Ars Moriendi

His name was Acetic Gekkota. He had been an extremely efficient overseer and producer of chemicals at a military industrial plant, until he had been reassigned for "borderline Irregular behavior".

"Think he's angry about being re-assigned to the glue factory?" Snarked Zero as they surveyed the decidedly melted-looking wall of said adhesive plant.

Well...glue was important, too...

"Looks like it," X sighed, scanning the area for workers, or civilians...or Mavericks. "I guess he's moved on?"

"Yeah," Zero planted his left hand on his hip and looked put out. "I thought HQ had this guy's position down."

"Would you like to put down in a puddle of acid next time?" The voice of Zero's Operator came over the network, flat and intolerant.

Zero grimaced and shot a look at his friend. Zero and his long-term Operator didn't cooperate well, and, X wasn't sure, but he thought it had something to do with her having had a near-obsession with Zero and having to watch him flirt with every non-Maverick female in range. She was the spiteful type usually found in comedy media- but there was nothing funny about her bias against Zero. It had only taken a week of working with her- Era - before Zero was requesting her replacement from Signas. X had been amused then, and thought perhaps it was time for a woman to bring his head down to a more agreeable size. But when they had started collaborating on missions, X noticed that Zero began hanging back and letting X lead, and that he spent rest time staring into middle space looking flustered- ZERO, FLUSTERED! Then, X had undertaken haranguing Signas himself- while his friend was occupied, of course- suggesting that her behavior was unstable.

Nothing could come of their unknowingly (On Zero's part) combined efforts: there WERE no replacement Operators, and most were already pulling double duty.

Agitated, X replied," There's no need for that, Era." And spoke in a more pleasant tone to his friend. "We'll find him ourselves, Zero."

"North from where you are." Alia piped up, trying to hide a clipped tone.

Zero almost looked nervous, and spat out incredulously, "She put us down with our backs to the Maverick? Is she trying to kill us!"

I wonder. X thought grumpily, as something- a vehicle - exploded behind them. "So I hear, Alia."

The Irregular was perched on the high roof of a municipal building, spitting brilliant and well-aimed streams of what was most likely acid at leisure onto the streets below. Zero was off in a flurry of red armor and flying gold mane, his movements jerking with eager aggression. X followed behind at a warier pace.

"Remember: Don't shoot, let Zero take this one." Alia cautioned before cutting the feed and any distractions.

Acetic Gekkota's internal composition was extremely volatile. He hadn't been designed as a combat Reploid; he had enormous E-Tanks situated near various chemical reserves: Tiniest spark from the fusion generator- the heart - or nervous system wiring could theoretically engulf an entire block in the explosion.

As a combat Reploid, Acetic Gekkota was a kamikaze, and all X could do was don the bright, Easter-hued Shotgun Ice weapon and pester the thing! Frustrating, but he could trust Zero to be at least more caution than usual when facing a nearly nuclear enemy.

Zero scaled the municipal building first; X could feel his lips thin in a smile as he watched him: With his thick brush of hair waving behind him, Zero looked like a giant blonde squirrel, but he liked his head where it was so he'd keep this little revelation to himself...

His friend wasn't the kind to attempt talking a Maverick out of fighting, X could hear the hum of Zero's sabre, and the deep gurgling laugh of Acetic Gekkota before he cleared the lip of the building. Tensing his haunches, X gave a powerful kick against the architrave and flew up the remaining five feet to perch on the eave in a crouch. He almost lost his balance as Zero let out a bark of pain.

Zero had tried to pierce the thick purple and teal armor directly behind the Irregular's heart. He succeeded in scoring a thin scrape across it, but the blade had bounced off and flung a spray of acid from the oozing shafts of the spines running along Acetic Gekkota's back. X winced sympathetically as Zero retreated to stand near him, exchanging his sabre hilt from one hand to the other as he tried to fling the pain away; the formerly pristine gloves were smoking and speckled black.

Acetic Gekkota turned his attention their way. Minus the steaming spines, and acid armor, he wasn't the most threatening Irregular X had ever seen. Huge tawny eyes, a flat, blunt, wide head, and tail, and feet. The killing effect was the pink tongue lolling from his mouth: The Maverick was cute.

X promptly shot him in the face.

Zero was oblivious to X's bemusement, and, the moment Acetic Gekkota froze into a hissing block of ice began herding X toward a separate rooftop, sectioned into a square rather than the main roof's stately rectangle. "There. Now."

X resisted, looking over his shoulder at the Crimson Hunter. "Zero, I'm here to help you take him down. Maybe I can't engage him directly but I can still distract him- I'm not a rookie, Zero! I won't be in the way!"

Zero responded with a slow shake of his head and gave him another shove. "I KNOW that, X. Just stay over here so I don't have to worry about you losing your face if that Irregular starts jumping around throwing acid; you can still hit him from over there."

