In the rubble of the city, large looming behemoths walked around the city, keeping a watchful eye over a convoy passing through the streets. A man stood in the shadows, tapping a device over his ear. He said in a low voice, “Target sighted.” A teenager replied, “About damned time! It's freezing out here!” Another voice said immediately after, “It's called winter. Didn't they teach you that in school, Axel?” Axel then snapped, “Shut up, Blondy, or you might wake up one day with a nasty bald spot!”
"You looking for a fight? I'll...” Before he could finish, the man in tho dark said in a calm, collected voice, “Axel, shut up. Zero, grow up. If you don't, you're sitting this one out.” The comm then fell silent. “Good. Now that you have your heads on straight, I'd say it's time we start removing theirs. Zero, numbers and locations?”
"I count about six where Axel is, another five roughly twenty strides from you, twenty running escort, two directly below me and a partridge in a freaking pear tree.” The man nodded and asked, “What about snipers? I don't want a repeat of last time.” After a moment, Zero replied, “I don't see any.” Axel quickly added, “Like last time, and the time before that... and lets not forget the Zargus-9 campaign.” The man snapped, “Enough! Don't make me come over there and separate you two!!!” The two fell dead silent. “Now that you two are back to listening, we move in on my mark... and as a precaution, expect snipers.”
"I said I don't see any,” Zero commented. The man nodded. “And as Axel said, you didn't see them those last three times either. It's safe to say that these Mavericks have either been re-programed for stealth, or worse, they might be evolving. Try and keep one of their logic cores intact on this one. We'll have Ceil take a look at it and see what she says. Are you sure these weapons are going to be effective against these things?” Zero chuckled. “With all the hassle I went through stealing these things, they'd better.”
The man nodded. “Good. We go on my mark. Three... two...” before he could finish the count, the sound of weapon fire filled the air. The man snapped, “AXEL!!!!” The youth quickly said in defense, “Don't look at me! I'm still hiding!”
"Looks like the 'Ricks are being ambushed. Doesn't look good. Bunch of Green's with outdated weaponry. This is going to be a slaughter. Boss, what should we do?” The man stepped out of the shadows. He had brown hair and wore a blue military uniform. Priming his rifle, he simply replied, “Let's Rock.” The man moved into the open and ducked behind the corpse of a car. Pulling out a grenade, he armed the weapon and threw it into the middle of the five Mavericks. The sphere detonated into a massive blue flame, incinerating the machines.
A teenager with medium-long brown hair in Green Fatigues stepped out of an alley, firing powerful bolts from his dual pistols, punching holes through the assailants. He laughed, yelling, “I love these things!” He then turned around and saw two machines standing over him, about to shoot him point blank. “Awww, Slag.” at that moment, the two Mavericks separated into halves. When the husks hit the ground, a man with long blond hair in a red jumpsuit stood there with a glowing sword. Axel sighed. “Zero, How the hell can you wear that outfit and not be seen?”
"You're welcome,” the man said in his monotonous voice. He tapped his comm and said, “Rock, Status?” The man hiding behind the vehicle replied, “Could be better, could be worse. I'm pinned down.” Axle muttered, “Twenty mavericks shooting at you and you say it can be worse. How can you pull that off?” Rock shrugged as he re-loaded his weapon. “Could be snipers.” A round suddenly flew past his head. Sighing, he said, “It just got worse!” Axel turned to Zero and made several hand gestures.
Zero looked at him blankly. “Search for the recon to the regroup?” Axel snapped, “I don't know hand signs! So sue me!!! Now do something about those snipers!!!” The blond man picked up one of the enemy's massive weapons with one hand, saying, “You're functioning proof that any idiot can fire a gun.” He snapped the weapon up and fired a shot. Despite his rather thin build, the massive blast fired from the rifle had no affect on his body or his aim. A large section of the building where the sniper was fell to the ground. Rock yelled, “Nice shot. Now next time that happens, try something that isn't going to bury me in debris! Help out those kids while I dig myself out! They're not going to last long with those pea shooters!”
Zero and Axel looked at each other for a minute, realizing just how uncharacteristically calm his voice had become. There was no doubt about it. After the job, someone was going to get hurt. Zero yelled, “Axel did it!” at the same time as Axel blamed Zero. Rock's voice was now filled with rage as he snapped, “NOW!!!!!!!!!” The two warriors looked at each other blankly. Axel muttered, “Now I'm actually hoping I get pegged off by a sniper.” Zero picked up a rifle and replied, “Don't bother. He'll just patch you up, reboot your system core and decommission you again at this point. Let's move.”
The two of them moved into the battle field and opened fire on the convoy. As they attacked, Zero asked, “Is it just me, or are these things a little too easy to terminate?” Axel smiled and replied, “Just means that we'll be done and home before the rations are handed out. I wonder if they still have any peanut butter left?” Zero swatted him in the head and said, “Stay focused.”
"But it's Peanut butter!!!” Knowing how easily distracted the youth got when thinking about his stomach, he decided to use his pocket ace. “Say, the middle truck looks like the main supply transport. I'm guessing there is lots of peanut butter in it. Piles and piles of crates filled with gooey peanut butter.”
Axel's eyes widened at the mere thought of the one food that triggered his addiction-type programming flaw and yelled, “What the Hell are we waiting for? Let's take these things out!!!” Zero let out a silent chuckle and said quietly, “Sucker.” Axel and Zero continued firing until the Mavericks were completely wiped out. Zero turned to the human fighters, “What is your casualty count?” A human yelled, “Two dead, five injured and one suffering shell-shock! How about you guys?” Zero replied, “We got one buried in debris! His ETA is undetermined!”
The human nodded and yelled, “Glad you Reploids were around. We underestimated these things!” Zero nodded. “Head north! There's an extraction team that will take you to Hunter HQ!” Axel muttered, “Blah Blah Blah. Lets get those trucks!” As he headed towards the trucks, a loud banging sound filled the ghostly silent streets. Zero looked at him and said, “Did you hear that?” Axel shrugged. “Probably the wind.” The sound came again, this time following an outward dent in the middle supply truck. Axel stood there blankly. “Uh... maybe the food went bad... and homicidal...”
Zero had a murderous look on his face as he thought, 'Resist urge to shoot him. Resist urge to shoot him. Resist urge to shoot him...' More dents appeared in the truck, along with the heavy sheets of metal splitting in many places. Zero said awkwardly, “I just remembered something. This is supposed to be a two vehicle food convoy... so what's in the third truck?” A large section of the truck smashed off and flew straight at them. Zero gracefully jumped over the wreckage as it reached the two and promptly smashed into a wall.
"That was close. You okay, Axel?" After a moment, he asked, “Axel?” He turned to the wall and saw the youth sitting on the ground, dazed. “Anyone get the number of that truck?” After a moment, he looked at a liscence plate and said, “Oh. 100k-0ut. What are the odds?” Zero Snapped, “FOCUS!!!” The youth staggered dizzily to the blond warrior's side and looked at the vehicle. A massive humanoid Maverick stepped out of the wreckage, looking extremely displeased. Looking at the two it said, “Guts.” Axel muttered, “That is one really Ugly peanut butter container.” Zero aimed the weapon at the youth's head and thought, 'No one would miss him...”
He quickly regained himself as the machine headed towards them. “Great. General Gutsman. Looks like dinner's going to have to wait.”
