-31-
Reconnaissance Team-G was small, formed by only three young hunters who specialized in scouting locations where maverick activity was suspected. Their leader was Kobalto, a blue-armored hunter who used an electric rod to fight and was at present spying through the trees near the massive Air Purifier Central located in the Nordic forests. Behind him was Bruna, who used his shield and tremor mace in combat and to Kobalto's left stood Perlo, who fought using her wind spear. The three had been sent to this area to confirm what the satellites found, since the heavy clouds didn't allow for a completely accurate image. They had dutifully reported that the Tunneler and the nuclear bomb were there, and should have left the area already, but…
"We should be able to enter the central unnoticed," Bruna said. "What do you think, Kobalto?"
"I think this isn't going to end well," Kobalto answered. "I'm the team's leader, I don't know how you two convinced me this was a good idea!"
"You agreed because if we capture her, our ranks will go from B to A. This is our chance!" Perlo said. "I knew her before she defected, I think we can beat her together… so let's go, guys!"
She observed the three hunters from behind a large tree, her white armor and the thick white fur covering her shoulders, forearms, boots and tail helping camouflage her frame so effectively it would have taken specs the reconnaissance team lacked for her to be detected. She waited until the three formed a line and then dashed in complete silence until she was behind the one in brown armor. Quietly, undetected, she lightly touched his shoulder and then vanished between the trees. Bruna walked two steps before his systems warned him a severe inner temperature drop was damaging his circuits. Before he could even scream, an internal explosion of cold froze him solid where he stood. Kobalto looked back a few moments later, just to find his best friend had turned into an ice statue. Alarmed, he rushed to Bruna's side without calling Perlo, and that proved to be a fatal mistake, for a quick shadow jumped over him, touching his helmet roughly. Kobalto was able to activate his elec-rod and point it to where he saw the stranger hit the ground, but he completely froze from the head down before he could actually attack her.
"Something wrong, guys?" Perlo asked out loud, turning back when she couldn't hear her partners. She gasped in fear when all she could see in the distance were the frozen shapes of Bruna and Kobalto. "Oh, no, it can't be! Bruna, Kobalto!"
"Don't worry about your friends, you'll join them soon," a voice said behind Perlo.
"You!" the female hunter said as she spun and activated her wind spear, but before she could do anything with it her chest was pierced by a sharp ice needle, and her body and systems quickly froze into solid ice.
"Yes, me…" The white-armored maverick said as she placed her hands defiantly on her hips, staring at the three frozen statues, pleased by her victory as it confirmed her place as the Mistress of ice… Frostbite Fox!
=0=
The crimson hunter landed in the middle of the snow-covered forest and ducked behind a frozen shrub as he assessed the situation. He was a few miles from the Air Purifier Central, from where the signal controlling the Tunneler was being transmitted. Zero knew quite well what to do, he had to reach the central, find the control room and shut it all off. It really shouldn't take him too long, but he knew it would be foolish to take this lightly. Frostbite Fox was a former A ranked Maverick Hunter, which meant she should have prepared the area well enough to repel any infiltration.
"And zones controlled by ice-based mavericks are always a pain to get through," Zero murmured as he checked his power core to make sure he was at 100% before dashing into the forest. "Not to mention I'm not looking forward to seeing Frostbite Fox again."
He found a deep hole after climbing a slope and had to stop in order to look around for a way to get over it. He found a ledge a few meters down on one side that seemed safe, so he double jumped in that direction, landing on it with no difficulty. He was about to repeat the maneuver with another double jump when the wall to his left trembled and part of it crumbled into the bottom of the hole.
"Zero, there's an Eyezard nearby!" Layer provided. "It will be difficult to fight him where you are; try to lure it out of that pit."
"I will try." the red hunter said and waited while the Eyezard floated out of the wall.
"It is weak to fire attacks, but…"
"Axl hasn't beaten Flame Scorpion yet, I gather?" Zero guessed as he dodged the several ice shards the Eyezard shot his way by climbing the wall with a series of quick jumps.
"He's currently navigating an area full of fire traps," the lavender-haired navigator said. "But it seems a strong impact could also work well against this particular Eyezard, my readings indicate its armor is somewhat damaged."
"Oh, really?" Zero grinned. "That gives me an idea."
