8: Flames of Rage
With ice weapons available, the group decided that the Inferno disposal site would be the next best area to pursue, as it would prove useful in dealing with the increased heat of such an area. It was, after all, inside an active volcano and used to dispose of parts from dead Reploids that couldn't - or shouldn't - be reused, recycled, or left alone. While some referred to it as the 'Maverick Dump', its codename in the HQ was 'the Graveyard'.
As the group dropped into the vertical entrance, a descending spiral of floating platforms marked the path down, allowing them to swiftly make their way into the facility. There were very few Mechanaloids along the path, making the journey tedious rather than difficult. The only real hazard proved to be security lasers strong enough to punch right through their armor, but designed not to penetrate through the storage crates and platforms scattered around as they climbed downward.
At the bottom of that initial tunnel, they were able to make their way inward, through a few more tunnels and into a looping path with some spiked walls. At one point as they traversed, however, they were able to detect a Light Capsule, and made their way up and around to it to activate it.
As X came into range, the capsule opened, displaying the Light hologram. "X," the hologram began, "something has changed in you. You are has hopeful as before, but a new ruthlessness has become a part of your mind. Why have you decided to show no mercy to these Reploids?"
"Because they're a direct threat to Harpy, Puppy, Maka, and Shadow," X explained softly. "Alia and I went through too much to bring them into this world to let these Mavericks take that world away from them."
The Light hologram briefly burst into static, much as it had when it first encountered Axl. "You...you have...kids? ...how?"
"Gate," Zero explained. "He designed a system that let Reploid females conceive using human or Reploid DNA. Even though X and I aren't technically Reploids, Gate was able to shape the system so we could have kids with Alia and Iris, respectively. And as much of a handful little Omega is, I'm not letting these bastards take this world from him."
Static covered the holo display for a time. When the hologram reappeared, its eyes were steely. "These armors have been divided into parts and scattered, to protect the power they have in them, to leave it to you to decide how much power you feel you need to unleash on the world. But if your children are threatened, I am in full agreement that the only correct answer is 'all of it'. And these capsules are linked to my AI network. Step into this capsule, X, and take the power to tear these bastards limb from limb. While they won't be available until you equip them back at the base, choose wisely which parts to bring with you each mission." The hologram vanished.
X stepped into the capsule. Energy flashed over X repeatedly, and each time Varia intoned the new program data.
"Neutral Armor acquired. This Armor spec can equip parts of different armor suits to create different effects. Hermes Armor set acquired. Head part increases weapon charge speed, Buster part creates three way charge shot and charges special weapons, Foot part grants increased speed and invincible dashing, Body part negates damage from shots below a specific damage threshold. Complete set grants X-Drive, which greatly enhances sub-weapon output for as long as weapon energy lasts. Icarus armor set acquired. Head part creates a damaging field while jumping, Buster part charges a massive laser beam, Foot part increases jump height, Body part halves all incoming damage. Compete set grants Giga Crash, which unleashes a blast of destructive energy, the force of which directly proportionate to how much energy is stored."
X started to step out of the capsule, but Light's voice stopped him. "There is more," he spoke up. "Remain still. While these upgrades were perfected, their destructive capacity was such that I had not originally intended to give them to you. However, I will withhold nothing from you in your desire to protect your children. I will not make that mistake again."
Light continued to flare around X. Varia beeped more messages. "Ultimate Armor Mark 2 available. Grants Plasma charge shot, faster charge rating, and Nova Strike. Multiplies damage output of all systems by 20. ...Hadoken reactivated. Drivers combined with Skull Buster Charge program...Shinku Hadoken unlocked. Shoryuken reactivated. Drivers combined with Gold Chip programs...Shoryureppa unlocked."
X staggered out of the capsule as he and Octavia stared at each other, eyes wide.
"Axl," the Light hologram spoke up. "Step into this capsule. I have...accessed your original build schematics. If I scan your present structure, I should be able to give you a program that, once installed at HQ, will unlock your full potential."
Axl's eyes widened, and he stepped into the capsule.
"Yes," the Light hologram stated softly as light flowed around Axl, its voice for some reason sounding old and cranky. "Let me reach deep inside you, and touch you in ways no one ever has before, pulling out things you didn't even know you had..."
Frowning, Axl crossed his arms. "I'm not saying it," he growled flatly.
"Aw, you're no fun anymore!" the Light hologram complained, now sounding British.
