Disclaimer: Don't own, Capcom does. Don't sue, please.
…Waldo's a Kilroy disciple. He met him through the stealth class and he'd been stuck with a really terrible name by his builder, so since he was impressed by hearing people say, "Kilroy was here?" in that oh shit tone of voice, being all stealthy and hearing people go, "….where's Waldo?" sounded really fun.
As for why I had Shadowman's cover persona be a stealth-user mostly when his manga trademark is the appearing out of shadows thing, if X has a hard time with the tree thing, imagine the WTFage of something that shouldn't be possible without teleportation being involved and it's not. It would have attracted way too much attention if he let them see it.
X had spent more than three times longer than planned in that capsule until Dr. Cain had found him. Since then, he had been awake for years and his family had never let him know they were alive? If it weren't for Omega's information X wouldn't have figured out the meaning of Kilroy's words. That was so very like Kilroy, wasn't it. So many of his jokes were secret messages, things that didn't have any meaning unless you knew the code.
The 'big brother' crack at Zero had made no sense unless you knew the book. It made an entirely different level of sense when you knew that they were brothers.
Kilroy was watching over Zero. Maybe it was Zero he was here for, not X. Maybe Zero was the reason Kilroy had joined the hunters and, now that X thought about it, effectively controlled base security. After all, Kilroy had joined before X had even come on base. Hmm. The timeline…
Kilroy didn't know, or hopefully didn't, know that X knew. Unless he had a recorder in his body independent of the main power supply to make sure no one did anything while he was unconscious and could play the tape to listen to X and Omega's conversation. At first, X was thinking in terms of spray paint and the other things people dreamed of doing to Kilroy, then he realized that a security officer had to worry about actual enemies.
So of course Kilroy, who had taken it upon himself to teach X about 'the dark side' had a recorder. Which meant that he'd know and then Lament would, since everything pointed to Lament being Kilroy's boss to whatever extent.
The reason X had never questioned Kilroy's omniscience, or why he was, seemingly, never at his actual workstation yet still had his job was that he was the head of survaillence, under Rho, head of security. Which meant that Lament could know quite a lot about the hunters.
Not just that. Since Rho was Kilroy's friend, Waldo, the head of the security guards, was Kilroy's… maybe fanboy was the right word, and he remembered Kilroy saying that he had taken the tedious background checks off Rho's plate because they provided fun gossip/blackmail material, Kilroy was effectively in control of base security.
Kilroy didn't have an actual title or make an issue of the fact that he could give orders to just about anyone other than department heads or other department co-lieutenants because he was one of the title-hating old guard. The hunters had to adopt titles within units, and Sigma had ended up a general, but the parts of the organization that didn't have to make sure it was crystal clear who was supposed to listen to who and tell who else what in combat weren't standing for it.
And that was where timing came in.
Kilroy was one of the old guard. X had first met him when he and Dr. Cain had decided to transfer their lab to Hunter HQ so it would be easier to get Irregulars to them for treatment quickly. Between the initial defect, pre-existing injuries and injuries sustained during capture, a couple had died in transit or arrived too late to be saved.
They'd been scrambling to set up the lab while treating incoming patients, X remembered. He'd been playing gofer and coordinator because Dr. Cain didn't have the energy and he was the only other one who knew exactly what they were going to need for that sort of thing. There wasn't much time to meet and greet, so he hadn't known the person his database had first labled "Rho's tech No. 2" was called Kilroy until he came by to pick up the tamperproof disc of an operational recording that was going to be used as evidence in the trial for criminal endangerment of the owners of the factory that had built that poor irregular. X had learned it then because he had to verify the ID so the transfer chain couldn't be considered compromised.
At the beginning… they had to have everything perfect to win cases, depending on the judge. That was why Theta's legal/PR department was so important, probably more so than security. They got more budget, even. A lot more.
He'd come in a few more times to do upgrades and repairs during that period, but they were both busy while Kilroy was there, so the chatter had mostly been background noise. X hadn't found out Kilroy wasn't a normal tech until he'd mentioned him to Rho when he, Dr. Cain, Sigma, Theta, and Ceta had a non-working lunch later as part of the celebration of finally getting the lab finished. Rho had said that Kilroy had joined about half a year before then, which was, according to X's internal calendar (how human memories worked amazed him. He'd be lost without the search function, especially since Kilroy was so easy to tune out)… Around the time the first reploid had died because of transit time.
