The Endless Road
A Megaman X fanfiction by Deaku
Chapter 01 ~ Painful Past
"Progress on project CYE-002going as planned, no complications or adverse effects noted." Jason said to himself as he recorded the information down on the electronic notebook he was carrying. "Well that'll please my father, he didn't exactly enjoy it when 001 attracted all those Metools."
"Oh, come on Jason." Professor Hailey, the head of the CYE research, laughed. "I thought all those little guys were cute."
"Yeah, they may have been cute, but they were annoying little buggers too." Jason shook his head. "Those things were everywhere, I kept tripping over them in the hallways and all that meeping was really interrupting my concentration at times."
"They did try and be helpful though, like taking little things from here to there when you asked them to." Professor Hailey smirked as she remembered the incident. "But yeah, they did end up all over the place, meeping to each other and running all around."
"I'm still trying to figure out how that one managed to get into my sock drawer." Jason sighed. "Anyway, I'd better get going, gotta finish my rounds." Jason waved goodbye to Professor Hailey and continued on his way.
It was one of Jason's main responsibilities in the lab to go around and check the progress of the various projects and other things going on around the lab, record them and then send the results on to his father. Hawk Labs was actually was one of the largest surface facilities that was still run mainly by humans, though there were a few reploids on the staff as well. It researched and built many different technologies, from different kinds of reploids to space technology. And Jason spent much of his day checking on the progress of all that was going on within the huge facility. After he was done with the main responsibility that was assigned to him by his father, Jason could work on his own projects. Many of the other researchers didn't like whom they considered a kid working with them, they said that Jason's father was playing favorites. Jason didn't see it that way however. The others could pretty much do what they wanted as long as they had some kind of project going and made regular reports to Jason's father, while Jason always had his father halting his projects for unknown reasons or making him research certain things. Jason would trade places with any of the others any day just so that he could actually research what he wanted and when he wanted.
"Soldier Reploid production on schedule and continuing to proceed smoothly." Jason recorded into his notebook as he watched the nearly identical soldiers come off the assembly line one after another. "Well, now that's all done I can get to work on my own stuff." Jason wrote up a few finishing notes and hit the button to send the report to his father's database.
Jason headed for his personal research area that was on the far side of the lab. It wasn't much, barely bigger than his bedroom and it had hardly any of the equipment the others had, but it was good enough for him. Jason pulled his current project from its drawer; it was a set of plans, he preferred to do his initial work for something on paper instead of a computer like most. His current project was currently one of his own, instead of one assigned to him by his father. It was a new type of Reploid, one that would be meant to be a guardian of places such as Hawk Labs. It would be powerful in both offense and defense, capable of taking on any threat to its domain. Maybe it would even make a good Maverick Hunter Jason often thought to himself as he was working on it, but he'd have to finish it before he tested that theory out. Jason was nearly done with the plans and soon he'd start with the computer simulation testing, it wouldn't be long before the Reploid design he had dubbed Rever would be complete and ready to build.
A sudden knock on his door brought Jason out of his daydreams and back to the present. "Come in." Jason called out to whoever was on the other side of the door.
"Good afternoon Jason." Aili, one of the Reploid researchers, said as she came through the door. "How are you today?"
"I'm doing pretty good." Jason answered as he rolled up his Rever plans and put them back into their drawer. "So what's up? You usually don't come over to this end of the lab until work's over for the day."
"Oh I just thought that you'd like to have this letter from your sister that just arrived." Aili smiled and held up the letter.
Jason moved to take the letter, but Aili suddenly moved it out of his reach. He went for it again, faster this time, but Aili easy moved it away again. The next few minutes were spent with Jason trying to retrieve the letter from Aili, she was laughing and easily avoiding his attempts to get the letter from her hand. Eventually Jason wore himself out jumping around and had to sit down to catch his breath.
"Okay Aili." Jason said between breaths, but he had a smile on his face. "What do you want in exchange for the letter?"
"I was thinking dinner and a movie downtown." Aili smiled. "Say tonight?"
"Alright, tonight it is then." Jason grinned.
Aili returned the grin and finally handed the letter over to Jason, but before he could open it there was a sound like an explosion and an alarm began sounding throughout the lab.
"What the?!" Aili had jumped at the unexpected alarm. "Another drill?"
