Chapter 5: Cybernetic Coelacanth Submarine, Bubble Crab
With Wheel Gator's demise and the dismantling of his tank now in progress, X returned to the Maverick Hunter HQ victorious, and upon getting himself quickly repaired for the bite marks in his armor he returned to central command in order to check up on things with Alia. Once more laying a hand on the back of her chair, X leans forward as Alia has the map of the island popped up in front of her with data on each of the five remaining Maverick's movements present as well. "What's the status on the remaining X-Hunters?" X inquired dutifully.
"You've taken care of the highest priority threats for now X. There's been no activity from the remaining X-Hunters at the moment…In fact, most of them are moving outside of their bases, probably to grab stuff to prepare for their next move." Alia explained while laying a hand on her communicator, as though she was receiving a message from another party as she spoke. Once she nodded her head she took that very hand and pointed it at the screen, specifically towards a Maverick that's currently residing near the waters.
"Our intel is saying that Bubble Crab is the only one residing in his base at this moment." Alia commented, leading to X widening his eyes a bit and stating "Bubble Crab? I think I've heard of him before…He was part of the same division as Wheel Gator, right?" As X leans forward to get a better look at the Maverick's mugshot to confirm his suspicions, Alia doesn't flinch at all as she taps away at the keyboard and states "I'll have to double-check that info in a bit."
"The most important thing to note right now is that there's an attack submarine preparing to deploy from Bubble Crab's base. We have no idea where it's going to go, but I doubt it's going to be harmless if we just leave it be." Alia stated, leading to X pulling back a bit and remarking "So basically, you want me to deal with the submarine and Bubble Crab at the same time?" Alia nodded her head, explaining further to X "You're going to have to go underwater to pursue the submarine, but that shouldn't be any problem for you considering you've dealt with Launch Octopus in the past."
"There'll be some resistance underwater, but I should be able to keep up with the submarine if it stays in the caverns" X stated with confidence, and Alia responds to that by telling him "Though considering how deep underwater you'll be going, there's a chance our communications will be disrupted. As such, I'll be dropping you off at the entrance to the caverns so I can give you the rundown on Bubble Crab's history before you get into the water."
"Good thinking Alia. You know, you're pretty good at this for being a first-time navigator." X said with the utmost complimenting tone, and Alia replies by saying nonchalantly "What can I say? I pick things up quickly most of the time. Anyways, no time for small talk X, you need to get going, the submarine is going to launch in roughly five minutes." Alia thus goes back to typing away at her keyboard, more than likely to get the coordinates set for teleportation, and X nods his head affirmatively and says "Roger. I'll head out right away."
X ran for the teleporter room as usual and stepped into the pod in order to be sent off to Bubble Crab's base. Once he was dropped off, X immediately found himself standing on some dampened rocks outside a cavern entrance. There was some humidity coming from within the tunnel that could be chalked up to the ocean waters deeper into the place, but X was more focused on contacting Alia and getting the information he needed on Bubble Crab as he advanced into the cavern.
"So what's Bubble Crab's deal?" X inquired as he turned his head to the left and saw that the sun was beginning to set, casting a beautiful red light on the area that would disappear from sight once X got far enough past the holes in the cavern walls. "You would right when you said Bubble Crab is from the same unit as Wheel Gator. The two seemed to share a pretty bitter rivalry from what I'm reading in his profile. Anyways, the most important thing I can note from Bubble Crab's profile is that he loves treasure, so much in fact that he willingly betrayed the Maverick Hunters since Sigma offered him wealth beyond his wildest dreams."
"Going Maverick out of greed? A-Are you sure there's not a deeper reason behind all of that?" X inquired, finding it very difficult to believe that Bubble Crab could be so petty in his reasoning for betrayal. With a disappointed sigh, Alia had no choice but to tell X "I've done all I could to delve into his past, but all I've found are records of all of his looting ventures when he was out on Maverick hunting missions. Sorry X, I know it's hard to swallow, but there have been numerous cases of Reploids gaining a heavy interest in treasure and going Maverick because of that. Bubble Crab is just one of many…"
"And he'll be stopped just like the rest. Causing terror to others doesn't pay." X firmly noted as he got deep enough into the cave to start encountering mechanical bat Reploids on the ceiling, all of them detecting X's movements and dropping down to start flying at him. X immediately remarks "Anyways, I've encountered the enemy forces, I'm going to engage them now and then pursue the submarine." X pulled his hand away from his helmet and turned it into an arm cannon to immediately start firing at the bats, knowing that they were weak enough to be taken down with a single uncharged shot each.
