Up close, the camp didn’t seem very intimidating, kind of small, actually, but the forcefield was certainly impressive. The dome sat between two clumps of forest. The Hunters thought this was a very obvious sign of an upcoming ambush.

Sure enough, X heard a rustle from the right. He shot at the trees just as Chill Penguin leapt in their direction. Zero dashed out of the way to find that Flame Mammoth had emerged from the forest behind him.

"Well, if it isn’t X and his faithful sidekick," Flame Mammoth sneered.
"Who were you calling a ‘faithful sidekick’?" Zero asked. He swiftly activated the light sabre and swept the area around him. Flame Mammoth fell back minus a chunk of his armour. "I certainly hope you weren’t referring to me," Zero finished maliciously.

Flame Mammoth lugged himself up only to find that he was sinking into the snow, making him even slower than before. However, he solved this problem by jumping around. Zero soon found himself bombarded by snow from the trees every time Flame Mammoth landed. The Maverick unleashed a stream of fire which Zero dodged easily. The snow, however, was not so lucky and the landscape was soon pockmarked with puddles.

From the side, Chill Penguin tried to freeze X, but only managed to create miniature ice rinks where the puddles had been. Soon, Zero was happily blasting Flame Mammoth as the latter was not-so-happily slipping around on the unaccustomed ice. I wonder why those Mavericks always stupidly try to fight us one on one? Are they trying to fight honourably or something? Zero fired at the reploid again. Probably just stupidity. X as well was having a splendid time with Chill Penguin.

The battle continued for a while longer, each side sustaining a few wounds, but the stronger pair was quite apparent. Flame Mammoth was saved from impending doom by a blast from the direction of the camp. Zero blocked it with his sabre, but was knocked down by its force. He rolled out of the way as Flame Mammoth leapt towards him. Getting up, he found himself beside X. The two hunters gathered and prepared to fight an unmatched battle.

Before they had time to think, the two reploids were charging at them, and both were easily beaten back. Chill Penguin rolled to his feet, but Flame Mammoth was staggering slowly. Another blast from the camp distracted the two Hunters long enough for the large reploid to escape towards the dome. Chill Penguin dashed towards X, and, when he missed, he simply continued sliding towards the camp.

Now X and Zero turned to see who had intruded on their battle.

"Oh, do the two wittle Mawericks have to wun to their mummy?" X asked sweetly.
"If you are suggesting what I think you are, I am seriously offended," the female said coldly.
"Come back here so I can slice off your worthless heads," Zero yelled.
"I am rubber, you are glue…" Chill Penguin began.
"That is your comeback?" X asked. Zero tried to muffle a laugh.
The female bowed her head, "this is so pathetic. Please refrain from uttering words of idiocy, Chilly." She added, "you two run inside now. I’ll handle this."

Flame Mammoth began to protest.
"Listen, Mammoth. If it weren’t for me, both of you would be rather large paperweights by now. So, scurry on inside, I’ll take care of things." Mammoth lingered a bit. "I said for you to leave and stop annoying me," the female repeated more forcefully. The two other reploids sulked away.

"You think you can win against the two of us, fool?" X asked mockingly.
"Never address me as such. I am Theta, and I am sure I shall do perfectly fine against the two of you."
"She’s either really brave or really stupid," X commented to his partner.
"Yeah, she’s got a pretty face too. It’s a shame I’ll have to deprive it of its body," Zero grinned.
Theta glared at him, "we are not amused." She followed this up with a blast from her arm cannon.

Zero dodged aside and X leaped over the blast, only to find that Theta had fired a second shot and he landed right on it. Luckily, he was quick enough to roll away from a third shot, though it still grazed him. As soon as he got up, however, he was dismayed to find his face pushed back into the snow by Zero who was dodging yet another shot.

Theta was using rapid-fire to keep the Hunters on the defensive, and X was getting annoyed. Finally, he managed to deflect one of her shots with a blast of his own and Zero took the opportunity to get a clear shot at her head. She jumped surprisingly high for someone her size and his shot passed harmlessly underneath. She deployed her rapid-fire again while still in the air, and the Hunters were forced to play dodge ball. In a desperate attempt, Zero threw his light sabre at her, aiming it to slice off a good deal of her cannon as she landed and before she could touch ground to dodge it. Theta hastily touched a button on her arm. Her cannon stopped firing, but somehow, the sabre’s beam scattered for a second when it neared her cannon. She managed to snatch it before the beam reformed.

Zero stood shocked for a moment, but X took advantage of her inactive cannon. He charged at Theta and rammed into her stomach with his significantly large and hard helmet. She flew back a surprising distance and the sabre took the liberty of leaving her hand and exceeding her flight, making its way into the forest. She pushed herself up as soon as her hands touched the ground, but was hit in the shoulder by a powerful blast from X. She was relatively undamaged from the blast, but seemed to have trouble getting her wind back from the previous hit.

She leaped over another blast and kicked X in the head, which really wasn’t all that high on X’s scale of pain. However, she followed this up with a series of rapid punches which, though not particularly painful, were too fast for X to respond to and she finished up with a quick shot in his stomach. X flew back an appreciable distance before landing in a deceptively snow-covered pile of rocks.

Zero, meanwhile, had begun his attack. With help from the snow-covered X, he kept Theta in a blocking position. She was hit several times, but both sides could see that the hits did not do anything particularly painful and damaging, which would have been the ideal. Zero decided to try charging her again, since it seemed to have injured her more than the blasts.

While X kept shooting in a half-bored fashion, Zero dashed up to Theta. Being accustomed to fighting right-handed Mavericks, he instinctively went for her left side. Unfortunately, Theta was a lefty. Thus, he realised too late that he was sticking his head towards the wrong end of an arm cannon. Theta happily accepted his invitation and fired an especially long and large blast at his face. Not surprisingly, Zero found himself airborne at an impressive speed and under a previously unexplored level of pain. He was hurled against a tree and laid motionless under a pile of snow shortly afterwards.

Onwards to Chapter Four
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