As Axl stepped out of the capsule, Octavia clambered to his shoulders. "So, what does this new program do for you?" she asked as the capsule closed and shut down.
Axl checked the schematics in his head. "Hmm...looks like massively increased damage output, but slightly decreased armor...and maximized A-Trans energy reserves, letting me maintain a transformation indefinitely."
"Interesting trade off," Zero observed as the group continued through the facility.
Not far beyond, in what resembled a reactor room, the group was confronted by Vile himself. "Where did you take Lumine?" X demanded angrily.
"What makes you think I'm going to answer any questions?" Vile taunted as he hovered in front of them.
Zero stepped forward, his red armor turning white as he activated his Etheric Binary Core. "Because if you don't talk, I'll rip you apart and we'll just keep going until we can get the answers straight from Sigma."
Vile stared at the group for a time. "...bye." With no more than that, he warped out.
Zero powered down, letting his armor return to red. "CiCi, can you get to work on a portable teleport jammer? Something we can use to keep him from escaping next time?"
"Will do!" CiCi confirmed from the HQ. "We'll have something like that finished by the time you're back from dealing with Burn Rooster."
"Who?" X asked curiously.
"The only New-Gen Reploid that worked at the Inferno facility," CiCi explained. "I don't have any further data on him, though. But scans show he may be in the main magma control center."
"That sounds ominous," Octavia muttered softly.
After a long trip down yet another vertical tunnel, they came across Burn Rooster - an orange and purple rooster based humanoid Reploid with a flame comb at the top of his head - beating away at a device with strong kicks. As he turned to face them, X lowered his buster as all four switched to their ice weapons. "Burn Rooster!" he barked out. "This is your one and only chance. Your current objective has been dubbed Maverick as a threat to the world at large...and more specifically, to our children. You have one chance to surrender peacefully, or you will be terminated and left to find your tomb in this Graveyard."
"Is this your idea of justice?" Burn Rooster demanded angrily.
"No," Zero countered. "This is our idea of law. Justice comes if you surrender when you're put on trial for your crimes. There's a difference. I'd choose your next words carefully."
"You hypocrites!" Burn Rooster barked out. "You're the ones who should be scrapped-"
All four opened fire. X, Axl, and Octavia's ranged blasts locked Burn Rooster in place, allowing Zero to split him in half with his ice saber technique. With his destruction, they were able to download weapon data, but they weren't able to analyze it right away as the magma began to rise, the control system broken. They were able to rush out through the vertical tunnel, able to make it out before the magma reached them.
The weapon data was soon analyzed, granting Axl a flamethrower based weapon (the Flame Burner), X and Octavia the Melt Creeper that unleashed a wave of fire along the ground, and Zero the Enkoujin, a downward flame-based saber strike.
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Only one appropriate reaction for this:
NEVER! THREATEN! CHILDREN! no matter how indirectly IN! FRONT! OF! THEIR! PARENTS!
A bit of Vinyl obviously rubbed off onto Light and it came out all at once.
Time to die B&^%* Boys!
Yeah there's a difference between 'law' and 'justice'. Justice is what happens with more peaceful stuff like during X4 or something, this on the other hand is Law, straight and simple. You can't be a hypocrite if you know the difference between being a good guy and knowing what you must do...which is why I hate the 'Good Guy must never kill' cliche, cause seriously even if everyone says 'Hero's are on a moral high ground and must never kill' yet I see X and Zero, who are the Hero's kill in all there games and no one bats an eye...thank you Tats for making me vent a little problem I have with that and also the great chapter. Keep up the great work
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
...
...
Alright am I the only one who thinks the Light AI was a little too eager for X and company to tear the Mavericks apart?
7742358
Are you sure there isn't at least one more?
it's voice for some reason sounding old
1. Its.
Despite the earlier tension Axl had a real touching moment with Dr. Light.
If Vile didn't turn white when he encountered our heroes Zero certainly did.
Burn Rooster wanted to make a statement but he was clearly cock blocked.
X now gets the Shoryureppa?
I wonder which part of the team would be best suited for a Raging Demon. Maybe Zero.
7742393 ...
You DID read the sister-story to this one, right?
All the way to the end?
Are you REALLY surprised that the Light Capsule network, created by Dr. Light during an intense period of grief over his recent loss alongside a brain-upload into AI, would go full-on "Destroy every threat that exists to those you love." Really?
If so, you haven't been paying attention.
