Combo Bucket of An Axl Stories

[Professor Fann]

That's right. This thread is the gigantic, new startover and fresh, combo delicious bucket for my previous famous works - the An Axl Story series!

Firstly, a heads-up is that since after EraS has collapsed, and even now Ciel Network's Code Crush, the first site to ever host my fanfictions, has also crashed, as told by a friend, I guess that Zero Virus will be the only forums in the entire Internet to host my fanfictions.

So, I'm going to post the FIRST SERIES series chapters first, and then followed by the CONTINUATION series and then the EXISTPEACE series. While I'm quite content with this thre now, rumours going on in my head is that I'm planning out another THREE more An Axl Story series, to make the entire sage of Axl after the X8 game complete.

But ... that cannot be confirmed at this present point of time.

So therefore, I give to you firstly, AN AXL STORY FIRST SERIES, and it begins now. Thank you all and enjoy the story as things develop on their thread.


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For plot-wise clarification, please take note that this first chapter begins about 3 to 5 hours after Lumine's defeat on the Moon and more specifically, Axl's ending (that glowing purple shard in his head) of the Megaman X8 game, if anyone remembers.

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This is my first-ever fanfic written. I hope that whosoever who reads it will enjoy the story. This story is based on several Megaman X games and provides alternatives to whatever mysteries in the game unsolved. This fanfic is not intended to hurt anyone’s interests, only for enjoyment. This fanfic was inspired solely by myself, without the influence of others. All X series-related characters belong to Capcom and created by Japan’s Keiji Inafune, unless of which the reader is unfamiliar with.
-Written by M’siaFanWriter

An Axl Story First Series


Chapter One: Takeover


In the year 21XX AD, rebellious Reploids caused the human population to try migrating to the Moon for security. However Maverick Hunters X, Zero, Axl and friends put such activities to an end, simply by defeating Sigma and for the first time, Lumine. This marked the end of the so-called “new world” ideology. This happens when the government realised their stupidity of migrating to the Moon just to escape such rebellions. Peace can only be achieved by Earth’s proper being only.

Under the lead of the Prez Corp., the major investor of many social projects in the Federation, many companies demanded a ban to manufacturing new Reploids with ability to copy Reploids’ data. The Jakob Tower (the Orbital Elevator) and any facilities on the Moon were subjected to massive dismantling. Funds were instead used for improving the world’s terrible conditions. Thanks to Prez Corp’s marvellous contribution to technology, the Sigma virus was successfully eradicated around the world and any further attempts to recreate copy abilities in new Reploids were banned.

Back in the gigantic Hunters HQ, things were better, since there were less rebellions and sabotages. A sullen-looking Signas was walking with briefcases away from the HQ because he was fired by an overwhelming majority no-confidence vote and was replaced by X. However this wasn’t the case for Maverick Hunter Axl.

Axl had been in an unconscious state only for a day since a giant tentacle erupted from Lumine and shattered his head gem. There was a rumour that Axl had been infected with a virus from Lumine, just like the way Sigma was originally infected from Zero years ago. That has yet to be confirmed by Hunters scientists.

Outside the observation room, X and counterpart Alia watched a silent, sleeping Axl in the maintenance capsule. Since Axl’s acceptance as a Hunter, X has been constantly worried for Axl’s welfare. Watching an anxious X walking back and forth, Alia tries to calm him down.

“Aw come on X. Axl will probably be okay in a couple of hours or so. Then he’ll be active again on duty.” said Alia.

“No, this is not okay! A new virus program might even take over Axl and use it for rebellious purposes. Peace has finally stepped in the world and who knows, Axl’s body may be a source of outbreak!” X replied back. Alia could only sigh.

Meanwhile, in the capsule, an undetected data soul starts to activate itself and respond to its host.

In the computer brain of Axl, Axl wakes up and gets up, only to find himself surrounded by pitch-black darkness with various shapes of data flowing endlessly without any direction.

“Oh… where am I? Why can’t I open my eyes?” Axl groaned.

“That’s easy. Your physical mechanisms are temporarily inactive but your subconscious just started to be active. Good day, Axl.” A cold familiar voice replied behind him. Axl was shocked. “It can’t be!”

Axl turned around. A very familiar projection of a Reploid in white armour, a pile of purple hair covering the right eye and extended purple hair back of his hair, was standing a few feet away from Axl. It was Lumine.

“YOU!! The Director of Jakob we were supposed to protect!!” Axl yelled.

“EX-Director. If I am not mistaken, the government and other investors would have withdrawn from Jakob and started tearing it apart and I am fired. Why so tense, Axl? Can’t stand the leader of new generation Reploids?” Lumine taunted coldly.

“How in the world did you get here? In my head?” Axl yelled again.

“Well, I’d say that my data soul transfer program was successful. I have been electronically transferred to another Reploid that share the same structure and internal coding like me. It doesn’t have to be a head gem. As long as the tentacles get contact with the slightest electronic component, I can be transferred. Permanently.” Lumine sneered back.

An evil smile became an evil sulk when Lumine suddenly pounded on Axl onto the floor in the pitch-black space. Lumine released a bright red glare of light that caused Axl to scream all he could, under the boots of a Maverick.

“Aaaahhhhhh!! What are you doing?! Aaaahh! The pain!!” Axl painfully asked.

“Silly Axl. I’m taking over your control mechanisms. Then I will bust out of this place, wherever we are now, to further the rebellion against the old world!!” A cruel-looking Lumine said through sickening smiles.

Outside the maintenance capsule, shielded by a layer of thick glass, scientists busily pressed buttons and levers to try to calm down the turbulent shaking of the capsule. Jerky movements of an Axl in critical conditions shook the capsule heavily.

“Commander X, the subject is being taken over by an unknown program! It appears to be highly-rebellious and vies for control of subject’s body!”

“This isn’t good! With the subject’s abilities, the program attacking will permanently disable any means of communications we have!”

X and Alia lean on the thick layer of glass and watch the shaking increase more violently. Certain cracks were noticed on the capsule as violent hand movements hit harder and harder to break free of any locks.

“Axl! Put yourself together! Fight the program!” X yelled.

“Don’t give up! Come on!” Alia joined in the support call.

An extremely worried Zero barged into the laboratory. “What’s going on?”

“We don’t know for sure. Something is horribly wrong with Axl’s control systems!” Alia replied back, fixed on the violent capsule.

“Axl! Be strong!” Zero screamed all he could.

In Axl’s computer brain, the pain continued on Axl. Lumine who had his eyes shut, blinked them open. He looked at the poor suffering Axl.

“Hm. I am close to taking over your control mechanisms. Next is to make my physical features appear on this body and wake up.” Lumine sneered.

That sparked direct opposition from Axl against the now-powerful Lumine.

“Lumine, NO! You’re bring yourself terrible death!” Axl yelled out.

That instantly got Lumine’s attention. “Oh? And why should I not continue any further?” He asked back while outside, Axl’s appearance has begun to change.

“You have my assurance that X and Zero will do anything just to stop you from your nefarious ideals, even if it means blasting and slashing me to pieces!” Axl replied confidently. The pain decreased.

“That is not possible. You do realise I am having your body and life hostage, don’t you? They wouldn’t dare to take your life so easily.” Lumine countered.

“But, they can retrieve my brain back. It’s so hard, it can be scanned and my data soul, if that is what you call it, is retrieved in a new body. YOU will be discarded as trash by virus-resistant technology in the labs.” Axl said through gritted teeth.

“But I am not a virus, dear boy.” Lumine said.

“But you have the ability to spread to other electronic components, don’t you? The new Prez Corp technology will stop even that.” Axl said.

“Where did you get this information?” Lumine asked.

“X told me while you were ‘kidnapped’. Recently created technology to brain cleanse a corrupted data soul while recycling the body, creating a new personality.’

Lumine halted his waves of control-grasping moves and lifted his boot away from Axl’s head. Axl took relief while Lumine seemed to be taking second thoughts about his plans in near future. He then gazed on Axl.

“Alright. I’ll spare you for the meantime, only because you convinced me so. I will remain in standby, watching your every move. I will occasionally pop up to taunt you. BUT should you or anything else reveal my existence here, I assure you I will not hesitate to cause any trouble.” With that he disappeared and Axl got his control back.

Axl opened his eyes. His looks are now exactly the Axl he should look like. His status became normal but the scientists couldn’t trace the unknown program. But that didn’t matter. X and friends went in to embrace a weak Axl and sent him to the resting chamber where hunters rest. Axl wondered how he was to deal with his parasite in the future, just before he was handcuffed and slept.



Continued in Chapter 2


Notes:
Orbital Elevator has got to have some investors, right? Data soul is just a term I made to show that personalities could be transferred or downloaded into computer systems. A computer brain is another term made to show where the data souls reside, quite same as subconscious. Axl’s form can change because he has the copy ability thing. New era, new technology; anything is possible; to stop a virus from spreading without firewall use is possible.






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Well, I wrote this story WAY BACK in November 2004, so please excuse me if my story telling hugely contrasts with the Nighty and Fann Journey to NovemberFest story - in terms of story telling, plot and general tone of the story.

And now, Chapter 2.

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I repeat, all characters belong to Capcom unless those are of unfamiliarity to the reader and the story doesn’t hurt the interests of other writers.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Two: Jerkiness


Two days passed just like every other day. Only that certain things are different. News regarding Axl’s abnormal conditions two days earlier spread so far, out to the ranks of the majors. Axl felt this was much worse than the perception X had on him back in the times where Red Alert went Maverick.

He was being whispered about in that corridor of lockers. Tired with himself, he retreated to the resting chamber again. Walking around didn’t make him feel better. He had to be patient with Lumine’s constant teases and insults, seeking to undermine his confidence. But that didn’t matter.

All that Axl was concerned of was that Lumine had been in standby mode all this while, not trying to vie dominance over his control mechanisms. He could take on the insults from everyone else but taking over his body, he will definitely not tolerate.

Axl continued to rest his head on the table in his cubicle, supported by his arms. He didn’t have his usual mood of seeking inspirations from the Internet news clippings he put on the walls with duct tape.

In fact he didn’t feel like doing anything at all.

Although he had been given 5 days off, orders from the high ranks (mostly X, he’s the new Hunters Commander) he couldn’t find anything to keep him busy. Lumine was blabbering much insult on him.

“Well, judging by the situations, I’d say that Pallette must be your counterpart navigator. Have you been trying to get her attention lately?”

“Aw shaddup. She’s my navigator during missions and that’s it! Enough already Lumine! I’m tired of you. I don’t know why this must happen to me.” Axl blasted at him in his thoughts.

Conversations between the two usually happen in Axl’s computer brain since there is no such device as speakers integrated in him, so no one heard them.

“Axl, you already know the reason all this things happen to you.”

“Refresh my memory then.” Axl grew even more tired.

“It’s because of my presence, dear boy. My attempts to control you made you famous. It’s so hard to find any Reploid that have the same functions and structures like me these days. I had to make sure the ‘new world’ would not cease to exist.”

Axl had a sudden flashback to what Lumine said previously. “…should you…reveal my existence here…I will… any trouble by any means.”

“Hey that’s not what I said.” Lumine gave a slightly positive response.

“Prove me wrong.” Axl retorted.

“I never said ‘by any means’. Dear Axl, has your brain lost its memory? That’s so sad. Let me supply you with some of mine.” Lumine held out his left hand.

But Axl snapped it away. “I don’t help your help. Thanks but no thanks.”

“So sorry. I thought that while I remain in standby here, I could be of any ready assistance.” He sneered back.

Finally Axl decided not to care. Then the alarm rang.
“All Hunters proceed to the resting chamber immediately.” Just when Axl wanted to participate to rid himself of boredom, X confronted him.

“Axl you can’t leave. Your body needs rest.”

“X I’ve taken too much rest. Now just let me fight some Mavericks before I really die in this place.”

“Aw bully for the Commander.” Axl ignored Lumine.

“Axl are you sure you can handle this? You have 3 days off.”

“Well, bully for that leave notice. I’m healthy already. Just let me go.”

X closed his eyes to think. Even Lumine paused his insults. Axl was anxious to get into some action, if X gives his consent. Then X looked up.

“Alright. Go. Just be careful. Any trouble and I’d see that Alia teleports you immediately back to base.”

“I told you, I’m fine. Nothing will happen to me, promise.” He runs out.

In the command room, X watches Zero lead two Hunter units storm a weapons warehouse of the latest Reploid uprising. Axl was under top priority watch.

“X, relax will you? I’ll bring him back when he’s terribly injured.”

“Alright Alia. If you need me, I’m in my office.” X walks off.

It turns out that Axl was right after all. He made it through the mission without a single scratch, ending the new uprising with defeat of the Maverick leader, and if he wasn’t mistaken, he saw a bespectacled human of messy brown hair slip away. But he chose to ignore that.

“Congratulations Axl. You showed some strength back there. But you would have done better if I gave you some power support.”

“Stop your comments, Lumine. Don’t you dare try to stab me in the back.”

“Oh so sorry. I thought I was stabbing you right on your FACE all this while.” Lumine gave a light, evil laugh. Axl ignored him further and walked down the corridor, wanting to head for the medical facility for checkup, only to be stopped by Zero.

“X wants me to tell you that Pallette needs someone to help her arrange all Hunter record files and history. Go to the computer labs now.”

Axl gave a nod and started off but was paused by Zero.

“By the way, your performance just now was great. See ya.” Zero walked off.

At the computer labs, Axl faced his navigator in a room filled with a big stack of papers and barely anyone else. “Well don’t just stand there, Axl. Help me sort out the papers according to their respective Hunters. Got it?”

Axl nodded and set out to work. He concludes there’s got to be thousands of papers to hundreds of Hunters, after 32 minutes of sorting.

The situation gave Lumine a good chance to act. Something real bad.

Out of nowhere, Axl lost control over his hands and they began moving on its own, sorting papers at speed Axl couldn’t possibly reach.

“Hey! What are you doing? Give me my hands back!” Axl scowled.

“Oh I thought you needed help. I didn’t think a Reploid like you worked so slowly, even when it comes to sorting papers. I must say I am disappointed with you, dear boy.” Lumine gave a louder laugh.

True Lumine was. In 5 minutes ‘Axl’ had sorted out a thousand over papers linked to over 200 Hunters. Just when Axl got up, Lumine made him slip and fall flat on the floor.

A concerned Pallette immediately got up from her chair too to tend to him.
“Axl are you okay? Thanks for the paper-sorting by the way…”

Axl’s hands suddenly reached up to Pallette’s collar and seized it. A different looking Axl gazed upon her as he raised her up in the mid-air and laughed evilly.

“Axl… akk …what are you doing… stop it…urkkk…” Pallette hit ‘Axl’ repeatedly on his hands to release her. By now some Hunters have noticed this and barged in to help Pallette.

“Axl what are you!? Mad!? Release the navigator now!!”

In his computer brain, Axl was desperately trying to regain controls over his body from a raging Lumine with insanity.

“Lumine, stop this! I’ll be killed for this!”

“Oh do I ever want such a thing to happen to you.” An evil snicker was heard. Full of rage, Axl pounded on Lumine but Lumine disappeared, so Axl regain full control over his body.

His rocket legs suddenly fired out of control, releasing a choking Pallette while he flew towards the glass wall of the lab. The glass shattered to millions of pieces, shocking other passer-bys.

As if the trouble wasn’t enough, he crash-landed into another pile of lockers AFTER falling down two floors, denting along pipes and doors. Axl couldn’t bear any more pain. He could only curse his inhabitant before he eventually passed out. A huge crowd surrounding him was formed.

Nearby Reploid guards arrested the mangled Axl and decided to take this matter to Commander X. X thus couldn’t believe his eyes but he had no choice to resort to drastic measures to stop Axl and quickly sort out the damage he had done.

Axl had completely no idea what would be done to him; he was truly unconscious.



Continued in Chapter 3


Notes:
Poor Axl. But this is part of the plot. A Reploid having two data souls can switch personalities and the stronger personality will have control over the body. That also depends on free will, power and any other factors.





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Stuff. And without delay, Chapter 3.

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Once again, all charcters belong to Capcom, unless you’ re never seen them before and story doesn’t hurt others’ interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Three: Paleness


Axl has certainly gotten into a lot of misery lately although it is only 3 days since Lumine revealed himself. He tasted the insults and curses of many other Hunters, far worse than that of X’s refusal to accept him as a Hunter and having to battle Sigma. Today after the trouble he caused in the labs, thanks to Lumine, he was to experience something more dreadful.

Axl was being quarantined from any physical contact.

He had his systems restarted active again. Using enough energy, he forced his eyes to open to see his new surroundings. Though feeling very tired, he managed to look around. He appeared to be in a room filled with greyish cushions on floor, three walls and ceiling. But the other one wall was thick glass and the door thick steel.

Axl tried to reach his hands but he couldn’t. It seems his hands were bound to his body, not free. He tried getting up but imbalance made him fall down again. He looked on his body and was shocked.

He was strapped up with a white flexible titanium sheet, clung together by belts.

Immediately he looked at the wall of glass. Many machines with large screens displayed status charts and bars. Graphs of stability were plentiful. Scientists were busy tracing out the source of madness he caused in the HQ. Barely 2 feet away from the glass outside were X, Alia, Zero and Layer.

“Riight. Tell me again how we scan the unknown program inside Axl since that tentacle thing smashed his head gem.” Zero asked lazily, looking at the already-repaired head gem of Axl.

“Zero, heat and radar scanners are implanted in that observation room. They emit high frequency waves and reflect back, thus indicating Axl’s status. Another harmless laser is fired to try to detect the position and status of the unknown program. You should have paid attention to the scientists.” Alia sighed.

“Whatever, so long as the science can stop all the Maverick madness and powers my saber. I’m going for a security patrol around Big City.” Zero walked away fast.

“I hope this problem will be solved quickly. I may be new here but I am sure that Axl has never ever acted this strange before.” Layer said after a long silence.

“You’re right. I hope we get to ask Axl to reveal to us what is wrong with him. We are friends after all.” X folded his arms while Alia spoke to someone else on her communicator.

Though X and the two navigators cannot hear whatever Axl said in the outside, Axl can hear whatever they said in the quarantine room.

“Remember, dear Axl-” Lumine started.

“Yeah yeah, I know, I know, still clear in my head! Don’t reveal your existence or else you will cause destruction. Just stop bothering me. I’m so tired of you…” Axl lied himself on the cushioned floor to a near petrified posture.

Lumine only gave a small giggle, though small but full of evil. Axl cursed him back under a breath but then did nothing except lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling.

“Commander, the past 85 minutes he has shown no signs of any sudden erupting hostility. The subject has long remained stable ever since he crashed into the lockers on the 13th floor.” A fellow scientist reported.

“Yes thank you. I think we have had enough of that story. Alia you can resume your duties again. Layer here is enough.” X’s orders were final. Alia nodded and returned to her post.

Inside the room, an eruption was about to begin.

“Poor, poor dear Axl, haven’t you ever thought why your friends treat you so cruelly only 3 days since you got back from the Moon?” Lumine said.

“They are only treating me like this because of you! You purposely used my body to conduct your deceitful activities! I accept that! I understand their view of me! And I am going to continue keeping you in here since you are such an evil Reploid!!” Axl yelled out at him.

Lumine’s fists clenched more. Anger was rapidly rising from him. Finally he was no longer patient of his host.

“WHY YOU LITTLE!!” Lumine emitted tonnes of red glaring light from him and his eyes were glaring crimson from the anger. Axl was stunned from that and realising Lumine was attempting full force to gain control, he emitted his own blue light to fight the advancing Lumine.

Back outside, the charts, bars and graphs were suddenly out of range. The needles on all measuring meters bounces off the limits. The alarm rang out loudly, shocking X and Layer. The scientists busied themselves again, trying to clamp the increasingly volatile condition.

“The unknown program’s back! The subject is experiencing the rapid spread of its activities, whatever that is! We are now firing a laser that can suppress all activities of the subject!” The scientist increased a lever on a machine.

X and Layer looked on anxiously, hoping a calm to prevail. Despite the many complications present, it all happened in a petrified Axl on the floor.

The two personalities were fighting to reclaim the right to control the body. Fierce opposition continued on.

“You fool! I shall resume control of this body and with my powers, I am truly unstoppable! The new world will be created over a matter of time and you will submit to my rule!” Lumine said with evil eyes.

“Not if I can help it!! I will not surrender to you!” Axl emitted more of his blue light to counter Lumine’s advance.

Lumine smiled a little. “You’ve got some great courage and strength. But my powers are far greater than yours!!” Folding his hands crossed, he broke than cross and in turn released more powerful rays of speeding crimson light.

The power was clearly too much to resist. Axl began to be overpowered by the surge of Lumine’s power. Bit by bit, Axl began to bent more towards the ground of
the subconscious’ black-pitch floor.

“Grr… must stop Lumine… Aaaaaargghh!” Axl cannot take it anymore.

In the quarantine room, the petrified became un-petrified. ‘Axl’ was able to stand up properly and revealed his cold, cruel face. This is due to Lumine’s strong power able to quell Axl’s power that ‘Axl’ was able to take control.

“Hm? It seems here that you have some control over a certain area. What could it be?” Lumine stood next to an Axl hurt on the floor. Crimson waves are still flowing.

Axl turned up to him. “Well… I still can’t afford to let your physical looks…just so easily exposed now, can’t I? We had an agreement…”

Lumine looked on with a little self-realisation in him. After seconds of storing, he looked upwards.

“Hm. Quite right. No matter, I’m sure I can still afford to show my purple hair and eyes, can’t I?” Lumine-controlled Axl begins to release strength to break the titanium strap that has tied him up.

Some of Axl’s brown hair was turned into purple and expanded outwards to cover his right eye. A few seconds later, the titanium strap was torn to pieces. That alarmed X as he switched to battle mode with his Buster ready.

‘Axl’ first tried to escape by using his might to break through the 5-inch thick glass window. Repeated crashes made the glass crack and around 2 inches of thickness was reduced.

Realising it was futile, he turned to barge against the 2.5-inch thick metal door. The chances of success were much brighter there. He managed to create a dent, increasing as he continued to ram against it. X prepares to shoot in case the subject escapes.

“The laser has failed! The dominant program is the unknown one! Run for your lifes!!” All scientists ran away, fearing any attacks on them.

Lumine was close to escaping the quarantine room. Then he halted his steps. In the computer brain, Lumine stopped to talk to Axl for a moment before he made his escape.

“You see, dear boy. The new world is inevitable. Don’t worry I’ll spare you to be my assistant. Gwahahaha- what the?!” Lumine was utterly shocked. Axl turned around. A much brighter, stronger pink light appeared from nowhere, thus neutralizing Lumine’s crimson light. Lumine lost his control of Axl and was extremely tired.

“Grr…I will stop here. Mark my words, Axl. I will return after I have quelled that new aura!!” With that, he disappeared and Axl was back in position.

Layer saw a floating stunned purple-haired Axl fall to the floor and the purple turning to brown and not covering Axl’s face. Axl returned, extremely tired, and tried to open his eyes again. X has apparently knocked down the door and tended to him.

Axl was taken to his resting chamber and on-lookers were dispersed. Mechaniloid guards were stationed around his capsule to grab Axl when out of control. X seemed to be in deep thinking. The unknown program has disappeared again and security is increasingly in danger. What would he do?

Layer whispered suggestions to him and he was satisfied. “But we must first get others’ approval first. Then we’ll do what you say.” Both walked off to his office. As Axl lay asleep, secrets were unveiled and measures, more drastic than quarantine, were about to be taken to deal with the brown-haired Reploid.



Continued in Chapter 4.


Notes:
Reploids can be strapped up to restrict their movements, just like strapping human nutcases. When Lumine was electronically transferred, his powers can too as they are part of his data soul coding. Poor Axl, so much sleep.


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And that is all for now. Comments and criticisms are very much welcome. Please do stay tuned for the next 3 chapters. Thank you!

[Marie]

Even though this story's almost five years old, I still love just as much when I first read it almost four years ago in Code Crush. This brings back memories now that I'm reading them again...

Heh heh, poor Axl for having to sleep so much due to all that mental exhaustion he has to go through.

[Professor Fann]

Ah, I see. Thanks for coming here, EmerMarie. And seeing as such, I've decided to post up the next 3 chapters as well! Enjoy it all.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Four: Research


Axl was once again thrown into a world of isolation and constant insults. The new incident three days earlier earned him a nasty reputation for being incontrollable and often seeks destruction. Axl was now accompanied by two big, strong, sturdy Mechaniloids to make sure he’s never out-of-control. Wherever he walked, other Hunters will hastily avoid him (except for his friends).

But he saw it as an advantage. He can finally be alone in a time when the other inhabitant is constantly insulting him. However, it has been three days Lumine did not constantly assault him. More accurately, Axl was teased lightly and treated with respect and nicely.

It all started with the quarantine incident back then. That made Axl raise up some important questions. What was that pink aura that prevented Lumine’s escape? Why would the guy suddenly treat him with respect? No constant insults? He wondered to himself. He also thought back of what Zero had said.

“Watch yourself. Act like this and you’ll face disciplinary action from US.”

Axl simply had to search for answers to fit the demand for his curiosity. Then that was when the white-purplish personality came in and gave pointers.

“Well, well, maybe this time I could be of some assistance for real.” The two were meeting face to face in Axl’s computer brain, Axl’s eye closed.

“Aw what do you want? You’ve stirred up enough trouble for me and made me waste my time and energy. Just leave me now, okay?” Axl sighed.

“Suit yourself, dear Axl.” He was about to disappear when he stopped walking and turned his head to the right. “If I were you, I would search for facts about my body’s origin.” He then truly disappeared.

Axl had always hated the library. So full of books, tables and chairs, books, librarians and books. The old means of publishing ideas of which mankind were able to advance. Judging circumstances, he had no choice but to do so. Off he went to the library with the big Mechaniloids.

Not far from the corridor corner was Zero. Seeing he got what he wanted, he whisked away to inform X.

“The library? Axl literally never goes to the library, ever. What could this mean?”

“I dunno, but I know we will find out soon. I’ll ask Layer to check out his every movements.” Zero exits the office of the Commander through the door.

“Axl at the library? And reading books? Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t it odd that ever since the Mechaniloids were stationed at his side, he never acted weirdly? I have a feeling it’s not them that stopped his violent acts.”

Zero and Layer are in the surveillance room that monitors every camera.

“Yep, those machines are no match for Axl’s strength; if he acts violently he’s just blast their heads and of he goes. There is something weird going on around and that’s why I need you to monitor him. See you later.” Zero exits the room.

“Oookay, Axl let’s see what you’ll do in the library.”

At the library, the usual scene happens. All Reploids except the librarians quickly ushered out the other exit. Quickly grabbing books and stationeries, they didn’t watch a fight with the turbulent Axl. Soon the library was empty. The Mechaniloids couldn’t fit under the door, so they stayed outside.

“Wow, this is kind of a great convenience.” Axl said.

“I thought you hated books. Aren’t you scared of all these things, Axl?”

“Cut it out, Lumine. I’m not that scared. I just think it’s boring to pour time and energy over a collection of papers detailing so many ideas and concepts. But I gotta find out more of me. Hush, now let me do my research.”

Lumine tolerated the hush part and watched Axl pick up tonnes of books.

“‘Basic Guide to Robotic Structures’, ‘The Chemistry of Metals’, ‘Computer Science’, blah blah blah, I’m starting this thing. And don’t wish me any luck, Lumine, it’s not like something goes wrong just by reading.”

Lumine was highly surprised to get that reaction. He smiled and decided to bother him later, whish mostly means messing with Axl’s hands and fingers.

Layer was so bored watching Axl read, she swore she nearly fell on the floor due to the intense boredom and long-windedness of him reading books.

Some hours later, Axl felt he did not yield any result from the reading.

“Uhh… all I learnt is that Reploid switching data souls is extremely rare and that recycling Mavericks is a real serious business. Where do I look?”

Lumine answered his questions by secretly grasping control of Axl’s body, made Axl walk up to the computer and sit on the chair. He then released control.

“Hey what was that for?” Axl asked.

“If I were you, I’ll be more analytical of myself. I recommend you check the Hunters database for records on yourself and Zero.”
“How’s that going to help me? You seem to know everything, why not tell me?”

“There, there, dear Axl. You’ll find it out yourself and you’ll like it.”

Pressing on the mouse and keyboard, he glanced through various articles of Hunters and friends he knew. He read them all one by one and learnt many things.

A Dr. Light created X, meant to be model robot for robotkind. Dr Cain found him and used his structures as a basis for all future Reploids. A Dr. Wily was thought to be the creator of Zero, based on various accounts. Their respective counterparts are Alia and Layer, though Zero once befriended an Iris. Axl’s past is unknown, last seen raised in Red Alert before running away to the Hunters.

Axl then compared all various records and found only one similarity: all Reploids except for X and Zero were manufactured in gigantic Reploid factories belonging to Prez Corporation. Though independent scientists contributed a small percentage, the Prez Corp manufactured almost all Reploids and they were activated only after delivery to various destinations.

Axl was not intrigued by what he found. “So what if that Prez Corp creates most of the Reploids in the Federation? For all I know I may be a product of a minor independent scientist. How does this help me? It’s between independent works or a factory product. I’m getting no clear answer.”

Lumine stepped in the scene. “Keep looking, dear boy. You are going closer. And you are lucky to know this; this is highly-classified information.”

“But strange. I have memories above the factories. How come the others doesn’t know this? Do you know about this past yourself?”

Lumine paused for a while. “Actually, no. I only know that some bespectacled brown-haired guy said he created me. The next thing I knew I was in the Prez Corp and directing Jakob.”

Axl filled with curiousity looked for more info about Prez Corp. The owner of the corporation is a 48-year-old named Prez. He is a bespectacled man of no moustache with dark black hair and always wearing a suit. Deep interests in science spurred him to obtain the formula of X and mass manufacturing of Reploids. His contribution to the Federation’s clean development and outspoken criticism for negative personalities made him highly famous around the world. Last major social project was the Jakob project.

“The Jakob project? There’s something fishy going on around here and it all turns back to this Prez Corp.!” Axl was highly suspicious of Prez.

Lumine still remained silent. “Why not check about the Iris girl you saw earlier?”

Axl was surprised. “Why? Are you interested in her? She’s already dead.”

Lumine got a little irritated and swiftly got hold of Axl’s right hand. The surprised Axl wasn’t fast enough to avoid his right hand pinching his right cheek.

“Ouch, hey cut it out!!’ The librarian then hushed Axl to silence. Axl closed his eyes to see a smiling Lumine. “Hey that hurt. Let go of my face!”

“Don’t you ever tease me like that. It’s sensitive to me.”
“Hey you get to tease me all the time. Why can’t I have my own fun?”

Realising that Axl was right, Lumine let go of Axl’s face and asked him to look on info regarding Iris. Axl found it. Iris was Zero’s counterpart at least till she died in a space tragedy in the Final Weapon. She was created by the same corporation and activated in the HQ to be Colonel’s sister.

“Okay I’m gonna print out all those stuff and head back to the resting chamber. Do I have to print all the stuff regarding to Iris?” Axl asked.

“Trust me, you’ll need it in the future.” Lumine disappeared. A confused Axl just did what he said and then headed back to the resting chamber.

Later, Layer passed on the video of Axl in the library to X. “It is interesting to note that only two things make Axl very suspicious: he was quiet the whole time and the only time he said something was when he pinched his own cheek and yelled the pain out.” X was quiet and decided to discuss the matter tomorrow with the rest.

Back in the capsule, Axl realised that he didn’t care how Lumine became so suddenly nice to him; he really enjoyed it. That happiness eased his mind to sleep, besides the fact the two Mechaniloids were discharged of any duties.



Continued in Chapter 5.


Notes:
Axl and Lumine look great in being friends, especially after Lumine mysteriously befriended his host.



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And let us continue.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Five: Conference


X, Zero, Layer, Alia and Pallette were gathered in X’s office to discuss two very important things that dominated gossips in the Hunter HQ.

“First the most important issue threatening the reputation of the Hunters: Axl.” X read out from his paper. “How are we going to solve the problem where a fellow Reploid’s behaviour turns from violent to normal and back to violent again?”

“X” said Zero, arms folded, leaning on his chair.. “You know the root cause of this problem. An unknown program trying to take over him and to proceed with its desired malicious activities. I am really starting to think that Lumine passed himself on to Axl’s body.”

“Yes, X. In the quarantine room, when Axl was just about to make it out, he was floating in the air, stunned while his purple hair and eyes turned back to Axl’s original looks. Besides, Axl hates the library, he’d never enter there; but he just did yesterday.” Layer presented her findings.

“It’s not like Axl to keep quiet all the time and suffer silently; the guy’s a regular bigmouth.” Alia’s comments made some giggles.

X made his verdict. “Yes I agree with you. But the current technology we have cannot trace that program. Without obtaining proper proof, other allegations will be useless!” The room became silent.

Layer seemed to figure out her own solutions because she stood up, saying “I’ll have a talk with the HQ scientists and help them design a machine that can extract every single personality from a Reploid, shown or hidden.”

Alia stood up next. “I’ll try to seek cooperation from the Prez Corporation. Their contribution to the Federation’s technology is as we know highly praised, they can send help.”

“I’ll try to obtain as much info from Axl as possible.” Pallette said.

“I’ll watch out for every move Axl makes and have them captured on camera.” Zero said. X was pleased to hear quick answers from his friends.

“Excellent. Alia, Layer please sit down for a little while more. The second issue is regarding the sudden decline of various Hunters’s quality of performance while quelling uprisings. This statistics show a significant rise in expenses for medication for various Hunters. The weird thing is that all this happen at the same time Axl’s behaviour rapidly switches. How serious do you all think the second case is?”

“Quite serious X.” was the common reply.

“Alright, I’ll have an investigation team drafted later today personally. Meeting dismissed. Zero, come along with me. We need to meet the representative of the Prez Corporation. He demands an explanation on Axl’s strange behaviour throughout this entire week.” X and Zero left by the main door.

“Do you notice that the Prez Corp is increasingly famous and, in our case, an increasing possibility of prime suspect?” Alia asked.

“Yeah, c’mon. We must save Axl before he plunges into any more troubles.” Pallette’s comments were agreed upon and the three navigators walked on.

Meanwhile, when all this was taking place, Axl was in the main gathering grounds, relaxing and enjoying a pleasant conversation with Lumine.

“Well, it’s been one week you have been with me. What do you want to do to celebrate?” Axl asked. Lumine was busy thinking then he sighed.

“My idea has affected numerous innocent Reploids to dedicate their time and energy to do something unrighteous. I don’t know how to repay your kindness for keeping my existence here secret.” Lumine gave him a bow in the computer brain.

Axl went forward to comfort the white data soul. “There there Lumine. As long as you know what’s right and wrong, I forgive you. Come let’s go do something fun.”

Lumine smiled back. Axl got up from his chair and walked towards the main plaza hall. Just then, X and Zero were walking hastily there too but they didn’t notice Axl, because Axl saw them first and hid behind a corner.

“Gee I wonder where would they be going? Let’s follow them.”

“No, Lumine that is called minding other’s business. Let’s move on.”

But the stubborn Lumine won’t give in so easily. As swift as sound he grasped Axl’s control mechanisms and made him walk, following behind the dynamic duo.

“Lumine, what are you doing? Stop this now!” A hiss from Axl only his inhabitant heard. Axl tried to regain some major limbs but Lumine snapped them away.

“Dear boy, believe me, this has got to be something about ‘your’ weird behaviour and the various destruction ‘you’ have caused.”

“Hey, you know you have done all those things-!” Lumine silenced Axl.

“QUIET. I’m trying to pay attention to what they are saying, please.” ‘Axl’ hid behind one of the pillars in the now-empty huge main plaza hall. The main plaza hall was brilliant yellow, red and grey mixed with tinted green windows unlike the rest of the HQ that is painted in dark grey and blue.

X and Zero now greeted a man in brown overcoat, his right hand with a heavy bag. ‘Axl’ tried to see the human’s identity by reaching his head further out a bit. ‘He’ was shocked once he recognized his identity.

The human was a bespectacled, serious-looking man with messy hair, a crooked nose and big blue eyes. Zero then led the way to X’s office.

Lumine was first the first time ever afraid. Still holding hard on Axl’s limbs, he ran away fast. Boarding one of the elevators in another hall, he pressed the button displaying the number ‘54’.

As soon as he reached there, he made another stairway up and arrived at the rooftop. Around the Hunter HQ were many other high-rise buildings and a near-even spread of green dots of what are actually trees. ‘Axl’ then leaned against a wall railing and gazed away. Axl demanded an explanation.

“What is going on? You can tell me anything now, now that we are friends.”
“Not everything, dear Axl, but this one I will. That man just now… was the one who claimed to be my creator.”

“WHAT? Then you should go meet him-” Axl stopped when he realised that would mean exposing Lumine and another dozen days of quarantine, or even expulsion.

“I’d rather not talk about it Axl dear boy. I had many horrible memories of him; all I can say is that I was finally happy at Jakob and happier with you, anything’s better than him…. Axl, call it a day off. Let’s go to your cubicle.”

Lumine released control, allowing Axl to move freely again.

Meanwhile in the main plaza hall, X and Zero were having a chat with the human Lumine claimed that he claimed to be Lumine’s creator.

“Good day to you all. I’m Human Consultant Bob, or you could just call me Bob. As you know, I’m representing the Prez Corp¬. which demands an explanation to various bizarre incidents concerning the prototype Axl.”

“Yes, Mr Bob, we are still doing some investigations-”

“It’s Bob. Well, if you please, show me the way to your office, Commander X.”

X and Zero exchanged faces. They started to get a bad feeling about Bob, but seeing that they were dealing with the representative of a corporation very famous and having strong ties with the Federation government, X decided to oblige.

In X’s office, Bob wanted to speak from the start. X had no choice but to allow him so and Zero looked like he was almost yawning out of boredom.

“As you all know, a few years ago, the Federation government has enlisted the help of the Prez Corp. in creating a new Reploid generation prototype that has the ability to ward off the Sigma Virus. Thus the Reploid, codenamed Axl was a top-secret joint project between the government and the corporation.”

“However, just when Axl was about to be awaken into the government’s hands, an illegal syndicate kidnapped Axl in what the public sees as ‘a legal member of the Red Alert’. Well, we all know how powerful they soon became and Sigma’s interfernce. It’s a good thing you Hunters had him safely in your hands.”

“With endless rebellions, the Corp invested in Jakob. But so sad that Lumine too was involved in the mad new world idea. The government had high hopes he would finish Jakob soon. Then, last Mr Prez heard; Axl was in a coma after being attacked by Lumine himself. And he went ahead and recycled all new generation Reploids and there’s where Axl acted quirkly. Well, then end of story. What are your explanations then?”

X hesitated but Zero told him to tell the truth. “We do not have any definite explanation for the moment. But we did witness an unidentified program spreading its power several times to try taking over Axl. So we are sure that’s the source of his rabid behaviour and we are currently constructing a machine that extracts all personalities, hidden or not.”

Bob seems not so happy and not worried too. “Well, there’s some development. Excellent. Carry on, sirs. We hope you can present a report to us and the government A.S.A.P. Good day.” He walked away, slightly gleeful to himself.

X and Zero again exchanged looks.

In Axl’s cubicle, he had a hard time pressing Lumine to tell him everything.

“Aw silly Axl. Thanks to you, I know almost everything. But you will have to find it out yourself. I’m not telling anything till the time is right.” He disappears.

“Grr…” Axl could only sort back his files he collected so far and stick up the Internet news clippings about ‘his’ rabid behaviour in the HQ, on the wall and went to sleep.



