Chapter Thirty-One: Keep Changing
To say Alia was nervous was a gross understatement—as she stood in the debriefing room with Layer and Axl, she was shaking so bad she knew they could hear her armor clattering. Although all Reploids wore armor, combat units were made of much sturdier stuff than that of non-combat, and Alia had to undergo major operations and installations with hers before Signas let her go into the field. She wasn’t used to the heavier weight yet, and the newly installed cannon still felt like a foreign program that was itching to be uninstalled. But she couldn’t back down now… no, she had to face Gate; it was her duty to stop him.
Layer’s hand on Alia’s shoulder made her jerk out of her thoughts, and she thought she jumped. But Layer was impressed to see Alia smoothly glance at her, and despite the shaking, looked rather impassive. She had a good poker face, but would it hold?
“Don’t worry,” Layer said. “I’m watching your back, remember?”
Alia nervously laughed, her voice shaking. Her poker face broke. “I don’t think it’s my back I’m worried about… I think I need something to shield my face.”
Axl crossed his arms behind his head, smirking at her. “Aw, c’mon, the worst that’ll happen is you’ll get scarred, and those aren’t so bad!” he made an unnecessary gesture to his own scar.
Alia had the humor to make a face at him. “And look like you?”
“You could be my Sis! You got blond hair, Dad has blond hair…”
“Oh, hell—”
Signas cleared his throat in an exaggerated manner, making all three other occupants look at him. The Commander hated humor in the debriefing room… “I appreciate your attempts to keeping your optimism up, but let’s begin before you get carried away.”
All three glanced at each other before nodding, and Signas held his hand up just as the large monitor behind him flickered on. An ultrasonic map of the world appeared, with six flashing dots scattered all over the place. Alia’s eyes were trained on the area she knew was the ruined laboratory Axl had been scouting out, where he discovered Gate… where Gate hopefully still was.
“We’ve had unusual readings in the Amazon Area, the Laser Institute, and the supposedly shut down Weapon Center,” Signas explained. As he listed each area, their respective dots pulsed and pulled up a screenshot of each area. A small, square portrait appeared in the corner of each screenshot.
“These,” he pointed toward the closest portrait, “are the leaders, we believe, of the forces present in these areas. Gathering information is easy, it’s the deciphering we’ve having problems with. There is an unusual jamming; an irregular reading that scrambles the data we collect. In essence, you are going in blind.” Signas dropped his hand, clasping both behind his lower back. “Unfortunately there isn’t much else to tell you about these areas.”
Axl tilted his head slightly, regarding the map with a thoughtful look. “What’re the others?”
The screenshots and portraits minimized, bringing up the other areas but without portraits. “These are areas you would be interested in, Axl. We picked up Red’s signal from these areas, and although he is no longer there, he left behind someone.”
Axl’s core skipped a pulse and he lowered his arms slowly. Red left behind people, others of Red Alert no doubt, and he probably knew Axl would go investigate. Probably knew Axl and whoever he left would fight… and someone would die. What a sick, twisted game… what happened to Red Alert? To Red?
It’s too late now. Axl thought, resolutely. You got a new family now.
“Got it,” Axl finally responded. “I’ll investigate as undercover missions. Causalities should be minimum if not absent all together.”
“By yourself?” Alia frowned.
“You and Layer will be tackling these other areas, right?” Axl waved a hand in a dismissive fashion. “Like I said, it’ll be conducted like it’s undercover. I’ll be fine, this is my specialty.”
Signas nodded. “He’s right, Alia. You and Layer will be in more danger than he. I expect you to keep all communication channels open, all three of you.”
All three nodded, and Signas looked at Alia, “Where will you go first?”
She scanned the map, over the areas Signas mentioned earlier. She kept looking at the Amazon area… because when the portrait came up, she knew exactly who was there waiting for her.
“Amazon. I’ll take on Commander Yammark.”
~*~
It wasn’t as hot as Layer was expecting, although it was awfully bright. Even with her hair, now activated to act as a helmet, she still had to raise a hand to shield her eyes when she and Alia teleported in. There were no trees, how strange… and was that a carrierpillar?
“Looks peaceful enough,” Layer bent over slightly, looking in the distance. “Sounded like you knew this Maverick, though, so care to share?”
Alia winced. “I hope Yammark isn’t a Maverick…” she did a quick glance around. “He was one of Gate’s creations, meant to keep the Amazon forests clear and healthy. He used to look more human-like than he does… but the… sabotage ruined his flying ability. Last I heard, he had crashed and died.”
“Well, he either actually survived, or Gate was rather attached.” The swordswoman began the trek forward, Alia haltingly following.
The carrierpillar was pacing peacefully back and forth, the ridges of abnormally raised hills confusing it into just simply moving where it can go. Layer hopped down on top of its flattened back, let it carry her to the other end, and jumped up onto the next platform. Irritated by her calmness, Alia activated her dash ability manually and leaped over to the platform. The rush of flying through bolted through her, and when she landed the blond was a little out of breath.
Layer smirked. “I was going slow on purpose to let you get used to it…”
“I learn better when everything happens all at once.” Alia lied. The truth was, she wanted this over as soon as possible.
“Fair enough.”
Layer turned away and dashed off, leaving Alia gaping in the dust. Not used to full dashing capabilities, Alia ran a good two feet before finally figuring out an easier way to activate the dash, and Layer was ducking behind a hill by the time she caught up.
Before Alia could make a comment, Layer grabbed her hand and jerked her down to the ground. Alia faceplanted right into Layer’s bosom, and jerked back with a red face, wide eyes, and a slightly hurt nose. Layer held a finger to her lips, jerking her head to indicate over the hill. Alia peeked over the edge, staring at the mantis mechanoloid raising its bladed arms in a threatening manner.
“Those are easy to destroy,” Layer muttered. “But I killed it while you were catching up, and it just… rebuilt itself.”
Alia frowned, one eye turning gold as she activated her Navigator sensor. Data reading was immediate, and it bounced back an error with several lines of awkward code. She scowled as she ducked back down—oh how she hated these stupid encoded data crap…
She opened the channels to the Base, feeding the data to the mother computer there. / Signas, can you hear me? /
// Loud and clear. What is this? //
/ Dunno, run it through the comp and tell me what it says. /
Alia fidgeted the two minutes it took, and Signas’ deep voice stagnated a bit through the connection static. // It’s sort of like a Virus infection. It’s like a variant. If you send more data, I’ll see what the team here can do. //
/ Gotcha. /
Alia glanced at Layer, then her left hand transformed into the new A-Buster she was outfitted with. Layer smirked, good naturedly of course, and folded her arms behind her head in mock comfort. Alia kneed her in the hip before cautiously poking her head over the edge.
Unlike X, Alia only had the potential for one charge level to her cannon, but hopefully it’d be enough. The mantis screeched and raised its entire upper body higher up, a compartment opening and beginning to pour out smaller insect machines. Alia held her breath as she took aim.
