Back in the hidden laboratory…

Black was busy working away on his "master's" new body, glad at least to have the temporary reprieve from having to hear him gloat.

All good things never tend to last long, however.

"The smaller organic is quite useful, actually. She can get me around the Hunters with ease. She made it a joke to get to that naive one in particular."

The man gritted his teeth as he continued to work.

"Ruby's taken a liking to her. It's called 'friendship', Maverick. You wouldn't understand something like that."

A sharp burst of pain akin to a migraine forced him to drop his tools and clutch his head in agony.

"I would strongly advise you to watch your tone around me, Mongrel. Human brain or not, my copy chip is still inside your body." The voice had become low and dangerous.

"I…can't wait…until the Maverick Hunters…stop you."

"What's this? Running back to grovel at the feet of the ones you blame for all of your misery?" The voice was now incredulous.

"Maybe…I was wrong. Perhaps they weren't as bad as I thought they were. You, on the other hand…"

"Call me what you will. I do not care for the opinions of humans, and especially not the ones of those pretending to be that which is better than them. Continue working on my bodies. I expect at least one of them to be properly habitable when I return, unless you wish for your daughters to pay the price, that is…"

The man grimaced, picked up his tools, and reluctantly got back to work as the voice vanished.

-000-

With the Hunters…

Pretty much the entire gang of outsiders (and even a late-coming London) watched the viewscreen Alia pulled up in awe as X and Zero did their jobs with incredible efficiency and precision.

It was over all too soon, and the two in question were back in the Base. Zero casually took the orb back to Alia.

"Did you get all of that?" X asked professionally, though one could see him fighting back a smirk if they looked close enough.

"Uh-huh," the twins, and surprisingly, Bailey, intoned as one, not believing at all what they just witnessed.

"You two are really, really good," the heiress chirped, providing the understatement of the century.

"That's why we're here," Zero replied before glancing at the group. "That said, that wasn't nearly interesting enough to be worth my time. In that spirit… You, come with me. We're taking on Tidal Whale next."

As he spoke, he made a beckoning gesture towards none other than Cody.

"Huh?"

The blonde swordsman wasted no time. "You heard me. Now come on."

Stumbling out of his stupor, he walked up to the Maverick Hunter. "Y-Yes sir…"

He gave the taller twin an appraising look followed by a disapproving one.

Before he could walk away, however, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of a certain mirror image glaring at him, fists balled. The threat of bodily harm if anything happened to the tall twin was obvious.

Unfortunately for him, this was Zero he was threatening.

"You're not intimidating, Shorty, especially with your lack of skills. Work on that."

Without another word, the two had their destination set and were off in two beams of light.

Zack hadn't thought it possible, but he now liked Zero even less than he did previously.

"He's just talking tough, Zack," X chimed in, trying to reassure the boy. "He'll have your brother back in one piece, I can promise you that much."

He didn't like X very much either, as he had essentially messed Cody up to begin with as far as he was concerned, but he nevertheless replied through gritted teeth, "He'd better…"

-000-

It took Cody a few seconds after touchdown to realize that they were underwater and a few seconds more to note that breathing wasn't really an issue for reploids, and neither was short-circuiting, for that matter.

Zero wasn't one to waste time, however, as evidenced by the fact that he took off the second they touched down. The onus was clearly on him to keep up. By the time he did, the ponytailed warrior was waiting at the end of the alcove, tapping his foot.

"I'm only gonna say this once," he started pointedly. "Keep up. Whatever feelings you may have about me or anything else right now, put them aside. All that matters right now is the mission. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," came the almost automated reply produced from years of formal obedience to every authority figure he'd ever known.

If the one to whom he was speaking cared one iota about such formalities, he didn't show it.

What followed was what turned out to be a quiet walk (for lack of a better term) through strangely shaped caverns and cliffs that Cody might have stopped to gawk at in wonder if Zero weren't right in front of him.

