Note: First off, let me just take a moment to apologize to you all for such a late update. Truth be told, Maverick Hunter Roll, and really this fic's idea in general was actually the first one I ever did on this site ever, but it was so poorly written that I decided to revamp it and do it again. But with that came the problems of 'how' exactly I was going to do it. The who, what, when, where, and why's were all taken care of. The how is what got me back for a good while. One, because I have a habit of constantly worrying about my stuff not being what I want and/or not as good as I can make it. I'll wholeheartedly say right now that X is one of my favorite characters of all time and the last thing I want to do is make him, or really anyone here badly written. Don't get me wrong, I do love doing this, it's a literal compulsion for me, but with that comes the need and 'no excuses' mentality with my mindset. So, that said, I made this chapter a 'time-skip' chapter if you will. It (hopefully) doesn't leave too much out, but just gives enough to keep your interest. Thank you all and I hope you enjoy.

Ch.13: Modifications and Preparations

Mega Man © of Capcom

As she was reawakened by the gracious return of her sight, Roll knew that it was done.

"D-Don't sit up too fast!" she heard Dr. Cain exclaim in panic. "You…you might hurt yourself." If she didn't consider it such a gross amount of disrespect on her part, Roll would've let her aqua irises roll around in their sockets, the surprise that the wish to even do such a thing startling her rather greatly. "How do you feel?" the elderly man asked again, her attention drawn away from studying the unfamiliarity of her own self to the one that had just granted her the newest, and in her mind, necessary upgrade, whether he felt so or not.

"Actually…" she paused a moment, examining the appendages that received the most work, somewhat caught off guard by the lack of change she saw. "Not much. I don't mean any sense of disrespect in the slightest, Sir…" she assured Cain. "Yet it seems as if you didn't need to do much adjustments."

"In a sense, no." the old scientist confessed. "Being that your weren't rebuilt from your previous body to have a specific function, all that was needed was to insert plasma storage compartments and connect those as additional commands in your CPU as well as your core."

"Sir, if that's the case…" she held up her arms to the old man, the main difference between herself then and the present being that she noticed one, golden ring stationed on the tops of her ivory hands and her palms bearing an equally sized, hollowed out section, the separation between them and the rest of the appendage evident by the small dip inwards. "Then which arm was adjusted?"

"Oh…that." Dr. Cain uncomfortably twiddled his wrinkled fingers, rather hoping that, though he himself found it shameful, her desire, even if it was obviously an implement of her former, less evolved programming, to serve would override whatever questions she possibly wished to ask. "Well…you see, Reploids such as X, Zero, and…" he let his teeth bite down hard on his lip, the name on the tip of his tongue and while fitting, he couldn't bring himself to say it. "Others have busters already installed in them, your arm mass and length, while the same as the common model…" it was then that he realized he was pushing himself into a corner, his own wording transforming his defense into his condemnation. "I DID give you a buster! Yet being that you were in such a frail state when I found you and even now, this is the only change that's been done, I…I didn't wish to thrust too much unfamiliar material onto you!"

Unfamiliar material? Was she not ALREADY unfamiliar material when she was excavated from that deserted laboratory? When X, along with the elderly man relaying this to her helped give her life once again? Were not Reploids in of themselves unfamiliar material? All this was flooding her processor and more, yet Roll was signaled that from the old man's tone and body language…to her disappointment, his decisions were more or less due only to his own troubling doubts of whether or not this was a 'good' decision…even if it wasn't his decision to make. Though nevertheless, she DID gain what she wanted, looking down at the two creases in her palms, a light CLICK going off as the panels opened, two small, dark voids seen leading to what she could only assume to be the units of energy that would be exiting them.

"So…you SURE you want the place to be here?"

Letting his sapphire orbs briefly engulf themselves in darkness, Sigma allowed a sigh to escape his exhaust tanks. "And I presume that your disagreement signifies that you have a BETTER location in mind?"

