Chapter 36: Don’t Have the Words
They say hearing is the last thing to go and the first thing to return. Typically a Reploid restarted with all five senses activating at once, but Axl has the privilege to enjoy a proper human-like restart, with just his hearing restored. What he heard only made him try and hasten the rest of his reboot, the crunch of metal and Lumine’s battle cry making his artificial blood pump faster.
The second sense to return was feeling, and Axl moaned when all he felt was crushing pain of the truck on top of him. His eyes opened, hesitant, and saw only the dirt under him and the horrifically dented metal surrounding him. He wasn’t sure if he was just built tough or the truck was built with shitty metals since he wasn’t too horribly hurt, just had a lot of pressure on him, but either way the weight of it kept him pinned down. Even worse yet, it kept him safe from further harm.
Axl winced, his hands twitching as the ground shook around him and the truck rattled above him, the berserk mechaniloid sounding as if it were coming for him. For once in his life Axl prayed, because if that thing stepped on him, he was definitely finished.
Something or someone heard him, and he let out a loud gasping breath as the truck was suddenly flung off of him and thrown further down the road. Axl rolled immediately to his stomach, then shakily rose to his knees, panting for air he really didn’t need. Raising his eyes just as he heard the releasing snap of a weapon, he watched in confusion and awe at the graceful arc of the plasma boomerang as it glided through the air and sunk its jagged, hissing teeth into the mechaniloid’s neck. It staggered back when the boomerang dislodged itself, and Axl followed it back to Lumine’s hand.
The Director spied Axl readily enough. “Don’t gawk!” he scolded, and Axl scrambled to his feet.
It was only a side note Axl noticed the other bodyguards’ bodies strewn about the area in pieces, torn apart crudely by the berserking mech. Now was not the time to mourn, however, and Axl flexed his fingers. Good enough to pull triggers, and luck was with him, his fallen pistol was nearby. He snatched it from the ground and dashed to Lumine’s side, kneeling down behind a boulder that had obviously been sliced in half.
“What’re you doing?” Lumine hissed as he threw the boomerang again.
“Watch this new trick I got,” Axl muttered, drawing the twin pistol and, holding them together, pressed the hidden buttons on their handles.
The guns immediately began to break down to their basic rods and plates, but what made Lumine temporarily forget they were fighting was the fact those rods and plates shifted, seemingly sought its twin out, then latched together and began to reform into a single complete sniper rifle. It all happened with a manner of nanoseconds, and Axl braced the new weapon against his shoulder and took aim, looking down the scope and waiting for the crosshairs to flash.
When he pulled the duel triggers he nearly fell on his ass from the recoil, but the twin sniper bullets spiraled through the air with all the homing precision built into them. The mechaniloid had its clawed hand up to slam into them when the bullets impacted through its face and into the sky beyond, oil spraying in a glittering splash from the exit wound. Axl’s guns detached and he shoved them into their sheaths, grabbing the shocked Lumine by the arm and jerking him off the little hill they had claimed. Seconds later, when the two Reploids ceased rolling away, the giant mech’s body fell useless to the ground where they had stood. Dust flew up then settled, and Axl coughed as he stood, helping Lumine up.
“Impressive,” Lumine uttered as he waved dust from his mouth and nose. “Let me guess, you’re about to tell me you’re glad it worked, because that’s a very recent addition and you never tried it before.”
“Aren’t you a know it all?” Axl returned, but good naturedly, half chuckling and half coughing. “Well, I’d say this was a job well do—”
The ground shaking cut off Axl’s words and both Reploids fell to their knees as the mechaniloid, thought to be put down, lurched back to its feet. It sparked and sizzled from the massive hole in its head, yet somehow still operational, it leaped over the pair and began a mad run away from them, towards Metal Valley’s main building.
Lumine jumped to his feet and immediately ran after it without a word, leaving Axl dumbfounded for a few seconds before he followed after. Alternating dashing and running the pair chased the wildly running mechaniloid down the dusty road, Lumine flinging his boomerang as Axl fired streams of bullets at the thing’s legs, but not once did it slow.
Entering Metal Valley proper provided more opposition then aid—all workers moved out of the way for the mechaniloid, but immediately fell back to block the oncoming Director and Hunter. Bladed diggers rolled on their edges toward them, cutters gleaming furiously in the sun with all intent to slice them to pieces. Well aimed shots from Axl forced the cutters to spin, giving Lumine a larger target to aim for and dispatch with his own ranged weapon. But not just the cutters were against them—miner units, defensive units, everything that could be a weapon became one to hinder them from chasing the mechaniloid.
