothered her with specific burning lances of agony, but was now just an endless fiery ache. It must be what hell felt like, she had decided, shortly before her mind surrendered to the red wave of mixed rage and madness. Every part of her active mind wanted one simple thing: to move. And then, once that simple but blissfully welcomed gesture was complete, she wanted to destroy. Pain pissed Damia off, but helplessness was even more infuriating to her, and that violent anger was all she'd been able to hang onto. But she could do none of that, all because of the machine humming above her head. That stupid, mindless automaton was what was going to kill her, and that was just even more humiliating.

            Castle was feeling most of that same rage. There wasn't a soul in the Hunter forces, X and Zero included, that Castle respected more than the woman who'd kept his small unit alive for all its years of existence, and if these bastards thought they could—

            Wait…there was only one bastard now.

            "Ah…ha ha," Boomer chuckled, when he realized what had happened to Volvar. "He always was a clever man, that doctor. A cloaking device plus a distraction equals an escape for him." The Maverick suddenly sprang into action, leaping at Castle and flicking his Boomerang Cutter at him in midair. "But there will be no such escape for you!"

            Castle dove out of the way, just as a sizzling beam of forked lightning escaped from Dantz's cannon and split the air in Kuwangner's flight path. But it had no effect…the Maverick was gone. "…Shit," Castle realized, spinning sharply to greet Kuwangner as he rematerialized behind him and shot his thin but powerful leg out into Castle's gut. "Ugh!"

            "Try that on me!" Dantz roared, running towards them.

            "This is easier," Kuwangner said tersely, throwing the Cutter Dantz's way. The big Reploid dodged it this time, but it arched back around Kuwangner further than usual and came back at Castle. The Hunter dove to the floor, launching a bolt of plasma up at Kuwangner, who leapt to the side as though he'd known the shot was coming all along. Dantz actually had to twist out of the way to avoid his comrade's shot. Castle jumped to his feet, feeling like an ass. He should have known better than that.

            Kuwangner cartwheeled out of the way, landing across the room, his Boomerang Cutter still twirling around him nonstop. There had to be magnetic poles at work here, both Hunters realized. Wherever Kuwangner moved, the Cutter spun around him without stopping. "Isn't it a nifty trick?" the Maverick gloated, laughing his raspy laugh. He warped near Dantz, and the annoyed Reploid had to throw himself out of the way again to avoid Kuwangner's martial arts and his deadly spinning blade.

            "Dantz!" Castle shouted. "Out of the way!"

            "What?" Kuwangner chuckled at Castle's bravado. "You think you can take me out?" His eyes smoldered with arrogance. "I killed your commander, now I'll kill you!"

            "Well, not after a comment like that," Castle snarled, moving now with speed that surprised even Kuwangner. The Hunter weaved in past the Cutter and struck at Kuwangner with his own series of martial arts. Kuwangner parried and retaliated with attacks of his own. He actually extended the radius of his Cutter so it wouldn't interfere with the little spar. "You're fast, for a little stick girl," Castle seethed.

            "You're capable, for a lousy mindless drone soldier," Boomer retorted gleefully. He launched a surprise uppercut, catching Castle by surprise and driving him back. "Unfortunately, I've lost interest in this little spat." With that he leapt into the air, and his Cutter closed in. Castle dropped to the floor, letting the weapon pass overhead as Dantz shot another thunderbolt at Kuwangner, who quickly warped out of the way and reappeared in front of Castle. "Now, meet your fate!" The Maverick Boss warped again, planning to drag his weapon clear through Castle as he warped past him.

            Castle, though, had one lifesaving advantage. The Aegis agent had in the Repliforce War been assigned to stop a renegade major officer named Mondo who wanted to use the Spaceport missiles on Hunter Headquarters to avenge Colonel's demise. When Castle and Mondo squared off, the Repliforce officer had confounded Castle with complex warp attacks, while freezing Castle's internal warp generator to prevent him from somehow copying the trick. It hadn't been enough, though, and after the bloodiest battle of his life Castle had come out on top…but X and Zero weren't the only Reploids who could copy weapons. Castle had taken from Mondo the program that had harassed the Hunter for most of the battle. It was a surge of energy that halted warp patterns in their paths, just before driving them backwards in the opposite direction. In a very Castle-like fashion, Castle had named it the "Rejection Projection", but screaming out the attack name now seemed somehow undignified, so he simply screamed profane words instead.