Chill Penguin immediately shut his beak, or at least he wished he had because now he was being forced to rectify the statement he had just foolishly made. "N-No! I…I was just curious!" he assured. "After all…" he gazed forward, the smooth yet undeniably solid and compact stone surface of the mountainous area they were currently in, natural formations of the planet seemingly stretching as far as their standard vision could perceive. Such a confined, isolated collection of deep, cavernous mouths of near pitch black amidst impossibly high walls. "Setting up here might be a bit harder on us than it should be. Place is like a maze both down there and where we're at."

"That's the point." The bare headed Commander relayed to the bird, almost insulted at such a display of obliviousness. "A good base of operations should be where the interests of those in the secular group are best met. And as of now, I don't think I need to say that after our demonstration at Abel City do we need to be away from prying eyes."

Chill Penguin couldn't argue with that, both in agreement and if the near desolation of that entire area was any indication, Sigma was far from changing his mind.

"But even then…" the bird began, the hot, dusty climate of the location, whilst he was far from risk at overheating, his namesake abilities (along with the flightless bird he was based on) were somewhat dictating his general distaste of the area. "I don't think I need to tell you that it's going to take some work to set something up."

"Oh, I'm aware." Sigma confirmed, a hand gently rubbing the red gemstone embedded in his forehead, a low growl escaping through clenched teeth. "Which is why another one of our members is going to need to be making his presence known here soon."

He was about to ask her again, yet given how her replies were becoming more and more assertive and, though he knew it was mainly due to his constant prodding, aggressive, X decided that it was bite to simply bite his tongue.

"I know well what you're going to say." Roll simply stated, a small flip of her blonde ponytail displaying her growing impatience, yet her fingers then went to work in straightening the stray hairs that she had just so foolishly dislodged from their proper locations. "And my answer is the same as before."

While X WAS initially going to question as to why she was wishing to start going into his line of work so quickly…the very fact that she was walking beside him to the damaged, yet still standing training room sparked more interest in that particular aspect than her, at least in his mind, incredibly rash insistence on going through such a transition.

"No, I was actually going to ask…" all right, he somewhat fibbed, yet he DID wish to know her reasoning for this one. "I get that you would want someone giving you pointers on how to use your…" he paused, still trying to wrap his mind around how she was now an armed, literally walking weapon, along with the desire to become such a thing. "Newest attributes." He settled, the term not dishonest, and he knew that ultimately it was childish, yet the very word 'weapon' just felt so…uncomfortable for him to use.

"Which is why I came to you." Roll finished, yet her answer did little to ease the azure armored Reploid's burning curiosity, nor enlighten his understanding.

"Well…okay, I understand that but why?"

"Why what?"

"Why me?"

Roll only presented him with a puzzled raise of her brow. "Well…why not you? From what Doctor Cain has told me, you have a rather good track record…mostly." She uncomfortably stated, finding her fingers to be unconsciously twiddling and fidgeting with the reddish-blonde fibers of her ponytail. "You're at least of a considerably high rank, AND I have little to doubt that despite there been some aforementioned…'distractions' on your part, you would be a valuable teacher in at least assisting me in gaining a foothold in this."

Well…it certainly wasn't an answer that he thought he'd hear, but it WAS at least legitimate.

"Well…thank you?" X expressed, despite her somewhat sugarcoated, yet still present honesty about his performance. "But you know, I'm not the only…eh…I'm not the only 'experienced' Hunter here."

"No, you are not. But why would that matter?"

"I mean, I know there's probably going to be some differences in HOW they might do it, but given that the urge for new recruits to sign up is on hold until we get ourselves more patched up, I'm not the only one that could teach you, you know."

"You don't WANT to teach me?"

