Death Star stood, the light of the flames dancing off his armor, as he watched the Hunters scrambling to put out of the fires in the control room. They were all confused; he wasn't. Turning to see the technician who was repairing the systems earlier he asked, "Who came in here before this happened?"

The startled Hunter turned to him. "Z-Zero, sir. He said he was checking out a report of something going to happen in there. He came out eight minutes before the explosion and said that there was something terribly wrong in there and he was going to call up some people to fix it. He told none of us to go in there. Then it exploded."

Death Star nodded and hurriedly began to work his way down to a computer link. Typing in his access codes, he told the computer to check in the last place Zero had been "logged" in. The computer system logged everyone in. It said on the west tower, heading up to the roof. "Damnit. If he blows THAT up, then the Hunters will not only be screwed, we're sitting ducks to any kind of attack..." he muttered and got up, turning to a nearby Hunter. "Get Commander X immediately. Tell him there's someone about to destroy the West Tower. I'm heading there now!" he shouted and began to race down the hallway, thoughts passing through his mind like a wirlwind. What was going to happen? The technician slipped into the shadows and followed him.

A sharp wind picked up, blowing his ponytail around as he began to plant the explosives, and a light drizzle began. Perfect. Matched his mood.

Setting the explosives, he perpared to turn them on when he felt a presence. Turning around like a dime, he turned to see Death Star standing there, his blaster pointed, and a guilty look on his face. He had a clear shot of Zero and didn't take it. A flicker behind DS barely even touched Zero's attention. "Foolish move..." Zero warned, his voice hissing. He quickly set the timer as he drew his sabre.

"You're going down Zero. Even if it takes everyone in this HQ to do it..." Death Star snarled as he drew his sabre and the two launched at each other, their sabres clashing together, causing sparks to shoot off as each tried to push the other back. Zero won that. Death Star stumbled backwards as Zero launched himself at him with amazing speed and slashed at him.

Side stepping him, Death Star formed his cannon and fired it at Zero, hitting him in the side. It caused the X-Hunter to stumble backwards, momentarly stunned as Death Star launched himself at him and slashed with vicious speed. Zero blocked and shoved him backward, doing a spin twirl and slashing DS's shoulder some. "Agh!"

The two clashed again and Death Star began to charge his blaster and fired at Zero, who easily deflected it with his sabre and then slahed at him again, causing Death Star to go on the defense. Zero grinned evilly and dashed forward in a second and tackled Death Star, sending them both over the edge of the tower and crashing onto the elevator that lead up to it. The two went crashing inside it, causing the elevator to rip out of the side of thet tower and began to fall with incredible speed.

Zero slashed at Death Star, who ducked, and then jumped out of the elevator, grabbing the side of the tower. Death Star jumpedo out seconds later and grabbed on. However, by then, Zero was cutting a hole in the side of the tower and was entering the building once more. Death Star raced up and dived in the hole, looking around for Zero, but there was no sign of him. "I grow tired of playing with you, Death Star....you are not even a challenge to me...I could have killed you just then...." Zero's voice came out, taunting him.

Death Star leaped backwards as a sabre came flying at and Zero followed, grinning evilly as he slashed again with more speed, causing his opponet to keep off balance as he jumped to keep out of the mad attacks. Finally Death Star blocked and dodged another slash as he slashed at Zero quickly, but was blocked. Zero punched him in the head as he was in this process and sent him stumbling backwards. Grabbing him, Zero threw him, both of them looking like a blur, into a wall, sending him through it and into the raining morning. "Too bad....you lose..."

Suddenly the Hunter came roaring back through the hole with such speed and surprise he caught Zero off guard and smashed into him, firing a Level 2 blast right in Zero's stomach and following it with a cannon blast. "TOO BAD I'M A SORE LOSER!!!" he shouted and threw Zero into the wall. The X-Hunter shook his head, as if clearing off a daze and glanced at Death Star as if he was just seeing him for the first time.

"Impressive...."

"Too bad I don't care what you think!!!" Death Star roared and a jetpack appeared on his back and he turned it on full blast, 215 MPH, and rammed Zero through another chuck of the wall and they both went flying into the rain. Both of them were blind with the rain pounding on them. Zero blasted blindly at DS, hitting him, and the two went spinning out of control, their hair went mops in their faces. Splatters of footsteps followed behind the fighters, far below them.