Once the swarm of bats were dealt with, X dashed through the cavern until he reached the end of the ground, and looking down allowed X to see the surface of the waters down below. With the sunlight not being cast inside of the cavern anymore, X had to activate his night vision so he'd still be able to see his way through the underwater cavern. X leaped down into the waters, immediately feeling resistance as he sunk deeper into them. X turned around as he sunk down, immediately noticing the walls opening up with circular holes as fish shaped torpedoes are launched his way.
The torpedoes are propelled with spinning drills on the back of their bodies, and all of them made their way straight at X as he continued to fall towards the ground. X lifted his arm cannon up and quickly charged energy within, firing a charged shot to take out all four fish torpedoes but simultaneously managing to push himself back from the amount of force he exerted, leading to him colliding back first against the nearby wall and recoiling forward from the impact. X lands on the ground a second later and lays his hand on his arm cannon, thinking to himself "I need to get used to underwater physics again…I haven't been on a mission underwater since I faced Launch Octopus."
X reminded himself of how to deal with the underwater resistance before he advanced on ahead, going down the rocky ledge to end up close to a metallic underwater dock. The gate was sealed shut for the moment, signifying that the submarine hadn't yet departed from the dock. X kneels down and waits for the gate to open up, since Alia wouldn't be able to tell him anything this far down into the water. He pays close attention for about a minute, and it was then that the gate slowly began to open up and a light poked out from the bottom of it.
Emerging from the dock was a medium-sized submarine that was shaped like a gigantic yellow fish with barren red eyes, a back fin for maneuvering, and a set of missile launchers on the back of it's body. The submarine swam out through the water at a decent pace, giving X confidence that he'd be able to keep up with it as he vaulted off of the ledge and landed down behind the submarine, immediately taking his arm cannon out and aiming it at the back fin since taking it out would make it harder for the vehicle to move.
"Have to stop this before it gets past the cavern…" X thought to himself before he started charging his arm cannon at the submarine. But the spotlight on the bottom of the submarine moves backwards and catches X's presence just at the edge of the light, leading to the submarine letting off a sonar alarm to alert everyone in the immediate area of X's arrival as it also opens the tops of it's missile launchers and fires a few of them back towards X. X had to halt attacking the submarine to use his charged shot on the missiles coming his way, simultaneously breaking through the ceiling of the tunnel with the attack.
X then ran forward and tried to get underneath the submarine while holding his right arm cannon out and charging energy in it again, but as he got near the submarine the spotlight was replaced with a rainbow colored slicing laser that pivoted around and homed in specifically on X, ripping right through the ground easily and forcing X to leap back before the laser could cut into his armor. He calculated how far he would go with how much lighter his body was and didn't go too far away from the submarine because of that.
X then waited for the submarine to start descending before going after it, using regular shots to take down the missiles fired his way while saving his other arm cannon's charged shot for whatever fish Reploids came his way. It didn't take long for the area to become much more wide-open, and X saw valleys of coral reefs beautifully resting in the distance, all of them illuminated by what little of the setting sunlight. The submarine could just easily go towards them and evade X there, but it just kept moving forward through the tighter underwater cavern because that's just how it was programmed.
After another volley of missiles was dealt with, X realized he had an opportunity to attack the submarine and used this advantage to fire a charged shot at the back fin of the submarine. Surprisingly, the ship was durable as it took the charged shot and only was halfway damaged by it. Even worse, the submarine was able to keep going forward just fine without it, meaning another part of it was responsible for keeping it pushing ahead. X rapid fired regular shots to deal with another volley of missiles and then ran forward across the ground to catch back up with the submarine and hopefully figure this out.
X watched as the submarine stopped in place above a steel door, and thinking he had a perfect chance to damage the vehicle X took both of his arm cannons out and charged them up at the same time. But to protect itself from X's assault, the submarine called forth a swarm of about two dozens fish Reploids to get in the way of X's efforts. The thicket of Reploids meant that even if X fired off his charged shots, the damage dealt to the submarine wouldn't be as great.