"No! I mean, no, it's not that at all!" X assured, mentally giving himself a hard slap on the back of his covered head. "I…" 'I wouldn't want anyone to teach you this.' "I'm just saying that there are probably…well, I'm not going to lie, 'better' options than I would be. Storm Eagle, while you don't have wings of course, he's got a buster as well. And I'm sure that Zero could teach you if you asked. Just ask him to cover the buster part…unless of course you're wanting to learn how to use a saber as well…"

He waited for her to answer, hoped and silently pleaded that she would answer him with an anxiously waited on 'maybe' or 'I'll consider it', yet his hopes seemed dashed upon noticing that they had reached their destination.

Roll couldn't understand his apparent reluctance to take on what she considered a rather simple role, given that the average Reploid's, even the average technological automatons of a century ago held learning and memorization capacities and speeds far surpassing their human creators. He didn't hold a problem with her…at least she didn't believe that to be so. She hoped not, for the factor that she held no reservation or, really any attachments, however great or small to the cerulean android was the very reason she had selected him.

"If you don't wish to do it, then simply say so." She stated flatly. "I won't hold anything against you for it."

"It's nothing like that-"

"I actually came to you for this because in actuality, Dr. Cain didn't recommend anyone to me." She interrupted. "I only came because I knew that the other two options would be riddled with far more difficulties. Storm Eagle, I believe that's his name, is…" ugh, she hated this. The very fact X had noticed the pause in her speech along with the apparent visibility of a light rosy tint only cemented it even more. "I don't doubt that he would be quite the capable mentor, far from it. Yet…" she groaned. "I feel it best that any possible, even the very semblances of distractions are removed for my learning process to be efficient. As for Zero…" it was then that X noticed her brows furrowing into an irritable, yet still restrained and controlled, glare. "He is the one with the rather long collection of hair, yes?"

X nodded, rather caught off guard by such a sudden switch in her demeanor. "Actually, he and I are kind of friends…" all right, 'kind of' was a great understatement, the two practically owing each other their own lives at this point, yet given her reaction to even saying the red Reploid's name…the less he fueled this apparent sore spot, the better.

"Oh?" Roll, rather humorously, appeared rather surprised at this information. "Well…either way, your 'friend' and I…I simply don't believe that we would be a compatible match." She simply answered.

"I'm not saying that I won't." X replied, finding his hand beginning to make its way to the door's entrance pad. "I…I just want to know why you felt I was the best decision."

Now it was Roll's turn to momentarily be rendered speechless, her own processor beginning to have difficulty in finding what she deemed to be a suitable answer. "I don't know." She finally said. "I honesty don't KNOW why." She found herself beginning to stammer, why was this becoming so difficult all of the sudden?! "I mean…I became this way, adopted these for the sake and preservation of the Doctor." She stated, displaying her open palms to the blue Reploid. "And yes, you are not the only one here with a buster installed, me being the most recent addition. And yet…" she sighed, her aqua irises gazing into X's emerald orbs. "I feel a strange…'relation' to you. A…'kinship', if you want to call it that."

"Kinship?"

"Yeah. I still don't know why or what to even make of it. But I can't deny that when I look at you." as if to make her point, she gently took him by the cheeks, her intense focus on his features piercing right through him. "I feel as if I've known you for far longer than I actually have. It's certainly more recent…yet I still feel that it extends past a time either of us are familiar with."

X held no answer for her, yet it took little time to confirm that she was far from attempting to humor him. He…he was completely at a loss for words, yet his mind, as usual, was far from being speechless.

'You too?'

He didn't wish to do it. He didn't wish for this to be happening at all, yet if he told her this, he knew that more than likely he would only cement in her mind that he merely took the same stance as Dr. Cain had on her inclusion into the field.

'You couldn't be more wrong.'

Yet…he had to. It was no different than before. Though once again thrust on him and without his consent or control, he owed it to her. He had a responsibility to her…to them…

"Well…" he sighed. "The only main difference is that there aren't going to be any holographic dummies for you to practice on. You'll have to deal with the real thing."

