This chapter was hard to write at the beginning and for X and Zero's part of the story, I just copy-pasted the original. .-.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Megaman. If I did, Iris wouldn't have died. ._.

CHAPTER 2: MEET TROUBLE IN THE MORNING

-Village of Ace Grace: 3rd of July, Monday (9:15 AM)-

"So if you didn't leave because we fought, why did you leave?" Ryan asked, a bit relieved at the new information.

Ryu just looked down and remained silent.

"Come on. You must have some reason for going away like that," Ryan insisted.

All three of them were resting in Ryan's room. Ryan was lying comfortably on his bed, Ryu was sitting on the floor next to him, and James was sitting on the chair and had his feet propped up on Ryan's study table. James was smiling lazily while reading a random book he had picked up from the table. Ryu had changed into a comfortable shirt and pants and, much to Ryan's irritation, left his cloak and older clothes lying in the corner of the room.

"And besides, you owe us for worrying us like that," James pitched in.

Ryu frowned at them for a moment but then sighed and said, "Voltaire said I'm not supposed to tell anyone but I suppose it alright if it's you two. You probably realized it after hearing the news anyway. A few weeks ago, Voltaire told me that Samael was going into the forest more often lately. He could have taken care of him, but he decided to call me because he said that 'as long as he doesn't do anything potentially threatening to us, then it's none of my business'."

There was silence in the room and then Ryan reached out and hit Ryu on the head.

"Ow! Hey! James already did that!" Ryu exclaimed, moving away from the Phoenixian and relocating the ice bag he had been holding to the newer bump. James looked up at him in surprise but then laughed.

Just a little while ago, James had tackled the man to the ground and punched him for 'dropping in unannounced'. Both Ryu and Ryan thought it was ridiculous but neither objected—Ryan because he was just too relieved that Ryu came back and Ryu because he was just too tired to fight back.

"That was for lying to us," Ryan explained, glaring. "Do you have any idea how much we worried about you? And weeks later, Samael's still there!"

"For once, I agree with Ryan," James muttered.

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything about finishing him off," Ryu protested, irritated now. "I was just trying to figure out what he was up to."

Ryan and James looked at him in silence for a long time as if they were waiting for something.

"And…?" James prompted.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked.

"Just that: I don't know," Ryu answered. "He keeps avoiding me. He doesn't seem to want a fight and he disappears before I can get near enough to talk. All I know is that he seems to be hanging around that Maverick Hunter Base near the forest. He got dangerously close to a reploid out on patrol once and he withdrew his weapon but he decided against it and left. I think he was trying to find a way in but I'm not sure."

Ryan's eyes flickered at the last statement and James's eyes widened but Ryu didn't notice.

"I hear he already attacked some of the villagers," the man continued. "Are you guys planning to do anything about that?"

Ryu looked at James questioningly. Ryan gave the Oceanian a meaningful look and shook his head slightly.

"We're not sure yet," James lied, his face calm. "We were still trying to decide what to do with Ivan when you arrived."

Ryu looked surprised at James. "What about Ivan? Did something happen?"

"No. Ivan just recently said he wanted to learn how to fight but he ended up overworking himself," James explained, smiling slightly.

"Oh. Okay," Ryu said simply. "How's Cara?"

It was James' turn to be surprised. But then he quickly recovered and grinned mischievously at Ryu, who in turn, glared. But it was Ryan who spoke up.

"She was worried about you," he informed him. Even Ryu didn't miss the slightly playful tone in his voice.

James got up and sat beside Ryu, leaving the book on the table. Ryu eyed him suspiciously and moved away a bit.

"I bet you were worried about her, too, huh?" he teased, elbowing the man playfully.

Ryu glared at him in annoyance but said nothing.

"Come on, Ryu, just answer the question." Even Ryan bent down from his bed beside him.

"Ms. Cara's not here anyway," James assured him.

Another one of the more recent members of the group, Cara is the soft-spoken Crystalian who is only a year younger than Ryu. Even though her natural kindness often rendered her helpless in a fight, it was this same kindness that helped Ryu trust and befriend the group despite promising himself to never get close to anyone anymore after his parents' death and his brother's betrayal. Ryu and Cara get along well with each other and Ryu even opened up to her a bit. But even after that, Cara proved too innocent and timid to express her feelings to the man.

On the other hand, thinking that admitting his feelings will only ruin the friendship he has with Cara, Ryu said nothing to the Crystalian as well. When James and Ryan found out about this, they tried to talk him out of it but ended up deciding that it was hopeless. They figured that it was more fun to watch the two of them instead and settled on secretly planning how they can get the two alone together and trying to guess just how long the two can keep on being oblivious to each other.

