The Suite Life X

18 - The Way War Is

Aside from certain horror movies, few things could actually scare Zack Martin. It was one of the things that he prided himself on, actually. That fact made it all the worse when he saw his twin brother practically catatonic in the arms of X.

Something in him snapped, and the second Cody was off to the side (still seemingly dead to the world), he found himself lunging at X specifically the moment he had an opening.

"Zack? What are you doing?!" X grunted as he struggled on the ground with the boy. To the latter, however, none of the reactions of anyone around nor the words of what he saw as an obvious threat mattered.

"What'd you do to my brother, you bucket of bolts?!"

He got in only a few missed slashes before his mentor pried him off of him with relative ease. That did nothing to stem the rush of a kind of anger the likes of which the shorter twin had forgotten he was even capable, specifically for anyone who he so much as thought harmed his brother in any way.

"Look at me, Zack," Zero pulled him off and forced his pupil to look at him. "I get that you're upset...but you need to suck it up."

The entire room fell silent at those words, until...

"What did you just say? Are you insane?!" Bailey's voice rang out filled with equal parts disbelief and indignation.

The swordsman crossed his arms and looked at the speaker, unmoved.

"I don't know. Am I? It's pretty obvious that your boyfriend over there got a dose of reality. This war we fight against the Mavericks...it's no game. All of you are just going to have to accept that casualties happen."

Zero took out his sword and examined it for a moment before putting it back. "Whatever world you guys came from, it's clear you've never been on the battlefield..."

The lighter blue Hunter was the next to raise his voice. "Do these kids look like career soldiers to you, Zero?"

An exasperated sigh, and then... "You're not expecting me to treat them like that, are you, X? You're a great Hunter, but sometimes, you're just too soft!"

"...and you're far too harsh. How you said what you did was unnecessarily cruel and...."

"You're calling 'telling the truth' cruel?"

"Shut up!" The shout came from the gray reploid. Her bravado dissipated as quickly as it came, however. "I, uh, know that this is a bad situation, and I think I understand the whole 'this isn't a game' spiel..."

Alia jumped in. "...but you two need to cool off. Your arguing isn't really helping matters."

In response, the two teammates glared at each other sharply before the ponytailed one wound up walking out of the room.

---

 Zack's concerns immediately turned to his effectively comatose brother, his fears taking center stage once again.

"Dude," No response.

"C'mon man, you're scaring me, here..." This time, an unintelligible mumble escaped the taller teen.

Reluctantly, he tried clapping his hands in front of his face.

Finally a look of recognition. "Zack?"

Unsure of what to do next, the shorter twin forced a friendly grin he clearly didn't feel on his face. "Hey there, buddy..."

Cody's look turned incredulous. The message given was loud and clear. What could possibly be worth grinning about at a time like this?