Chapter Four
I walked through the sliding door back out into the corridor beyond, nearly
running a newbie over. "Whoa!" I yelled. "Sorry, didn't see you there...your
name?"
He raised his head, his eyes masked slightly behind a black visor. He
smirked and said, "Drex. And you...you must be Zero, one of the most famous
Hunters here, right?"
He's the kid Chakra warned me about, I thought. I'll try to be nice to begin
with, I decided. "I don't know about famous," I said, extending a hand warmly,
"but my name is Zero."
He took a look at my hand, and ignored it. "Useless formalities. Sir, I
should inform you right now, I suppose, that I am only here in this group of
Maverick fighters to do exactly that: fight Mavericks. Nothing more, nothing less.
That means I want nothing to do with anyone here, and I sure as hell don't want to
make any friends. I want to be praised based on my performance, not my
friendship with someone, or how I was a hero to some civilian, all right?"
"I understand where you're coming from," I said, trying to find some
common thing that could start this acquaintance on a lighter note. "When I first
was inducted into the Hunters, believe you me, it wasn't easy making friends for
me. You've read my files, I assume?"
He nodded.
"Then I assume you know about my past history as a Maverick," I said.
"Once I was cured of the virus, I didn't want to have anything to do with anyone
either...I was afraid the virus might somehow regrow and cause me to slaughter any
friend I made, too."
"But you're good friends with Unit 17's commander, Mega Man X," he said.
I nodded. "I am, though I'm not entirely sure where my friend is right
now..."
"It's not like me anyway. It's not that I was a Maverick or anything, sir, it's
just that I don't enjoy forming emotional attachments to others."
"Then why weren't you born a service droid and not a Reploid?" I asked.
"You had a purpose when you were built to go into the world and be as close to
human as a non-organic being can possibly be. I have a feeling your creator,
whoever it was, didn't spend a butt-load of money on an emotions chip for you to
waste it."
He sulked, shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't ask to be a Reploid," he said. "I
didn't ask to be created. I don't owe anyone anything."
I grinned a devious little smile, but tried to conceal it as best I could. This
kid was going to be one of the easier cases of others like this I had met. He needed
a little serious battle experience, to experience loss...and as tragic as that was, if he
was to realize that he was unique and different from other robots, he was going to
have to...well, lose someone close to him. A girl might not hurt him either, I
thought with another grin.
"Well, you obviously came into the Hunters for battle, my friend," I said,
"and you're gonna get plenty of it. Sign up with my unit and we'll head off to a
Maverick's fortress together, and kick some major Sigma-infected tail. What d'ya
say?"I extended the hand again, waiting for a reaction this time.
He eyed my hand, and started to open his mouth. I stopped him. "Listen,
before you say this is just another needless formality, I have to tell you there's
something to be said for some of tradition, okay? I'm not asking you to respect me,
or even to accept my offer, but just come along with me and my crew and you'll get
exactly what you want. I won't start a single conversation about anything other
than the mission. Agreed?"
He glanced away, looked back at my hand again after he had seen that no one
else was around, and shook it. "It's a deal, sir. Just keep your mind where it's
meant to be: on the mission. Is that agreed?"
"Indubitably," I said. "Now get off to the sim-trainers. I'm sure they'll have
some program running that you need to master."
I heard a low grunt from him as he ran off down the corridor, knocking on
the door of a computer-tech class in session before rounding the corner and heading
out of sight. Alia emerged from the door seconds later, looked around, saw no one
except me, shrugged her shoulders, and returned to her class.
I smiled. Whether the kid liked to show it or not, I'd made progress with
him. Doing a mission with him should be fun, I thought. He's got his priorities
right, but he needs to make some friends. After another thought, I told myself:
Things have an odd way of working out. I think he'll come out of this okay.
* * *
I reported to the briefing room, as asked by Dragonness, shortly after my
conversation with Drex. Once there, I found a large holographic map of the city
neatly displayed in the center of the room, green wireframes of the countless wires
and cables buried beneath the streets meticulously placed. It was a perfect small-
scale replica, the entire projection being a relative circle, perhaps seven feet in
diameter. From the subway underground to the top of the tallest skyscraper, it
ranged about five or five and a half feet in height. It was very well detailed. Out of
curiosity, I sauntered up to the control panel for it and tapped a small holographic
icon, bringing up the iNFO screen. Neatly typed in the "Designer" credit box was
Chakra's name. I smiled. I knew it, I thought.