Layer kicked her, and Alia yelped as she reflexively released the shot. It hit dead on, the plasma ripping through the enemy cleanly and spreading rapidly to cause it to explode, the fires catching the smaller insects and making them blow up as well. Angrily, the blond looked down at the grinning swordswoman.
“You take too long,” Layer said. “Battle is analytical, but its quick reflex too.”
“You’re so full of it…”
The rest of her statement was cut off as a sudden shot in her direction made Alia scream shrilly and dive back under the cover of the hill. Layer’s humor was gone in a second and she cleared the hill, sailing through the air with her rapier out and activated. Alia managed to look back up to see her battle friend gracefully slice through this weird tentacle sprouting thing, causing it to fizzle and fall to the ground twitching. Layer landed a foot away in a crouch, and turned as she stood to her full height.
She wasn’t happy when she looked at the smoking husk. “What the hell is this thing?” she kicked it.
Layer took a step back, raising her rapier as a strange blue orb slowly floated into the air above the body. Alia squinted, clambering over the hill and jogging over, inner scientist gleefully looking at this new, strange thing. She snatched it, despite Layer’s protest, and juggled the little energy ball thing between her hands.
“It reads the same as the mantis,” Alia finally said after taking a reading. “This was inside it, infecting it.”
“Oh, gross, did you see what it looked like?” Layer frowned. “Like some… freaky… tentacle porn monster or something.”
Alia let what she said slide, instead flicking open an energy containment system in her utility wrist and stuffing the thing in it. “Well, if we come across more, I’ll analyze it when we get back to base.”
Layer shuddered at the thought of running into more. Despite her silent, fervent wishing, after the duo ducked into an underground tunnel they came across more of those weird, freaky, creepy things. More mantis mechs, all infected by these viral things, peppered the pathway. As much as Alia tried, she had to admit Layer did most of the work. She was sloppy compared to Zero, naturally, but Layer was still graceful and agile in her technique, managing to dodge everything the mantises threw at her.
Alia was border lining severe damage by the time they crossed the chasm that wasn’t there before they teleported into the area. Layer had to support her to a locked doorway, letting her rest against it as the more experienced fighter kept her eyes toward where they had just come from.
They had gathered a decent forty or so of those blue soul-like things, and a part of Alia was tempted to leave Layer to do the hard work and head back to Base, tail between her legs and go back to the easy stuff she was used to. But that was cowardly, unfair to Layer, and she’d never be able to face herself or anyone else again.
“You think you’re doing terrible,” Layer suddenly spoke up, making Alia glance at her. Her eyes were still trained on the floating platforms, littered with machine parts. “But you’re not. Alia, you’re not as injured as you think, you’re just the most injured you’ve ever been. Don’t think about how you’re doing, or how X or Zero would perform. This is your fight, and you’re doing a damn good job.”
Layer was either taking a wild guess or she was a good reader of character, impressing Alia and making her chuckle. “All I know,” the blond woman said, “is I hurt, I wanna go home, and I want a really long, hot shower.”
“Here, here.” Layer finally looked at her and held her hand out. “But first, we got this guy to take care of.”
“Yeah…” Alia groaned as she took Layer’s hand, letting her pull her to her feet. She was right, though, now that Alia took a proper damage report on herself. She really wasn’t that badly hurt.
She faced the door, fishing out the electromagnetic pick she picked up from engineering. With a little maneuvering, she managed to force the door to open. Down a short passage another door, needing to be picked as well, was shortly done away with. With Alia leading, the women slowly advanced into the opened space.
They were back in the forest at least, if the return of the trees and bushes were any indication. Buzzing in the branches of a large tree was a human shaped, insect-based Reploid. He was too preoccupied to notice them, and at Layer’s nod, Alia stepped under his tree.
“Yammark!” Alia called.
The Reploid jerked, surprised, looking down at her through a large visor. Although he had no real mouth, Alia was relived at the happy way his face brightened, and he fluttered down the tree in front of her.
“Alia!” Yammark practically bubbled. He even pulled her into a hug, despite Layer’s tensing. “It’s been so long!”
“Indeed…” Alia replied, awkwardly, as Yammark let her go. “I… I was told you died.”
Yammark’s eyes widened. “Who told you such an awful thing? Sure, I had an accident, but I didn’t die. Professor Gate fixed me right up.”
Alia cringed. “How… how’s Gate?”
“Positively miserable without you, Alia!” Yammark’s eyes dropped in sympathy. “In fact, that’s why I’ve been deployed. You see, I’m not fully fixed, and Gate didn’t want me to go, but he’s so upset I had to come looking for you.”
“Looking for me?”
“Of course, he misses you so much. Don’t you miss him? Aren’t you two still going to get married?”
Alia’s cringe deepened, and she felt her guilt all come back in waves. “Yammark, I…”
Yammark went on, and Layer thought it humorous he didn’t seem to notice the second woman at all. “I know you two had a fight, because… well, even I know you were part of the group that disfigured us, but we understand why you did, and Gate’s finally calmed down over it. Won’t you at least see him, Alia?”
Gate missed her? Calmed down? Alia wanted to, deep down, believe it. She wanted to believe Gate saw her reasoning, understood her process… wanted to even believe he did miss her.
“Yammark, I’ll go see Gate, but I’ll go on my own. So, where is he?” Alia said, neutrally and carefully.
Yammark’s eyes were expressive to make up for his lack of a real face. The way he looked was annoyed now. “No, no, no! That won’t do! I’ll fly us there, much faster.”
The Navigator frowned. “No, I don’t think so.”
Yammark seemed to scowl, and there was such an intense look on his face, Alia took a step back. “Alia. I don’t want to hurt you, but if I have to, I’ll force you to come with me to see Gate.”
He took a step forward, but had to jerk himself to a stop as he stared down a saber tip between his eyes. Alia blinked, not even realizing Layer had moved.
“You won’t be forcing anyone,” Layer said, her voice low and dangerous. “However, if we must, we shall force you to answer the kind lady’s question.”
“Fine,” Yammark’s tone changed as well, a very sly, sinister tone that wasn’t befitting the Reploid Alia once knew… once disfigured. “Gate didn’t say he wanted you alive, anyway.”
He suddenly took to the air, Layer hopping back a step. Alia activated her buster, tried to steel her heart, and the two women stood back to back in a ready combat stance.
The seconds ticked by, silent save for the fake birdsong, Alia’s eyes darting through the trees in an almost panicked twitch. Yammark was an expert flier, meant to fly at speeds not even Reploid eyes could catch, and he commanded an arsenal of supportive mechs for his own protection. He, like the others, were meant to be well rounded, resilient Reploids. Who knew what else Gate, in his madness, had added?
A shrieking sound ripped through the air and Layer swiftly turned, slamming herself into Alia and toppling them both to the ground just as Yammark flew through, plasma blades peppering his body. The rush of him flying over, narrowing missing them both, made Alia’s core pulse wildly and she was starting to lose her sanity, or at least it felt like it. She couldn’t fight!
