Soldier Stonekong regained consciousness after the teleport back to Hunter Base. However, rather than once more trying to fight, he gracefully surrendered, accepting his defeat. Since he was willing to cooperate, he was placed in an unlocked cell and told to remain until the crisis was resolved. He also offered a piece of information that was quite useful to the group.
"The reason you can't get in contact with anyone beyond the city is because Tornado Tonion has taken over the primary communications hub radio tower," Stonekong explained. "He is redirecting any messages that try to enter or leave the area to make it look like there's interference elsewhere. If you disable him, you'll be able to get in contact with them again."
Octavia nodded in response to this information. "Thank you for telling us, Stonekong. This goes beyond what the terms of the duel demanded of you, and we are grateful."
Stonekong simply shrugged in response. "Just because you are grown does not mean you are any less a child, and no child should be so forcefully separated from their parent." Taking his seat in his cell, he lay back and entered deep meditation.
"Looks like we know where we're going next," Octavia told Axl. She then hesitated, noticing his expression of ecstatic glee. "Are...are you alright Axl?"
"I'm gonna get to meet X and Zero!" Axl squealed happily. "This is so awesome!"
Octavia promptly facehoofed.
As Axl and Octavia warped into the base of the tower, they found that it had been redesigned. A spiral path slowly led upward against the outer wall, with the entire center of the tower straight up and down filled with a giant Mechanaloid. "That's new," Octavia murmured softly.
"I've got a bead on it," Axl murmured, his eyes focused. "If we keep going up, I should be able to get a lock on vulnerable points."
"Hopefully before it starts attacking us," Octavia murmured, gripping tight as Axl dashed forward.
The crab legged Mechanaloid did target them as they raced upward, but it only attacked at first by hurling spiked, spinning disks at the pair, which they were able to evade by moving forward, staying ahead of where they were falling to as they only rolled downhill. Eventually, it also started firing homing rockets that followed them up the slope, but they were slow moving, slow enough for Axl to outrun even as he evaced the civilians they came across.
Once they were high enough, the Mechanaloid started launching fireballs at them from the front of its head as it spun on its swivel waist to track them, though the fireballs were just slow enough for Axl to roll out of the way before it impacted. A bigger danger than the ordinance being launched at the pair proved to be debris on the path itself, which sometimes threw off Axl's rhythm enough that they almost took a hit. This, compounded by the Mechanaloid starting to launch its arms at them like drills, made the last stretch of spiral path very exciting.
Eventually, they reached a circular platform surrounding the Mechanaloid at head height. At that point, Axl's sensors beeped him an alert. "I've got it!" Axl proclaimed happily.
"Its weak point is its head?" Octavia asked flatly.
Axl blinked. "Uh...yeah."
"Color me shocked," Octavia offered flatly, hopping off his shoulders. "Let's give it two targets to worry about."
"Alternatively, one of us could focus on dealing with what it shoots at us, while the other focuses on destroying it," Axl suggested. "You'd have an ideal position for the second part from my shoulders."
Octavia blinked up at him. "I...suppose it would," she admitted, hopping back up to his shoulders. "I don't know whether to be more surprised that you had a better strategy than I, or that it involved keeping me on your shoulders."
Axl lifted his hands, shrugging without moving his shoulders. "What can I say? I've gotten used to having you up there."
Octavia couldn't help but chuckle. "Good boy," she offered playfully, rubbing the crystal in his helm as though petting him.
The strategy worked excessively well, with the only hurdle coming when the Mechanaloid withdrew its head into a massive shell and extended sweeping blades that spun around over the platform. Being the only attack they hadn't seen yet, they were caught off guard and took a couple hits before they recognized the pattern.
Before long, the Mechanaloid had taken enough damage to begin collapsing, explosions erupting from within its systems as it broke into bits. "Now where to?" Axl asked curiously.
Octavia pointed. "There's another spiraling path over there," she indicated.
Axl sighed ruefully. "Well, at least it's not stairs..."
The path proved to be much the same as the first spiral upward, save the obstacles. Instead of a massive Mechanaloid coming after them, there were numerous drones and turrets along the path, and several gaps that dropped all the way to the ground far below. Through careful maneuvering, the pair were able to make it all the way up, evacing all the civilians they encountered along the way, the only problem being the larger gaps further up that could only be crossed via platforms that appeared and disappeared, seemingly with no discernible pattern. Thankfully, those gaps dropped them directly onto parts of the path they'd climbed up below, letting them quickly regain height if they missed a jump, rather than falling to their deaths.
Once at the top, they came across Tornado Tonion himself. He proved to have an onion shaped brown body with thin green legs and massive green hands connected by energy tendrils. His head was also green, and came to a sharp point. As he caught sight of the pair, he seemed...entertained?
"Yah! Yah! You grow up handsome boy, Axl?" Tonion proclaimed, bouncing and dancing back and forth. "And Octavia grow up pretty filly! But I handsome too!"
"Is...is he right in the head?" Octavia asked Axl worriedly.
