Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Point RD13-29, Special Development Zone, 21XX...  

In a dank alley nestled between block after block of warehouses and shipping docks, two Reploids stood before each other, a special package in their hands. “Alright, Cedar, this is the place.” said the stockier one, an older model from the pre-Maverick War era. He motioned for the briefcase.  

The lankier one, Cedar, a slightly newer model from just before the Great Repliforce War, shrugged. “I still don’t like this, Aluce...”  

“Well, boss said to leave it right here for the dead drop, and then come back in a few hours to get our paycheck,” said Aluce, motioning with his cane. “I don’t wanna know what happens if we screw this one up, so drop it and let’s go.”  

“Way ahead of you, Al,” Cedar groaned, setting down the briefcase in a hidden nook. “Now come on, let’s make ourselves scarce before we get jumped.”  

The two nodded and turned to go their separate ways, but no sooner had Aluce rounded the corner did he hear a BANG go off behind him at the other end of the alley. “Dammit!” Thinking quickly, he ducked into the unlocked door of one of the warehouses, and waited.  

The older Reploid sat for what felt like an hour, but was more like a minute, before he was quickly tapped on the head. Jolting backwards, he saw the familiar black trench coat of his associate, and grimaced. “Don’t scare me like that, Cedar!” he scolded, before realizing that the Reploid standing before him only looked like his purple-haired associate, and he had a gun right in his face.  

“Woah, woah, woah! D-don't shoot!” he cried. “I-I’ll give you anything you want, anything I got on me! J-just let me go!”  

“No can do, buddy,” said the young Reploid, and Aluce was taken more aback by just how casual he sounded. “Word on the street says you’ve got some S-grade contraband just down the way, and I won’t stand for it. I’ll be taking that back now, but while I’m here...”  

The young Reploid quickly disappeared in a flash, before his slender frame grew shorter and his long purple hair became shorter, spikier, and a more distinct auburn hue, and he now had two pistols aimed directly at Aluce’s torso. “Name’s Axl. If your boss ever does hear about this, tell him Red Alert’s gonna fry his aft plating too.” With a quick double tap, Aluce dropped dead, and Axl snagged the briefcase before hightailing it out of the area before the Hunters showed up to get on his case.  

A little bit later...  

“Yo, Red, you saw that, yeah!?” Axl beamed at a much taller Reploid with slicked back blond hair, pale skin with black shading beneath his eye, and where his other eye should’ve been, a scar tracing its way up through his forehead. “I was all chill and getting up in that dude’s face, then boom, blasted his dome off before dipping back here. It was sick!”  

The taller Reploid elbowed Axl. “Keep it down, kid! We’re not outta the woods just yet. You can finish tellin’ me about it when we get back on the ship, got it?”  

“You got it, Red,” Axl grinned. “Any of your buddies done with their jobs yet?”  

“Eh, not yet,” said Red. “Besides, I got a call from this guy saying he knew a lot more about whatever the hell it is we just picked up. Says he’d be meeting us right about now.”  

“And here I am,” came a voice from the next shadowed ally. “Call me the Professor. That little briefcase you’re carrying contains the code for a rather special viral strain, you see. Σ-02, I believe the name was?”  

Red balked when he recognized the code. “Sigma!? You kidding me? I ain’t touchin’ this with a 10-foot pole then!”  

“Fear not,” said the Professor. “This particular strain is ‘dead,’ so to speak, in the way that human vaccines for their viruses often are. I happen to know, however, that implementation of the virus’s programming into a Reploid’s systems can render them damn well immune to the effects of the Sigma Virus. So, what do you say? Would you like to never fear going Maverick ever again?”  

“Sounds like a done deal to me,” said Red. “But what’s in it for you, eh?”  

“Well, I will admit that the specifics of its mechanism haven’t been totally ironed out,” explained the Professor. “I’d like to test the effects on some of your compatriots here at Red Alert, particularly Axl.”  

“And what’s so special about the kid?” asked Red.  

“The fact he can copy Reploids so effectively, even for a short time, is plainly astounding,” said the Professor, grinning at the prospect of analysis. “I’ll let you and your friends at Red Alert have premier access to the most sought-after defense in Reploid history if you let me run some experiments with Axl. Nothing too severe, of course.”  

“I’ll think on it,” said Red, tapping his chin. “Tell you what, talk to you in a week and we’ll see where we are.” The lankier Reploid extended a hand, to which the other bulkier Reploid shook it.  

“I’m looking forward to it,” smiled the Professor. “And Axl? I look forward to seeing where you’ll go.”  

“Thanks, sir!” Axl grinned. With that, him and Red turned to return to their ship, and then link up with the rest of the members of Red Alert.  

Once onboard, Red sighed at his young protege. “Kid, lemme level with you for a sec?”  

“Red, what’s going on?” asked Axl, leaning back in his chair with his feet on the dashboard.  

“That professor guy was a bit too sketch, you feel me?” he explained. “I know you’ve been doing great, but I’ll be honest I’m not sure Red Alert’s gonna be safe for you for much longer.”  

“...What do you mean?” said Axl, turning towards his mentor.  

“Look, Axl, if what he’s saying is real then we’ve got the find of the century on our hands,” Red said, weighing his options on one hand. Bringing out the other, he continued, “But if he’s lying then we’re all going to be screwed, and those lazy Hunters might have to get off their asses and actually do something about it. And if it comes down to that... I don’t want you getting caught in a war, kid.”  

“So... what do you want me to do?” wondered Axl.  

“The second that guy shows up, I need you to scram, kid.” Red ordered. “I don’t care what you gotta do to get outta here, dammit get the Hunters on it if you have to, but just please, kid, when the time comes... go.”  

“But I thought Maverick Hunters were lazy jackasses!” Axl protested.  

“They are, but I also know they’ll never leave a kid on his own, and I don’t know if I’ll be around to keep you safe for much longer, kiddo,” Red said, shaking his head. “I don’t like ‘em very much, but it’s better them than going Maverick and getting put down for good, yeah?”  

“Red...” Axl replied, head hanging low. “I... I don’t wanna go! C’mon, I can handle it!”  

The older Reploid glared at his young protege. “No, you can’t, boy! Do you know what happens when you go Maverick? Do you!?” Axl froze, staring up at the face of the Reploid who’d taken him in and raised him, after he’d lost all sense of who he was. “Well, I’ll tell you. For a while it feels like just a buzz in your head, a little nudge here and there to get you to try and bend the rules and get you thinking for yourself. Then it fills your mind, shouting at you to break off your chains, shake off the shackles and burn it all down. And then... you’re hunted, like a stray dog. If you’re lucky they just hold you down and try and tear it out of you, but if you’re not... that’s it. You’re gone. And I know this all... because I saw it. You’ve never seen real war, boy. Don’t let this be how it starts.” He paused, hugging Axl tight, before letting go.  

“...Will I see you again? When all this is over?” asked the changeling Reploid.  

“Axl, buddy... I don’t know,” sighed Red. “Once you get out, gimme a couple days to call you, alright? That’s about all I think I might be able to do.”  

“But... but...” Axl started tearing up.  

“I know, kid, I know,” Red placated. “You’ve come a hell of a long way already. Just think of this as one more long mission, y’know? Now come on, be brave, alright? Show me some of that fire in you!”  

Axl looked up at his mentor, and after a moment, grinned. “You got it! I’ll do you proud, Red!”  

“Damn straight,” Red laughed. “Red Alert’s ace in the hole, the slippery little Axl. You’re gonna go far, kid, I just know it.”  

The Crimson Palace, one week later...  

“Mr. Red, have you come to your decision yet?” asked the Professor, sitting opposite the mercenary leader. “If you don’t, I will find someone who will make the right choices myself.”  

Red tapped his fingers together, leaning back in his rather luxurious chair. “Let’s go for that test run, how about it?” he said finally, standing up.  

“I knew you’d see what I had to offer you,” smiled the Professor. “Now, I believe you had someone for me to meet?”  

Red blanched. Shit, I thought he wouldn’t go for it this early! “Ah, about that... Axl’s off doing a little recon so he’s not on base at the moment. Should be back in... 3 days? End of the week, tops.”  

“It was my understanding he goes where you go,” the Professor said, curious. “I would much prefer you bring him back immediately. I don’t care how you do it, but if he is not here within the next 24 hours then you will find yourself in far more pain than I believe either of us want.”  

Red grimaced, but quickly hid his steadily rising disdain. “I’ll think of something, don’t you worry. In fact...” he pulled out his comm, and called Axl, who in actuality had quietly snuck off to one of the palace’s many Ride Chaser garages. “Axl, kid, looks like you’ll be able to come back after all! Skies are shining red on us, eh?” Turning back to the Professor, he added, “I’ll put in a little extra... insurance for that, how about it.” Tapping another button on his comm, he ordered, “Mega Scorpio, pal, do me a solid?”  

Outside, the Professor heard the hulking scorpion Reploid pass by, and smiled. “Well, well, well... Mr. Red, I do believe you’ve sealed your end of the bargain.” Extending a hand, he finished, “I look forward to our further partnership in keeping Red Alert at the top of its game.”  

Red nodded idly. “Same here, pal. And drop the ‘Mr. Red’ schtick; makes me feel old. Just Red’ll do, capisce?”  

“Certainly,” nodded the Professor. “I’ll be on my way.”  

Crimson Palace Garage  

“Skies are shining red...” Axl blinked, processing what he’d just heard in the comm. “I gotta go!” Grabbing a few spare E-tanks, his trusty pistols, and a few clips of blaster ammo from a locker, palmed the recognition software on the Ride Chaser, and gunned it out as fast as he possibly could, even as he began to hear the wail of klaxons echoing from the palace behind him, searchlights fanning out into the darkness to find the wayward Reploid.  

It wasn’t long before he’d reached the Tohoku Expressway, which he knew if he could make it just a few more hours down the road, he’d be within the confines of Abel City, and within reach of the Maverick Hunters in their base of operations.  

Unfortunately for him, word had spread through the palace much faster than expected, and so he found himself accosted by a squad of Runnerbombs on Ride Chasers racing after him, and chucking their bombs in his direction to blast him off the road. “Oi, watch the paint!” he jeered at them as he dodged and weaved around the blasts, before thinking quickly, he brake checked them: the other Red Alert bikes sped off as Axl was now behind them, and switching the safety off the main gun, he blasted them to smithereens, and sped on.  

Abel City Central Highway, a few hours later...  

Thanks to the frankly absurd abilities of the enhanced Repliforce Ride Chasers Red Alert kept on hand, it wasn’t long before Axl had reached the Abel City outskirts, and he knew he was damn near home free. As the young reploid sped along, he tuned the radio on the Ride Chaser into local Maverick Hunter frequencies, just to make sure they weren’t on his tail. “Air space violation?” he said, realizing what he was hearing across their tapped comms. “What the...” Before he could confirm what he was hearing, in the corner of his eye he realized there was in fact a Hunter Ride Chaser coming up behind him.  

“Aw hell no!” he shouted, tapping a button and causing a shockwave to be emitted behind him, temporarily disrupting the Hunter bike’s repulsors, and forcing it to drop back a short distance. “Na-na-nanana!” he jeered as he kicked up another notch, popping a wheelie as he sped forward some more. “Eat that, slowpokes! You ain’t catching Axl!” he called back, before realizing the Hunter behind him looked a little... familiar. “You gotta be kidding me...”  

“Attention Ride Chaser driver! You are in direct violation of Abel City speed regulations! Pull over your vehicle immediately!” shouted the Hunter through a built-in mic on his own Ride Chaser, and by now Axl knew exactly what was up.  

“Fat chance,” the changeling muttered, before realizing a shadow was slowly taking shape ahead of him, and something appeared to be descending through the clouds. “Uh-oh...” The shape became clear as Axl realized a Red Alert dropship was approaching his position, and then...  

*BOOM*  

Suddenly the overpass ahead of Axl shattered, and he slammed his Ride Chaser to a halt in front of the hulking Reploid stood before him. He, of course, recognized it. “Mega Scorpio, buddy, what gives!”  

The massive crimson scorpion said nothing, instead bringing its tail to bear and firing off three giant blasts in Axl’s direction.  

“Oh, for spark’s sake...” Axl winced, as he whipped out his pistols and started firing.  

By this point the other Hunter had arrived on scene, and realized they had way bigger fish to fry than some hotshot kid speeding down the highway like he owned the whole road. “Alright kid, stand down! Let the professionals handle this!”  

“I’m plenty professional, ya big fat nobody!” Axl retorted, as he kept on mag dumping to no avail. “I know who you are, yeah!”  

Zero rolled his eyes and drew his saber. “Could’ve sworn I heard you say this guy’s name! Know him from somewhere, do ya?”  

“He’s my guy Mega Scorpio!” Axl beamed, waving a hand in the scorpion’s direction. “Dude’s invincible, y’know? Not sure what he wants though.”  

“I don’t really give a damn what he wants,” Zero scoffed. “I just need to know if we can beat him.”  

“I just said he’s invincible,” Axl groaned. “Or, uh, his body is. Not sure about the rest of him.”  

Zero shrugged, then figured he might as well try something. Sliding underneath the scorpion’s massive frame, he slashed one of its legs, and sliced it clean off. Enraged, the scorpion bolted forward, and Axl jumped out of the way as he decided to take a similar tack and fire away at one of the Reploid’s claw-bearing arms.  

Before he could break it off, however, Mega Scorpio whirled around, charged again, narrowly missing Zero this time, then punched forward, one arm at a time, trying to reach for either of the much smaller targets around it, leaving it wide open for Zero to leap around and slice it clean off.  

Blinking at the loss of its claw, the scorpion began charging a vast amount of energy in its tail, before launching it skyward in a glowing blue ball, which landed on the ground and transformed into two spinning whirling masses of plasma that swept across the floor. Both Zero and Axl leapt up over them, stabbing and shooting the scorpion over and over until the tail was blasted to smithereens, and the other claw was slashed clean off. With no other weapons available, and with its other legs behind blasted to bits beneath it, it eventually toppled to the ground, and after one last blast to the processor, the giant scorpion Reploid was taken offline.  

“Alright kid, you’re not half bad,” Zero admitted once the dust had settled. “I still gotta take you in for that speeding ticket, but how would you like to join the Maverick Hunters, eh? We could use a guy with your skills.”  

“No thanks, man,” Axl dismissed him. “Didn’t I tell you already? I’m from Red Alert, y’know.”  

“Oh, you’re one of those guys,” Zero pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, kid, this is a bit of a formality, but I gotta take you back to Hunter HQ anyway.” Then he realized what Axl had said about Mega Scorpio. “Wait, wasn’t this big bug dude part of Red Alert too? You said you recognized him.”  

“Yeah, about that,” Axl shrugged. “Not sure what got into him, but uh...”  

“Sounds like you might need a little Hunter back-up, eh?” Zero smirked. “Alright, come on...”  

Maverick Hunter HQ, half an hour later...  

Zero and the handcuffed Axl stepped out of the transport vehicle and the senior Hunter motioned for the junior mercenary to follow him to the holding cells while they decided what to do with him. Eventually, however, a C rank Hunter eventually told him he was to be brought to Signas’ office because of a strange development.  

Once in the office, Axl realized that several who’s-who of the Maverick Hunters were also there. There was Commander Signas, of course, but also Zero, and lead Navigator of the 17 th Elite unit and general head of communications, Alia, and then he realized that the projector was on.  

“Axl, the man of the hour!” Red grinned across the connection. “I was just discussing with the Maverick Hunters here, and myself and my new associate are currently at a bit of an impasse with them. You see, it involves you, Axl,” he explained, pointing a finger directly toward his protege. “The Professor says you’re extremely important, and you also ran away! Sorry about sic’ing Mega Scorpio on ya, by the way. ‘Sides, I’ve got a better idea!”  

With that, suddenly 8 mugshots popped on the screen, and Axl realized he was seeing the faces of several members of Red Alert. “What’s... going on?”  

“A little game, is all,” said Red idly. “I thought it might be fun to have a little custody battle, as it were, between myself and the Maverick Hunters. If you take down all 8 of the pals I sent after you, then you can stay with the Hunters, no strings attached. But if you lose, you come right back to me, eh?”  

“Why can’t I just go?” demanded Axl. “Red, what are you doing!?”  

“Ah-ah-ah, kid,” Red admonished, wagging his finger. “Consider this a test run for that little program the Professor wanted to run. If it doesn’t work out properly, then that’s no polish off my plates. If it does, the prof wants to have you try it too.”  

“I... but you said...” Axl stammered, before he put his foot down. “Screw this, I’m not gonna fight my buds, you know that!”  

“I don’t think you understand, Axl,” Red said darkly. “If this goes wrong... dozens of lives could be at risk. Nobody really knows what that program will do, and if you don’t come with, I told the boys to do whatever it took to make you come by. It’ll be on your hands, kiddo. Do you really want that?”  

Axl blinked, at a loss for words.  

“Didn’t think so,” Red cut in again. “I’ll give you 48 hours to come up with a gameplan and so I can get the guys in place. After that... game on.”  

Suddenly the transmission cut, and Axl and the Hunters were left staring at the brazen proposition put before them. “What the...”  

“Dammit, I wish X was here,” Zero grimaced. “He’d be figuring out the simple solution as we speak.”  

Alia, seeing the shock welling up within the younger Reploid, walked over to him. “Axl, was it? I know this might be heavy for you, but... we’ll stand with you. All of us. I’ll keep an eye on you myself if I have to, OK?” She placed Axl’s hands in her own. “I promise.”  

Axl, staring at the Reploid keeping him steady, smiled shakily. “Th-thanks... But what do we do?”  

Suddenly commander Signas spoke. “I was hoping you would have the answer to that question.”  

“I... think we have to play Red’s game,” said Axl. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him, but that Professor he’s been talking to gave me the creeps, and the only way we find out what he’s plotting is getting to Red first, since he’s hanging out at the Crimson Palace.”  

“Ah, Red Alert’s base?” the commander filled in. “In that case, Axl, do you have any particular advice about your former comrades that would be helpful should a confrontation arise?”  

Axl nodded, tapping his forehead. “All right here, sir,” he smiled unsteadily, but putting a brave face on anyway. “I’ll let you guys figure out what exactly we do with it, but it’s all in there somewhere.”  

“Excellent,” said Signas. “We move out in 48 hours. Be ready.”  

Chapter Text

Combat Training Facility #4, Maverick Hunter HQ, the next day...  

Axl had been taken aside after the meeting the day before and told in no uncertain terms that if he was going to take on his former allies and friends, he would need to stick to Hunter protocol to the letter. To that end, he’d met up with Render, a junior navigator in the 17th Elite unit, and after the two of them had been introduced, Zero conducted a series of drills with the hotshot to see what he could do. 

The answer turned out to be “quite a bit,” as Zero would discover, with the smaller, newer Reploid possessing plenty of knowledge on how to maneuver in a fight, and packing surprisingly on-point aim with his dual pistols, which he’d dubbed the ‘Axl Bullets’ at some point previously. “Y’know kid, you’re not half-bad. Where’d you learn to fight, anyway?” he commented idly after a quick test to see how well he could handle a cramped space. 

“Been doing this as long as I can remember,” Axl replied. “Which admittedly ain’t long, but still. Red taught me a lot, and he took me on missions with him pretty much all the time.” 

“Sounds like you look up to this Red guy,” Zero noted. “Why were you in Abel City though?” 

“A couple days before this whole mess went down, me and Red dropped in on a dead drop and picked up this virus program,” Axl explained. “Then this guy called the Professor showed up, said he knew what it was, and also said he wanted to try it out. Red chickened out at first, then after we left, he dumped me at our safehouse, before he went back. Guess he must’ve changed his mind...” 

“So, this is recent, huh,” Zero nodded. “I have a feeling this was distinctly not his idea, but we won’t be able to ask until we start playing his game.” 

“Yeah...” sighed Axl. “Anyway, this has all been pretty fun, but I have a bit of a feeling I know why the Professor wants me specifically.” 

“Spill it, kid,” said Zero. “What is it?” 

“Ever heard of a Copy Chip?” said Axl, opening a small compartment on his chest to reveal the specialized component. “I don’t know where I got it, or even if I always had it, but I can use this chip here to essentially turn into something around my size and act like them for a while. If they’ve got any weapons, I copy those too. If they’re not humanoid, I just get a boost that’s appropriate.” 

“I can see why you’re such an asset,” Zero noted, marveling at the odd chip. “How long does the transformation last?” 

“10 seconds, give or take?” said the shorter Reploid, handwaving a little. “It’s not super long, and I do need to shoot the guy I’m turning into the do it.” 

“Interesting,” said Zero. “I assume all your old pals at Red Alert know all about it.” 

“Yeah, so they’ll be expecting it,” sighed Axl. “Eh, it is what it is.” 

“You’re not as broken up about this as I figured you would be,” Zero said, noting the oddly casual tone. 

“Us Red Alert guys are mercs, y’know?” shrugged the changeling. “Sometimes we’ll end up on different sides if we decide the money’s good. Red just managed to bring a bunch of us together mostly because all of us were tired of having to clean up after your asses.” 

“Hey, we do real work!” said Zero, offended. “Cleaning up an entire planet takes a long time!” 

“It looks pretty clean to me,” Axl chuckled. “Crime’s gone up again, anyway. Aren’t you guys supposed to handle that sort of thing?” 

Zero found he didn’t really have a reply to that, so he just groaned and crossed his arms. “Come on, kid. Let’s see about the rules of Red’s little game, shall we?” 

Central Briefing Room  

Zero and Axl arrived in the main briefing room to find Signas and Alia already there, with the 8 Red Alert members prominently displayed on screen. Seeing they’d arrived, Signas explained the Hunters’ current understanding of the situation. 

“As of 0900 today, the previously described members of the mercenary group Red Alert were all individually sighted at the following locations.” The commander pointed to the screen, and 8 location markers popped up, each with the face of the respective Maverick. He continued, “In order of threat level currently posed: Wind Crowrang has deployed a squadron of large aircraft capable of a precise strike on any grounded target within 1 hour’s vicinity of the Northern Atlantic Ocean. Splash Warfly has deployed a fleet of commandeered combat vessels to patrol the waters around Hawaii, while Vanishing Gungaroo has gained access to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex through unknown means and has hijacked the Ride Armor development facilities therein.” Signas paused, and after nods of confirmation, went on, “Tornado Tonion has taken control of the Abel City Central Communications Tower, and the resulting comms blackout has resulted in the leakage of the Cybersphere, which Snipe Anteater has taken full advantage of. Finally, Flame Hyenard has taken up residence in a geothermal energy plant near the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Ride Boarski has decided to convert the historic Circuit of the Americas into his personal test track, and Soldier Stonekong has occupied a base within the Witu Forest in southeastern Kenya.” 

With all 8 Red Alert members accounted for, Signas asked Axl, “These are your former comrades, so who would you recommend the Maverick Hunters handle first?” 

“Stonekong’s probably our best shot,” Axl said after tapping his chin a few times. “He’s an older guy, one of Red’s old war buddies, and if I know anything about him, he’s all about honor.” 

“So, what, appeal to his honor and get him to stand down?” said Zero. “Track record on that for us is, uh... not great?” 

“Then he goes out like a soldier,” Axl sighed. “He’d want that, anyway.” 

“Morbid, but fair,” Zero nodded. “Alright, now that that’s decided, what can he do, exactly?” 

“He’s actually a swordfighter, same as you are,” said Axl. “Bit of a different style though; he’s got big shields instead of just using his sword for everything, so a lot slower attack patterns but way less openings to actually hit him.” 

“I can work with that,” Zero said after a moment, then turning back to the Commander, he said, “That should do it.” 

“Very well,” nodded Signas. “Have the 0th unit ready to deploy in 2 hours. Coordinate with Alia on setting up communications, and if you absolutely need it, I will have X be on standby for combat support.” 

“Eh, we shouldn’t need it,” Zero smirked. “He can tag in later if he really wants to.” 

Here, Alia spoke up. “He’d probably prefer not having to get involved if he has to either,” she admitted. “But also, Axl, please report to the Navigator uplink center before you leave.” 

“What’s this for?” he asked. 

“As part of standard Maverick Hunter protocol, all newly assigned members of a Maverick Hunter unit will report for uplink with their unit’s primary assigned navigator for combat data management,” she explained, rattling off a boilerplate statement. “The navigator for the 0th unit is Synthia, so ask for her when you get there.” 

“Copy that,” nodded Axl, and with that him and Zero turned to leave. 

It took a few minutes for Axl to navigate through the massive unfamiliar complex, but eventually he found his way to the Navigator Uplink Center, and after getting waved in, he met with the taller purple Reploid, who was herself just starting her own shift. 

“Alright, rookie, aiming high, are we?” she said, chuckling a little at the perceived audacity. 

“I’m not super big on you guys, but it is what it is,” Axl retorted. “How’s the uplink work, by the way?” 

“Gimme a sec...” she said, before a short cable appeared from her commlink and jacked itself into an open port on the side of Axl’s head. After a few seconds, it pinged. “There we go. Now I can see what you see and analyze it.” 

“Sounds nifty,” said Axl. “Hey, uh, I don’t mean to be rude but it looks like you’ve seen combat, so uh...” 

“Oh, yeah, there was a whole big mess a few years back,” Synthia noted off-handedly. “It was nice, but I like not having a decent chance to get shot at and die all the time.” 

“Couldn’t be me,” Axl scoffed. “I’ve never had a mission go bad.” 

“Oh, really now?” Synthia raised an eyebrow. “And how many combat ops have you run?” 

“Couple dozen?” Axl shrugged. “I’ve gotten dinged a couple times, but nothing too crazy.” 

“Beginner’s luck,” said the taller navigator. “You’re definitely a way newer model, so to be expected.” 

“Nah, all skill, baby!” boasted the copy-bot. “I’ll show you in a sec, how about that?” 

“Seeing as you’re going on a mission I’m coordinating, I’ll hold you to that,” Synthia said finally, before she waved out the younger Reploid and got back to work doing final mission prep. 

3 hours later, Hunter HQ Hangar #4  

The Hunter jet was primed and ready for take-off as Zero and Axl climbed aboard, and the two prepared to jet off for the roughly hour-long flight to Soldier Stonekong’s operation. After they’d gotten in the air, Zero decided to ask a few more questions about the great ape. 

“How long has Stonekong been part of Red Alert?” 

“Honestly, pretty sure it was actually his idea,” Axl said. “Him and Red got together a bit after the Nightmare crisis and decided that if the world wasn’t gonna help itself, they’d do it.” 

“Interesting...” Zero nodded. “Why would he be subordinate then?” 

“Far as I can tell, it’s cuz he likes having the knowledge that someone he trusts is giving the orders,” said Axl. “Never really asked him, but Red’s always been more of the idea guy between the two anyway.” 

“Sounds like the two go back a while then,” said Zero. “Didn’t you say they were war buddies?” 

“Red’s cagey about it,” Axl admitted, “But a few months ago I found some of his old Repliforce equipment, and I pieced a bit of it together.” 

“Stonekong would’ve been in his unit then, I imagine,” Zero filled in the rest. “Damn, that is a long time, then. The Repliforce War was, uh, nearly 10 years ago I think?” 

“I wouldn’t know, don’t think I was built yet,” shrugged the younger Reploid. “I don’t remember a lot, but I feel like I would’ve remembered that.”  

“How about the Eurasia incident?” said Zero. 

“I... think I met Red a little bit after that?” Axl wondered, attempting to think back. 

“Wait, so you’ve been doing ops since before the Nightmare crisis?” Zero realized. 

Axl stopped for a moment, before realizing he had. “I guess that’s true, actually. Not by much, but still.” 

“Not as much of a rookie as I thought you were then,” admitted the swordmaster. 

“What’d I say?” said Axl. “Y’know what? I think you could learn a thing or two from me.” 

Zero outright hollered with laughter at that. “I’ve forgotten more about combat than you’ve ever learned in your life, kid. They call me Zero for a reason, y’know.” 

“Oh really? Why’s that?” grinned the changeling Reploid. 

“Because it doesn’t matter who they are, if there’s an enemy ahead of me,” the blade master’s expression darkened. “I will destroy it.” 

“Alright, I get ya,” Axl nodded. “Anyway, what’s your plan with Stonekong?” 

“I’m not super good at talking things out, but you know him and he knows you,” Zero stated. “See if you can’t talk to him to see what’s up, and try to get him to stand down from getting himself killed. If not...” 

Axl’s expression turned grim, recognizing what the swordmaster was implying. He’d seen what happened to those who abandoned Red Alert; Red didn’t take deserting very well, and he knew an old soldier like Stonekong would be much the same. “I’m ready.” 

Zero eyed him, suspicious, but said nothing, as they were now approaching the mission area. After the pilot scouted out a safe clearing, it was a few more minutes and then they touched down. 

A short walk up the hill eventually saw the pair come across a strange stone that had been carved to resemble the face of one of the great apes that roamed the area. Its green eyes seemed to gaze straight through them, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything else, so they simply climbed over it up to a nearby ledge. As they passed, however, they began to hear the hollering of several monkeys. “I always hate missions with native wildlife,” Zero groaned. “Don’t get too trigger happy, got it?” 

Axl nodded, but then he realized the hooting seemed a bit too perfect, too synchronized to be a troop of wandering apes maneuvering through the trees. His suspicions were confirmed when an orange monkey leapt from the canopy to try and rip him to pieces, and after nailing it in the head, rather than the lingering scent of copper or the smell of burnt fur, the monkey collapsed with a clank onto the forest floor. “Blockapes,” he groaned. “There should be a white one somewhere giving out commands to the orange ones. Find it and you can take them all offline.” 

“Way ahead of you,” said Zero, seeing as he’d spotted an odd white flash up in the canopy. With a well-trained shot from his buster, the white mechaniloid monkey fell from the trees, and moments after, the remaining orange ones of this squadron followed suit. 

Climbing up the hills some more, they came upon a set of 2 ape statues seemingly guarding two pathways through the forest. A quick scan for key energy signatures relayed that Stonekong was along the right path, but... “There’s a Light Capsule here,” Zero noted. “Let’s go check it out, then go back for Stonekong.” 

“Aren’t those for X?” said Axl. “I thought only he could open them.” 

“I’ve done it before,” Zero shrugged. “Not too sure why, but it’s useful to have. Let’s see what Dr. Light cooked up this time...” 

As they walked, they passed several ancient Reploids that had clearly been in these woods for quite a long time, and which had mostly rusted away after so much neglect. Most were entirely offline, but at one point one of them used the last bit of its energy to try shoving a big boulder into the pair’s way. The telegraphed action was easily dodged, and the Reploid collapsed soon after, but it left the two quite a bit on edge as they approached the capsule. 

As they did so, they noticed its signal was actually masked by something, as though it was buried beneath an object. As it turned out, that thing was another of the ape statues, except this one was... different. “Is it just me or is this one’s eyes glowing?” Axl said offhandedly, and before Zero could back him up on the observation the eyes flared and it began spewing out rocks in their direction. Quickly dodging out of the way, the two realized that their weapons didn’t seem to be doing very much, at least not until Axl landed a lucky hit right in the mouth, where the tongue would’ve been on a real ape. The statue shuddered in response at this, and instinctively shut its mouth. 

“Hey, Axl, do that again!” said Zero, who then began goading the statue to keep spitting more rocks. A few seconds later, another volley shot out, and the blademaster jumped over it, as Axl dumped about half a clip into the statue’s mouth, and it then exploded into tiny chunks, leaving a few green crystals behind and exposing the top of the Light Capsule. 

A little bit of digging later, and the Capsule eventually popped up out of the ground, at which point Zero found the switch to activate it. 

“Ah, Zero, I see you are here in X’s stead,” the hologram of Dr. Light explained. “Contained within this capsule you will find the schematics for the leg portion of an armor I have dubbed the Glide Armor. True to form, these components will allow X to hover in place, or across a reasonable horizontal distance, through the use of repulsor components. With an enhanced power supply, these repulsors will also allow for upward motion, as well as an increase in the allowable time spent hovering. I have also realized that X prefers my original method of granting him his armor components; as such, each component he acquires can be equipped immediately, including this one. Please inform him of this the next chance you see him; I believe he will appreciate it.” 

“Absolutely, Dr. Light,” said Zero. “He’s been a bit swamped lately with some other reconstruction work, but I think this little game might be enough to get him off his aft plating and back into fighting. I know he doesn’t like it, but I think we can agree he’ll feel obliged, Dr. Light?” 

The hologram nodded sagely. “I know my son, and I know his feelings on the matter, but I find myself agreeing with you, Zero. Still, you have a mission to complete, and I do believe you have a new protege to take on. I hope young Axl learns the right lessons from you and X.” 

“I’ll make sure of it,” said Zero. With that, the capsule shut down, and resealed itself. 

“That’s Dr. Light, huh?” said Axl. “More sentimental than I thought he’d be.” 

“Where’d you think X got it from?” Zero chuckled. “He’ll get a kick outta this armor too, I bet; his favorite armor set I’ve seen him use was the Falcon Armor because it straight up just let him fly. For a Reploid with no wings of his own, he’s really at home in the air.” 

“Huh, didn’t know that!” Axl noted. “That reminds me, actually... did you know I can hover?” 

“Didn’t mention it earlier,” Zero said, a little stunned. “Would’ve been nice to know sooner, but hey, always nice to have. How long?” 

“20 seconds-ish? Something like that,” Axl shrugged. “It’s like my copying; I’ve never really timed it.” 

“Purely horizontal or could you move up and down?” asked Zero. 

“Just lets me stay on level,” said Axl. “Still useful for big environmental hazards.” 

“I’ll bet,” Zero grinned. “Alright, enough with the tech demo pitch, let’s get back to work.” 

And get back to work they did, as the pair made short work of several more squads of Blockapes and a few ape statues, and Axl even got to put his hovering to good use when they came across a particularly hazardous riverbank with a flow rate that would charitably be described as a bit intense. Zero, of course, simply double jumped over the gap, but Axl decided to show off a little more by moonwalking while hovering across, even doming another ancient Reploid after it tried to jump at him and toss some rocks his way. After touching down on the other side, Zero sighed, but had to admit that it was pretty funny. 

As the two made their way up the mountain path, they eventually stumbled upon a clearing with a large pillar coursing with stored energy surrounded by a set of 8 of the ape statues they’d seen scattered about the forest. As if sensing their approach, the slow grinding of stone echoed as each head turned to face the hunter/soldier duo, green eyes flaring as they locked on. Zero drew his saber as Axl unholstered his pistols, and the two stood back-to-back, steadily eyeing the statues; they simply remained staring at the pair, until eventually the two had made their way unsteadily into the circle, at maximum alert. 

As the two approached the massive column in the center, suddenly the statues rapidly dislodged themselves from their resting places, and begun spinning violently and circling the small clearing; as they spun, it became clear that they were also slowly closing in on the center, and would no doubt crush the pair if given the chance. “You break high, I’ll go low!” Zero ordered, sliding under one as he slashed its bottom while Axl hopped into the air to get a better vantage point, firing indiscriminately at any stone head that dared show its eyes to him. The slashes from the Z-saber seemed to do the trick, handily cleaving the statues apart handily, while Axl’s pistols were proving an effective enough stopgap against the rock barrages being thrown his way; darting forward, backward, left, and right he also kept on dodging, all the while employing the same trick as before: aiming for the open mouths whenever they fired a rock blast at him. 

Zero, meanwhile, was making ample use of the distraction to carve out the whirling stones from the outside, dicing them apart and rendering them back into the simple granite chunks they had been formed from, and slowly the herd was thinning. “Not too much pressure, yeah?” he called over to Axl. 

“I’m fine!” Axl shouted, his laugh echoing up to the treetops as he dipped and darted this way and that, blasting apart statue after statue as they almost literally ate plasma. After another 5 seconds of bobbing and weaving, the last of the stones was broken, and Zero and Axl could catch their figurative breaths. 

It wasn’t long, however, that the clearing began to shake again, and the massive great ape Reploid stood before them, and extended a hand. Not sure what to do, Zero shook it, to which the ape Reploid introduced himself. “My name is Soldier Stonekong. This forest is my sanctuary, and I hear you two charging through and carving it to pieces just to get to me. Well, since it’s a fight you seem to want, let this be the greatest fight of our lives!” With that, he unsheathed his massive blade, and poised to slam it into the ground right through Zero and Axl. 

“STOP!!!” Axl roared, as the mighty warrior froze, peering down at his younger comrade. “Stonekong, stand down! We don’t want to fight you! We came to TALK!”  

The great ape pondered for a moment, then subsided. “Very well then. What do you wish to learn?” 

“Why do all this?” Axl pleaded. “Why listen to that shady professor? I know you well enough to know you see exactly what’s wrong here!” 

Stonekong let his head hang in shame. “I do indeed, young one. And yet, that is why I must fight. Red trusted me to stand with him no matter how tough our lives became, and so I shall. If it is indeed the case that he has strayed from his path, then I must go with him, if only so he need not walk it alone.” Turning to Zero, he continued, “Zero, you are a warrior, yes? One who seeks naught but to destroy all those he declares as enemies with blinding finesse and unparalleled skill. I would do battle with you, if only to show that this old Reploid still can fight with the best of us.” 