Death Star turned around and they sped back to the West Tower, both of them, Zero first, crashing into the tower where he turned the jetpack off and it vanished. Shaking the hair out of his eyes, he saw a first hit him and he stumbled backwards, Zero already tackling him. The two began to slash at each other again, both of them blocking each other each time, until finally Zero charged his blaster to a Level 4 and pointed at DS and fired, the blast exploding into his armor like a freight train, destroying the lairs of it, and sending Death Star stumbling backwards as his circuity fell out of his body. Zero grinned, pointed his blaster again and charged it. "You're too weak....and X will fall JUST as easily..." he said calmly, coldly, evily. He fired another Level 4 blast, destroying Death Star's inner compartments and sending him flying out of the hole in the wall, falling twelve stories down into the dark abyss.

Turning causaly to the his right, Zero noticed a video carmera on with a note attached to it. 'Hiyas Zeros! If you see this, then I'm probably dead or laying in your hands now wishing I was dead.....everyone in HQ just saw you kick my sorry ass and now you can expect awhole lot of trouble, Always Your Enemy -- Death Star'. Zero's eyes narrowed. That Hunter must have planted this note eariler....but how did he know they would end up on THIS level, unless he planned it somehow!!!! The jetpack thing!!!

Roaring in anger, Zero turned and saw a group of Hunters marching towards him. Time to get serious, as X would say...

"No...." he whispered as he watch Zero begin to hack up the Hunters to bits. "NO!" He turned around to the Hunter who contacted him. "Pull everyone out of there. I'm going up there..." he said and teleported off.

"Better hurry....I did set explosives you know...." Zero hissed and rammed them both into the wall, slicing off their hands. "Heh heh heh, not even a warm up..." he muttered as he kicked their hands around as he strolled to another elevator to leave the West Tower, when suddenly a blast him in the shoulder, spinning him around. "X?!"

The two Hunters glanced at each other. "Surrender, Zero, please. Don't make me do this...." X pleaded.

"Ohhhhhh, you want to talk your way out of this, huh, X?" Zero said in a sweet voice as he twirled his sabre. "Well, it ain't gonna cut it X. When has it EVER?" he snarled and launched himself at X with amazing speed.

X stepped out of the way and turned to face Zero. "I won't fight you."

"Oh, you don't have to.....this will just make this sooooo much easier...." Zero said and slashed at X, who stepped backward.

"Zero, we can help you!" X pleaded.

"I don't want to be helped, X. I want to destroy you!!!!" Zero shouted and launched himself once more at X, slashing madly. He caught X across the armor, cutting it like a butter, leaving wires and sparks to fly out of it. "Heh heh heh, couldn't dodge that one, could you?"

"Zero.....please.....don't do this!" X said.

"Will you shut up X! I'm gon-" Zero began when the entire tower shook and a loud explosion sounded. "Oh shit!" Zero dived out of one of the holes as a huge firewall began to work it's way all over the Tower, vaporising it. X jumped after Zero, and they both fell into darkness as the rain continued to fall, and the building exploded to bits.

"Run for it!"

"Things are going down!"

"It's frackin' Doomsday out here!"

Humans and Reploids alike scattered around HQ seconds after part of the HQ was blown to bits. The rain was heating the confusion up and everyone was gathered around, fear ramped through them, thinking Sigma was back.

"It's Sigma!!!! He's gonna kill us!!!"

"It's Vile!!!! Run for it!"

Silently a Reploid in the corners watched them all run around. He grinned evilly as he watched it all. "Heh heh heh. This is all too much fun," he said and moved deeper into the shadows, his dark armor hiding him from sight. Only a lone technician, almost indistiguisable from the wall due to the amount of wet dust covering him, took note. He grinned also, but his was tinged with sadness. The end to this was all too clear. Turning he headed to where he had last seen X and Zero.

He started to work his way to the crowd when suddenly he heard a soft groan and the shifting of some heavy objects behind him. He half turned to see X pushing a heavy block off of him as he stood up, dent marks lining him and battery fluid running out of his chest were Zero slashed him.

"Damnit X, you're really starting to piss me off with this crap," hissed Zero as he glanced around for his sabre. He found it half-buried and he quickly snatched it up.

"Sorry, ugh, to do that, but, ugh, I'm goinging to help you, ugh, no matter how much it sets you off," X groaned as he stood up to his full height, glancing at Zero.

