"Alright. If I see anymore guard dogs…" X looked down at his buster and imagined horrible things happening to them. The trip up to the 3rd floor was uneventful but X finally used his first bit of sub tank energy to max out his LE. He still had 175% left in the tank so he should be good for a while longer. When he made it to the 3rd floor he took a right and walked into another room with reploid production pods.

"Oh great another two bosses. We have a Plasma Energy Reploid: Knight Type named Scarface. And next t him we have Unknown Energy Manipulator: Test module…. Epsilon?" X started mashing the buttons on his communicator

"Hey X-"

"Zero I found Epsilon's production pod! There's a warning on the pod that states "Error occurred during production. Reploid required maintenance"

"wait he got produced here?" Zero asked suddenly looking very tense

"Yeah and there's another one named Scarface" X looked back at the other pod

"Wait let me check the middle of this floor on my side" For a few Second's Zero didn't say anything. Then he said. "Yeah. we have two on my side too…."

"So there are 12 of them? Shoot it's gonna be hard to beat all 12 of them…. Let's hurry up and get to the next floor."

"Hang on. I have a question to ask first. Do you think Scarface was made with a scar across his face?"

"uh..." X didn't know how to answer that

"I mean was he named that from the beginning? He must have if the name is on his production pod."

"Yeah I know his name is Scarface but-"

"That seems like the kinda thing that would be a nickname, not a real name. It's like if someone with a bad back was named Creaky." Zero seemed deep in thought "Was he created knowing that he had a scar or was it pretty much a coincidence that his name was Scarface. Actually, we don't even know if he has a scar anyway….. Shadow what do you think?" Shadow's hologram appeared next to Zero's

"Well personally I believe that they may have been given that name in an attempt to be intimidating or inspire fear in their opponents with or without the scar. It's similar to someone being named "The Crusher."

"… Did you guys just prattle on for more than 100 words about a reploid's name?" X was slightly annoyed

"Yes. Yes we did" Zero gave X a grin

"I'm just going to continue the mission now" X turned off the communicator and walked out of the development room. A quick search of the area revealed two more of those item boxes although one of them was a yellowish color and the other was green. the yellow one must have beem made to store sub tank energy because it filled X's up to 200%. The green one had a sub weapon in it.

"Melt missile?" according to his scan the melt missile was a special missile weapon that would degrade the enemy's shield. "Alright time to…. Wait how do I instal it?" X pulled out the instruction manual. "Alright it fits in a sub-weapon slot." he flipped to the next page "repair, cleaning, oh here we go. Installation."

20 minutes later

"Well. that was worthless." X threw the booklet away and tapped the communicator "Hey Zero how do you install a Melt-Missile?"

"You just connect it to your weapon energy cord and stick it wherever you want it" Zero acted like it was obvious

"….."

"You weren't having trouble putting it on were you?" Zero smirked at X

"N-no I just wanted to make sure I was putting it on right."

"You never were good at lying X." Zero still had that smug look on his face

"Did I hear that right?" Shadow had joined the conversation. "You didn't know how to equip a sub-weapon"

"I mean… I didn't usually use-"

"You are a legendary hunter and you didn't understand how to equip a sub-weapon? It's really easy!" Shadow was amazed an S class hunter like X could be stumped by something so easy

"Alright... it's just I never used them before" X blurted out before he could be interrupted "I don't even know where Zero learned how to equip them!"

"I just figured it out" Something is Zero's voice seemed suspicious

"Who explained it to you?"

"uh. n- nobody explained it to me. I figured it out all on my own" Zero looked away

"You are digging yourself deeper buddy"

"…. I asked all of the new hunters" The holographic Zero was now staring at the ground looking deeply ashamed

"Wow…...I can't believe you guys. Also, has anyone noticed we have just been sitting here?"

"Oh Shoot!" X shut off the communicator quickly put the melt missile together, Zero was right. It was easy to put together and ran into the room closest to the locked door X tried to open it up like last time but instead, it said "Area 3F-West. Disabling signal NOT SYNCRONIZED"

pipipi pipipi "Hey X? Our terminal just got a synchronization signal. Was that you?"

"Yeah. it was me. Zero can you send me a signal so I know when to hit the button?"

"How about I just say go? One two three GO!" X hit the button and the terminal said "Area 3F-West. Disabling signal SYNCRONIZED"

"Alright that's good Zero. Thanks buddy. Do you think anyone can trace the signal or anything?"

"Nah we should be good"

"Alright Zero" X turned around and opened the door only to suddenly be face to face with a short steely grey robot with an insignia on its head "ZERO WHY WOULD YOU LIE TO ME!"

"Government Maverick Hunter Detected! Neutralizing Target!" Its voice was so robotic X assumed he was fighting some sort of drone. The enemy robot opened the battle by jumping forward punching X in the gut with an electrified fist and then taking a quick jump backwards. X used the Melt-Missile to weaken its shield and then attacked with his buster knocking it flat on it's back. As it struggled to its feet X shot it again and this time, it's head was flung backwards even though it managed to get to its feet. It pointed at him with it's other hand which X realized a second later was a gun arm. It clumsily fired at X who sidestepped the attack and destroyed it with one last shot with the buster.

Pipipi pipipi "X are you okay? Shadow and I had to fight off a rebellion troop just now. Apparently, it's called a preon….."

"Yeah I'm fine but the main problem is that I'm worried about more of them showing up. I can take one of them out easily but if I get attacked by a few of them I might be in trouble."

"We need to group up then. Try and go up to the fourth floor as quickly as you can X. Good luck."

X was about to run off when he stepped on something and fell to the ground. "oww….. Wait… Force metal?" X had tripped on two small orb shaped chunks of force metal. "I will be taking these!" X scooped them both up and attached them. Almost immediately he felt full of energy and started sprinting up the stairs. Nothing came to meet him and he barreled into the 4th floor. He dashed through three item boxes which dropped a Backup, Build Shield and Subtank energy. Then X went into the door that led to the center of the floor. Zero was waiting for him.

"Hey X. You got here faster than I thought you would"

"Whatever Zero I'm here now. Where's Shadow?"

"He's trying to get up to the top floor already."

"Alright then Zero let's catch up with him." Before they could make any progress there was a crashing sound and the front half of an enormous hippo shaped robot burst through the wall and crashed to a halt in front of them

"….Who the heck is this?"

"Carefully Zero. I think he's stronger than the others." a vaguely obnoxious WARNING flashed up on X's HUD as he and the red robot dropped into their combat stances

Hello readers. I would appreciate it if you guys could drop a review on this story since this is my first ever story. Also I'm worried the early chapters are going to be boring but once the rest of the party comes together things should pick up. Right now I'm sorta stuck trying to make X be funny with only Zero and Shadow to back him up. Thanks for reading!