Chapter Seventeen: Blackstar Express The Hunters on board Blackstar 5041 weren’t having any more fun than their comrades at the station. As soon as the seven Hunters started running down the cars, leaping over the gaps, advancing on the three Mavericks patrolling the roofs, both parties firing their weapons blindly, the two Mavericks who were actually in the train cars stuck their hands out and lobbed smoke grenades onto the roofs of their cars. The Mavericks were all spread out, so the Hunters needed to be able to aim, and the smoke hindered them greatly. There were enough Hunters, however, for the Mavericks to just shoot blindly and hit them. Indeed, the number of lasers slicing into Delates’s armor was far too high. His armor was slowly failing, and soon his internal generator would start taking damage. He would be using his arm cannon, but the assault rifle provided a better spread of fire, so he stuck to that. Suddenly, one of the Maverick rear guards emerged from the smoke. Delates raised his weapon to fire but he was far too late. A forceful blast of plasma infused flames erupted from the Maverick’s weapon, coating Delates with incredible heat. He screamed and fell back, and the Maverick retreated as Hunter gunfire followed him. His systems were screaming alarms, but Delates could do nothing. Tyclammel of his Unit pushed him down and helped smother the flames. Delates nodded and shakily got to his feet. Suddenly there was a lull in the shooting from both sides. No shots were fired, yet for some reason, a laser tore into Delates’s stomach, spilling the Hunter off the top of the train. This here was why the Hunters had not brought any humans with them on this mission; had a human fallen from the train, they might have been sucked underneath it as it zoomed past. Being a Reploid, however, Delates just fell like a rock. The heavy weight of his armor ensured that the train didn’t drag him underneath it and crush him. Getting slowly to his feet, Delates examined his wound. It was difficult to armor anyone’s stomach, as it greatly reduced one’s ability to bend or twist to look from side to side. The powerful laser that had hit him had ripped up the thin armor he used, and it had done a little damage to his internals, but he was still operating at a good power rate, and his generator wouldn’t be going critical any time soon. That left him with the present question: where had that laser come from? No one on the train was shooting. He realized the answer at the exact same moment Zero did. “SNIPERS ON THE TRACKS!” Zero bellowed. “EVERYBODY DOWN!” The command was spoken not a moment too soon. Another laser whizzed past X’s helmeted head, and would have hit him had the Hunter champion not already thrown himself flat on the car’s roof. “This isn’t going to work!” Feldspar of Unit 0 shouted over the din of the moving train and the Mavericks, who had resumed their fire. “There’s too many of us up here!” No one answered, for greater dangers suddenly came at them. One of the Mavericks was using a gun that shot explosive ammo, and was spraying the area where the Hunters were laying. They frantically got to their feet, badly hurt, and all opened fire at once. X unleashed a fully charged blast of plasma, and the blazing blue fireball scattered the Mavericks. To their horror, though, the Mavericks in the cars threw up more smoke grenades, complicating vision once more. And finally came the terror from the skies. A Parasitic Bomb latched onto Tyclammel, and the Hunter fell back to his knees as the paralysis took him. Cursing loudly, Feldspar tried to rush over and help, but the Maverick with the flamethrower was at it again. Feldspar raised his weapon to deal with the threat, and Tyclammel began to have his life sapped out of him. Vulcan darted to his side, slashing the tip of his lightsaber across the large, flat device, splitting it and making it rather useless. The weakened Tyclammel ripped the two parts out of his torso and looked up at his savior. “Good work, kid. Now go get the bastards for me. I’m just taking up space, now…” If Vulcan wanted to protest, Tyclammel never gave him time, and leapt off the train. He rolled to his feet as another Parasitic Bomb slammed into the ground where he’d landed, and took off in the opposite direction of the train, presumably to recover Delates. Even as Vulcan had been aiding his comrade, other dangers had arrived. Little cybernetic bees, vassals of Blast Hornet, had swarmed the train, and were stabbing at the Hunters with their acid tipped stingers. They had a lot of work to do. But one thing at a time, Mega Man X thought to himself as his familiar blue coloration faded to be replaced with a green and white combination. When he defeated a Maverick Boss, X had the capability of absorbing the enemy’s weapon data and copying one of their attacks. All of the data from X’s many victims was stored in a database back at Hunter HQ, since his systems could only hold eight enemy programs at one time. As it stood, X had never changed the programs from the last eight Mavericks he had conquered, and so had the weapons of the Mavericks from the Repliforce War. He had just loaded the program for the Double Cyclone, a weapon taken from Storm Owl, and was now charging it to full power. When that was done, he pointed both of his arms in front of him and opened the palms of his