File 9: The Mind-bending, Ear-piercing, Uber-fast Songster

"Rar rar rar rar!" Fang-chan was going nuts over someone coming up to the shop.

X kicked him lightly. "NO. Do not hassle the customers."

Fang-chan growled at X. So far, they'd had an uneasy peace, but the Davish was getting tired of taking orders from a reploid. He transformed and bit X's hand.

"You're gonna wish you hadn't done that," X said. He spun around quickly and threw the alien dog over the shop roof.

"Yipe!"

"That was a nice throw," Blues said.

X turned back and smiled. "Hey man, what're you doing here?"

They shook hands. "What, I can't just drop by every so often?"

"I don't mind, but you don't drop by without reason."

"All right, so I've got a few." He nodded to his meta-bike. "I turned it over to get something fixed, but I swear they did something wrong. The steering is slow to respond. You got time to look it over?"

X knelt by the bike. "Sure, my next appointment's not for another hour. What'd you turn it in for?"

"I was in pursuit of a suspect and had to spin around at high speed. Didn't notice a slick spot and the bike slipped out from under me."

"****. You get hurt?"

Blues shrugged. "It wasn't too bad. Our healer-mechanics are better than our vehicle mechanics. I keep saying that isn't gonna cut it for long."

"No kidding. I think I see the problem."

"How bad is it?"

"They should have caught it, as a hazard. But it's not hard to fix. Come on in."

The brothers went inside for the needed equipment. "The other thing was that I wanted to ask about that dark spirit that was in here a few months ago."

"The what?"

"I didn't think you were that drunk."

He nodded. "Oh, right, that spirit, with the weird heart. Haven't seen or felt it since."

"And what about the patient?"

"He's up and running." X pointed. "Not perfectly."

A few minutes later, Zero walked up to them. He tapped X on the shoulder. "Xtay, erethay eemssay otay ebay atay oblempray."

X looked at him. "What problem?"

Looking embarrassed, he replied, "Itay an'tcay eemsay otay eakspay ormallynay."

"That's obvious."

"What is?"

"He's stuck in Pig Latin."

Zero shrugged. "Itay idday opstay eakingspay intay ymesrhay."

X nodded. "That was annoying. Oh, this would be my older brother, Blues. And this is Zero."

They shook hands. "Good to see your soul got settled."

"Atwhay?"

"You wouldn't remember," X said.

Fang-chan finally came in. He whined and looked repentant. Anyone who could throw him on a roof was a strong leader.

X looked at him. "Are you going to do as I tell you now?"

"Yip."

"All right then. Go back to watching, but bark nicely if anyone comes up. Got that?"

"Ruff." Fang-chan strutted off, forgiven.

"You've got one of those aliens hanging around?" Blues asked in distaste.

"He's just a silly dog," X said. "No matter where he comes from. I'm trying to make him a proper guard dog for night."

"You do have expensive stuff here. But still, a Davish?"

"At'swhay ongwray ithway Angfay-Anchay? E'shay atay icenay ogday."

"He doesn't like aliens in general," X explained.

"Not after they ran off with Roll."

Zero gave him a puzzled look.

"Aliens kidnapped our sister. We got security footage of them doing it."

"And that's why he's with the FBI. Although you think the government would take better care of your equipment. They've done good so far."

"We got some new people in."

"I see. So any more luck on finding those aliens?"

He shook his head. "Nope. No word of Duo either. I knew we couldn't trust that guy."

"Oh, give up on him. He probably miscalculated a solar circuit or something and crashed into the sun."

"You hardly knew him. He was smarter than that."

X stood up. "There, that should take care of your steering problem."

"That it?"

"Yeah. Although you might want to tell your government mechanic to get his eyes checked."


It was early one morning, too early for the mechanics to be in and just early enough for the sun to be up. There was guitar music on the shop floor. X sat up and listened. It was a song he wasn't familiar with. He left his office and found Zero playing while sitting on an elevated car jack.

He hopped over the rail and onto the floor. "What the **** are you doing up this early?"

"Morning X," he responded without missing a beat. He did turn the volume down some. "Just playing. I didn't think you'd be sleeping in the office."

He shrugged. "I do that a lot when there's paperwork to be done."

"Sorry."

