Frenetic Dance

**Frenetic Dance** is the seventeenth chapter of Mega Man X: Unit 49's Season 2.

## Squad B versus Baronel

    The first half of the chapter focuses on the fight between Squad B (Zero, Encore and Red Thunder) with the Blue Moon Super Ride Armor in their possession against Baronel piloting the Red Sun in Earth's Army 3rd Hangar. Although seemingly in disadvantage, Baronel quickly disposed of Blue Moon's automatic laser cannons, which would counter his missile attacks. He eventually takes distance and shoots a *RS Meteor* at an opening in the roof to allow the passage of the Neo Maverick Army rescue ship, in order to get the Ride Armors out of there. He aims the second missile at the Blue Moon, but Red Thunder uses his Crimson Pulse to create a strong eletromagnetic pulse that paralyzes the enemy, but it also affects Zero and Encore, even shutting down their communicators and breaking the link with the base.

Around ten NMA soldiers enter through the breach and keep the Hunters busy for the next half minute, which was time enough to Baronel recover his mobility systems and get to fighting with his own hands, since the Red Sun was still disabled. Baronel reveals that he is a Altered New Generation Reploid able to change his own DNA program to create any tool or weapon he needs, and manages to handle the three Hunters by himself. During the fight, Baronel hits Encore's chest gem and notices he absorbed his entire attack, so he unsuccessfully shifts his focus to capture the Blue Moon, ending up grabbed by Encore, who convinced Red Thunder that he could absorb the roughly charged *BM Ray* while destroying Baronel in the process.

However, Baronel breaks free and Encore is forced out of his position. To protect Encore from the deadly beam, Zero raises his Z-Saber and absorbs most of it with his *Kyushuken*. Knowing that would destroy him, Kerbekeros orders Baronel to abort the mission, but he returns to the Red Sun and sets it to run towards Blue Moon with the RS Meteor turned on hoping to destroy both Ride Armors. However, Zero uses the absorbed energy to stop the Red Sun and protect his allies, but ends up being critically damaged.

Red Thunder's Crimson Pulse.Encore absorbs Baronel's fire blade.Zero's Kyushuken absorbs the BM Ray.

    After that move, Baronel believes he can capture both Zero and Blue Moon, but soon realizes it would be impossible while Encore was still alive, and he had not time nor fuel enough to take him out. Instead, he spent all the remaining fuel in his *Overdrive* ability to knock them away and buy time to escape with Zero. Although the plan had worked, Kerbekeros questions Baronel's change of mind, and before he could explain Encore's ability, Red Thunder boosts Encore upwards with Blue Moon's pistomatic punch and Encore lands in the NMA rescue platform, destroying Baronel's shields with a succession of attacks.

    Believing he could not fail in the first time his task served a purpose beyond someone's selfishness, Baronel grabbed Encore and threw them off the platform, then morphed into a kind of Sarcophagus to trap Encore while Zero was taken away. However, Red Thunder managed to take down the platform a few moments before it entered the ship and rescued Zero. Although Encore had all his joints locked without a proper angle to damage Baronel, he morphed one of his arms to pierce Baronel's inside and his head, ultimately destroying him. Encore survived the explosion although very injuried, and Red Thunder says he cannot count on luck forever while picking the damaged Z-Saber. Both are teleported back to base before the Earth Forces arrive.

## Squad A versus Corrosive Nagaxid

Squad A (X, Blue Knight, Ying and Illusion) find a test session in the Jamison Liquid Metal Engineering Facility with a liquid metal tube network. In the middle of the room, a pool starts fizzing and Corrosive Nagaxid emerges sitting in a throne. Unlike Cyrenox's description of her, she kindly receives the Hunters in her place and tries to talk to them. Blue Knight is tired of their talk and trying to justify the violence they are supporting, but Illusion reminds him of the reason they are there in the first place: to gather intel, so he allows Nagaxid to tell her story.