hands. Green energies traced a path down his arms and once in his hands they exploded outward in the form of plasma laced cyclones that traveled horizontally down the train. The two of them next to each other covered the whole area, and shredded one of the Mavericks and sent another over the edge, though he clung tightly to the roof and managed to hoist himself back up. The third Maverick from further back on the train ran forward, his assault rifle blazing, but the Maverick defenses had just been broken. Zero rushed forward into the aftermath of the cyclones, his saber swinging wildly. He slashed clear through the Maverick who’d just struggled back onto the train and kicked his halves off the edge, just as more smoke bombs came up. At this point, Blast Hornet could no longer hide in the clouds. He dove down like a bat out of hell, more bee drones leaving from the storage compartment inside his abdomen, and Parasitic Bombs springing from his blaster. The Hunters themselves scattered as the bees attacked with full force. Many shot at Blast Hornet, but the nimble soldier just kept flitting around like a hummingbird, using his airborne superiority to get the better of them all. X’s coloration switched again, this time to a dark purple, and he glared up at the flying Maverick. Blast Hornet was weak against the Gravity Well, a weapon used by Gravity Beetle, but since the Gravity Well was not currently in his databanks, X had to make do with something that he hoped would be just as effective. It was hard to aim at the hornet, so why should X waste his energy trying to do it himself when he had a weapon that would do it for him? A target visible only to X appeared around Blast Hornet, who fixed X with a cold gaze and fired a Parasitic Bomb directly at him. X jumped to the side, just narrowly missing the projectile, and seconds later the Aiming Laser locked on. X unleashed Cyber Peacock’s weapon, a wide beam of energies that struck Blast Hornet dead on. The beam didn’t last long, but it had still damaged the Hornet, who now knew he was in serious danger. He tried to fire more Parasitic Bombs, but blasts from Vulcan distracted him, and X was able to lock on again and send another Aiming Laser at the Maverick. Furiously, Blast Hornet zoomed towards X, a final horde of bees swarming the blue Hunter and stabbing him viciously with their venomous stingers. X cried out, and Blast Hornet hovered close to him, extending his cannon to fire the fatal Parasitic Bomb. Zero charged at the hornet, holding his sword limp at his side. Tendrils of red energy coursed down Zero’s fist and lined the blade, soon exploding into plasma laced fire, and with a cry of “Ryuenjin!” the crimson Hunter activated his leg boosters and brought the Rising Fire Sword up into Blast Hornet, melting through his armor and doing serious damage. The Maverick gave what passed as a scream and tried to back away, but Zero did not fall back down to the train; he latched on to Blast Hornet’s spindly legs. For indeed, if Zero had fallen he may well have fallen several cars back since the train was speeding under him. In no time at all the train itself was gone, and Zero had kept the hornet away from it. Refusing to let go, even though Blast was calling his bee drones to aid him, Zero tried to steer the hornet back towards the station, back towards the fallen Hunters, and maybe back to the railroad snipers before they picked off the wounded. Delates had encountered the sniper just as he was boarding his hovercycle to speed off after Blackstar 5041. The Hunter had charged after the Maverick with a furious cry that startled the enemy and caused him to swerve the bike around to see his challenger. The fact that Delates was wounded hadn’t made a difference to the Maverick, and he viewed the Hunter as a threat. He raised his rifle and had snapped off a few rounds at Delates, who’d jumped to the side while firing a charged bolt of plasma that had unseated the Maverick from his hovercycle, which then went off towards the railroad tracks. Delates had sprinted faster than ever before in his life and caught the hovercycle, spinning it around to chase the Maverick, who was running up the tracks after Blackstar 5041. Delates had fired a few more shots at the Maverick’s back, not intending to kill him, but to stun him and save him for questioning. To the dumb Maverick’s misfortune, however, he had stumbled and one of Delates’s blasts had caught him in the head, melting his control chip. Now, Delates sped ahead after the fast moving train, and it wasn’t long before he encountered two other combatants: Tyclammel and another sniper, who was also on a hovercycle. “Hop on!” Delates had cried to Tyclammel while he kept the Maverick busy with plasma blasts. Tyclammel had done just that, and the Maverick had turned around and sped off as fast as he could. The Hunters pursued him, though they were slower due to the added weight of Tyclammel, but they never lost him in their sights and continued to fire shots after him, though he avoided most of them. Then, two more snipers on hovercycles appeared, and the three Mavericks spun around and came at the Hunters, who were suddenly very unhappy with their odds. “Keep going forward,” Tyclammel said, “and veer to the right when I tell you to.” Delates nodded and kept going forward, firing as the Mavericks fired. They were