Ryu paused for a long moment as he studied the two teenagers for a while but then closed his eyes and gave a small grin. Ryan and James got the message almost instantly.

"HA! I knew it!" James exclaimed, jumping up in triumph. Pointing at Ryan, he added, "I told you so."

"Pfft. Whatever."

"So Cara's okay?" Ryu asked again.

"Yeah, she's fine," James assured him again. "Just tell her already!"

Ryu frowned. "Never."

"Come on. It's so obvious!"

"Shut up about that already."

"Hmph. You're just too shy…"

Ryu's eyebrow twitched and he glared James. A split second later, James was running out of the room with Ryu in pursuit behind him.

"Hey! Don't break anything okay? And don't shout so much!" Ryan shouted after them.

"Okay!" James shouted back from downstairs.

Wow, they're quick, Ryan thought. I just hope my mom doesn't get mad at this.

The Phoenixian shuddered at the thought at what might happen to him but, to be honest, he was kind of amused at the thought of Ryu running around the house probably with something to clobber James with. He would never admit it, but James and Ryu's almost daily antics around the house were something he missed. Ryan at first was scared that Ryu might have seen through James' lie earlier but was glad that the man got distracted. Even if the man did warn him that they shouldn't go there without telling him first, Ryan didn't want Ryu knowing about their plans for tomorrow morning. He thought that Ryu needed to take a rest for a while but, being the stubborn person that he is, Ryu would probably insist on coming along the moment he found out.

Those two should be back by now, Ryan thought.

Sure enough, they both came back a few minutes later with James clutching an ice pack on his head but grinning still and Ryu holding what looked like the notebook Ryan left downstairs. James complained that Ryu was being too violent but the man countered that he wouldn't have ended up that way if the teenager hadn't upset him in the first place.

I just hope things will turn out okay.

-Village of Ace Grace: 4th of July, Tuesday (5:45 AM)-

"Hey, Ryu! Wake up!"

The Phoenixian groaned and opened his eyes, only to see a pair of blue eyes staring worriedly down at him.

Varun? Was his first thought, and then he saw that the man before him had brown hair. No, Varun has white hair… Gale?

Gale is James' father and a skilled Oceanian. He works as an operative in a separate branch of the Hunters that consists almost entirely of humans but works alongside the main force as a special division. He was sent on a mission to escort an ambassador to another city a few weeks ago but came back yesterday.

Ryu jerked in surprise and almost hit the Oceanian in the process.

"Whoa. Hey," Gale exclaimed and moved away. "Sorry I had to wake you up so early."

Gale looked and sounded upset. That wasn't like him. Something happened.

"I thought you were away on a mission," Ryu said as he sat up groggily. He looked at the clock on the wall. "How did you get in here so early in the morning? Even Ryan's not awake at this hour."

"I just got back last night," Gale explained. "I went in through your window. About Ryan, he's not in his room when I checked."

Ryu stopped at the statement and looked at Gale. "What?"

"Ryan's not in his room," Gale repeated. "James wasn't in his room when I checked this morning either. Not even Ivan was there. It's not like James to leave without telling me so I got worried."

"No, no. I meant, how did you climb in through the window?" Ryu explained. He looked around. His window was wide open. "How'd you do that? My room's in the second floor."

Gale rolled his eyes. "There was a ladder outside and everyone else was asleep so they didn't see me. You left your window wide open so it was easy to climb in. But never mind that. Ryan isn't here."

Ryu's eyebrows furrowed in thought. "He's not here? Where could he have gone at this hour?"

"You don't know? Now that's strange. Were they planning to do something today? What happened while I was gone?"

Ryu put a hand to cover his mouth as he tried to recall the events from the day before. "I just got back yesterday so I'm not sure. I told them that Samael's been appearing in the forest more often and he's been attacking the villagers lately. But when I asked Ryan and James, James said they still haven't planned to do anything about that yet."

"James was here yesterday?"

"Yeah. He was with Ryan when I arrived. James said they were talking about Ivan."

"It was James who told you that they weren't going to do anything about Samael? What about Ryan? Wasn't he there too? What did he say?" Gale looked confused now. "How did he react to what James said?"

"Well, he didn't say anything. And I didn't see his face so I'm not sure." Ryu paused for a while. "Now that I think about it, it was strange that Ryan didn't say anything. The disappearances were all over the news so they must have heard about it long before I even arrived. But what does that have to do w—" Ryu stopped in mid-sentence as the realization hit him. If Ryan heard about it, then surely he would've made a decision on the spot. It wasn't like Ryan to leave things like that for a while to even just talk about Ivan. And if Ryan somehow told James not to tell Ryu anything, then—

"It wouldn't be the first time James lied to you, or anyone for that matter," Gale spoke up, as if reading his thoughts.