    After the ban on Copy Chips due to the Jakob Incident, the demand for alternative technologies for shapeshifting Reploids grew, so the Jamison LMEF researchers began enhancing an old technology (that was once used in Toxic Seahorse). However, powerful AIs who could sense all the aspects of the amorphous bodies were required to coordinate the morph process, and so the minds of the current Liquid Metal Reploids have been created. Most of the experiments ended in failure and those prototypes were discarded or died in the process. Those AIs were conscious like any other Reploid mind and being confined in test rooms, trapped in their own bodies and unable to assume a solid form was a torturing experience, but the researchers did not care since they were just experiments. One day, Kran invaded the place in search for new weapons for the Neo Maverick Army, but found the Liquid Metal Reploids instead. Kran released Nagaxid from her tube and kidnapped her, then took her to Saturn and the two taught her about the world and analyzed her powers. An unknown time after, Nagaxid was entitled with the Warchief position and came back to the Jamison LMEF with Neo Maverick soldiers to free her brothers, but most of them were already crazy and/or could not believe there was a world outside since their lives were the experiments, so the sane Reploids had to destroy their head nuclei as an act of mercy.

Still, X questions why Nagaxid had to join the NMA. Nagaxid begins to cry and says she want to save others that live under similar conditions and fight for the freedom for all Reploids. If Reploids cannot be free, then they must be stripped of their consciousness to not suffer. She had shaped her body to an human-ish appearance hoping they would understand her, but she gives up and turns into her true battle form. X orders Squad A to remain in an evasive tactic until they learn the extent of her powers. Blue Knight's Ice Buster had only three nitrogen packs left, and without a freezing ability they would might not be able to defeat her.

    During the fight, Blue Knight was the focus of Nagaxids attacks since she saw his ice shot. Nagaxid keeps jumping on the liquid metal tubulation to restore her liquid metal supply and also commands them wirelessly to make liquid metal discharges in the arena continously. Ying's nigh-clairvoyant senses are able to predict from which tubes she will come, until she begins expelling liquid metal from more than one tube. The liquid metal scattered in the place keeps growing, allowing Nagaxid to make ever stronger attacks, since the substance becomes part of her at the moment her body is in contact with it, allowing an exponential growth as long as there is enough liquid metal. At one point, she creates twelve spears at once. X defends Blue Knight and Ying with the Counterstrike Mirror acquired from Kran, nearly destroying Nagaxid with the counterattack.

    She gets angered for X using Kran's powers against someone he loved and begins fighting more aggressively, opening all the tubulations at once and turning into a *River of Snakes*. Blue Knight is forced to spend the penultimate nitrogen pack and the Hunters realize they will not survive her next attack. Illusion hides Blue Knight and Ying with his Mirage Drive while X tricks Nagaxid into thinking they had retreated. Nagaxid uses her Overdrive ability, the *Army of the Queen* to turn the entire liquid metal in the place into snakes and swordsmen shaped after Kran's image. X shoots a fully charged shot to break her defense and Blue Knight freezes her from the behind. Ying throws her saber at her head, wishing that would bring her serenity. A last tear of liquid metal is shed by Nagaxid and her body explodes.

Ying notices the Jammers activated in the facility had their signal strenghtened while they fought, as if it was reacting to their fight, making an analogy to Blue Knight's ability, but BK denies having something like that in his body. Ying fears that the Jammers will overload his mind once he gets too close, but he still leads Squad A to them.

## An unexpected encounter

Without showing a conclusion of the last scene, Falsetto appears running trying to locate the base, but he is not able to get the smallest signal from U49. Captain Elika reaches an area where the conflict was over (apparently) and tries to contact Nora, who also detects Elika despite the jamming. Elika is unsure if he has energy to teleport back to base and feels he is about to black out. A Reploid, supposed to be the Commander Duelist, appears in the sky destroying the huge 1st Class Mechaniloid from the Earth Army that made Mashcane, Killsight and Feros retreat last time, and lands in front of Elika. Falsetto comes to the place due to the loud noise of the explosion and begins watching the encounter. She somehow recognizes Captain Elika as a Maverick Hunter and becomes unsettled, unsure of her own words when saying she hated Elika. Falsetto jumps in the middle of them, and even though the jamming was weakened, Nora could not contact him. Elika finally runs out of energy and shuts down, thinking if he would join Rubre and the rest of his dead colleagues.