MLaaTR: Maverick Hunter X

By Drewmaster

17. Chapter 17

Charlotte had decided to visit Vexus again. From what they discussed with each other; they've definitely started to become a lot more comfortable around each other. After sharing a few personal secrets with each other, Charlotte was a little more than surprised at one of Vexus's secrets.

"What? That guy? I mean…don't get me wrong…he's quite attractive…but I never thought you of all people would fall for a guy at all, not even Zero," Charlotte said loudly with a blush.

Blushing as well, Vexus said "Military dictators can't afford to show weakness. That's why I never showed this side of my personality until now."

"I admit, I kinda figured that. I gotta say though, Zero definitely knows how to bring the whole girly man thing back into style," Charlotte said.

Vexus giggled some and said "I didn't quite think about it like that."

"Well, if you are really serious about trying to date him or something, all I can say is, good luck," Charlotte said.

"I'll need something more than luck if I hope to succeed. I haven't talked that way to a man in centuries. I'm honestly not sure if I have what it takes anymore," Vexus said.

"You mean like…uhh…divine intervention or something? Charlotte asked.

"That's a little too deep, don't you think? Besides, I haven't seen any evidence of a higher power intervening when people need it as long as I've been around," Vexus replied.

"I wasn't asking what your beliefs were, necessarily, but now that you said it…" Charlotte pried.

Vexus sighed and explained "The question is not whether I believe in the existence of a higher being or beings; it's just that I don't think they care about us. If they exist, they exist. If they don't they don't. I don't care about them if they don't care about us."

"I'm not sure about what I believe yet personally, so many unanswered variables. If he does, why doesn't he show himself? I'm not going to go too deep into that right now, but I do hope you find somebody someday. I would really hate for to be lonely forever," Charlotte said.

A moment later, Vexus asked in a tone that sounded as if she could cry soon "Why…do you care about me?"

Charlotte gasped at her sudden change of tone.

"I…I don't see you as a mean and nasty person anymore. I see you as the person hidden deep down inside of you that wanted desperately to come to the surface for so long: the real you; not the front that you put on to hide yourself. For centuries you were a heartless tyrant, and if that's what you really are deep down, you wouldn't have shed pleading tears the way you had. You wouldn't have tried to save my life," Charlotte answered.

Vexus clenched her fists tightly and grew frustrated with Charlottes words. A moment later, she felt Charlotte's hands land on her shoulders, which startled her. She looked up at Charlotte wide-eyed.

Charlotte then pleaded "Whatever it is that's holding you back from expressing how you really feel, please…let it go. Your past cannot control you unless you let it. If you want to break free from it, then let it go. I don't want to see you suffer anymore."

"My suffering? But…but what about all the suffering I caused? Wouldn't you say that I deserve to suffer for my crimes?" Vexus asked with a trembling voice.

"I don't know what you deserve. All I know, is that all those people you killed and enslaved, and all those hearts you've broken, it's already done. It cannot be reversed. It cannot be fixed. You can't give back to them what you've already taken. You lying here in your own guilt and self-pity won't serve any good purpose. I don't know much about God, but the scriptures do say that judging people is not our place. I have no desire to condemn you. I won't you to know that I forgive you. I ask that you please don't condemn yourself," Charlotte pleaded further.

Trying hard not to cry, Vexus asked in a high-pitched whine "What should I do?"

Reacting to the way Vexus asked that question, Charlotte fought hard to hold back her tears.

Charlotte then took a strained deep breath and asked in a trembling voice "What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid…I'm…afraid of…changing my ways. I…don't know how to live the way normal people do anymore. I used to live the way you do, but that was more than fifteen hundred years ago. I'm so used to my way of life, that I'm afraid...I might fail. I'm also…afraid…of your people. They'll never accept me," Vexus answered.

"I accepted you. I know I can't speak for everyone, but if you show that you are sincerely sorry for what you've done, and if you work really hard to gain their trust, I'm sure you'll eventually be accepted by more people like me. Not everybody is as condemning as you seem to think. There are many people who realize that stubbornly holding grudges is like a disease, that if not treated, may eventually lead to destruction. Finding those people is a good option for you if that's what you want," Charlotte explained.

"I'm tired of hiding all the time. It's so…it's so lon…it's so lonely…" Vexus said before losing control of her emotions.

Charlotte hugged Vexus tightly, and with watery eyes said "It's okay. I understand. I'm here to help you."

With her face buried in Charlotte's chest crying and great difficulty speaking properly, Vexus asked "Smytus…Kra…Krackus…why did you betra…why did you leave me?"

As soon as Vexus finished, her words sent a huge surge of emotion through Charlotte's body, causing her to clench her eyes shut very tightly and whimper in short strained bursts with tears pouring down her face.

All of the XJs were outfitted with the reploid technology. There appearance was no different besides that of XJ6's, who was finally given a left arm. As far as the robotic DNA switching is concerned, though Ms. Wakeman figured out how to reproduce it, it wasn't perfect by any means. It works but, for now, the issue is that there a few unfortunate bugs left, and possibly more that are unknown.

For instance, just as ordinary personal computers lag from time to time, the DNA switching might lag as well. Secondly, the DNA switching was only installed into their outer armors, so they need to not only be careful not to hurt themselves, but also be aware that once their outer armors are destroyed, they can no longer use that ability. Finally, there is a processing power issue that prevented Ms. Wakeman from programming the ability to utilize more than one type of switch. She needs to use close to the same amount of processing power in their armors as in the XJ's brains as the reploids do. Years ago, she was relieved that she didn't have to go through that much trouble, but now, she wishes she had.

