Chapter Text
X jerked awake. He couldn't move. Something held him down, and he was in the dark, awaiting a painful fate, too damaged to move from the floor—
—And then reality began to seep back in. He was not at the Drifters' commandeered base, or any of the other dreadful places he'd half-remembered. He was home. Yes, he was on the floor, and it was dark, but he was warm, comfortable, and most importantly he was safe. Then why couldn't he move…?
X groggily opened his eyes halfway. The faint glow of LEDs on Glitch's sparse equipment gave just enough light that he could see, once he'd adjusted to maximum contrast. Glitch was wrapped around him, pressed closely to his back and arms encircling him, still defragmenting peacefully. Mack had at some point tucked itself among their legs like a cat, soundly asleep yet facing the door.
They're protecting me, he realized, and the cold terror of the nightmare he had been having evaporated into a warmth he'd never before felt. Both of them. Do I even deserve this?
Almost before he could finish the thought, he could imagine Glitch's response to that. Does anybody truly deserve anything? Seize whatever happiness you can find and enjoy it while you have it, said the Glitch in his head, as clearly as if they were still linked.
This was what a coprocessor was, then. X was beginning to understand. He and Glitch had shared thoughts, memories, and minds, and he felt no fear of being judged to be unworthy or unwanted. If anything, the new paradigm that he was wanted, that he did have value even with a broken body and exhausted spirit, that was what he didn't understand. He didn't doubt it, after seeing it firsthand, but neither could X quite wrap his head around it.
He had lived on a different scale, X thought. He had believed that his value had lain in his ability to change the world. When he could no longer perform to that level, he'd lost his justification to exist—or so he'd believed. When he saw and felt through Glitch's eyes the difference he'd made in the microcosm of the Abel City quarantine zone, in just this one camp, in just this one reploid, he'd felt needed again for the first time since he'd retired.
And then there was Mack. X realized he had mostly and unfairly overlooked it, but without Mack, Glitch likely couldn't have come to his rescue. Whatever its motivation, it had risked its life for him as surely as Glitch had, and without even the same personal investment. Or perhaps it really did count Glitch's investment as its own. Either way, it was curled up behind his knees, and while the feelings X had for it weren't quite the same as those he had for Glitch, the loyalty he felt was the same. Mack was also Glitch's happiness, he knew, and he would do anything for either of them. X would fight for them. If it came to it, he would kill for them, because his love of their happiness was so much greater than his hatred of violence.
If anybody had told me that I would someday, somehow, trip and fall into a relationship that involved not one but two Mavericks, one of them a C-15 Mettaur, I would have asked them if they were overdue for a critical hardware maintenance, X thought, and caught himself smiling a silly little smile. This was just too much. And yet, he couldn't imagine anywhere he'd rather be than here, buried in these unlikely reploids.
What a wretched place to find it, but I am happy, he realized. I've been miserable, and likely I will be again, but in this moment, I'm happier than I can ever recall being. Ah, Zero, you'd really have to decommission me if you could see me now, but I want to believe you'd want me to be happy, too.
Glitch's words from several days ago floated up in his memory. You loved him, right? And he loved you? X had. He still did. It wasn't something that could stop being true, no matter how much time had passed. He still carried that love in his heart in the exact shape of his grief. It was so enormous, even now, that he had never imagined that there could be room for anything else; and yet, when he nestled a little further into the warm arms around him, careful to not jog the warm weight sleeping on his legs, he found room for them all, and room to spare. Quietly, gently, the barriers he'd built to keep himself alive had receded. Only a little, but a little was enough for now.
X simply laid there, marveling. He was a broken war machine, his hands stained with almost ninety years of silvered blood, and yet, this, now, was truly why he had been created, he knew. To know love. Finally, at what he'd believed to be the end, he had learned to begin. Maybe there is no such thing as too late, he thought. Maybe the only important thing is doing it at all, and to keep doing it.
He entwined his fingers with those of one of Glitch's hands, graceful and slender, relaxed in sleep, and so very warm. Reploids certainly had some charmingly specific names for relationships. X didn't quite understand all of the nuances, but he understood that they loved by trusting, and that in this regard, he was indeed no different. He'd read, once, some conjecture that his creator had been disinclined to romance, and that perhaps reploids had inherited that tendency through X himself. It was true that he'd never felt any draw towards typical human expressions of romantic love, and indeed most reploids didn't, but it had always struck him as needlessly cold to leap to the common human conclusion that they didn't feel love at all.
They were a new kind of people. Why should they not have a new kind of love of their own?
Then again, as much as he'd thought the word about Zero, he had never felt he had the right to say it to him, and now he never could. He would carry that regret to the end of his functioning—But I don't have to make the same mistake twice, X thought. I wanted to tell Glitch my name, because I wanted to trust him with that power over me. I wanted to give him the tools to destroy me, believing that he wouldn't.
And then, surprising himself a little with his own candor, X thought, I wanted to tell him that I want to love him. I'm not sure how to love someone, but I want to learn.
