United we stand

Fandom: Megaman X series

Characters/Pairings: Zero/X and OC's for plot

Genre: Adventure/Romance with a splash of nitroglycerine-no, I mean humor! Fuck!

Legend: When something like this; [ ] appears it means it changes from the characters POV or switched to regular POV

Disclaimer: Don't own it. All rights belong to CAPCOM Co., Ltd., Akira Kitamura and Keiji Inafune

A/N: No excuse, no excuse, no excuse! I have no excuse other than I have been busy with my life outside of FF, losing my draft of this story and getting sucked into new fandoms! I am so sorry you guys. But you faving and following both my of United we stand and Chances gave me hope that some people do like them. I've been told that its one of those Mary Sue stories and such and it made lose hope for it. I was THIS close to deleting them. It was that bad. But I'm continuing it, don't worry. Here is chapter 9.

Chapter 9: Transference

[NORMAL]

They just stood there. Just stood there and watched as Līk mercilessly tore Elm in pieces. Her legs were severed, so was her torso. Oil, coolant, wires and circuit pieces flew all over the place. Sparks flew as the young model was tossed to the side like everyday garbage.

No doubt that any Hunter present couldn't turn their eyes away from the horrible spectacle, even if they wanted too so badly.

X's legs shook and feel down on one knee. His hands intertwined with one another before they broke apart to hold himself. He shut his eyes and internally grieved.

'No. No, no, no, no! Gods, no. She didn't deserve that. She didn't deserve any of the things that happened to her! Why, why, why?!'

Zero was no better than X. Though he kept himself upright he didn't know what to do next. He was stuck, system frozen into a sudden blank slate. A heaviness crawled up his systems. He couldn't do anything. He was useless. Useless!

He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. 'Damn it, damn it!'

Why in the bloody hell did he just stand there like a rookie?!

In his processor, he saw that last smile Elm gave them before it changed into a blank feature.

The Hunters snapped out of it when Līk spoke.

"Such a shame. A rare energy source wasted. Oh well."

Then hell broke loose.

"Chill Penguin company, now! Immobilize him!", was Sigma's order.

No one knew, but... It seems that the Maverick Hunters didn't feel like taking in this criminal this time around.

0000000000

{Somewhere...}

[NORMAL]

"Hey, how's the little kid?", said a voice. The slightly deep pitch echoed their current surrounding.

"She is fine. Though she will suffer some physical and mental trauma, but we don't know how much. We will just have to wait and see.", said a second voice. A same deep toned voice but this one held a more mature tinge.

"I hope she's not too traumatized. It was a lot of trouble getting her here. And Forte she's not that little.", said a third voice. It was lighter, a child like tone as well as bubbly.

The first speaker, Forte, shrugged. "Psh. If I see her as little, then she's little."

"She is no taller or shorter than Rock, Forte."

"Shut up Blues. I didn't ask you."

"You guys, shush! You're gonna wake-Oh great, she's waking up."

0000000000

[Elm]

I let out a shuddering breath. My eyes were still closed but a groan escaped my lips. So life-like, like I was really there.

Too bad it was all a dream.

I slowly sat up and stretched. Funny that what I was laying down on was hard. I must have fallen off the bed again.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes.

"Seriously, it feels like someone had hit me in the head with a baseball bat. Made of metal and travelling twenty miles an hour."

"That can be arranged."

"Forte!"

"What? I was kidding."

"You did not sound like you were."

"Can it, Blues."

I immediately froze at the voices. But not just any voices, oh no. Very familiar voices to be exact.

I covered my face with my hands and groaned. Was I still dreaming? Seems to be the case. I must be really deep in sleep to have jumped from one dream to another.

I was snapped out of my musings when a hand was placed on my shoulder. I flinched from the sudden contact. I turned to see the red gloved hand. Following it upwards, I saw the gray body suit, a pair of awesome looking shade, a simple but strong red helmet with a white painted their designs on the middle and the ear ports and... A halo of rainbow data on op his head??

Shaking my head I accepted the hand that was offered to me and helped me properly sit up near the thee of them.

Once I regained my bearings I got a better look at Blues' attire.

Other than his body suit he has this red top with white accents that fitted his upper torso, sleeveless and with a high collar. A crisscross motif design occupied the rest from front to back. The design reminded me of a more modern Beau Brummell. Only way cooler. He also wore a white pelvic armor and red armored boots.

"My name is Blues. How are you feeling?" Oh, I know who you are. I know who all of you are.

Blue, his original Japanese name. It fits him more than his american version: Protoman. Seriously CAPCOM, Protoman?

Pop. Back to the topic at hand. "Y-Yes. I'm fine. My name is-"

"Elm. We know"

The sudden snarky comment made me turn towards the speaker.

The first insult that came to mind was fin head. Because of the design of his helmet. Like Blues, his overall color scheme is still the same and has the same style of clothing with different in the designs. His has white zigzag design. His pelvic armor is black and his body suit is kohl in color. White gloves with guards to protect his forearms are gold with diamond designs. His boots were a darker color of purple with ankle guards.

"You're..."

"Forte. Don't forget it."

"Forte." I mumbled his name. I was then aware that I was still holding Blues' hand and thus let go.

"Sorry."

He only nodded his reply. He was always the one to talk less. Unless something of major global proportion of events happen occurs. Or just wants to talk with his younger siblings, Rock and Roll.

"C'mon, Forte. Be polite."

Speaking of Rock. There he was. And can I just point out that we were the same height.

Forte scoffed. "That was polite in my book, Rock."

Rock sighed, "Honestly." Before turning to me with a smile.

He really surprised me when he began to caress and pat my head. Besides being the same height, I didn't mind that he did that. It wasn't annoying or degrading at all. It felt natural, really.