"I can deal with it. So what's that song you're playing? I've never heard it before."

"I wrote it."

"You write music too?"

Zero nodded. "Certainly. Not often though. This is probably my favorite song I've written. It can banish evil spirits."

"Really?" he asked skeptically.

"Really, it can. I play it when I have nightmares. Calms my nerves down. It always works."

"If you say so. What'd you call it?"

"Oceania." Zero stopped playing. "You want to learn guitar? I can teach you."

"Maybe."

"Aw, come on. You knew the worth of Angel, so I know you're interested."

"Okay, sure. We've got an hour before the shop opens."

"Great! Here you go." He handed over his guitar. "Just be careful with my baby. I've had her for years."

"I know."


"You play well, but your singing is mediocre."

"Bah," X said. "Do you know how much quality vocal systems that allow for singing cost? Way more than they're worth, except to musicians. And I'm a mechanic."

Zero shrugged. "All well. More singing time for me. I am a musician."

"That's obvious. You play that guitar like a hell raiser."

"I guess so."

"Hey, keep playing you two!"

"Keep your shirt on!" X yelled back before starting in on a new song.

They were in Riley's Dance Club, playing during an open evening. Much of their shared song data were from the 20th and 21st centuries, causing some confusion to the 22nd century audience. But most of the clubbers were getting into their jams, which would be promising for more evenings. Riley's has asked for any amateur Michigan band to come play for a few hours. Their band was just the two of them, Zero on his lovely guitar and X on a keyboard he'd rescued from being junked. Hopefully, this could become a regular gig.

At the end of their allotted time, they met with Riley's manager. "Your attitude is rough, but acceptable. You boys play really well, even if your song styling is odd."

"It's classic rock style," Zero said. "More or less."

"Right. But it's not exactly our usual groove, so we can't host you two. Sorry."

"I thought they'd like a different sound," Zero said.

"***-***. We can find somewhere for this rock."

On their way out, they heard someone say, "Hang on, I want to talk to you."

The source of the pretty voice was a male reploid with long light blue hair (but not as long as Zero's) and silvery scaled armor. X couldn't decide which long haired freak was girlier. "Yes bishie?" he asked.

He was either ignorant of or ignoring the meaning. "You two play very well. I'm Cyclone, a singer, and I need a band for a concert I have coming up. If we work well together, it could be a permanent thing."

"You know our era of songs?" Zero asked.

"Fairly well."

"We could have him sing 'Sign, Signs,'" X teased.

"Sing something," Zero said. "Whatever."

"Sure." And Cyclone proceeded to sing a verse from 'American Pie.'

"Not exactly a rock and roll voice," X said. "But your singing is damn stunning."

"Well, I was based off of sirens."

"The mythical monster women who sang and drove men mad? Freaky."

Cyclone blushed. "Um, yeah, them. I don't really get it either."

"We could try a few songs together," Zero said. "You think so?"

"It's a start."

"Good. My concert is in a month, though. They don't have a genre theme; they just want all reploid bands."

"Who's they?" X asked.

"The Cult of the Goddess," Cyclone said. "They say it's a private show for their membership, which is exclusively reploids. Hence, no humans in bands."

"Sure. Let's try this out. We can use my shop."


X and Zero practiced with Cyclone a few times a week. He was an excellent musician. He gave them some of his own songs to play as well. Not quite the hard rock they liked; more of an energetic techno. It was worth playing to hear Cyclone speed sing his tunes. If needed, he could sing at auctioneer speed.

But drawing closer to the Cultist concert, Zero started to get nervous. "What, you got stage freight?" X asked once when he tripped over some power cords.

"No, I'm perfectly fine playing on stage. It's just… the Cult."

X picked up a soldering gun. A few of his notes were skippy or wouldn't play in certain modes. "The Cult? They're a bunch of happy-go-lucky loonies. Cyclone's music is perfect for them."

Zero sat by the keyboard. "I know they're loons. But for some reason, I don't want to be recognized by them."

"You knew some Cultists?"

"Possibly. I'm just getting this gut feeling that if I go to the concert something bad will happen, because someone will recognize me."

"Sounds like you pissed someone off once. Can you hand me the volt meter?"

"This thing?"

"Yeah that."

