The beetle-esque robot's attacks came quickly and with minimal preamble. Despite this, X danced around his enemy's assault with well-practiced ease. Cody could only move out of the way of the line of fire as he took in the fight around him. Once the lighter blue reploid finally found a viable opening, he aimed a Rising Fire upwards at his airborne opponent. Clearly smarting from the hit (though not as much as he should've been judging by pure logic alone), Boomer the Maverick decided to change tactics…and targets. He decided to move around the arena at his "afterimage speed" again, making tracking difficult for either Hunter. If X was confounded by this, his steely, battle-hardened expression did an airtight job of hiding it, completely opposite to that of his pupil..

"I think I'm through toying with you, X. Let's see what the boy's capable of."

Before X could intervene, the bug was already on top of Cody who was shooting at his foe, but purely doing so defensively. Taking off his scissor-, like headpiece, the enemy flung it at the boy repeatedly. Any scrap of bravado the latter might've went in with was long gone now, but replaced with the desperation that comes with fighting for one's life.

"You're not impressing me, kid. Can't imagine what he sees in you with this little performance…"

"W-Why are you doing this? Stop it!" The kid managed to put just enough space between the two of them to light Boomer up with a flaming gust.

The creature seemed inconvienenced, but not worried. "Ah, I see. You lack the killer instinct."

X fought to keep Boomer away from his student and keep the focus on him, but the speed differential was making that a challenge.

"You know, it doesn't matter how much power you have at your disposal if you die because you didn't make use of it." He aimed to decapitate Cody, only for him to just barely duck under the weapon and land a kick on his opponent, more meant to create space than do too much damage.

The beetle flew away for a moment before landing on his feet. "You're not making this fun, kid!"

"This isn't 'fun'… You're crazy!"

"That's what a Maverick is, Cody. Crazy!" X shouted as he exploited the obvious opening to tackle the enemy and plunge his main weapon in the opponents chest, firing.

Terrifyingly, the Maverick's dying words weren't for the master, but the pupil. "You've got a lot to learn, kid…"

Neither hero flinched at the ensuing explosion, albeit for vastly different reasons. X didn't speak. In fact, he refused to look at his student now as he physically had to pick him up along with Boomer's orb. The two warped away, X contemplating the innocence he'd just destroyed along with the Maverick.

--BREAK--

WEAPONS ACQUIRED

Boomerang Cutter (X): Shoots a horn-shaped cutter that returns to the user.

Buzzsaw Beam (Zero): Shoots a cutting sword beam.

Sonic Slicer (Axl): Shoots a cutting blade that bounces off walls.

Rolling Cutter (Cody): Shoots a scissor-shaped cutter in an arc upwqrds that returns to the user.

Stag Rush (Zack): Performs a rushing towards attack with head horns. Can be charged to disappear and reappear on the other side and charge.

Stag Grappler (London): A horn-themed grappling hook.