"He's a few sandwiches short of a picnic lunch-" Axl began.
"-but I have plenty of cake!" Tonion finished as he did a pirouette. "Oh ho ho!"
"-but he's alright," Axl concluded, rolling his eyes. "Not a mean bone in his body, really. So I don't get why-"
"Professor make changes!" Tonion proclaimed. "Red want answers, but get something more! Bad Professor, bad! But now we're bad too!"
"Professor?" Octavia asked incisively, pleased to finally be getting a clue.
"Oops, did I say that out loud?" Tonion asked, still seeming distracted. "Can't stop, can't stop believing!"
Axl frowned. "Okay...not sure what to do now..."
"Make him bloom?" Octavia suggested. "I'm kinda hungry."
"I surrender!"(1) Tonion immediately cried out, falling to his knees.
"...that was easy," Axl mused.
(1) I hadn't originally intended to eliminate this fight. I had every intention of actually writing out Axl and Octavia fighting this guy.
...then I actually watched the fight. Sheesh, is it even possible to lose to this guy other than deliberately? Zero using the weapon from Stonekong, just keep it charged and let him run into you to take out half his health, then just stay in the air with Axl while shooting the regular buster. Yeah, nothing there worth delving into...
This boss fight is really disappointing.
Having not played most of the MMX games, I googled this boss to see exactly what he looked like, and without thinking I moused over a link to see who "the professor" is.
I was not surprised. Not one iota.
It was seeing this design that made me wonder just what stuff the design team was smoking when they came up with the Mavericks for this game.
Still, can't wait to see X and Zero's opinions on Axl and how he's working with Octavia. But will some poor idiot have to face all four of them at once???
Tatsu you don't know the Broadband? You disapoint!
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To be fair no one is surprised by that, by this point everyone knows it's him. Though considering Command mission and X8 are coming up at least the formula is changed up somewhat as he is not involved in the former while the latter is somebody else pulling the strings.
The moment I saw the chapter title, I knew exactly who was next Much like Soldier Stonekong, Tornado Tonion is easy, and is rather funny with his dialogue and voice.
Yes, there had been the popular complaint of the game's English dub, but I liked it anyways. Especially Sigma's voice.
The ending was hilarious
Oh hey, it's that song my taekwondo instructor tortured us with.
So... what, millennials have gotten so bad that they've forgotten how transportation works? You mean no one can just ride there (land/sea/air) and say "Hey, I know this is your Double Honeymoon and all, but Red Alert's trying to recreate that Asspen episode of South Park. Yup, they came up with a 'Stan Darsh' song and everything."?
...
{Tatsurou: What, you're not going to say anything?}
Let the kid have his dream.
I dunno, you said the same thing about Skull Man, but lo and behold, he's become a recurring character for some reason. You could just as well have given Tonion something different like you sometimes do with certain characters; another ability, a maneuver that counters his obvious weaknesses, the sky's the limit. Besides, if there truly isn't any use in facilitating a battle between the three, then every maverick with Spark Mandrill Syndrome would have no business even attempting to put up a fight in your stories.
I'm not sure if it's intentional, but to me he rather sounds a lot like Rolf, the Son of the Shepherd.
7600692 It actually took me a minute to figure out what you meant. At first I was thinking, "Shepard? As far as I know, Shepard didn't have any kids." And then a circuit fired, and oh man the memories! I miss Ed, Edd, and Eddy. The original cartoon, not that weird high school gimmick.
In my mind and in my car, we cant rewind weve gone to far!!
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
This was a nice chapter and good to see that the Boss and the common sense to know when to fold'em. Plus the chapter title was awesome!
Might give you some red blush as well then you'll truly be shocking.
I'm pretty sure no one cried over at how Tornado Tonion was defeated.
Least their journey didn't spiral downhill too bad.
*shocked = yellow
Tonion has a quick kill strat that takes about 20 seconds to 100-0 him. >.>
Professor? Hello Isoc.
Well then, looks like my eldritch possession theory just took a hit, but it's not sunk yet.
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Real One: You mean it's...Sigma? Can that even be a spoiler? After so many MMX games?
Somepony please knock that crazy guy out, I think my loco meter is about to break!
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The Broadband parody video is a tad outdated but it fits Megaman X way more than the original one does.
Yeah, I think Tonion, his battle and his stage were meant to be the one you take first, since they're fairly easy.
Oh well; next is Water Boy, and then after him... OHHHHHHHHHH BOYYYYYYYYYYY~!
I don't think Tornado Tonion is crazy; his genius is so layered it knows no bounds!
EDIT: Tonion likes cakes.
actually how this fight ended sounds better because think about it would you want to fight someone trying to eat you ?
Hahaha LOL
Quick someone call staples
honestly the fact tornado tonion just gives up without a fight probably means the only reason he got picked was to keep the rest out of the way, that and he probably doesn't really have combat powers, thus explaining his horrible fight.
Any idea why he was counted as a maverick in the first place?