7: Bright You Now
At the top of the craft, they found the Maverick they were there to fight hovering above the ship. He was an avian based Reploid, with bright orange armor plates on the limbs of a dark green body. He had talons in place of feet, and a flat beak under his sharp eyes. Wings too small for his body showed that his flight was more based in his tech than physics. Green feathers also sprung out of both arms, along with tail feathers.
"Wind Crowrang," Axl identified him as they were noticed.
"Axl," Crowrang responded as he flapped over to where he could speak more easily. He then smirked at the sight of Axl's passenger. "Nice hood."
Axl rolled his eyes. "This isn't like you, being cooped up like this. Figured you'd fly straight at me full force."
Crowrang smirked down at him. "So you're never coming back, then?"
"You know my answer to that," Axl replied sadly as he gripped his guns.
Crowrang chuckled. "You never change, do you?" He then let out an avian cry as he shot away into the air.
"He doesn't seem to be behaving like some randomly captured Maverick," Octavia observed. "The way you two talked, I thought you were comrades."
"A...little of both," Axl admitted sadly. "If Red Alert captured a Maverick without having to decommission them, then we worked to retrain them. Either find the cause of their Maverick behavior and correct it, or find a way to channel that behavior constructively. Wind Crowrang is one of the ones we'd almost managed to fully retrain...and was about to be added to our active rosters before Red changed."
"That's actually the goal of the Maverick Hunters," Octavia pointed out as she tracked Crowrang's flight. "Killing is only done if there is no other option. Live capture is much preferred."
"That's why Red Alert did it that way," Axl mumbled sadly. "We were just trying to pick up the slack..."
With a shout, Crowrang began launching energy blades at the pair. Axl dashed back and forth to evade, letting the blades embed themselves in the top of the craft to fade away. Lifting his guns, he locked onto Crowrang and began to fire.
"Can you track his shield energy?" Octavia asked softly, shooting her own blasts at Crowrang.
"Yeah," Axl confirmed. "Why?"
"Let me know when he's just above 50%," Octavia replied simply. "Until then, keep shooting."
Nodding, Axl kept shooting until Crowrang flew up out of range of his lock on. The Maverick quickly came back down on the ship itself, spinning as he attempted to slash at the pair. By bracing himself on the ship, he was able to deflect their shots with his energy feather blades, making it more difficult to damage him. He attempted a few dashing strikes, but Axl managed to evade them easily.
Eventually, he pulled back to the distance, firing off homing missiles in an attempt to strike the pair, but Octavia blasted them out of the air while Axl focused on firing on Wing Crowrang. Before long, Axl spoke up. "Okay, he's just about halfway down."
"Good," Octavia replied, and Axl felt something shift on his shoulders. "Next time he gets close, throw me at him."
"What?" Axl asked, shocked. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Octavia confirmed. "I'm only going to get one shot at this, and I want it to work perfectly. Stop shooting for now."
Axl did as bid, holstering his guns and continuing to dodge. When Crowrang next dove at them, Axl dashed away, grabbed Octavia, and threw her.
Octavia, for her part, had activated Varia's Ultimate Armor functions, and used the throw as a launch point for her Nova Strike, slamming bodily into Wind Crowrang horn spear first, cracking his armor and knocking pieces away, one of which actually landing in his hand as he stared. Crowrang, for his part, fell backwards, his armor broken, his shield spent, and only a hit or two away from a plasma core breach.
"Wind Crowrang," Octavia stated bluntly, "you are under arrest. Surrender peacefully, and you will be repaired and retrianed to reenter society-urk!"
Crowrang apparently was having none of that, as he'd reached down and grabbed Octavia around her throat. "You shouldn't have gotten so close to me, Hunter!" he proclaimed as he winged off.
"Crowrang!" Axl called out angrily. "Don't you hurt her!"
"And how will you stop me, Axl?" Crowrang shouted out. Turning, he started to fly away. "I'm sure Red will be happy to have an S Rank Hunter as a priso-"
A blaze of light cut off Crowrang's words...and then an identical Crowrang slammed into him from behind talons first, digging into his armored body and pulling his torso apart.
