Axel's Stand

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Glideman aimed his chaingun at the young warrior and opened fire. As it attacked, the bullets hit nothing but air as Axel's form blurred and vanished. Glideman hovered momentarily before attempting to look for the Reploid. Suddenly, the machine got a powerful kick from behind and went sailing clear across the room. The youth vanished again and reappeared in front of it, kicking it straight up into the air. Vanishing again, he kicked the Maverick to the ground and vanished yet again.

Now the Maverick got a powerful blow from above it the moment before impact with the ground and smashed into the cement floor, causing the immediate area to fill with dust and debris. Axel reappeared twenty paces away and smiled as he flicked his nose, saying, “Not as tough as you thought, now are ya?” The Maverick stood up, completely unscathed. A look of shock crossed his face as Glideman flew in his direction. “Oh slag...” he muttered as he decided to make a tactical retreat. The Maverick opened fire on him again.

The youth used his heightened reflexes to easily dodge the bullets, yelling, “Nice shooting... That's if you're trying to shoot my shadow!” He let out a loud laugh at his own comment before he realized why flying at high speeds was best done with open eyes as he crashed headfirst into the wall. He slumped to the ground and muttered, “Ouch... My head...” The Maverick laughed. “Idiot!” Hearing those words, Axel got to his feet with a murderous expression on his face. “No one, and I mean NO one calls me an idiot!” He lunged forward and his jets kicked in, sending him at his foe at breakneck speed.

Glideman took to the sky, this time expecting his dramatic high speed assault. “I'm not wasting rounds this time kid. I know your trick!” He then looked around, saying, “Where are you going to show up this time?” In answer to his question, Axel crashed into him from direction he was initially coming from. As the Maverick went flying back, the youth opened fire with his two pistols, hitting the machine with a devastating barrage of energy bolts. The machine hit the ground and Axle smiled. “Oh, Yeah. Who's your programmer!” At that moment, he discovered that he celebrated far too early as the machine got to it's feet without so much as a scratch.

“What the Hell?” Axel yelled. “Just who are you? The Slagging Terminator?!?” Glideman raised his weapon to attack when the youth took to the air. Dodging the gunfire, he fired blindly in hopes of suppressing. As he did, he began to wonder what his next plan should be, since his copy-shot pistols not only lacked the power, but this foe did not have a unique ability that could be used against it. He muttered, “Dim Ram! I was hoping to avoid this.” He came to a sharp stop and a soft blue light permeated from his body.

 Glideman, having never seen this trait in a Reploid before, stopped his assault in stunned wonder. He crossed his arms as the fins started to change position from straight back to along the width of his body. The pistols changed into large, threatening rifles as he yelled, “OVERDRIVE PHASE ONE: RICOCHET RIFLE!” He snapped the rifles to his sides and started shooting while spinning in all directions. The rounds bounced off the walls of every corner of the room and tore into the Maverick from every angle.

 Seeing how little damage the attack was doing to the enemy, he yelled, “Still standing? Well, How about this?” He stopped shooting momentarily and the blue aura turned red. The fins connected to each other and and changed positions to assume a skeletal wine type pattern and the vanished. His arms then turned into massive cannons and he aimed them at Glideman, yelling, “OVERDRIVE PHASE TWO: CHAOS BUSTERS!” The maverick looked startled by the transformation as it began to recover from the assault.

Axel aimed the Buster weapons at his target and fired repeatedly, engulfing the entire area with massive, fiery explosions. After one devastating minute of bombardment, he stopped and dropped to his knees, gasping from exhaustion. Between breaths, he gasped, “No... way... it survived... that...” He looked up to examine his prize. What he saw filled him with fear. The pieces that broke off the Maverick onto is skeletal remains and started repairing itself. The young warrior yelled, “That ability... That's Bass' regeneration function!”

Glideman slowly got back up and glared at the teen. “You cant break what can't be destroyed, Hunter. We machines are destined to rule over the flesh beings. Why must you defend them? Humans are flawed, fragile... pathetic. You and I, we're machines. The true sense of perfection. We do not give into emotion, fall sick of feel pain. We are the ultimate race, and as such should rule this planet. Join us and take your rightful place as one of the true masters of this world. The perfect race, under our leader Bass.”

