Chapter 11: "Magnetic Flux"
"This is getting out of hand!" Agile protested sharply, pacing with hard stamps of his sleek boots.
Serges rolled his mismatched optics as he worked at a console. It clearly showed maps and readouts of the Maverick Hunter Headquarters. "Agile! Power down or go practice with your saber elsewhere. Megaman X obtaining the parts was a calculated risk from the start. We all agreed to the plan."
Violen smashed a fist into the other hand, leaning against a wall off to Serges' right. "For once, I'm with Agile, Serges. I held nothing back from that archaic brat, and I know Agile is too proud of himself not to do the same, whatever he claims now—"
"I was baiting him!" Agile snapped.
Violen didn't pause his tone, "Case in point—and we still lost the parts. He didn't just defeat us, he robbed us blind. I know YOU had no intention of him surviving your encounter, Serges!" he finished with a firm point at the smallest of their trio. "You spent far too long working on that hover-board of yours to sacrifice it as a minor weapon."
"And yet," Serges began, "I'm the only one not panicking. Recall that I'm in charge while we await the master because I'm the one with the plan, you two." His voice unexpectedly thrummed the room, the other Mavericks jerking and becoming more passive, wary.
Alarms began to ring around them, Agile and Violen snapping to full battle stances.
Serges, however, turned from his console with a smirk. The pair eased awkwardly, glaring at him.
"What is this?" Violen growled.
"Phase one."
Signas marched into the commander center, alarms already sounding. Dr. Cain and X were near the main console-table, Alia and Dex busily working at the diagnostic stations just beyond. "When did it start?" Signas began.
"Three minutes ago," X answered, his arms crossed, frowning down at a holograph display of the computer facility on the island.
Alia leaned back. "Dex and I just completed full network sweeps. The computer facility is still isolated on the network. Whatever they're doing, it hasn't reached out yet."
Signas looked down at the readings himself. "That's some of the most extreme sensor jamming I've ever seen."
Dr. Cain stroked his beard and added, "Precisely. They have completely isolated that facility. Nothing inside can be touched. They're pumping so much power into that effort, I can't help but be gravely concerned."
"I think we all are," Signas replied, seeming to consider the map himself.
On their private network, X asked, /Overload, you have data on this surge yet? Theories?/
/It's very strange, X. By the raw power being pulled the scale must be massive, but the sensor block doesn't explain more than a fraction of a percent of this surge. All I can say for sure is if that level of power goes critical, it could leave a substantial dent in that island, to say nothing of the possible weapons they could be activating. Even then, this is stupidly obvious. There are ways of disguising large power usage, and they're NOT doing it./
Alia cut in, /That's exactly what's worrying me so much. …This smells like a trap. Bait./
/Even so…/ X trailed off, and then spoke aloud, "I have to check it out. Alia, we're confident Magna Centipede is the Maverick controlling this facility, right?"
She glanced at him from her console with worry at first, but then calmed and nodded. "He's the most logical choice. His expertise was both scientific and network related."
"Dr. Cain?" X prompted, his arms relaxing down.
"…Approved," the human answered, closing his eyes with a sigh.
Signas privately added, /I'll gather more of our team here at headquarters. I suspect they're trying to draw us out./
/I was about to ask,/ X agreed, already running for the exit of the command center.
Using a channel directly from herself to Signas, Alia asked, /Is it always like this?/
She caught Signas' faint smirk to control a chuckle. /More or less./
The teleport field carrying X slammed down in front of the towering, white-gray edifice that was the computer facility. X ran out of the diminishing energies, his view pulling up maps, data read outs, and a holograph overlay based on the data Alia and the others had pulled together. The main door was a fortified wall of hydraulics, so he didn't even bother. With a leap and boost, he ripped up the wall, and started to catch and leap from different structures along the sides of the building.
Reaching an exit vent he had his display highlighting, he used two plasma cutters to get through it quickly, slipping into the ventilation shaft.
After a few moments of barely controlled sliding, X came down out of a ceiling vent, and landed to a crouch in one of the central halls of the facility. He touched his comm as a test. Painful static made him cringe, and he shut it off. Definitely not reaching anyone through that mess.
It was clear the facility was on high alert. There were sensor lights panning almost every corner of the various catwalk levels and platforms, and mechaniloid drones were hovering around in patrols. X had been keeping his enhanced sensors active, both getting used to keeping them on, and knowing he needed every edge possible in this deathtrap of a building. The Mavericks had been given all the time in the world to set up any nightmare they'd want in this area.
Most of what he pulled with his sensors was as expected, various types of sensors in the searching lights, some pressure plates. It was the drones in this area they caught his attention. They had horrendously powerful plasma generators in their little bulbous frames.
Not taking risks, he flipped his weapons, charged up, and activated Sting Chameleon's cloaking system. Shimmering out of sight, he shot forward, ducking under a drone, and weaving through a few search lights as they panned over his head or past on either side. The facility was large enough that even his enhanced sensors couldn't fully detail all of it at once. At least his map looked correct so far.
His sensors flared abruptly. He knew something was wrong magnetically around him, but it was too fast even for his body without prior experience. Something flung him off the floor he'd just reached, slamming him up into the underside of a catwalk for the second level. He grunted, trying to scramble along despite the odd, almost gravity-like pressure shoving him upward. A scanner light swept in too fast, however, and washed over him like a beam of sunlight.
Alarms flared, the search lights turning red. The drones all twisted and started to blaze toward him, each of them channeling blue-white plasma into forward-facing shields for their little purple and gray bodies.
X growled, rammed himself forward, and started to boost-stride at full speed, energy pouring into his frame as the drones swept into his wake.
The flooring ahead of him dropped out, and he did a flip-jump, firing a one-two plasma storm back at the leader of the mechaniloid pack. The first blast shattered the plasma shield, the second erase the little drone from existence. The others' shields protected them from the backwash, however, and they kept chasing.
As he landed, X realized he had no room to breathe. Massive blocks of metal were rushing toward him, clearly being manipulated by some kind of magnetic rail beneath the floor. Charging the closest block at full speed, he boosted into a last-second, full-body leap, barely carrying his boot-tips over the massive block's upper edge.
X couldn't risk a backward glance to watch the wave of massive blocks crash into the drones and shatter them to spare parts before the blocks very orderly sank into the open hole in the flooring, taking turns at high speed to do so.
Instead, X had to leap, dive, flip, and twist around rushing blocks just like the first wave, and it was getting harder as the hallway he had to take was barely large enough for the blocks themselves.
