Of course, the rest of the Hunters were concerned about what they'd seen of London's outburst...
...not that they had any time to dwell on it.
For Cody and Axl, they immediately found themselves at a futuristic-looking airport in the middle of a harsh thunderstorm.
To the taller twin, this had to be about 10 times worse than the air fleet.
At least there, he could see a few feet in front of his face.
"Thunder and lightning's rampant throughout this area. You guys will need to keep on the move and take cover if you can." Layer's low and professional tone hid well any nerves she might've had.
For the first time that he'd seen, there was no cocky or bored expression on Axl's face. He was all business.
"Stay close to me," he ordered.
The deluge was so loud that he barely heard him. Both of them figured out quickly that direct verbal communication would be almost impossible.
Platforming was effortless for the both of them. Why wouldn't it be? No, their real challenge came when the lightning started flashing.
Both the sky and the path before them were illuminated by brilliant yet deadly forks of light. Despite the appropriately themed enemies and sentient cannons, this was their true enemy because neither could withstand a direct strike.
As they kept going, the ground that they did touch and even the walls became just as hazardous, occasionally coursing with electricity. Mercifully, they weren't the only ones at risk, for the element didn't exactly distinguish between Hunter and Maverick.
It was Cody who managed to spot the hidden alcove situated just below one of the towers. Even as he followed along Axl was far from pleased with this impromptu detour.
"What the heck are you doing, kid?!"
Before the boy could answer, Layer was filling in with an answer. "Hold it, Axl. I'm pretty sure he's onto something, actually. Based on my research, I think that one of Dr. Light's Capsules might be over there. See any flammable-looking objects?"
"Y-Yeah!"
"Shoot them until they're destroyed."
Both of them wound up doing so, with the mentor reluctantly joining in only after realizing he'd been out-voted.
One explosion later, and they were face to face with a blue capsule that opened up to reveal a hologram of an old man in a lab coat somewhat resembling Santa Claus.
"Axl and… Cody, is it?"
The former just answered in the affirmative while the latter was simply in awe.
"This is so cool…"
"Really?"
The holographic man had to clear his throat to stop the giddy rambling that followed. "Anyway, I have the necessary programming for X's armor, as much as I wish that we never had to use these. Go get Alia, or who were they…Layer and Palette…? Get them to analyze this."
Axl had the data sent away and turned to leave and call the teen to do the same, only for Light to keep talking.
"Hm… I do respect your desire to learn, young one. That, and the fact that you're out here on its own speaks volumes about how far you've come. In that spirit, I have something for you. Step in the capsule."
The boy was more hesitant now. Okay… Is this gonna hurt or something?"
"You'll be just fine, son."
Slowly doing as instructed, Cody would be bathed in a warm light for about a second or two before it stopped. He stepped off feeling…stronger somehow.
"Farewell."
The boy finally turned to leave, but not without a quick question…
"Are you an AI?"
The scientist seemed loathe to even answer the question, as if he'd never even expected it to be asked. "Erm, uh… Something like that. Good luck, you two!"
When the device shut down and as they left, the navy blue reploid turned to his partner, an exasperated look on his face.
"What? It's what I do! It's better than going insane focusing on all this…"
Unease not only crept into his voice, but seemed to surround the duo, the ensuing quiet broken only by the thunderclaps outside.
Although quiet, Axl's response could still be heard. "No kidding."
With that, they kept on going.
-000-
After some more perilous traveling and combat descending downward and over various buildings until they reached what was obviously a landing strip, though free of actual planes. The sky was as gray as it had been all throughout, but the rain and lightning had for some reason let up significantly, they kept their weapons at the ready, but there wasn't much else they could do at the moment.
"Strange…"
"On your guard, kid." Axl advised as he quickly contacted their Navigator and filled her in on the situation. "We made it all the way out here, but we're not seeing our Maverick."
She went quiet for a few seconds before responding, an urgent edge to her voice. "I'm still picking up a major Maverick reading as well as…something else."
"Something else?" Cody stuffed down the chill running down his spine.
"Yeah, but I can't get a proper reading on it. Stay alert, and call if you need advice."
"Well, that was comforting…"
Minutes passed with nothing of particular interest happening, but just as Axl considered dropping his guard, a bolt of lightning came down headed straight for him.
Axl wouldn't have time to dodge, and Cody only managed to see what was coming due to his super enhanced reflexes. He dove to tackle the mentor away, avoiding being struck himself only by a hair.
The more experienced Hunter awkwardly mumbled a 'thanks' before getting up and standing to face the new being that was now standing before them.
It was an eagle-like enemy with a brown and yellow color scheme.
On instinct, the teen pointed his buster forward. "I'm guessing you're our Maverick…"
Not a word came from the avian. Was it even sentient? Unbeknownst to them, this was Storm Eagle, an old comrade of X's and one of the earliest Mavericks he ever fought. He had been heavily upgraded from his original form.
"Not a talker? Fine by me," Axl quipped, weapons at the ready. "Let's get this over with."
The first few attacks were easy enough to dodge. It seemed that their avian opponent was merely swooping at them to test their speed. Then the Maverick spat out an egg that released chicks that were easily dispatched. He then revealed an arm cannon of his own that released a gust of wind that just blew them back towards the nearest building.