I wonder how much the effect of loosing Rock has clouded Dr. Light's judgement here. I understand that X and Zero have a point but they could end up going down a very dark path.
7742435
He's trusting in Octavia to keep them under control.
7742431
So the AI's solution is to give the robot who's mental state right now is "if it is a threat destroy it" several weapons of mass destruction that could possibly put a nuke to shame?
If that was the case then why didn't the AI give him those upgrades when Octavia started speaking? You know... The pony X considers his daughter?
Well, I think I shall let this clip speak for me concerning the uber-grades.
Here's hoping that the final battle will be epic, tough, and rich with EXPLOSIONS!!!
Or I could really use some sleep... Probably sleep. More explosions while sleeping... Night folks.
7742457
Because said upgrades didn't exist at that point.
Also, because by the time they first made contact with the AI, Octavia already had her own armor and could take care of herself.
Whelp Vile just noped out there like his life was one the line oh wait it was.
Axl needs an adult,
LIght hologram: I am an adult!
Dr. Light is the quintessential badass grandpa here.
HA! Nice job Axl.
Smart man. Reploid, whatever.
7742387 I totally agree with you, though the group will after this is over will need to find some way to calm down a little before they start going overboard. They are not at that point yet but if things keep pushing them you never know.
The legacy of the murder of his son.
7742457
Please note:
Tsar II ~ 1200 mi. explosion radius
H-bomb ~ 60 mi. explosion radius
A-bomb ~ 3.5 mi. explosion radius
7742722
Well I normally don't get this into theories or make them as through as I have thought of this one, but...
Yes...
The weaponry Tats gave X makes a cluster nuke like the one you described look pathetic by comparison...
like... comparing a BB gun to the death star.
Remember that X's ultimate abilities are suppose to be a counter to Zero's ether form, almost like a check just in case one of them goes off the deep end. Tats explained when Zero first acquired the form and the bass cannon when he used it against sigma that the only reason that it didn't blow a hole through the moon was because it wasn't in the line of fire.
The diameter of the moon is approximately 2159 miles not even counting the width of the blast of the bass cannon it has already beat the cluster nuke you proposed which has an area blast of 1904 miles according to your calculations, but let's take it further.
The distance between the earth and the moon is 238,900 miles which we can assume could keep going until it hits something. If you want to play the card that it is space and thus will keep going until it hits something due to the fact that space is empty then it would still have to travel through earth's atmosphere, and let's be generous and say the path was of the least resistance, that would still be about 62 miles of atmosphere the blast would have to work through and then factor in the moon's diameter along side that.
Keep in mind that this was A SINGLE SHOT... something that Tat's confirmed Zero could fire off hundreds if not thousands of in a blog...
Now then... X's ultimate abilities have enough strength to match this destructive capabilities for a short time...
Yeah... BB gun... meet the Death Star. Need I go further?
Honestly I thought Burn Rooster was one of the Mavericks who were salvageable from the beginning of this story.
Still we have a few more, Vile, Sigma and Lumine before we start to see a happy ending. Hopefully Command Mission will end happier as well.
7742836
Actually, all the Mavericks of X8 are Next Gen Reploids...so from the start, they're part of Lumine's plan.
7742783
...may I remind everyone that haven't even heard of mega man x before reading this story...
keep going, you might be able to provoke me into playing that game.
7742869 Wow... I don't mean to insult, but have you been living under a rock?
Remember that message I gave someone in a previous chapter? Regarding any further armor upgrades as pretty much pointless?
Well, I'm eating those words now. I still think it's overkill, but I'd rather they have overkill than not enough power.
And Light. I'm beginning to suspect something's going on with him. The way he keeps glitching out when he would normally be feeling strong emotions... that can't be healthy for his core programming.
Are we seeing the rise of Melody of the Future's final boss?
7742632 They have their family. That is the main thing that'll keep them happy enough since this is the main reason why their killing these mavericks that just said 'fuck you!' instead of helping them...albeit they aren't as 'corrupted' as before so there's that.
7743110 Well I think the first time he glitches was like 'HOLY SHIT X AND ZERO HAVE KIDS!?! ER MAH GERD THIS IS THE BEST!' the second time it glitches could be because he's having an inner conflict with himself about 'should I show him what I know?' but it's kind of like how Vinyl and Wily appeared in one of the capsules, it's just one of those things. But it wouldn't be surprising if that glitchy stuff happened to be the final boss or something cause that seems a tad dumb.