The floor gave way beneath him again, but a block was ripping toward him from further ahead anyway. X ground to a halt, let that block sink down into the gap with mathematical perfection. Then X dove forward, diving away from a second block ripping up from behind him. He had to do a hand-stand flip off the first block down in the pit to avoid a third coming down onto his head, intending to crush him down into the pit.
"Well he's not pulling any punches!" X exclaimed, sprint-boosting away from the near-disaster.
The hallway ended abruptly enough to startle him even with his mapping. The sheer scale of the next chamber made him glance up in momentary awe. It was truly cavernous, easily able to hold several smaller buildings in it. "They building more super-mechaniloids here?" he muttered as he boosted along. He needed the far wall, which he could climb and continue on his path using a maintenance hatch about halfway up the tremendous wall.
His sensors warned him something was trying to scan him. X accelerated, but at the same time the ceiling lost to the darkness above started to rain down globular chunks of metallic fluid. It would have looked like harmless rain, except each globule was bigger than X himself, and was flying down at lethal speed.
Almost immediately, X was juking, flipping, sliding, and rolling around crashing debris that solidified into rigid walls and partial consoles on impact. With his sensors listing it all out in painful detail, X managed an astonished, "Magnetic construction protocols? With liquid metal module templates? And they're wasting this on an exaggerated quick-sand trap? Even for a virus that's just a sad." I'll need to tell Alia about this, I bet she could have this system do some real good.
His sensors felt the room trying to scan him again. A targeting grid was trying to hone in on his frame. Clearly coordinated with the scanner, modules were raining down just around him to trap him in a box. X leapt up, twisted out of a mid-air collision with one module, and air-dashed out.
At last, he was at the wall. Kick-climbing with full-power dashes, he churned up the wall with all his possible power, finally hand-flipping over the ledge he needed, and plasma-blasting the door open.
Charging through the short hall beyond, he skidded to a stop in a contained chamber. There was a door across, but between that and him stood a hulking mechaniloid. It was a dull yellow color, with a large, mono-optic head, claw grippers, and a narrow spinal structure under the broad torso plating.
X jerked, but eased as he watched the sensor grid that had tried to read him focus on the mechaniloid, and download data into it. He smirked. "I see. Adaptive guardian programming. Trying to learn about the intruder in more detail. Clever."
The mechaniloid activated, and flexed its claws, a deep growl coming from its inner chest. "Target acquired."
It lunged forward with one claw, the talons snapping open as they glowed vibrantly. X's sensors told him it was definitely a projectile attack building, so he was already diving aside before the tri-part plasma bolt shot free, sizzling past him.
Starting to build a charge, X dashed and tumbled around the chamber, the mechaniloid missing several more attacks. Side-flipping with his full charge, X activated both busters, and unleashed another one-two plasma shock-wave just as he landed.
They hit—hard—but the mechaniloid only stumbled back as the burning energy washed over its frame, some systems venting steam as it started to aim at him again.
"Nice armor," X commented, side-dashing out of another shot as his colors flipped to green hues. "I don't have the time to linger, however." He twisted, snapping his plasma-saw launchers at the large droid with a fluid motion.
The two burning wheels shot out and cleaved into the thing's chest. It gave an electronic squeal as they dug into the heavy torso structure. Desperately, it tried to fire at X more times with both claws, and the Maverick Hunter had to dive, roll, and leap about several times as the thing crashed down, and finally collapsed completely. Most of its torso collapsed in on itself shortly thereafter.
"You were built to take a beating, that's for sure," X muttered, seeming almost nauseous. Unable to spend more time contemplating the mechaniloid's demise, X focused on the closed door. His new sensors let him patch into the system almost easily, but unlocking it would still take some time. "Ugh, this entire place is a giant stall tactic," he muttered, moving to the console for the door as his remote systems began working already.
Dex hurried into the command center, rushing past Signas and Dr. Cain at the main console, and brought a datapad to Alia at her own. "The latest from our scout team at the perimeter. X is definitely inside, they verified that much."
Alia took the pad with a grateful smile. "Thanks, Dex."
With a glance at her screen, his optics quirked. "Wow, we're mobilizing a large force back to base, aren't we?"
"Yes. This behavior at the facility is just too odd. It was Signas' initiative."
"Logical. Here's hoping-!?"
The room quaked and fresh alarms started, everyone glancing around for a core-pulse before scrambling to gather data locally rather than X's mission.
"Nevermind!" Dex blurted out, side-flipping over Alia's console to access one himself.
"Confirmed impact!" Alia shouted back to Signas and Dr. Cain. "I've got a few mechaniloids on grid and… one of those X-Hunters!" she actually looked back over her shoulder to lock eyes with Signas.
The display on the holotable before Signas and Dr. Cain showed Violen smirking as he marched through a dust-cloud, into the lobby of the main building.
"Deploy Inferno's team immediately!" Signas called back, already adding it over the comm. "I want all defense forces mobilized and systems at full alert. This is NOT a drill!"
Another quake struck, this one much more severe. Signas had to steady himself at his console, and Alia announced, "This level! Hall 7!"
"Right through the armored bulkhead!" Dex added.
A scanner-feed showed Agile bursting through the still-falling debris with floating mechaniloids in tow.
Dr. Cain instantly ordered, "Mobilize Quickman's squad to that point!"
"Done!" Alia shouted.
Signas seemed to eye the display for a moment, and then turned to Dr. Cain. "Doctor, where are Zero's parts located currently?"
The human blinked up at him. "…In my secured lab."
"I only see two X-Hunters, and this is clearly a multi-prong attack already. I think we need to secure your lab, Dr. Cain."
"So we do. This way!"
As he rushed out with Dr. Cain, Signas touched his comm. "Any Hunters not already tasked, join me at my signal. Lieutenant Alia you have operational control!"
"Yes, sir!"
Violen laughed as he leaned into a full-body sweep with his mace. The hydraulic arm connected to his back wrenched the massive wrecking-ball of a weapon clear through the reception desk of the main entrance hall. More shield-toting, discus-throwing mechaniloids were marching in around him, their weapons ready to throw.
"What's wrong, Maverick Hunters! Afraid to come out and PLAY!?"
The mace tore back through the wall, cutting a chunk out of it beyond the wreckage of the desk.
"Just needed you to walk in far enough."
Violen snapped around, only to be engulfed in two waves of fire, the mechaniloids between him and the torn-open entrance flying apart from the same onslaught.
