Chapter 17
The beetle-esque robot's strikes came quickly and without preamble. Despite what was thrown his way, X seemed completely calm and collected, dancing around his adversary's attacks with well-practiced ease. Cody could only move himself out of the danger zone as he took in the fight around him. The second X found an opening, he unleashed a shot of Rising Fire at his airborne opponent. Clearly smarting from the hit (though clearly not as much as he should've been, by standards of pure logic), the Maverick decided to change tactics…and targets. He started moving around the arena and a mind-bending speed, creating after images of himself. Neither Hunter was having an easy time tracking their enemy, but X, unlike his protégé, didn't let it show on his face. That cold, battle hardened expression never left his face.
"All right, X. That's enough out of you for now. Let's see what the boy's capable of."
Before X could intervene, Kuwanger was already on top of Cody, who is doing everything he could just defend himself. He had now begun using the pair of scissors that had previously served as a headpiece as a weapon, throwing them as one would throw a boomerang.
"What are you doing? Stop it!" the twin begged. Any bravado he had walked in the door with had now completely dissolved in favor of the sort of desperation that comes with fighting for your life.
"You're not impressing me, kid. What does that old man see in you, anyway?"
"What are you talking about?" Cody managed to buy himself enough time to get a Fire Wave off and take off running. He knew it was kill or be killed in this situation, but he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge that fact. It terrified him too much.
"Hmph. The killer instinct... That's what you lack." X was now fighting to get Boomer away from his charge, but his enemy's speed was proving to be a challenge to counter.
"It doesn't matter how much power you have at your disposal. So long as you don't pull the trigger, you're as good as dead!" Kuwanger aimed to decapitate Cody, but with remarkable speed of his own he managed to dip under the weapon as it sailed over his head. "Come on! I like fun fights, and you're just making this boring!"
"Fighting? Fun?" The boy staggered back from a kick he'd just taken in response. "You're crazy!"
"That's exactly what a Maverick is, Cody. Crazy." X said as he exploited the whole that his adversary left in his focus and very brutally plunged his Buster into Kuwanger's gut. If Cody had been human at that point, he'd have likely thrown up. Instead, his mouth just hung a wide-open, as if he'd had a front row seat to a 10 car pileup.
"So this is how it ends, eh, X?" The Maverick turned his now fading glare to the shell-shocked blonde. "Make no mistake, boy. This world around you is corrupt." The robot struggled to get free of his predicament in vain as X charged a shot. "It changes you. You don't change it. Adapt or die."
The ensuing explosion didn't so much as make either hero flinch, but for different reasons: X was well used to this, while Cody was practically beyond reaching at this point. In fact, the former had to take the orb and physically carry the latter to a safe spot where they could warp back to base.