Layer was fluid motion, though, and the blond woman stared from the ground as Layer seemed to glide to her feet. She dashed and jumped onto a wall, and Yammark burst from the treetops again above her. Layer kicked from the wall as the Maverick plummeted down, and once her feet touched the ground she pivoted and dashed back toward him. Yammark stood up, prepared to launch himself back into the air just as Layer hopped into a roll with her saber out, gaining momentum.
Yammark managed to jump over her, and Layer’s body unfolded gracefully as she swung herself sides to stop her movement, skidding and bumping into the wall. Alia was just getting to her feet when she realized Yammark was coming for her.
Alia shrieked—she couldn’t resist the urge, but as her primary programming seemed to shut down from the overload of fear, her new combat programming surged into the primary slot. She crouched just as Yammark flew at her, and in the split second he was above her, Alia raised her buster and released a quick succession of shots, landing three in his abdomen before he was completely over her. Yammark hissed, heading toward the ground in pain and shock. He awkwardly rolled on the ground, wings creaking at the strange contortions his body was doing, and he hit the opposite wall with a grunt.
The blond woman stared. That was easy.
Layer didn’t hesitate like Alia—she too launched over her partner and, flipping through the air with her rapier out, went for the kill. Yammark had the sense to jerk himself to the side, but Layer still struck a victory—she sliced off a wing. Without his ability to fly, Yammark could do nothing.
Yammark’s cry of disbelief and pain echoed through the fake forest, causing the leaves to shiver in the silence afterwards. Layer held the rapier to Yammark’s neck, although Alia wasn’t sure when exactly he had fallen to the ground.
“What is Gate’s plan?” Layer hissed.
Yammark laughed. “Kill me,” he chuckled madly. “Go ahead! Just like every Reploid that doesn’t conform to you, kill me! Extremists! Terrorists! Tyrants!”
Layer scowled. “This isn’t a debate, you idiot, this is a questioning. If you answer, you live.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Fine. Don’t.” Layer clicked something off her belt with her free hand. “You will eventually though.”
It was sort of comical, the way Layer casually threw the little capsule at Yammark’s head. His angry yell was swallowed by the teleportation activation the containment capsule held, and Alia watched as the bright light enveloped him. Yammark’s outline shrunk down until he was completely gone.
When they were alone, Layer swung the rapier as she deactivated it and turned to Alia, who was staring at where Yammark was with an unreadable expression. The swordswoman had no words for her, no comfort or encouragement, so she said nothing and contacted Hunter Base. Minutes of silence later, the two women were notified that teleport channels for open, and they both disappeared.
~*~
“I regret to inform you—”
Gate twirled around in the chair, chin resting on knitted fingers. “I know. Yammark was defeated.”
Red frowned at how… calm Gate was over this bit of information. “He wasn’t destroyed, he was detained. They’ll extract the information from him!”
“You worry needlessly.” Gate turned back half way to his console and pressed a button on the keyboard. “There, now we’ve no issues.”
Red’s incredulous look made Gate smile. “You see, I installed a destruction option with my investigators.” Gate waved a dismissive hand in the air as he turned back to the console fully. “Yammark is no more, his memory chip exploded and data cores as well. So, what brings you back to my lab?”
Red crossed his arms over his chest, smirking as he noticed the change in the good scientist. Where there was doubt, hesitation and distrust was now calm madness slowly boiling to eruption. It was quite a spectacle, watching the transformation take place. Red dropped his arms and looked at another console to his right, smiling at the flashing screen and text scrolling through.
“I take it H.M.P is going as planned?” Red asked.
“We’ve achieved a success rate of ninety-two percent.” Gate replied, not turning back to him. The tapping of a keyboard suggested he was now starting to focus on something or other. “Isoc has been slow, but he’s been distracting himself with his little side project. Is that a problem? I’m sure I can persuade him to give up the side research.”
Red shrugged. “We’ve all the time in the world, Dr. Gate. Let Isoc do his thing—maybe it’ll help when he’s done?”
“Please, as if researching such an obsolete robot is worth anything.” Gate sounded like he might have rolled his eyes. “In either case, High Max is perfectly capable of doing what you want. With the sample you provided, he’s even stronger.”
Red’s smile was sinister and almost clownish in its insanity. “Perfect. I’ll let the big man know.” He turned to the exit, then paused and glanced over his shoulder. Gate still wasn’t looking at him. “Any luck of catching that brat of mine?”
“A little birdie told me he’ll be going undercover.”
“Perfect.”
~*~
Lifesaver coughed for the tenth time since Yammark exploded in his face, and he wondered if something got caught in his trachea or something, since the Maverick’s head decided to randomly erupt while he was talking to him and examining his optics. At least it was a well-controlled destruction; else Lifesaver would have been getting his own entire head replaced.
As it was, Yammark was a lost cause, and telling Alia what happened before she went into the Recovery Stasis wasn’t a pretty job he liked having. But one wasn’t a doctor and still overly sensitive, so Lifesaver went on with his work.
What was getting to him was the current issue with X and Zero. It was getting obvious this new threat was getting big, and they were going to need their heroes… but as it was, even with that Engineering girl helping out, it was like molasses in the Arctic. It would be different if X and Zero wanted to be helped… but no, those damn idiots were subconsciously trying to hack Lifesaver’s system just to find channels to get to each other! It was like watching a human druggie trying to grow his own marijuana without knowing how to take care of a potted plant, except Zero and X were decent enough hackers since it was part of their job…
Lifesaver pinged another channel Zero tried to worm through and he threw the data back into the containment pod he had the two in. As it was, neither were stable enough as separate programs to be activated, and this entire process took place while both were shut down. After realizing what they were doing, Lifesaver had to disconnect his medical unit from the mother system, and with Delia and Douglas, crafted a hasty new network to contain them apart from each other.
In other words, this was a pain in the ass and it made Lifesaver incredibly irritable.
He reported the problem to Signas, naturally. And naturally, being just the thickheaded leader, Signas pretty much told him to suck it up. It even got to the point Lifesaver asked Dr. Cain for help… but wouldn’t you know it, the good doctor was away. Lifesaver was on his own in this miniature war of recovery against two men who really didn’t want to recover.
“According to the pod, X has given up for now.” Delia reported as she ungracefully landed into a chair. “Zero’s still active though.”
“Believe me when I say I know.” Lifesaver mumbled, closing yet another channel. “How’s the program running?”
“Zero’s fighting it tooth and nail, but X eventually let it run.” Delia shrugged, closing her eyes. “He always was the more sensible one.”
“Considering he dated you, I’d like to question that.”
“Ohh, burned by the doctor, how lovely.” Delia flipped him the bird.
Despite that, Lifesaver smiled. It had been a long time since someone stuck around his medical unit and chatted with him—it was rather nice to have company outside of his bimbo nurses. Delia got up from the chair, opting to throw herself onto an unused bed and curling up on her side, leaving Lifesaver to his console and thoughts.