"I trust that construction is going smoothly?" Chill Penguin turned to the towering, azure-eyed Reploid casually approaching him, overseeing the several holes and crevasses that now littered the side of a massive fault.

"Ah! Sigma, sir! Well-"

"Smoothly as possible, Commander." A violet, metallic shelled cingulata based creature answered, viewing his own handiwork on the face of the solid rock, the setting sun reflecting off of his silver plates trailing down his backside to his curling tail. "It's not too much effort to go through, but I have to ask: is such a massive structure really necessary?"

"And why would it not be?" Sigma questioned, continuing to look outward at the miniscule amount of progress that, while indeed it had been started, there would still be much work that needed to be done. "This is to be our new base of operations, our new home. Surely you realize that the declaration of your loyalty to our assertion meant that the ties with those organic bags of flesh were severed?"

Chill Penguin lightly scoffed, his answer already obvious, yet both the stout bird and his superior took notice to the present amount of tension present on Armored Armadillo's features…his muzzle lightly scrunching as he were expressing discontentment at what he had just heard.

"And this displeases you, Armadillo?" Sigma inquired.

"N-No, Commander." Armadillo answered, yet he didn't wish to meet his leader's leering eyes. Indeed, something HAD changed with him. While not visible to the naked eye, he could almost SENSE that the android before him was not entirely there, the very presence of it itself forcing him to not just toss it aside as an illogical and fallible conclusion. Those eyes…"Nothing at all." Such cold, dead eyes…

"Then I shan't be worrying about any further complaints. This fault is to be hollowed out just enough for the true construction to begin." Seeing no further use being there, their leader made his way back from wince he previously came, an unsteady finger gently massaging his aching temple, the motion unseen by the two fauna-based robots.

"I don't see what your problem is." Chill Penguin finally spoke, shattering the surrounding ambiance of the two Reploids rendered silent upon their superior leaving their presence. "You seem like you got everything going good for you so far."

"And you assume so readily that I do?" Armadillo questioned.

"Well yeah! I mean, I got to get out of just being sent out to play in the snow with literally nothing to do!" the bird squawked. "You must've wanted something too, otherwise you wouldn't be here, right?"

Armadillo bit his tongue for a good moment, the words that he wished to dispense onto Penguin, while indeed desirable, it would be far too unsavory for one that wished to attain the image of a stalwart pinnacle of strength. "Does the simple notion of loyalty not satisfy you?" he finally answered, the combination of a gasp and frightened 'caw' signaling that it obviously was not.

"Yo-You serious?!" Penguin guffawed. "S-Seriously! There's GOT to be something more in it for you than just being a 'good little soldier'! I mean, you DO realize what even being here means, right?! We're all now branded with the label of 'Maverick' by the humans that even brought all this on themselves!"

The violet, shelled android released a deep sigh. "I'm more than aware. Yet despite whatever they may think, there's nothing 'Maverick' about following orders given by your superior."

"So why was it that in you decided to not participate in our demonstration in Abel City? You were only a good few miles away and could've gotten there in little time."

Armadillo narrowed his eyes, his clenched, armored fists desperately trying to fight back the urge to pummel the bird daring to be speaking to him of such a thing. "You had it under control." He huffed. "Besides, I would rather use my time informing my own troupe members of the new 'adjustment' and take up those that decided to come along."

"Oh? And last I heard was that Sigma STRICTLY ordered that any possible opposition had to be disposed of on sight?"

That did it.

While he knew that he couldn't simply throw the bird off of the cliff, he WOULD make his point and better yet, his position clear, his larger, far stronger arm immediately seizing the bird and hoisting him up off the ground.

"Gah! W-What are you doing?!" Penguin fearfully cried, yet his attempts to mask this were with little success.

