The Suite Life X

6 - A Vile Visitor

The reddish skies of the remnants of the Sky Lagoon were suddenly pierced by two beams of light. Upon hitting the ground, they materialized into Zack and Zero. The former's shock quickly gave way to a desire to chew out his mentor for dragging him here. That is, until he took a good look around him.

The ruins of a futuristic city surrounded him. Degraded buses, twisted roads, and broken skyscrapers littered the landscape. That wasn't even touching the crimson skies that probably would have been toxic to him if he'd been human.

What happened here? He thought. As they got moving through the mess. He glanced at the lighter red reploid in hopes of an explanation.

Zero sighed as he began. "This used to be a floating city known as the Sky Lagoon. Thousands of humans and reploids used to live here in relative peace.

"That's clearly not the case anymore. It looks like a bomb went off here..."

Idily, the swordsman swung around his weapon. "A Maverick traitor by the name of Magma Dragoon set the place to explode, killing thousands of humans and reploids alike, all to goad X into a fight."

The boy didn't respond at first. Then a spark of genuine rage ran through him. His brother might've broke down knowing all this, but it inspired a different emotion in him.

"Where is this guy? When I get my hands on him, I'll—"

"Relax," Zero interjected, cutting him off. "He's scrap now. Made sure of that much... Not that you'd be ready for a fight like that."

Before Zack could dispute that last point, his mentor's attention was piqued at the noises coming from some nearby charred buildings.

They certainly weren't alone.

A multitude of enemy reploids began spilling out of them, going after the duo. The protégé would've froze up had an odd instinct not kicked in and he found himself swinging at the opposition. He found that not only was he knocking the robots away, but he was sending them flying as if they were made of Styrofoam rather than metal. As for Zero himself, he was making short work of his share with his trusty Z-Saber.

With the last of them destroyed, the bowl-cut Hunter snapped out of his battle induced trance and surveyed the carnage around him.

Whoa. Did I...just do that...?

"Well, it looks like we're done here," Zero started, only to be interrupted by a cackle.

"Wahahaha!"

No, it couldn't be, Zero thought in disbelief. It surely couldn't be him again, could it?

"Zero, is that you? It's been so long..." The mock surprise in the voice was palpable.

Zack, meanwhile, was looking around for the voice's source, more frightened than he was willing to show. This guy sounded insane! "Who's there? Show yourself!"

A black blur bounded across the wreckage and stopped in front of the two. More than anything else, he reminded Zack of Boba Fett from Star Wars.

Zero readied the saber he'd been thinking about putting away. "Vile. Can't say I'm excited to see you again. Why can't you do us all a favor and stay dead, like your boss?"

A demented smile was portrayed through Vile's words, since a facial expression wasn't exactly visible through his helmet. "What, and miss this little reunion? No way!" He finally seemed to notice Zack. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?!"

The Maverick zipped around him, seemingly sizing him up.

"Dude, it's called personal space. Back off." His front of defiance was masking his fear, but it wasn't working out very well... The fact that this lunatic looked like a walking armory of various weapons really wasn't helping.

He finally did back off, laughing all the way. "You're a rookie, right? Then this oughta be pretty fun... That is, until you die!"

Flying above them using an attached jetpack, Vile hurled a couple of bombs at them. Zack barely avoided one as it went on to destroy a ruin, while Zero expertly dodged his share. He next sent a spray of bullets via his gatling gun. Instinctively, the twin put up his hands to guard them when in fact, they ended up being bounced off of them. Emboldened, he decided to go on the offensive, running at the enemy and charging a punch, not knowing that his fist was glowing as he held it back. He swung and hit his target as it got low enough, damaging shoulder armor.

Still laughing despite the damage, Vile threw a couple of grenades at them, hoping for a potshot.

He would be disappointed.

"I'd love to catch up with you some more, Zero, but I've got some business to take care of right now." He looked at the darker red reploid. "I look forward to seeing more of you too, Rookie."

"It's Zack," said rookie said icily, arms crossed.

"I'll try to remember that. Bye, now!" With that, he warped away.

"Can we go now?"

Zero nodded the affirmative, quickly using a communicator in his arm to let the Base know such before warping them both away.