Inferno stood there, legs braced wide, with both arms aimed into the attack. He heard the unique howl of air from the counter-attack, and dove aside with astonishing agility for his girth, rolling to a crouch as the mace smashed a new crater where he'd stood.
Discs were flying, arcing in from all angles at the Maverick Hunter as well. Inferno smirked, however, and Violen, still smoking, frowned as plasma bolts tore the discs out of the air.
Blast Squirrel shot through the air, cutting a sharp turn through the room as he shot more mechaniloids. Others were pin-point blown through by some other source not visible in the room yet.
"I think my team's a little better than yours, eh?" Inferno mocked.
"We'll see," Violen muttered, and then pulled himself into a heavy spin, his hands aiming out and swirling.
Plasma bolts of his own started to fill the air. Blast Squirrel and Inferno had to dive for cover. Cadis revealed herself as she had to dash from one point near the back of the room, and dive-roll behind a chunk of wall that was sturdy enough to take a few bolt-strikes.
"He's certainly got enough weapons hidden away," she hissed.
Two chunks of metal suddenly flew up, over, and down on either side of Violen from the wreckage of the front of the room, and Violen stopped his spin. Spikesaw crashed down to a heavy landing, his forearms snapping open and extending his plasma-cutters as they revved to full speed. Snapvice landed opposite him, the hydraulic pincers closing down over his hands with a piercing crack that told more of their power than the visible mechanics did.
"Well now that I have your attention!" Violen roared, and started to let rip with his mace again.
It was already churning through to the chamber to his right, Cadis barely sliding under it, when plasma fire started to rain into the lobby from outside.
Hover-cycle mechaniloids were rushing into the main yard of the facility, unleashing a storm of firepower into its base. Inferno, Spikesaw, Snapvice, and Blast Squirrel were scattered, diving for cover and rolling out the mace's path in sudden desperation.
Deepfreeze turned the hallway into a wall of ice as he back-rolled toward the commander center, sliding to a halt with Airstrike and Depthcharge, who had weapons trained on the wall. They could see the pockmark blasts from the mechaniloids surging into the building with Agile, the ice starting to crack.
The wall tore apart under Agile's ferocious slice and leap, chunks of ice shattering against the bulkheads around him as he surged down on Deepfreeze, the sword re-positioning for a lightning fast lunge.
Airstrike fired a tornado blast as Depthcharge unleashed a four-set of torpedoes, and the one spun the others into a combination attack. Agile had to swirl in mid-dive, but he deftly sliced the missiles apart as he disrupted the air-current. He landed with his momentum, flowing into a dance-hop, bringing his sword down at Deepfreeze's head.
Deepfreeze snapped his hands up, and fired his cryo-blasters just as the sword reached him. The sword halted as his front and Agile's arm exploded in jagged spikes of ice, making Agile's sneer distort into a growl.
"I'll tear your processor out, you little ice-monger!"
"You should watch your feet," Deepfreeze replied, his voice unfazed.
Agile glanced down, and turned dismal. He snap-twisted, shattering himself free as the ground at his feet turned slick with ice. Airstrike fired again, ramming the viral X-Hunter back down the hall. Four torpedoes followed, but Agile was recovering, and sliced them apart as he rose up.
"Enough games!"
He swirled around, his sword glowing, and he wrenched it down into a vicious slash. All three Maverick Hunters dove back and split into doorways as a plasma-wave ripped down the hall, scorching ceiling and floor all the way to the far side of the building.
The trio were recovering immediately, but Depthcharge saw the flicker of Agile's mass shooting past them. "Command, he's past us!" he warned into his comm.
The three of them had to rush out and open fire on the swarm of mechaniloids gunners trying to fly after their master to make sure the problem didn't get worse.
Agile tore through into another chamber, looking across tall, two-way display screens, to a more heavily fortified door beyond. He smirked. "Ripe for the slaughter."
Wind-rushes caught his audio-receptors, and he blurred forward, flipping over and landing to a crouch. The ground he'd occupied now had a crater and a slash through it. "Hm, fast," he commented, starting to sneer again.
Turbo flickered into view in front of him. "You noticed. I'm flattered!"
Agile reeled from the upper-cut to his jaw, but snapped into a spinning slash with his boot en pointe. Turbo folded back, barely dodging the first sweep of the plasma blade, and rolled back.
Then a surge and clang sounded, Agile halted with widened optics, facing forward as his sword aimed back, caught in a pair of metal pincers.
Quickman raised his head, his arm up high to hold his own weapon for the collision, facing Agile's back. "You're fast, slick, but can you back it up when your speed isn't an advantage?"
"Slick?" Agile turned violently dark. "I'll cut you in half just for that!"
Both flickered, but neither touched, Agile glaring out at the Maverick Hunter as Quickman replaced his weapon on his forehead, standing calmly off to the side. Turbo was rising back up almost casually.
Quickman then patted his stomach, sides, and chest, then held his hands to his face in mock-dismay. "Still in one piece! OH NO!"
Agile shivered, his teeth grinding, and he roared as he ripped after the crimson Maverick Hunter.
The harshly lit chamber around the construction table holding Zero's body gave a piercing snap as plasma started to sear through the heavy hydraulic door securing it. The table was segmented and elevated into a chair-like position, Zero's unconscious form staring blankly at the massive metal chunk that fell inward with glowing-hot edges.
Serges stomped forward onto the door, starting to smirk. His 'hat' was missing, but a veritable swarm of mechaniloid spider-bots were crawling in around him. "Ah, Zero. It's been far too long."
He started forward, a hand actually reaching toward the prize staring back at him so blankly.
Crackling and splitting metals and plastics rang through the air from the two-way mirror to Serges' left a core-pulse before purple light ripped through it as a long blade. Serges started to twist, his oblong optics flaring, but he couldn't react fast enough to fully counter Signas diving through the weakened wall with a battle-roar, purple beam-saber swinging back at the Maverick from cutting the opening.
That purple blade reflected in Zero's dull optics as it smashed into Serges raised arms. Something on the Maverick's body armor allowed him to take such a blow without losing the limbs, and he flew back, plowing through a few mechaniloids in the process.
"Not today!" Signas shouted after him, and charged forward, a flickering storm of slashes ripping the mechaniloids in the lab apart.
Forced into the previous chamber, which was simply a rectangular chamber with various hydraulic doors around the sides, Serges braced, and a bubble of energy burst over his body before Signas tried to cut his head off his shoulders.
