PAINT MY GOODBYE RED
Chapter 16: Snowfall
"Hey, Douglas." Zero greeted Douglas after the door to the backup R&D lab was open. "How's it going?"
"Great, as usual. I see you took Axl with you! Just in time. I haven't finished your Bakuenjin program yet, but I did finish importing the DNA data into Axl's guns." Douglas answered. "Wanna give it a try?" he asked me.
"Sure." I answered, smiling softly at him. It's nice to have a few friendly people around in this hostile environment.
"Here you go." Douglas said, handing over my two guns. I took them and set it to load Hyenard's DNA data. The synchronization program told me that the guns will need to transform. My smile got wider. Douglas is going to like this.
Zero and Douglas watched in awe as my guns glowed in the process of transforming into a pair of entirely different guns. I set the sync program to announce on loudspeaker to further demonstrate the features of my copy program, to them.
"Gun ID: Double Bullet. Additional feature or features: One, automatic lock on. Over." the female computer voice announced the guns' particulars.
"Ho…wow, that is. Amazing!" Douglas expressed his amazement at what just happened. "I haven't seen that kind of thing before! And…the voice sounded familiar. Can't put my finger on it, but I've definitely heard that voice before. Ah, regardless. That was awesome! I get to be the first to see it!"
I laughed at his enthusiasm. It's been a while since I heard anyone express their amazement at my abilities properly. I feel warm and fuzzy inside, even though I didn't exactly earn this ability. But then again, I have to have earned it if I am able to hone it to get this far.
I turned to look at Zero, who was speechless, and blinking, almost making a goldfish face again. When he saw me look at him, he cleared his throat and put his poker face back on.
I set the sync program to only announce internally before I set the Double Bullet to load the special weapon, Circle Blaze, instead of the normal shots. "Douglas, I hope you don't mind if I try out Circle Blaze, too." I requested.
"Sure thing!" Douglas enthusiastically responded, and set up a few targets in front of me. "Good to go!" he announced. I nodded before aiming and shooting. Out came the flames, which hit the target, and exploded a short time later. I laughed briefly at the sight.
"Hyenard, I'm gonna miss you, even more than I already do." I muttered.
Keeping a sad smile on my face, I enjoyed the flash of memories that returned to me. When I defended him from bullies. When he dragged me into watching a ninja movie with him. When he finally decided to look for a mod to pursue his dream to become as close to becoming a typical ninja as possible. When he told me that my stealth-based combat is just as good as any other type, with its pros and cons. Nightly walks, whether it's just the two of us, or with other Red Alert members as well. Our many sparring sessions.
I felt something warm roll down my cheek—a teardrop. I wiped it.
"Feeling better?" Douglas gently spoke to me. "He'll always be with you this way."
"Yeah, I am." I responded, turning to face him. "Thanks, Douglas. It makes me feel even better."
It still kind of hurts inside, but Douglas is right. Even if our relationship ended in a bloody mess, at least Hyenard is at peace now, and he told me before I left, that he treasured our friendship. It's okay now.
Zero smiled briefly at us before turning to Douglas to ask him: "How's X doing?"
"Haven't called me yet." Douglas answered. "Every single time I call him he just said: 'Sorry Doug, can't talk yet. I'll call you later' or something like that." he continued, shrugging.
"Well, guess it can't be helped." Zero responded. "Bit worried about him, but he's immune to the virus. Which reminds me…Axl, do you feel like talking about the Professor?"
I gritted my teeth upon hearing that name. The son of a bitch…
"I'll have to tell you sooner or later, and I'd rather tell everyone sooner. This is good timing, actually. We have nothing much to do, right?" I answered Zero, suppressing the anger in my voice.
"Then let's go to the command room. Bye Doug, see you later." Zero said to Douglas. I waved at him with a small smile as we walked away.
"Bye, guys. Have a nice day." Douglas bade us farewell before the door shut behind us.
Upon arriving in front of the command room, Zero pressed the intercom button.
"Yes, hello, Zero. What is it?" Alia's voice was heard from the intercom, addressing Zero, as she has seen us from the camera on the ceiling.
"Axl's going to talk about the Professor who started all this. Do you have time?" Zero stated his business.
"Yes. Yes, we certainly do." Alia answered before opening the command room door for us. We stepped in to see Alia and Signas sitting on their desks.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen." Signas addressed us. Zero saluted in response. "Commander Signas." he addressed Signas. Not feeling like I should salute since I'm not a hunter yet, I simply bowed my head.