In the morning, when we're all awake, I'll tell them both how I feel, X decided, his mind finally made up. I've had enough of living with the regret of things unsaid. I don't know what it'll be like, but I know that it's worth trying, and at the least it'll be fun while it lasts. I want to allow myself to want that for all of us.
X closed his eyes with a sigh, and drifted back into defragmentation sleep. This time, no nightmares woke him.
"We are the last line of defense."
Seren paced as she spoke, twenty-five Quarantine Hunters lined up before her in squads of five and standing at attention. Behind her and at ease were Ricochet, Trebuchet, and a conspicuously empty spot that Faraday would have filled.
"X told me himself that he's gone Maverick." She paused, letting the murmur of shock ripple through her troops. "I didn't want to believe it, either, but he turned three of our own against us. Era, Analog, and Toxotes have deserted. Faraday and Simos are dead. Pixel, Bios, Fortran, and Ten are still recovering."
Seren paused again, looking over the ranks with a fire in her eyes. "I know what you're all thinking. How can we possibly fight against the foremost Maverick Hunter? Is he not our ally? Have we not looked to his example for guidance all these years?"
"My fellow Hunters, the truth is that we must defeat him because nobody else can." She gestured to them all, her arm sweeping across the room. "Anybody can become a Maverick. We know this. We've seen it. We have long believed that out of all of us, X alone was incorruptible. As we've learned, even he can fall, and so with heavy hearts and steady hands, we will do our duty."
The training hall was the largest room of the base. Even with as full a muster as they could turn out, they didn't fill but a corner of it. Regardless, Seren strode back and forth under the lights, addressing them as if they were a full contingent. "He is not to be underestimated. You may have heard that he's obsolete and malfunctioning. These things are true. This does not make him a less deadly foe. He's resourceful, he's cunning, he's convincing, he has more experience than all of us combined, and he has allies. Any of these alone would be dangerous. Together, he is a formidable foe. But he is not invincible."
"Do not let your guard down, not even for a moment. Remember that he didn't need to speak to Analog or Toxotes for them to turn traitor. Remember that even in his disabled state, he nearly destroyed Faraday single-handedly. Remember that if he leaves the quarantine zone alive, the world will not know or believe that he is a Maverick, and the damage he could do before they understand the danger he poses is beyond any reckoning. We are the Maverick Hunters, and we cannot allow this to happen."
Seren turned, facing her troops with conviction and pride. They stood firm. "The world may very well hate us for what we are called to do. We will be called Mavericks again ourselves." She let her voice rise in both intensity and volume, her hand clenching into a fist at her chest. "My fellow Hunters, this is a risk we will gladly take, if we can protect humanity from what may well be the greatest Maverick threat that it has faced to date. We are the sword and shield. We shall not falter; we shall not fall; and we will never fail!"
The gathered reploids saluted as one, and their unanimous "Sir!" rang from every surface.
"Prepare your weaponry and yourselves. Recharge as much as you can. We assemble at oh three hundred hours. We will catch them off-guard, we will crush them, and we will show them that there is no place in the world for Mavericks, no matter who they are or were. Dismissed."
The block of assembled Hunters filed out. "Good talk, Captain," said Trebuchet, with a salute. "I've got the route planned out. We should expect contact with the enemy around oh five hundred at the latest."
"Good. Ric, Treb, I want you two on supply duty for this one. Load up a few crates with ammunition. See if you can get them onto a couple of the Ride Chasers and get those through. Nothing larger will make it, but those should still be viable enough. Once you're nearby, hold position until my signal."
"Sir," Ricochet confirmed. "What about aerial cover, sir?"
"We'll keep a low profile near base, but don't worry too much about the Ride Chasers being seen once you're away." She set off at a swift stride. "If you're spotted near their encampment and they end up with the main branch Hunters on them, well, that's hardly our problem."
"Captain," he said, with a snap salute and a suppressed smirk. "Is that an order to make a disturbance?"
Seren clasped her hands behind her back in thought as she walked. "Hmm. Not yet. I'll let you know if that changes. Do we still have those signal flares?"
"Yes, sir."
"Pack a few. Just in case."
Glitch booted from defragmenting so quickly that for a few cycles he couldn't decide if he was actually awake or dreaming. No, he was definitely awake, and there was still a sensor reporting unusual noise levels: footsteps. Multiple of them.
He bolted upright, displacing both of his defrag pile partners and prompting a sleepy groan from V and an annoyed beeping from Mack. Still half-asleep, he sent a broadcast.
'>I.02401-SYS: Sleep mode terminated. >I.40904-INT: High attention priority. I.40904-INT: High attention priority. I.04053-REC: Home region registered. E.00186-CMB: Engage. W.18901-POS: Decrease distance. I.00186-CMB: Engage. I.52634-POS: Assigned location. I.00023-LOG: Boolean: NOT. I.10299-CMB: Training exercise.' he sent, then shook V gently. "Wake up, both of you. We got trouble."
