The Hunter and The Navigator

Chapter 2

The New Threat


"The virus…its…." Pallette could not finish her sentence because it was too shocking for her. She had never seen anything like this before."Its spreading!! Its not going at its estimated rate either." Alia finished for her.
"Yes, I had concluded that, but that would mean X will be completed corrupted and will be locked in an irreplaceable viral state forever." Pallete said.
"That would mean…" Alia was cut off by the alarm sounding off. "Oh no, not now! Why do Mavericks pop up at times like these." Alia damned the Mavericks at this moment. She had to leave X's side and aid the others. "You better hurry, I'll handle it. Layer will have to aid you this time in the navigation." Pallete said.
"Ok, I'm trusting you." Alia looked at Pallete sternly and worriedly. Pallette walked up to her and gave her a warm, friendly hug. She retracted her head a bit so that their faces were only a few inches apart.
"Your trust will not be betrayed and you will see X new and improved when you get back from the mission. You can trust me." Pallette then let go and gave a signal for Alia to head to the command center.

Maverick Command Center…

"Alia, where were you?!" Axl practically yelled at her.
"Sorry guys, I was tied up. But that doesn't matter now. We have a Maverick to stop!!! Lets get to it!!" Alia said to divert them away from what she was doing.
"Alright!! Let's kick some Maverick butt!" Axl said excited to go on another mission.
"Hah. Just like you, Axl, always hyped about going into Maverick missions." Zero said.
"What and your not?" Axl asked the red Maverick hunter.
"Of course I am. But its just I get sick of fighting sometimes." Zero answered.
"Well, better shake that off. I bet you would be bored if you didn't have these missions." Axl said.
"I bet I wouldn't. I have other things to do besides this." Zero defended himself.
"Ok, ok. That's enough, boys. Layer and I will be helping you through the area. It's a pretty tricky area so you have to be on your toes." Alia said. Layer started inputting the coordinates and the Hunter data into the computer. She also was preparing the teleport system.
"Teleporting hunters, Zero and Axl, to the Maverick location. Prepare for departure." Layer said. "Command confirmed. Teleporting now." the computer replied to the command. The two then started to glow and in an instant they transformed into thin beams of light, light of their armor color. Suddenly, thetwo hunters were teleported to a desert with nothing in sight. They thought the place may be more complicated than this but nevertheless they knew never to underestimate any Maverick location. They knew there were probably traps and guards waiting for them throughout the whole complex.
"Alright guys, this is the place. The main area is a building that is heavily guarded by a defensive wall equipped with laser cannons and an electric net gun. It can entrap you so be careful! If you head in the direction your facing and keep going you will eventually reach the building. You will have to watch out for the traps. Good Luck, Hunters!" Layer explained to them.
"Hmmm that does sound pretty tricky, doesn't it, Zero?" Axl said in a cocky, sarcastic voice.
"Sure does. Let's do it!! Don't slow us down, Axl!!" Zero said.
"Hahah, like I'll ever do that!" axl said running ahead of Zero and Zero staying close behind. They ran into a bunch of traps that were easily avoidable and were easily destroyed. They sliced and shot through various enemies. They destroyed new generation guard reploids with ease. Zero jumped up and sliced through one of the guards and covered his face to protect himself from the explosion it caused. Axl just shooting around like a little kid and with precise aim. He was shooting every reploid that came at him in the head, instantly destroying them. The two were just breezing through this area. "I thought it would be more of a challenge than this." Zero said.
"Yeah, I gotta say, this is way to easy." Axl agreed.
"That's because your only outside of the facility. The building will have a lot more traps and enemies to get past." Alia reminded them.
"Hah. Good! I was starting to get bored." Axl said.
"But you have to get through its defenses before you can get in." Layer added.
"NO PROBLEM!!" Zero charged forward and sliced through one of the metal doors that was in the way. The two hunters then saw the building come into view. "Let's go, Axl!!" Zero commanded his partner.
"Right, behind ya!" Axl ran right behind Zero. Just then the defensive system of the building activated. It aimed at the two and it fired. The two were caught off guard. They had no idea the range of the cannon could reach their distance. The navigators lost their signals of the two hunters. "Axl!! Zero!!" Alia screamed. She just saw two hunter die from one shot of the defense system. "Zero! Axl! Come in. Can you hear me?! Axl!! Zero!!!" Layer tried to reach them. Tears started forming in her eyes. She did not know what to do. Her lover had just died in front of her eyes and a good friend.
"Why is this happening?! Why all now?! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!" Alia screamed.