"No that's the real thing!" Jason exclaimed as he jumped up out of his seat. "Come on! We gotta find my parents!"
The pair shot out the door and started running for the central part of the lab, neither of them knowing what was going on.
~~~~~
Jason awoke to someone screaming in his ear, sitting up and rubbing his eyes he saw a glowing form next to him. It was Angel's holographic projection standing next to his bed with her arms crossed, and she did not look pleased.
"It's about time you woke up." Angel fumed. "I was just about to go get a bucket of ice water."
"I'm sorry Angel." Jason half-bowed as he apologized and then gave a big yawn. "How long before we reach New York?"
"I estimate about fifty minutes." Angel answered after a quick calculation.
"Whoa, I slept ten minutes more than I wanted, sorry about that Angel." Jason apologized again as he stood up. "Dang, I guess that the last job took a little more out of me than I thought."
"It must have." Angel smirked and shook her head. "Now why don't you go take a shower, everything is already prepared."
"How in the world do you do that?" Jason asked with an arched eyebrow. "I sure don't remember you being programmed to read minds."
Angel just shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe it's just luck. Or maybe I just know you too well." She laughed.
Jason just laughed and headed for the shower as Angel's hologram disappeared. After his shower Jason got dressed and headed for his trophy room to clean up his two trophies from the previous job, then find an open place on his wall for them. He didn't really know why he did such a thing, many might even call him morbid for doing so, but it was just something he had been doing since he started his current line of work. Maybe he did it as some sort of an honor to his more worthy opponents, or maybe it was just to show that he was superior to them. Whatever the reason, Jason would take the head of a defeated opponent if it was still in good condition after the battle and make them trophies.
Just as Jason had finished with his task Angel's voice came over the speakers. "Jason you'd better get up here, we have a slight problem." Her tone suggested that Jason had better get to the bridge as fast as possible
"What's the problem Angel?" Jason asked as he bolted onto the bridge. "It's not serious is it?"
"Well it depends on what we do." Angel answered, sounding a bit exasperated. "A mechaniloid patrol is refusing to let us land."
"What?" Jason walked over to the window and looked out. Several mechaniloid craft were buzzing around his transport carrier. "Of all the I knew setting up these things to patrol around the city was going to be trouble."
"For some reason they're not recognizing us, but I'm positive that this ship is in the registry." Angel sounded as though she was fed up with the situation. "They're refusing to talk to me anymore, they just keep demanding we leave or present a proper registration. I've tried sending them our registration as per official procedures, but they're not accepting for some reason. I've even tried giving them your ID number as well but then they stopped listening to me."
"Let me try talking with them Angel." Jason said as he walked over to the console. "Maybe they'll actually listen to me."
Jason flipped took the mike from the console and turned on the communication system, almost immediately an obviously mechanical voice blared from the communicator's speakers. "This is mechaniloid patrol 072. Leave this airspace or identify yourself and present proper registration. Fail to comply or travel further into this airspace and you will be destroyed."
"As if you could actually do anything to us." Jason grumbled to himself before answering. "This is Jason Hawk, ID number 111379."
"Voice match found. Identity confirmed." The mechanical voice replied after about a minute. "Jason Hawk - Human. Civilian ID - 111379. Owner of transport carrier designated Cry of Heaven. Confirmed registration. You are cleared to proceed and land. Have a nice day."
Jason flipped the mechaniloid off as they flew away and proceeded to continue their patrol, half-wishing that the things actually understood the gesture. "Idiotic things I don't know which I hate more, mavericks or them."
"Those things are just so aggravating with their stupidity, it was that same patrol that was giving us problems last time." Angel grumbled as the mechaniloids flew off. "I should file a complaint about this with the city."
"Feel free to Angel." Jason told her as he began to walk back to the living area. "I'm going to go get ready to go to The Pit."
~~~~~
Jason was being held down by the foot of one of the invading mavericks, he was only half- conscious from the lack of air since the maverick was barely letting him breath. To his left was the sparking remains of Aili, she had tried to protect Jason and was destroyed by the mavericks. In the center of the room a huge multi-armed maverick, the leader, had Jason's parents and was demanding to know where something was.
