Zero 2 Ch.16

Group Time

Zero paced quietly in the control room to their training area. Crystal was with him as the others were all training. She watched him out of the corner of her eye while she was watching the monitors for the status reports on the others. She finally turned the chair around to face him.

"What exactly is your problem? You've not sat still since we came in here." She said pointedly.

"I wish I knew. I've just got an itch between my shoulder blades. Like something bad's about to happen, but I don't know what it is." He said as he bashed the wall with his oversized Reploid fist a few times.

"Well there's nothing you can do about that. Why not just sit down and let things go as they will?" She said as she turned around again.

"Because, I can't stand anticipation. And I know something is going to happen, I just don't know what. That's what's bothering me, is that I don't know what is going to happen, I just know that something is." He bashed the wall a few more times.

"First off, stop that, I'm tired of listening to the wall scream," She looked pointedly at the dent he'd left. Zero suddenly looked somewhat sheepish. "Second of all, what in hell makes you so certain about this? I thought women's inuition was supposed to be the only one worth paying attention to." She smirked at him.

"You are so getting it later for that one." He grinned at her.

"By all means, please, punish me. Just later, not now. Those five are starting to show some improvements, at least according to the computer." She punched a few keys and brought up the charts for Signas, X, Alia, Zenton, and Toronto. "According to this, the biggest improvement, fighting wise, is Zenton."

"Is he actually just fighting better, or is he just taking more advantage of his spells?" He leaned in over her shoulder to watch the monitor.

"I'm not sure myself, the system only gives me a readout, it doesn't give me a breakdown."

"I'll talk to Light about that later, see if he can do something about it."

"It's odd actually. X is still improving slowly, but Alia, Signas, and Toronto are improving at a slightly more accelerated pace, and Zenton even more so than them."

"Actually it's easily explainable."

"How so?"

"X is a fighter. Whether he wants to be or not, he is a fighter. He may have been designed to help usher in peace, but Light designed him to fight if he had to. He's had to, so he's been able to do so. And he does so well at that. Not quite as well as I do perhaps, but he fights well enough to take me down on occasion. Alia and Signas were neither one designed for combat, but were given the abilities to fight if they had to. They're both adjusting at a pace to eventually match X. The same with Toronto, he's been a fighter all of his life, just not to the extent that X and I have been. He's a defender, not an attacker. Zenton on the other hand, is more of a stealth combatant. He's always been on the run with our group. He's the one that did the sneaking if we needed it, while I handled the brute force end of the deal. He's had to adjust his fighting to a much larger extent than the others. His magical abilities make up for it though." Zero said, watching the monitor the whole time, trying to see where the difference was in Zen's combat.

"I see. That does make sense when you put it that way." She reached up and put a hand on the side of his face. He brought a giant-sized hand up to cover hers.

"Don't worry. It's easy to make sense of stuff like this when you've got two lives worth of fighting to draw on." He smirked at her. She returned his smartass attitude by suddenly getting a hold of his tail. "OW OW OW!!! Not the hair!"

"Don't be a smartass with me." She pulled him down slightly before kissing him all of a sudden. "There, I feel better," she said as she let go of him.

"Damn," he commented as he tied his hair back up by flashing out of the armor and then back into it. "If ya wanted a kiss that bad ya should've said something."

"And if I want more than just a kiss?" She smirked again.

"Then I'd suggest you wait til we're back in private quarters." He replied as he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Fine then, I just might do that," She retorted.

Out in the actual training area, X was keeping everyone on their toes with seemingly random shots at all of them at once.

"Holy shit!" Zenton shouted as he attempted to dodge them. "Where the hell do you learn to shoot like that?" He said between jumps between energy bullets.

X merely grinned. "Fight Mavericks for a good 50 years or so, you'll find out real fast how to aim." He continued the barrage around the other four for a while before finally getting tired of it, not to mention his X-buster needed a slight cool-down. "Okay guys, let's take a break." As he walked towards the exit after the others, Crystal and Zero joined him walking towards the main room.

"So, X, enjoy your target practice? Or were you missing on purpose?" Zero asked as they walked.

"Ha, a little of both. Zenton continues to surprise me. First one day he freezes me, then another day he throws a fireball at me, about a week later I'm suddenly not where I was a moment before. I've been slowed down, zapped with lightning, and just today had a level 4 blast reflected right back at me. He's improving, and keeping the rest of us on our toes for sure."

"Heh, yeah, the readouts were reading along those lines as well. Is he actually fighting better or just using the spells more?" Zero asked, still trying to figure out how best to work with the others abilities.

"A little of both actually. More improved his fighting than the spells, but he's done some good work on those too. He uses them more often than he used to, but still not as often as he probably could. I'll have to try and force him into using them a little more often I suppose."

"If you want to, or continue to have him improve on his normal fighting, either way works, as long as he's improving, I could care less." Zero looked down as all of sudden he realized that Crystal had snaked in under his arm without him noticing again. "I don't mind, but how the hell do you do that?"

"Do what?" She looked up at him.

"Sneak in under my arm like that. One moment you're not there, the next I look down and I've got my arm around you and didn't even know it."