...Like I've felt it before.

"There, there. Forte didn't mean any of that. Its just the way he is."

"And we are eternally stuck with him." Blues said off handedly.

I giggled, much to Forte's chagrin.

"One more out of you Blues, and I swear..."

I politely blocked the other two out to observe Rock.

His overall appearance is similar to when X will turn into a Cyber elf. But with a few differences. One, is that X's robes were a light blue in color whilst Rock's is a rich blue. A cross motif was the frontal design with green inlaids, same with the shoes and white gloves. Like I said, not much difference other than the colors.

"I'm Rockman. But you can call me Rock."

"Huh." I numbly nodded before returning my interest to Blues and Forte, who were deep in the verbal fight.

"Do what, Forte? We all know that you can't do anything to me."

The used to be Wilybot gritted his teeth and growled. "You don't need to remind me that we're already dead, old man. But it still doesn't stop me from inflicting any injuries on you, even when they heal on the spot!"

Dead...

Dead.

Dead??

My vision swam as as I felt my body sway. I felt light headed.

"Shit! Catch her, she's about to-"

Thud!

"-faint. Ah jeez."

0000000000

{Back to where the Hunters were...}

[Normal]

The Hunters cleaned the are where their fight happened several minutes ago. No defeat no victory, just wounded reploids and the mess they made of the park. The tension in the air was thick as they healed their wounds for another fight.

The fight against Līk-the slashes, the punches, the blasts, the injuries received, and they had nothing to show for it.

Līk escaped. But not unscathed.

Sting Chameleon, Flame Mammoth and Chill Penguin were down, but they were being treated to. The others, including Signs, X and Zero sustained damage when they narrowly escaped being caught by Līks appendages. Some...were not so lucky.

Zero internally cursed. All that wasted effort. He couldn't even get back for killing Elm! But he was at least satisfied by the damage he gave Līk.

X, like Zero, was having an internal confliction himself. Circulating from; Why didn't he do anything?, I should have been fast enough., Why couldn't I have done more?, etc.

Zero watched as X closed his eyes shut and held his head. His body shook from grief or anger was anyone's guess. But Zero knew otherwise.

X was blaming himself and the weight was bringing him down. It was always an issue with him when it came to these situations. The display of human emotions. It was always X's weakness.

But Zero didn't care. It was what made X, X. And he couldn't have had it any other way.

He reached out and squeezed X's shoulder. The blue bomber snapped out of his thoughts and looked up at his friend. Large doe eyes of bright emerald turned into liquid from unshed tears.

"...Zero. He got away.", his voice was all but a whisper that Zero barely heard it himself.

Aforementioned reploids core lurched and he was this close, this close of pulling X into a hug and tell him that everything was going to be okay. But got himself back in control of the serious, no-nonsense attitude.

He had time to comfort his friend later without the prying eyes of their colleagues. So he settled for squeezing X's shoulder again.

"I know, X. I know." Zero sighed. "But don't worry, Līk won't go very far from those injuries we gave him. Finding him hiding out there will be the only hurdle we have to cross. And when we do find him..."

X watched his friends face full of conviction and determination that words were meaningless. His eyes says it all.

Līk has hell to pay.

0000000000

[X]

'Zero, what are you doing to me?'

Sweet lord above. One of these days I'm just to melt myself down into a puddle of X goo. Always the knight and shining armor. A knight that's there for his friends. The knight that's always there for me.

'There is something definitely wrong with me.'

His unfinished sentence says everything.

Līk was going to get it. One way or another.

And he was right.

And that made me smile, if just a little bit and nodded.

That's Zero. Always the one to keep my hopes up.

"Zero! X!"

At the mention of our names, we see Storm Eagle sprinting towards us. If he was out of breath he looked like it, and it looked like he saw a ghost. Or close to seeing one.

"Storm Eagle, what's wrong?", Zero asked as we both stood at attention.

Storm Eagle made a swallowing action. "It's the little tyke."

My eyes widened at that. There is only one person-er, reploid that Storm Eagle was referring from that nickname.

0000000000

[Zero]

"It's the little tyke."

I flinched no sooner when Storm said it. Tyke was the involuntary nickname he gave Elm when she was still being looked at back at the lab.

I saw X's eyes widened so I dared to ask. "What do you mean?"

Stark raised a placating hand. "Whoa there, Zero. I can't even explain it myself."

He paused before turning his head. "Its beat to show than tell you."

We followed him. Hesitantly.

"Zero." I turned to X. He looked perturbed to see Elm's... remains. I was too. But I'd its important, then...

"I know, X. Don't worry, I'm with you every step of the way." I replied as softly as I could.

He looked at me for a moment before he nodded and steeled himself. I followed suit.

Once we arrived to one of the medical vans, we saw a medical reploid moving about in a jittery fashion as he scanned, taking notes and adjusting the instruments he was using. He was currently looking over a core monitor that thrummed faintly as well as watching the standard monitor that kept track of the central processing activity.

Moving our attention to Storm when walked towards a gurney with two more medical reploids fusing over their patient. I stood stock still.

It was Elm! Or more like her head and upper torso, is the correct term. She looks so peaceful as though she's just asleep.

But it wasn't the site of Elm alone that froze me and X.

"Elm.." I heard X say.

I followed the I/O jack wires that were connected her ear and naval ports as well as her core.

Utterly impossible. But it was.

Her core was thrumming with a steady but weak rhythm and slowly, oh slowly increasing. And her central processing waves show the tall tales of activity.

"...Is still functioning. She's still alive."

TBC

A/N: So, how was it?? To be truthful, I wouldn't be surprised that no one would comment now that I was away for a while.