"Y'know, I'd always thought of Vile as something of a nice guy," murmured Violen, out of the blue.
Darrick, who sat beside Violen, glanced over at his ally with a bit of sudden interest. "How so?" he asked.
"Oh... you could say that he helped me out a lot back in the early years," Violen reminisced. "I think it was during the first war... the other X-Hunters and I had totally different jobs back then."
Darrick, though never usually happy to be in the company of the somewhat irritating Violen, found this little tidbit of information sort of interesting. He'd never really gotten much back-history regarding the three original X-Hunters, and he figured Violen would know pretty much everything about it. Well, hopefully...
"They weren't the most glorifying jobs in the world, of course," Violen continued. "Y'see, Agile was something of an advisor to Vile for a little while, but he didn't acually get the job until about three minutes before Vile died. Before he got that job, he was just your average run-of-the-mill soldier. I'm still kinda confused as to how he really got his job..."
Darrick didn't seem too surprised to hear that. "So, what did Serges do?"
"Oh, that's an easy one to remember," Violen said with some bizarre kind of pride. "Technical staff, of course. He's always been obsessed with all of that sciency buildy beepy whosafudge. Almost Sigma's top scientific advisor, he was. Never really much of a great fighter, though, so he used his technical genius to create machines of mass destruction, which he manned most of the time, of course. I'm still amazed at that - I mean, do you think any human would be capable of pulling off a stunt like that?"
His slender counterpart had to contradict him on that. "Well, humans aren't really that stupid, actually," he admitted. "Just a little short-sighted. I mean, they were smart enough to birth the entire Reploid race (and all robotics in general), but that Cain guy obviously made some mistakes when creating a race of robots that were free to think on their own, basically allowing them to forcefully take control of the free world. Humanlike robots sounds good on paper, I guess... but..."
Violen paused for a moment, taking that bit of information in and furrowing his brow. "Uhh... well, yeah," he replied, a little frazzled. "But let's branch off of that a bit."
Darrick nodded in agreement at this; normally, any time Violen was forced into thinking too hardly about something, he would become completely clueless in a matter of seconds. He figured that this situation was no exception.
"Alright, what was I talking about?... oh, right," Violen corrected himself. "Our past jobs... well, I think that I had one of the most interesting jobs out of all three of us. Brings back a lot of good memories talking about those good 'ol days again... almost makes me want to shed a tear..."
"Violen...?" Darrick interrupted. "What exactly was your job before you became an X-Hunter?"
Violen sighed a bit, with an awkward mix of nostalgia and shame. "Well, erm... I was a janitor."
The dark-blue Maverick's eyes widened. "You... you were a janitor?"
"Damn straight," Violen confirmed with pride. "And I was the best janitor the Mavericks ever had, you can be sure of that! I was so experienced, I could mop up all five floors of the Flying Fortress in a matter of minutes. Spick 'n span, those floors were, and hardly ever had a speck of dirt on 'em. It was actually something of an entertaining job, too... I almost wished I hadn't left it. Lots of good memories..." His eyes could be seen moistening a little bit after that remark.
"Erm... uh, that's all very nice, Violen," he stated impatiently. "But I still don't understand exactly how Vile 'helped you out' during your early years. Did he promote you, or something...?"
Violen paused to think for a moment. "Erm... well, not exactly," he recalled. "I remember him being pretty appreciative of my janitorial skills, however. He complimented me on them almost all of the time, and even suggested to Sigma himself that I be honored in some way because of them. It never actually happened, though, but I still think that it was Vile that spread the word of my strength - something that I think Agile and Serges still appreciate to this day."
Darrick looked a little confused. "Erm... how exactly was your strength shown during janitorial work?" he asked. "Did you use a large mop, or something?"
"No... it wasn't that," Violen corrected him. "I remember that, one time before the first war really began to get rough, Vile and I were hanging out in the fortress's cafeteria after lunch. After talking for a little while, Vile suddenly noticed a group of joksters sneaking into the room and dumping garbage all over the place. I had just cleaned the floors, so you can imagine how pissed off I was - I chased after them, and beat the livin' patooda out of each. They were pretty high-ranking Maverick soldiers, too, so Vile was pretty impressed with the stunt. He eventually told the higher officers about it, including Agile and Sigma." He smiled with pride. "I was very pleased to hear that from somebody as experienced as Vile. It was kind of a shame after the war ended, though - I remember that, when he was brought back during the third war, he didn't recognize me and started treating me like an ass. He always did have a serious problem with controlling his temper..."