As they climbed a particular series of platforms via wall kicking, Zero decided to talk.

"You do realize that he can't fight all your battles for you, don't you?"

The reference was pretty blatant. Cody wanted to say that he didn't need his twin to do so, but recent history seemed to have had an army examples arrayed against him in that regard.

He instinctively wanted to look down but kept his eyes steady anyway for survival-related reasons. "I know, but…"

"The girl in the gold's your friend, too, I take it?"

"London, and yeah…"

"And that brunette in the gray," he continued. "That's your girlfriend, right?"

He answered after hitting the first piece of solid ground he could. They were both finally at the top of the platform structure. "Yes. Bailey Pickett. Why are you asking me all this?"

Instead of answering directly, he merely said something else, a simple statement that was delivered with expected sternness layered on top of something else much less so…

Concern. Not quite tender, as that wouldn't really suit the swordsman, but it was there. Zero stared at the boy with a look that matched the sentiment.

"Fight to keep them safe. Especially the girlfriend."

Living up to his reputation as the more empathic between the two brothers, Cody picked up on this break in his stoicism immediately. This still wasn't making much sense to him…

"Okay, I understand, Zero… But, again, why ask—"

The conversation was cut short by a deep rumbling noise coming from a structure to the east.

The conversation ground to a halt as the twin's voice jumped a few octaves at the sudden sound (a fact that his brother might've made fun of him for had he been there).

"Z-Zero… What was t-that?"

"Something we're investigating. Come on."

…and over to investigate, they went.

-000-

Eventually, the two found themselves inside what looked to be a sunken pirate ship, though, instead of long-forgotten articles of gold or silver, scattered broken reploid parts littered the decks.

Zero answered Cody's predictable questioning look. "I vaguely recall making quite the mess here on my last visit. You should count yourself lucky. You aren't continuously fighting a deadly Maverick-powered submarine armed with various missiles and lasers."

The boy's already frazzled nerves took yet another hit. "E-Excuse me?!"

"Don't worry about it, kid," Zero said evenly, though he turned away to hide the smile playing on his lips.

He was as easy to scare as Axl was.

Things quickly got serious again after another bang sent the old vessel reeling and wood pieces falling from its already hole-dotted ceiling…followed by a cackle very familiar to Zero.

"Hahahaha!"

The teen tried his best to look alive, even as the source of the sounds finally burst through and revealed itself, riding casually on one of several Frog-Type versions of Ride Armors, bulky specialized vehicles that Mavericks and Hunters alike got a lot of use out of.

"Vile," Zero said flatly. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

Vile didn't even look at the red swordsman, let alone answer him, however. He was too transfixed on his new prey.

"Stand down, Vile!" The taller twin ordered, trying with all his might to put some form of commanding bass into his voice.

Unfortunately, his enemy saw a sign of weakness, hovering closer to Cody. "Trembling? Oh, wait a minute. Ha, ha, this is too precious! You don't happen to be related to my other little playmate by any chance?"

A telling grimace gave the dark-plated buckethead his answer (as if the similarities in appearance weren't telling enough on their own).

"Well then, let's see what you're made of. Get 'em, boys!"

At that moment, a deadly melee began. Zero, as one might expect, was deftly dodging the rogue vehicles' clunky lunges and missile barrages, slicing apart a few of the latter as he started cutting them down. Cody, for his part, was trying, albeit more in a desperate bid to not get blown to pieces. He finally managed to mount an offensive after settling upon the Yammar Option and using its drones to add to his fire. Eventually, though, the machines fell one by one until only Vile was left.

"Well, well, then," the attacker started almost mockingly as he breathed heavily. "Guess I'm all alone now…except for all my other weapons, that is!"

He began charging a laser but never got to fire it as something fast and…purple shot down from the sky and forcibly relieved him of one of his arms.

"Ahhhhhh!" Vile's screams and curses filled the shipwreck site as he held what was now a stump. Recovering just enough to look back at the pair, he leered at the boy in particular.