The matchup being two against one, though, made it a foregone conclusion that the shots that they could sneak in amongst their dodges (and a few hits of damage along the way) would take their toll.
At a certain point, the bird cawed loudly, unleashing a torrent of electrical energy that forced them both back.
"I'm thinking this is where things get interesting. Don't hold back, kid!"
"Does it look like I have a choice?"
"Nope." Axl stopped talking in time to narrowly avoid a separated wing coated in electricity coming his way. "That's new."
Cody wound up following suit with the other wing, and the Falcon Armor's hovering capabilities were put to the test yet again when the ground they were standing on became electrified for quite a few seconds.
"Any ideas on how to speed this up?" The blonde asked the redhead once he got a moment of separation from their mutual foe.
"Just keep plugging away, I guess..."
His mouth would've hung open if it weren't already preoccupied with panting like a madman.
"Yeah, because that's...going so well for us so far..."
"Hey, shooting whatever's in front of me is my plan. All the time. I'm not exactly a schemer like your brother!"
He...actually couldn't argue with that.
They had already been cycling through anything they could to throw at their opponent, without too much of a difference in damage.
Wait a minute...
There had been one other weapon that Cody had gotten from Dr. Light. It wasn't even hard to recall and use, either.
The ensuing hand motions and charging of energy came naturally to him, almost like breathing. The accompanying chant did as well.
"HADOKEN!"
Axl had to jump out of the way of the blue ball of energy surging towards Storm Eagle. It put a hole right through the bird, finally blowing him away.
His eye twitched. Then he snapped, screaming directly at the boy. "You couldn't have done that EARLIER?!"
Cody couldn't help but avoid his gaze. "Sorry... Kind of forgot I had it. I..."
The navy blue reploid's annoyance fizzled out as his attention was drawn to a purplish light piercing through the still cloudy sky.
"Um… What's that?"
Both of them had to dive out of the way as said comet of energy hit the ground, revealing a foe that was very familiar to Cody in particular…
"Light…" It groaned as it pointed its saber at the student. Axl aimed for it, but the monster's gaze was fixated on one person and one person only.
…actually, both combatants were completely ignoring him.
Forcing away the imagery of being pinned to the ground of a sunken ship, the blonde boy made himself move forward, aiming his arm cannon at its target.
"You… I'm not afraid of you anymore!"
A bold-faced lie, and surprisingly so given the fact that he was much more skilled and heavily armed than before. Not that that thought wasn't pretty disturbing in its own right…
Nevertheless, the creature hissed like an animal before charging at him, blade outstretched.
Dodging the swipe (and the volley that came afterwards) was nigh effortless. If he didn't hate Lucien's guts for brainwashing his twin, among other things, he might have actually thanked the madman for giving him that impromptu crash course.
He had to put some distance between him and his enemy in order to properly fire, but the best he could do was throw out a few rather awkward punches and kicks here and there.
Fighting up close was never going to be his specialty.
One did manage to land, plush however, sending the Nightmare spiraling away.
Cody managed to get a few in before he recovered and started deflecting his shots rather impressively.
-000-
Axl, meanwhile, stood out of the way tapping his feet. It was no understatement to say that he absolutely hated waiting around and would've loved to jump in, but he'd been through more than enough both as a vigilante and Hunter to know that jumping in now would do nothing but put the kid in danger.
Out of boredom more than anything else, he opted to make himself semi-useful and report what he could.
Layer actually had something to say about this. "Keep an eye on him, and try not to shoot at him..."
"When do I ever..."
The princess-esque Navigator cut him off with a tempered form of exasperation/annoyance (it could be hard to tell with her). "When don't you? Those kids would have a field day if you did it, too."
In truth, there were many, many rookie Hunters that could attest to this. He'd even been written up a time or two for his idea of "keeping the recruits on their toes".
"Eh, fine…" Axl pouted, crossing his arms. Ending the call, he let his focus drift back to the fight at hand. His eyes narrowed as he noticed something disturbing.
His shots weren't coming in nearly as fast as they had been previously. Not only that, but he was taking more and more damage not only from the opponent's swipes, but from his scrapes with a pillars of energy the Zero knockoff caused to erupt from the ground.
The kid was exhausted. Plain and simple. And he was getting closer to death's door.
The former vigilante took a deep breath.
"Hey, Copycat!" He jumped and, using his ability to hover, made his way above his prey before letting loose. "Have some of this!"
An at-that-point downed Cody had to roll out of the way to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. By the time the boy had finally gotten his bearings, the more experienced of the two had taken over.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how one looked at it, said copycat seemed to have no interest in him, as the second it could, the being fled the scene.
He put away his guns, annoyed. "Well, then…"
All the other reploid could do as he forced himself to get up and stare back at what was now empty space with his fists balled, equal parts frustration and dejection written on his face.
Catching this, Axl tried to offer some praise, patting him on the shoulder. "You, uh, did good kid."
"Not good enough," he mumbled, though seemingly more to himself than to his partner.
Before they left, Axl looked around, half-expecting to see a certain glowing orb that would be manufactured into a new weapon.
There was nothing to see, it turned out. They both vanished into the clearing sky.