Darrick nodded. "Uh huh," he said. "So... after Vile and Sigma died for the first time, did your career get a shot in the arm or something...?"
"Hmm... yeah, sorta," Violen replied. "I remember, when Agile took over all Maverick operations, he wanted to combine a group of three, each with a distinctive quality: one with brains, one with brawn, and the last with leadership. Agile had leadershhip, of course, and Serges was a definite shoe-in for brains. And, since Agile remembered what Vile had said about me, he enlisted me as the brawn. I was so proud that day..." He placed his chin on his had, reminiscing once again about the days of old.
"Yee-ah... that's wonderful, Violen," he repeated. Sighing a bit, the Maverick Colonel glanced at his right wrist to check the time, only to see nothing there. "Damnit!" he cursed, "I forgot my watch. Hey Vio, you got the time? I have no idea how long we've been sittng in here."
Violen, somehow always wearing a watch, checked the time for his colleague. "Erm... lesee... it's 11:45," he announced. "And we've been sitting here since... I think 8:30-ish. So thus, we've been here for..."
"...over three hours," Darrick finished for him. "Oy... that's a pretty long time."
"Indeed," Violen replied. "So, uh... weren't Agile and Sigma supposed to be here earlier...?"
"Yeah, I would say so," Darrick agreed. The duo had been sitting alone in the small waiting room right next to the Mavericks' reploid Repair Center, where Vile was once again being dilligently tinkered with, as he had been only a week before. This time around, however, Sigma wanted to make totally sure that the technical staff NOT screw up royally as they had done before, and to do so he decided to survey every single operation done to the Boba Fett clone.
"What time did they say they'd be done with the examination?" asked Violen.
"9:30, I think," he replied. "Maybe something's holding him up. I'm gunna go check up on 'em... you wait here."
"Gotcha," Violen responded, giving a thumbs up. As he watched Darrick lift himself out of his chair and advance towards the door, his mind began to wander a bit.
Hmm... y'know, now that I think about it, maybe this new, happy-go-lucky Vile was actually a nice guy to have around, he thought. Oh, sure, he was pro-human, which may have caused some tension between him and the rest of the Mavericks... but hey, he DID treat us all to some damn good brownies...
"Jeebus laweezus, this one certainly came outta right field, now didn't it?" Agile stated with a bit of nervousness in his voice.
"Oh, this is just spendifurous!" Sigma said angrily. "Right when I come out of my Bat Cave, this happens. There I was, thinking I was all safe and cozy in my little office above the building. But nooooo! Mr. Agile has to awaken me from my peaceful slumber because Vile was back. Well la-de-friggin'-da! Now we discover that the stupid reploid is bugged! BUGGED, Agile! And not bugged by any ordinary peoples, no no NO. The HUNTERS bugged him, Agile!..."
"Yes, sir... I pretty aware of that," Agile interrupted. "But, like I said when Vile first escaped, it's not the end of the world..."
"Well, it's starting to reach that bloody point, isn't it?!" the bald-headed leader almost shouted. "Why does this situation always have to arise, I pray thee? Those frickin' Hunters always have to intervene in any way they can, ruining EVERYTHING we've been working so hard on. They annoy me beyond the breaking point. They're worse than an ingrown toenail, they are." The reploid king failed to consider that reploids can't actually have ingrown toenails, but at this point he could care less.
"Sir, please calm yourself down!" Agile exclaimed. "Everytime you blow your geyser like this, you just end up making things sound worse than they already are. Listen closely to me - I am 100% positive that the Hunters have ABSOLUTELY no chance of taking us down this time. I mean, remember that we've got the supreme ace up our sleeves... OmegaVile. The guy'll follow every command we give 'em, nobody elses. It's a foolproof plan, trust me!"
"'Foolproof'. HAH!" Sigma mocked. "What a stupid, meaningless word. Nothing on this Earth is foolproof anymore. If getting the crap kicked out of me three wars in a row has taught me anything, it's that."
"Sigma!" Agile yelped at him, starting to lose paitence. "Come on, now! This skepticism isn't like you in any way. As long as I've known you, you've always been the one who encouraged us and supported us, always being determined and sure that our plans would succeed. And, even if they didn't really work out exactly as you had planned, you always found a way to come back strong."