Despite the obvious pressing matter, Lifesaver let himself muse over other things. Alia wasn’t as banged up as he figured the newbie would be, and he had to give her props to surviving her first mission. It was obvious she was emotionally scarred, especially after hearing Yammark self-destructed, but hey, everyone had a starting point. Lifesaver was glad to know hers was pretty strong.
Going back to Delia made Lifesaver wonder what she planned to do with Axl…
Realizing it had nothing to do with him, Lifesaver discarded the thought process as he closed off another channel, this time from a sneaky X. This was starting to get tedious…
Hours later Alia emerged from the repair unit, fully repaired and ready to go. After Lifesaver checked her over, and she checked on X and Zero, the Navigator slowly made her way to the teleportation room. The last mission left her a bit shaken, forced to face her sins the way she had been, and it all happened so quickly! She expected a long, drawn out battle of some sort… her constantly holding Layer back, trying to get Yammark to understand, Yammark refusing. But it just all… happened in a way she hadn’t planned, at a speed she wasn’t prepared at all for. But that was real life, wasn’t it?
“If you’re still tired, you don’t have to go now.”
Signas’ rumbling voice made Alia scream and whirl around, and then blush deeply when she realized just how on edge she was now. The Commander didn’t seem at all shocked by her reaction, only deepening her embarrassment. Was it expected to be a ticking time bomb when new to the battle field?
Signas offered a rare smile, and Alia couldn’t help but like it. “It’s always the first that’s the hardest.”
Alia tried to shrug indifferently, but it was half-hearted and her shoulders slumped. “I don’t think I’m cut out for fighting.”
“Well, when this is all done, you can go back to Navigational duties.”
If Alia liked one thing about Signas, it was that once on a course, he never backed out of nor let anyone else. She appreciated the solid support, the verbal confirmation of no, she can’t quit now that she started. It was solidness like that, that made Alia like Signas so much. Maybe after all of this was over…
What a thought process to bring up at such at time. “I’d like that,” Alia chuckled. “Provided Layer doesn’t kill me cause I’m so slow.”
Signas actually snorted. “Zero holds the longest record at taking thirteen hours to complete a mission.”
Alia remembered, and it made her laugh. “Thanks, Signas.”
“I don’t think I’ve done anything warranting that,” he still smiled though, because he knew, and Alia liked that. “Please be careful, Alia. The Laser Institute is much, much more dangerous than a forest.”
Alia wanted to reply with something snappy, trendy, and confident and make it sound like she was in control. But that would be lying, because if there was something Alia didn’t have right now, it was control of the situation. It was like a scientific experiment gone horrible awry, and all she could do was let it run its course and clean up the mess afterwards.
“I’ll try not to get killed,” was all she could manage.
Signas’ encouraging smile lifted her spirits regardless.
~*~
He always felt at home among the shadows, darting from dark corner to dark corner out of side and out of mind. Axl wasn’t the strongest or fastest fighter, typically relying on quick hit-and-run tactics or surprise attacks to really win, but he exceled at this: hiding, ambushing, and fading from sight. Axl was meant for spying and infiltration, his Copy Chip just an added bonus to his repertoire of skills. Climbing a radio tower wasn’t the most ideal place for spying and sneaking around, but despite never been to such an area, Axl was climbing steadily without even coming close to detection.
Along the way he had run by injured Reploids in hiding, trying to escape the now going berserk defensive mechanisms. These people he sent back to Base via his portable transporter, and he made sure not to linger. He wasn’t sure who waited for him at the top, although he did fervently hope that just maybe, no one at all was there.
High hopes, and Axl knew they were going to plummet as he ascended.
Resolve wasn’t improving as he climbed higher and defense mechanisms became more and more berserk. Some lasers were firing haphazardly at nothing, and bladed pinwheels were bouncing around as if they owned the place. As it were, maybe they did, and Axl was finding it hard to dodge them, the lasers, and cameras as the walkway were filled with enemies. None of them were his size, so copying one wasn’t an option.
Axl cursed his limitations. Maybe if he weren’t so limited, half the shit that’s been happening wouldn’t have!
He chided himself as soon as he thought that. Things don’t change by doing nothing, and Axl had promised to make things right. After this and returning home, he hoped to have a decent talk with his parents.
Axl rolled smoothly between two bladed pinwheels and leapt over a gap in the floor. A camera flashed at him and an alarm rang out, but Axl now was hustling. He dashed under flying enemies, dodged pinwheels and jumped over crazy lasers. The sooner he got to the top…
He rolled again, slapping his palms into the ground and vaulting himself over another gap. One last flight of stairs rewarded him with the view from the top of the radio tower, one that was striking and breathtaking. He never had really seen the city so… serene and lovely.
The picture was shattered by the maniacal laughter he knew too well, and with a wince on his face Axl turned to see none other than Tornado Tonion, spinning gleefully around and around.
“Oh, oh, oh!” Tonion gibbered merrily, coming to a stop right before Axl. He held his arms out, bouncing in place. “Oh, oh, it be Axl, yah! Axl, Axl, it be good to see you, yah!”
Axl hesitantly holstered his guns, holding his hands up in peace, “Hey there, T.T…” Axl said, slowly and carefully. “So what’s… you know, what’s up?”
Tonion bounced a little higher. “Glad you came, yah. Really glad.” Suddenly he stopped bouncing, and the temperament of the atmosphere dropped to such a dramatic, depression level it left Axl breathless. “Gotta talk to you, Axl… but don’t got much time, yah. So listen, yah, don’t talk.”
“T.T, what’s—”
“No talking, yah!” Tonion snapped, and the loss of the usual cheer coupled with the sharpness of his voice made Axl shut his mouth with a snap. “Axl stop Red, yah? Stop us, we no longer have control, none of us, yah. We becoming something else and there be no reversal, yah… so after us, Axl gotta go after the pro—”
Axl yelped as he dropped to the ground, narrowly missing the spinning red blade that came out of nowhere behind Tonion and slicing right through him. The blade pivoted in the air and Axl followed it with his eyes, watching as a darkened figure standing on the top of a column catch it and slide it smoothly to what seemed to be the waist area.
“What a snitch!” a sneering voice came from the figure, and Axl scrambled to his feet, racing to Tonion as his old friend started to shake uncontrollably.
Axl’s hands didn’t even touch Tonion before he fell apart in two pieces, oil and blood spurting into the air. Axl cried out, raising his arms and wincing as he felt warm blood shower onto him. When he lowered his arms, the two pieces of Tonion were sparking and his eyes were twitching, mouth still trying to finish what he was saying.
“T-Tonion…” Axl whispered. “Ton… you bitch!” the gunner’s eyes whipped to the figure, who’s shoulders were shaking in what seemed to be a silent chuckle. “You son of a bitch!”
“You look pretty good all drenched in blood,” the figure taunted, then jumped down into the light.
Axl gaped, taking a several steps back before tripping over his own feet and fall on his bottom, eyes wide and body shaking at Tonion’s murder slowly walked toward him. He didn’t even have the sense to draw his guns, fear overloading him and even cancelling his battle instincts.
At his obvious fear, Red laughed.