"I'm sure it'll work, good luck, Zero."
Zero dodged a second round of ice shards by double jumping out of the hole, finally landing on the other side of it. He considered rushing and leaving the Eyezard behind, but the machine was nothing if not stubborn, and it chased him out of the pit, now surrounded in a thick coat of ice that sprouted spikes all around it, effectively becoming a frozen spike ball. Zero, understanding the ice mechaniloid was determined to fight, dashed to the left so he stood near a tall tree and prepared his Z-saber, waiting for the exact moment to execute his plan.
And that moment came soon enough. The Eyezard launched itself at Zero with the intention of crushing him, something the hunter used to his advantage with a vertical slice… aimed at the tree behind him. As he expected the massive tree fell, completely crushing the ice-based mechaniloid under it.
"That was effective," Layer rejoined.
"Yeah, thanks for telling me its armor was damaged," Zero said with a smile. "If I had tried fighting it head on I would probably have received some damage, Eyezards can be dangerous."
"You're welcome, Zero… but don't get confident, there are several Ray Bits hiding in the snow ahead of you, but their size makes it difficult to tell exactly where they are," Layer informed. "On the other hand, I can't detect any other type of enemy around you."
"Good to know, I'll be careful then," the red hunter promised. "Let me know if you see anything unusual."
"Will do, Layer out."
=0=
Splash Woman, sitting on a large crate, rested her chin on her right hand and let out a sigh. She had offered Douglas her help with X's armors but after one look, she decided the armors were simply too complex for her to be of any help. She could recognize a few things in the armors that were familiar to her and definitively marked them as creations of her maker, but the way they were built into the armor's circuitry had left her completely confused.
In the end she found she wasn't able to help again, and that was depressing her.
"Hey, don't feel bad," Douglas said, sitting next to her. "To be honest I don't understand the armors either. I only replace the wiring or the metal plates that are damaged, clean them and check their inner battery. But if you asked me to actually fix one I wouldn't know what to do. Nobody alive can replicate them… well, Alia came close."
"Oh?" Splash Woman was interested on that last part. "What do you mean?"
"Alia was able to reproduce X's fourth armor," Douglas said as he scratched his cheek. "But she couldn't replicate all of its functions. She also tried to duplicate the third armor but she wasn't able to understand the chip system included in that one. To be honest, none of her reproductions has been complete; her duplicate of the fourth armor was only functional to about 70% capacity of the original."
"That's… that's actually very impressive," the mermaid admitted. "It doesn't matter her reproductions weren't complete. That she could understand Doctor Light's designs to that point is amazing."
"Yeah, she's a brilliant engineer and programmer," the mechanic said and then chuckled. "If she decided to come work here she'd put me out of a job."
"I don't think so, Douglas, you're very good at fixing things," she offered with a smile.
"Thanks for the kind words," the mechanic said with a chuckle. "But the truth is we can't even analyze the Light capsules; they're very complex as well."
"That's true, the armors were stored in Light Capsules!" "Splash Woman remembered. "Where are they now?"
"We keep them in a storeroom down in the third level of the basement," Douglas provided. "It's the safest location in HQ, we can't afford to lose them, you know."
"Can I see them?"
"I'm afraid X, Signas or Alia have to give you clearance for that," the mechanic said with a shrug. "If you want to see the capsules, you'll have to ask one of them."
"Well, that can be done," the mermaid said with a confident smile. "I'm sure Alia will let me see them. Thank you, Douglas, I'll see you later."
And saying nothing more Splash Woman headed back to HQ's control room.
=0=
Zero parried the downward slash of a beam sword-carrying Guardroid and then countered with a vertical slash of his own, cutting his foe in half. This didn't mean victory, as four other Guardroids immediately attacked him; three of them were armed with laser guns and the last one with a large ice-hammer. The crimson hunter dodged the hammer, wielding one with a double jump and then bounced off the wall so he landed between two of the gun-wielding Guardroids, taking both of them down with a pair of quick diagonal cuts from his Z-Saber. He dashed under the shots of the last armed Guardroid and stabbed him in the chest, destroying it. Finally, Zero turned and destroyed the final hammer-wielding Guardroid with a charged shot from his Z-Buster.