            A blinding flash filled the room, and Castle's face broke into a grin when he saw a cloud of particles flicker and jolt back into reality. Boomer Kuwangner let out a yelp of surprise as Castle's attack drove him backwards with a surge of energies. He landed in a heap in front of the operating table, and his head snapped up angrily towards Castle. "Oh, you'll pay for that, Hunter…you'll pay good." The Boomerang Cutter circled around him, its silver glint mirroring the menacing look in the Maverick's eyes. Castle and Dantz tensed for the coming attack.

            Then all three of them winced at the sound of steel shredding steel.

            Boomer was the first to react, beginning to tilt his head to see what had just happened. But in fact he wasn't the first to react, because suddenly a train struck him from behind, wrapping its arms around his neck and strangling his air supply.

            Castle and Dantz both stood paralyzed when they realized what was going on—the Boomerang Cutter, when rotating around Kuwangner, had struck the machine responsible for Damia's paralysis. Faster than even Kuwangner could counter, the vengeance-starved Huntress had leapt from the table onto the Maverick's back, holding him in a death grip. Her mind wasn't functioning—all she knew was that motor skills were now accessible, and now it was time to kill things.

            "Impossible…!" Kuwangner was able to hiss before the pressure on his throat became too strong to allow words to escape. He heard Damia's heavy breathing and felt her wound pressed against his back. Actually shuddering, the Maverick turned to desperate measures, calling his Cutter to him to try and finish the job he started.

            "Commander!" Dantz roared, on the right, trying to raise the alert. "Watch it!"

            Damia didn't understand the words as much as she understood the voice, and twisted to the right to confront it, turning the struggling Kuwangner with her. At the same time the Boomerang Cutter swept in from that same right and tore into its master's midsection, giving him a cruel taste of his own medicine. This time it was the Maverick who couldn't scream due to his captor.

            Her energy gathered, Damia let out the shriek of rage she'd been denied while twisting her arms tighter around the Maverick's neck. She pushed her feet into the enemy's shoulder blades, pressed herself upwards, and wrenched Boomer Kuwangner's head clear off his shoulders.

            Castle stood still, still absorbing the events of the last few seconds. He watched as Kuwangner's headless corpse clattered awkwardly onto the floor. The head slipped from Damia's disinterested fingertips, rolling away from the body it used to control. The frenzied Huntress saw Castle in the distance and, of all things, made a rush at him. Castle backed up in surprise, knowing he'd never be able to cut off his superior's attack in time.

            Fortunately Dantz was on top of things. The big Reploid darted to Castle's aid, intercepting Damia and holding her down. "Commander!" he boomed next to her ear, reaching her. "Commander, it's us!" He glanced up to see Castle sprinting off to the side, looking for something. "It's over," he reassured her, feeling her resistance beginning to slacken.

            Castle returned with a syringe. "Of all the things," he said with a grimace, injecting his commander with the tranquilizer. Almost immediately she settled down, choking out what might have been an attempt at communication. "Shh," Castle whispered, trying to soothe her and feeling more or less overwhelmed by the situation. "Jesus Christ," he swore after seeing the wound Kuwangner and Volvar had created.           

            "Call Everett," Dantz took over, switching on his internal communicator. "I'll get Tiberius."

            "Brant," Castle buzzed his medic, taking Damia's trembling hand, not knowing what else to do. Where the hell was Delates when you needed the guy? "Get to the medical ward. The boss is…well, just get over here fast."

            "…Roger," the guerilla responded after a brief pause. "Deluge, Henry, let's go."

            Castle breathed a sigh of relief, glad to pass on responsibility to someone with a clue as to what to do. Then he noticed the deep frown etched into Dantz's face. "What? What is it?"

