The Suite Life X

51 - Ticking Time Bombs

Miles upon miles of desert emptiness lay below the night sky...

...or at least, things would be empty, if not for the hoverbikes speeding through it.

Swarms of them, all nondescript ones piloted by Mavericks, were all aiming their mounted blasters at the one blue bike they were chasing.

They wouldn't get far before getting both normal and fiery crossbow bolts to either their bike engines (causing them to crash out) or straight through the head.

The archer, despite the high-pressure situation, had saw fit to complain about her enemies even as she was still taking aim.

"Will you idiots just get lost already?! Geez..."

"You know that they probably aren't programmed to care what you think or say, right?"

X was busy driving, the two having agreed to that the second they touched down. When asked whether she wanted to, she simply winced and said seriously, "You don't want that."

Regardless, London was proving herself to be a more than sufficient gunner given what she was working with: a makeshift perch on the one-seater they were making do with. Her complaints, however, were something he could live without...

---

Eventually though, their luck ran out. One of the bad guys got a good shot off, forcing their ride to spin out.

Neither needed to even look at the other to know what they had to do. While London dove upwards and let herself hover over the ensuing wreck, X chose to simply roll out of the way.

---

The latter got a sight he wasn't expecting. If he were more like his New Generation comrade, or maybe didn't associate such bad memories with this place, he might have been filled with a sort of nostalgia.

They were in front of an abandoned reploid factory. The very same one where the adventure to reassemble his dead best friend the first time he lost him all those years ago.

The one where another friend of his died on the way to...

The comment that the girl would've made about the place being a landfill died in her throat when she saw the look on her fellow Hunter's face.

There was something uncomfortably familiar about it that she couldn't quite place.

"Do you...need a minute?"

Those words were enough to snap Dr. Light's creation out of his thoughts.

He shook off whatever was in his head. "I'm fine..."

He found himself cut off by his own words, thrown right back in his face. "...because you have to be, right?"

X didn't have a response for this. "Let's just go."

"If that's what you want..." She had meant to brush his words off casually but couldn't stop the feelings of unease from creeping into her voice.

---

The route ahead was filled with hordes upon hordes of the usual enemies, but it didn't take a genius to sense something...off.

"This is way too easy."

X had grumbled the comment under his breath, very much still on edge.

The heiress heard this as she lagged just behind him, but didn't exactly know how to respond. "So? How hard is it supposed to be?"