Continued in Chapter 6.


Notes:
First Lumine becomes afraid of something. Bob is a weird character too. How do they match?



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And the last chapter update for now.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Six: Trouble


Two days later, things start to prove that the situations in the HQ have returned to normal. Papers were sent in and out without trouble and Axl did not go through any quarantines or mess-ups. In fact, Axl was pretty much okay himself; Lumine says it’s his nineth day in Axl, a good number in some cultures.

“Well, I’ve been here for nine days and counting. The first three days I pretty much screwed you up. I’m sorry…” Lumine looked downwards.

“Hey, it’s okay. As long as you don’t give me any trouble, friend.”

Lumine looked up, smiling. “Thank you dear Axl.” Finally Axl simply had to ask a question about an issue that irked him since the start.

“Why in the world do you always call me ‘dear Axl’, ‘dear boy’ and the other stuff? It’s really bugging me a lot.”

“You don’t need to know why. It’s private and I’m not telling you under any circumstances at all, dear boy.” Lumine said softly.

Axl decided to forget about it and return to his frustration to sort out all the information he collected so far. He glanced every one of them. The Prez Corp. – Prez – manufacturing and recycling – Iris – the Final Weapon – how are all these relevant to what he was looking for? And why did his Chameleon Chip had to exist? Where did the pink aura come from?

He then decided to take a walk and it the gathering grounds, it finally hit him an important piece of the mystery puzzle; there was another data soul in him. But who?

Then Lumine stepped in. “Dear boy, congratulations. You found the most vital part of the mystery to your origins. Indeed there is another data soul in you. With you. With us. All this while- Ow!” He felt a pang of pain on his back.

“Hey, Lumine you okay? Did I hurt you or something?”

“Em… I’m okay… just a pain somewhere in the body. I’ll go and fix it.” Lumine hastily disappeared from Axl in the computer brain. Axl has seen that all the time when he closed his his eyes to talk and SEE Lumine at the same time.

What Axl seems not to know was now what X and Zero knew.

“Poor guy… feel sorry for his experiences. First he nearly met his creator, then he got a glimpse of it before kidnapped by Red Alert. No wonder he deems Red Alert as his new home that time. The glimpse of an important clue to his past seemed so irrelevant he assumes he has no memory of the past…”

“I agree with you, X. Rabid behaviour after the Jakob. All these are too much for him. He deserves a break.” Zero only sighed, leaning on the wall.

“No matter, the important thing right now is to trace that unknown program, extract it and finish it off before Axl gets hurt. He must be struggling all this while to stop that program’s advances. Then, next is the discipline problem.”

The emergency alarm rang suddenly. “All Hunters proceed to the resting chamber immediately. There’s an imminent Mechaniloid attack.”

Once all Hunters have gathered, a voice booms out. “A giant cargo Mechaniloid has been seen rampaging in the dockyards of the east coast. All Hunters are required to arrive at the scene and stop all Reploids from any further destruction.”

Axl was in the chamber at the time but chose to stay at a corner.

“Why aren’t you mixing with other of your friends?”

“Hey you know it yourself. All other Hunters seem to think I can ‘go Maverick at will’ and they don’t want to be harmed. It’s best I stay alone.”

As soon as all other Hunters left the chamber, Axl followed behind. Zero halted him for a while.

“Hey Axl you okay? You can always skip. My permission.” Zero aid.

“Man, don’t be like X, killing me by boring me off! I’m fine, Zero, okay? Just let me play my role as a Hunter too.”

“That’s a good spirit. C’mon let’s go kick Maverick butt!”

X was in the Hunter command room watching all Hunters run like a colourful wave to the 90-foot-tall Mechaniloid and shooting chunks of Buster shots.

“X, it’s weird. I see Zero trying to slice off the Mechaniloid’s head but the scanners don’t show Axl anywhere.” Alia reported.

“But how? Zero said he was joining the fight too. Keep looking!”

Actually, Axl couldn’t be detected on the scanners because he was in an area beyond the range of the scanners. He had to deal with another problem at the moment.

Lumine was asking his permission for body control in a battle zone.

Standing in a clean dark corner alley, he was having silent conversations with his inhabitant about the possible problems when Lumine takes over.

“Hey, we were bound to an agreement okay? I can allow you in my hands but I don’t want your physical features shown.”

“That isn’t what I am arguing about, dear boy. Your friends are going to need my power to stop that Mechaniloid. MY scanners show that its head is not its weakness. A specific part of its face is the weakness. Your other friends think it’s the head!”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“My calculations say that with just a few shots at its face will reveal its collar gem and with one laser shots of mine, the Mechaniloid will be defeated and less destruction is caused! Please Axl, give me a chance to pay back my debts. Debts for you letting me stay in you.”

A decision was made. Axl stepped out of the dark alley not exactly Axl. Axl’s arms and torsos were a diluted grey texture, his eyes were a mixture of green and red and the same hair brown but a few blur spots of purple.

“LUMINE, YOU!!” Axl was about to rebut the Lumine in control.

“Don’t spoil it. It feels great to be in battle again, besides you guys.”

Axl knew he was referring to the fight between him, X and Zero and with Lumine. Now he didn’t care about that. All he cared was to see Axl’s performance in battle and prove to himself that Lumine is now very reliable.

‘Axl’ flew at an amazing speed and in a second, ‘he’ was already at a site where crates and tanks were burning, ships were split into half, a warehouse was half burning and noise of Buster shots were very loud. ‘He’ was 70 feet above ground.

“Axl?” Zero was astounded ‘Axl’ appeared from nowhere.

“X, Axl is back at the scene! There he is, in the air! Wow, I didn’t know Axl can fly for so long in the air…” Alia gazed the Reploid with awe in command room.

“Axl IS not supposed to fly in the air for so long! I’d like photo shots of those pronto and the time he flew into air measured!” X ordered Pallette to do so.

At the battle site, Lumine took out Axl’s guns and fired continuously at the Mechaniloid’s face until it bounced backwards. Just like Lumine predicted, its head falling back a little revealed a collar gem at its neck.

All other Hunters were stunned at the event and gazed up at the flying Reploid.

Lumine lifted Axl’s hand at the collar gem and his eyebrow was sharped downwards to his nose. Axl’s green-red eyes turned crimson instantly as ‘Axl’ yelled out a big scream.

“Hhuuuuuaaaaarrrrrrggggh!”

A ball of dark blue laser energy appeared from his hand and grew in diameter. When the diameter reached around 12 inches, he released at the energy being collected at the collar gem while yelling out.

The gem cracked and the entire Mechaniloid’s head and body interior exploded into oblivion. Most Hunters ducked and shielded themselves while the explosion happened. The remaining legs and lower body parts flew down on the grounds. Lumine then returned back Axl’s control mechanisms to him and his features returning to normal.

Axl, who couldn’t fly long, fell onto the rubble of steel and stone. Other Hunters immediately hailed him a hero and carried him in the air. All were cheering and praising ‘Axl’s’ strength. Zero was nowhere to be seen. A dark shadowy figure ran away.

Back in the command room, highly important data were processed. The results were laid on a table and the gang analysed it.

“Axl floated in the air for about 2 78 minutes and computer estimates the amount of energy used to destroy the Mechaniloid around 5.7 kilotonnes of bombs. We also obtained results from earlier incidents. When Axl tried to escape the quarantine, he used around 110 thousands pound of force alone to crack the glass.” Layer said.

“This all happened ever since we detected the unknown program in Axl. The first three days was chaos and it seems that Axl has embraced this program harmoniously in his systems. This is really serious X.” The others agreed with Alia.

“Well, this shows that whatever that has inhabited Axl is either a potential friend or an extremely dangerous foe! We gotta speed up this investigation!” X was a little traumatized by the explosions.



Continued in Chapter 7.


Notes:
Lumine’s dormant power in his codings of his data soul is unleashed through Axl. How scary. Guess he did all those for Axl. Technology is amazing.


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And that is all for now. Thanks for coming!

[Marie]

Whee! More memories to behold!

...I have no idea what to say next since I've already read this for who knows how many times.

On with the next batch, Dr. Fann!

[Professor Fann]

Well, if you have any curiosities or questions, even the tiniest bit, you can spill it out and I will be glad to answer.

Speaking of which, I've went through the entire 3 stories and have reedited them, as I want them to be neat and tidy and spotless when I would be binding them together as a thick book.

That's right. A thick book. Ain't it awesome. It's for my own reference. I'll be doing the same too for the Comic Arts Spinoff: Tale of Two Souls story as well.

In any case, onward with another 3 new chapters. Enjoy.



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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Seven: Missing


Axl wasn’t surprised that he was temporarily discharged from any further missions immediately after returning to base from the dockyard. He couldn’t blame Lumine for trying to ease his job but he forgot that such power would create much suspicion from his friends and officers. Nevertheless, he found happiness in himself and that was all that matters.

Four days later, rain started pouring heavily everywhere in the Federation. But the place that had the most rain was Big City. The good thing was that absolutely no uprisings or injuries happened. But everyone was confined in the HQ. However that didn’t stop news agencies from working.

Thanks to advanced technology from the Prez Corp., all facilities on the Moon were quickly dismantled and despite the weather, the Jakob Tower was reduced to around 60 percent its original height. But the dockyard was sealed off so construction couldn’t start. There was also a huge crackdown on the new generation Reploids so its was most likely uprisings will never happen.

Axl was sitting in a lone chair in the HQ main plaza hall, shut-eyed. Not a good place to stay since it was the coldest part of the HQ but he chose it because he could be lonely there. He truly approved of Lumine since a few days earlier and was confident that he had totally turned over a new leaf.

“I can’t stop it but… you were so cool back then!”

Lumine put his hand behind his head and blushed slightly. “Aw it was nothing. Silly boy, stop praising me. I guess that I was granted these powers back then when I was being created. But…”

He looked down for a while. “I don’t think my creator, that human you saw, did all this. That person must be a caring, loving one. Totally opposite of my ‘creator’.”

Axl placed his hand on Lumine’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll find your creator besides mine. Then we can blast that human away.”

“Em.. about the creator part, dear Axl-” They were interrupted by a sudden breeze of colder cold. Axl shivered them.

“Brr.. it’s really cold here. Look’s like we’ll have to go back to my cubicle, though I don’t want to face the onslaught of cheers.” Axl walked and sighed.

Out of a corner, still in the plaza hall, Pallette was jotting down notes about Axl. She then stealthily rushed back to the mechanics room where X had expected her.

“Still nothing I could get him to reveal.”

“Well what about you Zero?” The red Reploid just entered.

“Nope still no sign of any hostile activity. X, we may have detected an even spread of the unknown program throughout Axl’s body on the day of the dockyard thing, but Axl clearly destroyed the Maverick. It seems to me that it cooperated with Axl or something like that. We need to rethink about finishing off the program.”

X pondered for a moment. Then turned around asking “Layer, how’s result on your side?” Layer and a few never-seen human scientists were working on a giant cylindrical machine.

“Not too bad, I suppose. The scientists that Alia contacted from Prez Corp. were most helpful and even took the trouble to come here a few days ago. The blueprints say that this new device could extract every personality in a Reploid. I think we should be able to finish this machine in two days time.”

“Excellent. Pallette, you stay here with Layer and watch over the mechanics project. Zero, I need you to attend to the internal affairs department. I have to go deal with the other group of investigators that’s supposed to trace the source of our Hunter’s mysterious decline in discipline.”

All these happened while Axl was taking a walk around the 15th floor. Eventually he found something to do: retreat to the Virtual Reality room and conjured up some games for Lumine to play with.

Because of Lumine’s fast speed and wit, he easily won through many levels of the VR game and recorded his score as the highest ever – under Axl’s name.

“Wow! You are so cool! I can’t even match that!”

“Silly Axl. It’s all in the coding already. If you want some codes I can just reach into you and rewrite some myself.”

“Wow! How do you know all these stuff?” Axl looked on with awe.

“Well, I learnt most of it myself. You want some codes?” Lumine extended his left handout to Axl. But Axl snapped them away.

“Thanks but no thanks. I feel it’s more towards practice than programming.”

“Suit yourself.” Lumine disappeared again. Axl wondered why must Lumine often hide himself away.

Later at night, Axl remained in his cubicle, posting another Internet news clipping on the wall. This time, the clipping was about assumingly him defeating the giant Mechaniloid in the east coast dockyard. Lumine finally intervened.

“Are you a fan of yourself?” Lumine teased lightly.

“In your dreams! I only post articles on my wall that I feel important as a source of fighting inspiration and something to look at when I’m bored.”

“Including that article of me branded as a Maverick? That’s not very nice.”

Axl then took out his small collection of files and again read all of them. This time he circled out vital points he notified earlier as they could give him a clue about the origins of his past. From X to Iris and the Prez Corp. Then he saw that he missed out certain points.

“It seems that Prez has a habit of recycling many waste material into useful ones. Whoa, from tin for the humans use to wrap their food to iron in construction. Hey even uranium!”

“Well, circle that now.” When Lumine got a reply “I know, what are you? My mum?” he was ticked off and used Axl’s left hand to pinch his cheek.

“Arrk hey stop it! That really hurt this time.”

All Axl got was a “Hm!” from Lumine as his left hand was freed.

Then he found the Prez Corp.’s factories’ address and an article.

“Hey the address! Maybe I ought to go there sometime! Oh? I’ve never seen this news before…It’s the Prez’s press conference years ago! “…cooperation with the government in an experiment to create new Reploids immune to the Sigma Virus…” “…copying abilities and durability to survive…” Hm. This is interesting.”

“ “Prototype in design… expected to be activated in a couple of months…” Oh look that’s me! Well so am I a creation of the government or the product of a giant factory? Or both?”

Lumine decided not to comment the situation.

Closing the file of almost 4 centimetres thick, he covered it in a wooden box.

He then left his cubicle and joined other mates in the resting chamber. When he was just about to open the capsule with a button push, Lumine interrupted.

“Hey so what are you going to do? Are you gonna sleep or risk the downpour, sneak all the way into the factories and search for the Corporation owner? Nah don’t answer that. Let’s just sleep.”

But Lumine will regret saying what he said.

In the surveillance room, several Reploids decided to hit the sack early too. One of them wanted to stay till the time limit to make sure all Hunters get their sleep (X was excluded since he’s a busy Reploid). But the other assured the former that no one would break the limit or else he or she will be in big trouble.

Both left the room and locked the entrance. However they didn’t observe a blinking red dot on one of the monitors: someone was still awake.

It was really raining so heavily. Human or Reploid, all preferred to stay at home than walk out. Not far away from the HQ, one individual donning a dark, torn rain coat looked briefly at the HQ and ran down the street quickly.

In his computer brain, a patient inhabitant could no longer be patient.

“AXL! You are crazy! I can’t believe you’d rather risk the downpour, sneak into the factories and search for the human out of curiosity, rather than abide by the rules and sleep like everyone else! I regret asking you that just now! Akk!!”

Axl ran below a pipe, gushing out its water, allowing himself to be soaked.

“It’s now or never, friend! This is my past and yours we are dealing with! Let’s go!” Lumine only groaned while Axl ran faster.

The next morning, the HQ was in chaos. A potentially violent Reploid has skipped the bedtime limit and sneaked away from the HQ! When X discovered that the two Reploids fouled up their duty, they were instantly demoted and replaced by other trustworthy Reploids. X even obtained camera evidence that Axl skipped the limit and sneaked off.

Pallette was worried but couldn’t do anything. An angry X ordered a search party for Axl immediately, although it was only 6.20 in the morning. Little did he know that the next scene was already taken place in the gigantic factories and plants of the Prez Corporation.



Continued in Chapter 8.


Notes:
Dark and wet settings match growing plots.



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And the truth of it all from Chapter 8 and onwards.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Eight: Revelation


His body was inactive and so was the data soul in the computer brain. But Axl soon became active thanks to the numerous yet patient and gentle calls to wake up by his inhabitant Lumine. Rubbing his eyes, he got up and looked around. He only saw a relieved Lumine and the pitch-black space they were in: the computer brain.

“Hey, Axl thank goodness you are awake! I’ll like to control but that would be rude, especially since you were asleep. Wake up your body!”

“Okay, I’ll try… but I’m a bit sleepy still…”

Axl then used what’s left of his energy to try to open his eyes. What he saw made him shocked and strangely, energized. He was handcuffed and leg-cuffed to a metal chair in the middle of a dark room, of which details are barely seen. Only one source of light was provided: the one on top of him lit to shine him.

“Where am I? Why am I strapped to a chair? What the!” He was shocked that the cover piece for his head gem was removed and many grey and red wires were attached to it. To his left and right were two separate machines connected to the wires. In front of him was a high platform with a small standing panel of buttons.

Axl tried to escape by breaking the handcuffs but were simply too tight for him. “Er! How do I get out of here? It’s too tight?”

“You will sit and listen to me tell you everything you wanted to know.”

A deep voice filled the room. Axl looked around but soon fixed his eyes on the platform where more light shone through, revealing a sturdy character of spectacles, dark black hair and a suit.

“You are that industrialist guy, Prez! You captured me, didn’t you?”

Prez snapped his fingers and many screens beamed out brightly; three of them behind him, the rest of them at Axl’s top, left and right. The rest showed status bars and other various graphs and charts. Axl’s design was shown in one of them. The middle screen behind Prez glowed to show his face to Axl.

“On the contrary, Axl, I brought you here. My guards informed me that someone has intruded into my industrial compounds and he was lying on the floor in the rain, unconscious after falling down a staircase. I saw you. You can’t imagine how happy I was to see you. I had never expected to see you in my land.”

Axl gulped. Prez continued “And it’s my pleasure to say that I never expected to see you too-” He paused for a while. “-Lumine.”

The screen on the right of Prez behind him projected a familiar image of Lumine’s head and shoulders.

“Well, em I am kind of surprised actually.” Lumine’s voiced boomed over the room. “I never thought I could see you again, my true creator.”

Axl was surprised and demanded an explanation to all this.

“Aw seriously Axl, you actually knew everything about your past. You just cannot connect them together… because you were not analytical enough! Lumine actually figured out everything thanks to you. It was all in your file of papers.”

Prez held up a file into the air, making Axl widen his eyes.

“Don’t worry I’ll give it back to you later. Right now you only need to listen to me and you’ll see where you missed out.”

Axl grimaced while Prez cleared his throat and began to speak.

“A few years ago after much world construction, the Federation government asked me to help them in a project to create Reploids that are resistant to the Sigma Virus. They asked me to do this because of my contribution to technology and world reconstruction. So you are a creation of mine and at the same time, a result of a joint project between the government and me.”

“Seems I had installed in you the Chameleon Chip solely for the purpose of combating the Virus and to increase your survival skills. That was the secondary reason. The primary reason was to prove that my scientific theories were correct from the very beginning. The Chip was connected to the coding of your data soul in order to control nuclear reactions that allow you to change your shape according to your received codes.”

Axl was confused so Prez said “Your body is a source of inexhaustible power that can be used to combat the Virus by changing forms with the help of foreign codes. This can be controlled with the help of your data soul and the Chip”

“Oh…” Axl awed.
“Any way, you were such a dear creation of mine although you were just a prototype. So I decided to awaken you and share with you the wonders of my sciences. However, you were awake for only one second when suddenly Reploids from the Red Alert crashed in to kidnap you! I had my guards tried to bring you back and recycle the intruders, but during the fight, you got scarred on the face.”

Axl now knew how he had an X-scar on his face.
“I was so sad that I had lost you. Therefore, I used the same formulas and blueprints, only more improved, to mix them with high-quality steel and other components to create a new replacement: Lumine. I taught him everything I knew and made him my assistant, though trusted in the hands of that man Bob. I don’t know how Lumine suddenly acted weird. Trusting my safety more, I sent him to direct the Jakob project.”

“It felt good to know that my Axl ended up in the Hunter HQ and Red Alert has been destroyed. X and Zero sure do make better teachers than me in Maverick combat, so I decided not to reclaim you. Then my Lumine turned evil, influenced by some sort of new world idea. I have an idea who may be responsible for this but I will not elaborate here. Lumine then used the Jakob Tower as a means to purge the world of humans.”

“Then the Hunters came to stop my evil Lumine and succeeded. I had no idea that Axl too would be part of this fight. When I heard on the news that Axl went into coma and became unusually weird, with the purple hair and extraordinary strength, I knew that Lumine must have resided in you, Axl. Who knew that both of you would suddenly co-exist harmoniously. Then I read the files and immediately recognized an important element in your relations: Iris.”

Axl started asking questions instant he heard about Iris “Hey Lumine you kept talking about Iris! Who is the dead girl anyway?”

Lumine didn’t comment, instead the screen projected him as hanging his head down, embarrassed to show his face. Prez laughed lightly.

“Iris was one of those Reploids created with sweet personalities years ago. The now-defunct Repliforce Army had an officer called Colonel, and she was delivered to him as his sister. Due to the conflict at the time Zero ended up killing her. That was when X and Zero went on to destroy Sigma in the Final Weapon. Both escaped before a giant explosion happened.”

“I was involved in this because, like I said, I manufacture many Reploids for the Army and was called to design the Final Weapon. I saw the Final Weapon explode and immediately sent rockets to recycle the pieces as scrap. One of my Reploid workers found a body of a girl, perfectly integrated together. That was Iris. I took pity on her and decided to recycle her myself. I saved her computer brain with her data soul inside and reused every piece of metal of her. I had her colours memorised to create another Reploid after her. I even saved her brown hair and made it spiky to use it for a male Reploid. After months and years of work, all the metal come into place and I reinstalled her as dormant for another data soul to take control: YOU, AXL.”

Axl now finally understood everything. Now his head was burning with many questions throughout his entire experience, but resisted to ask till the time was right, because Prez continued:

“Axl, you are residing in a body of recycled steel from Iris. That I can say is one of the best creations I’ve made. And Iris seems to have enjoyed living with us, isn’t that right?”

The screen behind Prez’s left projected an image of Iris. Iris smiled at a stunned Axl and gave him a bow. ‘Yes, I must say I enjoyed being with Axl all this while.”

Prez continued, “Let’s go back to the nearer past events. Axl, you went into a coma because a new data soul, Lumine, was transferred to you and your body had to adapt to the presence of another data soul. Most energy at the time was used to suit Lumine’s needs too. Iris survived all this while because her data soul was neatly preserved.”

“So I have heard that you and Lumine had been arguing the first three days. Lumine was pretty much evil at that time and Iris decided not to intervene until you were in very big danger from Lumine. Don’t underestimate dormant programs, Iris had unexploited combat power too. So her interference in your second argument was her using her dormant power to quell negative influences.”

“I soon realised how stupid I was and the government was too. Migrating to the Moon never solves any problems, we just avoid them more. Humans are born on Earth and Reploids are created on earth too, so they must co-exist in harmony on Earth. Therefore I told the government that I was going to dismantle Jakob and the Moon facilities, initiate massive recycling of new generation Reploids and use funds instead to reconstruct a better world despite various stupid opposition.”

“Your form can change to resemble that of Lumine and Iris too because of your copy ability. The copy ability is also meant to respond to the most active data soul in the Reploid’s body and orders the body to work with it. If forms resemble two different souls, it means both are very equally active.”

“Do not mix such incidents with Sigma, because whatever he planned coincided purely by accident with those of evil Lumine and he was able to influence Red to submit to his plans.”

“Actually you were able to cooperate with Lumine because he had an agreement with Iris. Now I am done. I’ll just sit down here and watch you ask any questions to THEM.”

Axl was ready to bombard the other two with lots of questions.



Continued in Chapter 9.


Notes:
There. Everything of the trio’s origins are revealed. Hope you can understand them.



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And the truth is not yet over.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Nine: Explanation


Axl was full of questions but he didn’t know where to start.

“But then…? How…? Why…? Aw, I don’t know where to start asking!”

Prez decided to intervene. “Ask them about their views and the own stories regarding their and your past. That will help.”

Axl was dumbfounded. “Okay fine, I’ll do that. First to start with you, Lumine. Tell me exactly everything in your point-of-view.”

Lumine finally lifted his head and put his hand behind it before answering Axl.

“Well… now you already know the reason behind my creation so I wouldn’t need to say anything about that. Actually, I myself didn’t know the reason I was created. Em… well anyway, I was created to replace you. Prez taught me everything I needed to know to be an assistant. Management, recording, science, code-encrypting…”

“Some years ago, the government contacted Prez regarding the design and advice to the construction of a large tower and facility for ‘additional housing’. You now know that as the Jakob Tower and the facilities on the Moon. Being very busy attending to the government for decision-making on various fields, Prez entrusted me into the care of Bob, the one who claimed to create me.”

“Of course we Reploids are built to be highly intelligent and analytical so I began to be very suspicious about Bob’s obsession with me. One day…I can’t talk about that. No, I simply can’t.”

Axl grimaced. “C’mon only we are here. You can share anything with me.”

Finally bowing to intense pressure from Axl and his thoughts, he spoke.

“Bob trapped me inside a capsule and induced a program that made me fall asleep. I know that he did something to me that turned me to feel more powerful, confident and evil. Then he told me that I was supposed to help build a better world… a world for all Reploids of new generation. Bob then sent me to Prez and actually accurately found me as most useful. Guess Prez detected somewhere wrong and asked me to direct the Jakob Project.”

Prez had a look that made guessing his current emotion difficult.

“I started by manipulating the Hunters in thinking that Sigma had Vile kidnap me. Actually it was all staged up. But, later I had different thoughts. I allowed the Hunters to destroy Sigma first in order to establish my legal status as leader of all new generation Reploids in a soon-to-come new world.”

“I tried to destroy the Hunters on the Moon so I can discard their bodies away, along with Sigma’s, into deep space so I could take over the world after purging the earth of humans, including Prez…”

“But realising my own destruction was nearer, I gathered all remaining energy to create an electronic tentacle out of my components and electronically passed myself on to the nearest Reploid: you, dear Axl. I considered it lucky that I was in Axl because since his structures and abilities are like those of mine and his body can also adapt to my data soul.”

“So I tried to take over your control mechanisms, Axl, as quickly as possible before the corporation realise the project a total waste and recycled all new generation Reploids. Guess I am too late now… Anyway, the second time I nearly took over, Iris sent out her energy to stop me. I then decided to search for the source and destroy it.”

“But I was pretty tired at that time and Iris easily overpowered me. She ran through my codes and found unusual data patterns, thus destroying them. My real self was then awakened and I realised my mistakes and its source: Bob corrupted my program. Iris too made me saw my mistakes and made me agree to start over and never harm you again, since you were my host now.”

“The debt of you being patient to me and embracing me while I started all over was paid off when I destroyed the Maverick at the dockyard for you. All along I lied to you about the ‘my creator’ issue because I was too embarrassed to talk about it and I didn’t want to quickly reveal Iris’ existence. I nearly did but Iris stopped me by giving me a pang on my back. I also had to patiently give you clues and at the same time, want you to search for the reason of my origins too.”

There was silence. Prez was clearly writing down something on a piece of paper. Iris and Axl found themselves a Lumine who suddenly bowed down to Axl.

“I’m so sorry, Axl. Please forgive me for not telling you all this.”

“Lumine, it’s okay. You repented and knew what’s right and wrong. That’s good enough for me. Iris, what about your part?”

Iris blushed slightly and blinked.

“Okay, I’d tell you my part of the story. Well, firstly I was activated in front of Colonel who called me his sister. Of course I wanted to know who created me but never had the chance to do so. Then the attacks on Sky Lagoon, a further part of the Big City, caused the Repliforce War. Out of irrationality, I fought Zero and caused my own death.”

“Well, I was actually unconscious in my own computer brain so I had no idea what went out. Like Prez said, my body was recycled every inch of it and me somehow revitalised. A new personality had entered my computer brain: you. I wasn’t able to take control because I was too weak. When you were activated, I was too; and I recall a sudden attack to kidnap us: the two personalities in a Reploid body.”

“Ah yes, the rusty pipe slashes on your face hurt you and me so much, yet I can’t do anything. I had no choice but to watch your every adventure. You running away, ending up in the Hunters HQ. I saw Zero but I hid myself because my reappearance can stir troubles. That time I had enough power to take over if I wanted too.”

“I watched all your adventures. I began to love it being in you only. A personality having more combat experiences deserves the body more than me. So you had no idea I was here all along.”

“Then the case of the Jakob Project Director being kidnapped. Later on only did I know that the body I resided in was a government prototype for the new generation ones possessing copy abilities. Then there was the fight with Lumine and the passing over of data soul electronically. I retreated into deeper isolation because I wanted to study what was truly going on all these years. If I revealed myself, trouble will multiply.”

“Lumine’s second attempt of total takeover was more serious than the first. I had to intervene. I neutralised the moves he made, detected a defect in the codes and terminated them. I persuaded him to stop harming you anymore and start all over again. I never thought that he was planning to reveal my existence to you. Nevertheless I allowed that because I too was anxious about my own past.”

“I couldn’t let my existence revealed so quickly because I needed you to first understand my feelings and the whole situation. Lumine was about to directly tell you that but I decided he needed some reminders, no matter how painful it was.”

Lumine hanged his head down again. Iris continued.

“Well about your attempt to break into the factory grounds. Lumine was actually tempting you to follow your curiosity’s desire and it sounded so real as a challenge that I knew you would actually take it up. Then you accidentally slipped down a staircase and fell unconscious. So we ended up here.”

Axl looked at the Lumine who hanged his head even lower.

“Well, Axl now you know everything about your origins. I’d like to say that my times with you was among the best I’ve had and I don’t regret allowing you total control.”

Axl gazed on the floor. He fully understood all that is to do with his past. He wanted to demand his release when Iris asked him a favour.

“Axl if it’s okay with you, I’d like to contribute my powers too so you perform better in battle next time. I’m sure Lumine would do so too, don’t you?”

Lumine stopped feeling embarrassed and replied quickly. “Yeah sure what she said.” Axl raised an eyebrow.

“How would you do that? There’s no way you can pass them on to my guns.”

“Exactly how Lumine did his at the dockyards, silly.”

“Well, sure no problem. Try to do them as stealthily as you can.”

There was another round of silence. Then Prez broke up the silence by snapping his fingers. The screens all turned black. Lumine’s and Iris’ image were not projected. The wires at Axl’s head gem disconnected and returned back inside the machines they belonged to. The machines then shut down themselves.

Axl was flown over to the platform by the same chair he sat on; a pair of propellers appeared and whisked him there. The hand- and leg-cuffs unlocked themselves and Axl was able to stand up, facing his creator.

“Don’t worry, Lumine. Justice will be done for you.” Prez then proceeded to give the three-in-one Reploid, led by Axl, a big hug.

“You three are like children to me. I never had a family…” Tears rolled down his cheeks. Axl was touched by the moment. “This is our secret…father. I’m glad I finally got to know you.” The other two agreed with him.

Then a news flash came in. The Hunters HQ was in chaos, sending out groups to look for the missing Axl.

Prez rushed to resume his schedule. “Listen you three. You’d better get back to HQ. They are worried for all of you. I know. I’ll send you back. Axl, remember to hide your new friend’s existence. Lumine’s too. Always be strong. Try to spare time and drop by. I’ll be waiting.” Prez then pressed a blue button.

“Father, wait-” A secret compartment appeared, sucked Axl in and sealed its doors tight before Axl got to say anymore words. An opening on the roof allowed the flight of the compartment back to HQ, under the trickling rain.

Little did Axl know he was for in big trouble. Real big.



Continued in Chapter 10.


Notes:
Wait for the next chapter. The plot’s still growing.


-----

Exactly what the end notes said. Stay tuned for the next chapters.

[Professor Fann]

Eh ... although no one's replied, I might as well just post the updates of Chapters 10 to 12, just for the occasion. Anyone who's filled with questions, don't hesitate to ask.


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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Ten: Rebellion


Axl was now trying to sort out the mess he would soon face. How was he going to explain his absence to X? What were the rest of his friends planning to do with him? How long can he keep Lumine and Iris secret? Axl sighed in the flying compartment.

The dark compartment was dark brown inside without any light. Axl only sat on a chair provided, leaning against the suction vacuum that sucked him in earlier.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I just know they’ll expel me for this.”

The other two didn’t say anything yet. The encounter with their ‘father’ was more than enough to make any Reploid who never seen their creator stunned.

“Em…Lumine, is our agreement about keeping you secret still on?”

There was a delayed reply. “Yes, dear boy, although I have already changed myself, I don’t think your friends will take me lightly.”

“Don’t worry Axl we can remain dormant if we want to. The HQ will definitely not be able to scan our presence here. We’ll be safe.”

“I’m not so sure about that, Iris. Things change over time.”

Total silence. They still felt themselves flying in the skies all the way back to HQ. Then, at the rooftop floor of the HQ, Hunters using a binoculars spotted a tall black cubicle headed their way.

“There’s an unidentified object heading this way. Be careful!”

When the compartment arrived at the rooftop floor, Hunters held out their weapons aimed at it. But it only opened its floor and Axl dropped abruptly to the ground. The compartment then flew away back to Prez Corp.

The Hunters were very surprised to see the red-grey Reploid.

“Axl! We were looking for you all over the city! Alert to other teams! The target has returned home! Report back to base immediately! C’mon X is so worried!”

When they were dragging him away, he whispered, “You wish.”

Axl was now facing an angry X in his office. Zero and the others, along with the team that found him while it was still raining, were behind him.

“Axl do you have any idea how much trouble you caused just by skipping the limit? You just violated a hostel regulation! You might have ended up in serious danger! You can face tough disciplinary action such as longer quarantines and suspension from work! What do you have to say?”

“Em.. I went for a walk to the Prez Corporation plants?”

The audience was shocked, though X only raised an eyebrow.

“Why in the world would you want to end up in a place that grinds Mavericks to dust and the recycling of metals can even cause you death?”

“I was… curious?” Axl didn’t want to tell the truth.

X decided it was only that a face-to-face talk that could persuade him to tell the truth. He ordered everyone to resume original duties while he and Axl remained.

The two know sat face to face at a small table at the middle side of the office. X took out some paper and pens before he turned to Axl.

“Axl, just tell me exactly what happened in the plants. The disciplinary board usually makes sentences lighter if the subject tells the exact truth.”

Axl blinked his eyes shut, turning to Lumine and Iris. They too asked him to tell the truth but exclude them out of his words.

Axl told him everything except the parts where Lumine and Iris played their respective roles. He went to the library to seek more facts about his past, which led him to the Prez Corp. He couldn’t wait so he sneaked out at night, miraculously escaping detection. He found out his creator, Prez, who didn’t see him as a mere prototype but also as a ‘son’ and was sent back by him.

X jotted down every detail to pass on to the disciplinary board. Axl, who was rediscovered 5 hours after he was first detected missing in the morning, now had to dread another 2 hours wait for his verdict.

Lumine could only praise him for telling the truth without passing on anything about him. “Or else I have to rage myself, dear boy.”

The verdict came. Axl was sentenced to another 2 days of quarantine and off-limit communication. Axl was relieved as he expected something much worse and he was used to quarantines, but the next thing that hit him was the worse one.

“Layer has informed me that a new machine that verifies your status and health is ready, thanks to scientists from the Prez Corporation. It also detects and extracts any dormant unknown programs and it terminates any we find potentially dangerous to you.” That sent cold shivers throughout Axl’s body.

“WHAT?!” Axl wasn’t expecting this as Prez didn’t tell him anything about it. If he doesn’t do anything fast, Lumine will definitely rage again.

“The procedure will take place NOW. I’m sorry Axl but we are still determined to seek the source of your mad behaviour around two weeks ago. Based on our witnessing, we have to terminate the program fast.”

Axl was really worried. Lumine is the kind of cold, emotionless Reploid that meant what he said and was serious in making it a reality. Seeing no other option of trying to keep Lumine’s existence secret and he couldn’t explain anything, he sprinted fast away from X.

“AXL! Guards, seize him!” The same big Mechaniloids that guarded him days ago grabbed him by the arms.

“X, you don’t understand! If you put me in that place, something horrible will happen! Please don’t do this! I’ll rather do more quarantines than a minute in that chair thing of yours!!” His struggle to free himself was worthless.

“I’m sorry but this order is final.”

In the mechanics room, Axl was being strapped to the mechanical chair by handcuffs and leg-cuffs again. Wires were inserted into tiny strategic points of the body to determine Axl’s REAL health status, besides his exposed head gem.

“X, there’s some things living inside me that you should not know! I can handle them myself! Why do you think I became relatively stable after the first three days? I can handle them, I promise! Just let me of this thing!”

“I’m sorry Axl, but I repeat, we must find out this unknown program and my order is final.” To prove he made the order, he pushed down the lever that starts.

“AHHH!” Axl screamed as electricity stunned his body. Lumine and Iris were hurt too but the only thing Lumine didn’t tolerate now was being exposed.

The outline of Axl’s body was highlighted in three different colours: mostly blue and a tiny portion of purple and pink at the head. The status bars read that Axl’s real health was in perfect condition and no abnormalities were found.

“Purple and pink? At the head? Those must be the unknown programs! Let’s get this over with!” Zero said among Axl’s screams.

The computer spoke. “LISTING ALL THREE PROGRAMS OF DATA SOULS IN SUBJECT ALPHABETICALLY. SEARCHING…”

The first name that appeared was ‘AXL’.
The second name was ‘IRIS’. That stunned Zero to the core. “Iris? Alive? But! But! How could this be? What is going on here?!”

The third name started scenes of violence over the next few minutes: ‘LUMINE’.

X found it hard to believe himself. When he was about to extract all three…

Axl stopped screaming and jerked violently. Lumine was releasing his entire strength to control Axl. Axl and Iris, not matched for the power, saw Lumine taking TOTAL control of Axl. The computer projected an Axl highlighted in 100 percent purple colour.

Firstly, Axl’s eyes shone crimson, the colour showing he was really, really angry. With a little aura exerted from the body, all connecting wires were forcibly pushed out from Axl. His head gem was automatically sealed up.

Axl’s form began to changes as the whole body structure wobbled like a piece of glob. The Hunters and scientists there made a few steps backwards, fearing injury. After a few seconds, Lumine’s full form was exhibited. The eye that glared at them was full of anger and revenge.

“I WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE ME!!” Floating in the air, he released a larger wave of aura that destroyed the entire room and several floors above and below it.

It was still raining when all this happened. Lumine then floated backwards into the open air and teleported away. The stunned audience were still stunned.

At the site of the currently dismantling Jakob Tower, Lumine appeared in the air among many Reploid and human workers. With a simple wave of his right hand upwards and stronger glowing of his crimson eyes, the ground just exploded from underneath. Many thus ran for their lifes.

“X, Lumine is spotted at the Jakob Tower. I think he’s trying to rebuild it again!”

“Thanks, Alia! Everyone, prepare for battle!” All Hunters were immediately dispatched at the Jakob Tower site. Nearby military units were also called in.

Iris and Axl could only watch as Lumine began his next moves. He summoned forth all available Reploids and turned them all into raging Reploids, waiting for his orders. The dismantling machines were reprogrammed to fortify the deserted area and the Jakob Tower into a structure of a giant palace surrounded by a fort. Construction began fast, all done by the waves of hands and glowing evil eyes.

“I know that you Hunters are going to take away my life, despite the fact I treated Axl with more respect. So stubborn-headed and refusing to change the mindset, all thanks to your humans! I now re-proclaim this: I shall restart the construction of the new world! You idiots made me do all this! From this site, the Reploid nation of justice shall expand and encompass the world!!”

He vanished in the midst of rain.

Then the amazingly fast constructed forts pointed out their cannons and began shooting shells here and there. A battle zone was created within 27 minutes.