His question was quickly answered by a harsh jerk from the one that held him in his grasp, along with Armadillo leaning in close to the wriggling bird, both sets of eyes locked onto each other. "Indeed, the Commander ordered that, yet the members of MY troupe made their OWN decisions, and being that if I was and still am their leader, my prowess is superior to theirs, therefore, they are NOT a threat." Seeing that he had made his point more than clear, he released Penguin, of who, whilst not in need of any oxygen due to the lack of lungs, still gasped and heaved on the dusty surface of the ground.

"Then…*cough* then what about the humans?! Your stance on them the same as well?!"

"…mostly."

"What do you mean 'mostly'?!"

"I mean that my position on them extends from my position of my men." Armadillo hissed, having just about enough of the bird's company. "If you don't horribly mind, I have a project to be working on."

"Tch! Fine! You wanted some 'me' time, all you had to do was ask!"

'Yet it wouldn't matter to you either way.' Nevertheless, the mauve colored Reploid was more than delighted that he was finally rid of that penguin.

He knew that whatever personal reservations would have to be pushed aside for the sake of the amount of his troupe that remained with him, their very safety lying on his chrome shoulders more than ever now. Chill Penguin could do the song and dance of his apparent importance and how he had to be seemingly 'bought' for his services…yet Armadillo knew of his other contribution on the siege of Abel City…to his OWN personal group, his OWN men…

Armored Armadillo grimaced and let out a huffed growl in disgust. No…he would never. While indeed the decision to follow Sigma was out of what he considered to be natural loyalty, he knew that most, if not all of the ones that came with him did so out of fear, for the other option only meant that the one that they had looked to for support and motivation would be the one crushing their skulls underfoot. No, he would never stoop to such a thing. He had yet to meet his other six comrades composing of the Commander's 'select posse', yet their stances and reasons for joining mattered not. For while indeed still loyal, there was an element that Armored Armadillo answered to that, he found himself surprised to discover, was on a rank far higher than even Sigma, the recollection of his small troupe's faces cementing that for him. It had never been clearer.

His first, and foremost calling, was the preservation of his honor, and there was no leniency in honor for the abuse of power over those weaker than he.

Punch. Duck. Kick. Jump. Draw. Fire. Repeat.

This was the basic kata that Roll had input into her systems, her mentor having not given it to her, yet overtime, she seemed to simply have to assume and implement it for herself, the one that was supposed to be assisting her in even learning basic knowledge such as that…well, he wasn't.

X had taken her request, he DID indeed teach her of subjects that she had to learn: basic buster functions, how to conserve/release energy, ranging sizes of the amount of concentrated plasma that would exit and how to manipulate said sizes, etc. Yes, he had been teaching her rather well in that department, yet when it came to actually executing those pieces of knowledge…suffice to say, Roll found out quickly that he was…rather lacking.

"Y-Yeah! Very good!" the cerulean Hunter congratulated, the longhaired, 'former housekeeper' ducking under yet another blast of plasma released…a single, most minimal amount of plasma. He almost seemed to outright refuse to extend any further beyond that. "You're doing great, Roll!"

"I would hope…" she responded. While her role had been cast aside for another (mainly due to the utmost necessity than anything else), whether by her own dictating circuits or, even if she was struggling to grasp it, personal preferences, she refused to allow herself to be lax on maintaining the proper image of a dutiful, well-mannered young lady. "However…" Well-mannered, yes, yet honest. "Could we stop for a moment?"

"Um…yeah. Sure." X accepted, lowering his buster, his ivory colored hand exiting out of the weapon's nozzle. "Is something wrong? Or do you maybe want to cut today's practice short-"

"No, but there's something that you're not telling me."

X only raised a puzzled brow to her statement at first, yet soon his core was assaulted with grueling trepidation. Oh no….please; don't let this be one of 'those' talks.

"Wh-What are you talking about?" Please don't let this turn into-

"Forgive me if I come off as ungrateful, but I'm beginning to believe that you're deliberately holding yourself back on me."

Yes, it WAS going to be one of those talks.

