Melody of the Future

by Tatsurou

CM: Into the Depths

Nana had news for the others as they returned from their trip into the bowels of Central Tower. "While you were gone, I received an information burst from Colonel Redips," she explained. "He was able to send image information regarding a secret Rebellion facility, and I've triangulated it to somewhere near the Aires Valley in southwest Giga City. The nearest warp location is in the Gimialla Mines, which was built directly over the impact crater that is the source of Force Metal ore. Presumably, you should be able to reach the Rebellion facility from there...assuming that isn't the Rebellion Facility."

X nodded. "Alright, then we should go right away. Axl-"

"He's not here," Octavia spoke up softly. "He's up on the roof with Marino, Cinnamon, and Tango. I...think we should let them be."

"You sure about that, Tavi?" Zero asked carefully to break the silence that followed that statement. "I mean, he's really shaken up-"

"And I'm probably the source of most of that," Octavia pointed out. "I named myself his mother, only for him to now learn I'm his cousin. He...needs his space. And if the girls can help him, his need is greater than ours."

"Can't argue with you there," Spider observed calmly. "Let's hit the Mine then, just the five of us."

"Are you sure we can handle it all on our own?" Massimo asked worriedly. "I mean, Cinnamon's our primary support..."

"With the power we're packing, we shouldn't need support," Zero insisted firmly. "Plug in the coordinates, Nana. Axl and the others can follow if they choose, but they should be fine without us for a while."

"Inputting coordinates," Nana confirmed.

---

The mine shaft they arrived in had gray metal walls and dirt and rock floors, providing little in the way of scintillating scenery, and less in the way of exploration given the narrow, tight passages. The narrow corridors were interspersed with wider rooms that allowed the group to spread about a bit, and also was where the majority of security mechanaloids confronted them. The narrower paths were occasionally blocked by rock falls, but Massimo dealt with those by punching through them. This enabled them to quickly clear their path through to the third floor down in the mine.

As they entered the first large room there just off the elevator, a familiar figure stepped out of the shadows towards them. The emblem of a vampire bat on his chest plate instantly identified him as it became visible. "You!" X snarled out angrily.

Shadow chuckled to himself. "Long time no see, X," he greeted coldly.

"You're gonna pay for betraying us," Zero snarled, drawing his beam saber. "You can't catch me off guard and shoot me off a roof down here."

Shadow smirked. "I suppose you came down here hoping to find the Supra-Force Metal?" he asked callously.

"Actually, until you mentioned it, I'm the only one here who'd even heard of it," Octavia pointed out.

"So what is it?" X asked Octavia curiously, pointedly ignoring Shadow.

"It's an improved form of Force Metal," Octavia explained. "The actual Force Metal Ore's energy concentration is simply too high for most beings to even handle directly, so for FM Reploids or Terrans to handle it for instillation, it's refined and mixed with other materials to reduce the energy overflow. Supra-Force Metal is a much purer sample, resulting in a much higher energy release from much smaller Metal fragments...but at greater risks of damaging the one using it. The Rebellion only has two chunks of Supra-Force Metal that can be handled with any degree of safety, and one of them is Epsilon's power core."

"How...how can you know so much?" Shadow demanded, fear and anger at war in his voice. "I can't let you leave with such kno-"

His words and charge were cut off as Zero - having shifted into his White mode - blasted the upper part of Shadow's body to bits with a low-level Bass Cannon shot. "Admittedly, it's a valid question," Zero pointed out. "How do you know so much about the Rebellion's activities?"

"And why did Epsilon know your safe word for 'non-conflict' when I confronted him?" X inquired.

"Wait, he knew that?" Zero demanded in confusion. "I don't remember-"

"He used it after Shadow shot you off the roof," X pointed out. "He seemed really upset Shadow did that."

Octavia glanced from face to face as everyone began looking torn between confusion and suspicion. "Alright, I can tell you all...but word of it does not reach Colonel Redips, understand?" Once all four men nodded, she smiled. "I know all this because I have a source in the Rebellion...Epsilon himself."

Spider and Massimo stared at her, stunned. "H...how?" Massimo gasped out.

"Because he's not wrong," Octavia pointed out as she walked over to Shadow's remains. Reaching in, she fished out a faintly glowing chunk the size of a pebble that glowed far too brightly to be Supra-Force Metal. "Does this look familiar?"