<--- PREVIOUS CHAPTER NEXT CHAPTER --->
To say Alia was nervous was a gross understatement—as she stood in the debriefing room with Layer and Axl, she was shaking so bad she knew they could hear her armor clattering. Although all Reploids wore armor, combat units were made of much sturdier stuff than that of non-combat, and Alia had to undergo major operations and installations with hers before Signas let her go into the field. She wasn’t used to the heavier weight yet, and the newly installed cannon still felt like a foreign program that was itching to be uninstalled. But she couldn’t back down now… no, she had to face Gate; it was her duty to stop him.
Layer’s hand on Alia’s shoulder made her jerk out of her thoughts, and she thought she jumped. But Layer was impressed to see Alia smoothly glance at her, and despite the shaking, looked rather impassive. She had a good poker face, but would it hold?
“Don’t worry,” Layer said. “I’m watching your back, remember?”
Alia nervously laughed, her voice shaking. Her poker face broke. “I don’t think it’s my back I’m worried about… I think I need something to shield my face.”
Axl crossed his arms behind his head, smirking at her. “Aw, c’mon, the worst that’ll happen is you’ll get scarred, and those aren’t so bad!” he made an unnecessary gesture to his own scar.
Alia had the humor to make a face at him. “And look like you?”
“You could be my Sis! You got blond hair, Dad has blond hair…”
“Oh, hell—”
Signas cleared his throat in an exaggerated manner, making all three other occupants look at him. The Commander hated humor in the debriefing room… “I appreciate your attempts to keeping your optimism up, but let’s begin before you get carried away.”
All three glanced at each other before nodding, and Signas held his hand up just as the large monitor behind him flickered on. An ultrasonic map of the world appeared, with six flashing dots scattered all over the place. Alia’s eyes were trained on the area she knew was the ruined laboratory Axl had been scouting out, where he discovered Gate… where Gate hopefully still was.
“We’ve had unusual readings in the Amazon Area, the Laser Institute, and the supposedly shut down Weapon Center,” Signas explained. As he listed each area, their respective dots pulsed and pulled up a screenshot of each area. A small, square portrait appeared in the corner of each screenshot.
“These,” he pointed toward the closest portrait, “are the leaders, we believe, of the forces present in these areas. Gathering information is easy, it’s the deciphering we’ve having problems with. There is an unusual jamming; an irregular reading that scrambles the data we collect. In essence, you are going in blind.” Signas dropped his hand, clasping both behind his lower back. “Unfortunately there isn’t much else to tell you about these areas.”
Axl tilted his head slightly, regarding the map with a thoughtful look. “What’re the others?”
The screenshots and portraits minimized, bringing up the other areas but without portraits. “These are areas you would be interested in, Axl. We picked up Red’s signal from these areas, and although he is no longer there, he left behind someone.”
Axl’s core skipped a pulse and he lowered his arms slowly. Red left behind people, others of Red Alert no doubt, and he probably knew Axl would go investigate. Probably knew Axl and whoever he left would fight… and someone would die. What a sick, twisted game… what happened to Red Alert? To Red?
It’s too late now. Axl thought, resolutely. You got a new family now.
“Got it,” Axl finally responded. “I’ll investigate as undercover missions. Causalities should be minimum if not absent all together.”
“By yourself?” Alia frowned.
“You and Layer will be tackling these other areas, right?” Axl waved a hand in a dismissive fashion. “Like I said, it’ll be conducted like it’s undercover. I’ll be fine, this is my specialty.”
Signas nodded. “He’s right, Alia. You and Layer will be in more danger than he. I expect you to keep all communication channels open, all three of you.”
All three nodded, and Signas looked at Alia, “Where will you go first?”
She scanned the map, over the areas Signas mentioned earlier. She kept looking at the Amazon area… because when the portrait came up, she knew exactly who was there waiting for her.
“Amazon. I’ll take on Commander Yammark.”
~*~
It wasn’t as hot as Layer was expecting, although it was awfully bright. Even with her hair, now activated to act as a helmet, she still had to raise a hand to shield her eyes when she and Alia teleported in. There were no trees, how strange… and was that a carrierpillar?
“Looks peaceful enough,” Layer bent over slightly, looking in the distance. “Sounded like you knew this Maverick, though, so care to share?”
Alia winced. “I hope Yammark isn’t a Maverick…” she did a quick glance around. “He was one of Gate’s creations, meant to keep the Amazon forests clear and healthy. He used to look more human-like than he does… but the… sabotage ruined his flying ability. Last I heard, he had crashed and died.”
“Well, he either actually survived, or Gate was rather attached.” The swordswoman began the trek forward, Alia haltingly following.
The carrierpillar was pacing peacefully back and forth, the ridges of abnormally raised hills confusing it into just simply moving where it can go. Layer hopped down on top of its flattened back, let it carry her to the other end, and jumped up onto the next platform. Irritated by her calmness, Alia activated her dash ability manually and leaped over to the platform. The rush of flying through bolted through her, and when she landed the blond was a little out of breath.
Layer smirked. “I was going slow on purpose to let you get used to it…”
“I learn better when everything happens all at once.” Alia lied. The truth was, she wanted this over as soon as possible.
“Fair enough.”
Layer turned away and dashed off, leaving Alia gaping in the dust. Not used to full dashing capabilities, Alia ran a good two feet before finally figuring out an easier way to activate the dash, and Layer was ducking behind a hill by the time she caught up.
Before Alia could make a comment, Layer grabbed her hand and jerked her down to the ground. Alia faceplanted right into Layer’s bosom, and jerked back with a red face, wide eyes, and a slightly hurt nose. Layer held a finger to her lips, jerking her head to indicate over the hill. Alia peeked over the edge, staring at the mantis mechanoloid raising its bladed arms in a threatening manner.
“Those are easy to destroy,” Layer muttered. “But I killed it while you were catching up, and it just… rebuilt itself.”
Alia frowned, one eye turning gold as she activated her Navigator sensor. Data reading was immediate, and it bounced back an error with several lines of awkward code. She scowled as she ducked back down—oh how she hated these stupid encoded data crap…
She opened the channels to the Base, feeding the data to the mother computer there. / Signas, can you hear me? /
// Loud and clear. What is this? //
/ Dunno, run it through the comp and tell me what it says. /
Alia fidgeted the two minutes it took, and Signas’ deep voice stagnated a bit through the connection static. // It’s sort of like a Virus infection. It’s like a variant. If you send more data, I’ll see what the team here can do. //
/ Gotcha. /
Alia glanced at Layer, then her left hand transformed into the new A-Buster she was outfitted with. Layer smirked, good naturedly of course, and folded her arms behind her head in mock comfort. Alia kneed her in the hip before cautiously poking her head over the edge.
Unlike X, Alia only had the potential for one charge level to her cannon, but hopefully it’d be enough. The mantis screeched and raised its entire upper body higher up, a compartment opening and beginning to pour out smaller insect machines. Alia held her breath as she took aim.