"Heh heh heh, you saw what I did to Death Star. You should know I don't care X.....you SHOULD know my whole purpose in life is to destroy you!!!" Zero told him. X showed no reaction. "You're a fool X."

"Peraphs."

Zero shook his head and began to walk away from X, heading once more toward the crowd. X knew what he was doing. "ZERO!" He smirked at the Hunter and kept walking, and heard the whine of X's blaster being charged. "I won't let you...."

He finally stopped and turned around. "Awwww, you finally gonna fight to protect the little ol' humans, huh, X? Will, you better fight hard, or you'll be scraping their bodies off the ground for months." X fired and hit Zero in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards. "A level 3 shot......you mean business...." Zero snickered. "Well, let me let you tell you a secert...I didn't even show my true power with that Death Star business!!!" he shouted and charged his blaster.

Zero pointed his blaster at X like a whip snapping and fired a Level 5 blast at him that rammed X so hard it sent him flying backward, causing him to stumble and crash among the rubble. "Infact, my power level is not only not 38, but 40," Zero added. "Just thought you might like to know that little fact."

X stood, his armor completely managled and it was obvious he was in great pain as he lost important fluid. "Argh. Yeah....that would have been nice to know...." he muttered and fired another Level 3 blast at Zero, who jumped over it, charging his own blaster.

The two fired their blasters at the same time, the Level 3 and Level 5 blasts crashing into each causing a brilliant light that the crowd could even see through the rain and smoke. Zero's blast, however, continued moving and hit X again, though weaker. X stumbled backward some. He did dash forward and fired a Level 2 blast at Zero's arm. It hit and spun Zero ever so slightly as he slashed his sabre, skinning X's back, leaving a trail of battery fluid.

"Ow...that smarts," X whimpered as he jumped away from Zero, holding his side as he charged his blaster. "Zero, give up! This isn't right!"

"Isn't right?! Give UP?!" Zero said and began to laugh insanely. "I'm kickin' your sorry ass and ya can't stand it, am I right?"

X said nothing.

"Whoooo boy. God, I love being right," Zero told him as he pointed his blaster at him and fired a Level 5 blast. X quickly dived out of the way and turned to see it heading into the crowd's direction.

"NOOOO!!!!!" X screamed and heard the sounds of people screaming. He quickly ran over there and saw that six people laid on the ground, their bodies sizzling heaps of flesh. The rest of the crowd had left instantly. X turned and was punched in the head and sent stumbling backwards, Zero smirking over him, his sabre raised, about to chop him in half.

He reached again and his hand hit someone's boots and he managed to look up at a very worried X1 who was picking him up. "Whoa, chief....you're in no condention to go playing rambo here..." he said softly and lugged Death Star up. Who shut down and died for the first time.

Zero pulled his sabre out of the ground as X rolled out of the way and blasted him in the head with a Level 3 blast, causing Zero to stumble backwards. "ARRGHHHH!!" he yelled in pain and blasted X with a Level 5 blast he had been charging, causing the Hunter to fly backwards into a building. He watched X, who didn't move, so he began to walk into the city as the rain finally stopped and the sun began to shine. Yuck.

Zero walked down one of the streets and was suddenly blasted in the back, causing him into smash into a clothing store. He leaped out, with a dress hanging around him, and saw a panting X standing there. He ripped the dress off and threw it inside as he glanced X over. "You...." he midly said as he looked all over the place, noticing patches of gawking humans.

Zero quickly blasted at X with another blast and took off down the street, blasting buildings as he went along. He even hoped he hit a gas line. X dodged the blast and dashed after him, the two in a race, and the winner took all. X dashed leap and landed several feet behind Zero, who slashed at him with his sabre, causing him to lose his rythm and duck. But the azure Hunter was quickly on the rebound and began to blast at Zero again, and the two dived at each other, trying to blast or slice the other. Through it all the lone technician followed them, silently fitting in with the shadow. His purposeful movements refuted his claimed position as a technician. He moved with the practice of decades.

"Heh....that's a good one, Cain," Joe said as he cleaned some of the beer glasses. "Got any Hunter stories to tell us this visit?"

Cain shook his head as he glanced into his empty cup. "Nope. I think the last of them has been eradicated. No more wars, hopefully," he said, his speeched slurred from drinking too much. He stood up. "Be seeing you." He opened the door to the bar and looked outside and saw X flying past the door and hitting a streetlamp, cursing Zero's mother, as Zero laughed his head off at him, racing towards him, firing, blowing up cars and other stuff.