The attack came suddenly and without warning, none were prepared for the mavericks' ferocity and mercilessness. The first part of the attack consisted of a missile strike on the factory section of the lab where the soldier reploids were being built, destroying them before any could be activated. The next wave of missiles struck the defense towers around the parameter of the lab. With the major defenses gone the mavericks came rushing into the compound, destroying what few defenders the lab had left and killing anything else that moved. When the internal defenses were unable to stop them the mavericks just pressed further into the lab, slaughtering all they came across. Jason and Aili had made it to the central part of the lab and were helping Jason's parents and others who had made it there to seal the area off, hoping it would hold long enough for help to arrive. Unfortunately it didn't, the maverick leader tore through the reinforced doors like they were made out of paper. Others rushed in and began firing in every direction; sending buster and beam blasts everywhere, Jason was grazed across the leg and fell to the ground. Aili tried to protect him with the purple bladed beam saber that she had built for herself, but she was no match for the mavericks and was killed by a large one with a shoulder cannon and claws. The same maverick slammed a foot down onto Jason as he tried to get up; the maverick barely put any pressure down but the weight of his foot was crushing enough. After the shooting was over the leader picked up Jason's parents off the floor, who had only been injured by the blasts, and began demanding where something was.
"For the last time," The multi-armed maverick leader growled. "Where is that C-Engine thing you've been working on?"
"Forget it." Jason's father gasped as he tried to breathe. "Even if I gave you the C-Engine it would be of no use to you, you wouldn't know how to use it."
"Just leave us alone, we're not giving anything to you." Jason's mother said as she tried to pry the maverick's hand from around her throat. "Why in the world do you what that thing anyway?"
"Because I heard that the C-Engine can increase my power to untold levels." The leader grinned as his eyes seemed to glaze over. "With that kind of power I'll be unstoppable."
"Without the understanding of how it works it would be useless to you." Jason's father said then coughed up some blood. "You'll never have that power."
"I'll just find it myself then!" The leader yelled as he finally lost his patience. "I don't need you anymore!" He then extended energy claws and proceeded to decapitate Jason's parents as Jason watched in stunned horror. Dropping their bodies the huge maverick began searching around the remains of the room.
"Hey boss?" The maverick that had been holding Jason down picked him up by the head and held him up. "What do you want me to do with this one? He's still kicking."
"Dispose of him." The leader said while making a slashing movement across his neck. "You know how I hate to leave things unfinished."
"Well, you heard the boss kid. Everybody else is dead so you're going to have to be killed too." The maverick said as he turned back to Jason. "You're going to be with the others real soon."
The maverick poised his metal claws to strike; Jason wanted to yell something but couldn't since part of the maverick's hand was covering his mouth, Jason knew his death was going to be a lot more messy than Aili's or his parents'.
Just as the maverick was about to finish Jason off, Jason saw a flash of movement from above. Suddenly the maverick was split in two and Jason was falling to the ground, but a powerful arm caught him. Looking back to see who caught him, Jason saw that it was a tall Reploid with a green armored upper body that had a red crystal on the left side of the chest. He had brown boots and his forearms were blue, while the rest of him was predominately black and white. The Reploid wasn't wearing a helmet and had solid blue eyes and a red crystal in the center of his forehead. Whoever the Reploid was, he shielding Jason from the fight that had begun when others appeared after he had saved Jason and begun fighting with the mavericks, Jason guessed that they were the Maverick Hunters. Soon all the lesser mavericks in the room had been put down, leaving the leader alone to face the Hunters.
"Gamma!" The Hunter that had saved Jason called out. "You and your unit take care of this guy, the rest of you search the place for any other survivors or mavericks!"
With that order part of the Hunters present charged the maverick leader while the rest shot out the door to search the lab for survivors, the Hunter who had Jason carried him out of the room and outside the lab where several other Hunters were waiting. Finally Jason came out of his stunned daze from what had happened and found his voice again.
"Let me go damn it!" Jason yelled and struggled to get out of the large Hunter's grip. The Hunter let him go and Jason landed on his uninjured leg. "Damn you! Where the hell were you guys when we needed you?!" Jason hit the Hunter in the chest, who just stood there without saying anything. "You're supposed to be the Maverick Hunters! Why didn't you hunt those guys down before they could do this! Now everybody's dead! Damn you all to Hell!" Jason then turned and limped away, just trying to get as far away as he could.
"Commander Sigma, should I go after him?" One of the other Hunters asked.
