"Hmm…I guess I forgot to disable her transporter," Dr. Cain said lamely. He turned to Zero, who was so dejected he didn’t notice that his hair was caught in the door. "Was your talk with Alexandria successful?" he asked, being a little oblivious to things around him. "And, um, if you see her again, could you please ask her to return the cracker?"

Zero ignored the scientist. He walked to the inner room (leaving a few hairs stuck between the sliding doors), and slouched in a chair. There is something very wrong with the female mind, or maybe it’s just Theta. Did I say something wrong? Where is she going? What does she want with Doc’s device? I hope she’s not confused enough to go back to the Mavericks, it’s very dangerous for her there. What is she trying to do?

X quietly slipped up next to him. He sat down slowly so as not to disturb Zero’s very rare contemplative mood. "Where did she go?" he asked. "What does she want with the Doctor’s device? She wouldn’t be going back to the Mavericks, would she? What is she trying to do?"

Zero replied slowly. He wasn’t accustomed to careful consideration. "I don’t think she’s stupid enough to go back there…but maybe she didn’t want us to have an edge."

"What did she say to you?"
"Nothing."

"We can launch an attack now, and take out the bases around the island, but the forcefield around the generator is still up. We can’t get through this forcefield around the main base. It’s pointless to go into battle now, the Mavericks will just retreat behind the forcefield and shoot us from inside…"

He was cut off by Zero, "but she didn’t want to help to Mavericks either. She’s going to destroy the generator." As he spoke, he got up and ran out.

"By herself?" X asked, dashing behind him, "does she have some kind of death wish?"

"The actual generator should pose no problem. After all, she built it." Zero was now out of the building and hopping on the glider, which he had left outside. "But she’ll need help getting past all the Mavericks."

X managed to get a grip on the glider as it lifted off the ground. Zero didn’t even turn to look at his buddy who was hanging onto the speeding airborne vehicle by one hand. Luckily X, with an incredible strength awakened by an intense fear of gravity, pulled himself into the seat. He buckled his seat belt fast enough to set a Guinness record for several decades, and sat stiff as a rock for the rest of the flight as he waited for his heartbeat to return to its normal rate.

As the two Hunters flew towards the generator, Zero picked out the small purple figure of Theta trying hard to be sneaky in an open field. With no regard for safety (much to the glider’s and X’s dismay), he zoomed in towards the dome. Needless to say, they did not fare very well, and the cannons were rather cruel in ruining a nicely done coat of black paint. X and Zero landed in a glorious plume of smoke. The glider gloomily hauled itself into an alley and began to repair its components.

"May I help you?" Theta said icily, which was really rather hard to do when dodging cannon beams.

"You know," Zero said, running up to Theta, "I would have expected you to be well inside the dome by now. After all, you transported here, and we just flew."

"Well, I had to stop and get my armour on, and you both know that’s quite a bother. Then I had to enable my arm cannon. And let me note again that your Dr. Cain is a brilliant man to lock it up as well as he did," Theta paused dodging to explain, suddenly ignoring the rain of cannon beams.

"You know, I think you’re fairly non-revolting to the eyes without your helmet," Zero commented. His flattery skills obviously left much to be desired.
"Thanks for that generous compliment, but I prefer knowing that my head won’t be blown to bits when someone shoots it."
"With your long hair only slightly less glorious than mine, you can blow me to bits any day."
"What?" Theta was so confused by Zero's last attempt at a pick-up line she forgot to dodge the cannon beams.

X cleared his throat loudly. "Sorry to remind you that you are not in a bar, Zero, but please note that we are getting shot at."

"Anyway, we’re here to help you," Zero said to Theta.
"Well, thank you for attracting the attention of the Mavericks," Theta replied, releasing a few shots to distract the cannons.
"No problem," said X, who was too busy dodging shots to notice her sarcasm.
"Why don’t you go bait them for a while so I can set up the cracker?" Theta suggested in a not-too-friendly manner.
"You heard her, X," Zero said, who, truth be told, was the type to ditch an old friend for a new girl.

Wouldn’t want to get in the way while you two hog the spotlight, X thought bitterly. He did a little tap dance to attract the attention of the cannons. I go out of my way to beat him up and save him, then he dumps me for his mad scientist friend. He did a little pirouette to make sure the Mavericks wouldn’t be bored and turn to shoot something else. What the heck, I’ll let him be the hero for now. The press always gives me the credit anyway. At least this is better than the time he tried to hook up with that schizophrenic cocktail waitress.

Theta flipped the switch on the forcefield cracker and a strained hum arose as the machine nulled the forcefield, creating a small hole. "Stop dancing, X," she cried as she crawled through the hole, penetrating the enemy defences in an utterly unimpressive way.

Once inside the forcefield, the three of them began circling the dome for an entrance. A short while later, the hole in the forcefield closed by itself.

"Splendid, the emergency backup just kicked in. I’m starting to wish I didn’t work so hard on the dome’s defences," Theta said regretfully.

"Now we’re stuck. We better find a way in before they start shooting us from the windows or something," X said.

A panel slid open ahead of them. The two Protectors of Humanity and one Undecided prepared to shoot some Mavericks. Unfortunately for Flame Mammoth, he chose a bad time to take out the garbage. His career as a Maverick had a rather pathetic ending. The three of them burst through the open panel and shot everything that moved. Zero paused to look at the carnage.

"Umm…this really wasn’t what I was expecting," he said, kicking aside a mop.

"I almost feel sorry for those cleaning droids," Theta added. "But at least they died a more honourable death than Mammoth, and for a good cause too."

"The nerve of those Mavericks, tossing innocent droids into harm’s way. Now we have another reason to defeat them, perpetrators of evil!" X cried righteously, ignoring the fact that the droids were merely doing their daily mopping when three trigger-happy maniacs ran in and annihilated them.

Onwards to Chapter Eighteen
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