V was not nearly so quick to load up, and Glitch felt bad for having to disturb him. The guy had had more than enough in the past few days, hadn't he? Mack grumbled itself alert as several reply pings from all over the camp met his broadcast.
V blinked at him for a second before he seemed to quite grasp what was going on. By then, Glitch had already unplugged himself from the recharge cable and gotten to his feet, clipping on a makeshift holster. He extended a hand. "They're here? Now?" V asked, and Glitch pulled him to his feet.
"Bet you anything." He paused in his speaking to relay the situation via broadcast, but continued moving, tossing V a handheld buster of his own. V checked it before holstering it through his belt. 'Sensor 22, to the southeast, reporting footsteps. No estimate on numbers. Sensor 21 as well, now. It's too dark for a visual. Sensor 20 has an IR camera. Once they come into range I'll have a better idea how many.'
Glitch walked out into the town square, followed by Mack and V. "Places, everyone, it's showtime," he announced, even though everyone was already scrambling. The three ex-Drifters looked to him, then Kathy, who was passing out busters to each resident.
"I won't ask you to shoot at your former allies unless you're willing," she said, "but if you are, we're spread too thin on the east side."
"You got it, miss," Era said, heading that way and drawing her own buster.
"I'll head up top," Toxotes agreed with a nod, bow in hand.
"If you can take a disabling shot instead of a killing shot, take it," Kathy requested. "We don't want a war. We want to defend ourselves."
Toxotes simply gave her a nod and turned, cloak flapping. They're gonna kill everyone they can point that thing at, Glitch thought. …I'm not gonna stop them, either.
Analog looked to Kathy. "I'm, uh, not a great shot," he said. "Are you sure you want me…?"
"In combat? Nah, not unless it gets that bad. You're quick, small, and good with logistics. Go with Mack. It's gonna need help with supply lines," Glitch answered, and Kathy nodded agreement.
Analog saluted before realizing that he didn't have to. "I'm on it." He scurried off, his rifle slung across his back.
V had taken his position, and Glitch fell into his nearby. 'Remember, clear comms,' V broadcast. For a model without true wireless capability, he had a very impressive diagnostic broadcast range, rivaling even Glitch, and therefore was in charge of relaying messages. The only problem was that he wasn't the fastest at it, but Glitch had his hands full as the only one with access to the sensor network, so they'd voted him next best messenger.
Glitch heard a remote burst of rapid, encoded diagnostic code. Era translated it aloud. "Seren speaking. Spread out. South and east sides, first three squads. Two squads in reserve, hold position. That's going to be twenty five, give or take, plus Seren, Ric, and Treb."
"So like, almost two to one? Not a very fair fight, is it?" Val grumbled nervously.
"I've had worse," V said, cool as anything. "We can do this." Glitch once again wondered exactly how much combat it took to look at odds that bad and barely even react. Too much, definitely. If it had been up to him, he'd have advised everyone to just shoot every last Drifter they saw into a sooty crater and save them the trouble of dealing with them ever again, but it wasn't up to him, and that was probably for the better.
A megaphone crackled. "Mavericks of the Abel City quarantine zone. Listen up," Seren's voice echoed, though neither she nor any of her troops were visible to normal sight yet. Floodlights flicked on, aimed at the encampment. "It's not too late for you. Give X and our defectors to us, and surrender."
Glitch physically bit his tongue to stifle his very pointed opinion about that as a course of action. Over my dead body, he internally growled.
"You stand down," Kathy shouted back from behind cover. "All we want is to be left alone, and we aren't turning any of our residents over to you. Go home. This doesn't have to happen."
Glitch glanced to V. His eyes were closed, his fingers loosely clasped around his buster, and while he held a ready crouch, he was unnaturally relaxed. For all that Glitch could tell from the outside, he may as well have been defragmenting. We need to end this quickly, he thought. I've seen what this costs him. He's not calm at all…this kills him inside. He's just so used to having to do it that it's all reflex.
"I'll say this one more time," Seren's voice echoed. "Surrender, or we will be forced to open fire."
Kathy called back. "And I'll say this once more. No." She glanced to Glitch and nodded, once and pointedly. "I know you've got something to add, here."
Glitch's grim expression cracked into a wide, sudden, almost manic grin. "Oh, I sure do." He cupped his free hand around his mouth, raising his voice. "If you want V so bad, you're gonna have to go through all of us first, but the only thing you're gonna be taking home from here is your own gluteal plates in a fucking box."
"If that's your answer," Seren said, and the megaphone clicked off.
A hush fell over the rubble, like a held breath. Kathy had instructed the encampment to hold fire until fired upon, and they did, even though Glitch could feel the tension in the air like a static charge. V had trained them as much as possible in the few days they'd had. Would it be enough?
A buster shot, violet-hot, cracked across the empty space, striking near one of the firing slits in the barriers that Hammer and Mack had built. It held, but concrete chips flew as it cracked from the sudden intense heat. Time to find out what we're made of, Glitch thought. No jumping out of buildings about this one.
