Los Luceros

Revised

Chapter 2

Soldjermon, the commander of the 01st unit; beautiful with her bubbly personality and bright yellow armor. She was kind of an experiment -no one knows the details- but she was designed after Zero when Dr. Cain had made a copy of his schismatic. To say the least, he couldn't duplicate the red hunter, he was too complicated so he went with what he knew and made a girl that was slightly shorter, and gave her golden eagle wings. In short, Soldjer, was a mini-female Zero that was the heart throb of almost every male hunter out there.

Rhythm, she was more of an enigma that preferred to stay in the shadows. She was given command of the 10th unit only to be relieved of her position and disappeared for several years. No one knows what had happened to her in that particular stint of time, but when she came back she had must have been in a very good mood because she willingly hugged X and Zero with a broken old, red helmet with a white crest tucked under her arm. Ever since then she was placed in what everyone called the "Jack of Suicide" team. Their duties were mostly confidential, though everyone knew they were the first to infiltrate enemy bases, gather information other wises regarded as impossible to obtain, and test newly developed technology that had a high variable of the operator dying.

These two women were best friends even though they were practically polar opposites. When hanging together hunters knew that it was okay to approach Rhythm and actually try to strike up a conversation with out fearing for what would happen to them. That was why Douglas decided now would be a great time to talk to the brunet as she slowly sipped a cup of hazel-nut coffee as Soldjer told jokes that cracked a smile on the woman's face; something rare indeed.

"Hey there!" he called out making his way across the small lounge over to the girls.

"Hey Douglas, wanna join us?" Soldjer grinned her happy smile at her good friend.

"Um," he looked over to the one who was still crested with her black horn and purple and yellow fins of a helmet. The tail of her armor -connected to her nervous system when equipped- slowly swished, she was in a good mood, "Sure." Taking a seat he watched as the claws on her purple and yellow arm guard flexed a little bit, tapping the ceramic cup in a mild warning not to ruin the moment. "H-how are you guys?"

"Not bad, I was just telling Rhythm about the time Signas pulled those April fools jokes on X and his buddies when she was gone."

"You mean the time where he glued X's helmet to his head, put rubber cement in Zero's shampoo, and used industrial conditioner on Axl's hair to make it flat?"

"Yep!"

"Priceless," Rhythm smiled into her cup.

"I've got pictures."

"Seriously?!" Soldjer's blue eyes glittered with glee.

"Yeah, but that's not why I'm here. Um, Rhythm, you think you could do something for the science and Development department?" The green reploid turned to the silent one, hazel eyes narrowed on him causing his pulse to quicken a beat.

"The V.T.P.?"

"That's the one, we think we perfected it but we need a test driver."

"Go stuff it up your-"

"Signas asked me to get you to do it."

She let out a growl, gulping down her coffee. Setting down her cup she got up, her purple tail pushing the chair in as she placed her hands on her black clad hips, "Let's get moving."

-----------------------

"What's a V.T.P.?" Axl asked as he walked along side X. They had been asked to supervise the test run for precaution reasons. It was well known the last time a member of the Jack of Suicide tried to help the Science and Development team where was more than just a small incident that resulted in drastic change of protocol for safety reasons.

X tapped a mall pass code into the panel that was beside the SnD main door, "It stands for Virtual Training Program. It's been in the works for several years."

"Sounds cool!" the redhead ducked into the room soon as the door opened.

The room itself wasn't all that big, it was possible that only five reploids could fit into the room in comfort, any more and they would be bumping into each other and equipment. Speaking of which, on wall was completely glass, lined with a large control panel with several different screens and more buttons and lights than you could count. Below the observation room you could see a very large, empty room that resembled more of a hanger than a testing room. Right in sight was a large pod-like device with large tubes and bunches of wires feeding into it.

X walked up to the lifesaver that was seated at the controls and placed a hand on his shoulder while leaning down to the mic, pressing the button to communicate to the room down below. Rhythm was there with a group of researchers who were filling her in small details as they took her helmet and handed her strange device to place over hear head that would block all visual and audio receptors while she was in the pod.

"Which of the stand-bys do you want down there?" he asked simply, wanting Douglas' opinion since he was head of the project.

"Don't matter to me," he shouted up with a wave of his hand.

"I'll go down," Axl quickly went to the lift elevator in the corner of the room.

When he was lowering down to the room below their third companion walked in with a small yawn cutting his features, "Has it started yet?"

"Not yet," X straightened out.

Zero's eyebrow lifted as he watched Rhythm climb into the pod, he pressed the call button and spoke into the mic, "I didn't think it was possible to see you with out your helmet."