Layer kicked her, and Alia yelped as she reflexively released the shot. It hit dead on, the plasma ripping through the enemy cleanly and spreading rapidly to cause it to explode, the fires catching the smaller insects and making them blow up as well. Angrily, the blond looked down at the grinning swordswoman.
“You take too long,” Layer said. “Battle is analytical, but its quick reflex too.”
“You’re so full of it…”
The rest of her statement was cut off as a sudden shot in her direction made Alia scream shrilly and dive back under the cover of the hill. Layer’s humor was gone in a second and she cleared the hill, sailing through the air with her rapier out and activated. Alia managed to look back up to see her battle friend gracefully slice through this weird tentacle sprouting thing, causing it to fizzle and fall to the ground twitching. Layer landed a foot away in a crouch, and turned as she stood to her full height.
She wasn’t happy when she looked at the smoking husk. “What the hell is this thing?” she kicked it.
Layer took a step back, raising her rapier as a strange blue orb slowly floated into the air above the body. Alia squinted, clambering over the hill and jogging over, inner scientist gleefully looking at this new, strange thing. She snatched it, despite Layer’s protest, and juggled the little energy ball thing between her hands.
“It reads the same as the mantis,” Alia finally said after taking a reading. “This was inside it, infecting it.”
“Oh, gross, did you see what it looked like?” Layer frowned. “Like some… freaky… tentacle porn monster or something.”
Alia let what she said slide, instead flicking open an energy containment system in her utility wrist and stuffing the thing in it. “Well, if we come across more, I’ll analyze it when we get back to base.”
Layer shuddered at the thought of running into more. Despite her silent, fervent wishing, after the duo ducked into an underground tunnel they came across more of those weird, freaky, creepy things. More mantis mechs, all infected by these viral things, peppered the pathway. As much as Alia tried, she had to admit Layer did most of the work. She was sloppy compared to Zero, naturally, but Layer was still graceful and agile in her technique, managing to dodge everything the mantises threw at her.
Alia was border lining severe damage by the time they crossed the chasm that wasn’t there before they teleported into the area. Layer had to support her to a locked doorway, letting her rest against it as the more experienced fighter kept her eyes toward where they had just come from.
They had gathered a decent forty or so of those blue soul-like things, and a part of Alia was tempted to leave Layer to do the hard work and head back to Base, tail between her legs and go back to the easy stuff she was used to. But that was cowardly, unfair to Layer, and she’d never be able to face herself or anyone else again.
“You think you’re doing terrible,” Layer suddenly spoke up, making Alia glance at her. Her eyes were still trained on the floating platforms, littered with machine parts. “But you’re not. Alia, you’re not as injured as you think, you’re just the most injured you’ve ever been. Don’t think about how you’re doing, or how X or Zero would perform. This is your fight, and you’re doing a damn good job.”
Layer was either taking a wild guess or she was a good reader of character, impressing Alia and making her chuckle. “All I know,” the blond woman said, “is I hurt, I wanna go home, and I want a really long, hot shower.”
“Here, here.” Layer finally looked at her and held her hand out. “But first, we got this guy to take care of.”
“Yeah…” Alia groaned as she took Layer’s hand, letting her pull her to her feet. She was right, though, now that Alia took a proper damage report on herself. She really wasn’t that badly hurt.
She faced the door, fishing out the electromagnetic pick she picked up from engineering. With a little maneuvering, she managed to force the door to open. Down a short passage another door, needing to be picked as well, was shortly done away with. With Alia leading, the women slowly advanced into the opened space.
They were back in the forest at least, if the return of the trees and bushes were any indication. Buzzing in the branches of a large tree was a human shaped, insect-based Reploid. He was too preoccupied to notice them, and at Layer’s nod, Alia stepped under his tree.
“Yammark!” Alia called.
The Reploid jerked, surprised, looking down at her through a large visor. Although he had no real mouth, Alia was relived at the happy way his face brightened, and he fluttered down the tree in front of her.
“Alia!” Yammark practically bubbled. He even pulled her into a hug, despite Layer’s tensing. “It’s been so long!”
“Indeed…” Alia replied, awkwardly, as Yammark let her go. “I… I was told you died.”
Yammark’s eyes widened. “Who told you such an awful thing? Sure, I had an accident, but I didn’t die. Professor Gate fixed me right up.”
Alia cringed. “How… how’s Gate?”
“Positively miserable without you, Alia!” Yammark’s eyes dropped in sympathy. “In fact, that’s why I’ve been deployed. You see, I’m not fully fixed, and Gate didn’t want me to go, but he’s so upset I had to come looking for you.”
“Looking for me?”
“Of course, he misses you so much. Don’t you miss him? Aren’t you two still going to get married?”
Alia’s cringe deepened, and she felt her guilt all come back in waves. “Yammark, I…”
Yammark went on, and Layer thought it humorous he didn’t seem to notice the second woman at all. “I know you two had a fight, because… well, even I know you were part of the group that disfigured us, but we understand why you did, and Gate’s finally calmed down over it. Won’t you at least see him, Alia?”
Gate missed her? Calmed down? Alia wanted to, deep down, believe it. She wanted to believe Gate saw her reasoning, understood her process… wanted to even believe he did miss her.
“Yammark, I’ll go see Gate, but I’ll go on my own. So, where is he?” Alia said, neutrally and carefully.
Yammark’s eyes were expressive to make up for his lack of a real face. The way he looked was annoyed now. “No, no, no! That won’t do! I’ll fly us there, much faster.”
The Navigator frowned. “No, I don’t think so.”
Yammark seemed to scowl, and there was such an intense look on his face, Alia took a step back. “Alia. I don’t want to hurt you, but if I have to, I’ll force you to come with me to see Gate.”
He took a step forward, but had to jerk himself to a stop as he stared down a saber tip between his eyes. Alia blinked, not even realizing Layer had moved.
“You won’t be forcing anyone,” Layer said, her voice low and dangerous. “However, if we must, we shall force you to answer the kind lady’s question.”
“Fine,” Yammark’s tone changed as well, a very sly, sinister tone that wasn’t befitting the Reploid Alia once knew… once disfigured. “Gate didn’t say he wanted you alive, anyway.”
He suddenly took to the air, Layer hopping back a step. Alia activated her buster, tried to steel her heart, and the two women stood back to back in a ready combat stance.
The seconds ticked by, silent save for the fake birdsong, Alia’s eyes darting through the trees in an almost panicked twitch. Yammark was an expert flier, meant to fly at speeds not even Reploid eyes could catch, and he commanded an arsenal of supportive mechs for his own protection. He, like the others, were meant to be well rounded, resilient Reploids. Who knew what else Gate, in his madness, had added?
A shrieking sound ripped through the air and Layer swiftly turned, slamming herself into Alia and toppling them both to the ground just as Yammark flew through, plasma blades peppering his body. The rush of him flying over, narrowing missing them both, made Alia’s core pulse wildly and she was starting to lose her sanity, or at least it felt like it. She couldn’t fight!