"Well…uh…" X began to stammer, mentally cursing himself. It seemed that he could NEVER put up a proper argument when it came to this subject. "Wh-Why do you say that?" He also apparently had the naivety to always allow the one lecturing him to have the first say, it usually completely shattering the defense that he HAD managed to scrounge up.

Roll straightened her body up, though while in truth the action was rather unnecessary and albeit useless, she still lightly swiped at the small collection of dust and other particles that had latched onto her armor, her hands brushing it away as if it were mere clothing on her body. "Well, if I'm to be honest, I've been observing that your never fail to release more than just the minimum of charged energy whenever we're doing these exercises."

Crap. Even he didn't notice that. Yet perhaps he could salvage something useful for himself from what she had just said. "But…it's like you said. These are exercises. You've only just received a major upgrade to your form and, while I can't really say as I've never really HAD to deal with that, but I imagine that such a large adjustment would need to be taken slow, right?"

Huh. Not bad if he didn't say so himself…or at least he hoped it would suffice, the traces of irritation on her features steadily beginning to flatten and the creases fading.

Indeed, his reply bore a solid point. "Perhaps…" Roll agreed. Yes, he WAS correct about that factor, however…"Yet that still doesn't explain as to why you're not delivering stronger blasts or physical attacks on me."

"Well, you know…having two smaller busters is still different than having just one." X defended.

"But I've learned how to shoot out larger blasts already!" to demonstrate, Roll extended her left arm, the circular mark in her palm opening and after a few moments, her body beginning to lightly expel a light tint of teal before the color quickly dissipated as soon as it arrived, her palm shooting out a medium-sized collection of concentrated plasma, the color no different than the hue that once flushed her body, it hitting the most southern wall from where she stood. "And it's no different for this one." She stated, lifting up her right forearm. "Though I haven't tried a fully concentrated shot out of either of them yet…"

Little did she realize that she had just provided her teacher with the information he needed to solidify his stance and apparent 'softness' on their training.

"That was a 'medium' shot, right?"

Roll nodded. "Yes. It shows?"

"Yeah, I was just checking…" the fact that he was even doing this now was baffling to him, yet he DID have a point to make…aside from his own twisting, and shamefully selfish reluctance. He drew his buster and released a halfway charged shot; it bearing similar shape and color to Roll's yet it was indistinguishably larger in size. "Because that there is a medium shot for me."

"So I see." Roll agreed, turning her attention back to him from the place he fired at. "And you wished to show this to me because?"

"Well, look." X gestured to the small portion of the already damaged wall that he blasted at. "Comparing my shot to yours, while the difference isn't by too much, give or take ten or so meters, something like that still needs to be accounted for."

Observing and comparing the two pieces of evidence, Roll couldn't do anything else but attest that the azure Reploid was indeed correct.

"I don't suppose you have any suggestions?" she asked.

"I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with it. I'm just saying that-"

"You said that it's too small."

X froze momentarily. "N-No. I didn't say that-"

"But it's too small!"

The sudden rise in her voice shocked both her and her mentor, Roll immediately covering her mouth and gazing at the startled Reploid with widened eyes. "I…I apologize severely for that." She replied, utter shame for what had just passed through her lips etched on her face.

"No, no, it's okay." X assured. "It kind of ties into something else that I think also contributes to-"

"No, it's fine. Th-Thank you." Roll cut him off, her eyes gazing towards the exit of the decimated training room. "Eagle's got some new recruits that are coming in soon, right?"

"Oh, yeah. He does-"

"Then we probably need to be wrapping up here."

"Well…okay. I mean, if that's what you want…"

She had already made the decision for him, giving him a short, yet fully executed bow before exiting the room, leaving the cerulean Reploid alone. It wasn't as if she was wrong, Storm Eagle WAS indeed going to bring those brave enough to put themselves to work in here, yet the fact that the once decimated building still held some use as the Maverick Hunters were building themselves back up did nothing to raise his spirits…the fact that more signing themselves up for the slaughter made him sink even lower.