Ryu slammed his fist to the wall in irritation. This wasn't something he wanted to find out in the morning. "I told him not to go into the forest without telling me!"

"Easy," Gale said, trying to calm the angered Phoenixian. "Ryan was probably just worried about you and thought you needed to rest since you got back just yesterday. He's like that. He probably left early so you wouldn't ask him anything, too. James considers Ryan a leader, so he'll follow whatever Ryan says."

"And James went with him?" Ryu growled.

"I think so," Gale answered, even more worried than before. "I'm not sure about Amara and Naomi, though."

Ryu sighed but got up and made his way to the closet.

"If you're going to get them, I'm coming with you," Gale said.

When Ryu looked back at the Oceanian, Gale was smiling but Ryu could still see faint traces of worry in the Oceanian's eyes. Ryu groaned and started looking for a fresh set of clothes. "Fine. But get out—I have to change first."

-Maverick Hunter HQ: 4th of July, Tuesday (6:30 AM)-

Zero woke up very early in the morning, as usual. He sat up and looked around the room. It was exactly the way he and X left it last night: clean. He and X each had a separate bed: Zero's was the one near the window and X's was one beside it. The only thing separating the two beds was a wooden bedside table with a white table lamp, a few books about wars and conflicts, and a newspaper on top of it. The window was closed and had a white curtain hung over it to match the color of the walls. On the opposite end of the room was the door.

"It looks too much like it's made for a human. No one will believe this room belongs to us!" That's Zero would always say back when the room was newly decorated. But by now, he had far gotten too used to it to complain.

He sighed and lay back down on his bed. He really couldn't understand why X insisted on decorating the room like this. It's not that he doesn't like it. It's just that it looks so… human. They were reploids and nothing can ever change that one fact. So why go through all the trouble to decorate the room when it doesn't really fit in with the occupants' style?

He asked X this question once and X said that he wasn't himself the day the room was decorated. But even with that fact, he still refused to change the look of the room. He just said that he felt like they shouldn't change it. Zero just said that X felt too lazy to change it. But now that he thinks about it, it wasn't like X to be lazy, either. The blue hunter still insists that they shouldn't change the way the room was decorated as well as the few spare rooms they had in the base. He kept saying that maybe they were going to need it someday but Zero really couldn't understand him. It freaked him out a bit but at the same time, it annoyed him to no end. But he trusts X and his friend had proved in more ways than one that the hunter wasn't going mental. So Zero respected his friend's wishes and kept the rooms the way they are.

Sometimes, I just don't understand him, Zero thought to himself.

He thought this over for a moment but then sighed and stood up. He walked towards the window and drew back the curtains to look at the forest.

I fought in a clearing over there, huh, he thought, remembering what X said the day before. Interesting.

Things have gotten a bit calmer lately. It wasn't a surprise since X had just beaten Sigma and foiled his latest scheme, but who knows how long this lasts until that maverick comes back again? This is why the Maverick Hunters are still on red alert even with the noticeable decrease in maverick activity. They can't let their guard down knowing that Sigma could still be out there licking his wounds and waiting for the right time to strike again.

The thought of Sigma made Zero remember his dream the other night. He didn't have it again last night but Zero found himself wondering who exactly could be worse than Sigma and realizing that he didn't really have an answer. The same man in the X's dream said that Sigma's back as well but Zero didn't really want to believe it.

Zero frowned at his reflection in the window. He was thinking too much.

"Huh…? Oh, hey, Zero. You're early again," X said sleepily as the blue reploid sat up.

"Did I wake you up?" Zero asked without turning to him.

"No, but the sunlight from the open window did," X replied, grinning.

Zero closed the curtains just as what sounded like a distant explosion was heard throughout the room.

"What was that?" X asked, alarmed.

Zero looked out the window and saw a faint trace of smoke rising up from the trees along the border of a nearby forest.

"It came from the edge of the forest," Zero said as he walked towards the door. "I'm gonna go check it out."

"I'm coming with you," X said as he stood up.

"No. You stay," Zero ordered.

"You can't boss me around."

"Actually, I can and I will. I need someone to stay behind to alert the others and inform them where I'm going."

"Oh, so now I'm a messenger boy?"

"Close enough. I'll be back in a few hours."

"Wait!"—Zero teleported away—"Oh man, I hate it when he does that."

X didn't say it but he had a very, very bad feeling about this. Something doesn't feel right. But it doesn't seem important right now. After all, he has a job to do.

I think this is going to be the shortest chapter in the story. :))