X thus hopped back a bit along the ground, moving short distances before he got an idea and fired a charged shot to the right of him while in the middle of a leap, using the force of the attack to propel himself to the left quickly while simultaneously thrusting his other arm cannon out in the direction of the submarine, keeping a steady enough bead on it as the fish Reploids try to quickly intercept his movements. But it was too late as X fired off the charged shot at the submarine and watched as it ripped apart the left missile launcher and the small fin on that side.
Thankfully, X landed on the ground before firing that shot, preventing him from being sent further back but at the same time meaning he had to quickly lift his arm cannons up and move them around to take down the fish Reploids as fast as he could. He had to be hasty because the submarine had unlocked the door down to the next part of the caverns and descended. X thus leaped forward and used his dash boots to get enough propulsion to catch up with the submarine.
Descending further into the caverns, X finds that the darkness has increased even if his night vision is able to keep up with the change in lighting. In this underwater abyss, the pressure had increased, and while X was able to not be affected by it as he easily swung his arm cannon out and changed into Wire Sponge's weapon colors before launching a Strike Chain out at the vehicle's back fin. The attack struck the back fin and gripped onto it, and with a pull of his arm against the underwater resistance X manages to rip the back fin right off.
X then lands on the ground and goes for another Strike Chain attack on the other side fin, but this time the attack is intercepted by a mechanical jellyfish that was summoned via the sonar of the submarine. The jellyfish leeches the electricity from the Strike Chain and shoots it right back at X with double the force while surrounding itself with enough of it to briefly dispel the membrane and reveal it's mechanical innards.
The electricity strikes X and knocks him right back into the nearby wall in an instant, leaving sparks surrounding his body as he grits his teeth and turns back to his normal colors. X then pushes himself out of the wall with his right hand and sees a few of those jellyfish slowly going his way. He didn't have time to waste on them, especially with how slow they were moving, meaning he wouldn't have to worry about them catching up as he leaped over them and landed on a barely stable pillar of stone in the middle of a deep pit.
Underneath the submarine, X watches as the spotlight fires out the slicing laser once more to break apart the pillar he was on, but X anticipated the move and leaped out to the right to get around the submarine while charging energy in his held back right arm cannon. X thrust his arm out with a roar as he dropped down, hitting the glass holding the laser and spotlight with a fully charged shot to obliterate the whole thing and get pushed back into a wall of purple metal that X attaches himself to with just a tiny bit of recoil going through his body.
With the submarine's offensive options dealt with and it's mobility cut down, X just had to destroy the main body. But he would have to hurry, as the currents from the ocean up ahead were pulling the submarine along at a much faster pace. As X considered his options he slid down the wall a bit while looking around the area and saw another of those jellyfishes floating about. Remembering how long it took for the jellyfish to return the electricity from the Strike Chain, X switched back to Wire Sponge's colors and then leaped from the wall.
He thrust his right arm cannon out and fired a Strike Chain to grab onto the jellyfish, turning his body around to keep the jellyfish from being pulled at the moment as it absorbed the electricity from his attack. X then spun around and threw the jellyfish right into the side of the submarine, using just enough force to get the jellyfish ingrained into the metal. X's momentum keeps going forward as the jellyfish does it's job, unleashing all of the electricity inside of it before it could discern ally from enemy.
The electricity short circuits the innards of the submarine, quickly and surely preventing it from moving any further as it is quickly dropped towards the ocean floor. X floated over the submarine as it falls and crashes against the rocks, the front of it crunching upward before it is covered in a series of explosions, all leading up to one big explosion that pushes outward towards X with enough force to send him flying high up through the water.
X looks up quickly to make sure he wouldn't ram into a ceiling, and was surprised to find that there was a ledge of metal he could potentially land on. X decides to quickly get a charged shot formed as he turns himself and aims at the wall, gripping tightly onto his arm cannon as he fires and lets the propulsion send him towards the ledge he found. After successfully landing on said ledge, X looks down and watches as all the parts of the submarine descend into the abyss, never again to be recovered.
Though his mission was accomplished to destroy the submarine, there was still the matter of finding Bubble Crab in this underwater cavern and defeating him before he could attempt a move like this again. X took a moment to catch his breath and then turn around, and he found that he could ascend through this area and reach what appeared to be the main underwater base judging by the purple metal walls that were being integrated with the rocky caverns. X thought to himself "Why would this passage be here?" as he leaped the wall and jumped up it to make his way to the very top of this area, eventually getting out of the water as he ends up in a small room.