"So, Axl, you're finally telling us about the Professor." Signas said. "You may begin."
"Alright." I responded. "So this Professor, he approached Red Alert like, a few weeks after X retired, offering power, seemingly without a price, telling us that he 'sympathized with our cause' or something. I always had bad vibes about him. He's a creepy guy, always staring at me like he's gonna lock me in his wardrobe." I explained.
"Has he ever done anything to you?" Signas asked.
"Mmmm…aside from asking for DNA data, he took me…inside a secret chamber in the lab he set up. Not even Red or our go-to for tech support, Anteator, is allowed in there. So it was just him and me. And every single time we went in there, he locked the door. Five times over. That's advanced security right there. And every time, he'd tell me to go inside a capsule, and sleep." I answered, my poker face turning into a frown. "I…I never really found out what he did to me during those sessions."
I saw Alia having a quite unique expression on her face…a mixture of worry and disgust. "Axl…have you felt anything different after those sessions? Like, difficulties walking? Your head spinning?" she asked me.
"Um, no. Nothing different. And he always found it strange how I felt nothing different after each session. I speculate that it's his attempt to upgrade me." I answered.
"How does this Professor look like?" Signas asked, remaining stoic, but there's a bit of worry reflected in his eyes.
"I…none of us have ever seen his full face. He wears a hood, in addition to a cloak. So he kind of looks like the grim reaper, just way bigger. Ah, yeah, he's really big. Kind of like Commander Signas, just a bit bigger." I elaborated.
"Commander, could it be Sigma?" Alia asked, her expression turning from worried to afraid.
"I don't know." Signas answered, his eyes narrowed. "X and Zero completely obliterated Gate's flawed recreation of him. And even then, his mind was too broken to function properly. Am I right, Zero?"
"Oh yeah, his speech in particular was absolutely wonderful." Zero responded. "Oh yeah, Axl. Did this Professor ever speak weird?"
"Sigma, huh…" I muttered. Having known of the bare bones of the history of the greatest maverick known to man, I can understand why everyone instantly thinks that the Professor might be Sigma. Sigma was the instigator of every major reploid crisis, and he keeps on coming back. "No, never. He speaks like a normal person." I answered.
"I guess Sigma's gone for good after all." Alia heaved a sigh of relief. "But still, he might just be someone just as threatening. Red Alert was a big group, and he destroyed it from the inside…"
"There's only one way to find out." Signas responded. "Anything else you have to tell us about the Professor?"
"Ah, yeah!" I said as a flash of memory returned to me. "I remember now. Shortly after we acquired the Sigma Virus MK. II, the Professor approached us. And then this secret chamber…one of our guys wanted to deliver something he asked for. The Professor told him to just drop it off in front of the lab entrance, but he insisted on giving it to the Professor himself, and approached the locked chamber door. And then he went maverick…" I told the story. "Ever since then, the Professor had used at least two layers to lock the chamber door...and once, I saw him load the virus into the capsule after I got in there..."
I paused when I saw everybody's eyes widen. Silence filled the room for a few minutes until Signas said to me: "Go on."
"That's it." I responded. "It goes without saying that he's messing around with it, or he was after it from the get-go to achieve something unknown. Even with his numerous experiments, he never went crazy."
"It's unmistakeable. It must be Sigma, Commander." Alia said.
"That possibility is logical. However, we can't rule out the possibility of another reploid immune to the virus. Axl can possibly be a new addition to the list, considering that he never felt different after the Professor's sessions." Signas answered.
"You're right. First it was X, then it was Zero, to a smaller extent. And then, there's…"
An announcement jingle interrupted Alia's exposition. Afterwards, X's voice was heard.
"X here, I had to destroy Hyenard's head after the virus concentration got too thick and I was in too much pain to analyse it further. The main R&D lab will be sealed for the day. I apologize for the inconvenience. There's no need to send medics for me. I'll be fine."
I heaved a sigh. I had a sneaking suspicion that they'll fail. If they had been trying for ages to develop a cure and never succeeded, then it's likely that they can't ever do it. Why did I keep my hopes up?
Zero looked at me sadly and placed his hand on my shoulder to reassure me.
"Thanks, Zero." I responded to him. "But it's fine."
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Out came another chapter, marking a double update for this weekend, mostly because I don't feel like drawing. The sync program announcer's voice is actually Rosa/Rho Wily's voice. The transforming guns were her idea. Did the Professor creep you out? I was certainly creeped out. Also, if anyone gets the FNAFB3 reference in there, have a hot bird ass.