getting closer, and the Mavericks would soon be able to hit them without a problem, but Tyclammel never gave his command. Finally, when Delates had gotten afraid that Tyclammel was planning to play chicken with the Mavericks, the Reploid barked an order and Delates swerved the hovercycle to the right. Near the end of the turn Tyclammel sprang off the cycle towards the left. The Mavericks had already started to turn to follow Delates, and could do nothing about Tyclammel, who raised his arm cannon at one of the riders. Tyclammel’s cannon resembled a Gatlin gun; only the barrels fired small, heat-seeking missiles instead of bullets. It was a barrel in the dead center of the cannon that fired the shots, rapid-fire plasma bullets that packed quite a punch. Tyclammel roared and shot four missiles that homed in on the Maverick rider. One exploded into his armor, doing minimal damage, but the three others hit his bike, igniting the fuel generator and creating an explosion that destroyed the hovercycle and threw the Maverick off of it. Tyclammel opened fire with his machine gun, and the Maverick did the same. Delates had been forced to put in some major evasive actions, and actually found himself turning into one of the Mavericks, jamming the hovercycles into each other and scaring the hell out of the Maverick. Delates used the opportunity to press his cannon to the Maverick’s chest and blow a hole through him, dropping him off the bike and sending it roaring off towards Tyclammel. The wounded Maverick Tyclammel was harassing leapt onto the bike and sped off after the train, followed by his comrade. They’d lost one bike and one soldier, and they weren’t going to push their luck. Delates had to pick up Tyclammel, and that gave the Mavericks a major head start, but they kept on going anyway, never letting the bastards out of their sight. Zero continued to beat wearily on Blast Hornet’s torso, firmly grasping the cannon the hymenopteran was trying to press against his head. The Maverick’s drones were stinging Zero repeatedly, and agony was coursing through the Hunter’s body, but he had to hold on just a little longer, because he could hear Blackstar 5041 getting further ahead, and he knew that if he kept Blast Hornet away from it long enough, X could complete the mission. He glared with loathing at Blast Hornet, and activated one of his Sub-Tanks, rare devices that were charged with energy to replenish the generator health of a Reploid. A warm feeling filled his body, and energy returned to his limbs, though the pain was no less horrible. The acid from the bees was doing a number on him. Maybe it was time to give the Maverick a taste of his own medicine… “Release me, Hunter,” the Maverick said in his emotionless drone of a voice. “It is pointless to resist. The mission will go in our favor.” “Not if you’re stuck here!” Zero hissed, reaching out suddenly and grabbing one of the annoying bees. He held it so its stinger was facing out and jammed it as hard as he could into Blast Hornet’s unarmored side. The Maverick gave a loud, choking scream that sent a shudder through Zero’s body, and began to flail about as the acid ran its course. Still gripping his saber tightly with the same hand that held onto Blast’s arm cannon, Zero grabbed another bee and stuck it into its master’s other side, taking great relish in it. Blast Hornet was such a hated enemy. He had at one point been Zero’s most trusted lieutenant. During the days of Dr. Doppler’s faux peace, the Lord of Doppler Town had called eight Reploids together, representatives from all around the world. Zero had been unable to attend, as he had only recently been reactivated by the X-Hunters, and was trying to get his skills back up to par. Blast Hornet, the Second in Command of Unit 0, had gone instead. At this meeting, Doppler had first laid out his plans to spread the Doppler Town utopia to other parts of the world by force. Had Zero been there, he would have realized Doppler’s true intentions immediately, but Blast Hornet had chosen to ignore the danger to the world and accept Doppler’s invitation, deciding that if he had enough power, he could help spread the peace of Doppler Town to the rest of the world. It was a very idealistic goal, and Zero might not have hated the traitorous Maverick so much if that had been the only motive, but in the end Blast had become so interested in gaining power that he’d forgotten the reason he’d wanted it in the first place. Nervous about contending with someone more powerful than he, Dr. Doppler had infected Blast Hornet with the Sigma Virus, turning him into another helpless puppet commanded by the Reploid tyrant. X had destroyed Blast Hornet the first time, and now Zero had his chance to give the traitor what he deserved. He would not lose to this creature. Suddenly, the roar of hovercycles filled his ears. Zero looked down and saw unfamiliar Reploids driving them; they were Mavericks. Grinning evilly, Zero forcibly guided the writhing Blast Hornet towards the approaching Mavericks and then, drawing a deep breath, he let go. “Shippuga,” he whispered as he leaned forward, allowing the special attack to take hold of his systems and spin him in a somersault as his saber blade glowed with a golden light and sliced through Blast Hornet like the spinning blade of death it was. The hornet recoiled sharply away from