"I might have. It's just on the edge of my mind, and I can't access it."

"Rewiring your head has been damn tricky. Remember when you spent a day speaking only in Dr. Seuss type rhymes? Or when you went colorblind because I was working on your hearing sensors? I still don't get why that happened."

"I don't want to be recognized at this concert, not by the Cultists."

"I can give you an alternate armor if you like, but it won't do you any ******* good. That hair of yours is a dead giveaway."

"I'm not cutting it."

"We can dye it."

"Dye my hair?"

"Sure. It'll still be too long to be normal, but it might just change your appearance enough to do the job."

"I guess so." There was a pause. "We have to go to the hair salon to do that, right?"

"Of course. I was planning on getting my hair trimmed anyhow. I might highlight it too if you're getting a full dye job."

"Sure." But there was a touch of anxiety still in his voice.


The hair salon was empty, as it was normal working hours for most of the population. The way Zero was acting, though, you'd think they were in a war zone. "Would you chill?" X asked. "You're making me nervous now."

"Sorry, ah…"

"What is it now?"

He stalled outside the door. "Um… I'm scared of barbers."

"You are?"

"Yeah, it's… I don't really know. I just am."

"You're just being silly now. Come on, I've come to these guys for years. They do a good job. And remember, you're only getting your hair dyed."

"Right, yeah. Just dyed."

X came in the door and waved at the woman standing there. "Hey Lindy!"

"Oh, hello X. You in for your usual trim?"

"Yeah, that and some punk highlights. And Zero here is going for a full freaking hair dye."

"Yes," Zero said stiffly. "Just dyed."

Lindy grinned. "Well, that will take some time. Skizzer, would you come help this reploid have his hair colored?"

"Sure, hang on."

He came out of the office, which was probably a mistake. Skizzer was a reploid hair stylist, sure enough. He looked like the freak offspring of Edward Scissorhands and Cut Man, with sharp edges all over his armor. If you were afraid of barbers, Skizzer was probably your worst nightmare. Certainly was Zero's.

"Aaaahh!" Zero shrieked and tried to hide behind X. "Stay away!"

"Maybe you ought to take care of him Lindy," X suggested.

"Yeah… sorry Skizzer."

He shrugged. "Happens more often than you know. Come on back here."


"You two got jazzed up," Cyclone mentioned when they met him at the concert site.

"Eh, just for fun," X said. He'd built them both white armors that sort of matched Cyclone's silver scales. X also got metallic purple streaks in his hair. Zero had his hair dyed cotton candy pink. Lindy had done a superb job. It certainly changed his look.

"This is Bit and Byte of the Cult," Cyclone said. "They're organizing this event. These two are my band. So everything's taken care of?"

"Sure," Bit said.

"Just plug your instruments into the stage sound system and go."

"If you say so," Zero said skeptically.

When they got to playing, X was irritated by an interference problem that definitely wasn't coming from his rescued keyboard. Otherwise, the concert went on without a problem. No one recognized Zero with pink hair and white armor.

The trouble came in the parking lot.

Cyclone helped them pack stuff up in the shop truck, although he was a weakling when it came to physical strength. Zero said, "That was pretty good. The only problem was the Cultists not testing for interference."

"Yeah, I hated that," X said. "******* messed me up."

"You want to keep playing with us, Cyclone?"

X was about to add that if they did that, he wanted credit given to everyone in the trio, not just Cyclone.

"I'd like you to help me," Cyclone sang.

But it wasn't his usual voice. It was an intoxicating female voice. It made X feel very strange, like he wanted to help Cyclone with whatever he had in mind.

"Of course," Zero said, his voice tinted with awe.

"If you'd want us," X said, almost unwillingly.

"Let's go back to your shop," Cyclone said normally.

On the way back, he began singing again. "Darn vocal powers that only work on males. If my siren voice worked on everyone, then I would be unstoppable. You two are going to help me extend these powers to work on females." He smiled. "By the time we make it back to your shop, you won't be able to fight me." Then he drifted off into a real melody. It made no sense, but it didn't have to.

