[AUTHOR'S NOTE]
Well, here you go, guys. Something big this way comes. Till next time! And of course, comments crits and suggestions are welcome at any time.
Chapter 13: Sky Spar
Shortly after Iris retreated back to her/Axl's room, Axl frowned heavily at Lumine. He asked him to stand up. They both did. And … Axl threw a fist at Lumine's face.
"Ah!" He was not expecting that. He was expecting something harsher, though. This fist merely made it hurt. He didn't even stubble backwards or crash on the floor.
"Bro … I'm glad that you know how to sort dad's things out … what you did over the few days with all the humans … they were all impressive. I'm also glad that you're being honest with me, on what you did, but … was it really necessary to bring up this old wound!? Are you seriously going to involve the guys back in HQ with something so old such as Giga City!?" Axl couldn't help but shout. "It's not necessary. Not needed at all."
"I just told them to prepare for battle … tomorrow. That's it. I didn't say anything else."
"That means … you haven't told them about Giga City at all?" Axl asked to confirm.
"Y – yes. It was just a suggestion. I haven't done that, no." Lumine then saw what went wrong. "Oh, it's my way of saying it. Sorry. No. I … I didn't mean that. I only wanted to apologize to you what I did in Giga City, that's all, as your brother. That's it."
Axl sighed with relief. "Great, great. Please don't say things in such a misunderstanding way … and I'm glad you talked this with me. Well, the main reason I wanted the guys at HQ to know what's going on is just because … they saved me, you know. On the Moon? They deserve some knowledge, at the very least. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, you practically own us Hunters now, as head of dad's corporation. You'd need to convince them you're good too."
"Alright, thanks." Lumine rubbed his face and gestured respectfully to him. "What do you recommend I should do?"
"Well … I have a solution. Just bring them to … Abel Sector-Two. Let's just say … yeah, a battle of honour is good. Those guys still think you're a Maverick, they definitely don't like it you attacked me on the Moon … let's try to settle differences based on that. You explain to them about you passing over into myself, somehow … my body cleansed you of the Virus, and make up some story of like that about wanting to redeem yourself. We can't tell them a lot of stuff, it'd just complicate things. Using this battle to get back at you for this … pretty sound motivation for me. Let's hope it goes the way I think it will be."
"I … I will do my best. Thanks, Axl. I … really thank you from the bottom of my heart."
"Ah, yeah …" Axl fumed. "You attacking me DID cost me three months of my life. You're here and good, but let me get back to you for that, okay? The pain was too much."
"You got it, Axl." Lumine smiled. "Leave the rest to me. I'll clear it up."
They did a bro-fist, and the bad air between them was gone.
"About Giga City, I obviously don't like it when you killed my friends in cold blood. But … given what's happened to us recently, and they were badmouthing dad … what comes must come. Make of that what you will. I still think you're a good brother."
Axl sat down to continue with his pizza. Lumine remained beaming at him.
The next day, at Abel Sector-Two. An entire floating platform for airships belonging to Prez Corp was reserved for their honour battle. The ordeal was still being broadcasted to solely the Hunter HQ. Naturally, all the Hunters were watching back at base.
Iris and Axl came together from Prez Corp. The staff recognized them. X and Zero came as well. After the four had gathered, they were left to a hangar space to wait.
"You could've told me about it, Axl! The whole thing! I had my heart worried almost the whole day yesterday! You meanie!" Iris finally pouted at him. "Why did you have to wait until this morning only to update me that you and Lumine are now okay!?"
"Ow, okay, sis! Okay! Stop whacking me! Ow!" Axl desperately tried to shield himself. "I'm really sorry! It slipped my mind. I was training the whole day yesterday for this fight! You even caught me sleeping in the training room in the labs this morning, remember?!"
"So … you really were with Axl's person the whole time …" X could only awe. Zero had repeated the entirety of Iris' story to him after Iris left for her home.
"Pleasure seeing you again, X!" She said chirpily. "Well, in my own self, not through Axl's eyes, hehe."
"So … basically, we need to put on some kind of face so that all of HQ understands, then we fight for real? We fight to avenge …?" X asked again to clarify.
"I didn't like it that his tentacle-thing hurt me a lot, and made me go coma for a few months. We're making him pay back for that." Axl gestured with his fists.
Huh, that's more or less what I thought, Zero thought inwardly.
