Chapter 23 - New New York Rampage

Sebastian's laboratory was located out of the way of the hustle and bustle of the big city. He was of the older age and had collected quite a few things throughout his years of life, so he began buying storage houses all throughout the city, in random locations. No one ever suspected the old man of any wrong doing, but what was really in the warehouses he owned could be questioned upon. Once his decision to recreate every Maverick he could, he began to stock the Reploids into the storage houses, and he packed them to the top. He wasn't going to back down from his conquest of reintroducing Reploids to the world. And if his plan went correctly, the world would have to deal with more than just one single scientist behind this new era.

Anode turned his gaze toward the horizon, the sun was beginning its descent of the western sky. He turned his gaze back toward the small group he was accompanied by and walked back toward them. Mr. Death and Franco were still leaning against the wall, the energy capsule that AX had given to Mr. Death was helping him a bit, he had regained more than enough energy from the mixture of resting and the capsule, that he should be able to make it back to the HQ without any hindrance to the pace they were planning on taking.

"What's that sound?" AX's head was cocked toward the west, and Anode turned back to stare at the horizon.

The ground was rumbling and beginning to shake, like a herd of elephants was coming in their direction rather quickly. The noise was thunderous, but it was not the sounds of hooves, it was the sound of metallic footsteps slamming against asphalt, at a pace that was not likable for this small group. Anode turned back to the four of them.

"Alpha, take Franco and Bread Man back to the base, right now."

"Wha? Why?" AX answered for him, "We have trouble."

"AX and Mr. Death will stay here with me and give you guys some time to get moving. Go as fast as you can. I know Bread Man's body will be extra weight for you, Franco, but you can't drop him nor leave him behind. Go now!"

Franco quickly snatched up the limp form of Bread Man and began loping after Alpha's smaller form, who was already running ahead. Alpha ignited his beam saber and checked ahead to make sure it was clear. Franco began to run quicker as Alpha waved him on. The two of them disappeared behind a building with Bread Man's body.

Anode sighed heavily, morphing his left hand into a buster and beginning its charge. Mr. Death pushed himself away from the wall, morphing his right hand into a buster as well, also charging it up. He slid into a battle stance and steadied his buster arm with his other hand, aiming it down the street where the sound was coming from. AX ignited his beam saber and stood a little ways off to Anode's right, who gave him a nod.

"Mr. Death and I will release fully charged plasma shots into them, that's when you go in AX. I'll follow in behind you. Mr. Death, you take up the long range and make sure to keep any air units off of us. We're not going to want to bother taking them out while dealing with ground units."

"Understood." Both Mr. Death and AX replied at the same time.

Piro leapt upward on to a building side and triangle-kicked his was up to the roof, as an explosion rocketed the ground in the midst of their group. Fidget and the two Reploids with him had been sent flying, crashing into a nearby hover car, or what was left of it. Panic had kept his ground, but his saber had fallen from his grasp and was now somewhere inside the cracks of the road. Piro morphed his hand into his buster and activated its sniper mode, crouching down at the roof's edge.

"What was that, Piro!" Piro's visor slid down over his vision, letting him see through the shroud of smoke, "I'm checking, Panic!"

Piro moved his head back and forth slowly, trying to decipher the figures he was seeing through the smoke. He didn't want to make a bad call and call them Mavericks and have them turn out to be the rest of the group. Panic finally located his saber and ignited it, spinning it slowly within his fingers, as Piro bellowed from the roof, "MAVERICKS!"

Elcazor rounded around the corner within the massive structure of Sebastian's laboratory. He stopped at the large titanium doors and tapped a three-digit code into the panel, and waited for it to slide open. He stepped out of the building and walked a few yards out and turned to the right, rounding another corner into a back alley. He walked toward another massive titanium door and tapped the same three-digit code into that panel, and it opened up. He stood where he was and watched as some of the metallic faces within the warehouse turned in his direction. A dark grin spread over his face.

Shoryu appeared at his side and every face within the warehouse gave their attention. They knew that Shoryu was the real force to contend with, he had the experience and the intelligence. Elcazor may have the advanced technology and the speed, but Shoryu would end up winning a fight if the two ever got into one.

Elcazor gave a nod to Shoryu and began to yell things out at the group of Mavericks, assigning each group of Reploids a certain job for this little mission. Shoryu took a step back, turned on his heel, and walked a few short steps, where he spun around once more and leaned against a wall. He watched Elcazor's plan form as the younger Maverick assigned jobs. The humanoid Reploids would be the fodder, to go in first and attack. The flyers would sweep in behind them and keep the enemy distracted. The larger humanoid Reploids would then roll in and take the hits, while the faster Reploids attacked. If that didn't stop them, a squad of four D-1000's would reinforce the entire attack. Elcazor and Shoryu would be in the D-1000 group. They would wait until the very end to bring in their wrath upon the enemy. Shoryu's mind was elsewhere when Elcazor asked him a question.

