Chapter 3 – Your Mission (if you choose to accept it…)

Alex 'Axl' Wily was not enjoying his assignment. Being Zer-Zack's little brother was cool, but the rest of it sucked. They'd spent a week getting Gaudile Industries and their backgrounds established. They were a small but elite robotics firm recently changing locations from what used to be America. They all had official positions in the company, even himself and Cindy 'Cinnamon' Gaudile (interns). His problem though, was that he was still 'school-age', and as the term suggested, he was required to attend classes. X and Zero had tried to call it bodyguard duty, as the 'Moon Queen' had her only daughter enrolled there as well, but if it really was bodyguard duty, then why couldn't he just hang out on campus, not really attending?

Cinnamon was with him and that was something, but why couldn't he have gotten a cool assignment? Nana got to surf the Internet, trying to figure out just 'what's wrong here', as X put it. X was working on trying to find an in road to the human government, which might have been boring if these 'Queens' weren't hot girls. Zero, Massimo, Spider and Marino were 'patrolling'. This usually consisted of Zero attempting to teach Massimo how to 'pick up chicks'. Spider would laugh; Marino would alternately rip on Zero or smack him. A good time. The Professor and Douglas were coming up with a product line to sell. Axl had a passing interest in mechanics! He could help with that! No petty girls, but it couldn't be helped…

Axl mentally retraced his train of thought and fought the urge to smack himself. Hormone King indeed, he thought as he and Cinna… Cindy reached the classroom door.

Cindy looked at him for a moment. When it became evident that Alex wasn't going to knock on his own, holding his head and groaning like that, she knocked for them, effectively snapping him out of it. Axl straightened up, just in time for the door to open, revealing a dark haired man who appeared to be in his early thirties. He smiled at them, and bade them enter.

This was gonna suck, he just knew it.

---

Alex discretely hid his borrowed history book inside his math book and quickly thumbed through the pages, speed-reading.

It was necessary, he'd told his classmate in a semi-frantic whisper, because math was the same everywhere. History was not, though, and he would rather not make a fool of himself. His answer being deemed satisfactory, he turned to the back and began to read up on recent history.

Recent history, he discovered, went back twenty years or so before it more or less matched what he remembered of the twentieth century back home.

And… there it was. It only occupied a few sentences near the bottom of one page, but it told him everything he needed to know. The 'Great Freeze' was an ice age - one thousand or so years long.

Wow. They'd tossed around a lot of ideas, from freaky coincidence to time distortion connected to their own jump, but that had certainly never come up. It looked like they were incredibly lucky not to have shown up in the middle of that.

The building shook then, interrupting his train of thought.

WARNING! WARNING!

MAVERICK SIGNATURE DETECTED!

MAVERICK SIGNATURE DETECTED!

WARNING! WARNING!

Alex's eye twitched. Yeah. A little late there. He knew that kind of shake. They were under attack. He spared a glance at Cindy, and motioned for her to stay. He'd check it out. While everyone was rushing for the windows to see what happened, he slipped out the door.

He ran for the roof, and banged open the door, looking down to see who the perpetrator was. He blinked. He knew that reploid. Well, of him.

Bolt Bobcat was a racing reploid. He was a bright yellow color with little black lightning bolts all over, looking more like a cheeta than a bobcat in all honesty. He also had a huge rocket booster on his back. Fast, but not the strongest thing in the world. So who pumped up his voltage? Bolt Bobcat was throwing around enough electricity to do serious damage to even someone like himself or Zero.

"Hey!"

Alex spun around to see what was perhaps the most hysterical thing he'd seen since Zero got drunk and started hitting on women in a reploid lesbian biker bar.

Pink hair in a really weird design, leotard with a mini-skirt, matching gloves and boots. The only thing that kept him from laughing out loud was the diagnostic his inner computer was giving him about her power levels.

If he'd known he'd done better than X his first time seeing this, he'd have been proud.

Oblivious to his narrowly contained laughter, the girl continued. "What are you doing up here?! Get into the shelter immediately!"

Seeming to think she'd be obeyed without question, she ran past him to the roof, pink hair flying. Standing in what he could only assume she thought was a dramatic pose, she yelled.

"Schools are for learning, you ugly hunk of garbage! I am Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

Then she jumped off the roof. Alex ran for the roof and looked down, pretty sure he wasn't going to see her go splat, but wanting to see what she'd do next.

"Pink Spiral Heart Attack!"

Alex's eyes widened and he shook his head as he watched the giant pink heart fly out of her scepter.

Too bad Bolt Bobcat wasn't there to receive it. He had run behind her and backhanded her across the lawn.

Alex swore and jumped down, shifting to Axl and activating his jets to slow his fall as he went.

---

Reenie was not feeling too good at the moment. The giant metal yellow catperson had knocked her around something silly. She mentally reminded herself that she didn't have anyone watching her back at the moment like her mother had, and rolled over, just in time to see the new boy in her class, Alex Wily, jump off the roof.

Her eyes bulged a bit, and she wished she had Mercury's old computer, as he seemed to blur momentarily, a metallic exoskeleton replacing his school uniform. Small wings popped out of his back, and small jets fired, suspending him momentarily.