"I dunno." She shrugged. She laid her head against him as they continued to walk.

"Anyway," Zero said, turning back to X. "How're Alia and Signas coming along? I wouldn't ask, but I don't always trust computer readouts."

"They're both coming along well. Light upgraded Signas' saber so that it's able to deflect my shots, and he's getting fairly decent with that. He also upgraded Alia's pistol slightly, so that now it has another setting. It's slower, but the shots are more like my level 2 charged shots. And it might actually be better for her in the long run, since she doesn't shoot that often, but when she does she's fairly accurate. Why am I telling you all of this anyway?"

"Because I've been a bit busy lately with other more personal matters of my own and I've been leaving their training up to you."

"Oh, yeah, good point. Must have a loose circuit somewhere in my head."

"You're just now realizing this?"

"Oh, shut up, girly-bot."

"Okay then, Blue Boy."

"Oh, so now we're gonna be color-biased are we Crimson Wonder?"

"Oh, bah, at least I've got hair."

"What makes you think I don't?"

"You never take off your helmet!"

"You wouldn't either if you had helmet hair like I do!"

"I don't believe that for a moment"

"Fine then!" X reached up and pulled his helmet off. His black hair, though short, stayed straight up almost. Zero of course, almost immediately collapsed laughing.

"Okay..haha..you can..hehe..put the helmet...haha...back on." As soon as X put his helmet back on, he promptly reached down and pulled Zero's helmet off. Zero's hair that wasn't caught in the tail immediately stood up.

"HA! I'm not the only one who has helmet hair!" X shouted triumphantly. Crystal had to start laughing too. As she stood there giggling, Zero put his own helmet back on.

"Okay okay, yeesh, come on man, not in front of the lady." Zero said as X laughed a bit with Crystal. X turned to walk down the hall and leave the other two to themselves.

"Okay then, missy, now that you've had a good laugh at my hair for the day, what say we go visit with the others in the main room?" Zero said to Crystal as she finally quit giggling.

"Alright, I suppose we can do that. But only if you carry me." She smiled wide at him. Zero of course started going a bit weak in the knees.

"I suppose. But you better hold on." He reached down and picked her up. Then just as suddenly leaned forward and kicked in the boosters. As they flew down the hall X had the sense to jump to the side as the red and gold blur passed him.

"One of these days, he's gonna hit a wall or something doing that." X commented as he stepped back into the middle of the hall.

In the main hall, Toronto and Zenton had already settled into a game of cards. Alia was busy at a computer terminal, and Signas was watching over her shoulder. Zero and Crystal walked in only to have the alarms go off. "Damnit!" Zero shouted. "I knew things were going too well."

"You'd be right Zero," Light said as he appeared on the main screen. "It's been several weeks since our last engagement with the Maverick forces and I was beginning to wonder myself when they'd strike again."

"Where's it at this time Doc?" Zenton asked.

"I'm still pin-pointing the exact location. So far, the indication is middle of the states. Flat areas, what used to be Kansas and what not. A few oil fields nearby."

"Who's betting on them having sent a fire Maverick there to light a few torches?" X commented.

"You might be right. And there's still enough oil and gas pockets there to cause some problems if they can light anything serious." Zero replied.

"There's also a few human settlements there, Doc." Crystal pointed out from her station.

"She's right, I hadn't noticed those yet, but I'm looking at a deeper level than the surface for the moment."

"I'm picking up sporadic comm chatter too." Alia commented from her console. "From the sound of things, there are about 3 or 4 Mavericks there. Flame Mammoth. Blaze Heatnix. One I can't recognize from sound patterns alone. And the last one is an old friend."

"I beg your pardon?" Zero said, catching the tone in Alia's voice.

"The last one...is Magma Dragoon." She said quietly.

"That damned traitor." Zero said, his voice suddenly very agitated. "He's mine. I don't care what anyone wants to do with the other 3, but that one is MINE." A red beam suddenly shot up through the ceiling. Crystal could only stare at the spot where he'd been.

"I've never seen him get that worked up just over someone's name." She said.

"You have to understand the history between Zero and Magma Dragoon," Alia said as she kept monitoring things. "When we first started having organized problems with Mavericks, Sigma's fourth uprising to be precise, it started off with a sudden attack from within."

"Oh no," Crystal gasped. "You don't mean-"

"The attack from within was led by Magma. Zero apparently never forgave that. He's got a very touchy spot when it comes to betrayal." Alia said quietly, as she programmed the teleports for X and the others. "Setting you all down to counter everyone but Magma, since Zero already went after him. Prepare for transmission."

"We're ready, Alia." X said. "Transfer at your leisure."

"And gone." She said. The room was lit in blue and white as the four teleported out.

Author's notes: Okay, I guess this ended up as mostly a filler chapter. Even though that's not what I intended it to be in the first place, but that's okay, since I'm going to try and pick up the pace with the next few chapters. Hell, this is my second chapter I've turned out within a week and a half I believe, that's pretty good for me, lol. Thank you to those who read and review my story, I do appreciate it.