"I swear; Drs. Light and Wily must've been amazing geniuses to have developed you two without all of these technical issues to worry about," Ms. Wakeman said frustrated.

"My upcoming response will be because of the 'not knowing what it's like to live on the other end of the spectrum' issue, but we never really admired them much for their genius because they were able to make us. We think of them as 'fathers, so to speak,' that we wish we could've known better. I don't remember Wily at all besides his face and a voice that I can't really make out in my dreams, and X only remembers bits and pieces of his conversations with Light before he was finally sealed away," Zero explained.

Ms. Wakeman thought about it for a moment, and before she had a chance to speak, the upstairs door was opened. Footsteps and the voices of Jenny and Sheldon were heard coming from above.

"I'll get back to you two on this subject later," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Time to entertain a guest. I wonder who it is," X pondered.

"You know that boy that I told you about that was head-over-heels for XJ9?" Ms. Wakeman asked softly.

Both X's and Zero's eyes widened and they both said in unison "Oh!"

They were familiar with the story.

As soon as the door to the room opened, both Maverick Hunters got a good look at Sheldon. Zero somehow expected someone even nerdier looking than Sheldon based on the description XJ5 gave him, but he thought his actual appearance was just fine. X didn't have an objection at all, and actually didn't have much of an opinion either way; and that was probably because humans falling for reploids and vice versa was common in their world anyway.

"I know this is a bit cliché, but…I somehow expected you two to be taller," Sheldon said while getting a good look at the Maverick Hunters.

Feeling a little awkward by that statement, X asked "How many times have we heard that one before?"

"I see that comment never ceases to make you feel a little self-conscious, X," Zero teased.

"Sorry about that. Anyway, Jenny already let me know you two have heard just about everything there is to hear about me. And yes, I already know mostly everything there is to know about you two," Sheldon pointed out.

"Well, that saves us a lot of time," Zero said.

"So, what's the order of business for the day Mr. Lee? Ms. Wakeman asked.

"You almost sound really quick to get rid of me," Sheldon replied.

"Well no…I'm just a little anxious to know what you've come to tell us," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Okay then; first I've to let you guys know that I've not only finished rebuilding Silver Shell, but I've highly improved it, and as a safety precaution, I made it totally remote control. With that, I don't actually have to go into battle myself. But I could've told you all that over the phone. The thing I really wanted to tell you is that I had a chance to have a private chat with a very well known and nearly impossible to track scientist that goes by the user name '**Habakkuk_3_3-6.**' Yes, he is referring to the Holy Bible. The point is that he told me after doing plenty of his own research and receiving information from his connections, that first; the Mavericks are successfully recruiting many known and dangerous villains from all over the world with surprising ease. Apparently, they are more willing than we thought to completely sell out their own world. The second thing he told me is that that The Mudslinger is surprisingly still alive, but has practically lost all touch with reality as a result of what Smytus and Krackus did to him and that he is being held in custody by Russian authorities," Sheldon explained.

"Why haven't they told us yet?" Jenny asked.

'That's actually because they only recently found him wondering around in the wilderness within the past few days. As to exactly how he managed to get to Russia from here is the real mystery," Sheldon answered.

"As far as recruiting your villains is concerned, Sigma has an unearthly high level of charisma despite his scary appearance. His words, they make the average person who doesn't know any better want to throw away the convictions that you've developed your entire life in order to follow his cause. He's an expert at making his ambitions seem like a dream come true, but concealing any trace of his actual twisted agenda. Good thing his so-called great speeches don't work on Zero and Me anymore," X explained.

"I'll keep that in mind when I meet him," Jenny said.

"The other thing he told me is that about a month ago, Killgore was confirmed alive," Sheldon said.

"Oh, no! You've gotta be kidding me! Why him too? Every time he shows up, he proves to be even more dangerous than the last time. I felt for sure his power ran out a long time ago," Jenny said surprised and irritated.

"The problem though, is that his current whereabouts are unknown," Sheldon added.

"I just hope he doesn't challenge me again while we're fighting those Mavericks. I just don't know how much I can take," Jenny said somewhat nervously.

"Killgore huh? What a name?" Zero asked.

"Actually, I did some research on some of the villains here, and it turns out that this Killgore guy is on the PMDV or 'Potentially Most Dangerous Villains' list. He once successfully rebuilt that Armagedroid we heard about, which surprised everyone, including Jenny, who had a direct encounter with the situation," X explained.

"The reason I came over here to tell you this is because 'Habakkuk_3_3-6' told me that if I valued my own safety, I wouldn't relay this message over any form of electronic circuit. So, that's the gist of it all," Sheldon concluded.

"I figured as much. I've heard about this Kabakkuk person on several occasions, but I never once tried to find him. All I know for sure is that the official story on him is that he is a scientist…which is a bit too vague if you ask me. The good news is that he's been around for far too long for him to be one of Sigma's followers in disguise. He seems pretty resourceful to have been able to find out the information that he did…which leads me to believe that he could've been one of the scientists who worked in the military in the first intergalactic war. I say this because I remember when I was in that war, I was told about an ingenious little trick used for untraceable infiltration for spying missions. It's the usual tiny robotic bug that records information using a camera that usually goes unnoticed, with the exception of a failsafe that causes the bug to suddenly self-destruct the moment it's noticed by the enemy. That way the signal won't be traceable. Then again, most anything from that long ago can be sold on the black market nowadays," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"The important thing is that we can't dismiss this information as entirely untrue. We need to go about this cautiously," Zero suggested.

"True indeed," Jenny agreed.