As I shut down the window and began listening to others' conversations
around the room, I began to figure out exactly what this was all about: they were all
discussing which unit would take which power plant. I heard someone murmur
something about Unit 17, and glanced over in their direction. The speaker was an
older Reploid, most likely a veteran I had never met before. He wore a full suit of
sleek, polished silver-and-black armor, and his ice-blue eyes accented the outfit
wonderfully. He wore an energy gauntlet on his right hand, and a tiny heads-up
display type of device extended from a small support on his ear to his left eye.
I extended a hand to him in greeting. "Commander Zero Omega, of 0 Unit,
sir," I said to him. "I haven't noticed you very much around. What's your name?"
"My name is Grey," he said, taking my hand and shaking it. "So you're
Zero--never thought I'd be able to meet you for real."
"Well, here I am, sir...in the metal," I said with a smile. "What unit are you a
member of?"
He hesitated. "The 14th," he said quietly.
"Dragoon's..." I whispered. "Did you know Magma Dragoon?" I asked.
He nodded. "He was the best Hunter we ever had, other than Sigma, maybe.
Higher than Special Class A, by far."
"Do you know why--?"
He shook his head. He didn't need me to finish the question: Why did he
become a Maverick? "We're not sure anyone knows for certain," he said. "I had a
lot of respect for the guy. No one knows how he could have come into contact with
a large enough strain of the virus to affect him. He was pretty darn immune to it."
So am I, I thought. "I respected him too. When he ended up fighting X and
me, it broke my heart to see that another Hunter was throwing his career down the
toilet. Half of him wanted power, power enough to defeat myself and X...but the
other half told him not to be so greedy...but Sigma has a way of enforcing himself
on those who want things badly enough..."
"You did him a bigger favor than you can imagine by destroying him," Grey
said. "Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, and from the rest of the unit, my
most sincere thanks."
"When I was a Maverick, my half wanted nothing more than for someone to
finally get the upper hand on me, to destroy me so that I wouldn't kill any more..."
"And then Commander Sigma did, nearly. You were lucky you got out of
that one alive, sir."
"I'm glad that's over," I said, "and I'm also glad that I got to make up for
some of the evil things I'd done by joining the Hunters."
He nodded. "I respect you as much as I do Dragoon, sir," he said. "You've
been through a lot, and still lived to tell about it. You deserve more credit than
you've gotten."
"I'm not a glory hog, first and foremost," I said. "Everything I do for the
Hunters now is strictly payback to the virus for all the torture and pain it put me
through. Thank you for the commendation, though. It's a nice gesture."
"Just taking your unit into one of the plants, sir?"
"Not absolutely sure which plant yet, but yes. Who's commanding 17 in X's
leave?" I asked.
"I'm not entirely sure that 17 has an official leader right now, sir," he said,
shrugging. "Skyler would be the person to ask. He's over at about Power Plant #2
on the hologram," he said, pointing in its general direction. "Have a word with
him."
"Well, thank you for the kind conversation, Grey," I said. "I'll be sure to talk
to you again sometime."
He nodded and offered an abbreviated wave as he turned back to a tech-specs
chart on the wall for cannon modules. I myself turned in the direction he had
pointed and made my way over to Skyler.
"Skyler, buddy, pal, friend," I greeted him, hugging him with one arm and
shaking his hand with the other. "How have you been?"
"Slept well over the night," he said. "You?"
"Wonderful," I said. "A long train ride does wonders for insomnia."
"So...I suppose you have something to say?"
"Actually, it's more of a question. Do you have any idea who's commanding
Unit 17 in X's absence?"
"17's got no definite commander right now," he said. "We're trading out
different members of the unit every week and rotating their commanding duty."
"How's it been going?"
"If you're talking efficiency, percentage is way down. We need X back."
"What if you were to join two units temporarily?" I asked. "Is that allowed?"
"I would suppose so," he said, "but whoever had the double-unit'd have to
take the enemies that were higher-priority."
"The more dangerous ones," I said.
"Basically. What would you call this unit, anyway?" he asked. "Unit 8 1/2?"
"I don't think it would matter not to call it Unit 0 officially," I said. "Just
don't let any of the newbies think I've got one huge unit on my hands. I don't want
to appear too responsible or anything, you know. Looks bad for my reputation."
"I can appreciate that," he said. "I'll set that up with the records for now,
and I'll let the current commander fill-in know he's relieved for the time present."
"I'm sure he will be relieved once you tell him that, Skyler. Don't work too
hard, buddy. I'll talk later about setting up our mission."
"Sure thing, Zero," he said as he walked off to find an archivist. I, on the
other hand, had a sudden idea and closed my eyes softly.