V ducked out and returned fire with a fluid ease, a single shot aimed with such precision that it almost seemed to find its own way to the origin of the opening shot. It scorched a chunk of fallen wall. He hadn't been aiming at the shooter, Glitch realized, which was probably Seren. He was marking her position, since the lights trained on them were causing glare.
Shots rained from the surrounding rubble, impacting the walls, and their own side returned fire. They had the advantage of height and prepared cover, but Seren's side had more training and more ammunition. In a long enough firefight, there was no way they could hold out. They'd need to leverage everything they could bring to bear.
Glitch had visual on several of the Drifters from behind, and they didn't yet know it. He watched, waiting for one of them to move to set up a shot, and fired before they did. The burst of plasma seared across a very startled reploid's fingers. He hissed a pained curse and dropped his weapon.
"Whatever you do, don't let them gain ground," Kathy called over the din.
Era translated another burst of code. "They're moving on the north and west."
'Focus reporting. Enemy engaged on the north side,' came a report, through V, confirming Era's translation almost as soon as it left her lips. 'Estimating five of them.'
'Kathy speaking. Hold positions,' Kathy answered. 'Keep us updated.' They all knew quite well that they were communicating in plain broadcast and Seren's side could hear them, but it was what they had to work with.
'Cirocco reporting. Five to the west, up in the old bank building. Want us to go clean them out?'
'This is V. Hold positions,' V answered, seemingly to himself, since he was the relay. 'Don't let them draw you out from cover.'
V calmly continued to mark the locations of every single shooter on the southeast corner, occasionally picking off one that didn't cover well enough, while Glitch used his unfair visual advantage to pop another attacker in the hands. Two down on their side at least, he hoped, though in the chaos it was difficult to tell. 'V speaking. Aim for the lights,' he advised. A shot from somewhere along the wall took out one of the floodlights, and Glitch heard Valentina giggle.
Why is she so scary sometimes? he wondered.
'Cirocco here. Engaging to the west,' V relayed, then frowned with concern. Glitch spared a digital glance. The sensor in the building next to their home didn't have visual on anything, but it picked up noises just fine. He heard a growl, several buster shots, and then screams, followed by a screech and more plasma.
So much for her and Trigger following orders, Glitch thought. Hopefully they would be good enough at not following them to make up for it. Speaking of potential loose cannons… He turned his attention for a moment to the garage roof, where he was relieved to find he had a good viewing angle for once. Toxotes, barely visible in their shapeless, dusty cloak, silently nocked an arrow and let fly. It embedded itself into the forearm of a red-painted reploid, where it arced brightly enough to white out the sensor's camera for a few frames. Okay, at least one of you up there has any common sense. Godspeed, you bloodthirsty weirdos.
'This is Hammer. Flip down on the northeast,' V relayed, grimly. 'This is V. Moving to fill his position.' He picked up his cane and hustled with a speed that Glitch hadn't seen from him before.
'Glitch here. How bad?' Glitch asked, taking a potshot at where he was reasonably certain Seren was hiding.
'Flip speaking. I'm not dead,' came the reply.
'Good. Fall back and stay that way.'
'But I can still—'
Kathy cut in. 'Kathy speaking. You heard him. Keep comms clear.'
Glitch took another shot at Seren's general location, though he was keenly aware he was wasting ammo. Mack scooted up beside him and pulled another buster pack from under its hat, holding it out on a spindly grabber arm.
"Hey, buddy. How we doing on these?" Glitch asked.
"You don't want the answer to that question," Mack reassured him flatly.
"Great. We've barely begun and all we're doing is keeping them pinned down until they've run us dry." He waited, lined up a shot, and pulled the trigger. Someone yelped. "You know what I don't see? Where they're gonna get their reloads from. They've got to have more than what they're carrying, because none of the ones I've had a look at are carrying more than a spare or two." He fired one final round at another of the floodlights, discharged the empty pack, and slotted the new one in. It didn't even register as full.
"Well, do your best with what you've got," Mack said, then skittered away to deliver another pack down the line.
'Era speaking,' came another relay through V. 'I need to speak to Kathy.'
'Analog here. I'll cover.' Era holstered her buster and Analog fell out of the supply line, rifle at the ready. Era jogged to Kathy's position, staying well out of the line of fire from her slit in the defenses.
"They've got two Ride Chasers," Era reported. "I just heard them talk about bringing them into position.
"Two what?" Kathy asked.
"Um. Hover bikes. Military issue models. Chevals, I'm pretty sure. I think they're using them for supply transport."
Glitch's auditory sensors perked up. "Well, now, that's interesting," he said, without looking away from the firefight in front of him or the six or so sensors he was actively watching.
"Any idea where they are?" Kathy asked, leaning away from the slit in the wall as the edge of a hot bolt of plasma splashed through.
"Behind the front lines for sure, likely planning to park near Seren, but they're gonna keep them out of sight of you," Era said. "They can't have that many guarding them. There's not that many more Hun—Drifters, if we counted right."