“Damn it all!” Lumine swore as he caught the boomerang after slicing yet another precious digger in half, watching it explode. “That thing is headed right for the main building… it’ll probably self-destruct! It’ll destroy the entire infrastructure of the mining shafts, and who knows how many Reploid workers are still underground…”
Axl didn’t need to hear any more, dashing before Lumine and jumping onto the top of a pile of metal crates. Below the ground buzzed with corrupted units... and in the distance he saw the mechaniloid jump into the main building, crashing through the roof.
Precious minutes passed but the impeding explosion never occurred as the pair raced to the building. Axl held his arm out to block the Director once they approached the door, and with one pistol aimed in front of him, he used the butt of the other to hit the opening mechanism. The door slide open, and cautiously the pair entered.
The hallway was empty, but when they passed it and entered the hanger proper, a bug-like Reploid was crouched in the center, muttering to himself. Axl heard Lumine sigh in relief, and he briefly lowered his weapons. Glancing to the side, he saw the busted up mech, now completely offline. The hole in the roof looked rather small, the sunlight flittering through like a funeral spotlight on the dead mech’s body.
“Earthrock Trilobyte!” Lumine called, and the beetle-Reploid looked up. “I am glad you are safe… did you disable the mechaniloid?”
“No.” Trilobyte muttered. “It just died when it landed.”
“Our luck’s finally improving then. But, Earthrock, why did you disable communications? Why are the units berserk? What is the meaning of all of this?” Lumine frowned at the silence that followed his questionings, and he stepped forward. “Earthrock Trilobyte!”
“Shut your face,” Trilobyte snapped. “These metals are essential to space development, and I control them! Do you know what that means? Can you comprehend the idea? Your ‘Director’ title is nothing but that, a title, and you’re just as pathetic and weak as the half-baked prototype with you!”
“T-Trilobyte…”
Axl stepped in front of Lumine, both pistols locked onto the small area of Trilobyte’s forehead. “For your hand in corrupting the minor units of Metal Valley, purposely sabotaging the efforts of the Jakob Project, and risking the life of an innocent bystander, I declare you a Maverick, beetle-loid!”
Trilobyte laughed, a high, nasally warble really. “A Maverick is a machine infected with the Maverick Virus, and as a New-Gen, I’m immune!”
“A Maverick is one who breaks the laws and seeks to hurt people, and you fit the bill!” without another word, Axl opened fire, ignoring Lumine’s protesting cry.
Immediately Trilobyte bent forward a bit, the bullets slamming into his protective shell. He began to laugh as the stream of bullets harmlessly bounced off, but the force of all those impacts concentrating on one spot won over the reflective property of the shell. With a surprised yelp, then one of pain as more bullets hit him, Trilobyte’s shell popped right off his body, leaving his more malleable underbody exposed to the bullets.
Trilobyte dropped to the ground, the rest of the bullets painfully grazing his hunched back. Axl’s pistols ceased their fire eventually and clicked as they loaded the next energy round, but Trilobyte was surprisingly fast; he hopped to his feet and, palm glowing, flung his hand at their direction. Three crystalline orbs shot out at the pair, Axl diving left as Lumine dove right to avoid them. One low flying sphere bounced off the floor, hit the upper catwalk and shot right for Lumine. The Director hissed in annoyance and, flicking his wrist, activated the boomerang. He attempted to hit the crystal sphere with it, but it vanished just as it hit the plasma weapon.
Axl wasn’t so lucky to only have one. The other two spheres ricocheted off varying surfaces and sped for him. Even if he shot at them, they would not be deterred; he dove behind a pillar, wincing rather comically as the two spheres grazed either side of the metal column, leaving smoking lashes in their wake once they vanished.
“Grr…!” Trilobyte threw his little arms back. “Crystal Wall!!”
“Crysto-wha?” Axl looked around his pillar, then immediately jerked his head back to safety as a solid mass of crystal sailed by. It shaved off a thin layer of the pillar, and Axl gulped when he realized it managed to also shorten his pauldron a bit.