That was true. "Yes, I know, I know..." he muttered to his comrade. "Believe me, I hate being skeptical. I would literally kill to have that exact same rush of pride and determination that I had during the first Maverick War. But it isn't that easy to do, you understand. Though I know the Hunters as a whole aren't exactly an organization to really be afraid of, there are some few-and-far-between Hunters that eventually end up doing us in. More specifically, two of them."
Agile nodded. "Like we need to say their names?"
"Exactly. Those two piss the hell out of me, and there's one main reason for that - though, when they pursue me, they aren't capable of bringing me down immediately, there's always that last moment in which one will bring me down with one final attack. ALWAYS. I'd like to just call it very good luck, but from what you and I have seen, we know that it's much, much more than that. Something happens unexpectedly, and I end up fried. I'd really, REALLY like to do something about that little inconsistency..."
Agile shrugged. "I betcha we could work on a backup emergency program, or something..."
"Yeah, that would help," Sigma half-heartedly agreed. "Though I'm not completely sure if that'll work... X and Zero are very clever, they are. But, I know that, someday, I'll take both of 'em down in one full swoop, right when they least expect it. And while I watch them struggle and fall to the ground lifelessly, I'll be there, laughing heartily the enitre way through." A devilish smile spread over the evil mastermind's face, and he began to chuckle evily.
Agile liked that idea, too. "Maybe Vile will take care of that for ya sooner than you think, Sigma."
"Oh, that would be a treat," Sigma said with a bit of guilty pleasure, just like he had used to. "It would work out perfectly... I figure it would really give that pansy-assed X a good fright." He stopped for a moment, now seemingly in deep thought. "I'm a little upset that I couldn't find something to scare the pants off of Zero, though," he said with remorse. "That would be much, much more fun to watch. With X, it's much more commonplace. But with Zero... to be honest, I've never really been able to see fear or emotional distress in his eyes. Maybe we should do something about that."
His second-in-command rolled his eyes a bit; he was too used to this talk. "Alright, I think we've been discussing the many follies of X and Zero long enough, sir," he said. "I think that now would be a good time to check up on Vile's current status, wouldn't you agree? We haven't talked to M-24 or Serges about it for the past two hours, you realize."
"Oh, of course I do," Sigma stated. "But it's not like we can't see what they're doing. I mean, we've got this nice viewing window, now don't we? It's a helluva lot easier to just sit back and watch for ourselves."
"Well, I personally don't think it's that good of an idea," Agile commented, peering faintly through the looking glass that formed a separation between them and the mechanics. "You should be there, watching every little change they make to that little guy. Lord knows that, if they screw up AGAIN, then we'll be in very, very deep shiet. I thought you had just told all of us that Vile's tinkerings would be examined from beginning to end, making sure that no mistakes were made. How can you be so irresponsib-"
"Here," Sigma suddenly interrupted, holding out one of the round-shaped candies that he enjoyed to carry around for some reason. "If you shut up, I'll let you have this."
Agile was speechless, and stared at the little round candy for quite a while before looking his superior straight in the face. "A Life Saver?" he asked him, almost offended. "You're trying to bribe me with a friggin' life saver?"
"What's the problem? You no like?" Sigma queried, looking a bit down. "Oh, fine then, more for me." His hand suddenly closed over the little ring of candy, which he then shoved straight to his mouth. He crunched it around in his mouth before looking to Agile, who was thoroughly disgusted to say the least.
"Well, I hope you're enjoying it," the X-Hunter commented sarcastically.
"Oh, believe me, I am," Sigma replied heartily. "Lemon is the best flavor."
"Yeah, you have yer damned lemon..." Agile muttered under his breath.
While Sigma continued to slosh the lemon-coated treat in his mouth, their conversation was interrupted by the sound of a door creaking open to Agile's left. Out came a curious Darrick, who poked his head into the half-room and glanced around a bit. He slinked in after noticing Agile and Sigma sitting impatiently.
"Hey, Darrick!" Agile called, noticing the young colonel almost immediately. "Nice to see you here."
"Uhh... right, right," Darrick muttered, glancing at the other figure next to the head X-Hunter. "Sigma, nice to see you too, sir..."
"Meh," the Maverick king muttered in response, shrugging a bit; he had gotten way too many happy-daffy welcomes from his recruits for one day. "Tell me, why are you here? Do you need something...?"
Darrick eyed his superior with confusion in his eyes. "Uhh... well, sir, I've been waiting outside with Violen for over three hours now. You promised us that you'd be done here much earlier than that, so I came in here to see what exactly was holding you up..."