X and Zero teleported to the site too. Zero still remained dazed over the sudden appearance of Iris, who was confirmed dead in space.

“How’s that possible? Iris in Axl? I’m all whacked up and confused…”

“Zero, I know all this is very crazy but we gotta face the facts! We have to save Axl first and get rid of Lumine before he rages even more!”

Before they proceeded further, x drew his attention to a deep crack in the ground. He found a giant pipe bent upwards and a huge punctured hole, caused by the malfunctioning on the mechanical controls in there.

“Highly pressurized pipes exploded! First the jerking, then crashing onto the door and the giant destruction of the Mechaniloid at the dockyard and this! Lumine has gone too far! That’s why he’s got to be stopped!”

Lumine watched them via screens reinstated in the palace. Axl feels helpless but he still has to do something. Another battle with him was about to begin.



Continued in Chapter 11.


Notes:
Ohh new madness. This is good.



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Exactly as the end notes said. Though, they definitely fall behind my new standard used to write the Tale of Two Souls fiction I intend to post on ZV in August.

And that's a piece of news for you readers too.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Eleven: Retreat


It was hard to believe that all these events since Axl’s being missing happened took place in just a single day. The battle at the Jakob Tower base took place in the mid-afternoon. X and Zero first had to report to commanders of the military on how to attack and how all the fast construction had occurred.

“Commander X, we are all aware that the target-em…”

“Lumine, ex-Director of the Jakob Project.”

“Yeah that’s the name. We are aware that fortifications of the Tower are occurring at an extremely fast pace! If we do not act now, Lumine’s act of terror will spread so fast, it’s like oil spill around the world at the same time. The question is: how and what?”

“We have yet to come up with solid evidence and proper theory but we suspect that since Axl and Lumine share the same copy abilities, when Lumine entered Axl’s body, he brought along all his codes that create his vast powers and used Axl’s body to use those powers.”

Zero thought to himself: “Iris, why are you involved in this…?”

“So how do we stop this mass fortifications and injuries?”

X gave a huge thought of what he was about to say and regretted such an idea came to his head. “We have no choice but to use our best missiles and bombs. Target them all at the cannons, defences and the machines building the forts. Zero and I will go into that elevator and try to stop Lumine.”

“Huh? Oh right.” Zero woke up from his own thoughts.

“Alright commanders, we heard the chief. Let’s give it our best and end all this violence!”

Minutes later, airplanes and ships fired their bombs at the fortress walls. The walls are blown to bits but other defence mechanisms like laser guns surfaced and sliced planes into half before exploding.

The explosions and scenes of shooting are indescribable. War is concentrated in a small island not far away from the Big City. Though, some shells hit targets and involved small parts of Big City. Coastal roads and facilities were blown to oblivion while many people and Reploids were instantly evacuated.

Up in a slowly rising elevator platform in the centre of the Tower, Lumine watched the scenes with little interest with a curled lip. He was willing to do anything to prevent himself from being captured.

In the computer brain, Axl was frustrated over what to do to stop Lumine’s terror acts. Since Lumine was too concentrated on monitoring the situation around his palace, Axl’s thoughts were not heard well and even ignored.

“Man, how am I gonna save my own friend from a mindset of violence with this… this will so strong in him?”

Iris spoke up to him, finally breaking the tense, silent atmosphere.

“Axl, you have to persuade him to stop. Only you can do this.”

“Hey why not you? You managed to calm him down before.”

“True, but I only managed to make him treat you nicely since you are his host. Now the thing is he has affirmed to treating you with better manners but he has not yet affirmed to be friendly to his neighbours.”

“Does this have anything to do with the unusual pattern of codes you found?”

“Absolutely nothing. I have already destroyed all of the unusual codes. Previously, he acted evil because the codes forced him to. This time he is acting evilly because of his own free will.”

“Well, this makes it difficult to stop him.”

Iris decided to leave Axl and Lumine alone to settle this problem so she disappeared. Axl was very quick to notice it so he grabbed her hand.

“Hey you can’t just hide yourself at a time like this! I need you!”

Iris smiled. “Sweet dear Axl, my part in this conflict ends here. You need to play yours now. Only you can stop him because he’s friendlier to you than me.”

Axl looked at her while her hand disintegrated.

“What about Zero? How will you explain yourself to him?”

“Not now, Axl. Help Lumine first…”

Iris’ voice faded in the pitch-black darkness, leaving Axl and Lumine alone.

Axl was about to confront Lumine when the white Reploid turned around and smiled gently at him. Apparently, he sensed Axl and closed his eyes to see him.

“Yes dear boy. How may I help you now?” It was amazing to see how he could be so nice to Axl at a troubling time like this.

Axl thought for a swift second: “Iris is right. He’s most friendly to me. Maybe I can do this after all. Here goes nothing.”

“Em…Lumine, you can always discuss your problems with m, right? So why are you doing all this mad things?”

Lumine’s smile soured a little and he looked away opposite the direction of Axl.

“Alright, I’ll tell you. Well, you know me from the start. I was wrong to launch a war against the ‘old world’ and to pass myself onto you to continue that mission. I attempted to control you back then for this mission too. But now, things have changed. I repented and sought your respect. Isn’t that right?”

“Well… yes that’s right…”

“But the only thing that remains the same is that your other friends still regard me as a threat to society! Those days I rebelled because the old world is assumed insane and narrow-minded. But now, I rebelled because I saw proof that this world is REALLY insane and narrow-minded!”

“Em, that was because-”

“I have repented but only you recognised that while the other friends of yours still think that I am the same Maverick on the Moon! They are still bound to take me down no matter what! This is truly injustice! So I decided to rebel to counter this injustice!”

“Er… Lumine, that’s where-”

“This new world that I am fighting for will seek to protect all Reploids that are maltreated for their better good! More Reploids will join this cause and that’s why I said that the Reploid nation will expand and cover the world!”

“Okay this is really crazy-”

“Crazy? Crazy? Oh my dear Axl, please see this things in my point-of-view! It will all make sense-”

The elevator came to a halt suddenly and Lumine was thrown upwards due to the inertia. He opened his eyes and propelled his body to safety while floating in the air. The weather still hadn’t changed; the rain is still pouring down. Above him was the outer skeleton of the Tower, still under construction.

“What the! The elevator isn’t supposed to stop! Did I see anything wrong this time?” He got a familiar reply.

“The only mistake you made was being a Maverick!” X appeared from the side of the outer skeleton onto the platform.

Zero appeared next. “Surrender, give us back Axl and Iris so no one gets hurt!”

Lumine gave an evil snicker. “Well, well, well. It’s the famous Hunters X and Zero. I was hoping I could get some conversation with you two sooner.”

“I said give us back Axl now!” Zero yelled out.

“I’m afraid I really can’t do that now. If I hand in Axl, you’ll tie him again, try to extract me out of this body and delete me for no good reason!”

“Don’t make us get tough on you!” X aimed a Buster at him.

“Bring it on, blue boy! It’s again time I’ve had some good fights! Don’t expect me to be defeated again, just like on the Moon!”

Lumine powered himself up by expanding his purplish aura with some of his energy. However, this time his eyes turned light red, meaning that he was calm and confident.

He began the battle by firing a laser ray at the duo. X and Zero evaded it as the ray was reflected and hit a part of the outer skeleton structure and exploded. X took the chance to blast him with a charged shot.

“Gah!” Apparently, the pain made him loosen control over the construction machines and defences. The battle on the ground came to a standstill as the cannons stopped operating. Hunters were surprised at the turn of events.

Zero gave Lumine at charged saber slash on his body.

“Urgh!” The pain caused more loosened control over the operation of machines. Overheating rose and a lot of machines exploded out of the blue. Hunters and military units on the ground retreated as many explosions occurred everywhere along the Tower’s structures.

“What is going on up there?” Many wondered.

Lumine’s continuous aimless shots of laser rays broke down many outer skeletal structures, causing them to lose balance and fall to the ground.

Giant pieces smashed the defence walls of the fort and even more explosions of brown, black smoke. As the battle continued, it seemed that X and Zero were close to defeating Lumine, with themselves having injuries.

“You are good… but I am much better!” Crossing his hands at his chest, he flared up his aura and broke the cross, thus exploiting much more energy than previously.

He opened his eyes, flaring crimson red, meaning he was now filled with tonnes of anger. His armour shone a silver light.

“Come on, weaklings!!” He dared them forward.

Zero was the first to attack. His saber slash seems to cause now damage on Lumine. Thrusting his right hand forwards he blasted a laser on him, blasting Zero down to the platform, very injured.

“Seen my might yet?” Lumine taunted X.

“Don’t you show off in front of me!” X blasted a charged shot at him. But Lumine’s body repelled it off by itself. “He’s immune?!”

“Now he gets it! I am going to crush you all now!!” A truly evil Lumine floated away from the smoke, grinning with a smile so disgusting humans can vomit instantly.



Continued in Chapter 12.


Notes:
Fighting time and conscious-digging, done at the same time. Technology is so mysterious.




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Nothing to say here ...

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Twelve: Surrender


Axl couldn’t believe that his inhabitant friend would so suddenly turn real insane and kill his other friends in the physical world! As Lumine prepared to gather more energy to strike X and Zero, Axl thought fast of how to quickly end the fight and liberate Lumine from his insanity.

Lumine fires another purple laser ray at X and really injures him. A big explosion was the result and X fell to the corner of the elevator platform, too tired to fight on.

“Hm and this is how the head of the Hunters finally meets his doom!” Lumine flew over to the injured X and puts his hand forward, directly at X’s head.

The evil grin couldn’t be erased and the anger and hatred couldn’t be suppressed so easily. Lumine gathers a ball of laser energy on his fingertips and aimed at X’s brain. “Goodbye, X – AAHH!!”

Zero had gotten up and given him a secret powerful slash at his back. Lumine lost control of his aim, accidentally firing the ball of laser at another skeletal structure that held the Tower in place. It was blasted forward and fell towards the ground, but also tore out another structural layer forward, out of the Tower.

The elevator platform thus lost its hold and collapsed downwards by around a staggering 18 storeys. Zero who had X in his clutches landed safely on the platform after a very high jump.

“X! Are you okay? Speak to me!!” X got up slowly.

“Yeah, I’m fine…thanks for saving me…where’s Lumine?”

A Lumine in perfect condition floated downwards to the platform’s new altitude. It seems he had enough of playing with the duo for so long.

“Why you little red scum! I’ll teach you for backstabbing me like a coward!!” Lumine released giant spherically expanding waves of energy that was too fast to be avoided. Both X and Zero suffered the powerful impact and the health status was drained to near zero.

Lumine dissolved his shield, which was activated because the energy waves could too wipe him out, and looked around him. He was floating in the air, rain pouring on his head and the other skeletal structures above the elevator platform was reduced to rubble, which covered most of X and Zero.

Satisfied with himself, he laughed out widely.
“I am victorious! No Reploid can now defeat me and stop me – Urkk!!”

He was stunned in the mid-air by an unknown enemy. He was nowhere to be seen but when he closed his eyes, he saw the one who stunned him.

“Axl…?” He was very surprised to see Axl in a combat position in front of him, emitting his blue aura, which had robbed him of further movements.

Axl was very angry with Lumine. He had also found a logical explanation to counter Lumine and bring him back to repentance, starting all over.

“Axl, why are you doing this?”

Axl ran forward and grabbed hold of Lumine’s shoulders. “Snap outta it, Lumine! Just stop attacking everyone, alright? It makes me very sad to do this!”

He flung Lumine to his left with all his might. Lumine didn’t expect this so he landed roughly on the floor but on his back. Axl gazed down on him.

“Axl, you are my friend! Please don’t let me harm you!”

“You by right should not harm ANYONE at all if you are to stick to the road of repentance and righteousness! You are not analytical of yourself!”

Lumine’s eyes widened. “Dear boy, what are you saying?”

“Let me start from the beginning! At first you attempted to take over me two times, then when Iris intervened you learnt what is right and wrong. That was okay because the codes forced you to be evil. But you are different now! The codes are gone, you knew what is right and wrong but you still acted evil! Do you know what went wrong?”

Axl glared down at him with anger.
“You may have repented and proved that in front of me but you forgot to show that you have repented in front of MY OTHER FRIENDS! You didn’t come out and apologize to them with the same sincere heart you showed me! You should have done this a long time ago! Then you are a new person! If you did, you wouldn’t have done what you just did!!”

Lumine looked at the rubble that covered X and Zero, and closed his eyes.

“But what about our agreement then to keep me secret?”

“WHO CARES!! I made the agreement in the first place because you were evil and stubborn to create trouble! But now you know what’s right and wrong, the agreement can be forgotten because you are now a good person! A good person should settle every mess by upholding the correct truth, even if it means getting persecuted! As long as you are doing the right thing! You should have settled everything right in the beginning!”

“You must totally renounce your ideas of a pure new world full of Reploids! Didn’t you learn from father? Humans and Reploids should co-exist together, because we are their creations and they are our creators! Humans have long been ruling this planet before us so the perfect ideal world should not be purged of humans! Humans are imperfect; give them time to learn and set things right!”

Axl bent down on him and pleaded to him.

“Please…you are given another chance…don’t harm anyone…at all…”

Lumine’s eyes glittered; a tear from each eyes rolled across his face, down to the pitch-black floor. “Axl…I’m sorry…I’m truly sorry…please forgive me… let me start anew… but how? With so many troubles…”

Axl grabbed his hand, pulled him up and wiped away the tears.

“Lumine…father said ‘Always be strong’. Be brave…brave enough to face X and Zero…the whole Hunter HQ…seek their forgiveness. First ask forgiveness from X and Zero. I have forgiven you.”

“Then…join us in our work to build a better world. Be friends with as many people as possible…that way you are a righteous Reploid.”

Lumine hanged his head down. “They are definitely going to punish me for all this. I don’t think I can make it…I may have strength and guts but…I simply can’t.”

Axl saw that he had opened his mind and smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you. I’ll replace you and do all your sentences for you. It’s okay. I’m already used to all of them. Don’t worry.”

Lumine was touched by Axl’s willingness to sacrifice for his crimes. His eyes glittered more and, due to immense pressure, gave Axl a hug and smiled.

“Thank you Axl. I’ll never forget this. You’ve taught me a valuable lesson.” For the first time since he was corrupted, he experienced true happiness and care from a fellow Reploid. Tears rolled down again. The emotionless became the emotional.

Iris’ pink aura brightened up to show she was present. “Congratulations to both of you. Axl, you did it. You played your part. Lumine, I’m so proud of you. Both of you, in fact.”

Suddenly Axl remembered something. “X! Zero! I gotta help them!”

Axl resumed control from Lumine but then fell down onto the platform. “Ow that hurt.” He dashed forward to clear the rubble of the two head Hunters.

By the time they have awaken, X and Zero were surprised to see Lumine tending to their health despite the fact it was still raining. Lumine gave a deep bow and apologized for what he had done.

“Right. Could someone tell me what had happened exactly right from the beginning until all this mess had to occur?” X asked.

Lumine’s form wobbled and changed to become Axl. “I will.”

Axl had been brought into a security truck outside the Tower base site. Reploid and human workers were allowed back into the site for their continued work of dismantling the Tower and clearing the mess caused. The military were returning back to Big City when the three Hunters were in the passenger seats.

Axl explained the entire story right back from the beginning. The Repliforce crisis and Iris’ death, Prez’s recycling habit, Axl’s and Lumine’s creation, Lumine’s corruption and the Jakob and Red Alert cases, the attempts of takeover and meeting with Prez.

“Well, that is quite a big piece of story which ends right here with Axl.” Zero sighed. “X you gotta admit that all these makes sense a lot. There’s tonnes of evidence we’ve got in the labs and right here. What do we do?”

“We cannot deny that the disciplinary board will clear Axl’s name but we will have to sentence Lumine very heavily for the mess he created these two weeks.”

X turned to Axl. “Are you sure you want to do this, Axll? Substituting Lumine for yourself? He’s the criminal, not you.”

“Positive. I’ve been through all those sentences so it should be no problem for me. Lumine owes me a lot for all these.”

“Hey I promised I’d pay you back the debts as soon as possible, okay?”

X and Zero, of course, didn’t hear Lumine’s reply but they only saw Axl’s smile to confirm that Lumine had reaffirmed to turn over a new leaf.

That very night, a special Hunters disciplinary board meeting had been held to discuss Lumine’s sentences. It was originally supposed to be very heavy, but given facts of evidence and seeing Lumine’s truthfulness and Axl’s acceptance to bear it, the board reduced the sentence to a mere 3 day total quarantine in a super-sealed room without any physical contact at all on Axl, beginning the next day, since the day’s events were very hectic.

Axl decided to use this chance to run all the way to the Prez Corporation factories and plants to visit their ‘father’.

“Why are you guys calling him ‘father’? Reploids don’t have genetic parents.” Iris argued on the way there.

Both answered together. “He considers us as his children.”

Iris concluded that it was best to join them, not beat them.

Axl met Prez in his luxurious office, decorated with the richest tone of colour for curtains and books, portraits and even snooker furniture.

“Well, I decided to tell you all personally that all damages caused during today’s bizarre string of events have been paid off by me. I saw everything on screen.”

Axl, like planned, gave Lumine control over the body and saw Lumine apologizing to Prez for causing him so much trouble and disappointed him as he expected more of a faithful Reploid.

Prez only got up the office chair, walked to Lumine and looked down on him. It was because Prez is a man of 6-and-a-half feet of height while Axl, Iris and Lumine all are 6 feet of height.

“It’s all fine, my dear boy. As long as you mature everyday, that’s good enough for me.” Both hugged each other. In the computer brain, Axl had never seen Lumine this happy before, recognised by that wide smile he had.



Continued in Chapter 13.


Notes:
Yay all things settled. Well most of it, anyway. There are still things ahead.


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Eh, settled. For now. Still more to come, if any of you has ever been to Code Crush and read the stories ... stay tuned for more memory refreshments.

[Professor Fann]

Just posting another 3 new chapters for the heck of it. Enjoy the oldies all.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Thirteen: Friends


In the end, Axl had to endure another 3 days worth of super-sealed quarantine without any physical contact at all and he was strapped up with two sheets of flexible titanium, just to make sure Lumine doesn’t escape again and to prove Axl was willing to go through all that horror again.

“Em…sorry, dear Axl for all this trouble…”

“It’s okay. I can still take it.”

The white Reploid then sat in a small corner, hanging his head down and thinking at the same time while Axl lay on the super-sealed room’s cushions.

In that same period, just like what Prez has promised, all damages caused by Lumine’s outrage had been paid for and the reconstructions of damaged sites are underway. The Jakob Tower was again subjected to dismantling and the rebuilding of a green island, due to the devastating effects of the battle earlier.

The bespectacled guy of messy brown hair named Bob had escaped from the Prez Corp. because his evil deeds had been exposed. Prez made various efforts to trace him down in the whole of Big City but couldn’t find him. Bob hated Prez more than ever and vowed to take revenge on him soon.

The Big City environment returned to normal as the rubble had been cleared to stop everyone from choking and no fires and explosions were reported so the air remained clean. Most waste had been recycled, once again, by the efforts of Prez.

During the quarantine period, Axl resorted to inner conversation as usual because he had no one to talk to.

“Grrr…what am I going to do in here besides talking to you guys?”

“Well…we can have a slight celebration because Lumine has fully renounced his idea and him being committed to everyone’s happiness.” Iris suggested.

Lumine blushed a little and put his hand behind his head.
“Aw c’mon guys, there’s no need to celebrate. Now that I’ve got my free spirit and strong will back, I’ll just do the best I can. Besides, what’s to celebrate? We are in the subconscious. There’s nothing much to do.”

Lumine made such a point that Iris cancelled any plans to celebrate Lumine’s repentance, only hanging her head downwards in disappointment.

Axl bored with himself, resorted to counting imaginary sheep in the air.
“One…two…three…one hundred and sixty-three…stampede!”

“Axl, dear boy, you can’t possibly pass all your time just by counting sheep. Just do something else. Like…em…”

“Lumine, you can’t even suggest what I can do while I’m bored. Just leave me alone for now. I’ll come back if any of your advices are really useful.”

“Hey, that’s not very nice! Grrr…darn, we are still strapped. I’ll get you later when we are out of this pile of strap!” A laughing Lumine disappeared.

Then, the 3-day period was over. Axl was de-strapped by the HQ guards outside the quarantine room. Axl was lucky today; Lumine was so relieved to be free, he forgot to settle scores with Axl regarding the previous insult.

“Oh yes! Finally free! Let me stretch a little, Axl. I feel numb here…”

Like usual, Lumine will quickly grasp control of certain parts of Axl’s body and use them to express his thoughts. Axl is now seen exercising his arms while walking along the corridors of the HQ.

Iris, having strong desire to see Zero gain, requested for control.

Axl was the fastest to oppose her request. “Iris, I dunno…Zero will be pretty shocked to see a dead Reploid alive. He’d just be stunned or something…besides you saw his reaction while I was scanned for ‘unknown programs’ presence…”

Iris was slightly sad but pressed for control. “Please Axl. It’s been many years already since he killed me. I only wanted a light chat session, that’s all.”

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea, Iris-”

“Well, bully for red blondie. You can always talk to him anytime-”

“I didn’t ask you, Lumine and don’t talk about Zero that way! C’mon Axl, please!” She shone her puppy eyes.

Axl couldn’t further deny Iris her right to control of the body. “Fine. Go talk with Zero. Just quickly take control in his office, not out here.”

Zero was in his office, typing out some sort of document. Axl entered quickly, panting before he rested on the chairs.

“Hey Axl. What’s wrong? Why are you panting so much?”

Axl’s appearances wobbled suddenly. Before Zero could react, he found himself the form of the friend he had to kill in the Final Weapon.

“Iris!” Iris quickly got up from the seats and wiped her hands on her skirt before looking up at Zero and replied back. “Hey Zero.”

Axl was right. Zero was stunned at her with his face expressing utter shock and speechlessness. Iris sighed and gave him a hug.

“It’s okay, Zero. I’m here. I’m not dead. I was in Axl all this while, remember?” Zero didn’t look stunned anymore.

“Um…Iris, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have killed you back then. The conflict was so pressuring at the time that I… you…”

“Like I said, it’s okay. That conflict is gone. It’s not happening now, right? Let’s forget the past and start over, okay? We are still friends.”

“Friends…” Zero returned to his seat after breaking the hug and looked gloomily at the table’s surface. “Alright, let’s be friends again. Start over and get to know each other well.”

Iris became instantly cheerful and sat Zero’s table, beginning to ask many questions about Zero after the Repliforce War and other stuff.

Hours later, Axl came out of Zero’s office with a dizzy head. He decided to not delay and get a rest quickly before Iris makes him dizzier.

“What are you saying? It isn’t my fault you are so dizzy suddenly!”

“Oh sure, if you call hugging a long lost friend and chatting for hours not terrible enough for a Reploid to get a headache because you were constantly moving about on the table.”

“Axl! You…gulp…ah! Why can’t I take control of your hands?”

Axl smiled to himself. “Sorry, Iris, I guess you weren’t fast enough. Lumine will usually grasp my body much faster than you. I guess it’s to do with combat experience. Maybe you should train. I know I can beat you anytime.”

“Dear Axl, that’s not nice to treat a girl this way. But then again, I always beat the two of you if we were competing.” Both Iris and Axl protested. “Hey, whose side are you on anyway?!”

The silent arguments continued on until Axl saw Pallette in the computer labs reading combat status reports. Axl immediately told Lumine that.

“So what if she’s doing that in the labs? Do you like her?”

“You still have to apologize to her. You were the one who suddenly raged and grabbed her up by the neck before blasting me unconscious last time.”

Lumine suddenly remembered that and looked downwards embarrassed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I still have to make it up to her…”

Axl walked into the lab and met his mission navigator. Just when she looked up, Axl turned into Lumine. “You! What do you want? I’m still busy; meet me later.” “Sorry. I have to settle this now. Please give me a chance to say something.”

Pallette turned around and looked at Lumine. Then, the white Reploid bowed down to her so fast, she was surprised by the sudden act.

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry. Sorry that I raged at you that time.”

Pallette’s facial expression changed. “Oh it’s okay. X told me everything over the past weeks. It doesn’t matter; just don’t do it again.”

Lumine’s form changed so quickly back to Axl that Pallette thought her eyes were blurred and rubbed it. Axl rubbed his hands on his chest before leaving the labs; Pallette left dumbfounded.

“Do you do that all the time?” She asked, still astonished. “Yeah, I guess so. It used to hurt quite a lot, since our data souls will clash in controls, but now it just moves along peacefully.”

“Data souls? What are those?”

“It’s what Lumine calls them. He defines them as strings of complex data and codes that define a Reploid’s personality. A Reploid can be granted immense combat power provided they are encrypted with the proper codes. Seems that our creator did so, only to him and Iris.”

“What about you?” “Me? Nah. I’m just granted with the copy ability. I only use guns but I cannot shoot out lasers from my bare hands.” “I see…these things are very interesting.” “Well, I gotta go. I’ve got some games to play with.”

At an opposite corner, X was watching the scene with the doubtful eyes again. Alia who had been following X all this while, finally protested.

“C’mon X. Just leave them alone. I guess they’re having fun together. Axl’s had enough quarantines that could make anyone in here crazy. He deserves some time with his … other inhabitants.”

X didn’t change his expression. Alia decided to retreat back to her cubicle before she had to endure another of X’s lectures. X, still standing at the corner, made his lip curl and did some thinking.



Continued in Chapter 14.


Notes:
Hm X’s trying to do something to Axl and his pals. Felt it’s best Iris quickly settle problems with Zero.



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In other news though, I intend to post the Tale of Two Souls, which I have talked much of it, of Chapter 1 tomorrow. One Chapter a day until Chapter 8 ... or that's the plan.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Fourteen: Decisions


Axl woke up the next day, expecting a truckload full of missions to be thrown on him and any other wacky adventure imaginable. Lumine and Iris hadn’t woke up either, so he retreated to his cubicle to laze some time around, only to find a notice left on his table.

“Axl, meet me in my office around 9 o’ clock. From: X.”

“Oh great. X must want to question me or something!”

Axl knocked his head on his table so loudly that his other inhabitants were jerked to wake up suddenly. Axl, who had shut his eyes immediately after banging his head on the table, saw an angry Iris in front of him.

“Hey, what’s the big idea? I was having some nice rest when suddenly a big blow landed on my head, thanks to you!”

“Em…sorry Iris. Didn’t realise that. Must’ve used too much force.”

Lumine confronted the two. “Alright, dear boy, what’s seems to be the problem around here? Something going on?”

“Yup. X called me to his office. It must be something that urgent in order for me to meet him at 9 in the morning.”

Iris’ face was glowing red. “IT IS 9 ALREADY!”

Axl immediately got up from his chair and turned to look at the clock. It was already five past nine. Axl quickly dashed to X’s office, speeding past by many confused-looking Reploids.

After turns at many stairs and elevators, Axl made it to the Commander’s office. Opening the door, he faced X, who was going through many coloured papers and charts.

Judging from the situation that X wasn’t ready yet, or probably he hadn’t noticed Axl in his room, Axl retreated to one of the chairs at the side of the walls. He looked around with unending curiosity.

The office was decorating with many tall cupboards, filled with books of various topics only humans are fascinated with. Screens also donned the walls, displaying images of newscasters, backgrounds and subtitles because the audio was turned off.

“Iris, do you have to be so angry early in the morning?”

“I wasn’t angry at you! I was over-concerned for your attitude of lacking seriousness in your duties!”

Lumine interfered. “Could you say it in simple terms to dear boy here?”

X finally looked up at Axl and greeted him after 5 minutes, halting their arguments. “Ah Axl there you are. Come, take a seat.” Axl obediently got up from the side of the wall and sat in front of X’s desk. The two green eyes met.

“Axl, I need to ask you if… Lumine and Iris would like to have their own bodies.” All three were stunned. “X, why would you ask that question?”

“Axl, I believe that every Reploid should have their own freedom to walk around and enjoy anything they desire. It kinda irks me since only you are controlling that body and the others are not getting a chance to walk themselves.”

“Gee…I dunno…I never thought of that before. Neither do Lumine and Iris.”

X sat up straight. “Well, Axl this is your chance now to think of that. Are Luimne and Iris content of just staying in you or do they yearn to experience freedom by themselves?”

Axl couldn’t find a way to answer that question, choosing to be silent.

“I’m letting you three decide whether you want separate bodies or just remain in there. Take your time. I’m in no hurry in any particular.”

Axl closed his eyes to meet his friends in the computer brain.

Lumine was sulking a little. “Why must he always mess around with our current status? Why must he always try to separate us apart? I just don’t get it!”

“No, Lumine. X is right. It’s very abnormal to have three personalities residing in the same body. Maybe we do deserve our own body, our own freedom. Maybe I don’t want to go through this confinement forever. Who knows?”

Iris’ answer silenced the white Reploid. Axl was fidgeting a little.

“Em…do let me know when you are ready. I’ll respond in your behalf.” With that, Lumine and Iris disappeared and left him alone.

Several minutes later, a reclining Axl was approached by Iris. Lumine was nowhere to be seen. Axl got up from his imaginary chair and meet her.

“Hey, Iris where’s Lumine?”
“He’s checking the conditions in the body’s mechanisms. Doesn’t want anything faulty. Oh and he’s made up his mind. Same for me.”

“Okay…ouch!” Axl sensed some pain in his body.

“Oh that would be him.” Iris smiled. “Checking your systems can too interfere with your controls. He’s…currently checking your energy reactors.”

“Well, as I was saying,” Axl faced her. “What’s your decision?”

Before Iris replied, they heard a loud bang on the wall. Zero had rushed in the room followed by a concerned Alia.

“X! You’ve messed around with Axl enough already! Give him a break! He doesn’t deserve so much attention! For poor Axl’s sake!”

Axl irked a little. “Poor?” Iris giggled a little.

“Zero, I think that Lumine and Iris deserve their own free will and right to having their own bodies. It’s very abnormal for three Reploids to share the same body. They shouldn’t endure any more insults and rumours. Only six…in this case, eight of us knows what really happened to Axl while the whole HQ doesn’t!”

Axl knew that the eight were himself, Iris, Lumine, X, Zero and the other three navigators. Alia sunk her face in her hands. That instant, Axl felt that it was best to continue keeping Iris and Lumine secret from the REST of the Hunter HQ, despite his earlier response to his agreement with Lumine. While the rest was arguing, Axl planned to tell that to his inhabitants.

Then suddenly, a flow of strong red waves came from nowhere, surprising Axl and Iris. Lumine was too fast to stop from gaining control of Axl.

He opened his eyes. Lumine’s form surprised the audience of three in the office. He stood up from Axl’s reclining position and spoke to everyone, in particular X.

“Well, well, well. It is quite noisy in here and I thought I could see for myself what seems to be the problem.”

“X, you are quite right about the part of free will and the abnormality of this situation. Sure, everyone deserves their rights but I think I know where my limits are. So I’ve made up my mind.”

“I’m content with where I am now. Axl is now my host and my home. I’m already very glad to be here and that I’m now who I am, thanks to him. I owe him for all the important lessons that I’ve learnt from him, so I’m following wherever he goes. I’m fine with that.”

Then Lumine’s form wobbled to become Iris. Zero made a move to talk to Iris but was halted by Alia.

“X, I’m glad you are concerned for our welfare and conditions. However, I’m afraid I can’t accept your offer. I’ve been part of Axl all his while. Well, ever since the end of Repliforce wars. I can’t suddenly leave just for another body. For me to reside in another body would mean contradicting my status: dead.”

“Well, I can terminate that status if you want it, Iris.”

“Gee, thanks but no thanks,” Iris mimicking Axl’s way of rejecting offers. “Besides if you were to clear Lumine’s status, people and Reploids will think that you are favouring him and discredit the Maverick Hunters’ status.”

Iris made a strong point so X frowned.

“Well, like what Lumine said, Axl is my home now. I’ve seen so much through him and I don’t regret all this. Please just let me be in here. I too am content with where and how I am now. It’s Axl’s body. He’s the owner now, not me.”

Zero wanted to say something but was hushed by Alia.

“Well…” X was pondering for a while, considering their replies. “Okay, you all can stay in Axl. I won’t mess with you anymore.”

Iris was so glad and thanked him so many times. Her form wobbled and became Axl once again. “Is this session over yet?” X nodded. “Yes, you may leave now.”

Axl turned behind and was immediately faced with Zero.

“Well, buddy, you do realise Iris is all yours now, don’t you?” Zero patted his shoulder. “She’s all yours now; take good care of her or you will get some fists from me.” “ZERO!” Alia’s comments were ignored.

“Don’t worry, she’ll be alright, trust me. If you don’t mind, I’ve got to teach Iris some important skills and got to go meet my dad.” Axl ran off, leaving the rest surprised.

Back at the Jakob Tower, Axl told them everything in the past two weeks. But he didn’t tell them that Prez treated the trio like children and they treated him like a father in return.

“Whatever. Any missions call me X.” The two blonds left the office and X was back to reading tonnes of data on paper.



Continued in Chapter 15.


Notes:
Axl, Iris and Lumine in a body, settled. Honestly, the show of John Malkovich creeps me out. It’s best to do this sort of things in Reploids, NOT HUMANS because it’s impossible and downright scary.


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Eh, no other news so much I have in my head. Oh, I'll be posting up the old arts in my art thread tomorrow onwards. Thanks.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Fifteen: Voices


It was already the 25th day that Lumine resided in Axl, five days since the Reploid rights issue thing. Little happened in the same period. There were only a few cases where Reploids went berserk and caused trouble on the streets and arrested. None were sent to brain-cleansing and recycling in the Prez Corp. plants for their cases were not that serious.

One thing for sure: Iris had learnt to speed up herself to grasp any control from Axl and/or Lumine before anything happens. Another thing: all three agreed that Iris and Lumine are to be kept secret from ANYONE ELSE.

They were in the main plaza hall, sitting on one of the long chairs admiring the golden yellow hall. The screens reported that new crackdowns had resulted in thousands of Lumine loyalists revealed from dark places and were sent to the Prez’s plants.

Many of those Reploids still were loyal to the Lumine who was emotionless and was rebelling against the ‘old world’, yelling out they’ll get revenge on the government and trying to stop the creation of the Reploid utopia. The Jakob Tower’s height had been reduced to around 40 percent of the original.

Lumine was unusually sad while listening to all the news of these events. Deciding that he had enough, Axl retreated to his cubicle and played online games.

“Games again? Don’t you have anything else to do?”

“Any other suggestions, Iris?” Silence ruled the computer brain again.

Lumine sighed and spoke up. “I can’t believe there are still weirdoes who are emulating the old me. I can’t even be a decent Reploid just like everyone else.”

“Aw cheer up. Father is dealing with them as we speak. Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”

“Dear boy, that’s not helping me at all-”

The conversation was broken up by Zero’s presence. Once again, he wanted another conversation with Iris.

“Zero, relax. She’s okay with me. You can always depend on me.” Axl’s eyes were still fixed on the online game. Zero raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll just want another conversation with her, if you don’t mind.”

In the computer brain, Iris chose not to talk to Zero for the first time and disappeared away. Axl was surprised.

“Em… sorry. She doesn’t feel like it now.” A disappointed Zero just walked away from the Hunter’s cubicle.

Then, Axl’s hands froze, his fingers couldn’t move to press the controls, making him lose to the computer and his score was in 10th place.

“Hey, what was that all about? I was doing so well!”

Lumine was slightly surprised. “No, actually you were doing quite badly. You died 5 times in 19 minutes.”

“Okay, what is it you want me to listen to until you had to make me ‘Game Over’?”

“Dear boy! Haven’t you noticed that Iris rejected a conversation with blondie for the first time! She thinks it’s inconvenient for you to pass her speech to Zero while you were playing the rocket game!”

Iris merely said: “Yes. That would be rude.”

Axl quickly thought of a solution to this problem. “Why can’t Iris talk to Zero and I play games at the same time? That would be convenient for both of us!”

Lumine became slightly sarcastic. “And how do you suppose that could be done? There’s only one voice box control and one mouth we are having!”

Axl smiled. “Not anymore.”

The next time Lumine knew, they were in the mechanics room, strapped onto the seat and below the devices that detected his presence.

Layer was consulted for this operation for the field of mechanics was all in her fingertips. She took out a small driller and looked at Axl.

“So let me get this straight again? You want me to install a set of speakers at your ears so the other two can speak out their thoughts while you are doing something else?”

“Yeah, that will be convenient for all three of us.”

Lumine and Iris protested. “Axl are you nuts? You’re getting our head drilled into! This is such a bad idea!”

“Yeah, and rejecting a talk with Zero seemed a good way for me to go on playing games and you stand in me humiliated.” Silence again.

Layer wondered for a moment. “…Okay. This should be easy. If there are any complications, I’ll try to fix it with my best efforts.”

With the help of the wires connecting to Axl’s head gem, Layer induced a program that made all three in Axl sleep to evade the pain before Lumine could protest to Axl any further.

Several hours later, Lumine was the first to wake up. He gently woke up the other two and asked Axl to wake up their physical eyes.

Axl looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary until Layer came in and asked Lumine and Iris to respond to her.

“Yes, we can hear you. Why do you ask that?”

Layer smiled. “Because I can hear the both of you. Two different voices.”

Axl was shocked. Before he could demand an explanation, Layer took out a mirror and began explaining the situation.

‘I’ve already installed the speakers at Axl’s ears. But, it seems that there are no filters so if Iris or Lumine were to talk to Axl, even if it was a private conversation, the others around him will hear you. So I came up with a solution.”

Placing the mirror at a suitable angle, Axl saw that at the side of the cover of his metal ear gem, there was a small purple round button.

“This button is the answer. Press it once and it sinks in, meaning that all your conversations are officially private and can’t be heard by anyone outside. Otherwise, every single word you say will be heard.”

“So now the guys can talk to the others while I play my games undisturbed? Wow! This is great! Thanks, Layer, I owe you a lot!” Axl unfastened the straps around him.

“Anytime.” Axl walked off proudly before Layer locked the door to the mechanics room.

Axl had actually forgot to switch off the speakers on his ears and he didn’t even notice that. Then a few other Hunters approached him.

“Hey Axl, want to join us at the VR room and compete who blasts the most virtual Mavericks?” One of them asked.

Iris blurted out her thoughts: “No, Axl’s had enough playing. He lost on an online game already.” The others were shocked to hear a female Reploid’s voice.

“Hey Axl, who just said that? That… that voice just appeared from nowhere! Are we being watched?” They were all terrified.

The quick-witted Lumine seized Axl’s right hand and immediately switched off the speakers by pressing the purple button on Axl’s right ear. Axl tried to calm the rest down.

“No, silly! We aren’t being watched! That must be…er … an echo! Yeah, an echo from somewhere! Er… sorry guys, I can’t join you! I’ve got something else to attend to!” Axl quickly dashed off before he was bombarded with other questions.

He made it back to his cubicle in three minutes. Then Lumine taunted him.

“Aw poor poor Axl! He forgot to keep Iris’ comments silenced! That was so funny back then! You should have seen your face!”

“Axl, how could you forget to switch off your speakers? Lucky Lumine here is the fastest among all of us here, or else you’ll be in big trouble!”

“Yes, I know! Sorry okay? My mind must have slipped off.”

“Bully for you then. If I was gone how could you have handled the situation then?” Iris silenced Lumine with a hush.

Axl was panting and banged his chin on his table. “Uh… next time, I’ll remember to do this! Gosh, it’s already evening! I must have missed some missions!”

