Hi everyone! This chapter is a long one, but it's the final one before we really get into the action. Regardless, enjoy!
Chapter 11
Back on the battlefield, Zero was more than prepared for his sparring partner's assault; he caught Zack's arms and legs as he pounced, and what followed was a blur of red metal rolling along the ground which ended with Zero judo throwing his rival against a wall on the other side of the room. The resounding crack caused Cody to wince and even made X flinch. Zero took a very careful, guarded look at Zack, and sighed when he was sure the boy was out for the count.
"He'll be fine. I think I've seen all I need to see from him."
With that, he walked out of the sparring arena as if nothing had happened.
Brotherly instinct took over, sending Cody sprinting into the sparring room to check on his brother.
Meanwhile, Bailey and Alia were watching all of this from the navigation room. The former was stunned at what just took place.
"That was… something else."
"Well, that's Zero for ya."
"Is he always that serious, though?"
"As long as I've known him."
Alia looked on in thought for a second before continuing. "You know, your friends are doing pretty well for themselves."
"Yeah, I… Wait. You knew?"
"About you guys not being from this world? Of course. For starters, none of you act like fresh-off-the-lot Reploids, especially considering London's little 'outburst'. But what clinched it for me was your little reunion when you met up with the other three."
"Oh," Bailey said softly. She had forgotten that Alia was still around when she'd met up with the boys and London.
"You guys just seemed way too close for any other explanation to really make sense."
A female voice interrupted their conversation.
"Mind if I butt in, Alia?"
A Reploid woman appearing to be in her 20s physically walked up to the duo. Her armor was cream color with a black trim highlighting the edges. A similarly armor-clad little girl with glasses was holding her hand.
"No problem," the veteran navigator answered. "We weren't really doing much anyways. Bailey, this is Cali, our replacement Navigator."
"Replacement?"
"Our usual other two navigators, Layer and Palette, were reassigned recently. She's kind of here to help fill the void."
"Always a pleasure. I take it you're Bailey?" Cali's last question referred to said gray Reploid.
"Yup, that's me. Nice to meet ya," Bailey answered back before her eyes met the smaller Reploid.
Cali caught this and took the initiative.
"And that's Kylie, my little sister."
"Well, it's nice to meet you too, sweetie."
"Hi, Bailey," the little girl greeted in an oddly raspy voice.
Bailey, not expecting the vocal dissonance, raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, her vocal programming has a few… glitches," Cali added.
"Okay…" Bailey realized something upon getting a better look at the girl. "Say, didn't you let me out of that pod earlier?"
"Yup, yup," the girl replied.
"Well, thank you!"
"Much obliged."
With that, Kylie ran off, leaving Bailey baffled. She's dealt with weirder, considering her friends, past adventures, and what's happened here, but still…
Zack came around to find himself staring at his concerned brother.
"Ugh… Cody? How long was I…?"
"…out? About 10 minutes."
"My head's killing me."
"Yeah, getting your head slammed into a Plexiglas wall at a high rate of speed will do that to you. How much do you remember?"
"Everything up to fighting with Zero. The rest's a blur."
"Well, you guys swapped blows for a couple of minutes, you threw him, and then charged at him, only to wind up getting judo thrown yourself."
Zack got up, rubbing the back of his head and looked around. Zero and X were nowhere to be seen.
"Where did Zero go, anyway?"
"He left a while ago saying that he'd seen enough from you."
"Guys…"
Both twins turned around to see London carrying a catatonic Axl.
"Um, what happened?" Cody asked, bewildered.
"I think I broke Axl…"
The taller twin merely chuckled. "Somehow, I doubt it. Here, let me have a look."
Upon closer inspection, Cody could see that Axl was making odd twitching movements every few seconds.
"Huh. He looks more like he's in shock…"
Zack thought for a moment. "Here, let me try something."
He walked up to Axl and clapped his hands together once. This woke up the navy-colored reploid, sending him out of his pupil's grasp and onto the floor. Axl recovered quickly and reflexively aimed his pistol in front of him.
"Easy, easy. We come in peace," Zack assured.
"What happened?"
London explained the situation as best as she could, with the boys cleaning up details as she went along.
"Well, just so you know, that was a fluke. You couldn't beat me on the targeting range if I was really trying!"
The golden-armored hunter gave Axl an annoyed look. "Well, I did! You're welcome for saving your life by the way!"
The two stared each other down intensely while the twins exchanged looks.
"This should be interesting," Zack remarked.
"Yup," Cody responded.
Before long, a familiar warning siren got everyone's attention.
The twins, London, and Axl were greeted by grave looks adorning the faces of X, Zero, Bailey, Alia, and two faces they didn't recognize.
"What's going on? And who're they?" London piped up.
After a quick meet-and-greet session, Alia got down to the matter at hand.
"We've received reports of Maverick attacks at various locations."
"When did this happen?" X asked.
"That's the thing. They seemed to come out of nowhere just a few minutes ago," Bailey added.
Alia took a deep breath before continuing. "And that's not even the worst part. Take a look for yourself."
She gestured towards the screen she was looking at. All of the Hunters were stunned, but for different reasons. The Suite Life Trio were trying to digest what they were looking at, while the main Maverick Hunters were shocked to see some familiar faces. Those faces were of Boomer Kuwanger, Crystal Snail, Crush Crawfish, Magma Dragoon, Grizzly Slash, Commander Yammark, Wind Crowang, and Bamboo Pandamonium.
"How is this possible? How could they be back? Who could've rebuilt them?" X wondered aloud.
Zack looked at Zero, horrified. "I thought you said you took care of Magma Dragoon!"
"I don't know," Zero replied, "Maybe this was the work of whoever brought back Vile."
"Whatever the case may be, we need to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand," Alia said, with a very serious tone to her voice. "I suggest you guys go in teams of two. Myself, Cali, and Bailey will provide navigational support if you want."
Alia gestured to a teleporter and console at the eastern side of the room.
"Whenever you're ready, pick a Maverick on the console. The teleporter will send you to where you need to be."
Her explanation was interrupted by a tapping sound. Turns out the shorter Martin twin was way ahead of everybody, as he was setting a course for Magma Dragoon's area.
"What the… are you crazy?"
He was already gone before anyone could stop him. Cody just shook his head.
"Why didn't I see this coming? I'll go get him."
He turned to take off, but Zero's voice stopped him.
"Don't bother. We don't need two of you rookies risking your necks at the same time. Besides, I know the terrain a thousand times better than you do."
"Well, I know my brother about a thousand times better than you do."
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," Zero asserted in a firm voice before walking off and teleporting away himself.
Cody could only watch with mixed emotions as he watched the long-haired robot leave.
"He really does know what he's doing. Zack will be fine," X reassured. "I know. Zero and I go back quite a while, and he's saved me more than once."
"I hope you're right…" the darker blue reploid trailed off.
Suggested BGM: Stage Select (Zack & Zero): Stage Select 1 (Mega Man X2)
Like I said, the action kicks off next chapter. Feel free to read and review!