"Seems that's the last of them," Zero said as he approached the electronic gates which led to the next room. To his surprise, he entered a large balcony that oversaw the forest around the Central, frowning as he saw how that part of the woods was already devastated by the Tunneler-D16 that was currently digging a massive hole. And just as the crimson hunter expected, the nuclear bomb was also down there.
"Zero, I was hoping you'd come," a seductive female voice greeted on his right. "I see you're still as handsome as usual… are you finally ready to link with me? You know I'm willing if you are."
"Frostbite Fox," Zero said, frowning at the sight of the sultry maverick. "What the hell are you doing? You used to be a Maverick Hunter; I didn't think you'd sink so low!"
"Oh, please," Fox laughed. "I am only doing this to punish Signas for what he did to me."
"What he did to you? You were selling Maverick Hunter information to criminal groups," Zero accused. "You're lucky he only sent you to prison!"
"After he arrested me and paraded me all over HQ, humiliating me in front of everyone!" she countered. "And you have no idea how awful it was to be jailed and how much I suffered after I escaped… can you blame me for wanting revenge?"
"What you're doing will kill millions!" Zero spat, his voice full of disgust. "That's not revenge, that's maverick behavior to me! I'm going to…"
"Stop the holier than thou speech and open your mind, you fool!" Fox interrupted. "Lumine is going to destroy all that is weak, the only way to survive is to show him you're strong enough to thrive in his new world! Join me, Zero, be my mate and Lumine may let you live!"
"No. I'll never let him do as he wishes, I'll stop his plans!" Zero declared firmly. "Now stand aside so I can shut down that Tunneler!"
"You know I can't let you do that," the female maverick said, visibly disappointed at the hunter's refusal. "Don't say I didn't give you a chance, Zero... I'm sorry, but you will die here!"
Not waiting for Zero's reply, Frostbite Fox dashed towards him and jumped over him when he tried to cut her with his saber. She spun in the air and kicked Zero in the back of his head hard enough to send him stumbling towards the edge of the balcony. He turned around immediately and was forced to bring up his Z saber to block an ice needle Fox had thrown at him.
"Not bad," he conceded. "I expected no less from a former A ranked hunter like you."
"Oh, you'll find I can do much better, love," she said and ran to him again, attacking with such speed Zero was forced onto the defensive as Fox kicked and dodged with impressive nimbleness.
The red hunter saw a chance and brought his Z-Saber down with a mighty downward thrust, sure that he finally had Fox but he only managed to stab the ground. The evasive maverick just rolled left to dodge the attack! Grinning, Frostbite Fox took advantage of Zero's mistake and placed her hand over his thigh. The hunter reacted immediately and landed a quick backhand punch on the maverick, dropping her on her side.
"Nice punch," she said, rubbing her bruised cheek. "But it's over, darling… my Ice Slither will freeze your systems in a matter of seconds, draining your power until you die, and no matter how strong you are, you won't escape it."
"I still can stop you…!" Zero growled, finding his legs were already covered in ice, and that it was going up and up. He would be completely frozen soon!
"Zero, listen to me!" Layer said then, the tone in her voice revealing how alarmed she felt. "Axl just uploaded the Fire Stinger to the database! Download it now, the weapon's data should help your systems counter the Ice Slither!"
Zero, frozen up to his neck, did as Layer indicated and downloaded Flame Scorpion's weapon. The crimson hunter analyzed the data and his learning system swiftly assimilated it, giving him the key to win the fight: a new technique called Honō no ha-zashi.
Frostbite Fox approached Zero once he was completely frozen. She ran a hand over the hunter's chest and then caressed his face. The fox maverick closed her eyes and, placing both hands on his shoulders for support, went on tiptoe so she could kiss him on the cheek.
"It's a shame you were so stubborn, love," she huskily whispered on his ear, knowing he could still hear her before his systems shut down completely. "But don't worry; I'll keep your frozen form as a memory of what could have been. I'll…"
A creaking sound interrupted her words. Confused, Frostbite Fox took one step back just to see Zero was about to break free!
She touched his torso and activated his Ice Slither again but it was useless, Zero literally ignited in front of her, his body surrounded by flames as he lifted his Z-Saber high, completely melting the ice restraining him.