Undaunted, Signas continued to batter the shield in a vicious onslaught of slashes and stabs, strafing, jumping, and dashing around Serges from every angle to try and find a weak point in the bubble's function.
Serges' left arm snapped out, driving Signas' sword-hand down into the ground. Before he could use the advantage, however, Serges took a room-shaking blow from Signas' other fist. The Maverick slammed into one of the other hydraulic doors with a grunt
"Well, you seem to fight with a surprising amount of fervor for a dead commander you never met," Serges taunted, flexing his shoulders with muffled hydraulic hissing.
Signas braced, saber straight and steady. "I know what you intend to unleash using his frame. That isn't happening."
"Are you sure about that? You might like the results yourself."
"No," Signas muttered, almost too himself. "I really wouldn't."
Serges wrenched one arm back, energy crackling over his hand. "Then get OUT OF THE WAY!"
His arm never snapped forward, however. The door behind him blew apart around a black gripper claw that seized his limb. Serges gawked down at it, Signas just starting to smirk faintly.
Serges was yanked through the door, across another, smaller, darker chamber, and thrown into the far wall hard enough to dent the armored bulkhead. Even his uniquely well-made body was stunned momentarily, and he shook his head free of the processing glitch it caused. His optics lifted, and his mood soured.
Dr. Cain rose up in his exo-suit, claw hands snapping in preparation. "I'm not letting you near him."
"Such arrogance, human swine. There's no need for you to 'let' anything!"
The Maverick's body erupted with crackling energy, and he burst forward. Dr. Cain was rammed back through the doorway, and with enough force to catch even Signas before he could react. Both of them slammed into the opposite door, across the original room Signas had fought Serges in.
Serges leapt out into the room with them, but immediately started to run for Zero's chamber again.
"Not so fast!"
The Maverick slammed into a wall of crackling energy, causing him to stumble back with a growl of fury.
Overload let his hand down from the wall at the far side of the room, stepping forward with Barrel and Tripwire at his sides.
"I mean, we're a little late to the dance, but you don't have to leave us by the wall like that, princess."
More mechaniloids started to crawl down into the room from the ventilation shaft in the ceiling that had apparently been their original source. Serges lifted his hands, clawing them as energy crackled over his frame faintly. "You fools won't stop it."
"That remains to be seen," Barrel retorted, and his, Tripwire's, and Overload's weapons all activated and hummed to life.
Signas and Dr. Cain were standing back up, starting to brace again.
Serges roared, and shot forward, a shockwave of power flying out of his body. Barrel fired a burning plasma shield, Overload an energy blast, and Tripwire let both claw-tendrils shoot out. Dr. Cain and Signas started to rip forward, all starting to collide in the center of the room.
The energies collided as metal struck, and the room filled with a deafening boom.
A sphere-lock door whirled and hissed before its inner hydraulics finally pulled it apart. X marched into the chamber awaiting him, his optics glancing around. Magna Centipede was at the far wall, operating a console as if nothing were out of the ordinary. His segmented tail was lifted, but lazily so, as if it simply preferred the elevated position of its bulbous form.
"You certainly demonstrated your agility, Megaman X," Magna rasped, his voice a calm, faintly distorted rush. It was like a loud whisper.
Not wanting to be an aggressor, X kept his hands free, not activating his busters. "I appreciate the compliment. Magna Centipede, I presume?"
The Maverick turned around, still completely casual. "The same." His optics were naturally sharp, and despite his easy manner, he exuded menace from his vaguely demonic frame.
"This was just a stall tactic, it seems," X chose to continue, his head angling down.
Magna's optics smirked over his armored faceplate. "Ah good, you're as perceptive as I'd hoped. Indeed, it has been. However, you're not necessary for our plans. I think I'll remove you from the game now. Save the master some time!" he shouted abruptly as his hands snapped up and crossed, something flying out from him toward X.
X's right-hand buster formed as he dove into a dash, twisting between two diamond-like devices that whistled in the strangest, echoing rhythm. His optics caught them curving around him, drawn to his armored frame like… "Magnetic mines then?"
Magna laughed as he dove and slide to his own left as X drew his buster forward. "They like you!" One hand swiped in a broad arc.
X folded backward from Magna as star-blades ripped through the air he'd occupied, burying themselves in the far bulkhead and one of the consoles of the control center. The two original mines, currently lodged in the floor and far wall finally exploded, shaking the room softly.
X fired a pulse blast, and watched Magna neatly fold out of its path, coming around with a one-two slice of his hands. They released a mine and trio of stars, the mine pulling the stars into a spiral pattern in its wake.
The attack was deceptively fast. X had to wrench himself down to his left, and watched one of the stars spark off his shoulder armor anyway. It's not just speed. His movement is almost hypnotic, hiding the force with the motion. Clever.
Another mine forced him to roll to one side, firing a few pulse-blasts that Magna similarly danced and wove around.
X shoved himself up, and ran toward Magna, energy building over his frame. Magna chuckled, and twisted into another sweep-throw of two mines. This time, however, X did a double-dash feint, throwing his weight one direction, pulling the mines with their magnetic draw on his frame, and then wrenched himself out of it, straight at Magna.
Buster out and aiming, X locked eyes with the Maverick, both expressions hardened by resolve. "I'm out of time, Magna!" he shouted as he fired.
Magna smirked again at the last second, and his body burst apart before anything hit him. X's eyes flared, a gasp rushing from his respirator as he watched his plasma wave hit the air and far wall, a cloud of parts rushing down around him, and snapping together in his wake too fast for him to twist around.
X tried to wrench into a turn, his buster trailing more energy with the start of a fresh charge, his optics locking with Magna's again over his shoulder, still widened with very real alarm. Magna was still smirking, and his tail snapped down, clamping around X's waist from behind.
A shout of pain choked from X before he was yanked to his left, and slammed into the far wall with catastrophic force, the room shaking as the wall dented behind him.
X crumpled to his knees, wheezing, and looking up as Magna demonstrated his body bursting apart and reforming in a smooth wave.
"Intriguing, no? I've been working on this system for quite some time." His body reconstructed closer to X this time, glaring down into his face. "Just for you!"
Mines were in his hands, and he brought them crashing toward X's head.
Violen's mace tore through a cloud of dust in the rubble, but Inferno caught it. The Maverick Hunter strained in voice and body alike, but held.
Just behind Inferno, Cadis and Blast Squirrel were rapidly firing at and taking cover from the army of hover-cycle mechaniloids just outside the fortress headquarters, swarming in circles between the defense wall and the edifice itself.