This attracted the cat's attention.

Her eyes widened as he backed up a step. "NO!"

Alex, or at least who she thought was Alex, grinned. "That's right Maverick. A hunter." Twin pistols appeared in his hands. "Bolt Bobcat, prepare to be retired."

The jets cut suddenly, and he dropped the rest of the way to the ground, letting off several shots as he went.

Shaking off the pain for the moment, Reenie got to her feet and pulled up her scepter again. "Pink Spiral Heart Attack!"

She grinned as this time her attack hit, but dropped the grin as it only seemed to momentarily stagger the thing. More shots raining down from the front the other robot's position reminded it that he had another foe. He made a fake lunge for Alex(?) but jumped him and kept going, activating the booster rocket as he went.

He was swearing as she got there, and brought an arm up to chest level.

"Axl to Nana. I've just stared down Bolt Bobcat. I'm not gonna be fast enough to chase him down. Any chance I'm getting back up?"

A hologram of a girl with short hair the color of her own projected out of the arm. "Unfortunately no. While that's been going on, Sigma's launched a full assault on the city's main gate. We're having a hard enough time just trying to keep the line intact while avoiding being shot by the humans."

"Damn."

The girl shrugged, and Reenie was starting to get the idea that these were good robots. Amy had mentioned they existed, but they hadn't seen any to date. The girl on the screen continued.

"The only good news I can offer is that the fight at the gate has brought down the teleport screen. I'll send your landchaser. Nana out."

A bright beam of light shot down out of the sky next to them and formed a bubble, which popped, revealing a futuristic motorcycle. Axl hopped on, and Reenie hopped on behind him. He looked back. "What are you doing?"

She smiled. "Going with you, Alex."

Axl fought an urge to start swearing. X is gonna kill me… "Fine. I don't have time to argue."

Their speed was rather… impressive as they took off, but they were only barely gaining on Bolt Bobcat. The giant metal cat looked behind at them, then turned and picked up the pace.

Axl gritted his teeth. "Damn coward. Hang on." Axl hit the accelerator, and the chase was on.

---

Zero hit his EAS hard in the air, throwing himself forward. As he went his Z-saber swished around him slicing cleanly through the aerial attack mechanaloids.

Landing, he absently deflected two shots by humans behind him, redirecting them into a mass produced reploid, which detonated. He ignored it as a bit of the maverick virus was absorbed by his systems and relegated to his weapons energy. This was probably the only thing he liked about being the original carrier of the virus – he'd beaten it, and it couldn't hurt him anymore, no matter how many times it mutated.

He noted a blurred form to his left, followed by a trail of decimated robots, signature of Marino's QAS. To his right, waves were flung back, a testament to the sheer strength of Steel Massimo, while Spider sniped from behind them with explosive cards.

Zero grinned as he sliced through more mechanaloids. This would be a good day if only the humans would stop shooting at him.

"WORLD SHAKING!"

Zero jumped, then jumped again in the air for good measure as a large, golden globe shot right down where he'd been standing, moving over maverick reploids and mechanaloids like a giant bowling ball. Gripping a wall he'd flung himself up next to hand enough to dig in, he glanced at his aggressor, and was mildly surprised to find that it was a decently pretty girl in a leotard, wielding a sword. He arched an eyebrow when the soldiers near her started chanting 'Sailor Uranus'.

His hand whipped out with the Z-Saber to deflect a shot from another flying maverick, and he grinned and jumped back into the fray.

---

Axl was fuming as the chase continued. They'd narrowly avoided three accidents, and it was only by an aerial mapping of the city and a certain amount of luck that he and 'Sailor Moon' hadn't lost their target.

Axl's eyes narrowed. "Landchaser. Target Lock. Engage Autopilot."

The grip on his waist tightened a bit. "What're you doing?"

Axl grinned, and broke her grip before hopping up so that he was standing on the seat as the bike weaved furiously in and out of traffic. "What I should have done in the first place."

Axl concentrated, focusing on the right program, leveled his side arm and fired, just before jumping off the bike. The shot hit the fleeing Bolt Bobcat directly between the shoulder blades, then homed back in on him.

Reenie turned around sharply, watching the reflected shot crash into the robot that was her classmate. She wondered briefly just why he'd commited suicide, when her glowed and changed shape. Just as soon as it had begun, the glow faded, to reveal an exact duplicate of the reploid the bike was still chasing.

Axl, now in Bolt Bobcat form, surged forward, right up behind the original and pelted him with a lightning bolt, sending Bolt straight into a construction sight they were about to pass.

Axl rushed in afterwards and sent another concentrated lightning bolt into Bolt Bobcat's booster rocket, destroying it. This drained the last of his transformative energy, however, and he shifted back into Axl just as the landchaser pulled to a stop behind him.

Sailor Moon hopped off the futuristic motorcycle and rushed over to him. "Are you crazy? What were you thinking-oof!"

Axl tackled her out of the way as a lightning bolt flowed through where they'd been standing only moments before. "Save it, would you?"