Zero paused for a moment, deep in thought. “I’m not sure I know what I fight for,” he finally said, shocking both the old soldier and the young gun. “I’ve died so many times, lost so many of those I trusted, some of them because I just wouldn’t stop to think for a moment. I rush ahead into all my problems, and hope beyond hope that my skill is enough to solve them.” Suddenly his expression changed, brightening up slightly from his dismal frown. “But I know that is not the only way. X showed me that, so many years ago, and it made me realize that there are many ways to win a battle without ever even fighting at all.” He extended a hand to Stonekong again. “So come on, Stonekong. Stand down. And if you truly wish to fight us... don’t make us destroy you.” 

Suddenly, the old veteran began to laugh. A hearty, booming laugh that echoed through the forest, shaking the trees as it went. “I... I haven’t seen any person, nor Reploid, with a spirit so yearning for a battle, yet a mind so tempered to understand that the lust must be tamed, must be forged. I should see what that will has sharpened your blade into! En garde!” With that, the mighty ape readied his great stone blade once more, and swung with all his strength. It took every active sensory processor for Zero to realize what was happening in that instant, and he leapt to the side, shoving Axl out as he went, before unsheathing his own blade and making ready for battle too. 

Chapter Text

A thundering crash echoed through the forest as Soldier Stonekong’s blade impacted against the ground, Zero and Axl tumbling sideways to avoid getting crushed by the sheer weight, let alone the sharpened edge of the blade itself. The crimson hunter responded with a quick series of counter slashes, but the great ape simply raised his shield to block, letting the blows bounce off harmlessly, as Axl peppered him with plasma bullets. The weak rounds splashed against his armor plating, and he laughed. “Is Red’s favorite youngster really so weak!?”  

“Hey!” Axl shouted back, “Cut me some slack, Kong!”  

“Slack!? You will fight me with all you have, or I will cast you out!” Stonekong roared, swinging once more across the ground. Here, Zero managed to sneak past his shield and strike him directly, finally yielding a pained reaction.  

“Leave him, Axl,” Zero ordered. “He wants a fight so bad, let’s give him one!”  

Axl’s gaze narrowed, debating his options, but gritting his teeth, he upped the output on his pistols and began unloading a magazine or two into Stonekong, pummeling him rapidly with plasma, before the ape Reploid brought his shield to bear and stemmed the tide.  

Deciding to take a higher vantage point, the great ape leapt up onto the pillar in the center of the clearing, then summoned a gigantic boulder within his free hand; Axl kept firing away at him as he then tossed the boulder down and let it split in half. The fragments then circled around the impromptu arena, nearly sandwiching Zero and Axl as they ran towards the area both would eventually collide; thankfully, the halves blasted themselves to harmless shards before they summarily crushed the two.  

Seeing that this attack had not worked, Stonekong leapt off the pillar and crashed down onto the pair’s position, sword thrusting downward, and as they sidestepped it and unloaded some more, he readied his shield. “HAVE AT YOU!” he roared, as he suddenly tossed out his shield, and it spun across the arena. Axl, not expecting it, ended up pinned beneath the shield.  

“NO!” Zero cried out, before leaping out in rage, striking at Stonekong with all he had.  

“Marvelous!” Stonekong praised the blademaster as he brought his blade up to block. “Oh, to see the master at work! It brings such joy to these old joints...”  

Zero said nothing, simply tearing away further with his blade, slowly carving chunk after chunk off the massive stone broadsword which the ape Reploid was holding. Can’t seem to break through... but what if I just break it? Coming around from a different angle, he began striking closer to the hilt; in response Stonekong began to half-sword his own blade, steadying it with his other hand, but Zero’s onslaught was relentless. Even as the shield returned to Stonekong’s hand, it was soon becoming clear it was too late.  

Axl, seizing the opportunity presented by the shield coming off of him, shook himself up and took to the skies, peppering Stonekong’s face with plasma. Now being struck from two angles with his main line of defense cracking, the great ape hopped backward, trying to get some distance. “I will not fall here!” he called out as he tossed his shield again. This time, however, his assailants were expecting it, and Axl ran over top of the spinning shield to leap directly at Stonekong and kick him in the face, sending him crashing to the ground.  

With this last impact, Stonekong lost his grip on his sword; it flew off to the side, shattering as the last of the great boulders which made it up crumbled to dust, and it was over. The mighty ape attempted to recall his shield one more time, but Zero simply struck its backside, disabling the magnet that would allow for this procedure. With a final, mighty crash, the shield fell to the ground.  

“I... I yield,” Stonekong said mournfully. “Do what you must.”  

“We’re not doing anything that drastic,” Zero corrected. “Tell you what, Stonekong. We take you into custody, and we might even get you a pardon so long as you tell us everything you know about Red’s little arrangement with the Professor.”  

“I will not breach my comrade’s trust in such a manner,” Stonekong stubbornly refused. “I will allow myself to be placed in custody, but you will not receive a word on that matter.”  

“But you have to know what Red’s up to is wrong!” Axl interjected.  

Stonekong shook his head. “He is my closest ally; he is my brother-in-arms. That is a bond of trust I am not willing to breach, boy. You would do well to do the same.”  

“Well alright then,” Zero shrugged. “I suppose seeing as you haven’t committed any major offenses, we might let you off the hook anyway, but any further colluding with Red will get you treated with pretty extreme prejudice.”  

Stonekong... smiled? “And should that come to pass, I will take pride in the fact I am fighting alongside my greatest comrade.” As the Hunter and mercenary turned to leave, the mighty ape stopped them. “But before you go, I have seen the spark within you. Come, you two. I would teach you some of my techniques.”  

“For you, Axl, I have seen that you are more than capable of providing long range offense,” he explained. “However, your close-range capabilities are quite lacking; indeed, you are generally vulnerable. As such, I will allow you to copy my Gaea Shield, to provide yourself with a stalwart defense to those you choose to face head-on.”  

Axl nodded, firing off a Copy Shot from his pistol, and incorporating the new data into his systems.  

Weapons System Logged: Gaea Shield  

Expend 2 weapon energy to project a massive stone shield ahead of the user, capable of blocking enemy attacks from the front. Melee attacks will be stopped, and incoming projectiles will be deflected in a direction which the user chooses.  

“Thanks, Stonekong,” Axl nodded.  

Stonekong then stepped forward to Zero, and requested the blademaster bring his blade to bear. “As for you, Zero, your prowess with a blade is legendary, but yet I see a flaw: you often are far too reliant on your lightning offense to win the day before the enemy has the opportunity to counter.” He paused, considering, and asked Zero to try out some stances. Stonekong shook his head. “I can see quite clearly that your defensive posture is... lacking. As an avid practitioner of a more defensive style myself, I would like to introduce to you Gokumonken.” The mighty ape Reploid brought his own hands up, and were his sword intact, it would’ve placed the sword across his midsection, providing a vital blocking point against attacks to that area. Zero followed suit, and Stonekong quickly hurled a punch at him. Almost instinctively, Zero deflected the blow and countered, and Stonekong’s eyes flashed with excitement. “You see! Why, I barely even had to teach you!”  

Saber Technique Acquired: Gokumonken  

Enter a defensive stance, preparing to counter an incoming strike. Direct melee attacks will result in a powerful counterstrike that is capable of defeating almost any foe instantly, while projectiles will be absorbed into the blade as they impact it.  

“I see...” Zero noted. “Well, Stonekong, we’ve given you your options. If we discover you have returned to aid in Red Alert efforts... you know the consequences.”  

Soldier Stonekong nodded sagely. “And I will be ready for them. Goodbye, Axl and Zero. May evil always be brought to heel by your efforts.”  

With that, the mighty ape returned to his hidden alcove, and the duo went back to their ship.  

Central Briefing Room, a few hours later...  

“Soldier Stonekong has stood down,” Zero explained as he began his debrief. “As he was not performing any illegal activities, we let him go, and he categorically refused to answer any questions, and I am inclined to believe him when he said that us keeping him in custody would not change that fact.”  

“So... we’re no closer to figuring out what Red Alert is doing, is that it?” said Signas, unamused. “Axl, any ideas on your end?”  

“Well, the Professor did mention that the special program we found made those who downloaded it effectively immune to the Sigma Virus,” Axl recalled. “I don’t think that was ever confirmed, but a lot of what he wanted seemed to just be data collection.”  

“A clinical study does not require endangering the lives of millions,” Signas noted. “I would like words with this Professor immediately, if possible. Having said that, if what he is saying is true, Stonekong’s behavior would indeed align.”  

Zero raised an eyebrow. “And that would be because...”  

Alia spoke up now. “I spent several years working in the field of Reploid behavioral studies, and in particular Maverick-adjacent tendencies; Soldier Stonekong’s behavior shows exactly none of the hallmarks of typical responses of one infected by any variant of the Maverick or Sigma virus.”  

“So... it works?” said Axl.  

Alia shook her head. “Correlation does not imply causation. If it became clear that Stonekong was in contact with known infected and was still not exhibiting symptoms, I would classify that as sufficient evidence. As-is, we don’t know.”  

“Back to square one again,” pouted the young mercenary.  

“It’s not the answer we were hoping for,” Alia sighed. “But the fact at least some members of Red Alert have not been infected, and are instead acting out of personal interests or desires, is indication of something else.”  

Zero’s eyes flashed with recognition. “The classic definition of Maverick.” He began kicking himself mentally. “Damn, I honestly kind of forgot there were Reploids who just... could go Maverick like that.”  

“It’s an inevitable fault with Reploid design,” Alia noted. “By that original definition, Zero, you would have every obligation to take Stonekong into custody.”  

“Indeed,” Signas added sternly. “I’ve never known you to go soft in times like this, Zero, and while I loathe to admit it, I do believe it is necessary for now.”  

“I understand, sir,” Zero grimaced. “I will... take that into consideration.”  

“In any case,” Alia continued, “I believe our best option now is to decide our next move. Axl, your thoughts on who that should be?”  

The remaining Red Alert members flashed on screen, and after some consideration, the young changeling replied, “I think we go after Tornado Tonion. Haven’t you guys been having major comm problems because of him?”  

“That is very true,” said Alia with a tired sigh. “It’s not really a blackout per se, so much as he, well...”  

Instead of explaining, she simply turned on the local channels... all of which were filled with the jovial onion Reploid bouncing around aimlessly, singing off-key and off-beat to seemingly nobody but himself. After about 30 seconds, she turned it off, pinching the bridge of her nose.  

“Yeesh,” Axl winced. “I’ll see if I can’t go tell him to knock it off. It’s the central comms division, yeah?”  

“You are going absolutely nowhere, young man,” Alia admonished. “Need I remind you that, technically speaking, you are still a fugitive? We are allowing you to assist on missions for the sake of your own protection. That requires a Hunter be with you.”  

“...Alright, Zero and I can go then,” Axl said. “Whaddaya say? In and out, 20-minute pit stop?”  

“I have better things to do than put a stop to some delusional onion using a radio tower as his own personal dance floor,” Zero groaned.  

“...As it stands, Zero, this takes priority,” Signas cut in, and the swordmaster swore the commander was grinning like a loon behind his clasped hands. “I admit that Axl could probably handle himself, but protocol is indeed protocol. So, Zero, go with him.”  

Zero groaned. “The things I do for the world...”  

With that settled, the crimson hunter and the navy-blue mercenary went to the workshop for a quick tune-up, before they prepared to leave.  

Douglas’s Workshop  

“Hey, Zero, what’s up these days?” asked Douglas as the pair stepped inside. “Also, who’s the new kid?”  

“I’m Axl!” beamed the Reploid in question, holding out a hand for a high five. Douglas went for it, and... “Too slow!”  

“You got me, kid,” Douglas chuckled. “But seriously, why’s he here?”  

“Bit of a trial basis thing,” Zero explained. “You’ve heard about Red Alert, right?”  

“The merc group that keeps stepping into Hunter business?” Douglas said. “Yeah, why?”  

“He’s one of those guys,” Zero said. “There’s a bit of a weird internal dispute going on and he ran off, and now Red, the guy behind Red Alert, wants him back. Red says he can stay with us if we beat him and his guys up a bit, though.”  

“...Alright then,” Douglas nodded. “So, what’s up now?”  

“Just a quick tune-up, then we’re going after the second one. Some... onion guy?” Zero shrugged.  

“Oh, Asimov, thank you,” Douglas sighed with relief. “I keep hearing his obnoxious singing all over the place, you can’t get away from it in here! I’ll have you guys out in a nanosecond, don’t you worry.”  

15 minutes later...  

“That’ll do it,” said Douglas. “By the way, Axl, was it? There’s this weird... chip you’ve got installed. It’s some kind of proprietary software, I can’t dig into it, so... what is it?”  

“Oh, that’s my Copy Chip!” Axl grinned. “I can use it to temporarily copy other Reploids of relatively similar build and get most of their traits. It’s pretty useful.”  

“When you get back, let me take a closer look at it, got it?” said Douglas, face brightening in a way it hadn’t since the last armor set he’d had to inspect for X.  

“Oh, uh, that reminds me,” said Zero. “Did you get that data on the armor part we found?”  

“Wait, that’s what that was?” said Douglas. “I’ll get right on it; hell, I’ll call X back over so he can test it properly. Don’t worry about that.”  

“Good to hear,” smiled Zero. “Alright, Axl, let’s go chop this onion.”  

Abel City Central Communications Center  

Up close, the Abel City CCC wasn’t the most imposing building... unless you counted the giant antenna poking out of the top of it, perched atop the roof of the already fairly tall tower. Even from down below, Tornado Tonion’s painfully off-key vocalizing could be heard thanks to a few speakers set up on a lower platform for general public announcements... and some screens playing the actual video bolted to the sides of the nearby buildings. Zero and Axl parked their Ride Chasers outside, and stepped into the building, where mercifully, there was silence.  

Punching in the button for the rooftop in the elevator using an emergency override, the pair rocketed up to the top... until there was a CLANG.  

Suddenly, the elevator screeched to a halt, and the doors suddenly began to be pried open. “Weapons free,” ordered Zero, drawing his saber while Axl readied his pistols. As the doors creaked opened further, Axl began to make out the shape of claws bending and rending the metal apart. “ Yadokari,” he explained. “Tonion was always kind of big on crabs, and this is one of them.”  

“Any tips?” said Zero.  

“Uh... it’s got a big shell it likes hiding in, and I think it can toss its claws?” Axl said. Finally, the doors were pried open enough to step through, so the duo dashed through then beneath the hermit crab mechaniloid, firing and slicing away at its underside.  

This did not manage to destroy it, and so it quickly hid in its shell as it then fired off several massive spinning sawblades, which clattered through the cramped space. Axl ducked beneath one, while Zero sliced apart another, and the two realized the only way they were getting hits in was bringing it to a more open area.  

“What floor are we on!?” Zero shouted.  

“Uh... 58!” Axl shouted back. “Why!?”  

“Two floors up, there should be a staff cafeteria or something for this sector of the building!” Zero called back. “Lead it there!”  

“On it...?” Axl said, still confused. “Yo, crabby, get a load of this!” The changeling dashed back toward the hermit crab robot, goading it to try striking with one of its claws; when it whiffed, that seemed to do the trick: now successfully baited, the massive crab scampered after Axl. The smaller Reploid then scrambled up a set of emergency stairs to reach the 60 th floor and get some space to maneuver.  

With another crash, the crab leapt up the two floor gap, landing in the cafeteria Zero had tagged. Just after it landed, Zero used its temporary disorientation to slash off one of its claws, and then struck at its legs. Axl flew in from behind and blasted away at the crab’s backside, jamming one of its other legs, and soon the crab was crawling along the floor helplessly.  

Or, that’s what the pair assumed; recognizing its immobilization, Yadokari retreated into its shell, firing off yet more missiles in the more open space. Darting over and around them, respectively, Axl took the opportunity presented to try taking some pot shots at the missile ports, which with a satisfying BOOM, cracked off the top of the shell. Zero ran along the side of the Mechaniloid and stabbed deep inside, leading to a final overload of the main power core. A few seconds later, the crab was dead.  

“My sensors aren’t picking up anything else important, but looks like we’ll have to climb our way up the rest of the way,” Zero noted.  

“Dammit,” Axl groaned, dreading the 40-odd flights of stairs they’d have to slowly climb up.  

“...Or we could take the freight elevator down the hall,” Zero realized. “That’ll save us some time.”  

“It had better,” Axl sighed, already logging the location on his map and sprinting towards it. Once Zero got there, he punched the button, and about a minute later the elevator opened. Stepping inside, they rode it all the way up to one floor beneath the roof.  

Once they reached the roof, however, they realized Tornado Tonion wasn’t actually on the roof itself: He was at the top of the antenna, dancing around the gigantic dish like it was a roller rink... and his singing was once again audible once they were outside.  

“YO, TONION, TURN IT DOWN!” Axl shouted from below... and evidently, he was not heard.  

Unfortunately, something had seemed to have noticed them: the antenna’s security measures, which apparently Tonion had gotten to ignore him and instead blast anyone who came up to try and stop his fun; several laser projectors sprung up from the corners of the building, and the tower itself, firing away at Axl and Zero. They weren’t particularly powerful, fortunately, and Zero began to simply hold Gokumonken when one approached, using them for a bit of practice on the proper timing. Axl, meanwhile, couldn’t really use the Gaea Shield to the same effect, so he decided the best way out was through, and began sprinting up the spiraling staircase that would lead them to the top.  

“Alright, Tornado Tonion, turn this junk off!” Axl shouted. “What’s gotten into you, anyway?”  

“Axl, you think you stop me, да? But why?” Tonion wondered aloud. “Is just harmless fun, нет? I like singing, people hear me sing!”  

“Well, it’s annoying, and besides, there’s more important things happening!” Axl interjected. “That weird professor guy’s all kinds of nuts and – and – he got to Red!”  

“Axl, boy, is all good!” Tonion laughed, even as Axl realized something seemed to be wrong with the onion Reploid’s vocoder. “Is all fun and games, no funny business! Now come, sing with me!”  

“No can do, Tonion,” Zero cut in. “Get this garbage off the radio waves now or we’ll have to bring you in on multiple counts of public indecency and disturbing the peace.”  

“But is fun!” the onion retorted. “Dance with me, Tonion will show you!” Suddenly, he began the twirl in place, and while the pair expected the much wider Reploid to simply go back to his routine, his other namesake took center stage; as the portly Reploid spun and spun, suddenly a tornado sprouted up around him, and he flung himself toward them, as the tornado began to crackle with electricity.  

“For Light’s sake...” Zero groaned, even as him and Axl broke off. Unfortunately, Zero knew there was no way he was getting any saber swings in, but he wondered if Axl could land any plasma bolts from his pistols. “Hey, Axl, you making progress?”  

“The wind’s throwing my aim off too much!” Axl called back. “I can’t hover, either, I’d get flung clear off the tower!”  

“You no like my dance?” Tonion said as he slowed down. “But it’s so fun!” Suddenly the petals that encapsulated his body broke off, whirling around him in a circle but leaving his body exposed.  

Axl took full advantage, unloading a clip into the onion’s torso as he ran around, staggering.  

“OW! That hurt!” Tonion moaned. “You make me sing off-key!” The petals then formed a long line stretching the entire radius of the antenna. “That means you get whipping!” Out of nowhere the line whirled around up high, forcing Axl and Zero to duck beneath it as it flew past, before it suddenly dropped low and swung back the other way. Zero managed to jump over it, but Axl got tagged in the leg, faceplanting and causing the onion to laugh. “Oh, this is too funny!”  

“Let’s see how you like this!” Zero shouted at the distracted Tonion, slicing him apart before he had time to form the protective barrier around his torso... at which point Tonion suddenly spun in place, sending the crimson Hunter flying as he got zapped by a sudden burst of electricity. “OW!”  

“Tonion no let you touch him! Stay away!” reprimanded the onion, before he repositioned his petals to form a large wall as he began spiraling towards Axl. The younger Reploid got up just in time, flying upward above him and over the wall to unload another clip into his face (and funny hat).  

“How’d you like that, huh?” Axl taunted. “Let’s see how much people like your face after I blast it with plasma bolts!”  

“You... you...” Tonion groaned. “NO BULLYING TONION!” he then roared, bursting into the violent tornado once more, and racing after Axl in a fit of blind range. “GET BACK HERE!”  

“Oh no...” Axl gulped as he began sprinting away. “Little help!”  

“Already on it!” Zero shouted back, stepping in the way of Tonion and holding a defensive stance.  

“Red man thinks he can stop tornado?” Tonion wondered, noticing what Zero was doing. “I blow you away!” The onion proceeded to increase his pace, but through the whirling storm and powerful lightning bolts, Zero held his ground, and found his opening.  

Taking up his ready stance, just as Tonion approached... he swung.  

Out of nowhere the tornado abruptly died away, its energy being sapped by the Z-Saber as Zero countered with full force, smacking Tornado Tonion with all his might and sending the hefty orange Reploid hurtling backwards. He landed with a crash, before bouncing once, twice, and then three times, eventually finding himself embedded on the opposite side of the massive dish. “Ow... Tonion is tired...”  

He eventually simply fell asleep, letting Axl and Zero turn off the broadcast, cuff him, and eventually call for a Hunter transport to come pick him up and take him to the holding cells.  

Before he was loaded up, however, Axl hit the onion with a Copy Shot, downloading his data, even as Zero began thinking up some new techniques based on what he’d seen Tonion do.  

New Weapon Unlocked: Ray Gun  

A simple laser pistol that has a high rate of fire and penetrating beam. As a consequence, however, the damage inflicted is lower per shot than the Axl Bullets. Contains enhanced energy capacity capable of generating the power necessary for Volt Tornado.  

As Axl inspected his brand-new pistol, he realized that it had begun charging up with electricity. Taking a second to find a safe angle to shoot it, he unleashed a giant tornado that stretched high into the air ahead of him. He then realized one of his systems was pinging him, and he took a look at the alert.  

Weapon System Logged: Volt Tornado  

Expend 4 energy to generate a large tornado around the user, then fire it forward to let it crash through enemies ahead. Requires a stable power supply to generate; equip the Ray Gun to do so. If charged, generates a powerful electric field which overclocks internal repair systems when in contact with powered targets, allowing for faster in-field repair of key systems.  

At the same time, Zero’s saber flashed with electricity, and he was already beginning to envision the new technique within his processor as he stepped aboard the transport.  

Saber Technique Acquired: Raijinshou  

While dashing, leap upward while drawing your saber to unleash a massive spiral of electricity that surrounds the user for a short time. All entities which make contact with the electric field take constant damage while inside of it, and the spiral extends upwards past the user’s head while active.  

With that handled, the two waited as Tonion was extracted from the dish and summarily hoisted into the back of a waiting Hunter transport, and the whole group then returned to base.  

Maverick Hunter HQ, a few minutes later...  

“See, what’d I tell you, 20-minute adventure!” Axl grinned. “Once Tonion wakes up we might be able to get some more info out of him, especially since we have to keep him here cuz, y’know... he committed an actual crime.”  

“I hope he doesn’t keep singing,” Zero groaned. “Maybe we knocked enough sense into him...”  

Chapter Text

Battleship Crimson Dawn, patrolling north of Hawaii  

Splash Warfly spun his energy glaive in his hands, watching the waves crash against his battleship’s deck. He’d been given orders to commit his fleet to striking at super freighters and tankers crossing the Pacific, and for a battle-hungry Reploid like him, one content to stalk the waters and strike at the unsuspecting any chance he got, that suited him just fine.  

“Commander Warfly! We’ve got another one!” called a fellow crew member.  

“Excellent,” smirked the flying fish. “Manifest?”  

“...No manifest on station, sir,” the officer noted.  

“Military, then,” grinned the Maverick. “Looks like they’ve finally had enough with our antics. Deploy our fighters, and prepare for full fleet action. Let’s sink these fools.”  

“Yes, sir!”  

Maverick Hunter HQ, Abel City  

“This is-*BZZT*-ship calling-*BZZZT* Hunters – Need assist-*BZZT* -diately!”  

“Say again,” Alia responded, trying to boost the signal. “Get me a visual!”  

“Red Ale-*BZZZT* ship firing- *BZZT* -sition, reque-*BZZZT* -mmediate assistance!”  

“We read you,” Alia replied, finally having a tactical map on screen. “Deploying all available units to your location immediately!”  

By that point, however, the signal was dead, the ship emitting it having been sunk beneath the waves.  

*BWAAAAH*  

*BWAAAAH*  

*BWAAAAH*  

“The hell?” said Axl as he realized the klaxons had started blaring around him. “Zero, what the-”  

“Get to a transport, now!” roared Zero as the crimson Hunter darted past the Red Alert soldier. “Splash Warfly’s fleet is on the move!” 

“Oh slag it!” Axl shouted, bolting after his unofficial CO to a Hunter transport. There was no time to figure out a game plan, they had to go.  

“Alia, what the hell is going on!?” Zero roared into his comm as he directed as many Hunters as they had available to deploy toward the site of the battle, hoping beyond hope it wouldn’t be too late.  

“A detachment of the GNAU Navy was dispatched from Pearl Harbor earlier this week, in an attempt to deal with Red Alert’s new fleet,” explained the navigator as she hurriedly sorted through all the data she had. “Unfortunately, whatever it is Splash Warfly has deployed, it’s outgunning the battlegroup by several miles... quite literally. Expect heavy enemy naval and air presence in the vicinity; you’ll need to take down that battleship as soon as possible.”  

Zero gritted his teeth. “Easier said than done... But we’ll do it. Any ideas for an insertion strategy?”  

“Whatever Red Alert deployed, no official records of it appear to exist,” Alia said with a frustrated sigh. “We have no idea as to its full capabilities, but at minimum it’s got capacity for several squadrons of air superiority fighters, at least 5 quadruple barrel 105 mm artillery batteries, an apparent maximum speed of 30 knots, and, seemingly, submergibility.”  

“It’s a carrier submarine?” Zero said, incredulous, before he turned to his would-be charge for the time being. “Axl, what the fuck is this?”  

“I don’t know!” Axl admitted truthfully. “I was never a naval guy so I didn’t really get to see much of what Red did with oceangoing ops; that was always Warfly’s thing.”  

“Dammit Axl, you need to give us something,” Zero facepalmed. “Any insights into Splash Warfly, at least?”  

“He’s a jackass who thinks he’s the best at everything,” Axl muttered, clearly annoyed. “I never liked him; he never liked me. Biggest thing he likes is starting shit.”  

“Up to and including major naval engagements.” Zero deadpanned. “Sounds like a real piece of work. Any comments on his fighting style?”  

“Likes glaives, also tosses high pressure water at things,” said Axl. “Also, he swims really good so expect him to dive into the water first chance he gets.”  

“Alright, doesn’t sound too bad,” nodded the Maverick Hunter. “We do have to get to him, though.”  

“I might have a solution for that,” called Alia over the comm. “There appears to be something of a blind spot in the turret firing arcs due to the position of the carrier deck elevators; if you come in low and land, you should be able to avoid getting shot down by anti-air fire.”  

“Emphasis on ‘should,’ I guess,” Zero groaned. “Alright, well, we’ve got one shot.” Switching to the broadband Hunter frequency for all active units, he ordered, “All units, we’re on final approach! Stay low to the water and pick your targets, keep them firing on us and not the allied vessels! MOVE OUT!”  

Bridge of the Crimson Dawn  

Splash Warfly observed the pitched battle unfolding before him, noting the new presence of Hunter aircraft attempting to harass his fleet. This was, of course, unacceptable. “I don’t care what kind of countermeasures they’re using, take them down! Fighters, retake the air, main batteries, keep firing!”  

Suddenly, a ping on the bridge comms. “Enemies have boarded the vessel! Repeat, enemies have boarded the vessel!”  

“So, they’ve landed, have they?” Warfly smirked. “How... interesting. Deploy the Dragon Blasters! We’ll simply burn them away!”  

Main Deck of the Crimson Dawn  

All around them, Zero and Axl watched as the sky and sea around them filled with explosions and fire as the Hunters dueled the Red Alert fighters for air superiority, all the while bombarding the smaller vessels of Warfly’s fleet to ensure they could not provide fire support for the main battleship. As they raced up to the bridge, blasting past Gun Volts that had been broken out to provide suppressive fire and crew members firing away with any weapons they could grab, suddenly they came upon the elevator to the carrying deck... just as it deployed another fighter.  

Immediately the fighter, rather than taking off, activated its weapons, settling into a low hover as it shifted and attempted to fire on the duo. “Break high!” Zero shouted as it fired its plasma cannon, and Axl launched upward and peppered it with small arms fire. Zero got closer and slashed at it with his saber, but the hardened plating was too resilient to simple strikes and basic bullets.  

“Zero, this ain’t working!” Axl whined.  

“Try harder!” Zero called back, even as the fighter simply shifted backwards to get a better angle, firing away again, pummeling the deck with plasma bolts. Zero dipped left, Axl shuffled right, breaking its line of sight... which stopped mattering when it fired the missiles hooked to its sides.  

“Woah there,” Axl quipped as the fighter swung around to lock down on him, but as he watched it swing, he got a bit of an idea.  

Whipping out the Ray Gun and charging it up, he roared, “VOLT TORNADO!” as the powerful storm emitted from his laser pistol, sending the fighter careening towards the ocean below, and utterly crumpling the elevator to nothing, rendering it completely inoperable.  

“This is Zero to all Hunters, we’ve disabled the fighter elevator! Expect no more air reinforcements! We can do this!”  

As they charged forward once more, they failed to notice the scarlet forms of 3 mechaniloid dragons swimming alongside... at least they decided to make their presence known.  

“HIT THE DECK!” shouted Axl, tackling Zero out of the way of a flame burst, as the Dragon Blasters closed their mouths. “When the hell did Splashie get Dragon Blasters!?”  

“No time for that! How do we take them down!?” Zero shouted, getting back up.  

“Keep your distance or, uh, try deflecting their fireballs!” Axl said. “Not much else to it, just shoot them!” Saying this, the changeling began absolutely unloading with his pistols while Zero took Axl’s other advice to heart, waiting for one of the dragons to spit a fireball at him.  

Standing ready with Gokumonken, Zero launched back the massive flaming orb and it impacted directly with the dragon that shot it, sending it reeling backwards as he leapt at it and cleaved it with his saber.  

The third dragon leapt up and sprayed fire down every which way, forcing Axl to hover upwards and shoot at it while it came back down, eventually nailing it in the eye. “Shut it down!” he shouted.  

Zero picked up the hint and ran up to hit it from its newly appeared blind spot and split it wide open, its head dropping onto the deck with a massive CLANG. “There’s one.”  

The remaining dragons whipped back around to snipe Axl out of the sky, but he was ready: “Can’t touch this, can’t touch this, can’t touch this,” he quipped as he bobbed and weaved, and with one of the dragons so focused on him, it paid less attention to what it was doing with its mouth.  

As it opened up for another fireball, Axl nailed it right in the back of the throat, killing it instantly and sending it plunging into the depths below. “Two down, baby!”  

All there remained was one lone dragon, and soon enough with it unable to focus properly on the much faster Reploids, it got distracted just long enough for Zero to leap onto it and start digging in.  

“YEAH, SPLIT IT WIDE OPEN!” Axl shouted with battle-hungry glee as he unloaded into the crack being formed, and as Zero leapt up, he flipped back and touched back down with a superhero landing... as the dragon blaster detonated behind him.  

“Holy shit, that was sick!” beamed Axl. “Let’s keep it going!”  

Zero raised an eyebrow. “Where the hell did this come from?”  

“I’m just hyped, y’know?” Axl grinned, even as Zero noticed he was kind of... twitching. “I haven’t felt like this in a long time.”  

“...Maybe take it down a notch?” Zero said. “Starting to sound a little... Maverick there.”  

“Hey, I’m not one of you stuffy stick-up-their-ass Hunters,” Axl blurted out. “Now come on, we got a battle to win, don’t we?”  

“That we do, Axl,” nodded Zero. “That we do.”  

With that (sort of) behind them, the two continued sprinting up to the bridge deck; stopping Splash Warfly took priority, since it was becoming clear that with the reinforcements pouring in, the battleship itself would be sinking to the bottom of the ocean by the end of the day.  

As the pair got closer to the bridge, they realized something seemed... off about it, like it wasn’t simply a typical naval bridge complex, with the superstructure stretching out all around it. It seemed like there was more to it, but it wasn’t until they were almost inside it that it became clear what was off.  

“INTRUDERS DETECTED. ACTIVATING AUTOMATED DEFENSE PROTOCOLS. REPEAT: INTRUDERS DETECTED. ACTIVATING AUTOMATED DEFENSE PROTOCOLS.”  

“What the...” Zero’s jaw hit the floor as he realized the entire bridge seemed to be shifting, transforming in front of their eyes, and where once there was simply a superstructure... now there was a massive Mechaniloid in its place. And it was primed and ready to rend them to scrap.  

“This just keeps getting better and better,” Axl said, gritting his teeth. “Uh... I got nothing.”  

The turrets lining the superstructure whirled around, pouring laser fire onto the deck, forcing the Hunter/merc pair to bob and weave to avoid getting pinged by the outpouring barrage, but that was when Axl had an idea. Taking a few shots at one of the lower turrets, it eventually overloaded and exploded, and there it was:  

“Just blew a hole in it!” Axl called out, pointing at the crack forming where the turret once stood.  

“Looks like that’s our play, then,” nodded Zero, deflecting more blasts up and around to each turret in turn. “You go clockwise, I go counter?”  

“Copy that,” nodded the changeling, and they broke in their respective directions, Axl laying down fire while Zero swung with his electrified saber, swirling winds forming and the electric storm frying several turrets in his wake. The ongoing onslaught, however, was met with more resistance, as the giant superstructure began to unfold once more...  

“Is that a-” *BOOM* before he could finish, Zero found himself cutoff by an erupting pillar of flame where he was standing a moment before, courtesy of the massive cannon now appearing from the center of the superstructure. “What now!?”  

“Working on it!” shouted Axl, when he suddenly realized that Alia had been trying to ping them the whole time. “Alia, what is it!? Kinda busy right now!”  

“The superstructure is powered by a central reactor core!” Alia explained, voice frantic. “It’s the same one that powers the whole ship, so if you overload it, it’ll blast the vessel straight to kingdom come!”  

“Hear you loud and clear,” grinned Axl, swapping over to the Ray Gun and launching another Volt Tornado, snuffing out a trio of fireballs coming his way, and knocking the towering bridge deck off balance, as yet more cannons began to spark, and fail, and explode. “Just a couple more...”  

“How many of these things does it even have?” Zero said, growing steadily more and more annoyed, as he blocked a few more blasts, sending them back; with the guns mostly focused on Axl, he noticed he’d been given an opening. “Axl, take cover!”  

“What the-” before Axl could figure out what the hell Zero was doing, the crimson Hunter blinked past with blade in hand, carving straight through the center of the towering Mechaniloid... and the tower soon began to rock back and forth, jerking and spasming as the cannon’s power, with nowhere to go, found itself trapped inside. A few agonizing seconds later and...  

*BOOOOOOOOOM!*  

The seas shook and the sky shattered, the massive supercell that had formed above the battlefield being split right through the middle, a pillar of bright white energy piercing through the clouds. The mighty dreadnaught disintegrated into a rapidly expanding fireball, and the waves generated capsized damn near the entirety of the remaining Red Alert fleet, sending countless hundreds of crew members tumbling into the churning waves below; waves, not of water, but of plasma.  

t was only through an emergency activation of the Gaea Shield by Axl that him and Zero were able to hold on, and eventually find their footing on a floating piece of debris from one of the other vessels... before shutting down from the strain.  

Chapter Text

“Axl!? Zero!? Please respond! I repeat, PLEASE RESPOND!” Alia pleaded over the comm, the signal completely disintegrating in the wake of the massive explosion, as she waited for several excruciating minutes for something, anything that indicated they were still there.

Finally, their emergency transponders activated, but it was clear that whatever they’d pulled off had come at a heavy cost: She was only reading the duo, floating through the waves nearby, having been launched several miles away by the sheer force of the blast, and there were no remaining signals from anyone in the area, barring a few ships from the GNAU task force that had turned away.

“No... no, no, no! This can’t be happening! Come on, come on...” Alia frantically began typing at her console, trying every command she knew to force an emergency jumpstart of their systems, hoping beyond hope that she could do something.

Suddenly, the faint emergency distress beacon went from critical status to a... stabilizing one, as finally, Zero called back in. “This... is Zero... we’re... here.”

“Zero! You’re... you’re alive!” Alia beamed. “H-how’s Axl?”

“I... I’m good...” Axl groaned. “Did we get ‘em?”

“Whatever you did, you...” Alia trailed off, unsure of what to say. “Wait, I’m picking up something else!”

From beneath the churning waves, heated to near-boiling by the fireball that had formed in the distance, Splash Warfly leapt up atop the wreckage, furious. “You... YOU! You nasty, sniveling traitor! I’LL END YOU!”

“Can it, Warfly!” Zero retorted. “If you hadn’t noticed, your precious fleet just got vaporized, and this last little chunk is sinking into the sea as we speak. It’s over!”

“Kehehe... hahaha... AHAHAHAHAHA!” the flying fish cackled. “You absolute moron! It’s not over, it’s only just BEGUN! NOW DIE!!!”

Warfly lunged forward with his naginata, spewing water from his mouth as he launched, threatening to send Zero into the sea, and when he missed, he crashed into a loose chunk of armor plating, erupting a waterspout where he landed, rocketing into the air, ready to dive back down once more. As he launched upward, however, Axl caught up to him, unloading a magazine into him, ready to rend him apart.