Cain closed the door and turned back to Joe. "I think I need you to drive me back to the HQ 'cause I've been drinking too much. Not only do I think I see Zero and X fighting, Zero justed blasted my car...."

Zero ducked and fired a blast at X, hitting him square on and sending him crashing through a brick wall into a business. The shadowy figure that had been following them dived out of the way. Meanwhile, X shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts as he looked around at where he was. A pizza store. A teenager stood there gawking at him while X ran out through the front door, shortly followed by Zero, who began to blast madly after X, blowing up the door and windows. "I hope you're gonna pay for that man..." the teenager said.

"I'll pay for it by not killing you, how's that?" snarled Zero as he ran through the opening to the pizzeria and followed X.

"Sounds fair..."

X fired a Level 3 blast at Zero and hit him in the head, sending him flipping backwards and crashing onto the ground. "C'mon, Zero, this is madness!" pleaded X as Zero got up.

"I thrive off of madness!!!!" Zero shouted, a red haze appearing over his eyes as he heard Wily's chant in his head. KILL MEGA MAN....KILL MEGA MAN!!!" Zero fired another Level 5 blast at X, who jumped out of the way, allowing the blast to fly by and hit City Hall, leveling the front of it.

X pointed his blaster at Zero's arm cannon and fired a Level 3 blast so quickly it rammed into it, damaging it. Zero howled in pain and shook his hand, glaring angerily at X. "I grow tired of this. I think I'll raise the stakes. Later!" he said and teleported away.

"NO!" shouted X uselessly and he slumped down, tired and wounded. He glanced over the city and saw it this area was totally banged up thanks to their fight. Managing to get to his feet, he teleported back to HQ to see how much damage Zero really had caused.

The white fist came slamming down with incredible speed onto the table, causing everything to jump up off it, also spilling some coffee on the floor. X turned to Cain. "It's been five days! What can he possibly be DOING?" he shouted angerily as he paced back and forth. Zero had gone into hiding and there had been no further contact.

The damage tolls were high. 5% of the city had been destroy in their little bout and over 35% of the HQ had been destroyed and they were powerless to stop any attacks against Mavericks at this point.

They had lost over fifteen Hunters and lost their last Captain, Captain Death Star, who had tried to hold Zero off but failed. He had been deactivated from the amount of damage bestolled upon him. Right now X1 had him, trying to bring him back online with no success.

And X had taken alot of damage himself. Cain had managed to fix him up and upgrade him some. Since then X had been training, or worrying.

"Calm down X."

"This is totally NUTS!"

"Calm down X."

"We can't just STAND around and wait for him to come back and just wipe us off the planet!!!"

"Calm DOWN X."

"We have to help him!!! And we can't do it just STANDING around here with our fingures up our--"

"CALM DOWN X!!!!"

X stopped his ranting at the harsh yell from Cain and turned to look at him surprised and bowed his head. "Sorry...."

"I understand your feelings right now X, but there's nothing we can do until Zero makes his move, which will probably be a fatal one," Cain said soberly.

"If only we could help him, sir. I know this has to do with Zero's past. Something Sigma did no doubt. I knew he should have led the fleet and I go on to The Final Weapon to stop that fiend...." X said, his voice full of guilt.

"Zero had made up his mind the second he learned that Iris was on The Final Weapon and wouldn't have let you go up there no matter what. He was always like that, X. Rushing into situations. That led him to his death at the hands of Vile..." Cain reminded him.

"No, Vile didn't kill him, I did. I was too weak to stop Vile so he killed himself to weaken Vile....It's my fault just as this is. So I got to help him, doc. You see why, don't you?" X pleaded to him. Cain nodded his head sadly.

"I agree, X. We're doing everything we can to find Zero. But it'll be a little too late to do any good by the time we do...."

Suddenly a twig snapped and the young officer reeled over to the direction, scanning for what it was, while the other officer laughed his head off. "Har har har, just an animal...." he scoffed at the younger man.

"S-sorry sir...." the man said.

Suddenly above them they they heard, "Don't be sorry, 'cause I ain't no 'animal' pals!!" As the two looked up a red and blonde streak came flying down and landed on them both, cracking their skulls together with such speed it seemed to be a blur and threw their bodies on the ground.

