Chapter 21 – The Relentless March of Time
Another week passed, with Ciel making a full recovery as expected, just in time to see the first snow of the year.
One lazy morning, she got out of bed and looked outside, feeling a childlike glee at the sight of the white blanket covering the roofs and the streets. Lune had already procured several portable heaters and laid them out across the house and though the construction had been well insulated, the extra warmth was still a nice touch.
With her schedule for the day clear of obligations, she lounged about in her bed, tempted to simply stay there. However, Alouette had other plans.
"It's a beautiful day outside!" the small Reploid girl excitedly shouted as she burst into the room. "What are you doing in bed?"
"Nothing to do today." Ciel said with a shrug. "Might as well sleep in a little longer."
"Aww! C'mon!" Alouette pleaded. "You'll have time for that when you're old!"
Two opposing forces briefly clashed in Ciel's mind – the warm comfort of the bed and the beaming smile of the small Reploid girl who had become like family to her. It was a decidedly one-sided struggle and in a matter of minutes she was reluctantly dragging herself out of bed and switching to full winter clothing.
"Sometimes I wonder if I wear too much pink..." she absently mused as she finished buttoning up a thick coat and tying the laces on a sturdy pair of boots.
After a quick breakfast, she wrapped a fluffy scarf – naturally also pink – around her neck and stepped outside, with Alouette following close behind. The sudden rush of cold air made her feel strangely invigorated after the days spent in bed and she took in a deep breath.
For the next few hours, she tried to live more like a girl her age and less like a genius scientist and burgeoning civic leader, feeling the crunch of the snow underneath her boots, walking around the streets visiting her friends who lived in the area and checking the progress of the expansion work during her absence.
"Just for the record, if you get sick again out of carelessness, I'm not carrying you home." Zero said as she crossed his line of sight, trying and failing to look serious. It was a lie, and he knew it.
"Pants on fire!" Alouette teased, pointing at him with a cheeky grin on her face.
"Quiet in the peanut gallery." Zero playfully said, walking up to the small Reploid girl and lightly pinching her nose.
As she walked past them, Cial watched the exchange in silence.
"You really would be hard pressed to tell him apart from a human when he gets like that..."
Truth be told, while it had made her somewhat apprehensive to hear who exactly her sister had developed feelings for, given her own history with Neo Arcadia, Zero and his old companions continued to baffle her on a regular basis.
"None of this would have been possible without you..." she thought, watching Zero as he continued to act more like a carefree teenager than the determined warrior history had painted him as.
Meanwhile…
X finished pinning some notes on a large map that occupied most of the surface of a table in his shared quarters and paused in reflection. Across the map, several spots were crossed out in red ink, usually accompanied by a small sticker with a note.
In the time after first first defeat of Omega, until the sealing of the Dark Elf and the loss of his original body, X had tried to track down as many of the old Maverick Hunter outposts as possible, collecting information that he hoped would one day lead him to Alia's last known location. He had also tracked down a copy of Dr. Cain's archaeological journals, which had helped him locate the site where Dr. Light had once sealed his capsule. The original notes, however, were lost to time, and X had no way of knowing if there was additional information there.
Over the years, he had encountered several other capsules, each containing what looked like holographic recordings of his creator and upgrade parts, laid out in an almost prescient manner across sites that would later turn out to be hotbeds of Maverick activity. While he had never had a definitive answer as to the how and why, he knew that at least Dr. Wily had once created limited AI replicas of himself to be activated in the event of his demise. Both him and Zero had encountered them on a few occasions, but they seemed to have been completely destroyed after their hardware failed or they incurred Zero's wrath.
"If what that boy said is true, then they could very well still be out there..." X mused. "But where? Right now, the best lead I've got would be whatever's left of the old Hunter HQ."
For a long time, he had avoided the place. Ruined by a missile strike in the closing days of the Elf Wars, after being assaulted by successive waves of Reploids driven mad by the Dark Elf's power, for a long time it had been the closest thing to a home X had ever known, and its loss had always been, at least in his mind, one of his greatest failures.
His sight wandered to another object on the edge of the table.
"Guess Zero left in such a hurry he forgot this." X realized, stepping closer and picking up the Z-Saber.
As he turned it in his hand, X recalled the time when, thinking Zero gone, he had carried it in his honor, gaining a degree of proficiency in its use before returning it to its rightful owner.