“Axl dear, there were NO missions today. Geez, what’s happening to you?”

“I’m probably tired and whacked up today, Lumine. If you don’t mind, I’d need to get some sleep now.” Axl headed to his resting pod and entered it.

“But, Axl! It’s only 7!” That was Iris’ last comments before the three were induced with sleeping programs to restore the body’s health.

Layer stepped in the resting chamber and saw Axl lying on the pod’s cushions. Apparently she too saw what happened earlier to Axl. She smiled to herself and turned back to her navigator’s seat rooms away.



Continued in Chapter 16.


Notes:
Speakers on the ears. Best way of communication especially since two officially dead Reploids must not be found alive.



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And that is all for now. Got to run.

[Professor Fann]

And again, I come with the triple chapter update. Eh, I'm busy for a while, again, so I'm not posting the Tale of Two Souls up just yet. But in a couple of days, YES.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Sixteen: Anniversary


Axl was having a nice rest in his subconscious. It felt so good to rest while no one was disturbing you, especially after four missions in two days concerning human criminal activity. At least that is until Iris rudely awakened him.

“Huh…Iris, how could you be awake? We are all sleeping together!”

“Quiet, Axl! I need to discuss with you something! Besides, if you can control your sleep you can be awake in here, your subconscious!”

Axl reluctantly got up. Once again, they were all in his computer brain where the physical body is inactive but the mind is still energetic.

Lumine was lying down on the pitch-black floor like a log. Didn’t want to wake him, Iris brought Axl over to another corner of the brain.

“Today’s the day! It’s been one month, or more accurately 30 days, Lumine’s been with us!” Iris was excited but Axl wasn’t.

“So what? Is it really that important?”

“Axl! It’s been 30 days Lumine has changed your life and mine! Think of the times we’ve had together! Isn’t it proper that you thank him by celebrating or something like that?” Axl refreshed over his memories.

Firstly, the evil Lumine attempted many takeovers. Iris came in and changed his attitude. The new Lumine then revealed clues bit by bit to feed Axl’s curiosity over a sequel of unique events that led him to his creator, Prez. Then Lumine caused the Jakob revival but was stopped by Axl. Now, the three are living harmoniously in a body led by Axl.

Axl hanged his head down. “Darn, you’re right.”

“Great. Axl, it’s up to you to decide what you’ll do to celebrate this anniversary. It’s your responsibility because it’s your body, not mine.” Iris smiled and disappeared before a confused Axl could ask anymore.

“What an excuse! That doesn’t get her the right to give me everything she thinks are problems! Just because this is my body, it doesn’t mean I have to do everything around here!”

Then, the alarm rang and Axl’s body became active.

Lumine too got up. He soon found Iris nowhere in sight and an Axl pondering over something. He didn’t know that Axl was planning what to do to celebrate Lumine’s 30-day presence.

“Hm…what am I going to do? Humans usually celebrate anniversaries by gifts or something like that. Reploids can’t eat and don’t bank in on money. I might as well create something or do anything else-”

“Axl, dear boy, why do you look upset?”

Axl got up to respond but first opened his eyes to see where he walked to. They were in the main plaza hall, the usual place where he would hang out to have silent chats with Lumine and Iris. Quickly he grabbed a seat and closed his eyes.

“I look upset to you?” Lumine nodded.

“You seem to have some problems. Mind if you tell me so I can help?”

“Actually, yes, I do mind. I can’t tell you. It’s secret.”

Lumine became disappointed and then, realising something was going on, he resorted to his mean, insulting tones and speeches to make Axl spill his secrets.

“That’s not very nice of you. We are friends. We can share our problems together. Are you saying I’m no longer your friend?”

“Stop it, Lumine. It’s irritating.”

“Aw bully for the red boy. Shall I turn your hair purple again and seal up your eyes? Otherwise tell me your secret…”

“Grrr…no way! I’m not telling you my secret and I’m not letting you play with my physical features! Now just leave me alone! My brain hurts!”

Then suddenly, Iris appeared and blinded Lumine with her hands.
“You want Axl’s secret, Lumine? Fine! Then you’ll have to catch me first! Oh, try to catch up; I hope you’re not too slow for me!” Iris disappeared.

“Oh no, you don’t! I’m gonna outrun you and get the secret of dear boy here if that’s the last thing I’ll do today!” Lumine too vanished off.

Axl was grateful for Iris’ intervention but he began to experience pain running about his body, from the head to knees. It showed that Lumine couldn’t keep up with Iris and Iris was doing this to gain Axl some time to decide what to do for the secret anniversary.

“Great, just what I need: a headache and more pain around my insides.”

That afternoon, Axl received no mission reports because of no Maverick activity and taking advantage of the situation, he decided to take a walk out of HQ.

But, he decided to go against the rules of the HQ so he merely jumped over one of the giant wall fences at one of the sides of the many fenced grounds of the HQ. That attitude surprised the other two so they came to a halt and Axl felt less pain in his body.

“Axl! I expected better behaviour from you!”

“Aw, ignore the lady, Axl boy. Wow, you’re getting better these days.”

“Em…thanks I guess Lumine...?” Axl was speechless.

Iris apparently forgot all about the events of keeping Lumine from finding out Axl’s secret and stopped the chase. “Have it your way then. I’m not helping you any longer!” She then disappeared.

Lumine became even more confused.

“Dear boy, this secret thing is really making me very tired. Can we cut short this whole ordeal and just tell me what’s going on?” Lumine was panting.

“Em…sorry you’ll just have to find out later I guess. Or else it wouldn’t be a secret. And boy, is it a good secret for you. That’s all I’m telling. Talk to you later.”

Lumine was disappointed and vanished off.

Axl was never happier that he got some quiet time to himself. Jumping off the dustbin lid he had just landed on, he walked his way into the depths of Big City he never explored. Prez didn’t help previously. All his ‘children’ ever got to be were his plants when they visited him.

Axl walked on countless streets and he still had no idea what to do to celebrate Lumine’s anniversary.

He only saw the clean streets, the big crowds where humans and Reploids mingle, the hotdog seller, very high structures and a lot of posters.

He halted and decided to review the posters all over, one by one, and slowly too so Lumine wouldn’t suspect him, so he can get some ideas.

Advertisements, commercials, new products, a Carnival…

Axl was twitched at that poster and analysed it carefully, quickly and also slowly so he could get the most info while not being suspected. Eventually he found the attraction.

‘Biggest fireworks display in the world certified! (Date) 8.35 p.m at the Big City River! Don’t miss it!’

Axl accidentally yelled out in his brain “That’s it!” and attracted Lumine’s and Iris’ attention so they instantly appeared when Axl said “it!”

“Huh? What’s it? Axl, have you finally made your decision?” Iris’ eyes were glittering with yet-to-be-exploded happiness.

“Huh, what? What’s it?” Lumine was getting very confused by the minute yet he controlled his temper. “C’mon tell me what it is!” “We’re going to the Carnival tonight, guys!”

At night, Axl is now at one of the banks of the River. The buildings there weren’t so high so the fireworks would be perfect and the colourful tents and balloons everywhere were even better.

“Why are we even at this place? We don’t have what humans call money!” “Don’t worry, Lumine. There’s going to be something great. We just have to wait.”

“Grrr…I can’t wait anymore! This suspense is killing me!”

Just as soon as Lumine was about to force something out of Axl, the glorious colourful fireworks explosions happened in the sky. All visitors were cheering at the display. More beautiful displays happened. Spherical and cylindrical displays; they were beautiful.

Iris and Lumine admired the displays. Then Axl told them a few words:

“You’ve been with us for 30 days already, Lumine. That changed our lifes. I think we appreciate it very much. Happy anniversary.”

Lumine’s eyes shone. He was touched by the scenes and the fact that Axl went through much trouble just to present him this. He truly enjoyed the show, although it was only for ten minutes.

“Wow. I never thought I’d say this but I’m glad dear boy and Iris kept me waiting for this.”

Just when he was about to show how happy he was, big explosions occurred. Tents were burst aflame and the fire burnt on, causing further explosions and yells of humans.

Axl without saying anything immediately rushed to the scene.



Continued in Chapter 17.


Notes:
Yay, fireworks. The City deserves celebrations sometimes. Besides tall buildings means extremely busy people who can’t afford free time.



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Not much for now. Until below.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Seventeen: Interruption


Axl was horrified by the sudden turn of events, and so were the other two. As he moved on with the fastest he could, more humans and Reploids alike screamed and ran in the opposite way, across the bridge prepared connecting the banks of the wide River.

The roads were damaged so many vehicles were destroyed. More gas pipelines exploded and the large flames threw back Axl backwards a little. Just then he looked upwards.

What was to be the Carnival’s Zeppelin evolved into a floating beetle-like Mechaniloid with cannons revealed here and there. Its buggy eyes reveal a secret laser gun. It began to approach slowly to the Carnival grounds and fired more rockets.

“Dang! When can I ever get a peaceful time with you guys?!”

“Em, Axl practically you have-”

“Don’t answer that, Iris. Just don’t answer.” Axl went on running.

Once again, more destruction ensued. A blown-up building structure nearby caused many piles of steel flying in the air, hitting the ground and even nearly striking Axl but he managed to avoid it.

Lumine became more concerned. “Dear boy, do you need help?”

“I’m fine, thanks. Right now, it’s important that I try to find the weak spot of this Mechaniloid. Should be easy to take it down and stop all this madness.”

Axl then came to a halt when he heard the screams of a little human girl. He turned forth to the direction and found that the little girl had been stuck under a huge pile of rubble and was severely bleeding.

Shocked, he quickly went to help her.

“Don’t worry! I’ll get you out in no time at all!” Axl then moved to remove all rubble as quick as possible to save the girl. Seeing that he was getting no faster, Lumine rudely grasped control of Axl’s hands and sorted the rubble even faster.

“Whoa! Nice! I should have asked you earlier.”

When ‘Axl’ was almost done, the Mechaniloid noticed him and aimed the secret laser gun in its eye towards the rubble and began accumulated energy.

‘Axl’ who already noticed this event, scrambled even faster to save the human girl. Just then, when ‘Axl’ had held the girl in his hands, the laser gun was fired and a huge wave of explosion followed.

Axl was pounded far backwards, with the girl clutched closely to him, and was hit against a hard concrete wall. The girl felt safe whereas the trio in Axl absorbed most of the pain and fell onto the ground.

Axl gently released the girl from his clutches and told her to escape quickly.

“Go now…run…go somewhere else…safe…”

The girl nodded and ran towards the bridge along with a few more Reploids and humans. Then, a huge shadow covered Axl. The Mechaniloid beetle had fixed its attention on the Hunter and diverted all efforts to destroy him.

A compartment on its side opened and revealed a giant hammer and aimed to smash Axl. Since Axl was a little too tired to move, Lumine assumed rapid control and dashed them to safety.

The hammer was much too slow to compete to Lumine’s speed and pounded into the ground where Axl had rested earlier. The resulting hole was 20 feet deep.

Axl was able to convey his thanks to the white Reploid.

“Thanks, I owe you for this!”

“Never mind that. Just fire all your bullets at the beetle’s body! I’ll give you a boost in the air now!”

Axl was propelled suddenly 40 feet in the air. He then got his guns out and started firing continuously, non-stop at every part of the beetle Mechaniloid.

Iris, feeling guilty of non-contributing anything at all, decided to use her combat powers by taking hold of Axl’s left hand.

“Hey don’t just suddenly do that! I’ll lose concentration!”

“Relax. You’ll just have to use one gun for now.” Axl’s left hand put down the gun on that hand and began moving about furiously.

For the first time, Iris displayed her potential (She decided not to do so during previous battles because Lumine was good enough). Axl’s left hand was furiously shooting out giant spheres of pink-coloured energy towards the beetle’s head, in particular the eyes.

The Mechaniloid was eventually smoking after some time and this time, its hammer was aimed horizontally and pounded Axl into a nearby structure.

“Axl! Are you alright?” Iris stopped firing.

“Never mind that! Just keep firing!” Lumine propelled him forward and Axl had found the beetle’s weak spot: at small gem at its left side between two legs.

Axl’s constant firing and Iris’ power support in no time at all defeated the Mechaniloid. The Zeppelin air sack tore apart and the beetle exploded in half, finally crashing to the ground. Axl found himself lowered to the ground gently.

At a corner not far from him, he spotted the same dark shadow of spectacles and messy hair, grinning evilly at him. Axl was determined to pin him down so he chased after him but he disappeared behind the red flames.

Axl walked out from the battle zone and saw many Hunter facilities at the site too. Fire fighters were putting out the flames and all victims were being treated for injuries. Unknown to him, several cameramen caught the entire fight on tape.

“We’ve got hot news tonight! Broadcast this whole thing at eleven!”

Axl felt sorry and apologized to Lumine and Iris.

“Sorry guys. All I just wanted to do was let you all see the fireworks, not being messed up in a battle like this. Sorry for the bad night.”

Lumine grasped his left hand and placed it on Axl’s right shoulder, patting it gently. “It’s okay, dear Axl. You didn’t mean all this to happen. Why are you feeling sorry? We should be glad we stopped that Maverick.”

Iris nodded and smiled in agreement.

“Em…if you don’t mind, can we go and visit father again tomorrow?”

“Oh? Why’s that Iris? Want to enquiry about something?”

“Sort of.” Axl grimaced first and then smiled. “Sure.”

Iris was filled with joy while Lumine was confused again.

“Come on guys. Let’s get back to base. I’m dead tired from all this fighting.”

Then, a black long limousine caught up in front of Axl and Prez got out.

Axl was surprised. “Dad? What are you doing here?”

“Hm…let’s say I want my precious children to earn some rest along a slow journey back to the HQ. C’mon.” Prez ushered them into the limousine and went off.

“Well, that was pretty good performances out there just now, boys and girl.”

All three blushed though with satisfaction about themselves.

“Gee, thanks dad. I think I need to replenish my energy. Hey wait a minute, I thought you said I have inexhaustible energy in me?!”

“I can only say it’s very plentiful not inexhaustible. My mistake. Or else you need not sleep and can stay up all night. Given your friends’ abilities to fight, your energy sources will drain faster. But it will replenish itself if you rest.”

Axl was confused. “Whatever, dad, Iris wants to talk to you.”

Axl fell into a deep sleep but not Iris and Lumine.

Back at the command room in the HQ, X was very impressed with Axl’s performances at the fight in the Carnival.

“X, he’s a wonder, isn’t he?”

“Yes, Alia, he’s a wonder because he got support from Iris and Lumine so he could easily take out the Maverick in a mere twenty minutes.”

Then, a fellow Reploid approached X.

“Commander X, about the independent investigation of the moral discipline, we are close to determining the source. We’ll be ready to present a report to you tomorrow.”

“Good work, get on with it.” The Hunter excused himself.

X placed his right hand on his face, giving out a sigh.

“There’s so much going on lately. I just hope we can cope up with them.”



Continued in Chapter 18.


Notes:
Oh anniversary and battle. Neat. But rather rude still.



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And then come Chapter 18, which I feel is the grossiest chapter to date, but it is still part of the plot. You'll see.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Eighteen: Appointment


Axl woke up the following two days, dazed over another sequel of events that had taken place 20 days after the attempt of reviving Jakob’s purposes. Exiting his resting pod, he walked on slowly to his cubicle and refreshed his memory over.

Prez was very surprised to learn about the speakers installed in Axl’s ears and had a pleasant conversation with Iris via a sleeping Axl. At the same time the other two boys learnt something new and deeper about Prez’s contribution to the Reploid world. Although Axl fell asleep, it didn’t mean he couldn’t hear them.

Prez years earlier had learnt of Dr Cain’s discovery of X and was a big investor in Cain’s creations. Of course an old man couldn’t possibly engineer so many Reploids, accounting to his age and limbs, so Prez volunteered to manufacture the Reploids in his plants. Prez was the first person to receive various designs of Reploids for the Repliforce Army, among them was Iris.

Because of his corporation’s amazing investment and credibility, his plants are now the world’s major supplier and recycler of Reploids. Then, there was the case of Axl and Lumine.

“Hey that wasn’t what journal reported years ago.”

“Well, Lumine, there are many things we prefer to keep secret.”

Before long, the conversation was over and Axl was in front of the HQ, ready to retreat to the resting pod from Prez’s limousine.

Axl became dizzier over the memories and dozed off again on his table and the control mechanisms became inactive so quickly that Lumine and Iris couldn’t even grasp hold of them.

Meanwhile, in X’s office, the next day…

“Sir, we’ve found that there’s only one source of the recent decline of Hunters’ battle performances: a certain distraction.”

X raised both eyebrows. “Distraction?”

“Yes. It appears that all Hunters have been distracted by a certain force that makes them disregard everything else just for the sake of that something else they feel is more attractive and beneficial.”

“What could be this force that is so powerful that it even affects us Reploids from performing well in duties?” X was bewildered.

“It’s what the humans call ‘love’. In human expressions, it’s mostly the females that distract males. Amazing this behaviour still lingers in our society.”

“Well, it’s definitely stopping us from fighting the bad elements out there. I want all female Maverick Hunters monitored of their daily routines, then report back to me the particular Hunter that caused such distraction.”

Then, at Axl’s cubicle…

In his computer brain, Iris was having trouble waking Axl, who was pictured as sleeping soundly and positioned like a log. Then Lumine resurfaced.

“Well…all systems are okay and the control mechanisms’ inactivity is so strong I can’t even start it. Axl boy’s still asleep?”

“Yes, it’s really irritating me. He has this appointment thing tonight with some lavish Hunter at the cinemas that he made yesterday out of so many pleas and it’s already mid-noon. Is there anyway you can do something?”

Lumine grinned mischievously. “Well I can always try.”

Iris moved back three steps and Lumine bent down on Axl as he placed his palm on Axl’s head gem. The hand emitted a red-purplish glow that soon covered the entire body. Axl was fidgeting a little. Then, Lumine smiled and released glowier aura on Axl’s head gem.

Then Axl’s eyes opened and jumped into a shock. In the physical world, Axl apparently woke up so abruptly that he pounced backwards from his table and hit the wall at his back, shocking other Hunters as well.

Back in Axl’s computer brain, Axl was moving and jumping about to cool himself off. Iris was looking bewilderedly at the whole scene while Lumine was enjoying some loud laughs.

“That was so hilarious! If only we had a memory recorder or something…”

“Geez Lumine what did you do to me?!”

“All I did was raised your body’s temperature to wake you up. Works the same way the humans did in the movies, like waking up the enemy by placing him on top of a pool of boiling liquids. Oh, Iris wanted to tell you something.”

Iris weaved her hair a little.
“You have the appointment thing tonight! Aren’t you like a little afraid or something? In human sense, it’s called a date!!”

“You mean May? Oh that’s nothing. Just accompany her to watch a movie that’s all. Why should I be afraid?”

“In case you didn’t notice, there’s a wild rumour going on. Many Hunters have been dazed, hypnotized because of her. That got X’s attention so I think he’s like hunting her down for disciplinary action or the stuff. Besides, Reploids don’t watch movies. Don’t you think this is all strange?”

Axl placed his hands on her shoulder. “Relax, nothing’s wrong gonna happen. I promise.” Iris became slightly angry.

“Oh, sure and you just banged yourself on your cubicle’s wall and the other Reploids are angry at you, if you will open your eyes.”

In the real world, Axl found himself surrounded by angry Hunters.

The faithful night came. Axl was now waiting in Big City Park for May, after sorted out the mess in his cubicles. Then May approached in front of him.

May was a gal of ripe red armour everywhere. She also looked a little like Iris because of the miniskirt of metal she had and her back has a long spear-like sword. She is one of the HQ’s most prestigious Hunters and the most beautiful.

“Hey Axl, ready to hit the seats?”

Axl blushed a little. “Em… sure. Let’s go.” As Axl walked alongside May towards the cinemas, Iris was getting redder and redder.

Axl was really shocked for the type of movie they went to watch. It was those type of movies the human called ‘romance shows’ as it was filled with the smoochy scenes, the goo-goo and the stuff. If Axl was human, he felt like vomiting.

Iris had her eyes closed, praying it would end soon. Oddly enough, Lumine seems to be taking it finely. He didn’t quite understand the gross stuff so he had no idea what was going on.

“What exactly is this kind of show all about anyway?”

“Don’t ask, okay? It’s creeping me out!” Iris shut her eyes again.

Axl and May were sitting in the highest box and the cinema was pretty much empty so no one could see what they were doing. Then May decided to take Axl on, first by letting her hand hold his right waist.

Axl was shocked and so was Iris. “Hey what are you doing?!”

May looked on at Axl with a creepy look and smile. “C’mon Axl the night is still young so let’s embrace each other!” Suddenly her right hand grasped hold of Axl.

Axl finally realised what’s going on: May was trying to kiss him and bring their bodies closer in contact. Axl then tried to resist the disgusting attempt. Lumine thinking that Axl should reply back, brought Axl’s hands forwards and held her back.

“LUMINE! What are you doing?!”

“I dunno. Isn’t that what Axl was supposed to do to her?” Lumine shrugged.

Axl was shocked that Lumine made him hug May. He continued to try to release himself from May’s clutches and escape as fast as possible.

Iris, finally no longer keeping her anger, released it on Lumine.

She slapped him and Lumine became more confused. Iris then decided to cool down and explain the entire situation to Lumine. Finally Lumine understood what was going on and released his hold on Axl’s hands.

“Axl! Get yourself out of there now! It’s not good for you!”

Hearing Lumine’s yells energised Axl further. He felt a surge of strong energy in him, using them to break free from May and causing both of them to drop on the floor.

Using all his energy, he sprinted off out of the cinema and ran straight into the Park. He panted heavily and retreated to the fountain in the centre. He had never felt so disgusted in his entire life and dazed on the ground for a very long time.

Feeling guilty for making Axl hug May, Lumine hanged his head down and tried to apologize to Axl.

“Axl…I’m sorry…I didn’t know all those would happen…I’m sorry.”

Axl gave no reply and feeling he needed rest, he walked slowly back to the HQ. Axl, Lumine and Iris never felt so silent and never talked for the whole night.

Lumine had never felt more guilty in his entire life.



Continued in Chapter 19.


Notes:
Ewww! That was very gross! But it’s still part of the plot…


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And that is all for now. Thanks a lot.

[Professor Fann]

I'm back again with the second last 3 chapters of the First Series, if anyone remembers the number of chapters back in Code Crush. In any case, update time.


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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Nineteen: Conquest


The following day, the atmosphere at the HQ was quite gloomy. The place was really dark so all lights were switched on, bringing bright yellow light to the entire place. Affairs still went on like usual. Most Reploids didn’t notice something till it was today: it started snowing since yesterday.

White blankets of snow covered everywhere. It was so cold that no human or Reploid was in sight on the roads and streets. All were staying in their homes to avoid the freezing air. Even Reploids can feel cold, since the mechanisms are advanced.

Axl woke up, also feeling the extreme cold. It seems that the warm night’s sleep has made him forget the entire affair in the cinema yesterday, so he was cheerful and also trying to find a good source of heat. Unfortunately, Iris and Lumine couldn’t forget any single detail.

Axl retreated to the central chamber, a huge hall where its doors branch out into various resting chambers. Axl grabbed a seat in the hall and enjoyed the heat. He still hadn’t spoken to anyone yet so he busied himself with the screens.

It seems that X had confirmed that the source of moral decline among Hunters was May, as she constantly preyed on kind male Hunters and did exactly what Axl experienced himself. So now, she is a wanted criminal as her Hunter status was stripped and had fled the HQ last night.

Uprisings are now rare, as most Maverick Reploids have been recycled, except for the attacks of brainless Maverick Mechaniloids. The Jakob Tower had been dismantled to about 20 percent its original height.

Meanwhile, Iris and Lumine were having talks Axl wasn’t aware of.

“Well, at least now you are fully aware of what that psycho was trying to do to Axl. Next time, don’t reply back to any sick moves.”

Lumine was relieved. “Should I go and apologize?”

“Yeah, I think you should. Axl didn’t return his reply to your apologies so it’s best if you repeat it again.” Iris stood to watch him.

The white Reploid approached a relaxing Axl. Axl gazed up at Lumine and in turn, stood up to face him. “Yeah, what is it?”

Lumine scratched his head a little and meet his host eye to eye. “Axl, dear boy, about yesterday in the cinema…I’m sorry. Really, really sorry. I didn’t know that she was doing something bad back then…I may immense strength but I don’t even have this knowledge…I’m sorry.”

He hanged his head down in shame but his shoulders met Axl’s hands.

“It’s okay. I didn’t blame you. I guess you didn’t know anything about the situation at the time. C’mon let bygones be bygones.” Axl embraced him.

Lumine was stunned and touched by Axl’s big heart. His eyes glittered again. He closed his eyes and embraced Axl in return. After a short while, Axl let him go. Iris was very happy for the both of them and approached them nearer.

“Right now, we can only hope that father is able to trace his ex-consultant Bob and that X is able to trace down disgusting May.”

Iris stared at the white Reploid. “Seems you’ve had many emotional accounts.”

The reply: “Dear Axl has a big heart. How can I not be touched?”

Axl didn’t hear the slightest bit of this conversation.

Axl opened his eyes again and resumed enjoying the nice heat. Barely a minute after forgiving Lumine, the alarm rang. This time, it was big trouble.

“All Hunters please report to the central chamber immediately! There has been a massive rebellion everywhere in Big City!” That was Alia’s anxious voice.

Axl was surprised, as there was a rebellion in the middle of the winter. More Hunters entered the central chamber, waiting for specified orders and explanations.

As soon as all Hunters have gathered, the screens turned to display massive Mechaniloids marching along roads, firing and burning everything insight. Certain areas were severely damaged with huge flames and smoke.

Axl was getting angrier and nervous. “What’s going on?!”

Alia resumed speaking. “There have been reports that Mechaniloids and Mavericks alike have turned berserk the last hour and started attacking various facilities in Big City. Given the terrible weather, they are gaining victory here and there.”

“Oddly, they seemed to have organized themselves into groups that attack and precede control over various key facilities that can threaten the City’s systems. They are now marching across streets armed with stolen weapons.”

“All Hunters are now required to assemble in their respective resting chambers and await orders from respective leaders given by Commander X.”

There was a huge scramble here and there as Hunters are running to their various posts. But suddenly, the screens in the ENTIRE HQ and City went berserk and stopped everyone’s movements.

The next character displayed: mister Prez himself. Prez was wearing a thick overcoat and a huge furry hat. He looked very evil and if all Hunters are observant enough, his entire face seemed swollen.

Axl was shocked to the core. His kind-hearted creator?

“Fellow citizens and Reploids of the Big City! One this cold morning, I m declaring that all of Big City is now under my rule! My berserk Reploids and Mechaniloids have revolted to serve me! To help me achieve my long-desired ambition: to rule the world!” He released an evil laugh then continued.

“All Reploids who don’t want their skins to be ripped off are advised to come out and join me! Join me for your better sakes! Together we shall march on and cleanse this world! This new world will be pure of Federation idiots!”

“Yes, the new world shall be created! All humans are idiots! The world of the Reploids is near! With my guidance, we shall rule this world all for ourselves!”

Then the image of a scared Reploid blasted to pieces was projected.
“I have shown you what I will not hesitate to do if I round up any dissidents in my pure world! It so happens that I will do this to all those Maverick Hunters!”

Another image was shown: this time armies of huge Mechaniloids and Reploids were organized with weapons outside the Hunters HQ.

Now Prez was projected as standing on top of a platform. “I give you my last warning! Resistance is useless! Surrender to me and I may spare your lifes! Gahaha!”

The screens became blur again. The HQ soon became chaotic. Everything became disorderly as troops were quickly scrambled into positions. Axl didn’t do anything, he was so stunned he just dazed at the screens.

“Axl, please! Get a move on! Go to your assembly line!”

“Iris, let me try! Axl dear boy, please calm yourself down!”

Axl stuttered a few words. “Calm myself down?! That’s our father! I won’t hurt him, no matter what! This is insane!”

Lumine shrugged. “That’s it, I’m taking you to the assembly line!”

But Axl was quicker this time to snap Lumine away. Axl pushed Lumine away, causing him to drop on the pitch-black floor roughly.

“Axl! Are you out of your mind!?” Iris tended to Lumine. “Are you okay, Lumine?”

“Yeah, I’m fine…” Lumine got to his feet. “It’s just a little rough push. Dear boy can’t hurt me that much.”

“No. I’m not going to the assembly line. I’m going to have a talk with him. Yeah. That’s it! I have a talk with him! Knock some sense into him!”

Axl opened his eyes and fled from the central chamber. Minutes later, he arrived in the main plaza hall. “I know where he is! I’ll teleport there! Then I’ll try to knock sense into him! Lots of them!”

Both Iris and Lumine felt they could do nothing to stop him now.

Then, a rough hold on his shoulders stopped him: Zero.

“Zero! Leggo of me! Let me talk to that Prez!”

“Axl, no! This could be dangerous! Way too dangerous for you, even me, to handle! The Federation’s most influential man is now the most dangerous! With that army of Reploids, who knows what he’ll do to you!”

Axl snapped his hands away. “No! He’s my creator and I’ll deal with him myself! This time it’s personal!” He roughly teleported away.

Zero returned to the command room. “It’s too late! I can’t stop Axl!”

“It’s okay. Pallette has him locked on the scanners. Where is Axl now?”

“X, I have him spotted on 35 miles away north from the HQ... Wait! That’s the grounds of the Prez Corporation factories! And back here…the battle’s already begun! His armies are attacking the HQ.

“Axl’s right! We need to deal with Prez first! He’s controlling this entire swarm of berserks from his factories! Alia can you teleport us there?”

“Teleporting X and Zero-! No! One of the missiles hit us! The satellite’s down! I’ll try to use another satellite!”

The whole thing got even messier.



Continued in Chapter 20.


Notes:
New battle by the Reploids’ creator. Not much to comment.


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Eheh. Battle. Stuff.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Twenty: Assistance


It was total chaos around Big City, the Federation capital where really a lot of Reploids and humans co-exist, well previously. Now there was imminent danger where anyone could be killed. So the humans ran for their lifes and so did the Reploids that are not Maverick. Government offices began evacuating quickly thanks to the technology Prez had sold to them.

But this time Prez, being the ever-influential and smart guy as if he owned and knew the City’s systems from dust to tower, had managed to block all teleporting systems and barred up the borders of Big City. So virtually everyone is easily taken hostage by Prez’s organized Maverick armies.

The only problem was that he couldn’t connect to the Maverick Hunters HQ teleporting systems and their personnel’s, so Axl teleported freely.

Back at the HQ, the grounds in front of the entrances have turned into a heavy battle zone. Tanks and missiles were operated and aircraft machines constantly fired ballistics. But the HQ’s force field blocked all those so all infrastructures surrounding the HQ were the victims of destruction. Hunters were doing a very good job at blowing up berserk Mavericks.

At the highest rooftop of the HQ, Layer was hastily making repairs to a satellite damaged by a ballistic attack BEFORE the force field was activated.

“Almost there…just a few wires to connect…and also re-establish the range of teleportation…WHOA!” Layer was interrupted by a ballistic attack from an airplane but was shielded by the force field.

“There! All done!” Layer held her communicator high. “Alia, forget about the other satellite! This one’s fixed!”

“Got that! X, Zero! I’m teleporting you to exactly where Axl is last seen!”

“Okay, let’s go get him back!”

In an instant after Alia pressed a red square button, the two vanished away.

X and Zero had officially and for the first time, entered the grounds of the plants which created most of the Reploids and everyday goods for the world. They had no idea where they are but they do know that Axl did a great deal of damage to indirectly secure them.

Piles of metal, pipes and glass were scattered on the floors in front. Walls too have been blown up and flames were trying to melt the scrap below them.

“Axl’s definitely here. Lumine would have done much more damage if he was on the move and in a raging anger.” Zero said.

“Alright. Let’s move!” Both Hunters dashed ahead.

Routes much further ahead of them, Axl was furiously destroying all Reploids that were blocking his way. Purely he did all the damage, as Lumine and Iris dare not interfere with his fury.

Iris sulked a little. “Isn’t there anything we can do to calm him down? We still have to do something!” She turned to the white-clad Reploid.

Lumine preferred to remain calm and observant.
“I know, but bursting out our actions now isn’t appropriate. Timing is important, in spite of everything. We first have to find out what exactly is going on with our father.”

“But, Axl will-”

Lumine pressed hardly on her shoulders.
“Listen! Like I said, we still need to find out exactly what’s going on. Then we’ll take necessary actions. Axl won’t hurt himself, I promise.”

“Relax, Iris. I’ll protect Axl. He’s our host and friend. I won’t let anything harm him, I promise.”

Silence prevailed again in Axl’s brain and even if Axl heard their little talk, he didn’t care. His first priority was to settle this whole issue with Prez.

At last after much time spent to destroy all obstacles, he was facing the final gate that will direct him to the compound where Prez is standing on a platform. The only obstacle this time is a huge ape-like Mechaniloid,

The Mechaniloid tried to smash Axl with its huge fist pounds on the ground but Axl knew better and dashed here and there. Firing wildly at it, the Mechaniloid soon exploded. Now, facing Axl was the metal gate.

“Right. Then bust through this chunk of metal and I’ll deal with Prez personally, even if it means busting through another army of Mavericks!”

This level of violence in his tone of voice shocked his other two inhabitants and prompted Lumine to take control and calm him down at the same time. But he was about to do that when the Bee helicopter appeared in front of Axl.

Instead of attacking Axl, it revealed a giant magnet thus forcefully pulling Axl to it, being helpless, and rammed into the gate.

“Gah! My body’s stuck! PREZ!”

Axl, attached to a giant magnet below the Bee helicopter, found himself faced with Prez directly, though it was a great distance around 500 meters. The Bee flew forward and suddenly dropped Axl into the grip of two Mechaniloid’s giant fists.

The Mechaniloids then pinned him against a sturdy brick wall in the middle of the compound grounds. Axl’s hands and legs were stretched out and strong cuffs tightly held him in place. All this, the red-blue Hunter endured silently.

Prez smirked at him. Waving his black overcoat a little, his hands rubbed his face, apparently itching very painful.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? My very own creation, exploding anger in my plants? Haven’t you got your manners right?”

Axl’s angry look glared at the man. “Why are you doing this? After all this while when you have peacefully contributed much to this world?!”

“Ah! That’s the point! Look back all this years! My technological contribution has made this world prosperous! Since I have engineered a perfect society for the world, I do have the right to claim this world as my own!”

Prez walked on from left to right, still talking.

“Silly humans! What have they done? Corrupt people polluting the rivers! Killing the wild animals as if they are nothing! Arrogance everywhere!”

“You see, my policies are always correct! I will make sure that they encompass the world then I will rule it as my own! This time for the Reploids’ prosperity! And I can’t let you stop that!”

All Reploids present held up their guns, aiming at Axl and the brick wall, ready to fire on Prez’s command.

Prez rubbed his face again and continued speaking.
“But of course, there is an alternative! JOIN ME! Join me by my side and we will rule the world! I’m sure that your friends will join us sooner! Why not now? The pure Reploid world awaits us, Axl!”

The last sentence sparked a raging anger from inside the calm Lumine. Releasing a big portion of his anger, he shocked Iris and Axl by gaining control of Axl too fast. Lumine is now seen cuffed tightly to the brick wall.

Lumine’s eyes shone crimson red brightly and began cursing Prez.

“You traitor! You are not the creator I knew! The creator I knew is loving and kind! Caring for all of mankind and Reploid-kind! He wouldn’t change overnight and suddenly destroy the gentle environment he helped create and massacre all humans! You are not Prez!!”

Prez merely laughed at the white-purplish Reploid.

Lumine began to accumulate strength to break free of the cuffs. But the Reploids on standby aimed their guns and electrocuted him to silence.

Lumine’s health status declined significantly but that didn’t immediately tire him out. He continued his more evil and furious look at Prez on the platform.

Prez laughed again. “It’s pointless to struggle. I might as well take you out!”

Standby Reploids began charging up the bullets to eliminate the trio-in-one Reploid. Lumine’s shield couldn’t be activated because of the handcuffs.

“Gwahahaha! So long, s-! GAAHH!!”

A charged Buster shot come out from a nearby balcony, blasting the platform to pieces. Prez fell to the ground below and his overcoat and hat fell off too.

X appeared on the ground, much to Axl’s delight. But Lumine was totally in firm control that he couldn’t express it. Then, Zero appeared in front of him too, holding a familiar man on his arms.

“Father!?” The sudden outburst from Lumine astonished X and Zero. But that didn’t stop Zero from slicing all standby Reploids to pieces, thus leaving all of them to confront the other Prez.

The other Prez, earlier standing on the platform, now lay on top of jagged rubble with huge cuts on his skin. The overcoat and Hat were blown away so it revealed a Prez donning brown suit and pants.

Then, the swollen face of Prez fell off, revealing the ex-consultant Bob.

“Yes, it is Bob all this while.” The real Prez folded his arms. “I discovered that he had been the true villain all this while, from Axl’s kidnapping to the most recent Reploid attacks on the City.”

“I think he seems to have forgotten that I would prefer to let Reploids and humans co-exist, rather than Reploids alone, and I would prefer to let all citizens decide who sits in power of the Federation government, instead of attempting world domination by force.”

This made Bob really angry and he couldn’t curse anyone, so he decided to flee via an exit on his left. Prez then disables a machine that has too collapsed on the ground, which it the machine that controls all the Mavericks.

In no time at all, all ‘Mavericks’ woke up from a daze. The widespread attacks in the City stopped suddenly and peace resettled in a turbulent place.

“You all quickly go catch Bob! I’ll go get a device that can arrest him so I can take him to court!” Prez turned to Lumine. “Be strong.” He then left the compound.

This fuelled Lumine with more confidence than ever. He then gathered a big portion of his strength again and released them all, in the form of spherically-expanded aura, forcefully breaking free and also destroying most of the structures in the same area to mere rubble.

X and Zero looked on Lumine, who is now floating in the air with fury and revenge. “Let’s go get that bloody heck of a human!!”

Silently, Axl congratulated Lumine and allowed him to proceed forward, also stunned by Lumine’s ‘bad words’. Now all three Reploids began to chase the human who caused every trouble since Axl’s time in a long route ahead of them.



Continued in Chapter 21.


Notes:
Hurrah. Everything is revealed. Bob is the true menace since Red Alert. Go get them, Hunters.



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And the battle begins.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Twenty-One: Battle


The three Reploids pursued the man behind every single menace the Federation experienced since Axl’s kidnapping: Bob. It was a really long route and had many left and right turns at certain lengths. Zero guessed that he must be going somewhere specific, judging from the signs on the brown-grey walls ahead.

Bob kept running and running. Sweat dropped here and there. Now he was planning to operate his most devilish Mechaniloid in action. Boy, did he ever wanted to test it out; it took him months to complete, along with his other secret projects.

X managed to ask Lumine a question, which answers the relationship between the trio-in-one Reploid and Prez, the mighty industrialist.

“So, how come Prez is your father? Reploids don’t have genetic parents.”

Through a rage of anger, Lumine calmly answered back. “Well, you know the effort he took in creating us three. Means a lot to him. He never had a family so he improvised, I guess.”

“But Prez created Iris?” Zero’s turn to ask.

“You already know how he rescued her in space and created Axl.”

At last the three Reploids found themselves confronting Bob in a wide-open space. It seems to be an area designated to test the fighting abilities of newly created Reploids. The walls were brown-grey, standing nearly 30 meters high and a greenhouse-like ceiling covered the space. The total area is a square, equal 200 by 200 meters. Bob had nowhere else to run.

