The Suite Life X

24 - Restraint and Trust

From what little the on-site drones could pick up (as tracing such activity underwater often proved particularly challenging), things seemed pretty quiet in regards to Zero and Cody's mission from the Base's perspective...

That is, until Vile entered the picture.

The second everyone saw Zack tense up, they acted, expecting another freak-out, with London and X in particular restraining him on either side.

"Has anyone, ugh, ever told you that you weigh a ton?" London complained as she struggled.

"Well, he's a reploid wearing particularly heavy armor right now, so he can't exactly control that," Alia threw in while keeping a close eye on her view screen.

The shorter twin heard nothing of this banter, really, because his mind was pretty occupied with thoughts of how he was going to rip the heavily-armed buckethead apart with his bare hands for even getting within 50 feet of Cody.

Eventually, though, the boy was dragged out of his rather violent fantasy by a question of X's.

"Listen to me! Even if we were to actually let you go through with what you're most likely thinking of doing, you know that you'd be causing more harm than good by interfering, right?"

Zack didn't answer.

"You know I'm right."

Nothing. Then... "You wouldn't understand. I have to do this. I HAVE to!"

X wasn't the only one sensing the desperation In that statement. Bailey and.Sapphira picked up on it too while London and Ruby just looked more generally worried.

The lighter blue Hunter's tone softened. He took a breath stiffly, as if in preparation to say something unpleasant. "You need to trust Zero."

The boy looked at him like he was crazy, but before he could answer, a duo of gasps sounded. They came from Alia...and Sapphira.

"T-That's..."

Before the pro navigator could finish the blue-haired girl's thought, Zero called in and she would wind up confirming the suspicions of those who knew during her transmission.

Looking towards the screen, Zero and Cody appeared to be fighting a discolored, crazed version of the former. Zack's previously slowing protests and attempts sped up again. He needed to stop this thing, and it only proved his point as he saw his brother run from it like a child might run from a bully...

...only this one looked more like a crazed serial killer to him.

Then, in the midst of this, Zero swooped in and began to preoccupy the monster and began sword fighting with it.

The fight went out of the shorter twin yet again after this, he felt a little bit of actual respect for the ponytailed warrior bubbling up inside of him in spite of it all. That and just a little bit of...hurt.

Maybe Zero wasn't quite as heartless as he'd thought...

After a brief skirmish, the thing fled, and little of note happened from then on. Zero even took on the Maverick himself, much to Zack's admitted relief.

Soon enough, the two active Hunters were back at the base, one looking significantly more frustrated and defeated than the other.

Seeing the taller twin's downtrodden state prompted mixed looks of worry from just about everyone, and especially from those who knew him best.

Before anyone could open their mouths to voice these concerns however, Cody cut any potential comments off.

"Don't. I...I don't deserve your pity. My performance out there was abominable. I was a total liability against that monster. Probably a disgrace to Maverick Hunters everywhere, and there's...there's no excuse for it. I need to be better. To get stronger..."