Layer was fluid motion, though, and the blond woman stared from the ground as Layer seemed to glide to her feet. She dashed and jumped onto a wall, and Yammark burst from the treetops again above her. Layer kicked from the wall as the Maverick plummeted down, and once her feet touched the ground she pivoted and dashed back toward him. Yammark stood up, prepared to launch himself back into the air just as Layer hopped into a roll with her saber out, gaining momentum.
Yammark managed to jump over her, and Layer’s body unfolded gracefully as she swung herself sides to stop her movement, skidding and bumping into the wall. Alia was just getting to her feet when she realized Yammark was coming for her.
Alia shrieked—she couldn’t resist the urge, but as her primary programming seemed to shut down from the overload of fear, her new combat programming surged into the primary slot. She crouched just as Yammark flew at her, and in the split second he was above her, Alia raised her buster and released a quick succession of shots, landing three in his abdomen before he was completely over her. Yammark hissed, heading toward the ground in pain and shock. He awkwardly rolled on the ground, wings creaking at the strange contortions his body was doing, and he hit the opposite wall with a grunt.
The blond woman stared. That was easy.
Layer didn’t hesitate like Alia—she too launched over her partner and, flipping through the air with her rapier out, went for the kill. Yammark had the sense to jerk himself to the side, but Layer still struck a victory—she sliced off a wing. Without his ability to fly, Yammark could do nothing.
Yammark’s cry of disbelief and pain echoed through the fake forest, causing the leaves to shiver in the silence afterwards. Layer held the rapier to Yammark’s neck, although Alia wasn’t sure when exactly he had fallen to the ground.
“What is Gate’s plan?” Layer hissed.
Yammark laughed. “Kill me,” he chuckled madly. “Go ahead! Just like every Reploid that doesn’t conform to you, kill me! Extremists! Terrorists! Tyrants!”
Layer scowled. “This isn’t a debate, you idiot, this is a questioning. If you answer, you live.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Fine. Don’t.” Layer clicked something off her belt with her free hand. “You will eventually though.”
It was sort of comical, the way Layer casually threw the little capsule at Yammark’s head. His angry yell was swallowed by the teleportation activation the containment capsule held, and Alia watched as the bright light enveloped him. Yammark’s outline shrunk down until he was completely gone.
When they were alone, Layer swung the rapier as she deactivated it and turned to Alia, who was staring at where Yammark was with an unreadable expression. The swordswoman had no words for her, no comfort or encouragement, so she said nothing and contacted Hunter Base. Minutes of silence later, the two women were notified that teleport channels for open, and they both disappeared.
~*~
“I regret to inform you—”
Gate twirled around in the chair, chin resting on knitted fingers. “I know. Yammark was defeated.”
Red frowned at how… calm Gate was over this bit of information. “He wasn’t destroyed, he was detained. They’ll extract the information from him!”
“You worry needlessly.” Gate turned back half way to his console and pressed a button on the keyboard. “There, now we’ve no issues.”
Red’s incredulous look made Gate smile. “You see, I installed a destruction option with my investigators.” Gate waved a dismissive hand in the air as he turned back to the console fully. “Yammark is no more, his memory chip exploded and data cores as well. So, what brings you back to my lab?”
Red crossed his arms over his chest, smirking as he noticed the change in the good scientist. Where there was doubt, hesitation and distrust was now calm madness slowly boiling to eruption. It was quite a spectacle, watching the transformation take place. Red dropped his arms and looked at another console to his right, smiling at the flashing screen and text scrolling through.
“I take it H.M.P is going as planned?” Red asked.
“We’ve achieved a success rate of ninety-two percent.” Gate replied, not turning back to him. The tapping of a keyboard suggested he was now starting to focus on something or other. “Isoc has been slow, but he’s been distracting himself with his little side project. Is that a problem? I’m sure I can persuade him to give up the side research.”
Red shrugged. “We’ve all the time in the world, Dr. Gate. Let Isoc do his thing—maybe it’ll help when he’s done?”
“Please, as if researching such an obsolete robot is worth anything.” Gate sounded like he might have rolled his eyes. “In either case, High Max is perfectly capable of doing what you want. With the sample you provided, he’s even stronger.”
Red’s smile was sinister and almost clownish in its insanity. “Perfect. I’ll let the big man know.” He turned to the exit, then paused and glanced over his shoulder. Gate still wasn’t looking at him. “Any luck of catching that brat of mine?”
“A little birdie told me he’ll be going undercover.”
“Perfect.”
~*~
Lifesaver coughed for the tenth time since Yammark exploded in his face, and he wondered if something got caught in his trachea or something, since the Maverick’s head decided to randomly erupt while he was talking to him and examining his optics. At least it was a well-controlled destruction; else Lifesaver would have been getting his own entire head replaced.
As it was, Yammark was a lost cause, and telling Alia what happened before she went into the Recovery Stasis wasn’t a pretty job he liked having. But one wasn’t a doctor and still overly sensitive, so Lifesaver went on with his work.
What was getting to him was the current issue with X and Zero. It was getting obvious this new threat was getting big, and they were going to need their heroes… but as it was, even with that Engineering girl helping out, it was like molasses in the Arctic. It would be different if X and Zero wanted to be helped… but no, those damn idiots were subconsciously trying to hack Lifesaver’s system just to find channels to get to each other! It was like watching a human druggie trying to grow his own marijuana without knowing how to take care of a potted plant, except Zero and X were decent enough hackers since it was part of their job…
Lifesaver pinged another channel Zero tried to worm through and he threw the data back into the containment pod he had the two in. As it was, neither were stable enough as separate programs to be activated, and this entire process took place while both were shut down. After realizing what they were doing, Lifesaver had to disconnect his medical unit from the mother system, and with Delia and Douglas, crafted a hasty new network to contain them apart from each other.
In other words, this was a pain in the ass and it made Lifesaver incredibly irritable.
He reported the problem to Signas, naturally. And naturally, being just the thickheaded leader, Signas pretty much told him to suck it up. It even got to the point Lifesaver asked Dr. Cain for help… but wouldn’t you know it, the good doctor was away. Lifesaver was on his own in this miniature war of recovery against two men who really didn’t want to recover.
“According to the pod, X has given up for now.” Delia reported as she ungracefully landed into a chair. “Zero’s still active though.”
“Believe me when I say I know.” Lifesaver mumbled, closing yet another channel. “How’s the program running?”
“Zero’s fighting it tooth and nail, but X eventually let it run.” Delia shrugged, closing her eyes. “He always was the more sensible one.”
“Considering he dated you, I’d like to question that.”
“Ohh, burned by the doctor, how lovely.” Delia flipped him the bird.
Despite that, Lifesaver smiled. It had been a long time since someone stuck around his medical unit and chatted with him—it was rather nice to have company outside of his bimbo nurses. Delia got up from the chair, opting to throw herself onto an unused bed and curling up on her side, leaving Lifesaver to his console and thoughts.