Violen roared, and yanked his mace back. It was fast enough to catch Inferno, and the Hunter fell flat with a grunt. Before the viral X-Hunter could take advantage, however, his mace halted behind him. Violen's optics twitched, and he glared over his left shoulder.
Snapvice was looking right back at him, optics cold as death, his pincer-clamps locking the hydraulic arm of the mace down near the ground. "On your right."
Violen was confused for a moment, then snapped his optics to his right just as Spikesaw's burning arm-weapons crashed into his large arm. Sparks and metal burst, both Reploids yelling with fury. Violen stumbled aside, his right arm gushing hydraulics and sparking core energy from two deep cuts on the equivalent of the bicep.
Spikesaw twisted and stepped further into the X-Hunter, coming down with a one-two chop of his plasma saws.
Violen gave a mighty bellow, and yanked himself around to meet Spikesaw's spin. The force he generated pulled Snapvice off the ground by his mace, and carried Violen out of the plasma-saws' path.
Violen's left fist came ramming through, and caught Spikesaw in the faceplate. Spikesaw was sent hurtling back into the lobby with a shout, while Snapvice flew over the chunks debris serving as cover for Blast Squirrel and Cadis.
Inferno shoulder-rammed Violen deeper into the lobby that instant, and Cadis rose up, flicking her plasma rifle to full-auto, and unloading a suppressing sweep of the courtyard as Blast Squirrel dove out, grabbed Snapvice, and helped yank their comrade back behind cover.
When she could duck again, Cadis shouted across to Blast Squirrel and Snapvice as they recovered, "We need to get him OUT of the building, not push him into it!"
A mechaniloid suddenly appeared over her head, climbing over her cover barricade. She snapped her rifle up flawlessly, but never had to fire. Snapvice's claw had shattered the mechaniloid's head.
"We're trying!" was all he said as he started into the building again to assist Inferno and Spikesaw.
"That came out a little harsher than I meant," Cadis muttered to Blast Squirrel.
The other Reploid chuckled. "It's fine, just focus on blasting these mechaniloids so we don't get swarmed."
Inside, Inferno had shoved Violen further back to buy time, and allow himself to dodge the inward swing of the mace. He answered with a double-buster flame-blast straight at Violen's face, but the viral X-Hunter charged through the fire, snarling and ramming his hands forward to unleash a fresh barrage of plasma bolts.
Spikesaw rushed up from the left, and rammed Violen's left arm up and away with an upper-cut saw-swipe. Snapvice joined in from the right, clamping the right arm and trying to yank it down.
"Not enough!" Violen shouted, his mace arcing up, over, and rushing down at Inferno's head.
And there it stopped. A surreal moment paused the chamber as all four Reploids focused in confusion on the perfectly halted mace, hovering just centimeters away from Inferno's cranial plating.
Calm footfalls sounded from behind Violen, a dry voice ringing out, "Honestly, all that time, and you didn't catch it?"
The other Maverick Hunters focused on Shimmer as he appeared out of the air, his body sauntering forward as if it were the most casual thing in the world.
"Or did you think professional Maverick Hunters weren't just keeping you busy and not running amok through the facility?" Shimmer added.
Violen glared over his shoulder at the relatively tiny Reploid. "What the slag are you going on about?!"
Shimmer just pointed up.
Metal chords shimmered into view, filling the chamber in a crisscrossing network. The mace's mechanical arm was bound up like a ball of yarn from all of its swinging around.
Then the chords crackled with power, and Violen cried out as his body surged with dangerous level of energy.
"Spikesaw, cut the chord over your left shoulder," Shimmer calmly listed off.
Spikesaw glanced at Inferno, sharing some mild humor, and then quickly twisted and sliced the chord he'd been instructed to sever.
As soon as he did, the chords started to writhe and coil through themselves like a pulley system gone mad, hissing and snapping like living beings. Violen gave a building, almost comical shout, as he was yanked by his own mace through the air, carried through the entire lobby, and sent flying over Blast Squirrel and Cadis' heads. The chords flew free, trailing after him from the only-then-appearing hydraulic pulleys and hooks across the entire ceiling of the lobby.
Cadis and Blast Squirrel gawked as Violen's own body tore through an entire rank of mechaniloids, breaking their formations, and causing instant confusion in the simpler robots' minds.
"I was wondering when in Light's name you were going to join in," Inferno grumbled at his smaller comrade.
Shimmer smiled, and just marched past him, Inferno, Snapvice, and Spikesaw falling into his wake as they joined Blast Squirrel and Cadis at the entrance. All six of them trained their weapons on Violen as he started to stand up, his mace weighed down by the mass of metal chords, his arm still sparking.
Clearly savoring Violen's frustration, Shimmer half-smiled again, and added, "Your move."
Agile, Turbo, and Quickman were a storm in the center of the computer center. Where Agile swiped and slashed, Quickman leaned aside, and Turbo folded or twisted. Where Quickman's boomerang cutter sang, Agile pitched out of its path, and where Turbo's plasma-burning fists rammed, Agile weaved.
Quickman hopped into a twist past Agile's front, catching his cutter from a throw, and finally landed a blind back-kick into Agile's chest. Agile stumbled, glaring at Quickman's back, but took a barrage of punches from Turbo in that instant, the Maverick Hunter leaned and folded under Agile's own arm.
As Agile fell away from the flurry attack, Turbo twisted, seeming to come around with a back-hand, but his flat hand never tried to connect. Instead, it unleashed a cutting, blue-white wave of energy that Agile barely folded beneath in time. The blade sliced a two-way-screen in half and scored a thin hole in the far bulkhead.
"Ey! Watch the merchandise, kid!" Quickman immediately chided him, half-joking.
"Watch your plates, first!" Agile seethed, blurring between the pair as he spiral-sliced with his entire body.
Both Quickman and Turbo shouted leaping away, but each took a cut from the attack. Quickman's chest-plate was leaking hydraulics, his optics twitching, and Turbo's forearm was sparking along its weapon system.
Agile was already shooting past them, rushing the door to the command center yet again. A tornado-blast and two torpedoes arced over his head and slammed into the flooring just below him. The Maverick was forced to stumble back, and glanced to the door he'd cut through to reach the room.
Depthcharge and Airstrike were braced on either side of the opening, weapons still primed.
"Feet again!"
