Yeah, it took a while to finally get this chapter up. You know, school and all. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 7

Upon touchdown on Central Highway, X took a deep breath to collect himself. Cody, however, couldn't believe what he was seeing. The highway before him was swarming with robots of various sizes and shapes causing havoc everywhere.

Upon realizing this himself, X frowned. "Oh, great. These Mavericks are really making a mess. Guess we've got work to do."

"What?" Cody gasped, surprised. "How are we supposed to clean all of this up?"

"Just follow my lead, OK?" With that, X withdrew his left hand for his X-Buster, much to his blonde pupil's shock. Noticing this, X added, "You should be able to call out your buster with a mental impulse. Just think about it." With that, X took off.

Cody cleared his mind, focusing on calling out his own arm cannon. Soon enough, his own hand was sucked back into his arm in exchange for his own "C-Buster". He didn't have much time to marvel at this, however, as he had to get going to keep up with X.

The dark blue Hunter darted ahead, mowing down the minor enemies almost instinctually with the orb like projectiles coming from his weapon. He made it to a clearing in the destroyed highway right under an overpass. That was when he noticed a gigantic shadow looming over him. Upon looking up, he was met by what looked like a massive mechanical scorpion with a whip like, segmented tail.

Fear gripped the rookie Hunter as the metallic beast glared at what was apparently its newest prey. The brief stare down ended when the scorpion leapt off the overpass and into action, lashing its tail out at Cody. The Martin twin barely managed to leap and roll out of the way before his adversary could skewer him. The mechaniloid then shot a volley of missiles from various openings in its body. While he dodged some of them, a few managed to land plush, burning and blasting Cody off his feet.

Cody's own thoughts went really after that hit along with his body. Ugh. That really hurt, but what can I do to that thing? It's much bigger than anything I've dealt with up to this point. Nevertheless, the dark blue robot aimed a volley of shots at the scorpion… with no luck whatsoever. Enraged, the scorpion charged at him. He was kind of at a loss as to what to do, when an idea popped into his head. He readied a shot from his C-Buster, but instead of letting it go immediately, he held onto it. A strange pressure began to build up inside his body. Thrown off by this, he just stood there. He was seconds away from taking what would likely be a very painful tackle when he heard a voice.

"Hey, ugly! I've got something for you right here. Come on!"

Both combatants turned their attention to the speaker, which turned out to be X.

"Cody! Get out of the way. I'll handle this." The less experienced hunter didn't need to be told twice, and promptly moved out of the way.

With a few well-placed charged shots, along with volley a smaller shots, X quickly reduced his enemy to rubble. Cody was watching the whole thing, impressed by how quickly and easily X took the thing down when he himself couldn't even scratch it.

The Blue Bomber breathed a collective sigh when it was all over. He turned to the young hunter that he saved, who was both amazed at what X just did, and shocked by what he just faced.

"Thanks. For saving me, I mean," Cody said, his nerves quite frayed by the experience.

"You're welcome," The Maverick Hunter returned. X silently looked Cody over and realized that his comrade's injuries were somewhat serious. "You're quite banged up. We'd better get you back to HQ. Let's go."

With an acknowledging nod from his protégé, X whispered something into a communicator embedded in his arm and both Hunters promptly warped away.

Suggested BGM:

Opening Stage (X): "Opening Stage"- Mega Man X

Opening Stage (Cody): "Sky Lagoon (X)" - Mega Man X4

I hope you enjoyed this. Be sure to read and review!