Mega Man X 1.5
Apple of the Public's Eye
"Zero, this had better be important. I'm very busy," muttered X, "Between holding off the press with one hand and Mavericks with the other, things would be bad enough without Dr. Cain retiring in disgrace." Zero stood before X in his office, looking at him with a smug grin.
"That's right. Dr. Cain's retiring. We really should go to his party. I mean, he's only the guy who brought Reploids to the world," Zero said chuckling. The reaction was worth it as papers scattered everywhere as X nearly flipped his desk over as he used it for leverage when he stood up straight in shock and looked guilty. Cain was the man who found X, and acted a bit like a surrogate father. For that matter, Cain had first helped restore Zero's unstable personality patterns after brought in by Sigma (pre-Maverick).
Despite the amount the planet owed them, there was a price many wanted to extract from Cain, and it seemed to have caught up with him. Cain himself had built Sigma, outfitting him with the most advanced systems at the time, and look where THAT had ended up. Then there was Double, who was the same story all over again. Worse yet, Maverick Hunter policies were coming under close examination following the Repliforce incident. Half the population was afraid of what would happen to the Hunters now that the remnants of Repliforce were in their ranks, and the other half was furious over the way an incident's blame had been immediately attached to the group, leading to an all out war that nearly concluded with Final Weapon devastating the planet. The world was tired of last-minute crisis being narrowly averted, and figured crisis would be a bit farther apart if cooler heads could prevail on occasion. The attacks on Cain's history, who had once been nothing but an archeologist thrust uncomfortably into the public eye, seemed to have finally taken the man's energy. He was standing now, and no one knew who would replace him.
That reminded Zero of something, "So, how's the betting pool coming along for Cain's replacement?" Zero and X walked through the massive Hunter complex, home, fortress, and training ground for hundreds of Hunters on their way to the garage. As Unit Commanders, they couldn't just teleport to the location where the party was held. Instead, they got to ride in a convoy of limos.
X looked at Zero in amusement, and said in a shocked tone, "Why Zero? I'm the 'Father of Reploids' and a Unit Commander. I'm beyond such petty things as gambling." In a more normal tone, X said, "I've got your slot for a week's pay. I heard that the Eighth got together and bought my slot in the pool at a week's pay each." Zero whistled at the thought of that kind of money. The way the pool worked is you could spend more money to take over the winnings if someone became commander. Everyone figured X took Zero's spot to be nice, and had a much larger bet being carried by a low-ranked Hunter.
Actually, X put the odds on Zero since Zero had been one of the few people who had held out that Repliforce was innocent from the Sky Lagoon attack up until the General ordered the escape from human society. The timing was really lousy, and the phrasing had made Zero agree to go along with attacking the Reploids who had been declared Maverick as he feared Colonel and Iris were minorities among Repliforce's soldiers. Zero had been the lead designer on getting the Repliforce soldiers who were still alive attached to the Hunters. X's main thoughts of the time tended to send him into deep depression (with Double primarily and innocent Reploid after innocent Reploid being called Maverick).
X followed up the line of reasoning with a simple question, "Has there been any change?" Zero shook his head sadly. Ajax had been repaired, upgraded, and was undergoing training with Unit 0, and seemed to be shaping up to have high-level skills. Alia, Laser Wolf, Jazz, and Bebop, had yet to revive. There was definite activity in their circuits, but they seemed to be stuck in comas, unresponsive to the outside world
Zero said thoughtfully, "They're reactivating the simulators today, though. They think that there may have been a fault caused by being connected to the simulator's interface when we burned it out, and the sensory shock may have caused their external sensors to go off-line. The only thing for that scenario is it explains the weird echoes we're getting, like they're alive one minute and gone the next." X nodded. He was just glad they had managed to stop the group of Hunters who wanted to kill off the four just to be safe. It was small, but X wasn't fond since he had seen a day where Hunter was ready to kill Hunter for failing in a mission. The one-time Maverick readings had disappeared, but it was enough to keep some Hunters angry and suspicious. Lancer, on the other hand, couldn't wait to get his wings on a team that had placed in the Top Five slots on the simulator battle (taking up four of said slots).
For now, however, the four dreamt while the world raged about their fate around them.
To be continued
Author's Note:
That was actually the best stopping place I could find. Sorry. This particular piece wasn't working out too well, as I had a lot of baggage that had to at least be admitted. Basically, a little psych piece. Personally, I'm starting to wonder why X doesn't go and hunt down the people who come up with the Maverick directives. I promise to pick up next time at the party, where things get shaken up in a way I certainly didn't think of when I was starting this. Dr. Cain gets to say goodbye, despite never actually showing up in this story beforehand, but Cain at least deserves a decent send-off in the X4-X5 period since he found X.