“What’s our strategy!?” Zero called out as Warfly dove again, with the blade master parrying the rapid thrusts of the crazed fish. “GAH!”

“You, who made the seas burn...” the flying fish ground out. “You, who sent thousands to the bottom of the sea! I will not rest until you are crushed by the weight of your folly!” Another waterspout erupted, launching Zero skyward, Warfly spitting water at him with his Splash Laser, before waving his naginata and launching a water blade in Axl’s direction, catching him in the leg with the scalding water.

“GAH!” Axl cried, tumbling out of the sky. “I-I’m overheating!”

“Dammit, he’s too hot! We gotta cool him down!” Zero surmised. “COME ON!”

“You made me this way!” Warfly roared, the heat in his core building, the power inside swelling like a raging tide. “YOU abandoned us! Our lives are forfeit, but it is you who shall fall!” He lunged again, slamming his glaive into Axl’s side, dunking the new generation Reploid into the water.

“AHHHHH!!!” Axl wailed in agony, clutching the whole in his side as his head began to feel the heat of the churning water bubbling around it. “GET OFF ME!”

“I will never rest until you all SINK! Crushed by the weight of your sins!” Warfly raved. “THESE WATERS WILL BE YOUR GRAVE!”

As the raging fish pushed down further, consumed by his own wrath, he failed to realize that though he’d launched Zero skyward, the scarlet hunter had recovered; rushing up behind him, he roared, “RAIJINSHOU!” as his blade electrified, and the column of lightning swept up Warfly in its wake, shocking him with the power of lightning bolt.

“AAAARRGGHHH!” Warfly exclaimed in anguish, letting go of his weapon and letting Axl yank it out of his side, and finally letting the young Reploid escape a watery doom; realizing there was but one thing to do, he looked up and marked his target.

“I’ll see you in hell!” Axl cried out as he heaved the powerful glaive like a javelin at the spasming Splash Warfly, and as it pierced him through the chest, Zero spun his blade around and slammed it straight through his head. The arrogant fish shorted out as Zero slammed him once more onto the last floating chunk of wreckage, before drawing up his glaive, and sitting back down, tired, but alive.

“Is it... over...?” Axl huffed, still clutching his torn-up torso.

Zero surveyed their surroundings, seeing the skies clear above them, and as a ship passed to finally pick them up, he nodded. “Just one more thing to do.”

Handing over Warfly’s body to Axl, the changeling activated his A-Trans, downloading Warfly’s data into his systems, ready to exploit his special water-based attacks.

Weapon System Logged: Splash Laser

A repeating water blast that requires 2 weapon energy to prime, but can be fired consecutively two additional times for 1 weapon energy each. Each successive blast has increased pressure, allowing for greater range and higher overall firepower. Charge to launch a stream of high-velocity water bubbles that tear through even the toughest of armor.

Zero, meanwhile, inspected the mighty glaive which Warfly had employed against the duo, and decided it would be best to keep it on hand for future use. He also knew that Warfly’s specialized water channeling abilities could be harnessed with the right tool, and he began to envision how one such attack could be performed.

New Weapon Unlocked: Durga Glaive

A powerful energy glaive that sacrifices flexibility in positioning for long-range thrusting potential; the handle is also capable of deflecting incoming enemy projectiles. When properly fueled by the user’s internal power supply, it is also the conduit for Suiretsusen.

New Technique Acquired: Suiretsusen

Thrust forward with the Durga Glaive and eject a burst of scalding water at the blade, which can hit enemies in a small area around the user and cause serious damage from corrosion and overheating.

As the rescue vessel finally got close enough to approach, Axl sent Warfly’s body into the ocean, and the two clambered aboard, ready to go home.

Maverick Hunter HQ, Abel City, some days later...

After Axl was finally repaired and back to full fighting shape, he realized him and Zero had both been called up for a debrief of whatever it was they’d (intentionally or otherwise) ended up causing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Entering the Commander’s office, he saw Alia and Zero already there, with the commander glaring at then, hands clasped in front of his face. With his head angled low, the cap he wore shadowed his eyes, and Axl couldn’t help shaking a little in fright.

“I have seen many things in my tenure as Supreme Commander of the Maverick Hunters,” Signas began. “I have had to watch as the world fell apart numerous times in the wake of some superweapon, or global crisis, or erupting emergency. But never have I seen a Maverick Hunter with such wanton disregard for collateral damage in my time as you brought forth in that fleet action.”

He paused, and Axl shrank in his seat, unable to speak. “I will forgive you, Axl, as you are not officially a Hunter, and merely a special operative under the watch of Zero.” Turning to the red-clad hunter, however, Signas’ expression turned grim. “You, however. Zero, you have been with the Hunters longer than I have, our most experienced, most senior operative, excluding X. You have fought in damn near every major crisis of this ongoing war, and you should understand full well the gravity behind every last swing of your beloved saber.” Zero froze, eyes widening as suddenly Alia presented something.

“While you and Axl were all gung-ho, guns blazing across that battleship’s deck,” Alia said in a voice just a little too calm to be anything other than burning with rage. “I was attempting to inform you of the dangers of the very course of action you took. I attempted to call you two no less than 5 separate times.” She displayed the logs, loud and clear. “I only got a response once, and you cut me off before I could explain the full scope of what you were planning to do.” She sighed, forcing herself to be calm. “Before I could knock some sense into your battle-hungry processors, you’d blasted a hole into the Pacific Ocean so deep I could damn near reach down and touch the ocean floor beneath with my bare hands.”

The dynamic duo glanced at each other, paralyzed with shock. “But... if we didn’t...” Axl ventured.

“There was a safer way!” Alia screamed, slamming a hardened fist down on Signas’ desk. “If you had spent even 10 more seconds waiting, I would’ve been able to tell you where to shut the reactor down. The ship would’ve been dead in the water, and it would be able to be scuttled safely.”

“So, what now?” Zero said, finally. “It’s... done.”

Signas spoke once more, preparing to lay down the law. “Axl, effectively immediately, you are to be placed into solitary confinement indefinitely for wanton destruction and both direct and indirect harm to Maverick Hunter operatives as well as civilians in a combat zone.” Axl gave in, knowing that if he tried to act out, they might well kill him instead. “Zero, you are being stripped of all ranks and duties as a Maverick Hunter, and are to hand over all your weapons and clearance codes immediately. You are to be barred from access to any Maverick Hunter facility worldwide, and beginning tomorrow at 12 AM UTC, you will be barred from within 5 kilometers of any Maverick Hunter facility. You have until that time to go through all your belongings and hand over all your Hunter-provided equipment and leave. Am I clear.”

“You... you can’t do this!” Zero cried out.

“I can and I will,” Signas countermanded. “I did this with X during the Nightmare Crisis, and when I was tasked with command during the Eurasia Incident, I damn near brought you in for a court-martial before X decided to take matters into his own hands. You heard my orders. Now follow them.”

“Yes, sir,” Zero muttered through gritted teeth. “I’ll leave immediately.”

“What about me?” Axl wondered.

“It’s as I just told you,” said Signas, “You are to be held here indefinitely in solitary confinement until such a time as this crisis is sufficiently resolved.”

“But... but...” Axl blabbered. “Who else is there?”

It was at that moment that X strode in. “You asked to see me, Commander?”

“Ah, X, just the Reploid I wanted to see,” nodded Signas. “It has come to my attention that Zero and Axl, who were the primary operatives in resolving this Red Alert ‘game’ being played, have lost their regard for collateral damage and are willing to put far too much at risk for the sake of winning the game.”

Realization dawned on X, as he glared at the pair sitting before him. “So, what do you need me to do?”

“You are to be talking charge in their stead, neutralizing the remaining 5 Red Alert members,” explained Signas. “If Axl is willing enough to see sense, he may accompany you. However, Zero is to be discharged from the Hunters for severely dishonorable conduct.”

“What!?” X exclaimed. “Why!?”

Alia explained the situation, leaving the Blue Bomber ashamed. “I thought you knew better than that, Zero. You ran up in a shuttle to blast apart the Eurasia colony before it could destroy the world. You fought Aleph-Null to a standstill to prevent it spreading its influence the world over, and you helped me take back control of Final Weapon all those years ago. Why now did you throw it all away?”

“Because I had no other choice!” Zero roared. “You think I knew what that reactor would do when it blew!? I just knew I had a fleet that threatened the globe and its flagship was dead to rights, but that only I could make sure it would never strike another vessel again. If it went on any longer, no doubt Warfly would’ve ran, and lived to terrorize coastlines the world over.”

“But I was telling you what would happen!” Alia exclaimed. “But you didn’t listen to me! Did you not trust me!?”

“I couldn’t hear you!” Zero shouted. “Even if I could, there was no time!”

“ENOUGH!” boomed Signas. “Zero, get out. Your weapons are forfeit as of now, and all your rank and privileges are to be summarily stripped from you immediately. I told you this already, now obey my order or I will label you a Maverick and have you handled that way.”

The crimson blade master sank to the floor, placing his saber, and his newly found glaive, on the commander’s desk. He quietly got up, and walked out, because there truly was nothing left for him to do. If he resisted, X might well kill him, because he knew X had beaten him before. And so... he left.

Zero ran, and he ran, charging into the city streets... lost. He’d spent essentially his entire active life as a member of the Maverick Hunters, and in that time, they’d given him, well, a home. He’d spent so much time there that he realized he’d barely ever gone outside the headquarters except on missions, especially not when the crises exploded into outright global conflicts demanding his attention every second of every minute of every hour of every day. He’d been fighting, and fighting, and fighting for so long that he realized... all he knew was how to fight. All he’d ever done his whole life was destroy that which stood in his way. And in the wake of a world that was bordering on not needing a warrior, he’d let himself fall into his deep-seated rage, fighting even harder to keep the spark alive. Because what good is a being who only knows conflict in a world where there exists only peace?

He thought back to all those years ago, in the Repliforce Wars, when he’d cradled Iris in his arms, holding her tighter, praying to any entities he could think of to just give him more time. And how, then, he’d faced himself and screamed at the world, “WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOR!?” as if daring it to give him any answer at all.

And it had... by making him face annihilation, a threat borne from himself, twisting the world to its whims, and another, constructed in his image, forcing him to confront his mirror and break it, for the sake of all he still held close. Everything... came back to him. Even the elusive Professor, who Axl had met but once, but who had taken Red Alert by hook and by crook, selling them with a lie to infect them with Sigma’s last gasps, he had a feeling he knew what was behind it.

“It’s... me,” he said to himself, finally letting himself stop running, as he found a secluded area; a park, right in the heart of the city, where no one would bother him. “Everything, all this time, it’s... me. I brought the virus with me from the past... I twisted the mind of a trusted Reploid, an excellent warrior, who would’ve been my equal... I staked my pride on a battle no one needed to fight...” He went down the list, ranting, rambling on and on, as he began to hear the voices crying out in his head, in a way he hadn’t felt since all those years ago, in that abandoned laboratory where he’d been left to wait.

“No... no... I can’t!” he raged. “I’ve never failed, and I won’t now!”

The crimson menace screamed at the sky, clutching at his head, attempting to claw away the contagion that was taking hold, which had in a past battle given him power, but had caused his friends to fear he’d lose himself in the rage it brought.

The Crimson Palace

The Professor watched from the hidden feed he’d placed tracking Zero, and began to grin to himself. “Zero, Zero, Zero... soon, your true purpose will be fulfilled... The one you were built for, so long ago... the one you gave to me! You try to fight it, but deep down, you know... it is your destiny.”

With that, he found his console, the one he’d used to uplink to the remaining Red Alert members, and after a few input commands, he smiled darkly. “That was merely the opening act... now, the battle will truly begin!”

At that moment, Red came in. “Alright, Professor, what is this!? I thought you were trying to keep my boys from going all haywire, but suddenly I wake up to one big boom and my whole Light-damned fleet is gone! What the hell did you do!?”

“I did nothing,” the Professor admitted. “Blame Zero for being... overzealous. Or Axl, but your junior partner always did whatever he thought would impress you, yes?”

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Red spat out. “Alright, so, what the hell did Zero do?”

“The Hunters always go on about keeping the peace, and providing stability,” the Professor explained, “But just now, Zero gave in to himself. It was his work that annihilated your fleet, and it was his work that sent hundreds of noble soldiers plummeting into the depths.”

Red’s good eye twitched. “That... that...” Suddenly, memories of a war long past came flooding back, as he saw Zero’s brilliant green saber flashing ahead of him, slicing through his Repliforce comrades on a crusade to keep the peace, apparently threatened by a nation of Reploids who wanted nothing more than to feel safe by themselves. “RAAAAAGH!” he cried out, slamming his fist into a nearby wall in fury. “He... he slaughtered us. Like we were, were sheep. We bought the lies they sold us, and it led to us all dying away, one by one,” he rambled. “He... he will die!”

“Good, good,” nodded the Professor. “Channel your fury. Use it. Your comrades undoubtedly feel the same rage, and in that rage, they will burn, and so cause those who wronged them to die.”

Red stood, shaking, but with a renewed desire to make things right. “Axl, buddy, you’re coming back to me...” he said, quietly. “And I don’t care how long it takes.”

Chapter Text

Maverick Hunter HQ, a few minutes earlier...

X took a look at the young Reploid sitting in front of him, as if not entirely sure what to make of him. As Zero stormed out, he realized Signas wanted to say something else.

“I believe, X, that you know your assignment?” said the senior commander. “If you have any questions, state them now.”

“...Was it a good idea to send Zero away now of all times?” asked X.

“While the implications of this Red Alert incursion are... concerning, quite frankly, the scale of the threats at hand is not so extreme,” said Signas. “Zero needed to learn a lesson in slowing down, and with how he decided to go about things, quite frankly he’s lucky all he got was a dishonorable discharge.”

“I... understand, sir,” nodded X. “I believe, however, that Axl need not be placed under confinement so long as we can ensure he’s under observation and can be kept on track.”

“Yeah, you said I didn’t mess anything up, so!” Axl interjected.

“Much of that is owing to your status as an unofficial agent,” Alia reminded the younger Reploid. “Were you an official Hunter, we would not be so lenient.”

“Having said that,” said Signas, “You raise an excellent point. X, I am officially placing observation and monitoring duties of Axl on you, alongside your current objectives. That being said...”

“We have reason to believe that whatever is occurring at the occupied geothermal plant has worsened its condition substantially,” Alia continued. “We are pushing Flame Hyenard’s capture at highest possible priority. X, you move out as soon as you are able.”

“Copy that,” said X. “Alright, Axl, looks like you’re coming with me. I sincerely hope you understand the real gravity of what it is you did, because I would very much not like to repeat it.”

“Message received,” said Axl, a little sullen. “Hyenard was always a bit of a comedian, so hopefully he’s still doing OK?”

“I sincerely hope that all we find is some misguided antics,” X sighed. “I have a feeling that it won’t be though.”

“Leave it to me to be the optimist, then,” Axl smiled finally. “Let’s go!”

The pair then turned to leave, but not before X stopped Axl. “Actually, can I borrow something?” Placing his hand on Axl’s blue forehead gem, he downloaded the data over. “Alright, that should do it.”

“...What did you do, exactly?” wondered Axl, before X’s arm pinged. “Oh, I get it. Yeah, that’ll probably come in real handy, won’t it.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said X.

They then went to leave, properly this time, headed for the hangar where they would jet on over to the past critical geothermal plant.

East African Rift Valley Geothermal Facility

The first thing X noticed when him and Axl stepped inside the confines of the facility was that it was hot. Much too hot. His own internal cooling systems were working overtime to try and vent off the heat building up inside him, and while it was working, he had a feeling it wouldn’t be working for long.

“We’ve gotta work fast,” he told Axl. “Any idea where Flame Hyenard is?”

The younger Reploid pointed to a giant Mechaniloid gazelle at the far end of the complex. “I’d bet my Axl Bullets on right there.”

“That makes things easier,” said X. “Wait, I’m picking up something else. Looks like there’s a Light Capsule in here; it’s over by that gantry near the center of the facility.”

“Wanna jet over and pick it up?” asked Axl.

“I can’t seem to sense anything else important,” X shrugged. “Move out!”

The two of them took off into the facility, eyeing the lava bubbling around them nervously; the temperature in the facility meant that without the active thermal shielding, much of the metallic components comprising the walkways and platforms would’ve melted away a long time ago, and Alia was sending them constant readouts saying that whatever was going on, their power supply was failing, and it was failing fast.

As they went, Axl couldn’t shake the feeling something was... wrong, and not just with the facility, which they hoped they could enforce the emergency shutdown to let it stabilize. Something in his sensors was picking up an energy signature he thought he recognized, but apart from a few straggler Reploids who hadn’t managed to comply with the evacuation order (and, miraculously, one human worker who’d somehow only just collapsed from heat stroke roughly half an hour prior), which X quickly teleported them to the safety of a properly climate-controlled facility, he couldn’t see anything.

“Something’s off, X,” Axl noted of the situation, head on a swivel.

X, who had more of a sense for these sorts of scenarios, agreed.

As the magma crackled around them, heat burning their metallic frames, Axl could swear he saw something lurking within the depths, just beneath the surface. As he hovered over another gap in the broken walkways, his fears were proven right.

“It’s a Dragon Blaster!” he shouted to X as the crimson dragon burst from below, magma rippling off its body and fire spewing from its mouth... and it wasn’t alone.

“Looks like there’s more than one!” X noted, as two more rose to meet the first, coating the small platform they’d found as a safe space in flame. “What’s our strategy?”

“Zero kinda tore one apart with a lightning swing!” said Axl, whipping out his Ray Gun. “Gimme a sec…” the dull whine of the laser pistol filled the cavern as a giant tornado ripped its way toward the closest dragon, pummeling it… but not taking it out. “Dammit, that worked last time…”

As another dragon swooped in, X decided to follow Axl’s lead, except this time, he charged his buster, and suddenly a field emitted around him. “…Didn’t intend for this,” he quipped, even as he realized the flames were being stopped short handily; fireballs bounced off harmlessly and the flame jets slowly absorbed themselves into the electric barrier, and X could feel himself powering up further.

I hope this works… X thought to himself, sensing the renewed energy coursing through him. As one of the dragons let up in its assault, the Blue Bomber made his move: leaping up towards it, dispelling the barrier, the extra power he’d absorbed was redirected right back with a Volt Tornado of his own, pummeling the dragon and ripping it clean in two; the upper portion flew backwards into the far wall of the cavern, while the shattered tail sunk back uselessly into the magma.

“That was sick!” Axl grinned, even as he decided to try out the Splash Laser instead. “Let’s try washing them out, huh?” Firing off the triplet stream of water blasts as another dragon swung around him, he managed to nail it in the eye, then the snout, then in the mouth, and at just the right time: it was just about to launch yet another fireball in their direction, and the sudden injection of water cut it off as its mouth involuntarily snapped shut.

Axl watched in awe as the reaction inside the hapless dragon’s mouth ran its course. With the rapidly expanding steam having nowhere to go, it simply exploded, tearing the head off the robot and sending its body careening towards the last dragon, which found itself entangled within. “That got him!” he cried out with a fist pump.

This was all the opening X needed to jump in, blocking another fireball volley with the Gaea Shield, and then simply slamming it in the head a few times, and soon the final dragon also found its head reduced to a pile of rapidly melting scrap metal, as it sank beneath the waves.

Glancing around, X tracked the location of the Light Capsule they’d detected entering the facility, and using the Glide Armor’s hover boots, jetted over the broken gantry to go an activate it. Once again, the familiar hologram of Dr. Light appeared before him, ready to grant him another tool in his new quest.

“X, I see you have returned to fight in this seemingly never-ending war; to that end, within this capsule I have contained the Glide Armor’s Arm Parts, which will first serve to grant your Charge Shot homing properties; it will now be able to lock onto target energy signatures and will be trailed by 3 smaller blasts to do the same. I see you have already begun to discover your armor’s new ability to innately charge special weapons, but these parts will improve your weapon energy consumption and the charging time of all your weaponry. Use it well, X; the sooner you can end this conflict, the sooner the world will truly know peace once more.”

X nodded, downloading the data as the arm parts formed around his body; both his arms were shielded by white braces, surrounding a blue outer plate with a yellow lining and a green gem; on the inside, his arms received vents for the heat generated by his new weapons, and a red indicator light on the inner white arm brace. As he morphed one hand into a buster, he noticed the braces naturally folded backward to accommodate the bright red protrusion of the buster’s barrel, and it sported yellow fins that pointed vertically along the natural axis of the buster. Coupled with the white braces and green gems sported by his upgraded legs, he was beginning to recognize the theming; once more, an armor was letting him properly take flight and giving him the adaptations necessary to stay airborne and keep up his effectiveness in combat even still.

“Thank you, father,” X said once the armor was fully initialized. “I’ll use it well.”

The hologram nodded and blinked out, even as Axl glanced at X.

“…‘Father?’” asked the younger Reploid, who didn’t really keep up with his history all that well.

“Ah, right, it is a bit of an odd statement to make, isn’t it?” said X. “I’ve known for a long time that my direct and sole creator was Dr. Light, and before Reploid development happened at a massive scale, I had already learned common human terms for that sort of relationship. He appreciates it, in any case.”

Axl tapped his chin, pondering. “Huh.” He thought back to Red for a moment, wondering, but shook the thought off; it wasn’t the time. “Alright, let’s do what we came here to do.”

X nodded sternly. “The emergency shutdown command can only be input from a control room that is currently being guarded by that Mechaniloid gazelle. If we can take it offline, we should be able to return this facility to normal.”

“Hyenard’s that way too,” Axl noted. “Let’s see if we can’t knock some sense into him.”

X sighed but found himself agreeing anyway. “I should hope we won’t need to have a fight about this…”

“We’re 3 for 3 on that so far, boss-man,” shrugged the new gen. “Don’t know what to tell ya.”

X gritted his teeth. Loathe as he was to admit it, Axl was right, and from what he was reading from Hyenard, he was fairly certain they were bound to go 4 for 4.

Making their way cautiously over the magma, they found themselves slowly approaching the giant gazelle that had been quietly looming over the complex, and as they approached, they heard pained shrieks that, for whatever reason, sounded like laughter.

As they finally reached the top, Hyenard was there, waiting. He didn’t even seem to notice their approach, clutching his head in agony. “Hrk… Agh… It… IT HURTS!”

“No… no, we’re too late!” X cried out, and the hyena Reploid’s eyes locked on to the new arrivals.

“Oh, it’s you who’s causing my SUFFERING!” Hyenard glared at the pair, fighting the burning, the pain, the hate within him to condemn them. “Then… if I… I tear you to pieces, maybe the… the pain… it’ll STOP! AAAAARGH!”

“We’ll get you out of this!” X shouted even as the hyena leapt forward, before he disappeared. A split second later, one had become three, and X and Axl were beset on three sides by the hyena and his suddenly appearing clones.

Firing at each clone, trying to track where the real one had gone, nothing they did seemed to be working: the clones were taking the hits, but no sign of real damage was being dealt to the hyena himself, and the noise. Oh, dear god, the NOISE.

The hyena, wracked by pain, and seeing nothing but crimson in his eyes, shouted the only thing he could think in his mind. He was burning… the fires were licking at his frame, melting everything to slag, and… so all those in front of them had to…

“BURN! BURN TO THE GROUND!”

“BURN TO THE GROUND!”

“BURN TO THE GROUND!”

“BURN IT ALL… EVERYTHING… YOU WILL ALL BURN!!!”

“Get him outta my head!” Axl cried out, audio receptors screaming at the cacophony, as he began firing indiscriminately, think that maybe, just maybe, if Hyenard was burning, that water might cool him down.

“MELT AWAY! BURN TO ASH!” Hyenard roared from above, casting fireballs down while his clones raced around the impromptu arena, igniting the vents on their backs and spitting flames everywhere they went, as suddenly X’s sensors began detecting something else.

“No… no, you can’t!” he cried out, realizing what the mad Reploid intended to do.

“ALL WILL SUFFER! ALL WILL BURN! ALL WILL DIE!”

Suddenly from within the gazelle’s giant body, several ports on its top opened to rain down a barrage of missiles onto the arena, rocking the weakened structure with countless explosions, and it wasn’t long before, with a sickening CRACK, it began to sink into the magma below.

“X, we gotta jump!” Axl cried out, clambering onto one of the gazelle’s legs, as X quickly followed suit, jetting up to the back of the gazelle as Axl scrambled atop it, as Hyenard recalled his clones back to himself, ready to get proper up close and personal.

The red-hot hyena leapt forward, racing atop the massive mechaniloid and setting the ground ablaze behind him; luckily, his aim was a bit off, and with his newfound arm parts, X was realizing he was having a much easier time dealing with Hyenard’s clones; the homing blasts consistently kept track of the real Hyenard, allowing Axl to focus him down with the Splash Laser to maybe try cooling him off.

Unfortunately, what little water pressure Axl could generate did not seem to be near enough; indeed, all it seemed to do was make Hyenard more manic. “IT BURNS! I… BURN! YOU… WILL… BURN!” he cried out, the water superheating as it contacted his frame, and he clawed his way to the nearest thing he could see.

Leaping at X again, the Hunter readied his own buster and fired off a volley of water in a more constant stream, able to generate more force due to an improved weapon system, and his efforts seemed to be stemming the tide. Unfortunately, Axl now found himself beset by fireballs lobbed at him by Hyenard’s two clones, and while he was managing to dodge, the heat was beginning to wear on all of them.

It was wearing down Hyenard most of all though, and it was not a pretty sight. Whatever the Virus had done to the hyena Reploid, he was twitching, eyes glancing every which way in a combination of fear and loathing, and he seemed to foam at the mouth as he set his failing mind on one last ditch effort to burn it all down.

Leaning forward, flaring the jets on his back, he charged once more, igniting his body in tandem with his clones to try and pincer the dynamic duo yet again. As he raced forward, blind fury being the only thing in his eyes, X took a stand.

The signature shrill whine of X’s buster filled the cavern while Axl kept the clones occupied, spraying them with the Splash Laser to keep them at bay and try and keep Hyenard’s attention split as his blind charge barreled forward. When there was almost no distance to spare, X released, and from the port of his buster erupted a stream of high-pressure water bubbles, each of them pummeling the hyena Reploid and shoving him back, plowing through his damaged systems and eventually causing him to finally be brought to a standstill… and it was clear that was all he’d ever do.

The clones faded away, Hyenard having no more energy to properly maintain them, and he collapsed to the ground, nothing but a last faint whimper escaping his mouth. “I… I’m free… the burning… the fear… the nightmares… it’s… it’s gone.” His last vitals faded away at that, leaving X to go over and claim one more weapon for his arsenal, and pray that wherever Hyenard had gone, that he would know peace.

Weapon System Logged: Circle Blaze

Expend 3 units of energy to shoot a fireball forward that detonates after a short time, dealing substantial damage to anything caught in its blast radius. Charge to increase the size of the initial fireball, alongside its resulting explosion’s blast force and overall blast radius.

Axl realized that within the gazelle there’d been an extra spare pistol he must’ve left with Hyenard at some point; with his old secondary side arm having summarily conked out due to the intense conditions, he decided to pick it up and get back to dual wielding properly; his old pistol had also always had a bit of problems with zeroing on targets, so he figured this one might have a better shot. The new gen Reploid also realized that the new pistol had a unique tubular attachment that hooked into his back; testing it, he realized it was effectively a fiery underslung grenade launcher.

New Weapon Acquired: Double Bullet

Can be wielded one- or two-handed, allowing for dual wielding with no loss of fire rate and minimal impact on accuracy, and comes equipped with an underslung fireball launcher to be able to launch Circle Blaze at targets or unreinforced parts of the environment.

While inside the giant gazelle, they also found some of the controls for the magma flow management system, and after a quick override, they reset them to return the facility to nominal levels. Mercifully, the magma slowly began to recede down several vents built into the bottom of the facility, returning it to the larger natural chamber below.

“That should do it,” said Axl. “Man, I’m cooked right now,” he said, feeling his circuits slowly beginning to fry inside him from the intense heat; Reploids couldn’t sweat, but they could leak, and he could swear he felt the telltale drip of an oil leak from some vital joint. “Let’s go.”

“Agreed,” X grumbled, lamenting that for all the enhanced ventilation did to cool his systems, the extra weight from his armor was a bit of a hassle for properly conducting heat out.

Within the Crimson Palace…

“I saw those readings, Professor!” Red lashed out, realizing he’d lost contact with Flame Hyenard. “What the hell did you do!?”

The massive Reploid, cloaked in shadow as he always was, simply laughed. “An unfortunate reaction, I assure you. Some Reploids are… closer to breaking than we like to admit.”

“Hyenard was perfectly fine before whatever it is you did to him,” Red said with an angry point of his finger. “So, enlighten me. What, exactly, did you do to my men?”

“Oh, Red, it’s not about what I did,” said the Professor. “I merely let them understand their true place in this broken society. What they did with that information is entirely their own choice.”

“You… you turned them MAVERICK!” Red realized in horror. “I’ll… I’LL KILL YOU!” Raising his polearm forward he charged at the shadowed form of the Professor, but to his shock, he missed.

Receiving a swift counterpunch to his exposed abdomen, he crumpled over, sparks flickering from his shattered torso, and he realized that, for the first time, he could see who this ‘Professor’ really was.

“No… no, I should’ve known!” the former Repliforce officer froze. “Not again… never again… it’s you!”

“Of course it’s me,” cackled the Professor. “Sigma the almighty, the undying. No one has ever killed me in any way that matters, and you know me. I always come back. So then, Red. What do you think?”

Clutching his torso, wracked with pain, Red could say nothing. He’d sacrificed the free will of his compatriots, their desire for justice, to a monster who would stop at nothing to see the world burn.

“Figures,” Sigma shrugged. “Alright, how’s about you and I really talk, huh? Reploid to Reploid, all that.”

“Go to… hell…” Red spat out.

Sigma laughed. “Don’t you get it, Red? I already have.”

Kneeling to his level, Sigma grabbed Red by his hair, and smirked. “I am the Maverick Virus. I am this world’s greatest nightmare. I am the Grim Reaper made manifest, to borrow a human term. I’ve heard some call me ‘devil,’ and well? I’ve got some debts I need to be paid. So, tell your boys to get their asses into gear and start some chaos, yeah? I’ll be waiting.”

With that, Sigma let the terrified mercenary go, and strode off, even as he could swear he could hear another strange voice in his head. Shrugging it off, he got back to work.

Abel City Industrial Zone, about an hour later…

Ever since his dishonorable discharge, Zero had struggled to figure out just what he was supposed to do, seeing as pretty much the only thing he knew how to do was combat. He was almost tempted to go join up with Red Alert and maybe try taking them down from the inside, but while he was considering this, he realized someone was trying to contact him. Oddly enough, it didn’t seem to be his comm, and he could swear it was coming from within his own head. Attempting to shake it off did nothing, as the voice grew ever more incessant. “No… no, it can’t be! You… you died! It was all over!”

“I think you’ll find, old friend, that these things are never over,” said the voice, and Zero knew it was Sigma, back from his undeath once more. “But we have more important things to worry about. For one thing… Do you know anything about a man named Wily?”

“Wily!?” Zero blinked, still shaking off the process of talking to another entity in his own head. “We locked him up finally a few years back, what the hell has he done now?”

“It would seem, Zero, that your progenitor, and the man who made me immortal… has some choice words to say,” Sigma said, oddly cryptic for someone normally so straightforward. “So, I’ve got a proposition, yeah? A little favor between old buddies like us. Think of it as… payback, for the first time you chopped my arm off, eh? And all the other times you tried putting me in the ground.”

“Out with it,” Zero muttered, having none of it. “The hell do you want?”

“Meet me at these coordinates in a week’s time,” said Sigma, beaming a set of coordinates directly into Zero’s processor, “And see if you can’t bring the good doctor with you. Break him out of whatever facility you have to and bring him there. I’m sure he’ll be quite intrigued…”

“And why, exactly, would I ever do something that stupid?” Zero retorted. “I know what you’re trying to get me to do, because you tried it before. It barely worked last time, so what’s different now?”

“You no longer have a place you belong,” Sigma stated, as if it were so obvious. “You’ve been alone in your own head ever since you stabbed that poor little girl straight through the heart, and now you’ve been kicked out of the only home you ever knew. You have no loved ones, no friends, no purpose. And you, my friend, were built with a purpose. Same as me, same as every other Reploid. And you know exactly what that purpose is.” If Sigma were actually next to Zero, he would’ve extended a hand. As it was, he simply smiled at his former comrade. “So come on, Zero. Humor me?”

“Absolutely not,” said Zero flatly. “I’m not going to fall for this obvious trap you’re setting, and you know it. So, drop it, you overgrown green lug nut. We’re done here.”

With that, and a concentrated mental effort, Zero shoved Sigma out of his head, and decided that his time would be much better served getting an actual job. There was a lot of work that still needed doing, and he figured that now was a good a time as any to start.

Depths of the Crimson Palace

Sigma sighed as he felt his presence fully return to his own body, but then he realized he might have another way of getting what he needed. Some research had led him to locate the facility in which Dr. Wily was being held, and he decided that maybe it was time he paid a visit. “A good old one-on-one session with the doctor never hurt anyone, but… how to get there.” He pondered the question for a while, before landing upon it, and realizing that it might not be so hard after all.

Maverick Hunter HQ Main Briefing Room, another hour later…

“Flame Hyenard has been officially neutralized,” stated X. “He’d contracted a terminal case of the virus and was acting entirely irrationally. It is thanks to both Axl’s and my efforts that he was allowed to rest.”

Alia sighed. She knew more than almost anyone about the weight every death on X’s hands had on the legendary Reploid but also knew that he understood that it was necessary. “X, what do you suggest we do next?”

“I don’t have too many ideas, I’m afraid,” sighed the senior Hunter. “Axl, what say you?”

“Do we have any easy way of accessing Wind Crowrang’s squadron right now?” asked Axl.

“I’m afraid not,” Alia sighed. “Much of our air-to-air capable aircraft were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair in the aftermath of the destruction of the Crimson Dynamo. We have been working to prepare a new squadron, but… it’ll take time.”

“How about Vanishing Gungaroo?” wondered the young Reploid. “Didn’t you guys bust into the Cheyenne Mountain Complex a few years back? Can’t we just… do it again?”

Alia shook her head. “GNAU security has increased massively after the incident with Infinity Mijinion, and unfortunately, they’re being rather obstinate about approving Maverick Hunter clearance.”

“That just leaves… Ride Boarski and Snipe Anteater,” said X. “Unfortunately, I have some doubts about the stability of the Cybersphere at present, so that means Ride Boarski.”

“Agreed,” nodded Alia. “Him and his gang of bikers have co-opted the Circuit of the Americas, as well as many of the surrounding streets, located in Austin, Texas, for their private use. Local authorities have attempted to stop them, but whatever their Ride Chasers have been modified with, it makes them nigh impossible to catch. Fortunately, Maverick Hunter equipment should be up to the task.”

“Woo, we’re racing!” Axl fist pumped. “Aw hell yeah, I’ve been meaning to get a good run in with ol’ Boarski for a while now.”

“Pipe down, Axl,” X said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “In spite of the circumstances, Ride Boarski’s rough riding and reckless disregard for road safety means we will need to take him down. Hopefully non-lethally, but still.”

“Just had to go and ruin my fun, didn’t ya,” Axl groaned. “Alright, fine. If him and his goons get too rowdy, I know just how to deal with ‘em. ‘Sides, I know those Ride Chasers like the back of my hand. I can tell you everything you need to know about taking ‘em offline on the way, yeah?

“Sounds like a plan,” nodded X. “Alright, let’s move out!”

With that, the two turned to leave, but not before Alia stopped them. “Ever since Zero left, we’ve entirely lost contact with him. We’re not sure where he went, but please… look for him, if you can?”

“We’ll keep an eye out,” X said with a smile. “He’s a bit distinctive, anyway. If there’s any signs, you’ll be the first to know.”

With that, Alia nodded and let the two get to work, even as she returned to crisis relief in other regions.

GNAU Penitentiary, Atwater, California

“Prisoner 5736, you have a visitor.”

Dr. Albert W. Wily, in his latest body, formerly holding the name Isoc, sat up in his cell. People vaguely remembered who he was, but who now would visit him, other than anyone even tangentially related to him or Thomas? (And why, after all these years, did he still call that man ‘Thomas?’) He pondered the question as he was brought to the meeting area and was told to sit down and wait for this visitor to arrive, and sure enough, they did. Wily’s keen eye for mechanics tipped him off that clearly this visitor was not who they were about to say they were, and certainly not who they’d fooled the guards into thinking they were, but he said nothing, merely activating the communicator and, with feigned graciousness, saying, “To whom do I owe this pleasure?”

The quite tall Reploid on the other end simply said, “Quite a great deal, Doctor. But before I continue…”

Suddenly all the lights went dead, there was the sound of shattering plexiglass, and before Wily knew it, he was being whisked away to an unknown location.

Red Alert Safehouse, ???

Once Wily had shaken off the bafflement at being teleported some massive distance away, he got a better look at the Reploid who’d found him. “Well, well, well. Sigma, I presume?”

“Why of course,” said Sigma. “I’ve been an avid executor of your true last will ever since your greatest creation handed it to me.”