"This was never really my thing." X mused. "He's always made it look so easy…"
X had never wielded the blade again after the Nightmare incident. After everything he had gone through since then, including the loss of his original body, he couldn't help being struck by a random thought.
"I wonder if I still remember how to use this…"
With that, he backed away from the table and ignited the blade, pointing it forward. He held it in place for a moment and then tentatively flourished it.
"First Ciel, now you?" Zero teased, having picked that exact moment to step inside.
Behind him, Ciel let out a soft chuckle.
"Busted, I guess." X said with a playful smile before deactivating the Z-Saber and putting it back on the table. "I guess I always did admire your skill with this thing."
"To be honest, your ability to copy weapons was always a bit baffling to me." Zero said. "If not for the energy limitations, you'd be a walking arsenal."
"With the old Falcon Armor, maybe." X recalled. "But I hope I'll never need those weapons again."
"Better safe than sorry." Zero retorted. "We may finally be enjoying some peace, but I'm not letting my skills rust."
"Make no mistake though." X added. "If anything threatens this peace, I'm not letting you do all the work. Not again."
With that, he clenched his fist and the increasingly familiar white glow enveloped it.
"But even after all the weapons I copied, all the suits of armor and gadgets my maker left me… I'm still discovering new things."
"Well, do let us know if you're going to start walking on water next." Zero joked, before turning his attention to the map on the table. "But by the look of it, you have other things in mind right now."
"Yes." X confirmed with a nod. "I'm heading out again. Back to the old Hunter HQ."
Ciel noticed X tensing up ever-so-slightly as he uttered those words and stepped forward.
"Is something wrong?" she asked with a concerned expression.
"It's… a place I've been reluctant to go back to." X explained. "Too many memories..."
Meanwhile, in an abandoned facility somewhere in the wilderness…
"You can't be serious." Colbor said, nervously eyeing the corridor in front of him.
The passageway stretching out before him looked like a nightmarish version of an old world game show, with narrow, flimsy-looking metal platforms perched precariously over spike laden pits. Here and there, rusty oil drums swung around at the end of metallic arms mounted on the walls and ceiling.
"I suppose maybe I overdid it just a little bit…" Leviathan conceded.
"A little bit?!" Colbor protested. "Are you trying to train me or are you trying to get me scrapped?"
"Oh laugh it up." she retorted. "X and Zero had to deal with far worse back in the day… and Fefnir and I put a lot of work into this."
"Him being involved isn't exactly reassuring…" Colbor muttered, hesitantly walking to the edge of the first pit.
Leviathan glanced at him and sighed.
"This isn't getting anywhere..."
"I wasn't planning on showing you this just yet, but…" she said, stepping to the edge without hesitation.
Then, to his confusion, she turned back to him and opened her arms.
"Maybe this will convince you."
"What are you…" he muttered in confusion, which then turned to alarm as she dropped into the pit.
Colbor had seen up close what that kind of spikes could do, even to a Reploid's synthetic skin and metallic skeleton. Whatever hesitation he harbored gave way to panic as he rushed forward and peered over the edge… only to find Leviathan lying in the bottom of the pit, smirking at him in a surprisingly relaxed position.
"What?!" he muttered in surprise.
"Rubber." she flatly stated. "Did you seriously think I was going to put you in danger just for basic training?"
"So what's all this then?" Colbor retorted. "A laugh at my expense?"
With a scowl, she got back up, climbed out of the pit and stood in front of him.
"Don't be ridiculous." she said, leering at him. "Do you think I'd go through all this work just for a laugh?"
"You're serious…" he realized.
"Of course I am." she retorted. "I just thought having a more realistic training environment would help things along."
"You call that realistic?!" Colbor countered. "I admit, this looks like the kind of crap X and Zero deal with on a regular basis, but what kind of madman even designs places like this? It doesn't look remotely practical."
"You're telling me." Leviathan grumbled. "I lost count of the number of times that idiot copy nearly fell into one of his own spike traps. But that doesn't matter right now."
"What matters right now…" she continued, staring right at him. "Is that we're going to have to find some way to get you to overcome that trauma before you can give it your all."
The Resistance soldier considered his current predicament. He had tried and failed several times to put that fateful encounter with Harpuia behind his back. The others had refused to give up on him, which he was thankful for, but he had grown to resent his own perceived weakness as much as he had resented the Four Guardians for their actions.
"I can't keep going like this." he hissed, clenching his fist. "I refuse to keep being useless… or to turn into a maniac like Elpizo."