Concentrating on my destination and its surroundings, a shaft of orange light
enveloped my body and I was transported, in the blink of an eye, to the meadow
where I had fought X not so long ago, when he had been possessed by Sigma's
persona. I sat down eagerly and floppd backwards into the tall grass, staring up at
the half-moon that shone its light across the field. Heaving a large sigh, I smiled to
myself and yelled out loud in a moment of victorious triumph: "You can't take this
away from me, Sigma, no matter how hard you try!" I will make absolutely sure of
that, I thought. No. No, this war isn't Sigma's fault. Sigma was just in the wrong
place at the wrong time. It's that blasted virus. That stupid Maverick virus caused
all this.
But it still can't take away nature, I thought. This will always be my place of
rest and spiritual cleansing, I told myself. Always.
A small bird's chirp came from the grass in front of me. Parting the green
blades, I saw that the poor little thing had gotten his wing stuck in a small branch.
Though I was no birdwatcher, he was obviously some sort of bluejay, with a strange
and certainly uncommon stripe of green arched behind his head. A feather had
somehow hung in the crook of the limb, and refused to move, whatever the bird
tried.
Reaching down, I extended a single finger and touched it to the bird's head.
He lowered it when he felt my digit against his neck, and I smiled in spite of the
situation. "No matter how many people I save from burning buildings or exploding
warehouses, I never feel quite as heroic as when I do something like this," I said.
Moving my finger around to the intruding stick, I felt my way up to the point in his
wing where the feather had caught on the twig, used one hand to steady the wing,
and the other to pull the branch at an angle so as not to hurt the little creature. It
came free, and his feather set itself back into alignment with the others. For a split
second, it was almost as if the bird took a glance at me, then he flew off in an
abrupt beating of wings.
"What, not even a 'thank you'?" I asked, chuckling. "Stay out of trouble!" I
yelled at him as he flapped off.
Laying back in the grass, I began thinking again: Maybe I should bring Drex
here, just to show him how calming and awesome such a simple thing can be. If he
didn't have an emotion chip, I'd like to see him try to enjoy this nearly as much as
I do.
After a moment, I realized I had become a little too relaxed: I drifted off to
sleep in the meadow. Not that I minded, of course...a little cat nap never hurt
anybody.
I walked through the sliding door back out into the corridor beyond, nearly
running a newbie over. "Whoa!" I yelled. "Sorry, didn't see you there...your
name?"
He raised his head, his eyes masked slightly behind a black visor. He
smirked and said, "Drex. And you...you must be Zero, one of the most famous
Hunters here, right?"
He's the kid Chakra warned me about, I thought. I'll try to be nice to begin
with, I decided. "I don't know about famous," I said, extending a hand warmly,
"but my name is Zero."
He took a look at my hand, and ignored it. "Useless formalities. Sir, I
should inform you right now, I suppose, that I am only here in this group of
Maverick fighters to do exactly that: fight Mavericks. Nothing more, nothing less.
That means I want nothing to do with anyone here, and I sure as hell don't want to
make any friends. I want to be praised based on my performance, not my
friendship with someone, or how I was a hero to some civilian, all right?"
"I understand where you're coming from," I said, trying to find some
common thing that could start this acquaintance on a lighter note. "When I first
was inducted into the Hunters, believe you me, it wasn't easy making friends for
me. You've read my files, I assume?"
He nodded.
"Then I assume you know about my past history as a Maverick," I said.
"Once I was cured of the virus, I didn't want to have anything to do with anyone
either...I was afraid the virus might somehow regrow and cause me to slaughter any
friend I made, too."
"But you're good friends with Unit 17's commander, Mega Man X," he said.
I nodded. "I am, though I'm not entirely sure where my friend is right
now..."
"It's not like me anyway. It's not that I was a Maverick or anything, sir, it's
just that I don't enjoy forming emotional attachments to others."
"Then why weren't you born a service droid and not a Reploid?" I asked.
"You had a purpose when you were built to go into the world and be as close to
human as a non-organic being can possibly be. I have a feeling your creator,
whoever it was, didn't spend a butt-load of money on an emotions chip for you to
waste it."
He sulked, shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't ask to be a Reploid," he said. "I
didn't ask to be created. I don't owe anyone anything."
I grinned a devious little smile, but tried to conceal it as best I could. This
kid was going to be one of the easier cases of others like this I had met. He needed
a little serious battle experience, to experience loss...and as tragic as that was, if he
was to realize that he was unique and different from other robots, he was going to
have to...well, lose someone close to him. A girl might not hurt him either, I
thought with another grin.