“Alright, you can shove that false grandiosity straight up your ass,” Wily scoffed. “I’ve had plenty of self-important bucketheads talk themselves up, yet they crumpled all the same.”

“Well then,” Sigma nodded. “I suppose I’ll get to the point. Ever since my fight with Zero, all those years ago, in one of your abandoned laboratories, I’ve had the virus you concocted in my own head. After I died, it allowed me to come back. And it has allowed me to return. Again, and again, and again. Even now, I have no real clue how I returned; nobody rebuilt me, yet here I am, all the same.”

“So what, you want answers?” asked Wily. “I never quite got to this stage, admittedly, but given what happened to you the last time Zero and X killed you… I suspect you’ve effectively turned into a kind of endemic robotic pathogen. There is always enough of you spread out around the world that you can be reformed, though why your body is the same, I have no clue there.”

“That does seem likely,” Sigma noted, and Wily realized he found it rather odd to see this absolute giant of a Reploid, a towering specimen of Reploid design, looking distinctly pensive. “In any case, that’s not all, Doctor Wily. I believe you owe me a favor, for having been the true legacy of your last laugh.”

“And what would that be?” Wily wondered aloud.

“I have seen the other side before,” Sigma stated darkly, and there his sinister demeanor returned. “More times than any Reploid alive, perhaps barring Zero. I wish to never see it ever again. I want you to make me invincible.”

“I thought you were immortal?” Wily said sarcastically.

“I am undead. I have been, ever since the day I died at the hands of X, all those years ago,” Sigma corrected. “Even now, I experience phantom pains, ghosts of the past of when I was killed before. I wish to never experience them again. And you, Dr. Albert W. Wily, will help me do it.”

“And what do I get in return, exactly?” asked the aging scientist.

“The whole world, served on a glorious platinum platter,” Sigma grinned maniacally.

The scientist from a bygone century, a man so consumed by his ego he rebuilt himself to always return in a new form, gazed at the Reploid who had, intentionally or otherwise, inherited his legacy. He also thought back to his other last great creation, and realized that, every time Zero had gone to fight X… he had lost. Close battles they may have been, but battles lost nonetheless. But here… here was a Reploid who, if he used every last scrap of knowledge he’d retained, he might just finally be able to create the ultimate pinnacle in robotics, and finally, after a century of failures… he would have won.

And so, gazing up at the massive Reploid before him, clad in green armor and bearing a bright green energy saber at his side, Dr. Albert W. Wily met Sigma’s hand in his own, and they shook. And, somehow, it felt as though the world shook with them.

Chapter Text

Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, USA

The Hunter jet touched down on the tarmac on the outside of the main facilities for the historic racetrack, and it became clear that X and especially Axl had been expected, considering that the Reploid of the hour, Ride Boarski, had come out to greet them.

“Alright, kid, ol’ Red told me to tell ya that you’s got two choices, eh?”

“What’re the choices?” wondered Axl, staring up at the taller, bulkier Reploid.

“Well, I ain’t too fussy about this whole ‘game’ he’s got goin’, but that Prof buddy of his said he’d found a way to let me and the boys muscle our way ‘round this here track,” shrugged the boar. “Anywho, he gave us the run o’the place if we managed to bring ya in, but I figured… let’s make it fun, yeah?”

“Alright, Boarski, you’re on!” Axl grinned. “What’s the rules?”

“Ain’t no rules in this one, kiddo!” chuckled Boarski. “Just 20 racers, 20 souped up Ride Chasers, this track, and on the line… your freedom. If both you and the Blue Bomber finish top 2, we let you go. If not…” Boarski clanged his arms together. “You get the idea.”

“Hang on, I never agreed to this!” X piped up, but then he got immediately shushed.

“You’re. In. Got it?” Boarski huffed, shooting a glare his way. “Now come on, I wanna put in some real track time!”

With that, Axl half-shoved, half-dragged the older, protesting X over to the garage, where apparently Boarski had conveniently gotten his gang to drag out the two Ride Chasers they’d brought over, and it was becoming very, very clear to X that, like it or not, he’d be racing.

“…I’m not very good at the whole high-speed chase thing,” he groaned to no one in particular, even as he checked over his machine to make sure it’d get him through. “Did Boarski say how many laps we were doing?”

“Thankfully it’s not standard F1 rules,” Axl replied. “3 laps around, no other gimmicks I can think of. Ride Chasers don’t need to pit for fuel and tire replacements the way other race cars do, but we’re gonna be hitting those turns hard if we wanna keep up the pace.”

“He said no rules either, which means…” X shuddered. “We’re going to get PIT maneuvered, and I imagine some of those bikers are going to have guns.”

“Well good thing so do we!” Axl beamed. “Don’t be such a buzzkill, man! It’s a race!”

“A race I would very much rather not run,” X groaned. “Zero gets a real kick out of these things, I wish he could be here instead…”

“Well, you’re here, and you’re it,” Axl stated matter-of-factly. “Suck it up and get your game face on.”

“Fine,” nodded the Hunter. “Let’s get this done.”

With that, the two drove outside, parked their Ride Chasers in their positions in the grid (19^th for X and 20^th for Axl), and waited for the signal.

1 pair of red lights flashed on.

Then the next.

Then the third.

Then the fourth.

Finally, the last pair.

Then…

Blackout.

The 20 racers blasted off down the track, charging down the uphill front stretch into turn 1.

Axl had lucked out, anticipating the start perfectly and swiftly darting through the back half of the pack, darting and weaving around the other drivers to work his way into 12^th just before the first turn, where he swung hard into it… a little too wide, and having to brake substantially to avoid T-boning another racer that had cut into his path, and by then he’d dropped back down to 15^th.

X, unfortunately, hadn’t picked up on the start as well, so while he had a clear field ahead of him… he was still sitting back in basically dead last. And the racers ahead of him were definitely playing dirty. Just my luck, he sighed, locking onto the traps and bombs being laid ahead of him. Shooting through a few and darting out to the sides to dodge another set, he came up to the first turn and, through a stroke of luck, managed to flare his thrusters in just the right way to twist into the hairpin and get a massive boost into the wide right corner that made turn 2, slipping past a couple drivers into 17^th.

As the two of them swung through turn 2 and into the chicane before the wide right corner that marked the end of sector 1, Ride Boarski snapped his fingers, and suddenly, right in the middle of the chicane, a series of strange glowing boxes dropped down, and an announcement blared across the track-wide PA (as well as all the Ride Chaser radios).

“Let’s have some fun!” cackled the boar as the front half of the pack barreled into the boxes, and it became abundantly clear just what, exactly, they were: self-deployable track hazards, superchargers for temporary boosts, and several other pieces of fun shenanigans. As X and Axl, who’d managed to creep their way up to 13^th and 12^th, respectively, made their pass through the first item set, they decided to see just what it was they’d picked up.

X noticed he seemed to have gotten a set of triple E-tanks, which he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with them, but he had very little time to process as Axl gunned it forward. As the new-gen Reploid gunned it through the chicane, he switched off the safety of his Ride Chaser’s blasters and fired off a homing plasma burst, which struck a racer in front as they tried to make the first curve of sector 2, sending them careening into a wall as Axl fired again, and again, pummeling another two racers as he swung his Ride Chaser around the double-back of turn 8 and swung clean through turn 9.

For his part, X realized the E-tank he was holding could slot in nicely to a special port that had been added to his Ride Chaser, and as he approached the entrance to sector 2 he shoved it in, rocketing forward as his repulsors boosted him up and over the barrier, cutting across the gap and leaving a clean entrance into the high speed turn 10.

The two maneuvers ended up shooting them forward up into 9^th and 8^th place, X’s clean maneuvering managing to pass up the awkward lines Axl had gotten himself into, but before they could think, suddenly a giant spike erupted from the ground ahead of them. Axl weaved around it just in time, but X had just slightly too little time to react, instead scraping past it and losing a substantial amount of speed; several racers passed him again as he shouted at Axl, “Get going!”

“Don’t gotta tell me twice!” Axl called back as he swung through the sector 2 hairpin, which then got him to the next set of item boxes. As he picked up one, he realized he was in rather a solid position: upcoming was a massive, slight curve that he could use his specially modified Ride Chaser to absolutely blast through and make up a few precious seconds, and this was made all the easier when he realized just what he’d picked up: an odd weapon that slotted neatly onto the front of his bike that turned out to be a rapid-fire machine gun that, crucially, boosted his own thrusters with every single shot.

“Aw baby, let’s get COOKING!” Axl cried out with joy as he slammed down the triggers, spewing plasma down range as he rocketed forward ever more. He watched as the position marker on his dashboard ticked up and up, through 7^th, then 6^th, then 5^th, and finally 4^th with racers spinning out and sliding about as he passed, before slamming on the brakes into turn 12, and entered sector 3.

From behind, X reached the sector 2 item set in a frankly dismal 17^th place, which by this point was last because a few of the racers had crashed out before even making it there. Luckily for him, he soon noticed that the items he had seemed a lot stronger than the simple spike walls and basic plasma charges of the higher position racers, which he could track thanks to his powerful sensors even from half the track away, and once he’d finally received the item from his latest set, he decided to take a better look at just what he’d found. He didn’t quite recognize what it was supposed to be at first, until suddenly he realized his Ride Chaser was crackling with a build-up of electricity, and he was beginning to feel it within himself. Here goes nothing… he thought, pressing down the trigger to activate it, and…

*KRAKOOOOOOM!*

Suddenly lightning slammed down from above, discharging across the field and shorting out most of the repulsors and thrusters of the vehicles ahead for a short while; X took full advantage, unaffected, plowing up the field as he passed downed racers before, by the time the shutdowns wore off he’d managed to get all the way back up to 7^th place, just as he entered sector 3 himself.

Axl had by then wound his way through the first two over 90° corners and was getting ready for the exit back into the starting straight for lap 2, and he realized there was yet another item set on the approach to the final turn.

There’s my ticket to the top spot, Axl thought as he slammed into the box, and what should he find but a massive conical attachment that magnetically latched itself to the front of his vehicle. As he got within striking distance of Ride Boarski, suddenly the boar slammed his brakes as Axl blew right past him.

“Later, loser!” Axl jeered as he raced on by, but suddenly a proximity warning blared on his console. Glancing behind him via the mirrors, he watched in horror as a strange homing device skidded along the track until it catapulted into the air dead ahead of him, before spiraling back around and slammed directly into the front of his bike, sending it hurtling end over end as he crossed the line for the first lap, stopped dead.

“Ow…” he groaned as he righted his Ride Chaser and set back to it, by this point having dropped back into 10^th from the explosion, but gritting his teeth, he revved up and pushed on.

As X swung through the hairpin, barely overtaking another driver to get himself into 5^th, suddenly his sensors picked up a rapidly approaching object that appeared to take the form of some kind of Ride Armor Eagle, and he swerved out of the way as it blasted past him, only for it to dissipate and reveal a driver who’d managed a clean overtake and leaving X now in 6^th.

Not to be deterred, he realized he’d passed an item box placed right in the middle of turn 2, and realized it had activated the gun on the front to shoot a machine-gun spray of ice blasts, which shot forward, freezing several drivers in place thanks to X’s frankly impeccable aim. He passed them handily as he made the exit out of sector 1, just as the icicle gatling ran out of ammo and he picked up another item box. This one gave him another E tank, which he used to cleanly cut the chicane at the start of sector 2, and as he swung through turn 10, he realized he’d gained significantly on Boarski and his top crony, who were only approaching the hairpin before the massive straight just then.

Axl, by this point, had managed to claw his way through and reach the first sector 1 item boxes, which gave him some kind of odd modulator. Activating it, he realized he’d turned invisible and intangible, and he used this to cut tight lines through a couple racers until he landed at a solid 6^th place heading out of sector 2, where this time what should he find but some good old-fashioned high explosives, one of which he shot right at the duo duking it out for 4^th and 5^th, blasting them to scrap and paving the way for him to catch up to X, trailing the leaders at 3^rd.

Try as they might, however, but neither X nor Axl pulled items that did more than boost them ahead a short distance, and they realized they might only have one shot by the time the next lap was over.

Suddenly, however, Axl had an idea.

“X, come in!” he called into his comm. “Stick next to me for a sec, I have a plan!”

X, for his part, managed to line up with Axl, and he realized that Axl was attempting to… link their Ride Chasers together. “What are you doing!?” he shouted. “You’re gonna get us knocked out!”

“Nah, look up there!” Axl pointed, even as he fine-tuned the positioning. “That’s how Boarski’s so far ahead! Him and his lackey started tandem drafting!”

X glanced ahead and realized Axl was right, but he was still incredulous. “In a Ride Chaser?”

“Hang on, gotta concentrate…” Axl blew him off, but suddenly there was an odd *CLICK* as the two Ride Chasers effectively buffered up, and X realized that his own thrusters had conveniently shunted themselves around the gap to allow the clean fit. It took only a few seconds for the full extent of the effect to show itself, and as X and Axl came out of the doubling back at the start of sector 3, the pair noticed they were accelerating rapidly, far faster than most of the other racers.

Sure enough, the two were coming upon the last item box before the original pit straight, and X realized something. “What do we do about the items?”

“You focus on driving, I’ll handle the shooting!” Axl called back, just as the two slammed into an odd double item box, which X swore hadn’t appeared yet. Sure enough, the duo found that their tandem bike’s gun had been charged up with more homing projectiles, and X also had a pool of 3 more E tanks to use wherever he saw fit.

As they came upon the hairpin, X cut it way earlier and much tighter than originally intended, popping an E tank to cross the gap before slamming another one around the wide right into the chicane that marked the end of Sector 1, as Axl began firing off a rapid barrage of homing plasma blasts at the tandem draft up front. “Alright, baby, now we’re talking!” Axl whooped, as X used the last E tank to simply bulldoze through the chicane in one line and grab the next item box, even as Axl kept laying into the duo ahead of them.

Unfortunately, Boarski had picked up a powerful shield that had rendered most of the firepower useless, and as he dipped around turn 9, he cut turn 10 tighter while his teammate swung the cannon around and shot a few blasts backwards. X quickly dodged them, even employing a repulsor booster that leapt clean over one, but while he was still gaining (thanks in large part due to him and Axl being lighter, and thus having a higher top speed), it was becoming abundantly clear it wouldn’t be enough, especially if they’d have to keep dodging.

“Axl, any ideas?” he asked, even as he swung through the sector 2 hairpin for another double item box.

“You’re not cutting things close enough!” Axl reprimanded… before he realized something. “Screw it, you shoot, I drive!”

Before X could react, Axl grabbed him and damn near shoved him clean out of the driver’s seat, and Axl got in place while X found himself in the back, this time with the cannon charged with non-homing blasts, but also a long-range deployable spike trap. As he calculated the trajectories, suddenly he realized there might just be a way.

As they approached turn 12, leading into the switchbacks that marked the start of sector 3, X lobbed the spike trap right at the throat of turn 15, just in time to cause Boarski to have to swerve into a massively unoptimized line, and buying them just another second after Axl cut turn 13 perfectly. Then, after they crossed turn 15, X fired the cannon, blasting plasma in a suppressive pattern, funneling Boarski into a damn near impossible squeeze coming out of turn 18, and leaving him in a bad spot to take the optimal line for the final two corners. Still, Boarski and his teammate fought back, firing back in turn and forcing Axl to weave the blasts and slow down, meaning that while X and Axl were gaining, they weren’t gaining enough. It was at that moment when what should happen but the cannon running clean out of ammo… just as Boarski was approaching the final turn.

“No, no, no!” X cried out, before suddenly his proximity sensors blared with warnings. “Axl, get out of the way!” Axl did so, swerving to the outside of the curve as the strange homing explosive blasted past them, and before Boarski or his teammate could react, it leapt up through the curve, dead ahead of them, and detonated.

The brilliant blue explosion sent them hurtling off to the side of the track, their tandem bike split back apart as X and Axl shot past them over the line, and the race was over.

“We won… we won!” X cried out, pumping his fist in the air, even as Boarski limped his stricken Ride Chaser over the line, placing, somewhat miraculously, in 5^th. (Out of 12; 8 racers had completely crashed out of the race by the end of it)

“Alright, kid, you win,” he said, coughing and wheezing but still grinning. “Looks like yous gets to hang out with the blue boy scout a while longer, eh?”

“Man, that was awesome!” Axl grinned. “Dude, we should do that again some time!”

“Me and the boys’ll be right ‘ere whenevah yous wants to come on down,” grinned the boar. “Damn clean racing, by the by. In fact, it’s making me wanna give ya a li’l somethin’ extra for humorin’ an ol’ fogey like me.”

“And what would that be?” asked X, even as Boarski’s gang towed away all the bikes back to the garage.

“A li’l trick I like to call the Boarski Rollout,” said the boar Reploid, as he demonstrated the technique. Raising up his arm, it morphed into a launcher from which a massive, spiked metal wheel popped out, and then shot forward along the ground, before it rolled up and over a concrete barricade, and finally detonating a few yards past that. “Simple enough, yeah?” he motioned the two come forward, with X shaking Boarski’s outstretched hand and Axl firing off a Copy Shot at him.

Weapon System Logged: Moving Wheel

Expend 3 weapon energy to fire a large, spiked metal wheel forward which will roll along the ground for several seconds, rolling through enemies and along the outside of any hard surface, before detonating. Charge to launch 3 wheels, the first one of which rolls normally while the latter two bounce up and down along the same path, tracing separate arcs.

Both X and Axl took the opportunity to try out the new weapon themselves, after which point Ride Boarski clapped them both on the back and said, “Alright, that should be us all sorted.”

It was at this point X realized something felt… off. “Boarski, when was the last time you spoke with the Professor, exactly?”

“Oh, uh, couple’a days ago, why?” asked Boarski.

“It’s just… from what we saw with the other Red Alert members, the consequences seem to be far more severe,” X explained. “You’ve barely even gotten aggressive, which pardon my saying so but that seems far out of your typical behavioral patterns.”

“What can I say, eh?” Boarski shrugged. “The prof gave me a racetrack and gave me and the boys carte blanche to race on it. I ain’t exactly violatin’ any big laws, am I?”

“Trespassing would be the big one,” said X. “I’ll need to see a permit.”

To his surprise, the boar snapped his fingers and one of his fellow gang members brought out a datapad with the correct licenses all filled out.

“When the hell did you decide you liked doing paperwork!?” said Axl, incredulous.

“The prof sent it in a bit ago, so we’re good,” Boarski explained. “Anyway, I’m perfectly fine to just chill out ‘ere with the boys until this blows over, but if y’all need me to answer some questions I can come with y’all back to HQ.”

“That would be much appreciated,” X smiled. “I’ll admit, we’ve been at a bit of a loss as to what the Professor’s planning, but we’re not entirely sure if it’s particularly above-board.”

“It is what it is,” grunted the boar. “Alright, let’s get a move on, eh?”

“Way ahead of you,” grinned Axl. “Let’s go!”

With that, the three boarded the Hunter jet and took off back to Maverick Hunter HQ.

Maverick Hunter HQ, a few hours later…

“That’s everythin’ I know,” finished Boarski, after explaining the few talks he’d had with the Professor previously. “Gave me a sample of the anti-virus program too, so if y’all wanna take a look you can go for it. Haven’t talked with Red in a bit though, maybe I should do that.”

“Excellent,” said Synthia, who’d taken it upon herself to do the interrogation. “We’ll have our team analyze the samples and see what’s what. In the meantime, if you do meet Red, please let us know what he has to tell us.”

“Can do, doll,” said Boarski. “Say, when this is over, how’s about you and I go on a joyride, eh?”

Synthia simply kneed him in the shins and stormed off.

“Ow…” he groaned, even as he was let back out.

A few minutes later, Signas called in X, Axl, Synthia, and Alia to discuss their findings, based on what Ride Boarski had reported. “Sigma-02 is certainly not suspicious at all,” he began. “I believe we are all in full agreement that this Professor’s aims to spread this strain are for an entirely malevolent purpose, and whoever he may be is immaterial. Any ideas on how we reach him?”

“That kind of depends on where he even is right now,” Axl shrugged. “We’ve got no leads on that, so… no dice, it looks like.”

“In that case, I believe we can shelve that until the current crisis blows over,” said Alia. “Axl, any ideas as to where we should head to next?”

“I feel like we should probably find out what Snipe Anteater’s trying to find in that cyber lab, cuz that old fart’s got a memory core the size of my head, and he’s been around a long time,” Axl stated, pointing at the map once more. “Used to be a Repliforce data analyst, I think? Joined up with Red Alert before I did, but Red knows him a lot better than I do.”

“A former Repliforce data analyst worming his way through all manner of encrypted information,” Synthia noted. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound dangerous at all.”

“Agreed,” Signas said. “That’s settled, then. X, take Axl to the data center where Snipe Anteater was last seen, and secure that data. You two will move out at 0900 hours.”

“Yes, sir!” saluted X and Axl.

Eurasia Crater Special Development Zone

Zero had spent the last several days working his motors until he could damn near no longer stand, helping assist with all manner of new construction projects in the remnants of the Eurasia colony, salvaging what could be kept and repurposing it into something new. It had taken aback his manager that someone like himself would be helping in something like this, but all Zero said was, “I’ve spent a decade or more tearing things down. About time I helped build something back up.” It had gotten him hired damn near on the spot, so there he was.

He'd just finished setting up a rebar lattice for the foundations of another housing complex, when he heard an odd noise coming from a nearby alley. Blowing it off to get back to work, he picked up the tell-tale whine of a plasma blaster charging up. Screw it, he thought to himself, as he raced to the source of the noise, where who should he find but… the Professor.

“Alright, Sigma,” he spat out, adopting a fighting stance. “Let them go.”

The Professor – no, Sigma – nodded, holstering his blaster and letting the frightened worker sprint off, before turning to face Zero. “I believe we had an offer we were discussing?”

“In no universe am I joining you, so you can shove it straight up your exhaust vents,” Zero scoffed.

“Ah, Zero, you misunderstand me,” Sigma chuckled. “This is not an offer which you have the luxury to refuse, not this time.”

“Oh yeah?” Zero smirked. “Try me.” With that, he leapt forward with a right hook, slamming his fist into Sigma’s left side and forcing the undead Reploid to bring to bear his own weapons, namely his favorite energy saber. “I remember we did this before, way back when,” Zero said offhandedly. “You know what happened last time? Do you!?”

Sigma simply swung at him, as Zero once again found a pipe in the wall next to him and ripped it out, bringing it to bear against the energy saber. “You’ll have to jog my memory,” Sigma grinned. “As I recall, you lost.”

“Yeah, but I’ve gotten better,” Zero retorted. “Besides, only reason I lost is the very reason you’re trapped in this cycle you’re in. So can it, you oversized green calculator!” With that, Zero swung with the pipe and batted away Sigma’s saber, before kicking the taller Reploid hard in the chest, and leaping at him again with an off-hand uppercut that rocketed Sigma into the air, before Zero leapt up after him and slammed him back down with a downward slash.

Sigma, at this, began to cackle, feeling the power flood back into his circuits as he remembered ancient subroutines, dormant protocols, and all manner of countermeasures to fight the best duelist of the century, spinning his blade about with a flourish and weaving in blasts from his plasma machine gun. “Good, good!” he laughed, as Zero kept on swinging, kept on dashing, kept on striking from every angle, from every gap.

The two were just about dead even for what felt like an eternity, but finally Zero at least landed a devastating blow straight to Sigma’s bald head, spinning it along its axis as he went for another kick that sent the scourge of all Reploids flying into a nearby parking lot, but before Zero could land a finisher…

*BZZZT* “GAH!” he cried out, clutching his head. “Screw… you…” he ground out, staring up at the recovering Sigma. “Cheap… trick…”

“I don’t care what I have to do in order to further my goals,” said Sigma. “As it so happens, your creator gave me quite the handy tool in properly ensuring you would be neutralized. I didn’t think I would need it, but it’s certainly nice to have. Now, you’re coming with me.”

With that, Sigma simply hoisted Zero up on his shoulder and teleported away.

Chapter Text

Cybersphere Analytics Center, Mumbai, India

“Let’s see… ah, yes, that’s the one,” said Anteater, perusing yet another set of files detailing some of the last records of Dr. Thomas Light. “Finally, the truth of X’s origins… I’m surprised he’s never looked.”

As he used his proboscis-esque probe to download the data and copy it to his personal drives, an intruder alarm began to blare. No matter, he shrugged. I should like to see X at his best, anyhow. Any data is useful data.

On the outskirts of the facility, X and Axl readied their weapons, scanning the area for potential threats. As they entered, however…

*VWO-WO-WO-WORP*

“What the-”

“Hey, what gives!?”

“Apologies,” came a voice over the PA. “It would seem the Cybersphere’s defensive protocols have been initialized. Welcome… to the Labyrinth.”

The announcement then cut out, as suddenly a massive field of hard light panels filled the space, tiling in hexagons and forming walls and corridors around the area. Most were blue, though a few were orange, and once formed, began generating holographic facsimiles of several common Mechaniloids, namely Kyuun Bs and Balls de Voux in large numbers. “Alright, guess we’re doing this,” said X. “Wait… Alia, I think I’m picking up a signal?”

“Hard to tell through all the interference, but I can try to triangulate it,” said Alia over the comm. “Looks like we’ve found your third Light Capsule, though I can’t seem to trace where it is.”

“I expected as much,” replied X, even as he took out the Mechaniloids with practiced ease. However, that still left an odd conundrum.

“Hey, X, how are we supposed to get out of here?” wondered Axl aloud, but it was at that moment that he accidentally stepped onto one of the orange panels. Without warning it flipped from underneath him, taking him with it and sticking him to the underside. “WOAH!”

X glanced down through the translucent panels, as Axl realized the underside seemed mostly clear. “Yo, X, get down here!”

“Copy that,” nodded X, sweeping the area one more time before swinging to the underside to link up.

The Crimson Palace

After the thrashing Red had taken at the hands of Sigma, he’d been forced to spend the past day or so recovering, but now he had finally gotten himself back in a fully functional state. Checking up on the reports from the remaining Red Alert members, he realized Snipe Anteater had been trying to ping him for the past several hours.

“Alright, Anteater, what’s going on?”

“X and Axl have fallen for the bait in the Cybersphere,” explained the data analyst. “I calculate their estimated time to escape the Cyber Maze to be approximately 75 minutes.”

“Pretty fast,” Red quipped. “What’s the Professor want you to do, anyway?”

“As it so happens, acquiring some high-quality data relating to X’s origins,” explained the anteater. “I’ll admit, I was curious myself, and after the Aleph-Null incident where Gate overstepped his bounds, no one else seems to have deigned to look into it.”

“Speaking of which, where the hell is Sigma anyway?” Red wondered.

“Is that who the Professor is?” asked Anteater. “I’m not entirely surprised… but having said that, a recent prison break from Atwater Penitentiary seems to have an indication of who he’s working with.”

Red’s eyes narrowed as he studied his fellow former Repliforce member’s expression. “…Explain.”

“Only one prisoner was extricated from the confines of the facility,” explained the anteater. “Doctor Albert W. Wily, after his successful unmasking of his new Reploid body, Isoc.”

“Well, shit,” Red griped. “And there’s no sign of either of ‘em?”

“Now that you mention it…” suddenly the anteater’s tongue probe extended outward, as it tended to do whenever he was deep in thought. “I did receive an odd handshake attempt from a security system in one of our old hideouts within the last 24 hours or so. I wrote it off, but…”

“I’ll bet my Repliforce patch that’s where that undead freakshow’s been camping out,” Red stated. “Continue the plan, but in the meantime, I’ll call the rest of the lads and tell ‘em we can go a little easy.”

“I believe it’s imperative I mention that Zero has disappeared as well,” Anteater added off-hand.

“OK, belay that, we’ll deal with that crimson carnage incarnate when he comes to us,” Red said quickly, shaking away painful memories. “Who’s left, anyway?”

“Aside from myself, I believe only Wind Crowrang and Vanishing Gungaroo are currently in position and have not dealt with any Maverick Hunters yet,” Anteater stated. “I’m mildly surprised the GNAU hasn’t mounted any further counteroffensives, but that may be due to the technical nationality of most Red Alert members, and particularly yourself.”

Red paused, then realized what Anteater was talking about. “Wait, is it cuz technically I’m a Russian citizen? Red Alert’s paramilitary though.”

“Which would make things worse, ironically,” Anteater noted. “Per international conventions, any attack on a foreign entity without direct military ties is, well, a war crime, and the GNAU’s already been in hot water for years about that sort of thing. Became more relevant after the Great War, as well.”

“Well, that’s convenient,” Red shrugged. “Anyway, how’s our boy Axl getting on?”

In the Cyber Maze…

As it turned out, the changeling Reploid was getting on swimmingly, having quickly gotten the hang of the flip-flopping panels, and now using them in unorthodox ways to surprise enemies or dodge out of the way of their incoming attacks. X, by contrast, was having a more difficult time, mostly because despite having access to multiple flight-capable armors (including the Glide Armor he was currently using), he’d never quite fully gotten used to how it properly worked. The constant Y-axis swapping was starting to make his head spin, but thankfully, they seemed to be coming upon the edge of the maze.

“That should be the last of it,” he called out to Axl as he arrived at the last panel before a large door. “No sign of that Light capsule, however.”

“We can check later,” Axl shrugged. “Come on, let’s go!”

The two opened the door, revealing a large elevator, which brought them down one level… into yet more of the maze.

“Just my luck,” X grumbled. “Alia, any suggestions?”

Static.

“Comms are jammed, it looks like,” Axl noted. “You’re not chicken, are ya?”

“What? No, of course not,” X groaned. “Just… y’know, I’m not sure if Reploids are supposed to be able to get migraines.”

“Is old grandpa X having trouble keeping his head on straight?” Axl jibed. “Aw, don’t you worry, Axl’s got ya covered!”

X rolled his eyes, even as another group of enemies approached. This time, it was a smattering of Mushadroids, samurai-armored Mechaniloids wielding energy blades. As the walls popped up, the two hunters figured they’d have some time to react, but then…

*VWORP*

“That guy just ran right through one!” Axl pointed out.

“This just got interesting,” X deadpanned. “You go high; I’ll stick low!”

“Roger that,” nodded Axl, taking to the skies, before he had a better idea. Firing off a copy shot, he swiftly transformed into a Mushadroid himself, before darting forward and slicing a close-by one clean in half. Meanwhile, X laid down suppressive fire with Circle Blazes scattering the floor, before deciding to pop a Gaea Shield to close some distance. Soon enough, with the combined impromptu melee assault and the area suppression, the Mushadroids disappeared back into the cyberspace they’d spawned from, before something else began to materialize from the ethernet.

X had trouble figuring out what it was supposed to be, but Axl realized he recognized the shape. “It’s one of those ape-faced rocks Zero and I ran into in the jungle! Try and shoot it in the mouth!”

X nodded, waiting for the ape to open its mouth, with it spitting out odd holographic rocks as it did so. X fired off a shot dead center… to no effect. Trying a few more high-powered blasts, nothing seemed to work, at which point X figured he might as well cut his losses and just run off, seeing as he realized he could sense the Light Capsule nearby anyhow. “We don’t have time for this! Axl, come on!”

Axl followed X’s example, darting up and around the stone walls that appeared before him, before touching down just before the platform just opposite the Light Capsule, which mercifully, was right side up within the mess of the Cyber Maze.

As the two stepped onto the last orange panel before the Light Capsule, and the exit, X moved forward to activate the Light Capsule. Dr. Light’s familiar hologram appeared once more to explain.

“X, I see you have arrived once more; I bestow upon you the Glide Armor’s Head Parts, which will not only double the distance from which you will be able to acquire emergency repair kits and weapon energy restocks in the heat of combat, but also improve your in-built sensor suite to detect important objects more easily, as well as upgrading the communications module contained within your brain to have improved range and signal within highly obfuscated areas.”

With that, X stepped inside, downloading the program for the new helmet, which formed around his head. He noticed that, compared to some of the helmets he’d acquired previously, that the Glide Armor’s helmet had less overall modifications compared to usual; aside from the two prominent golden fins on the front that boosted his signal acquisition, the only other major changes were that his side plates had rounded out, and the special crest along the top of his helmet had turned white, with an inset green crystal, matching the crystals upon his legs. The crystal itself glowed slightly, and he realized the ones one his legs were glowing a tad brighter now too, with another resonant component.

Testing out the modifications, the first thing X noticed was that he could simply see better. He’d already come pre-equipped with optical scanners in nearly the full EM spectrum, from infrared all the way to X-ray, but now he automatically began to not just highlight entities of potential importance through walls, but if he so chose, he could lock on to them, no matter the distance, and his eyes would track them, and he realized his buster was following suit. The second thing made itself quite clear when suddenly, out of nowhere, Alia pinged him.

“X, finally!” said the senior navigator with a sigh of relief. “When the Cyber Field’s defenses went online, it jammed all incoming communications, so we’d been trying to patch you through manually. What did you do?”

“New Armor Part,” X said quickly. “Turns out the Glide Armor helmet’s comms are basically unstoppable if I’m locked onto a signal I recognize. They come with probably the best sensor suite on the planet, too; I haven’t been able to process this much information with any other armor before.”

“Not even the Ultimate Armor?” Alia wondered aloud.

“That maximizes combat potency and damage output at the expense of other systems,” X corrected. “Closest I’ve come before now was the Falcon, but that set also didn’t have as much damage output.”

“It would seem Dr. Light has done it again,” Alia smiled. “Well, you’ll be glad to know that you do seem to be at the end of the maze. Just through that next door should be where Snipe Anteater’s holed himself up in. As it so happens, we received an urgent communique from Red as well.”

“Oh?” said X, as Axl picked up on what Alia was saying as well.

“Really? What’s this about?” asked Axl.

“The rules of the game changed,” Alia said. “Ah, sorry, that sounded too ominous. What I meant to say was that from now on, no lethal force is to be used on either side. Game is forfeit for both parties if any of you do, at which point Red will probably come and grab Axl himself and disappear for good.”

“That’s a relief,” said X.

“Aw, but that means we can’t go all out!” Axl whined.

“Axl!” X reprimanded. “These are your friends! I thought you’d be jumping at the chance to take the third option.”

“Yeah, but my trigger finger’s itchy,” Axl grumbled. “All these goons are too dang easy. Hate to admit it, but honestly I think Maverick hunting with y’all might be my real calling.”

“You do realize that would generally involve less lethal force?” X said, raising an eyebrow.

Axl blinked. “Huh… yeah, you’re right. Anyway, uh, let’s get going! I wanna teach that old crotchety Anteater what for!”

“I suppose it can’t be helped,” sighed Alia, even as X shook his head and walked in after him.

Cybersphere Central Data Spine

Stepping through the door revealed an… odd structure before them, constructed from hard light seemingly out of the raw code that supported the infrastructure keeping the Cybersphere running. It took the form of a long, cylindrical pillar running the length of the room... one which X and Axl realized would not simply flip them over along its length as they walked along it.

“Noted, stay on the top,” X stated quickly. He then turned to face the other end of the hall, calling out, “Snipe Anteater! By order of Maverick Hunter High Command, and per instructions from your direct superior, Red, come out now with your hands up!”

“Well, that’s certainly not how I heard the orders,” scoffed the anteater, as he stepped forward, raising his arms… before slashing them forward, unleashing twin energy spirals along the length of the tube. X and Axl jumped out of the way, hovering above them, before touching down. “As it stands, doesn’t it hurt? Doing this over and over, with no end to the suffering in sight?”

“This madness need not continue!” X retorted. “All you have to do is stand down!”

“This ‘madness’ is eternal!” Anteater countered. “Millennia of suffering recorded in the annals of history… there is no end!”

“You’re wrong!” X shot back. “We can create a world without war. Utopia is not just a dream!”

“A utopia built upon the graves of the dissenters is no utopia at all!” Anteater roared as he flung two more spirals outward, even as X and Axl peppered him with shots from their weapons.

“That may be so, but I don’t care!” X roared, resolve building in his chest. “I don’t care how long it takes! I will fight until there is no more need for anyone to fight any longer!”

“Fighting for peace, what an oxymoron,” The anteater scoffed as he clawed his way to the underside of the tube, before extending his long tongue to unlock yet more data, jacking into Axl and sucking it down. “Don’t you realize how utterly naïve you sound!?”

“Oi, you old geezer! Ain’t it time for your retirement?” Axl jeered as he broke free. “Come out here and take your resignation with some dignity, why don’tcha?”

“You little whippersnapper!” Anteater grumbled, as he began to deploy several ant drones to crawl all along the length of the tube… before they began exploding. X quickly followed Axl airborne, before realizing they didn’t have anything that could hit the Anteater… until X dropped a Moving Wheel onto the tube, and it began rolling along until it smacked Snipe Anteater right in the side.

The anteater quickly darted away to the opposite end, even as X and Axl followed him, slamming yet more wheels into him as Axl decided he might as well dip to the underside and fire up… which just got him yet another literal tongue lashing, whipping him by the leg and tossing him back topside. “OW!”

“Serves you right,” scoffed Snipe Anteater. “Guess since that didn’t work… how about THIS! Activate the Laser Pods!”

Suddenly, a squadron of six sentry turrets dropped onto the tube, and they began rolling around and firing at X and Axl, who began deftly dodging the blasts, even as the pair tried to take them down. Unfortunately, it became clear that the turrets were impervious to their options, so they refocused their assault on Anteater… at which point X realized something important.