Adding to the list of surprises for the day, Leviathan smiled, without the faintest hint of mockery or malice.
"Good." she said. "As I told you before, it's all about the mind, not the specs."
With that, she turned back to the obstacle course.
"Come on. Nothing to fear here. Think you can keep up with me?"
"I suppose… there's only one way to find out." Colbor said, taking a deep breath to steady himself.
A few days later, after a long trek through deserted lands...
X had avoided this place for a very long time, burdened by the memories of his old life and the friends and companions he had lost along the way. As he stood in front of the half-buried ruins of the old sprawling complex, battered by the elements and nearly forgotten by time, he felt a heaviness in his chest.
Once, X had questioned his maker's reasons for creating him with such human-like traits, which had then been passed along to the Reploids crafted by Dr. Cain based on his designs. The ability to sleep, dream, consume food. The same senses as a human and many similar functions, albeit in a much sturdier, synthetic frame, without the same vulnerabilities – at least on the outside.
For much of his existence, X had sought answers and understanding, and for a time he had even grown to resent Thomas Light for leaving him all alone in the world, grappling with doubts about himself and his purpose and facing regrets and heartache far beyond a human's lifespan. Eventually, he had understood. His maker had always wanted him to be a part of of the world, a part of humanity, and as the first of the Reploids X felt responsible for guiding them to the best of his ability, even after so many had turned against humanity and their own kind.
"Reploid Jesus, some of them called me…" X thought, remembering Zero's sense of humor. "More like a Reploid Adam, if we're sticking to the source material. But the point remains. I'm part of them. They're part of me."
As he gazed upon the front of the building, still visibly bearing the scars of the Elf Wars, with a large section of the roof missing, some wings caved in and several walls broken or riddled with holes, X once again found himself lost in thoughts.
"I don't want to believe we're doomed to keep repeating the same cycles over and over again until the sun burns out."
Casing such concerns aside, he finally crossed the threshold, stepping through the gates of the complex, into a large courtyard. In the center, with some portions covered by moss, X saw a towering metal slab, fashioned from the same Titanium X alloy that formed much of his skeletal structure and armor. Despite the centuries, the silvery metal did not bear a single crack, standing upright in defiance of the elements and oblivion itself.
As he gazed upon the slab, recognition dawned on X. He stepped closer, placing a hand on it and slowly swept his eyes upon its surface, finding countless names engraved on it. Names he recognized. Hunters, one and all, fallen in the line of duty, both during Sigma's Maverick Wars and comparably terrible events that had followed until the sealing of the Dark Elf.
X felt a pang of grief as he read the names and his mind was flooded with countless faces. While he knew on an intellectual level that he couldn't be everywhere and save everyone all the time, such losses had always been a blow to him, even as a rookie Hunter. Centuries later, much had changed in the world, and few people remembered the Maverick Hunters and their sacrifices for the sake of humans and Reploids alike. If not for the ruins of their structures, the technology they had left behind and the last living witnesses of those days, some might think they had never existed at all.
As X pondered this, feeling another pang of regret, the words of the strange armored man came to mind.
"Your time in this world is long past. Though you perished in the dark, forgotten… someone knows that you lived."
"You won't be forgotten, old friends." X said solemnly. "Even if I can't build the paradise I hoped to, I'll make sure the world remembers."
With that, he circled the slab and kept walking, past the courtyard and into the battered old metal and concrete main building. The old main door had remained ajar, likely stuck like that after the power generators had been knocked out by the missile strike that had also caved in a portion of the roof.
Walking through the empty halls, with his footsteps echoing in the silence, was an eerie experience for X, who had always seen the place bustling with activity. Whether there was any ongoing crisis or not, the Hunter HQ had always been full of people, both staff and visitors. Through the holes in the roof, beams of sunlight illuminated the abandoned corridors, giving it a hallowed appearance. X kept going until he reached the circular Mission Control room where he had gone through so many briefings before being deployed. In the center of the circular chamber, a holographic projector mounted on the floor had once displayed tactical information. Laid out in a circle around it were several consoles where the operators had once sat, providing guidance.
X recognized one console in particular and hesitantly stepped closer. The old terminal, though long offline, still seemed mostly intact. The black office chair, with an ergonomic design despite the fact that Reploids did not need to worry about such things, was covered in a thin layer of dust, but he had no doubt that it was the same he had once known.
