Ch. 20 – Counter-attack
Zero could only look around through his visor at the desert surroundings as he watched for any sign of Light's sensor marauder. Anyone who could move fast enough to get past the outer edges of Light's sensors would have to kick up enough dust to be noticed at that speed. He watched as suddenly a cloud of sand seemed to arise from the horizon.
"Strange, I don't remember Light saying anything about sandstorms in this area. Logic would denote that either he just didn't mention it, or I have company coming. Time to blend in then I suppose," Zero commented to himself as he activated the weapon that X had acquired from Sting Chameleon so long ago. As he settled into the sand near the sensor he set himself up to spring as quickly as possible.
"Has it really been so long since we took out Sigma's first attempt at a Maverick army? It doesn't really seem so long ago until I think about it, and then it seems like it's been forever." he thought to himself as the dust cloud moved ever closer. Finally he could make out a shape appearing through the mist-like sands. "Overdrive Ostrich? Since when could he move that fast?" Zero thought momentarily as he waited for the fleet-footed fowl to get closer to the sensor.
"This isn't good. I don't know what Sigma's done to him, but I'm gonna have to kick in the speed boosters to keep up with him. Hopefully he can't use that kind of speed in a full-force fight," he commented to himself as he waited those few more precious moments.
Overdrive Ostrich reveled in the new power that was his. Sigma had said that upgrades were coming to all of them, but he hadn't imagined that the head Maverick had meant anything like this. The speed was unbelievable. The only thing faster than himself was a teleporter beam. Or so he had been led to believe. As he dashed towards the next sensor he suddenly found himself coming into contact with what could best be described as a red and gold blur. The hit sent him off-balance, causing him to miss his intended target with the sonic boom from his sudden stop.
"Who dares to tread upon my path now?" He asked as he finally skidded to an uneven stop. He looked back to see a certain Crimson Reploid standing upon the nearest sand dune, the insane mane of hair blowing in the sudden wind left behind Overdrive's backwash.
"You know damned well who I am Overdrive, so I see no need to waste time with the formalities. I'll give you one chance to surrender before I tear you apart and send you back to the scrap yard that Sigma had to have rebuilt you from after X got through with you last time."
"You. Feh. You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into you degenerate. Only us Mavericks can truly understand the greatness of Sigma's designs."
"Try me, I dare you."
"Why should we bother? You're not going to be swayed to see our point of view again. You've made your choice obviously clear. The human beings can't rule themselves, they're destined to destroy themselves. If we rule over them, at least then they have a chance of survival."
"You're forgetting something though Overdrive."
"And what is that?"
"Fate, Luck and Man's Decisions. They determine who and what we are. Fate gives us a set of paths, and our decisions combined with luck decide which path we shall take. We human beings-"
"WE human beings? What is this we? You're one of us you fool, or are you so brain-sick that your circuits are truly beginning to suffer meltdown?"
"We human beings are extremely good at making sure that we avoid destruction." Zero suddenly flashed out of his armor for a moment. "We human beings created Robots. We humans created Reploids. If necessary, we can dismantle every one of them as well." Zero flashed back into his armor once more. "I'll only ask one more time Overdrive."
"Take your offer and shove it."
"Oh well, I told my girlfriend it wouldn't work, but she wouldn't listen to me. She's the one who prefers to avoid fighting, or else I'd feel bad about tearing you apart again. But since it's me and not her, I don't feel so bad. Matter of fact, I just might enjoy this." Zero reached back and pulled the hilt of the Z-saber from it's socket, igniting it with the point ending in the sand, melting the surrounding patch into glass.
"Bah, you're no better than I am." Overdrive spat into the sand.
"We'll just have to see then, won't we?" Zero stated as he suddenly disappeared from normal view.
Overdrive watched as Zero came at him with a speed not seen in his previous battles.
"So, you've been holding back in all of your previous battles. Sigma was right after all." Overdrive suddenly ducked under the saber slash intended to rob his head of it's connection to his neck. "Your power truly has improved. Too bad the boss has been holding us all back as well. But now we've all been released from our limits. We've been finally allowed to use the improvements that he designed for us. You will regret the day you released the demons." Overdrive said as he sidestepped the next slash from the saber.
"I may have been holding back before Overdrive, but what makes you think that I'm not still?" Zero commented as he ducked under a flurry of slashes from the blades that had popped out of the sides of Overdrive's arms.
"Easy, the very strain of the power output on your body is beginning to show in the air around you. Your design is one of the best for a balanced Reploid, but it's no match when compared to us specialists." Overdrive ducked under the massive boot of Zero's roundhouse and suddenly dashed in and uppercutted the Class S Hunter. Zero could only try to twist himself to land on his feet as he flew.