Axel looked at him and said, “Bass teach you that line?” Glideman chuckled. “He is very wise and his words ring true.” The teen broke into laughter and said, “Sorry, but the last person who spoke like that died in a bunker when his empire crumbled around him. Forgive me if I'd prefer to be on the side doing the bombing.” Glideman picked up his weapon and said, “Axel, do not be fooled by the lying words of a race that at one point nearly erased themselves the face of the world. Their lust for power, their desire to be superior to the next. History will repeat itself and they will perish. Master Bass sees this and in his wisdom rallied us Mavericks and many Reploids to take rule over the barbaric creatures of flesh. Once we succeed in our task, the humans will never need to worry about demise at their own hands.”

Axel sighed. “By turning them into hybrid monsters?” Thanks, but I think I'll stick to kicking your collective outputs.” Glideman sighed. “Well, let no one say I didn't try to reason with you. You don't have enough power in your core to defend yourself. You are a noble warrior, and you are true to your ideals, despite their being flawed. The least I can do is make your demise an honorable one served swift and painless.” He pulled a Beam-Saber out of the chaingun and started walking towards the worn out Reploid. Axel let out a chuckle and said, “Don't get ahead of yourself, Chrome Dome. If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me.” Upon those words, the aura reappeared around him.

Axel's body started lifting off the ground as he said, “A Reploid with a true heart has three Overdrive stages that they can master, using random color colored energy trapped in the spectrum. We call Prism state. Me on the other hand, I was once that way. Then I found a new ability.” Glideman stood there in shock as the aura's changed colors and blended together. “I taught Rock and pops how to use the black light of Limit Break, should they learn to use Prism State at all, but I kept one as my dirty little secret. I knew one day I would fall in battle, And I planned to use it then so I can protect the people I care about.”

He chuckled and added as the aura turned radiant white, “Did I mention it's a suicide attack with an Area of Effect?” Glide man opened fire on the young Reploid, but the bullets couldn't get near him as the light served as a barrier. “What manner of trickery is this?!?” The youth opened his now white eyes, saying, “No trick. This is the power of every ounce of my soul. My joy, my sorrow, my pleasure and my pain. Everything about me is now being stripped out of me right down to my base programming, then that too will be gone, and you will die.” Glideman attempted to flee, but a barrier kept him confined to an area the size of the room.

In a panic, the Maverick pleaded, “This power is beyond Bass' ability! There's no need to do this! I'll do anything you desire! Just don't wast such talent so recklessly!” Axel sneered. “Too late, you piece of shit. Pops will be lucky to be repaired after what you did. Your master took Mother Roll, you pretty much killed Father Zero, and there's no way I'm going to trust the words of a Fucking scrapheap!” The use of profanity proved the youth's point about his claim of the attack. He was deconstructing everything that made him what he was. “Here's a small taste of what you're damned leader is going to face.”

 The fins completely atomized and was moving on to the rest of his body. Wings of pure white light appeared on his back and the teen said, “Kiss your ass goodbye, Shithead.” He then yelled in a voice that made the structure tremble and quake, “FINAL ASSAULT OMEGADRIVE!!! DEVINE RETRIBUTION!!!” His body slowly dematerialized as it converted into pure white energy bolts that completely vaporized anything they came in contact with. As what was left of his form faded from existence, he said in a voice of one who had finally found true peace, “You know something, mom? I'm I think I finally understand why pops always pushed me so hard. See you in a few.”

With that, his body let out one final burst of light that shot out in a sphere, destroying Axel, Glideman, the complex and three miles of the surrounding area in a magnificent glow. Rock and the wounded Zero looked at the spectacle as they continued their retreat. Jake stood there and said, “Did you scuttle the base over one Maverick?” Rock shook his head and replied, “We didn't have a self-destruct in HQ.”
“Then what the Hell do you call that?”, Wes demanded. After a few moments, they noticed Zero had a smile filled with pride. “What's got you all chipper?” Rock asked.

After a moment, Zero said with tears in his eyes and pride in his voice, “The little boy grew up.”