X blew away some of the dust and sat on the chair for a few moments, his mind once again drifting to days long gone. Despite the fact that the place had been abandoned for centuries and the previous occupant of this workstation was long gone, he could almost swear he felt a familiar scent in the air. Hesitantly, as if afraid of breaking something, he lightly ran his hand over the keyboard and gazed upon the screen. After all the time that had passed, he'd thought himself ready to face this part of his past, but he still felt a dull pain in his chest. As he lamented his indecision and wondered what might have been, a sudden tear rolled down his face and he uttered a single word.
"Alia..."
To his surprise, the screen lit up, nearly causing him to jump off the chair.
As X tried to steady himself, he quickly remembered that several of the computers at the HQ were equipped with voice recognition modules for emergency situations, but he had never worked with the Mission Control terminals and thus had no idea that they shared this functionality. All of the models also had emergency batteries, but he had never expected them to last that long.
Compounding his surprise, as he saw the desktop, he found a file that looked like a recorded message. Unsure what he would find, X hesitated only for a fraction of a second before opening it… and a familiar face appeared on the screen, just as he remembered her.
"I don't know how long you'll be out, or if I'll be able to meet you here when you do." the recording of Alia said. "Signas has the feeling that Weil has a few more dirty tricks up his sleeve and has ordered us to scatter."
X felt a shudder as the recording of Alia stared right at him, her blue eyes betraying her anxiety.
"I can't get a transmission to you right now with all the interference and there's a good chance I won't be here when you get back."
Then an abrupt crash echoed in the background, followed by the unmistakable sounds of gunfire.
"Damnit…" Alia hissed, glancing off-screen. "Another horde."
"Alia, we have to go." a familiar male voice urged. "I don't know how long I can hold them off!"
"In a minute." she replied, turning to face someone off-screen before staring back at X.
"I'm heading to Outpost 37 for now." she continued. "But with all the insanity out there and the Dark Elf driving Reploids into a frenzy, the plan could change at any time."
A few more shots were heard in the background, followed by what sounded like a grenade going off.
"Alia…!" the male voice insisted.
"I don't know what you three are planning, but if anyone can put a stop to this it's you." she continued, her tone more urgent. "Signas prepared many hidden places out there for this kind of situation. The files here should help you find me when you're done. Either way, I'll try to get in touch again once it's safe."
X couldn't help noticing – and admiring – how she was still holding herself together. She sat up from the selfsame chair he was occupying and sighed.
"When this is over… we have a lot to talk about. I have to go now. Stay safe out there."
With that, the recording ending. Taking in the words, X searched the desktop and found a set of files, detailing the locations of all active Maverick Hunter outposts across the globe. He had already found some of them during his search, but there were several entries he did not recognize. Too emotionally troubled to study them on the spot, he instead located a wireless interface port on the console and downloaded the entire contents of the hard drive.
"I'll have to come back here later with more time and maybe some tools…" X mused. "This will do for now though."
As he stood from the chair, he paused for a moment.
"That voice… I know I've heard it before…"
Determined to get as much done after such a long absence as possible, he wandered through the ruined hallways until he reached the living area hundreds of Hunters at a time had once called home. As a commander, Zero had insisted on taking one of the rooms closest to the door in order to keep an eye out for threats, so his quarters were the first X came upon.
The ancient metal door gave way after a firm shove and inside X found a simple room with a rather spartan decoration. He had been there many times in the past, playing videogames with Zero and Axl and chatting about random things, and the thought of being back, alone, felt rather strange.
Forgotten on the nightstand, X found an old picture album. Zero's recent stint as an amateur photographer was not completely new, he recalled. Reasoning that his old friend would likely want to see the pictures again, but not ready to look at them in such a place laden with memories, X carefully stuffed the album in his backpack.
X glanced around some more and, to his surprise, he saw that the old console was still on the floor in front of the TV where they had left it before departing for that one fateful mission. Though he was unsure if the thing still worked after so many years, X carefully disconnected the cables, gathered the controllers and the game cases and carefully stowed everything in the backpack as well before moving on.
His next stop was a rec room, where various cupboards had once contained food, spare energy tanks and even some beverages. Though coffee, tea and other drinks did not affect Reploids the same way they did humans, many still enjoyed the taste – especially the sweet ones. What gave X pause, however, was the wide couch, set in front of a large flat screen TV mounted on a wall.
