//------------------------------// // 7: We Carry On // Story: Melody of the Future // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// With Splash Warfly safely locked up and Octavia hiding in Piano's fluff in embarrassment over everyone's reaction to the incident already dubbed 'Mama Pwne', X, Zero, and Axl met to discuss their next move. "We've got three Mavericks left to go after," X began as he laid out the information they had available. "One in the Lava Factory, one at the Central Circuit, and one in the Cyber Field. Do we want to continue targeting each one individually, or split into three teams to take them all down at once?" "We have to go as a group," Axl insisted. When X and Zero both turned to look at him in shock, he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I-I mean, Octavia told Stonekong I was doing this as a 'challenge of leadership' against Red sort of thing. That's why he agreed to surrender after I beat him." He swallowed convulsively, struggling to keep from going into a panic. These two might be family now, but they were still his idols, and he was now realizing that he'd just told them off. "T-that means I need to fight them all, right?" "He's got a point, X," Zero agreed, making Axl breathe a sigh of relief. "You know how big a deal honor is to warrior type Reploids. Remember how much trouble that nearly caused with Colonel?" When that brought a chuckle out of X, Zero continued. "Besides, we've both been on vacation for several years. We're both still a little rusty. It's why we went after Warfly as a group." X nodded. "Valid points all around. Fair enough, we go as a group." Turning, he shot Axl a smile. "And I'm impressed. Few probationary Hunters have the guts to speak up against me or Zero without encouragement. Took a lot to do it, didn't it?" He chuckled when Axl couldn't hide his nerves or relief. "Octavia's told me that even before the Light hologram told her to keep an eye on you, she saw a lot of potential in you. 'Strong mind, stronger heart' were her exact words. You're gonna go far here, kid." Axl blushed, both pleased and embarrassed from so much praise. "T-thanks..." "So since you have so much to say," X continued, "let's hear where you think we should go next. You must have some idea who we'll be facing." Axl swallowed nervously, struggling to control his emotions and think clearly. "...Lava Factory," he stated firmly. "The water based weapons we got from Splash Warfly should help us get through the hazards, and the number of Reploids - Maverick or otherwise - who can thrive in all that heat is limited. In fact, Flame Hyenard is the only one of those who's been upgraded by 'The Professor'. He needs to keep his body at high temperatures to function properly, so the water weapons from Warfly should give us a major advantage." Axl sat nervously after delivering his pronouncement...only to hear a slow clap. Turning, he saw Octavia bringing her forehooves together, applauding him. "Well done," she said simply. "Now let's act on that knowledge." The early portions of the factory seemed to be mostly functional, with very little damage. The main danger came from the fact that many of the worker drones had gone Maverick and were attacking them. Everything from standard security drones to Mettools to large, gas spewing Mechanaloids worked to slow the group's advance. However, they weren't able to stand up to the group's combined onslaught, and they made their way through quickly while evacuating the civilians who hadn't been damaged. The lava fields the factory drew from were a bit more difficult to cross, as the towers that rose out of them for maintenance and observation were few and far between. Thankfully, there were large platforms where work at the factory actually was done scattered here and there, allowing the group to cool off somewhat...as long as they were able to avoid the time bombs. The biggest point of concern came when a large snake Mechanaloid similar to one head of the hydra they'd encountered at the Battleship rose up out of the lava to block the path. It proved more heavily armored than the individual heads of the hydra, as well as being somewhat faster. The heat of the factory weighed down on the entire group, especially Octavia. "I am...not liking this place..." she grumbled as she started to pant for breath after the second time they encountered one. "Maybe you should evac," Axl offered worriedly. "No!" Octavia insisted. "I can handle it. Just...lets keep going." "We can take a break for a while and Varia can focus her energies on cooling you off," X pointed out. "There's a Light Capsule directly below us." Without waiting, X dropped down to the capsule. The hologram instantly displayed itself. "X, now that you're here, I can activate the three armor programs that have been collected so far, including this buster part that will allow you to charge your new Special Weapons. In addition, I've included a program to upgrade Varia's enviro-stabilizer. It should help Octavia deal with the heat." "Perfect timing, Dad," X complimented happily. "By the way, Alia's pregnant." The hologram visibly glitched. "R...really?" "Yeah," X replied. "It's part of why we cut the honeymoon short." "...short? X, I married you all four years ago." "How many vacation days build up after a century on the job?" The hologram was silent for a time. "I'm going to be there for the birth. Boy or girl?" "We want to be surprised," X replied as he stepped into the capsule, activating the three Glide Armor parts now available. Up above, Varia beeped. "Upgrade to enviro-stabilizer downloaded. Adapting..." The armor glowed briefly. Octavia breathed a sigh of relief. "Much better..." Once the group reunited, they made their way through the main part of the factory until they reached a teleporter, which warped them to a new area. The teleporter sent them to the main processing facility, where the lava flowed through to be harvested for geothermal energy and mineral resources. As a result, it was even hotter than the rest of the facility, and even more heavily patrolled. Thankfully, the new armor upgrades for X greatly increased his combat capability, making