To his shock, Axl saw from the corner of his eye Lumine actually climbing over the crystalline walls, and once he cleared the last one he let loose the boomerang. It whistled as it sailed through the air, and Trilobyte dropped to the ground. With a grim look, Lumine jerked his hand back, and the flying weapon began to spin along the ground, cutting through the discarded shell before its jagged edged found Trilobyte’s body to destroy. With one scream, the beetle Reploid was split in half, and Lumine landed right after he caught the weapon.
It happened in seconds, and Axl was still in shock minutes later, after Lumine mournfully covered the Maverick’s body with nearby tarp and approached the gunner. A tap to his shoulder made Axl jerk, and the Director handed him a large slab of metal.
“For your contribution to my protection,” Lumine intoned. “… This was not something I would want publically known.”
“Er.” Axl awkwardly took the slab. “That’s… understandable. I wasn’t expecting… I mean, I’m sorry. That should have been me doing the dirty work…”
Lumine lifted a hand, stopping the gunner from going on. “It’s my duty as a leader to put down threats. It’s all right, Axl, it’s not that I’m traumatized. I am simply fearful that if one of my subordinates went Maverick of his own free will… had he poison the others?”
That was a disturbing thought. “We should get back to MHHQ right away.”
“That would be a priority act—”
Lumine’s sentence was drowned out by the sudden rumble that dominated the hanger, and he lurched forward when the ground began to shake violently. Axl dropped the metal and caught the Director with one arm, bracing himself in a wide stance to keep his balance as the free hand drew a pistol. Another Mechaniloid?
Once the shaking stopped, Axl began to push Lumine toward the pillar he had taken shelter behind during the tussle with Trilobyte. Lumine knelt down by it, the disc that served as the central core of his weapon held in the ready position in his hand; cautiously, Axl readied his other gun and began to walk toward the entrance, shuffling his feet along the ground.
Axl nearly got to the entrance when he finally relaxed and straightened himself. He turned back to Lumine, waving a gun in the air. “Guess whatever it was pas—”
The explosion from the ceiling proved Axl’s unfinished statement grossly false. Lumine dropped flat to the ground more on reflex than anything, and Axl’s arms crossed over his face as a massive wave of dust and debris washed over him. Once the small rocks finished pelted his bracers, Axl lowered his arms and stared up at the hole shining light down.
A green armored Reploid with an impressive gun mounted on his shoulder stood at the edge of the hole, looking down. The helmet obscured his face entirely, a blacken glass cross blocking any attempt to peer within. The chuckle coming from him made Axl tense.
“Well, well, well…” the green-clad Reploid snickered, raising a hand. “It seems you’ve picked a puppy to defend you, Director.”
Lumine got to his knees, glaring at the intruder. “You…” he spat. “You must be what’s turning my people against me!”
“Oh, me? You give me too much credit, although I won’t deny you if you want to keep praising me.” The Maverick laughed. “Your idiots joined our cause on their own free will—isn’t that what makes you New Generations so special? Actual immunity to the Virus? But I bet you wouldn’t be so happy if you knew where that immunity came from…”
“Who are you!” Axl cut in, dashing to Lumine’s side and pointing a gun at the intruder’s helmet, right at the junction of his narrow black visor.
The Reploid laughed, as if Axl’s display was amusing. “Why don’t you run on home and ask your precious parents? They’ll be more than happy to explain, provided they haven’t mind-fucked enough to erase their memories.”
Axl froze—how did this Maverick know?
Suddenly two teleportation beams materialized in the front and back of the pair, and immediately Axl and Lumine stood back-to-back to face off whatever it was approaching them. Lumine flicked his wrist, the boomerang materialized and ready to be thrown as the two electrically charged Mechaniloids appeared. They vaguely resembled multi-tasker models, having several arms, but Lumine couldn’t recall them ever carrying that much of an electric charge that it made a pseudo-shield.
“I’d love to play,” the green-clad Reploid from above laughed. “But I think I’ve spent too long as it is. So this will have to be short.”
The large gun on his shoulder rotated and clicked into place, and both Axl and Lumine darted to opposite directions to avoid the rain of fire he let loose. Axl rolled under the electrical opponent before him, sweeping one leg out to force himself to spin around to face it. He let loose a twin stream of bullets, eventually overcoming the electrical barrier to bombard the unguarded orb within.
His threat was easily dispose of, but Axl’s good luck died before it could celebrate. He let out a shout of denial when he realized Lumine was not so lucky with his opponent, the Director tangled in its arms and short-circuited to unconsciousness.
