PAINT MY GOODBYE RED
Chapter 27: Clarity
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Oh yeah, more about the PMGR 7k views celebration—I'll be considering all the chapters you write for the celebration as non-canon, but only because I don't want to restrict your creativity by policing your writings. This isn't a competition or a call for ideas—this is just for fun, and so that I can get to know you better, too. I'll be delaying chapter 30 to give you more time. It's also because I have pictures to draw.
Also, aylengm, I have never watched D-Gray Man. If I make a reference, I'll state it at the end of the story via Author's Notes.
I left the command room the next day after Zero took me to talk to Signas over my decision for the fight against Gungaroo the next day. I had decided against using special weapons, and to duel Gungaroo one-on-one.
"Very well, I trust you. But if you get too injured, then you'll have to let Zero and X intervene. This is still a mission, and that fact takes the highest priority." was one of the last sentences Signas had said.
Well, I can't blame him. This is still a mission, even though this'll be the last time I'm seeing Gungaroo.
"So, Axl…" Zero said to me as we walked away from the command room. "Gate and Douglas are hogging the R&D room working on the special weapons for tomorrow. And tomorrow, you've decided to duel Gungaroo…can you tell me about it? Or would you rather train? Oh yeah, can't forget yesterday—you actually synced with my saber."
I inhaled as I thought—training would be alright, although it might relax my nerves if I tell Zero about what happened between me and Gungaroo. But at the same time, I should also figure out what was yesterday's synchronisation all about. Wait. Speaking of yesterday…
"Ah, sorry, Zero, but I kind of…remember when Crowrang said that the Professor's weakness is Splash Laser?" I said.
"Oh. Oh, yeah, so?" Zero replied.
"We're the only ones with Warfly's special weapons. X doesn't have any of that." I added.
"Oh yeah, shit." Zero cursed, facepalming. "But it's still a long way away, right? We can always think about it later. For now, we should talk about tomorrow." Zero continued.
I guess training would be the best way to go about this. Ride-armour piloting is OK, but I have a fragile frame and even though I can hit hard, I can't take as many hits.
"Right, so we should head to the training room. Tomorrow I'll have a ride armour duel with Gungaroo before we proceed to punching and kicking each other." I explained.
"Whoa, Axl, what the hell?" Zero chuckled. "Martial arts?"
"Didn't expect that, did you?" I replied. "But I can actually hit pretty hard."
"Ooooh, I gotta find out for myself. Wanna spar with me?" Zero offered.
My eyes widened as I leaned back. Me? Spar with Maverick Hunter Zero? This is a no-brainer.
"Sure, Zee. Awesome." I accepted with a huge grin on my face.
"Do I happen to look like this Gungaroo?" Zero asked.
"Kind of far from it. Were you expecting a huge momma kangaroo lookalike? He's actually half your height." I answered, giggling lowly at the end.
"Oh dammit." Zero cackled. "So I'm a bigger target. I hope you don't mind the lowered difficulty."
"Nah, it's fine, Zero. It's better to spar with you than a training dummy." I replied, telling the truth. Sure, we can configure training dummies, but it's doesn't feel the same as training with an actual person.
We headed for one of the training rooms in this floor, and then we saw the S-rank mini-room's interface:
TRAINING ROOM STATUS: OCCUPIED [NOT LOCKED]
OCCUPANT: X [TIME ELAPSED: 3 HOURS]
Wait, how can one occupy, but not lock the training room?
Zero heaved a big sigh. "X, you stupid idiot."
"Wait, Zero." I said. "Why is it occupied, but not locked?"
"Well, it's a system we have here to prevent people from hogging the training rooms for too long. B-ranks and below aren't allowed to lock training rooms. A-ranks and S-ranks can, because they're the one undertaking more dangerous missions." Zero explained. "There's a queue system and time limits, but we won't get into that now yet. For now I just need to…"
At the end of his speech, he tapped his Hunter ID card on the scanner and pressed the bell near the card scanner.
"Zero?" X's voice was heard after the bell was pressed.
"Hey, X." Zero replied in an annoyed tone of voice. "It's 9 AM. You've been slaving yourself in this chicken coop for 3 hours. I demand an explanation."
"I just…" X stuttered out. "Hold on, I'm opening the door."
A few seconds later, the door slid open, revealing a weary-faced, heavy-eyed X. Zero was right when he said that X had been "slaving himself"…
"Hey, Axl." X greeted me with a small smile—in fact, the biggest smile he can smile in this state.
"Hi, X." I said, forcing a smile to be polite—I just feel sad, looking at him like this.
"Ahem." Zero loudly cleared his throat. "X. Did you sleep?" he started interrogating X.
"No." X answered, hanging his head. "I tried. I couldn't."
"Why?" Zero asked, his voice a bit gentler.
"I just…I feel useless after yesterday. You got hurt. I was an idiot." X confessed.
"X, you were just being cooperative. You shouldn't beat yourself over trying to save Axl, even though you didn't need to." Zero assured.
"I…I should've noticed the white jets on his boots. If I had let him, you wouldn't have to fend off Crowrang alone, with just one hand." X insisted.
"Look at me, X. Does it look like what happened yesterday matters now?" Zero questioned.
"N-no…" X stuttered out. "But still, I…I don't want to mess up again! Something worse can happen!"
"You've learned already. No need to destroy yourself over this." Zero said as he led X away, and I followed him. He led X to the men's bathroom and showers, and we stopped in front of the sinks. "Now, look at yourself." Zero said.
