Aside from certain horror movies, few things could actually scare Zack Martin. It was one of the things that he prided himself on, actually. That fact made it all the worse when he saw his twin brother practically catatonic in the arms of X.

Something in him snapped, and the second Cody was off to the side (still seemingly dead to the world), he found himself lunging at X specifically the moment he had an opening.

"Zack? What are you doing?!" X grunted as he struggled on the ground with the boy. To the attacker, however, none of the reactions of anyone around nor the words of what he saw as an obvious threat mattered.

"What'd you do to my brother, you worthless bucket of bolts?!"

He got in only a few missed slashes before his mentor pried him off of him with relative ease. That did nothing to stem the rush of a kind of anger the likes of which shorter twin had forgotten he was even capable, specifically targeted at anyone who he so much as thought harmed his brother in any way.

"Look at me, Zack," Zero pulled him off and forced his pupil to look at him. "I get that you're upset…but you're just gonna have to suck it up."

The entire room fell silent at those words, until…

"What did you just say? Are you insane?!" Bailey's voice rang out filled with equal parts disbelief and indignation.

The swordsman crossed his arms and looked at the speaker, unmoved.

"I don't know. Am I? It's pretty obvious that your boyfriend over there got a dose of reality. This war we fight against the Mavericks…it's no game. All of you are just going to have to accept that casualties happen."

Zero took out his sword and examined it for a moment before putting it back. "Whatever world you guys came from, it's clear you've never been on the battlefield…"

The lighter blue Hunter was the next to raise his voice. "Do these kids look like career soldiers to you, Zero?"

An exasperated sigh, and then… "You're not expecting me to treat them like anything less than that right now, are you, X? You're a great Hunter, but sometimes, you're just too soft!"

"…and sometimes, you're far too harsh! How you said what you did was unnecessarily cruel and…."

"You're calling 'telling the truth' cruel?"

"Shut UP!" The shout came from the gray reploid. Her bravado dissipated as quickly as it came, however. "I uh, know that this is a bad situation, and I think I understand the whole 'this isn't a game' spiel…"

Alia jumped in. "…but you two need to cool off. Your arguing isn't really helping matters."

In response, the two teammates glared at each other sharply before the ponytailed one wound up walking out of the room.

-000-

Zack's concerns at once turned to his effectively comatose brother, his fears taking center stage once again.

"Dude…" No response.

"C'mon man, you're scaring me, here…" This time, an unintelligible mumble escaped the taller teen.

Reluctantly, he tried clapping his hands in front of his face.

Finally a look of recognition. "Zack?"

Unsure of what to do next, the shorter twin forced a friendly grin he clearly didn't feel on his face. "Hey there, buddy…"

Cody's look turned incredulous. The message given was loud and clear. What could possibly be worth grinning about at a time like this?

The grin vanished immediately. He knew in his heart the answer to his next question, but he needed to hear it from his younger brother's mouth anyway. "Are you…are you gonna be okay?"

"I…I don't think I even know what 'okay' means anymore. Not after…that."

A sort of timidity that Zack hadn't seen in a long time was prevalent through the response. Unfortunately, they weren't seven, and he wasn't looking for monsters under the bed.

The "monsters" they were dealing with here were very, very real.

The boy whirled around at X, glaring at him with hatred in his eyes. "Look at what you've done…"

"I…" The Blue Bomber closed his eyes before opening them again with a more serious expression. "I won't justify the way that Zero said what he did, as it was callous, but he was correct in that these things happen…"

He sighed deeply before continuing. "If it makes you feel any better, I've been where he has."

Zack shook his head, not believing a word of that statement. "Yeah, I'll bet."

He was about to turn around only to be stopped by the Legendary Hunter's voice. "You know, we're not trying to be the bad guys here…"

"Well, your friend could've fooled me."

He turned and gave his brother an oddly tender look before mouthing the same words to him that they'd both said to London prior…

"We'll get through this."

Now really feeling the need to be alone, he left Cody to Bailey, but not before catching an odd look on the latter's face.

A small, knowing smile.

"What?" He asked, not knowing quite how to take it.

"Nothing," was her answer. The smile didn't leave her face, however.

The boy shrugged and left, not quite catching the message the girl was trying to get across.

I saw what you did there…

-000-

Not long after Zack had left the scene, and just as the gray reploid was about to try and coax her boyfriend to the Bay, the automatic doors to the room opened to reveal the two more agile Hunters in the midst of another argument with Ruby in tow and apparently caught in the middle.

"Just admit that you lost, Princess!" Axl used the name he had taken to calling London due to her rather…interesting way of dealing with people, himself in particular.

"Never! I don't care how many 'milk leaders' I was off. I still won!" Scoffing, the girl crossed her arms.

For once, the red-headed girl spoke, though in a somewhat low whisper. "I think they're called 'millimeters' London…"

The navy blue reploid latched onto this. "Yeah. Maybe that gold paint job of yours leaked into your—"

Exasperated, Ruby shook the two as much as her small body could manage.

"Look, you dummies, your friends are gone!"

Axl shrugged. "Maybe they're on missions…"

"Something tells me that that's not it…"

London looked around. She didn't need to be a genius to realize that something had happened while they were away…and then her eyes fell on Cody.

That look on his face…

Her eyes went to the girl holding him by the shoulder. "What happened to him?"

"N-Nothing too bad! Don't worry about it, London…"

Normally, she would've most likely shrugged and walked away.

But now, things were far from normal.

Instead, she crossed her arms and glared at her friend in an almost parental manner. On top of that, her tone suddenly sounded more in line with her legal adult age range in a way that even made the tall twin flinch. "Why are you lying to me?"

"What? I-uh…"

London didn't let up. "I might not have enough 'smarticles' to get into that fancy-schmancy plant school you and Cody love so much, but even I'm not that stupid. I know when I'm being lied to. Besides, both of you are terrible liars anyway."

Knowing there wasn't any way around this now, she finally talked. "He's not…taking this stuff well. He's scared."

With one look back at the tall boy, her anger vanished away, replaced with genuine concern, and after feeling around for a purse and wallet that wouldn't materialize no matter how hard she wished they would, she did the only other thing she could think of to comfort him.

She hugged him. "Feel better, Cody."

She walked off, but not before giving him a look that gave the impression of an IOU. This wasn't over.

"C'mon, Axl. I need to shoot something else for a while. Pick one of those "mad-lib" guys and let's go already."

The entranced navy blue reploid snapped to attention and did as told, landing on Commander Yammark.

X was actually the first to break the silence. "What did I just witness…?"

Bailey answered, as confused as everyone else, "That was the Fabulous London Tipton in all her, uh…glory."

-TBC-

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