The platform was large. More accurately, it's almost like a stadium, except spectator seats are replaced with many hangars for small airships to land and depart. The entire of this stadium-like structured platform was empty. Well, when the hangar door opened, there was someone there waiting for them at the center. They walked up to him.
"Greetings. You've kept me waiting for a while." Lumine smiled lightly at them.
All Hunters back at HQ were indeed watching. Very few people knew who Iris was, so they didn't mind the brunette standing beside Axl. They were definitely waiting for the 'Maverick' to explain himself, and how this 'battle of honour' will turn out.
"You may have won over a lot of humans and Reploids in the past few days … but you've yet to convince me you're good." X started nicely. "For all we know … you could still be a Maverick. It's best for you to own up now."
"Of course." He simply smiled at X. "It's simple. When I was a Maverick, I passed myself onward into the prototype. I wanted to take over his body and continue the rebellion against the old world. But somehow … Axl's body systems are too strong. It attacked me but preserved me. Then, my mind became crystal clear. I … remembered everything."
The Reploids said nothing. The camera crew continued broadcasting. Back at the HQ, there were a few dissatisfied voices who continued grumbling lines "Nonsense" "Lies" and "Fake".
"I … I was not a Maverick at all. I had a double corruption. One was obviously Sigma, whom you've defeated for good, and second … well, it was a greedy human who wanted to get back at my human creator. My human creator wanted the best for me, and five years ago when I was first corrupted … everything has been sort of a haze since. Until Axl cleansed me." The white Reploid's face showed genuine gratitude and humility.
Iris smiled to herself, holding onto Axl's left arm a little tighter.
"He was patient with me, even though he could've chosen to destroy me, but … he allowed me to go back to my human creator and reclaim the rightful place he had long dreamt of giving to me. My place at Prez Corp. I see it not as a desire for domination, but a desire to inherit and build up an ancient dream for a peaceful world. That is all. And … I will do whatever it takes to show to you that I mean every word I said."
Zero smirked. "Sure … we duke it out. Now. If you're an honourable Reploid as you claim to be … come at me with your full strength." He took out his saber.
"I still don't like it that you made me into a coma for so long, Lumine. When I whoop you upside-down, I consider it we're even." Axl aimed his guns at him. Iris promptly left him.
"Me too." X aimed his buster at the Reploid. "I'm not satisfied. Prove yourself!"
The white Reploid smiled. "My pleasure. Don't cry if you lose." His eyes shone dark red.
Instantly the entire platform rumbled. The camera crew steadied their positions. Back at HQ, caught up with the euphoria of witnessing the legendary Hunters – and Axl – in a battle, various Hunters roared in support. "Get him!" "Beat him up good!" "End him!"
Alia couldn't help but be scornful. "Such behaviour …"
"Come get some!" Zero rushed and dashed to Lumine, aiming his charged-up saber to deal a huge blow on him.
"We can make this so very interesting. This old platform needs to be recycled anyway, so …" Lumine stretched his right hand, covering almost half of the stadium-like structure in a purple aura which, when he clenched his fist tightly, smashed all of them into broken chunks of constituent metal, concrete, pipes, infrastructure – the works. "Have at you."
"AH!" A single gesture of his finger sent a giant mess of concrete, metal and debris lumped as one slamming straight to Zero with pain. Debris kept flying around the place.
Axl wasted no time firing his bullet shots and cause many of the smaller lumps to disintegrate and fly off as debris. X was running straight at Lumine, blasting every big lump of mess coming straight at him. He reserved a charged-up shot to blast into his target's face.
"Oh X, that's just so naïve." Lumine thrust his left palm forward to generate a shield that held back his blast. "Everything here is under my control. Do you really think you can win?"
"I have to try! Take that!" X released several giant shots to tackle the shield, but he also repeatedly circled his target to try and sneak any shots to him.
The platform was utter chaos. The camera crew were surprisingly safe. It was like a tornado that only stayed on the platform as it was told to, eternally having all the crushed debris and structures whirl in circles with Lumine at the center. Other humans and Reploids elsewhere initially unaware of the battle suddenly noticed. They awed in fear and shock. Even Hunters back at HQ couldn't decide how to react upon seeing such a site of battle.
"Face me with your strength, not with your protection!" Zero, full of spirit, jumped from one end to the other to jump at him. "I'm coming too!" Axl exclaimed.
"If you insist." Lumine had the tornado continue as normal, had some of his purple energy morph into a lance, grabbed it and began attacking to stab Zero. Zero grumbled as he now not only had to try and injure Lumine, he had to defend himself against the much-faster attacks.
