Shadowlaser was too far away from the Maverick to feel the explosion, but he could easily see the impact of the explosion on the main generators, which was now almost completely destroyed. "That's one more maverick down," whispered Shadowlaser to himself. "But how many more to go?"
Blade stood up and dusted himself off. He was a little surprised how well he had done in his first battle with his new body. He had taken some damage during the fight but it was overall fairly light. Once Blade had finished checking himself for damage, he headed over to where the blaster fire had come from.
When he saw that the red reploid was in overall good condition, Shadowlaser felt a sense of relief. "Hey, are you ok?" Shadowlaser shouted to him to make sure that he was fine.
Blade looked over at the now-familiar purple reploid. "I'm fine." He said. "Getting real tired of this, though. At least I didn't get totaled this time."
"Yeah, that's an improvement at least," said Shadowlaser with a bit of amusement. "How do the generators look from down there?"
"To be honest, I wasn't paying that much attention. They didn't look to badly damaged but I was more concentrated on finding whoever was behind this mess." Blade looked back over his shoulder at what was left of Spark Mandrill. "This is the third revived maverick that I've fought and if experience has taught me anything its that these things usually come in eights."
"I know about Vile and Spark Mandrill, but who is the third one?" asked Shadowlaser with curiosity. "With the two that I do know about, the only thing they have in common is that they helped at the start of the Maverick Rebellion, right?"
"I fought Magma Dragoon on my own." Blade explained. "I think someone has been reviving former Maverick Hunters that had turned maverick as a way of discrediting our entire organization in the eyes of the public. After all, it not only reminds people of our past failures but also makes it look like we never actually took care of them in the first place."
"Who would gain from going through the trouble of doing that?" wondered Shadowlaser out loud as he climbed down to the red reploid. "That just seems like a bunch of wasted energy and effort anyway."
"On its own, maybe. But think about everything else that's been happening lately. The Mother Elf, Zero and this. It just seems like to much of a coincidence to all be happening at once."
"Hey, don't leave us out of the conversation!" shout the Lieutenant with the rest of the A-class squad behind him before turning towards the red reploid. "Who are you, anyway?"
"Blade Hominini, Rank A hunter." Blade said, turning to the squad leader. "Thanks for the assistant."
"Oh, The Blade Hominini? It's nice to make your acquaintance and don't mention it, we were just doing our job," replied the Lieutenant. "But I think that we better let the cleanup team deal with the rest of this mess and go back to base, how does that sound?"
"Sound fine." Blade said. "And I don't blame you for not knowing who I was. I can barely recognize my own reflection right now."
They called for the cleanup team and they came in quickly and relieving Shadowlaser, Blade, and the A-class squad. "Well," started the squad leader. "We have just been given the go code for leave so let's go back to base everyone."
Blade headed out of the power plant with the rest of the Maverick Hunters. He wasn't looking forward to having to report back in so soon after having finally been given some time off do to his new body. He was also sure that Douglas would be angry at him for having to come in for repairs so soon. Still, at least he had managed to adjust to his new body faster than he thought he would.
"Hey, you look good in your new body, Blade. I didn't even recognize you," said Shadowlaser, trying to keep some kind of conversation going as they rode back to base.
Blade looked down and stared at his right arm for a moment, reminded of how different he looked now. "Yeah, I can understand that." He muttered bitterly. "This is going to take some getting used to."
Shadowlaser felt that Blade didn't like his new body and decided to not speak of it anymore. Thankfully there was a repair team waiting for everyone by the time they reached Maverick Hunter HQ and Douglas, with a concerned look on his face, walked straight towards Blade.
"What happened?" Douglas asked with concern. "You're not supposed to be on the field yet!" "I know." Blade shrugged. "I'm surprised, too, but I guess it turns out that I just can't help myself. Who knew?" Douglas sighed. "At least you didn't get too heavily damaged this time. One of these days I might not be able to put you back together again." "Well at least that will mean that I finally don't have to put up with anymore of this nonsense." Blade joked.