At first, Agile just stared at Darrick for a few seconds, with a 'what the hell?' look in his face. He then suddenly let out a long "Ohhh!", obviously recalling the promise they had made to the two of them. "Yes, yes... we promised you 9:30, didn't we...?"
"Yeah, that was it, sir," Darrick replied. "So, we were wondering... did something come up that we should know about? I mean, you usually don't take so long with an examination unless something really important occurs."
After Darrick's last remark, a fairly noticable change could be seen in the appearances of Agile and Sigma. Agile began scratching his neck nervously and turned his head in the opposite direction, to his superior. Sigma, rolling his eyes a bit, waved his hand at the head X-Hunter, signaling for him to field the question.
"Erm... well, y'see, Darrick, it goes a little like this..." Agile began shakily. "Uh... well, when we found Vile, we first did a full analysis on him, and well... we found some interesting bits of information. Certain things happened, interesting things... one thing in particular caught our eyes, actually..."
"Oh, Agile, you're confusing him now!" Sigma interrupted impatiently. "No need to hide anything from him. Darrick, Vile's been bugged. We found the bug inside of his helmet, and it was immediately destroyed."
Darrick paused for a moment. "A... bug?" he asked. "Well, uh... who was it that bugged him?"
"The Hunters, of course," Sigma replied. "Not much of a surprise, I guess. Maybe if SOME people were a little less short-sighted about these things and planned out Vile's capture a little better, we wouldn't be knee-deep in this mess." He shot a damning look at Agile.
"Oh, please," Agile snipped. "How was I supposed to know he'd be bugged? We were running out of options, and times were really, really desperate around here. Even our own recruits were starting to turn. Did I ever happen to tell you the story of when Darrick here and I were brutally ambushed...?"
"YES, Agile. Several times," Sigma snipped back. "Anyways, Serges and M-24 have blocked us out again, but they're letting us use this large viewing window so that we can see exactly what they're doing. It's soundproof, of course, since the mechanics almost need total silence to get their job done right."
Darrick pondered this for a moment. "Soundproof, huh? So they can't hear a word of what we're saying right now?"
"Not a word," Agile confirmed. "Here, lemme show ya." He lifted himself up from his chair, cupping his hands around his mouth. "HEY, SERGES!" he shouted, "SIGMA, DARRICK, AND I WERE THINKING ABOUT GETTIN' IN TOUCH WITH YOUR DISEASED GORILLA OF A MOTHER AND HAVIN' A LITTLE FUN WITH 'ER! WHADDYA THINK ABOUT THAT, EH?"
After Agile shouted the vulgar comment, Serges could be seen withering with sudden rage. In an act of rage, he shot daggers at Agile and gave him a customary one-finger salute. The three seated all had looks of shock plastered on their faces.
"Erm... whoops," Agile chuckled nervously, gradually lowering himself back into his seat. "I guess it isn't completely soundproof..."
Sigma shook his head at him. "Now, come on, Agile," he scolded lightly. "That wasn't mature in the slightest. I expect better behavior out of you."
"Oh, don't give me that," Agile snapped. "You were worse to me when you barricaded yourself in your office, remember? I was very offended."
The bald reploid nodded a bit, rubbing his chin. "Touche. But mine was more understandable, since I believe I had been under a heavy sedative at the time..."
"Oh, whatever," Agile finalized. "Getting back on the subject, I'd have to say that we shouldn't worry too much about this entire 'bug' thing. For all we know, it could be a hoax, or the thing could've been defective or something. And even if it hadn't, we discovered and destroyed it pretty quickly, didn't we? Because of that, the Hunters may have been completely thrown off course. So, personally, I don't think we should focus on the bug as much as we should focus on the reconstruction of Vi..."
Before Agile could finish, the door behind Darrick suddenly burst open, causing the young colonel to be forcefully pushed to the side and almost knocked off his feet. A turquoise-hued soldier ambled in, a bit on the lanky side, huffing and puffing. The look in his eyes signified a hint of fear and shock.
"Master Sigma, sir!" he addressed, saluting his grand commander. "We need you on the second floor deck immediately. It's an emergency."
Sigma glanced at the soldier with confusion. "Emergency...?" he asked. "What's going on?"
"We believe it may be some kind of attack, sir," he replied between breaths. "Our radars have picked up a somewhat large grouping of soldiers traveling through the desert, headed straight for us. We've spotted some small fighter jets as well, but they don't seem to be advancing as rapidly as the other groups."