The moment X makes it into this room, the way behind him was sealed up tightly by a giant metal door, the sudden slamming of it making X turn around and look shocked at what had happened. "A trap?!" X exclaimed after a gasp, and he immediately began to look at his surroundings to see what was going on. There were windows that were barred shut by large metal grates and a sliding door at the top of the wall in front of X that could only be assumed to be the only way out of this room now.
Otherwise, this place was pretty barren, save for one crucial detail that X most certainly paid attention to. On the wall below where the door was a capsule pod containing Zero's body and arms, leading X to remark with his eyes widened in surprise "It's another of Zero's parts…I must have stumbled upon an X-Hunter laboratory." X cautiously approaches the capsule pod while laying his right hand onto his helmet to try and contact Alia, but just like with Agile's lab he didn't get a signal from within here.
"Looks like I'm on my own for the moment…" X commented quietly before he pulled his hand away and found himself halfway towards Zero's part. As X pondered where the X-Hunter guarding this place was, all of a sudden the ceiling opens up wide and down drops the biggest of the X-Hunters, Violen. Violen lands on the ground with so much force that he unleashes a shockwave that pushed X back and knocked him onto his feet.
Violen looked at X with his blank eyes and puffed out smoke from his nostrils, commenting in a surprised tone of voice as he grinned "I thought I had caught a stray fish, but instead it's just puny little Maverick Hunter X." X lifts himself off the ground and summons his arm cannon onto his right hand before stating in surprise to his sudden guest "You…You're the X-Hunter known as Violen!" Violen laughs merrily as he clenches his gorilla-like fist and leans forward, telling X "So you remember me?! I'd be honored if I wasn't about to crush your memory processors into paste!"
"Why are you doing this? Why are you attempting to ruin Zero's name like this?!" X inquired angrily, and Violen laughed again before stating "Ruin his name? Hahahaha! We're going to make him an icon for the Maverick revolution! He should be honored to become a part of our army!" X lowered his arm cannon a bit and asked bitterly "What do you mean 'a part of your army'?"
"I don't know what that old geezer bot is planning to do, but he mentioned something about cloning Zero's body once he's able to put it all back together. Just imagine, an army of Zero bodies all under our control, wreaking havoc across the planet in the name of Maverick evolution!" Violen stated with the utmost energy and joy in his voice, and X proclaimed "An army of Zero clones? You're insane, and I won't allow you and the other X-Hunters to get away with this!"
"Do you think you have a choice in the matter you self-righteous piece of scrap? Once I'm done with you, your decisions will be as unimportant and outdated as the rest of you Maverick Hunters!" Violen said before whipping his head around once to get the morning star attached to the back of it around so he could grab onto it's chain and then spin the morning star around while proclaiming "Hahahaha! Lets tear each other apart X! I'm going to enjoy this battle!"
Violen immediately swings his morning star out at X, forcing X to leap to the right before the spikes could impale him. The morning star crashed against the wall and put a major dent into it, but Violen pulled back on the chain very quickly and immediately swung it right at X again. X had leaped back and landed on the wall, firing shots down at Violen only for him to lower his head down so the pellets of energy bounced harmlessly off his helmet. "You'll have to do better than that X!" Violen proclaimed with a rambunctious laugh before he swung his morning star again at X.
X then leaped off of the wall and thrust his arm cannon out while charging it up, preparing until he was right above the X-Hunter before firing at his helmet in hopes of destroying it. But Violen pulls his morning star back while lifting his hand up, making it so his weapon goes up into the air and slams right into X's body right as he was ready to fire off his charged shot. X grunted in pain as the morning star slammed him against the wall below the door and punctured a bit into his arms and legs with it's spikes while pressing him against said wall.
Violen then is forced to pull his morning star away and let it crash against the ground in front of him, and X pulls himself out of the wall with his left hand and lands on the ground behind Violen, and though some electricity came out of the holes in his body he still had managed to focus on charging energy in his arm cannon and got to fire off a shot right at Violen's back. The brute is pushed forward a few feet by the impact of the blow, with Violen letting out a grunt of shock before he slowly turns himself around to look at X.
