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-colored one was raring to go, the golden one seemed rather lost in her own thoughts.

"London!" Axl called, trying to bring her back to reality.

The misplaced rich girl could only manage a shaky "W-where…" upon coming back.

"The place where the world almost ended…or at least, that's what the others told me…" the dual-wielder said solemnly as he prepped his guns, with London flinching as he test fired them for a few seconds before they got moving.

An uneasy silence settled over them as they made their way through the wreckage. Things seemed oddly quiet throughout the ruined crater, with nothing seeming amiss aside from the obvious destruction. This only served to set Axl on edge, though…

"Be on your guard. It's too quiet. Something isn't right…"

"Okay…" The girl drew out the word.

A second passed.

He looked back at her to see a blank, vacant stare.

"You didn't understand a word I just said, did you?"

"Nope. Not really," she chirped, shrugging.

This was going to be a long mission…

"Fine. Just…follow me."

—BREAK—

Eventually, the two made it over to a cliff overlooking several rows of spikes. The girl cringed and backed up on sight of them.

Axl, realizing he'd have to take the mentor role again, said, "Look. You'll need a running start and a good jump to get across." He demonstrated, dash-jumping over the spikes to safety before calling to her. "Oh, and don't touch the spikes. Trust me, you don't want to."

"You make it look so easy!" She yelled back. Regardless, she gathered up the courage to copy what her mentor did. She did manage to clear the jump and unwittingly hover when she got high enough. Landing, however, was another matter.

Axl couldn't hold back his laughter as his pupil was sent sprawling on her face.

London's glared at him. "Ha, ha. Very funny."

"Yes. Yes it was. Now, let's get going."

—BREAK—

The rest of the trip was largely uneventful until they got to a silver door. Axl shot her a warning look before they headed inside.

They were greeted by what looked to be a giant mechaniloid apparently controlled by a floating eyelike sphere. While the golden reploid was rooted to her spot unsure what she was even looking at, her mentor looked at it like one might look at trash on the sidewalk.

To be frank, he'd been through—and expected—worse. He pointed his weapons at the thing.

"Ha! You think you can intimidate me with just your size? Come on, let's see what you can do."

The "eye" took aim at the cocky reploid and sent a signal to the mecha it controlled, levitating it over him in an attempt to crush him. Axl dodged with ease and pelted it the robot with shots…which it took with impunity.

After some back-and-forth of this for a while, Axl began to tire, causing his dodges to become sloppier and him to accumulate damage as a result.

While all of this was going on, London couldn't quite process what was in front of her. To her, it was totally unreal to see in person something out of Zack's video games. She even pinched herself just to check to make sure she wasn't dreaming (as it turned out, you can't exactly "pinch" metal).

The heiress was shocked out of her thoughts by the sounds of Axl's struggle and grunts as he took damage. Though she was still afraid, something else welled up from deep in the back of her mind: an urge to do something.

When said feeling was powerful enough to spur her forward, she walked over to the eye and floating scrap pile.

"Get away from him."

They paid her no mind as they kept their attention on their more active prey, which did not sit well with London at all. With or without her money or the power her name held back in her world, one thing remained constant: she was *not* going to be ignored.

"I said…GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Not really thinking about it, she materialized her crossbow and shot an arrow at the eye. Damaged, it disappeared before reappearing on the other side of the arena.

"I think you got its weak point," a recovering Axl encouraged as he got with the program. "Aim for the eye!"

Clinging to a nearby wall as her mentor had shown her earlier, London did so. Eventually, the eye vanished for good and the robot exploded.

"We did it," the navy reploid breathed before turning in praise to his protege with a thumbs-up. "Nice job, London!"

"Um…thanks," she said with a nervous smile before it faded. "But how do we get back…"

"Let me handle that."

Axl quickly had them warped back to the Base.

--BREAK--

Unbeknownst to everyone else, a mysterious blue-haired younger female figure loomed over the Base from a nearby cliffside. Making sure to block out ambient noise, she turned her communicator on.

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

A older male voice answered with a sigh. "Yes, sweetie. It's for New World, after all. We need to make sure what happened to you two never happens again."

The reluctant reply came. "Understood... Still, the Hunters might still be a problem. X, Zero, and Axl…"

"…are being kept busy by our restored Mavericks."

"What about the others?"

The man was rather dismissive. "Those new reploids? It may be best to just leave them be. After all, they don't seem to have any idea about what's really going on…"

Immediately, the girl seemed to shut down for a moment, her eyes losing their blue color, before they turned a violent red. A much more male, malevolent voice came out of her mouth.

"On the contrary, organic, I might just have a use for them.

"Y-you…" the male half-gasped, half-hissed.

"Yes, me. Anyway if the old models are dragging them along as it seems, them perhaps they can at least serve as a decent enough distraction for me. We will keep watch for any weaknesses we can exploit. Clear?"

"Give me back my daughter!"

"Someone's impatient, aren't they? Fine. You can have her back for now, though you would do well to remember who really holds the cards. I will be watching."

Moments later, the girl was back to her normal self. "Father…?"

"I'm here, sweetie."

"I…I don't like this. What just happened? It was like I was just...gone for a second."

The man's voice became soft. Compassionate, even. "Another malfunction, I know. We'll get through this, I swear. We just need to deal with those who put you and your sister in this situation."

"I see. I'll go check on Ruby."

"Thank you, Sapphira."

Communication ended there, and the young woman warped away.