"Shoryu!" He looked to the beret-wearing Maverick, "Yes?"

"Do you have anything else to add?"

Shoryu sneered beneath his face mask as he pushed himself away from the brick wall. He strolled forth at a rather slow pace, his fingers clenching and unclenching slowly. As he stopped slightly in front of Elcazor, both wrists exploded with dark green energy, the two wrist blades glowing ominously before him. He crossed them in front of his body and stroked them against one another, showering the ground in front of him with plasma. He released with a venomous growl, "Let's go kill us some Hunters!" His voice was drowned up with the shouting that ensued from the Mavericks.

Alpha noticed that he and Franco were making very good time. They would be back at the base before nightfall. Not having to deal with stealth or Mavericks, like he and Bread Man had to on the way there, was greatly decreasing the time. They still had quite a while to go before they would be back at the base and Alpha wanted to make sure that the two of them didn't run into anything that they couldn't handle.

'Hopefully Anode and AX are keeping up well back there, I wish I could have stayed with them, but this is probably for the best. 32 would want the information from me and not from Franco or Mr. Death, seeing as how I was there.'

"Alpha!" Franco's voice brought Alpha back to reality.

They both slid to a stop, breathing rather heavily. The path before them was completely covered with small hats, each one with a dark green cross right in the middle, almost the same darkness as the rest of the helmet, which was brown. Small antennae stood up on the right side of each helmet.

"Mettaurs.. And so many.."

"What should we do?"

'Stay and fight.' "You go."

"But what about you?"

'I'll run, you stay.' "I'll stay here and keep them off of you."

"You sure?"

'Make me change my mind.' "Go Franco!"

Franco turned down an alley and ran out of Alpha's sight. He set his hand lightly against his forehead and sighed. He reached for the hilt to his saber and ignited it, letting the blade glow at his side. A few of the Mets popped up, their mouths opening up to reveal the tiny plasma rifles built into them.

'Good going, Alpha.' "This is going to hurt so bad.."

Alpha leapt forward and into the mass of Met hats, his saber was a blur as it went for more Mets than he would ever be able to count. The saber splashed across their protective helmets, keeping him from damaging them. He grit his teeth as he felt the plasma rip into his back from more than a few Mets that had popped up behind him.

Anode and Mr. Death both had released waves of fully charged plasma into the ranks of Mavericks heading in their direction. The two blasts had wiped out, at least, two rows of the horde. AX dashed out immediately after the two blasts ravaged the Maverick horde. His beam saber was an azure blur as it wreaked havoc upon the Reploids opposing it.

"Duck AX!"

Anode leapt in over AX, who dropped to a crouch. Anode landed on top of a Joe, cutting it clean in half with the electric end of his saber. He spun the saber about completely before him, both ends of the saber cleaving through a Joe with a shield, the saber going right through the shield as well.

"AX, the shields are fakes, the sabers can eat through them!"

"Haha! Thank you Anode!" AX leapt up and cleaved through a Joe's head, taking the shield out with the sweep of the blade as well.

Mr. Death was taking shots he knew he could take at his current condition, rarely would he aim for a longer shot. Despite the energy capsule that AX had given him and the rest he had gotten afterward, his systems were still worn down. He wouldn't push himself to do anything he didn't think he could do. He quickly leapt out of the way and behind half of what used to be a Quaker and aimed out over top of it at the incoming group of Crushers that were determined to pin him down and execute him with their spiked bottoms. He kicked out away from the Quaker and up the wall, triangle-kicking his way to be eye-level with the Crushers. He kicked away from the wall, his buster partially charged. He aimed and let the shot loose, wiping out all four of them at once. He landed back on top of the Quaker, breathing rather heavily.

'Shit.. I'm not charged enough to be doing this.'

'Let me do it then.'

'You again!?'

'You can't get rid of me.. I AM YOU!'

'No, shut up.'

'I'm limitless, Mr. Death.. I can fight them without losing energy.'

'You'll kill AX and Anode, you heartless bastard!'

'Fine. Die then.'

'If it means staying free, then I will.'

'I'll just resume control once you're dead for good.'

'We'll see..'

