Relic from the seas

By

Dr Facer

-22-

"We'll get there in a few minutes," Axl predicted, walking out of the Wing Flutter's cockpit. "I just programmed the automatic pilot so we can have some minutes alone."

Pallette looked up from her data pad and took off her glasses, staring at Axl as she sighed. "I'm not linking with you here, or any time soon again, you know?"

"Pally, I was not going to ask you that," the young hunter said with a chuckle, raising his hands to placate his navigator.

"Don't call me that."

"Alright, why are you angry?" he asked, giving up his attempts at comedy and sitting in front of her. "I can't fix it if I don't know what the problem is."

"You embarrassed me in front of Signas, you unfunny buffoon!" she groused. "We agreed you wouldn't act so immature in front of him or at work ever again!"

"Oh, it's because of that?" Axl scratched his cheek and had the decency of appearing ashamed for his behavior. "I'm sorry, it's just… I forgot, you know? It just seemed that it was the right time."

"Well, it wasn't!"

"C'mon Pally, forgive me, pleeeeease?" He begged, turning on the charm as best as he could.

Pallette giggled at the sight, then sighed and finally stared at her self-proclaimed 'boyfriend' with determined eyes. "Forgive you? Just like that? No. You, sir, will have to earn it."

"How can I?"

"By not acting like an idiot during the mission," she told him. "I know you're capable, Axl. Prove to me again you're not a clown and I'll forgive you."

"I can do that," he said, sobering his expression. "Yeah, I can do that."

"Good, then go and make sure the autopilot doesn't bring us down somewhere we are exposed, this is an undercover mission, remember?"

"Yeah, I know," he sighed. "I'll go do that."

Pallette watched him go and once he was back inside the cockpit, she put her glasses back on and resumed reading, or tried to, at least. She instead started wondering, and not for the first time, about her and Axl. She still couldn't understand why he had started courting her shortly after the Jakob incident, because he hadn't seemed that interested in her before or during that Maverick Uprising. It's not that she disliked it; she could admit that she found Axl attractive, but she never really felt any interest in him before, not until he began pestering her for dates until she finally agreed to go out with him.

They had started an on and off relationship since then, and she had gone so far as to spend the night with him once after they had dated several times and felt she knew him well enough and deciding she liked him well enough; an event that she at times regretted, because being with Axl had proven to be quite… intense, almost too much. Which was the reason why she had refused to do it again ever since. Pallette had many responsibilities and couldn't let a relationship distract her from her duties, no matter how fun or persistent her beau was.

"But perhaps I could drop the cold shoulder after this mission is done," she mused, smiling at the idea. "Dating Axl is always fun, and I could use some fun right now."

=0=

"It's a short walk from here," said Axl, waiting until Pallette finished climbing the tall dune behind which he had landed the Wing Flutter.

"How do you know this guy again?" She asked once she was at his side.

"He used to sell Red Alert weapons," the young hunter said. "He's not a very friendly fellow, and all he cares about is money and burning things."

"I'm amazed we never had to deal with him," Pallette observed.

"Hey, he's a mean asshole, but he's not stupid," Axl said, "He would need a very good motivation to go full Maverick. Anyway, he doesn't like me for leaving Red Alert, so I'll have to use a disguise."

Not saying anything else, Axl activated his Copy Chip and assumed the form of one of the Mavericks he had arrested a few weeks ago: Rock Shrew.

"Ugh, you look disgusting, I hate rodents," Pallette declared with a frown.

"You can always stay here, you don't have a Copy Chip or a disguise," Axl said using the high pitched voice of the defeated Maverick.

"I do have one. I had a Holo-projector installed last week," she said with a grin as she pointed at her unnecessarily complex hairdo. "I can project a different appearance over my body that can fool all scanners. I won't have the abilities of the reploid I copy, however, so it's not as good as what you can do but for this it should be enough."

"You mean those ridiculous whatever they are things on your head are actually good for something?" Axl asked. "About time you used them for something useful!"

She punched him in the shoulder. Hard.

"Stop criticizing my hair, ok? It's the only thing I've never liked about you," she said, annoyed but with no real malice behind her voice. "Now shut up while I activate the holo-projector."

He nodded and waited, letting her work. She reached up and pressed a button on her headpiece, which bathed her in light. When the glow ended all Axl saw instead of Pallette was a tall lizard like reploid.

"So, what do you think?" Pallette asked. "It's Sand Lizardo, you guys captured him last month."

"Your voice still needs work… but yeah, that is pretty good," Axl conceded.

=0=

Flame Scorpion was a tall, red and black reploid. He had four arms, two ending in massive pincers that he kept folded over his shoulders and a normal pair he used to interact with his surroundings. He also had a long tail which ended in a fearsome looking stinger. His original purpose had been crystal production in a quarry, for which he used the high temperatures his flames could reach. Scorpion quickly got tired of this, as he felt his talents for incineration were being wasted. He quit his job, eventually joining a bounty hunter group and finally settling as a weapon dealer, an activity that earned him enough money to satisfy his strange addiction to incinerating and melting expensive vehicles, particularly luxury cars or army tanks.

And he was now showing Axl and Pallette the collection of weapons he had for sale in his warehouse, being particularly proud of the several Ride Chasers he had recently obtained.

"These babies are all new models," Scorpion boasted. "They aren't yet in the market, not even the Maverick Hunters have them!"

"Impressive," Pallette said, making a note about mentioning this to HQ later and saving it in an easily accessible file. "How did you get them?"

"Someone I know stole them from the factory," Scorpion said. "Sold them to me at a very nice price, I'll get a hefty profit from these!"

"What's this?" Axl asked, lifting a rather long and big rifle. "I've never seen anything like it."

"That's a Thunder Gaitling," Scorpion provided. "They don't make those anymore, it's on sale for a million Zenny."

Axl placed the weapon carefully back where it was. "For one million it better be able to clean my apartment and make subtanks."

"Nevermind that," Pallette said. "We need something different. Have you heard of this thing called… the Nightmare Drive? Word on the street is that it makes you stronger than a rank S Maverick Hunter."

"Oh, that thing," Scorpion stopped, looked at Axl, still in his Rock Shrew disguise and gave him a nod. "Yes, I've heard of it but I haven't seen any. If you want that you'd better ask someone else. I don't sell those things, only weapons and vehicles."

"Do you know who may have one?" Pallette, in her lizard costume, asked. "We need it for a job."

Scorpion placed his hands on his hips and laughed. "A job? It would be wasted on a skinny reploid like you. I think you're not even fit to be part of the other project we're working on… right, boss?"

Pallette looked from Flame Scorpion to Axl and blinked, confused at the weapon dealer's words. Boss? What was he talking about?

"It seems it's finally the time to stop this stupid charade," Axl said as he returned to his original form, only that his armor was now white and his voice, cold as ice, had changed as well.

"Wait… w-what is going on?" Pallette asked, tempted to drop her disguise but not doing so.

"Something that your tiny electronic brain can't comprehend," the white armored hunter said and, drawing his gun, he shot Pallette point blank.

Notes:

Thanks to Adam for beta reading.

Axl and Pallette aren't my personal favorites from X8, but they're interesting characters and I wanted to include them in the story and give them a chapter and a role to play, so here it is.