Upon hearing this, Sigma's face began to show a full palette of emotions: shock, fear, partial confusion, and anger. While getting up to leave, the Reploid Ruler gave Agile an 'I'm going to kill you when this is all over' type look, and then motioned for the other two to follow him as well. The four filed out of the room, leaving Serges and the mechanics to their own devices.
After an extensive amount of time on one track of land, a young soldier has a tendency to become accustomed to that land, and eventually adapt to what it has to offer. They form an interesting bond with it, one that can't exactly be described using a language of any kind. But what is known, however, is that once that soldier leaves that particular track of land, they will most certainly remember it for years to come as a place where they traveled, toiled, and learned to be better people. While doing such things, however, that soldier's bond with the land will never really sink in until later...
...and this was no exception. "DAMN, this desert sucks," complained a reploid Hunter named Lark as he and a large grouping of other Hunters trekked through the long sand fields. He wore dark red armor with orange trimmings, and a rounded helmet fitted on his head.
"Eh, I don't think it's ALL that bad," replied the human beside him. "I mean, we're getting some nice fresh air for a change, right? Better than being cooped up in that musty headquarters of ours." The human's name was Colin Rovino, a seasoned fighter in the Hunters' 17th Unit, and one of the only humans in it. He maintained a somewhat bulky figure, wearing light battle armor and a bandana on his head which, for some reason, he wore almost all the time. He also kept a small laser pistol in a holster on his right hip, which he was very skilled at using.
"Aw, screw fresh air. Like I even need it," Lark snipped to his friend; the reploid was also in the 17th, and had been good friends with Colin when they each enlisted during the second Maverick uprising. "What we could really use would be some nice transportation... y'know, trucks and the like."
"Eh, Cain doesn't wanna use 'em," the human answered, kicking a little sand from his boots. "He says that during this particular raid, he doesn't want to cause too much commotion. I also think that he really doesn't think we need to reach the place to quickly - I mean, we've got plenty of time to get this whole ordeal out of the way."
Lark sighed a bit. "Well, to tell ya the truth, I'm kinda hoping that these people are Mavericks," he admitted. "Y'know... less complication. Besides, Irregies are the most fun to kick the livin' crap out of."
The reploid displayed his guilty pleasure by making a fist and punching his other palm. Colin, though usually not a huge fan of sensless combat, couldn't help but grin devilishly at his comrade's remark. "Yeah, I'd have to admit that I feel a little like that too," he said. "Mavericks are certainly not people I'd like to be affiliated with... not that I actually could get in, but you catch my drift."
"Yeppers..." Lark muttered in agreement. "My job would be a lot easier if the Mavericks were at least slighly lenient with me, considering I'm of their race and all. But I'm pretty sure they'd be ready to kill me as much as they would a human..."
"Yeah, very true, unfortunately..." Colin replied. At that time, he remembered something suddenly and glanced behind him, stopping himself.
"Hey, Col. You alright?" Lark asked, who was a little surprised at his friend's sudden pause. He stopped as well, letting the rest of the troops walk along past them.
"Oh... naw, I'm alright," he said, still glancing over his shoulder a bit. "I was just wondering where Chase went. He was just here with us a few minutes ago..."
"Well, could we worry about him later, please?" Lark barked impatiently. "The other troops have already gone pretty far ahead of us, and if we don't catch up now, we may get stuck in this stinkin' hellhole. He's probably just gone along with the others..."
"Naw, I don't think so," Colin said with sudden assurance, pointing in the opposite direction. "That giant lump back there seems awfully familliar, if you ask me."
Raising his eyebrows a bit, Lark took a look back in the direction that Colin had been pointing in. Sure enough, he was able to see a small, blueish lump gradually ambling towards the two, which slowly began to resemble the shapely form of a lanky, blonde-haired human. After a little bit of waiting from the two Hunter elites, the figure had finally made it's way in front of both of them, breathing heavily and looking extremely sweaty and dehydrated.
"Hey... guys..." Chase said between breaths. "I just got... caught up... back there... very... very tired... I am..."
"Aww, come on Chase," Colin coaxed. "We haven't been walking for THAT long, and look you. You're all messied up, mon! I thought that Magma put you on a strict daily training program..."
"Yeah... he did," Chase replied, now coughing a bit. "But... maybe I'm just... not cut out... for all this work..."