"No..." Sigma said with a saddened look on his face. "He's just been through a horrible ordeal, being attacked and seeing everyone killed before his eyes. I think he needs some time alone so that he can get his thoughts straight and come to terms with everything."
~~~~~
Jason made one last check of his gear that he usually took when going to The Pit; he had on his personal force field generator, his beam gun in its shoulder holster, his energy saber and a few other miscellaneous weapons. After putting on his trench coat, which hid everything quite nicely, Jason went to the bridge and saw that they had already landed.
"Well I'm off Angel." Jason told her as he was heading for the door. "Keep an eye on things here and stay out of trouble."
"Don't I always?" Angel laughed. "I'll just keep busy writing up that complaint to city hall about those Mechaniloids."
Jason waved and left the carrier and quickly made his way from the landing pad to the port's offices to fill out the proper paperwork. He'd done it so many times that Jason could fill out all the different forms in his sleep, plus the workers knew him pretty well so that sped up the process considerably. Soon he was done and on his way out, only pausing to grab something to drink. Jason briefly considered taking a cab to the mag-lev station, but decided against it, the station wasn't that far and he could easily walk the distance.
As he walked Jason took in the scenery and watched the people, both human and Reploid, though it was sometimes hard to tell who was what, go about their daily routine. New York was the largest city on the planet that was still inhabited, despite the rather frequent maverick attacks. It was also one of the few places on the surface where the human and Reploid populations were nearly the same, in most other places the reploids outnumbered the humans by at least two to one, if not more. It still amazed Jason how the city would always spring back after being attacked, the inhabitants would just about jump on any damage immediately after the city was attacked and get to fixing things back up. The place always seemed bigger and more impressive than before after the repairs were finished. Even with the fairly recent attack that was made by Repliforce Jason couldn't see any signs of it, well except for those mechaniloid patrols that had been put in place afterwards, but that was it. Jason supposed it was only natural to keep this city in top shape seeing as it was basically the world capitol, well what was left of the world anyway.
Jason arrived at the mag-lev station and slid his card through the console on the entrance to pay his fare and get in, but it was still going to be a few minutes before the train would get there. The mag-lev was setup to take the place of the subway system that had been put out of commission during the cataclysmic event that rocked the world a century before. Nobody seemed to know what happened back then, nor were there any records of it, there were hardly any records from before whatever it was that happened either. So with such little information about the time and the times leading up to it, the most people could do was guess about what had happened. Jason knew someone whom he thought might have actually been around during that time; but whatever happened back then, Kagemaru didn't talk about it.
~~~~~
"...So that's what happened." Kagemaru sighed. He had just listened to Jason's retelling of the disaster at Hawk Labs. "I'm sorry I wasn't there Jason, I could've held them off until the Hunters got there."
"It's alright Kagemaru." Jason said as he worked on the plans in front of him, changing them quite drastically from their original form. "There's no way you could of known that was going to happen, besides you had better things to do than hang around with a kid like me all the time."
"So what was that maverick after anyway?" Kagemaru asked to move the conversation along and to find out what the maverick wanted since Jason hadn't actually said.
"The C-Engine." Jason said flatly, but there was a hint of anger in his voice. "Probably found out about it from the science journal that published my father's paper about its capabilities. I told him he should've kept it secret."
"Well it's understandable that your father would want to let people know that such a project was finally complete." Kagemaru said matter-of-factly. "He had worked most of his life to finish it after all."
"But it wasn't him who finished it and got the damn thing working." Jason said without looking away from his work. "I was... But father just went ahead and made that report about it though I said it wouldn't be a good idea."
"Hmmm... it took four generations to finally finish that C-Engine." Kagemaru laughed slightly as he got up from the bench he had been sitting on. "Your great grandfather would be very pleased to know that the project he started all those years ago is finally done. What did you do with it anyway?"
"Oh I have it, though I told everyone else that it was destroyed so that I wouldn't have to deal with anyone else who may want it. I have plans for it, just in case this ever fails." Jason taped the designs he had been working on since before Kagemaru had arrived.
"Hmmm..." Kagemaru looked over the plans. It appeared to have been designs for some sort of Reploid, but Jason had altered it drastically. Now it looked as though Jason was planning on making some sort of powered armor. 'So that's the direction you're planning on taking your life now...' Kagemaru thought. "But I don't think the Maverick Hunters are accepting humans into their ranks Jason." Kagemaru said with a smirk. "You're going to have to put on a pretty good act to convince them you're a Reploid."