Agile's optics widened, and he looked down behind himself. Deepfreeze was sliding past him, leaving a trail of frozen flooring as he did. Agile's boot slid instead of driving him into a full dash-leap for the door of the command center.
Tucking and rolling forward with his attempted momentum, Agile started to rise up, blindly slashing behind himself to unleash a purple-pink plasma-wave across the chamber.
This time, Quickman flickered to the center of the wave-slice.
Turbo's optics widened as he saw it. That level of speed…
Quickman's face was dark and focused as he gave a guttural, digitally distorted roar, wrenching his cutter down with his left arm, cleaving into the plasma-wave. He actually cut it in half, and the plasma field was intended to remain cohesive to function. So disrupted, it burst apart into almost harmless static in the air.
It left Quickman, still lunged into his slice, steaming, his optics sharp and focused on Agile's back.
Agile glanced back in that core-pulse, infuriated by the defeat of his attack, but he kept going.
Then he halted, jerking out of his own momentum. He twitched, staring down at the frozen crystals locking his left boot to the ground.
Deepfreeze was crouched there, smirking up at him. "You never look down, do you?"
"You little-!?"
"Down in front!"
The new voice pulled Agile's alerted optics in front of himself again.
Pyrostrike was there, rising up with flames pouring down over his right fist, more blasting out of the soles of his armored boots as he roared, tearing up into the air.
The empowered uppercut snapped Agile free of the ice, and sent him crashing to his back, his face burned on the chin, and scorched up the left cheek.
Pyrostrike dropped down to a crouch after his spin from his uppercut.
Agile rolled onto his feet from the backward crash, and glowered up at the Maverick Hunter ahead of him. The others were bracing, weapons ready.
"And here I was hoping to save this for a surprise," Agile whispered, and suddenly yanked his sword up, inverted it, and stabbed it straight into the ground.
Every hunter in the room started to rush or fire at him, but they couldn't beat the surge of energy that filled the chamber's floor, walls, and ceiling from his stab-attack.
Then the surge stopped, and Agile looked at the floor, troubled. Quickman and the others were still writhing on the flooring, badly stunned by the attack, but it was stopped.
Agile growled, and then ran forward, flickering across the room, lunging over Pyrostrike's prone body, and slicing into the command-center door.
In that core-pulse, the door's remains slid apart, and Agile's optics snapped into focus on the crimson buster that was fully primed and glowing in his face.
Alia, legs braced, hand supporting her buster-arm, and optics locked with deadly focus was glaring down her weapon-arm at the X-Hunter, nearly point-blank.
"Stand down," she ordered coldly, Dex working the console in the command center with other operators behind her.
Agile hissed, starting to rise up, swinging his sword into her arm.
Alia fired instantly, her arm pulsing back as a ring-wave of searing white energy flew out, and a bolt of plasma rammed into Agile's chest. As her hair rippled back, he crashed away, falling back over Pyrostrike, who was rising up with the others in recovery at last.
Agile rolled onto his feet, clutching his chest, and started to sprint to his right, fleeing the room. His sword snapped and flickered into the onslaught of attacks from the Hunters that same instant.
Alia ran forward and strafed along the side of the room, her buster firing sharp, steady blasts, some forced to plow through the two-way screens, but every one was precise. Agile had to specifically slice the bolts apart with his sword. He finally unleashed a blast of energy from his body, scattering Airstrike and Depthcharge's last attacks just as he dove between them at the door.
Both of them tried to twist and grab him, but he carried himself fast enough to just get out of their grasp in time.
"Dex has command, get that Maverick out of the building!" Alia shouted, sprinting across the room.
"Yes, ma'am!" the team chorused, rushing up with her.
Quickman and Turbo blurred ahead, flowing around Alia, Airstrike, and Depthcharge, Deepfreeze and Pyrostrike rapidly catching up to the others.
Smoke and debris filled the room outside Dr. Cain's private lab. Dr. Cain himself grunted as his suit hit a wall with its back, and he tried to look through the cloud to see where Serges was. Something made the cloud suddenly burst apart, revealing an astonishing sight.
Signas was just ramming his saber into Serge's forearm again that moment, the raw force and back-surge of the energies between the weapon and Serge's shield driving the smoke and debris away. It revealed Tripwire, Overload, and Barrel picking themselves up against the walls just like Dr. Cain from the initial explosive conflict.
"You won't jeopardize the reunification!" Serges spat at Signas.
Signas' optics sharpened. "Is that what you call it?"
Serges wrenched around, his free arm swiping without a weapon… as an energy whip formed out of the crackling power between his fingers, rushing down at Signas' frame.
Signas yanked his shoulder out of the weapon's path, but both he and Serges stopped short when Serges was caught by the weapon further on.
Overload was behind Signas, his hands clamped onto the crackling energy weapon, surging with power, but unharmed. "It'll take more than that, Maverick."
Serges' face twisted worse than usual, and he tried to ram a kick in at Signas, the one he could reach still. His leg halted prematurely, and he glanced back to see Tripwire braced back, crouched, one tendril-chord out and tied around Serge's ankle.
Barrel was spinning around and firing off plasma shields, blowing the mechaniloids apart as they tried to pour down into the room in fresh ranks.
"NO!" Serges cried out, seeming sincerely desperate. He released the plasma whip, ramming his fist down at Signas.
Signas almost calmly deflected the punch with an elbow, and swiped with his blade, forcing Serges to duck under it.
Serges gripped the tendril-chord at his ankle, kicked Signas in the stomach with his free leg, and sent a surge of power down the tendril with his hands.
Tripwire shouted, forced to release by the shock to his system, and Signas stumbled back. Overload was charging through to make up for the gap, but took a ram from a full-body shield that Serges unleashed the next moment.
A plasma-shield then slammed into Serges' shoulder, twisting the Maverick around to face Barrel, who was calmly staring him down from the other side of the room.
"Made ya look."
Serges gawked before a black claw grabbed his neck, and slammed him down into the flooring.
Dr. Cain pressed down with all the force his suit could muster. "What is the reunification? TELL ME!?"
Serges started to chuckle darkly, twisting his head enough to look back at Dr. Cain with one optic. "It torments you, doesn't it? This 'maverick problem'? Knowing that for all your work, all you've done is damn your entire species to a slow extinction by Reploids!"
Dr. Cain shivered with anger, the claw clenching. "TELL ME!"
"NO!" Serges roared back, and his hands reached back, gripping the suit's arm.
A surge of energy erupted, and Dr. Cain cried out in pain.