"Haha! You can't defend yourself now!" Axl released his array of non-stop shots.
"Oh you silly brother." The White Reploid stopped engaging in Zero by kicking him far away, briefly swung his lance in all angles to deflect X's charged shots and then repeatedly the same thing to deflect Axl's bullets. "During the time I spent with our father, I trained a lot in the ways of fighting, out of sheer curiosity. A lack of weapons is nothing to me."
"Ah! You won't get me!" Axl barely dodged an incoming stab-move. Not content, the white Reploid continued thrusting his lance repeatedly, while Axl dodged, barely able to even pull the trigger to fire. Axl gritted his teeth. One stab almost made it to his nose.
Lumine shifted the lance around and thrust the lance's harmless end into Axl's chest.
"AH! Ow! That really hurts – ngghh!" Axl rolled off in the distance, narrowly avoiding a huge chunk of debris slamming on the ground and floating back up again.
Iris had been watching close from one of the camera crew's position. She was unharmed when half of the stadium-like structure had been crushed to create the messy tornado. She clenched her fingers on a railing. "Guys, please be careful …"
"There you go!" X released a bigger charge shot at Lumine. The latter morphed his lance into a very very big buster and fired a single purple shot that decimated X's shot and dealt to him much pain and damage. X's scream was audible through the explosion.
"Still not done!" Zero burst through the smoke and viciously slammed his saber on Lumine. Predictably, he morphed the purple energy from the buster into a simple 4-foot-long sword. He smiled gently and engaged again with Zero. "Nrggh!"
"Don't worry, Zero. This time, I'll make sure no one interrupts our little fencing." He smiled gently. His right hand continued the sword-saber fight with Zero, while his left hand was raised. The purple energy manifested around the remaining half of the stadium-like structure and crushed it to form more flying debris. A lone abandoned airship in the hangars was crushed and more metal debris came flying into the mix.
"I can have some trailing attacks at X and Axl too. Shall we continue?"
He snapped his left fingers and many murderous-looking fiery orbs manifested in mid-air. The orbs allowed some formless energy to bud off from its being, the fully budded energy turned into 20 orbs of electric which that rained down everywhere else but himself and Zero.
"Don't get so full of yourself. I can still fight on." Zero pushed his saber against the sword.
"What are you talking about? If none of you can defeat me when I'm pulling all these minor punches … can that be really considered your best?" Lumine continued slicing and dicing.
"It's good to hear Iris is doing fine under your supervision." Zero snickered.
"Yes, she's an important person to me as well. No one will harm her." Lumine smiled back.
X and Axl got back up from their predicaments. Axl wasn't injured that much, but X felt like much of his health was depleted. "He really wasn't holding back, was he?"
"Yeah … Iris did say that when we fought him on the Moon, comparatively I think, even that Maverick him was fighting us very lightly. Oh no! Homing energies! Move, X!"
Huge explosions occurred through the platform. The humans and Reploids on the ground below screamed and ran away, not wanting to be involved – even if the explosions seem rather contained and did not spread beyond the borders of the floating platform.
"This … this is too much …" A female Hunter murmured. She never expected this amount of carnage inflicted by a single Reploid. "Can they win …?"
The mood in the Hunter HQ became worse. Everyone became sullen, the hopes of defeating their Reploid boss increasingly slight and dim. No one knew how to respond.
Iris was somewhat relieved. Through all the time she watched the fight, Lumine never once bore a sinister smile just like the time he was a Jakob director, or a Maverick. He was playing along and genuinely enjoying himself. For the better. "Win, guys … win."
"Nrggh … you're really good at this!" Zero gritted his teeth, as he failed so far to even land a blow on Lumine. "Too bad you're not a HQ personnel, I could really use the practice!"
"Ha ha. I'm flattered." Lumine smiled as he withdrew his sword. "Just keep trying." He morphed his sword into a simple stick and very swiftly swung it through Zero's body.
"AAAHH!" Zero felt as if he was exploding from the inside – not really though, just a really powerful series of explosions at Zero's extreme proximity. The smoke blew away quickly.
"Seriously, fellows, can you use some creativity in fighting me?" Lumine said loudly. "At this rate, you'd probably only wear me out in a few years' time. I don't want you all dead."
X and Axl have been desperately trying to avoid the homing energies Lumine had conjured autonomously. Zero lied on the ground on his back, severely injured. A huge concrete debris nearly crashed onto his body, but Lumine flicked his finger once and the huge debris was utterly decimated to become finer dust.