“Human trash! Give yourself up now or else I’ll just have to vaporize you myself!” Lumine held out his left hand, preparing some energy in the form of a glowing red sphere of laser.

The others were shocked because a Reploid is not allowed to kill a human and that meant immediately destruction. Lumine was ready to face terrible consequences just to kill the man that corrupted his life.

Bob smiled evilly and laughed out loudly.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. I will make sure that I will one day rule the world! I was so close until you meddling Reploids stepped! I can’t turn back now so I’m going to just to have to destroy you all, especially Axl that idiot!!”

The ground suddenly shook beneath them. Only X and Zero had problems maintaining their balance on the ground because Lumine is floating in the air.

Bob has activated some sort of machine with a control in his pocket. Then the ground opened up, revealing a really big Mechaniloid that Bob engineered himself. It is a giant sphere of red and brown, had a big orb-like circle as a glass and propellers.

A hatch opened at its lower side and Bob hastily entered it. He first buckled the safety belt on his seat and activated all cannons, ready to fire at his given command. He again laughed out madly, mad enough to be called drunken.

“YOU WILL ALL PAY!! GAHAHAH!!”

The battle starts by the firing of many homing rockets from the small side cannons. All were directed at the three Reploids. Predictably, X and Lumine would run in any direction possible to ward them off, shooting the Mechaniloid at the same time.

At the same time, Zero chose not to run but prepared energy on his saber to slice off the missiles. There were twenty of them, so Zero released a giant wave of saber energy slash. But, the moment all missiles were perfectly cut into half, their reactive contents exploded, their energy hurting Zero a lot.

“Gahahah! These missiles are meant to explode whether they’re apiece or not! I know the way you robots fight!!” Bob laughed hysterically.

On the other side, X and Lumine weren’t doing so well either.

X was slightly damaged although he managed to take out all missiles by simple Buster shots. Lumine, equipped with his force shield, avoided all explosions but because of the intense amount of energy in the explosions, the shield leaked a little and hurt him too.

Nonetheless, Lumine fired many laser rounds at Bob’s machines.

“Grr…You white brat! I’ll show you!” Bob pulled down a lever.

A tiny gun surfaced at Bob’s orb glass and fired a thin but powerful ray of red beam and did considerable damage to Lumine.

“Urkk! Human trash! See how you can avoid this!”

Lumine fired a thicker ray beam and totally destroyed the laser gun. Bob’s machine was then unstable, giving the trio time to fire ahead at the Mechaniloid.

“I’m gonna smash all of you! See how you like fresh rubble from the walls!” Instantly another plasma projectile blasted the surrounding walls, causing more explosions and truly creating giant rubble. Smoke of dust covered nearly everywhere. The three couldn’t see so well. Bob used the chance to slam them hard.

Lumine was hit the hardest because he shoved X and Zero aside and absorbed all of the shocks from Bob’s slam. Fearing extreme tire, he abruptly gave body control mechanisms back to Axl, surprising him rudely.

“Hey, what gives?! Argh!” Axl was slammed onto a wall due to the force.

“Sorry, Axl! I need to charge up now for later! Good luck!”

Silently, X and Zero thanked the white Reploid for saving them, this time charged with confidence, blasting their shots at Bob. It still seemed as though Bob’s machine is not damaged at all.

“Shoot! I gotta help them!” Axl ran circularly around the Mechaniloid and fired his famous non-stop bullet shots. Eventually large crack lines appeared around the red Mechaniloid.

Bob still had nothing to comment. He fired his homing missiles again twice, so around 120 missiles filled the airs of the grounds. Either by slicing or they’ve hit their targets, the missiles exploded.

The walls had their heights reduced a little, converted to rubble. All the three Hunters were pounded to the walls due to the immense force.

Axl fell to the ground, stood up a little dazed because of the effects of gravity and the fact he had been pounded a lot. Then he felt his tiredness disappear.

“Whoa! Who did that?” Axl closed his eyes and saw Iris channelling some pink aura to him. “You’ll need it, Axl. Keep on going!”

Axl opened his eyes and resumed blasting with X and Zero. Suddenly, the metal skin of the Mechaniloid broken into large pieces, revealing engines which looked overheated and smoking really bad.

“What!! I’m not going to let age-old Reploids defeat me!! Watch my multiple combo attacks!” Bob pushed all buttons and levers repeatedly.

Many laser projectiles and those homing missiles were released in the air. The walls were greatly destroyed as rubbles of concrete flew everywhere, hurting the Hunters significantly.

Running wildly at the same time, Axl heard Iris and Lumine talk to him.

“Axl, let me help you! I’ll need your left hand again!”

“Thanks, Iris.” Lumine responded calmly: “I’d like to do the finishing blow, dear boy. That scum deserves something great from me.”

“Sure, whatever you say.”

Amid the multiple attacks, the Hunters continued their usual patterns of movements to avoid the enemy’s attacks and weakening the enemy’s health status.

Axl’s left hand moved furiously as it fired pink fireballs of plasma energy at the Mechaniloid’s smoking body. Axl ran to a corner, stopped his shooting and closed his eyes.

Iris looked really tired from her efforts to stay up and focus on firing at Bob. She noticed Axl halt and turned to him.

“Axl! Why have you stopped?”

“Iris, you’re very tired! Take a rest first! I’ll do the rest!”

“Axl, I appreciate your care for me but this isn’t the right time! I’ve witnessed together with you all your combats and adventures and I must admit I’ve never seen a more menacing threat to peace than that Bob! He’s even worse than Sigma! Do you know why?”

Axl paused. “…No, afraid not.”

“Sigma strikes his vengeance only after some months or years, but this…this…this psycho strikes in a matter of days, I tell you that! I’ve got the feeling he’d do that! Besides, father had already eliminated Sigma 100 PERCENT! So he must be more urgently stopped!!”

A limping Lumine approached them. “Hurry, dear Axl…Quickly…”

Axl was burning with a new lease of confidence.

“Thanks, guys, you’re the best. C’mon let’s go!”

Axl and Iris resumed fighting. They saw that now Bob’s machine is swelling with smoke so thick that his attacks are slowing down.

X had already blasted it maybe with hundreds of charged Buster shots and Zero had sliced away important cannons and other guns. It was now all up to Axl.

“C’mon Axl! Take it down!” Zero yelled out.

Lumine saw the opportunity he was waiting for. He instantly grasped Axl’s control mechanisms and a fresh Lumine is now standing in the grounds.

He flew fastly towards the orb glass. Bob is now struggling with malfunctioning buttons and levers.

“This one’s for all of us.”

He fired a long, thick beam of purple laser at the orb. All Bob saw was white light.

A giant explosion occurred as the Mechaniloid exploded to millions of metal scrap. All three, X, Zero and Lumine were blown backwards due to the impact of force. Seconds later, the fight ended.

The compound walls were reduced to 10 meters height and other neighbouring rooms were exposed, also damaged. Many equipment pieces were scattered here and there. In the fighting compound itself, rubble lay everywhere. Bob was found lying on the floor, badly bruised with blood trickling from his head.

The Reploids faced the man. X was about to arrest him when a big bullet shell hit them and they were bounced backwards.

May appeared. She landed herself on the grounds, with a huge machine gun as her right hand and still had her sword behind her back. She carried weakened Bob on her left arms.

“No one will harm my master, ever.”



Continued in Chapter 22.


Notes:
Bob’s defeated and May shows up. X, Zero and Lumine are referred as ‘Reploids’ while X, Zero and Axl are referred as ‘Hunters’ because Lumine is not acknowledged as a Hunter. Many still think him as a ‘dead’ Maverick.



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And that is it for today. Thanks a lot for coming.

[Professor Fann]

I am back with the final 3 chapters of this AAS series. I'll be posting up those Continuation series next week or so - I have an awful load to do here. Thanks for your patience.


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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Twenty-Two: Revenge


The Reploids were stunned with the arrival of the one responsible for corrupting the discipline of many Hunters. For the trio-in-one Lumine-controlled Reploid, it was like meeting with a nightmare again.

May smirked at them. “Well. The head of the Hunters. Along with a fiendish Maverick. I wonder what the Federation will say to this, an unimaginable cooperation.”

“Seems that you are the Maverick now, May. You are wanted for deliberately corrupting the minds of our Hunters.” Zero prepared his saber.

“And Lumine is responsible for the events connecting to the Jakob Project. You fools cooperate with him?!” May lifted Bob higher.

“At least it’s better working with a Maverick who repented rather than you! What’s been going on all this while?” All three prepared a battle stance.

“Master told me everything about the past and I have a version of it too. Very well, time for a little story before you all perish.”

May gently placed Bob on the rubble-filled grounds and continued to speak.

“Master here has long envisioned himself as the ruler of the world in the near future. And he works hard to realise it. It all makes sense when you study the past.”

“Firstly, Master chose to work for that Prez because he was a good source of income. He had an appraisable secret interest in obtaining that copy boy Axl to cash in his dreams. At that time, a new group was on the verge of gaining better reputation than the Maverick Hunters.”

“Master chose to support the syndicate Red Alert in hopes they will topple Hunters as the new police group and later on, he will dispose of Red so he can gain a hold to later world domination. He then arranged a meeting with Red so they could obtain Axl.”

“The incident years ago in Prez’s plants where Axl was kidnapped and earned his scar occurred. Red Alert became more competitive and Master was pleased with this. But then the blunder of a fool Sigma appeared and had the same plans of Master: to use Axl to gain power, purely by accident.”

“Of course in due course, Axl came to the HQ and Red Alert and Sigma was destroyed. Master’s plans were ruined so he managed to flee in time. Then he held a chain of events together years later.”

“Reploid rebellions, Prez’s creation of Lumine, government ties, efforts to escape the troubled world, Master took advantage of them all. Master caused all the Reploid rebellions that forced the Federation to escape to the Moon. Prez was called in to build the Orbital Elevator and Moon’s facilities. So, Master corrupted Lumine’s data codes and turned him evil to do his will to dominate a new world of Reploids.”

“Lumine, stupidly obeying Master, staged his own kidnapping, used Sigma in secret, although that boldhead wanted to rule the world of no humans, and attracted the Hunters to the Moon.”

“Of course Master didn’t want anyone else to rule the world besides himself so Lumine was made to completely finish Sigma thanks to the Hunters. Next he planned to eliminate the Hunters, further the rebellion, create a Reploid world and install Master as the world’s ruler!”

“But you guys”, turning to X and Zero, “had to stop Lumine. Lumine later passed himself on to Axl and further the rebellion. This time Master chose to act himself by creating more riots and thank goodness, he chose me to corrupt the Hunters so they will be annihilated and Master will not be stopped this time!”

“Master also warned that Axl had made Lumine repent thus no one else could lead the rebellion. It was up to me to make it out with Axl, just like the other hundreds of Hunters.”

“Well Axl had a really strong will to oppose my seductions and I knew he was going to be Master’s greatest threat besides you, X and Zero. So I fled and then Master silenced Prez, controlled his plants and facilities and personally unleashed a small portion of the armies Master prepared a long time ago.”

“But all this failed! No thanks to you! X, ZERO, AXL and now LUMINE! So today, now! I will complete Master’s will by destroying YOU ALL PERSONALLY!!” May aimed her giant gun at them. Her story was finished and she told it all in third-party point-of-view.

But only X and Zero prepared to fight the evil May. Lumine had hanged his head down all this while. His eyes were covered in a shadow and he was shaking, oddly chuckling a bit.

“Lumine, are you okay?” Both Iris and Axl asked.

He shone another round of fierce red aura in the computer brain. Lumine’s anger had reached a really high boiling point.

In just a fraction of a second, he fired a really wide-in-diameter-sense (accurately 3 meters) purple flame of a laser beam ray directly at May. The reaction was too fast for anyone to counter, so May was seriously injured as she was pounded all the way back to the walls behind her, sinking in a giant explosion of a range of 300 meters that destroyed everything.

X and Zero weren’t the obvious target but they too were pounded backwards. The immense power and destruction were too much for them to handle.

“Gaaarggghhh!” Only Lumine remained standing in his exactly same position, full of anger. Even Iris and Axl, his best friends, were helpless in stopping the beastly insanity of the white Reploid.

Lumine floated highly and prepared more energy on his hands.

“You bloody heck of a Reploid! You’re such a disgrace to Reploidkind! I’ll kill you for this!” Lumine shouted all his might. He then pounded his might at May.

May, although was severely injured, managed to use some energy to escape. The explosion was terrible, causing other chambers immense damage. The impact force also blown X and Zero backwards a bit.

“Grrr! Must avoid continuous blasts…” May kept jumping here and there. She didn’t dare retaliate, fearing Lumine would exert more energy at her.

“You Maverick trash! I’ll see to it that you are destroyed too along with this pathetic human!” Lumine aimed at Bob first to lure her nearer.

Of course obedient to her ‘Master’, she ran over to Bob and grabbed him before Lumine launched a laser blast with his left hand. Acting fast, his right hand aimed at May’s back and shot directly.

“Urrrgggh!” She became more injured than ever, but still had power to carry Bob.

She still kept on running about the compound of which its walls are further reduced to 7 meters height and had many marks and cracks. There were tonnes of rubble and spoilt machinery behind the walls so Lumine’s blasts that missed caused them to further explode and being flung in the air.

The situation was way out of control for X and Zero so all they could do was duck on rubble and ground to guard their safety.

Lumine still continued to fire at May and Bob, though many blasts caused more destruction than injury. Bit by bit, his energy declined in supply.

Finally being extremely tired, Lumine halted his attacks on May. May seized this opportunity to place Bob on the ground and fire a shell at Lumine.

Lumine was hit directly on his body.

“Aaaah!” Those were Iris’ and Axl’s screams in Lumine’s head. Lumine didn’t yell from pain, instead maintained his position in air and fired weaker beams at her.

Quickly May grabbed Bob and jumped away to avoid another injury.

“Grr! What will it take to stop this psycho?” May said through gritted teeth.

Apparently Lumine heard that whisper. “Psycho? PSYCHO?! You are the real psycho for trying to corrupt Reploids with your stupid body contact stuff!!” Lumine blasted another thick laser beam of energy that hit May.

By now both were either very injured or very tired or both. One thing’s for sure, May is extremely injured and tired from only three very powerful blasts.

Lumine still remained in the air. But since he used much energy trying to kill May and Bob, he fell down to the ground, eyes slowly closing.

X and Zero went to catch the battered white Reploid. X managed to get hold of him. Zero looked on at May as he prepared to attack her.

Then Lumine released hold of the body’s control mechanisms thus the form changed to become a very tired Axl.

“Axl! Are you all right? Please wake up! C’mon!” X shook him.

Then May took the chance to laugh at them and escape.

“Hahahahah! Stupid Maverick Hunters! Now too weak and stunned to fight back! Mark my words, Hunters! Me and Master will continue our efforts to purge this world of dummies and sooner, you’ll see Master as the king of the world!”

She grabbed Bob and tried to fly away. Just when they were 30 feet above ground, a dark component flew swiftly and collided at May, making her slightly unstable.

“Gah! What is this thing?”

Then its door opened and activated its vacuum. The force pulling May was so strong that she even lost her grip on Bob and Bob was sucked into it.

“Master!” The compartment unveiled a small laser gun and fired a thin line of ray at May’s boots, causing it to explode suddenly.

May lost her ability to fly in the air and fell to the ground. Then from a corner of the compound, Prez appeared and laughed at her.

“Silly Reploid! I’ll never let you escape, especially since Bob’s the menace behind all this, so I fixed a jammer into this thing and jammed your legs!”

Axl opened his eyes slowly. “Dad…”

“I usually don’t tolerate Reploid rebellions and their main perpetrator escape especially if they want to harm the world, so I usually see that they are brain cleased and recycled! That will be your fate!”

Axl moaned a little. “That’s why he took so long…”

Axl gained some strength from his rest so he was able to stand free on the ground. He tried to look for Iris and Lumine but he couldn’t reach any of them.

“Axl! Are you okay?” X was really concerned.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Guess now we must defeat miss Maverick here and sent her to the recycling tanks of father’s plants…” All Hunters agreed.

Prez then went off with his compartment containing Bob. “I’ll be back with more reinforcements while I send Bob to the police. I’ll just leave you three to finish her off. Be strong Axl.”

Axl got to his feet properly and joined X and Zero in a combat position.

“You miserable Hunters! I’ll defeat you first and go off to save Master and get revenge on you!” She too prepared a combat position, holding her sword in her left hand.

“Fine by us. We’ll still beat you anyway!” Axl yelled back.

May yelled out all she can and charged forward to crush the three Hunters.



Continued in Chapter 23.


Notes:
Even more of everything is revealed. By the way Prez used the same compartment that sent Axl to the HQ to capture Bob.




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And instead of the real bad guy being the final boss, this lady becomes the final boss.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Twenty-Three: Defeat


The only job the Hunters have to accomplish now was to take down Bob’s main henchperson, May. Being declared a Maverick and a wanted criminal, May now had no choice but to fight for her own survival now. She was going to make it out alive and avenge her master.

The three Hunters were not going to let that happen and geared up for battle, despite the fact they were tired from the previous battle. Axl, especially, wasn’t going to let her win after all that she did to corrupt him.

May was charging towards the trio, taking out her sword and powering her cannon. She was aiming to take out all three at one time and quickly escape.

Then Zero’s speedy moves blocked her. He had charged forward at her, holding his saber out and clashed with her sword. The saber flared up in green flames and Zero used his strength to pound her on the ground.

“C’mon! Shoot her!” He yelled to X and Axl. Both hastily dashed over to Zero but May took the chance to fire a charged shell at Zero.

“Urggh!” Zero was flung into the air, still grabbing his saber. She also in turn blasted X and Axl away, making her stand on the ground firm.

But while Zero was still in the air, he made his boot rockets launched, propelling him to May. He charged his saber again and gave May a big slash on her body. X released a charged Buster shot at her too. So May was injured even more.

“Gah! I have no choice but to use all of the extra power supply!” She put her sword on her back and pressed a blue button on her cannon arm. Glitters and sparks shone from her, meaning that her health status was restored, but luckily for them, only half of it.

“Darn! Guys, we have to conserve our energy to fight this Maverick! She has her own energy tanks!” The three Hunters were panting.

Zero never refused challenges so he dashed forward and began another saber- and-sword fight with May. All X and Axl could do was rest to gain some strength to fight later and watch the fight.

It was a battle of speed and smarts. Zero had tried many times to slash a scar or crack on May but she managed to wart of all such slashes with her right hand cannon. Then, just when May used her cannon to repel a slash, Zero knew better and hit her hard.

Zero exerted more force, causing the saber’s beam to pierce into her cannon thus damaging some of its mechanisms. He then gathered some strength on his fist and gave her a punch at the chin.

“Ahhh!” Her face swelled a bit, so X and Axl moved forward and blasted her with more shots. She fell into a deep crater they created.

“Take that, Maverick!” Axl yelled at her. But she knew she didn’t want to be beaten by old Reploids, so she jumped upwards, giving Axl a punch on his chin.

“Ow! Man, that’s strong!” He took out his guns and blasted her with non-stop bullet shots. She was blasted backwards onto the ground.

She quickly got to her feet and fired her shells aimlessly. The shells hit many places; once again more explosions took place. Everyone avoided them.

Zero once again went forward to charge at her with an even-stronger saber charge. However, May knew better this time and fired two giant shells directly at Zero.

“ZERO!!” Both Axl and X yelled out of concern. A huge explosion ensued, blowing dust and dirt in all directions.

Zero fell down to the ground, this time completely motionless and landed on his back. The charged saber somehow magically ended on May’s back, breaking her swords to pieces and stunning her body.

It was up to X and Axl to finish the battle. Once again, X resumed his charged Buster shots and Axl his non-stop bullet firing, all at May.

She kept running around the compound’s borders, the walls blasted to concrete rubble. Axl aimed even more accurately at May so most of his bullets now hit her directly, lowering her health status.

Just when X went forward to attack her, Axl experienced some odd movements on his left hand. His fingers wouldn’t hold the trigger anymore and the hand put the gun back into his side pockets.

Axl closed his eyes. He saw a limping Iris struggling to contribute the last of her energy to defeat May.

“Iris, no! You’re too weak! Let me handle this!”

“C’mon Axl…just let me…do my part too…”

Then, Lumine appeared near them, appearing very weak and limping too.

“Axl…dear boy…you’ll need our…last energy. She’s a …very strong Maverick.”

In the outside world, Axl had retreated to a corner of the compound border, leaving X to do all the fighting. In his brain, he saw Lumine and Iris accumulating their last energy supply on their left hands.

Lumine approached his left hand just next to Iris’ own hand and channelled his energy to Iris. The result was a giant sphere of plasma energy that of mixture of colours purple and pink, almost like violet.

“Defeat her…for me…please…” Lumine fell down on the pitch-black floor.

Iris was also about to pass out. She then turned to Axl and said, “Your left hand now contains the last of our powers. Aim it at her precisely and stretch out your hand to fire it. Defeat her, Axl.”

Axl’s left hand was shivering a little due to the presence of energy gathered there. It was so numb Axl couldn’t use his left gun to attack. He turned back to Iris but she too had passed out.

“Don’t worry, I’ll defeat her. For all of us.”

He opened his eyes again. X was getting weaker and weaker as May fired more shells at him. He tried to shield himself with is hands but were powerless against the thick shells.

After some time, X also passed out and fell his body flat on the rubble-filled ground. May was very pleased with herself.

“Good, the major head honchos are unconscious! Now to only slice their bodies apart-! GAAHHH!”

May suffered a major injury on her back. The giant explosion’s force pounded her far forward. She turned back her head and saw Axl and his smoking left hand.

Apparently Axl had found the perfect timing to inflict May with the accumulated energy of Iris and Lumine. Axl stood up more confident.

“This isn’t over yet, Lady Maverick! I’m still up!”

“YOU! I shouldn’t have focused too much on the head honchos! I’ll slice you, I tell you!” may got angrier and stood up to fire her shells.

Axl had observed all her possible tactics so when shells came to him, he quickly avoided them in many directions, the giant rubble around the compounds getting the blasts.

This time, Axl was more prepared. He had considered the possible future movements May would do if she were to avoid the bullets from his guns, in other words, he predicted where she would move next.

First he released a single shot towards May. May quickly jumped to her left.

Now Axl with his quick, sensitive eyes, he raised up his guns to his right and fired non-stop. He was right. All bullets hit her, literally ALL BULLETS. She experienced yet another round of major health status decline.

“YOU! GAAAHHH!” Her body had many cracks and the tiny craters the bullets caused. She was limping already and that made Axl even more confident.

“Eat more, Lady Maverick!” More bullets appeared.

“I AM NOT LADY MAVERICK!!” She charged towards Axl and prepared a heavily charged shell.

The following series of events happened in slow motion.

Axl saw that coming and stopped his shooting. He evaded to his right. May saw that and slowly moved her cannon to the left, directly at Axl’s chest. Axl’s eyes widened with horror. May smiled. The shell is launched.

Another explosion, this one larger than any previously, occurred. Both were seriously damaged. In the end, only one stood up firmly.

May was panting heavily, which her body showing more scars, bullet craters and scratches. Axl lay on the ground, knocked also like the others. She grinned evilly.

“Finally! I defeated all the main drivers of the Maverick Hunters! I’ve made my Master proud! Now I am the strongest Reploid ever! Gahahahahaha- Arrrggghh!”

Again she sustained another blast. This time the shot came from X, who was crouching on the floor.

“I don’t think so!” X shoots her again. She was falling to the ground, this time truly passing out.

Axl who heard the screams, opened his eyes a little and only saw a small part of X panting. He smiled to himself.

“Guys…if you can hear me”, referring to his two inhabitants, “We won…”

Having no energy left, he collapsed his head lightly to the ground. The last noise he heard was the rumbling sound of vehicles and Alia’s cries to the three Hunters.

Later, Axl woke up fully energised, only this time in his computer brain.

He looked around and saw Iris and Lumine lying down on the floor, the exact same posture they had when they passed out.

“Guys? Are you all all right? C’mon wake up- why am I feeling all wet around me? This substance is…slightly sticky and concentrated…”

Suddenly he saw a bright flashing light ahead of him.

“Am I dead? No, Reploids can’t die, only be unconscious. If I were to die, I would have been deleted and not be here. Hey, I’m waking up…”

Axl’s eyes opened abruptly. He appeared to be rested in a maintenance pod filled with plasma fluid, meant for keeping him in suspended animation. He heard voices.

“Axl’s awake! Drain the fluid and dry him, quickly!” It was X.

The fluids were drained from the pod and Axl was brought out of it. Scientists began drying him with towels. The rough movements of the towel stirred Iris and Lumine to wake up.

“Alright Axl!” it was Zero. “We did it! We’ve beaten May and sent that man to prison! We’ve couldn’t have done it without…him and her.” He referred to Lumine and Iris indirectly; mentioning in front of other people would stir trouble.

“Yeah, I know…Oh they want me to say thank you to you on behalf of them. Wait! How many days have I been asleep?”

“Approximately 30 hours since the battle’s end.” It was Alia. “Your body was so drained of energy it made you and them to sleep just to restore all of them.”

There was a silence in the maintenance lab.

“Welcome back, Axl.”



Continued in Chapter 24.


Notes:
Finally it’s all over. It took me so long just to type out this whole fight.


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Eh, those days, I had a low standard of writing for battle scenes. Now, I tend to write them far more longer and with my energy in them. What the heck.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Twenty-Four: Rejuvenation


It was now day 35 that Lumine has been inside Axl. Together with Iris, they experienced exciting adventures and got to learn about their pasts and the real threat behind many events in the past. Axl had just waked up 3 hours ago and questioned about many things. He was both happy and frustrated.

He is now in the central chamber, resting and looked at the weather of Big City. It was officially winter and it will be snowing for the next three months. That meant Axl had to feel the extreme cold while battling future Mavericks. He rested his head on a cushion and gazed on the ceiling, refreshing whatever he heard from X.

It seems that the Federation government was pleased to learn the true story of events all this while dealing with rebellions and Sigma. They’ve decided to send Bob to prison for 50 years without trial, given the abundant evidence.

May has been successful recycled of her body and brain cleansed. Some melting plants were still functioning amid the destruction in Prez’s grounds.

Speaking of which, the damage caused around the Hunter HQ has been paid for by the government and reconstruction began so fast. However, Prez paid the bills for his own grounds’ damages and had immediately started all rebuilding according to original plans, along with the Jakob Tower dismantling.

Prez was also highly upset about the damages Lumine caused out of his fury, but then forgave the white Reploid because he helped get rid of another Maverick. Lumine had hung his head in shame but vowed to control his flow of anger.

Normalcy had prevailed again in the capital Big City and it has been declared that thanks to the efforts of Prez, all new generation Reploids have been recycled into another type of Reploids that are immune to all viruses and love peace but their copy abilities have been stripped, leaving Axl the only Reploid to copy others’ forms.

Feeling bored, Axl decided to head out to the Big City Park amid the blistering snow. “I’m going out for a while ... yawn ...” “Dear boy, are you crazy? Every human imaginable are resting indoors and you want to get the chills?” Lumine was surprised.

“Relax. It’s just a short while.” Axl walked forward, securing his body from Lumine’s and Iris’ attempts to stop him. Lumine shook his head. “He’s getting better and better. We can’t stop him.” Axl chose to jump over the natural ground’s fences since the main plaza hall doors are locked. Iris and Lumine got more surprised.

“Hm. Axl can just teleport to father’s home to get some heat later. Smart dear boy he is.” Lumine calmly said. “How do you know this?” Iris nudged him.

“Read his mind. How? The exact same way you erased the bad codes from my data soul, only different purpose: to read his thoughts.” Iris flashbacked. She had inserted her hand into Lumine’s head before to get rid of the codings.

Axl walked on streets and streets slowly, patient with the cold, whereas iris wasn’t. He reached there in 5 minutes and grabbed a seat after wiping off snow away from it. Axl gazed upwards and sighed to himself. Lumine took note of that.

“Something wrong, dear Axl?” Axl nodded.

“Yeah. I know this isn’t my field but the whole history of humans have been filled with the exact same elements we’ve just exactly experienced these 30-odd days. It’s just…so sad.” “I’m afraid I don’t understand you, Axl.”

“See since Iris’ time and before. Zero’s death and reconstruction, Sigma returning and causing harm, the Repliforce wars, her death and Zero despairing; all show sadness, happiness and hate.”

“Human history is pretty much the same; wars, destruction, loss of many lifes, revenge. It’s just so sad. Can’t we even have a single century of peace?”

Lumine was surprised. “So philosophical. Silly boy, we are in an age where humans want total peace and so do we Reploids. C’mon, put all this behind you. There’re the past. We only learn from them to build a better future. Besides, you’ve just recovered from a huge battle. Relax, will you?”

“He’s right. Axl just relax. That man’s in prison already. No more trouble.” Axl sighed to himself. “Yeah, I suppose you’re correct. I’ve had enough in this winter. Let’s head back.” He chose to walk again instead of teleporting and forgot to go to Prez’s place.

Iris sulked. “Oh, why does he have to choose the long way back instead? I’m freezing cold from this terrible winter! I’ll just like to enjoy some heat like back in the central chamber!”

Lumine decided to interfere. He rose up his right hand and emitted his purple aura in a hemisphere surrounding them. Iris felt much warmer and relieved.

“Gee, thanks.” Iris brushed her hands and hair.

“Anytime. Dear boy seems to be immune towards the cold. I wonder what’s making him like this?” Lumine only shrugged his shoulders.

Axl was actually refreshing his memory of all events that happened and led him to be what he is now. Such deep thinking made him ignore the winter.

“So, if I put it in chronological order, firstly father received designs from Iris from the Dr. Cain and made her. Then got shipped off to the Repliforce as that guy’s sister. Then the war and Zero had to kill her in that big space thing.”

“If I’m not mistaken, father saved her body and scrap before some giant structure crashed into Earth. I think father stayed underground and took years to rebuild his plants and build me. Wonder what happened to the structures? Father must’ve felt it’s too dangerous till he didn’t want to recycle it.”

“Then years later, I was awakened after Bob arranged me to be stolen by Red Alert so he could trap them and then rule the world. But Sigma stopped him by accident and we destroyed Red Alert… he escaped and continued his secret projects.”

“He made the rebellions so the government would hastily ask father to build the Elevator. Then he corrupted Lumine here and sent him to try to purge the world. Sigma had to interfere so he got Lumine to destroy him after we did. Then he’ll destroy us”, referring to X, Zero and himself.

“Then Lumine passed himself to me, tried to take over but Iris stopped him and made agreements not to harm me. He also revealed tips bit by bit to my existence. Then the trip to father’s and the Elevator’s revival.”

“Then Bob had May corrupted to bit by bit destroy the HQ. May corrupted many but not me. Bob had to create more rebellion and silence father, take over the plants and launch an attack.”

“I went there but X and Zero revealed everything. We fought Bob and May, on behalf of father, the City and Lumine. Then this is where I am now.”

Axl sighed again. He was close to the HQ but walked even slower. “What is taking him so long? I should have controlled him or something earlier on!” Iris grumbled. “Hm, dear boy must be absorbed in his thinking so much he can’t even walk properly. I have to do something now.”

Axl, who wasn’t paying attention, was stunned everywhere suddenly. Lumine controlled his entire body but his features weren’t shown at all.

“Hey, what’d you do that for?” “Dear Axl, listen! Iris here was freezing due to the cold and now it’s my turn to get the chills too! I’m making you teleport back quickly!”

Axl was teleported back to the resting chamber he rested. Iris and Lumine did feel much warmer and iris scolded him.

“Next time, I’m not letting you endanger us like this!” “Sorry. I was deeply thinking…about us all.” Axl made it back to his cubicle with silence in the computer brain. Axl finally told them what he was thinking all this while.

“Well, that’s a very summarized thought of all events. That man must have recognized you as a big threat to him in order to plan all this things.”

Axl got to the point quickly. “Do you think it’s better for us to remain this way? Maybe X was right. I shouldn’t imprison you guys all the time. Maybe you deserve your own bodies.”

Iris got mad. “Allow me to remind you that it was our decision to remain with you in you! You can’t have certified dead Reploids brought back alive that easily! We wanted to be with you forever in all time and it’s final!!”

Lumine went forward and clamped Axl’s shoulders. “Dear Axl boy, please listen. We chose to stay with you in this body and we are content with that. You were the one who brought so many changes around this place, to Iris and to me! We only did what we could in all those battles, but you did most of it!”

“I don’t want us to separate, especially after all the lessons you taught me and what Iris taught me too. Just forget this issue, okay? It’s settled: we will be together, always, forever.”

Axl smiled. “Alright, I won’t touch this matter anymore. Thanks for your support, guys. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”

“It’s okay.” Silence again.

Axl looked at the clock. “It’s nine-thirty already! I’d better get back to my resting pod!” He ran all the way to the chamber and set the alarm.

“Well, goodnight guys. Let’s hope for a better and happier future for all of us.”

The pod made them sleep soundly and Axl for the first time was happy in bed, with his best friends.



The End.



Notes:
Hurray! Finally the story has been finished. Took me 20th to 23rd November 2005 to draft and from 24th November to 17th December 2005 for typing alone, Asian time. Do remember to look out for the sequel “An Axl Story Continuation”!

I would like to thank all those who have taken their time to read this fanfiction of mine, as well as the Zero Virus administrators and moderators for keeping the site alive and to host this series of An Axl Story.

The last thanks goes to Keiji Inafune for being the father of the Megaman series. Without him, this story will seriously not exist if it weren’t for his efforts to expand his series. Thank you so much!

Now to rest and plan the next story…See you all later!


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Yeah ... that. That end notes thanking ZV for being held up for these 6 years and never once crashing was added in to be more updated with the times.


And that is all for now. Next week, it's the An Axl Story Continuation series, but I'm posting up only 2 chapters per time. Thanks a lot for coming! Please stay tuned!

[Professor Fann]

And thus ... that was the end of the AN AXL STORY FIRST SERIES.

Silence ...


Silence ...



And now, we begin the AN AXL STORY CONTINUATION series! Sorry for the delay, if anyone was expecting and wanting to read these. I've been busy and ... very tinily lazy.


As such, from now on, 2 chapters will instead be posted up everyday, till the end of the series. Thank you very much for your patience and happy reading.




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This is the second series of the Axl Story saga, sequel to the An Axl Story First Series. Whoever reads it ought to enjoy itself, solely for entertainment not commercial and hurts no one’s interests. All characters are based on the Megaman X series. Inspired by myself solely. All characters belong to Keiji Inafune of Capcom, unless you’ve never seen some before. Happy reading!
-M’siaFanWriter

An Axl Story Continuation


Chapter One: Restless


Axl became really frustrated this time. Just when things were getting better, from the Big City’s conditions to his ‘father’ and from having the Jakob Project ex-Director Lumine and Iris friends in him to defeating the Maverick Hunter traitor May.

The bespectacled, serious-looking, messy brown hair, crooked nose and big blue eyes of a man named Bob had escaped from prison in the City outskirts.

The news came in just two days ago, just slightly more than 20 hours after he was serving his immediate prison sentence. It was revealed that Bob had escaped by knocking out many security guards in the prison canteen and avoided many dangerous attacks.

Being a fast runner, he evaded quickly into the Big City forests.

Winter went on as usual in the Federation capital Big City and around the Federation as well. Due to its strategic positions, Big City endured the heaviest snow. This however didn’t deter Axl’s ‘dad’ mister Prez from stopping his hasty construction works.

It was also unbelievable that Reploid uprisings still occurred during the blizzard. The police forces just fought another uprising in the City and returned shivering cold, despite the thickness of their coats and Hunter assistance.

It was now the 38th day the white personality of a Reploid Lumine had been inside Axl and Axl had never been more restless in the last 38 days.

Axl kept walking to and fro around the resting chamber, the central chamber and even around the entire HQ. He had never felt more energetic, or in a negative way, restless. It seemed only yesterday that Bob was caught, but now he’s free.

“Aw, it took us so much energy and time just to quell all that rebellion and the traitor! Now he’s loose! I don’t believe it! Does that mean that we wasted so much? I hate it when we can only hope he’ll be arrested quickly!!”

“I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! If only either of us just broke that law the humans set on us! Then Bob would have been long dead and we have longer peace! I don’t mind being crushed in the recycling plants!”

Lumine and Iris were shocked to hear Axl say that strong proclamation. Axl was in such fury that he even ignored the definite consequence of killing a human: death. It was long stated in the law:

‘Whichsoever Reploid commits a murder on a human, regardless of motive, be it from revenge or pleasure of such act, he or she should be immediately dealt with death or recycling and brain cleansing or both.’

Iris felt very worried for the red Reploid and asked Lumine to calm him down.

“Hm…I’ll try my best.” Lumine walked up to Axl and tapped on his shoulder.

“Axl dear boy…please try to relax yourself! You’ve been restless like this for the past three days already! He’ll be tracked down again! All that’s needed is time!”

Axl halted his steps in the mid space back at his resting chamber. Closing his eyes, he turned to Lumine.

“I know. But I can’t help it. He’s given us Reploids and humans much trouble for the past decade or so. Even dad was in grave danger because of him, remember?”

“Dear Axl, I know. But-” “I can’t tolerate his presence in this place already. Especially since what he did to me, to you, to dad, to the Federation and the world. I know. I can’t do much.”

“Axl, please-” “Don’t say anything more of this, Lumine, please. I’m already tired of all this. I can only hope he’ll be arrested someday. Then peace will be restored again.”

Lumine decided not to interrupt further.

“As for the Mavericks, there shouldn’t be anymore. Now it’s only the machines that cause the Reploids and Mechaniloids to be berserk. I’m sure father will track them down and recycle them. He likes to do that.”

Axl had never spoken something so advanced and profound before. This left them silent as Axl headed back to his cubicle and bored himself with anything to do.

He closed his eyes. Iris and Lumine had disappeared to go somewhere in the body. He opened his eyes. All he saw was his table of computer, piles of papers, Internet clippings on the wall, some junk at one corner and the outside world where snow and wind blew strongly, making everywhere blur.

Then, while Axl was sleeping head on the table, covered by his resting hands, Lumine discovered something new in his body.

“How odd. There’s this strong pressing feeling around his whole head. There’s even an odd strand of data coding here. I’ve never seen it before.”

He held on both hands a long strand of data, shaped in various shapes of rectangles, and examined it with his palm inside the strand.

“Hm. There’s something really odd about this. Seems to be a mixture of some of dear boy’s and my data codes… It’s a Reploid DNA strand! How did it end up here…? I’d better store this somewhere safe.”

His purple aura emitted from his palms caused the data strand to wiggle and float around the pitch-black surroundings of the computer brain along with the rest of the data flowing in all directions.

“I’ll better tell the others-” The emergency alarm rang suddenly. Axl woke up abruptly from his sleep and headed immediately to the resting chamber, without even thinking.

“There has been a huge riot consisting of small Mechaniloids in the communications facilities just at the City northwest coast. All Hunters dispatch immediately.” That was Alia’s voice.

Axl became slightly angry. “Bob and his tricks.” Axl then quickly sprinted into action by being the first to be teleported to the site of the riot. Many Hunters were surprised, even X and friends.

“He’s pretty confident it’s that human Bob behind this. Let’s catch up to him.”

Axl arrived at the communications facilities. The satellites and immense pipelines of wiring were filled with small Mechaniloids running about here and there, also damaging some connections here and there. Axl was pretty sure the core was inside the structure of tanks and pipes.

Without consulting anyone at all, he quickly dashed up in the air, flew in many directions and rapidly fired his bullets at all berserk Mechaniloids. He was so fast that the outer compound alone had been fully rid of such Mavericks in a mere 2 minutes.