"Screw the Maverick Hunters!" Jason exclaimed, not wanting to consider the possibility even in a joking way. "Those bastards are too reactionary in their approach to the maverick problem; they wait until the mavericks do something major before going after them. I'm going to be freelance, then I'll hunt down the mavericks before they're able to blow up half a city or kill a lot of people."
Kagemaru shook his head, his attempt to lighten Jason's mood with a joke hadn't worked, he pretty much got the opposite of what he wanted. He then noticed something sitting on the table next to Jason, it looked like some kind of energy saber. "What's this?" Kagemaru reached for the saber.
"Don't touch that!" Jason snarled, snatching the saber up before Kagemaru could pick it up. But his expression immediately went from anger to a pained one. "I'm... I'm sorry Kagemaru." Jason apologized and handed Kagemaru the saber. "I guess I'm just feeling burnt out after everything that's happened. People have been bugging me all day, asking me tons of questions or just wanting something. That's why the door was closed and locked when you got here, to keep everybody out. Not that that stopped you from coming in though." Jason finally laughed a little.
"It's alright Jason, I can understand." Kagemaru told him as he examined the saber. "Those people really shouldn't be bothering you right now, but some just never learn." Kagemaru flipped on the saber and went through a few maneuvers with the purple bladed weapon to test it out, then turned it off and returned it to its spot on the table. "Very nice. You build it?" Kagemaru inquired, but Jason shook his head no.
Kagemaru then walked across the room to where a glowing object was sitting on a shelf, it had caught his interest when he had first arrived but he had other things on his mind then. It was some sort of small stasis field generator, he was able to tell that from across the room, but he had been unable to tell what was inside of it. Once he got closer Kagemaru was able to see the object inside, he recognized the small orb that was held within the field.
"That's a Reploid central processing core isn't it?" Kagemaru asked as he watched it float serenely in the field.
"Yeah..." Jason replied as he tried to look like he was working on the plans again, but his hands weren't moving. "It's all that I could salvage from..." Jason didn't finish, but his tone of voice told Kagemaru more than words alone would have.
~~~~~
Jason sat by himself in one of the mag-lev cars, everybody else seemed to have been scared or intimidated by him and moved to other cars. It didn't bother Jason any, it just meant less noise and more room for him as far as he was concerned. Jason looked out the window and watched the scenery pass by, they were going at a decent speed, but nowhere near the train's top speed. Jason didn't even know why they built the things with such a high top speed anyway, the trains could never reach their top speed since there were so many stops along the mag-lev system. If they even attempted to reach their top speed between the stations everybody onboard would be thrown to the back of the car that they were riding in. One time a maverick hacker thought it would be funny to hack into the mag-lev system and make the trains accelerate to their top speed between stations. Said hacker's head was now on Jason's wall, he hadn't particularly enjoyed being thrown around the car by the mag-lev's constant acceleration and deceleration.
The train slowed as it pulled into another station, the doors opened as the train came to a stop and Jason watched as two others got aboard the car he was in. They were reploids, from the Paladin Group Jason guessed, judging by their looks and the badges on their chests. One was of the knight rank while the other was of the squire rank, if Jason was correctly remembering what the particular badges stood for.
"Excuse me sir?" The knight said as she walked up to Jason. "Would you mind if we sat here?" She waved a hand towards he seats across from Jason.
"Go right ahead." Jason replied, looking out the window as the train started off again.
The knight smiled and she and the squire sat down across from Jason; neither of them saying anything more. But as they sat there Jason noticed that the squire was looking incredibly nervous, he was wringing his hands and wasn't staying still in his seat.
"Something wrong kid?" Jason asked, his curiosity finally getting the better of him.
"No... well, not really." The squire answered with a nervous laugh. "It's just that this is my first mission."
"I don't think you have anything to worry about as long as your mentor's with you." Jason told him, holding down a laugh at the way the squire was acting. "I'm sure you'll do fine."
"Well maybe, I just have a weird feeling about this mission." The squire shook his head. "With all the disappearances and all."
"Disappearances?" Jason hadn't heard anything about any disappearances.
