Chapter 21: Chapter 16: Hostile Takeover (VI)

It was the afternoon the day after - it had been a fairly quiet Saturday so far. Marie had spent the day with Callie, X, Zero and the other agents, just hanging out with them. It had been a long time since she had spent a whole day with such a large group of friends, but it was super nice. They had even taken the time to do turf war battles together (with X and Zero watching, of course).

Marie and Callie had dropped out of the ink battling early to hang with the two robots at a table outside, though, as they waited for the kids to finally wrap up their fun. Of course, even in casual clothes the Squid Sisters were often easily recognised by passers-by, and both X and Zero were now minor celebrities as well. Zero in particular was charming girls almost effortlessly. Marie figured at this point it had to be that handsome face and the exotic blonde hair. Marie was not so easily impressed, but whatever floated people’s boats, she guessed. It certainly floated Callie’s.

“Last set, they’ll be out in a couple of minutes,” X said, checking the time.

“Well, they might keep going longer, who knows,” Marie chuckled. “Speaking of time, any ideas what you’re gonna be up to, Mr. CEO?”

“Please don’t call me that,” X sighed.

“Still, most of the threats to Inkopolis are gone, Octavio is locked up and the Octarian Army isn’t really a threat anymore,” Marie shrugged. “Not a lot of world-saving to do anymore.”

Callie chuckled, shaking her head, “cous, don’t jinx it.”

Zero crossed his arms, “she’s got a point, though. What else is there left out there that we can’t mop up in five minutes?”

X nodded. “Yeah, I just want to focus on restructuring Kamabo to-” He paused, as he saw something. His eyes widened, as a single word left his lips. “Rock…?”

Marie turned towards where he was looking. She too was flabbergasted by what she saw.

Standing in an alleyway was a human-like teenage boy robot with spiky black hair and blue eyes, wearing a blue and white shirt, brown shorts and orange and white shoes. He turned, and ran away from them, down the alleyway.

“Rock, wait!” X bolted from his seat, chasing after him.

“Ah, damn it… X, think about what you’re doing!” Zero grumbled as he got up, chasing after him, “you two stay here, I’ll make sure X doesn’t do anything stupid!”

Callie blinked, “what the heck is going on here…?! Was that X’s older brother?!”

Suddenly, Marie’s phone rang. It was Pearl. She looked over at the Inkopolis News studio, seeing Pearl waving to them, and answered, putting her phone on speaker mode. “You saw that too, right?”

“You mean the boy robot who X and Zero just chased after? Yeah, we saw him,” Pearl replied.

“He looks like Rock, X’s older brother, the original ‘Mega Man’,” Marie frowned. “Seems awfully convenient…”

“Yeah, that’s my thought, too. If someone shows up out of nowhere and starts running away, feels like a big red flag to me,” said Marina - apparently Pearl’s phone was on speaker as well. “I don’t like this at all.”

Pearl nodded, “me neither. And two of our biggest powerhouses just took off…”

Marie’s eyes widened as she connected the dots. She looked to her cousin. “Callie-”

“Yeah, I’ll go warn Gramps,” Callie said, getting out of her seat.

“And grab some Hero Weapons. I don’t think we’ll have time to change into our Hero Suits,” Marie said, getting up, “we might have to evacuate the Square.”

Callie nodded, dashing off towards the manhole.

“Go meet up with the other agents, we’ll get some stuff from Sheldon!” Pearl said, as she and Marina rushed out of the studio.

The mood in the Square was shifting - people were noticing what was going on, and were getting confused. Marie was hoping they’d take the hint and leave, but that was probably too much to ask. It was hard to know for sure exactly what was going to happen, but if something suspect was going to happen, there was a good chance it would involve someone attacking the Square. For what reason, Marie couldn’t fathom.

That’s when the rest of the agents came out from the lobby, not aware of anything being wrong. A bit sooner than expected, but that meant they might have time. Marie dashed over to them. “We need to go!”