Zero turned to the thick steel door guarding the building and blasted it to bits and strolled in as the alarms went off, guards appearing all over the place and pointing their rifles at him. Smirking, Zero blasted a gangplank some were standing on and blew it to bits, causing them to fall to the ground. Everyone opened fire on him, the bullets bouncing off with little or no effect.

The commanding officer turned to a Lieutentant. "Get the plasma cannons. We're takin' this SOB down!"

Zero continued to march through the building and came to the wall and blew a hole into it too, walking out into the middle of the complex he had broken into. He began to walk up the steps to the Control Room of the place when some soilders came running out of the building he had just left, firing plasma blasts at him. Grunting when one blast hit him, Zero spun around and blast at them, hitting one of the officers. The others dives for cover as he reached the door to the Control Room and kicked it down, entering.

The technicians inside stared at him in fear and took off out the back exit for their dear lives. Zero smirked and sat down in one of the chairs and began to hit the codes they had left laying around and the ground began to shake as pads opened up and huge nuclear missiles began to rise up from the ground. The guards seemed startled at this and didn't know what to do.

Zero, however, did. He dived out the glass windows in the control room and slapped a special device onto the missiles as the guards began to fire madly at him. He took their blasts, even when they hurt like hell, and kept working until he finished. Hitting a button on his controler, the missiles teleported and were gone, leaving the guards staring in shock. "Next time you better beef up secerity!" he taunted them and teleported away.

"He's right, you know," a voice from behind them said. They all turned, but only the shadows of the night could be seen.

Cain nodded his head, which he was rubbing to get read of a major headache that just started. "He stole four nuclear missiles that have enough power to blow up the entire city of New York three times over....."

X sat down in a chair in disbelief. "B-But why?!"

"I don't know that one, X."

The azure Hunter stood up quickly. "Where would he teleport them too? Has there been any bases taken over lately?"

"No."

"Is there anywhere he could launch them?"

"Not to my knowledge."

X paced back and forth and suddenly snapped his fingures. "Remember that place where we encountered that thing that brought the Maverick Virus back here from The Final Weapon?"

"Yes. I thought it was destroyed."

"Not all of it I would imagine! Probably just three of the top floors!" X pointed out and immediately jumped onto a computer outlet and moved one of the Hunter satelites orbiting Earth to move to that position. Ten minutes later a picture appeared of the base, fully intact except for a small bit that had blown up. But there was no sign of anyone there.

"It looks deserted to me, X."

"Irony though, Doc. Think about it. That's where Sigma was finally destroyed, or more or less the Maverick Virus. He would probably head there for image sake. Plus he would know I would consider this spot a prime location for him. It's like he's trying to lure me in."

"Too kill you X."

"Well duh."

"X...."

"I'm sorry, doc, but I got to go help him. He's my best friend and I'll me damned if I'm going to lose him, espically by my own hand!" X said, his voice bitter. He teleported off, leaving Cain there to look at the dark room.

"Good luck, X.....godspeed," he said sadly and picked up a picture of his long dead wife and sighed sadly. If X failed, he would be joining her very soon.

This is where he, or should he say Bass was born and goofed off and did what Wily wanted him to do. Zero walked around and tried to remember things about his past but could only catch glimspes that were in a thick haze that he could not discribe. It was like a dream that you couldn't understand.

He picked up a stone and threw it, thinking. He was not Bass anymore. Bass had died 30 or so years ago. He was Zero, so why was he fighting his friend? Why did he want to kill all the humans? Faint imagines of Wily and Sigma appeared in his mind, laughing evilly at his confusion. And he knew why. Wily had paved his way to kill X, his friend, and Sigma had paved the way to kill Humans.

'Thanks' he thought bitterly as he walked around the trees and through them, thinking. He could still give up and let X "help" him. This was a crossing point and he had to take it now, or face his fate like destiny had planned it years ago. Zero was tempted for a second to go back to HQ and give up, but the image of Wily burned into his mind, and his hatred of Humans followed. And he knew what he had to do. He had to kill X. Sadly he teleported away.

The figure who had followed him for the past days walked over and picked up the stone Zero had thrown. He stared at it sadly as if it were a oracle of dire portents. He too stared at the castle. "You never left well enough alone," his raspy voice came out. "You designed your creations and left them." He opened a panel in his arm and placed the stone there on top of a yellow piece of cloth. With one last glace at where the Skull Castle had been, he spun. As he stopped the only thing remaining where he stood were the claw marks of a raven.