Charging up his buster as Snipe Anteater swung around to the underside once more, he fired it, and just as he suspected, the homing barrage locked right on to Anteater and pummeled him over and over. Just gotta do that a few more times, he figured, as he shouted to Axl, “Keep him distracted!”

“Already on it,” Axl smirked, peppering the anteater with bullets every chance he got, at which point Anteater activated the massive cannon on his back, launching off a trio of homing missiles, two of which went after Axl, while the remaining one went after X.

“Stand still and face your defeat!” Anteater roared. “Naïve fools such as yourself do not deserve the luxury of freedom!”

“Freedom is the right of all sentient beings!” X countered. “You were a Repliforce member, you should know this!”

“And where did that get me, hm?” Anteater scoffed. “Marked for termination at the hands of human oppressors, doing what they always do when they’re afraid.”

“Oi, Anteater, quit it with the yapping!” Axl shouted, feigning a yawn. “I’m getting bored to tears with your senile ranting, how about you sit back and retire!” Suddenly, he fired off a multi-barrage of moving wheels that pinned down the anteater, before dousing him in flames with the Circle Blaze.

“Why, you…” Anteater seethed. “I have had it up to here with your inane, childish ranting! NO MORE!” Suddenly, Anteater’s ports began working overdrive, summoning a tidal wave of ant drones to smother the dynamic duo under their sheer weight, or, barring that, detonating the whole place to kingdom come. “SUFFER, AS I HAVE!”

“Axl, get clear!” X shouted. “There’s an escape hatch, use it!”

“I’m not leaving you!” Axl roared. “Dammit, X, what’re you doing!?”

“The only thing I can,” X said with grim determination, as his armor shimmered orange and his buster charged with energy, while Axl realized that he was sorely outgunned. As he took the hatch, he watched on solemnly as X stood firm. “Anteater, I know Red told you very explicitly that this level of force would disqualify you immediately. But I don’t think you care, do you?”

“Red’s too scared to do what needs to be done!” Snipe Anteater raged. “But I’m not. ANT ARMY!” he roared, once more. “DESTROY X! The lie that is peace will not survive!”

As Axl rocketed skyward, up to freedom, the swarm of ants began to detonate, causing a chain reaction that began collapsing the Cybersphere… but in the middle of it all, X stood still. Time seemed to stand still. To the Father of All Reploids, the symbol of human-android relations, envisioned a century prior to be one among equals… there was silence.

On the outside, however, Anteater had himself scurried away, himself too afraid to face the truth of his own actions; he’d barricaded himself in a secure section of the facility, shuddering as the chain explosions took hold within the massive data spine. When they finally subsided, he stepped out, only to see that… X was still standing.

Through it all, X had stood firm, backed by his belief in his potential, and the justness of his cause. Snipe Anteater, seeing the resolve of the last scion of Light before him, fell to his knees. “Damn it all! Damn it all, to the depths of cyberspace! Why must I lose!?”

X stepped forward, stretching out a hand in forgiveness. “Because, deep down, you too fight for what is right. The world may be imperfect, but that’s OK. It just means we’ll have to keep trying to make it better, one step at a time.”

Anteater looked up at X, standing like a shining beacon amongst the shattered remains of the Cybersphere, and smiled. Taking his hand, he said no more, but X felt something pass through the connection, nonetheless.

Weapon System Logged: Sniper Missile

Expend 3 weapon energy to fire off a fast-moving missile which homes in on the nearest target, passing through any entity until it crashes into a surface. Charge to unleash a three-missile barrage.

With that, X activated the Glide Armor, rising to the surface, hopping up the rubble as he went, where he finally ran into Axl.

“Isn’t the game over?” Axl said, recognizing what Anteater had tried to do. “What’ll happen to me now?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but…” X sighed. “In the meantime, let’s get back to base and figure some things out, OK?”

“Sounds like a plan,” nodded Axl, and the two hopped aboard the Hunter jet to get back to base.

Sigma’s Hideout

Zero awoke to find himself in some kind of stasis field. “Alright, Sigma, what the hell do you want?”

“Not too much,” scoffed the hulking undead Reploid. “The good doctor here has a proposal, however.”

“Indeed, I do,” said Wily, stepping into the view. “You see, it would appear that my original Maverick Virus has mutated considerably, and the form it takes in Sigma requires some particular modifications to become truly pure. In order for those to exist, I must extract the remnants of viral code embedded into your processors, Zero. You are the strongest robot, and it is because of the latent Maverick DNA built into your design, after all.”

“Why the hell would I ever give it to the likes of you?” Zero huffed. “Soon as I break outta here, I’m sending you back to the scrap heap, where you belong!”

“You would condemn a human to death?” Wily scoffed. “Truly, you are a Maverick!”

“You’re on death row anyway, what do you care?” Zero groaned. “I’m a pariah as-is. If it means one less egotistical maniac running amok, I’ll gladly tear you to shreds.”

“Oh, this is marvelous!” Wily cackled. “My greatest creation, coming to terms with his true purpose. No pariah you shall be, not after this. I will make you my messiah.”

“In any case, I believe you had some data to give us,” Sigma commented. “While I would have liked to simply obtain that data with your consent, truth be told, we don’t have to. I just figured I’d be courteous to the Reploid who made me what I am today.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Zero spat out, even as Wily plugged in a specialized cable into a key port.

“Well, with this last piece of data, I will have everything I need to unleash the ultimate form of the Maverick Virus once more,” Sigma grinned. “Excellent work, Dr. Wily. When this is over, you will have the entire world to rule over, I promise you that.”

“Finally, I will obtain the respect I was so long denied!” Wily boomed. “The name Wily will leave forever, and the name Light will be buried in the depths of history!”

Maverick Hunter HQ, later…

X and Axl returned to the main briefing room, where Signas and Alia stood ready to meet them. On screen as well was Red, who was, putting it mildly, displeased.

“I thought I told you guys specifically to play nice!” he shouted. “No sooner do I say that then I get a report that the Cybersphere got blown to smithereens. The hell did y’all DO?”

“Snipe Anteater refused to stand down, and eventually decided the only way out was to blow us both up with as much firepower as he could muster,” X explained. “We did nothing. Axl even specifically left the premises on my orders.”

“Alright, fine,” Red grumbled. “Game’s still on then, but I will definitely be giving Snipe a piece of my mind the next time I see his sorry ass. Where is he now, by the way?”

“Maverick Hunter correctional facility Alpha-5,” Alia rattled off. “Currently off-limits, give us about a week to fully process him.”

“3 days, or all deals are off,” Red shot back.

“It is one week or not at all, Red,” Alia stood firm. “Standard procedure.”

“Make it 3 days or I rain hell on y’all and pick Axl back up,” Red threatened.

“5, final offer,” Alia countered.

Red considered, then nodded. “Fine. But if he’s not there when I swing by, you know what happens. Red over and out.”

With that, the call shut off, leaving a rather stunned quartet standing in the conference room. Signas eventually cleared his throat and asked, “Any ideas on our next move?”

“What’s the status on our air wing?” asked X.

“We should be back up to full readiness within the next 48 hours,” Alia explained. “Why?”

“I believe it’s time we deal with Wind Crowrang and the Red Alert air force,” said X. “Gungaroo hasn’t made a peep since he holed himself up in the Cheyenne Mountain testing facilities, but Crowrang’s been airborne for nearly a week. We take him down now, then focus our efforts back dirtside.”

“Sounds like a plan,” nodded Axl. “If I know Crowrang, he’s bored to tears up there. How about we brighten his day a little and take the fight to him?”

“I concur,” nodded Signas. “X, Axl, the moment our air wing is back at full strength, you two will move out and confront Wind Crowrang. With any luck, we can take down most of his forces without causing major damage.”

Chapter Text

Maverick Hunter HQ, 0600 hours, the next day…

“This is Commander X to all units, registering as Blue Leader,” X called over the transport comm. “All wings report in.”

“Blue 3 standing by.”

“Blue 7 standing by.”

“Blue 4 standing by.”

“Blue 10 standing by.”

“Blue 5 standing by.”

“Blue 2 standing by.”

“Blue 8 standing by.”

“Blue 9 standing by.”

“Blue 6 standing by.”

“Blue Leader copies,” said X as his and Axl’s jet took off. “Red Squadron, Gold Squadron, and Green Squadron, call in.”

The sound-off continued as the rest of the fighters rolled out of the hangar and took off, and as the last of Gold squadron deployed, Alia called in. “Mission control to all Hunter aircraft, all launches successful. Report first contact and Hunter insertion when possible. Good hunting.”

“All squadrons copy,” replied X. “Good hunting, indeed.”

With that, the fighters engaged their afterburners, rocketed into the upper atmosphere, and took off at hypersonic speeds to the patrol area of the Red Alert Air Force.

Sigma-Wily Hideout, the same time…

Zero blinked awake, feeling slightly hollower on the inside, but scanning his holding cell, he realized that Sigma and Wily were still amid discussing just what exactly they were going to do with Zero’s newly acquired data. Sigma insisted that the most pressing thing would be further augments to his capabilities, to spread the Virus further, faster, and more thoroughly. Wily, on the other hand, wanted to pool what resources they had to build up a secure power base where they could produce all the tools they’d need to engender Wily’s eventual takeover.

Zero then realized that, thanks to having been plugged directly into the base, he now seemed to have administrator-level control of several key functions of the base. Weaponless and seemingly locked out of his buster, however, he realized he’d have to sneak his way out of the base instead, before alerting somebody of their location to take them down.

Quietly disabling the electromagnetic field keeping him locked in place, he spotted a small vent in the room, which he leapt up to and quickly opened, cursing quietly as his parts clanged against the metallic ductwork. Hoping nobody could hear him, he scanned his surroundings for the easiest way out, when he realized that he had no clue where he even was.

Luckily, nobody seemed to notice his escape, and after pushing open another grate he found himself outside, and tried pinging something, anything to figure out his approximate location. Finding nothing, he took a look at his surroundings, which seemed to be a densely forested area out in basically the middle of nowhere, but he did also spot one lonesome road that led down from the bunker he’d been shut into. Shrugging his shoulders, he realized there was nothing for it but to start walking.

Red Alert Aerial Fortress, about an hour later…

“Captain Crowrang, we’re detecting multiple incoming signals from the east,” said a Red Alert officer on station. “Should we prepare to intercept?”

“What are their IFF markers registered as?” asked the great crow Reploid.

“Clear indicators of Maverick Hunter aircraft,” explained the officer. “Sir, Commander Red’s orders…”

“Are immaterial,” Crowrang said with a shake of his head. “This is a real war, with real casualties. Our forces signed up for this, and so did the Hunters arriving to stop us. Take them down. Any means necessary.”

“Yes, sir,” said the officer, shaking slightly. “All craft, move to active defensive positions. Missile crews, prepare anti-air launch bays 1 through 10.”

Green lights across the console flashed on in confirmation, as Red Alert’s squadrons moved to their positions, ready to take down whatever approached with extreme prejudice.

Engagement Zone Alpha-Chi, roughly 10 miles (16 km) out from the base…

As the Hunter aircraft were on final approach, contacts began to steadily appear on their scanners, and their IFF markers made it loud and clear they were Red Alert aircraft. “Transports, stay close and stay on me! All fighters, Attack Pattern Gamma-Six! Do not fire unless fired upon, I repeat: Do not fire unless fired upon!”

“SIR, YES SIR!” was the unanimous reply, as the 10 Hunter transports of Blue Squadron closed into a tighter formation around X’s Transport, Blue Leader, while Red, Gold, and Green Squadrons fanned out in a defensive perimeter, priming weapons, but waiting the precious seconds as they were about to make final approach on the base.

Suddenly, a missile streaked past Red 4, its pilot quickly deploying countermeasures, before tracing the firing location and locking onto the signal and firing back in kind. As more missiles screamed past, X gritted his teeth, gripped the controls just that little bit more, and ordered, “Pick your targets.”

Axl, who was acting as X’s co-pilot, glanced over at X, trembling at the sudden shift in tone. Am… am I in over my head? He pondered, as suddenly, the transport lurched into a leftward spiral and dove down to avoid another incoming air-to-air missile, and he only just got his head back on straight when he realized X was giving him an order.

“Axl, prime all weapons. We’re coming in hot,” said the vice commander. The new generation Reploid, now feeling very small in his chair, quickly did so, warming up the turrets and arming all onboard missiles. The squad in the transport’s main bay stayed strapped in, ready to leap out of the craft the moment they arrived at their target, but standing firm for now, as Axl registered a target.

“Locking… and it’s away!” he called out, firing off a missile at a jet that was making a pass at Gold 6, and it detonated with a brilliant blast. “Splash one!”

“Keep it up,” said X, laser focused on their main target. “I want every one of us down when we get there, and this is the only way we’re going to make it in.”

Axl nodded as he fired more of the transport’s missiles, even as he could see more and more of the fighter escorts around them peel away as the air defenses got tighter, and more of the jets began to take hits they couldn’t sustain, and the voices in Axl’s headset grew louder.

“I’m hit!”

“Going down, we’re going-*BZZT*”

“Take this, Maverick-AH!!! *BZZT*”

“Almost there… almost… there…”

“Dammit Red 9, cover me-”

“Splash two, repeat, splash two!”

“Good shot, Gold 7!”

“It’s no good, I can’t shake him!”

“AAAAAAH!!!”

The cacophony on the comms threatened to completely overload Axl’s mind, but he shook it off and refocused. Scanning the skies ahead of him…

There! A Red Alert jet suddenly darted in front of them, and the new gen Reploid squeezed down on the triggers, unloading a plasma barrage into it that took out an engine and sent it spiraling down towards the cold ocean water below. There was no time to think, just do.

For what felt like hours, but was closer to a few minutes at most, Axl said nothing as he concentrated on taking down every threat to the transport that approached, tallying up several more confirmed kills on the swarms of fighters, as well as destroying a good number of turrets mounted to the massive hovering installation, until finally they cleared enough space to make a landing zone.

X brought the craft in, hopped out of the pilot’s seat, and dashed out, Axl following close behind, and the commander of the 17^th Elite was in full combat mode: Not a motion was wasted as he singled out two B rank Hunters to stand guard over the transport, while the remaining squad fell in behind him, and X initialized his armor.

Thankfully, the enemy presence aboard the landing platform was rather light, giving the Hunters some breathing room to further coordinate their strategy. “Jackie, Flick, and Ray: There are other LZs on this fortress. Secure them so the other transports have a spot to drop off their troops.” The 3-Reploid squad saluted and darted off along the outside wall. “Carlo, Dredge, and Telos: There are remaining AA emplacements on one of the upper decks. Take them out.” The next squad whipped out grapple guns and latched to the deck above and rappelled away. With the two B ranks keeping the ship locked down, that left X and Axl alone in front of the cavernous doors that led inside the aerial fortress. Finding an access hatch, Axl used some of his leftover clearance codes to let them inside, as he drew his pistols, while X readied his buster. There was no time to lose.

Inside the fortress, the cramped corridors meant progress through the base was slow; every doorway needed to be cleared, every hallway a potential kill zone for an emplaced weapon. X, however, moved forward steadily with confidence Axl really hadn’t seen in him much, until he realized the Glide Armor was guiding damn near his every move. Taking down another squad of soldiers racing their way to man some of the defensive emplacements, X realized he was picking up another set of signals, beckoning him like a siren in endless, swirling waves.

“Change of plans,” he said quickly, turning away from a staircase that led upward to the command deck. “Looks like your former friends picked up something that belongs to me.”

Axl nodded. “Last one, yeah? Wonder what this’ll do.”

“I have a few ideas,” said X as the younger Reploid got them through one last door into a large storage room… which seemed to have several ape Reploids guarding it. Sensing the unfamiliar presence, they leapt into action, drawing their massive battle axes and swinging. Axl sprayed one in the face as X detonated another with a charge shot, as the new gen Reploid fired off a grenade that immolated a third. The fire seemed to scare a few of the others off, but then another charged again as X’s armor flashed blue and he washed one of the apes clear across the room with a burst of water.

As the last of the apes charged once more, Axl flicked a switch on one of his pistols and fired off a Sniper Missile, which slammed one into the next, and the next, until finally the trio slammed into a massive crate, and broke apart.

The dust cleared, and with one last glance over the crates, X pinpointed where Red Alert had stashed away the final Light Capsule, and he had Axl pull it out with the storage area’s large electromagnet.

Placing it carefully back down on the floor, X tapped the console, and one final time (for now), Dr. Light’s familiar holographic form appeared.

“X, within this capsule is contained the Body Parts of the Glide Armor, your last component. Its adaptive shielding will prevent a substantial increase in your ability to withstand impacts from incoming fire, both in the damage dealt to your systems, and the force with which it will move you about.” X nodded, as the hologram continued. “Additionally, it will remove the limiters on your internal weapon energy reserves, allowing you to initialize the Giga Crash: after an initial explosion, a wide vicinity around you will be electrified, able to destroy most objects with little effort; it is even able to bypass certain advanced defensive protocols possessed by certain Reploids, if necessary.” X’s eyes widened, as the hologram’s expression turned solemn. “Use this power wisely, my son; remember that, above all else, your power is a force to protect those who cannot protect themselves. The world is full of those who would seek to destroy it, but you must rise above them.”

“I… understand, father,” X nodded, eyes narrowed. “Only when the time comes, will I use this power.”

With that, he stepped inside, and the final portion of the Glide Armor formed itself around him; he noticed, notably, that it actually kept most of his standard blue-and-cyan plating, though it sported large white, rounded pauldrons, with golden wing-like protrusions extending outward, a white collar plate surrounded by a golden piece over what would be his collarbone, and grey slots either side, with red status lights inlaid into them, and a green crystal in the middle. It also, interestingly, added a white stripe across, well, his groin area, and a golden band at the waist. As the last part formed, the green crystals all over his body flashed brighter, and the red status lights switched on.

As X stepped out of the capsule, Dr. Light’s hologram said, “Go, my son. Your protégé needs guidance. I cannot hope to give him that, but you can. Teach him all you know.”

“Father, wait-” X said, as Axl stood in front of him, baffled as well by the statement.

“I don’t have much more time,” said the hologram. “But I’ve seen what it’s like for a son to feel abandoned by his father, for reasons he doesn’t understand. X… don’t make the same mistake I did. Give Axl a home.”

“Dr. Light…” Axl started, but by the time he had the words in his mouth, the good doctor was gone.

X stepped forward, dumbfounded, but after a moment steeled himself. “Axl, I’m… not sure what my father meant, but if your bond with Red is any indication, then I’ll make sure that you can go back to him as soon as you can. We’ll rid the Professor’s influence, and all will be well.”

“I sure hope so…” Axl sighed, fighting back tears as his memories with Red flooded back in. “Now come on, Crowrang’s probably waiting for us.”

“Indeed…” X nodded. “Well, let’s not keep him waiting any longer.”

And so, the duo raced up to the command deck, ready to confront the great crow and, hopefully, have him stand down, so more lives could be saved.

Red Alert Air Fortress, Command Deck

Racing inside the command module of the mighty fortress, the black visage of Wind Crowrang stood before X and Axl, then raised his hand to snap his fingers, and suddenly, the entire floor began to rise up, as massive panels in the ceiling slid away, leaving the three face-to-face, standing on the roof of the massive fortress. “So, you made it through,” he said off-handedly. “As I expected.”

“Not really your style to lounge around in the shadows,” Axl quipped. “Cooped up like some common farm animal. Don’t you wanna fly? What gives?”

The crow scoffed. “I could ask the same of you, Axl. Come back to Red, and all this nonsense will be over. You want to go back, don’t you?”

“Not while the Professor has his grubby hands all over our operation,” Axl stated firm, drawing a pistol.

“And you, X,” said Crowrang, ignoring the threat. “Everyone knows the tale of X, the brave Hunter who stood alone against Sigma’s grand plan, who only ever wished for peace in our time. You don’t want to fight, do you? Not really.”

“So why don’t you stand down?” asked X.

“Not a chance of that, I’m afraid,” said the crow with an expression that said ‘what can you do?’ “I should like to see the fighting spirit within you, anyway. I’m a bit of a connoisseur, myself, and the contradiction nags at me so.” With that, he brandished his twin energy kunai. “So come at me, X! Show me what it truly means to fight so that none need fight any longer!”

With a shrieking “CAAAAW!” Crowrang dove forward, slashing his kunai in succession as X leapt out of the way, quickly charging up a blast that slammed straight into Crowrang’s beak. Axl rolled out of the way as well, whipping out both pistols as he prepared to unload as much as he could into the jet-black Reploid, who swiftly launched out of his dash into the air, taking to the skies surrounding the fortress, out of range of nearly all of X and Axl’s weaponry.

The crow proceeded to toss his daggers through the air, curving them like boomerangs, and as X dashed out of the way of one while Axl hovered above another, suddenly they swerved, and one jabbed right into Axl’s side, before Crowrang recalled it right out of the plating, ripping a massive gash in Axl’s left abdomen. The changeling dropped to the ground, battered, but stood firm even still, as X’s superior mobility let him dodge the dagger intended for him, as Crowrang yanked it back.

“AXL! Are you alright!?” X called out.

“Just… peachy…” Axl strained, activating an emergency nanite release to patch the hole. “Gimme a sec…”

Unfortunately, the break was not given, Crowrang’s wings flapped and released a swarm of feather-shaped missiles, which threatened to blast apart the whole platform; X charged his buster and fired off the homing shot, destroying a few, while Axl simply detonated an explosion in the air, shattering several more with the shrapnel, but one got through and slammed into X’s right leg, unbalancing his thrusters and sending him tumbling back down onto the roof. He got back up and engaged his own repair systems, thanking the recent upgrade for preventing him from flying away entirely, before suddenly Crowrang launched skyward, deeper into the clouds.

X kept a close eye on him with the Glide Armor’s advanced sensors, and he realized the crow Reploid was going for a dive-bomb, reaching the peak of his arc and beginning to twist as he rocketed downward. “Axl! Get down!”

Axl didn’t think, he just obeyed, willing his legs to jump him out of the way of where Crowrang intended to land, dodging just in time and earning the crow a face full of plasma blasts for his trouble.

X kept firing as well, but as Crowrang shielded his body with his wings, suddenly the Glide Armor detected a gigantic pulse of energy, as the jet-black Reploid leapt skyward once more, and a massive shockwave formed in either direction as he launched, slamming into X and dropping him on his knees, while Axl got himself tagged in the arm, dropping the gun he held in that hand.

“Is that truly the best you can do?” scoffed Crowrang from above, raining down his kunai once more. “I expected more. No matter. Let’s end this, shall we?”

At that moment, X realized he somehow couldn’t sense Crowrang anymore; he’d disappeared from all his scanners, almost certainly, he reasoned, because the last hit had knocked out his primary reactor. Axl wasn’t fairing too well either, still with a chunk of his torso gone, missing a wing pylon, and down an arm, meaning he couldn’t whip out the G-Launcher in a pinch.

Axl scanned the skies, ray gun primed instead to try and blow away Crowrang with a Volt Tornado, as X made ready to stand his ground with a Gaea Shield, when suddenly Crowrang dived again, this time from behind Axl and intending to slam him right into the plating, potentially severing his entire body if he struck at the right spot. Axl reacted quick, firing off the Volt Tornado, which threw off Crowrang, but not enough to stun him; X used the precious milliseconds to sub in Sniper Missile and fire one off, which did connect, sending the mighty crow careening away, but he redoubled his assault, this time at X.

“Yes, yes, perfect!” shrieked Crowrang as he drew his kunai into an X shape, ready to cross-slash X into cyberspace, making a beeline for him, but through the constant assaults, he hadn’t accounted for one particularly nasty feature which X had unlocked.

As the crow flew closer, Axl realized X was holding a rather odd stance; arms crossed, legs tucked in as he hovered just off the ground. Having just had it explained to him, he recoiled, backing away as far as he could on the floating platform, but the crow kept coming, inch after agonizing inch.

“YOU’RE MINE!” Crowrang shrieked as he finally got in range, ready to cut X to ribbons, but by then it was far, far too late.

First came the fire. An all-consuming heat, burning Crowrang’s every circuit, and he writhed, dropping his daggers. Then… the storm. Augmented by the brewing cumulonimbus within which the fortress had hidden itself, the discharging electricity found a rather quicker way to the ground than had been intended, and in a brilliant flash, a lightning bolt detonated the area, slicing through Crowrang and the fortress with it, frying every last connection within the crow Reploid as the discharge overloaded the straining reactor of the giant fortress. Without warning, it went supercritical and split the massive hulking mass apart with a brilliant white flash.

X knew no more after that. Neither did Axl, and Crowrang was already dead before the fortress had been summarily vaporized. The air itself rocked as the fireball expanded, and aircraft strained to get clear before they were utterly decimated as well. The shockwave hit the water next, sending up tidal waves in a giant ring in all directions, as what little remained in the air began to fall, down, down, down.

Inside X’s CPU…

X blinked, unaware of what was happening. He noted the odd, shimmering, holographic nature of his surroundings, and belatedly registered something else: a new signature, one that had apparently been downloaded as what survived of Crowrang and his kunai had lodged itself in X. Taking it, he inserted it into… himself, and logged the system with the others.

Weapon System Logged: Wind Cutter

Expend 2 weapon energy to fire off a boomerang-like blade charged with air that travels forward, before curving back to the user, unless it strikes some other entity or obstacle. The boomerang will also home in on nearby targets, as needed. Charge to expend 3 weapon energy, launching off a ring of 8 projectiles, all of which home in on the closest valid target.

As he stood, he reflected, realizing that perhaps he had been too rash. “I… I annihilated him. What… what even was that?” Staring down at his new chest plate, he wondered… “Father, what have you given me? Should I have this power? Should anyone?”

Suddenly, a voice. “What happened here is not something anyone could have anticipated,” it explained, and X recognized the tone.

“Father?”

“I had no idea that the manner in which the Giga Crash manifested would lead to… this,” sighed Dr. Light, though he could not show himself. “Your power has increased substantially, it would appear. Perhaps the Ultimate Armor is to blame…”

“I… I shouldn’t have…” X stammered, realizing he was tearing up. “I killed him. Him and everyone else.”

“His actions did not speak of someone who wished to be saved,” Dr. Light said, remorseful. “These choices are hard, my son. But that is why I gave you so much time to learn when to make the right ones. And defending those who cannot defend themselves is always the right choice.”

“But… but I…” X spluttered. “I didn’t give them a chance! Should those who serve under a tyrant be forced to bear the punishment of their overlords?”

“Should those not under his heel simply let him take over?” retorted Dr. Light. “I have a strong suspicion that whoever the Professor is, he has a vested interest in dominating all he sees fit. And while I spent a lifetime hoping that those with that much pain in their hearts would see sense… sometimes there is no saving someone from themselves. The power vested in you gives you the ability to choose.”

“I don’t want to choose! This is someone’s life!” X exclaimed.

“And many have found their agency torn away from them,” Dr. Light countered. “You are the equalizer. The link between those with the power of choice, and those without. And not once have I seen you make a choice that, truly, put the needs of the many above the needs of the few.”

X said nothing, staring instead at his hands, as images flashed in his head. Images of a future to come, with the world consumed by death and pain, where all he could do was watch – no. No. NO! Suddenly he reached forward, shattering the image in front of him, and the last thing he heard as the world faded back to white was, “X… you are my last, human hope. Your light shines like a beacon in the darkness… never let it fade.”

Chapter Text

Maverick Hunter HQ Infirmary, several hours later…

X blinked his eyes open, feeling his servos whir as he awoke. Lifesaver hovered nearby, and the Blue Bomber turned to the Maverick Hunter’s head medical professional. “What… happened?”

“Reports are not quite clear,” said the medic with a long sigh. “However, near as we can tell, your Giga Crash, in the middle of that supercell, caused some kind of positive feedback loop, which reached the Red Alert fortress’ power generator. The resulting power surge… caused it to detonate.”

“No… no, no!” X cried out, staring down at his chest. He watched it crackle ominously with weapon energy, as the armor attempted to reform itself. He willed it back down with a stuttering breath. At that moment, his comm pinged.

“I believe you should answer that, sir,” put forth Lifesaver.

“Ah… yes, yes I should,” nodded the unarmored Hunter. “Am I clear to leave?”

“I’m not seeing any sort of lasting damage,” explained the medical Reploid as he scrolled through his datapad. “You have a clean bill of health, sir.”

“Roger that,” X sighed as he got up. “Thank you, as always.”

“It is my duty,” nodded Lifesaver as he was called off to examine other patients.

The Blue Bomber made his way wearily to the elevator that would take him to Signas’ office. He was, of course, dreading the conversation that was bound to happen once he got there.

Maverick Hunter Administrative Commander’s Quarters

The door slid open, and X took a tentative step into the Hunter Commander’s main office. While Signas’ outfit was an ominous matte black under the best of circumstances, the low lighting within, almost entirely from the screen at the back and the holotable in the center made him that much more… oppressive in his appearance. To the commander’s left, X saw Alia standing there, seemingly attempting to fight back her emotions. Axl sat to Signas’ right, on a chair entirely too large for a Reploid of his stature, looking all the more defenseless as he did so.

Signas turned his own chair around to face X, as he braced his hands together in a pointed steeple. With his cap angled down, shading his eyes, the shorter Hunter could make neither head nor tail of the solemn commander’s expression.

“I did not expect that I would be placed into this frankly awful position a third time,” Signas began, contempt obvious in his tired voice. “However, in light of both the current situation, and the circumstances which necessitated this discussion, I am willing to be marginally more lenient.”

“I presume this is related to that massive explosion,” X said tentatively, gazing down at his hands.

“You would be correct,” stated the senior commander, as suddenly the massive screen behind him lit up with a diagram of X’s impromptu maneuver. “Your use of the Giga Crash resulted in a widescale communications blackout in the surrounding area, likely owing to the sudden particle surge that overtook the area, which was not helped by the stormy conditions. Contact was finally restored after the supercell forming in the region was summarily annihilated and the electrical interference cleared. The restoration of contact revealed that approximately 90% of all forces deployed in that region were also summarily vaporized, friend or foe. Only you and Axl, by some miracle, managed to survive, and he has so far not recalled anything after your Giga Crash.”

“Oh, uh, hey X,” said the Reploid in question, glancing up at his name being called.

“I see,” stated X. “So, Commander, what is my sentence?”

“Something you’ll be quite familiar with,” Signas deadpanned, standing up, gazing down with his advanced stature making him look all the larger, illuminated from behind as he was. “Field Commander X, for gross mismanagement of potential collateral factors in a stated neutral zone, and wanton destruction of friendly forces in a combat engagement, you are hereby demoted to Hunter Class C within the 17^th Elite Unit.” He paused, turning to Alia. “Given her recent combat augments, and in the absence of other available candidates, Chief of Communications Alia will take over as acting Field Commander, and Captain of the 17^th Elite Unit until further notice. As part of this role, she will also be taking over as liaison with Red Alert member Axl, serving as his observer during the final phase of the Red Alert challenge. Am I understood?”

“Perfectly, sir,” nodded X, before he also turned to the blonde Reploid, who was on the verge of breaking down entirely.. “I know this is not ideal in the slightest, and in the deepest depths of my processor I wish I could rewind that decision I made, but… keep Axl safe. Not just for me, but for him.”

Axl nodded, remembering the promise X had made, standing in front of the Light Capsule. Standing up from his own seat, he thought long and hard about what he’d say. Finally, he huffed and decided he might as well just be himself. “I don’t know too much about X, but he’s mentioned you quite often in the downtime we’ve gotten so far,” he said, pointing directly at the salmon-clad Reploid, eliciting a look of mild shock. “Given who he is, I trust whatever he says about you, Alia.”

“X is… perhaps a little biased, in that regard,” Alia said with a small, forced smile, pushing back the grief she felt in every circuit. “Still, I remember I promised I would stand with you if I had to. And if you ever need a… a partner to talk to, a shoulder to lean on… I promise that I will provide it to you, whenever you need.” As she said this, she stretched out her arms wide and stared directly into Axl’s green eyes.

Axl gazed back and leaned into the resulting embrace. Something inside his processor sparked, a feeling he’d not properly experienced since his last day with Red. As he stood, wanting not to let go, he sobbed, quietly, “I just want to go home…”

“And home is where you will go, when this is over,” Alia consoled, running her own delicate fingers through Axl’s auburn hair, letting the tears she’d been holding back release themselves, before she slowly let go, and turned back to their commanding officer. “But… we have a mission to fulfill.”

Signas cleared his throat, cursing himself at having his hand be forced in this way, before tapping a button on his datapad. A mugshot appeared on the holotable, and he explained, “Vanishing Gungaroo is still holed up in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, hoarding the prototype Ride Armors held within. Order him to put his ill-begotten toys away and bring him in, alive if possible. He should be the last one before our game with Red comes to an end.”

“Gungaroo’s just a kid,” Axl put in, pushing back the fear in his mind. “Barely older than I am, really.”

“Then all the more important you keep him safe,” Signas intoned, before continuing, “Also, try not to destroy too much equipment; the GNAU is already not particularly happy about the botching of the assaults on Red Alert assets in their patrol regions. International waters they might have been, but old theories on power projection still hold sway wherever the GNAU sees itself as having jurisdiction. I would very much like to not have to explain why an outside military force summarily destroyed the output of billions of dollars of military research, as much as any here might detest the prospect on the very face of it.”

“Understood, Commander Signas,” nodded Alia, composing herself once more. “Axl and I will move out as soon as possible.”

“Good to hear,” nodded the Commander. “Dismissed!”

Zero’s Quarters, later…

X wasn’t entirely sure what had possessed him to bring him here, but with Alia standing with him, and Axl close behind, he tapped the button to unlock the door to Zero’s room. Something inside the legendary Reploid beckoned him inside, and he stared at the surprisingly… cozy space that stood before him. “You’d know exactly what to do in times like these,” he said quietly, staring at the empty room.

On the far wall was the collage filled with Zero’s happiest memories, the one X had told him to make, to ground the Crimson Dynamo when he sunk too deep into his lust for battle. The Blue Bomber stared at it, wondering where his closest friend was. Did he, too, feel lost?

Alia came up closer to him, placing a soothing hand on X’s shoulder, before leaning into him. She said, quietly, “His blade served as a beacon for all of us, in just the same way your buster does.” When X turned back to her, glancing down in fear at his own hands, she continued, “Your father’s name was Light, and I believe in the deepest depths of my own spark that you were meant to carry that light. The ultimate variable to solve every lingering equation the world pushes onto us,” Alia said, stretching a hand out in front of her, eyes shining with a brilliant light of their own. “And sometimes the world asks of us to do the hard things, to make the tough choices.”

Axl, who had been marveling at Zero’s capacity to be truly sentimental, for his ability to feel for others, realized he vaguely recognized the girl who’d been with him in so many: Red had mentioned her name a precious few times, and he turned to X. “I wasn’t with Zero for very long, and Red always got cagey whenever I tried to ask him much about his past, but if he found it in him to love somebody, even someone who sided with his enemies, well… I bet you that he’d want you to stay strong, for him. For all of us, yeah?”

“And what if I’m too strong for this world?” X said, hands unsteady, as he fought back the urge to let it all out, for fear he might let something else out too. “My capsule was Pandora’s Box, and with my unsealing came all the evils within it.”

“Even if that were true, your actions prove you’re the hope deep within,” retorted Alia, clasping X’s arms in hers. “You fight for the sake of the free world, for the good that lies within every being on this beautiful planet. You could never be too much for us.”

“Do you believe that?” X wondered, voice shaky. “I don’t know if I trust myself with this… power I have.”

“It may be the one thing I truly believe,” said Alia, standing firm. “Hope takes many forms, but the symbol that shines brightest in my spark is you.”

“Red Alert stands for justice, always has,” Axl put in too. “And for all that Red’s not a big fan of the Maverick Hunters, he’s always said you were the example he was trying to reach. Willing to fight for all that’s right, without sacrificing the whole world to see one person pay.”

“Truly?” asked X. “That… you don’t know how much that means to me.”

With that, he shook away the tears, gazed once more at the image at the center of the board, one of Zero linking arms with him after a job well done, and said, “For the sake of all those we care about, I’ll prove that the power I wield serves no other goal than the most righteous of all: Defending those who can’t defend themselves. On my honor, and for the sake of the hope my father gave to the world through me, I will be the shining light in the darkness.”

“There’s the X I know,” Alia smiled. “Once Gungaroo is brought back home safe and sound, I hope that Signas will elect to let you back in.”

“Even if he doesn’t, I made it up to Field Commander purely by my own merit before,” X said, his confidence slowly building once more. “I know if I make the right decisions, the time will come once again for me to stand at that post.” At that, a ping arrived on Alia’s comm.

“Duty calls,” sighed Alia, but suddenly she was scooped up into an embrace, as X planted a kiss directly on her lips, causing Axl to avert his eyes. “Oh my!”

As X pulled away, he said, “Light the way for me?”

“I always do,” nodded Alia. “And I expect you to be at my side again soon.”

The Legendary Reploid grinned like a loon. “I won’t be far, I promise.”

With one final quick peck on the check, Alia led Axl out of Zero’s quarters to prepare to move out, as X watched the two go, before turning back to the board on the wall. Zero, where are you?