“Marie? What’s the rush? Where’s X, Zero and Callie?” Artemis blinked. Only Ayane seemed to pick up on Marie’s alarm.

Marie frowned, “no time to explain, let’s get to-“

That’s when six robots teleported in, cutting her off from the group and surrounding them. Immediate alarm spread throughout the Square, and the agents were immediately on their guard, backing up into each other.

The robot with the golden armour and the spear spoke first. “Ladies and gentlemen, I will make this quick. Surrender now and come quietly, and nobody gets hurt.”

Marie’s eyes widened. They had misjudged what the likely target of the impending attack was. It wasn’t the Square, it was the agents.

❖

Despite some twists and turns, X finally managed to catch up with ‘Rock’ at Inkopolis Plaza, and mostly because Rock stopped there, turning around. “Hello, ‘brother’.”

“Rock, what’s going on? Where have you been? Why NOW?!” X asked, stopping. He wasn’t sure what was going on. “Are you even really Rock?”

“Oh, so you weren’t so gullible as to believe for sure?” ‘Rock’ chuckled, a sinister grin crossing his face as a set of green armour appeared on his body, followed by a helmet with a tinted visor and a yellow ‘V’ on the front.

“I knew it was too good to be true!” Zero snapped, as he caught up, armour forming on his body.

X frowned, his own armour appearing as well. He should’ve figured there were Wily robots they had missed. “Quint… I should’ve known it was too good to be true. Where are the other Mega Man Killers?”

“Take a wild guess!” Quint grinned. “I didn’t lead you out here just for fun, you know…”

“Son of a… X, there’s a teleport blocker, I can’t warp out!” Zero grit his teeth. “I’ll go back up the agents, you deal with this guy!”

X nodded, “right… Be careful, Zero!”

Zero dashed away, but he was suddenly cut off by Quint’s weapon of choice - Sakugarne, which was a mix between a pogo stick and a jackhammer, cracking the pavement in front of him. It moved autonomously, cutting off Zero as he tried to get past it.

“Sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Quint chuckled, his left hand forming into a buster. “You can play with Sakugarne for a bit!”

“Are you seriously planning to stop me with a pogo stick?!” Zero asked incredulously, as he drew his beam saber and slashed. However, Sakugarne suddenly reconfigured, transforming into a floating greatsword that blocked the strike. “What?!”

“Not just a pogo stick,” Quint taunted. “Also, I have every single bit of weapon data Mega Man ever used. If you want to save those pathetic pieces of seafood you call your ‘friends’, you better bring me down fast.”

That immediately triggered a red flag in X’s head, as he formed his own buster. “’Seafood’, huh? That sounds awfully familiar. Are you really Quint?”

“No way… TARTAR!” X snarled, charging up, “I won’t let you get away with this!”

Two charged shots met in the middle, as the battle began.

❖

Orion was having a panic attack.

The group was surrounded, with no weapons, against six robots who looked like they were fully armed and prepared for combat. And was there even an active respawn point around just in case? And why was Marie alone? Where were X, Zero and Callie?

“Who are you guys?!” Artemis snarled, asking the question Orion probably would’ve if he hadn’t been so utterly freaked out.

The golden robot bowed performatively. “Ah, where are my manners? I am Enker of the Mega Man Killers. The red and purple robots are my teammates, Punk and Ballade. And the other three are the Genesis Unit - their leader, Buster Rod G, the brains of the group, Mega Water S, and the brawn, Hyper Storm W.”

Buster Rod G was grinning as he stood on his own pole, “that’s right! We were created to defeat Mega Man one-on-one, and you guys ain’t even half of what he was! So don’t do anything stupid, or someone might get hurt.”

“I’m hoping they do, though, because it’s been so long since I’ve busted some heads!” Hyper Storm W cackled. Even from a glance Orion could tell he was at least twice the size of any of the other robots, and heavily armoured.