"We can do away with this tornado. Things aren't that exciting anyway." Lumine gestured and instantly the tornado was no more. The entire platform was soon a wrecked place, with the debris collapsing to the ground. Axl and X dodged many of the falling massive pieces. They however failed to notice as many as 50 homing energies coming towards them.
They screamed in pain. The massive explosions damaged their health a lot. The white Reploid snapped his fingers and the autonomous homing energies all vanished. His eyes stopping shining red, reverting back to the usual yellow.
Two lone remnants of the stadium-like structure stood still amidst a disaster zone. Iris came up to him safely, and pouted: "Lumine, you're too overpowered."
"Oh Iris, that was nothing. Even you put up a decent fight with me."
"But isn't that because we fight with our nuclear energies? These guys can't do what we can. Even Axl can't! Maybe some kind of leniency can be imposed?" She asked with a frown.
"Ow … Iris … that's not how it goes." Axl pushed a big slab of concrete that almost crushed him away. "Ow … we all agreed that Lumine fight us with his full force. To show handicap on his part would be really embarrassing for us. Because we wouldn't be fighting as equals."
"I learnt from past experience, including all the Mavericks you Hunters ever fought. No Maverick boss has ever attempted to constantly protect themselves, right?" Lumine shrugged.
"Ow … that's true. But, tell you what, Lumine." Axl winked at him. "Let's … let's go for it again. I tell you, we can do it. Do whatever you want."
Lumine smiled. "Well, I admit all these wreckage and the tornado might be distracting, so I will not use that further. Just my usual attacks. Bring it on."
"You won't win … not as long as I'm still up!" X emerged from underneath sand, concrete pieces and twisted metal. "I'm still up … I will get you …"
Zero also got up. "You're really not bad … that only pumps me up even more!"
"Very well, come at me." Lumine's eyes shone red again, and a series of waves pulsated from his being spreading outward. Iris yelped and hurried away back to safety.
The mood back at the Hunter HQ was extremely solemn. Every Hunter realized that whatever the more performing or even legendary Hunters did, they practically did not even scratch their new Reploid boss. The atmosphere can even be said to be grave.
The battle began again. Lumine fired from his left open palm a non-stop barrage of multiple attacks – homing comet-like energies, an endless meteor raining on the place, energy balls that look like bombs that randomly explode at any location, autonomous shields here and there. The Hunters dashed away to get breathing space, and attempted to analyse it all.
"Close up attacks might be best. I noticed he doesn't attack me with the energy things when I used my saber a lot." Zero hissed to X and Axl. "Maybe that's the secret."
Iris saw their lips moving from afar. "Oh no … guys, don't talk … Lumine's new body has an improved audiosensory skills … he can even hear me from far away."
The white Reploid smiled. "No worries, Iris, I won't use it against them in fairness."
He formed an energy-aura machine gun that fired numerous rounds of shots at Axl. He gasped and retreated from his brother for a short while. X and Zero mentally traced each falling energy blast here and there, and they each found their own routes to head directly to Lumine. The white Reploid took notice of that, and prepared to face them like.
"Here we go." Lumine conjured back his huge buster and fired giant charged shots at both of them. Each blast nearly sent them flying. The two Hunters gritted their teeth as they pushed through to Lumine. X had a charged shot ready, Zero tightened his grip on his saber.
"AH!" The two shouted and unleashed their attacks. Lumine was pleased.
X for his part kept charging and firing his shots non-stop, undeterred even if Lumine's giant buster shots were dangerously close to wiping out his health. Most of X's charged shots were neutralized by the giant buster shots, but those that inched closer to him were met with a repelling shield that deflected all of them away. He did notice X inching closer and closer.
Zero kept slicing and dicing. He didn't care if he felt tired or was going beyond his limits. He just wanted to get some kind of damage dealt. The white Reploid released a master orb from his left palm that continued every autonomous attack for him. He morphed a glaive into existence and clashed with Zero's saber. The slicing and dicing continued.
"Almost got you! I'm so close to your face!" Zero shouted, relishing his moment.
"Here's a moment for you." Lumine quickly morphed a small dagger and swiftly slashed into across Zero's face – without harming his eyes. There was pain, but no explosions. Zero didn't scream, he sucked it up and endured the pain. "NNNNGGH…."