7743216
This, really, is the core reason here. If we look back through Melody of the Future, all of the reploids that they terminated with prejudice were in a similar vein with Vile and all of these New-Gen reploids so far: They are still in full possession of their senses and have made a deliberate choice. These mavericks are not reprogrammed, they are not suffering under mind control or some computer virus, and they have not simply been tricked. These mavericks are fully on board with Sigma and Vile and their plan.
7743474 Yep, exactly. These one's are just 'Oh hey Sigma hates how literally everything he first envisioned became a reality? So do we!' and then it spiraled down hill for this arc. While the rest of the series was Sigma either manipulating them through the virus or some other means of mind control, exactly how you stated
7742965
Mostly yeah...
This is Vile
cdn.meme.am/cache/instances/folder754/500x/63874754.jpg
7742783 I think calling zero "Death Star" is kinda underselling it... zero is more along the lines of the solar system killing battleship the designer of the Death Star built, captured Han Solo with, and then shanghi'd into piloting... yes, that *was* a thing in Star Wars cannon
Loved the parts with Axl and Vile
But damn, this was just nothing short of a Papa Wolf moment for X and Xero, and a Mama Wolf moment for Octavia, if it counts.
you can never have to many explosives
You know... with our heroes in this mind set... I kind of wish Sigma had ALL his previous battle bodies so we could watch our heroes tear through all of them. Especially if X is using the Ultimate Armor 2.0
And Vile... I guess your new green color scheme comes from your Dr. Doppler built body being blue and how much of a yellow bellied coward you are. For appropriate taunting, I suggest X, Zero, and Axl do the Chicken Dance next time to try to goad him into a rage fueled attack Octavia can use as an opening to disable him if the Teleport Blocker isn't ready when he shows up.
Oh dear.. Grandpa Light is pissed.. and is now in Grandpapa Bear mode.. woe those who attempt to threaten his Grand kids
I wonder if Vinyl will have upgrades for 'Tavi?
Wow...Grandpapa Wolf Light is scary.
FLAMING COCK: SANITIZED.
7744338
For tavi, the appropriate trope would be Mama Bear.
7747645 Yeah, I messed up on that one. Meant to type bear.
I hate it when people put KFC in the freezer. How are you supposed to cut it the next day?!
Seems Tatsouru agrees...?
Dr. Light hologram is a SAVAGE! They're all savages! ...though this guy deserved it.
#dicksoutforavalancheyeti
Dang, that was pretty much the whole Toy Box, wasn't it.
I will, though!
Well Sigma and Vile are screwed.
...
....
..... *Sigh* Look. I get that a big part of these stories is that you've got daddy issues, so you want to live out a fantasy where your parental figures are there to protect you whenever you're at risk of a fate worse than death.
But that shouldn't come at the cost of making X into the monster that got his spin-off show canned before it had a chance (that and spelling his name "Cigma").
Say, remember when Prometheus said that all the capsules were a neural scan of Light's brain only a few days after the disaster happened, so his reasoning might be off by a hair?... I don't.
Fuck. OFF.
You do NOT put our heroes through a path of moral ambiguity, and then subject us to your TFS boner five seconds later. That is tonal dissonance, it's not funny to begin with, and I will not be privy to it.
{Vile: Yeah... I'm not impressed.
Zero: What?
Vile: You think that just because you have some bullshit power you didn't earn, that it'll make me quake in my boots, praying to the Makers above and the Makers below that you'll spare me my oh-so-pitiable life? Don't make me laugh. I rose from the depths twice to see you and X pay for the humiliation you gave unto me, and I will return a thousand more times until nothing remains of you. I have nothing to fear, because I'm hear to do what I was reborn for!}
{Vile: Fuck you, story version of me!}
You do realize that courage is when you do something when you're at your most afraid, right? This farce of a fight where the SSSSSSSSS-tier "good guys" gang up on the C-Rank villain is nothing short of cowardice.
Why deal with a problem when you can blindly snuff it out? Have you learned nothing from the End Times...?
HA!
Remember when I used that reference? 
And oof. I think Grandpa Light made the party a tad OP. I have a feeling the next 'boss battles' are going to be a bit short...
honestly this whole scene should make me think of the mavericks as pawns... but every single one of them is doing CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE and planing to wipe the earth of ALL LIFE, people like that ain't gonna be easy to talk down, and their all ZELLOTS to the idea of the new gen reploids being superior to all others.