"This place…" he muttered to himself, recognizing the room where he and the others had spent so many evenings together, watching movies and some of the same old animated shows they had so recently introduced to Ciel, Cial, Lune and Alouette.
X looked around, lost in memories once again, until he eventually summoned the willpower to pry himself away and continue on his way. His next stop was his old quarters, where he found several sets of civilian clothing in his wardrobe. Some had been gifts from Alia, while others he had picked himself, back when he had tried to walk around without drawing too much attention. To his relief, the synthetic fibers had held well and he carefully stowed them in his backpack as well, taking a mental note to wash them once he returned home. He also found a couple of Sub Tanks, which would have likely been very helpful to Zero during the battle at Ragnarok and had just lain there forgotten.
"I still don't know what he was thinking, going up there with just two…" X mused. "But I'd better take these too just to be safe. We don't want to see Ciel crying again, do we?"
And so, he stowed the Sub Tanks in his backpack as well before continuing on his way. His next stop was Axl's quarters, further down the hall, where he found a whole lot of really old candy, likely inedible by that point, along with a small black remote control flying drone he recalled having seen Axl use to prank Zero on a couple of occasions.
"Some things never change, do they?"
X then glanced at the bed and saw something peeking out from underneath. As his eyes compensated for the darkness, he recognized the shape of magazines… and quickly looked away.
"Yeah, no. Not taking those with me. He can come back for them if he wants."
Still, he hesitated for a moment. While he was not one to judge Axl for his tastes after all they had been through together, X was also not keen on being seen carrying such material, especially not by a few certain people who had become like family to him since his return.
"Oh, fine. Let him have his fun. But he'd better not leave these lying around."
With that, he quickly stuffed them in the backpack as well, along with the drone and the remote controller.
X continued wandering across the hallways until he reached his final stop – a library of sorts, containing not books but rather skill programs used in the training of Reploid recruits. While centuries old and likely outdated, X realized that they would likely still be considerably useful at the burgeoning settlement. Without hesitation, he scooped up as many of the discs as he could find, carefully stuffing the casings in his backpack on top of everything else. He then proceeded back to the main entryway and looked back at his old home one last time.
"I'll be back one day… And I'll make sure the sacrifices of the Hunters aren't forgotten."
"I figured you'd come back here sooner or later." a boy's voice said, startling him out of his thoughts.
X looked over his shoulder and saw the same strange boy who had interrupted his second encounter with the strange armored man and his companion.
"You..." X muttered.
"There's something different about you." the boy said, walking up to him. "I'm guessing you've been putting that Shard to good use."
"Just who are you anyway?" X asked.
"Of course you'd be confused." the boy said, smiling at him. "All this time you've seen so much weird stuff, but things keep getting even weirder, don't they? Like I said before, Rock and Roll are old pals of mine."
"But that would mean you've been around for a very long time..." X pointed out. "Just what are you?"
"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not a robot like them or you." the boy said. "It's like Caged Light mentioned before. Time flows differently between universes and dimensional travel is a bit of a crapshoot. If you don't know what you're doing or get careless, you could end up a thousand years off the mark… or even end up back in your point of origin before you even left."
"Is that what happened to you?" X asked.
"No." the boy clarified, shaking his head. "I'm human, but I came from somewhere else."
"So that leaves… other Earths?" X pondered.
"Something like that, yes." the boy said with a nod. "I first met those two when they got yanked to another world along with a bunch of other people."
"As for who I am..." he added. "The name's Ness. I used to be just an average kid in an average town until a talking fly showed up one day and things started getting really really weird."
"How weird are we talking about here?" X asked.
"Oh, off the top of my head… psychic powers, time travel, prophecies, an embodiment of evil preying on the minds of humans… and a grand journey with friends."
"And then there's this." the boy added, producing a strange black box, in the shape of a featureless perfect cube.
"What's that?" X asked, still trying to make sense of the boy's words.
"Just a box, some might say." the boy explained. "With it, I once learned to attune myself with the heartbeat of the world thanks to the power of eight very special melodies."
"Is that why you mentioned melodies the last time we met?" X realized.
"Don't worry, I'm not about to send you on a long-winded journey just to find some plot devices. You already have more than enough ground to cover. Besides, you're already on the path of the Warrior of Light. You don't need this."
"So why exactly are you here?"
"I'm here because you're on a journey." Ness explained. "The first step was rejecting the pull of oblivion. Honestly, I would have been very disappointed if you'd given up like that, and so would the others."