            "It's Tiberius," Dantz said, blinking. "I can't get a response."

            "Whuddya mean?" Castle blinked too. "No response?" The two stared at each other, mindful of the Huntress bleeding to death in between them and the tension that had just clouded the air. "You think something's happening?"

            "Yeah," Dantz breathed slowly, feeling dread even though he had no idea what was going on. "Yeah, I do."

            "Right…" Castle stood slowly, meandering his way over to Kuwangner, who stared up at him with dead eyes that looked as though they may blink at any second. Castle couldn't stand those eyes. He picked up the head, dropkicked it into a garbage can, and destroyed the whole thing with a blast from his arm cannon. He didn't even think to take Boomer's weapon. It wasn't one he ever wanted to see again, and he was pretty sure Damia would agree with him.

            "Something's coming," Dr. Ledyard whispered to Alan Seitz, staring blankly down the corridor.

            "You're right," Seitz agreed, reloading his pistol and heading for Tiberius. "Sir, do you hear it?"

            "Yeah," the chief medic replied, dropping his tools and gathering his protective detail. "Shit. Let's get the wounded to the back…I don't like where this is going."

            "Mason's been called in already," Lifesaver reminded him. "He's on his way here."

            "Let's hope he gets here fast," Tiberius muttered, taking up his rifle and turning on his communicator. "Archer, what's going on, here?"

            "Watch out, sir!" the commander's voice responded frantically. "They've broken through!"

            "Who?" Tiberius asked, frantic too.

            "Them!" Rykov exclaimed, whirling on the enemies with his cannon armed. Vulcan drew his saber, standing near the wounded in the corner, not about to let them be harmed.

            The Mavericks poured around a corner, Geddon leading the charge, and immediately the Hunter spirits sank. "Shit!" Tiberius roared, his pistol spurting flames. "Everyone who can fight, hold them off! The wounded won't stand a chance!"

            "No," Geddon agreed, snarling. "No, they won't." The massive humanoid raised his mace and began to advance.

            "Take out the big guy first," Ledyard suggested, unloading his machine pistols in Geddon's direction. The Maverick snarled again and raised his mace, which the adaman bullets did not penetrate. Immediately Ledyard's stomach sank. This was very bad.

            "Not on my watch!" Lifesaver declared, drawing a pistol of his own and shooting a Maverick through the head. The dichotomy of a healer terminating a life was lost on him.

            Tiberius also had no qualms about dropping a few of the advancing enemy. "They're not gonna stop," he realized, feeling the dread setting on.

            "Well we're not gonna make it easy for 'em!" Rykov said as he leveled his cannon at three approaching Mavericks. The cannon barrel flashed rapidly as his chain-gun cannon unloaded shot after shot into the surprised enemies, dropping all three.

            "Parlor tricks will get you nowhere," Geddon taunted, beginning his advance. His mace swung out and nearly plastered Alan Seitz against the wall. The human squirmed out of the way just in time, and Rykov redirected his fire at Geddon, who growled as the damage registered. "You'll pay for that."

            "Vulcan!" Tiberius said to the silver Hunter guarding the wounded. "Get them out of here!"

            "You heard the man," Carlton agreed, hoisting Nightchaser and leading Cain while Lifesaver dragged off the others. Vulcan glanced back, but Rykov and the other Unit 5 members Archer had left behind motioned for him to go on. Taking Krysta in his arms, he raced out the door, hoping he'd be able to return in time.

            "Runnin' away, eh?" Geddon smiled slowly. "Not if we have anything to say about it. Mavericks! CHARGE!"

            At the sound of Geddon's considerable voice, each Maverick broke out into a run at the Unit 5 troops, pushing them back much as they'd done to Archer minutes earlier.

            Tiberius watched in horror, knowing full well that they'd never be able to stop Geddon's onrush long enough for the wounded to get away. The doctor looked at Ledyard and Seitz, both of whom nodded their agreement. All at once, they rushed Geddon, Rykov firing at point blank, Ledyard shooting for the mace arm, and Seitz taking shots at the monster's head. Roaring in pain, Geddon staggered backwards, bringing his mace around to defend himself. Tiberius smiled and leveled his pistol at the humanoid's wounded shoulder joint, prepared to bring the whole arm off. Then something terrible happened.