"You haven't heard about all the reploids that have been disappearing lately?" The knight inquired. "Even though the government's been trying to keep it quiet it seems that everybody knows anyway."
"I've been out of town for awhile." Jason shrugged. "So what's been happening?"
"It's Reploid body-snatching!" The squire exclaimed, but a look from the knight silenced him and he calmed himself down.
The knight cleared her throat. "Well while that's not what we like to think of it, that's basically what's been happening." The knight explained. "Reploids have been disappearing all over the city without a trace. Several organizations are sending in individuals and groups to investigate. We're on our way to one of the areas where there have been an extremely high number of disappearances."
"Looks like we'll all have to be careful then." Jason commented as he took in the information.
"Yeah." The squire said nervously. "Especially since this could be my first battle."
The knight patted the squire on the back while Jason just nodded.
~~~~~
Rever burst in through the large skylight, completely taking the gathered mavericks by surprise. He fired off four blasts from his buster cannons before even hitting the ground. The first two disintegrating the heads of a pair of mavericks before they could react, while the third blew a hole in another's chest. A maverick managed to react quick enough to try and dodge the forth shot, but still got his arm blown off. Rever landed in front of smaller maverick who was still too shocked to react; Rever pulled out his energy saber and slashed twice, creating an X across the maverick's torso before he fell into four pieces. The maverick that had his arm blown off a moment before tried to jump Rever from behind. Without turning around Rever stabbed behind him, running the attacking maverick through. Rever put away his saber as the body fell to the ground and he turned to face the remaining three mavericks, one was a large purple Reploid with a crown and cloak, the other two were identical red reploids.
"Who the hell are you?!" The large purple one demanded.
Rever didn't answer, he just stood there silent while he sized up his remaining opponents.
"Do you want us to take care of him Sir Gav?" The two red mavericks said in unison.
"Yes, remove him from existence." Gav ordered, sounding a bit bored. "We can always find more followers."
The two red mavericks shot forward and then began running in opposite directions around Rever, their movements nothing more than a blur. Rever took a defensive stance as he tried to track their movements. Suddenly two buster shots struck him, one in the back and one in the chest; not powerful enough to cause any serious damage, but still painful. Rever leapt up into the air as the twins fired again, this time from the sides. Landing on the far side of the room, Rever began to charge up his cannons as the twins started running towards him. He let loose with both cannons and the twins leapt into the air, but Rever was expecting this and leapt into the air as well. Right as the twins were crossing their paths in the air Rever engaged his flight system and charged forward, seizing them by their heads and landing back on the ground. The two began struggling to free themselves but Rever started electrocuting them, causing their bodies to go into convulsions. Sir Gav could hear the twins muffled screams as the electricity flowed through their bodies, right before Rever crushed their heads.
"So my murderous Hunter," Gav growled. "I bet you think since you've killed all my followers like they were nothing that I'll be easy prey for you. Well think again!" Gav threw aside his cloak, revealing his heavily armored body and huge arm canon. He then fired a huge blast at Rever.
"Never refer to me as a Maverick Hunter!" Rever yelled as he took to the air, Gav's blast passing under him and blowing a large hole in the wall. "My name is Rever!" He then proceeded to rain blasts down upon Gav from both canons.
All the blasts struck Gav, but his heavy armor was able to protect him. Screaming in rage, Gav let loose another blast. Rever dodged around it and dove towards Gav. Grabbing his saber right as he reached Gav, Rever sliced the maverick's cannon in half, disabling the weapon. Gav returned the favor by delivering a punch that sent Rever flying across the room and crashing into the wall. Gav extended a large energy blade from the back of his hand and charged, Rever grabbed his saber from the ground and readied himself for Gav's attack.
Roaring, Gav slashed at Rever, but right before his blade connected Rever seemed to disappear. Rever reappeared behind Gav, and with a quick slash of his saber, Gav's head was separated from his body.
~~~~~
Jason walked into The Pit, looking around the large bar-like room he saw that the usual crowd was there. Which surprised him, usually there was a strange face or two every time he came. The Pit was a freelancer hangout, proving that even a city like this still had its dark side. Freelancers came to The Pit from just about everywhere looking for work, those looking to hire freelancers for something would call, or somehow contact, The Pit. The proprietor of The Pit was an old human man everybody called Gramps; though he looked harmless, it was not wise to cross the man, especially when he had so many freelancers willing to help him out anytime. One thing that Jason found funny about this place is that everyone thought him to be some sort of Reploid, even Gramps didn't know he was human, so they called him Rever whether he was wearing his armor or not.