That was true, but X would be worrying about the same happening to Zero and being too far away to prevent it the entire time. Still, X knew he could argue till he was blue in the face- and subsequently, all-over -and Zero wouldn't change his mind, so he jumped the four meter gap. The ice prison cracked before he even landed. He turned to see Acetic Gekkota vomit acid onto the roof, with Zero leaping frantically away- and into - X's line of fire. The corrosive ate through the concrete in a matter of moments, and X couldn't help but be grateful Zero had forced him to move: Three Reploids dodging and weaving through acid and beam sabers and flying ice wasn't a pretty picture.

The red Hunter pounced for Acetic Gekkota's chest armor, trying a more direct route for the fusion generator, but recoiled as the Maverick snapped at him, mouth dripping ropes of sinister saliva. If he'd followed through, that would have been the end of Zero's right forearm.

Now Zero was mad, darting in to harry the Irregular's purple-speckled hide with a flurry of light blows, raining down on the scrape he'd inflicted earlier- until the spined back was turned to X.

Taking queue, X fired a shot of ice at Acetic Gekkota's tail, startling him into whirling to face his distanced opponent. The wide mouth gaped and neon green welled inside; X was one spit away from "losing his face". The Irregular never got to spit, though, and the thick corrosive bubbled down onto his chest, striking the eager green fang of Zero's sabre sunk into the Irregular's thick outer shell, protruding from the torsal center.

The pitted metal, spurting acid over crevices and dripping, steaming, onto the concrete, split with an explosive hiss of corrosive vapors and armor. Bits of Maverick rained down onto the rooftop nearest the source like fiery hail.

X hissed in fear; the concussive blast had nearly taken his legs out from under him and he was ten meters away, how had Zero fared? Squinting around the glare from the fireball that was all that remained of Acetic Gekkota, X scanned the adjacent rooftop for his friend, calling for him over the roar of flames. Had Zero pierced the fusion generator and ignited the E-Tanks? That would be ironic, since the Hunter's precision weapon was why Zero had been chosen for this mission, so the over-sized energy reserves wouldn't explode.

Just as X was beginning to worry, a familiar silhouette appeared in the cloud of smoke and Zero yelled: "I'm fine X!" With an abashed undertone to his voice, so uncharacteristic of his friend that X's grasp on protocol slipped momentarily. Then he held his left hand to that side of his helmet and sent across the network: "We're through Alia."

He was almost reluctant to call in, knowing how Zero would be reprimanded and how embarrassed he already was. X's eyes cut to his friend now that he was free from smoke, to reassure himself Zero wasn't missing any valuable pieces. Zero looked... crispy, and was currently trying to bat out a flame that was attempting to take hold in his hair, coughing all the while. But crispy was better than melted- though his gauntlets looked sorry.

X's critical scanning was interrupted by a relieved Alia, her Operator gear cutting through wave interference and coming through more loudly than he had. "Ah, there you are. Zero called in a minute ago; come back when you're done there."

X noticed a tense silence from where Zero stood, an entire building away, and wondered if his miscalculation was disturbing Zero enough that he was actually willing to admit it. But when he saw the look on Zero's face, horror written in the slack lines of his face as he stared at the fireball- SCANNING it - that this had nothing to do with the emotional result of Zero's failure. Zero screamed out a warning and leapt for X's rooftop as the hulk of metal in the flames began to click and whine.

Zero, his face grim, looked at the volatile mass, his hand on X's arm dragging him forcefully from the site. Already, X's sensors registered Zero's body tuning for warp, and could feel his grip becoming far less substantial.

"That was only one tank. X we need to teleport to HQ-"

A piece of shrapnel screamed past X's head, clipping his helmet and sending pain singing through him. Startled and pained, the Hunter leapt closer to the edge of the roof and staggered. His vision was unfocused, vibrating, his sense of smell and hearing alternated between muffled and overwhelming, and the world spun in a sickening array of color and light: something was loose up there. Panic lunged up through his gut, something was wrong, he turned his attention inward and instantly a warning screen popped up glaring red.

The loss of vision and balance were bad, but he'd just lost his targeting system, the system responsible for teleportation.

"Zero!" X flung out an arm clumsy with terror, but he knew Zero was already safe back at HQ. So this was it: He was going to die trapped on a roof, blind, hurting, without equilibrium- basically as helpless as a human child. The whine from the Irregular's body crescendoed into a jet's scream. It was blowing now.

X tried to flee. He would have a better survival rate from a fall from the building than from the explosion- but where was the edge? Hadn't he been close to it? Was he moving the wrong way? Backwards? Closer to the danger? Was he even standing? X was terrified, pantingwith it like a cat in a cage. And that's where he was: in a cage. But the cage was his own body, his senses.

He wanted to curl up and cover his head, but he couldn't identify his limbs. He wanted Zero to come back, to try and save him- but, then, he didn't because then Zero would die too. He had this ridiculous urge to scream for Dr. Light. But none of that would help, because the heat of the explosion was crawling over him like hot sand- or was it cold? He was dying, and all he could think of was when Zero had died, his guilt over his friend's death, over his helplessness to stop it. That horrible disease of emotions, the depression, and now he was inflicting that on someone else.

Zero, I'm sorry.

And then he was too tired to care about dying...