"F-Fun's just startin', kid. I look forward to our next little reunion. Toodles."

Zero, on his end, hadn't moved, mainly because his eyes weren't even on Vile, but on the invader.

It looked a lot like himself, though discolored with a ghastly purple and glitchy-looking aura with red eyes and a twisted, manic grin on his face.

Zero immediately contacted HQ. "Alia, what the heck am I looking at?!"

"Zero Nightmare. You weren't around for it. You were, um, repairing yourself. Why is it here, though? X destroyed it and isn't even—"

He had to stop as he and the taller twin were fighting the thing as this conversation was going on. Its berserker-like slashes and swings were certainly making it much more difficult than it otherwise might've been.

It didn't take him long to realize, however, that he wasn't the specter's real target.

The second it got an opening to do so, it pounced on Cody like a wild animal.

"L-Light…must kill…" The creature manically snarled as it loomed on top of him brandishing its own saber, trying to decapitate or impale him, and only the sheer survival instincts of his would-be victim were keeping him from success.

Fortunately, the monster didn't get its way before the twin managed to squirm out from under it…only for the boy to start backing away like a victim in a horror movie.

"Are you serious? Fight him already!"

Cody barely even registered his words, however, due to being frozen in fear. In fact, the only thing keeping him alive was essentially his body taking control and dodging some of the slashes on his behalf (to limited success, as he still got a few shallow cuts and the like).

Eventually, having had enough of trying to advise the teen in vain, Zero swooped on and got into a brief series of weapon clashes with the doppelganger, managing to send it retreating after a lucky sweep of his sword hit the creature.

With a horrid screech, it vanished, likely to lick its wounds.

Without another word, Zero informed the navigator of the change in situation.

"Um…I'm sorry, Zero."

He glanced at the boy. "When we get to the Maverick, just stay out of the way. I don't have time to cover for you when you inevitably freeze up."

The red swordsman dashed off, leaving Cody, who felt like an absolute burden, to follow suit.

-000-

The rest of the trip went by in relative silence, only broken by a simple command from Zero upon reaching the doorway to the Maverick.

"Just stay put."

"But… I…"

The red warrior looked back at the boy and simply shook his head.

Cody just looked away, finally seeming to accept how things were going to be.

Zero headed in, staring down a waiting Tidal Whale. The strangely bipedal mammalian reploid greeted the swordsman in a voice strongly resembling a classical pirate.

"It's been a while, Zero. How many years has it been since Eurasia?"

"It's been decades," he answered calmly. "We've saved the world many times over since then."

"The whale paced on odd-looking feet attached to where the tail of his natural equivalent would've been. "As I would've expected from the Maverick Hunters. I assume the lad piddling about outside is one of your newest members?"

Just outside, and having been listening in, the taller twin's breath caught in his throat.

He knew I was here?

Zero dismissed the question. "This doesn't have anything to do with him. It's between you and me."

"Aye. Well, thanks for the chat. Shall we be gettin' down to why we're both here? I'd rather not have the fool who brought me back take over this body and these seas…"

A few minutes later, the whale was rather violently sent back to his rest at sea, and it could only be hoped it was for good this time.

Once the deed was done, Cody walked through the door, eyes more full of questions than anything else.

"Let's go." Taking the blue orb that the Maverick dropped, Zero warped away from the site with his partner in tow.

-000-

WEAPONS ACQUIRED

Splash Laser (X, Axl): A water and bubble cannon that can be charged for further reach.

Ensuizan (Zero): A water-powered circular slash done in midair.

Hydro Cannon (Cody): Shoots a powerful projectile blast of water. Low ammo count.

Rainy Roundhouse (Zack): A roundhouse kick using the power of water. Can knock enemies into each other.

Leviathan's Claw (London): A trident that can either be thrown as a projectile or used as a melee weapon.