"This cannot be!" Fox gasped, retrieving her hand to avoid his fire. "My Ice Slither is invincible!"
"No, it is not!" Zero, still enveloped in flames, declared. "And now it's time to end this… Honō no ha-zashi!"
Saying the name of his new special technique, Zero drove his Z-Saber forward, stabbing Fox directly in the chest and driving the heat of several thousand degrees into a power core that was not designed to resist such abuse.
"No! How could you…!" Fox screamed in pain as her body burst in flames, exploding with a fiery blast that completely obliterated her.
"What a waste of strength. If only you hadn't strayed from the right path, Fox…" Zero sighed as he crouched to pick up Frostbite Fox's weapon chip. He analyzed it and uploaded the Ice Slither into HQ's Special Weapon database, hoping one of the others would find it useful.
"Well, X and Axl for sure, but not Vile," he thought while he walked to the control panel on the other end of the balcony, finally noticing the drilling noise the Tunneler was making. Zero looked at the different controls until he figured out how to turn it all off. Almost immediately, the Tunneler-D16 destroying the forest stopped and deactivated.
"It's done," the red-armored hunter proclaimed, feeling tired. He took a deep breath and cursed as he noticed his Power Core was at only 23%. He knew the Ice Slither had forced his core to overheat in order to compensate for the cold, but he didn't think the power drain would be so severe. At least his systems were undamaged, but he would have to go back to HQ for a quick recharge.
Thinking about HQ reminded Zero of something, or rather, of someone who had been essential for his victory in this fight.
"She has been there for me no matter what," he thought, finally understanding how committed she actually was to him and how unfair he had been, not to mention how foolish it was taking her for granted. "I can't make the same mistake again."
"Hey, Layer," Zero called, reaching up to activate his communicator. "You there?"
"Affirmative, how are you feeling, Zero?" she asked. "My readings indicate your core level is low."
"It is, isn't it? Anyway, Frostbite Fox is defeated. You can send the bomb squad, the area is clear."
"Good, they'll be there soon."
Zero hesitated for a moment and then he spoke. "Layer?"
"Yes, Zero?"
"You've helped me a lot lately," he started and then paused as he wondered if what he was considering doing was right or not. In the end he decided he it was right.
"Zero, are you there?" the navigator called.
"Yes. I just want to thank you, Layer, for everything," and saying this, and knowing she could see him thanks to the satellite view, Zero smiled and offered her a thumbs up. "I'm going to HQ for a recharge, I'll see you in a minute."
=0=
And back in HQ…
"Did… did you guys see that?" Pallette asked, still too surprised to actually believe that Zero, who was always one hundred percent serious during hunts, had actually smiled and offered Layer a gesture of appreciation. "I mean, did you see what Commander Zero just did, did you?"
"Yes, we all did," Alia said, smiling softly as she looked at Layer, who was, unsurprisingly, blushing fiercely. "Who'd have thought he'd do that again? And he did it for you, Layer... I'm happy for you, my friend. I really am."
Scarlet looked up from her station and thought about saying something sarcastic, but in the end she didn't. She wasn't so heartless that she would ruin what was obviously a very important moment for another girl, so she simply observed the others in silence for a few moments before going back to monitoring Vile's progress.
"I…" Layer couldn't find the words, her electronic brain simply refused to properly process what she had just seen. Zero hadn't done that after completing a mission in years. The only person he ever did that gesture for was Iris. But now he had done it for her.
"Layer…" Pallette tried. "Are you even listening to us?"
Layer ignored her friends as she felt a tear sliding down her cheek and both thanked and cursed the fact reploids had the capacity to cry.
It seemed Zero was finally ready to accept her and let her to openly be a part of his life. And she was simply too happy to know what to do or say.
Notes:
Thanks to Adam for beta reading this chapter.
The three Hunters from the intro scene are actually the trio of hunters from X's ending in Mega Man X5. They don't have official names that I'm aware of so I simply named them based on their armor color.
The Eyezard is a miniboss from Mega Man X4, it appears in Frost Walrus' stage. The Ray Bit's are mechanical rabbits found in Chill Penguin's stage in the first game.
The Guardroid is a humanoid enemy from Mega Man X8.
"Honō no ha-zashi" means Flaming blade stab.