But X had already used his speed to go in the opposite direction that Violen was turning and get behind him again. X used another charged shot to try and breech the back of Violen's armor, this time proving successful as the armor broke apart quickly and revealed some of the wiring underneath. X then switched to Wire Sponge's colors and charged up energy, preparing to fire off a charged Strike Chain right at Violen's exposed wiring.
The large chain goes for Violen's back, but the brute suddenly turns around to the left and grabs the end of the chain with his left hand, clamping it so tightly that no electricity was able to go through. "You take me for a fool, Maverick Hunter X?" Violen stated with a sneer on his face, and X responded as he pulled back a bit on the charged Strike Chain "You're just another muscular Maverick, I've dealt with plenty of them by now."
X proves his intelligence over Violen by taking his other arm cannon and firing another Strike Chain uncharged right at Violen's face, clamping it around it and causing electricity to zap him for a few seconds as X lets go of the charged Strike Chain and lets it retract into his arm cannon before he pulls on the second chain with enough force to drop Violen onto the ground stomach first. X then released his grip on Violen's face and switched colors to Overdrive Ostrich's before lifting his right arm cannon up at the wiring on Violen's back again.
Violen punches his fists against the ground to push himself back onto his feet before taking the Sonic Slicer head-on against his chest, and he quickly goes to swing his morning star out at X, this time being quite a bit more furious as he pulls it untamed back and forth around the room, at this point caring not if he broke apart his room so long as he hit X in the process. X ducked and leaped over the morning star without moving from his current location, staying focused on Violen as the brute kept flailing his weapon around without trying anything strategic.
He was definitely not as big of a threat as Agile was, and that just meant that X knew he could end this battle quickly before taking damage from his foe's incredible power. X switches over to Wheel Gator's weapon color and takes his right arm cannon out, leaping over the morning star before spawning a spiked wheel from his cannon that rolls straight through the air and goes right for Violen's right arm, specifically at the shoulder considering the way he was swinging the morning star at the moment.
The sharp spikes along with it's quick rotation allows the wheel to rip right through even Violen's durable armor, cutting his arm off from the rest of his body and also managing to get the chain of the morning star as well. The arm clunks down onto the ground along with Violen's weapon, and the X-Hunter growled angrily before leaping right at X and trying to grab him out of the air with his other hand while he still had the chance.
X however stamped his foot against Violen's head and leaped over his body as the X-Hunter was pushed down into the ground, and once X was on the floor he switched back to Overdrive Ostrich's weapon colors and swung his right arm cannon out to throw a quick Sonic Slicer right at Violen's exposed back wiring. After the shot sliced into Violen's wiring, Violen growled and tried to turn himself around with his hands, but spasmed due to the damage in his circuitry.
"Y-You won't…Get away with this…Cowardice!" Violen proclaimed, and X lowered his arms for a moment and said "You hide in these bases…Have your minions do all of your dirty work…And I'm the coward here? You Mavericks are the only cowards here, X-Hunter!" Suddenly, a voice called out to Violen from a radio communication line, stating in an echoing tone of voice "Don't waste your energy reserves trying to insult him, Violen. He's not capable of realizing how much of a coward he is."
The voice was only somewhat familiar to X, and he commented in a surprised tone "That's the third X-Hunter leader…Serges." "Hey old man! Get down here and help me stomp X before he takes another of Zero's parts!" Violen exclaimed while distorting slightly in his voice pattern, and Serges stated "You've already lost the parts with your incompetence! And I do not tolerate incompetence lightly you overgrown baboon!"
"W-What?!" Violen exclaimed in a tone of utter surprise, and Serges stated "I will personally deal with the blue boy myself when the time comes since you and Agile have failed. You are coming back to base now!" Before Violen could voice any objections, Serges suddenly activates a teleportation beam that zaps the X-Hunter and makes him get sent right out of the room along with his broken arm and weapon. X looked around in shock at how sudden Violen was taken out of here, but looked up towards the ceiling and grit his teeth a bit before stating "Hey, Serges! I'll face you right now!"
There was no response from the Maverick, leading X to lower his head and quietly remark to himself "He's gone…It doesn't matter I guess…I still defeated Violen, which means…" X turns around and sees that Zero's parts were emerging from the wall still safely kept in the capsule. X walks up to the capsule and lays his right hand on his helmet, commenting to Alia now that the communication line was back up "Alia, sorry I haven't reached you in a while."