"Out of sight is such a relative thing, when you've got eyes in the back of everyone else's heads," Glitch said. "Give me a detachment and some covering fire. I bet we could cut that line off."
'Kathy to V. Strategy question. Era will cover you.' Within moments, V arrived, Era had taken his place, and Glitch felt some gleeful mischief coming on.
"They've got two bikes on the way, probably loaded with ammo, probably not heavily defended. Do you think we can spare anybody to deal with them?" Kathy asked.
V thought for a second. "We may need to. We're already low, and if they can reload and we can't, this battle is over." He paused again, mentally debating something with himself. "If it's a standard issue Ride Chaser, I know how to drive them. Glitch can navigate us where we need to go with the least chance of encountering resistance. Have we heard anything from the top floor?" He frowned and transmitted. 'This is V. Cirocco, Trigger, Toxotes, report.'
'Toxotes. Secured. We might have made a mess up here. Sorry, boss lady.'
"Stuck together like a bunch of battle-crazy magnets," Kathy muttered. 'Kathy here. Doesn't matter. Keep up the good work.'
'This is V. Meet you up there.' Then, out loud for Kathy's benefit, "I'm going to borrow Glitch, Toxotes, and Trigger. Don't let on that the top isn't heavily defended. They can keep thinking it's a nanofluid bath up there."
Glitch and V hurried up and through the barricade of cars, V following the wall with one hand and his cane clutched in the other. Even disabled, he moved with a certainty that Glitch had never seen from him before. Of course he does. He's protecting us now, like he said he wanted to, Glitch realized. I just want him to not have to do it.
The roof of the garage was not a pleasant sight. Two Drifters in various states of sudden unplanned disassembly were spread across the concrete in a massive splatter of silver and blue. Another lay crumpled against the barrier around the edge of the garage, still moving but mostly just to clutch at an arm pierced with an arrow that seemed to have deactivated half of her body. The fourth and fifth had been scorched beyond repair and occasionally emitted smoke and sparks.
V steadfastly ignored the bodies, so Glitch did too. "Here's the situation. There are two incoming Ride Chasers already nearby, carrying ammunition for Seren's men. We can't let them through. The three of us are going to intercept and try to take at least one of them for ourselves. Trigger, I want you in the air supporting and keeping an eye out for further reinforcement."
"I can do this," Trigger agreed. "But if I am seen by Maverick Hunters?"
"We'll worry about that if it happens. There shouldn't be any active aerial patrols right now. Cirocco, you're going to be covering topside alone for a bit, but don't broadcast anything that might tell them that. Don't worry, I'll give your firewall back in one piece soon."
"You'd better," she huffed, still on all fours in quadrupedal mode.
"Let's go. We won't have much time to react once they make contact with the sensor network, so we're going to take an educated guess and get behind Seren's location." Trigger took to the air, drawing fire from the Drifters but keeping well ahead of it. He looped around, breaking line of sight with the attacking forces before heading towards the approaching bikes. Glitch felt a sense of dread rise within him at the plasma fizzling brightly into the pre-dawn sky…but if these fake Hunters won, they wouldn't even have the chance to worry about the real ones.
A faint gray-gold touch of sun lightened the horizon as Glitch, V, and Toxotes moved out under cloak and tarp, sneaking westward. Glitch silently directed them away from any sensors reporting action. V kept up, Glitch supporting him with one arm over the ruined terrain as needed, though he still wasn't as fast as the other two. High above, Trigger hung like a dark shadow, keeping an eye out.
The two Ride Chasers made sensor contact at the same time, not far from each other. "There," he pointed.
"Go. Don't wait up for me. I'll catch up," V ordered.
"Stay safe. I'm trusting you," Glitch said, with a single glance back before he took off to intercept the Ride Chaser, Toxotes not far behind. Neither of the bikes could get up to speed in the rubble. Between that and Era's guess that they were relatively undefended, since the Drifters didn't know Glitch could see them, they had a fighting chance if they hurried.
Glitch spotted his quarry at the farthest end of the block as he rounded the corner. He resisted the urge to shoot from the hip as V had scolded him about and instead took a moment, lining up his shot. The bike's driver, Ricochet he was pretty sure, flinched from the controls, and the bike drifted to a halt sidelong against some broken concrete, the crate falling from the back on impact and landing on its side. The second bike slid to a stop next to it, and Trebuchet crouched behind it next to Ricochet, firing a few shots to keep Glitch and Toxotes back.
Glitch heard a burst of code from one of the two—and nobody replied. Good, they're still out of range, he thought, closing on the two bikes. A heavy rifle shot scorched past his leg, close enough to sting, and he spun to take cover behind a truck. And they're already entrenched. Great.
Toxotes had disappeared somewhere, and Glitch's only indication that they were still present was an arrow arcing from a second story window, striking the ground just behind the two reploids covering behind the bikes.