Another team of Hunters that arrived later found nothing but the dents and damages the Mavericks caused, some smoke billowing in various places and Maverick bodies here and there. They were confused over the situation.

X and Zero arrived a couple of seconds later. Zero raised an eyebrow. “What’s this? No Mavericks? Axl must have been quick to take them all out, and angry too.”

X placed his palm on his head. “Everyone, spread out and fix all damages and clear all bodies. Report to me later. Zero and I have to catch up on someone.”

The Hunters hastily spread out amid the snow and the duo went in to chase Axl.

Inside the structure, Axl was furiously taking out all berserk Mechaniloids.

A spider Maverick climbed from the ceiling but was immediately blasted by him. Two bulldozer Mavericks charged at Axl in between them, but Axl jumped upwards and fired, destroying both at once. A few Bees trying to inflict damages on pipes and chew off wires suffered the same fate.

“Take this! And also some of these! You around here, Bob? Come and face me!!” He fiercely yelled out while blasting the small Mavericks away.

Lumine and Iris were not prepared for this.

“Axl’s out of control! We gotta stop him before he turns mad!”

Lumine preferred to remain calm. “Iris, relax. If you’ve had noticed, dear boy only blasted the Mavericks, with minimal damage. Axl will be fine. I know when to stop him if he becomes really dangerous.”

Iris couldn’t protest so she chose to wait for things to happen.

Then Axl met the master Maverick behind the riot. It was a giant cargo robot that had its many pinchers snipping many steel pipes and wires so fast just like paper. Axl quickly aimed his bullets at the robot and blasted its back real bad.

It immediately noticed Axl and used its pinchers to cut Axl into half. Despite its fast attempts, Axl was way faster than it and dodged all its pinchers. He made its main engines smoke in no time and even destroyed most of its pinchers.

Then the robot reached out its last two pinchers and tore out an electrical wire, still connected so it had electricity. It tried to stun Axl by slamming him with the wires but Axl knew better and dodged them all.

“Is that all you’ve got?! Eat this whole lot!!” He rapidly took it out with tonnes of bullets. A giant explosion thus dirtied the large room, destroyed the main panel and made rubble everywhere.

X and Zero arrived just in time. They found Axl to be rampaging madly on the cargo robot’s remains, still not satisfied with his victory. “How could you let Bob corrupt you like this?! Huh? HUH?!”

“Axl stop it! It’s defeated by you already!” Both reached to grab and calm Axl down. Even mighty Hunters had to struggle just to calm Axl down.

“Take this! And that! And some of this kicks too!” Deciding it was the proper time to act, Lumine released a lot of red waves that robbed Axl of his limbs. Eventually Axl was brought under control.

Iris lectured him. “Axl! That would be enough! Please stop this for our sakes!” Axl would’ve stopped if he hadn’t spotted a shadow hiding behind one of the pipelines. Without saying anything, he raced to grab the shadow he assumed Bob.

It turned out to be a harmless, worn-out human worker, frightened from the battle. “Oh thank goodness you’ve destroyed the cargo robot! I’ve been hiding here for so long in case it finds me and cuts me in half! Thank you! Thank you!”

Axl’s anger cooled down. “Oh…you’re welcome.”

Axl then helped the old man to shelter in the HQ before he was turned in to his employers. All along, X and Zero exchanged looks while Lumine and Iris were relieved Axl wasn’t angry anymore.

Back in the HQ, Axl watched the evening pass into night amid the snow. He saw the snow falling less and human children playing with the snow, creating a snowman. He was relieved that everyone was safe. Lumine and Iris were also relieved because Axl’s restlessness disappeared TOTALLY.

Many Hunter were sharing theories about Axl’s sudden behavioural change, none of which Axl found true. He decided to reside in Zero’s office.

“Neat fight, Axl. Only need to cool it down.”

Zero ignored Axl’s ignorance. At this time, Lumine decided to tell the other two about the new strand of Reploid DNA. He found it to match Axl perfectly.

Axl was reluctant. “Well, alright. We’ll just test this out.”

Iris anxiously watched Lumine activate the data strand on Axl. Axl felt much pain around his body and felt himself the feeling of strength surging around him.

Axl opened his eyes and was shocked. He had become very white, though his Axl looks remained same except for colour and a little design. He donned a lot of blue-purplish strips here and there. His eyes were yellow instead of green and his hair was light purple. Worse, Zero noticed that.

“Axl! What happened to you?! I’m sending you immediately to the mechanics room and patch up Layer to scan you!”

In no time at all, Axl was strapped again to the same cylindrical advanced machine that detected Iris and Lumine. Layer was busy tending to status bars while X, Zero, Pallette and Alia gazed on Axl’s white appearance.

“Axl’s health status is okay. No abnormalities have been detected. But some unknown strand of data here seems to be responsible for this sudden change. Odd; I thought that the code expert Lumine knows how to deal with this kind of things.”

Layer went up to Axl’s right ear and pressed a round purple button.

“I was expecting you to do that.” Lumine’s cold voice echoed the mechanics room. Everyone stared back at Axl. “How did that happen?” X and friends were puzzled.

Layer plainly replied: “He wanted a speaker installed in his head. I guess he never told any of you about this. Alright, tell us what happened to Axl.”

Lumine paused for a while. “I just found a strand of unknown formula that codes for Axl’s abilities. It was made up of his data and mine too. We agreed to test it out on Axl here. Who would know that my features had mingled with some of his too?”

“It was created the moment I entered here, according to this data. It remained hidden along with the rest of the data circling around here too. Wasn’t till today that I found the weird strand…lying on the ground dead.” He referred to the subconscious all three lived in Axl.

“I can deactivate it just like the rest of the data, if you think it’s appropriate. Then again, yes, it’s better to do so.” Axl white-purple form returned back to the way Axl was supposed to look. Layer immediately unbuckled all straps and set Axl free.

“Alright all of you can go. I still need some time with him.” Everyone left the mechanics room. Axl and Layer were alone in the room.

“I’m fine now. Just let me go.” Layer obliged and let Axl go, without any questioning, though she looked on at him.



Continued in Chapter 2.


Notes:
Axl sure did turn mad early on. If you played X8 you’ll know what the white Axl armour is. No one else except Axl and Layer knew about the head speakers, if you’ll refer back in the first series. Have you ever tried visualising the scenes and Reploids? Just remember the voices of the main characters and use your imagination for the settings.



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Yes ... the dreaded and evil Bob has escaped from prison. Be prepared.


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I repeat once again, all characters belong to Capcom unless those you’ve never heard before and the story is meant for entertainment and doesn’t hurt anyone else’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Two: Bodywear


Axl never felt better, especially after having a nice rest after his friends were interested in the new armour he had yesterday, thanks to Lumine’s discovery. He hadn’t decided what to do with the strand of data, codenamed ‘White Axl’. He felt both that it was a waste to discard it and he didn’t need it.

“Gee, I dunno…it’s a rare breed. I don’t feel like using it because it’ll stir up trouble and I’m fine without it. But…like I said, it’s rare. Can’t just throw it away.”

Lumine wondered to himself. “I’ll just deactivate ‘White Axl’ then, dear boy.”

Axl asked “Lumine, what’s the difference between a Reploid’s DNA and the data soul, our personality?” Lumine smiled at him. “Good question, dear boy. There is a big difference but you won’t need to know that as of yet. I’ll tell you in time.”

Lumine went on to deactivate it to become one of the many data packets and strips circulating the air of the pitch-black computer brain.

The following day, Axl woke up earlier than usual for no reason. He didn’t feel like sleeping later than everyone else. The moment his body began active, it woke up his other two inhabitants.

“Axl, why so early? I still need some sleep.” Iris moaned at him. “Sorry, I just didn’t feel like it. For some reason. I can’t rest like usual.”

Axl decided to take more walks around the Hunter HQ, just for the fun of it. Then, he came to the central chamber and gazed outside the glass mirrors. Despite the early wee dark hours, many lights were lit up in the other buildings. Vehicles too were moving on the roads and humans walking on streets.

He saw an old person in the City Park, breathing in the fine cold air. She was clearing the grounds of snow and giving water and fertilizer to the plants. Eventually she breathed in the smell of the flowers.

That made Axl wonder to himself. “How does it feel like to be human? Seems that they appreciate life more than us Reploids. Why is that?”

Lumine interrupted. “Human lifespan on this Earth is limited, dear boy. They decide to enjoy it to the fullest before their time is up.”

Axl turned around and looked at him. “Well, yes I know. But there’s something different about them. Reploids are already programmed to think, feel, see and hear just like the humans. But there’s something missing. What could there be left?”

Both his inhabitants were left clueless. Actually, Axl was also clueless about his own point. He already knew that now all Reploids too can sense and love just like the humans. But he still felt a missing point that made him babble.

He decided to retreat to the HQ’s own greenhouse reserve, meant to contribute further research to the benefit of mankind, besides Prez’s own work.

Axl gazed around the variety of flowers in the greenhouse. Though he couldn’t enter, he began to grasp certain meanings just from looking at the flora.

“All kinds of flowers are different. So many colours, so many shapes and uses, so many forms…” The word ‘forms’ hit him with self-realisation.

Axl began to feel excited with the ideas that hit him. He looked upon the humans on the ground. The sun was slowly rising brightly so he saw with no difficulty. The humans were wearing so many different forms of clothing to express themselves.

Axl finally found the point he was looking for. “Flowers have different forms … humans have different forms too…Reploids do not! It makes sense!”

Iris and Lumine greeted his conclusion with confusion. “What is it now?” “The only thing that differentiates human and us Reploids is our forms! Maybe we ought to go get some of the human clothing!”

Iris was getting mad at Axl for suggesting a radical idea, but they were no closer to stop Axl’s curiosity and excitement that he teleported away instantly.

Axl teleported to a large empty ground. Around the ground were tall structures of pipes, tanks and what seems to be three office buildings and a high brown wall.

“Axl, isn’t this…father’s grounds?” Lumine was surprised. “Yeah, I gotta tell my new idea to dad! He’ll know what to do!” Axl was way too excited to be stopped by his friends. Axl then dashed towards a mechanized gate and entered the buildings.

Axl followed the directions to Prez’s office and they were most fascinated by everything they saw, obvious just by looking at the large area the grounds covered.

On the outside, the factories and plants of over 50 storeys high more look stagnant along with the winter that set in but inside was bustling full of activity. What seemed to be office buildings on the outside was actually mere plaster sealing up the gigantic machines and tanks that produced much for Big City and the world.

The various kinds of chambers had their gears working so fast and the pumps quick to recycle the stagnant air inside. Flames were huge, as high temperatures were needed to treat all sorts of waste, scrap and metal.

Pipes were constantly pouring molten yellow liquid into moulds. The smoke was even reused as part of reactions to make acids. The hammering and pounding of steel here and there gave the place much noise so conversations were carried out only in the large cafeteria. The environment was surprisingly very clean and Reploids and human workers didn’t mind the extreme cold.

Axl overheard the conversation of two human workers.

“Dang, it’s just so cold outside. Lucky we have strong heat from all these machines. Ain’t nothing gonna stop me from working here!”

“You said it, mate! With increased pay and shelter, what else can’t make us from stopping work! The boss here sure cares about us a lot!”

Axl was pleased as Prez’s workers were praising him, proving that his father was a kind loving man. In no time all, Axl and friends reached mister Prez’s office.

Prez was most happy to them. He halted a conversation on the screen just to greet them in that luxurious office. Axl switched on his speakers.

“Axl! Lumine! Iris! What a surprise! I’m so glad you’ve come!” Prez embraced Axl in his warm hands. “Hey dad” was all Axl could say.

“Nice to see you again, father dear.” Iris remained cheerful and Lumine did remain quite cold. “Pleasure to see you, father.”

Prez released the embrace with a huge smile. “What brings you all here?” Iris started: “Axl seems to have a radical desire, father. He wants clothes.” Prez raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Why would you want human forms, my dear son?”

“Em…well it’s kind of hard to describe. This morning I was sort of inspired to try to step into a human’s shoes, if you know what I mean. I wanted to see how it feels like to be human, that’s all. Try to mingle along with the crowd. I think it would be best to start by getting some human forms.”

Prez pondered for a moment. “Hm…experimenting, eh? Hm, what a brilliant idea! I always like people who love to try out something new! Yes! It’s a worthy investment! I like it, I really do! Come on you all!”

Axl switched off the speaker just when Lumine said “Who would’ve thought it was this easy?” and got a snap from Iris. Prez led them down by elevator to a giant metal gate. He pressed some codes fast as he was excited about a ‘new investment’. Once the door opened, Prez grabbed Axl and pulled him so hard.

“Hurry up, boy. We can’t afford to waste time! Time is everything!”

“Yes, Axl, what a brilliant idea! Testing your body’s controlled nuclear reaction to the utmost possible limits in search of new science! My new latest technology can do that! I prefer to do this myself, despite my hectic schedule for tonight! It’ll be of great convenience for me too!”

“Hectic schedule? Where are you going?” Axl asked. Prez has never left Federation soil before and always stayed in his giant grounds, choosing to send representatives to his foreign counterparts. He refused to answer.

Axl was confused as he was led to a rather large room with giant pointy needles of machines pointing out everywhere from the ceiling. The scientists then strapped up Axl on a resting pod.

“Aha aha yes, really? I see! You all may leave this place first. I’m testing out a new nuclear reaction on the subject!” Prez wore his dark goggles.

Only the trio-in-one Reploid and their ‘father’ then occupied the room. Prez was furiously scribbling plans on a touch screen computer. He made plenty of erasing and furious jottings here and there. He was then pleased with himself.

“Ah yes, perfect! Alright it’s settled! First I’ll induce a sleeping program on you all three! Then I’ll manipulate you integration systems! Let’s see if my theories are correct!” Before they knew it, all Axl, Lumine and Iris were set to sleep.

Axl struggled to open his eyes but the program was too powerful to counter. Then minutes later, they woke up so fast. What seemed to be minutes were actually hours.

“Oh no! Dad, the HQ! They’ll call me!” Prez quickly responded by switching on a nearby screen. It revealed status bars only Prez knows how to read.

“Relax, children. There have been no missions today. They are gearing up for maximum security there and are busy preparing for something grand. Oh you’ll see later. Right now take a look at your new forms!”

Axl got off the pod and saw himself. He now donned a thick shirt of blue and red strip of lines. He had a sweater of the same design, having two sidepockets and white-red collars. He wore baggy trousers of dark blue and brown leather shoes. He had no hat so his messy brown hair was spread out downwards from his head. His X-scar remains same.

“Wow thanks dad! You’re the best!” Then Axl’s form suddenly wobbled to become an excited Iris. She looked around herself. She wore a long red skirt with exact designs to that of her Reploid self and a red-blue shirt. She had a belt buckle of a green emerald, long green socks, mostly hidden by brown high boots up till her knees. Her hair texture was the same and her hat was considerably softened to organic cloth.

“Wow thank you father! It looks great!” Lumine rudely interrupted her. He looked on himself and saw that he had a white shirt and a sweater having sidepockets; two dark purple hexagons on each side, mauve strip on each sleeve. He had baggy slacks of white and grey and black leather shoes. His face was exactly the same like his Reploid self: the huge headset on his head.

“Well I’m satisfied father. How did you do this anyway?”

“It’s quite interesting really. I decided that all three of you needed this new accessory so I’ve made it in such a way that when Axl has his human form shown and Iris would suddenly take over, her human form would be displayed. It works just like back in your Reploid selves. A Reploid Iris will turn to be Reploid you!”

“I see. What about the integration systems, father?”

“Remember the wiring of the Chameleon chip to the body’s inexhaustible power source? It had a job of using the energy to ward off viruses and maintain Axl’s survival combat skills. Now, its other job is to use that nuclear energy to quickly but safely convert metal into safe, malleable disguises of clothes! Get the picture?”

“Yes father.” Lumine stepped back and gave a little bow. “Thank you for sparing your time with us just for Axl’s wishes.” He got a “Hey!” from Axl. Lumine wobbled back to become Axl. Then Axl noticed that his left collar had a small circular red button, anextension of some sort of device in the collar.

“Ah yes! That’s the button that allows any of you to turn back and forth of any forms in an instant! Oh dear will you look at the time! I have to go to see a foreign counterpart! Goodbye, Axl I’ll be seeing you all later tonight!”

He hastily left the room and Axl became confused. Realising it was close to being evening, he teleported back to the resting chamber he always stayed.


Continued in Chapter 3.


Notes:
Axl and friends get human forms! Isn’t it crazy that an old lady will water plants in the winter? If you wanted to get a clearer picture of Prez’s factories operating, try your wildest imagination!



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And that is it for now. Sorry if the page may take too long to load due to the immense number of chapters posted in one post. Thank you for coming and stay tuned for Chapters 3 and 4!

[Professor Fann]

Today, it is the Chapters 3 and 4 of the Continuation series! Enjoy!

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Three: Speech


It was already close to evening when Axl returned. His sudden appearance in the resting chamber shocked many fellow Hunters; despite the fact that the HQ keeps track of every Hunter’s teleporting systems, Axl’s was the most unpredictable.

“Well, it’s about time you showed up! The entire headquarters is busy preparing for the big speech!” One of them quickly rushed off with a banner with yet-to-be-attached big alphabets.

Axl got more confused since he was told something about ‘meet you tonight’ from mister Prez. He tried to sort this out with his other friends.

Lumine was comfortably enjoying the show where Axl gets lost.

“Well, well, Axl is lost and has no clue about what’s going on. About time I got some entertainment around here.” He reclined in the midair of the subconscious.

“Lumine! Are you saying you know something we don’t? I don’t even know what’s going on around here!” Iris scowled at the white Reploid.

“Hah. We’ll just wait and see. But that doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”

Axl decided to head to Zero’s office to seek some answers among the mess of Hunters moving here and there, carrying various items. He dodged an incoming stack of chairs and nearly crashed with giant wooden table stand.

Finally after many turns and curves, ups and downs at the stairs, he made it to Zero’s office. He quickly slammed the door and met face to face with Zero. Zero was getting ready to print some documents before Axl barged in.

“There you are, Axl! Did you barge in the room or did Lumine do it?”

In the computer brain, Lumine twitched a bit. “Hey! Am I that rude?!”

Axl heard that but ignored it. “No, I barged in myself. What’s going on around here? It’s rather busy all of a sudden.”

“I’ve been trying to contact you all day but it couldn’t connect for some reason. Ah well, might as well just tell you now.”

“We received a call from your ‘dad’ this morning, requesting a booking of our largest gathering hall. Seems that he planned about some speech that he scheduled to give months ago to all Reploids and humans. But then the incident of Lumine turning Maverick made him cancel that.”

Lumine was twitched again. “Gah! Did I really do anything wrong at all?”

“You’re asking a silly question, for a genius like yourself. Of course you did, just reflect back on the last 40 days or so. Quiet now. I’m listening to Zero.”

“Well, bully for the lover girl.” Iris ignored the comment.

Zero talked throughout their little argument.
“So anyway he planned to restart where he left off and just held the speech here. This time he only chose us Hunters and certain select diplomats and bigshots because he felt these are the most important parties in the Federation’s safety. The speech was going to be about some Reploid and human unity.”

“So I didn’t know this because I went out the whole day and lost contact with you? But I was with Prez!”

“Yeah, but I bet that he didn’t want to tell you anything about this.”

Axl was numb after finding out about the affair. He retreated to a chair on the side and thought about it. So his ‘dad’ wanted to hold a speech at the HQ and at the same time see him.

Iris went to tend Axl and Lumine even stopped his cold tone and emotions.

“Axl are you okay? You look pretty stunned.” “Dear boy, are you alright? Don’t take it so hard on yourself.”

“Take it hard on myself? I’m okay, guys. I was just sort of thinking about…the incidents of the past. It was uncanny about the places we’ve been.”

“Lumine, when you faked your own kidnapping, we were at Point Galapagos, right? Wasn’t that where the Elevator supposed to be? Why in the world was the Elevator far, but not far, away from Big City, where we are now, in the Far East?”

Lumine blew a sign of relief. “Oh, silly boy. You had me really worried just now! Listen, at Point Galapagos when you saw my own kidnapping and the tall structure not far away, that was only the space rocket plants father had there. I was there. It’s high because father needed to fire the rockets with a strong structural support to the top of the Elevator. Besides, it was environmental friendly there. But the plants are still functioning for space exploration.”

“Seriously did you really think that the Federation government would allow the Elevator to be run so far away from their soil? Especially when father pressed on for greater surveillance?”

“Father built the Elevator near so that situations can be monitored properly. Mathematically the two locations are perfect so rockets land safely at the top of the Elevator, pick up humans and fly of to the Moon. That was before I screwed up everything.”

Lumine woke up from his storytelling and scolded Axl.

“Hey! Why am I telling you such old tales?! Your priority now is to attend the speech in the Main Hall! Snap outta it, dear boy! The Elevator will be dismantled in no time at all!” Axl smiled at Lumine.

“Yeah. Thanks for the info. I wasn’t sure for some time now.” Axl got up and just when he was about to exit Zero’s office, Zero called him.

“Hey, Axl. This just came in for you. Haven’t read it yet though. Oh, your cubicle also has the notice of Prez coming here.”

Back in Axl’s cubicle, he read the notice that X left early in the morning.

“To all Hunters, the president of Prez Corporation, mister Prez had just informed us that he’ll make a last minute speech at the Main Hall in the HQ itself to all Hunters and some human diplomats and those of high rank. Please gather at your respective resting chambers to await your tasks. Your presence is greatly needed. From: X 8.30am”

X put aside that notice in his cupboard and opened the new notice Zero gave.

“To Axl, I wasn’t actually planning this but I need you to be together with me at my side tonight while I have my speech. That was why I called it of great convenience to me earlier. But, I need you to be present in your human form.”

“Lumine and Iris, I know that I treat you like children too with my love but I’m afraid you’ll just have to watch like usual. You know very well; resurrected dead Reploids stir up trouble in the media. Sorry if that is causing some trouble.”

“To all, this was an even more last minute notice I sent after that talk with the foreign diplomat. I just needed you all by my side. Love: Prez.”

All three remained silent in the now-vacant cubicle department.

Lumine started: “I feel kind of sorry for him actually. He’s a busy…dad. We can’t blame him since he’s been so lonely all the while. Axl dear boy, go do him the favour.”

“Yeah sure.” Axl got up and walked off.

The Main Hall is now half-crowded with many Hunters and Hunter officials. X, Zero and the three navigators were all sitting in the utmost front seats. Many chiefs, making sure everything was in order, constantly attended to X.

Pallette looked around for Axl. “Strange I can’t find Axl at all.”

Alia replied: “Don’t worry he’ll make it in time.”

Actually Axl had already switched to human mode and was now in the main plaza hall, the entrance of the HQ. He was waiting for Prez to arrive so he was standing in the first row along with a huge crowd of reporters, human and Reploid, waiting for the VIPs to arrive.

Firstly came the foreign diplomats and the other bigshots from around the Federation. Then Prez came in, earning the most camera flashes. Then he saw Axl at the front row at one of the sides of the walkway.

“Well, son, what are you doing here? C’mon, we’ve got a speech to attend to!” Axl abruptly moved out and walked along with Prez; more camera flashes.

A silent conversation ensued. “Did you get my notice?” “Don’t worry, dad, I’m here right?” “You’re such a good boy!”

In the Hall, Prez and Axl were greeted with thundering claps and camera flashes. Pallette still couldn’t find Axl anywhere and so did the rest.

After an hour or so, Prez had been speaking for so long, filled with emotion and hand gesture around the table stand.

“In all my life of industry and investments, I’ve never seen a brighter opportunity for us humans and Reploids to start again and bring greater peace to the world. After the last major rebellion incident, we must stand up to fight against all negative elements!” He slammed his hands repeatedly on the stand, shocking the crowd.

“Humans make mistakes. Reploids too make mistakes. I make mistakes too. In all my previous accounts, I’ve invested tonnes in various projects. The most wasteful projects were the Final Weapon of that Repliforce and the Jakob Project. How stupid I was then! STUPID STUPID STUPID ME!!” He again slammed harder on the stand, shocking the crowd more.

“Doesn’t his hand ache when he does that?” X shrugged back at Zero.

“But not anymore. We’ve now reached an agreement on this. No more massive but useless projects! Now our biggest investment will be the creation of a new united society! A society that loves peace and love more than anything else! A society where the perfect utopia is finally realised for ALL OF US!” Thunderous claps were given.

“In fact I’ve already found my own investment right at home! Now I have a family already! Peace starts at home, be it Reploid or human! But that’s not my point! Axler, come out. Daddy’s gotta show you to the crowd!”

Axl walked up slowly to Prez. Quickly, Prez nudged Axl under his arms and shuffled his hair.

“Aw dad, cut it out! You’re embarrassing me!”

“Aw that’s okay. Everyone, meet my new investment, my son Axler! He’s just only one son! My other two children couldn’t make it so I only called on this one! Come, let daddy give you a nice hug from your recent overseas trip!”

Prez held Axl rather tightly toward him but Axl didn’t mind. Amid the thunderous claps, camera flashes and the fact that X and friends now knew where Axl went to, Axl held his ‘father’ closer.

Shortly after the ceremony of signing agreements between governments and companies alike, Prez left the HQ, ready to return back to his grounds for a nice deserved rest. ‘Axler’ was nowhere in sight; he returned back to his Reploid form.

Iris was very happy. “Wasn’t that nice to have father embrace us? That was so good. He truly loves us all! What was the deal with the name Axler?”

Lumine came back with insults. “Weren’t you listening, Iris? Father made up that name, mixing the letter ‘e’ from my name and ‘r’ from yours. He can’t just say Axl in front of everyone, right?”

“Alright guys that’s enough. Let’s just head back to the Main Hall and help them clear up the mess and chairs.” Axl halted their soon-to-develop argument and sorted chairs back with X and Zero.

“Well how did it feel like, Axl, to be embraced by your creator? That was pretty cool way to hide your real identity.” Zero asked.

“It was pretty good. He never held me that tight and long before.”

It was several dozen of minutes past midnight and just when the rest were preparing to hit the sack, Alia released an alarm.

“This is an emergency! An energy processing facility at the central west part of the Big City has been attacked by berserk Mechaniloids! All Hunters please dispatch immediately!” There was another round of rushing.

Axl groaned. “Aw do we have to? It’s so late already!”

Lumine stunned Axl’s body. “Don’t worry, dear boy. I’ll do this one for you. You go ahead and take a rest. I deserve some fighting time now!”

Lumine retained Axl’s original look except that his eyes were now red, and that was the only change. ‘Axl’ then lined up with the other Hunters to be teleported while the real Axl and Iris took a deep nap.



Continued in Chapter 4.


Notes:
A speech, a hug and a battle. Refer back to An Axl Story First Series chapter 10 for the Jakob Elevator IN Big City, not Point Galapagos, to avoiding confusion between the two. That will be very tiring if a human was to do this.

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And there it is. Well, not much excitement I think. Oh well. Still developing.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Four: Culinary


Axl had a real good time during his rest. Except for a few injuries Lumine made him feel, he was doing it great at getting some rest. Lumine wasn’t so bad either. He had learnt how to properly use Axl’s guns to take out enemies, besides using his own power, to keep Axl as original as possible.

He, X and Zero found the main rampaging Maverick. It was messing around with the tanks and giant machines in the plant that were processing clean, efficient energy for the City’s automobile’s consumption. The three managed to take out the Maverick easily when Zero sliced its arms off, X blasted its head and Lumine dealt the finishing blow.

“Alright, Axl! You did it again!” ‘Axl’ landed on the floor gently.

“No. Axl has been sleeping all this while. I’m only doing him a favour. See these red eyes?” Lumine’s regular cold voice came from Axl’s mouth.

“Oh, Lumine. Glad you could help us again.” said X.

Then at a corner of the giant tanks and machines, Lumine saw a shadow of an unmistaken man with gleaming spectacles and messy hair.

“YOU!” Lumine-controlled Axl dashed the fastest he always did but the shadow just disappeared before his eyes. He sulked and cursed.

“Darn it, he’s gone again! We’ve seen that shadow time and time again but we always never catch it! And we’re sure that’s Bob!”

Both Hunters were surprised. “Lumine, are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure! Do you take me now as a foe or an ally?” Silence again.

They teleported back to the HQ after the mission was a success. The HQ began to darken slightly as most Reploids hit the sack. Only those on night shift were still awake to guard the HQ’s security.

Lumine didn’t feel like talking to anyone at all since that shadow appeared again. That day and the next, he didn’t appear in front of Axl or Iris. He hid himself somewhere in Axl’s head but was definitely undetectable by Iris. Assuming he wanted some time for himself, Axl had a good day to himself that day and even the following day.

The day after that following day was the 42nd day the white Reploid had been living in Axl. Finally not tolerating self-isolation, he appeared in front of the two.

“Lumine, where have you been all this while? I was very worried!”

Lumine cleaned his hands. “I assure you I’m fine. I needed some time to myself, that’s all. By the way, how’s dear Axl doing this two days?”

“Not bad, really. No missions. That online game of his, he made it to 7th place. In the VR room, he made it to 3rd place. He’s close to beating your score now.”

“Well bully for the games. How are you doing with blondie then?”

“Don’t call Zero like that! Pleasant conversation as always!” Iris will be ticked off whenever Lumine or Axl insult Zero, even the slightest bit.

Once their little argument was over, they turned to see where Axl had walked them to. Axl was now on the highest rooftop of the HQ admiring the beautiful scenery of the Big City. A capital of near-equal distribution of high buildings with their wonderful architectural designs along with the flora planted on the ground to make it as a green city.

At a far left corner of the Big City, but definitely not the furthest limits, Axl spotted the City’s thriving sector of culinary wonders. All sorts of cultures have their works of what humans call ‘food’ were there, although a significant number of such shops lay around the City. Axl started to dream.

“Hm…the last different thing between Reploids and humans…the ability to taste. I wonder what would it be like to taste all those stuff humans eat…”

Unknown to him, Axl’s own emotions fluctuated high. Inside the computer brain, Lumine and Iris witnessed a sudden display of colours. The pitch-black floor displayed various outlines of circuit board components and wavy colours flashed here and there, the circulating data in the air moved even faster than before and the ceiling too exposed itself with the wavy colours inside the circuit board component’s outlines.

“Hey, what’s going on? This never happened before!” Iris was nervous.

“I’ll check.” Lumine raised his right hand in the air and closed his eyes. “Hm. There’s a certain fluctuation in dear boy’s emotions. His craving for something now is so much that he loses sense of proper thought and feeling. Judging by what he saw, I’ll say he wants to do another human activity: eat.”

“This is something new. I can’t fix this on my own. We’ll have to take him to father to deal with this.” Iris quickly grasped Axl’s control mechanism and made him move his body.

“Hey, what gives? Who’s doing this now?” Axl was totally unaware.

“It’s me, Iris. I’m taking you to see father right away!” They teleported off.

A few seconds later, it was noon. Prez was having his lunch in his office as usual, not wanting to miss calls and waste any time. Then, Axl appeared in the mid-air in the center of the office and fell hard on the floor. “Ouch!”

“Axl? What are you doing here? C’mon, get up!” He helped Axl up.

“Dad, I didn’t do this. It’s Iris. She wanted to speak to you urgently.”

Iris used Axl’s right hand to switch on the speakers on his right ear. “Father, just only a minute or so ago, we…Lumine and I…I can’t tell if you can understand…”

“Just go ahead and try your best.”

“Inside here, we saw so many flashy colours here and there. It’s unusual because all this while Axl’s head had been black, dark surroundings. Electronic components’ outlines on board flashing. Data circulating faster than ever. It’s scary.”

“Okay…Lumine, why don’t you tell me your explanation?”

“Father, dear boy’s emotions and thought fluctuated like crazy. He thought about something and wanted it so much that he lost sense over his thinking. Sort of like losing control to someone else, say me, but I didn’t do it. Father, Axl wishes to have a mechanical stomach so he could taste human food.”

Prez frowned and pondered on his desk. “Hm. Axl, you’ve already got human forms. Now you want to eat? Just three days after you got your clothes?”

“Dad, it’s just that…I wanted to try and experience what it feels like to be near human as possible, also being a Reploid at the same time, that’s all. Besides me consisting of inorganic material for a body, I think that’s the only thing left I can bridge the divide between Reploids and humans.”

Prez pondered on some more. He was deeply thinking amid protests and counters.

“Father, please! Don’t do this! I just have the feeling something bad’s going on happen not only to Axl, but also to us with him!”

“I don’t know, Iris. Dear boy just only had this kind of complication minutes ago. Besides father, I’m the only expert around here and I don’t even know this type of thing. I say we let Axl have his stomach and ability to eat so that I can study this thing even further, for our betterment.”

Prez was still thinking about it. Then he looked at them.

“Alright we’ll do what you say, Lumine. Time for the operation room. It’s quite simple too, only that I fear that it’ll mess up the duties the Chameleon Chip already has been designated to, not to mention the nuclear reactions.”

“Father, could you detail us more on this?”

“Sure, Lumine. I’ll just have to restructure Axl’s placing of his internal machines and install a nuclear chamber in there. The new nuclear chamber will rapidly digest the foods and convert the elements to various harmless gases and be released into the air. The chemistry behind this is extremely complex, as it defies current laws of chemistry, so I won’t detail on this further.”

Axl seemed to lose a little confidence after hearing all the complications. He tried to hesitate and return back to the base when Lumine ignited his spark.

“Hesitating already, so soon? Even when the project hasn’t even begun? Dear boy, are you that scared? Facing tough combats but can’t bear a little operation?”

“No I am not! Let’s do this operation quick!”

Minutes later, they were in the operating room. Axl was put on a stretch bed with his head gem connected to many wires. Scientists were preparing the essential tools and machinery for the new kind of operation. Prez was watching from the outside window, gazing down on the Reploid.

“This may take hours for all we know. Shall we continue on?”

“Well of course you carry on! Or else why are you even here? Go on!”

The trio-in-one Reploid was induced with a stronger sleeping program so they wouldn’t bear the pain. Axl slept soundly.

Later, he woke up in the subconscious. He looked around and saw the normal steady flow of the inactive data in the dark mid-air. Lumine was awake too, rubbing his head. Iris just woke up too, feeling her head in one piece.

“Hey guys.” Axl greeted them.

“So dear boy, gathered enough energy to wake up your body yet?”

“I can’t. The sleeping program is still too strong. Wait, it’s reducing now. I’ll try to wake up. Grr…” Eventually light shone onto his face.

Axl looked onto himself. He looked perfectly fine and could even stand up, still in the operation room. The scientists had already left upon Prez’s orders and the tycoon was now sitting on a metal chair with the Reploid.

“The Maverick Hunter HQ hadn’t received any reports of Maverick activity for the past six hours. It’s already late evening. You’ll be fine.”

Axl felt a strong sense of hunger suddenly on his tongue.

“Dad, there’s this strong taste thing in my mouth and my…stomach. What does that mean?” Prez looked up on him.

“You’re hungry. C’mon, a dinner and an explanation in my office.”

Somewhere around nine in the evening, Axl was now on the way to the HQ. He decided to walk back in the cold snow so he could feel better during his bedtime. Lumine had shielded Iris with his hemispherical purple aura to provide some heat.

“So, father had wired the Chameleon Chip to our taste buds in the tongue and the nuclear chamber to spark some hunger. So Axl now can eat whenever he feels like it. The nuclear chamber doesn’t mind.”

“The tongue registers over 30 thousand types of food. The Chameleon Chip directs the energy from nuclear reactions to the chamber to digest the food. The hunger just now was just to make the chamber even more stable. Fascinating, really.”

“It was wonderful! We’ve never tasted so delicious food! I still feel guilty that father had to spend so much cash just for the materials and expertise…”

“Relax, Iris. Dad’s a giant tycoon. He’ll manage. So Lumine, what about the light display thing in the head?”

“Hm. Not quite sure, dear boy. The phenomenon of losing sense is gone but the pressure is still present. I can’t get rid of it. I will look into this even deeper. Oh dear boy, we’ve reached the HQ already.”

Axl looked forward and saw the entrance of the tall Maverick Hunters HQ.

“Alright time to report back to X then we’ll hit the sack.”

Axl ran towards the Hunter HQ entrance before the entrance gate is locked for the night. Axl then just remembered something.

“Oh yeah. Guys?” Lumine and Iris looked at him. “Next time you can come out and experience some eating yourselves.”

“Really? Thank you Axl! But what about Lumine? He’s the more infamous Reploid in Big City; he can’t just come out in a restaurant and face people.”

“Oh. Sorry then, Lumine.”

“No, it’s okay. As long as I have the taste is enough already. Now, hurry back to the resting chamber, silly boy, or else we’ll freeze cold out here!”



Continued in Chapter 5.


Notes:
Taste buds and stomach for Reploids, it’ll be wonderful, only if they have cash. Noticed that Axl is immune to the cold from the last series? And joy, the original prototype designs are ruined.


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And that is it for today. Stay tuned.

[Professor Fann]

Eh, I didn't post Chapters 5 and 6 yesterday, because I logged into the site, but was treated as a normal guest. Well, all that is okay for now ... at least in school.


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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Five: Destruction


The following day, Axl was playing online games again, this time trying to reach for at least third place. He was in his cubicle and was he ever grateful, because Zero was next to him having a conversation with Iris and the cubicle department was very empty as most Hunters sought to do something else.

Zero wasn’t expecting a face-to-face talk with Iris because Axl was desperately trying to climb higher so he rested his head on Axl’s table, covered by his hands.

Lumine on the other hand was touring around Axl’s systems, checking if anything was faulty. Then he stumbled upon the nuclear chamber and analysed its structure, just for his information. He went around the limbs and legs, making Axl twitch sometimes.

“Oh hey that hurt! Why must they always hurt?”

“Sorry. Must’ve touched the connectors and nerves by accident, dear boy.”

Zero was bored and had nothing to do besides talking to Iris. The rest were planning out some huge scale Hunter patrol on the City.

“And another thing, Zero. That man Bob has been very interested in Axl lately. Seriously, I feel that all the troubles caused lately were meant to get Axl’s attention.”

Zero became a little interested so he raised his head up. “Any idea why?”

“Revenge, mostly. I know that Lumine and I have contributed my share too while fighting and we were more annoying than Axl but somehow, he’s just keen on doing something bad to Axl, which will harm us all.”

“Yeah, hope we’ll bust the guy and deactivate him permanently.”

Silenced due to the serious tone in the atmosphere, Iris tried to cheer him up.

“On a brighter note, however, just yesterday Axl got himself a new device – the nuclear chamber – so that he could eat human sources of energy.”

“Why would a Reploid want to eat what humans eat?”

“I dunno, out of curiosity, I guess. Just only three days after he got us human forms. It was kind of fun, Zero. Just imagine how you would look like with clothes.”

“I don’t need human clothes and I’m fine with it, Iris. You being happy, that’s just what I want. Has Axl been treating you nicely?”

“Aw, silly of course he has! He’s knows it’s his responsibility to do so, just like my responsibility in contributing to him help fight battles. Well, it has been nice talking to you Zero, even though I still can’t see you from here…”

Lumine sensed Iris’ sadness and grabbed hold of Axl’s right hand to switch off the speakers on his ear, thus making him lose quickly and land in 6th place.

“Hey, what was that for? I was doing so well, really this time!”

“Dear Axl, Iris wants to see Zero and you’ll let her see him now.” Axl turned his head right and looked at Zero. Zero blew relief. “Don’t worry. We’ll get that Bob for sure. Then we’ll have some peaceful times.” He walked off.