"Oh good! You're alive…I was worried when I saw the submarine explode and I lost track of you on the cameras. Did you run into any additional trouble X?" Alia inquired after a gasp of surprise and relief. X nodded his head and said "I ran into another of the X-Hunters here and have found Zero's body and arm parts. I'll leave them here for pick up while I go deal with Bubble Crab." "Not a problem X. I'm just glad to know you're still alive." Alia commented right away.
X didn't need to say anymore now regarding the situation in this room, and after pulling his hand away from his helmet he lays it against the glass of the capsule in front of him and said with a bit of a smile on his face "Just one more part Zero…And then I'll find some way to get you put back together." X pulled his hand away and then nodded his head, proceeding to look up at the door and leaping up the wall towards it so it could open and X could exit this room.
Outside the room X finds himself overlooking a ledge on the other side of the area where another pairing of steel sliding doors were, leading X to comment in a rather disbelieving voice "I-I can't believe Bubble Crab is just a jump away. Guess I shouldn't complain…" X immediately leaps over the gap between ledges and lands in front of the door, watching as they open up and allow X passage into the last chamber in this base.
The moment he drops down past the second set of doors X lands on an inch high pool of water above a grated purple steel platform. The room was incredibly damp with moisture, but Bubble Crab was nowhere in sight at the moment. X just waited patiently while holding his right arm cannon by the barrel, and after a few seconds the grate on the other side of the room flips open as the Maverick leaps out from the underwater area.
The Maverick known as Bubble Crab was wide and somewhat rounded in his body size, with legs of red and silver and slanted eyes with red irises and white glints as pupils. He had a Sigma insignia on the blue plate of metal above his eyes, and off to the sides of that metal were two antenna. His shoulders were yellow and had two green pincers sticking out to fit with his theme, and he lacked a mouth and instead had a metal grate where it would be on the underside of his body. Bubble Crab looked at X with a dull look in his eyes as he said "Why am I not surprised that it was you who destroyed my submarine?"
"Bubble Crab, why were you sending a submarine out to attack others?!" X immediately went on to accuse the Maverick, and Bubble Crab stumbled back a bit and said with widened eyes "What?! What gave you the idea that I was going to attack anyone?! I sent a submarine out to collect some treasure deep underwater. Does attacking a city sound at ALL like something I'd do?!"
"Maybe, especially since you went Maverick." X was rather blunt in his response, and a furious Bubble Crab stamps his right foot down a couple times before exclaiming "Now you listen here X! Just because I got off the Maverick Hunter's crummy payroll and joined someone with a better cut of the jib doesn't mean I went Maverick!" "How could you possibly justify your betrayal with money?!" X exclaimed, still finding it hard to believe that Bubble Crab could be so petty.
"Not everyone wants to live their life hunting Mavericks X! Just because you enjoy it doesn't mean the rest of us did! I'd rather collect treasures and build up my wealth and stay away from all of that insanity! I mean you Maverick Hunters stuck me in the same unit as that lunatic Wheel Gator and expected me to stay with such a lousy payroll!" Bubble Crab pointed in with an incredible amount of frustration in his voice, leading to X scowling a bit before the Maverick said to him "Speaking of that monster, I just want to personally thank you for retiring him. In fact, even after you destroyed my submarine and invaded my personal base, I'm perfectly willing to let bygones-be-bygones and just forget this entire thing ever happened if you leave here right now."
"Is that a threat Bubble Crab? Sounds like Maverick talk to me…" X said, and Bubble Crab widened his eyes and told him "Are your audio receptors broken from being stuck in the water for so long?! I'm giving you a chance to just walk away without causing you any trouble!" "That's not going to happen Bubble Crab. You made your decision when you chose to join the X-Hunters. You should've known this was going to be the consequence of your actions." X commented on calmly.
"Ok fine?! I tried to be a nice guy cause you killed Wheel Gator, but if you're just going to keep on with your self-righteousness, then I'm just going to have to exterminate you before you can take my treasure away from me!" Bubble Crab said, becoming absolutely steamed at this point as he raised his arms up into the air and causes the water level to rise until it filled half the room, leading Bubble Crab to then thrust his pincers up high while proclaiming "Now I'm really crabby!" He then surrounds himself with a bubble shield after retracting his pincers to signify the true start to the battle.
