Everyone had expected London to reappear at the Base. Not everyone had expected her company, however. In fact, rhe only ones that weren't surprised at the tall, red double-edged scythe-bearer that warped in with her were the Hunters.

By this point, both twins were back in the Navigation Room, with Zack shooting concerned looks at Cody. The latter was putting on a brave face, though it was clear that this wasn't an act he was particularly good at. They both kept their distance from Zero, who didn't seem to regard them, instead just looking kind of bored.

The figure played around a bit with his scythe before proclaiming, "Mission accomplished!"

Zero rolled his eyes at this display. "Done playing around, Axl?"

London's jumpy, irritated look melted into one of surprise and confusion as she looked around. "Axl? Where?"

The figure got an exasperated look on his face. "Seriously? How do you survive…"

A bright light overcame the figure as he changed form back to Axl.

"…being this dense?"

"H-How…?"

X stepped in. "It's an ability he has. He can copy the shape and abilities of other reploids."

The girl flickered back to anger again, glaring at Axl. "You… you tricked me!"

He was unapologetic. "Well, that's what you get for ignoring me. Not my fault you can't keep up."

"I said I was sorry!"

The navy reploid shook his head, surpressing a chuckle. "Sorry doesn't fix everything. I swear, you think like a little kid, Princess."

"Well… Boo you, loser!"

"What's that supposed to mean, anyway?"

"It's her version of 'You suck', I think…" Zack interjected.

Oddly, the moment he started speaking, the lighthearted tone on the room vanished as London noticed the twins for the first time. Her expression changed in an instant to a mixture of concern and fear, with more of the latter as she looked at the darker red reploid.

She seemed to fix her mouth to say "I'm sorry", but stopped before she could find her voice, perhaps remembering Axl's words.

The adult tone returned with a vengance, complete with another "IOU" look. "I…I'll make it up to you somehow…"

She again asked bout Cody's welfare, to which he said he was doing better, before walking off rather hurriedly.

Zack turned to his brother with a "what was that about" sort of look.

"No clue. She scolded Bailey like a child for lying to her about me while you were out, and actually hugged me after…" He let himself trail off.

Both twins knew that London Tipton didn't hand out hugs for free. Fancying herself a celebrity, she didn't even so much as entertain the idea unless she was really close to the person and things were really, really bad, and even then, they couldn't remember any occurrences in recent memory…

"Maybe it's her way of coping—"

"Enough," Zero said coldly, and with a hint of irritation. "I'm not here just to stand around and talk. I'm ready to go. Anybody coming along?"

X acquiesced. "The rookies could use an example to follow." He glanced at the taller twin on his way by, him shoring up his "brave face" in response.

With no real fanfare, X and Zero warped away, destined for a certain crystal cavern.

--BREAK--

The two legendary Hunters got to work the second they touched down. The moles andiles out of ornate crystsls and gemstones (some of them much more unstable than they appeared) would've probably impressed the stidents back at the Base. To them, though, it flew by in a hail of plasma blasts and saber slashes. That said, X did take the lead here mainly since he knew the area better through past experience.

It didn't take long at all for them to make it to the end. In the interest of "spicing things up", Zero decided to take the lead with the actual Maverick.

Crystal Snail's only remotely interesting trait was his ability to slow down time somehow (which might've been a minor issue had the Blue Bomber not told his partner about it). He dodged the weird goo occasionally thrown his way with incredible ease, so he never found out what that did, exactly.

Honestly, the swordsman kind of wished X hadn't said anything, as with that knowledge, the snail was mechanical escargot in record time, leaving him to pick up the orb that was dropped and for them to leave.

--BREAK--

While X and Zero were out, Ruby was off on a sort of mission of her own, one that involved locating a certain golden girl.

Surprisingly, she didn't have to look far, as she found her at her barracks, huddled over and staring at a…shiny piece of metal?

As she walked closer, she realized the taller girl was actually mumbling at the reflectve surface as if she actually expected it to talk back…

"Come on, come on!" She grumbled irritably before tossing the thing aside in frustration.

"Um…" the redhead uncertainly tapped the teen's shoulder.

London jumped back against the wall, nearly arming herself before realizing who it was.

"You… Rudy? What're you doing here…"

The misplaced heiress looked closer, spotting a piece of felt in her hand.

"…and why do you have a ribbon in your hand?"

"I'm Ruby," the darker toned girl corrected, repeating it a couple more times so she would get it. "And my Daddy found it. He thought you might like it."

The girl handed it to her. London normally wouldn't have glanced in the direction of a piece of felt that she could have bought a mountain of and got bored of it all in the same day.

But things weren't normal right now, were they? She and her friends were trapped in some freaky robot world with "mad-libs" or something, Cody looked more scared than she'd ever seen him, and Zack…

She… She'd ruined his life. Made Mr. Moseby hate him. Made him scared of her. If only she'd just gotten that stupid tooth taken out…

"London?"

The girl was suddenly out of her thoughts back in reality, staring at that piece of felt.

"Do you like it…?" The little girl's matching red eyes were wide with innocent anticipation.

Did she? Honestly, yes. It was a little piece of home for her, actually. Something kind of normal to hold onto in this techno nightmare. She smiled, but it was a far cry from the audacious, excited grin she had when showing off her latest fashion find to her friends, or the fake smile she'd learned to put on from childhood when she was brought around to look cute for her father's shareholders at Tipton Industries.

It was a smaller one, a mix of disbelief and genuine gratitude at the gift she'd received.

"Yeah… Thanks. It means a lot." She quickly tied said ribbon around her hair, making a ponytail.

"No problem," came the chirped response.

The little girl walked away, but as she did so, her eyes went blank for a second before turning an angry red.

"No problem at all," came the dark, foreign whisper, heard only by its owner…

--BREAK--

WEAPONS ACQUIRED

Crystal Hunter (X): Entraps enemies in a special gel; can be charged to slow down time.

Diamond Dagger (Zero): A crystal-coated downward slash.

Power Gem (Axl): Launches rapid-fire gemstones.

Crystal Eye (Cody): Launches a crystal firework up and away from the user.

Crystalline Aura (Zack): Gains a crystal armor that absorbs a set amount of damage.

Diamond Dust (London): Spawns a spike of crystal, or if charged, a row of crystals outward.