"Well, you obviously came into the Hunters for battle, my friend," I said,
"and you're gonna get plenty of it. Sign up with my unit and we'll head off to a
Maverick's fortress together, and kick some major Sigma-infected tail. What d'ya
say?"I extended the hand again, waiting for a reaction this time.
He eyed my hand, and started to open his mouth. I stopped him. "Listen,
before you say this is just another needless formality, I have to tell you there's
something to be said for some of tradition, okay? I'm not asking you to respect me,
or even to accept my offer, but just come along with me and my crew and you'll get
exactly what you want. I won't start a single conversation about anything other
than the mission. Agreed?"
He glanced away, looked back at my hand again after he had seen that no one
else was around, and shook it. "It's a deal, sir. Just keep your mind where it's
meant to be: on the mission. Is that agreed?"
"Indubitably," I said. "Now get off to the sim-trainers. I'm sure they'll have
some program running that you need to master."
I heard a low grunt from him as he ran off down the corridor, knocking on
the door of a computer-tech class in session before rounding the corner and heading
out of sight. Alia emerged from the door seconds later, looked around, saw no one
except me, shrugged her shoulders, and returned to her class.
I smiled. Whether the kid liked to show it or not, I'd made progress with
him. Doing a mission with him should be fun, I thought. He's got his priorities
right, but he needs to make some friends. After another thought, I told myself:
Things have an odd way of working out. I think he'll come out of this okay.
* * *
I reported to the briefing room, as asked by Dragonness, shortly after my
conversation with Drex. Once there, I found a large holographic map of the city
neatly displayed in the center of the room, green wireframes of the countless wires
and cables buried beneath the streets meticulously placed. It was a perfect small-
scale replica, the entire projection being a relative circle, perhaps seven feet in
diameter. From the subway underground to the top of the tallest skyscraper, it
ranged about five or five and a half feet in height. It was very well detailed. Out of
curiosity, I sauntered up to the control panel for it and tapped a small holographic
icon, bringing up the iNFO screen. Neatly typed in the "Designer" credit box was
Chakra's name. I smiled. I knew it, I thought.
As I shut down the window and began listening to others' conversations
around the room, I began to figure out exactly what this was all about: they were all
discussing which unit would take which power plant. I heard someone murmur
something about Unit 17, and glanced over in their direction. The speaker was an
older Reploid, most likely a veteran I had never met before. He wore a full suit of
sleek, polished silver-and-black armor, and his ice-blue eyes accented the outfit
wonderfully. He wore an energy gauntlet on his right hand, and a tiny heads-up
display type of device extended from a small support on his ear to his left eye.
I extended a hand to him in greeting. "Commander Zero Omega, of 0 Unit,
sir," I said to him. "I haven't noticed you very much around. What's your name?"
"My name is Grey," he said, taking my hand and shaking it. "So you're
Zero--never thought I'd be able to meet you for real."
"Well, here I am, sir...in the metal," I said with a smile. "What unit are you a
member of?"
He hesitated. "The 14th," he said quietly.
"Dragoon's..." I whispered. "Did you know Magma Dragoon?" I asked.
He nodded. "He was the best Hunter we ever had, other than Sigma, maybe.
Higher than Special Class A, by far."
"Do you know why--?"
He shook his head. He didn't need me to finish the question: Why did he
become a Maverick? "We're not sure anyone knows for certain," he said. "I had a
lot of respect for the guy. No one knows how he could have come into contact with
a large enough strain of the virus to affect him. He was pretty darn immune to it."
So am I, I thought. "I respected him too. When he ended up fighting X and
me, it broke my heart to see that another Hunter was throwing his career down the
toilet. Half of him wanted power, power enough to defeat myself and X...but the
other half told him not to be so greedy...but Sigma has a way of enforcing himself
on those who want things badly enough..."
"You did him a bigger favor than you can imagine by destroying him," Grey
said. "Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, and from the rest of the unit, my
most sincere thanks."
"When I was a Maverick, my half wanted nothing more than for someone to
finally get the upper hand on me, to destroy me so that I wouldn't kill any more..."
"And then Commander Sigma did, nearly. You were lucky you got out of
that one alive, sir."
"I'm glad that's over," I said, "and I'm also glad that I got to make up for
some of the evil things I'd done by joining the Hunters."
He nodded. "I respect you as much as I do Dragoon, sir," he said. "You've
been through a lot, and still lived to tell about it. You deserve more credit than
you've gotten."