            A flash of light erupted behind Tiberius, and with a cry of surprise the Hunter found himself flying through the air as though a baseball bat had smashed him…right towards Geddon. Seeing his chance, the strongman lashed out with his mace, catching Tiberius in the upper torso. A sickening crunch was heard, and the medic's bleeding, smashed body flew back and embedded itself in the back wall for a few seconds before sliding down to the floor, where it didn't move.

            "No," Ledyard breathed, stunned. "There's no way…"

            Seitz spun on his heel to see what in the world had launched Tiberius towards his executioner, and nearly choked when he saw who it was.

            "Shoulda killed me when you had the chance, boys!" Quasar cackled. Blood caked around his lips and his wounds were acting up fiercely, but the mad glint in his eyes informed them all that he didn't much mind.

            "You bastard!" Ledyard roared, raising his machine guns and preparing to demolish his boss's attacker, when all of a sudden Rykov barreled into him and knocked him out of the way just before Geddon's mace swept the air over them.

            "Lucky," Geddon allowed, growling, raising his mace again and glowering at Rykov and Ledyard on the floor before him. "But no one gets lucky twice."

            "Really!" a new voice piped up from the exit door. Before Quasar could turn around to acknowledge it, he quite simply exploded.

            "Jesus!" Geddon gasped, watching a cloud of flames erupt from where Quasar had once stood. It was much too big to have just come from a generator explosion. Then the flames died down, and he understood. "Oh, hell no…"

            "Hell yes," Alec Tremont shouted back with a cold smile, the happy end of his Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher still smoking. "Now, boys, we're cookin' with gas!"

            "God, am I glad to see you," Rykov breathed a sigh of relief as Alec stepped into the chamber. Bale and the other pilots followed, all of them armed.

            "You didn't think we were just sky-fighters, did ya?" Alec said as he busily reloaded his RPG, noting the advancing angry Mavericks. "Saw Vulcan and the others on the way out…sent 'em to the airfield. They'll be safe there if they make it."

            "Let's make sure that they do," Rykov said as he began to lay down cover fire to buy the pilot time to reload.

            Ledyard had rushed to Tiberius, and what he found was revolting: his boss's head was crushed in on one side. He'd probably died instantly, Dr. Ledyard knew, and his fists clenched around his weapon. "That bastard…"

            'That bastard' was about to reach the exit gate, when all of a sudden coils of red electricity grabbed him from behind. "Raaagh!" Geddon raged, spinning to confront the new threat. "You," he growled. "I'll send you to the same hell as your fellow commander there!"

            "Just try," Archer glowered, as the rest of Unit 5 poured in around him. The commander's sword pulsated with red energies, and he fixed Geddon with a look that clearly meant murder.

            "I'm afraid that pleasure belongs to me, Geddon," a new voice popped up. Before Archer could identify it, he felt his body go rigid and shudder as what felt like a steamroller passed over him. "A Gravity Well is a nifty toy," Gravity Beetle chuckled, hovering above the paralyzed Archer. "Almost brought down your base with them, but it seems your cohorts have deactivated them all by now. A shame…well, at least I can have this pleasure!"

            "Think again," Hawkins growled, emerging from the cloud of combatants and firing a shot right into the hovering Gravity Well, dropping it and freeing his commander. He then shot the Maverick, but Gravity's hard metal shell absorbed the shot without incident.

            "Is that the best you can offer?" Gravity taunted, churning energies with his fingertips. "Well, then there's no point in us sticking around, is there?" A black hole began to appear near the exit door, drawing all the Reploids towards it—Maverick and Hunter alike.

            "Shit," Archer growled, realizing what was happening. "They're gonna run!"

            "Fight!" Gravity shouted to his comrades. "Fight your way out! Run now! You don't have any other chance!" He sped in front of both Archer and Hawkins, cutting them off. "No you don't. I haven't finished with you yet!"