the Hunter, clutching his wounds and making strange moaning sounds. Zero was falling now, falling right towards one of the approaching Maverick bikers, who gave a cry of surprise that would do him no good. “Hyoretszuan!” Icy blue energies coiled around Zero’s saber, which was pointed downwards, and formed into a giant icicle which encased the sword completely. Zero fell into the Maverick and the Ice Lance smashed through the enemy’s body and obliterated the hovercycle, which exploded violently just as Zero pushed himself away from it. The other Maverick didn’t even stop, and just got out of there as fast as he could. Zero laughed aloud as he got shakily to his feet. He was not going to hold out much longer, and so he was unhappy when he heard the buzzing of approaching bee drones. Sure enough, there they were, all of them, diving at him with stingers extended. Angry, tired, and having satisfied his need for fancy artistic victories for the night, Zero simply swung his sword out in front of him in a wide arc, destroying the first of the army of onrushing bees. “Leave…” A swing, the explosion of plasma striking metal. “Me….” Another swipe, the sound of dead little bug bodies hitting the ground. “The hell…” Yet another swing, and the sounds of many, many dead little bug bodies hitting the ground. “ALONE!” A grand final arc of his sword and the vast majority of Blast Hornet’s drones lay dead on the ground, and those that remained scurried up towards their master. The Maverick appeared more than a little frustrated, and fired a Parasitic Bomb that Zero easily dodged, but more and more came, and as Zero grew more exhausted, his speed decreased, and the calls became closer. Then came the sound of another hovercycle approaching. Zero spun around, prepared to attack, but Delates’s voice stopped him. “Need some help, sir?” Zero laughed again, running towards the bike. “Get him!” Blast Hornet sent what remained of his drone army after Delates and Tyclammel, who easily evaded them on their speedy transport, circling the Maverick and pelting him with shot after shot. Zero rushed underneath the Maverick, planning to unleash another Rising Fire Sword attack, when the enemy made that option impossible. His generator was seconds away from going critical, and Blast Hornet locked onto Zero as a final target. He snapped his body straight and pointed his long, deadly stinger straight at Zero’s heart. Then he dove, spinning like a drill, making a beeline, for lack of better term, for the Hunter to strike the blow that would fell the mighty Zero once and for all. Zero ignored the shouts of Delates and Tyclammel and allowed the Maverick to get even closer. Then he drew on the absolute last of his special weapon power, gathering a gigantic ball of energies to his fist. He glared up at the Maverick, the traitor who’d betrayed Zero’s trust so severely all those years ago. “RAKKOUHA!” Zero shouted, slamming his fist into the ground, which erupted into a spray of dirt and earth as wide white lasers exploded from the curtain of energies that now surrounded Zero. The huge blasts flew in all directions, and would have been a hazard for the bikers had not Blast Hornet been almost on top of Zero. The Maverick received the full brunt of all the lasers, and went up in flames immediately. His body skidded across the ground once before exploding in a firestorm of scrap and burning coolant. “Shit, boss!” Delates laughed as he pulled up next to his panting commander. “Can you just not resist overkill?” “Overkill’s FUN!” Tyclammel laughed as he slapped Zero on the back and dismounted. “You get on, sir, you’re hurt. I can still run, and you guys gotta follow those Mavericks wherever they’re going. I’ll be along shortly!” Zero nodded and patted Tyclammel on the shoulder in turn, hopping on the bike. “Now I do hope X wasn’t just playing diddly with his navel all this time. Blackstar 5041 oughta be stopped by now…” Rewinding back to the point just after Zero and Blast Hornet vanished, we can clearly see that X was not slacking, but neither was he making progress. The Maverick train was getting closer and closer to its destination, and the Mavericks in the cars kept throwing smoke grenades up on the roof. The final Maverick roof guard was doing a good job of keeping X, Feldspar, Vulcan, and Scylla at bay. Even he, though, was now wounded, and the Hunters were about to take the engine, ending the midnight ride of Blackstar 5041. Suddenly, the last of the Maverick snipers—who happened to be named Diavus...—sent a laser flying into Scylla’s side that spun her around, destroyed her balance, and made her an easy target for the wounded Maverick guard. She fell off the train nursing several blaster wounds, but not at the moment in danger of dying, unless Diavus found her first. Furious, X brought his heavy, booted foot up into the Maverick’s chest, spilling him on the ground. He stomped hard on the Maverick’s head, turning out his lights, and prepared to jump over the final gap between train cars that would place him atop the conductor’s cabin. Then, a blur of blue and silver snapped up from the cabin, and on the edges of the blur were bright red energy beams that seemed to dance with the figure as it flipped out of the cabin and onto the train in an extremely complicated feat of aero-acrobatics, but before the Hunters had a time to