Chapter One
Crashing the Party
(Events happen after "The Day of Sigma".)
Floating in orbit around earth endlessly was what looked like a ball, looking like it could hold a person in it. It was black, blending in the ever lasting night of space while on the front of it was a red infinite sign (of the sideways eight). It has been there for countless years, ever so drifting... until, one even could be seen in space. Explosions were happening in a city, Abel City, killing countless people and reploids. Soon, it stopped, as the cries and panic of the citizens of the city were so loud, the ball picked them up.
The orb faced its front to the city, thrusters burning on its side to keep it still. The infinity sign began to glow a bright red as it began to drop from orbit, quickly entering the atmosphere. It began to heat up, looking like a falling meteor now. Faster and faster it dropped, air rushing against it until it was in sight of the city. Thrusters shot out from the front, making the bottom of the ball face the ground and slowed it down some. In less then a minute, it hit in the city, going inside a factory, causing the floor to crater in and to go through several floors.
"What the Hell!?"
Some factory Reploids were on the ground from the shock wave of the orb hitting the ground. When they got to their feet, they cautiously peered over into the crator.
"What... is that?"
"I don't know..."
"Looks like a ball..."
"Hey, what's that symbol on it?"
Everyone went quiet for a moment when a human came over.
"Hey... that's the... infinity symbol, right?"
"Yeah! That's it... but... what's a ball with a symbol on it doing crashing in the factory?"
They all jumped, hearing a loud hissing sound. Air was rushing out of the ball, lines showing on it. The front of it then seemed like it was "folding" back, looking like it was going to turn itself inside out. Then it stopped, the front of it open while the inside was totally dark. Everyone looked at one another, courious as to what was inside. They all then turned to the human, who shook his head.
"Oh HELL no! I've seen enough movies to know what will happen if I get close!"
Some of the Reploids gave chuckles, agreeing with him as the human continued.
"We should call the Maverick Hunters or something, in case there's a Maverick in there."
M.... Mav.... er..... Maverick.....?
"Oh? They are all busy from Sigma bombing the city!"
S.... Sig..... Sigma....?..... B.... Bombs?
Everyone was silent for a moment until a Reploid with green armor on with a stuck out lower metal chin rose his voice.
"I'll check... everyone just stay back..."
He began to trace down into the crater and stood in front of the ball. He leaned his head forward, trying to see in the dark...
Maverick.... Maverick?.... Maverick! MAVERICK!!!
A boney metal hand shot out of the darkness, the fingers going in the armor of the Reploid. He gasped, looking down... the hand looked like...
"Maverick...."
Wires shot out from the hand and dug into the Reploid. He began to cry out in pain, being lifted up in the air, then slowly and errirly, fell silent, his body hanging there, looking like all life was drained out of it. The boney hand dropped the body, falling onto its back. Everyone in the room backed up, their eyes locked to the ball. Slowly, two boney hands came out of the darkness and grabbed the edges of the opening, helping itself stand up... out came what looked like a metal skeleton, its chest area and stomach covered with a green, thick metal plate. It had red glowing eyes with the red infinity symbol on its forehead.
Everyone began to panic, rushing to see if there was an exit close... where their wasn't, the crator blocking the only one, and had knocked down the stairs. The skeleton looked up, its vision giving everything a red tint as he locked on to all of the Reploids.
".... Mavericks....."
It suddenly jumped up from the crater and landed on the stable flat ground, walking slowly toward a Reploid cowarding against a wall. He had thin red armor and a round helmet with a V on the forehead. The skeleton stabbed its hand into the Reploid's chest, wires coming out of the forearm of it and digging into the Reploid like the first. The metal skeleton tossed the body to its side, the Reploid's eyes wide and lifeless, the pupils so small it seemed like he had none.
The Skeleton turn to its left, seeing the other Reploids scurry around. On its head seemed like a helmet, but wasn't exactly the shape of one, and it could now see in all colors. It locked on to all of them, expect for one.
"Mavericks....!"
***
The Skeleton now hand on a worn out cloak with a hood over its head. It tossed another body to the ground, a body of a female Reploid in pink armor. It turned its head to the last two Reploids and the human, all were on the ground in fear. The human begged...
"P-p-please... don't... kill us...."
The Skeleton's lock on traced over the Reploids and the human.
".... You are not Mavericks. A human can't be one, and the two Reploids are innocent."
Some how, its conversation skills had increased, and its voice was changing. The Reploids and human gave a huge sigh, seeing the skeleton walk over to the ball it was first in. It raised its boney hand, which had what looked like melted metal on the back of the hand. The ball suddenly began to melt, looking like liquid mercury. It slowly drifting over to the Skeleton's feet, going into it. All that was left was an old chair with the impression of a skeleton sitting on it, and a disk drive in the arm of the chair.
As soon as the last of the liquid metal went into the Skeleton, the door that lead outside opened.
"Excuse us, we heard screaming and..."
It were two police Reploids at the door from the 17th Unit. They saw the bodies, the two Reploids and human still alive and against the wall. Then they saw what looked like a cloaked figured.
"HALT!"
The Skeleton scuffed at them.
"Like anyone does that."
It turned around and began to run, its metal feet clinking on the floor. It then bent down and jumped high, going through each floor and landed on the roof top. The police rushed over and looked up at the hole the Skeleton made, shocked at what they just saw. The one on the left reached up to the radio on his shoulder.
"Ummm... HQ? We have a problem..."