"Well if it isn't Rever! Back from his trip out west!" Gramps called out from behind his desk/bar. "How'd the job go? Any problems?"
"No problems at all Gramps, it turned out easier than I thought." Jason said as he walked up to the bar. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag, which he handed over to Gramps. "Here's your cut."
"Why thank you Rever, it's much appreciated." Gramps said as he opened up the bag. "What's this? A bit extra? Why Rever, you shouldn't have." Gramps pretended to tear up.
"It's no big deal Gramps, the client just upped the pay when I got there because he was getting scared." Jason explained. "I just gave you the usual percentage you ask for, but it ended up being more than we originally figured since the client paid more."
Ah, you're such a good boy Rever, always thinking of Ol' Gramps." Gramps grinned and put the money away. "Not like the rest of these deadbeats who wouldn't have bothered telling me just so that they could keep the extra money."
"Oh come on Gramps," One of the other freelancers laughed. It was Dark Rain, a former member of some crime syndicate. Well, according to him anyway. "You know we all love you, we just love money more."
"Damn it Dark Rain! You little punk!" Gramps jumped up started yelling. "I don't know why I keep letting you in here!"
"Because you simply can't resist my good looks and charm." Dark Rain shot back.
Jason just shook his head and walked away, the banter between Gramps and Dark Rain causing most of the others in The Pit to bust up laughing. Jason walked over to the table he usually sat at while in The Pit, usually two other freelancers known as GF and Matrix would be sit at the same table. Jason saw that both Matrix and GF were sitting at the table and eating a pizza, but there was one little problem, GF was in Jason's preferred chair.
"You're in my seat GF." Jason stated as he walked up to the table
"Too bad Rever, I was here first." GF said as he finished off a slice of pizza. "You'll just have to sit in one of the other chairs, I ain't moving."
"We've been through this before GF." Jason shook his head, getting tired of going through this about every time he came to The Pit. "That's my chair you're sitting in, so I'd like it if you'd just move."
"I don't see your name on it, so too bad for you Rever." GF grinned. Matrix knew what was about to happen and scooted away from GF.
"Well GF, you had your chance." Rever switched his beam gun to its force beam setting as he pulled it out of its holster. He blasted GF, sending the orange Reploid flying out of the chair and across the room. Jason then straightened out his chair and sat down.
"Do you really have to keep shooting him like that Rever?" Matrix asked as he started on another slice of pizza. "I know it doesn't hurt him, but still."
"Then he should learn to stay out of my chair then shouldn't he?" Jason asked rhetorically as he grabbed himself some pizza. "I think he enjoys getting shot."
Eventually GF managed to get back up and walk back to the table, sitting down across from Jason and grabbing some more pizza. "One of these days you're going to get tired of shooting me."
"No I won't" Jason stated simply as he finished off his pizza slice.
Matrix laughed as Jason leaned back to relax, eventually GF started laughing as well. "Well that's good to know Rever," Matrix continued to laugh and ran a hand through his neon pink hair, the motion being reflected in the surface of his reflective blue armor. "You shooting GF is some of the best entertainment we have here."
But as Jason sat there listening to Matrix and GF talk he noticed a couple hover vehicles pull into the empty parking lot in front of The Pit. At first he paid it no mind since it may have been a delivery of something for Gramps, but his instincts started screaming when he saw several large armored reploids jump out of them.
"Everybody down!" Jason yelled as he flipped the table on its side to use as a cover and ducked behind it.
Everybody in The Pit hit the floor or flipped their tables at Jason's warning, The Pit had been attacked enough times that regulars were used to such things and knew to hit the floor when someone yelled like that. It was just in time too, as soon as everybody got down or took cover the reploids outside began firing into The Pit.
"Damn it Dark Rain!" Gramps yelled at the midnight blue Reploid who had dove behind the bar with him when the shooting started. "I thought you said these guys wouldn't be after you anymore!"
"Well I thought they wouldn't!" Dark Rain yelled as he returned fire with his dual busters. "Apparently they still didn't get the message that I was leaving for good!"
"You know Dark Rain, when a syndicate says nobody ever leaves them they usually mean it!" GF was yelling as loud as he could to be heard over the firing of his gatling buster.