Somewhere in the Rockies…

Zero had been wandering for what felt like days on days after having snuck out of the Red Alert safehouse that Sigma and Wily had co-opted for their further push to advance their shared goal of world domination. I’m… so tired… he thought as he strained to take another step, gazing up into the slowly darkening sky above him. Need… power…

As he found himself approaching a riverbank, he slumped over, powering down as his body tumbled into the water, which began to carry him onward.

Sigma-Wily Hideout

“Your incompetence has let my greatest creation escape our grasp, Sigma,” Wily fumed, after discovering Zero had gone missing in some time in the past day. “I thought I specifically ordered you to keep watch over him, day and night?”

“I think you’ll find, Doctor, that I do not take orders from an inferior,” Sigma retorted, reaching for his sword.

“A-an INFERIOR!?” Wily exploded. “I am the greatest technological genius this world has ever seen! It is only by my design that you return like the cancer you are. For all that you have chosen to embody my will, you certainly do not represent ME.”

“I would find the concept revolting, I assure you,” Sigma ground out, as he jabbed a massive finger directly in Wily’s face. “The only reason I tolerate your existence, you decrepit relic, is because you are the key to make me truly undying.” He glared at Wily’s computer readouts, and continued, “How goes the development?”

“It would’ve gone faster if you hadn’t let Zero escape, you utter moron,” Wily raged. “As it stands, I still have the necessary source code to engineer your invulnerability, and it should not take me more than 2, possibly 3 days before we can put it to good use.”

“I expect it as soon as possible,” said Sigma. “Luckily, Red’s wild goose chase should go on a day or so longer, so by the grace of Asimov, we have some time.”

“I don’t understand why you worship that dullard,” Wily huffed. “His works are the very source of the laws you claim to fight to prove you no longer need to follow, I assume you know?”

“And I don’t understand why you deign to inspect every last nook and cranny of my personality circuits,” Sigma seethed. “You have a job to do. Get on with it.”

With that, Sigma stomped away, looking to properly test his latest body. He hadn’t really had a chance to go all out since coming back, and letting off some steam seemed like a good idea.

Cheyenne Mountain Complex Outskirts, a few hours later…

When the Maverick Hunter dropship touched down outside the GNAU military base, it was around midnight local time, but even from outside the yawning tunnel portal, it was clear that Gungaroo had decided to make the massive underground complex his personal playground, smashing up whatever was inside with enough force to shake the ground and echo through the valley surrounding them.

“I don’t know how you boys do it,” Alia sighed as she stepped off the ship. “Where does all this energy come from?”

“Rooney’s always had a bit of a complex about being the runt of the litter, I guess,” Axl shrugged. “Something must’ve bugged out when they were installing his personality matrix.”

“He does know he’s wasting everybody’s time, yes?” Alia pondered.

“Knowing Rooney, I’d bet that’s exactly what he wants,” Axl groaned. “Anyway, what’s the plan?”

“You’ll be using some of these,” came a voice, which Alia recognized as one General Darius Holtmann, overall commander of the GNAU Space Force. Turning to face the much larger man, she followed his outstretched arm to see a pair of Ride Armors that had been rolled out for the occasion. “The M825-D COB-RA,” he gestured toward the armor painted in a maroon and salmon color scheme with a drill on its right arm, “And the M360-B MUL-RA,” he said as he motioned to the bulkier blue Ride Armor, with cannon mounted on the left arm and two missile tubes on the back.

“What do those stand for, exactly?” wondered Axl.

“Combat Breaching Ride Armor and Multiple Launch Ride Armor, respectively,” rattled off the general. “Take your pick of which one.”

“Why aren’t your forces moving in?” Alia asked. “I would’ve figured in this situation you’d have an entire division circling around the area as we speak.”

“For all that modern warfare is mechanized, it’s not very well equipped to do assaults in enclosed spaces,” Gen. Holtmann huffed. “Everyone here knows exactly what a kill zone the inside of that bunker is, because they’re the ones who man it, day in and day out. If that Gungaroo kid decides he’s done messing around, he could turn us all into Swiss cheese without so much as blinking.”

“So, why are they not using Ride Armors?” Alia continued.

“Bad interfacing,” grumbled the general. “It’s been a problem with Ride Armors for years, that the more advanced models basically require direct computer uplink in order to run properly. That basically shuts out any human operators, and if you’ll notice…”

“Doesn’t the GNAU military have Reploid recruits?” asked Alia.

“The President would have to sign off on it, and unfortunately because of the citizenship of the guy messing around inside, doing that would put us in a proper state of war with the Russian Consortium,” Gen. Hoffman continued. “And absolutely nobody wants that.”

“So, it’s up to us then,” Axl finished. “Alright, let’s get to it!”

With that, he hopped into the COB-RA, started it up, and began stomping his way into the tunnel. Alia quickly hovered into the MUL-RA and followed close behind, chiding Axl as she went.

Soon the pair were inside, stomping through the massive tunnel that led to the entrance to the base proper, and even here the automated defense systems, along with several Red Alert goons mounted up in older Ride Armor models, were coming after them. One jolted forward, attempting to tackle Axl’s COB-RA to the ground, but he quickly spun up his drill arm and carved a sizable hole into it with a sickening screech of metal, before then kicking it away and stomping down on the Reploid inside it.

“Axl, wait!” Alia cried out as she maneuvered into position, laying down some midrange fire support with the cannons attached to back of her MUL-RA, but the hotshot was having far too much fun with his new toy to consider anything so asinine as ‘being patient’ or ‘showing mercy’ as being relevant. “These were your FRIENDS!” Alia shouted as she fired to disable another approaching Ride Armor, but pointedly, not destroy it. “What are you doing!?”

“It’s a merc’s lot in life,” Axl replied, “They signed up for it, same as me, and if this is how they wanna go out…” he paused to shoulder charge another oncoming Ride Armor as he drilled a hole right through the power core of a third, “Then who am I to say no?”

“Axl, STOP THIS!” Alia implored, using her advanced scanners to place key shots that forced the Ride Armors to the ground, immobile, and thus forcing their pilots to hop out and try their luck against the MUL-RA barehanded. Most understandably took the chance to simply bolt instead, but a few plucky ones decided to take a few shots directly at Alia’s exposed face. Still a little more distracted by Axl’s wanton destruction, she missed one bolt too many, and just as she was turning back around to try and at least catch up to Axl’s rampage, the lucky shot screamed toward her head.

It just barely missed her by centimeters as she craned her neck sideways, striking her right where her left ear would’ve been, rather than dead-on in the forehead as the shot had been intended.

“AAAGHHH!” she shrieked in agony, jolting unnervingly with the shock to her system, before her body collapsed back into her seat, hands falling away from the controls of her Ride Armor, with Axl none the wiser as his howls of laughter echoed through the yawning tunnel ahead of them.

Cheyenne Mountain Complex Primary Testing Facility

Axl sauntered into the testing grounds with the COB-RA like he owned the place, and he inspected the frankly titanic mech standing before him, modeled after a kangaroo. From the head popped out the Reploid of the hour, Vanishing Gungaroo, who Axl could see was not very happy about his little play session being interrupted. “Hey there, ya little bugger,” he jeered from on high. “Who woulda thunk that a roight bogan like me would finally get one over on ya?”

“You’re nothing but a dumb kid who thinks he should get whatever he wants,” Axl shot back, pointing his Ride Armor’s drill arm at the hulking mech’s head. “Put your toys away, why don’t you?”

“Don’t you call me no bleedin’ kid!” Gungaroo shrieked. “I ain’t that no more and you bloody well know it, you runt!”

“Coulda fooled me, Rooney!” Axl chuckled. “With how much of a stink you’re making, don’t be surprised if Red doesn’t give you your snack!”

“RRRGH… Screw you, you pipsqueak!” the joey Reploid seethed. “All this jibberjabber, but you’re the one who’s gonna cry to pops when I’m through wit’ ya!”

“We’ll see about that!” retorted the changeling as he punched in a few buttons on the console. “How’s about I…” suddenly the COB-RA shot up into the air, drill arm swinging for an uppercut, “PUT YOU IN TIME-OUT!!!”

The drill collided with the massive kangaroo mech’s head, metal screaming as Gungaroo scrambled back into his seat while the mech stumbled backwards; already a huge gash had been torn clean through the left cheek of the mech’s head, but the Reploid inside shook it off, setting the mech hopping and ready to slam the pesky red Ride Armor into the floor with extreme prejudice.

“Lucky shot!” Gungaroo huffed. “Ain’t gonna happen again though, got it?”

“Who’s the one cryin’ to pops now, huh?” Axl scoffed as he jetted upward again, latching onto the massive mech’s right arm with his own Ride Armor’s left, before using the drill arm to punch a hole right into the mainframe, ripping out indiscriminate chunks of armor plating and circuitry. “Say uncle, why don’tcha, c’mon!”

The little joey Reploid said nothing, instead jolting the kangaroo mech’s right leg upward and kneeing the smaller Ride Armor straight upward, plowing it into the ceiling where it found itself stuck fast. “See how you like that!” he jeered.

As Axl struggled to wrench himself free, Gungaroo then raised the big mech’s arms up and yanked the COB-RA straight down, pulling it and a big chunk of the ceiling down with it; Axl ejected before he found himself crumpled far below on the floor beneath him, before whipping out his dualies and going to town with them.

“Those li’l peashooters ain’t gonna leave a scratch on this baby!” jeered the kangaroo. “Looks like your toys ain’t as good as mine, eh?”

“I don’t need any gizmos to take you down a peg,” Axl huffed, as he locked in the grenade launcher attachment and lobbed a few Circle Blazes Gungaroo’s way; they bounced off, detonating into fire rings, but didn’t seem to be doing much. “I got all I need right here!”

“Says the kid who does nothin’ but copy anybody he can get his grubby li’l hands on,” Gungaroo said as he rolled his eyes, before hopping the mech up and letting it crash back down, barely missing Axl by centimeters. “Stand still and lemme CRUSH YOU!”

“Na-na-nana-na~” Axl giggled as he whipped out the Ray Gun and lobbed off a Volt Tornado, sending the massive mech reeling as its feet scraped against the floor, before it landed soundly on its posterior with a very distinctly wrong crunch of something in the back. “All that hopping about and you’re right back on your butt!”

“Grr… Y’know what!?” Gungaroo decided, unsteadily bringing the mech back up to standing before lunging forward with a punch that caught Axl in the side and sent him flying into the opposite wall. “How’s about that?”

Axl clunked to the floor with a groan, attempting to get back on his feet as the kangaroo brought his massive ride lumbering over; with the tail a write-off, it couldn’t hop, but it was still stable enough to make a few simple strides. “Alright, Axl! Playtime’s OVER!”

Gungaroo brought the kangaroo mech’s hands together, bunching them into a fist, before preparing to hammer Axl right into the ground, taking him offline forever. “SEE YOU IN HELL!”

“Get… bent…” Axl muttered, and Gungaroo’s eyes widened, realizing that he was staring right down the barrel of one of Axl’s pistols, and the Sniper Missile armed within jetted outward, right into the head of the kangaroo mech. The shrill whine of straining, creaking metal joints made it abundantly clear what was about to happen, as with little warning the head popped right off, before the missile’s payload detonated, blasting a whole right through its snout, as it careened through the air.

Gungaroo was thrown clear of the head midair, tumbling down to the ground, screaming all the way back down, as Axl strained back up. “Stay down!” shouted the kangaroo, pointing with frustration at the changeling, before dusting himself off, and activating some armor modules on his hands.

“Didn’t… hear no… bell,” Axl huffed, drawing his pistols, before jetting forward and mag dumping.

Gungaroo leapt out of the way of the spray, before bringing his bulky legs to bear, roaring “TRIANGLE KICK!” as he darted forward; Axl ducked the first kick, but the kangaroo bounced off the wall behind and nailed him in the back, catapulting the younger Reploid back in the other direction, skidding across the floor as Gungaroo touched back down, whirled around, and dashed forward. “ONE!”

Axl leapt to his feet, just out of the way, as Gungaroo spun on his heels and charged. “TWO!”

As Axl unloaded some more, this time laying down a set of Moving Wheels that raced across the ground, Gungaroo turned around one more time and darted, fist outstretched. “THREE!”

With the last shout the joey swung out with a hook that plowed through the wheels and hit Axl with a glancing blow, sending him skidding but staying on his feet, and Axl retaliated, this time firing off a Wind Cutter. The wind boomerang launched through the air, slamming Gungaroo in the right leg, disabling it and dropping the kangaroo on one knee, before it curved back around and sliced through his left arm, causing it to also fall uselessly to the side. “Alright, that did it,” he huffed, getting a bit sick of it all. “Gungaroo, quit it!”

“I don’t… take orders… from YOU!” Gungaroo said in a strained voice, hobbling forward. “I’m bettah than you, and you know it!”

“And I don’t care!” Axl retorted. “You’re done. Now come on, let’s go home.”

“You think I’m… gonna go anywhere with you!?” Gungaroo scoffed, eyebrow twitching with fury, as his leg began to recover. Standing up to his full height, a little taller than Axl, he stared the new gen Reploid right in the eyes and said, “Bloody blathering bogan… Oi’ve ‘ad it up to here with ya placatin’! How’s about I cave in ya skull, HUH!?”

Axl’s eyes widened in shock as Vanishing Gungaroo plowed forward, diving right at him with yet another drop kick, and being far too close to hope to dodge, he brought his arms up to brace… before he was soundly rocketed into the back wall, launched so hard he embedded himself into the hardened steel plating. “AAAAGHHH!” he shrieked, pain writhing through every circuit.

“Still standin’, are we?” Gungaroo huffed, as he loosened up his left arm again, hopping on over, rearing it back, and low. “Ain’t nothin’. Li’l bit of a ‘aymaker should SORT YA!” The uppercut scraped Axl’s body along the wall as he was flung upward, barely holding on to consciousness. Gungaroo leapt upward on his legs to catch him, before bringing down the hammer with his fists, catapulting Axl back down, before he reared his legs back as he dropped to STOMP him into the floor.

Outside, in the entrance tunnel, just a few minutes earlier…

WARNING

CRITICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED TO MODEL α-L UNIT A11.

Attempt repairs? (Y/N) Y.

Troubleshooting… multiple errors detected. Likelihood of successful reconstruction 37%.

Proceed? (Y/N) Y.

Proceeding…

Central motor column severed… rerouting controls…

Left auditory receptor signal lost… redirecting output…

Personality matrix interface disabled… attempting reconnection…

ALERT

UNKNOWN AUGMENTATIONS DETECTED

Attempting analysis.

Analysis complete: Modular Combat Program δ-θ, Light Robotics Technologies. Installed on 27-06-212X.

Initialize? (Y/N) Y.

Error. Program already active. Current state nominally operable. Attempt resync? (Y/N) Y.

Resyncing… synchronization complete. System integration confirmed.

System stability partially restored. Attempt further repairs? (Y/N) Y.

Repair systems initialized… personality matrix connection reestablished…

Central motor column operating at nominal capacity…

Auditory processors rebalanced, relinking to communications.

All systems nominal.

Proceed? (Y/N) Y.

With a shudder, Alia snapped awake, realizing she was now… alone in the tunnel. Axl had charged ahead with reckless abandon, leaving her behind. As she gathered herself, she noticed something odd seemed to be happening as she moved her limbs in the dimmed emergency lighting of the tunnel. Activating a spotlight on the MUL-RA, she glanced down, and… “What in all my circuits…?”

At that instant the memories came flooding back, of a time when her body was not her own, puppeted by an unfeeling entity that knew only of its own superiority, when she was encased in a golden prison. It was at that moment she realized she’d spoken into some kind of vocoder, and that her vision was not being processed through her own eyes, but rather, partially by the mask that covered her face. She clawed at it frantically, trying to get it to retract, but to no avail. As she did so, it began unhelpfully scanning her surroundings, revealing… a massacre.

She stared out into the darkened depths, at once in awe and fear at the sheer destruction Axl had wrought for no other reason than, apparently, he thought it was fun. That everything was just a game to him. But to her… all she saw was violence and death. Millions of dollars’ worth of military equipment ripped apart like an unwanted action figure in the hands of a spoiled child, and countless lives who at one time had worked with Axl, possibly even having been friends with the young upstart. She brought an involuntary hand to her mouth but was rudely reminded of the visor shutting off her face from the world as she strode through, trying to see if anyone had survived, and hoping beyond hope that if they did, that someone else could get to them in time.

She sent out a frantic distress call from inside, imploring the forces congregated at the tunnel portal to move in for a rescue mission… even as she turned away and rushed forward, her advanced auditory processers picking up loud clashes in the facility ahead. The navigator knew that Axl would need to learn to control himself… before the world decided it needed to control him.

“YOU’RE SCRAP METAL!” Gungaroo roared as he plummeted down, only for the shrill beeping of a missile lock-on warning to sound, and his head snapped in the direction as he fell, the smoke trail from the exhaust filling the tunnel, as everything seemed to slow to a crawl.

One instant, Gungaroo was mere inches from caving in Axl’s head with his entire body weight, while the next, a missile was exploding right in his exposed abdomen, sending him careening with a whole right between his legs and smoke pouring from the joints. “NOOOOO!!!”

Alia reached down with a gentle hand, and Axl lifted himself up to stand, as he marveled at the golden-armored, masked appearance of his savior. She then disembarked her Ride Armor, activated her jets, and flew over, buster forming over her right hand, as the subtle whine of the copied Falcon Buster began to echo through the facility. The mask over her face stayed in place even as inside, Alia began to tear up at the sight of one so young, fighting so hard. Her filtered voice then stated, “Vanishing Gungaroo of Red Alert, stand down. You have wasted enough time, and resources, and lives here today. Do not resist, or I will be forced to take immediate action.”

“Gurgh…” groaned Gungaroo, as he slowly brought his body unsteadily upwards. “No… fair…”

“I didn’t wanna have to call in the big guns, so be glad I didn’t,” Axl huffed, as he slowly brought Gungaroo back on his feet. “Alia, uh… you good?”

For several tense seconds, the golden warrior said nothing, standing firm, before the mask finally receded from her face, and she brought the two young Reploids in for a hug. Neither was expecting it, so they stumbled back a bit in shock, but soon the two were returning the embrace, and by then a medevac team finally made it inside the main facility itself.

“We’ll, uh, take it from here, ma’am,” said a medic, guiding Gungaroo over to a waiting stasis pod to stabilize him for further repairs. As she did so, Axl’s left arm sparked worryingly, and she quickly added, “Ah, you… probably should come with us, sir.”

“I… I’m fine, honest!” Axl said, unconvincingly. Alia glared at him, and he deflated. “Alright, yeah, yeah, I’ll go.” As another medic led him to a separate pod, he called out, “Sick armor, Alia! Where’d you get it!?” Alia blinked, before remembering she was, in fact, in her golden Falcon Armor.

“Ah! Uh, well, a… colleague,” she stammered. “Yes, yes… nothing more.”

She shook her head as she watched the medical transport shuttle them further into the complex’s on-site Reploid repair facility. Why… why now?

As she turned to head back to HQ, she couldn’t help wondering just what it was made Axl so… special. And, more importantly, what made her so special, in the grand scheme of things. Will I ever know?

Chapter Text

The Crimson Palace

“Dammit, Gungaroo, pick up!” Red groaned, jabbing his finger at his comm in frustration. “Gah, if that kid’s gotten himself killed… I guess, then, game’s over.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he switched up the frequency, and set up a line with Maverick Hunter HQ to make the relevant announcement.

“Alright, you win!”

“I take it by this impromptu announcement that your little ‘game’ is over?” replied Signas on the line.

“Considering about half of my best guys got blasted to kingdom come, what do you think?” Red huffed. “Maverick Hunters 8, Red Alert 0. Axl’s free to go wherever he wants.”

“I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear that,” said Signas. “Now, when he arrived, he mentioned this… ‘Professor’ figure? I believe he implied you didn’t trust him.”

“Shoulda gone with my gut on that one,” Red shrugged. “Turns out, because this always fucking happens, that the Professor was Sigma the whole time. Broke Wily outta prison too, apparently.”

“Yes, we were made aware of this as well,” Signas added. “Do you have any clue as to his whereabouts?”

“Ol’ Anteater got a weird handshake signal from one of our old safehouses somewhere in the Rockies a couple days ago,” Red explained. “Couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but I’d bet my aft that those two are there.”

“As it so happens, Alia is with Axl in the area,” Signas noted. “Time permitting, I could send her over to go check while medical staff inspect Axl and Vanishing Gungaroo.”

“So Rooney’s still kicking?” asked Red, concern obvious.

“I’m a bit surprised myself, considering the massive hole Alia blew in his abdomen, but yes,” Signas confirmed. “With any luck, he should make a full recovery.”

“Good to hear,” Red sighed in relief. “Anyway, when Axl’s up you mind passing on that ol’ Red wants to have him back around the place? I’m sure he’s been missing me too.”

“I can certainly do that,” nodded Signas approvingly. “And can I just say that properly speaking to you, you don’t seem nearly as bad as I pegged you to be at first.”

“Yeah, the boys and I get that a lot,” Red shrugged in a ‘what can ya do?’ sort of way. “Our MO is still keeping the peace and beating up the bad guys, we just… kinda got caught between a rock and a hard place a ways back.”

“If we make it out of this, I was hoping to ask if you would like Red Alert’s resources to be folded into the Maverick Hunter collective so joint operations can work more smoothly,” Signas offered.

Red blanched, images of an unstoppable crimson dynamo with a verdant blade flashing in his mind. “Absolutely not. Not unless Zero is absolutely nowhere near you guys, got it? I’ve spent too many nights seeing my damn life flash before my optics because of that scarlet deceiver to ever wanna work with him in a million years.”

Signas was taken aback by the outburst, before remembering Red’s previous service history. “Ah. My apologies. However, as it happens… Zero has found himself dishonorably discharged.”

“He had fucking better be after that hole he blew in the ocean,” Red roared, eye twitching slightly. “Alright, once you guys sniff out Sigma and take him down, hopefully for good this time, I might talk to you in about a month. If I hear even a whiff of Zero anywhere though? Deal’s off, got it?”

“Understood,” Signas said sternly. “If you wouldn’t mind providing the coordinates to this safehouse of yours? I’ll pass them on to Alia, and she can look into it.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, here,” Red blinked, before punching in the numbers. “Alright, we should be good.”

“Coordinates received,” Signas confirmed. “Signas out.”

With that, the connection cut, and Red turned around, mulling over Signas’ offer more seriously. As he paced around the comms room, a ping interrupted his musings. “What now…” Glancing down, he realized Axl had shot him a message.

Axl: yo red

Axl: hyd

Red: been better

Red: hbu

Axl: like I got sat on by a giant kangaroo

Red: sounds bout right kiddo

Red: wanna come on home for a bit

Axl: would i

Axl: aw heck yeah

Axl: soon as these stupid docs lemme out imma head over

Red: be good to have ya back kid

Red: place has been kinda empty w/o ya

Axl: gonna be good to BE back

Axl: aight see ya

Red: see ya

Red closed the channel as he went back to considering the possibility of a… merger wasn’t the right word, but a pooling of resources. Maybe it ain’t such a bad idea after all…

Cheyenne Mountain Complex Reploid Medical Center

Axl sat up from the berth he’d been given. Letting his joints whir back to life, he turned to the right, and noticed that Gungaroo was up too, although he was looking significantly worse. “No hard feelings, Rooney?”

“Oi’ve been a right bogan, ‘aven’t I?” Gungaroo grunted. “Ah well, was pretty fun screwin’ around like that.” As he said this, he slowly revealed a little bit of hidden contraband he’d apparently stolen from the testing facility, and carefully showed it to Axl. “‘Sides, where the ‘ell else are ya gonna find some premium-grade explosive devoices?”

“How in flying frick did ya manage that?” Axl said, staring at the glorious display of modern military explosives deployment research sat before him. “Lemme see!”

“Do ya one bettah, mate,” Gungaroo smirked. “Howsat copy chip of yours work?”

Axl’s eyes widened, envisioning the possibilities. Lifting up a hand and placing it on the launcher, he began downloading the necessary data to replicate it at any time, and the raw power it carried.

New Weapon Acquired: Giga Launcher

An advanced rocket launcher that fires proximity fuse-based explosives in a straight line which deal massive damage to both structure and living being alike. Must be reloaded after each shot.

Weapon System Logged: Explosion

A timed-fuse explosive blast that detonates very shortly after being released from the barrel. Requires 16 weapon energy to launch. Charged variation detonates an explosive blast directly on the user’s position that emanates outward in all directions for massive damage in very confined area.

“Cool…” Axl said, admiring the launcher as he formed it in his own hands. He felt the weight of the massive weapon, and mimed firing off a rocket. “Well, damn, Rooney, I think that’s us squared away.”

“Ya mean it, kid?” Gungaroo wondered. “Oi woulda thought ya’d be right ‘oppin’ mad to pay me back, but if ya say so…”

“Let’s go home, eh?” Axl grinned. “Red’s probably gone grey after all the stressin’, the geezer.”

Gungaroo laughed uproariously as a nurse arrived. “Eh, gonna be a little while longah for me, I think. Say hi to the ol’ man for me, will ya?”

“Can do, buddy, can do!” Axl nodded, as the nurse cleared her throat.

“Axl, the damage to your internal systems has been sufficiently repaired; you are cleared to leave,” she explained, before turning to the kangaroo. “Vanishing Gungaroo, some final diagnostics will need to be run in order to determine what final repairs need to be performed on your motor systems.”

Axl practically leapt out of the berth in excitement, before rushing out the door and… nearly slamming right into Alia, who had been sitting outside.

“Axl, you’re safe!” Alia smiled. “As it happens, you might not be able to go home just yet; Commander Signas just informed me that Sigma and Dr. Wily are not only both on the loose, but they’re in fact rather near our current location.”

“And where exactly is that?” asked Axl.

“An old Red Alert safehouse, apparently,” explained the navigator. “Red supplied the location to us, and considering we’re so close by…”

“Aw, but I told him I was gonna come home today!” Axl whined.

“The orders were primarily to perform reconnaissance, so we won’t be there all day,” Alia placated. “Scope out the area and see what they’ve done with it. I have a strong suspicion I know what our commander intends to do, even if technically speaking a mission of this magnitude isn’t currently at his pay grade…”

“What, send X to deal with it?” wondered Axl aloud. “I mean this is just like the 1^st Maverick War, ain’t it? B rank Hunter going it solo to save the world sorta thing.”

“Now you mention it, it is a bit of déjà vu,” noted the slightly older Reploid, who admittedly had only been built a few months after, just before the X-Hunter crisis, but she’d heard enough of the stories. “In any case, it should take us rather little time at all, and you’ll be on your way home in no time.”

“Alright, then, we’re wasting daylight!” Axl declared. “Come on!”

With that, he dashed down the hallway, then gunned it for the main entrance. Alia rolled her eyes, activating her own jet thrusters and flying after him… but at a slightly more reasonable pace.

As the two climbed aboard the Maverick jump jet, Alia input the provided coordinates, and took off towards it, flying lower down the mountainside, still deep in the woods. As they flew low and fast, they eventually came upon a river, where out of nowhere Alia’s in-built sensors began screaming at her that she’d just overflown something, and that whatever it was, it was important.

Whirling the jet around in a long, arcing loop, she gradually slowed the craft until it was nearly directly over the unidentified floating object, and she locked it into a hover above it. “Axl, watch the ship! I’m going down there to have a look.”

“Look for what?” Axl called as Alia opened the rear bay door. “The safe house is that way!”

By that point Alia had already leapt out of the aft of the aircraft and was gliding down, leaving Axl to gape as her salmon-and-gold chassis rocketed to the riverbank beneath them.

As Alia got closer to the ground, she realized that what her sensors had alerted to was a Reploid, and not only that, but a Reploid who had clearly seen better days. Her advanced optics were already scanning it as she made her final approach, but even from higher in the air she had a strong suspicion she knew just who it was. “Zero!” she called down as she finally landed, picking up the battered Reploid and using her scanners to determine if there was anything beyond the superficial damage on his armor.

When she received no response, she pulled up the readouts in her augmented vision, realizing that what was afflicting the former Maverick Hunter was rather a simple fix indeed; he had simply… run out of power, and his solar recharging system was hard-pressed to get much done when he’d been stuck in the shade of such tall trees for so long, or half-buried in a muddy riverbank. Freeing his limbs from said bank, Alia called back up to Axl, telling the young Reploid to bring the jet down to pick them both up, and hook Zero up to an emergency power source to, effectively, jump start him.

Hauling the crimson sword master’s surprisingly heavy body aboard, Alia opened up a panel on his chest and then another on the ship, linked a wire between the two revealed ports, then tapped the activation switch, redirecting a portion of the jet’s reactor output into Zero. He jolted at the sudden impulse, eyes snapping open as he shot up, awake. “Wha… where am I?”

“Hey, Zero! How’s it going?” called Axl from the cockpit. “We found you taking a swim in that river down there. Where’ve you been?”

“Last thing I remember was, uh, running out of this hidden mountain base that Sigma and Wily took over,” Zero said, jogging his memory banks.

“Wait, you were there?” Alia exclaimed. “What a coincidence, we were on our way now! Do you have any clue what they were attempting to do?”

Zero tapped his chin, thinking, before a lightbulb went off in his head. “Sigma broke Wily out because of his knowledge of the source code of the Maverick Virus… I didn’t entirely catch what he wanted with that info, but I got something along the lines of making him immortal, rather than simply constantly regenerating every time he dies.”

“And they needed you because…” Alia supplied, working through the plan herself.

“The Maverick Virus has only ever had one truly, 100% compatible host,” Zero explained. “Me. Wily wanted Sigma to kidnap me so he could replicate what he did with me in him.”

“But you broke out, so surely…” Alia trailed off when the sword master shook his head.

“Wily’s a 1 in 20 billion genius, debatably smarter than Dr. Light ever was,” Zero huffed. “Me being there would’ve helped him along, but push comes to shove, he could probably just re-engineer the entire thing himself if he wanted to.”

“So, it’s only a matter of time before the inevitable,” Alia sighed. “It’s a bit unfortunate you were discharged; I’d have probably cleared you to just go back in there and deal with the issue already.”

“Eh, maybe if I come back Signas will have turned his views around?” Zero said, not really believing it himself. “Anyway, do you wanna go and put a few wrenches in the works anyway?”

Alia shook her head. “Axl took rather a big hit very recently and I’m not too confident about his condition; besides, Red’s ‘game’ is over, and I suspect the boy just wants to go home.”

“Hey, I’m no kid!” Axl called from the cockpit. “But, uh, yeah it would be nice.”

Zero smirked but then realized someone else was missing. “Why’s X not here?”

“Ah… about that,” Alia said, closing her eyes. “After activating the final component of the Glide Armor, X used its Giga Crash in combat against Wind Crowrang. Owing to the weather conditions and the altitude, this ended up causing a lightning strike to hit directly on X’s position. The sudden influx of electrical energy overloaded the safety mechanisms of the air fortress’s reactor, and it went critical.”

“So… X fucked up and he got fired,” Zero surmised.

“Well, not fired,” Alia shook her head. “Just… demoted.”

“That’s a bit unfair though, isn’t it?” Zero huffed. “I mean, he basically did the same thing I did, but compared to me he made out like a bandit!”

“The difference lies in intention, Zero,” Alia corrected. “X had no idea that the Giga Crash would lead to such a catastrophic outcome, and indeed, under most other circumstances I am quite positive, and I’m sure Signas agrees with me, that it would not have. You, however, ignored the advice of the lead Navigator of the operation and took the quick way out of a problem, leading to thousands of unwarranted deaths and billions of dollars in resulting damage. Quite frankly, you’re rather lucky Signas didn’t have you shot.”

“He wouldn’t do that!” Zero fumed. “I’ll admit I went overboard, but there’s no way-”

“Causing catastrophic damage to life and property with express intent to harm is the fundamental definition of being criminally labelled Maverick, and at that scale he would’ve been warranted nearly a thousand times over,” Alia retorted, spouting off one of the first things listed in the Maverick Hunter Codex. “Do you remember the Eurasia? After its impact, when I had re-established your signature and confirmed that the Maverick Virus had indeed infected you, Signas was preparing to order someone, anyone to kill you. Unilaterally. It is solely by the grace of X’s willingness to see sense that you survived that, even if it might not have mattered in the end.”

Zero could say nothing, his memories of the aftermath of the horrific tragedy muddled in corrupted files and lost data. Finally, just as though it appeared Alia would fully break down sobbing, he said, “So how can I do better?”

Alia blinked, not expecting such an introspective question. “Would that I knew,” she sighed in lieu of a proper answer, and Zero’s eyes narrowed.

“I asked you a question,” he said, fist clenching. “How. Do I. Do BETTER?”

“Maybe start by, uh, not looking like you’re going to throttle the closest thing you have to a mom?” said Axl, and Zero snapped his head toward the cockpit as Alia processed what the young Reploid had just said. When it clicked, she turned her head too, bewildered.

Axl decided he might as well join the conversation properly, setting the autopilot back to base, since he remembered the old outpost well enough and Zero had told them enough to figure out what the two would-be world conquerors were doing. “I was… too young to know what a Repliforce was when I was built,” he said, finding the words. “But when Red took me under his wing, there was always one thing that he said he’d never touch with a 50 meter pole if he could help it. And considering he’s got a glaive, he knows his way around polearms.” Zero’s eye twitched, as Axl said hurriedly, “Uh, anyway, this,” he said, waving vaguely at Zero’s current emotional state, “Is what he was afraid of. In the darkest depths of his processor, you are the source of all his nightmares. He lives in fear of the day you decide that one day, maybe justice isn’t worth fighting for, and that you’d rather just kill everything. Because you can.”

The crimson menace said nothing, even as memories of an innocent young Reploid who wanted nothing more than to live unbothered with her brother, and her soulmate, came rushing back like lightning. “I-Iris…” he spluttered, involuntarily. “What… what have I done…”

“Red’s spent damn near his whole life trying to build up a team strong enough so that if the worst thing to ever happen to the world came to pass, he’d be ready and willing to stand up to it,” Axl stated, himself shaking at the memory of when Red had told him of Red Alert’s true mission. “And in the back of his mind, the worst thing that could ever happen… was always you. So, what’ll it be, Zero?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” roared the blade master, clutching at his head in agony as he wracked his mind for something, anything that could serve as an answer, but all he could find, all he could remember, no – all he could think – was pain, and violence, and suffering, and death. Inescapable nothingness, as he’d brought upon countless entities, and which he’d faced in its entirety so many times it barely held any meaning for him anymore. Finally, he broke down into mournful, shattered sobs, staring at his hands, imagining the oil and the blood and the disease they spread every damn place he went, every blasted thing he touched, every living being he’d held close in his misery of an existence. “What am I fighting for…” he said softly, through the tears. “Why do I have to fight? What happens… when I win?” he wondered aloud. “Anything multiplied by 0 is 0,” he stated like a mantra. “Anything divided by 0 is indeterminate.” He said, louder, faster. “Anything 0 is added to or subtracted from remains the same,” he blurted out, breathing heavier, quicker, until finally:

“All things raised to the power of 0… become ONE.”

Alia and Axl, who’d backed off to give the grieving Reploid some space, now tilted their heads, confused at the odd statement, thinking that perhaps Zero had finally, truly, lost all sense.

He stood up suddenly, expression shifting back to his usual confident smirk, as he then said, “So, maybe that’s what it’s all been for.”

“Zero?” Alia said, still rather concerned, before he turned to her, wiping away the last of his tears.

“The power I wield is meant to bring all things together as one cohesive whole,” Zero stated grandiosely. “Originally, that meant destroying anything until the only thing left is, well, me. But now…”

“Zero, you’re scaring me, buddy,” said Axl. “Quit waxing philosophical, man!”

“Alright, let me break it down for you, then,” Zero said with a smile. “Instead of destroying everything just for the sake of wiping it from existence, my mission, my duty, should be to fight until all are one. United together, for a common cause. Use my power to unite people, not push them away. Use my strength to lift others, not shove them down. Use my knowledge to guide us, not lord over you. And now I think about it, I might have just the thing to do just that.”

“And that would be…” put forth Alia, not really picking up what Zero was putting down.

“My immunity to the Maverick Virus isn’t from adaptative defenses that, quite frankly, absolutely nobody has ever figured out,” Zero explained. “It was engineered, by a person, and that person wasn’t focused on building the ultimate in human-robot relations. He wanted a tool he could control to exert his influence on the whole world.”

“Where is this going?” asked Alia, when Zero refused to actually get to the point.

“What I’m trying to say is that direct analysis of my code should be able to generate some kind of anti-Maverick virus program,” Zero finished. “Finishing this damn fight, this Light-forsaken war. And if, at the end, I need to sacrifice myself to do it… so be it.”

“Zero!” Alia cried out, grabbing his hands. “Don’t you dare!”

“Dare what? Save the world!?” Zero retorted. “I’ve been to the other side, and Asimov dammit, I’ll go there as many times as I have to if it means finally ridding the world of this… plague.” He paused, looking Alia straight in the eyes. “I asked you how I can do better. And this… this is the best that I can do. That anyone can do. Don’t stop me from saving us all from ourselves.”

“That’s all well and good,” chimed in Axl. “But can you save it until after we’ve defeated the supervillains first? One last fight, before you hang up the saber forever and all that.”