"RAAH!" Axl came running into and fired his bullet shots at the white Reploid. Many homing energies came chasing after him. "Here we go!" Axl quickly rolled on the ground.
"What!? This trick again!" The white Reploid conjured a much thicker energy shield that before which confronted all the homing energy arrays. Axl held onto the ground as massive explosions blew a great gust of wind throughout the platform.
"URGH!" The white Reploid could be heard grunting.
X did not fire a shot at Lumine at all, instead just a fist he prepared. It smacked him right in the face, and in that lapse of not paying attention, Zero managed to swing his saber diagonally across Lumine's body, giving the impression Zero sliced him in half.
"Here's the shot I'm aiming for." X fired a charged shot straight in his chest, the impact of the blast sending himfar away to crash into a huge hunk of concrete wall.
"Ah … oh that's good." Lumine managed to stand up immediately and look at the damage done. Zero's saber did not cut through his body, but instead cracked a huge line across his energy shield. His body shone again. "Let's give you some deserts then."
"Oh no … he's preparing something again." Zero stopped and panted to collect his strength.
"Let's just go! Don't stop! Even if it bursts our engines!" X exhorted him to continue.
"Huh, don't worry about that, guys! I got this!" Axl dashed past them.
"Be crushed!" Lumine gathered his strength and aroused many smaller debris into four huge slabs of tough matter. He directed two each to X's and Zero's sides and gestured such that the slabs zoomed into each other to crush the Hunters.
"Try and dodge it – AH!" X managed to escape a few times before finally being caught. The pain was far more excruciating than before. He couldn't continue. He collapsed.
"No X! AH!" Zero's attention was briefly diverted, and that alone was opening enough for Lumine's slabs of concrete-like things to crush him. Similarly, it was too much.
"Not me, bro! I got this!" Axl stopped within two feet of Lumine, briefly shocking his brother, and then stepped back and fired his barrage of bullet shots.
"Ngh!" Lumine formed his shield. The bullets did not penetrate through the shield, but Axl continued anyway. Lumine was surprised. The relentless shots did eat away at the shield bit by bit. "I'm not letting you, Axl!"
He powered up his shield, easily undoing all the damage and sent it firing at Axl. Axl dodged in time and threw in his fists and leg kicks to his brother.
"Ah … classic combat. Let's do this." Lumine made every other autonomous energy attacks vanish and concentrated the power in his arms, as he readied himself a close combat stance.
"Let's, bro!" Axl threw in his fists non-stop. "I want the fruits of my training yesterday!"
They duked it out. Axl aimed his fists not just at Lumine's neck, but everywhere possible – shoulders, forearm, chest, gut, all that. The white Reploid countered with defensive toughening of the arms, and managed to hurt Axl in the face and chest as well.
Axl wasn't giving up. It is true he has always relied on his guns to deliver his type of attacks, but by sheer chance during training he figured something unorthodox would do. He had calmed himself down – although he had never punched or kicked anyone before in his life, he imagined himself in the worst possible scenario of fighting, and concluded that close combat and throwing in virtually everything he had, no matter how chaotic, might just work.
"AH!" Lumine shouted as Axl managed a quick kick to his hips. "I can play like that too!"
He lunged his right leg straight at Axl's face, throwing him off close to the edge of wherever he was at the platform. Lumine gave chase and slammed his fist directly on Axl's head, sending it crushing to the ground. Axl sucked it up and delivered an upper cut to his chin.
"UGH! Not bad at all, Axl!" The two continued their fist-throwing and kicks, with Axl even capable of deflecting and thwarting these kicks to deliver his own. It went on and on.
"Whoa …" X awed. "Axl's really going for it." The Hunter managed to collect himself and walk close to where the brothers were duelling. "He might actually do it."
"Ow … seriously, he packs a good punch." Zero tried to clean himself as much as he could.
Axl lunged himself forward, throwing both fists into Lumine's chest. He was stunned. Axl gave his last punch, sending Lumine rolling back. Not even a shout. His eyes were yellow.
"Oh no!" Axl realized what he just did. He sent his brother rolling over to fall from the platform. He dashed as fast as he could, and he barely made it by grabbing onto Lumine's right arm. He was hanging in mid-air. He grabbed onto Axl's arm in turn.
"Argh … hah … hah … Axl, you caught me. But … why? It's a battle of honour. You could've let me go. Let me fall." Lumine continued holding onto Axl's arm despite what he just said. "Besides … you know I can fly on my own."
