Adrian Campbell

T-10-28-14

Chapter 8

Distorted, ancient hums echoed throughout the Eurasia Colony Crash Site as two Maverick Hunters (one highly experienced, one… not so much) landed on a crumbling slab of concrete. While the navy one was raring to go with an itchy trigger finger, the golden one barely registered the fact that they had landed at all. She seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.

"London!" Axl called, picking up on his ally's far-gone state.

The misplaced rich kid snapped out of it upon hearing the foreign voice. Upon realizing where she was, she could only manage a shaky "W-where…?"

"The place where the world almost ended… or at least, that's what X and Zero told me," Axl said as he prepped his guns. He test fired his two pistols up in the air, making London flinch at every shot. "Come on, we've got work to do."

An uneasy silence loomed over the duo as they explored the ruined crater. Strangely, there didn't seem to be anything amiss, aside from the obvious destruction. This set the trigger-happy prototype on edge.

Axl turned to London. "Something's not right here. Be on your guard."

The Reploid teenager stared at Axl as if he'd grown a second head. "Okay…"

"You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

The golden Hunter shook her head, prompting Axl to groan in frustration. This was going to be harder then he thought.

"Fine. Just…just… stay behind me."

Soon, they came to a series of cliff platforms overlooking several rows of spikes. Upon looking at the metallic needles, London cringed and started backing up. Axl forced himself to assume the mentorship role once again.

"Look, you're going to need a running start if you're going to make it over there. Just dash, then jump as high as you can." He promptly demonstrated, rocketing to the nearest safe platform a few feet away. "Oh, by the way," he added, "You don't want to touch the spikes. Just don't."

"You make it look so easy," London yelled back at Axl. Regardless, she gathered up the courage to make a run across the ground which turned into a proper jet-assisted dash. She leapt up like a spring, clearing the spikes with ease. She jumped so high, it took her by surprise. Unfortunately, the landing… wasn't very graceful.

Axl couldn't help but laugh as his pupil hit the ground.

"Nice landing," he said as he helped her up.

London shot a look of annoyance at Axl. "Ha, ha. Very funny."

"Yes. Yes it was. Let's keep moving."

The rest of the trip was largely uneventful, until they got to a silver door. Axl gave out another "keep up your guard" warning before they headed inside.

They were greeted by what looked like half of a giant mechaniloid that seemed to be controlled by a floating eyelike orb. While London stood there seemingly immobilized by fear, Axl Bailey looked at it as if it was a dirty old cup on a sidewalk. He knew he'd been through much worse than this before.

"Please," Axl said, walking towards the robot with an overconfident smirk on his face. "You think you can intimidate me with just your size? Come on, let's see what you can do."

With that, the robot (or rather, its eye) took aim at the cocky reploid and the torso threw itself at him with intent to crush him. Naturally, Axl dodged the large hunk of metal with ease and started pelting the thing with pistol shots. Unfortunately, while said hunk of metal was very easy to dodge, it took a lot of fire. After a while, the navy-colored android began to tire himself. He started taking damage every so often due to some miscalculated dodge maneuvers.

While all of this was going on, London couldn't quite process was going on in front of her. To her, it seemed so unreal, like something that would come out of one of Zack's video games. But this was real, and she knew it. She even pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, and considering that she didn't have "skin" per se, that was not an easy feat.

The heiress was shocked out of her state by the sounds of Axl's pained grunts as he took damage. Although she was still scared, for some odd reason, some strange urge to do something welled up in her mind. With all of her previous thoughts shoved to the very back of her mind for the moment, she walked up to the levitating scrap and said, "Get away from him."

The sentient eye and its mechanical puppet paid her no mind and continued to go after their prey. This did not sit well with London at all. With or without her money, one thing about her stayed true: she did not like to be ignored.

"I said, GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

A weapon materialized in her hand suddenly and she fired it at the robot on instinct. An arrow like projectile hit the robot in the face, not damaging it much, but taking its attention away from Axl. It set upon her until the eye was suddenly shot and faded out for a split second. Axl had pulled the trigger there.

"Aim for the eye," Axl shouted, while taking his own advice. "I think it's its weak point."

Clinging to a wall as Axl had shown her earlier, London aimed for the orb that her partner was shooting at. Soon enough, the orb had had enough, and it along with the floating torso started to flash. Both Hunters hit the deck, avoiding the brunt of the explosion that followed.

"We did it," Axl said, staring back at the wreckage of their adversaries before turning to London. "Nice job."

"Um… thanks," the female Hunter responded with a nervous smile before it quickly faded. "But, how do we get home…"

"Leave that one to me." Axl responded before warping them both back to the base.

A figure cloaked in shadow looked on at Hunter Base from a nearby cliff side. She put a communicator to her mouth.

"I've located Hunter Base… Do we really have to go through with this?"

The owner of the male voice on the other end seemed to shrug off her misgivings. "Of course. It's for our father, after all."

"Fine…" She groaned. It's for the new world, she told herself. "Have you been keeping tabs on those Maverick Hunters?

"Certainly. X, Zero, and Axl are being kept busy by our restored Mavericks."

"What about the others?"

"Others?" the male speaker paused for a bit before remembering who she was referring to. "Oh, you mean those 'new' reploids? They've just come off the lot! They couldn't possibly suspect what's really going on here. They can barely fight, anyhow."

The figure sighed. "Fine. I'll head over. Can I bring Kylie along?"

"Of course. I should be along shortly. Just keep her out of trouble. Good luck Cali."

"Bye, Black." With that, Cali ended the call and leapt off the cliff side to fetch Kylie and fulfill her part of the mission.