V arrived, cane in one hand and buster in the other. "Lay down your arms, and you have my personal promise that you won't be harmed," he called. What an idealist, Glitch thought. Even after everything else, he would rather talk it out. Dunno if it's smart, but it's admirable.
"Rust and die, Maverick," Ricochet returned, raising his rifle and sighting. One of Toxotes's arrows buried itself in the rifle's ammunition pack, and Ricochet hastily threw it aside as it arced and exploded. Trebuchet fired several rounds at V that only didn't hit because V was still distant, and Glitch returned fire, rushing out from behind cover.
"Hey! Pick on someone who can walk," he yelled, squeezing off one more blast of plasma, and suddenly Glitch found himself flat on his back in the rubble watching alerts scrolling past. He pulled himself to a sit, systems shouting with pain that he ignored.
V raised his buster, taking a single shot that knocked the weapon from Trebuchet's hands. "Give up," he said again. "You're unarmed and outnumbered."
"Never," Ricochet said, pulling out a bright orange, large-bore handgun from the crate and aiming it straight into the sky. V fired once more, but not quickly enough to stop the shot from going off. The bolt of plasma hit Ricochet squarely in the side of the head, and he fell, stunned.
The shot launched into the sky, burning with blue flames so bright they made Glitch squint. A wildly fired arrow flew past it in a final attempt to stop it, but even Toxotes wasn't that quick, and the signal flare continued unabated, trailing a spiral of brilliantly illuminated smoke.
"Shit," Glitch hissed in frustration, still on the ground. He pounded a fist against the cracked asphalt next to him. "You wanna get all of us carpet bombed together? Is that it?"
V just watched it rise, apparently transfixed, buster still extended. At its peak, it hung in midair, drifting slowly and sparkling like a new star. Glitch pulled himself to his feet, while Toxotes held both of the Drifters at arrow point, though only Trebuchet seemed likely to cause trouble. Trigger landed, folded in his wings, and stared up, unblinkingly.
"We have problem," Trigger said. "I have encrypted radio connection to Cirocco. I am keeping her updated, but this is bad."
Glitch hauled himself to his feet, turning off several entire regions of damage sensors to do so. "Come on, V," he said, putting a hand on V's shoulder. "We gotta move." V jumped in surprise, as if he'd entirely forgotten where he was and what was happening, and dropped his weapon to his side.
"You're hurt," he said, as if really registering it for the first time.
"Nothing a little polish won't fix." That was a lie, and they both knew it. "We're gonna have even bigger problems soon, but you said you can drive a Ride Chaser?"
"Right. Yes, I can." With a shake of his head, as if clearing it, V gathered his wits again, suddenly cold and focused. "Toxotes, Trigger, see if we can secure both crates onto one bike." He sat at the controls of the one that Trebuchet had been driving, pulling it around and away from Ricochet's Ride Chaser so it would have a clear path forward.
"What do we do with him?" Toxotes motioned to Trebuchet.
"Disable him. But keep it repairable," V ordered, and the bowstring twanged. Trebuchet choked out a noise, but remained stoic, an arrow embedded through his knee joint.
The two loaded the crates, and V adjusted something on the bike's dashboard. "Mount up, Glitch, you don't need to be walking. If you can shoot, though, we'll need to clear a way through."
"Can do." Glitch swung a leg over the bike, behind V, and wrapped an arm around him, buster in his free hand.
"Trigger, you've got the mobility so you go ahead. Let them know I'm going to come up on the northeast. Help clear that side. Toxotes, stick close and drop anybody that tries to stop us."
"You got it." Toxotes gave a casual half salute.
Even with his damage sensors off, Glitch could tell he'd taken a hell of a hit. Whatever, he thought. I can repair it. I'm fine, as long as it isn't V. They can twist my arms and legs off, as long as they don't touch him. He pressed his cheek to V's messy hair, just for a moment, before sitting up a little straighter.
"I'll get us there safely," V promised.
"I know you will, buddy."
They took off. V turned the bike's hover height up as high as it would go, with no regard for the fuel, since it didn't have far to go anyway. Just one city block, diagonally. V was a seasoned driver, and it showed. Glitch wouldn't have imagined even a Ride Chaser could move so smoothly over the broken, debris-strewn streets, but Toxotes had to hustle to keep up.
"I hear a few on the road ahead, around the corner," Glitch announced, though it was still too dark to see them. His sensor network told him what he needed to know.
V thumbed a control on the handlebar, and the bike itself fired several bolts of glowing plasma ahead of them, lighting the way. Toxotes took a half-unseen shot at one of the Drifters, and they fell with a flash of electricity. Glitch fired at the other with no particular precision, but it was enough to send them scattering, with an encoded message that Glitch could hear echo through the other units around them.
"We're spotted. Seren's ordered all units to intercept," Toxotes translated. "Get outta here. I'll be fine."
"Damn. Be careful, Toxotes. And Glitch, hold on tight." Glitch had just enough time to flip the safety on and throw both arms around V before he suddenly gunned it, the bike's matter repulsors and fans whining with the increase in load. The Ride Chaser responded sluggishly under the weight of two passengers and two loaded ammo boxes, but the extra mass gave it inertia, and as it picked up speed it knocked smaller pieces of rubble out of its way like they weighed nothing.
