Prologue

Axl opened his eyes slowly. He was lying on his back in what appeared to be a large room, and at first he couldn't imagine where he was or how he'd gotten there. It took several seconds for him to recognize the repair bay of Hunter HQ. He'd never found himself waking up there before.

Yeah, he remembered now. They'd just taken out that punk, Lumine, and he'd been stepping forward to check the body (and maybe give it a good kick or something) when some last attack had gone off. The last thing he recalled was the tentacle lashing right at him. It must have hit awfully hard to land him here.

Axl frowned in annoyance. Well, he felt fine now. As he started to push himself up into a sitting position, he heard a familiar voice speaking his name. A moment later, X had moved to his side.

"Are you okay?"

"Hey, X. Yeah, I feel all right," Axl assured him. X was still frowning, but then, he usually was. "How hard did he hit me, anyway?" Axl asked curiously.

"Hard enough to break that," X answered, gesturing at Axl's forehead. "It wasn't serious, but you were out for a while. I was worried for you."

"Oh." Axl briefly fingered the large, smooth gem on his forehead. That would explain it, but it was back in one piece now, of course. He wasn't really surprised that X had been waiting here for him to wake up, but he found that he appreciated it, all the same. "So where's Zero? He wasn't worried about me?" he asked, somewhat snarkily.

"Zero's submitting the report on what happened up there. He asked me to let him know when you woke up," X informed him quietly.

At that point, one of the medics approached. "Ah, so you're awake. Repairs are complete, and all systems should be functioning normally."

Axl nodded. "I feel perfectly fine," he assured the medic.

"Then you're free to go."

A couple of minutes later, Axl was walking down the hallway. X had suggested he take it easy, at least for a day or so, just to be sure, but that probably wouldn't be necessary. Besides, Axl had a suspicion that X wouldn't have followed that advice, had their positions been reversed.

Suddenly, he stopped, rubbing at his head. He had felt the strangest sensation, just for a moment, as if there was something in there, that shouldn't be…

Well, whatever he'd felt, it was gone now. Probably just some leftover power fluctuation from sustaining damage, or something. Nothing to really worry about. Shrugging, Axl continued on his way.