Crowrang jerked as he dropped Octavia, only for the new Crowrang to catch her and drop Crowrang. Wing looked up at the one who'd broken him. "Heh...that one was wrong...you do have it in you..." As the broken body fell, Crowrang flapped his wing, guiding himself into the craft's engine, tearing his body apart as the explosion crashed the craft.
The Crowrang now holding Octavia flew back to the next nearest craft. When it landed, it flashed with light...and turned into Axl. "Are you alright, Octavia?" he asked worriedly, tears pouring down his cheeks as he determinedly looked away from the crash.
Octavia nodded slowly. "Yes...but I begin to see why Red Alert is so desperate to get you back. How did you do that?"
Axl shrugged. "I don't know how it works. But, if I have a piece of RDNA, or have a sample analyzed in my databanks, I can...turn into the Reploid, complete with abilities." He held up the chunk of Crowrang that had broken off when Octavia'd charged the Maverick. "It's not perfect. Unless it's a Reploid or drone the same size and basic shape as me, I can only take the shape for a few moments. It's...why I didn't have time to try and save Crowrang there. It does let me download an alt-form for my guns, though." He glanced away, not wanting to think about it.
Octavia gently patted his cheek. "Let's go home," she offered softly. At his startled look, she put her hoof to her ear. "CiCi, two to return to HQ."
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...So Axl is basically a Ditto... Good to know.
Poor kid. Definitely seeing a lot of the original Megaman in him.
Maverick Hunters,"Octavia pointed out
1. Forgot your spacing.
This is a bittersweet chapter, so no puns here.
7562574 0///0 uh...well then, not entirely sure if joke but when it's running with the story it just makes it worrying.
You knew this was coming.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/2/8/1083478__safe_smiling_animated_open+mouth_crying_bipedal_spread+wings_shining+armor_flying_tear.gif
Oh no, Octavia's in trouble!...
PEEERRRFEECT...
Well, I guess you could say it began in the first Mega Man game where "Copy Robots" were introduced, able to mimic the appearance, personality, and abilities of the target. Someone with a penchant for history lessons could've acquired this technology and applied it to an individual with his own identity and mindset. However, since that idea was scrapped in favor of technology made by infants from scratch, it's because "making the baby is the fun part".
static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/robots-2005/large_rzaz2GLQKtpfaRuVA3gbSugWFq.jpg
Wait, the red one's played by Robin Williams? Huh, so that explains why I watched it so many times when I was younger.
FAST BALL SPECIAL!!!!
I think Octavia should take a few moments to let Axl rub her ears to regain his center. He took a life to save a life, that's really eating at him and fuzzy therapy is a good counter.
That's a shame. I wonder who's next.
Vanishing Gungaroo? Ride Boarski?
...Flame Hyenard?
7562499
Shh! Spoilers!!
Another enjoyable chapter. Well done.
Nice reveal on Axl's special ability. And I JUST got the references that the title of this chapter and the previous chapter are from. They are references to the opening theme song lyrics of the anime G Gundam.
7562786 I wonder if that last thing is really a thing or not... It would make sense to have troops come home and take care of a kitten or puppy for a while to destress from active service. Any one who bad mouths them will quickly find out why gentle giants are still respected members of society.
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Nuf said.
7563792
7563633 It's real just not as widespread as an "effective method". Psychiatrists/cologists/therapists are all rather wary of anything that can't be proven as is any scientist.
7564290 Fair enough. Plus, it probably has a low success/failure rate.
Classic alicorn wife toss! But I thought the only person allowed to toss an alicorn was their...
Oh my. Could this be the prelude to some shipping?
7564299 Small sample sizes tend to do that. Plus certain events could be associated with various animals leading to more problems
I was wondering how you were going to reveal Axl'so A-Trans ability...and you did not disappoint!
7563633 Well, there are therapy dogs that come through the airport I work at and I know I always feel better when they come by and I manage to get in a ear scratch or some petting.
Yeah Axl is Ditto Reploid.
7562492 More like Mimikyu. Still awesome, though.
img11.deviantart.net/ec1e/i/2016/211/0/8/pokemon__mimikyu_by_thepandaboxandy-daby1i9.jpg
with how axl's powers work, he may very well surpass even x and zero in power eventually, like dude can copy ANY reploid...