"Zero, I won't bother in killing you, I'll just send you straight to hell!" The brunet grabbed her helmet out of the researcher's hands and chucked it at the protective glass, smacking it with a loud sound only to have it drop down where Axl caught it.

"Wow, that was amazingly gentle," Zero blinked.

"She must be in a real good mood," Axl yelled up with a big smile.

"Shut it!" Rhythm hissed as she shoved the deprivation helmet on her head and leaned back, "Let's get this over with."

"So how will this work?" Zero asked as he watched Douglas and the rest of his team raising up in the lift.

"Simple enough," the green reploid approached the console, taking a seat as his fellow teammates went to their stations. He flipped on the intercom system that fed into the room and the helmet that Rhythm wore so he could explain everything at once, "The V.T.P. is designed to feed into your nervous system via the helmet. If you get hit, you'll feel it as if you really have been hit except you will not have the physical damage. When a death blow is dealt the helmet is designed to automatically cut off pain censors and the simulation will terminate function. Further more, we control difficulty level as well as manual release, if anything malfunctions we can terminate the exercise from up here. Now, you ready?"

"Let's go," Rhythm's voice came through the intercom.

"Level difficulty 1, feed sensory 10 percent, we'll raise feed sensory in each level, that way you're not over whelmed. Test will commence in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1 - V.T.P. test start."

Several of the levels passed easily, the readings were promising and in under an hour they were over 70 percent sensory feed. Being programmed to reach a max of 300 percent they sat back and just waited, so far everything was okay. Axl found a seat set out and sat down, harms folded and legs crossed as he tried to get comfortable. He didn't see why a stand-by was needed. It wasn't like the wires would come to life and start destroying everything while leeching off of the operator's life force. But anything was better than going back to sleep, he was tired of having nightmares, especially when they started to escalating to human mutilation. He's never seen something like that before, he's only met a very few amount of humans and never a injured let alone a dead one. It was just... gross, it was disturbing enough that he didn't want to sleep anymore. But as he sat there, with nothing better to do, his eyes started to grow heavy. Sleep pulled at the corner of his mind like a gentle wind lulling him. His head started to nod and soon, all the long nights of staying up with nothing more than the company of a few books and possibly a friend here and there, it all caught up to him, and he fell promptly asleep.

"She's up to 230 percent," a Lifesaver recorded the readings as they placed her into an other level.

"That's good to know. Once she gets to 300 we can call it successful," Douglas scratched his nose as he looked over some print outs.

"Hn?"

"What is it Zero?" X looked over to his friend as the blond leaned forward in his sleep.

"It could be just me but... does something seem off to you?"

"What do you mean?"

The red hunter stood up, moving forward in the room, "Dim the lights, it's hard to see in there."

Someone complied, the dark testing room coming into a better view, the dark red lights inside the pod bringing the person inside into visual. Blue eyes squinted, Rhythm was... sweating.

"Spike!"

Everyone turned to the researcher that nearly shouted this.

"So she got hit, record the data. Event he great mysterious Rhythm take a lump or two," Douglas waved a hand.

"No, I mean, this is a bad hit."

"So?"

Zero watched Rhythm's body arch, her mouth open wide, "Something's really wrong, terminate!"

"But-"

The researcher before jumped out of her seat, "Another spike!"

"Terminate! Where the hell is the audio," Zero shoved the Lifesaver to the side finding the right switch to press.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME! NO!" Rhythm's panicked shout flooded the room.

"TERMINATE NOW!" X shouted as the woman's body lurched once more.

"Controls are not responding! She's received a death blow!"

"The helmet should have ceased pain receptors-"

"The helmet is not responding!"

"What's been struck?!"

"Readings indicate that the arms have been cut off! Strain is on the neck!"

"Manual termination NOW!"

"System is unresponsive! The stand-by will have to cut the power as the system reboots!"

"Where the hell is the stand-by?!"

"I'm going down!" X darted to the lift, slamming his hand on the button before he was even fully in.

It was half way down when he jumped over the small safety railing, landing in a full out run when he stopped. A chill ran down his spine. Something was next to Axl lingering in the shadows. The yellow eyes glowed as sharp teeth pulled in a twisted grin. White hands covered in darkness snaked around the slumbering youth in a possessive gesture. A rat tail wiggled with glee, the mouth opening with a hissing breath. Whatever that thing was, every circuit in X's body told him to run, get away as fast as he possibly could. The shouts of the people above were drowned out as his breathing became labored and his ears were filled with the sound of his own frightened heart beat.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Zero came running past him, in his friend's wake the beast was gone. "Her head's about to be-" His hands grabbed the power cable and he yanked as a horrific scream ran through the hanger, the plug coming out of the V.T.P.; lights flickered on and Axl woke with a start. The room, was deathly silent.

TBC...