“Lumine!” Axl raced forward, but the Mechaniloid rose into the air. It flew faster than Axl’s jumping capability, and he couldn’t fire at the angle he was at unless he planned to hurt Lumine. “Give him back!”
“Spoken like a true brat,” the Maverick laughed as the Mechaniloid floated near him, Lumine held tightly in its grasp. “But I’ll pick up the slack in taking care of our dear Director. With him, the Jakob Project is ours! Tell Zero and X this: a new world is about to be born!”
The Maverick darted out of sight, and Axl heard the activation of hover devices. He knew even if he raced outside he would be far too late. Damn it all…
~*~
“… Vile,” X spat, his hands forming fists once Axl’s report was done. “He’s alive.”
“How far he’s fallen…” Zero murmured. At Axl’s confused face, the blond went on, “He used to be a Hunter, and then he revolted with Sigma. He’s a wanted criminal and…” he trailed off, looking at X.
X glowered. “Don’t remind me.”
“What?” Axl blinked.
Zero shook his head, but X still retained enough snappiness to growl, “He has an obsession with me.”
Axl was pretty sure he meant more than Sigma’s obsession to kill them or whatever, and he tried not to think so far as to conjure up mental images. It was bad enough he had witnessed Zero and X pretty close to doing the deed… he didn’t need to try and imagine this Vile person attempting to do the same with X, who’d obviously be very unwilling—aw, crap, mental images…
Zero only had to guess what was going on in Axl’s head for him to pull such a hilariously disgusted face. “On a more important topic,” the blond interjected before they were any more derailed, “Vile kidnapped Lumine, meaning we lost the Jakob Project.”
“But what use is an unfinished—”
The alarm blaring throughout the base made everyone freeze, and Alia’s voice intercepted over the headquarters’ sound system. “Maverick Activity Detected! I repeat, Maverick Activity Detected! Hunters Zero, X, and Axl, you are called to the Tactics Room! I repeat…”
That was their cue, although Axl sputtered a protest as his parents immediately picked themselves up and dashed out the door. He didn’t think them ready for full on missions yet, although apparently everyone else did! It was infuriating really—he needed to take care of his parents and everyone hindered that!
Axl scowled as he too went to the Tactics Room. He’ll just have to do it with that he was given.
They say hearing is the last thing to go and the first thing to return. Typically a Reploid restarted with all five senses activating at once, but Axl has the privilege to enjoy a proper human-like restart, with just his hearing restored. What he heard only made him try and hasten the rest of his reboot, the crunch of metal and Lumine’s battle cry making his artificial blood pump faster.
The second sense to return was feeling, and Axl moaned when all he felt was crushing pain of the truck on top of him. His eyes opened, hesitant, and saw only the dirt under him and the horrifically dented metal surrounding him. He wasn’t sure if he was just built tough or the truck was built with shitty metals since he wasn’t too horribly hurt, just had a lot of pressure on him, but either way the weight of it kept him pinned down. Even worse yet, it kept him safe from further harm.
Axl winced, his hands twitching as the ground shook around him and the truck rattled above him, the berserk mechaniloid sounding as if it were coming for him. For once in his life Axl prayed, because if that thing stepped on him, he was definitely finished.
Something or someone heard him, and he let out a loud gasping breath as the truck was suddenly flung off of him and thrown further down the road. Axl rolled immediately to his stomach, then shakily rose to his knees, panting for air he really didn’t need. Raising his eyes just as he heard the releasing snap of a weapon, he watched in confusion and awe at the graceful arc of the plasma boomerang as it glided through the air and sunk its jagged, hissing teeth into the mechaniloid’s neck. It staggered back when the boomerang dislodged itself, and Axl followed it back to Lumine’s hand.
The Director spied Axl readily enough. “Don’t gawk!” he scolded, and Axl scrambled to his feet.
It was only a side note Axl noticed the other bodyguards’ bodies strewn about the area in pieces, torn apart crudely by the berserking mech. Now was not the time to mourn, however, and Axl flexed his fingers. Good enough to pull triggers, and luck was with him, his fallen pistol was nearby. He snatched it from the ground and dashed to Lumine’s side, kneeling down behind a boulder that had obviously been sliced in half.
“What’re you doing?” Lumine hissed as he threw the boomerang again.
“Watch this new trick I got,” Axl muttered, drawing the twin pistol and, holding them together, pressed the hidden buttons on their handles.
