//------------------------------//
// CM: Face the Past, part 1 
// Story: Melody of the Future 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

Before Axl could even move, Onetails leapt to the attack, delivering a spinning kick to Axl's temple that sent him slamming into the opposite wall.  "You can do better than that," he taunted as Axl groggily got to his feet.

"Axl!" Octavia called out worriedly as Axl pushed himself to his feet.  Cinnamon and the others also moved to help.

"Stay back!" Axl called out, staggering a bit as he stabilized himself.  Drawing his scythe, he unfurled it to full size, bracing on it before pushing himself upright and spinning it into a combat position.  "This is my fight."

Onetails frowned as he stared at the scythe.  "That is not in your recorded schematics-"  Before Onetails could say more, Axl had blurred forward, slamming the shaft into Onetails gut before spinning and dragging the blade along Onetails' armor.

"I'm just full of surprises!" Axl declared as he dug one blade of the scythe into the ground, spinning around the shaft to kick Onetails in the head with both feet.  Coming to a halt at the end of the shaft, he pulled out his G-Launcher and unleashed its massive payload straight into Onetails' crotch.

Onetails skidded to a halt a few feet away.  "Indeed," he responded calmly.  "But your tactics will need to be altered against me."  He cupped his hands together.  "Annihilator..."

Axl's eyes widened as he recognized the stance.  Sheathing the scythe, he leapt for the ceiling.

"...HADOKEN!" Onetails roared, the blast shooting out just under Axl's feet, the blue white torrent of energy tearing the hallway apart as the others just barely managed to dodge out of the way.

"That looked like my Shinku Hadoken!" X gasped out in shock.  "How did he get that?"

"A question for later!" Zero snapped out as Onetails once more lunged at Axl, trying to strike with energized fists that Axl deflected with a spin of his scythe.

"You are effective-GYAH!"  Onetails staggered back, staring at the stumps of his arms.

"I'm more than that!" Axl snapped back as he shifted his stance and his grip on his weapon, readying himself for a killing blow.

Onetails grinned as light surrounded the stumps, extending out and taking the shape of his hands before solidifying.  "And I am much more than I appear.  But it appears you are more than a match for this level of power.  If you feel strong enough to face more, follow!"  With that, Onetails levitated into the air and shot backward down the spiral staircase.

"Don't think you can get away!" Axl shouted out as he dashed after him.  The others quickly moved to follow.

Once Axl caught up, Onetails grinned.  "Releasing Control Logic Restriction System to Level 7!"  He blazed with light.  When the light faded, there were two of them, and each had a second tail with another highly energized fragment of Force Metal inside, giving off as much energy as the first.  "We are Twotails, and we challenge you to a fight!" they proclaimed together.

Axl immediately shifted himself to the defensive as the two attacked him, spinning his scythe and using the two blades to deflect attacks from both sides.  As they barraged him with blows, he paid close attention to their strikes.  He noticed that the strikes were surrounded by Elemental auras that shifted from red to blue to yellow.  Hoping he was on the right track, he activated his A-Trans as the strikes were red.  "Get back!" he roared in Silver Horn's voice as he seized both Twotails in his grip before leaping into the air.  When he came back down, a massive wave of water swamped over all of them, and he held the pair under the water so they would continuously take the amplified damage.  After a time, they were ripped from his grip and washed further down the shaft.  Shifting back, he pursued them.

"He seems remarkably in control of the situation," Massimo murmured in surprise.

"He's pushing himself hard," Octavia countered worriedly.  "If he doesn't slow down or take a break soon, he'll burn himself out.  The strikes he's taken have done heavy damage."

"Oh, I hope I can help him..." Cinnamon murmured worriedly.

"He's got a full sub tank," Marino pointed out.  "I'm sure he'll be careful..."

"If he gets in over his head, I'll drag him into Stealth to heal," Spider offered encouragingly.

As the group caught up to Axl on the next level down, they saw Twotails - once more a single entity - bracing for another transformation.  "Release Control Logic Restriction System to Level 6."  In a blaze of light, there were three of him with three tails each.  "We are Threetails," he greeted unsurprisingly.  "We challenge you to a fight."

Axl spun his scythe quickly to deflect the incoming strikes, which now carried harmful energy auras that seemed to weaken his system as they approached.  One strike got through, and he fell back as a Virus infected him, causing his energy to deplete rapidly.  "...you think that's all it'll take to take me down?" he growled out as he started spinning his scythe all the faster.

"It'll slow you down," Threetails responded as one of them gathered energy for another Annihilator Hadoken.

"Not for long..." Axl growled as he glowed with energy as the scythe spun ever faster.  "Cause I'm giving it everything!" he roared out as he took the shape of Steel Massimo, unleashing his Wave Motion Blast through the scythe, cutting two of the Threetails to bits and carving chunks off the third.  He gasped for breath as he reverted to normal.

"I'm not done for!" Threetails snapped as he generated another copy of himself that wasn't damaged.  Unable to maintain beyond that, he collapsed into bits before the copy withdrew further down the stairs.

Axl moved to pursue, only to fall to his knees.  "Dammit...I can do this..."

Before he could move further, Cinnamon was at his side, using her energy to restore his and cleanse his system of errors.  "You don't have to move so fast," she murmured softly.  "We can back you up...between fights if not during, if you're going to be stubborn about soloing this."

"I'll see if I can't swipe anything useful from these guys before you get too engaged," Marino offered.  "That should help, right?"

As the others gathered around him, Axl sighed softly.  "...thanks guys..."