X stared at his reflection in the mirror—he finally saw what Zero and I saw. Heavy, droopy eyes—he's clearly still sleep-deprived. And since reploids don't require sleep, he could've just taken E-tanks, but apparently, he hasn't been gulping any.
"Does it look like you need to stop?" Zero gently questioned, as X's eyes widened—as wide as it can get in his sleepy state, anyways—in horror over his own reflection.
"My god." X remarked. "I…Zero, I'm…I worried you, I'm sorry…"
Zero sighed. "It's okay, X. Just take your rest, alright?"
"Yeah, thanks a lot, Zee." X said, smiling as wide as he can. "Bye, Axl."
"Bye, X. Don't punish yourself like that, alright?" I replied.
"I promise." X huffed out.
"You better, X. Now off you go." Zero said.
X just nodded and waved at us before he washed his face and left.
"Sorry about that, Axl." Zero apologized once X's left the training room.
"No, it's okay. I understand his feelings. A lot." I replied, remembering how my first year in Red Alert was like—most everyone, except for a select few, always treated me like a kid who couldn't do jack shit, so I worked hard to be useful.
"Bless his heart." Zero sighed. "Sometimes he sacrifices himself way too much for others. I wish he knew how much we don't like seeing him get hurt."
I can't help but feel that Zero's second sentence was a bit hypocritical—having read as much as I could on both him and X, Zero's sacrificed himself to death twice. X probably doesn't want a third sacrifice, that's why…but in the end he just took the "misery ball" away from Zero. But of course, I can't tell Zero that. It's impolite, and I don't think I have the right to police their relationship.
"He'll understand, Zero." I responded, trying to give Zero hints to what I really think without being offensive. "You explained it to him really well."
"Heheh, thanks, Axl." Zero chuckled. "Well, let's get to training, yeah?"
We entered the training room, and Zero locked it. Afterwards, we readied our battle stances.
"Any questions before we go?" I asked Zero, just in case he needs to know something before we start beating each other up.
"Nope. I'll start asking when we're done." Zero replied. "Ready, Axl?"
"Ready." I responded—that was our cue.
We dashed towards each other, but just as I was only a few distances in front of Zero, I jumped over him, somersaulted and landed on my feet before swing-kicking Zero's head, shattering one of his ear cones.
"Ow!" Zero cried out. "You slippery bastard!" he said as he turned back to punch me, but I dodged by backflipping.
"I have to be if my target is smaller than me!" I yelled back.
"Are you calling me a fat slob?" Zero jokingly yelled.
"You're calling yourself a fat slob!" I added to the joke as I watched Zero run towards me.
I ran towards him, and swooped downwards, kicking his leg. Zero almost lost his balance, but he didn't—and stepped on my boot instead!
"God dammit!" I cursed.
"Got you nooooooow!" Zero cackled, his foot underneath my leg.
I said nothing, instead kicking my other leg—which happened to be underneath his crotch—upwards, as hard as I can.
Zero shrieked like a displeased human baby afterwards. My kick had cracked his crotch armour, on the bottom. His pain weakened his pressure over my other leg, and I slipped away.
"My masculinity!" Zero cried out.
"Zero, it's okay. We're not humans." I cackled—I'm not lying, though. He can get his dick fixed.
"Well, then let's see I shatter yours!" Zero joked as he tried to swing-kick me, but I grabbed his leg. But it was a bad move—he ended up flinging me away. I was launched across the room, and my back roughly slid on the floor until my head hit the wall.
"Argh, I was a dumbass." I cursed at myself as I got up—Zero is bigger and stronger than me, I should've known better than to try to grab him. Even if Gungaroo is small, I think the result would be the same. He's got more brute force, even though he's way smaller than me.
Zero let out some ugly laughter before advancing towards me, cracking his knuckles.
Oh god, this isn't gonna go well.
I got up and braced myself, adopting a defensive stance. Zero's big hands started punching me as soon as he got close, and I dodged every time—although sometimes, the dodge was narrow. One punch or two managed to crack the white extensions on my helmet. However, his body below the chest was open. I lifted my leg and kicked his stomach as hard as I can.
The kick was actually strong enough to the point that Zero almost lost his balance and started coughing.
"Damn, Axl, your football punts hurt like a bitch." Zero hissed as he held his stomach.
"Thanks." I chuckled. "You throw better punches than me, though, Zee." I complimented him back, telling the truth. He's only kicked once the whole fight, and I've never punched for the whole fight—guess we know each other's fighting style now. But the problem is, Gungaroo does both…
"Have I been a good substitute?" Zero asked, giggling at the end. Damn, it's like he read my mind.
"Well, actually…"
…
…
…
A few hours later, we were standing in front of X. My helmet was shattered, and Zero's was cracked. Zero's torso was absolutely trashed—I cracked one of his chest lights. My own chest light was destroyed, even though the rest of my torso was fine. Zero's boots were cracked, and my left gauntlet's also cracked. Of course, that's not counting the previous damage before I told Zero about Gungaroo's fighting style. I…cracked Zero's crotch armour with a kick, after all…
"What. Happened." X said, his arms folded, glaring at us. An angry X is so much scarier than an angry Zero. He's even scarier now that he's gotten enough rest. His eyes are sharp. Very sharp…
"Um. Training room." Zero replied.
"Yeah. Sparring for the next fight." I added.
"You idiots." X growled. "You're gonna have to spend the rest of the day being fixed up! What happened? Why are you two such a mess?" he questioned.
We pointed at each other at the same time. Oh boy, explaining everything to X, and then Douglas, is gonna be hard…
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Nothing much else to say about this chapter, aside from the fact that I love the call-back to Chapter 24 at the end.