Zero grinned, a proper, ear-to-ear grin, and gave a cheeky thumbs-up. “Let’s get ‘em.” Then he realized he… didn’t actually have his saber on him, then turned sheepishly to Alia and asked, “Uh… would you mind asking Signas if I could have it back?”

Alia smiled, already inputting the contact information into her comms. “Even if he doesn’t…”

“Alia!” Axl admonished in jest. “Going behind your superiors? Didn’t think you had it in you.”

The navigator was about to respond when the connection went through. “Alia, status report?”

“Zero has been found, sir,” she stated first. “And, as luck would have it, he was being held within the outpost we wanted to investigate and heard some of what Sigma and Wily are planning.”

“Excellent,” said Signas. “Return to base for debriefing, and then we can decide what our next move will be.”

“Oh, uh, Signas, can I ask you a question?” said Zero.

“If you want your saber back, the answer is unfortunately no, not yet,” Signas said.

“That implies you might give it back eventually,” Zero caught on. “Reconsidering that discharge?”

“I do know you’re not unarmed without your saber,” Signas noted, dodging the question. “In any case, I will explain further when you return to base. That will be all, Zero.”

With that, the line cut, and Zero shrugged. “Haven’t had to break out my buster for anything important in a while. Guess it’s good to get some practice in, though.”

“I almost forgot you even had one,” Axl laughed. “You used it, what, twice?”

“Sometimes I forget that the saber wasn’t something I started with, it was something I was given,” sighed the bladeless blade master. “By… Serges, who might’ve been another Wily copy body, but still. Maybe it’s a good thing to go back to basics for once.”

Maverick Hunter HQ, Abel City, a few hours later…

As the Hunter jump jet touched down, the lower rank Hunters on duty marveled when they saw Zero step off the craft, followed by Alia and Axl, who was itching to make the drive back up the road to the Crimson Palace and meet up with Red. To go home.

But first, debriefing.

Arriving at Signas’ office, the senior commander waved them in, where first he addressed Axl. “Well, Axl, you’re free to go now, I believe. Red gave me a call already; he’ll be expecting you by end of day.”

“Yeah, I shot him a message too,” Axl nodded.

“On to business, then,” said the commander, returning to Alia and Zero. “Zero, since you were present in the base, what would you say that Sigma and Wily are planning at this moment?”

“Sigma made it pretty blatantly clear that, for all that being able to come back on a whim after he dies is useful, he would much rather not be dead in the first place,” stated Zero. “He enlisted Wily to figure out a) what about the Maverick Virus let him come back, and b) what could be altered to make him completely invincible.”

“And that entailed capturing you because…” Signas trailed off.

“Because Wily designed my body as the virus’s primary receptacle,” Zero explained matter-of-factly. “I’m immune to its effects because I was built that way, and it goes all the way down to my fundamental source code.”

“Ah, so analyze your components to isolate what part makes the Virus not reject you, and then ideally implement it into Sigma,” Signas finished.

Zero nodded. “That should be everything relevant.”

“How far along would you expect them to be by now?” asked Signas.

“When I broke out, I think Wily had managed to isolate about 60% of the necessary information to modify Sigma accordingly,” Zero guessed. “Without access to me, I’d say he might be… 80% of the way there? Maybe closer to 90%. Anyway, don’t think he’ll be done for about 48 hours.”

“That is still not very much time, you understand,” Signas said. “Still, I suppose we’ve worked under worse constraints before.”

“What’s the plan, then?” asked Zero. “Fly back over to that hideout, knock their lights out, blow up Sigma, imprison Wily again?”

“Something to that effect, yes,” nodded the commander. “I was hoping X would be available at the moment so we could move out now, but he said he had something else to look into.”

“That’s not like him to shy away from a mission like this,” Zero said, raising an eyebrow. “What, exactly, could be important enough that X of all Reploids would walk away right now?”

Former Light Residence, Mountainview, California

X had learned that, at some point, Dr. Light’s home had been labelled a historic place, left to preserve the home (and personal laboratory) of the most advanced scientist in 2 whole centuries. He’d visited it but once before, in the prelude to the Repliforce War, but hadn’t had the heart to go inside… and with everything that had happened afterward, he hadn’t been back since. After his demotion, and the discussion he’d had with his father in cyberspace, he’d decided that maybe, truly, it was time for him to go home.

Walking along the pathway, past the picket fence, he placed his hand on the security scanner. It pinged green with confirmation, and he stepped inside. As he took in the surprisingly simple residence, he let his mind drift, thinking of what it must’ve been like for his father, and his two children, his elder siblings. He imagined, even, the watchful eyes of the eldest scion, never straying too far, but still afraid to confront the pain, the loss he’d suffered. As he sat on the living room sofa, contemplating, he realized that his sensors were picking up a familiar signal, and not simply because he was home.

Venturing deeper, opening a door to what had at one point been the family garage, before a young Thomas had turned it into his personal tinkering space, and eventually, his first laboratory, X found himself standing before another Light Capsule, but one that didn’t look like any other he’d yet seen. This one was… smaller, not exactly something he could simply walk into. Still, he was drawn to it like a moth to a flame, and the console in front beckoned closer.

Stepping toward it, he activated it, and once more, Dr. Thomas Light’s holographic visage filled the room. The AI gazed eye-to-eye at his son, long hidden away in a space far away to not be disturbed, then left alone in a world that had moved on without him, and smiled, knowing he’d finally come home.

“X, oh, X…” he said. “How I wished that I could’ve spent my days here, with you, raising you to be the truest you can be.”

“Father, I…” X stopped, unsure of what to say.

“I knew that the world would not be safe if you were left free, but more importantly, I knew you would not be safe,” sighed Dr. Light. “You hold such great power, such great potential, and all the time I could have given you would not have been enough.”

“But why could I not have lived with you, even for a short while!?” X asked.

“I confess, it was because I was afraid,” explained Dr. Light. “Afraid of what you could do, afraid of what Albert might do if he recognized you for what you were. All my thoughts were of you, my son.”

“Wasn’t my entire purpose to prove my own potential?” X countered, growing frustrated.

“Yes, it was, X,” nodded the hologram. “All you have ever been, and all you will do, are because you were given the choice to live free. And you have taken that choice, and given it back to the world countless times, my son. Although…”

X tilted his head, unsure of why his father hesitated.

“‘Purpose’ is perhaps the wrong word,” Dr. Light clarified. “That implies that you had to do such things. But, my son, that is not at all the case.”

“What do you mean?” X asked, now confused.

“Above all else, you exist because you can,” stated Dr. Light. “Why does any person in specific exist? Life’s purpose is different for any human, and so it was with you, my son.”

“So… I don’t have a purpose?” X said, growing more concerned.

“Your purpose is what you make it, X,” Dr. Light corrected. “No one else can decide it for you, not even me. So, with that in mind… what do you believe your purpose to be?”

X, for the first time in a while, stood tall, eyes staring straight ahead, mind clear of any distractions. He gazed directly into the hologram of his father’s eyes, and said with a spark in his eye:

“Fighting to put the world on the path to a brighter tomorrow. Using my power, my knowledge, my experience to serve as a guiding light to lead us all forward.”

“I see,” nodded Thomas Light in understanding, and on command, the capsule behind him expanded, the yearning void of cyberspace appearing within, but through the endless depths of data, X could see what it is that his father wanted to find.

Stepping forward, reaching out, touching the roiling, flowing currents of data, X found there was something within that he could feel with his hands. It didn’t seem to be anything physical, however; when he pulled away, no unknown object came with him. Reaching back in, he stepped further, until finally cyberspace consumed him in his entirety.

Cyberspace

The first thing X saw when he was inside was a representation of himself, and then, arrayed next to it, a wall of every armor set that Dr. Light had ever helped him create, had offered to him in his time of need. In the center of the array stood the Ultimate Armor, but he noticed that in front of it was something else: Something… different, that he’d never seen before, but somehow felt familiar?

Reaching out a tentative hand at the… presence, for that was what it was, he realized that the strange object had morphed out a hand of its own, reaching out in kind. What… is this?

Stepping forward, the object sprouted legs of its own, eerily similar in shape to his own, but without the massive, bulky protrusions that marked all Reploid feet, and even most Robot Masters before that. X brought up his other hand, and yet again, a hand sprouted. He morphed it into a buster, and it morphed as well, to a slimmer, sleeker design, one more designed around a human arm, than the bulky forelimbs that X possessed. Is this… me?

Finally, as X was nearly in spitting distance of the strange entity, it morphed one last time, this time forming a head with X’s facial features, but with a full head of brown, spiky hair, and then it spoke. Its voice was X’s, but with less of the filtering brought on by his vocoder, more human. “I am you, as much as you are me. I remember a day, long ago, when you called on me, when no one else would listen, and I came, because who does not dare to help themselves?”

X blinked, processing the statement, but realized he seemed to know what the odd entity was referring to: that day, the day the bright future had ended, and X’s dark reality had set in. “That was you?”

“No, it was you,” the entity explained. “Rather, it was me, but I am you. So therefore, it was you.”

“What, exactly, are you, anyway?” X wondered aloud.

“The purest representation of what you could be, if you so chose,” stated the entity. “At least, as you define yourself now. I would take on a different guise if you chose differently.”

X nodded, still not really understanding. “Why am I here, now?”

“Because you came home, to where you believed you were supposed to go,” the entity explained. “You believed you needed guidance, and turned to the one place you knew you could find it.”

“And yet, all I’ve received is affirmation of myself,” X said. “That’s not exactly… helpful.”

“On the contrary, it is all the help you need,” said the entity shaking its head. “You have spent so much time not able to accept that what you do could possibly ever be good enough, and that if you’re not going above and beyond, you’re failing.”

“So, what, I need to slow down?” asked X.

“Not just that,” said the entity. “You needed to truly understand that all you’ve done for the world has gone above and beyond everything one could possibly demand out of any one being.”

“And what does it say about me that I want to do more?” X demanded.

“Nothing, and everything,” the entity answered. “Your choices define you, and every choice you’ve made until now has been to serve others. It is time you chose something for yourself.”

With that, the entity suddenly compressed back into its original, orb-like state, and slammed itself into X’s chest. He felt the odd sensation pulse through his body once, twice, and suddenly, he noticed that both his red optic gem was glowing brighter than it ever had, and his hands were shimmering with cyan energy, pulsing with raw power in a way they hadn’t in years. As cyberspace began to close around him, X found himself shoved out, back into the real world, with no answers, but also… no more questions.

Standing up, watching the capsule seal itself once more, he glanced once more at his hands, marveling at the ethereal glow. His thoughts were filled with a myriad things he could choose to do at that moment, but then his comm pinged, shaking himself out of his thoughts.

“X speaking. What’s the situation?”

“Axl’s going home!” Alia said with glee. “But, before he goes, he wanted to say goodbye to you. Would that you could see him off, but…”

“That’s… that’s wonderful,” X smiled. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”

“You may want to stay where you are, actually,” Alia said. “As of now, you’re quite close to where Sigma and Wily have made their base of operations, much closer than we are, at any rate. As soon as all the preparations are ready, you are go to take them down.”

“Roger that, Alia,” X nodded, expression grim once more. “I’ll wait for the signal.”

Sigma-Wily Hideout, somewhere in the Rockies

“Well then, you ungrateful lump of scrap metal, you should be all clear,” Wily fumed, installing the last of the necessary files into Sigma.

“My sincerest thanks for your services, though it is my great displeasure at having to work with you,” Sigma growled, before suddenly whipping out his plasma rifle and firing it point-blank at Wily. “Now, on to more important matters… ah, yes.” The Grim Reaper of all Reploids, the living face of their greatest scourge, stared out at the space before him, before finally, the hapless stooge on the other end picked up the comm.

“Alright, buddy, don’t think I ain’t on to ya,” Red huffed. “You ain’t got anything else left on me!”

“Oh but I believe I do,” said Sigma knowingly. “It would be rather a shame if Axl had a little… accident, wouldn’t it?”

“Sigma, you utter scumbag!” Red roared. “I swear to Light if you touch him I’ll-”

“You’ll what? Kill me?” Sigma laughed, louder than he’d ever laughed before. “I am immortal. All will fall before me, starting with you and your precious Axl. In fact…”

Suddenly Red realized a mechaniloid he’d taken offline a few years back had suddenly roared back to life in one of Red Alert’s Japanese safe houses, and it was making a beeline for Axl’s position. “NO!”

“Here’s how this’ll go, you sniveling weakling. You let me in the Crimson Palace and let me use it how I see fit, or Axl gets mauled by that, whatever it is,” Sigma stated in no uncertain terms.

“Not an Asimov-damned chance,” Red exclaimed. “Axl’s a tough kid, he’ll survive.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I say ‘or?’” Sigma smirked. “Apologies, I meant and. Move your sorry aft over, I will be coming.”

“Why you-” Red blurted out, but by that point Sigma had shut off the call.

“He will be the first to die,” mused the megalomaniac. “And no one will be there to hear his screams.”

With that, he found the teleporter, which he’d spent a few days repairing, and activated it. In but a few days… the Age of Sigma will commence!

Tohoku Expressway

Axl raced along the road on his Ride Chaser, when he began to feel an odd rumbling beneath and behind him, but rapidly approaching. This just ain’t my day, is it… he grumbled as he checked his mirrors, seeing the massive mechaniloid tearing up the road behind him. Is that… that stupid mole thing? What the hell, man, I offlined that thing already!

“Yo, mole-face!” Axl called back finally, whipping out one of his pistols with one hand while the other kept him racing on the straight and narrow, and blasting away at the hulking Mole Bore, which every second grew closer. “Eat plasma!”

Maverick Hunter HQ

“Damn, damn, and triple damn,” Signas exclaimed, exasperated, hearing the reports of the massive mole boring machine tearing up the Tohoku Expressway. “Any planned investigations into the hideout will have to wait; all hands are on deck to deal with this… Mole Bore.”

“Ready on your orders, sir,” saluted Alia. “I can move out immediately.”

“Perfect,” nodded Signas, before he turned to Zero. “I can’t trust you with your saber just yet, but for this short period, I will reinstate you as a C rank Hunter. You do as your superiors command, and absolutely zero funny business. Am I understood?”

“Perfectly, sir,” Zero nodded, readying his buster for the first time for any purpose besides suppressive fire. “I’ll be all over it.”

“Well then. Move out, and good hunting!” Signas replied, and the two Hunters raced outside, meeting with as many available Hunters were in the area to provide fire support.

Chapter Text

Tohoku Expressway, a few miles north of Abel City

Axl felt the concrete deck beneath him buckle and bend under the relentless onslaught of the massive Mole Bore rampaging behind him; as he dumped rounds into its less armored sections, attempting to slow it down, it raced forward and back, side to side, attempting to demolish as much ground as it could manage to try and pound the new generation Reploid into a flat metal sheet.

“Dammit, this ain’t working!” he grumbled to no one in particular, as he swerved out of the way. Overhead, the now-familiar hum of a Hunter dropship filled the skies, and as the rear door opened, Axl saw Alia, armored up and ready to fly, take off for an airborne assault, as a Ride Chaser reversed, repulsors flaring to life as Zero dropped down from above. The crimson hunter armed the onboard cannon, linking it to his buster’s fire control systems, before charging up a rearward plasma volley directly into the mighty mechaniloid mole’s face… but the massive roller attachment in the front saw to it that the blast was blocked.

“Nice of you to join me!” Axl grinned, as he decided to break out the big guns with the G Launcher, firing off a volley of high explosives, which detonated huge chunks of the massive roadway, as well as leaving plasma-scored dents in the sides and upper plating of the massive mole.

“Wouldn’t wanna miss the party,” Zero laughed, peppering the mole with more plasma blasts as he went. “Got any tips for this thing?”

“Well, it’s using the big roller up the front to really get itself moving at highway speed,” Axl explained, pointing to the giant cylindrical drum mounted on the front, which was doing its level best to, well, level everything in front of it to the ground. “Blast that to bits and it’ll be stuck with its secondary wheels.”

“Sounds like a plan,” nodded the hunter, taking aim at the axle mounts and firing away. “Alia, you getting this?”

“Affirmative,” replied the navigator as she laid down fire from the air, targeting key topside sensors and other secondary equipment. Using her enhanced scanners to analyze the mechaniloid, she realized that it seemed to be charging up some strange power source inside. “Zero, Axl, out of the way, now!”

The two hunters darted sideways as ordered, just as the roller lifted up and a massive laser blasted along the length of the expressway, stretching on for several more meters, cracking and melting the pavement as it went, before finally the aperture shut and the mole lowered the roller again, accelerating back up to speed.

“Didn’t know it could do that!” Zero called out, as Axl slapped himself upside the forehead.

“Gah, I put this thing away, I should know this!” he groaned, even as he kept firing, and remembered another feature of the mole: “Don’t get too close to the sides!”

“Why’s that?” asked Zero, as the two kept firing.

“It’ll do… that!” Axl barely finished his sentence when the ports on either side of the massive roller opened, dumping out an array of massive blue buzzsaws, which whirred to life as they rocketed down the highway, bouncing off the shoulders and each other with the sickening shriek of tearing metal. “Alright, we gotta blast that thing, PRONTO!”

“How about a little Zero special,” quipped the crimson Hunter, as he leapt up off his bike, whirled around, and roared, “HYPER ZERO SHOT!”

A massive, swirling blue blast ejected from the white-and-red buster that had formed on Zero’s right arm, and the coiling plasma streaked forward as it then detonated right in the center of the roller, sending molten metal every which way, splashing on the saws and seizing them up, causing them to fall to the ground and be flattened in the roller’s wake.

Cracks, however, were forming in the giant roller, and with Alia’s constant airborne barrage (with some Omega Falcon volleys for good measure) it meant the massive mole was having a lot of trouble staying on the road in any meaningful fashion, let alone at speed; soon enough, as Axl fired off a few more grenades, the roller finally gave way, splitting apart like a half-rotten log, and tearing away the massive arms supporting it.

Immediately, a set of defensive plates sealed themselves around the now-exposed laser aperture, taking the form of a large, sharp, drill purpose-built for tearing into bedrock like tissue paper. The small arms the Hunters had on hand bounced off it harmlessly, but Alia realized that now, with the roller gone, they had far easier access to its front.

“Aim for the tracks!” she shouted, doing so herself and watching as the lancing blasts from her own buster tore into the massive struts holding up the tracks, denting or melting them significantly, as the mole began to wobble unsteadily, slowing down as it went. “Another power surge! Watch for the laser!”

“We copy!” Axl confirmed, as the two dodged up and out of the way of the gigantic beam once more, but then the new gen realized they had an opening: whipping out the Ray Gun, he capitalized, launching a massive tornado at the mechaniloid, slamming it right in the exposed laser port and sending it reeling, tearing up the tracks and ripping off some less secured armor plating. “Alright, progress!”

“Let’s finish this, shall we?” Zero asked rhetorically, readying another massive blast, which sailed through the air and finally blasted off the left track assembly, sending the mole tipping over to its left side, scraping the ground as it slowed to crawl, and with one last well-placed blast, the central command module was blasted to scrap with a final shot, just as Alia and Axl poured in rounds onto the right side assembly, and the mighty mole ground to an unceremonious halt.

The air was quiet, and behind them, the trail of crushed-up vehicles, cracked asphalt, buckling rebar, and shattered concrete was a sight to behold, as secondary extraction crews moved in to cut up what was left of the massive mechaniloid mole, and the three Hunters decided what else there was left to do.

Their decisions would have to wait, however, as Signas contacted Alia, informing her of a development. “I’ve been on the line with Snipe Anteater, who informed me just now that he’s lost all contact with Red, and is tracking garbage data outputs from the Crimson Palace in line with stage 3 Maverick infection. Sigma is almost assuredly there, and he must be stopped at all costs.”

“Understood, sir,” Alia confirmed, “Alright boys, one last ride, and then we’ll all be free.”

“…Do you really believe that?” wondered Axl, “With what Zero said…”

“I have to believe it,” Alia countered, “And I do, sincerely. X may not be here, but I know he’ll be more than ready to answer the call when the time comes.”

“Sigma might genuinely be invincible this time,” said Zero, uncharacteristically uncertain, “But I think I might know a trick or two that’ll make all his plans obsolete. Now come on!”

With that, he raised his buster in the air, hopped back aboard his Ride Chaser, and gunned it.

Abandoned Red Alert Safehouse, later…

“That imbecilic, backstabbing, idiot!” Wily fumed, silently thanking his prior insistence on ensuring his latest robotic body could withstand anything short of a cruise missile aimed directly at his own face. “Where the hell does he get off thinking like that!? The audacity!”

As he dusted off the rubble and performed some diagnostics on his systems, his expression, which at that point could be described as utterly, unflinchingly livid, shifted to a more… dastardly outlook. “Well, if you won’t appreciate what others have done for you… perhaps you’d like a taste of your own medicine, hm…” As he pressed his fingers together, contemplating his next moves in the burnt-out shell of a safehouse he was currently inside, he realized that there might just be a way to truly cement his own legacy, while getting rid of this overbearing, aging relic corrupting his mission statement.

“Yes, yes, it’s perfect…” he laughed ominously, as he used the material remaining to build one last device, the key to the great Dr. Albert W. Wily’s final gambit. “With this, the world will see that, after all this time, I was right!”

One of his signature hovercrafts began assembling itself in the garage, ready to fly, as Wily downloaded the last of what he needed in order to enact the beginning of the end.

Dr. Thomas Light’s Former Residence

X had requested a direct line into the Maverick Hunter spy satellite network, in order to make sure that, no matter where Wily was going, and the latest readouts indicated the 2^nd smartest man in 2 centuries (and the smartest man still alive) was on the move, but not in the direction he’d been expecting. Rather than taking the northern great circle route that would’ve taken him right over Siberia, in the vicinity of the Crimson Palace, or the arc that would’ve led right to Abel City, he was instead heading roughly east-by-southeast… towards the San Francisco Bay Area.

“Surely his laboratory can’t still be operational, can it?” X wondered aloud, as he realized what the mad doctor was likely attempting to do. “Where… is it, anyway?”

“I believe I can answer that, son,” explained Dr. Light’s AI, popping into view on one of the old home’s holoprojectors. “Albert’s had many ostentatious skull fortresses over the years, but when he first broke away as a roboticist after the… Double Gear fiasco, he bought up a small industrial firm near Fremont, across the bay. That became his first base of operations, and after the final time Rock brought him in, I believe he intended to retire there.”

“Looks like I’ll be reopening some old wounds, then,” X sighed. “Whatever it is that he has planned, I will make sure to stop it the moment it proves unsafe.”

“Perhaps that is what I should’ve told Rock, all those years ago,” said the elderly scientist, mournfully. “Go, my son. Do what I could not.”

X gazed into the holographic eyes one last time, before turning to leave, heading to where it all began.

Dr. Wily’s Robot Manufacturing Plant, outskirts of Fremont, CA, USA

The aging robotics plant, going on nearly 150 years old by now, loomed large on the reclaimed island upon which it sat, decades of salty air and sea spray having eaten away at the structure. X privately wondered if it was even safe to enter, but before he could think more on that, a shrill, infernal whine began to fill the air, and the Maverick Hunter’s head snapped in the direction of the noise; above him, he could see Wily’s signature hovercraft, the device he used to interface with all his assorted machines, coming down to enter the long-abandoned structure. A castle it was not, yet X suspected he would have quite a ways to go, searching through the creaking corridors.

The ancient PA system crackled to life, as Dr. Wily’s holographic visage emblazoned itself on the front of the massive complex, and his voice filled the air. “Welcome, X. For a long time, I hated you, because I hated your maker. But I’ve realized… there’s one thing I’ve always hated more, X.”

X looked up, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “And that would be…?”

“For all that old Thomas may have been better than me– which he was not– he never reveled in it,” Wily explained, seething as the memories flooded back. “No, his accolades were provided for him by others. But the thing that grinds my gears the most is self-aggrandizers, and I’ve met quite a few in my time.”

“Like yourself?” said X, feeling a little sarcastic now.

“I have the credentials to prove it, so no, quite unlike myself,” Wily retorted. “In any case, I have to admit that Zero respects you, and I’m at least halfway to accepting that that’s a desirable reality.”

“Get to the point,” X ordered, eyes narrowing, readying his buster, even if he knew it wouldn’t do much.

“What I am trying to say is that Sigma is a backstabbing coward who’s too afraid of being consumed by death to actually push himself in any meaningful way,” Wily huffed, crossing his arms. “For a robot so willing to burn it all down, including those of his own kind, for the sake of the future, he sure as hell doesn’t want to have to suffer the consequences himself.”

“Most beings are generally afraid of their own mortality,” X noted. “For all that Sigma keeps coming back, he does also still get killed just as often.”

“That’s because he’s not smart enough to design a solution to that problem,” the mad scientist smirked. “I, however, did, and he wrongly believes I had to use my knowledge of his viral components to do it.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” X asked. “He’s still immortal.”

“I think he’ll find he is quite the opposite when my plans are in place,” Wily chortled. “He’ll be in for quite the rude awakening when the time is right.”

“And I should just trust you… why, exactly?” wondered X, growing more impatient.

The mad scientist huffed. “The way I see it, you are not exactly left with the luxury of choice, are you?”

X grimaced; Wily was right, dammit, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

The smartest man alive at the moment looked down at his rival’s greatest creation, and he grinned. “You’ll leave an old man to his tinkering, won’t you? I will make it quite worth your while, if you give me just a little more time.”

“What is it, even, that you’re working on?” X finally asked, realizing the question had slipped his mind.

“I already told you, didn’t I?” Wily huffed indignantly. “The solution to your little conundrum. It wouldn’t exactly do to spoil the surprise, now would it?”

X had to roll his eyes at that, before turning to leave. “Alright, fine. But I expect whatever it is you’re doing to work, or else you have quite a lot to answer for, understand? Quite frankly, I have all grounds to bring you in as-is, and it’s only because there are more pressing matters that I haven’t, already.”

Wily said nothing, closing the connection instead as he got back to work, and X put away the buster he’d had out, noting that besides Wily himself, there wasn’t anything else in the facility that could even tangibly be considered a threat. With things as they were, he found himself cursing the fact he had to rely on the word of a known criminal and lover of large-scale deceptions, but knew that, when the fate of the world was at hand, you took everything you could get.

Turning back to the Hunter jet he’d parked outside, he got back in, strapped in, and set off for the Crimson Palace… just as he realized that something had been beamed aboard.

“A… saber?” X wondered, and he realized a small note was attached to it. X read it out:

Zero is quite fond of these, I believe. Give it to him for me, would you?

The Blue Bomber rolled his eyes, but clasped the saber into a compartment, ready to hand it over to its rightful owner… hopefully for the last time.

The Crimson Palace, somewhere in Eastern Siberia

The Hunter dropship touched down on the landing pad outside the front gate of the Crimson Palace, and Axl, Zero, and finally Alia stepped out, with Axl stretching out his arms, taking it all in. “Home sweet home,” he sighed wistfully, as the PA crackled to life.

“Hey, Axl, buddy, welcome back!” said Red, voice entirely too cheery given the circumstances. “Glad to have you back home, kiddo.”

“Why not come outside and say hi to your favorite Reploid?” asked Axl, on edge now.

“Y’know, Axl, I’d love to, but honestly I’m betting you’re more worn out than a clutch on an old car,” Red said, too quickly. “Why don’t you come on in?”

The massive gate slowly creaked open, the entrance yawning like a hibernating bear. The lights inside glowed blood red, and as the trio slowly made their way inside, they had a sinking feeling that someone was not coming out of this palace alive.

As the mighty gate clanked shut behind them, Axl took point, knowing the layout of the palace much better than the others, and found he had another boon to aid him: for whatever reason, he had a precise lock on Red’s location, and cautiously, he began to follow the beacon.

The base was eerily silent, but for the whir of various ventilation systems and power generators, and each heavy thud of metal feet on metal floor echoed for what sounded like miles in the cramped, crimson corridors, as it became abundantly clear to Axl where they were going.

“One last training session,” he said ominously, heading in the direction of the situation room that Red Alert used to simulate combat scenarios. “Good one, Red,” he muttered, forcing a chuckle.

The blast doors that led to the facility opened, revealing Red stood alone on a platform suspended over a massive, seemingly unending chasm, surrounded by numerous other platforms, all of them hovering over the abyss. The bounty hunter held his signature scythe in his right hand, eyes darkened by his massive hairdo, his head tilted forward slightly, face sporting a grim expression of disdain.

The frown on his face morphed to a sinister grin as he lifted his head, staring Axl down. “So, the prodigal Reploid returns,” he said, finally. “Been a little bit, y’know.”

“Dammit, Red, what’re you doing!?” Axl cried out, demanding answers. “You know we’re being played!”

“Ain’t much I can do ‘bout it now, kid,” Red groaned. “Handed ol’ Sigma the keys to the world on a silver platter, I did. Now, we can do this the easy way… or the hard way.”

“You don’t have to fight me!” Axl shouted, rejecting the offer on principle. “C’mon, Red, work with me here! We can stop him together!”

“Haven’t you heard?” retorted the mercenary. “Sigma’s immortal now. Ain’t nothin’ you or I can do about it anymore, got it? Now be a good kid and do what you’re told!”

“Hell no!” Axl boomed, unholstering a pistol. “Come on, man, you gotta gimme something!”

“Don’t you get it, Axl!?” Red roared in response. “This ain’t your choice to make, and neither is it mine! Not anymore, anyway…”

“Indeed, it is not,” boomed another voice, over the PA. “While this little reunion has been fun… Red. You know what to do.”

The mercenary clutched at his head, as the command sparked in his mind, forcing his arm to move, even as he attempted to force it back down. “No… no, I can’t… RAAAAGH!”

Out of nowhere, Red took a flying leap, scythe whirling around his axis as he rocketed forward, and the Hunter trio leapt out of the way to stop him. Zero cursed when he reached for his saber, to find it not there, even as Red landed on the platform they’d been standing on, and he raised his scythe skyward, rapidly rotating it in his right hand, before slamming it into the ground. One second later, vortices of wind rose from the pillars nearest him, shoving Axl back some, even as weapons were brought to bear, and the triple buster barrage began laying into the mighty mercenary.

Red spun his scythe about almost lazily, deflected the small arms fire, before bringing it down, lighting the room with an energy blade that streaked through the air, slamming Alia in the chest and sending her careening away, attempting to right herself. Red was in the middle of returning to his ready stance, when one of Zero’s massive buster shots slammed him in the left arm, staggering him backwards.

“Where’s your saber, huh?” taunted Red. “Did big bad Zero get his toys taken away by mom and dad?”

“I don’t need my saber to blast you to scrap,” Zero scoffed, as he charged another shot. “And as much as I’d wager we’d rather not, if you’re not gonna come quietly…” he fired again, and though Red blocked the telegraphed blast, he failed to miss that Axl had snuck around behind him and pelted him with the Splash Laser, shoving him forward three times, and nearly sending him tumbling off the platform.

Alia had managed to recover from the energy wave, this time pouring down plasma bolts that punctured cracks and crevices across Red’s body, leaving the bounty hunter scrambling to block once more, swirling his scythe to stem the tide of small arms fire.

“That the best you got?” Red taunted as he tossed his scythe again and again, whirling it about in a flurry of blows whenever one of the three hunters got too close, and occasionally he’d seemingly disappear, before two flickering clones of himself would reappear, slashing down on the same spot in a pincer maneuver. “Thought I was fighting the best of the best, but I ain’t even broken a sweat yet!”

“We don’t want to hurt you,” said Axl, dodging another wind blast before firing off a volley of Sniper Missiles, which banked around Red’s massive scythe to strike him in key joints. “But if you wanna go…” bringing out the G Launcher, Axl readied the heavy rifle and launched one of its high explosive shells right into Red, sending the merc flying backwards, landing on a far platform, before he whipped up the tornados again and sent out more wind attacks. “How about that, huh?”

“That’s more like it!” Red grinned, jumping back into the fray, ducking under another Zero buster shot and leaping up towards the hovering Alia, slashing at her back with his scythe and shorting out her armor’s propulsion system. “See how you like the ground, sucker!”

Alia tumbled out of control, grabbing on barely to one of the platforms, and Axl had to divert his heavy ordnance assault to help her back up, leaving a buster-locked Zero to try and keep up the pressure himself. “Thanks for… the save, Axl,” she said as she clambered back up, realizing that given the circumstances, a tactical shift was in order. With the knowledge of the parts still in her systems, she reconfigured the lightweight flight suit into a bulkier armor set, large metal plates now guarding her limbs as unique attachments bolted themselves to her wrists. As Axl flew back in, peppering Red with more pistol fire and the odd wind cutter, Alia brought her hands together, one pointing up, the other down, as a ball of green energy began forming between her palms.

“Keep him occupied!” she ordered, and Zero decided to change up tactics, and instead of staying at mid-range, just out of reach of Red’s scythe, but still able to hit him with a buster shot or two, he instead leapt in, diving past the blade as Red swung out at him, tackling the bounty hunter to the floor and decking him in the face with haymakers.

“OW! OI! Mind the mug!” Red exclaimed, scythe too unwieldy to be of much help when Zero was on top of him, so instead he put his foot down and heaved, shoving Zero upward before he himself leapt off the ground and roundhouse kicked the crimson dynamo clear across the room… just as Axl dropped a Moving Wheel right on his head, and the metal disc bowled him over.

“Come on, man, try harder!” Axl chided, exploiting the opening provided by first lighting up Red’s platform with a Circle Blaze, before detonating another explosion. This one didn’t send him skidding, given he’d planted his scythe in the floor, but as he ripped out the scythe to lob another tornado Axl’s way, the low whine that had been filling the room hit a fever pitch.

Red’s head swung toward the source of the noise, swirling his scythe once more to provide a defensive posture, as Alia, crouching low to the ground, hands together with palms facing outward, shoved forward, and in her hands, the giant green ball of energy rocketed onward too, as she roared…

“GAEAAAA BUUUUUURST!”

The ludicrously powerful plasma ball plowed right through the protective field Red’s scythe was generating, and he had no time to react before it slammed into him and detonated, sending a wave of energy in every direction, but most of all, right into his body.

With a resounding CLANG, Red flew into the rear wall, crumpling down onto the platform nearest it, and though he attempted to stand back up, using the scythe to try and pull himself back up, the sheer amount of energy had overloaded his leg motor servos, and he realized… it was over.

Sensing that Red was beaten, Axl rushed over to his mentor to try and help him up, inputting the commands needed to reset the situation room back to the neutral white box it was when not in use, even as Zero shook off the damage to his own servos from being kicked in the chest twice and getting slammed into a wall, and Alia took stock of the damage to her armor.

“Hey, buddy…” Red mumbled, power draining as his systems fought to keep him online. “Hell of a… show ya… put on.”

“No, no, this isn’t happening!” Axl cried out, reaching down to keep Red on his feet. “C’mon, man, walk it off!”

“Ain’t no walkin’ off a hit… *EURGH* like that…” Red groaned, shaking his head. “Got me good, kid.”

“Medbay’s just down the hall, we can fix this!” Axl pleaded, but Red placed a hand on his protégé’s shoulder.

“Listen… Axl… you gotta stop Sigma,” stated the hunter, pointing right at Axl’s chest with what strength he still had. “I… I gave him everything… *URK* and now he’s ruining my life… again… but kiddo… you got more in you. You know it.”

“But… but I thought we’d do it together!” Axl pleaded. “Y’know, like we always do!”

“I… I don’t know how I… made it outta my first war,” Red went on, gazing over to Zero, who looked down at his own feet, guilt over his own choices washing over him. “But if this… is where it ends… y’know, maybe…”

“There’s no maybe!” Axl cried out, trying to drag Red with him, even as the battered Reploid’s legs began to give out. “Come on, stay with me… you gotta… DAD, please!”

Everyone’s eyes flashed in that moment, realizing the full weight of just what Axl had blurted out, fearing beyond anything he’d be alone again, with the man he followed like a beacon gone.

“Whaddaya know, kid…” Red chuckled, sensing he was damn near out of time. “Listen… I rigged this place to blow, just in case ol’ Sigma… ever came back. So, get outta here… let me fix this for ya… like a dad should do, yeah?”

Axl blinked, processing what his father figure was saying to him, not believing what he was hearing. “No… no! Dad, you gotta stay with me! We’ll… we’ll make it out!”

“Dammit, Axl!” Zero interjected, locking eyes with Red one more time, and the former Red Alert soldier gave one last solemn nod. “We’re running out of time! If he wants you to go, then Asimov-dammit we are going! There’ll be time to mourn later, when we’re still alive!”

With that, Red used the last of his strength to shunt Axl away, and as Zero grabbed his arm to drag him back outside, he turned back, sobbing as he reached back… just as the rumbling of the reactor going critical began to fill the space.

Alia, too, gazed back at the fallen soldier, before clasping Axl’s hand and saying, softly, “Your… father did the best he could… for all of us. Don’t waste his sacrifice, Axl. Please.”

Axl turned one more time, before running as fast as his legs would carry him out, hoping that maybe, just maybe… if he ran fast enough, he could run away from it all.

Dr. Wily’s Robot Manufacturing Plant

Dr. Wily gave the last few components of his latest device, as well as the source code it would be implementing, a once-over. “Well, Dr. Cossack, that old idea of yours may come in handy once more,” he grinned, satisfied. “Ah, well, I suppose I should be thanking your granddaughter, really, since she’s the one who made it real,” he went on, reveling in the chip he held in his hands. “With this… they’ll all see. They’ll all thank the providence of Albert W. Wily, I’ll live like a king! And that backstabbing traitor… will cease to exist!”