Despite the obvious pressing matter, Lifesaver let himself muse over other things. Alia wasn’t as banged up as he figured the newbie would be, and he had to give her props to surviving her first mission. It was obvious she was emotionally scarred, especially after hearing Yammark self-destructed, but hey, everyone had a starting point. Lifesaver was glad to know hers was pretty strong.
Going back to Delia made Lifesaver wonder what she planned to do with Axl…
Realizing it had nothing to do with him, Lifesaver discarded the thought process as he closed off another channel, this time from a sneaky X. This was starting to get tedious…
Hours later Alia emerged from the repair unit, fully repaired and ready to go. After Lifesaver checked her over, and she checked on X and Zero, the Navigator slowly made her way to the teleportation room. The last mission left her a bit shaken, forced to face her sins the way she had been, and it all happened so quickly! She expected a long, drawn out battle of some sort… her constantly holding Layer back, trying to get Yammark to understand, Yammark refusing. But it just all… happened in a way she hadn’t planned, at a speed she wasn’t prepared at all for. But that was real life, wasn’t it?
“If you’re still tired, you don’t have to go now.”
Signas’ rumbling voice made Alia scream and whirl around, and then blush deeply when she realized just how on edge she was now. The Commander didn’t seem at all shocked by her reaction, only deepening her embarrassment. Was it expected to be a ticking time bomb when new to the battle field?
Signas offered a rare smile, and Alia couldn’t help but like it. “It’s always the first that’s the hardest.”
Alia tried to shrug indifferently, but it was half-hearted and her shoulders slumped. “I don’t think I’m cut out for fighting.”
“Well, when this is all done, you can go back to Navigational duties.”
If Alia liked one thing about Signas, it was that once on a course, he never backed out of nor let anyone else. She appreciated the solid support, the verbal confirmation of no, she can’t quit now that she started. It was solidness like that, that made Alia like Signas so much. Maybe after all of this was over…
What a thought process to bring up at such at time. “I’d like that,” Alia chuckled. “Provided Layer doesn’t kill me cause I’m so slow.”
Signas actually snorted. “Zero holds the longest record at taking thirteen hours to complete a mission.”
Alia remembered, and it made her laugh. “Thanks, Signas.”
“I don’t think I’ve done anything warranting that,” he still smiled though, because he knew, and Alia liked that. “Please be careful, Alia. The Laser Institute is much, much more dangerous than a forest.”
Alia wanted to reply with something snappy, trendy, and confident and make it sound like she was in control. But that would be lying, because if there was something Alia didn’t have right now, it was control of the situation. It was like a scientific experiment gone horrible awry, and all she could do was let it run its course and clean up the mess afterwards.
“I’ll try not to get killed,” was all she could manage.
Signas’ encouraging smile lifted her spirits regardless.
~*~
He always felt at home among the shadows, darting from dark corner to dark corner out of side and out of mind. Axl wasn’t the strongest or fastest fighter, typically relying on quick hit-and-run tactics or surprise attacks to really win, but he exceled at this: hiding, ambushing, and fading from sight. Axl was meant for spying and infiltration, his Copy Chip just an added bonus to his repertoire of skills. Climbing a radio tower wasn’t the most ideal place for spying and sneaking around, but despite never been to such an area, Axl was climbing steadily without even coming close to detection.
Along the way he had run by injured Reploids in hiding, trying to escape the now going berserk defensive mechanisms. These people he sent back to Base via his portable transporter, and he made sure not to linger. He wasn’t sure who waited for him at the top, although he did fervently hope that just maybe, no one at all was there.
High hopes, and Axl knew they were going to plummet as he ascended.
Resolve wasn’t improving as he climbed higher and defense mechanisms became more and more berserk. Some lasers were firing haphazardly at nothing, and bladed pinwheels were bouncing around as if they owned the place. As it were, maybe they did, and Axl was finding it hard to dodge them, the lasers, and cameras as the walkway were filled with enemies. None of them were his size, so copying one wasn’t an option.
Axl cursed his limitations. Maybe if he weren’t so limited, half the shit that’s been happening wouldn’t have!
He chided himself as soon as he thought that. Things don’t change by doing nothing, and Axl had promised to make things right. After this and returning home, he hoped to have a decent talk with his parents.
Axl rolled smoothly between two bladed pinwheels and leapt over a gap in the floor. A camera flashed at him and an alarm rang out, but Axl now was hustling. He dashed under flying enemies, dodged pinwheels and jumped over crazy lasers. The sooner he got to the top…
He rolled again, slapping his palms into the ground and vaulting himself over another gap. One last flight of stairs rewarded him with the view from the top of the radio tower, one that was striking and breathtaking. He never had really seen the city so… serene and lovely.
The picture was shattered by the maniacal laughter he knew too well, and with a wince on his face Axl turned to see none other than Tornado Tonion, spinning gleefully around and around.
“Oh, oh, oh!” Tonion gibbered merrily, coming to a stop right before Axl. He held his arms out, bouncing in place. “Oh, oh, it be Axl, yah! Axl, Axl, it be good to see you, yah!”
Axl hesitantly holstered his guns, holding his hands up in peace, “Hey there, T.T…” Axl said, slowly and carefully. “So what’s… you know, what’s up?”
Tonion bounced a little higher. “Glad you came, yah. Really glad.” Suddenly he stopped bouncing, and the temperament of the atmosphere dropped to such a dramatic, depression level it left Axl breathless. “Gotta talk to you, Axl… but don’t got much time, yah. So listen, yah, don’t talk.”
“T.T, what’s—”
“No talking, yah!” Tonion snapped, and the loss of the usual cheer coupled with the sharpness of his voice made Axl shut his mouth with a snap. “Axl stop Red, yah? Stop us, we no longer have control, none of us, yah. We becoming something else and there be no reversal, yah… so after us, Axl gotta go after the pro—”
Axl yelped as he dropped to the ground, narrowly missing the spinning red blade that came out of nowhere behind Tonion and slicing right through him. The blade pivoted in the air and Axl followed it with his eyes, watching as a darkened figure standing on the top of a column catch it and slide it smoothly to what seemed to be the waist area.
“What a snitch!” a sneering voice came from the figure, and Axl scrambled to his feet, racing to Tonion as his old friend started to shake uncontrollably.
Axl’s hands didn’t even touch Tonion before he fell apart in two pieces, oil and blood spurting into the air. Axl cried out, raising his arms and wincing as he felt warm blood shower onto him. When he lowered his arms, the two pieces of Tonion were sparking and his eyes were twitching, mouth still trying to finish what he was saying.
“T-Tonion…” Axl whispered. “Ton… you bitch!” the gunner’s eyes whipped to the figure, who’s shoulders were shaking in what seemed to be a silent chuckle. “You son of a bitch!”
“You look pretty good all drenched in blood,” the figure taunted, then jumped down into the light.
Axl gaped, taking a several steps back before tripping over his own feet and fall on his bottom, eyes wide and body shaking at Tonion’s murder slowly walked toward him. He didn’t even have the sense to draw his guns, fear overloading him and even cancelling his battle instincts.
At his obvious fear, Red laughed.
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