The two touched down on a rooftop situated high above a massive metropolis…only there was a distinct lack of humans (or at least, reploids) to be seen.
As a matter of fact, to only call it empty wouldn't be doing the abandoned houses, cars, broken power lines, and more much justice. The only source of light was the hazy sun looming overhead.
"Did you two land safely?" Bailey radioed in.
"Yeah," Both Zack and London answered almost simultaneously before the former asked, "But what happened here, exactly?"
"It kinda looks all dirty and gross, like that old Frontier place that Daddy wanted to bulldoze," the latter commented.
"In short, among other things, an EMP went off out here…"
"A what?"
London's stare was vacant and she said nothing, the unknown information surely already being deemed unnecessary by her mind and allowed to sail right over it.
The shorter twin caught sight of this. "English, please…"
"Oh, right. I forgot who I was talking to," the gray reploid intoned dryly (and likely facepalming physically) before the line went dead for a few moments. Then…
"The power went out for the whole city for good and a lot of other bad things happened. There. Is that better?"
"Yup."
"Yeah."
"Good… Now then, your target should be headed toward where you are…"
"Target…?" The heiress trailed off as said target rushed forward with a surge of electricity.
A bluish robot that looked more like a little alien in a giant power suit than anything else flew right by them without a care in the world surrounded by nasty-looking balls of electricity.
"Wheee!" went its oddly childish voice.
"I…I guess that's it," the boy said, more than a little put off by the Maverick's demeanor.
The girl shrugged in response.
"I'd be careful, you two," came the voice from the comms. It was Alia this time. "First of all, we can't send drones out directly due to the target's electrical interference. Secondly, don't let his actions fool you. He's still very dangerous. Keep that in mind as you follow him."
Once the comms cut off, the two shared a look and went off to follow the enemy.
-000-
The first few roofs were mostly spent dodging the many, many heaps of garbage the Maverick threw at them. From the expected balls of electricity to street lamps and cars and trucks (of the futuristic flying variety), the two didn't lack a variety of obstacles to dodge.
"Come on and fight us already!" Zack, tired of the constant dodging, shouted at the adversary.
Instead of even answering the boy's challenge, he dropped something on the roof they were standing on as it took off. With a thud, what looked like a yellow construction hat with a green "plus" symbol on it landed bottom side up before cartoonishly righting itself and revealing a pair of eyes encased in shadow above two stubs for feet.
"Um… Okay then."
"That's gotta be…the cutest thing I've ever seen!"
The response to the rich girl's outburst was swift, both from the twin as well as from Bailey radioing in from the Base. "Seriously, London?!"
She watched the thing jump up and down adorably. "What? It is… I kinda don't wanna shoot it…"
Suddenly, the "plus" on its forehead glowed brightly before it unleashed an appropriately-shaped beam of energy at the pair. London's guard was down enough that the twin had to take the initiative and tackle her out of the way before she got fried.
He glared at her, annoyed. "Not so cute when it's trying to kill us, now is it?"
"You're no fun," she pouted, probably at Bailey as well as him as she got up, armed, and aimed her bow.
A few choice shots between the eyes soon sent the waddling head off the edge of the building onto the streets below.
"Huh," the boy commented as he looked down at the remains. "I guess that's over now, whatever that was…"
The two left, but not before the girl could shoot a forlorn glance at the fallen creature.
-000-
As they ventured on, things began to slow down. Man-O-War hadn't shown up at all, and the Base couldn't track him down properly due to his erratic movements.
As for the two teens turned Hunters, things became quiet, and uncomfortably so, aside from them going from roof to roof, with the odd enemy cropping up that they quickly put down. The heiress in particular seemed lost in her own thoughts, which made things even more awkward considering that that was the exact opposite of what she was known for.
She had always been shallow. If it didn't have anything to do with opening her wallet and flaunting her vast wealth, she didn't really care. Few things, such as her prized poodle and penthouse suite at the Boston Tipton Hotel, even meant enough to her to care about, as most other things would be bought, used for a day, and thrown away. Nothing like that…nice ribbon that Ruby gave her.
Only now, it felt like she had a lot to think about. The boys who would usually fix everything (actually, it was Cody, Mr. Moseby, or somebody else fixing whatever Zack did wrong most of the time) were miserable and she couldn't help them…
She hated it. She didn't know a lot, but she knew that much.
"London?"
The girl was stopped in her thoughts by the only other person around. "Huh?"