"Not my proudest moment by any stretch." X said.
"The second step was reminding yourself that you're not alone and returning to your friends. The third step was accepting yourself and your imperfections. The fourth you are taking now, dealing with unfinished business from your past."
"It's more than unfinished business." X said. "It's..."
"I know." Ness said. "Love."
"I… won't deny it."
"Of course not." Ness said with a smile. "After all, it is the power. The glory. The beauty and the joy of spring. You carried yourself this far, through all the pain, suffering and doubt, because you believed in the world, in its people, in your friends. No, not just believed."
"What… exactly do you mean?"
"You'll understand my words when the time comes." Ness said. "What matters right now is that you keep pushing through. It's not over yet. It probably won't be for some time. But I know you're gonna pull through, Warrior of Light or not."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because no brother of theirs would give up before the end." Ness pointed out with absolute certainty. "I've had my eye on you for a while. You're so much more like him than you realize."
"I want to believe they're still out there, but…" X said. "If you're so sure of this, why haven't I found them yet? Why haven't you?"
"Because they're not kicking about, but they're not gone either." Ness said. "They're in a state between here and the beyond, too faint for me to sense but not quite gone."
With that, the boy let out a sigh.
"They don't know you exist, but they've been waiting for you for centuries. That said, I'm afraid that if they sleep for too long they may end up fading completely."
"And then what?" X asked, unsettled by the implication.
"And then it'll be even harder to find them." Ness said. "You'd have to go… beyond. You still have time though. Your dad built them to last."
X then heard a sudden rustling to the side and glanced in that direction, spotting a young Reploid boy with gray eyes and matching hair in an unruly mane, clad in a child-sized Resistance uniform with green sneakers.
"Menart?! What are you doing here?"
"I guess I was worried about you heading out on your own like that." the Reploid boy said. "What would Alouette say if anything happened to you?"
"While I appreciate the sentiment, she would be just as worried if anything happened to you." X countered. "Besides, I may be old, but I know how to handle myself."
"Don't worry." Ness said. "I'll take him home."
"You do seem to be making a habit of sending lost people on their way." X noted with a hint of amusement.
"That will not be necessary." a familiar voice cut in from above.
"Harpuia?" X called out. "What are you doing here?"
"I merely happened to be… passing by." the Guardian said, landing before X.
"I guess I'm not the only one around here who's a terrible liar." X noted with amusement.
"Fine…" the Guardian admitted. "We were concerned to have you wandering around on your own. Happy?"
Meanwhile, in a place far removed in time and space…
The man in the strange white armor strode across the worn metallic pavement of a sprawling and very old space station, past crowds of creatures of all possible descriptions. Ignoring the curious gaze of the onlookers, he kept going, past brightly lit storefront signs, shop windows where everything from electronics to strange alien cuisine was on display, until he reached what looked like a stereotypical seedy bar out of a sci-fi movie, populated with rough-looking humans and aliens in outfits ranging from civilian clothing circa the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to futuristic combat armor and more primitive clothing.
Striding with purpose, he continued to the back of the room, where a lone figure was sitting on a single seat couch in front of a circular metal table, where a strange yellow drink was bubbling in a cylindrical glass decorated with a slice of fruit and a long straw. Noticing his approach, the figure casually glanced at him, and visor met visor.
The figure sitting on the couch was tall, clad from head to toe in a suit of hi-tech metallic armor with a yellow body and a red helmet with a green visor. While the suit looked powerful, enough to crush rock and withstand heavy firepower, its design was also possessed of a remarkable, graceful elegance, seemingly agile enough to jump across large distances. Covering the figure's right hand was a green cannon of some sort, casually resting on the table.
"Well, this is a surprise." the figure in yellow remarked, with the voice of a woman, full of confidence and a hint of amusement. "I didn't think someone like you would ever set foot in a place like this… except maybe to bust someone inside."
"Not today." the man in white said, shaking his helmeted head. "Today I'm here to talk to you about business, and I don't think you'd appreciate having to deal with a firefight while you're off work."
"Now there's another surprise." the woman said, even more noticeably amused. "When did you get so articulate? The first time we met you could barely say two words to me."
"Considering the circumstances of that meeting, can you blame me?" the man retorted, a hint of embarrassment seeping into his tone. "But anyway, I need your expertise in order to locate someone… though some might say this would be a job for an archaeologist instead."
"Now you've got my curiosity." the woman said.