Bubble Crab starts off by leaping at X, but X retaliates by firing some regular shots from his right arm cannon in hopes of popping the bubble around his body. But the pellets just bounce harmlessly off the bubble and the Maverick gets close enough swing his right shoulder out and make his pincers extend out and grab onto X's chest, pinching into his armor and pushing him right against the wall behind him as the bubble goes away around his body. "How do you like that you goodie two-shoes?!" Bubble Crab exclaimed furiously as he tries to clamp his pincers deeper into X's armor.
X lifts his right arm cannon up and switches to Overdrive Ostrich's colors, using the Sonic Slicer to rip through Bubble Crab's energy pincers and give himself enough time to duck down before they reappear. X then thrusts his arm cannon into the front of Bubble Crab's body, only for the Maverick to summon his bubble again before the attack connects. X's arm cannon pushes against the front of the bubble and causes Bubble Crab to be knocked back through the water. But while he was doing this X began to charge energy in his arm cannon, and was thus ready to fire a charged shot right at Bubble Crab.
To his and Bubble Crab's surprise though, the charged shot struck the bubble and just bounced right off, hitting the ceiling and breaking through it with relative ease. Bubble Crab slowly descends to the floor and blinks twice before saying "H-Ha! I knew I'd be able to stop your charged shot! You're pretty weak X!" The lack of confidence in his voice suggested that it was a pure fluke that X hadn't gotten through. X didn't pay attention to the Maverick's boast and instead thought to himself while changing colors back to normal "I need to try something else to get through his bubble…"
Though the Sonic Slicer would've gotten the job done, X wasn't certain that it would also be able to harm Bubble Crab in the process. He needed something a little stronger to get that job done, and considering what he knew about their history X found it ironic that he had just recently got the perfect weapon for dealing with this situation. He switched to Wheel Gator's colors as Bubble Crab pushed towards him again with his arms swung out, and upon holding his right arm cannon up X spawned a spiked wheel and pushed it right at Bubble Crab.
Bubble Crab widened his eyes and exclaimed "Whoa what?!" and then swerved to the right as the wheel cut right into his bubble shield and popped it clean open. X then thrusts his left fist out and punches Bubble Crab right in the side of his face, denting his body and sending him pushing back through the room until he hits the back wall and bounces back, landing on the ground on his feet and looking up at X while rubbing the dent in his armor, saying in a disbelieving tone "T-That's Wheel Gator's power! How are you able to use that?!"
X didn't responds as he fires another spiked wheel straight along the ground at Bubble Crab, and the Maverick leaped to the side to avoid it, putting himself in the corner of the room while he remarked "Oh geez! This was on the report the other X-Hunters gave me! You have the ability to copy other Reploids powers!" As Bubble Crab panicked over this information, X was busy charging up the power of Wheel Gator's weapon while stating to him "This is what you get for focusing only on your greed, Bubble Crab!"
X fires off a gigantic glowing green spiked wheel that whirls along the ground and goes straight for Bubble Crab. Bubble Crab tries to leap out of the way, but the bottom of his boody is torn up vertically a bit as he leaped, followed by the wheel bursting and releasing some energy spikes in eight directions, one of them going right up and tearing right through the rest of Bubble Crab's body, splitting him straight in half as his eyes widen and he murmurs out with the last of his power "A-At least I…outlived…that monster…"
The water suddenly lowers down back into the grates as the two halves of Bubble Crab's body land on the floor with a heavy clank, and X turns his colors back to normal before walking over to Bubble Crab's remains. He extends his hand down and touches the front of one half of the Maverick's body to copy his ability into his body. His armor turns yellow momentarily as X rises back onto his feet and immediately lays a hand on the right side of his helmet, leading to him commenting "Bubble Crab has been defeated, Alia."
"I can see that X. Great job. We'll hopefully be able to recover the treasures he's stolen and give them back to the humans and Reploids who need them. I'm bringing you back to base, there's nothing left here you need to investigate." Alia said, leading to X nodding his head and stating "Mission Accomplished then, I'll be back shortly." X thus waited a few seconds for the teleportation beam to take him back to HQ, and now he was halfway through the Mavericks hired by the X-Hunters…
Next Time: A Volcanic Plunge