the trip through that segment to the next teleporter much swifter. When they came out the other side at a gigantic platform, Flame Hyenard was plainly visible, standing atop a giant gazelle-shaped Mechanaloid that walked back and forth in the lava. He was a humanoid Reploid based off a hyena in design, with a mostly yellow, orange, and red color scheme in a flame pattern, with missile launchers on his arms and back. He was also screaming in pain. "It hurts...it hurts!" His screams were briefly interrupted with coughing and choked gasps. "What's...what's happening to him?" Axl asked worriedly. "It looks like Maverick Virus infection symptoms," Octavia spoke up. "But that's impossible..." "Unless someone's trying to recreate it," Zero murmured worriedly. "Well, we're going to have to try to bring him back to himself somewhat while we fight," X murmured. "Axl, what was he like before he started getting upgraded?" "Badass," Axl replied. "Everything he did, it had to be done with a certain flair. If it wasn't done well, it wasn't worth doing." "You!" Hyenard screamed out. "You four...you're the source of my suffering! If I tear you to pieces, the pain will stop!" Two hard-light holographic duplicates of him leapt out of his body, charging towards the group. "Burn to the ground-" one of them started to shout as it gathered flames in its hand. "Stop!" Octavia bellowed in a British accent for some reason, getting in front of the duplicate and holding a hoof out, making it freeze momentarily in confusion. "This is silly. This is far, far too silly. I won't have your entire being reduced to a hated meme. If we're going to do a battle this epic, we're going to do it right. First off, reprogram the nanites on that Mechanaloid and make it a bloody dragon!" The primary Flame Hyenard immediately plugged into the Mechanaloid, causing it to start restructuring itself. "Mom, what are you-" Axl began. "Hush!" Zero cut him off. "She's tapping into his core persona. It's the key to breaking the grip of the program aspect of the Virus on a Reploid. If it works, we'll be able to save him." "Next, stop talking!" Octavia continued, maintaining the British accent. "You've done something terrible to your voice synthesizer, and it makes you sound pathetic. Besides, since when has calling out your attacks been in vogue? And if you're going to shout anything, make it the actual names of your attacks, like 'Blazing Fist' or 'Hadouken', or 'Final Rocket', not 'burn it to the ground'. Seriously, who thought that sort of thing was a good idea?" Much to Axl's amazement, the three Hyenards appeared to be taking notes. Meanwhile, the purple and bronze gazelle Mechanaloid had completely restructured itself into a crimson and gold dragon, wings and all. "Now, dragons don't fight groups, they fight lone knights!" Octavia continued. "Zero, Axl needs your beam sword!" Without hesitation, Zero tossed his beam saber over to Axl. "But I don't even know how to use one!" Axl complained. "It's got drivers inbuilt!" Zero shouted back. "You'll figure it out!" Octavia used her weapon from Stonekong to generate a shield for Axl, tossing it over to him. "Alright, we're going to take this from the top! Knight of the Hunters vs Flames of the Dragon!" She shooed X and Zero over to a corner of the platform. "Classic, come!" Classic promptly teleported in, clutching Octavia's preferred musical instrument in his teeth. It had originally been just an ordinary cello, but as her skill with music had increased after over a century of practicing her hobby, she'd added a few functions. It was now more machine than wood, but the sound hadn't altered...and the new functions allowed her to play many instruments from the single machine if she played the notes right. "Classic, popcorn for the watchers!" Octavia ordered. Classic immediately began popping popcorn. Octavia took her cello and stood ready. "And...action!" Putting bow to string, she began to play. She was rather unsurprised that Zero immediately leapt to begin singing along. Hyenard immediately guided the dragon Mechanaloid to dive down on Axl, dropping the duplicates towards him as he rolled out of the way. A combination of fireballs and missiles barraged Axl from the duplicates, and he countered by blocking the fireballs with his shield and splitting the missiles down the middle with his beam saber. As Zero had told him, the drivers for the saber quickly adapted him to using it, and he was able to take down the two duplicates rather rapidly. Unfortunately, this just led to the dragon making another dive, unleashing a wave of fire that Axl was forced to evade as two more duplicates jumped down. Growling, Axl charged the duplicates as they dropped. Hurling his shield at the first, he leapt and kicked off it to grab hold of the dragon's claw, swinging himself upward to land on the waving tail before dashing up the back. The duplicates warped up to the dragon's back to join the primary Hyenard, and the trio started dashing around Axl in a circle, hurling fireballs at him. Axl leapt upward to evade, flipping over as he hurled the beam saber down. It unleashed a wave of water energy as it stuck in the dragon's back right between the wings, causing it to crash as the two duplicates dissipated. As Hyenard rolled away from the broken Mechanaloid, Axl pulled out his G Launcher and blasted one of Hyenard's arms off. As he fell back, howling in pain, Axl landed atop him, his Splash Laser aimed right at his head. Octavia stopped playing. Hyenard took a few shuddering breaths. "C...Can we do that again?" he gasped out eagerly. "O...on camera this time?" "Got it all on tape," X promised, putting down the camera no one had noticed him pulling out. "So...awesome..." Hyenard gasped out before fainting. Zero walked up and examined him. "Hmm...looks like this is just a viral program, rather than the actual Maverick Virus. Non-communicative, and can be overloaded with enough signal from the core persona. Doubt he'll be able to tell us anything useful, but he's clean now." "Then let's get home," Octavia demanded, coughing a bit. "I need a cold shower and a lozenge. That accent was hard on my throat."