As the group once more returned to HQ, they looked over the remaining two areas being attacked to determine where they should go next. "So...next up is either Central Circuit or the Cyber Field," X concluded. "Which should we hit next?"
"Central Circuit," Zero spoke up quickly before anyone could offer their opinions. "We should save the Cyber Field for last."
The others turned to look at him. "You just want to ride a Ride Chaser, don't you Uncle Zero?" Octavia deduced incisively.
Zero shrugged his shoulders. "While racing my new grand-nephew is certainly something I'm looking forward to, Iris is a Cyberspace specialist, and is working on a way to assist us in the Cyber Field. As such, I'd like to save it for last to give her as much time as possible to get it ready."
"Marriage has changed you, Uncle," Octavia mused softly. "You actually make plans now-"
"Besides, I wanna see if Axl has it in him to jump the Hudson!" Zero concluded eagerly.
"Bring it on!" Axl barked out excitedly.
"But not too much," X offered with a rueful sigh.
When the group warped into the Central Circuit, the four of them side by side on their Ride Chasers were able to cover the entire track, following the loops around to collect and disable the time bombs that had been placed there as well as evacuate the civilians, while the four Ride Chaser busters had enough combined power to blast away the obstacles in their paths. As such, a single lap was enough to rescue all civilians and disable all time bombs.
With that done, Axl suddenly swerved to the side of the road. "I gotta take this one myself!" he called out, before leaping off the Ride Chaser and off the track.
"Axl!" Octavia called out, swerving to a halt and rushing to see where he fell, the others close behind.
Down below, Axl came down with a flip, landing on the back of a boar-based Reploid that had been reconfigured to resemble a massive motorcycle. The Reploid immediately let out an angry bellow. "Get off me!" he roared, bucking and swerving.
"Not until you listen, Ride Boarski!" Axl snapped, grabbing hold of Boarski's ear/handlebars and hauling back.
"Oink-wa!" Boarski screeched out. "Axl! Red gave you a home, and this is how you repay him?"
"I'm saving him - and all of you - from what he's become!" Axl snarled, digging his heels in and trying to force Boarski to a halt.
"You killed Crowrang!" Boarski bellowed as he shifted to his Reploid form in an attempt to throw Axl off.
"He left me no choice!" Axl snapped back, shifting to brace himself against the top of Boarski's back, who reared like a bucking bronco.
"You sound just like a Hunter!" Boarski snarled in rage.
"Don't you remember?" Axl snapped out, throwing his weight forward to roll over Boarski's head, flipping him over to slam his back into the ground. "That's what we were trying to be! Hunters where the Hunters couldn't go, picking up the slack as the world got too big for them! That was our mission when I joined! When did that turn to hate and hunger for power?" Standing over Boarski, he stared right into his eyes. "What happened to you wanting to prove you were the best on the track, and outrun any villain to run them to the ground?"
Boarski glared up into Axl's eyes for a time, but eventually subsided. He refused to speak further. It was, however, enough to warp him back to the brig in Hunter HQ.
After a rather long and impassioned dressing down from Octavia about Axl's recklessness, the group made their way into the Cyber Field. Octavia once more took her place at the back of Axl's head, and didn't look like she was planning on moving any time soon.
The Cyber Field itself, as expected, was an area within Cyberspace, with the paths floating in the ether and hostile programs patrolling the links, taking on forms that resembled Reploids. Certain paths were blocked off by firewalls that only security programs could pass through. Other Reploids who had been caught in a Dive were scattered about, unable to evac out of the Cyber Field until the group got to them.
"You said Iris had something that would help us here?" X asked Zero curiously.
"Yup," Zero confirmed. "It should be downloading right about...now."
At that moment, every hostile program in the area immediately shut down.
"There we go," Zero confirmed. "Iris has a program built into her core circuits that lets her command data constructs within cyberspace. Normally, she has to initiate a full Dive in order to use it, but she's been experimenting in projecting it. Right now, it's an aura around the four of us that will put any hostile security program or firewall in our vicinity into stand by mode. As long as we don't attack them, they won't take any action."
"Effective," Octavia commented dryly. "This should make things go much smoother."
As Octavia predicted, as long as they kept their busters off they had no trouble making their way through. The only point of interest was when they encountered a fourth Light Capsule. "Fancy meeting you all here," the hologram mused as it activated. "X, this capsule contains the data for the Head Parts of the Glide Armor. While not defensively strong as others have been, it will draw in additional energy from your environment to replenish energy stores, allowing you to recover more readily on long missions.(1)" He then turned to Octavia. "With the complete armor program, you should now be able to activate Glide Mode on Varia, once this program is downloaded."
Smiling, X climbed into the capsule, downloading the last program and completing the Glide Armor. The armor was white and gold, in the style of old samurai armor, though slimmed down for speed. On Octavia, the armor pattern was the same, though it incorporated the wings of her Ult-Varia, turning the basic glide into full flight, for a period of time.
Before long, the group reached the final area of the Cyber Field, a round pillar they had to race up the side of to confront the 'Maverick'. He was a bright green humanoid-anteater Reploid. He stared down at the group, his large claws curling and uncurling as he watched their approach. "You four are even more impressive together than I expected," he mused. "I'm pleased, Axl. You've found your true family, and you are happy. Far be it for me to stand in the way of that."
"Snipe Anteator?" Axl asked confused. "What do you mean?"
"Quite simple," Anteator explained. "I know that I stand no chance against the four of you working together. I also know that within the influence of the program your present Navigator has forced into this Cyber Field, my actions cannot be remotely overwritten as 'the Professor' intended. I have also witnessed how you have worked so hard to save everyone who could be saved, and how much it has pained you that not everyone could be. As such...I surrender. Though I can't give you any information to assist you, I can wish you luck in saving Red...and all he stood for."
Axl stared for a time, then nodded. "Iris, five to beam out of the Dive."
"Roger," Iris replied readily, warping them out of Cyberspace.
(1) In the game, it contains an "item attracting force", but enemies don't drop items in this continuity. Had to tweak it as best I could.