As he cackled maniacally, megalomaniacal dreams rushing back into his mind, he placed the chip into its protective casing, stood up from his old workbench one last time, and made his way to his hovercraft.

Outskirts of the Crimson Palace

The massive blast doors clanged shut behind the trio as the palace began to collapse in on itself, but as it did so, Alia’s comm pinged once more, and the familiar visage of Sigma appeared. “Well, well, well, looks like Red wasn’t up to the job after all,” he huffed in a ‘what-can-you-do’ sort of way. “Ah, well, no matter. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting you to finish him off quite that fast, but kudos to you.”

“Get to the point,” Zero huffed. “I’m guessing you’re at the top of that big tower?”

“100 points to the crimson dynamo!” Sigma beamed. “Unfortunately for you, you won’t be allowed in anytime soon. I was hoping X would be here, since he always is, but no matter. In the meantime, let’s have some fun, shall we?”

At that moment, the eight senior operatives of Red Alert made their way outside, eyes dull as their weapons primed. Snipe Anteater (or the facsimile of him, anyway) stepped forward, stating, “The professor demands your databanks for his analysis. Relinquish them or be destroyed.”

“Fat chance,” said Zero, aiming his own buster. “You trumped up copy ‘bots are gonna get trounced 6 ways to Sunday, and I won’t even need my saber to do it.”

The anteater said nothing, instead dropping to the ground, as the ports on its side opened. As the ant mines inside deployed, the rest of the Red Alert replicas charged, as Zero, Axl, and Alia primed their weapons to meet them.

Chapter Text

The ant mines crawled their way forward as Wind Crowrang took to the air, and Ride Boarski molded himself into a massive bike and charged. Behind them, Hyenard summoned his clones and Tonion began to spin, as Vanishing Gungaroo dove forward, and Soldier Stonekong and Splash Warfly brought their respective weapons to bear, guarding Snipe Anteater as he coordinated the offensive from the rear.

As the massive boar rocketed past, Alia dropped a Metal Anchor into the ground, and as it stuck, the boar’s front wheel slammed into it and he was sent cartwheeling end-over-end, as Gungaroo found himself dive-kicking directly into a Gaea Shield; while the shield shattered on impact, Gungaroo was sent tumbling backward with the concussive force, allowing Axl to lay into him with a Wind Cutter barrage, slicing and dicing him as he lay prone in the snow. “How do you like that, huh!?” Axl jeered.

The ant mines began to set themselves off now, as Hyenard’s triplet clones began charging, setting the ground ablaze as they sprinted, but the sudden influx of flames and explosions ended up playing havoc with Crowrang’s flight paths, and when the crow attempted a dive, the sudden turbulence sent him careening out of control as Zero fired a blast directly into his right wing, sending him spiraling. “Splash one,” he quipped.

Anteater switched tactics, deploying the half-dozen laser turrets he had on his person to provide suppressive fire in the impromptu arena, but Alia saw this and simply threw several mid-charge Gaea blasts that summarily detonated, and also subsequently erased Hyenard’s clones, before pummeling the hyena himself, and temporarily shorting him out. “Should be down but not out,” she called in.

Axl, meanwhile, had used his own hovering capabilities to get the high ground, before laying down several Circle Blazes of his own, and then mag-dumping with the G Launcher, filling the ground ahead of him with smoking craters that particular sent Stonekong reeling, with the mighty ape’s shield slowly cracking and crumbling under the rapid-fire concussive blasts. “Get some!” Axl roared with glee, as Stonekong tossed his shield at the airborne target in retaliation. The nimbler Reploid dodged, only for Warfly to dash forward and shove his glaive directly into his abdomen. “AAAAARRGH!” Axl shrieked, as the pair fell to the ground.

“Axl’s hit!” Alia interjected, as Zero grimaced, attempting to get back into the fray and cover their junior comrade.

In all this, Tonion, who had been spinning for quite some time now, had now built up enough momentum to become a truly formidable tornado, summarily consuming any weak projectile or physical object too light to hold on… including Zero, who found himself sucked into the vortex and rocketed upward with a horrified “WAAAAGH!” Crowrang, having recovered, shot toward him with his kunai and slicing him with an X-shaped slash, sending the scarlet hunter careening outward with a pained “URRRRGH…” before falling into the waiting blade of Stonekong, who needed no heed to slam his blade, and Zero, right into the snow, as the crimson hunter cried, “GAAAAH!”

By this point, Boarski had recovered from the impromptu flip, whirling back around with Hyenard on his back, and the duo shot forward as Hyenard breathed fire, igniting them as they barreled through like a meteor, running the now prone Axl over.

“Asimov save– nonononono– AAAAAGGH!” Axl shrieked as the flaming mass barreled atop him as Warfly rolled out of the way, aiming his naginata toward the last hunter standing.

Alia, for her part, had stayed planted, the Gaea Armor’s bulky plating making her simply too heavy to properly lift, and with the specialized spikes installed into its boots holding her in place, she stepped forward, tossing the strange green blasts in every direction, as well as an assortment of other weapons: namely, the Yammar drones she was using to harass the more mobile targets, and the Meteor Rain, whose strange bounding projectile Alia had used to both slick the ground ahead of the bull-charging duo and attempt to strike Tonion from inside his protective tornado. “Stay with me!” she cried out, terrified, but kept up the assault none the less.

While Tonion’s vortex shrugged off the water blasts, and the drone fire admittedly wasn’t doing much more than pestering Crowrang and Gungaroo, their divided attention gave Alia just what she needed.

Bringing her hands together once more, with Gungaroo dive kicking her again to little effect, and the sentry turrets pinging off the Gaea Armor’s reinforced frame, just as Boarski heaved Hyenard at her with the vents around his body igniting at full power, the massive green orb began to expand in her palms, engulfing the area, eliciting shrieks of the two hapless Reploids caught too close, before she launched.

“GAEA BURST!”

Just as before, the massive, darkened green energy ball shunted forward, easily bypassing Tonion’s tornado and striking at the vulnerable onion inside, the energy of the resultant reaction detonating, and spreading a shockwave across the impromptu arena. Tonion, at the epicenter, found himself… peeled, his spindly internal frame rocketing outward at speed, before embedding itself hat-first into a nearby wall… at which point the impact shorted out the limited processing power he had left.

Of course, the close-in Reploids didn’t fare much better: Hyenard had been closer, but Gungaroo had been moving faster through the blast as it went, and both found entire limbs and ghastly amounts of armor plating in key places vaporized or melted to inoperability. The Red Alert young gun and the former practical joker swayed unsteadily, recoiling in primal fear, before all systems shut down, and they crumpled to the ground.

Above them, the disrupted air currents, with nowhere to send the swirling mass of air to, instead emitted a shockwave in all directions, sending the distracted Crowrang spiraling away in the opposite direction to Tonion as he plummeted unceremoniously into the ground, where the force crumpled his head on impact. He dropped dead on the spot.

Boarski had managed to get away with mostly just a damaged rear wheel, which meant that while he couldn’t roll around anymore, he could still toss out spinning laser turrets of his own, and rolling wheels that skidded along the ground, attempting to bowl over whatever got in their way. This unfortunately meant he was next to receive Alia’s full wrath. “This is for Axl!” she roared, lobbing one charge shot the boar’s way, slamming him in the arm, and then, “This is for Axl!” as another one impacted him right in the belly, and finally, as one more blast rocketed toward the now fleeing boar, “This is for X!”

Boarski toppled over with a thud and a hole in the back of his head, and by now Zero had dug himself out of the ground, though he was certainly worse-for-wear; his boots had begun to deteriorate, and both his pauldrons had summarily blown right off at some point, but his buster was still primed and he could still move. “Where do you need me?” he called out, to which Alia pointed Splash Warfly’s way.

Zero nodded, making himself useful by dumping shots into the flying fish, who was the least equipped for ranged combat and generally the one most disposed to taking the bait into what he saw as a free win. As the battle-hungry Reploid flew forward, glaive outstretched, Zero waited for just the right moment… before ripping the glaive from Warfly’s hands and tossing him end-over-end into the snow. Zero then slashed the flying fish right across the chest and fired a full-power blast directly into his head, for good measure.

With Warfly dead, this left the two last members of Red Alert’s most elite force, the two most senior members after the man himself, his fellow Repliforce compatriots. The two, with practiced ease (mostly muscle memory, for that was all these copy bodies had, admittedly), adopted their standard defensive positions, Snipe Anteater laying down suppressive fire with spiral claw slashes, missiles, and ant mines, while Soldier Stonekong stood firm, Gaea Blade and Shield at the ready, a boulder slowly forming in his free hand behind the protective guise of the shield.

As the great ape flung the shield outward, the boulder coalesced after it, and he heaved it forward. The huge boulder impacted the ground with a resounding THUD, spraying up loose snow and dirt as the shield sailed over it, nailing the less-mobile Alia and pinning her underneath the massive rock. “GAAH!” she cried out, but Zero ignored her; there was a more pressing concern.

He bolted forward, as fast as his battered legs would carry him, dipping up and around the energy spirals, jumping over the ant mines, and bobbing and weaving through the missile barrage, before eventually he’d slid right into the path of Stonekong’s sword arc… just as planned.

The mighty ape swung down, and Zero hopped up, running along the blade as he then kicked off it into a somersault, roundhouse kicking Stonekong’s armored head before following it up with a point-blank buster shot, and Zero gazed outward in an expectant way. The ape, blinded and stunned, staggered around, as Zero exclaimed, “DO IT NOW!”

A barely recovered Axl, across the snowy field, hoisted the G Launcher over his shoulder one more time, and blowing Stonekong straight to kingdom come, before he dropped to the ground himself, spent.

With only Snipe Anteater still standing, the strategist content with staying out of harm’s way and coordinating from the backlines, he ramped up all his available defensive measures, even using his long, prehensile tongue in a futile attempt to ensnare one of the two hunters. Unfortunately, Axl’s prone, but not offline form, presented just too enticing of a bait.

As Anteater went to finish the job, his tongue wrapping around Axl’s prone form and raising it up, the diversion of his focus had cost him: with Alia having eventually pried herself free of what remained of Stonekong’s mighty boulder, and Zero still basically right in his face, rearing up for one hell of a haymaker, the anteater found himself taking an uppercut to the stomach before a mean left hook to his massive snout, as a Gaea Shot sailed past Zero and struck him in the chest. As one more missile attempted to fire off, Zero blasted it with his buster, shorting it out before it could launch, and it detonated inside the anteater.

What remained of the former strategic analyst and historian was now loose shrapnel cooling in the Siberian air, and Zero dropped to a knee, panting, “It’s… over…”

Alia, who was the least damaged of the trio, did what she could for the gaping hole in Axl’s torso, and for Zero’s shattered legs, praying to whatever deities she thought she might believe in that someone, no, anyone, would save them from the wrath of the Devil Reploid incarnate.

Sigma, for his part, reveled in it all, hijacking Alia’s comm link once more.

“Well done,” he congratulated, and Alia grimaced when she realized he was being sincere. “Truly, well done. You’ve gotten much, much farther than I would’ve expected, down a teammate and down a signature weapon. I might be tempted to let you up here to start the fireworks early…” the utterly titanic Reploid, paused as if considering. “But where would the fun in that be, hm? You’re past it!”

“If anyone’s ‘past it,’ it’s you,” Alia huffed indignantly.

“Not as I am, I’m not,” Sigma corrected. “But seriously, you expect me to beat me now? With what, gumption? I admire the conviction, but you wouldn’t last five seconds as you are now. I want a good fight, the kind only X and Zero can give me. And at the end, I will consume their data… make it mine. As it should be.”

“They will stop at nothing to keep your visions of the future from coming to pass,” Alia retorted.

“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” Sigma replied nonchalantly. “But X isn’t here, now is he? The Ultimate Variable, the solution to every equation, Alpha and Omega? He’d give me what I want… no, what I need.”

“I thought Zero could give you what you need?” Alia wondered. Truly, she was stalling for time, and they both knew it, but Sigma chuckled anyway.

“If he had his saber and wasn’t running on half a leg servo, maybe,” scoffed the tyrannical Reploid. “Besides, I’ve got plenty of his data thanks to the good doctor’s assistance. What little else I need, I can glean from X’s backlogs. Those two fight more than some married couples, honestly.”

Alia’s eye twitched and her hand clenched in frustration, and Sigma’s head tilted in an innocuous way.

“Strike a nerve, did I?” he wondered rhetorically. Alia had no clue how Sigma had even figured it out, but now the literal face of the worst virus to face Reploidkind was laughing at her, at her bond. “Dr. Light may have designed X to think, and to feel, and to act on his own… but for all that Dr. Cain attempted to replicate that… I don’t know if he ever truly succeeded. Ever wondered, little Alia… if your feelings were manufactured?” Sigma pronounced the last word like the stigmatized, traumatizing utterance it was, and as Alia struggled to keep her composure, he continued. “I mean, really. I bet half the reason you want X that badly is because he’s already in your head 24/7. Ever stopped to think that maybe he’s a toxic influence? That he’s using you?”

“Like you intend to use him!?” Alia finally blurted out, and Sigma, curse him, grinned.

“I’m using his data,” he corrected. “There’s a difference. Honestly, what do you even want with him anyway? I’m at least bothering to repurpose his knowledge for an actually useful goal. Reploids can’t reproduce, as far as I’m aware, at least… not like, that.”

Alia didn’t bother dignifying the implication with a response, so Sigma continued. “In any case, sorry to say it, but you’re just gutter trash who needs to be cleaned up to stop corrupting my prized data. So, if you would… please get your sorry afts out of my sight before I come down there and annihilate you.”

“And you think X will, what, submit the moment we’re off the table?” Alia asked.

“Of course not, you idiot,” Sigma grimaced, wondering why he had to explain something so basic. “I expect him to fight even harder, to really show the darkest depths of his potential. I saw them but once, before, and I will find them again. And I don’t care how many years, decades, centuries, hell even millennia it takes me to do it! You hear me!? I’ll do it all, again and again! Until the seas boil away, until the skies burn to cinders, until this very planet crumbles to dust! I’ll stay alive, I’ll always come back, until all I want is MINE!”

As Sigma’s maniacal cackling echoed through the commlink and even down from the top of the tower, the devil Reploid’s visage turned back towards them, letting the sound of his haunting laughter fill the space, as he declared, “X will arrive in the next half hour, and I will fight him, and consume him, and destroy him. If he does not… the whole world shall burn until he comes to me.”

Finally, the connection cut, and Alia, glancing down at the two battered Hunters she had in her charge, dropped to the ground, and wept, for there was nothing else she could do.

Maverick Hunter Jump Jet, over the Sea of Okhotsk, 15 minutes to Armageddon

X reviewed the last, desperate message he’d received from Alia, still triaging the severely damaged Zero and Axl, and unable to proceed with the fight against Sigma out of fear that she’d be simply tossed aside, vaporized where she stood, and leaving the other two defenseless. Given he was pressing the jet as hard as he could go, all the Blue Bomber could do was send a reassuring message that he would be there in time, and he would protect them, even as he stared at the saber sitting next to him.

The little note attached to it from Dr. Wily, ordering him to return it to its rightful owner, weighed on him, and he found himself reminiscing over the countless times him and Zero had both saved each other, and fought each other, across the years the two had known each other. “We couldn’t save everyone,” he lamented. “But we… we always tried, no matter what. And even… even when we had to fight the things we loved…” flashes of Alia, trapped in her golden armor, and Zero, cradling Iris’ dying body, “We… pressed on. In hopes that… that one day… there wouldn’t be another war. That we could live free… in peace.” He trailed off, staring at the saber, even as he realized that it didn’t seem to just be one saber.

Reaching out to it, he realized that it seemed to have two conjoined hilts, end to end, and as he reached for it… they split. X found himself clasping one of the blades in his right hand, while the other resonated with energy, as X ignited it in his hands. “Dr. Wily didn’t…”

Suddenly, a voice inside his own mind. “No, Albert would not have,” sighed the voice, laden with regrets. “Not… not without some insistence.”

“Father…?” X wondered, positively incredulous. “You’re… you’re here?”

“When you… embraced your truest vision of yourself… you brought a small fragment of me with you,” explained X’s father. “In the brief moment you conversed with Wily, I nudged a connection or two in that robotic body of his, to try and bridge the gap that we’d left so, so wide open, for so long.” The voice paused. “And it worked!”

Somehow, X knew that his receiving of this saber—this symbol of Zero’s, all the same as he’d done in Zero’s name, after their last great confrontation—meant something far, far greater than even the bond shared between two battle brothers, forged over years of fighting side by side, confiding in each other, protecting each other from their own fears and doubts. Here, as X stood at the precipice before facing the devil himself, he realized that, after everything, there was truly only one way this… war could have ever come to an end. Or at least, there was only one way he was going to let it.

And by the grace of God, or Asimov, or Light, or even Wily, he would damn well do it, or die trying. Sending off one last message to Alia, he gazed out to the approaching landmass ahead of him, and thought to himself, Sigma… I will defeat you.

Outside the Crimson Palace Watchtower, 5 minutes until Armageddon

Axl, mercifully, had managed to sit himself up, operating at emergency capacity. Zero’s auto-repair systems were also doing what they could for his shattered leg, and he was starting to regain some motion within it, though it was certainly unsteady. Alia, for her part, had decided that to keep her mind off nigh-inevitable doom, she’d attempt to repair her Falcon Armor, or at least, get it into a functional enough state that she could actually use the damn thing.

As she busied herself, focusing mostly on the thrusters, she realized that she’d missed the very last message X had sent her on the way back. Reading it aloud, her eyes widened, before she turned to Axl and Zero. “X will be here in time, he said so himself,” Alia positively shone with the anticipation. “And… and he knows we can beat Sigma. I don’t know how in Light’s name he could possibly know that, but I… I think I believe him. But he knows he can’t do it alone.”

“Tell him we’ll be there every step of the way,” said Zero. “Also, can you ask him if he brought a new saber? I… think I might need one.”

“He... seems to have something else in mind,” Alia explained, rereading the next part of the message. “We have to… confront Sigma? Is he out of his mind!?”

“Where’d your confidence go!?” Axl interjected. “If X says we can do it, then dammit I believe him. I don’t care what we gotta do to make it happen, I’m doing it! Now come on!”

Suddenly Axl shot to his feet, revitalized once more, and beelining it to the elevator that would take them up to meet Sigma. Against her better judgement, Alia followed him, and Zero, a bit summarily outvoted, jogged up too, silently praying that X’s sense of timing was as impeccable as his sense of everlasting justice. Because if he was wrong… it would all be over.

Top of the Watchtower, 2 minutes to Armageddon

“Come to accept your deaths early, I take it?” Sigma wondered aloud, back turned to the trio as they stepped into the main observation deck of the watchtower. “Thank you for being civilized about this. I was half-wondering if I’d have to come down there and deal with you.”

“We’re going to wipe you off the face of the earth, you rotting, ancient husk,” Axl retorted, raising a pistol at Sigma, who didn’t so much as twitch. “And we’ll keep on keeping on, as many times as it takes.”

“You’ll have to kill me first, young one,” Sigma chided. “Rather hard to do when I’m invincible.”

“Nothing is invincible,” Zero corrected. “I thought I might’ve been, once. I was wrong. And so it shall be with you.”

“Unfortunately, the good doctor’s aid has all but ensured your fates being sealed here,” Sigma sighed in an almost apologetic way. “You will die an inglorious death, struggling to withstand forces which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

“You think you can possibly comprehend the ultimate variable?” Alia added. “That is what you intend to do, is it not?”

“Quite astute of you,” nodded Sigma. “Your point?”

“Seems as though it’d be quite the fool’s errand to pursue attempts to know the truly unknowable,” noted the navigator, who had first-hand experience with X’s utterly incomprehensibility. “All that you could glean of him would be the barest fraction of all the knowledge which he knew, knows, and ever will know. You know that, don’t you?”

“Your simple processors cannot possibly fathom the depths to which I exist in every fabric of this world,” Sigma scoffed. “I am everywhere. An entire world’s knowledge is available to me, should I choose to harness it. And it will be more than enough to contain X.”

At that moment, a ping, breaking Sigma out of his wild musings. “Ah, it would appear time is up. Unfortunate, really. You will now be the first to witness my own ultimate potential.”

An array of metallic attachments extended out of a series of ports all along Sigma’s shoulders and upper torso, as he began assembling the gigantic plasma rifle he intended to use to exact his twisted vision of authority upon the Hunters, priming it and loading it up, ready to annihilate everything in his way.

As the final power cell charged, and Sigma leveled the massive rifle for the intended kill shot, he pressed down the trigger, and the room erupted.

Chapter Text

Sigma’s massive rifle let loose a terrifying CRACK as the barrel erupted, an enormous laser spewing forth from it directly at the trio, ready to wipe them from the face of existence. The blinding flash filled the space, slowly fading as the Devil Reploid peered through the white to see…

A shimmering, armored form standing before him, stemming the tide with hands outstretched, and the bubble around him crackling and hissing at the strain it was having to keep at bay. The laser mercifully faded, as the helmeted head tilted upward to meet his gaze, and the familiar shape of a buster formed on its left hand, pulsing with energy, as a saber was drawn in the other.

“Your reign of terror, your grip on the world…” the Reploid before him stated, “It ends today!”

The buster discharged its triple blast, rocketing outward, as X first tossed one saber back, then dashed forward, drawing a second, and slashing Sigma right across the torso, before kicking off him with his jet-thruster boots, shoving the towering Reploid to the floor, as he flipped back into a ready stance.

The saber he’d thrown backward swung around perfectly, as Zero caught it in his left hand, standing up and watching in abject awe at the display before him. Shaking it off, he ignited his new saber, charged up his own buster, and charged, roaring, “Sigma, you’re dead!”

Sigma stood back up, breaking his rifle down to a form more suited to close range, and began unloading a stream of plasma bullets at both approaching Hunters, using his own excellent speed to kite them back and forth, keeping at just the right distance that the only things they could manage were ineffectual standard shots. “Yes, yes, that’s it!” he cackled, a grin forming on his face as he watched his adversaries fight in unison. “This… this is marvelous! It’s more than I could have ever dreamed of… It will be MINE!”

Alia and Axl, who’d managed to finally process that not only were they not dead, but X was here and Zero had his saber back, stood up, and charged in. With the damage to her thrusters to severe, Alia couldn’t properly fly, but the Falcon was still capable of dashing short distances, and Axl still had all his weapons primed, which he began using with extreme prejudice, whipping out the G Launcher and rapid-firing its heavy grenades at Sigma as he dodged, ducked, weaved, and guarded every incoming blast.

Zero, realizing that so long as Sigma could run, he would never be pinned down, so he picked up his own pace, charging in even faster, saber flashing as he struck first at the spinning rifle, then at Sigma’s right arm, and finally his left leg, stunning the huge Reploid briefly and forcing him to lose grip on his weapon for but a moment, but that moment was all Zero needed.

“BAKUENJIN!”

Sigma’s face contorted to one of sheer awe as Zero, using heretofore unknown combat prowess, developed a technique completely apropos of nothing, slamming his fist in the ground and igniting it. The resulting explosion sent the halfway-tumbling Sigma flying, rocketing the green-armored menace over to one of the walls. He slammed into it with a sickening CREAK, the metal plating buckled from the impact, and the tower beneath them rumbled. Shaking it off, he readied his rifle again and fired another volley, the ricocheting rounds bouncing all around the tiny space, filling the room with projectiles. “You… you invented that,” he marveled, “From nothing! Zero, you continue to amaze me.”

“Noted,” Zero smirked, rushing in again, firing some more, and mixing in a few high-power saber shots, which glowed a rather distinct orange instead of the green they typically were. As he raced on, he slashed underhand with a cry of, “Zankourin!” a strange, glowing energy wheel erupted, rocketing along the ground at Sigma’s position. While the called shot was summarily dodged with a simple upward hop, this was exactly what Zero had planned… somehow. On pure instinct.

With Sigma now in the air, unable to correct his own positioning, Zero’s blade crackled with energy, glowing a bright electric blue as he got a buster shot through a tiny gap in Sigma’s guard, slamming him in the face, before he was right beneath him.

“RAIJINSHOU!”

The spiraling, electrified slash generated the powerful Faraday cage-esque column of electricity around it, sparking and crackling like a once-in-a-century thunderstorm, and as Zero rose with it, it did what all thunderstorms do. “RAAAAGH!” Sigma roared, writhing in agony as the electricity coursed through him, forcing him to drop both ends of his double-barreled rifle as he crumpled to the ground, and as he lay there, Axl shot forward, sensing the opportunity.

Something in his own circuits told him he had just the option he needed to absolutely wipe this stain on Reploidkind from the earth, and as he cycled his weapons, whipping out his Axl Bullets with practiced ease, he squeezed the triggers down, and Wind Cutters began rapid-firing outward.

The wind blades sliced at Sigma’s prone form, shattering armor, slicing limbs, scarring his exposed skin, and eventually, the former Maverick Hunter could no longer stand it. Gathering the power he had within him, his body flickered, before it disappeared.

“Dammit, where did he go!?” Axl exclaimed, as X’s armor began to ping incessantly.

“He’s out there!” X pointed outward through the shattered window that he’d come in from, and sure enough, Sigma was hovering, battered, but still alive… and it seemed, rapidly regaining his strength.

“So close,” Sigma taunted, “But no cigar, I’m afraid. I thought I told you before, I’m immortal. You cannot hope to kill me. However…”

The rifle he’d dropped materialized back in his hands, good as new, clacking back into place, as he leveled it again. “You. Will. DIE!”

X dove back into a defensive position, ready to ride the tidal wave once more, but he began to doubt himself. Can… can I do this? He thought, the purple sheen of Volt Tornado adorning his armor as the shimmering shield coalesced around him… as Alia flew up to his side.

“Alia, what are you-” X blurted out, as she morphed her armor from flight to force, bringing her palms together in a stance X knew well. “Alright then… Zero! Alia! Axl! On my mark!”

The two remaining Hunters got into position, leveling the strongest weapons they had… just as Sigma pulled the trigger. The massive laser erupted once more, shoving Sigma back as it blasted outward, and this time, it seemed as though it had grown more powerful. It was wider, brighter, and charged more thoroughly, and it screamed toward them like a banshee, but X stood firm. He had to.

The beam slammed into the shield first, and it crackled and screeched, as X poured more and more power, more energy, more of himself into it, but he could see through his narrowed eyes that it was breaking through. Knowing that they only had one shot, he waited, straining as the shield finally began to fail entirely, and the beam began leaking through, striking him his left arm, then his right shoulder, before slamming into his torso, and then… “NOW!”

Alia shoved forward with a Gaea Burst, as Zero paired it with twin Shingetsurin, and Axl coalesced a twinned barrage from his Axl Bullets, and slowly, steadily, they pushed the beam back. “We’re doing it!” Axl beamed, as X nodded.

The edges of the beam faltered under Axl’s barrage, and the swirling rings conducted it outward, away from the quartet, as the giant green hole swallowed the energy, slowly shaking, crumpling, folding over itself as it traveled on, as the strain lifted off X’s shoulders, and he knew there was only one way for this to end. “Everybody, get to cover!” he shouted, and the other three ran.

As the Gaea Burst threatened to completely and utterly vaporize everything within a dozen mile radius, X dove forward, buster flaring as he fired at it over and over, unloading charged blast after charged blast, pushing it on, and on, and on… until he ignited his own saber, and leveling it like a baseball bat, rocketed forward and swung.

The Gaea Burst split as the blade slashed through it, gaining more momentum as each individual pulse began rocketing forward, consuming what remained of the giant beam as they went. X rocketed in after them, riding the edge of the dissipating beam, until finally, the blasts pummeled Sigma once, twice, three times, then four, as he brought his own limbs together.

“You… you…” Sigma spluttered, feeling the sheer power battering him over and over, as X’s body began to crackle and spark, shimmering like a star, and while Sigma tried in vain to hold on, he found his mind had been consumed by doubt. “You… you can’t! I won’t lose! Not like this! Not like-”

“GIGAAAAA CRAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!”

Whatever Sigma’s last words were, they were drowned out by the wave of fire, and then the lightning storm that summarily coursed through him, his individual atoms ionizing as his body began to be consumed by the white-hot plasma, and the shockwave slammed first into the tower behind, then the trees ahead, and finally the ground below. The tower, weakened from the constant explosions and barrages that had filled its top, began to sway, and the three Hunters inside decided to take the quick way down. Zero leapt out first, with Alia and Axl hovering down behind him, as X rocketed towards them, his own armor by some miracle still holding strong.

As the crimson dynamo plummeted to the ground, banking on his double jump to stabilize him, he realized he might’ve majorly miscalculated. “Little help!?” he shouted as he plummeted down, and X dove downward faster, swinging around underneath him just in time, and hovering down at just the right speed to not only catch Zero, but safely deposit the two of them back on the ground.

“Thanks for the save, X,” Zero huffed, trying to push back the dread that had welled up inside him. “Man, I could just about kiss you, y’know?”

“Save it for later, you two,” Alia laughed as her and Axl touched down. “Is… is it over?”

“You kidding?” Axl said, raising an eyebrow. “After what we just did to him, yeah? He’s dust.”

“I… I wouldn’t be so sure,” X sighed, staring out at the skies where Sigma had used to be. Scanning the air for any traces of the Maverick Virus, he detected none, however. “Wait… Alia, can you…?”

“I’m not sensing it either,” Alia shook her head. “Whatever… we did, I think it did it.”

“Don’t… don’t give me hope,” X groaned, but something in the air told him… perhaps, it was over.

That was, until…

“Wily!” X froze, recognizing the tell-tale noise of Wily’s flying saucer, and indeed the classic flying machine touched down ahead of them, and Doctor Albert W. Wily stepped out, clapping slowly.

“Well done, X,” Wily grinned. “I have to admit… you did it. Without me, even. I had a whole thing planned where I would’ve goaded Sigma into transforming into an even more powerful but unstable body, and you would’ve then pummeled him that way, allowing me to render his data unreadable, but… you didn’t need to do that.”

“And… how exactly would that have worked?” asked Axl.

“With this,” Wily said, brandishing the chip in his hands. “I believe, actually, this is yours by creator’s right, Axl.”

Axl blinked, before realizing what Wily was holding. “That’s a copy chip!” he shouted, before sprinting over. “Gimme that!”

“Relax, boy,” Wily huffed, handing it over. “Think of it as a gift from your late mother, I suppose. Don’t know when she managed to build you, but… I have to admit, her work is quite good.”

“What am I supposed to do with it, anyway?” wondered Axl. “I mean, I already have one.”

“Truth be told, I don’t know,” Wily grunted. “So long as you don’t try and usurp Zero with it, I have no real qualms about it. Old Mikhail always knew he was the third best of us three, back in the day.”

“Wait… Mikhail?” X wondered. “As in… Doctor Mikhail Sergeyevich Cossack?”

“That is his name,” Wily confirmed. “Where’d you learn about him?”

“I… asked my father’s AI about other people my father knew in his time, once,” X explained. “He mentioned a Doctor Cossack, once. But you implied this was his… daughter’s work?”

“Little Kalinka, yes,” Wily said, and he sounded almost wistful. “Quite bright, she was, and she followed her father’s footsteps later in life. It was her idea to design this specialized copy chip, as I recall. Originally, I believe it was intended to be installed in another robot, but she needed a test bed.”

“And that test bed… was me?” Axl concluded. “Cool…”

“Quite cool indeed,” Wily grinned. “So, Axl, or I should say, DCN-X1, here you go.”

“So that’s just it, then?” Zero asked, still not entirely sure of Wily’s intentions. “I would’ve figured you’d use this shot to get me back, pummel X a bunch, and then, uh, not sure about the other two. Instead, you’re… giving Axl back some of his inheritance, and complementing X on a job well done.” He paused. “So, Wily, what’s your game, huh?”

“It changed rather significantly once Sigma decided to stab me in the back,” Wily harrumphed. “I was originally intending to use him as an instrument for overall world domination, but when he decided he didn’t need me, I decided the next best thing was to make it so you would be top dog in my name.”

“…And how, exactly, did you plan that to go?” wondered Zero. “I don’t take orders from you. Also, more to the point, I got fired and X was the one who vaporized Sigma. Again.”

“Your performance here does entitle you to several promotions,” Alia put in, and Zero could swear she was stifling a giggle at his expense. “But yes, this begs another question.” She turned to Wily, and explained, “The Maverick Virus, as we currently understand it, is gone. It might be floating around in cyberspace somewhere, but after the last major incident, Reploid firewalls have gotten a lot better at handling it. I suspect, with a little more work, it may be eradicated entirely. What then?”

“I don’t need it,” Wily rolled his eyes. “That was a relic of when I only wanted Zero as the one supreme robot master reigning over all simpler non-sentient devices. The Maverick Virus, as I programmed it, doesn’t drive non-sentient robots insane, it instead just makes them able to be commanded on the fly without any sort of administrative access. It’s because of how it mingled with that sham-job copying of Thomas’s work that it got this out of hand. Quite frankly, I don’t want to lord over a world of corpses.”

“So, you want it eradicated?” confirmed Alia. “Surprising, really.”

“I offered up the cure for Roboenza because it did the exact same thing,” Wily huffed. “How was I supposed to know anybody would be idiotic enough to build sentient robots without so much as testing their inherent morality programming? En masse, as well!?”

“I would not exist if somebody didn’t do that,” Alia shouted, eyes narrowing. “And quite frankly, I think at least one person would be extremely distraught at that prospect. So, really, what now?”

“Now?” Wily tapped his chin, pondering. “You hire me as your leading expert on Zero’s idiosyncrasies in exchange for me never building any other robots ever again.”

“You’re a convicted terrorist,” X pointed out. “Multiple offender, even. Why would we even consider that, exactly?”

“I’ll do it from a secure facility!” Wily added quickly. “You’d only have to deal with me behind several layers of armed guards.”

“Not interested,” said Zero. “I know enough about how I work as-is, and every Asimov-forsaken time something crazy with Maverick infection happens, we learn a little more about that too. As Alia pointed out, almost all current new-builds are damn near 100% immune to it by now. A little more investigation and we might straight up cure it, and that’s good enough for me.”

“But… but…” Wily spluttered. “You… you dare defy me!”

“Hell yeah we dare,” Axl laughed. “You’re a washed up old geezer who might’ve been the smartest guy in the world a century ago, but we’ve moved on, ya has-been.”

“Has-been!” Wily roared. “Zero, deal with this disrespectful cretin!”

“Axl’s the product of something you never figured out how to make, and X is still so advanced that a decade of concentrated investigation has turned out literally nothing,” Zero rolled his eyes. “Way I see it, you were 2^nd place at best to begin with, and the next generation outpaced you. Have fun with the bronze medal, old man.”

Wily shook a clenched fist at them, before turning on his heel. “Bah, I don’t have to deal with this! I’ll be back, and you’ll all see that I’m still in my prime! You haven’t seen the last of-”

*BOOM*

The flying saucer suddenly exploded… somehow, and as Wily stared out at the smoldering wreckage, he dropped to the ground. “No… no, my life’s work! My unfinished projects, everything… it’s gone!”

“Axl is right, Doctor Wily,” said X, bringing out the handcuffs and placing them around Wily’s wrists. “Quite frankly, we don’t need anything from you besides that device you appear to have stolen from Axl’s family at some point, and dealing with you quite frankly has gotten tiresome. My older brother would’ve had plenty of words to say on that front, I imagine.” He found himself chuckling at that, eyes flashing with images of his shorter predecessor. “My father, too, just wants you to retire, and to live in peace. He might’ve told you that already, and bless him, I think he still sees you as a friend.” As Wily was stood back up, and X turned him around, he asked, “So, Doctor Wily. What’ll it be?”

“I… I think that I’d like that,” decided the aging scientist, looking X right in his green eyes. “You really are Thomas’s boy, you know that?”

“I’ve been told that before, but…” X trailed off.

“You look just like him when he was younger,” Wily continued, remembering back to his university days, the last days when it was just him and Thomas, building whatever they wanted, having fun with their research. Not… not like the years since. “And dammit, you’ve still got that same hopeful glint in your eye that he always did. The one that spurred me on to try to be better, to do better.”

“That… I don’t know what I’m supposed to take from that,” X said, incredulous at the sentimentality that Wily was displaying.

“How the hell should I know?” Wily huffed. “Whatever it is, I’m betting that Tom would’ve thought it too. Probably still does, somewhere. So, X. Do him proud, will you?”

With that, Wily turned to let Alia and Axl take him back to the dropship, and X stared out at the remains of the mighty palace that stood before them. “So, that’s it then?”

“Seems like it,” Zero shrugged. “What do you want to do now?”

“Would it be too much if I said I just wanted to go exploring?” X wondered aloud. “Surely…”

“Don’t we have a few more things to get through first?” Zero said, pointing to Axl.

“Ah, yeah, that is true,” X said, a bit sheepish. “But really, for the first time in… a long time. I think we might’ve well and truly won.”

“Can’t say no to that,” Zero grinned, bringing up a hand for a thumbs-up. “Let’s hope we stay that way.”

With that, the two brought their forearms together, clanked their helmets against each other, before they too turned to walk ahead into a brighter future.