"Doc, what's going on? I can't detect anything different about him, but he's faster and stronger than he's ever been before." Zero commented through the mental communications.
"We're not sure just yet Zero, but we're working on it as quickly as we can. Part of the problem is that he's not really holding still long enough to get a good reading for any of the scanners, including your suit's built-in ones. If you can slow him down, that would make it significantly faster." Light commented as Zero threw another punch, only to have Overdrive slide under it and grab his arm.
"Right then, I'll see what I can do about that." Zero said as he seamlessly flew through the air for a moment again, thanks to Overdrive's shoulder throw.
"Come on ya overgrown chicken, you're gonna have to do better than that." Zero taunted as he effortlessly landed once more.
"We'll see who suffers from foul play when I'm through with you." Overdrive commented as he closed the gap between them rapidly.
"Oh for shit's sake, so now you do corny comedy jokes too? What else got an improvement, did you manage to find a way to prevent molting?" Zero asked as he slid his foot down for a sweep which Overdrive effortlessly jumped over to begin skidding to another stop.
"The joke will be on you-"
"By the end of the fight, yeah yeah, heard it before, been there, done that, got the T-shirt, been on the T-shirt, made a better one. Bring it featherduster." Zero taunted, resocketing the Z-saber. "There, I'll even take it easy on you." He began to charge the Z-busters as he railed against Overdrive.
Overdrive quickly closed the distance, trying to use his speed to overrun Zero's defenses again, only to find Zero suddenly sped up immensely. As he began to launch punches and kicks, he could only swear profusely as his blows all failed to hit the intended target. Zero on the other hand was only waiting for that one fateful opportunity to knock Overdrive into mid-air for easy aiming purposes. His aim was good, but at this close range, he would also be caught in the blast and there was a chance for Overdrive's new speed to make it a rather difficult targeting situation, and Zero's aim wasn't quite as good as X's, much to his chagrin.
Zero watched as Overdrive's anger suddenly pushed him that little bit into one punch, where Zero could slide under it and return the uppercut from earlier. As Overdrive flew upwards he could only watch as the arm cannons suddenly morphed into place over Zero's fists, already aiming upward at the suddenly airborne bird.
"Goodnight for the last time Overdrive." Zero commented before letting both blasts loose. He had already teleported out before the pieces could even hit the ground.
"Well then, so much for them taking out my sensors," Dr. Light commented as the battle ended and Zero teleported back in. "Good work out there Zero. I'm pleased you remembered the power boost your saber gives you."
"Doesn't take much to remember it when you can feel the boost in your entire system Doc. Besides, it's a battle instinct of sorts."
"That's true and-" Light was cut off as his alarms suddenly went off again. "How on earth? Oh, I see. They're scanning for my sensors now and destroying them at a distance. Wonderful. It seems I'm suddenly being sniped."
"Sniped?" Crystal asked.
"Yes, they're using plasma rifles capable of firing accurately out beyond my sensor range. Not quite as effective as Overdrive was since I can see them coming, but they work well enough since my sensors are incapable of moving."
"What's the plan Doc?" Zenton asked.
"I'm going to have to send all of you out other than Crystal. They're attacking in too many places at once for any one of you to handle. Zero, I'm sending you into the Appalachian mountain range east of here. Zenton will go to the mountain range in the east. Alia I'm sending into the forests up north, though I'm giving you a slight color makeover on your armor first dear, pink doesn't go well with foliage." Alia nodded. "X I'm sending to the deserts in the south-west. Your longe range expertise will come in handy as wide open as it is down there. Toronto and Signas I'm sending out as one team to the southern areas, down near the swamplands. Signas should be able to deflect most of the shots and Toronto can take care of any of the larger reploids and animals in the area."
"Yes, sir." All six echoed as they teleported out.
"Doc?" Crystal spoke.
"Yes, my dear?"
"This could be a problem, couldn't it?" She asked as she took her place at the communications.
"Actually, it already is. My scanners are part of what have given us such an advantage up till now. I'm already down to seventy percent of what I was capable of. And the attacks are still continuing."
"I was afraid of that." She said as she started in on patching all of the communications together.
Zero came down on a wind blown cliff.
"Wonderful," he commented as he solidified. "I never was fond of mountains. Seems a shame to have to fight up here though. Nature can be rather peaceful at times." As he looked around he was forced to dodge a rockfall from above him. "Well then, I guess we're gonna have to start this off already."
