...and Continue
Zero quickly walked down one of the many levels of the Hunter H.Q. The area was bustling with activity as other reploids were scrambling to prepare for the Repliforce uprising. Some suited up in their own specialized armor and others gathered information about their enemies. A few of them happened to notice the leader of the Zero Unit, but they didn't bother to greet him in his current mood. Zero was angry; an emotion that was no stranger to him. He'd been angry a lot lately. He was angry with the General for starting the war; angry that the Colonel was so stubborn as to not disarm his troops; angry that Sky Lagoon fell and killed so many reploid and human victims. He was angry at many things at this time. What made him even more irate was the fact that he had been a fool for not realizing that Magma Dragoon had helped destroy the city of Sky Lagoon. Zero scowled at the memory that kept replaying in his computerized mind. He was standing there… next to the generator! The same generator that kept Sky Lagoon in the sky and I didn't even know!
X rounded the corner and spotted his scarlet friend in the corridor. The blue reploid jogged up and matched his pace with Zero's. X looked up towards his friend, since he was a bit taller than him, and saw the scowl on Zero's face. "Hey, Zero… are you ok?" X asked politely in a concerned voice. There was no answer yet Zero walked on as if he was in some sort of trance.
"…Zero?" Again, there was no answer. X reached up and gently shook Zero's shoulder, hoping to get him out of his thoughts. The taller reploid blinked and shook his head. He noticed for the first time that X was beside him.
"Oh, hey X… didn't know you were there," he said with a reassuring smile. X didn't buy it though. They had been friends for a long time and he wasn't going to fall for that.
"Zero, what's wrong? We've got a mission to do and you're dazing out," X directed at his comrade, "…Is it because of what happened at Sky Lagoon?"
Zero couldn't help but smirk. X was getting good at figuring out what he was thinking about. "Don't worry about it. I'll be ok."
X looked skeptically at Zero for a moment but dropped it as they reached their destination. They both walked through the sliding doors and into a huge room with an equally large window that covered up a whole wall. Through the glass, a different section of the city was shown and teleportation trails could still be seen. This was the Controls and Communications Division, the main transport center of the Maverick Hunter H.Q.
The two hunters stood there and scanned the room. What they saw was organized chaos. Navigator reploids stood at their consoles, screaming out orders and directions to their fellow Hunters while others stood, waiting for their cue to teleport out of the crowded room. Contrary to belief, humans did help out at the headquarters along side their reploid counterparts. Right now, they were all scrambling (along with everyone else) to gather as much data as they could from signals sent by Hunters that had already gone out on patrol.
"Well… I guess we won't be getting any clearance soon," muttered X, "It's always a mess in here… and with Repliforce rebellin-!!" Before the blue hunter was able to finish his sentence, a pink body slammed into his and they both simultaneously thumped onto the metal floor. Zero spun around and was soon greeted by a pink and blue crumpled mess on the floor.
"Ah damn! I'm REEEALLY sorry!!" yelled an apologizing voice into X's head.
"Ok! Please! Just get off me!" struggled X as he tried to wiggle away. Zero smiled amusedly at the sight and promptly lifted the pink reploid onto her feet. He gave her a quick glance and proceeded to help his partner up to his feet as well.
X stood up and breathed a small sigh; one of the many human gestures that his creator programmed into him. At that point, X felt incredibly tired. He was tired of running around and going after mavericks that had once been fellow reploids and killing them. He hated fighting; he had always hated to fight. Sometimes, he felt like ending his own "life" because he had taken so many others but…
The blue reploid turned to confront whomever it was that knocked him over and saw that it was a pink female reploid with sharp blue eyes and blondish hair. She also wore a communicator earpiece. "I'm really, really, REALLY sorry!" she apologized frantically. With that quickly said, the pink reploid ran off to another part of the room with her metal boots softly clanking on the floor.
"That was interesting," commented Zero.
It took X a few seconds to register what happened. "Heh, I guess it was," shrugged X while he rubbed his helmet even though he couldn't feel anything through the metal.
Zero took notice of this but didn't say anything. He always wondered why his partner did all those gestures. Sure, reploids had emotions like their human creators and could think for themselves but… they still weren't human, so why act like them? The science community of this day and age weren't interested in perfecting reploid emotions though. They concentrated more on their effectiveness for human kind rather than their incomplete emotions. Maybe if they did, there wouldn't be any more Mavericks… Looks like your creator actually thought things through for you, X. You're practically human yourself. Zero sadly smiled to him self. X was the creation of Dr. Light. Even though X had no clear memories about his creator, he at least knew who he was with the help of the program capsules that X had recently been finding, left by Dr. Light himself. Zero on the other hand was left in the dark. He had no memory of his own builder or even anything left of him. The only clues he had now were the "dreams" that had been disturbing him for over a month now. He wasn't even sure if they were about his past or anything at all.
Zero shook away his thoughts before his mind wandered away again. "Come on, X. We're going to have to find someone to give us permission to leave for that volcano."
X nodded the affirmative. The current reploid leaders acted quickly in response to the Repliforce Rebellion by ordering that every Maverick Hunter receive permission from some communications official so they would be monitored at all times while on a field mission. Right now, it seemed that every official was taken as X weaved through the busy area.
