SIGNAL LOST
BEGINNING FILE RETRIEVAL
FILE RETRIEVAL SUCCESSFUL
PROGRAM RESURRECTION INITIATED
LEVEL 1 DIAGNOSTICS STARTING
RETRIEVAL OF LAST KNOWN MEMORY BACKUP IN PROGRESS
ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION: 6 MONTHS
Zero2. Second Coming
Clashes of energy sabers could be heard throughout the headquarters. No matter what hall one walked down, it seemed the echo carried everywhere. A young woman sighed, her red hair nearly trailing the ground behind her as she walked, carrying her one year old child in her arms.
"Asleep even through all this racket. You'll sadly have to grow up accustomed to the sounds of war, in spite of your father's best wishes," she told the sleeping toddler, sniffling slightly as her mind threatened to break down once again. She knew why he was gone. She knew why he wasn't back yet. But knowing why and growing accustomed to the lack of his presence were two entirely different matters.
The sound of metal plates bending and buckling under the force of robotic bodies being slammed off of them resounded throughout the chamber as X and Signas fought once more, the practices becoming almost deadly in execution, even tho neither one was at full power.
X idly switched to his Falcon Armor, speeding up and boosting straight at Signas, who was just touching down from being thrown. In mid-flight, X switched to his Gaea armor, becoming a quickly approaching wrecking ball. Signas jumped to the side, slashing at X as he passed, tagging him past the main armored portions of his armor, leaving a mark that singed slightly as X crashed against the wall, his trajectory thrown off in his attempt to dodge the blade. Signas smirked slightly from his crouched position several yards away.
"You're getting sloppy, X. You'd never have tried something so headstrong before, especially against a quicker opponent like myself." X smirked back from his indent in the wall.
"You're right. Didn't think that one completely through. It's a valid tactic though I think once I work on it some more. The biggest problem with it is the lack of mobility once I'm moving. The Gaea armor is extraordinarily tough, and hits harder than it seems like it could. But it sacrifices nearly all movement above normal speeds for that power." X frowned as his reploid mind quickly began working over the issue.
The floor suddenly exploded between Signas and X, fire and ice seeming to suddenly appear in a virtual storm of projectiles from a center point, keeping X pinned against the wall and Signas dancing away quickly.
As quickly as the elemental storm appeared it was gone, replaced instead by the white armored form of Zenton, who spun, bashing X even further into the wall that he was already planted against. X swore as he felt even the Gaea armor being punished by the edge of the sonic axe.
Signas moved quickly to counter the interruption, but not fast enough as another, larger form suddenly appeared between him and Zenton, the ground exploding toward him as Toronto slammed his fists down.
"You're both getting clumsy if Zen and I can get the drop on you this badly," came the rumbling voice of Toronto as he walked up to Signas and pulled him to his feet. Zenton reached into the crater he'd slammed X into and yanked him free, the metal wall screaming in protest as it was pulled partially back into place.
"Thanks, Zen," X muttered as he regained his footing, shifting back into his normal blue armor. "And you're right, I think I need to have Light run another scan, see if maybe some of my equipment's malfunctioning."
"I don't think it's your equipment that's doing the malfunctioning, X" Zenton said morosely. "I think you know the problem's in your head, just as it is for the rest of us."
"Then I've got to learn to shut it out to avoid more problems in the future, don't I?" X responded in a matter-of-fact tone. "After all, if there's nothing left for him to have to fight, then there's no reason we'd HAVE to bring him back to this base, and he wouldn't be endangering anyone, would he?"
Zenton shook his head as X walked out of the practice chamber, making sure to hit the button on the wall that would set the holographics engine to reset as they exited.
Alia and Roll both laughed as they watched Crystal's attempts to calm her child down. Though the redhead was doing all she could, she began to look flustered as the toddler continued wailing. Alia walked over to Crystal and held her arms out, taking the kid for a few minutes so Crystal could take a small reprieve. She waved her thanks as she walked out of the room, Alia cooing gently and patting the child's back as she walked back over to where Roll was.
"You get much better at calming him down, and Crystal's gonna start having suspicions about if she's truly the mother," Roll remarked, her smile bright as she watched Alia's cooing starting to have the desired effect of sleep.
"I think it's partially because children are more empathic than one would believe. They pick up on the emotions of the one holding them, and react accordingly. I know Crystal tries to hide it, but you can see by watching her just how much of an effect this is all having on her." Alia replied, setting the kid down in his crib. "I'm just glad we were able to have Light renovate their room so she had space enough for all three of them."
