While Octavia's first thought had been that they would have to locate the eight loosed Mavericks and strategize the best way to handle each of them as well as an order of priority. However, by the time she and Axl reached the Control Center, a formal letter of challenge had already been received from Red Alert, stating where each Maverick was, what they'd taken control of, and a guarantee that the Maverick influence and activity would not expand beyond those areas or activate until Hunters arrived in each area...as long as the Hunters didn't take too long to engage.
With this guarantee, Octavia made a decision regarding how to handle the situation for now. "Axl, which do we go after first?" she asked bluntly.
"What?" Axl gasped out, shocked. The others all looked surprised as well.
"These are Mavericks Red Alert has captured," Octavia explained bluntly. "So in your opinion, which can we deal with most easily?"
Axl swallowed nervously, then frowned at the images and locations in the letter. "H-here," he finally said, pointing to the gathering of aerial craft. "Wind Crowrang is rather straightforward to deal with, and we'll be leaping from craft to craft for the most part, so we should be able to see everywhere we're going."
"Very well," Octavia confirmed. "We'll go there first then. Mush." She nudged him in the cheek to make him go forward.
Axl frowned. "Do you have to do that?" he whimpered softly.
Octavia thought for a time, then pulled out a stick, a string, and a carrot. She dangled the carrot in front of Axl's nose. "Mush," she commanded gently again.
Axl stared flat eyed at the carrot. "...I'm not hungry," he finally groaned out.
Octavia tilted her head, shrugged her shoulders, and then replaced the carrot with a magazine entitled 'Girls Gone Maverick'. "Mu-"
Axl charged onto the transporter with cheeks bright red as the navigators on duty - mostly female - giggled wickedly.
Teleporting direct to the group of aircraft was inadvisable, as there was no guarantee the ship they were trying to teleport onto would remain on its course while they were beaming in. As a result, they instead rode atop one of HQ's jet craft to the back of the armada, allowing them to leap to the last craft in the line before peeling back to a safe distance. "Alright," Octavia instructed Axl. "Mush."
Axl sighed. "Do you have to keep saying that?" he whimpered.
Octavia thought about that for a time. "...yes, I think I do," she stated finally. "There's something oddly familiar about you, and doing this feels right. Until I know why, I'm going to keep doing it."
Sighing, Axl leapt to the next craft. "Well, I guess if there's no escaping it, I might as well enjoy it..." he grumbled to himself.
As they raced along, a few Maverick drones patrolled the craft, forcing the pair to blast them to bits. A few civilians were also scattered around, but Octavia had evac beacons to send them off safely back to HQ.
From Axl's shoulders, Octavia was able to observe Axl's unique abilities, at least as far as he demonstrated for her. In addition to air dashing, he could also hover a distance in midair, and lock on his guns to any enemy within range without actually looking at them, showing an exceptionally accurate grasp of his surroundings. Octavia tabled these thoughts, as this didn't quite show enough reason as to why Red Alert would do all this to get him back.
Before long, the pair of them reached the flagship of the armada, which was much larger than any of the others. Large enough, at any rate, that even the top of it required exploration, though they could see a great deal as they looked around. The top was patrolled by Mettools, which hid under their helmets when the intense beam fire of the ship's energy cannons swept the top.
"If we destroy the cannons, we'll be able to get inside," Axl pointed out.
"I'll take the one on the left," Octavia replied swiftly, leaping off Axl's shoulders. "You take the one on the right."
Nodding, Axl dashed and rolled, bringing himself up behind his cannon where he could fire without being hit by the beam. Octavia moved to a similar position on the other cannon, mirroring Axl's positioning as she fired with her more powerful busters. The destruction of the cannons broke open the entry hatch, and the pair quickly dove in, finding their way into a long, wide, high corridor within the ship. Once inside, Octavia immediately leapt back to Axl's shoulders.
The straightforward path led the pair past a great deal of enemy drones, and into a massive hanger. Maneuvering there proved difficult as it was only scattered platforms over an open bottom of the craft. Thankfully, it was only patrolled by Bomb Beens.
The path in the next section split three ways. "The way forward's down the central path," Axl pointed out.
"Then we'll take the other paths first," Octavia insisted.
"But they lead to dead ends," Axl countered.
"That's the point," Octavia confirmed. "Dead ends often have useful items...or, as we've noticed, civilians in danger. Now mush."
Rolling his eyes, Axl went down the right path first. As expected, there was an endangered civilian which they were able to rescue. With that proof, Axl made his way to the left path.
There, in addition to another civilian, they found a new design of Light Capsule. As they approached, it opened up from the bottom, Light's hologram appearing. "Octavia," it greeted calmly. "Where is X? Still on his honeymo-" The voice stopped, the hologram's eyes locked on Axl.
"...Dr?" Octavia asked carefully.
"How..." the hologram began, then stopped itself. "N-never mind..." It straightened itself. "Octavia, this capsule-"
"Wait!" Axl interrupted. "You...you know something about me?"
"Only that the part of the neural imprint I am made from that covers you is unstable," the hologram responded immediately. "I am unable to properly access that information at this time."
Octavia glanced at Axl, seeing the naked longing and pain in his face. "Can you tell us anything?" Octavia asked hopefully.
The hologram was silent for a time. "Only to ask you to keep him safe, and with you," it finally offered sadly. "His place is with you and X, Octavia. I am unable to express more. However, I am certain the answers are out there somewhere. For now, I have a new part of an armor program for you, which Varia can download to generate into armor for you and X, once he returns. Part of the Glide Armor."
Octavia nodded. "Alright. What does this part cover?"
"This part covers the energy collection and management for the Giga Crash," the hologram explained. "Step inside to download it." With that, the hologram vanished.
Octavia immediately stepped in, downloading the program. Once it was downloaded, she hopped back up to Axl's shoulders. "Let's go."
"But-" Axl began hopefully.
"We aren't going to get more answers than we've been given," Octavia interrupted. Seeing his sorrow, she relented. "But I will be following his directive. As far as I'm concerned, once this mission ends, you're a Hunter and staying with us."
Axl's eyes lit up eagerly. "R-really?" he gasped out happily.
"Yes, really," Octavia confirmed warmly. She then pointed forward. "Now mush."
Sighing a tad theatrically despite the smile on his face, Axl made his way back to the intersection before taking the middle path. After one more group of drones, they made it back to the top of the craft.