Axl knocked his head on the table. “Oh great. It’s just so boring. No Mavericks, no fun, no happiness. I wish I could be doing something else too.”

“Axl! The City has had enough violence already, especially the humans! There will be peace and you’ll live with it, whether you like it or not!”

Then the emergency alarm rang. “All Hunters report to the command room immediately. There’s an attack by berserk Reploids and Mechaniloids on Big City district of Megalopolis’ energy power facility.”

Big City is the capital of the Federation. Big City is so big that it had a few dozen districts, sorted based on their importance. Megalopolis was one of them and so is Sky Lagoon, and Megalopolis’ importance was energy production, business and commerce. Axl and friends went there previously to bust a Maverick for stealing electricity but it fled to a city of the same name in the Federation far south to do the same crime.

“Aw we’re going back there again! Chasing that Maverick last time on a speed bike was tough job.” Axl remembered his ordeal in air.

“Relax, Axl. I think it’ll be on ground instead.” Iris said.

When Axl teleported there, the giant powerhouse was badly on fire. The Mavericks had begun trashing the place out and the local Reploid police there. Most Hunters have already been dispatched and fierce fighting began in the air, about 60 storeys above air.

“You wish, Iris. You wish.” Iris disappeared thereafter.

Giant cargo Mechaniloids that went berserk began taking on the infrastructure in air, causing many screams from fleeing humans and Reploids too.

“Hey Axl! Don’t just stand there! Come on and help us!” Zero called him and jumped off, assisting hundreds of Hunters battling before any supplies or structures are affected.

“Alright I’m coming already!” Axl ran forward to Zero.

X used his giant-sized charged Buster shots and took out tens of small bulldozer and rolling wheel-like Mechaniloids. Zero sliced up a pretty big ape-like Reploid and huge numbers of them.

Axl dashed forward and aimed multiple bullets at other small Reploids. Lumine assisted by using Axl’s left hand to cut a lot of Mavericks into half. Iris finally came out of isolation and fired her share of pink fireballs at Mavericks.

“Axl, the tower grid over there!” Lumine warned him. To his right on the roads, ape Mavericks were trying to sabotage the tower grid and were almost successful at that.

“Oh no you don’t!” Lumine boosted Axl to fly there and used his secret laser technique and sliced three of them in half. Only another two more to go.

Axl fired his rapid bullets and quickly took out one ape Maverick with a big explosion. But the other one more Maverick used all its strength to smash the tower grid with its hands and caused a considerable part of Megalopolis and the neighbouring district to suffer blackouts.

“NO!!” Axl became angry and blasted its head into oblivion; the Maverick scrap fell down on the supporting floor but not down till the ground.

Axl dashed forward and helped X and Zero to help other Hunters destroy the remaining Mavericks. Rampaging cargo bots were sliced in half and Bee helicopters blown to the supporting floors.

Soon all Mavericks were taken out, except for the biggest Maverick, which had been absorbing much electric power from the many reactors inside the powerhouse.

“All Hunters, proceed to clear up the mess around the powerhouse and restore back the district’s power supply! Zero, Axl, come with me!” That was X’s orders.

Zero, Axl and X dashed forward into a giant gate and deep inside the structure. They were still about 60 storeys above ground BEFORE they took an elevator downwards to the main reactor halls.

Axl gazed upwards. The hole ripped by the giant Maverick was really huge. He looked sideways, finding that scratches were huge and dragged all the way down. Surprisingly, the elevator wasn’t damaged.

“This must be one powerful Maverick. We gotta watch ourselves, guys!”

They then arrived at the main reactor halls. A small turn to the left and they found a giant chamber where a huge ape Mavericks held giant wires by its tips thus absorbing electricity from the 38 reactors there.

The Maverick noticed the three Hunters’ presence so it let go of the wires, roared out loudly and used its fists to beat its chests repeatedly.

The fight began. The Maverick fired out many electrical fireball flames in all directions possible. They were so huge, accurately 30 feet in diameter that one would easily die from the hit.

The flames hit all three Hunters. Axl felt it as so painful and tried to break free.

“Gahh! Must break free from shock! Ahhh!” Suddenly a spherical purple aura shielded Axl and neutralised the flames.

“Axl, dear boy, let me do this. You can take a rest now.” Axl smiled.

“Tag! You’re it, Lumine!” He said to him, giving Lumine total body control. Axl’s form wobbled into Lumine, who released spherically expanding waves of energy that stunned the ape Maverick for a while and brought the hall to a stand.

X and Zero gazed up at the floating white Reploid who prepared for battle.

“Time for some fun fighting, Maverick.” Lumine taunted it.

The Maverick snorted and tried to pound him towards one of the reactors. But Lumine quickly avoided the Maverick’s every move by floating here and there.

That gave X and Zero their chance to take it down before more damages were caused. X gave the Maverick a few giant blasts at its head while Zero tried to slice its armour into pieces. Then Lumine fired his laser ray at its chest.

All attacks caused explosions, damaging it significantly.

“Gwaaaaahhh!” The ape Maverick rapidly fired its electrical fireball flames everywhere and slammed its fist at the Reploids. The flames caused explosions everywhere as pipes and steel rubble flew to the floor and Zero was hit back toward one of the walls. Lucky none reactors were damaged.

Lumine became filled with anger. But he remembered his vow to control his emotions and that no facilities should be damaged so he used a certain amount of power only to take out the Maverick.

“Lumine! Use your laser attack! The one that slices Reploids into half!” Lumine took both Axl’s and Iris’ advices to cut short the fight.

Then Zero jumped up high on the Maverick and slashed its major connecting wires at its neck that stunned the Maverick’s movements. Lumine used his secret laser technique that sliced its head in half thus exploding it into big halves.

“Oh no! The left half is falling towards the reactors! And that reactor provides power for areas around the Hunter HQ!” X yelled out.

Lumine realised the bad situation and flew to its left side and tried to hold on it before it collapses on the reactors. “Gah! Must block this pile of scrap!”

But Lumine’s powers were no match for the overwhelming weight of the Maverick’s left half. Fearing that he’ll be crushed, he flew away so the half Maverick crashed onto the giant reactor. A giant explosion ensued.

In a few seconds the bright light ended and all three Reploids got up and saw what was a giant hole with broken pipes and rubble at its circumference and the view of Megalopolis outside. It was still snowing heavily so some snow blew into the building. Lumine saw that, although really far away, a huge area had suffered blackouts, including the HQ.

That made Lumine hung his head down. He couldn’t stop the destruction of the giant reactor and felt the blackout as his fault. But he looked up and turned around to look at the head Hunters.

“Is this one my fault then?” Both shook their heads.

“No. You tried to stop that, meaning that you didn’t want this to happen. It wasn’t your fault at all, just an accident.”

Loud footsteps from the entrance they came in made Lumine’s form wobble back to become Axl. He knew well he couldn’t reveal his existence. He told Axl: “It’s not my responsibility then.” Axl gave a huff of sneer at him.

Other squads of soldiers, technicians and workers marched to quickly secure the situation and rebuild the reactor hall. X decided that since government troops had arrived, they had to return back to HQ.

“C’mon guys. It’s back to the HQ. I had to present a report to the government and to your ‘father’, Axl.” Axl was surprised.

“A report to Prez? Why?” Axl asked.

“Didn’t you know? The Prez Corporation had investments in various facilities around the Federation and the world. That pretty much includes most of the places that we have been to when busting the Mavericks around the world in the past 20 years. He’ll want some answers to all this mess. C’mon let’s go back.”

The three Hunters teleported back to the Maverick Hunter HQ amid a wild crowd, which is trying to fix the place back to normal.



Continued in Chapter 6.


Notes:
Well, the power crisis steps in again. If you’ll remember back in X8, then good for you. But then I decided it to be a different Megalopolis. The one in X8 is way south of the Federation; this one is in the Far East.




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Extra notes for reference. And Chapter 6 here we come.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Six: Blackout


The entire Maverick Hunter HQ was dark. Few lights lit up the place; an even worse situation since it was already late evening. Axl thought that he could go and get some dinner since he felt like eating and he still had some cash along with him in his human form’s pockets, but he put it aside till later.

Although he was cleared of any responsibility for the blackout incident, Lumine still felt that he wasn’t prepared enough for the first time. In Axl’s head, he was pictured as sitting on the pitch-black floor, hands holding his legs on the knees and hid his face from Iris and Axl.

Iris on one hand was wondering over the recent series of events and found a conclusion. “Everything happens so fast these days, isn’t it? So much development and destruction…with all the technology advancing. Huh. Can’t things move a bit slower? There’s simply too much to catch up to.”

Lumine, still hiding his face, mumbled back: “What’s your point?”

Iris didn’t know what to say. “Nothing. I just thought of something that a sulking white fellow Reploid couldn’t think of.”

Lumine got a bit irritated and countered: “Oh? So you could perhaps prevent a massive blackout from occurring? I didn’t see lover girl in any action!”

Iris got angry and flared her pink aura slightly. “What?! I wasn’t in any action?! I was fighting back there at the mid-air roads, if you didn’t notice!”

Lumine stood up firmly and flared bigger crimson aura at her.
“Yes, but since when were you fighting the giant Maverick in the reactor halls? You just chickened out and watch us in pain while you were relaxing and yes, you didn’t even help me to stop the reactor from blowing up and the blackout happened, cowardice Iris!”

“WHY YOU!” Iris was about to pounce on Lumine and fight when Axl gave a loud shout only they could hear. “ENOUGH! YOU ALL ARE GIVING ME A HEADACHE! STOP IT! STOP IT!!”

Both stopped fighting. They walked up to an Axl who’s rubbing and pressing his head not far away. Axl was in great pain, thanks to the auras they flared up. “Please, guys. Bygones are bygones. Just give it a rest.”

Lumine and Iris looked down in shame on themselves and indirectly agreed not to argue anymore about the past just an hour ago. Axl was having pain not only from their fighting, he also couldn’t tolerate the darkness.

“Uh! What can I do around here when there is no power?” Axl moaned. “You could perhaps join us in the meeting room with X.” Axl looked up and he saw Zero. “C’mon, we’ve got a meeting to discuss.”

Axl followed Zero to one of the meeting rooms and in a minute or two, they had arrived. X and fellow navigators were sitting around a small table, barely lit by torchlights. Zero preferred to stand and Axl followed suit.

“Alright now that everyone’s here. I’ve been discussing with the Central Committee about plans for periodical Hunter patrols around Big City and they’ve just approved it. We’ll have two giant teams about nearly 100 Hunters each. I know it isn’t much, but that about the best numbers I can send.”

“The government also said that we’d have around 600 human soldiers and police forces sent to us, so that makes around 400 per team. More will come but we’ll just have to do with this. These teams will patrol around the entire City and don’t worry about the time. One team will go in the morning in the other at late evening.”

“The point I’m making here is that Zero and myself will be leading the two teams. In the meantime, Axl will have to take over my duties while I’m gone.”

Axl was never more shocked. “Me? Commander of the Hunters? No way, X!”

“Consider this a great opportunity to see how it feels like to be a Commander besides Class S Hunters. It ain’t easy life in my position, Axl. You three are to help him with whatever duties he has to carry out.”

Axl hung his head down in defeat. He’d just have to do what X told him. Meanwhile, the three navigators presented their congratulations to him and promised to help him in doing X’s job.

“Don’t worry, Axl, this switch only starts next week. Besides, I can’t have you to go out there and fight any possible attacks because Lumine and Iris will definitely fight with you and the other Hunters will want to know how you have those specific powers. I’m just preventing any mishaps.”

The meeting was dismissed. X met Layer. “Layer, I’d need you to fix the spare generator we had. Mysteriously, all other advanced generators have broken down and this basic generator even broke down. Based on your expertise, I’d just ask you to fix the basic generator. I’d send others to fix the advanced ones and look into this.”

Suddenly, Axl blurted a lot of stuff about Layer. He had no idea how did that happen but it just did and attracted X’s attention greatly.

“Well, Layer will make a fine mechanic! I’m pretty sure. She’ll fix it in no time at all!” Axl covered his mouth as X and Layer stared at him.

X gazed at him. “You are very confident in Layer’s abilities, Axl. Why not go and join her in the basements? I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”

X left the room while Layer looked at a stunned Axl. “Are you coming?”

Layer led the way with her torchlight while Axl followed her down a dark corridor. Axl was busy cursing under his nose at a particular Reploid.

“Lumine! Why did you do it just now?”

“Well, you were bored, dear boy. I thought you needed to go somewhere to get rid of the boredom while waiting for the power to return. Who would’ve thought X picked you so fast?” Lumine snickered at him.

“You know very well he’d pick me, you-!” Axl was interrupted. Layer looked at him with a shrug. “You didn’t say all those compliments, right?” “Yes, Lumine just did it so I could get rid of my boredom.”

“He’s rather smart; I’m definitely going to need help in the basements.” Layer activated a spare elevator with some backup electricity and pressed the letter ‘B’ on one of the buttons. Axl reluctantly entered the elevator before the door closed and down they went.

Minutes later without any conversation, they arrived at the basement. Axl was surprised because he thought that it was only one simple floor but it wasn’t. It looked more like a maze of balcony walkways at the sides and the middle of the room were giant machines that had engine pumps in the carburettor and many pipelines. The walkways led to other rooms, leading to other wings of the whole HQ.

It was really dark and creepy as they only saw the path ahead of them no further than 10 feet. Layer’s torchlight suddenly blacked out, meaning no battery power.

“Well, Axl, I’m going to need some light here.”

Axl’s left hand suddenly raised and emitted a round bright red sphere of energy from his fingertips. It was big so the surroundings got even brighter. Layer smiled at him. “C’mon, the way’s down here.”

As they walked on, Lumine decided to offer his apology.

“Sorry dear Axl. I thought I ought to repay back something for forgiveness.”

“Well, this is not enough for me, Lumine.”

They climbed down a metal ladder at the end of the walkway. Layer made them turn in many circles and straight routes around engines and meters. Axl saw what looked like rectangles but were actually screens hanging in the air.

Finally, Layer reached the spare generator she was supposed to repair and she was shocked. Various thick wires have been snapped and left dangling in the air or lying on the floor. Screens were damaged and the glass lay scattered everywhere. The meters were jammed and the main circuit controls were vandalized.

“Oh no, this will be tougher than I thought. Someone must have come here earlier and stopped this! But who?”

“We’ll just check the security cameras – oh no, the cameras have been damaged too!” Axl looked upwards at a camera, with its lenses cracked. “Or maybe we can just conclude that that human Bob must have been here while we were taking out Mavericks at Megalopolis!”

“Possible. Then again, Axl, no. According to the security management, the last human entry in this headquarters was three days ago; the human diplomats and bigshots, even your ‘father’ mister Prez!”

“Hm. Then it has to be an agent! Just like last time! Bob had corrupted that Hunter May to do his bidding in chewing us off bit by bit! That agent’s got to be around here somewhere! I just know it!”

“Em…okay. Axl-” “Definitely! Bob can’t just simply walk into the HQ so openly! He must have corrupted someone in this place to do this bidding! Well, I’m not going to let that happen again!” “Eh…Axl?”

“I’ll let X know about this! Then he’ll scan the entire place for that Maverick! That’s right! He wouldn’t get away with this!!”

Lumine and Iris sensed that Axl had already become overexcited with the theory that Bob had corrupted a fellow comrade in the HQ itself. Lumine was the fastest to silence Axl by taking over Axl’s control mechanisms and his form was displayed in front of Layer.

“Okay…Axl might have been crazy again. But I’ll take his place for now. I’ll help you repair the generator mechanisms.”

“That’s very nice of you Lumine. Apparently Axl really made you turn over a new leaf back then…Anyway let’s get down to business.”

For the next five hours or so, Lumine supplied Layer with the light she needed to screw out the tiny wires from the tiny screws and fix the components again. He also helped by making use of his plasma energy to remould metal pieces in the mid-air and rapidly cooled them to place before fixing in their proper places.

Lumine also floated around the giant basement and analysed various other engines and pumps for any defects. He also corrected Layer on various accounts of fixing wrong wires in the wrong places and joked with her so she felt the job as wasn’t too tense and serious.

Finally after fixing everything back in place, Layer switched on the button that reactivated the backup power to spur the main engines to work. In five seconds everything was back to normal. All lights were lit up and power was back.

Lumine had rapidly wobbled back to become Axl so the security couldn’t detect his presence; he’s still a labelled Maverick although he helped X and Zero in past adventures. Axl was glad the power was back.

“Well thank you…you know who I mean, Axl.” Layer watched her words. “He says it’s no problem. Let’s head back up.” They took the elevator back to the 30th floor, where X’s office was.

In X’s office, they were greeted with congratulations. “Well done, Layer.”

“Lumine also deserves a lot of credit for helping me. Axl was crazy about the idea that someone was behind all this. One of that criminal’s henchmen.”

“Bob? I’ll check on it. Right now everyone deserves some rest.” Everyone retreated to the respective resting places. Lumine was grumbling about the five-hour ordeal.

“Five hours of hard work! Darn right I need a rest. A big rest for me!” “Alright Lumine that’ll be enough. Axl will get us in his sleeping pod.”

Axl immediately set the alarm dial and rested himself in his pod. The shutter moved down slowly while they were induced with the sleeping program, ready for another night’s sleep.



Continued in Chapter 7.


Notes:
This chapter seems like mainly focused on the white Reploid. No matter, it’s still Axl’s story.



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The end for today. Tomorrow is not yet the end.

[Professor Fann]

Sorry for another delay, again, due to workloads. Today, I bring you 3 chapters to make it up to you guys!

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Seven: Illness


The following morning, the alarm dial on Axl’s resting pod rang for 2 seconds. The pod immediately halted the flow of the sleeping program into the trio-in-one Reploid. Axl was the first to wake and he quickly winded up the glass shield that covered the pod. He first did some stretching with his hands before he walked off to the central chamber.

A few minutes later, he arrived in the chamber. Axl firstly looked around to see if there was anyone and any security cameras around. He found neither of either category. He quickly switched over to human mode and jumped out one of the side glass windows and shut it before the security cameras appeared from the ceilings.

Axl was now at a small brick walkway just at the building’s side over 40 storeys up. Knowing most of the area around HQ well, he jumped off the sides and allowed himself free fall. He also jumped to sides of the structure and its neighbouring building time to time so he gained stability and landed on the floor nicely.

Meanwhile, his two inhabitants started to wake up and if they weren’t mistaken, they had the taste of meat in their mouths. They hit realisation together.

“AXL!” They immediately checked where Axl was now. Axl was now in a restaurant in the downtown district where the HQ was. The restaurant was decorated with beautiful ribbons and prized objects of old culture but gave the place atmosphere. Axl was eating bacon and eggs with natural fruit juice.

Axl’s speakers were off most of the time so he didn’t mind the following conversations with his two inhabitants.

“Axl! What are you doing here in the morning? You may have missions today!”

“Relax, Iris. It’s 8 in the morning. I thought I could just eat something for a fresh start so I came down here in the district’s downtown.”

“How did you come here so silently and quickly, dear boy?”

“I skipped off the walls of buildings by the central chamber’s windows.”

“Axl, you’re getting better each time.” Lumine somehow always encouraged Axl to break the rules at certain appropriate times. He got a “Hey!” from Iris.

Axl then spotted a piece of human newspaper not far away from him. He picked it and read the title: ‘TYCOON AND SON APPEAR AT SPEECH’. The paper was dated 2 days ago.

“They sure do have nice pictures here of us.”

“Axl, we were publicized. You may be recognized at any instant the moment you assume human form. You are quite in danger, don’t you know, dear boy?”

“Relax. If I know better, humans wouldn’t even care about this.” Axl resumed to eating his bacon and eggs.

Then, in the HQ, Zero received a note of high urgency and he simply had to tell it to Axl. Problem was that Axl was already about 8 miles away from HQ.

Zero decided to rush to the command room and seek Alia’s help in searching Axl’s location. “There, he’s in downtown. And is he doing something there?”

“I don’t know. All I know that he must be contacted urgently!” Zero used a big communicator machine not far all and set the meters to reach to Axl’s frequency.

Axl and friends got a surprise when a moderately loud ring came from his hands. The sudden incoming call made him nearly spill his fruit juice. He sort of lifted his left hands to his ears and somehow activated the dialler and decreased the speaking volume. There was no one around so he was relieved.

“Zero, what is it?” Axl spoke softly just in case anyone was interested.

“Axl! It’s an urgent note for you! From the Prez Corporation! Prez has fallen ill and is in terrible conditions! He contracted some sort of disease just around 2 days ago! I know how much he thinks of you so I think you ought to go see him!”

Axl was very shocked and so were Lumine and Iris. “Tell me where he is! Is he in some sort of hospital now?!”

“No, he’s in his tower mansion. Any missions and I’ll ring you a call!”

The line was cut off immediately. Axl began to panic for the first time and knew he had to rush over to see him. Lumine and Iris didn’t know what to do too.

Axl quickly gulped up his juice and paid the bill, although he hadn’t touched his eggs yet. Axl had no clear thoughts now so he started running towards the elevator outside the restaurant. Then someone stunned his whole body.

“Axl, instead of running 23 floors down and using up more cash father provided, won’t it be best you just teleport there, dear boy?”

Lumine was right. “Oh right. Sorry. Not much thinking just now.”

He immediately teleported away and arrived at the main entrance grounds of the entire factory grounds. The security hadn’t noticed his sneak arrival so he decided to climb up one of the nearby structure’s walls to the top.

This was the first time he was going to Prez’s home so he was confused.

Axl gazed around, trying to recognize some structures and pinpoint the tower mansion’s location amid the snow. The grounds of Prez’s plants, factories and warehouses were very huge so it was easy to get lost. There were all sorts of rooftops and tanks and pipelines shown.

Then Axl spotted the tower mansion. It was, of course, a very tall structure, which looked like a modern office building with many dark glass windows and fabulous designs and was located at the southwest part of the grounds, close to the streets and roads outside.

Axl ran there quickly with all his might to see Prez. He leaped over an amazingly wide gap between Prez’s home and the office rooftops he was on. Luckily, he managed to grab hold on the walls or else he would have fallen all the way down.

“Axl! I just don’t know how you could always perform this stunt!”

“Can this wait, Iris? I’m almost at dad’s already…”

Fortunately he hadn’t attracted much attention to himself and he kept climbing upwards. Finally he reached a huge balcony section overlooking the Big City’s southwest districts and climbed in.

The sliding doors weren’t locked so the trio-in-one Reploid easily entered Prez’s personal room. It was a brilliant mix of short flora with clever interior design. There was a mini fountain not far away and some cultural statues. Three large and wide screens dominate the room: the television, the communicator and the computer. Prez was seen lying on his bed, wrapped up in blankets.

“Dad!” Axl ran over to Prez. “Dad! Are you okay?”

Iris rapidly grasped his body and made him move over to a nearby wooden chair and sat on it. “Axl! Father’s very tired! Just give him his rest first, okay?”

“He’s not in any condition to talk to us, dear Axl. We’ll just have to wait.”

“Alright. We’ll wait for him to get up.”

Almost instantaneously, Prez slowly got up from his bad, wore a robe covering his pyjamas and grabbed his wooden cane and reach for Axl. “Ah…you’ve come…”

“Dad! Are you alright? You need to rest more! Don’t pressure yourself too much! You can just lie down and also talk with us!” He switched on his speakers.

“Father, don’t overexert yourself!”

“We were told of your serious health condition, father. Please just take a rest.”

Prez looked up on them since he was hunching badly. “Well…thank you all for your concern…really, I appreciate it…”

“What is this illness that you’ve contracted?” Axl was very anxious.

“You can have a look at the computer there by the hall. The doctors sent it in just a few hours ago.” He coughed very hardly and choked himself slightly. “They’ve yet to determine the source of my illness. Don’t worry.” He coughed harder.

Axl ran over to the computer’s large plasma screen and saw a large file.

Lumine was the first to read it out. “Symptoms shown: rise in temperature, heavy sweating, headaches and dehydration. Illness: high fever. Condition: chronic stage. This is really not good.”

Axl turned around to look for Prez but he was nowhere in sight and he was certain he didn’t leave his room to go downstairs.

“Dad? Where are you?” Then Prez showed up from behind, shocking the three.

“Gah! Dad, you gave us quite a scare there! Don’t do that ever!”

“Where did you go just now while we were reading the file, father dear?”

Prez frowned a little. “Why, I just went to get myself a flask of water, Iris. You saw the dehydration part. I must drink plenty of water!”

“Father, a flask of water? Don’t you mean a glass of water?”

“No, I really meant a flask of water!” Prez holds up a flask. “A flask of water is 6 times better than a glass of water!” He coughed slightly and drank from it.

Axl and friends watched as Prez began to walk towards his bed. Then he nearly tripped, causing Axl to jerk, move and hold Prez by the shoulder.

“Dad, are you okay? C’mon we need to get you rested!” But Axl himself fell.

This time it was Prez’s turn to hold onto Axl from falling completely on the floor. Prez was struggling much harder than Axl now; a human trying to pull a Reploid much heavier than himself is bad, also considering his conditions.

But, surprisingly Prez managed to pull Axl back to his feet. Prez breathed harder and harder initially but eventually the breathing pattern became slower.

Meanwhile, both Iris and Lumine insulted Axl.

“Axl! You made father hold onto you jut because you were careless! Didn’t you ever think that a sick man doesn’t have enough strength to support a Reploid who’s much heavier?”

“Well done, Axl, you only caused father more trouble. Some guy you are.”

“It was an accident, okay? I didn’t expect myself to fall too!”

“Alright, all of you stop bickering now. I can still support myself-” He coughed harder and harder than previously. He quickly reached out for his cough syrup and drank about a quarter of the bottle and took an asthma inhaler and inhaled from it.

All three Reploids were silent as they watched Prez beat his chest repeatedly. He then walked all the way to the balcony Axl entered earlier and looked out onto the Big City. Prez released a breath of relief.

“I am an important man of the Federation and the world, you all three. I can’t afford to let a simple little disease such as high fever rob me of all my efforts to help build a prosperous and happy world. I’m been working so much like this for the past 28 years and saw all the mishaps in the world; I’m not going to let me little ailment stop you all from sharing happiness. I’d rather suffer myself.”

“A little disease can’t stop me from trying to maximise happiness around the world. I’m still alive and strong. So you three listen, I’m glad you are concerned for me but don’t ever let me down just by a small argument that will make me sad. Get the picture?”

“Yes.” All three replied simultaneously.

“Good.” Prez reached out for a wheelchair. “Well, it’s already 9.15. Who wants to help me move around and meet my people?”

Axl’s human form wobbled to become Lumine’s white human form.

“Ah, a wise decision. A Reploid like yourself who has tonnes of smarts and interest in the management of economy should come active, not dormant. C’mon, help me move on the wheelchair.”

Prez sat on the wheelchair while Lumine pushed the wheelchair towards the elevators. Prez pressed the button labelled ‘G’ of the elevator on the right and the door immediately opened. The white Reploid pushed him in.

“Father, what about my identity? Do you want to change it?”

“You’ll remain Lumine anywhere, even in this grounds. The people will have nothing to say, even if they do have something, they’ll just ask. Everything in here usually are secret under my policy, except when I want to tell something to the press. Okay? Let’s move on. I’ve got a conference to attend to.”



Continued in Chapter 8.


Notes:
If happiness is the source of life, destroying it will destroy people easily.



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And stuff.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Eight: Return


Axl, Lumine and Iris were now in mister Prez’s grounds, walking around with Prez who’s sitting on a wheelchair, touring the grounds about the land area of 12 square miles (around 31 square kilometres). It was amazing that the grounds belong solely to Prez and not to any shareholder so his decisions were final orders.

The grounds had produced much for the Federation and the world, Prez was definitely proud of it; and he was sharing it with his ‘children’.

It had already been late afternoon and Iris’ human form was displayed. She had been taking Prez around for about an hour plus. Feeling cheerful to herself, she decided to flashback what happened earlier.

In the morning, many were shocked to find a Lumine look-alike for a teen that wheeled their boss around. Only few dared to approach the serious yet smiling Reploid. The best example was that of a human worker.

“Say, em…you look like that Reploid that rebelled months ago.”

“So what if I do? So what if I AM?”

“Boss, he ain’t evil, ain’t he?” Prez gave a slight laugh at the worker.

“Rest assured that this is the reformed Lumine. He won’t be harming anyone ever. He’s just one of my ‘children’. The other two couldn’t make it so he came.”

The board of directors were shocked to see him in the conference room.

“Mister Prez, you allowed him – in here – with us?”

“Is there a problem regarding this, human? I’m just with my father.”

“Yes, gentlemen. Rest assured that although my ‘son’ has a cold voice, his heart is kind and he wishes to experience some of our economics here. If you don’t mind, let’s have the latest report in the year’s third quarter progress.”

Iris giggled at those thoughts. They were now back in Prez’s office. Iris gently routed him behind his desk and went to get herself something to enjoy. Adding to her pleasure, Axl and Lumine were talking.

“You had to put on the cold tone in your voice. It scared them a lot.”

“That’s me, dear boy. That’s how I always talk, in case you didn’t notice.”

“Next time, can’t you just put some positive tones in your speech?”

Then Iris’ hands suddenly vibrated so much and emitted a loud ring. Iris knew that the ring was meant for Axl so she allowed Axl to take control and answer the call.

“Axl, it’s Zero! There’s been a riot in a faraway district! The Maverick Reploids are attacking one of the City’s water reservoir facilities! Here are the coordinates! We need you now!” The line immediately cut off.

“Sorry, dad, we have to go now. We’ll see you next time. Bye!”

“You need to be positive yourself, dear boy.” Axl ignored the comment.

Axl teleported to the exact coordinates Zero gave him just after Prez gave him a small wave of goodbye and returned to pen down some notes.

Axl then arrived at the reservoir facility. It was a ground of wide area with, once again, giant pumps and pipelines with giant tanks and barrels meant for water purification. It was still snowing so the Hunters and Mavericks were battling just in front of the cylindrical buildings in the middle of snow.

The sun shone dimly on the site. Reploids were already equipped with some weapons and this time, some vehicles. They were going to use speeding bulldozers and trucks to try to destroy everything and freeze them in ice.

“Axl, they’re going to freeze everyone here in ice by bursting the tanks! Don’t just stand here! Go and fight! I’m giving you a boost!”

Lumine boosted Axl in the air and he began shooting his non-stop firing bullets. He certainly had blown apart many Mavericks on the ground. Lumine used his secret laser method and sliced many trucks into halves, causing big explosions. Iris only fired her pink fireballs at many locations, thus blasting Mavericks in air.

Axl finally saw Zero and X firing their attacks. Spiked Mavericks constantly charged at them so Zero could only use his saber to slice away the spikes and pierce the shields while X fired his giant-sized charged Buster shots to destroy them.

At a specific corner, giant stone Mavericks surrounded some Hunters. Lumine saw that so he made Axl turn to his left and fired his purple laser, dismembering the stone Mavericks to rocks. The Hunters hastily thanked Axl and ran off to fight.

“They should have thanked you, Lumine.” Axl teased him.

“That’s not important now, Axl. We must first defeat the Mavericks first and then find the main Maverick. Oddly there’s always a master Maverick behind these riots.”

Suddenly a black shadow covered the entire area. It was just in time that all Mavericks were beaten that the final Maverick made its appearance. The final grey Maverick was a type that floats in the air and it was 500 metres long and 200 meters wide. Its head looked like a samurai in disguise, its body oval and rectangular and its sides had swords and four global discs with spikes, connected by steel to the sides.

X, Axl and Zero regrouped together to face the giant Maverick. Its eyes gazed on the three instead of the other hundred Hunters and then fired a laser ray through its cornea at them. They avoided it and the giant explosions that blasted underground pipelines upwards.

Other Hunters released their own charged shots and machine gun bullets, trying to damage the armour. The Maverick wasn’t bothered and continued to target the three Hunters with its spiked discs, tearing the ground of its tiles and design.

“We need the weak spot! Axl, ask Lumine what’s the weak spot!” Zero yelled.

They continued to avoid homing swords that scarred most equipment and structures around the area. Axl’s head turned backward a little for 4 seconds and that was long enough for Lumine’s scanners to check its weak spot.

“Destroy its face armour first and then penetrate its forehead engines, Axl.”

“Got it. X, Zero, the face armour and then its forehead!” Axl yelled back.

But neither could take action fast because some humongous cannon plasma shot first hit its face armour, completely damaged as it broke into shards and fell piercing the ground. The Maverick was finally distracted.

All Hunters present turned their heads toward a big swarm of Reploids that looked like police members. They all had the same armour design of mixture of blue and brown and bore big cannons on their right arms. They had visors over the eyes so their identity was unknown except for a logo of letters ‘PB FORCE’ on their chests.

All were stunned because they weren’t expecting anyone. Suddenly all of the blue Reploids fired their charged cannons at the Maverick. The Maverick was unable to fight back due to the big onslaught.

It felt great damage and its engines exploded, thus falling with a great crash and explosion on the ground. Most Hunters ducked to secure themselves but the blue forces remained standing. Eventually all stood up.

X then quickly issued an order to the rest of the Hunters to avoid any slack in the work that was supposed to be done.

“Everyone, start cleaning up the site for all damages and clear the Maverick scrap away!” The Hunters started their work just before government forces came to assist the work of repairing the place.

The three Hunters walked forward to meet with the strangers. Then a row was formed by the blue Reploids to reveal their commander. The commander came out and saluted X.

“Maverick Hunter Commander X, my creator wishes to meet you tonight.”

“Thank you for your assistance, I guess. Who are you?”

“We are the PB Force, the latest paramilitary organization in Big City.”

It further continued speaking. “Our creator would like to meet you and propose a form of alliance for the Big City’s security. Tonight 9.30 pm at the front of the Maverick Hunter HQ. We hope progress will be made.”

All of such forces suddenly warped away, back to their base X assumed.

“Proposal? Alliance? Progress?” Axl was confused.

“Careful, X. We don’t even know them. This may be a trap.”

“I know, Zero. But we have to see first.” The three teleported back to the HQ.

Later that night, the Hunters and their navigators gathered at the main plaza hall, waiting for the arrival of the leader of the unknown forces.

“PB Force, huh? I’ve already checked on the list of approved units in the Federation but only four are approved: the National Air Force, the National Army, the Federation Marines and of course the Maverick Hunters. It’s probably an illegal unit, or the government hasn’t registered yet.” Alia said.

“Well, the leader did say they have a creator. It must be a private unit.”

“True, X, but private units are never allowed. The permit for the registration itself would have taken around 5 years due to tight regulations! Nobody would ever wait that long just to get that approval and the other procedures itself take at least 7 years, but there’re exceptions! This is getting fishy.” Zero sighed.

“Let’s just hope for the best then.” Everyone agreed with Pallette.

“Hey, where’s Axl?” X turned to look around.

“He’s having a telephone call with ‘dad’.”

Just nearby, Axl was using a traditional telephone to contact Prez because he didn’t want to walk back 40 floors up just to use a screen. On the other side, Prez’s screens were blurring with grey.

“Axl, aren’t you using the modern phone?”

“Sorry, dad, but maybe next time. Listen, just this afternoon, we encountered a strange military unit that easily took out the last Maverick at the City reservoir facility. I feel that something’s going on. Do you know anything?”

“Which water reservoir?”

“The facility with the cylinder towers and tanks at both sides at its front grounds.”

“Hm… ah yes, that incident. Just received it today. Do you still think that Bob’s behind this? Felt it’s weird?”

“Em…sort of. First the attack and then the blue unit shows up. Lumine just told us the weakness but they acted as if they already knew it!”

“Hm…this may be a trap, Axl. I will do some talk with the government about this. Meanwhile, keep out for any strange incidents that are not supposed to be. Lumine, Iris, help Axl okay?”

“Yes, father.” A cold voice. “Yes, father.” A calm, feminine voice.

“Good, I’ll see you next time.” He coughed hard. “Now I got to take an early sleep. The doctors say it’s best I sleep more.” The line cut off.

Axl put down the phone after a few seconds. He walked back to his friends.

“So what did Prez say? Oh I checked for sightings of that man Bob just the other day, no one’s seen him.”

“Well thanks a lot X. Dad said he’ll check with the government. He also says we should keep our eyes wide for anything suspicious.”

Then a loud rumbling noise was heard. It got louder and louder and seems to approach the Hunter HQ by the main entrance grounds.

“It’s them! They’re here! Everyone, let’s move out!”
X led the gang out of the main plaza hall into the entrance grounds and saw a long procession of the PB Force marching in front of the HQ. Eventually they stopped. A commanding order made them turn right and march up the entrance stairs.

PB Force units stepped aside to form the welcoming row. A black figure walked out slowly to confront the six. All were prepared for anything.

They were shocked. The features of the leader were shown thanks to the light of a nearby lamp stand. The character had a thick spectacle; messy brown hair, big blue eyes but his smile and lack of seriousness made him look different.

The creator of the PB Force was the previous criminal Bob.



Continued in Chapter 9.


Notes:
Bob returned?! By the way, Prez’s fever symptoms in accordance to medical books.




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And more stuff.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Nine: Suspicion


If anyone were more shocked, it would be both Axl and Lumine. In an instant that Bob appeared, both of them had flashbacks about their terrible past.

Axl was kidnapped by Bob’s bidding, the Red Alert and new generation Reploid rebellions, and his terrible time caused by Lumine and May because of their corruption and also the disturbance of peace.

Lumine, made to rebel under the name of Reploid evolution just to make Bob ruler faster, May’s doing and disturbing the peace, was also corrupted by Bob.

He caused all this trouble and he dared to face the Hunters here?!

Inside Axl, Iris watched in fear as both Axl and Lumine released their own shares of red and blue aura. They were getting angrier and angrier. Both vied to control the body’s hands and strangle the man and kill him that very moment.

Suddenly, Axl appeared to be trembling. His hair became a mixture of purple and brown while his eyes turned mixture of red and green. The mouth’s expressions became evil and so did his eyes.

“You evil human garbage! You caused all the trouble these years and you dare to approach us?!” A mixture of Axl’s and Lumine’s voice roared out furiously, startling everyone present. In less than a second, Bob’s neck was in the clutches of Axl’s hands. He grinned evilly and him and began to strangle him harder and harder.

Axl dashed so fast no one expected this to happen. Immediately the PB Force Reploids ran forward to try to save their creator. But Lumine knew better so he used his secret laser and began to slice all 500 Reploids into half.

“Oh no! This is a complete mess! Axl, stop this immediately!” All five of them ran forward to grab Axl and pull him down to suppress him. Bob’s face was filled with blue colour from choking on lack of air and was on the verge of dying.

“Help! Argghh…help! I can’t breathe…” Axl and Lumine were too violent to stop. Even Iris tried but her aura was no match to the one combined from the two.

Then X had no choice but to use an electrical stunner he had brought and jabbed it into Axl’s neck, thus stunning all three into a state of unconsciousness. Then Bob’s neck was free from Axl’s hands as Zero carried Axl away.

All of the PB Force Reploids were sliced into half. Fearing the worse, X decided that Bob was to be brought to his office for treatment, although he’s a criminal; the scrap was to be collected by Prez Corp. and Axl to be strapped for a while.

No sooner and later, Axl was firmly back in control but he found himself strapped up in not just two but three pieces of flexible titanium straps and that he was in Zero’s office. Zero was sitting in front of him, sighing away.

“Zero! What happened? Why am I in the straps again? I’m not in quarantine? What happened to that scum trash man?” Zero firmly held Axl on the shoulders.