"I'm not a glory hog, first and foremost," I said. "Everything I do for the
Hunters now is strictly payback to the virus for all the torture and pain it put me
through. Thank you for the commendation, though. It's a nice gesture."
"Just taking your unit into one of the plants, sir?"
"Not absolutely sure which plant yet, but yes. Who's commanding 17 in X's
leave?" I asked.
"I'm not entirely sure that 17 has an official leader right now, sir," he said,
shrugging. "Skyler would be the person to ask. He's over at about Power Plant #2
on the hologram," he said, pointing in its general direction. "Have a word with
him."
"Well, thank you for the kind conversation, Grey," I said. "I'll be sure to talk
to you again sometime."
He nodded and offered an abbreviated wave as he turned back to a tech-specs
chart on the wall for cannon modules. I myself turned in the direction he had
pointed and made my way over to Skyler.
"Skyler, buddy, pal, friend," I greeted him, hugging him with one arm and
shaking his hand with the other. "How have you been?"
"Slept well over the night," he said. "You?"
"Wonderful," I said. "A long train ride does wonders for insomnia."
"So...I suppose you have something to say?"
"Actually, it's more of a question. Do you have any idea who's commanding
Unit 17 in X's absence?"
"17's got no definite commander right now," he said. "We're trading out
different members of the unit every week and rotating their commanding duty."
"How's it been going?"
"If you're talking efficiency, percentage is way down. We need X back."
"What if you were to join two units temporarily?" I asked. "Is that allowed?"
"I would suppose so," he said, "but whoever had the double-unit'd have to
take the enemies that were higher-priority."
"The more dangerous ones," I said.
"Basically. What would you call this unit, anyway?" he asked. "Unit 8 1/2?"
"I don't think it would matter not to call it Unit 0 officially," I said. "Just
don't let any of the newbies think I've got one huge unit on my hands. I don't want
to appear too responsible or anything, you know. Looks bad for my reputation."
"I can appreciate that," he said. "I'll set that up with the records for now,
and I'll let the current commander fill-in know he's relieved for the time present."
"I'm sure he will be relieved once you tell him that, Skyler. Don't work too
hard, buddy. I'll talk later about setting up our mission."
"Sure thing, Zero," he said as he walked off to find an archivist. I, on the
other hand, had a sudden idea and closed my eyes softly.
Concentrating on my destination and its surroundings, a shaft of orange light
enveloped my body and I was transported, in the blink of an eye, to the meadow
where I had fought X not so long ago, when he had been possessed by Sigma's
persona. I sat down eagerly and floppd backwards into the tall grass, staring up at
the half-moon that shone its light across the field. Heaving a large sigh, I smiled to
myself and yelled out loud in a moment of victorious triumph: "You can't take this
away from me, Sigma, no matter how hard you try!" I will make absolutely sure of
that, I thought. No. No, this war isn't Sigma's fault. Sigma was just in the wrong
place at the wrong time. It's that blasted virus. That stupid Maverick virus caused
all this.
But it still can't take away nature, I thought. This will always be my place of
rest and spiritual cleansing, I told myself. Always.
A small bird's chirp came from the grass in front of me. Parting the green
blades, I saw that the poor little thing had gotten his wing stuck in a small branch.
Though I was no birdwatcher, he was obviously some sort of bluejay, with a strange
and certainly uncommon stripe of green arched behind his head. A feather had
somehow hung in the crook of the limb, and refused to move, whatever the bird
tried.
Reaching down, I extended a single finger and touched it to the bird's head.
He lowered it when he felt my digit against his neck, and I smiled in spite of the
situation. "No matter how many people I save from burning buildings or exploding
warehouses, I never feel quite as heroic as when I do something like this," I said.
Moving my finger around to the intruding stick, I felt my way up to the point in his
wing where the feather had caught on the twig, used one hand to steady the wing,
and the other to pull the branch at an angle so as not to hurt the little creature. It
came free, and his feather set itself back into alignment with the others. For a split
second, it was almost as if the bird took a glance at me, then he flew off in an
abrupt beating of wings.
"What, not even a 'thank you'?" I asked, chuckling. "Stay out of trouble!" I
yelled at him as he flapped off.
Laying back in the grass, I began thinking again: Maybe I should bring Drex
here, just to show him how calming and awesome such a simple thing can be. If he
didn't have an emotion chip, I'd like to see him try to enjoy this nearly as much as
I do.
After a moment, I realized I had become a little too relaxed: I drifted off to
sleep in the meadow. Not that I minded, of course...a little cat nap never hurt
anybody.
