Enjoy this new chapter, fresh from a long, painful development... well, you know where. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 10

"Now! Fire!"

On X's command, Cody fired a volley of shots at the targets.

By now, it was the next day. As was promised earlier, the six hunters had headed to Troia Base for some training. Each Maverick Hunter took their opposite number aside and got to work. For the Hunters themselves, it was the first chance to get a look at the Suite Life Trio's abilities in a more controlled environment. As for X and Cody themselves, they were doing was known as "agility drills".

Overall, X had been impressed with his pupil's work. Cody was actually reasonably fast, though his accuracy could have used a bit of work. However, for some weird reason, something felt off. X couldn't explain it. There was something about his mannerisms and movements that seemed… strange. It's almost like he's holding back. Except… he's not, is he? X shook his rogue thoughts away as Cody finished off the last of the targets.

"So, how'd I do?" Cody asked, breathless.

"Let's see… Two minutes and 13 seconds. Not bad."

Cody managed a grin in spite of himself. Part of him wondered if he could top that. Yes, even here, the overachiever in him was still running rampant.

"Okay. Now, let me show you how it's done," X said as he switched off with the taller twin. Now Cody kept time while X went to work.

As was the case back on Central Highway, watching X move was amazing. There was simply no other way to describe it. Each movement of his was done with the fluidity of an Olympic gymnast, balanced with precision maneuvering and well-timed shots that hit their targets with deadly efficiency. He managed to dust off the entire exercise in less than a minute. In fact, when X was done, he looked like he'd hardly broken a sweat.

"Uh… 56 seconds," Cody read off, still stunned by what he'd just seen.

New personal best, the Azure Hunter thought, smiling to himself. "Anyway, we'll take a break for now."

On another side of the base, London and Axl had just arrived at a massive shooting range. Naturally, Axl chose to take the lead.

"Well, here we are. The shooting range," Axl announced.

Beyond the entrance was a glass box with a door that led out into a large series of corridors, each containing several cardboard cutouts laid out at various locations. To any casual observer, this would look like a military-grade shooting gallery. Unfortunately, London Tipton was no casual observer. Frankly, she was still trying to make sense of her surroundings.

Luckily, Axl caught on to this. "I'll bet you're wondering what all this is."

The girl turned to Axl with a confused expression on her face. "Uh, yeah."

The navy reploid simply smirked. This would be fun. "Just watch and learn."

What followed was a blur of motion so erratic that the heiress could barely keep up with it even with her enhanced senses. When it was over, a good part of the gallery was charred, but only about half of the targets were hit. Still, it was more than enough to impress London.

"Wow," she managed to gasp.

"Your turn," Axl said, blowing the smoke off his pistol.

"My turn doing what, exactly?"

The prototype rolled his eyes at his partner's apparent density. "Just hit all the cutouts as fast as you can."

Before London could say anything more, the entire area around her changed. It now looked completely untouched.

"Seriously, does everything surprise you?" Axl asked once he caught sight of her gaping mouth. "Ugh, never mind. All you need to do is focus. Let your instincts do the rest."

"What do you…?"

"Remember? You already did it once when you saved me from that bucket of bolts back at the crash site. I know you can do it."

The reploid heiress shrugged and tried to focus. Before she knew it, she was buzzing around the training area, blasting targets at a breakneck pace. Five minutes later, she was done. Not only had she hit every target, but she hit with perfect accuracy. Axl could barely form words to describe what he saw.

"B-But, how… You can't be serious… "

"Uh, Axl?"

London was now waving her hand in front of the navy reploid's face, attempting to bring him back to reality. Needless to say, it wasn't working. She ran a hand through her hair absentmindedly.

"Geez. And you say I'm easily surprised."

Meanwhile, Zero had led Zack to yet another area in the base, this one being what was apparently a large, empty room.

"All right, what're we doing here?" Zack asked to no reply.

Zero simply walked to the other side of the room and turned away from before taking out his beam saber and turning around to strike a fighting pose.

"Come on."

"What?!" The darker toned reploid exclaimed, taken aback by his apparent challenge.

"You heard me. Come on. Let's see what you're made of."

In hindsight, Zack should've seen this coming. He took in a shaky breath and charged Zero then and there.

Zero met his advance and turned his own momentum against him, flipping him over. Zack threw a left hook at him as he got up, which Zero merely sidestepped. He dodged a couple more swings while looking for another opening. When he found one, he countered with a small combination of punches and kicks. Another combination was halted when Zack managed to catch his opponent's arm. He threw him halfway across the room with surprising ease.

Huh. Either Zero is really lightweight, or I'm really strong… Either way, maybe I could use this…

Zack lunged for Zero as the latter was getting up. Unfortunately for the hot-blooded twin, Zero wasn't nearly as vulnerable as he looked…

…

Unbeknownst to the fighters, they had an audience; Cody and X had found their way to the part of the base where Zack and Zero were sparring. While Cody was surprised that Zack was doing so well considering how new they all were at this. X simply stared ahead, studying the action intently as it unfolded before him. It was obvious to X's trained eyes that Zero was merely getting a feel for what Zack could do at the moment. From what he himself could gather, Zack seemed to be quite the opportunist, gunning for Zero every time he thought he had a shot at him. Of course, Zero was much harder to read in reality. Still, X didn't deny that Zack, like his twin, showed true promise.

This chapter was running a little long, so I decided to cut it off here. Feel free to rate and review!