“Axl, calm down! So should you, Lumine!” Somehow he knew Lumine too woke up already. “X stunned you just now because both of you were too violent and you were trying to kill a human, despite the fact we recognise he’s a wanted criminal! We have no evidence that the most recent riots were his doing, and he’s the creator of the PB Force too!”

“And yes, you’re not in quarantine because X’s busy with the human trash and he’s in his office. Now just relax, Axl. Maybe he would try his proposal of alliance thing, but we’ve already had the guy in our base! The most definite thing X will do later is to lock him up in the HQ west wing.”

Zero stood up, his back facing Axl. Axl and Lumine have already calmed down and couldn’t do anything else. Then Zero turned around and unbuckled the belt straps.

“Zero, why are you letting me go?”

“Because I don’t want to put you in quarantine myself. I know that I can trust you in keeping yourself calm and as much as you do, I also hate the guy. Just try not to do that now, not until he’s proven guilty then. I have to go accompany X with his meeting. You’re free. X had already put off the bedtime limit so you can do as you please for now.”

Zero simply walked out of his office, leaving Axl in there alone. Axl only gazed down on the floor, thinking about something that Lumine couldn’t tell what this time.

“Dear boy? Is something wrong? I know I shouldn’t ask this now…”

“Axl, please…just stay put…be patient…we’ll know everything…”

“No, Lumine. You’re right, there is something wrong. Something very wrong around here!” Axl dashed out far towards the elevator. Both his inhabitants had no idea where he would go.

Meanwhile in X’s office, X and Zero were having a grim meeting with Bob, who’s now bandaged on his arms and had a plaster on his neck.

“So what are you trying to propose here, human? This better be good or something you’ll have to answer to my saber.” Zero flared up his saber stronger.

“On the contrary, Commander. I do have something to propose. You see I’ve escaped from the prisons because I wanted to prove myself useful to the community. I’ve already realised the errors of my ways so I’ve come to surrender myself in.”

“In order to prove myself repented, I had built up my own force of justice. The PB Force. Then the first riot I’ve seen where my blue army of Reploids can be put into action: that of today.”

“Please Commanders! I’m really serious and committed to the peace of the Big City and the Federation! Please give me a chance to prove myself worthy! I know! I’ll surrender in myself and you’ll have total control over my PB Force! There’s another backup of 3000 Reploids! See, see?”

X and Zero exchanged faces and expressions.

“That’s a very nice offer, human. Sign here and here to admit you’ll surrender yourself first.” Zero handed out a prison admittance paper and Bob quickly signed them.

“So, this means you’ll take over my PB Force now, hm?”

“We still have procedures, human. Commander X may be the most powerful officer of the Maverick Hunters but there’s still the Central Committee and the government departments.”

“We’ll need to read through hundreds of extra regulations and sign records and oaths. The Federation takes oaths very seriously. Bind yourself to one, you’re bound for life. It’ll not be easy just for us to pass your little extra armies in.”

X was clearly doing a lot of thinking. His first orders were:

“Guards, take this criminal to the west wing top maximum security prison and isolate him there immediately.”

Two tough-looking Reploids handcuffed Bob up and led him away. If the head Hunters weren’t mistaken, he was acting a little insanity.

“Ah, yes. Locked up for good. Heh heh heh. Heh heh. For the good of the Federation. Heh heh. Peace to all…”

Zero looked at X again. “You’re sure we are accepting his armies?”

“Not so sure. We need to run up the security issues first then transfer him to the Big City prisons. Then, it’s a matter of legal rights transfer and reprogramming and armour change then we’re settled to find the responsible one behind the more recent attacks. Maybe the south wing needs some upgrading.”

“The south wing? Isn’t that the place where we had the old rocket launch and the giant cannon? It’s still there all this while?”

“Yes, but first get the early procedures done. Then some constructions.”

“Right away. Axl’s just fine, by the way.” Zero was so wrong on this.

Axl had already ran up to the 54th floor of the HQ and taken a staircase to the highest rooftops. He was panting hard and at the same time, feeling angry.

He held the fence railing and looked around. There was no one on the rooftops with him and the structures around the HQ were dark, only to shine their light through windows and there was the sound of vehicles running on the roads.

He was tired from all the running so he sat on the concrete floor and held his legs by the knees with his hands and buried his head underneath his hands.

The two inhabitants couldn’t decide what to do about Axl. Then Axl starting speaking to himself about all his anger.

“It’s just not fair! That man ought to be killed! Humans don’t care, as long as they have their homes to live in and rations in troubled times! Why can’t everyone just see that Bob will never change?!”

For the first time, Axl felt like crying. Tears rolled down his cheeks. He couldn’t control his troubled feelings all to himself. He was shaking a little.

“He caused all the trouble this while and X stops me from getting my revenge on him? No one around here understands me! Nobody knows how it feels like to lose their creator and be trapped in constant uncertainty! How painful it feels to fight on and on the same evil bidding, especially if it’s a human who strikes back by the days, not years!”

Iris knew what he meant because that was what she said to him previously.

“All those Mavericks were actually kind-hearted Reploids who were manipulated by greedy individuals! How much good would have been done to the world if they were not killed, all because of only a few evil people?”

Then the phenomenon came again. Inside the computer brain, Lumine and Iris were shocked to see the circuit components’ outlines appear and the wavy colours flashed here and there. The inactive data flowed faster than before in all directions.

“Axl’s emotions fluctuated again! His motive’s now yearning for murder?”

“I’ll check just to make sure.” Lumine raised the hand and closed his eyes. “Well, not entirely murder, Iris. Dear boy wants revenge on Bob and he bears so much hatred, more than any of us to that human. Revenge is sort of like seeing him imprisoned for life, misery and the stuff.”

He lowered his hands and turned to Iris with open eyes.

“It’s not serious yet. His emotions weren’t out of control as much as last time.”

Axl had stood up and spilled out all his thoughts, full with anger.

“What are his desires and motives this time? What does he really want? Is there any thing else than world domination? He wouldn’t repent so easily! I just know it! That’s impossible! If I had the greatest chance in all my life, I would kill him! Kill him for good! SEE HOW HE LIKES THAT!” The colour displays in the subconscious became wilder than ever.

“That’s the limit I’ll take.” Lumine mumbled first and then stunned Axl entirely. Axl fell hard on the ground with his eyes close.

Lumine pressed his hands firmly on Axl’s shoulders.

“Dear boy, please listen! We know how you feel, okay? Don’t say such cruel things ever! That’s not the Axl I know and who taught me very important lessons! Humans do care for their surroundings and so do we! Just look at father! Do you think he’ll tolerate his former assistant for silencing him?! I don’t think so!”

“Dear boy, please calm down! We hate him as much as you do! Just control yourself! It’s okay to have your suspicions towards him but just don’t take him on when we have no solid evidence about his true motives! The government will charge you for this, criminal or not, and we’ll all get it too! Father will be ashamed!”

Axl became calmer so Lumine just looked at him.
“The proof will show up by itself, I know it. And we promise to help you anyway we can for you. Okay, dear boy? Just wait. Time will help you.”

Iris went up to Axl and embraced him. Axl became calmer and started to show happiness. Axl in turn embraced her gentleness while Lumine looked on.

Axl opened his eyes. Nobody was still around. He corrected his posture and leaned against the fence railing. The slightly heavy snowfall seemed not to bother him the entire time. Suddenly, Axl just slept there.

“Oh goodness. Axl seems to be too tired that his body suddenly took a rest. I’ll go check on his systems. Iris, please look after him till I come back.” He vanished.

Iris was now holding an Axl who was sleeping. Gently, she laid him to sleep soundly on the pitch-black floor and she in turn sat on the floor to watch over Axl.

“Have a nice sleep, Axl.” She smiled at him.



Continued in Chapter 10.


Notes:
How nice of Iris! If Axl already killed Bob, he’d be charged under Isaac Asimov’s three laws and there won’t be any story at all. Lumine didn’t strangle Bob back then, only the laser, contrary to the text. Weird, huh? Refer the ‘rocket launch’ and ‘giant cannon’ to X5.




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And the end. Thanks a lot.

[Professor Fann]

And again, delay and late update. Here we go. Three chapters instead.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Ten: Progress


Axl woke up some time later. His body was apparently fully energized and to his shock, he was partially covered in snow. He quickly got up and shook all the snow off him. He retreated back to the staircase where he came from and shut his eyes.

Iris was asleep herself but Lumine had been shielding himself and her with his purple aura for quite some time. Axl wanted to know what happened.

“Well, Axl, apparently you slept in the snow for around 4 hours! Iris can’t stand the cold in the first 2-and-a-half hours so she called me here, while I was checking your body status. Fortunately you were immune to the snow so I didn’t shield you.”

“Hey, that’s not nice of you, Lumine!”

“What can I say, dear boy? She and I need heat the most.”

Then Iris woke up. She brushed herself and looked around. Lumine had already stopped emitting his aura since they were now close to the 54th floor.

“What time is it now? Axl must’ve slept very long.”

“Dear boy slept for about 4 hours so the time is close to 2 in the morning. I say we get some sleep in Axl’s resting pod.” Lumine shrugged.

“No, I say we go and visit dad.” Axl said suddenly.

“WHAT? In the middle of the morning?” Both said that together.

Iris voiced her protest the fastest. “Axl, father is still sleeping! Besides, he’s already having his fever for three days. You can’t expect him to recover so fast! He needs time of him own!”

“Well, the 24-hour store does sell thick towels. Just in case the weather at the balcony is very cold. I’ll keep you warm.” Axl thought that was wise of him.

Iris didn’t know what to do with Axl and her face turned red. “Uh! I just don’t know what to do with you! I’ll be somewhere else if you need me!”

Lumine shook his head at Axl. “Dear boy, you’ve really made her mad. Just do what you want to do. I will assist you if there are any problems.” He vanished off.

Axl went ahead and switched to human form before teleporting to the Big City Park. Once at the Park, he ran over to the nearest store and bought a lot of towels. People were wondering what a teen would do with so many towels in winter.

Axl then teleported over to Prez’s balcony and just as he expected, Prez had already locked the sliding door and was deep asleep in his bed. Axl dragged a chair from the balcony table, wiped the snow away and sat on it, wrapping himself with the towels thus fulfilling his words: Axl did feel warmer.

Eventually Axl fell asleep again; he felt a little tired. He felt it was the best method while waiting to see his ‘father’ as soon as possible. When he closed his eyes, he saw no one around.

“Guys? Where are you?” Axl walked around in his own head. Then he spotted a bright pinkish aura not far away from him at 11 o’clock. He ran there and was surprised to see a smiling Lumine and a curled up Iris.

“Lumine! What did you do to Iris? Zero’s gonna kill me if anything happened to her!” Lumine turned to look at him and laughed lightly.

“I never thought you’d be so interested about Iris. For once you cared for her welfare status, despite the fact you had always treated her so-and-so, dear boy.”

“Let’s put it this way…I make a suggestion for a little change in her features and she gladly accepted. All I did was enter her codes and made another feature code active. The old one was gaudy and detestable. Take a look yourself.”

Axl was shocked to see the new Iris. Her body design was mostly modified except for her skirt. Her hand and body looked slightly simpler and so does her leg armour. She no longer had a hat and her face looked livelier. On her body lay a triangular-sort napkin with the insignia ‘Iris’ on the lower right.

“Wow…you look better, Iris. More…beautiful.” Axl awed.

“Thank you. I had this feature before so I decided to have it activated. Till now, I still had no idea why I had chosen the older form during the Repliforce war. Still, this one is better. Oh, it is very warm around here. You wrapped towels?”

“Just like what I said.” Axl shrugged his shoulder at Iris.

“Hey, do you guys feel some poking here and there? Ow, now it’s a hard tapping on the shoulders! What is this?” Lumine smiled mischievously at Axl.

“Well Axl dear boy, try opening your sight.” He laughed more.

Axl woke up. He saw Prez holding hard on his arms now. Prez was wearing a thick overcoat to avoid the blistering cold. Axl smiled widely.

“Dad! You’re awake!” Axl got up and hugged Prez.

“Well, I woke up for a glass of water and then I spotted a yellow figure at the door. C’mon in. You must have something important in order to come at 4 in the morning. I’d let you have a nice cup of hot cocoa.”

Once in the master room, Axl put away his yellow towels and changed back to Reploid form. Axl sat on a nearby cushion and conveyed apologies. He couldn’t help but notice two separate stands not far away, one with a broken clay statue and the other a replica of it. Axl wanted to ask what is was but Prez’s health condition threw the topic away rather successfully, for a very long time.

“Sorry, dad. I was worried about your illness. I couldn’t stop worrying about you. I’m sorry. How are you?”

“There there, it’s okay. That’s very fast of you to check. I’m already on the way to recovery. My health has made some progress and I’m fine. It should be considered that I’ve stabilized but any moment it will strike. The doctors are still doing tests so I don’t know the source of my fever. Here, have your hot cocoa.”

Axl drank it slowly as it was very hot. Hot but delicious, the three thought. Finished drinking, he put the cup on the side table and again apologized.

“I’m sorry to bother to bother you at such hours. Well, I never had a real human family before, so…” Words couldn’t describe Axl’s feelings anymore.

“Oh silly Axl. Stop the apologies. It’s okay; I know how you feel. I lost my parents at a young age so I had difficult times myself.”

“Oh right. Dad, about the Jakob Project. When I was at Point Galapagos, I spotted a tall structure that looked like the Elevator. What was it?”

“That is one of my many facilities the government requested for the Project. Maybe by now you’ve known that it is a rocket base meant to transport humans to the Moon. Mathematically, its location matches to the distance of the Elevator’s top.”

“But as you know the Elevator is currently being dismantled. The rocket base is still working. I just had its design to the Elevator similar to show it’s for the Project but I am not changing the exterior design.”

Lumine remarked at Axl. “I told you so.”

Then Axl suddenly wobbled to become Lumine. Apparently his hair, long as almost half of his height, clashed with the cushions so he stood up instead.

“Father, forgive me for being rude but it seems that dear boy’s emotions fluctuated again just hours ago. Apparently Bob has returned from the City forests but he came to surrender. He brought along his portion of his army unit, the PB Force.”

“Bob surrendering? That’s great news but strange. It’ll take a miracle for him to voluntarily surrender.”

“Yes father. We all know that. Anyway, Axl and I raged but there were no fluctuations of emotions. It was only later while Axl was raging on himself that the emotions fluctuated again. I don’t know anything about this to help dear boy. May I have your opinion regarding this?”

Prez frowned and with his cane, he walked towards his computer. “Hm. This is rather strange. I don’t recall that ever happening twice to a Reploid, ever.”

He pressed on the mouse to open files regarding the past of the three. Many files were displayed with tonnes of tiny test and three large photos of them. Apparently Iris’ photo was that of her unwanted form but that didn’t bother anyone.

“Hm. Perhaps it’s a mixture of emotions that are in such quantity and degree that they are uncontrolled by any of you three. Judging by the comparisons you’ve provided, I’d say that this had something only to do with Axl, not anyone else.”

“Me?” Axl stuttered via Lumine but Iris hushed him.

“These things only happen when Axl alone rages for some sort of reason and particular event. Therefore Axl must be studied further, Lumine.”

Lumine remained silent. Prez looked at him with a sharp eye.

“Alright. I have a method. Lumine, Iris, it is both your duty to monitor Axl’s emotional performances and track down the source. If this happens the third time, quickly track down the program for this. If you can’t, it’s okay so you’ve done your best. If this happens the fourth time, whether you’ve found out the reason or not, come and report to me immediately. I’ll try to solve this problem too.”

“Dad, is this that serious?” Axl’s voice came from Lumine’s mouth.

“Oh most certainly it’s serious. I believe a Maverick Hunter should maintain stable emotions at all times. Or else it’ll affect your status as a reliable, strong Class S Hunter. Remember that the times where Lumine ran amok is now over, so most citizens will now think that you are now amok, Axl!”

All three were silent after listening to ‘dad’. Prez paused to drink some water.

“Alright that’s done. By the way, I’ve contacted the government and they were absolutely pleased to learn about Bob’s surrender. But it seems they were told that a Commander was considering a legal transfer of rights over command of the PB Force to the Maverick Hunters. He was planning on reprogramming them so they would serve the government instead of Bob.”

“That must be X. Always making the most out of things,” said Lumine.

“The officers said that they would no longer permit any other organization entrusted to maintain the Federation’s security besides their own armies and the Hunters. So they said that the PB Force would be considered illegal immediately.”

“How would X succeed in gaining the PB Force members?”

“It would be impossible. There are tonnes of legal framework to face but the main obstacle is dealing with the fact that PB Force belongs to a criminal. There are only two circumstances: either Bob miraculously dies in prison or that his sentences are done then only the government recognises that the PB Force belongs to the Hunters. But that will take another 40 years or less.”

“So X can’t possibly have the PB Force members under him.”

“Exactly. That is the situation as of now. Who knows, things may change in the future. Perhaps the process will be faster or the government will be kinder a little to let X have the PB Force. Who knows?”

Then Prez looked on his watch. “Fiddlesticks! Is that the time? It’s already nearly six! C’mon you all better get back to the HQ and get a good rest; you must have not slept properly! I’ll ring up a chauffeur at the ground floor to send you back! Oh by the way, thank you for your time here. Now I have to sleep! I’ve got another press conference at afternoon about my new land purchase!”

Lumine turned back into Axl and he walked to the right-side elevator and was immediately sent to the ground level after saying his goodbyes. Along the way, Iris met the two of them.

“Should we have told father about my new physical form?”

“Nah, we’ll deal with that later.” Lumine followed Axl’s words.

About 30 minutes later, Axl arrived back at the entrance of the HQ. Some nearby Reploid security guards recognised him immediately and approached him.

“Well, Axl! Where did you come from? And that’s one of those rare luxury limousines out of production! Whom were you meeting with?”

“Em…let’s put it this way. I had a talk with someone dear to me.”

Axl walked back into the main plaza hall and headed back to the resting chamber. On the way, Lumine taunted him. “Remember, dear boy. Lover girl and I are watching you.”

Axl smiled. “No problem. Just give me those stuns of yours when that happens. Ah, now it’s time to set the dial for three in the afternoon so we can have a great rest.”



Continued in Chapter 11.


Notes:
That was tough setting up the conditions for Bob and X. Kindly refer to Megaman Xtreme 2 to get an idea of Iris’ new look instead of that of X4. Also refer to X8 to see that tall structure at Noah’s Park, Point Galapagos.



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And more stuff.

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Eleven: Frustration


Three days later, the 48th day Lumine was with Axl. Earlier before, Iris told off Lumine for calling her ‘lover girl’ but Lumine defended it as appropriate. X had also learnt about the new conditions regarding the rights to transfer control of PB Force from Bob to the Hunters. But the officer added that the government will send X an official declaration regarding their final decision towards the PB Force.

Bob was locked up in the maximum-security prisons in the west wing, making Axl feel very comfortable. Zero had learnt about Iris’ new form and agreed that she had looked better. At the same time, there were other uprisings around Big City and the world, thus giving the impression that Bob didn’t start them.

Axl and inhabitants had the strongest doubts about that and the PB Force Reploids were frequently assigned to help the Hunters defeat many Mavericks and the head honchos. A poll showed that a minority of Hunters favoured PB Force aid in the Hunters though the law didn’t favour that. Bob’s image improved a little only.

Back to the 48th day. That snowy morning, the news screens in the central chamber reported that the government couldn’t trace Lumine ever since his attempt to revive the Elevator over a month ago, which stirred some gossip around Big City that Lumine had evaded the government’s attempts to arrest him.

The Prez Corp. decided not to comment since Prez already made it clear to all his people that Lumine’s current status not be revealed till the time was right. The Maverick Hunters too couldn’t be reached for comment. Lumine, deciding to ignore the news, made Axl move them over to his cubicle and play his favourite online game, thus earning 4th place.

“That’s an improvement! Alright! I must wrestle my way up to 1st place! Lumine, are you sure you’d rather watch me do this all day?”

“Anything’s better than that news about me, dear boy.”

Axl was true to his words. Axl managed to play the hardest he could and eventually score the highest on the Maverick Hunters online game. It was a new record because the score was so high no other Hunter could possibly reach it.

“Congratulations, Axl. I suppose you are done?” “No, Iris, I think I’ll go to the VR room and now beat Lumine’s previous score.” “See? That’s the problem isn’t it? You always while your time away but you never give others a chance to enjoy their own share of their time!” “Em…Iris? Is there something wrong?”

“Oh yes, there is something most definitely wrong around here! You are having way too much control over this body! Why can’t you give me or Lumine some time to spend around the Big City?”

“Count me out, Iris. I’m fine with wherever dear boy here goes. I just only wish to appear at the right time and the right situations.”

Iris was dumbstruck. “Grr! Alright! So, Axl why can’t you give me some time of my own to spend around the Big City by myself?”

Axl was feeling numb for some reason. “Iris, if you wanted to have control over this body for some time, all you had to do was ask, for legal permission.”

Iris stared bluntly at him. “Ask? That’s it?”

Lumine smiled mischievously at her. “If I know better of lover girl, she feels that she’s the rarest in having control to move around. She’s embarrassed to ask you for control, dear Axl, because she respects the fact you are leading us. Geez, Iris, don’t get so grumpy and frustrated, I’m sure dear Axl will allow you free movement if you asked.”

“Amazing. You’re absolutely correct.” Iris hung her head down. “Em…Axl, can I have the body for today? Just for today?”

Axl put his hand behind his head and scratched it for a while. “Sure.”

Iris looked up brightened. “Really? Oh thank you, thank you so much! I can’t wait to start a journey around the Big City now itself.”

“Yeah, Iris, but first I prefer it that we get out of the HQ before you do anything.”

Some time later, Axl walked out of the HQ and hid himself behind a pillar of the front entrance so no one could see him. In a split second, he switched over to human form and then wobbled to become Iris.

“Alright! Thank you Axl! I’ll have a wonderful time, I promise!” Iris said that to Axl in her mind. “Yeah sure whatever. What am I going to do while Iris enjoys herself?”

“Well, Axl, perhaps I can be of assistance. Let me show you a tour around your body mechanisms and teach you how to maintain them yourself. Don’t worry, dear boy, I’m the expert around here, you wouldn’t have much difficulty.”

“Em…okay. If you say so. It amazes me how you frequently maintain the stability around here.” Both of them vanished.

Iris simply walked away but was confronted by the two Reploid guards.

“Good day, miss. Your business with the Hunters is done, I assume?”

“You can say that.” She walked off joyfully. “Hm. Time to use some of the cash that Axl saved for three of us. Hey, the amount here is just enough for tonnes.”

During the next three hours, Iris toured around the three districts, two of which are neighbours of the district of the HQ, the other being the Hunter HQ’s district itself. She saw the most wonderful sights of the Big City Axl never showed her.

At the local giant shopping mall, she toured around the fashion shops and tried herself the latest beautiful textile products. She also asked the other two for opinions about the dresses, annoying Axl the most.

“Which one is better? This mixture of colours or the long purple one?”

“Huh…purple is not for you, Iris, so the mixture one is better.”

Axl was quite angry himself. “Iris, we are in the middle of body mechanism education here. Please call us if it’s really urgent.” They disappeared.

“Hm! Well, Axl was no help. I’ll just take the mixture dress.”

Iris also went to various stores selling the latest electronic gadgets, such as the portable printer, luxury phones, cameras, stylish laptops and computers; those which are more advance than that of the 21st century.

“Wow! The gadgets here are fabulous! Which one shall I buy?”

Lumine decided to answer that. “It’s okay, dear boy, I’ll handle this. Hm…you don’t need watches; we’ve got an automatic one in the brain. We don’t need the phones, laptops and computer; father has those already. So I think the camera would be best although father also has that.”

She then bought a cool multi-mega pixel camera and some accessories on Lumine’s advice. Then she went on for some exotic food.

“Wow! Does Iris have to add so much chilli and pepper to the soup? My tongue’s burning hotter than all that lava in the volcano facilities!”

“Dear Axl, I know, it’s way too spicy. Iris, could you lower down that spice intake? It’s more than we could take here.”

“Alright, sheesh. I’ll just take some of this iced fruit juice, if it’ll stop Axl from bickering so much.”

Later on she went on to the other districts’ cultural monuments of the world. She used her brand new camera to take snapshots of herself with the many beautiful statues of strong muscular men posing and some ancient home designs.

She also saw replicas of some of the world’s most famous architectural designs, which amazingly survived the Space Colony accident. She went on her way to the Big City Museum and awed at the amazing history of mankind.

Axl actually quite enjoyed the tour around the world’s history sort of thing but the only obstacle was the bright flash she used so he sort of passed out on the pitch-black floor.

“Axl! Dear boy! Wake up! Nice. Now I must try to wake him.”

Pretty much later in the day, more accurately close to evening, Iris had finished all her touring around some of Big City’s busiest districts. All the items that she had bought were put back in Axl’s cubicle in the HQ time and time again so in the end she was empty-handed.

“Well…the amount of cash here is only a few hundred left. I’m going for a last dinner first.” Axl was dumbstruck. “Iris spent most of my cash? Oh great. I have to ask dad for more then!”

“Easy, dear boy. I’m sure father will provide although I’m not sure how. Then again, lucky for you, the HQ didn’t call you for any missions today.”

Iris saw a splendid restaurant on the other end of the perpendicular side of a shop. She decided to take a shortcut by the dark alley but something wrong was going to happen. She was being followed.

As she walked on more and faster, she felt as though the alley became longer and longer. She started to run but ended up meeting three big burly humans.

They were so fat that their stomachs were clearly seen from their shirts. Their faces were also ugly too with the scars and the plasters and the knives they had in their hands. The jeans were all holed everywhere and appeared ghastly.

“Well…what do we have here? A cute little miss here so easily fell into our trap!” The first said.

“Let’s steal all her cash just like we always do!” The second snickered.

“Time for a little fun!” The third snickered. All three charged towards her.

“Oh no! Iris’ in trouble! I’m helping her!” Axl stopped Lumine.

“No you don’t. This is my responsibility now. Zero may trust you but he entrusted me even more for Iris’ security. Let me do it.”

Lumine was silent. “Okay, let’s see what you can do.”

Axl went ahead and rapidly grasped Iris’ control mechanisms but was careful not to reveal his physical appearances at all. Iris was stunned for a moment. Axl-controlled Iris suddenly jumped into the mid-air over the three men and landed behind them. They were surprised to see the active ‘girl’.

Axl gathered some strength in his hands and landed a heavy punch on the second guy’s back. He felt it so painful, his mouths dropped and tongue came out.

The third guy took his knife and charged it forward at Iris. But Axl knew better and jumped onto his right arm and jumped again to give him a terrible kick in the face. He fell down hard on the floor.

The first guy was more active so he charged at Iris with his knife in many directions. Of course Axl was also very fast and dodged all knife attacks sideways and made many somersault jumps backwards.

Axl dashed forward and used some might to kick the former at his knees, tripping him to the ground, and held his hands together and slammed them directly on the first guy’s head.

Then, the third guy also charged at Iris, this time with a trashcan compressed with his bare hands. He tried to smash Iris with it but Axl made her jump backward quite a distance, so the trashcan was smashed on the first guy’s head. He couldn’t bear the pain so he passed out.

Suddenly, the second guy grabbed both Iris’ hands and hung her in the air.

“Surprise! Now give her the spinning back kick!” The third guy charged quickly at Iris with his big, bare fists. He almost managed to hit Iris but Axl kicked back on the second guy’s bouncy stomach, bouncing Iris at her captor’s back, so the second guy received the third guy’s full blow on the stomach, knocking him out.

Iris landed safely on the ground, thanks to Axl. Now it was ‘Iris’ and the third guy on a one-to-one fight. Axl didn’t want to allow the remaining burly guy escape too so he darted towards him.

‘She’ kicked and punched the latter all too quick to be avoided. He was hurt everywhere around the waist, chest and legs. Axl delivered the final blow with a really hard punch on his cheeks. He couldn’t tolerate anymore and fell on the ground, unconscious.

Iris panted from the fight. The three burly men were all unconscious on the ground, with bruises and blue-blacks everywhere. Two of them had blood coming out of their teeth and their knives flung away.

Then five human policemen came just in time. One of them had a talk with Iris while the other four handcuffed the burly men and put them in the police cars.

“Wow, miss. Whoever saved you from these scum sure is strong. These men are wanted for robbing tens of people these few days. Some public citizen informed us you were in this alley. Thank goodness you came and allowed us to arrest them. We had tried to do that many times, but all with failure.”

“Er…sure. I’ll just go on with my walking then. By the way, I couldn’t see the person’s identity. He was cloaked up in all black.” Iris hurriedly walked away.

That evening was quite exciting. Iris had surrendered control back to Axl and in his mind, gave him a huge hug for saving her earlier and didn’t feel like eating at all. Lumine congratulated Axl with his regular cold tone for his great performance. Apparently two hours from the incident, the event was put on the Internet news agency and Zero saw it.

“You beat up these humans just to save Iris?”

“Em…yeah. I’m sorry if I caused any trouble.” Axl looked at the smiling Zero.

“No, actually you did the right thing. But wrong since a Reploid wasn’t supposed to injure a human. Still, I’ll have X let you off the hook this time. Thanks for saving Iris.” Zero walked away to his office.

“Well, Axl you had a great day. What are you going to do now?”

“Lumine, I’m going to take a rest in the warm central chamber. Fighting in the snow sure made me tired.” Axl retreated on a long cushion with other Hunters and slept there.



Continued in Chapter 12.


Notes:
Won’t this be happening if Iris were to be human on vacation? I was quite lazy to think up extra names here so the three burly men were just codenamed ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘third’ guys.




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Not much excitement there, I admit ...

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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests.
-M’siaFanWriter

Chapter Twelve: Approval


Five days later, Axl was doodling on paper in X’s office, sitting behind the Commander’s desk. Apparently the switch had begun where X now led his team of Hunters and police forces in the evening. X purposely forgot to tell something to Axl earlier: while Zero was gone, he had to assume Zero’s duties too.

The three navigators were certainly of great assistance, just like X promised. They too helped him to manage some of the HQ’s internal and external affairs. Lumine and Iris too were kind to assist him. Bored with himself, he refreshed some events while taking a walk to the west wing.

The past few days there had been riots in the mineral mines outside the Big City core and once again, Prez’s security was no match for berserk Mavericks. X and Zero were able to defeat most Mavericks but the final Mavericks were taken out altogether by the combined effort of Hunters and the PB Force, which were temporarily under X’s command till the government gave its final verdict.

A newer poll showed that majority Hunters favoured cooperation with the PB Force and Bob’s image as a repented man increased a lot. However, those with the strongest doubts over the issue were X, Zero and Axl and inhabitants.

A new crime took place in the government departments. Certain officers, registered as ‘on emergency leave’, were actually kidnapped by someone days and days ago. There were no traces of the culprit as video evidence was destroyed. Investigation had already taken place.

Axl had arrived at the west wing at a specific balcony overlooking the plastic prison house housing Bob, suspended in the mid air in a room walled by blue screens. He looked at Bob and in turn, Bob tried to befriend him. Axl rejected the conversation with harsh sign language, shocking nearby Pallette.

“Axl! That’s not nice of you to treat that imprisoned man like that!”

“Hm! What do you know about him? He doesn’t deserve any respect at all! He ought to be thrown down into a giant tank full of acid, or even down an erupting volcano for all I care!” Axl’s counter-talk stunned the navigator and his inhabitants.

“That’s not the Axl I know! You’ll usually talk lots of stuff but never talk anything about killing humans! You may be rude at certain times but not this rude!”

“Well times have changed! I beat the Mavericks who don’t know much about my past, but this guy not only caused my misery, but also was the cause of all Mavericks in the last 2 decades! Sorry if the old Axl was deactivated, I can’t help but fighting anyone including the humans who have disturbed much of the peace we need!”

Axl made a valid point. Although it was definitely wrong to hurt and kill humans, the overall part of his argument was correct. Both were silent.

Fortunately for Axl, Bob couldn’t hear what they were talking about so all he could assume that they were debating something hot. Then Axl hung his head down.

“Em…sorry. Got a little far-fetched back there. Just…just forget what I said. It’s time to head back for duties.” Axl walked back slowly. But Pallette was already convinced that Axl changed for the better of everything.

Lumine and Iris decided not to say anything to Axl since he was already in a bad mood. They didn’t bother to remind Axl that he was supposed to head back to Zero’s office this time so Axl walked and sat down in his cubicle.

Axl rested his head on the support of his two palms. He breathed heavy sighs and his thoughts were messed up. In his head, Lumine tried to see what was Axl thinking about so he went ahead to insert his hand behind Axl’s head and analyse thoughts. Oddly enough, a deflective shield activated and bounced back Lumine’s hand, surprising him till he flew on the pitch-black floor.

“Lumine, are you okay?” Iris ran forward to tend to him.

He shook him head a little. “Fine, but weird. This never happened before…”

Actually, Lumine was able to read thoughts all this while by simply inserting his hand inside either their heads and analyse specific data that code for thoughts. It was basically harmless and nerveless, meaning that neither of the two wouldn’t feel a hand in their heads; contrary to the one Iris did on him because it was about deleting codes.

This time, due to unknown circumstances, a deflective shield was unknowingly activated behind Axl’s head and rejected the foreign hand.

Then, the inhabitants knew why. The exact same phenomenon happened in the computer brain. The circuit component outlines were appearing again with their flashy waves of colour and the inactive data circulating the space like crazy.

“Oh great! Axl’s emotions are fluctuating again!”

The white Reploid was observing the degree of the phenomenon. “Hm. The degree of dear boy’s emotional fluctuations are the exact same just as the last one. The one where he raged to himself on the rooftop. No worries.”

“No worries?! How do you know they’re the same?”

“Huh…fine, I’ll just check it for your sake.” The raising of hand and the closing of eyes. This time a little red wave was emitted from his hand.

“Relax, it is exactly the same as the previous one. Same amount of hatred.”

“Aren’t you going to stun him?!”

“I don’t think so. I stunned him the previously time because the degree of his fluctuations at that time suddenly expanded which can result in malfunction in the body mechanisms. Besides, we’ve only experienced two different emotional fluctuations: the first was happiness, the second and current one is hatred.”

“But-” Iris didn’t protest any further.

“Relax, dear girl. I know what I’m doing. When a different fluctuation comes in then I’ll do something about it. Right now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to check on the body mechanism status to make sure we don’t blow up suddenly.”

Iris felt herself helpless and couldn’t decide on what to do alone. Axl’s emotions were still fluctuating a little, when suddenly…

“Hey, Axl!” The loud yell startled the trio-in-one Reploid so much that Axl fell down from his chair. He quickly got up and saw Zero.

“Axl, what are you doing here? You were supposed to be in X’s office, waiting for the government’s final verdict on Bob! Never mind that. The reply came already! X’s going to read it out in his office!”

Axl brightened up immediately. “Really? What’s it say?”

“Don’t know myself. C’mon let’s go!” Axl raced behind Zero to X’s office.

The two inhabitants confronted Axl. “The final verdict’s here?”

“Yeah, guys, maybe this time we can see Bob being punished for life in jail and X will have to wait for decades to get hold of the PB Force.”

“Well.” Lumine folded his arms. “Maybe things will get better around here. Except that dear Axl couldn’t control his emotions yet. That’ll spell more trouble for me.”

“Lumine!” Iris scolded him but Axl gave a small laugh.

“Hey, maybe you’re right. Oh, we’ve reached X’s office!”

The two Hunters and the three navigators found themselves looking at X who was messing his left palm on his forehead with his eyes close. He looked slightly regretted and was in deep thinking. His right hand held the final verdict.

“Hey, X, so what’s the final answer?” Axl broke the silence.

X appeared not to hear him, but looked up at the audience of five.

“Let’s read it in the west wing prisons.”

The six walked slowly toward the west wing, with X as the leader. Zero had no comment but the navigators were wondering what was X planning to do. Axl was anxious to hear the announcement of Bob’s soon-to-be imprisonment.

Many other Hunters, who were curious what was the answer from the government, also followed them. Finally X reached rested the isolated prison of Bob. He still preferred not to release the man, having him locked there, and switched on the speakers in the blue screen-filled room.

“It is my…honour…to announce that the Federation government has decided to release mister Bob of his currently-imposed 50 year sentence effective immediately.”

“WHAT?” Everyone was shocked except for a sad-looking X.

“The government feels that the recent riots quelled was due to the support to the PB Force contributed toward the Maverick Hunters, therefore they have decided that it was best that the Maverick Hunters accept the PB Force as new members and that mister Bob be pardoned of his previous crimes.”

“However the government also feels that the…Supreme Commander Maverick Hunter X can be held with the highest regard of…trust and respect…so… X is at the same time hereby allowed to do what he feels right towards mister Bob.”

“These amendments are effective immediately, without any excuse, until the government decides to alter their verdict towards the Supreme Commander. Signed, the Federation government.”

There was an instant uproar of cheers regarding the allowing of PB Force be absorbed into the Hunters but at the same time, expressed regret that Bob was freed. Axl took the paper away from X and read it himself, finding every word true.

X looked on a slightly cheerful but insane-looking Bob.

“Bob, I request from you the right to have every single member of the PB Force be assimilated into the Hunters, be reprogrammed and re-trained.”

Bob’s smile broke. “No! I will never allow such a thing!”

X looked up, slightly smiling. “And you shall remain imprisoned inside the west wing maximum security isolated prison because of this reason.”

Bob flew into an outrage. “This is preposterous! I demand my release now!”

Zero countered by saying: “Sorry, but the government feels that X has absolute rights over his decisions concerning you and your imprisonment here is final.”

The five retreated back to their proper positions amid a large crowd of noisy cheering and angry screams; five because Axl has already left the place.

Axl had once again retreated back to the highest rooftop where he could express his anger out without being told off by anyone.

“AAAAARRRGGGHHH! Why was that filthy man pardoned? Why?! Why can’t they just sentence him to death and maintain the peace already?!”

Iris was angry too but was helpless to stop Axl from raging. However she noticed that there was no emotional fluctuation this time and that Axl’s screams sounded odd.

It turned out that Lumine too yelled out all his might in anger just now at the same time as Axl yelled out. He was also upset about the final verdict.

He had decided not to stun Axl this time because he was now fully in Axl’s shoes, as he understood the pain and anger Axl felt. Lumine was kneeling downwards, panting heavily and then turned up to Axl and Iris.

“Dear boy, I truly know how you feel. So does Iris. No justice was done here and despite this, we still have to remain patient, as the proof of Bob’s actual motives will be revealed someday. I’m sorry, but we must wait some more until the right time has come.” Iris nodded at Axl.

“Axl, be strong. This advice of father is still clear in my ears. We will deliver our vengeance onto that human someday, in some way.” She rushed forward and gave Axl a big hug. Axl became more calm and relaxed.

Axl was back to becoming patient and calm. He opened his eyes again and witnessed the lighter snow falling on the ground. “Thank you, guys.”

He decided to head back to the resting chamber for some rest with some regrets too. “It’s a pity I left X’s office. Or else I could have read the disappointing news first.”

Lumine approached and calmed him. “No, not really, dear boy. If X wasn’t the first one to read the verdict, how would he continue to lock that trash up in the west wing?”

“Hm, you’re right. It does make a lot of sense, for now.”

“Hey! You mean that I was talking nonsense all this while?!”

The three all had a hearty laugh while Axl walked back to the resting chamber.



Continued in Chapter 13.


Notes:
Finally a logical explanation how Lumine can read minds. Thought that X was the most powerful Reploid around so he had all the power to will anything on Bob.



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And some new villain-related development.

Next time, it's another 3 more chapters.