Zero was forced to run arond the cliff for a few moments before being able to finally spot the assailant. "Slash Beast, get down here and fight me you coward!" He shouted as he dodged a few more boulders.
"Fine then, it's not as if you'll truly be a challenge anyway." Slash Beast yelled as he dropped from the overhang. As Zero watched he had a wrenching feeling in his gut. Slash's next movements told him his feeling was true.
"Doc, you need to pull Alia, Signas, Tor, and Zen back out of the field, Overdrive wasn't the only one who's been upgraded. Slash Beast is moving at over double his old speed rate." Zero thought through to Light as he dodged away from the wall he was next to just in time for Slash Beast to impale the harmless rock instead of the Crimson Wonder himself.
"Too late already Zero, I'll do what I can to keep them all safe though."
"Just don't let down your own guard, Doc. What's in that base right now is more precious to me than anything out here."
"Don't worry about me Zero, I'll be fine," Crystal's bright voice sounded over the comms.
Zero could only dodge as Slash seemed intent on literally rushing him at every opportunity. Fortunately his normal speed was even enough to keep himself out of the charge path each time.
"How long can the others hold out against enemies of this caliber though?" He thought to himself as he continued to dodge.
Alia found herself mentally thanking Light for all the combat training that he had forced her to go through under Zero and X. Web Spider was giving her a hell of a run for her money.
"Go for his energy crystal on his back, Alia, that's his weak point." She heard X break through over the comms.
"Roger." She responded crisply.
"Now to just find an opportunity to get the drop on him instead of the other way around." As she throught momentarily her instincts told her to move. Not a moment too soon, as she rolled she narrowly avoided being snared by a Lightning Web. She fired blindly into the tree, hoping to at least hit any portion of the arachnid Reploid. She was rewarded by a loud grunt and a piece of one of his legs dropping through the trees all of a sudden.
"You will pay for that wench." He said as his face suddenly appeared through the leaves of the tree.
"And you'll regret making that the last insult you ever speak." As she spoke she brought the pistol up and took aim for the only way she could find to get inside his new armor.
"Please don't make me lau-" Web Spider was suddenly cut off as the pistol bolt shot down his throat and straight into his power generator. Alia teleported out as the explosion engulfed the nearby area.
Toronto and Signas were both moving rather slowly thanks to the muck and grime of the swamp. Unfortunately for them, it was nothing to Wheel Gator.
"This is entirely too easy. Even X put up more of a fight than the two of you will. What was your commander thinking?"
"He thought to confuse you perhaps. Or perhaps even better, he didn't bother to think, since he's as well aware of your limits as we are." Toronto responded.
"We will see about that." Wheel responded as he slid beneath the surface.
"This isn't good Toronto," Signas stated. "I have no clue where he is in all this muck."
"That won't be an issue Signas. I can still sense him."
"Wait a minute, you've got some sort of radar?"
"Something of that sort. Jump, now." Toronto rumbled, Signas leaping not a moment too late as Wheel Gator exploded from the water. Before Wheel Gator could regain the comfort of the swamp, he found himself suddenly caught by Toronto.
"I also suspect that you weren't expecting someone entirely capable of not only holding, but crushing your weight, were you?" Toronto spoke as he began to apply pressure to his already crushing hold. Wheel Gator could only scream as the pressure threatened to destroy his internals. He finally managed to wriggle free of Tor's grasp, only to find the swamp muck invading his now exposed mechanical workings. He threw several buzzsaws, only to have them deflected by Tor's broadsword. Tor suddenly thrust through the water, closing the gap between himself and Wheel Gator, making contact with an uppercut that not only lifted Wheel Gator out of the muck, but sent him slying a good ten meters as well. As soon as Wheel could make contact with the water, he was once again caught up in Tor's crushing hold, with no way to get free this time.
"Now, I think it is time that you surrendered to your fate." Tor suddenly released his grip on Wheel Gator's body, only to catch him again around the head, and proceeded to crush it like a tin can. "I believe that Dr. Light was wanting more scrap materials."
Signas could only stand and look at the human-turned-Reploid titan. "I guess that's one way to get it," he said as evenly as he could manage. "Makes me wonder what on earth he even sent me out here with you for."
"Easy enough. You spotted him from the distance back there, something I wasn't going to manage on my own. And by the time I would've spotted him on my own, I'd have already been close enough for him to locate. This way, we were able to get close enough, and I was able to get a mental lock onto him before he was able to escape my view."
"Mental lock?"
"Yes, it's one of my magical abilities."
"Didn't even know magic existed. Always seemed like fairy tales to me."
"It's real enough. Don't tell me you never saw Zenton throwing lightning around during practice."