Serges rose up as Dr. Cain collapsed, continuing to shock him with his power. "Die, human. DIE LIKE ALL YOUR KIND WILL!"
Signas was there. He cut Dr. Cain's exo-suit arm clean through with one downward slice, freeing the man to fall back and recover. In the same gesture, Signas twisted, and slashed Serges across the chest plate, sending the Maverick flying back past Barrel, into the opposite door.
"Sorry about the suit, Doctor," Signas said calmly, not looking back yet.
Dr. Cain groaned, starting to stand up. "Thank you for saving my life, Signas," he chose to reply.
Serges growled up at the Maverick Hunters closing in on him, and then flash-melted the door with his plasma-shield over his body, starting to retreat down the hall.
"After him!" Dr. Cain ordered.
They gave chase.
X's expression constricted from shock to focus, and he yanked himself just under Magna's two-mine smash attack. With a thruster blast of his boots, X was past Magna, between the Maverick's legs, and rolled over as he skidded back, firing a few pulse blasts.
Magna let the mines explode as he sneered over his shoulder and burst apart for a fresh teleport.
Growling, X rolled over himself, firing backward just as Magna formed there. The Maverick simply scattered again, and X started sprinting to one side as mines and stars came hurtling in at him from odd angles, the Maverick bursting all over the room.
Maybe I could counter the magnetics with Overdrive's electric charge? X jerked back from a fresh mine swipe, and dove to one side, rolling away from a few star-blades that lodged in the ground in his wake.
His colors flipped to off-yellow and gold highlights, and he fired a few electric bursts toward Magna. The Maverick laughed as he burst through the discharge, his pieces arcing with energy, but not affected otherwise.
"Such an adorable attempt!" Magna Centipede announced as he collected together in X's wake.
"Nevermind!" X chose to snap back, burst-dashing to the side to avoid two downward mines that blew up where his feet had occupied.
Watching Magna burst apart over his shoulder, X's eyes widened with realization. A memory of his battle with Morph Moth flashed through his processor, watching the churning waves of metal fly into the tiny spider-body.
His colors flipped to browns and pale overlays, and he burst-dashed to one side as Magna reappeared in front of him, stars flying out. X, still diving aside, aimed down his side, his buster revealing a strange, faceted barrel with a building, mechanical hum.
Magna sneered and started to burst apart, but X's buster made a rushing sound, and the Maverick's optics flared as his body gave an awkward jerk instead of bursting apart. "What the—!?"
He was wrenched around by X's yank, the Hunter rising up and pulling his buster-arm with his free hand to add more torque. Magna finally saw the subtle shimmers in the air between them, the monofilaments connected to almost every part of his body and X's buster.
"Morph's silk shot?!" the Maverick realized in frustrated dismay just as he was swung fully around and slammed into the wall.
Magna growled, trying to stand up, but X was on him the next moment. The Hunter's right buster was back, whirring, and he swung it through as if he was going to punch Magna with the barrel. Magna yanked his head back, but then watched X's buster rip together chunks of loosened wall on the far end of the swing, then surge backward. A junk-aided back-hand slapped Magna down to the ground as pieces of metal flew apart.
X twisted into a Ferris-wheel with his arms, slamming debris snap-collected by his busters down into Magna's frame in an onslaught. Magna reeled, slumped against the wall, and X stopped, busters up and holding more chunks of metal, but not swinging.
"Stand down," X rasped, his body still damaged from the earlier slam to the wall, his voice distorted.
Magna chuckled. "Always trying to end things peacefully after clearing the field, Megaman X? Doesn't ring very true with weapons still ready in your hands."
X's eyes tightened, but he didn't ease. "If I could risk it, I would lower my weapons. Deactivate this facility right now, surrender, and you will not be harmed further. You will be taken into custody."
"Are you sure you can promise that?"
"I'll make sure it is followed if there is any cause for doubt," X persisted.
Magna Centipede surged upward, a mine in his left hand, sweeping up in a back-hand attack. X simply reacted faster, slamming both chunks of debris across the Maverick's head, and drew one buster back across the mine as Magna tried to continue his attack blind. Silk shot ripped the mine into Magna's own head, and X planted a boot to the Maverick's stomach. With a kick-shove and boost, X flew back as the mine exploded.
Rolling back to his knees, X looked up tensely as Magna's nearly headless body crashed down and slammed flat on the floor.
"Sorry," he whispered, closing his eyes for a moment. His colors and busters reverted, and he ran over to Magna's body.
With the codes from Magna's system, he ran to the main control console. It had survived enough to let him shut down the jamming, but as it did so, he realized half the facilities systems were inaccessible to him with the room so trashed by the fight. "Great. Well… the power levels are dropping back down to normal."
The jamming fully ended, and a wave of comm traffic alerted him to the disaster at headquarters.
"So that was the trick!" X growled, his body washing over with teleportation light. He vanished from the chamber in a quick burst of blue power.
Violen tumbled back from a fresh volley of blasts from Inferno, Shimmer, Cadis, Blast Squirrel, Snapvice, and Spikesaw, the last two firing light, rapid-fire plasma weapons from the top sides of their wrists. Mechaniloids were blowing up all around the viral X-Hunter, more so as defense cannons aimed by other Maverick Hunters fired down from the walls of the fortress.
"This isn't over yet!" Violen roared, manually lifting his mace with both hands, swinging it, chords and all, into a volley of attacks to destroy them before they could hit his frame.
From above, a wall burst open, and Agile came diving out, swirling around and unleashing wave-slices at the emplacements that tried to shoot him down. As he came flipping down to land heavily near Violen, clutching his damage chest-plate, Pyrostrike, Quickman, and Turbo came flying out after him, skating down the side of the fortress.
"Move forward!" Inferno ordered, his group pressing out into the courtyard.
"What's the situation?" Violen growled at Agile as they deflected the endless rivers of attacks.
"What does it look like?" Agile snapped.
Another blast from above caused everyone to focus for a moment. Serges was flying out this time.
As Serges landed, flaring a shield over himself and his comrades, Alia, Dr. Cain, and Signas led the rest of the teams that had fought off the X-Hunters up around Inferno and his team. They all had weapons braced and ready.
Dr. Cain spoke over a public comm system next, his suit's surviving arm transfigured into a plasma cannon. "Stand down or be destroyed for endangering lives!"
Serges seethed, Violen and Agile watching him warily. "No! Human, you stand down! Stand down, or your precious Maverick Hunters will be obliterated!" And then he pointed skyward.