marvel, the figure thrust its arm out and the red electricity sprang from its fingers, hitting X square in the chest. The champion Hunter gave a sudden yelp as the electricity spread through him, and he staggered and fell, barely aware through the pain being caused by the voltage that a very furious battle had just started. The second the blur had become something stationary, Vulcan had done what many soldiers did: summed up an enemy. Just by looking for a second, tons of information was gathered at once. Anyone could do it, but only a good warrior could then decide how to best implement that information. It was a female Maverick with long, raven-black hair and a lithe frame. She was pretty, but the feral look in her eyes would have scared Vulcan off had he met her under more normal circumstances. Her only armor was a thick silver chest plate that covered her bosom and protected her generator. Smallish silver gauntlets adorned her wrists and her boots were not nearly as wide or large as any of the Hunters’. The rest of her was a light blue colored “suit”; that thick, rubbery casing that protected a Reploid’s skin and internals that all the Hunters wore underneath their armor. It served to offer some protection to areas that were difficult to armor, such as the stomach or lower back, and forearms and forelegs. She carried a lightsaber, but it didn’t look at all like the one Vulcan or even Zero carried. This one had a longer, golden hilt adorned with what looked like carvings of flames. The blade itself was not the straight rod so commonly associated with lightsabers, but instead it looked more like a curved scimitar, very wide, and probably very deadly. As far as her capabilities, it looked as though she was extremely fast and agile, which probably explained the lack of armor. All this he gathered in a second, and held his saber at the ready. For her part, Teytha had already summed up all three of her opponents, and was only worried about the one who was currently fighting off her electrical surge. She sprang into action, flying at Vulcan and slashing her sword in a hard upward arc. The Hunter met the attack with his own saber, and the two bodies of energies flared violently for the brief second that they touched. Teytha struck low, and then high, and then high again, and Vulcan parried each blow, much to her surprise. However Vulcan was still a rookie, and only knew one way to handle this woman. By memorizing her attack pattern, he could figure out when to strike and what to strike with. Teytha realized this instantly and had to laugh, for her attacks absolutely never fell in a set pattern. She struck low and then spun around with lightning speed, sticking her foot back and kicking Vulcan in the stomach, sending the Hunter staggering backwards to the edge of the train. He fought hard to keep his balance, knowing that if he fell, the Hunters would lose their number advantage. He flailed his arms and, by some miracle, managed to stay atop the train. The sight that greeted him was none too pleasant. Feldspar was bleeding heavily. He used a blaster, and since they were fighting at close range, with the Maverick using relentless sword attacks, Feldspar was quite outmatched. He kept trying to put distance between himself and the Maverick, but each time she caught up with him and went back to work on him, her sword singing as it cut through his armor like a knife passing through butter. This wasn’t going to work. The Maverick wasn’t using any fancy techniques; she was just slashing rapidly and unpredictably. They needed a much larger arena to defeat her, and this place just wasn’t wide enough. He had no room to maneuver. But still, he stood a better chance than Feldspar did. He charged at the Maverick again, going over his attacks in his head. Teytha sensed him coming and spun to meet him, connecting her sword with his, parrying every blow he tried to strike, while striking some of her own. She was just too fast. There was no way he had the skill or experience to know how to handle her attacks, though finally, the train began a sharp turn to the right and her defenses fell just for a second. Vulcan struck, slashing his sword out at her stomach…and miraculously she parried that, too. But only just barely, and the worry that flashed through her eyes was something that gave Vulcan renewed hope. It didn’t last long, though, because she jumped back just as Feldspar was about to attack her and kicked him hard in the chest. She flung her outstretched hand out towards Vulcan, and from it sprang another spark of red energies that hit him dead on. Vulcan screamed, dropping to his knees and using his sword as a crutch. The pain was very severe, and it felt as if his generator was rupturing. It wasn’t, but the electric surge did dangerously deplete his energy. His internal surge protectors couldn’t withstand too many attacks like those. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he looked up just in time to see the Maverick raising her scimitar to bring it down and decapitate him. She would have succeeded, too, but then there came an angry cry from right of the combatants. Mega Man X fired a single shot that struck Teytha in the chest. It wasn’t even charged, but it had caught the Maverick totally by surprise. She staggered back, and soon found herself teetering on the edge of the car, just by the gap between the two transports, where they were connected by steel cables, and below that was the tracks, which would mean certain death as the train crushed her body. She flailed her arms as Vulcan had done, and almost succeeded, but then the train made another sharp turn and her balance was ruined. Teytha gave a cry of alarm and fell backwards, futilely stretching her arm out for something to hang on to. Then she disappeared into the gap and was gone. All the Hunters cringed; regardless of which side you fought on, that was a terrible way to die. X got to his feet and his two wounded underlings clustered near him, trying to figure out what to do now that all threats had been neutralized. Then they were rudely reminded that all the threats had not been neutralized. The cargo doors slid open and huge boxes were forced out of them, bouncing perilously on the ground away from the track. More and more boxes were forced out by the two Mavericks still remaining on Blackstar 5041. “I’m stopping this train!” X shouted, and prepared to leap over the gap that had claimed Teytha and access the controls in the cabin. However, his efforts were rudely interrupted when the final Maverick guard—the one X had kicked unconscious—regained thinking ability and wrapped his arms around X’s right leg, spoiling his dash and spilling him on the hard roof of the car. Feldspar snarled and shot the Maverick in the head, ending his resistance, but X was very dazed by the impact his head had made with the roof. Knowing what he had to do, Vulcan leapt across the gap. He would take care of the controls himself, and reverse the train. The moon barely peeked out of the midnight blue clouds, and the dark blue light reflected off Vulcan’s silver armor. At that moment he looked almost exactly like Mega Man X, at least to someone watching from underneath. And indeed someone was. A whirling blur of silver and blue sprang up from the gap and shredded Vulcan in mid air. His mangled form fell onto the roof of the engineer’s cabin. Blood leaked from his many saber wounds, and he choked out a delayed cry of surprise rather than pain. Then realization dawned on him, and he felt a little better. Teytha had been waiting down there to kill X. She’d heard X say he was going, and then she’d attacked the form that came over the gap. Even if he died here, he knew, he’d died saving the life of the Hunter’s greatest commander. Teytha gasped at the form laying in front of her, very surprised that it was not X. In fact, X and Feldspar were glaring at her from across the gap with very vicious looks. Noting that the last of the cargo had been spilled, Teytha snapped a mock salute at them and leapt off of the train, sprinting at her demon speed towards the carts and helping the Mavericks carry them off. “Get Vulcan off this train!” X roared as he leapt off, activating his dash boots and flying after the Maverick leader. Feldspar leapt the gap and scooped Vulcan up in his arms and tossed him unceremoniously over the edge of the train, because frankly, he had no other options. He had to stop this train, or it would crash into the next station. Feldspar swung into the cabin and activated the proper controls. He bailed out, rushing to collect Vulcan, who was in bad shape, but he looked surprisingly alive. “You won’t be dying for a long time, you lucky bastard,” Feldspar said, patting the shuddering rookie on the shoulder. “We’ll get you out of here. Settle down. Come on, breathe. Easy, now… You know, you did pretty good back there, for a rookie.” Vulcan’s body just continued to shudder as his autorepair systems tried to shut off the flow of blood to his wounds, but he tilted his head slightly towards Feldspar so he knew he was listening. Feldspar drew a sharp intake of breath, remembering what it was like to be young and inexperienced. The guy was scared, and rightly so, because he’d never been in a position where death was imminent. If he survived this, he’d be worlds better as a Hunter. It was his job to make sure Vulcan made it, though. After all… “I dare say you saved my life, Vulcan. That chick would have made mincemeat outta me if you hadn’t given her something else to worry about. And you saved X’s butt, too. We Hunters don’t forget who we owe, got it? We won’t forget this. Now you just hang in there so I can buy you a beer, dammit.” Vulcan laughed, albeit painfully. Even if he could have managed to say anything, he wouldn’t have had any idea what to say. X fired frantic rounds at the Mavericks. In the distance he could hear approaching hovercycles, and that worried him, because if the Mavericks had reinforcements, this could just become even more difficult. However, X had single handedly flattened Maverick platoons on many occasions, and would do it again if he had to. Even if his opponent was the Queen of Swordplay. He was reassured, however, by the arrival of Scylla. She sprinted towards him, firing at the Mavericks, who fired back, but no one hit. She was badly wounded, X saw, and he didn’t want to risk her at the moment. “Feldspar and Vulcan are back there,” X explained hastily. “Vulcan’s badly wounded, and Feldspar’s hurting, too. Help them get a mile to the south. The area there is fit for a jet to land, and I’ve already radioed HQ for backup. The air force is gonna lend us a hand.” Scylla nodded and rushed off in the direction X pointed