The guns immediately began to break down to their basic rods and plates, but what made Lumine temporarily forget they were fighting was the fact those rods and plates shifted, seemingly sought its twin out, then latched together and began to reform into a single complete sniper rifle. It all happened with a manner of nanoseconds, and Axl braced the new weapon against his shoulder and took aim, looking down the scope and waiting for the crosshairs to flash.
When he pulled the duel triggers he nearly fell on his ass from the recoil, but the twin sniper bullets spiraled through the air with all the homing precision built into them. The mechaniloid had its clawed hand up to slam into them when the bullets impacted through its face and into the sky beyond, oil spraying in a glittering splash from the exit wound. Axl’s guns detached and he shoved them into their sheaths, grabbing the shocked Lumine by the arm and jerking him off the little hill they had claimed. Seconds later, when the two Reploids ceased rolling away, the giant mech’s body fell useless to the ground where they had stood. Dust flew up then settled, and Axl coughed as he stood, helping Lumine up.
“Impressive,” Lumine uttered as he waved dust from his mouth and nose. “Let me guess, you’re about to tell me you’re glad it worked, because that’s a very recent addition and you never tried it before.”
“Aren’t you a know it all?” Axl returned, but good naturedly, half chuckling and half coughing. “Well, I’d say this was a job well do—”
The ground shaking cut off Axl’s words and both Reploids fell to their knees as the mechaniloid, thought to be put down, lurched back to its feet. It sparked and sizzled from the massive hole in its head, yet somehow still operational, it leaped over the pair and began a mad run away from them, towards Metal Valley’s main building.
Lumine jumped to his feet and immediately ran after it without a word, leaving Axl dumbfounded for a few seconds before he followed after. Alternating dashing and running the pair chased the wildly running mechaniloid down the dusty road, Lumine flinging his boomerang as Axl fired streams of bullets at the thing’s legs, but not once did it slow.
Entering Metal Valley proper provided more opposition then aid—all workers moved out of the way for the mechaniloid, but immediately fell back to block the oncoming Director and Hunter. Bladed diggers rolled on their edges toward them, cutters gleaming furiously in the sun with all intent to slice them to pieces. Well aimed shots from Axl forced the cutters to spin, giving Lumine a larger target to aim for and dispatch with his own ranged weapon. But not just the cutters were against them—miner units, defensive units, everything that could be a weapon became one to hinder them from chasing the mechaniloid.
“Damn it all!” Lumine swore as he caught the boomerang after slicing yet another precious digger in half, watching it explode. “That thing is headed right for the main building… it’ll probably self-destruct! It’ll destroy the entire infrastructure of the mining shafts, and who knows how many Reploid workers are still underground…”
Axl didn’t need to hear any more, dashing before Lumine and jumping onto the top of a pile of metal crates. Below the ground buzzed with corrupted units... and in the distance he saw the mechaniloid jump into the main building, crashing through the roof.
Precious minutes passed but the impeding explosion never occurred as the pair raced to the building. Axl held his arm out to block the Director once they approached the door, and with one pistol aimed in front of him, he used the butt of the other to hit the opening mechanism. The door slide open, and cautiously the pair entered.
The hallway was empty, but when they passed it and entered the hanger proper, a bug-like Reploid was crouched in the center, muttering to himself. Axl heard Lumine sigh in relief, and he briefly lowered his weapons. Glancing to the side, he saw the busted up mech, now completely offline. The hole in the roof looked rather small, the sunlight flittering through like a funeral spotlight on the dead mech’s body.
“Earthrock Trilobyte!” Lumine called, and the beetle-Reploid looked up. “I am glad you are safe… did you disable the mechaniloid?”
“No.” Trilobyte muttered. “It just died when it landed.”
“Our luck’s finally improving then. But, Earthrock, why did you disable communications? Why are the units berserk? What is the meaning of all of this?” Lumine frowned at the silence that followed his questionings, and he stepped forward. “Earthrock Trilobyte!”
“Shut your face,” Trilobyte snapped. “These metals are essential to space development, and I control them! Do you know what that means? Can you comprehend the idea? Your ‘Director’ title is nothing but that, a title, and you’re just as pathetic and weak as the half-baked prototype with you!”
“T-Trilobyte…”
Axl stepped in front of Lumine, both pistols locked onto the small area of Trilobyte’s forehead. “For your hand in corrupting the minor units of Metal Valley, purposely sabotaging the efforts of the Jakob Project, and risking the life of an innocent bystander, I declare you a Maverick, beetle-loid!”