Mega Water S crossed his arms, chiding, “restrain yourself, ‘Pigsy’. The boss wants them alive and relatively unscathed.”

“Ah, shaddap, ‘Sandy’, he said it himself, he don’t care if the ‘seafood’ gets roughed up!”

That immediately triggered red flags in Orion’s mind, but he put that aside for the time being. They had more immediate problems. He noticed Ethan and Ayane nod to each other, and reached into their pockets.

Ballade sighed, “will you idiots stop bantering?! We need to get this done immediately, we don’t have a lot of time before-”

Suddenly, the entire group of Inklings and Octolings were surrounded by bubbles. Orion recognised this special - Bubbler, one of the old specials that had been amongst the set that had been recalled and replaced during the last couple of years. Ethan and Ayane also seemingly pulled out Hero Busters out of thin air, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that they had been keeping them in cans just in case.

“WHAT THE F-” Punk barely had time to react as Ethan blasted him with a volley of energy shots, forcing him back. Ayane knocked Buster Rod G off his perch.

“Well. Aren’t you two paranoid?” Enker remarked as he held his spear in front of him, blocking Ethan’s charged shot. “This doesn’t change much, you’re still outgunned! Keep them from escaping!”

“Ori, come on!” Artemis pointed to the manhole, and broke into a sprint. Orion decided it was a good idea to get moving rather than just stand around, and followed her.

However, their path was immediately blocked by Hyper Storm W. “Oh, no you don’t!” He began sucking the pair towards him as the Bubbler began to wear off, using some kind of vacuum ability from his mouth. “I’ve gotcha now!”

Orion had only one option that came to mind right now, and it was risky, but what choice did he have? He focused his energy into his hands, forming a small sphere of ki, and as he got close, he sent it surging out at the robot’s face, “HADOKEN!”

That seemed to surprise Hyper Storm W as it struck, briefly stunning him. Artemis jumped on his head, climbing over his body, and Orion followed suit, avoiding the robot’s attempts to grab them. “W-what the…?! Did you just slap me with a FIREBALL?!”

“GUYS! Over here!” Callie emerged from the manhole, awkwardly carrying multiple Hero weapons - Dualies, a Charger, a spare Hero Buster and a Hero Blaster. She tossed the last two out into the fray as the siblings dashed over to her, and handed the Dualies to Artemis and the Charger to Orion. “This is all I could carry, sorry!”

“If we had more weapons overall, we might stand a chance…” Orion frowned, turning to the fight. “But right now-”

That’s when Pearl and Marina entered the fray, with the former using Enperry Splat Dualies and Marina using a Splat Brella, taking Ballade by surprise. Marie also had a Splat Charger, harassing the robots. Other Inklings and Octolings were on the periphery of the battle, taking shots, while Sheldon was distributing weapons to help deal with the emergency. And Orion figured the cops wouldn’t be too far behind, either.

The agents were spreading out and trying to surround the robots instead, which was a complete reversal of their situation only half a minute ago.

“We might actually win this,” Artemis grinned. “Let’s do this, bro!”

Orion nodded, raising his Charger, his confidence beginning to swell back up, “right!”

❖

X dashed out of the way of incoming chunks of asphalt and concrete as Tartar used Super Arm to rip chunks out of the ground, while X was firing back with Metal Blades. He didn’t have the ability to charge his special weapons anymore, but Metal Blade was both effective and oddly cheap in terms of weapon energy use. He was getting glancing blows on Tartar, but glancing blows weren’t good enough if he wanted to end this fast.

“Tick-tock, X!” Tartar taunted, activating Time Slow followed by multiple Thunder Beams as he jumped around with increased speed. X grit his teeth as one of the beams struck him, but he thanked his lucky stars that after he handed the armour pasts to Dr. Light, Ciel had integrated the dash boost and other bits of the parts into his standard armour, albeit not quite as effective.