Sirens drove men mad, X recalled. He didn't like anyone to strip him of his willpower and self-control. But it was difficult against someone who sang that control away. Singing…

Cyclone's nonsense song was going on, forcing him to focus on the road to fight off the song's allure. Then he activated one of his alternate helmets. It was Dr. Light's helmet, the one that made him deaf. He intended to take it out of his system, but it kept coming back.

Silence was all he heard. He felt mildly disappointed and was tempted to go back to listening to the song. He also felt irritated that Dr. Light's poorly made helmet was coming in handy, even if not as intended. Thinking of a good confrontation place, he drove on to a nearby public parking lot.

When they got there, he got out of the truck and made sure he could see Cyclone's face. Particularly his lips. X could lip read, a skill he used to learn about women without being near them. It was helpful skill in a loud bar.

"If I have a band," Cyclone explained, "with certain songs and instruments, I can sap the wills of women too. Otherwise, I just make men fall madly in love with me. As you both know now."

Zero said, "Of course Cyclone."

"I'm sorry," X said, "but I can't hear a dang thing you're saying."

He glared. "What?"

"I can't hear you," he said louder. He could, to some degree, know what volume he was speaking at. "I put on this lousy helmet that makes me deaf. So you are not controlling me. I can't stand people who try to control me."

"Dammit, I needed you. Zero, knock him out and take off his helmet."

Zero activated his saber and turned on X. X had not made these two armors for battle, and Zero's saber could probably slice the material like butter.

First things first: get out of Zero's way. X dashed into the parked cars and kept low. Zero pursued him, hardly trying. A few cars down, Cyclone set off a whirlwind attack. It picked up several small cars and tossed them in random directions. It also caught Zero and threw him slightly off course.

Cyclone was no warrior, and his armor wasn't battle ready either. So he made an obvious first target. X decided to try higher ground and snipe at him with charged shots. Ahead of him was a building, which had some decorative features that could become cover. X leapt onto the wall and started climbing.

Zero dashed, dash-jumped, then double jumped over X's head, intending on colliding into him with the saber pointed down. X quickly scrambled off the wall and ran. Oh yeah, he could do that.

He already was at full charge, so he released the blast at Cyclone, who'd stupidly decided to run X's way. The charge shot stopped him in his tracks and made him scream.

X noticed glass on the parked cars shatter. He spun around to find Zero. He was on his knees with his hands over his ears. The building also had broken glass. Just then, he noticed Light's helmet vibrating hard. That was some scream, he thought, just before the helmet shattered as well.

"***-***, shut up!" he yelled. Cyclone's scream made him feel like his head was going to implode. And considering what it had done to the helmet, it was likely.

The siren finally stopped screaming, just as fine cracks were beginning to appear in X's and Zero's armors. "You're going to pay for that," he hissed.

The seductive voice came back into play and X began to feel guilty for shooting Cyclone. Behind him, Zero got up. "I'll make certain of it."

Before X completely lost his mind, like Zero had, he noticed that his charge shot had ripped Cyclone's chest plate off, exposing his inner parts. Quickly, X fired a regular shot aimed at his power core. It connected, causing the core to explode.

The enchantment broke when Cyclone died. "What's going on?" Zero asked in confusion.

"****, would you take your saber out of my gut!"

"Ack! I'm so sorry." He shut his weapon off. "You're leaking. Are you going to be all right?"

"I don't think you hit anything vital. But I'm **** lucky I'm a medic." He pulled out an emergency repair kit. It had nanites that would seal off his wound and prevent any further damage, as well as temporary patches.

"I have no idea what came over me. He just sang and that was all there was."

"He was a **** siren."

'Weapon copied,' his internal programs reported. 'Shatter Wave.'

X swore again. He hated his brother's weapon copy system. Sure, there were occasional gems that got copied, but most were junk in the first place, or weaker than the original. But he couldn't take a painkiller until the repair nanites were clear. So he checked what had been copied, to keep his mind occupied. Shatter Wave… hang on, that was the screaming attack that broke Dr. Light's helmet. That could be interesting. But it was based on vocal ability, and as Zero had said, X had a mediocre voice.

Zero was still and quiet for a minute. Then he reactivated his saber and cut off the last foot of his hair.

X stared at the loose pink hairs on the pavement. "What the hell did you do that for?"

He turned off his saber. "I lost the battle. I was under someone else's control, so I don't have to cut it all off, but still…"

"If that suits you."