Trilobyte laughed, a high, nasally warble really. “A Maverick is a machine infected with the Maverick Virus, and as a New-Gen, I’m immune!”
“A Maverick is one who breaks the laws and seeks to hurt people, and you fit the bill!” without another word, Axl opened fire, ignoring Lumine’s protesting cry.
Immediately Trilobyte bent forward a bit, the bullets slamming into his protective shell. He began to laugh as the stream of bullets harmlessly bounced off, but the force of all those impacts concentrating on one spot won over the reflective property of the shell. With a surprised yelp, then one of pain as more bullets hit him, Trilobyte’s shell popped right off his body, leaving his more malleable underbody exposed to the bullets.
Trilobyte dropped to the ground, the rest of the bullets painfully grazing his hunched back. Axl’s pistols ceased their fire eventually and clicked as they loaded the next energy round, but Trilobyte was surprisingly fast; he hopped to his feet and, palm glowing, flung his hand at their direction. Three crystalline orbs shot out at the pair, Axl diving left as Lumine dove right to avoid them. One low flying sphere bounced off the floor, hit the upper catwalk and shot right for Lumine. The Director hissed in annoyance and, flicking his wrist, activated the boomerang. He attempted to hit the crystal sphere with it, but it vanished just as it hit the plasma weapon.
Axl wasn’t so lucky to only have one. The other two spheres ricocheted off varying surfaces and sped for him. Even if he shot at them, they would not be deterred; he dove behind a pillar, wincing rather comically as the two spheres grazed either side of the metal column, leaving smoking lashes in their wake once they vanished.
“Grr…!” Trilobyte threw his little arms back. “Crystal Wall!!”
“Crysto-wha?” Axl looked around his pillar, then immediately jerked his head back to safety as a solid mass of crystal sailed by. It shaved off a thin layer of the pillar, and Axl gulped when he realized it managed to also shorten his pauldron a bit.
To his shock, Axl saw from the corner of his eye Lumine actually climbing over the crystalline walls, and once he cleared the last one he let loose the boomerang. It whistled as it sailed through the air, and Trilobyte dropped to the ground. With a grim look, Lumine jerked his hand back, and the flying weapon began to spin along the ground, cutting through the discarded shell before its jagged edged found Trilobyte’s body to destroy. With one scream, the beetle Reploid was split in half, and Lumine landed right after he caught the weapon.
It happened in seconds, and Axl was still in shock minutes later, after Lumine mournfully covered the Maverick’s body with nearby tarp and approached the gunner. A tap to his shoulder made Axl jerk, and the Director handed him a large slab of metal.
“For your contribution to my protection,” Lumine intoned. “… This was not something I would want publically known.”
“Er.” Axl awkwardly took the slab. “That’s… understandable. I wasn’t expecting… I mean, I’m sorry. That should have been me doing the dirty work…”
Lumine lifted a hand, stopping the gunner from going on. “It’s my duty as a leader to put down threats. It’s all right, Axl, it’s not that I’m traumatized. I am simply fearful that if one of my subordinates went Maverick of his own free will… had he poison the others?”
That was a disturbing thought. “We should get back to MHHQ right away.”
“That would be a priority act—”
Lumine’s sentence was drowned out by the sudden rumble that dominated the hanger, and he lurched forward when the ground began to shake violently. Axl dropped the metal and caught the Director with one arm, bracing himself in a wide stance to keep his balance as the free hand drew a pistol. Another Mechaniloid?
Once the shaking stopped, Axl began to push Lumine toward the pillar he had taken shelter behind during the tussle with Trilobyte. Lumine knelt down by it, the disc that served as the central core of his weapon held in the ready position in his hand; cautiously, Axl readied his other gun and began to walk toward the entrance, shuffling his feet along the ground.
Axl nearly got to the entrance when he finally relaxed and straightened himself. He turned back to Lumine, waving a gun in the air. “Guess whatever it was pas—”
The explosion from the ceiling proved Axl’s unfinished statement grossly false. Lumine dropped flat to the ground more on reflex than anything, and Axl’s arms crossed over his face as a massive wave of dust and debris washed over him. Once the small rocks finished pelted his bracers, Axl lowered his arms and stared up at the hole shining light down.