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X countered with Gravity Hold, sending Tartar crashing to the ground, and unloaded multiple Napalm Grenades, “time manipulation doesn’t help when you can’t move!”

Tartar snarled, activating Skull Barrier, which mostly held up against the barrage, but X could tell it exhausted most of his weapon energy for that cell. "You certainly like that combo, don’t you? Not that I blame you, it is a clever little trick, immobilising your enemy and then overwhelming them with explosive power. Was the original Mega Man so ruthless, I wonder?”

“You’re threatening my friends, Tartar. If blowing you apart means I can help them sooner, as much as I hate to do it, then so be it. Quint’s body can be repaired later,” X said.

“They’re just worthless seafood who you’ll easily outlive and forget, why do you waste so much effort trying to protect them?”

“They’re sapient people, just because they’re not human doesn’t make their lives worth less! The Professor wanted you to pass on humanity’s knowledge to the next species that came after humans, he wouldn’t want you-”

“DON’T YOU DARE SAY THAT!” Tartar howled with rage as he activated his Power Gear, switching to Pharaoh Shot and started forming a massive sphere of solar energy, which easily dwarfed all three robots, and he hurled it at X. “If you so insist, you can join your ‘friends’ in oblivion!”

Gee, I guess I struck a nerve, X thought to himself as his hands glowed, holding back the massive sphere. He could send it back, but that might result in too much collateral damage, so he decided to sent it flying up into the sky with a punch, where it exploded harmlessly.

In that small time after he punched the sphere, Tartar had charged him, punching him with Super Arm and sending him flying into a wall. He followed up by firing off multiple Crash Bombs, but they were shot down. “What?!”

“Don’t forget I’m still here, pal!” Zero grinned, charging Tartar and started slashing at him with his saber, while holding a buster charge.

X got back up as Tartar recalled his sword, blocking Zero’s charged shot. X had an idea - he used Gravity Hold again, but this time forcing both Tartar and Sakugarne in place. “Zero! Go!”

“Right!” Zero nodded, dashing away, “be careful, X!”

“No, I won’t let you! Sakugarne’s anti-gravity systems can handle this!” Tartar groaned, tossing Sakugarne at Zero, but it was knocked down by several ink missiles, and he was forced to block several more with another Skull Barrier, which failed just as the last couple slammed into him. “Tenta Missiles?!”

X blinked as someone landed next to him - an Octoling with a pink and white outfit that looked like a reworked version of the Octoling armour set with more coverage, and the goggles over her forehead rather than over her eyes. While she had blue eyes, her curled hair reminded him of Marina. Then it clicked - he had been told about this girl. “You’re Marino, right?”

Marino chuckled, drawing a couple of ink daggers. “Nice to meet you, X. Tartar, is it? I hear you want to hurt my sister’s friends. I have a problem with that.”

“Another piece of worthless seafood,” Tartar snorted, retrieving Sakugarne. “I’ll just cut you up and be done with it.”

X frowned, aiming his buster, “Marino, this is too dangerous-“

“The police already set up an emergency respawn point. Don’t worry about me,” Marino said, taking on a battle stance. “Let’s take him down.”

X fired another charged shot, which Tartar blocked, but this allowed Marino to move in, jumping over him with a somersault as she slashed at him. He tried to turn around to attack her, but that left him vulnerable to being shot in the back.

Tartar snarled, letting go of Sakugarne and letting it slash at Marino, as he fired back at X, “don’t think you can get cocky just because you have the numbers advantage!”

“Oh, trust me, we won’t,” X said as he dashed out of the way.

❖

There were six buster-class weapons in play. Liam sadly did not get one of them. He had to settle for a Splat Roller that had been thrown to him in the confusion.

Right now he was squaring off with Buster Rod G, clashing weapons with him. On one hand, ‘Monkey’ had a telescopic pole that he used as a weapon, and it could extend to astonishing lengths. On the other hand, even if he blocked one of Liam’s attacks, he still got splashed with ink most of the time. On the other other hand, Buster Rod G had greater physical strength, so Liam was mostly just relying on trying to cover him with ink rather than overpower him.