V angled the bike down the street and towards the collapsed wall of the building that had once flanked the parking garage on the east side, still gaining speed. Shots flew past them, and Glitch clung to V more tightly; not because he was afraid of being hit, but because he was afraid of V being hit, and if he could shield him, he was glad to do it. V returned fire from the bike's front-mounted buster cannon, though its ability to aim was limited.
It was at least enough to keep the way clear, and V opened the throttle entirely. Glitch suddenly saw what he was aiming for: a single, long metal column, still reasonably intact, and angled up towards the roof of the garage.
"Oh, this is an absolutely insane plan. I love it," Glitch said with a cheeky grin, chin on V's shoulder. "And you. You know that, right?"
V had been frowning in concentration, but he blinked at that. "I was going to say something this morning, but then this happened instead," he said, as the Ride Chaser kicked debris out of its way, unstoppable as a freight train and roaring almost as loudly as one. "I want to tell you that I love you."
He pulled up on the handlebars, and the bike obeyed, the front end swinging up and climbing the beam smoothly. "And I want us all to live." The Ride Chaser followed the beam skyward, as cleanly as if it were on a track. V really was something, Glitch thought. "Because I want to hear you say that again when we aren't under attack."
"As many times as you want," Glitch said, with a stupid grin, and the bike left the beam, soaring in an arc by sheer speed and inertia. Exclamations in both encoded and open diagnostic broadcast, as well as plain speech, followed them through the air.
The bike cleared the top rail of the garage, barely, the edge clipping and throwing concrete and sparks in a spray of gravel. It landed heavily, and V leaned against the power slide it was still doing, gripping the brakes so hard Glitch knew his finger pulleys had to be near snapping. The edge of the Ride Chaser's hover mechanism shroud screeched against the concrete, and still it continued to coast. Glitch could only hold on for his life and laugh delightedly.
Finally, the bike hit one of the abandoned cars that still sat on the top floor, coming to a jolting halt. V slumped against the controls, exhausted, and Glitch just continued to hang onto him. One of the crates detached and tumbled down. Finally, V transmitted something. 'This is V. Mission successful.'
Glitch finally let him go and stood, wobbling. "God damn, I thought we were gonna die in the coolest possible way," he laughed, throwing both fists into the air and shouting. "Whoo!—hrkk!"
A flash of violet impacting Glitch's back and sending him sprawling was all the warning that X had. Seren landed heavily, so hard that the concrete cracked into gravel under her feet. "You," she raged, straightening from her several story leap from the building next to the garage. "I have had enough of you. You took my dreams from me twice, you took my men from me, you took Ricochet and Trebuchet from me—"
X cut in, reaching for his cane where he'd stashed it through his belt and finding that it had slipped out. He glanced down, looking for it, and spotted it far across the garage's deck. "I didn't. They're alive," he said, eyes back up on Seren. "I left them alive. I don't want to kill anybody if I don't have to."
"There are things worse than death, X! What am I supposed to do? I have less than nothing here! You won't even let me have revenge!" Her violet gaze fell on Glitch, who was groaning dazedly and trying to push himself to his hands and knees, but failing. "Or can I? I can take something from you for a change, and this time, it's going to stick," she realized, a terrifying grin spreading across her face.
"You will not touch him," X snarled.
"Or what? You'll pacifist me to death? Oh, no," she crooned, mockingly. "Are you gonna stumble at me? Talk nicely to me? Maybe wave your cane a bit? I'm so afraid."
X reached for the buster holstered in his belt…and found nothing there, either. It had fallen out upon landing too, and tumbled well away from him. Glaring darkly, he began walking towards Seren, one cautious step at a time, balance systems spinning uselessly.
"What's the matter? Dropped your weapon? What are you going to do now, old man? I saw the flare. The Maverick Hunters are coming. The real ones. They're going to kill you, and me, and all of them," she pointed to the reploids beginning to amass around them on the roof and the surrounding ruins, her men and Kathy's alike, weapons trained on each other but nobody willing to fire for fear of hitting their own in the middle.
"But they won't kill him," she said, pointing to Glitch. He had at least managed to roll onto his side and one elbow, and he locked gazes with X, wide-eyed and helpless. "Because I'm going to kill him, and you're going to watch."
Something like a dam inside X snapped, and a flood of energy he had felt only once before resounded throughout his systems. Seren's hand straightened, began to retract—and X lunged for her, a feral, strange light glowing in his eyes. He moved in a blur, and Seren didn't even have time to recoil away from him.
X bit down on her fingers, hard. She shrieked and pushed at his face with her right hand, but it didn't have the hardware to turn into a weapon, and they both knew it. Only her left had that capability, and only if she could retract her hand out of the way. Servos ground with the effort, gears kicking and slipping loudly, and X refused to let go.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? Let go of me, you Maverick! You animal! You…you monster!"