'Yes…a slaughter. A slaughter that they can thank you for-'

No! It…it was near impossible, but…he couldn't. He couldn't afford to crack, at least not more than he already had. Yet…oh, why did he agree to this? Eagle or Zero he could trust without a problem. They would've cared for her far better than he. Nevertheless, she had made her decision…as had he. A decision that, while it was of his choosing, the outcome if he had said 'no' would've surely resulted in her demise. He despised it, absolutely hated it, yet X knew he…he had to do this for her. He owed it to her, her very life now placed in his hands amidst the grueling amount of it settled on his shoulders.

So close now.

So unbearably close to completion…

Once Spark Mandrill managed to fix and stamp out the issues in the instillation, then the small amount of construction that was left would only be just the minor, yet still desirable details that Sigma had envisioned. Indeed, Armadillo did not lie; he and his crew had done phenomenal work in just the period of a few months. The place wasn't complete yet, no, but the groundwork and everything outside of the interior aesthetics was perfect. It was all becoming perfect…

Perfect…faultless…flawless…yes…

'All except for him.'

Sigma was jostled from the still, silent ambiance in the personally made chamber nestled deep within the mountain's side, the ruby red gem beginning to assault him with what came to be regularly occurring migraines. It was nothing he couldn't handle, their very presence having graced themselves onto him when he first brought one of his previous, more recently acquired members into custody before it was found that he had actually WISHED to join the Maverick Hunters.

In a sense...it all began with...no. No, it didn't, yet at the same time, it did. The changes...the urges...they were present, pondered and sometimes fantasized of, yet it wasn't until he came into contact with the 'Red Maverick' that he found himself more and more willing to allow those urges to be fully executed. Yes...his awakening, the realization of his true self, the true self for ALL Reploids.

'Yet the one who you have to thank for that doesn't wish to acknowledge it.'

"Then...what do you suggest should be done about it?"

'I don't know.' a moment of silence fell, the momentary darkness soon to be extinguished by the sources of light installed overhead. 'But what you've done so far has been working out fine...'

It had been...how long now? Two, maybe three months so far? Yet either way, things were picking up quite a bit. Far faster than X would've predicted. He couldn't tell exactly for sure, as he found himself rarely leaving the ruins of the HQ, or even the small, compact computer room located underneath Dr. Cain's private quarters. In all actuality, it was rather humorous that the old man had kept the small retreat so secret for so long, though given the drawn out period of inactivity, at least if mainly on his part, X couldn't help but be nervous.

He went out when he was commanded to go, of course, yet even before the very location he was currently in was reduced to the barest remains of what used to be a place literally teeming with life of both human and robot alike, X was one that NEVER openly volunteered for any sort of mission. This didn't translate to him simply not concerning himself with potential lives being endangered, far from it, yet there was always someone else that could do the job. There were more people that could readily step up and take that task, more people that wouldn't be swept up in their own, self-constructed it may have been, conflicts that allowed them to pull the trigger without a second thought. Why wouldn't they? It's not they were responsible for the chaos commencing. They didn't have to worry that what they were doing was just to save their own skin, simply burying another mistake that might've not started in the first place had they not-

"X!"

While the sudden sound of Zero's voice startled him, the blue Replied was always more than thankful that someone would more often than not be there to relieve him of his own mind, even if it was merely temporary.

"What? What is it?"

"Well, we're in luck. Looks like we've got ourselves a call from our old boss..."

Note: Once again, I am so sorry it took this long. I'll admit that I sometimes get in the swing of another story that I can put one off for a bit. I hope I don't make X too melodramatic, yet he is a more emotional character. Anyhow, thank you all for your support, if you're interested, check out my other Mega Man story, The Missing Episodes, and maybe others I'm doing for other categories. I look forward to hearing from you all on this and maybe more!