The Suite Life X

16 - The Fortress Tower

A few minutes later, X found himself touching down at an eerily familiar metalic wasteland overlooking a tower that looked just as decrepit. Of course, he knew that he'd actually caused most of that destruction in the first place. He preferred not to think about it during his "waking" hours, as he had enough of these kinds of thoughts during his nightmares. Still, I he forced himself to put on a brave face and press onward.

"With any luck," he tossed back to his student as he trailed behind him. "we'll be able to resolve this peacefully and bring our friend back."

"...and if we're unlucky?" Cody's apprehension had been palpable through his voice ever since they'd left the base, in spite of everyone's (excluding his unconscious brother's) assurances that they'd keep a sharp eye out on things and that there was very little chance of anything serious going wrong, he didn't seem to feel very reassured.

Considering what had taken place with Zack and Dragoon, he honestly couldn't blame him.

Instead of answering, the lighter blue reploid urged him forwards. "Come on. Watch my back."

They warily progressed, narrowly dodging the few lasers that were still active and destroying any straggling enemies. Next up was a large elevator. He made sure to warn his pupil.

"Watch the spikes ahead. They're lethal to us."

"Really? How does that work, exactly? Aren't our bodies designed to resist even small RPG fire? I mean, I took a few rockets to the face, even..."

"You're asking way too many questions," X said a bit roughly, frustrated with his impromptu press confrence. "Let's keep going."

It was a tense few minutes that passed as they dodged the spike sets descending upon them as they went up.

Upon approaching the outer wall, they began climbing up the now rusting ladders to get to the final chamber. This last climb was done in near-silence, as the enemies thinned out to almost nothing by this point.

"Um... X? Mind if I ask you another question?"

The Hunter didn't outwardly object this time. He waved a free hand, encouraging him to go ahead.

"How...how do you do all this?"

He searched through his mental cue cards for some kind of answer he could give the boy.

"I... I fight for peace."

"Just how often do you have to do this?"

"Not often," X rattled off a bit too quickly. The real answer was uncomfortably close to "perpetually", of course, but he wasn't about to drop that on the head of an idealistic teenager. "Save your questions for later, we're here."

Thankfully, the commanding tone in his voice stopped Cody from asking any more unanswerable questions.

The darker blue reploid didn't need to be told to brace himself. Somehow, they both knew that what lay beyond the gray doors in front of them wouldn't be nearly as easy as X had claimed it to be...

---

Meanwhile, the Navigation Room and Hunter Base as a whole was abuzz with activity. Mainly, that activity involved keeping an eye on the active Hunters running around. Alia kept her eyes on the screen and radar in front of her, while Bailey and Sapphira handled configuring data, with the blonde navigator helping wherever she could, all the while being peppered with inquiries into the boys' welfare. From what she could tell, though, they were doing pretty well. An eavesdropping on their communications saw X giving little more than first time advice while Cody asked questions...some more difficult to answer than others.