"I saw it, but I thought it was just a built-in ability that he had, like most Reploids."
"That would be the case if him, Zero, and I weren't all humans in the first place. My magic is more passive than his is though. My immense size, the broadsword, and the ability to track people and Reploid's minds are my only abilities. But if I don't get a mental lock on to someone at least once before, I can't track them. I can tell that they're there, and a general area, but I can't pinpoint them like I just did."
"I see. So it's not so much a radar as it is a homing beacon."
"I suppose you could put it that way. We should probably get back though." Toronto rumbled, moments before the white and black teleporter beams shot out of the swamplands.
X was having way too much fun with this fight.
"What on earth even possessed Infinity Mijinion to think he can outshoot me?" X said as he watched the red dot appear on his armor once more.
"Five...four...three..two...one...dodge." X counted off as he looked down at the dot. He stepped one spot to his left and let the plasma trail slide by his shoulder. He took off like a bat out of hell, leaning forward and kicking in the boosters towards where the shot had to have come from. Mijinion saw the S-class Hunter heading for him and panicked, dropping the still overheated plasma rifle in his hurry to escape. X merely lifted one arm cannon and fired, hitting the mark first time and skidding to a stop as the remains began to rain down.
"That was entirely too easy to be it," X commented as he waited for the other bomb to drop. He was surprised when he waited for a full thirty seconds and still nothing else happened. "Strange. Very strange indeed," he commented before he teleported out.
Zenton could only look around at the mountains surrounding him.
"Strange, I can feel the life energy of the surroundings up here. I've never been able to do that before. Perhaps this is something I should look into some time while I have a chance. For now though, I have a mission to do." He sighed as he began to bounce his way from ledge to ledge up the mountainside. As he neared the top he stopped momentarily to take in the view. Suddenly the rock face next to him shattered as a plasma bolt exploded on it, scorching a ring around the small crater.
"Damn it, I'm getting careless," Zen muttered to himself as he ducked behind a nearby boulder. "Time to pick up the pace then I guess."
As Zenton prepared to leap from his hiding place another bolt shattered the rock face on this side as well. As he looked up he spotted normal sniper bot.
"Alright, now I'm just plain offended. I don't even get a unique Reploid, I just get to fight a shitload of you damned sniper bots." Zenton said as he began to jump from ledge to ledge, making his way further up to the cliff the snipers were on. His arrival was marked by the launching of one bot after another over the edge. Those that he couldn't knock over the edge with his axe he bodily picked up and threw off the cliffside.
"Dr. Light, come in." He said into the comms as he finished up. "I don't see anymore bots up here, you wanna do a scan and make sure for me?"
"I'd be happy to if I had the capability Zenton, but they managed to knock enough of them offline in that area that I'm no longer capable of the scanning I was. Return to base, we're going to have to make some preparations here soon."
"Roger that." Zenton replied moments before his white beam moved to blend in with the clouds.
Zero continued to bounce off walls, avoiding Slash Beast's attempts to impale him.
"Come on Slash, this is getting tiresome. You can't catch me, and I haven't even turned up the speed yet. Just give it up." Zero stated as he stopped and waited for Slash Beast to free his arm from the wall once more.
"I never give in. I never have, I never will, I don't care how many times I have to be rebuilt." Slash growled out as he yanked his arm and energy blade free once more.
"Don't say I didn't give you the chance then." Zero said as he pulled the Z-saber out and ignited it. "Let's dance then."
Zero briefly brought the hilt of the saber in front of his face in salute, before dashing towards Slash Beast, catching him off-guard. Even with his new speed, Zero's saber moved too fast for him to defend against. Cuts appeared in numerous places in his armor, though none as of yet would've been fatal. Zero jumped back as Slash fell to one knee.
"One last chance Slash, give it up. We can rid you of the Maverick Virus. Rid you of Sigma's control." Zero commented as he socketed the saber.
"I joined Sigma of my own accord. There is nothing to rid me of. Honor demands that I finish my fight, whether I win or lose. I will not bow down to humans, I will not beg for scraps at their sides. I am a Reploid, I am superior in every aspect." Slash growled out as he stood back up and reignited the energy blades. Zero merely closed his eyes and let out a sigh.
"I was hoping you wouldn't look at it that way, but apparently I was hoping for too much. So be it then," he said as he reopened his eyes and retrieved the saber again. An after-image was left in Slash's vision as Zero moved forward, under the counter-attack and sliced through Slash's mid-section. Zero stopped and resocketed the saber as the explosion rocked the cliff behind him.
"When will they learn that they can't beat me?" He said as he teleported out.