"Well, you know how he is now days. Likes to be adaptable as he says," Roll commented as they both walked out of the nursery room into the main room, taking turns keeping their earpiece tapped into the circuit built into the room as they began to go about their normal routine.
"Why am I letting all of this bother me so much?" Crystal thought to herself as she dried herself off from her shower. "It's getting worse instead of better as time goes on. If I let myself continue down this path, then I'm putting our child in danger of losing it's mother as well."
As she dressed herself once more, she stopped and glanced in the mirror. Two bright green eyes shone back at her, her hand moving to touch the mirror just below them.
"Since when did I ever look at myself with anything other than resolve?" She wondered. Her eyes softening as she stared back at herself. "I'm happy with myself, and with who I'm with. I wouldn't be proud to call myself anyone else's wife. So when do I get rewarded for my patience?"
"It doesn't matter," she said out loud to herself, her eyes hardening with resolve again. "I can wait as long as I need to. He will come back, when he knows it's safe."
She glanced down and realized she was standing in a puddle of water. Sighing she grabbed her hair and began to wring it out over the tub.
"He better still love my hair when he comes back, or I swear I'm cutting it all off!" she exclaimed, laughing at her own silliness.
Alarms went off in the corners of Light's main control room, Alia and Crystal both jumping into position at their stations immediately, Signas between them awaiting their word.
"We've got a distortion field!" Alia shouted as X and the others ran into the room behind her.
"Beam us NOW!" X shouted as he stepped into the center platform.
Crystals hands typed in commands faster than they ever had before, this being their first spotting of the distortion field in almost a month. The attacks against the base had been getting worse as time wore on. Dr. Light's face appeared in the terminal screen, maps popping up as he pinpointed locations via his scanners.
"It appears he's back, and unfortunately I'm not referring to Zero, much as I wish I was," he stated simply.
"I don't care if he's revived himself again somehow, Doc," X stated fiercely, his eyes gaining the purple look that had originally been a mark of Zero's rage. "He can stand up a million times, and I'll just knock him down again. Now get me beamed into that distortion field before we lose him again."
A blue beam left the room suddenly, Crystal and Alia both typing furiously at their stations to adjust Light's sensors to the interference.
"And what do we do, Doctor, in the case that this time they're able to get there in time?" Signas asked."
"We hope they're able to at least do more than just get another holo-sphere. Zero seems to be very determined not to let anyone he cares about near him, for fear of that energy taking over and harming those he fought so hard to protect," Light responded as the distortion field seemed to shrink on his screen.
"Are you girls actually managing to clear some of it out?" Signas queried, moving up behind Alia.
"Not me," the blonde replied, pointing at Crystal who's fingers were somehow moving just as fast as Alia's, in spite of her still human body. "She's all over it nearly faster than I can respond. Once she's converted she's going to be damned scary." Signas could only watch as Alia merely went through and cleaned up behind the patches where Crystal had done the majority of the clearing, his eyes widening as he realized to just what extent Crystal was pushing herself in order to keep up with Alia to such a degree.
X touched down and immediately shifted to the Falcon Armor, dashing straight for the middle of the electrical storm he saw brewing over a plasma lit battlefield a short distance away. As he flew over the field he looked down and aimed himself towards the middle of all the commotion, switching to the Gaea armor and smirking as he fell towards the chaos.
The ground exploded where he impacted, leaving a crater six feet deep and twelve feet wide from his short fall, Maverick reploids flying out in all directions as X stood quickly, shifting armors and blasting each before they had a chance to regain their feet. He dodged to the side as a powered up shot flew through where he had been, shifting his attention and returning fire to where the blast had come from, his usual calm blue eyes still glowing purple.
"That blast had a plasma heat trail again," he thought to himself. "Just like that last distortion field I beamed down into. Is it Zero?" He thought as he charged towards where the projectile had come from, dodging as several more came from the darkness ahead of him, the abandoned city around him having lost power years before. He shifted into his Blade Armor to blend in more with the surroundings as his assailant fired more wildly. He heard muffled cursing as he seemed to disappear from sight, watching as a blue energy saber coalesced quickly into visibility. X's eyes widened as he realized who he was up against.
"WE'VE GOT ANOTHER DISTORTION FIELD!" Crystal shouted as the monitors lit up with repeated warnings. "It's headed straight for X and the others!" Even Light's virtual eyes widened as he realized the implications.