The combined Maverick Hunters looked up cautiously, and saw an airship descending through the cloud cover, large cannons already aimed and primed at the base.
"You wouldn't risk damage to Zero's parts!" Dr. Cain shouted back.
"I'll rebuild them!" Serges snapped back. "What you have represents a shortcut! Nothing more, nothing less!"
Shimmer tightened his optics at the craft floating over them. "Our own airships are deployed to the island. We don't have the air-support to take that thing down."
Airstrike, now with them at the courtyard, added, "And just getting to it would give it enough time to blow half the city to kingdom come."
A voice came over the comms abruptly.
"Serges, if that ship was really your fall-back position, you shouldn't have left its commands codes on the computer facility's mainframe."
Alia started to smile at X's voice, both calm and focused.
A blue beam of light ripped down, splashing out and revealing Megaman X between the viral X-Hunters and the Maverick Hunters. "I had Dex transmit the command codes about ten seconds ago."
Serges gawked, and then looked up. The ship was moaning softly as the guns deactivated, and it settled into stasis hovering.
That was when X formed his busters, and aimed them. "Retreat or stand down. This isn't playing out any other way."
Serges was shivering with frustration. Violen finally touched his shoulder. "Unless you have a plan C, we should be leaving."
Serges glared at his comrade over his shoulder, but then nodded, and let Agile and Violen shimmer and burst into teleportation fields. "This round is yours, Megaman X. See you soon."
And he shimmered away himself.
X let his busters deactivate, and he turned to the assembled, true X-Hunters and allies. "Sorry I'm late, everyone."
Dr. Cain just sagged with relief as a cheer rang through Maverick Hunter headquarters. Signas deactivated his saber, and chuckled, calling over, "I'd say that did the trick."
X moved up to join them. "I'll help get clean-up started. You all need some repairs and charging, I imagine?" He made sure to include Cadis in his welcoming smile. She gave him a playful but sincere salute.
Alia let her buster deactivate, and she waved into the building. "I'll help organize clean up, too. The rest of you, get to some repair chambers, alright?"
"Yes, ma'am!" most of them playfully chorused.
Later that night, clean-up was well under way. Quickman, repaired, was in the command center. He'd stepped in from overseeing repairs to the computer terminals ruined by the fight with Agile.
Dex was still busily working on the consoles along with Alia, both repairing and coordinating repair work.
"Dex?"
The operator blinked, and looked back at Quickman. "Oh, yes, sir?"
Quickman chuckled. "Technically you outrank me, 'sir'."
Dex shared the humor, but focused back on his console. "Sorry, but I'm also not big on being in command. Can I help you? Any issues with the consoles out there?"
"It's going smoothly. Just checking in with you, in fact. You saved our plates with that quick code transmission to the airship," Quickman explained lightly.
Dex did finally chuckle outright. "X did all of the work for that, I just forwarded the data. That does remind me, though. I'm sorry it took me so long to stop that surge Agile sent through the operation chamber back there. It took me too long to figure out how it was triggering our systems. I know that must've hurt."
Quickman blinked his optics, Alia privately glancing over at them with a half-smile as she overheard.
"You're the one that stopped the surge he was using?"
Dex nodded. "Way too late for it to help, of course. It was rather ingeniously using our safety system's overload protection and circuit breakers to feedback loop and discharge violently. I had to basically work it all backward and LET the system overload to stop the discharge. I need to be faster with the outside-the-box thinking."
Quickman patted Dex's shoulder. "Ey, kid, it wasn't too late, and catching something like that as fast as you did is quite impressive. Thanks for saving our hides twice, then."
Dex scratched the back of his helmet anxiously, turning enough to look at Quickman again. "O-oh, well I'm glad then. Thanks, Quickman."
Quickman bumped his shoulder, turning away. He lightly added, "Top marks, kid."
He didn't see Dex's optics flare and stare at his back for the remark. Alia did, however, and she paused, glancing over. Quickman was already out of the room. "…Dex? You okay?"
Dex took a long moment to collect himself, and then looked across at her. "Y-yes. Sorry. I just… felt like I heard a ghost."
Alia tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
Dex shook his. "Nothing, really. Just… a reminder of something." He turned back to his console, starting to work again.
Alia watched him for a moment. He really seems spooked. Quickman didn't say anything alarming that I heard… hm. She noted the experience, but focused back on her own tasks. There was a great deal to repair, and even with Reploids not needing sleep, it would take a while.
In digital space, Magna Centipede blinked, jerking back to gather his senses. "This is…? Why did you do this?" he asked, focusing as X's presence became clear in the digital mindscape.
"Because I know about the virus, Magna. I'm sorry about the fight. You were a little too good for me to be less than brutal. I don't like being that vicious."
Magna stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. "Not something I can blame you for, X. If you know about the virus, why aren't the Maverick Hunters acting on that information?"
X tipped his head. "The most important question, yes. I'd like to run an idea by you."
"You've got my attention."
Author's Note:
Oh this chapter, this chapter, this chapter. I had to draft this thing in four different parts and piece it all back together because various pieces just kept screwing up, not meshing, referencing errors, blah, blah, blah. Again, it's double-long, but there was no point breaking it up into two chapters when it so clearly is the content for one. There's just more raw content to accomplish the same goals.
That said, I also like this chapter a lot. I was proud of the complications that got thrown into X's path, especially by Magna Centipede himself. Turning his bursting teleport into the main 'trick' of the fight was the click my brain needed to flow properly. You'll also notice I somewhat reinterpreted Silk Shot's functions to directly counter that effect, but didn't want to ignore the yanking-junk function it normally had in the game.
The attack on Maverick Hunter headquarters was born from two main issues I had with the story/game at this juncture: 1) why do the virus' X-Hunters do NOTHING to try and get the parts back, and 2) my X-Hunters needed more page time in a legitimate way to justify their presence in the story. Now for ME, just having characters there and talking is fine, but we need a pay-off for it to make sense to a lot of readers, and this whole battle at the base is part of that pay-off. In my view, it's okay to *add* content to a story, but not okay to take it away, especially if you're going for a 're-write' of a core story.
I'm specifically fond of Dr. Cain using his suit, Signas diving through the window with the saber reflected in Zero's eyes, Shimmer's appearance (so anime), and Alia blasting Agile in the chest. Love those moments.
And, what's this? Is Dex creeped out by a simple turn of phrase? Wait and see!
Once again, thanks for reading, reviewing, commenting, faving, and following! I appreciate every one! You guys keep me going!