A green armored Reploid with an impressive gun mounted on his shoulder stood at the edge of the hole, looking down. The helmet obscured his face entirely, a blacken glass cross blocking any attempt to peer within. The chuckle coming from him made Axl tense.
“Well, well, well…” the green-clad Reploid snickered, raising a hand. “It seems you’ve picked a puppy to defend you, Director.”
Lumine got to his knees, glaring at the intruder. “You…” he spat. “You must be what’s turning my people against me!”
“Oh, me? You give me too much credit, although I won’t deny you if you want to keep praising me.” The Maverick laughed. “Your idiots joined our cause on their own free will—isn’t that what makes you New Generations so special? Actual immunity to the Virus? But I bet you wouldn’t be so happy if you knew where that immunity came from…”
“Who are you!” Axl cut in, dashing to Lumine’s side and pointing a gun at the intruder’s helmet, right at the junction of his narrow black visor.
The Reploid laughed, as if Axl’s display was amusing. “Why don’t you run on home and ask your precious parents? They’ll be more than happy to explain, provided they haven’t mind-fucked enough to erase their memories.”
Axl froze—how did this Maverick know?
Suddenly two teleportation beams materialized in the front and back of the pair, and immediately Axl and Lumine stood back-to-back to face off whatever it was approaching them. Lumine flicked his wrist, the boomerang materialized and ready to be thrown as the two electrically charged Mechaniloids appeared. They vaguely resembled multi-tasker models, having several arms, but Lumine couldn’t recall them ever carrying that much of an electric charge that it made a pseudo-shield.
“I’d love to play,” the green-clad Reploid from above laughed. “But I think I’ve spent too long as it is. So this will have to be short.”
The large gun on his shoulder rotated and clicked into place, and both Axl and Lumine darted to opposite directions to avoid the rain of fire he let loose. Axl rolled under the electrical opponent before him, sweeping one leg out to force himself to spin around to face it. He let loose a twin stream of bullets, eventually overcoming the electrical barrier to bombard the unguarded orb within.
His threat was easily dispose of, but Axl’s good luck died before it could celebrate. He let out a shout of denial when he realized Lumine was not so lucky with his opponent, the Director tangled in its arms and short-circuited to unconsciousness.
“Lumine!” Axl raced forward, but the Mechaniloid rose into the air. It flew faster than Axl’s jumping capability, and he couldn’t fire at the angle he was at unless he planned to hurt Lumine. “Give him back!”
“Spoken like a true brat,” the Maverick laughed as the Mechaniloid floated near him, Lumine held tightly in its grasp. “But I’ll pick up the slack in taking care of our dear Director. With him, the Jakob Project is ours! Tell Zero and X this: a new world is about to be born!”
The Maverick darted out of sight, and Axl heard the activation of hover devices. He knew even if he raced outside he would be far too late. Damn it all…
~*~
“… Vile,” X spat, his hands forming fists once Axl’s report was done. “He’s alive.”
“How far he’s fallen…” Zero murmured. At Axl’s confused face, the blond went on, “He used to be a Hunter, and then he revolted with Sigma. He’s a wanted criminal and…” he trailed off, looking at X.
X glowered. “Don’t remind me.”
“What?” Axl blinked.
Zero shook his head, but X still retained enough snappiness to growl, “He has an obsession with me.”
Axl was pretty sure he meant more than Sigma’s obsession to kill them or whatever, and he tried not to think so far as to conjure up mental images. It was bad enough he had witnessed Zero and X pretty close to doing the deed… he didn’t need to try and imagine this Vile person attempting to do the same with X, who’d obviously be very unwilling—aw, crap, mental images…
Zero only had to guess what was going on in Axl’s head for him to pull such a hilariously disgusted face. “On a more important topic,” the blond interjected before they were any more derailed, “Vile kidnapped Lumine, meaning we lost the Jakob Project.”
“But what use is an unfinished—”
The alarm blaring throughout the base made everyone freeze, and Alia’s voice intercepted over the headquarters’ sound system. “Maverick Activity Detected! I repeat, Maverick Activity Detected! Hunters Zero, X, and Axl, you are called to the Tactics Room! I repeat…”
That was their cue, although Axl sputtered a protest as his parents immediately picked themselves up and dashed out the door. He didn’t think them ready for full on missions yet, although apparently everyone else did! It was infuriating really—he needed to take care of his parents and everyone hindered that!
Axl scowled as he too went to the Tactics Room. He’ll just have to do it with that he was given.