“You’re outnumbered and outgunned! Give up!” Liam snapped, as Koji flanked Buster Rod G, firing off shots that the monkey reploid was forced to block by spinning his rod, putting him on the defensive. “The ink’s gotta be draining your power, and when the cops come-”

Buster Rod G grinned, taking on a stance on all fours, “oh, it’s cute that you guys think you have the upper hand. I thought we wouldn’t be getting a good challenge, but now I can cut loose! POWER GEAR!”

“Power wha-”

Suddenly, Buster Rod G pulled out a collection of small balls from a hidden pocket, and blew on them, sending them flying into the air. They transformed into copies of himself, forcing Liam and Koji to back off as the copies attacked.

“That’s cheating!” Koji winced, as he started blasting copies, causing them to disintegrate and return to their original forms.

Liam started swinging, looking around at the others. The other robots were also activating their own ‘Gears’, powering themselves up one way or another - they had been on the back foot previously, but now things were getting hairy.

Enker was completely absorbing ink attacks while striking back with the flat of his spear. This was mainly a problem for Ayane and Iris, who were trying to fight him at medium range with their shooters.

Ballade was outspeeding Pearl and Marina with Speed Gear and knocking them down. “Honestly, I expected more out of you people.”

Mega Water S was bowling over Karla and Hinata with water jets, along with other Inklings and Octolings who tried to attack him.

Punk was rolling around with his spikes retracted at shockingly high speeds, bowling over people as he went. He was a problem for everyone, but especially Axl, Ethan and Marie, who were trying to shoot him down while evading him.

And Hyper Storm S… He was still doing the same thing, but with more strength, really. Which was a slightly problem for him since Artemis and Callie were just dancing around him, and Orion was sniping him. This was probably a good thing, really.

However, right now Punk was rolling right towards him, and the clones were still coming, bearing down on him and Koji, with Buster Rod G laughing behind them. He needed to think quickly.

“Alright, ‘Punk’… Batter up!” Liam leaped to the side, switching his Roller to vertical mode. As Punk rolled past him, he swung as hard as he could, sending Punk towards Buster Rod G, and bowling over any clones in his way.

The look of terror and panic on the monkey robot’s face was utterly satisfying as Punk just crashed right into him, ramming him right into a wall. The clones all disappeared, and considering ‘Monkey’ wasn’t moving, Liam decided he could consider him out of commission, at least for the moment.

“Oh for the love of-STOP FOOLING AROUND, YOU IDIOTS!” Enker snapped.

“GRAH! FINE!” Hyper Storm S leaped into the air, and when he came back down, the other active robots jumped, and the resulting shockwave knocked down everyone else. He looked down at Artemis, who was trying to get back up, and grabbed her in his huge hand, “grahahaha! GOTCHA!”

“LET ME GO!” Artemis snapped, struggling separately in his hand.

Orion’s face hardened, and he started firing quicker, trying to free her. “SIS! LET HER GO, YOU-”

Ballade was behind him. Before Liam could call out to warn Orion, the purple robot delivered a quick blow to the head, knocking Orion unconscious. Liam struggled to his feet, prepared to rush him, “ORI!”

“Dude, look out!” Ethan shoved Liam out of the way - Punk had come back around, and slammed into Ethan, sending him sprawling, and also knocked out cold.

Enker had moved in while Iris was down, knocking her out cold as well. When Axl and Ayane tried to help, they were knocked down by Mega Water S’ water jets and then knocked out by Ballade as well.

Where the heck are the cops?! Liam thought to himself, and looked down the Square. His eyes widened. The police were currently cut off from the rest of the fight by other robots, simple minions that were weaker than the Robot Masters but still dangerous enough to be wary of. “Oh, crud…”

“You surprised us for a bit, but now you’re outmatched!” Hyper Storm S gloated, smacking away Callie as she tried to free Artemis. His eyes suddenly widened, and he shifted his body, as a powerful energy shot ripped off the arm that wasn’t holding his captive. “Uh, guys? Zero’s here! And he’s looking PRETTY NETTLED!”