            "Says you," Archer retorted, dashing at the Maverick and slashing at his wings. Gravity sped to the side and blasted Archer into a wall with a well-timed gravity burst. He turned to Hawkins in time to see shots headed his way. A curtain of shimmering energies cloaked him, deflecting all the projectiles, and he rushed at the Hunter with blinding speed, slicing his pincer blades up to cut Hawkins in half. This time it was the Hunter who darted to the side, though awkwardly. Gravity prepared another rush to take him out.

            Then something happened that the Maverick had not counted on: screams. From outside.

            "Impossible!" Geddon raged, the disbelief obvious in his eyes as he received the transmissions. "They…they…!"

            "They have our number," Gravity realized, hearing shouts of "They're outside!" "Another Unit!" and "Man down!" There was another Hunter unit waiting...outside the base.

            Archer and the Hunters were conversely elated. Mason hadn't come through the base like he'd been originally ordered to—Zion must have redirected him around the base to the south exit to cut off the Mavericks escaping there once Zion realized where Gravity was leading his squad.

            Seconds later Zion himself appeared, leading the main Hunter force. He really had been right behind Gravity. The chamber began to fill up with Hunters, far more than the Mavericks could handle. Gravity felt all his remaining spirits crash. So it had come to this, had it? A slaughterhouse, after all? He watched his soldiers fighting to escape through the single exit, killing both Hunters and each other for a chance to live out the day. Those that did get out were met with fire from Mason's unit. Some escaped through teleportation, but most just died. Geddon, seemingly invincible when this had all started, had evoked the wrath of every Hunter by killing Tiberius, and now was beginning to falter. Boomer had been right…he would die here tonight.

            But unlike Boomer, Gravity decided to die in a way he could be proud of. Flying as though in a trance, the heavily armored beetle Reploid approached a wall far from the scrambling Mavericks but still close to the exit door. He ignored the shots from Hawkins, Archer, Zion and the others, in fact welcoming them. It made what he was about to do easier. Slowly but surely he removed the safeties on all his internal systems and began to gather more energy than his body could support. "Geddon," he patched through to his comrade. "Get them out of here." His last words.

            Gravity Beetle transformed himself into a raging ball of fire, and transformed most of the nearby wall into a gateway to freedom. Understanding, Geddon pushed back the apprehension that came with losing the person who told you what to do and stomped over to the new exit, bashing away remaining residue with his mace and booming for others to follow. Immediately Mavericks tore themselves away from the south gate and rushed to the hole Gravity's self-destruction had created.

            "No!" Zion shouted, waving the Hunters towards the fleeing Mavericks. "Plug the hole! Don't let them get away! Take them down! Take them all down!" And this was more or less what happened.

            "Well who knew," a somewhat awed Hawkins said quietly to his commander, who had stayed put instead of rushing with the others to track down the enemy. "There's still a shred of nobility among them."

            "Who knew," Archer agreed in a voice that carried no emotion. "And it doesn't look like anyone cares, either."

            Screams still came from inside the base and out in the snow, screams from downed Hunters and Mavericks alike, screams that had become the standard sound during the night and now during the day. To some, the anguish and hatred had started blurring into a song of sorts. It was a song sung by the Maverick Hunters as they exacted justice for the nuclear attacks. It was a song sung also by the Mavericks warping and running as fast as they could, or dying in the snow as a result of their failure. It was a song sung especially by civilians mourning their dead among the ruined portion of Megacity 5. It was a song sung joyfully by looters and criminals, taking advantage of destroyed buildings to rob already devastated innocents of their belongings. It was a song echoed maniacally by Malevex, fighting X and Zero to the death in the bowels of Seraph Castle. And it was sung loudest of all by those in power, by General Virdelko and his associates, by Marcus Raleigh and his Megacity government, by Signas and Cain, all of whom joined in the common refrain: how had they let things go so wrong?

            At eleven thirty a.m. in Megacity 5, the blizzard broke. Two heavy clouds parted long enough for a ray of sunlight to touch down on the landscape, illuminating for the heavens what the city had to show for itself. It illuminated only blood.