"It kinda looks like the crystals Ninetails had equipped in his tails," Spider observed dryly. "You think that was Supra-Force Metal?"

"No, the crystals glowed a lot brighter," Zero corrected. "So I'd say that's Supra-Force Metal, but the crystals Ninetails was using were completely unprocessed."

"Rock and Kalinka said Axl's new gun was powered by nine Etheric Crystals," X suddenly spoke up. "You don't think...those were the crystals? That there's a connection between that and Force Metal Ore?"

"And Ether is what you run on, Zero," Octavia pointed out. "And according to records, is the source of energy that led to the technological advancements that turned robots into Reploids...and Reploids into Terrans. If there is a connection between Force Metal and Ether, then Epsilon is right that Force Metal is key to further evolution of synthetic life on this planet." She frowned irritably. "Which is why I'm now really upset that Axl still has the Gimialla Key!"

"I've got it, actually," X spoke up. "Axl left his keys with me after we came back from the lower levels of Central Tower."

Octavia smiled grimly. "Then we need to find that locked door..."

Comments

[Emtu]

The min shaft

mine

energy concentration is simply to high

too

[SvenFoxx]

Heh. I've been waiting for Zero to do that since he got the Ether Form.

[the other sans]

Seems Octavia has a better version of a General informant.

Oh Shadow, if only he mined his own business he'd still be in one piece.

Maybe Axl and Octavia should adopt the Hawaiian version of Cousin and essentially be one big Ohana.

[Xuncu]

<several hours later>
<secret door opens>
<out walks Spider, with multiple gold rings and gold watches, an inexplicably large feather in his hat, and shades>
<out walks X, his flame scarf replaced with a (faux)fur overcoat>
<out walks Massimo, a wife-beater replacing the body of his armor, and an assault carrier's worth of chains, made of gold, around his neck>
<out walks Zero, bare-chested, with oriental tattoos covering his back and arms, and a gold-hued blade>
<out walks Octavia, with a gold tooth, diamond-studded horse-shoes, emerald-encrusted saddle, ruby-glass sunglasses, and a wide-brimmed hat with enough sapphires to count as disruptive camouflage>
"................"
"................"
"................"
"................"
"................ I feel I should have known that mare..... I also feel we spent a little too long in there just grinding Mets." said Pimptavia.

[Tristar]

and there went Redips little spy inside of Epsilons forces because I'm pretty sure that's what shadow was. Of course said spy actually went rogue on his own power trip but meh. of course that's just my head canon.

[badninja]

So I am wondering if Spider/Redips is still going to try and backstab the group? Because by now he should know better than to do that, I hope.

[djthomp]

And here I was just speculating to myself about the possible connections between force metal and ether. Should be interesting to see what exactly impacted into that crater.

[Kenshinryuu]

And Shadow gets exactly the amount of attention he deserved!!!!

[KVFFour]

8031403 None.
He really has been reduced to a shadow of himself, hasn't he?

[Kenshinryuu]

8032747 I'd say more scrap metal. The only useful thing would be his weapons, I can see Masimo using that giant sword blade as an attachment to his glaive and maybe the shoulder cannon since I bet he could fire off blasts without worrying about recoil since he's so big. Really, Shadow was a Vile wannabe with that thing.

[KVFFour]

8033667 Umm, you didn't pick up on the pun?

[Kenshinryuu]

8034711 I did, but I don't think he's worthy of getting one since he was a backstabbing traitor and didn't have much character.

[KVFFour]

8035069 Yeah, all I found was this one post-it. *holds up post-it with the word character written on it*

[NicLove]

Before I read this, what is the Gore tag for ?
And how bad does it get ?

[Tatsurou]

8039817
Because there are occasions where characters (villains) end up bisected or blown up.
And it never gets that bad.

[NicLove]

8039830 but they are robots !?

[Tatsurou]

8039903
Cybernetic lifeforms...but yes.
There is no description of blood or guts, only implication.

[NicLove]

8039951 That's what I wanted to know

[Jake Witt]

Holy, Great Scott, Doctavia Batman!

[Black Ash]

8071342
Well said.

[zacman2000]

and so more of the reploid evolution process is revealed and shadow is turned into a heap of scrap... makes sense as he was a asshole.