"Something…wrong?" His words were slow and kind of confused, mirroring her own inner turmoil in a way.
She stammered around a bit before blurting out the first thing she could get through.
"Why… Why don't you hate me?"
The blonde was further confused. "For what?"
"I don't know…for making Mr. Moseby disown you because I wouldn't get that stupid magical tooth pulled and you pretty much had to get everyone to do it for me and…"
"Stop it." The boy walked ahead a bit and stopped right in front of her. "I don't hate you, alright? None of that's even your fault. It's mine." A small smile laced with bitterness and self-loathing flashed upon his features as he looked at the ground. "It's always my fault. If anything, I thought you'd hate me for that stunt if you knew…"
"Is…is that what you've been acting so weird lately?"
"Yeah…I guess." Zack seemed about to say something else when the ground below and by proxy the building they were standing atop began shaking.
"Um, guys, I think we figured out where Man-O-War's been hiding…" Cody's girlfriend alerted just as this happened.
"Yeah, No-"
Just before the boy could finish his retort, both Hunters wound up abandoning the now-collapsing building for the nearest intact one. In its ruins rose a behemoth mecha of electrified scrap metal headed by a familiar creature in a hard hat.
The teenage boy stared wide-eyed at the titan looming above them. "Whoa… Now that is cool."
"Seriously, Zack?!"
He rolled his eyes at London and would've done so at Bailey had she been physically present. "What? I'm a guy. What do you expect me to say when I see an awesome-looking giant robot in front of me like…"
He had to be tackled out of the way by London as a giant fist came down on his former place.
She quickly got up again, hands on her hips, and her voice having a mocking edge to it. "Not so 'cool' when it's trying to kill us, now is it?"
"Touché," he admitted, getting up and into a fighting pose.
Initially, the only attacks the two could get on the mech involved London's bow shots and trident. Through trial and error, they realized that Yammar Option's shots were far too weak on their own to make much of a difference (even shots that made it to the head would harmlessly bounce off the hat it would hide under) London's Diamond Dust wouldn't reach far enough, either. The problem with the shorter twin's attacks was much more obvious: he was almost exclusively a melee fighter.
He'd have to think outside the box to even touch his enemy, let alone defeat it.
Fortunately, this was one of the few things that he was good at.
...besides causing trouble, he mentally added before forcing the thought away.
Focusing, he realized after a bit more dodging that those arms had a particularly slender part to them that reminded him of a grind rail from a skate park.
A plan rapidly formed in his mind as he remembered one of his favorite hobbies...
"London!"
"What?!" The girl was still plugging away at her foe using all of her usable arsenal. To her credit, she did some damage, but...
"That spike weapon! Use it on one of its hands to pin it down!"
She looked at him like he was crazy. "Really? That didn't work the last time."
"Just do it!"
She saw the serious look in his eyes and relented.
"Fine, fine. Whatever. If you're sure about this..."
She did as instructed, skewering its right hand and holding it fast with the crystal.
Perfect, he thought.
"Now what?" London asked, occasionally dodging more desperate swats from the free left hand.
"Watch and learn."
Charging up a Speed Burner, he launched up the right arm, using it as a skater would a grind rail. Instead of merely hitting the head from the side, however, he rammed right through it, smashing through the cute creature into a billion pieces, helmet aside before flying off of the structure entirely.
His plan had worked a bit too well, and now he was sent plummeting over 50 feet to the ground at blazing speed...
He could only hope his dying screams weren't as girly as his brother's.
-000-
It took London some time to work her way down from the building and to the crater where the boy had landed. She got pretty close and was about to offer to pull him out when he held up a clawed hand.
"I'm okay... I just..." Zack dug himself out of the crater with slight difficulty. A bit banged up as he was, he seemed to be getting along pretty well.
The rich girl couldn't help but wince as she looked on. "That was...crazy."
"You don't know me very well, do you?" He asked blandly, arms crossed.
The heiress shrugged. "Hey, I'm not used to watching your plans... I just kinda hear about 'em after they go wrong, and you get grounded..."
Her somewhat easy tone vanished as the last part of that statement sunk in, reminding them both of what they had talked about earlier.
"So... You don't hate me?"
The answer was blunt. "No. Why would I? You're my friend. I know how you work."
To her, that was a relief, but...
"Besides," he continued, interrupting her train of thought. "I was always on thin ice with Mr. Moseby anyway. I'm honestly surprised it didn't happen sooner..."