"It's a punishment of my training routines."

Which accounted for why he freaked out so severely at the hair salon. "I see. Well, let's get a move on. You drive, cause I have to patch myself up." He handed over the keys.

"Shouldn't you wait until you're done patching to move?"

"Normally, but I want to be out of here before…"

"I'm with the Maverick Hunters," a new voice called out, from another row over. "Please cooperate and put your weapons up."

"Before they get here?" Zero finished.

"Crud."

"They do have the leading response time for law enforcement agencies," he said lightheartedly.

"Yeah, but…"

The single Hunter came into their row with her weapon at ready. She spotted them and the dead body of Cyclone. "I'd rather not fight you, so…"

"Yeah, like I'm gonna fight with a gaping hole in my lower torso," X said sarcastically.

"He attacked us," Zero said. "Would have killed us too, or worse, enslaved us."

She eased up on her stance. "Do you need me to call a medic?"

"He is a medic. He just needs to patch himself up and head back to the shop."

"So who did all this damage?" She indicated the flipped cars and broken glass.

"Cyclone did."

"And the damage to your friend as well?"

Zero hesitated.

"It was Cyclone's fault," X said.

The Hunter spoke into her com unit, "This does match up to the known patterns of the maverick Cyclone, correct?"

"At least he was wanted too," Zero said quietly.

"Hush."

"All right then." She put her com on standby. "I would like a statement from you on this incident, for the record. What're your names?"

"I'm Zero, and he's…"

"Rockman X," he said quickly.

"All right… and I'm Alia. I could take the statement from Zero, if you wish to keep working on yourself."

X nodded. He had to start applying the patches, and that would take some effort. Alia interviewed Zero about the fight and he stuck to simple answers. They both got done about the same time.

Alia finished with, "If that's all, we'll be taking him back to base for study. You boys go on home and stay out of further trouble, okay?"

"Sure," Zero said.

"Actually," X flipped out one of his business cards, being careful to obscure his listed name of Maverick X, "We've been working with him for a little while and I've been curious about some of his systems. As you can see, my shop has the approval rating to perform dissections of mavericks. If you'd let me take him, I'd appreciate it."

Alia took the card and studied the government approval grade. "I see. He's not a high priority case, so I don't see why not. I'll just take this for our records."

"Okay, thank you very much. We appreciate your services to world peace."

She smiled. "It's our duty. Take care."

Zero helped him get Cyclone's body secured in the truck, then got in the driver's seat. "That went better than expected," he commented as he drove off.

X laughed. "****, you could still smell the factory on her."

"No kidding. So what do you want his body for?"

"I copied that scream attack off him, but I don't have the vocal power for it."

He raised his eyebrows. "And you're going to take a voice that seduces only men because of that?"

"I am not keeping that ability. I'll study the system, see how that works, then take it off. Besides, you were complaining that I had a mediocre voice."

"I was."

Back in the parking lot, Alia examined all the cars with shattered windows. Those closest to the battle also had small fractures in metal parts. What sort of ability caused all that?

"Hey Alia?"

"What is it Vera?"

"Give me that guy's shop number again."

"Sure." She read it off again.

"Um…"

"Vera?"

"Sorry, but ah… this is your first solo mission too, right?"

"This is your first support job?"

"By myself yeah."

"So what's got you worried?"

"Well, Rockman X… one of his aliases is Maverick X and he's under a lot of suspicion. Everything from cannibalizing parts to outright murder."

Alia turned around, but they were long gone. "So I should have detained him instead of giving a verbal warning? We are going to be in so much trouble."

"Just hang on a moment."

"I should have stuck with research."

Vera checked her IC. "I said hang on… I mean, I don't think anyone would have expected us to run into a maverick on the high danger list. Um, come back to base and we'll ask your unit leader about what we should do, given he took the body of a proven maverick."

"All right. Alia out."


Figuring out why Zero would be designed with all that hair makes for some fun crackfic scenarios. Although the one I have here is likely reasonable, that his training routine forces him to cut it if he fails or performs poorly. But then that leads into a fear of barbers and scissor-related things (eyes Cut Man). I've seen 'the hair acts as a counter balance' done pretty well too.