"Naw, don't worry about it," Lark encouraged. "Just having a bad day, that's all. Here, lemme help ya out..." Crouching next to the slumped-over human, he placed an arm over his lanky shoulders and hoisted him upwards, allowing him the strength to walk normally. "Now, we'd better get moving. I can see the other soldiers, but they aren't really moving. Maybe the commanders are briefing them on something important..."
"Yeah... let's get our arses in gear already," Colin agreed, already starting to advance towards the others. Lark followed closely after him, the bumbling Chase in tow, and soon enough the two managed to find the entire team of Hunters, now bunched up into a larger grouping. Though the three couldn't see them over the crowd, the trio of Unit Commanders, X, Zero, and Dragoon, were eyeing the horizon with large binoculars, chatting sporatically with eachother about what their next move would be. Lark, Colin, and Chase soon blended in neatly with the crowd of soldiers, who were now talking with one another silently.
"Hey, Marx," Colin asked a stocky human with greasy brown hair in front of him. "What's going on? Why're we stopping...?"
The other human shrugged. "To be honest, we really don't know," he replied. "X just suddenly told us to stop for a moment, and then went off a small ways to check up on how much farther away the fortress should be. I'm not sure why they're still talking to eachother, though - maybe they're deciding what else there is to do at the moment..."
"Oh, what kind of sense would that make?" Lark suddenly interrupted, letting go of Chase in the process and causing him to fall to the desert ground. The human recollected himself quickly, however, and then returned to the bumbling crowd with a look of utter frustration on his face. "What else are we supposed to do? We're in the middle of a friggin' desert... there's nothing to do but go forward or backward."
"Yeah, I know, I know..." Marx reassured him. "Don't shoot the messenger. I personally have no idea what's going on."
"I just hope they take care of things as quickly as possible," Colin chimed in. "It's hot as hell out here, and it's obviously doing a number on the human Hunters trudging through this godforsaken sand land. Maybe if all our commanders weren't mechanical, they might understand that not everybody can take a high amount of heat energy..."
"Hey, we sympathize!" Lark exclaimed. "We aren't fond of heat much, either. Causes metal to expand, it does..."
"Oh, boo hoo," Colin mocked, which resulted in a rasberry thrown at him by his friend. The young human Hunter then tried to poke his head over the crowd, being barely able to see the commanders at all. Finally, he could see the tip of X's helmet, which was now advancing towards them along with the slightly more visible heads of Zero and Dragoon.
"Everybody, form up!" shouted an eager X. "C'mon, in your Units... we're going to be dividing ourselves soon." The Elite Commander waited with his partners as the large clutter of Hunters organized themselves into three separate groups, signifying their respecatble Units. Soon enough, they were all neatly grouped, and had silenced themselves completely in anticipation for what their commanders would instruct them to do.
"Alright, everybody!" Zero now began, raising his hands in the air. "After some deductions done by myself and my fellow Commanders, we've realized that it shouldn't be too much longer before we have a run-in with our main destination. Luckily, we haven't had anybody stray from the group during this trek, which is a definite plus. So, now that we're divided up, we're going to be taking different paths to the fortress's entrance. Remember, X's 17th Unit will be taking the frontside entrance, my Unit 0 will be taking care of the back exit, and Magma's 14th Unit will be taking both the left and right sides. If the enemy retaliates with excessive force, then we'll have no choice to do the same. Vile must be found, at all costs. I remind you, however, that this is the ONLY situation in which you should attack them. If they decide to give up Vile peacefully, or negotiate with us, then there'll be no bloodshed. Of course, if there's Mavericks in there, we've gotta shut 'em down ASAP. And, also remember that, in case of emergency, we have direct contact with the Air Cavalry and some surrounding Units." He paused for a moment, taking a short breath. "Well, I'm sure you've heard this a thousand times today already, so... let's get going! We've got no time to waste!"
After getting the signal from their commanders, the three Hunter groups sprang back to life and began striding down that same path that they had been traveling through for about a half hour now. Colin and Lark walked aside their other Unit members, conversing about the incoming raid and what they expected to happen. Chase, who had regrouped with the 14th Grapple Combat Unit, was now straggling along in the rear of the group, huffing and puffing in annoyance. He didn't notice the look of daggers that his commander, Magma Dragoon, was constantly giving him. Zero kept a strong hold on his group, as he talked silently with some of the frontrunners as they traveled.
Little did these soldiers realize that they would soon be faced with one of the most challenging conflicts in their Hunter careers...