Bolt Bobcat was back on his feet, but he'd definitely looked better.

He was blackened and burned, with sparks leaping out from the space where the booster had been. Axl rolled off his ally and to his feet with a grim smile on his face. Bolt wouldn't be able to out run him, not against the landchaser anyway, which meant that Bolt Bobcat was effectively trapped.

---

X bashed another minor mechanaloid out of his way, as he dashed and dodged his way into the thick of the fight. He was currently using his X-Fire armor, as with all the excess weapons energy floating around, he could maintain it virtually indefinitely, as opposed to the extremely inefficient 'Ultimate' Armor.

The X-Fire Armor was a gold and black construction with oversized shoulder guards, a golden pronged helmet, and another massive golden claw in the place of his buster, which charged with electricity, or released a smaller electric shot.

X's eyes widened a bit as he caught sight of a familiar blob of blue dancing around with several other colors- No. Make that two familiar blobs of blue.

The first was, as he suspected, Sailor Mercury, having found out about the ice age followed by Serena waking up and healing the world, but the other…

What in the world was a copy of his old exoskeleton doing there?

As it caught sight of him, the copy X smirked, fired a few shots into Mercury, and teleported out.

The rest of the mavericks quickly followed, leaving the mechanaloids behind.

As the mechanaloids dwindled and the Sailor Scouts turned to face him, X made his decision.

"All Hunters, return to base!"

He teleported out. He needed more intel before doing anything else.

---

"Going to come quietly, maverick?"

Bolt Bobcat whimpered, but pulled a sickly purple glowing vial out of a slot on his leg, and then shoved it into a port that momentarily opened on his chest. Bolt Bobcat glowed that same sickly purple, and when it faded, his bright yellow patches had changed to match the color.

Axl winced. "Why do I get the feeling that this isn't a good sign?"

Beside him, Sailor Moon groaned. "Concentrated negative energy – I could feel it. He'll be stronger."

Axl grumbled, but started moving, going for his guns. He fired out a few shots, but Bolt Bobcast was plenty fast enough on his feet to dodge easily, even if he couldn't out race the landchaser at this point. Cursing, Axl really wished he had Zero or Marino backing him up on this one.

Sailor Moon wasn't exactly idle as Axl took off firing, but recognized that until they managed to trap this guy, there wasn't much that her slow, but powerful attacks could do at this point. Glancing around, she tried to find some way to help, and let a mischievous grin come to her face as she spotted to the wrecking ball.

Axl was doing his best to dodge, but had taken a few hits regardless. Neither stopped at the engine starting up, Bolt Bobcast in the process of throwing one of those hyper charged purple-black lightning bolts, but both did stop at the high pitched whistling noise, given that it sounded rather like a bomb dropping.

The wrecking ball smashed into Bolt Bobcat, sending him flying into a pile of I beams. Axl looked warily at the passenger compartment of the machine to see Reenie giving him a broad grin. Another lighting bolt sailed in, striking the wrecking ball and turning it into shrapnel. In the cabin, Sailor Moon ducked down as the window shattered, while Axl jumped into the air and used his hover jets to stay above the situation.

Just before he cut them again, he noted to his satisfaction that the wrecking ball had done a superb job of mangling one of Bolt Bobcat's legs, severely limiting his mobility. Axl grinned and hit the ground running, most of his shots hitting right on the mark this time.

"Pink Spiral Heart Attack!"

The giant pink heart slammed into Bolt, and seemed to do serious damage not just to the reploid, Axl noted, but his sensors also picked up that greater damage had been done to this 'negative enery'.

The battle was pretty much won at this point. Axl kept dodging and firing, distracting Bolt and doing a decent amount of damage, and Sailor Moon hit him with another giant heart, ending the fight.

Axl dismissed his landchaser, now knowing that it wouldn't be needed, and shifted back to human form. "Well, that sucked. Less than a day and my cover's blown." He eyed Reenie carefully, as she too returned to the status of mere mortal. "You gonna tell anyone?"

She looked at Axl for a long, long, moment. Then she smiled. "Nah. Somehow, I don't think they'd understand."

Well, that's one thing off my mind. "So, what now?" He questioned.

Reenie gave a fake gag. "Ugh. Back to school. On the way we'll have to come up with a cover story for your absence."

Axl rubbed his chin as they started walking back. For all the speed of the chase, they hadn't really gone far, or more accurately, had come nearly full circle. "I think X buried himself in some rubble once."

She shook her head. "No way. There'll be rescue workers all over the school by now."

Axl waved his hand dismissively. "It'll be fine. I'll just slip into chameleon mode." He took in her clueless look and elaborated. "It's what happens if a generation two reploid tries to transform without having and CyberDNA to work with. A low level invisibility. Not truly undetectable, just difficult."

"I see." Reenie commented, a little jealous. There were a lot of days she wished she could be invisible. Especially with the media circus that would also be waiting at the school.

When they got within a few blocks of the school, they stopped to go their separate ways. The princess smiled at Axl. "See you tomorrow?"

Axl grinned. "Count on it."

Maybe this assignment wasn't so bad after all.