Anode grit his teeth angrily, the Joe's were making a barricade with their weak shields to try and stop them, while the Sniper Joe's behind them sent volley after volley of hot plasma in their direction. Anode could feel his anger rise, but he wasn't going to fall into his emotions, especially not during a battle of such a large scale. He leapt away as a rain of shots exploded upon the ground where he just was. He aimed and let loose his own volley, but of electrically charged shots. Each shot hit a different Joe and disrupted his system with the electric current backing the shot and the barricade was reduced by quite a few.

AX leapt over the row of Joe's that had just been reduced in numbers by Anode's electric shots. He landed behind even the Sniper Joe's and swept his saber through two of them at once, piercing his saber up through the back of a normal Joe, the saber piercing through even the shield. He whipped the saber out and through both Joe's at his sides. He leapt backward as the Sniper Joe's finally noticed his presence behind their lines. The plasma splashed over his armor, leaving light dents all across his form.

'Dammit! I can't get away fast enough to stop them all at once. And I can't use the AX Drive again so soon. Give it a few more minutes, AX.. You can keep this up for a little bit more. Last resort!' And he leapt back into the fray, his hand morphing into a buster, firing off a volley into the Joe's before him.

Orichalcon grabbed hold of the hover car he and Bleu had slammed into it, and flipped backward over it, landing behind it. Bleu quickly followed his maneuver and landed beside him, her right hand morphing into her buster. She aimed the point toward the ground and slowly began charging.

"I'll give you time, Bleu." She smiled and gave a nod, "Thanks."

Orichalcon leapt to his feet, the lasers sliding up from his wrists, pointing toward the direction the blast had come from. Light gathered at the small tips of his wrist lasers and then two long blue streaks erupted from the ends and he swept them back and forth slowly, the two blades parallel with one another. He watched as explosions erupted on the other side of the road, where the Mavericks were coming from. He deactivated the lasers as Fidget leapt upward, his beam spear activated in his hands.

Fidget dashed forward, whipping the spear around his form agilely, showing off his true skill. The beam spear struck home with each movement he made, gouging through the faces of Reploids, cleaving through waists, slicing off appendages, and splitting them down the middle. He leapt backward as plasma rained down on him. He landed in a crouch, drawing out a pistol with his left hand and firing back upon the Joe's aiming at him.

'Stick to the spear, Fidget!'

Panic had single-handedly took on a smaller group of the Mavericks that had come from behind them. He was tired from it, so he slid into an alley and rested against the wall, his right hand placed against his chest, where his heart would have been if he were a human. He breathed heavily, glancing around to where Bleu and Orichalcon were.

"Glad they're on our side, eh Panic?"

"Heh, yea Piro. Cover me for a bit?" Piro nodded from above and cocked his rifle, "Can do."

Piro once again took up his position on the roof edge, his sniper gleaming in the fading light. He took pot shots at the larger Mavericks in the group, leaving only small dents in them. He grit his teeth and began to take better aim, and then fired, the plasma shot ripped straight through a D-10's face, it's movement faltered for a moment and then it collapsed forward on to a group of Mettaurs, erupting into a large explosion. He sighed heavily and noticed that a swarm of Bats and Birds were coming in behind the group.

"Ahh, shit."

Franco booked it, his pace increasing slightly with every turn he made. He had to get back to the HQ as quick as he could. There had to have been, at least, one hundred Mettaurs on that single street alone. And though he knew Mets were weak when their helmets were up, if Alpha turned his back on one side, the ones behind him would get him.

'You're his only hope on this one, Franco. You can do it.'

He twisted his head to the right, watching another group of Reploids fighting a swarm of what must have been Mavericks, since they were the only thing that traveled in packs. He hesitated for a second, but then turned his head back, running toward the base at full force, his eyes searching for the familiar doors he had exited and entered everyday.

'Almost there Bread Man..'

Bleu unleashed the charged shot over the hover car, the shot zipping past Fidget's crouched form and blowing a massive hole in the Maverick horde. She aimed over the top of the battered automobile, firing a continuous volley of shots toward their opposition. Orichalcon stood at her side, aiming carefully with each shot, the lasers tearing through the bodies of the Mavericks. Orichalcon noticed that Bleu was no longer firing.

"Bleu?" She didn't look at him, but kept staring in the same direction. He followed her gaze, "Who the hell is that?"

The two watched as a blue Reploid ran past at a quick pace, with what looked like a body hanging across his shoulder. Orichalcon turned his gaze away from the running Reploid in time to fire off one of his laser, the thin beam cutting through a plasma shot and into the face of the Joe that shot it.

"Bleu! Pay attention!"