R&D Lab…

Pallette looked up from her work for a moment because she heard Alia's scream.
"That didn't sound too good. I wonder what happened. Sigh, I can't worry about it now. I need to hurry and fix X before its too late. Even if what I think happened is true, then we still have X." Pallette started to cry because she did not want the truth to be real. She did not want Axl to be dead. Not now. Its too soon and she didn't have the time to tell him. "Axl, please be alive…" Pallette said to herself and continued to work on X with tears dripping onto his armor.

Forest… "Ugh, what happened?" Zero opened his eyes and looked around. He saw Axl right next to him, but still unconscious. Zero slowly stood up and walked over to Axl.
"Axl?! Axl!! Wake up!!" Zero shook Axl to wake him up. Axl opened his eyes slowly and looked around. Then he saw Zero. "Whoa…Where are we?" Axl asked shooting up into sitting position.
"I don't know myself. But we're lucky we're alive. That blast from the cannon should have destroyed us. But something deflected the beam down and we were blasted to another area." Zero concluded.
"Yeah, I saw a shadowed figure in front of us use some sort of shield and deflected the beam down." Axl said.
"You saw that? Well if we see him again we should thank him." Zero said sarcastically.
"Also our transmitters are destroyed. So we don't have any communication whatsoever with the Command Center." Axl said.
"That's not too good. Well we better start walking…" Zero said. The two started to walk around the area. It was vaguely familiar to them for some reason. They had no idea where this was though. It was like their minds were erased when they were blasted.
"This place seems so familiar…I wonder where this is?" Axl said. "Yeah, I just can't quite think of where we are. We may have lost some of our memory data from the impact to the ground. We also did sustain heavy damage." Zero stated. He was correct in saying this. Their armor was all damaged and cracked in some places. They had some missing armor in certain areas. Zero had lost most of his shoulder armor and Axl had half of his helmet dented. Axl also had some of his leg armor destroyed and some wires sticking out creating sparks. Zero was in the same exact condition, wires sticking out and sparking like mad. "I hope that there aren't too many enemies around." Axl said. "Were too vulnerable now." "Hah! You wish there weren't any enemies but the one that saved you has also accompanied you to this god forsaken island." a voice said. "Who are you?! Show yourself!!" Zero said constantly moving his head back and forth to find this mysterious person. "Hahahaha. Well I would be the evil one right now but I don't think I have it in me to attack a reploid that is too badly damaged. Its not sportsman like." the voice said again.
"Well isn't that nice of you. Whatever. Are you here to help us or just to tease us?" Axl said.
"I will do whatever I want to do at this moment. I am either going to help or hurt you, but at this stage it seems that I will need to help you since your leader, X is not here at the moment. "How do you know about X?! Tell us everything now!!" Zero yelled pulling out his saber.
"Are you serious?! You think you can defeat me in the state that your in? Look at yourself…you look pathetic right now! Hahahahaha!" the voice said.
"Trust me. I can defeat anyone in a worse condition than this." Zero said. "Oh really? Well can you fight someone you can't see?" Suddenly two shurikens (small star-shaped blade projectiles, used by ninjas) came flying out of the trees. Zero easily deflected them and jumped forward the tree from which the shurikens came. He sliced the tree in various ways, but revealed that no one was there. "So, your using hit and run tactics, huh? You must be a new generation reploid or should I say Maverick." Zero said.
"Very good, Zero. Your smarter than you look. Hahahahaha!" the voice said again. The figure from which the voice was coming from stepped out of the woods and come into view. Zero and Axl could not believe who it was, especially Axl. "It can't be! We destroyed you!! How are you still alive?!" Axl pointed at the figure and stepped back. "Its very simple actually….

To Be Continued…

Hahaha another cliffhanger!!! Makes you wanna read the next chapter and makes you wanna itch. Well anyway sorry this was late I was very busy with school work. Me being a junior and all, SATs and stuff. Well I had a snow day today so I am able to finish this chapter. The next chapter should be up sometime next weekend. Look Forward to it…OR ELSE!! Read and Review!!!