"It's a good thing all the furniture in here is mostly metal!" Matrix yelled to Jason as they were both shooting at the attacking reploids. "Makes great shields!" Jason just nodded.
The shooting continued, none of the freelancers were being hit, either by using extreme agility or by making use of available cover. But the reploids outside were extremely tough, it took a lot of concentrated firepower to get through their armor. They were very single-minded too; just standing there continually firing, confident that their armor would protect them. But the freelancers quickly figured out that if enough of them shot at a single one at once its armor would fail and it would go down, so they began picking them off one by one. Unfortunately the attackers were smart enough to realize what was happening and took cover behind their vehicles, which were even more heavily armored than they were. So it went into sort of a stalemate; the freelancers weren't able to take out the attackers while they were behind the hover vehicles; and the attacking reploids just couldn't touch the freelancers.
"It's too bad the cops are too afraid to come around this place." Matrix half-sighed as he ducked down behind the table to let his buster cool. "We might be able to get those guys in a pincer sort of attack then."
Jason ducked down as well. "Naw, if the cops were here it'd just get more complicated." Jason said offhandedly as he pulled what looked like some sort of small rocket out of his coat and attached it to the end of his beam gun.
"What in the world's that?" Matrix asked when he saw what Jason had attached to his gun.
"A little surprise for them." Jason motioned towards the attackers, then jumped up and took aim. The miniature rocket launched when Jason pulled the trigger, leaving a smoke trail as it flew out the window. The rocket impacted on one of the hover vehicles and blew up with a spectacular explosion, shattering the vehicle into pieces and sending attackers flying everywhere. "Here's number two!" Jason called out as he fired a second rocket, sending it towards the second hover vehicle with the same results.
The freelancers cheered and began firing at the surviving attackers, who were either staggering around or trying to pick themselves up off the ground. Soon all that was left of the attacking reploids was piles of scrap and smoking craters.
"You did it Rever! Wahoo!" Matrix picked up Jason while tightly hugging him.
"You kiss me Matrix and you'll be the target for my last rocket." Jason warned. Matrix dropped him and laughed.
"What in the world are those things?" GF asked as he set the table back in its proper position. "They pack quite a punch."
"Mini-missiles, rocket propelled grenades, take your pick." Jason shrugged. "They're just unguided flying explosives, something I cooked up awhile back. I left out the guidance systems so I could pack in more explosives, giving them one hell of a punch."
"Yeah I'll say they pack a punch." Gramps nodded as he tried to clean up the alcohol that was spilt all over the place when the bottles it had been it were busted up during the fighting.
"Thanks Rever, I owe you one." Dark Rain gave Jason a thumbs up. "Hopefully that will teach them not to come after me again."
The freelancers picked up the tables and chairs off the floor and set them back up in their proper places, then sat down and went back to talking as if nothing happened. Gramps released a small army of mini-mechaniloids to clean the place up, and after making Dark Rain start cleaning the shelves of the alcohol he called up the repair shop he usually did after such attacks on The Pit. Soon after the phone rang and Gramps picked it up, it was obvious by the way he was talking that it was a possible client.
"Well Gramps?" Several freelancers asked as soon as he hung up the phone.
"Yes it was someone that requires the unique assistance of a freelancer, someone that's willing to pay quite a bit of money." Gramps confirmed as he wrote some stuff down on a piece of paper. "But I'm giving this one to Rever since he just saved our collective backsides." He handed the paper to Jason as several others groaned.
"Thanks Gramps, I'll get on it right away." Jason looked at the paper and started heading for the door.
Just then the phone rang again and Gramps grabbed it as several freelancers tried to listen in.
"I got dibs on this one!" Dark Rain called out.
"Oh no you don't." Gramps growled. "That attack was because of you so you're going to be staying here to help clean up. This one's going out to whoever else fits the job the best."
Jason heard Dark Rain groan and everybody else cheer as he stepped out the door, he just shook his head and laughed as he made his way through the debris in the parking lot. First he'd have to go back to his ship so that he could pick up his armor and tell Angel he had a job, then he'd head for the address that was written down on the paper. It was in New York itself so he wouldn't even have to fly anywhere; he continued on back towards the mag-lev station, wondering if this job was going to be as easy as the last.