***A few hours later...***
There were a few ambulances outside of the factory, the surviving Reploids and human in one to rest and explain what they saw, their story shocking the ones questioning them. Barricades were made to make sure no one came in or out of the factory.
Inside were a large group of Reploids, investigating the events that had swiftly happened to them. None other then Zero was standing with his arms crossed at the edge of the crater the falling orb had made, a couple other Reploids checking the chair out. He was silent as they worked, then turned as he head the familiar footsteps a Reploid would make.
"Find anything out, X?"
X stopped beside him, looking down at the chair. He gave a sigh.
"Yeah... apparently, some sort of metal skeleton came out of the orb, which crashed in from space, and began to attack everyone."
Zero gave him a strange look.
"... what?"
X closed his eyes.
"Oh, it gets better. The survivers said that it would have some wires dig into the Reploids, and when they did, it seemed like their life was being sucked out of them."
Zero turned to the chair, silent.
"Zero... they said when he finished, he gained some metal on top of its bone... adn said that the only reason why they lived where because the thing said they weren't Mavericks..."
"Sir! We found something!"
Both X and Zero looked into the crater, seeing one of the people down there hold up what looked like a disk. They looked at each other, then both went down to the Reploid. X took the disk, looking at it from all angles. He brought his free hand up to the side of his head.
"Alia? Can you scan the disk from here?"
Her voice came up in his helmet as she scanned it.
"Umm... not much. All I can bring up is the name of the major file on it."
X turned to Zero, who also heard her.
"Well, it's a start to figure out what's happening. What's the file's name?"
Alia scanned the disk, then answered.
"Umm... Project Lemniscate... AHH!"
Zero brought his hand to his helmet too.
"Alia!? What is it!?"
There was silence from her end of the transmission. Zero and X turned to each other, shock on their faces.
"X!? Zero!? Are you there!?"
"Alia!?"
X gave a sigh of relief as Zero spoke to her.
"Yeah.. it's me."
"What happened!?"
"Well... a trojin was on the disk, as a security measure I think, so that no one without the proper pass code could see the data in it."
Zero glanced at the disk... it had an active Trojan on it? Usually, a Trojan could be able to destroy any computer, but...
"Alia, how did you delete the Trojan?"
She was silent for a few moments, checking her computer.
"It was an old style of Trojan... REALLY old..."
X looked up, a hand on his head.
"How old is it, Alia?"
Once again, she was silent, then she answered, shocked.
"I-it's over 300 years old!!!"
X and Zero looked at each other again.
"300... years old? Isn't that impossible!?"
X glanced at the disk again, deep in thought.
"I... don't know, Zero. We best take this back to HQ, so they can analyze the data on it."
Zero gave a nod, leading X outside to their bikes.
"So, X, what do you think is on the disk?"
X put the disk in his inventory and sat on his bike, putting his helmet on.
"I don't know, Zero... all of this doesn't sit well with me. What type of Reploid... what type of ANYTHING can do what this... Skeleton thing does? Jumping through five floors of concrete, being able to... do SOMETHING with those wires... and how could it move? The reports said it was a metal skeleton!"
Zero was silent as he got on his bike and strapped his helmet on.
"I doubt anything we know of... all I can say is to give Alia the disk, and to keep a look out for a metal Skeleton. Can't be that hard to find, could it?"
That made X grin, imagining a Metal Skeleton in the middle of a crowd like he was normal with a hat.
"Yeah, good point, Zero. Now..."
He turned his bike on and revved it.
"Race you there!"
He then took off, leaving Zero there to quickly turn his bike on.
"Hey! Cheater!"
He quickly followed him, their bikes echoing in the city...
***Meanwhile***
"N-no... please!"
A Reploid was crawling backwards in fear of something. He was in an ally way, dark enough where no one could see him. In front of him was what looked like a Maverick Hunter now. His armor was totally black, while the cloth was white. There where white gems on his forearms, and thrusters on the sides of his boots. His helmet fit perfectly on his head.... an infinity sign on the front of it, inside another gem, which was white also. His chest armor was thin, yet looked strong and sleek. His hands looked like X's and Zero's, white and gloved. His face made him look like he was 15, his eyes a dark blue, yet his expression was cold, harsh, and blank at the same time. His hair couldn't be seen, being in his helmet, if he had any that is.
He raised his hand up at the Reploid on the ground. Wires shot out and dug into him. He struggled, but to no avail as he fell into the same defeat as the others before him had. The Hunter dropped the Reploid's body to the ground, landing in a sicking bundle. He turned around and began to walk down deeper in the ally. Then stopped at the back of the buildings as the allys end, leaving you two ways to go. On his right were a gang on Reploid, all stumbling back from him... and a trail of bodies in his wake. A short Reploid, looking like a gangster from the 1970s, was pushed out of the group, shaking still as he caught the emotionless glance of the Hunter.
"P-please... don't..."
The Hunter turned away, his eyes closed.
"Don't worry, none of you aren't my enemy, so I shall not attack you..."
He turned and began to walk away when the same Reploid spoke up again.
"W-wait!"
He stopped and turned his head to him, waiting for him to continue. The Reploid gulped, and asked...
"What... is your name?"
The Hunter turned forward, silent for a minute as his memories rushed through his mind.
".......... I don't have one........"
He looked up at the night sky, the stars shining.
"But if you MUST label me with a name... then call me Lemniscate, Len for short..."
With that, Len dashed up the side of the building... and disappeared...
End of Chapter One...