As that was long before Zero had been found, that meant that Kilroy had been sent here to keep an eye, and a large amount of cameras, on X by someone with a very good idea of how X thought.
It would have been stalkerish if it wasn't for the idea that it might be family. It was nice that they hadn't forgotten or just not cared. He hadn't been abandoned. In fact, between Kilroy and now Omega's and Zero's promises of protection he seemed to be surrounded by guardian angels.
If they cared and hadn't let him know they were out there then there had to be a reason, a good one. X was going to find out what it was and cause it to become invalid. He believed the usual phrase here was "with a vengeance."
When they got to the main building X found out why Waldo hadn't been trying to get Lion to walk faster, or one reason anyway. The halls had been cleared, possibly to avoid setting off Lion. X didn't think that was an issue, especially after Lion let Kilroy's bearers head towards the teleport rooms without any protest or reaction besides awareness of the fact they were leaving the convoy. He just headed for X's quarters.
They found Dr. Cain, or he managed to intercept them, en route. "X, are you all right?" X's step-father inquired worriedly from his life-support hoverchair.
"I'm fine. Zero, well, we decided to call this personality Lion." Turning his head to look at him, X frowned thoughtfully. "Hmm?"
"What is it, X?" The carefully-keeping-a-safe-distance-away security wanted to know too.
"I've been watching how his hair moved while we were walking here. I'm pretty sure he was using the sensors to scan for possible threats. Anyway, the way he's shifting them has changed. Before, the movements were trying to camouflage themselves as the result of his walking and turning his head. Now there's much more of a 'being tossed by the wind' effect, and we've only got the ventilation system in here. The constant slight air movement would not cause that sort of chaos. I think he's trying to orient his sensors to get more data, but it doesn't look like a threat response." Lion, either not knowing or not caring that he was being discussed, had passed by Dr. Cain with only an identifying glance and was clearly waiting for X to catch up.
"You're right. That can't be natural. My scalp is hurting just thinking of the matted tangles that would cause."
"We really, really have to figure out how to duplicate those hair care nanites." At that, the interest level of the guards and gawkers rose significantly.
"No reploid would ever have a bad hair day ever again," Dr. Cain agreed. "Still, this isn't telling us why he's doing it. Unless it's just to look pretty."
Seeing the way Lion looked at Dr. Cain after he said that, X had to smile. "I think he's aware he doesn't need to do that to look good."
"Yes, if I were cured," Dr. Cain, sadly, was only in his thirties. The residual damage from the Cataclysm was not kind to those who went outside the carefully cleaned areas, "he were the human female he strongly resembles, and he wasn't a fraction of my age," quite literally, "I would ask 'her' out." He'd have no chance, Lion's expression clearly communicated. "He does understand!"
"I'm not certain he understands everything: He could be going from tone of voice and key words, but I've never seen him confused. He's not a talker, though." While X said that Lion ignored him, his head turning to the side and tilting slightly down, watching in that way Omega had watched a battle beyond the sight of normal optics. "Why is looking that way?" X mused aloud.
"Given the extent to which his builder went overboard on the hair, X-ray vision would be almost too pedestrian. What's in that direction?" Dr. Cain asked one of the trailing security guards. (X's memory banks had this one labeled as Cain's Gofer No. 4: trained in emergency med tech repairs and coffee making. He needed to learn the new ones' names: they kept getting promoted since Dr. Cain got the best.)
"They're calling up the building schematic now." He paused, head frill swaying. "Teleporter room. He did it about the time we got an inbound. Kilroy's sub."
"Can we get him up here so Lion and I can hear how Kilroy's doing?" That wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either and that made X uncomfortable, even after the rest of the day.
"He's en route since you suggested bringing Kilroy up to Waldo, but Kilroy's probably going to be out for awhile. Mad Doctor Lament's been hounding him about coming in for a check-up for ages but Kilroy's been too busy. Since he just got knocked out, I'm betting he'll wake upgraded to a hearty welcome of 'I told you so.'"
X didn't think that was a cover story. Still, it was a little convenient.
He hoped this would all get resolved and he could stop being paranoid soon. How on earth could Kilroy consider this sort of thing fun? "Is there someplace we should meet? I was heading to my quarters to wait."
It was decided that this was a good idea and the caravan continued onward, Dr. Cain and his guards taking the place of unconscious Kilroy.