"I did some digging around." the armored man explained. "I know you were acquainted. You may not be aware of this because of the time discrepancy between universes but..."
"Ah crap..." the woman grumbled. "It's never simple with you, is it? For the record, I hate inter-dimensional travel."
"I know." the man said with a nod. "But since you're already familiar with him, I thought you might be able to deduce where he might have ended up. I don't expect you to do it for free, of course. I'm prepared to take you and your ship to the vicinity of the world in question, supplement your technology with my own and negotiate proper compensation."
"Must be important if you're willing to come all the way here for a bounty hunter… especially considering your opinion of the trade."
"Anyone who lumps you with the usual scum does do at their own peril." the man said. "But this is no escaped criminal or alien monster. This is a hero… and his family needs him."
"I know plenty of heroes." the woman said. "You're gonna have to be a little more specific."
"Bit on the short side, brave, likes wearing blue and copying his enemies' weapons." the man said. "Ring any bells?"
"Rock..." the woman said fondly. "Gutsy kid with a heart of gold. But what happened to him?"
"Nobody knows." the man explained. "In his Earth, he's been gone for centuries. His brother is looking for him and Roll, but..."
"Blues?"
"No. Apparently there was another brother. You'll know him when you see him."
The visor on the woman's helmet parted just enough for a pair of intense blue eyes to become visible and for her to pull the tip of the straw into her mouth's range. She drained the contents of the glass in one go, then put the glass down and closed the visor again.
"No fees." she said, abruptly standing up. "This is personal. As long as you make sure I don't get stuck in the past or the future or whatever when I try to get back."
"That was… easier than I expected." the armored man said.
"Rock is an old friend." the woman said resolutely. "I owe him for more than a few times."
"There's one more thing." the man said.
"There's always one more thing." the woman retorted. "What is it?"
"There's someone else going around who may be able to help. Some kid in a baseball cap and a striped shirt and shorts. He has a habit of popping up whenever he feels like though, so you may have trouble getting some answers from him."
The woman let out an audible sigh.
"Of course he'd be sticking his nose in this too."
"I take it you know him?"
"You could say that." the woman grumbled. "Not a bad kid, but… he's a bit weird."
"Says the genetically enhanced amazon running around in a suit of armor made by space bird wizards and their super science, who takes on ungodly monsters across the galaxy for a living."
"Smartass." the woman scoffed. "But point taken."
"As for the kid, I've had a run in with him myself." the armored man said.
"Oh?"
"He somehow managed to pop right into my ship too, but then someone else barged in and he escorted them out." the man said, shaking his head. "Some teenager with a ridiculously fast spaceship that can cross dimensional boundaries… and what has to be the worst sense of direction in the multiverse."
"Masaki Andoh." the woman said with noticeable annoyance. "Dumbass almost rammed my ship near Merovingia once."
"He does seem to have a habit of doing that. People have told me similar stories all over. Aitos, Valis, Corneria, Hyrule… I hear he almost rammed into the Sky Palace at one point too."
The woman sighed and took a moment to stretch her limbs.
"Let's get going before that dumbass flyboy decides to blunder in again."
Some time later, as the two walked across the white metal hallways of the armored man's craft they were greeted by his companion, this time clad in a simple azure dress.
"There you are!" she said with a smile.
"It's been a while." the armored woman answered.
"I had the feeling you'd be easy to convince." the woman in the dress said, staring straight at the green visor.
"In my line of work loyalty and gratitude can be hard to find." the armored woman said. "I don't turn my back on my friends."
"Neither do we." the woman in the dress said with a warm smile. "But some things are beyond our skills, Huntress. You can take the helmet off here, by the way. The air is perfectly fine."
"I like keeping it on." the armored woman said. "You never know when something else is gonna happen."
The woman in the dress laughed at the remark and glanced at her armored companion.
"Like peas in a pod."
"What?" the armored man grumbled. "You know I don't like showing my face."
"You don't have that problem around me." she retorted.
"Because it's you." he said before abruptly changing the subject. "I'll go get the dimensional drive ready. Make yourselves comfortable."
With that, he walked away.
As soon as he was out of earshot, the armored woman glanced at her hostess.
"So… Still doing the same old song and dance?"
The woman in the dress smiled.
"It's the slow blade that penetrates the shield… and I have the patience of stone."
"I don't think you need a blade." the armored woman remarked rather dryly. "I think he needs a pair of glasses."