Elsewhere in the same vicinity, a pink reploid was busy feeling out of place. She was at a control consol punching in a series of codes and mumbling to her self. She had just practically run over a Maverick Hunter and it was only her third day of being transferred to the Controls and Communications Division. Not only had she knocked over a Maverick Hunter, she soon realized that it was X, the well-known captain of the 17th Unit and the one next to him was Zero, also the famous leader of the Zero Unit. Knowing this did not make her feel any better. How could she embarrass herself in front of them like that?
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, filling her internal systems with cool air. "It's ok, Alia. You're just getting adjusted to your new priorities. You can do this!"
She opened her crystal blue eyes with renewed confidence and saw a certain blue reploid weaving through a mob of workers. She stared in horror as he got closer, her confidence draining away, but it didn't seem like he saw her. Oh damn, what am I going to do now? Alia quickly turned her back on him and made her self look busy with the mechanized consol as he passed by. She mentally sighed to herself in relief but she didn't feel too good about it either. Why am I acting this way? She didn't like acting like a wimp at all. So what if she tripped over a prominent Maverick Hunter? It was just a mistake.
Alia built up her courage and turned around. "Captain X!" she yelled, "Over here!" X's head perked up as he heard his name being called. He turned and saw a pink reploid waving her hands frantically in the air, trying to get his attention. The azure hunter waved his hand in return and scurried over to where she was standing. However, as he was running, he didn't see another reploid barreling towards him from his side since he was so focused on Alia. The pink reploid did see the impending outcome but it was too late. The other running reploid stuck out his foot and X promptly tripped over it, making him lunge towards Alia. Before she could react, X was already colliding into her but this time, a pair of strong hands grabbed hold of Alia's and X's falling bodies.
"Not again!" Zero sighed. "What is up with you two? Trying to dent each other?" The scarlet hunter planted them both firmly on the ground and made sure they stayed that way. Both Alia and X blushed slightly and apologized to each other.
"Hey…" X began, "You're the one who nearly ran me over before…"
Alia guiltily smiled. "Yeah, heh, that was me… I'm really sorry about that!"
"It seems like X already repaid you the favor, so no hard feelings," Zero said amusedly while patting his blue partner's back, "Right, X?"
X smiled sheepishly and turned to the pink reploid, "By the way, what's your name?"
Alia perked her head up. "I'm um…" she stuttered while stumbling for words, "I'm… Alia and I'm supposed to be your navigator but I sort of got side tracked and then I knocked into you and…"
"So you're our spotter," Zero interrupted. He looked directly at her and she stepped back slightly. "You're new at this, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I am…" Alia said quietly, "I just got transferred here a few days ago from the Engineering Facility. They said that I'd be more useful here but everything's so incredibly fast paced; I can't keep up."
X sympathized with her. He knew how it felt to be so overwhelmed by everything. When he first joined the Maverick Hunters, he felt out of place but at the same time, he felt as if he belonged there. It was confusing at first but he found his place as a leader of the 17th unit and Zero's partner.
"I'm sure you'll adjust soon. Just give it some time," assured X. "Now, since you're our spotter, can you give us some information about where we're headed?"
The pink reploid smile thankfully to him and spun around to face the consol. "Let's see…" She pressed a number of keys and the screen flickered on with scans of a volcano. It showed the exterior and interior of the massive volcano; it also showed the viewing Hunters that it was still active with rivers of hot magma flowing. Not only was the volcano active, the tunnels were filled with reploid miners and various other potential enemies.
Alia pointed to the schematics and started to explain. "The scouts have gathered that inside the volcano, temperatures range from 123 degrees to 510 degrees Celsius. That shouldn't affect your systems at all so you'll be ok. There are also small tremors caused by the volcano itself but they aren't strong enough to cause any real damage. Next, the interior of the volcano is most likely monitored by Magma Dragoon; he'll be expecting you. Also, Repliforce soldiers and miners are swarming the area. They'll most likely utilize the mining equipment against you. Finally, it seems that there are two paths somewhere in the volcano that you can take. The scouters weren't able to infiltrate the area deep enough to explore it thoroughly so you'll have to guess from there."
"All right," Zero nodded, "How far can you teleport us in?"
"There's some interference coming from inside the volcano so I'll only be able to get you in as far these caves," informed Alia. She pointed to a series of tunnels that were fairly deep in the active mountain.
"Also, because of these interferences, I won't be able to contact you. There might be a signal jammer somewhere in there."
"Ok, seems like we'll be working alone for a while," said X as he turned to his friend.
"Yeah, Dragoon knew he'd be found out sooner or later, so he's making it harder for us… Come on, let's get this over with." With that, Zero made a few calculations with his computerized mind and set his destination, as did X.
"Ready?" asked Zero.
"…Yeah, let's go," X answered although hesitantly.
The next thing that Alia saw were bright blue and red streaks that instantly left the room. Her eyes adjusted to the sudden change of light and she turned her gaze outside the window, towards the city skyline. Maybe this new job won't be so bad after all…
Ok, so it wasn't really a spectacular chapter (nor was the other one) and I have no idea how hot a volcano really is from the inside. ^_^" I have no idea how I dragged this whole scene out for so long.
I, at first, wanted this chapter to be completely serious but it turned out humorous (if you call that humor) anyways. I think I may have gone a little overboard with the characters' inner thoughts but I hope that sort of gave some insight about them, especially Alia. The next chapter will be about Zero and X in Dragoon's domain so there just might be more action in Episode 3 of "Rock and Roll: Zero Volume."