"It's a battle of honour, not a battle to the death, younger bro!" Axl shouted. "You don't have to take it THAT far, man! Seriously! Use some brains for the common sense department!"
His younger brother said nothing, merely looking back at him. Axl continued: "Besides, you enjoyed the battle, didn't you? If you really wanted anyone dead, you would've hacked and slashed and slaughtered them in an instant. But you didn't do that to me, X and Zero. Heck, you didn't even use your ability to fly throughout the whole fight! That to me is proof – proof you want us to just accept you for who you are on fair terms, right?"
"Ha … ha … ha ha ha ha ha!" Lumine could help but laugh. "I guess I am silly in that way, ain't I? Alright … you guys win! I concede! You guys are truly impressive."
The two Hunters sighed. "Well … winning by a stroke of kindness." X dusted himself. "If that's not the best kind of victory, then I don't know what is."
"Indeed. Come on, let's go get him up." Zero and X rushed to help Axl pull Lumine back up. The battle was over. The four Reploids lied on the floor, debris, whatever, and rested there.
All that was caught on camera. Iris beamed as she too heard it. The whole HQ now heard is from Axl's mouth that type of acknowledgment. No one sane would acknowledge someone insane as their sibling, or comrade at least. The Hunters heard everything said whenever there was not a battle. Even earlier when Lumine stopped attacking. Discomfort quickly arose.
"He and Axl … are brothers? To think someone so controversial is related to our Axl …"
"But … they look and feel kind of natural together, you know what I mean?"
"It's going to be hard to see Axl like usual from now on …" More murmurs continued.
Palette had her arms folded as she looked on. This atmosphere can be said to be the same for other Hunters elsewhere watching the battle. "This is not good …"
Alia and Layer sighed as well. "I'll just check on the other chambers too." Layer went off.
The platform was an utter mess, but it didn't matter. Lumine had made sure no debris or mess fell to the surface below. The camera crew hurried to pack up and leave, now that the battle was over. Iris came over. All four Reploids by now were sitting. They dusted any dirt off their bodies. She sighed, and briefly gave Lumine a hug. Zero felt his eye twitch.
Everyone stood up. The sky was partly cloudly, but there was some visible blue. Lumine thanked them for their participation, also saying that they did their best, and will continue to work for everyone's best interest, even if all Reploids don't accept him. X and Zero gladly acknowledged it, relieved that one standing issue has come to a close.
"See you next time, Axl. If you need me, just call me. I need to clean up for some meetings." The white Reploid waved his hand gently at his siblings and teleported off in a breeze.
"I'm bushed. I need some Energon. Make that, a LOT of Energon." X said.
"Tell me about it. I haven't felt like this in ages …" Zero said. They savoured the wind for a while before leaving. The city beneath them appeared calm, solitary, peaceful …
Everyone walked down the path to where they knew the registration booth was – which was largely safe from the whole battle. Iris held onto Axl closer, mumbling that she would get a Prez Corp construction team to dismantle this platform. Axl smiled at Iris. Zero couldn't help but notice her being extra cuddly to Axl. His eye twitched again.
"They can take care of her … I'm sure of that." Zero convinced himself.
They teleported back. Outside the HQ, it's as if no one was aware of their battle earlier – which is true. The only ones to greet them were the three – Layer, Palette and Alia.
"Welcome back, fellows … and Axl … it feels like it's been a while since we've last seen you." Alia looked both happy and sad. "A really long while."
"Thanks … phew … no massive celebration? That's unfair." Axl looked around.
"Literally everyone had things to do, even Signas. It's just the three of us." Layer gestured.
"That explains why you can eat and drink human nutrition. Kind of." Palette frowned at him. "From your behaviour, I already long suspected there was something different about you."
"Axl! You weren't supposed to show anyone, not even leave a bit of evidence, that you too can eat!" Iris instantly pouted at him. "P – Palette, how'd you find out about that?"
"Um … have we met?" The young navigator was slightly unnerved. "Anyway, there was footage of Axl drinking a soda at the park outside not too long ago …"
"Uh, Axl's … and Iris' case here are special." Zero's arms rested each on both their shoulders. "But that's what I heard … come on, let's head to X's office. I'll tell it all."
"The mood might be bad around here though." Layer warned Axl, as everyone walked. "We all saw your battle, you've clearly won legitimately, but not every Hunter is going to accept so quickly that you and Lumine are brothers. You'd be okay with that?"
"I – I'll try … haha." Axl sighed. "I did my best after all."