Without warning, the elder twin found himself pulled into a brief hug. While this was less surprising than it would have otherwise been since she'd done this to his brother before, he was still certain that had he been human, he would have blushed from the sheer awkwardness of the moment.
He chose to quickly move on. "Erm... Uh, I'm guessing this means that you don't hate me for, you know, lying to you and using you?"
"Of course not! I'm rich, Zack. People like me... We do that kind of stuff to each other all the time. You're my friend too, and you were just trying to help me. I should've had it done myself instead…"
Her wavering, uncomfortable tone told the story. She had lived in a world surrounded by liars and users her entire life. That pretty much seemed to come part and parcel with having all the money she'd ever need or want...
...and yet...
The boy's next words vocalized a bit of her concerns. "Doesn't make what I did right. I'm... I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I... I'm sorry, too," she replied softly, sounding almost like a completely different person than the spoiled rich girl the world around her knew so well in that moment.
It wasn't for the first time that Zack wondered in passing how London would've turned out if she wasn't an heiress.
Little did he know that she herself was having those same kinds of thoughts much more often lately...
"Uh, guys?" The rather concerned voice of their brunette friend put a period to their conversation, as if it wasn't pretty much over already.
Zack chose to answer this one. "Yeah?"
"Are you okay? You two got quiet for a bit and..."
He looked at London, who offered a small smile back as he answered, "We're fine."
"Great," She answered, sounding genuinely relieved, before getting back on track. "But you might want to look east..."
They did, to the largest building in the city and Gigabolt Man-O-War alternating between playing "King Kong" with it and floating around it without a care in the world.
"You're kidding, right? We're still not done?!" He half-whined, half-moaned with about as much enthusiasm as a child handed a homework assignment on a sick day (something his brother was pretty fond of doing to him, clearly not understanding what such a day was truly meant for). His posture matched his words quite well.
"Hey, I don't make the rules..."
With a heavy sigh and knowing that this was one assignment he couldn't weasel his way out of, he said to both girls, "Fine, fine. Let's get this over with..."
-000-
The two ran into a problem as they got to the base of their skyscraper. It wasn't the increasing number of Mavericks that commanded the land and sky, as those could be somewhat easily taken care of.
It was the fact that they couldn't take the apparently broken-down elevator.
It took a few minutes for the heiress to realize it...a few minutes of hammering the broken button beside the half-open metal box.
"Come on, stupid button! Come on..."
Waiting outside, Zack cleared his throat as he tapped his foot on the ground, arms crossed.
Eventually, London took the hint and walked out.
"Glad you could join us," the shorter twin said, doing a poor job of hiding the irritation in his voice. "Now, might I suggest taking the stairs I found?"
She scoffed at the mere suggestion, out of instinct though more than anything else, but that turned to a look of sheer horror when she saw the sea of steps awaiting her.
Surprisingly, her next move was to call into HQ herself (after Zack briefly taught her how to actually do so, that is).
"What is it, London?" Bailey answered quickly, fearing the worst.
"The stairs. He expects me to walk up all those stairs..."
She gave Zack a death glare, but he didn't back down, instead affirming, "It's the only way."
Bailey, who was informed by Alia of just what she was talking about, backed him up.
"Just get it over with already!"
"No way!"
"You know, the faster you get up those stairs, the faster you can get out of here and never, ever have to see this place again..." Alia slyly let slip over the comms.
It worked like a charm, sending the golden reploid rocketing upwards as fast as her currently inhuman speed could carry her.
"How'd you know to say that?"
"You'd be surprised how alike she and Axl are, Bailey."
-000-
The next ten minutes or so were a blur of Maverick fighting and stair climbing. Eventually, it would come to an end as they reached the doorway to the roof and the Maverick that could be heard behind it, with the two themselves now very much running on fumes.
"Finally..." Zack sighed exasperatedly, more to himself than anyone else. The older girl managed only to level a look of disdain backwards as she began to slowly walk towards the door.
"You know, I can...take care of this on my own," the twin pointed out, knowing that he had come out of this entire odyssey the least damaged of the two. "Just wait out here and..."
"No. I'm...I'm fine. Let's just beat this guy so we can go home."
He didn't really buy her statement, but wasn't exactly in the mood to argue.
"If you say so... Just, be careful, alright?"
London nodded, kind of put off by how sincere he sounded and concerned he looked.
"You...you kind of sounded like Cody just now."
"Don't even joke about something like that," he quipped lightly with a bit of a smirk.
With that, they walked through, blissfully unaware of what awaited them on the other side...