her in. The Azure Hunter drew another long breath and started after the Mavericks, again activating his Aiming Laser. He locked onto them individually and fired, destroying one of the crates they were hauling. Apparently this was a deadly sin, because the woman leading the Mavericks began to sprint towards X, her scimitar at the ready, as well as… Oh, no. Bloody hell, no. She had TWO lightsabers. Teytha danced around in random directions, springing like a crouching cat away from each area X directed a bolt of plasma towards. Even the Aiming Laser couldn’t lock onto her in time. He grunted and switched to the Lightning Web. He’d stop this one in her tracks, one way or another. He charged the weapon and waited for her to get close. She expected something, and didn’t want to close in, and instead threw her bolts of red electricity at the Hunter, hoping to freeze him in his tracks long enough for her to close in. Suddenly X had a novel idea. He switched to the Ground Hunter, a gift from Jet Stingray, and dashed around, firing little balls of energy that took the form of mini stingrays, gliding around the ground like heat seekers towards Teytha. She was forced to resume her dancing act, hopping from place to place, avoiding both Ground Hunters and normal plasma, and none of her few electric surges were hitting. X saw realization flash on her face. She knew that X would destroy her in time, as he’d done so many others, and then he’d destroy the other Mavericks she had with her. Their cargo would be confiscated, and whatever operation was so important to her would be foiled. The hoverbikes approached, but there was only one Maverick voice, and the others belonged to Zero and Delates. With both X and Zero in the same area, Teytha knew she was licked. And then, the most amazing thing happened. The clouds parted and a jet sped out of it, a jet colored as black as the night it sliced through. The jet was small, and resembled the one-seater Ravens the Hunters had in their air force. For a minute X wore a look of elation, thinking that reinforcements had finally arrived, but the jet’s next action shattered that belief entirely. The aircraft slowed in velocity and lowered so it was near the ground. The machine guns mounted under its wings did not fire, but it zoomed at the Hunters and they ducked, the sonic boom deafening and startling them. Teytha sprinted away, not knowing who her benefactor was and not caring. The jet came again, speeding past the Hunters, and spilling Delates and Zero—who were both wounded, to X’s dismay—off their hovercycle. The other Maverick sped off to help Teytha and the others, while X shook his fist in fury at the newcomer. “There’s no Maverick insignia!” Delates shouted. “It’s definitely not one of ours, either!” “Then who is it?!” X shouted at thin air, furious at losing his quarry when he had them at his mercy. “WHO’S THE JACKASS?” “YEE-HAAAA!” Dynamo hadn’t had this much fun in weeks. Ever since Greenback’s visit to the pub, Dynamo had been keenly interested in whatever the little Maverick was planning. It seemed that if Greenback’s people succeeded, there would be quite an interesting series of events that followed. Probably, these events would lead to serious combat. Dynamo lived for combat. Besides, it was so boring sitting around and waiting for the two factions to piss each other off. Things moved so much faster when he served up a catalyst for the violence. He’d taken his personal jet, Splicer, from its hidden hangar in the Catskills and set it to stealth mode. He’d hidden in the clouds and followed Blackstar 5041 ever since it left Cartwright’s station. He’d spun the jet around to watch Zero battle Blast Hornet. What a show! That guy knew what he was doing. He had skills, he had endurance, he had speed, and he was CLEVER. “Now that,” Dynamo mused, “is a Reploid worth challenging. Now I know why Magma Dragoon chose his path…” During the Repliforce War, Magma Dragoon had joined Sigma and destroyed the Sky Lagoon, the incident for which Repliforce was blamed. Magma had done it just so he could have a deathmatch against Zero, who he’d always dreamed of fighting. Combat had been everything to Magma, too. Dynamo glanced down and saw X jumping up and down and screaming at him. He threw back his head and laughed. “And you, X, need to get that bug out of your butt. Let me help you.” He angled Splicer down towards the frantic Hunter, who promptly got the hell out of there. Dynamo pulled up and, out of the corner of his eye, he saw what he’d been waiting to see. Mobile artillery drones. Lots of them. The Maverick reinforcements had arrived. He chuckled to himself and pulled up, flying away from the battlefield where the furious Hunters were trying to regroup. By now the Mavericks would have all their cargo accounted for, and Greenback’s plan could be put in motion. Until then, Dynamo would have to settle with taking missions for the Gold Serpent for amusement. X, Zero, Tyclammel, and Delates were the only four who could really fight, and Zero wouldn’t last long at all. They had to stop the Mavericks here, or it was all over. But it was already all over. Even as the four Hunters began their mad dash towards the clearing where the Mavericks would teleport to Seraph Castle, explosions erupted around them as mortar shells fell from the sky, shot by large mobile turrets from