“’Pretty nettled’ is about right,” Zero said coldly, walking towards them with his buster extended and his saber in his other hand. “I’m going to enjoy dismantling you one by one.”

“Grab the primary targets! I’ll hold him off!” Enker ordered, as he rushed at Zero, beginning a sudden duel.

“Pity, I was hoping for more of a fight,” Ballade sighed, picking up Axl and Ayane… And teleported out with them.

“Feh,” Hyper Storm S snorted, teleporting out with Artemis.

Liam and Koji moved to protect Ethan, but Buster Rod G suddenly landed in front of them, already carrying Iris, and wagged a finger at them before smacking them aside, “I’ll admit, you got me good. We’ll call it even with that!” He then grabbed Ethan, and teleported out.

“Ugh, that was messy… Talk about having to salvage well-laid plans…” Mega Water S bowled over anyone who tried to protect Orion, picking him up and teleporting out as well.

Enker, who was barely holding his own against Zero, grinned as he watched his comrades teleport out. “Farewell, you traitorous brother of ours. Next time, we’ll be the ones taking you apart.” He then teleported out, along with the remaining robots.

As silence settled on the Square, and the police rushed the scene to check up on everyone still left, it dawned on Liam how bad things were.

They’d lost. And who knows what they were planning to do with those six…

❖

As X expected, Tartar was completely overwhelmed. Even with Sakugarne, Marino was slowly wearing him down with dagger strikes, and he was forced to protect himself against X’s own attacks. If he dodged, Marino would intercept him. If he tried to attack her, he was exposed to X’s own attacks.

Soon, he literally had his back against the wall, desperately fending off attacks from both of them. But soon, he formed a Star Crash shield. “Heh. I’ll admit, you two really gave me a hard time. But my purpose here is finished.”

X’s eyes widened. He knew what that likely meant. “No… You don’t mean-”

“-relax, ‘brother’. Your ‘friends’ are alive and well… For now,” Tartar grinned maliciously. “My people couldn’t grab as many of them as I would’ve liked, but the ones they did grab will suffice.” He pulled out a data chip, tossing it to X, who caught it. “Come to these coordinates within the next hour. Alone, and without that fancy armour set of yours. Don’t show this information to anyone else. If you don’t abide by my demands, well, you’ll find them very much liquidated.”

X grit his teeth as he processed what Tartar’s insane hostage plan was. “You monster…”

“‘Monster’? I’m not the one who brought this on himself,” Tartar shook his head. “Farewell.” And with that, he teleported out.

“That guy sounds like he has a few screws loose… Literally,” Marino frowned. “What did he mean by-”

X was already racing towards the Square.

❖

Karlene had held her own against Mega Water S with Hinata’s help, but the moment the robots powered up, everything went so, so wrong. First the big pig grabbed Artemis, and then her fellow agents started going down one by one. It was only Zero’s intervention that prevented those robots from capturing all of them.

Soon, X returned, and surprisingly, Marino was with him. She saw the realisation of who was missing on his face, and he looked more distraught and horrified than she had ever seen him before.

She felt terrible and angry at herself. For failing to protect her teammates. This was supposed to be a fun weekend, how did it all go so wrong?

“This is bad,” Zero frowned. “To think Tartar still had a spare body and more robots in his back pocket…”

“I need to go recharge my energy reserves,” X said coldly, his shock turning to a fuming determination. “They want me to be there by myself? Fine. I’ll take them all on myself. And if they do anything before their deadline is up… I’ll make them regret it.”

“X, wait-”

X then teleported out.

Karlene exchanged eye contact with Marie. She was worried too. How bad would this get before things got better… If they did at all?