Theta, Zero, and X surrounded Eagle/Sigma.

"Now!" X yelled, unleashing a blast at Eagle/Sigma.

"Now what?" Zero asked.

As X and Zero argued between shots about the universally recognised meaning of yelling "Now" while several guns were pointed at the enemy, Theta tip-toed over to the generator. It was a good thing that Eagle/Sigma’s wings were too large for him to look over his shoulders as she quietly ripped the screws from the generator. It was also fortunate that the sound of arm cannons and whirlwinds covered her curses at the pain of having to take out screws without a screwdriver.

While Theta slowly opened the generator one screw at a time instead of quickly blowing the whole thing apart, X and Zero were having a tough time with Eagle/Sigma. Somehow being crazy always gave one more strength. The fact that the two Hunters had to keep Eagle/Sigma from turning around also limited their attack strategies.

X shot at Eagle’s head while Zero dashed in for a slice at his middle, but Zero was blown back by Eagle’s cheap whirlwind attack, sending him flying towards X. After being unhappily crushed by Zero's body, X jumped off Zero’s head and tried an overhead shot. Though this should have worked very well, Eagle seemed immune to pain. He flew up and gave X a solid head-butt, sending him hurtling downwards. As Eagle laughed evilly at X’s pain (which was really not too painful and thus not much to laugh at), Zero took advantage of his momentary inattention to slice off the tips of Eagle’s wings, conveniently stepping on X along the way.

With his wings clipped, Eagle’s full weight fell upon Zero. Zero grimaced as claws dug into him. He could hear the sound of metal on metal as Eagle gleefully raked his back.

"Good, keep him distracted," X said to Zero, preparing to release a powerful blast.

Zero looked up in time to see a large ball of potential pain hurtling towards himself and Eagle. Sacrificing the comfort of his back, Zero dragged himself out from Eagle’s feet, flipping Eagle towards X’s blast and rolling himself to safety.

Unsure whether Eagle’s scream indicated enough damage, X and Zero released a few more blasts just to be certain. Momentarily blinded by the light of their own arm cannons, the two Hunters didn’t see Eagle crawling towards them, ignoring the damage he suffered. He suddenly rose up between the two and twisted both their arm cannons, rendering them inoperable. Fortunately Zero still had a sabre backup and with this he fended off Eagle. X had no such backup and had to be content with allowing Eagle to hurl him across the room.

A cry of surprise as X fell on her indicated Theta’s location behind the generator. Suddenly remembering that he should be fighting against three, not two, Eagle ran over to see what Theta had been up to all this time. Despite Zero’s attempts to slow Eagle by jabbing his back with a light sabre, Eagle arrived just as Theta uncovered the generator’s core energy source. The core was protected by a forcefield that Theta was thoroughly surprised to find.

"I had to find some place to put those model generators you built," Eagle/Sigma explained to Theta with a smile. He then positioned himself in front of the room to the model generator controls. "You’ll have to get through me to get through that forcefield."

"I'm surprised you knew enough to install those," Theta said. "Most people don't think of intelligence when they hear your name."

"Coming from someone named after a Greek letter. But then, you're with X and Zero, so I guess it's suiting," Eagle replied.

"Actually, she's named after two great cities from the ancient world," Zero retorted stiffly, "Alexandria and Carthage."

"So that's like calling someone, say, London Madrid?" Eagle said with a smirk.

"Thanks for the great retort, Zero," Theta said not too thankfully.

"Quickly, Zero, the Mavericks are already attacking!" X yelled, interrupting their little chat. He charged towards Eagle, head-first. Without an arm cannon, X could only hope that he would be strong enough to knock over Eagle. Though Eagle was incredibly hurt, there was still no hope of that happening.

Zero dashed over with his sabre, but such a short-range weapon wasn’t too effective when the enemy was constantly blowing him away.

Seeing that the battle ensuing on the other side of the generator was going to be a long one and that time was lacking, Theta clenched her teeth and plunged her left arm into the forcefield, knocking the generator’s core off-line. Of course, this also knocked all her own electronics off-line, but the fortunate thing about being only partially robotic was that she was still conscious to feel the pain as electricity ran through her body.

Theta’s creative method of turning off the generator had the side effect of blowing out most other control units in the room, and smoke began seeping out from various cracks in the wall. (Actually, there was no technical reason the other control units should be affected by the death of the generator, and certainly no reason why everything should simultaneously go up in smoke, but what good is a room full of electronics if they don't cause smoke and electrical fires?)

Eagle squawked with fury when he saw that the generator had been disabled. He released shots everywhere, ignoring the damage done to his own base. In what was obviously a very cliché attempt to bring everyone down with him, he flashed out Sigma’s light sabre and began hacking away at the infrastructure in the room. The ceiling caved in onto the generator, sending a number of janitorial droids tumbling down from the floor above. In a few seconds the rest of the room tumbled as well and X and Zero found themselves crawling for safety. Unfortunately for Theta, with none of her robotic components operating, she didn’t have enough strength in her legs to stand, let alone run for her life.

When the blowing up of machinery and folding of metal had finally ended, X and Zero saw that Eagle had taken out a good quarter of the dome for them. To thank him for this kind deed, X dug out Eagle’s unconscious body, disabled him, then stepped on him a few times. Most of the Mavericks had fled when the generator room began groaning loudly, but Toxic Seahorse was loyal enough to Eagle to hang around. He freed himself from the remains of the dome and tiptoed up behind X. X turned his head in time to stare Toxic Seahorse into lowering his weapon and fleeing. Zero meanwhile was busy digging for something.

X flicked on his arm console and organised the third company to begin attack on the Maverick domes. "Oh, and be on the lookout for a bunch of fleeing Mavericks from the central dome," he added as he casually knocked out a few droids with projectile metal from the former dome.

"X, help me find Theta," Zero said urgently, tugging at a large piece of metal.

"Didn’t she get away?" X asked, helping Zero lift the metal off another large piece of metal.

"That’s what I thought, but she’s not out here," Zero replied with a hint of worry.

"Maybe she left in a hurry," X suggested as he flicked a piece of metal away to reveal another large piece of metal. "I lost sight of her when Eagle started chopping the wall, but I’m sure she’d be fast enough to get away."

"I think she simply plunged through the forcefield to get at the core of the generator. That sort of power surge would disable her electronics."

"But she’s part human. She shouldn’t have been knocked unconscious," X said, throwing away a piece of metal to reveal another large piece of metal. "She didn't crawl out our way, but I’m sure she’d be quick enough to get out another way."

"Not without legs," Zero said, flipping over a piece of metal to reveal another large piece of metal. "She said that she needed robotics to use her legs."

X had nothing to say to that.

"Come on, if she’s in there, she needs medical attention quickly," Zero said, desperately pushing away a piece of metal to reveal another large piece of metal.

After a long time of tossing away more metal to reveal large pieces of metal, X and Zero realised that they would never find Theta in the rubble. X called to the glider to fly them back to headquarters, but it had already left, so he transported himself and a sad Zero back to headquarters.

Onwards to the last Chapter
Back to Commentary index
Back to site index