high along the mountain path. They halted immediately, knowing it was futile to return fire but doing so anyway. X locked onto the individual cannons with his Aiming Laser, but the blasts were not powerful enough to do the job alone. Zero breathed a curse as he saw the fresh Maverick troops rushing down from the mountain path, and even growled as he saw in the distance the female commander firmly embrace a male Reploid, this one tall and armored in black. Even at this distance Zero recognized the man Mortar had called Malevex, and tremors of anger shook his body. Even with what he now knew about Malevex’s past, the fact that the Maverick was now standing among Zero’s enemies and gloating over their victory didn’t make it any easier for Zero to forgive him. “What do you have in store for us now, Terrornova…” he breathed. X glanced towards him curiously, but before he could ask anything the mortar shells exploded around them once more and they all took off for the clearing where the air force was supposed to pick them up. X hoped they were fast, since the Mavericks now easily outnumbered the Hunters, and if they decided to swarm over the area and pick the Hunters off, there’d be little resistance for them. Luckily, the Hunter Transport, which was a small passenger jet, split the sky much in the same manner as Dynamo’s Splicer had done, and landed in the clearing a mile behind the railroad tracks, where Blackstar 5041 sat idle. The wounded were loaded into the jet and another touched down shortly after, this one piloted by Vulcan’s pal Alec Tremont, who tended to show up whenever it would be ironic. He’d cramped a technician into his Raven, and the technician went out and headed to Blackstar 5041 to take it to a station. Lariat of Unit 17, who had come with the rest of his group after reinforcements had arrived to guard Cartwright’s station and take the hostages and captives, went with the technician to provide security. “I’m afraid that our only surviving Maverick wasn’t so eager to talk,” Jasper said solemnly to X. “He activated his self destruct function. Shadin, Lyon, and Gralia of Zegmann’s unit barely escaped the blast with their lives, though all are hurt.” “This is a bad night,” X said simply. “Can we just go home…?” “Three of my fellow snipers are dead,” Diavus said stiffly, staring emotionlessly at Malevex, “and the rest are accounted for.” “Damn,” Teytha breathed, at Malevex’s side. “They got one of my ten when the battle started. Five of us stayed on the train. Four remained at the station to divide the Hunters. I imagine they’re all dead… Zero knocked Blast Hornet off the train, and I’d imagine the little bastard killed our bee. And of the five that boarded the train…” She waved her arms to take in the two Mavericks who were helping with the cargo. “Only they survived.” “And we killed no Hunters…” Malevex said with a frown. “It hardly seems fair… Is there any word as to who our mysterious benefactor is?” “No,” replied Teytha, frowning in turn. “Whoever it was just flew up out of nowhere. He bought us the time we needed for you to get down here. It’s a good thing you were waiting there, or X would have killed us all.” “It was your plan, remember. You set all this up.” He smiled as easily as he could at both his close friend and his prized sniper. “You did what you set out to do. You got us the cargo, and now we can begin the final stage of the plan Sigma laid out for us. He may be dead, but…” He looked exclusively at Diavus. “Tell your friends that if they keep fighting like they do, if they keep giving it their all like this, there’s no way Sigma’s plan will fail. Now get outta here, you all must be dead tired.” Diavus felt himself smiling slightly as well. He was always strangely at ease among his commanders, even when he had bad news to report. He gave Teytha and Malevex a quick salute and went off to help the others with the remaining cargo. Already the Maverick artillery was retreating back up the mountain towards Seraph Castle, and the traces of the battle were being removed. “And now it gets serious…” Teytha breathed, crossing her arms over her chest and taking fuller breaths. Malevex raised an eyebrow. “Are you all right?” “Yeah, yeah…almost got crushed under the train, but nothing major.” She flashed him a grin, twirling the hilt of her scimitar sword in her hands. “You’re not the only one around here worth their salt with a sword, you know.” As the sensations of battle drained from her, the feral glint left her eyes and was replaced with a warmer, mischievous look she saved for when she was around friends. “Though it is a damn good thing you were punctual. I don’t know how much longer that jet could have held off the Hunters.” Malevex grinned slowly, staring back at the train, which was now starting up again, presumably under Hunter control. “Couldn’t let those losers have their way again, could I? The Hunters have way too many successes. They could use some failures, just to remind them that they’re not godlike. Now come on, Gredam and Mortar are dying to find out what happened.” She nodded and walked with him back to the rocky trail, glancing one last time back towards Steel Alley. “This is really it, then?” “Mhm.” He looked in the same direction, and then back to her. “Few more weeks, and we’ll be ready to move, at last. The humans will never know what hit them.”