Love Alia!
Chapter 2
"Checking In?"
By MEGAMANX411

X and company just stood outside of Maverick Hunter HQ, looking entirely dumbfounded. Like that, they were all shoved outside and were now supposed to be on vacation. In X's hands was a brochure that Signas gave to him that showed a picture of a resort hotel. X began reading the footnotes on the brochure and narrowed his eyes to get a better look. The hours of staying awake with the help of coffee didn't help his eyes.

"Well...it looks like Signas booked us for about two months," X muttered, shaking his head.

"Two months? How am I supposed to just stop working and resume after two months?" Alia shouted.

X thenopened up the brochure to see that train tickets were in it. Signas got them tickets to get the resort as well. He must've really wanted them gone. X rubbed his eyes to try and remove some of the fatigue, and then pulled out the tickets. The entire group, groggy from lack of sleep, trudged like zombies to the train station. When they arrived, the conductor had to call them approximately 200 times or so before the message finally clicked.

"Hey, there's the train!" Axl shouted.

"Wow, score 2 points for Captain Obvious," Zero mocked. "The guy's been trying to tell us for about an hour."

"Then how come you didn't tell us to get on?" Pallette asked.

"Because I was having fun," Zero replied.

The group gave the blonde hunter a low stare then boarded the train. Everyone took their seats and relaxed in the comfortable chairs, wasting no time in getting situated. Of course, Zero, with the lack of ability to swing his sword around while the train, had to resort to having fun by other means. Namely, taunting and torturing his friends, a priceless way to pass the time.

The blonde hunter took the time to fling any nearby object at people walking by, then giggling afterward, giving many the opinion that he was still in grade school. Axl, being the impressionable one joined in. Zero then leaned over and whispered to Axl.

"Now listen, my young apprentice. To be recognized as an adult...you must commit a super prank," Zero whispered, looking side to side.

"I'm listening..." Axl replied.

"You must do something so hilarious that everyone must commend your prank skills. This resort will be the perfect opportunity," Zero added.

"I will do my best, master," Axl answered, nodding.

Zero and Axl both had a sadistic glee in their eyes as they looked at X, who would be easy prey for their pranks. He was smart, but naive...the perfect combination of traits. Making him look like an idiot in front of Alia would be a great prank. They just needed to figure out the how and the when.

During the trip, X just read a book and sat next to Alia who was doing the same. They occasionally looked over at one another, but they both assumed it was to make sure no one did anything funny. Besides, they had to constantly worry about what the red hunter would do. X and Alia would sometimes take the time to look back where Zero was sitting to make sure that he didn't fling any random objects at them.

As the train came to a stop, X and company looked outside to see the resort. It looked like a huge mansion, although a somewhat aged one. There was a sign out in front reading welcome, and apparently, another sign also showed that Signas had indeed rented out the entire resort for the crew to relax in. X got his bags off the train slowly.

"Here X, take these for me," Alia muttered, tossing her bags on top of X.

The blue hunter quickly caught the extra bags. Luckily for him, his reploid strength made it a bit easier, but still, it was hard to haul all that around. Unfortunately, the others had ideas similar to Alia.

"Here X, hope you don't mind," Layer added, adding her stuff.

"Thank you X!" Pallette shouted, tossing her stuff on top of X.

X struggled under all of the luggage that he was virtually buried under. One false step and it would all come crashing down. He then looked onward in terror to see that to get the resort, he would have to scale a lot of stairs.

"Whew...ok...gotta be careful..." X whispered, slowly walking up.

As X finally reached the last step, he let out a sigh of relief. He then opened his eyes to see Zero standing in front of him. That's when it hit X.

"Zero, no, don't!" X shouted.

Zero just smirked and then simply pushed X back with a single finger. The blue bomber went crashing down the stairs with all of the bags falling down on him like an avalanche. The red hunter couldn't help but roll on the floor, lauhing his metallic backside off. Alia, Layer, and Pallette then walked by and looked around for their luggage.

"Where's X?" Alia asked.

"He seems to be such a lazy one," Layer muttered, shaking her head.

"Aw, I shouldn't have thanked him after all!" Pallette added, crossing her arms.

Meanwhile, X was trying to get all of the clothes back into the proper bags. As he did so, he noticed a lot of undergarments lying about him. That was definitley a big mistake. He looked up to see three furious females running at him with full speed. He frantically waved his arms and tried to explain.

"X, you pervert!" Alia screamed, punching the blue hunter in the face with her all might.

"That is unforgivable!" Layer added, raising her sword high.

"X, you meanie!" Pallette shouted, pulling out her pistols.

X took the barrage of hits and then fell over dazed amidst the sea of clothes. The girls gave X hostile stares and then walked back up the stairs, expecting him to carry the bags all over again. X then gathered all of the things around him and started walking back up. All of the luggage was a great burden, but hey, he still had his pride. This time, Zero would not get the best of him. When he finally reached the top, X found out that the others had already taken the time to pick out their rooms.

X walked into the resort. The building was all wood, although it had some elaborate designs on it. It was very well crafted and it was obvious that it was a nice place. The receptionist was gone, probably because either Signas told her to take a hike when he rented the place out or Zero managed to scare her away already. Everyone had already chosen their rooms, so that left X with the crummy, decrepit room with a hole in the ceiling.

"Great. Thanks a load guys," X muttered, shaking his head.

As X unpacked his things in his room, he thought he heard noises coming from the hole in his ceiling. There had to be something there. X slowly walked under it and tried to look up to see if he could notice anything. He then reached up and tried to climb up to see if there was anything to investigate. When he climbed up, he saw that the hole actually led him into the room directly above.

He looked around to see Alia changing right in front of him. The normally blue hunter turned deep red and he started to have a nosebleed. Alia heard some noise behind her and then turned around to see X in the act.

"X, you haven't learned your lesson, have you?" Alia screamed, kicking X in the face.

X fell down through the hole and hit the ground hard. He looked up lazily at Alia's room and wondered just how this vacation was supposed to make him feel better. Meanwhile, Layer had taken the time to decorate her room with many swords to practice with. Everything was very neat and organized. Pallette's room was decorated with posters of various boy bands, and could have stood to be neater.

Zero's room was filled with the bare essentials: magazines, booze, his weapons, video games, etc. He was ready to have some fun. Of course, a lot of that would come from finding ways to make this trip more interesting. Axl's room was covered in posters of bands, but it was pretty sloppy...a typical teenager's room. Alia's was neat and organized, and it had her computer, her books, and so on. X's room was pretty much the same, just outfitted for his tastes.

Everyone then met in the main room to decide who would take care of cleaning the place. The procedure was simple: rock, paper, scissors. X smiled with glee, he somehow had a great knack for this game. He thought he had it made. First, X went up against Alia. He would feel bad for putting her to work, so he decided that maybe he should try and purposely lose. X lost that round, then was up against Zero.

X knew what hell he would go through if Zero had to clean. He wouldn't have a single decent night's sleep, let alone one peaceful day. He threw that game too. Then he was up against Pallette. She gave X her pleading eyes, and the blue hunter was too sympathetic to beat her. Another game lost. X then went up against Layer. Again, he felt bad about making her do work, so he threw the game. That meant he was up against Axl last.

X's sympathetic nature made him throw that game too...meaning he had to do all of the cooking and cleaning while they were there. Zero slapped a maid's outfit on him, and X sadly let out a sigh as he assumed his duties while on his supposed vacation.

"Phase one is complete...now to get to the real stuff," Zero whispered, excitedly working on his plan.