X clamped down harder, still snarling. If she couldn't fold her hand out of the way, she couldn't fire, and if she couldn't fire, she couldn't hurt Glitch. He would never let her hurt Glitch. X meant to steal happiness from the world with both hands, and Seren had been fool enough to come between it and him. His teeth ground through synthetic skin, severed cables, cut through repair nanofluid veins, and she continued to screech.
"Stop! Stop! Let go of me!" Seren pushed at him harder, but he grabbed onto her arm and growled with an inhuman voice, refusing to be moved. Silvery nanofluid flowed into his mouth, and Seren stared into his eyes with horror at what she saw there.
X twisted his head, and Seren's synthetic skin peeled away in shreds, leaving two degloved metal fingertips and several snapped pulley cables. She staggered backwards in tears, clutching her mutilated hand with her good hand. She couldn't even straighten her fingers to retract them. X turned his head and spat a mouthful of mercury-silver blood, synthetic skin, and three metal fingers onto the concrete.
"Give up," he said, finally, glaring at her with the same light still in his eyes. Seren sobbed faintly, shrinking away from him as if she'd never seen anything so fearsome in her life. "Get out. Take anyone who still wants to go with you after seeing what you really are. Never come back."
Seren slunk backwards for a few more steps, then turned and ran, leaping from the edge of the garage. X raised his voice and addressed the remaining Drifters; some were on the garage roof, some were in the building nearby, and none seemed to know what they were doing. "If you want to follow her, do it now. If you don't, lay down your weapons. You have my word that you will be treated fairly and well. Decide quickly, because the Maverick Hunters will be coming."
A few of the red-painted reploids scattered. Nobody stopped them. After another moment, one tossed his weapon down in front of him, kneeling. Another followed suit, then another, until a full fifteen of them were on the garage roof, on their knees in surrender.
X crossed to Glitch, slowly because his balance systems were as bad as ever. He knelt, carefully and gently cradling him in both arms. "Holy shit," he said, staring starry-eyed up at X. "You actually did it. Oh. My God. V. I am beginning to understand some very un-reploid concepts right about now. Valentina would be so proud of me. You have no idea."
"You are so weird," X murmured fondly, smiling with nanofluid still dripping down his chin. Somehow, this did not seem to at all deter Glitch's beaming back at him with entirely undisguised infatuation.
"What do we do about the Hunters?" Kathy asked, approaching X a little warily. He had a feeling he still had that feral expression, but damn if he didn't really care right now. "They're coming, right?"
"That was a standard issue Hunter signal flare earlier. They usually respond in about fifteen minutes. Take everyone into the tunnels, as fast as you can get them there, and stay there until Glitch sees that it's clear. I'm going back to where it was fired from."
"To do what?" Mack asked.
"To talk to them."
"Oh, bullshit, V, they'll want you to come back with them," Glitch protested weakly, wiping some of Seren's nanofluid from X's lips with his thumb. "Or what if those two we left there are still pissed? Or Seren could be there, even."
"She won't bother us again. I found my way here once. I can do it again. Whatever happens, wait for me. I'm coming back. I promise," X swore.
"You'd better, or we'll break out there and find you ourselves," Glitch said, and Hammer scooped him up from X's arms as if he weighed nothing.
"Come on, Speedy, we gotta go," Hammer said. "Let him do his thing. V knows how to handle himself." And then, to X, "You be careful out there. And don't make him wait too long, he's gonna be insufferable until you're back."
Kathy handed X his cane. "Come back soon, and come back safe," she said. "Or we'll have to nail Glitch and Mack both to the floor."
X accepted it with a nod, letting it settle into the curve of his palm and standing with its help. "I will. Where's Charles's phone?"
"It's in my desk lap drawer. Take it, if you need it. It's caused enough trouble already. Maybe it'll get you out of some for a change."
Mack scooted up to X, who knelt again with some difficulty to talk to it a little more eye to eye. "That was the most unhinged thing I have ever seen," it said. And then, "Good work."
"Look after Glitch for both of us," X replied. "I know you will. I just have to say it anyway."
"You look after yourself too. We'll be waiting for you to come back to us."
The wounded were carried by the abled, the newly ex-Drifters were led by the less newly ex-Drifters, and X wiped his mouth off. He didn't need to answer any unnecessary questions about that. He stood, stiffly, detoured through the encampment's central building just long enough to take Alderman's phone from Kathy's desk, and headed for where the second Ride Chaser had been.
When he got there, it was gone, along with Ricochet and Trebuchet. The only sign of its passage was a trail of silver drips leading to where it had been, and a discarded flare gun, imprinted with the Maverick Hunters logo. Good, X thought, without any particular malice. He didn't want to hurt them, but neither did he want to see them again.
X sat down on a snapped light post, and he waited, watching the early dawn sky. A cold, late-autumn rain began to fall, and even with the metallic tang of nanofluid still lingering between his teeth—or maybe because of it?—he felt strangely at peace.