X's door had been fixed yesterday (busting it down… what were they thinking?) and Lion caught X's eyes and then swung his gaze towards the couch in a clear signal.
X did as directed, sitting down and quickly joined by Lion, head in X's lap. Seeing the curious looks, he shrugged. "He doesn't talk but he's very good at getting a point across when he wants to. Oh, Dr. Cain. He's neutral about touches to his shoulder and such. It's the hair he wants contact with. Moving contact is preferred, preferably in a pattern, but just glove contact there is acceptable. Full-armored contact or no contact isn't. Looking at it now," X noted, "I think he's shifting the strands so certain ones get in contact with the glove." Was it petting per se if Lion didn't care about the actual armored head?
"Keeping you away from the weaponry and having you touch the more sensitive strands with something radiating heat?" Reploid armor, especially X's, was a very good insulator because it had to be. It had gotten to the point where certain ceramic types were referred to as alloys, which were conventionally metallic, or mostly so, because they were used in armor and armor was made of alloy, so therefore they were alloys. Incorrect terminology, yes, but most people didn't care. It was the same sort of thing as X not technically being a reploid. The term Dr. Light had used for 'hard drive/nanite hybrid humanlike intelligence' was android. Reploid meant an attempt to replicate X, and, well, they weren't very close to him.
But they were still his children, so he called himself a reploid and wanted others to because he didn't want to be thought of as an entirely different species, for goodness' sake, or as though he was to ordinary reploids what robot masters had been to ordinary robots. They were just as intelligent and just as important as he was. More so, in fact, in several cases.
Although, really, he was an entirely different species from his father and stepfather, not to mention his robot master older siblings. So that really wasn't something that mattered, but still.
"He could just be keeping you away from the weaponry and having you touch the more sensitive strands, but there's probably more to it than that," Dr. Cain agreed. "Although, it doesn't look like it's triggering the pleasure system, and given the theory that he was controlled by basic stimuli, like pain during the rampage, that's a little odd."
"It's more soothing." That theory could quite likely be considered disproven, and X should tell him that. Except, if Lion might have been doing that of his own free will, then he might have chosen to kill all those people. And then Zero might be executed, the way so many still wanted.
"I'm really wondering if he was built as a bodyguard." Dr. Cain looked thoughtful. "That would explain a lot, and I'm being reminded of those pre-Cataclysm movies where the villain was petting a cat."
X chuckled. "Not just that. Signal to stay calm and health verification?" Technical details, oh how he'd missed them! As a hunter, he should be thinking about strategy and so on, and worrying, but this was a puzzle and he liked those and he wanted a break until the replacement got here. "You can't build much of a sensor web into armor without defeating the purpose. So have strands in his hair that read… hmm. What would you need touch for? With a human, the heartbeat's audible, temperature's visable with infrared, and it's almost certain he has 360 degree sensor coverage including visual. He's looking smug, so I'm pretty sure that's confirmation."
"Mood," Cain said thoughtfully. "Blood pressure would be hard to do without some form of contact. Not to mention chemical analysis, amount of sweat, various twitches… With contact, he could know instantly if they felt threatened, if they trusted the others present… humans signal emotions in all sorts of ways. If that's the case, he'd make quite a good lie detector."
Lion did smug amazingly well. "I wonder if he was built by someone who liked cats," Dr. Cain mused, and then clearly thought a bit further and decided to not go there. Cats were associated with lonely old humans, Lion was undeniably attractive, had no contact taboo, hadn't been sentient… Or that had been the theory.
Thank goodness X knew sexual abuse wasn't a possibility in this case. It had happened. There were laws now. Still, as a parent he didn't want to think about it anymore than his own stepfather did. "With reploids," or androids? "the equivalent would be systems readiness, amount of repair nanites deployed," repairs ate up power like crazy, so they didn't make extra nanites unless they thought they would need them, "the amount of processing power they're using, and so on, but unlike humans we can control those things consciously, so while they'd work for someone acting natural that sort of thing would be useless for lie detection."
X looked down at Lion to see his reaction to this and smiled slightly. "I seem to be missing something. Any hints?" Lion's only response was a larger smile. "Okay then. I don't think we can get him to volunteer information. He seems to like being the center of attention and showing off by surprising us."
Yeah, this chapter's mostly transition, putting pieces in place. Next time, on Who You Choose To Be: pieces fall into place.
And another game of "Who's that robot master?"
