Interlude: Within the Lion's Den
by Tremor3258
Disclaimer: Setting, Mega Man X (from multiple games, a lot of 4, some of 5, and some of 6) characters used without permission. Owned by Capcom, who, despite making a great series of games, think Reploids have DNA, but they're willing to let people write lots of stories about their characters, so all is forgiven. ^_^
At this point, it may be noted that Maverick Hunter Headquarters has prime real estate located only thirty miles from the edge of the park lands of Mount Fuji. It sits squat on a three-hundred acre parcel of land, donated from land recently declared 'safe' from volcanic activity by a grateful Japanese government to the early Maverick Hunters. This piece of land is, naturally, massively expensive as recent expansion means it sits within a well-developed portion of Tokyo.
However, the Hunters have kept much of the land used for beauty and beauty's sake alone. Beautiful flowering trees, many cherry, as they grow easily in the soil, shade various meandering paths along with five separate fishing ponds. The Hunters leave it open to the public as a service, and many Hunters like to spend downtime there.
Despite the Hunters' valiant, some might say desperate. efforts, there is no hiding the mailed and deadly fist that rests enshrined in its acres of velvet. A ten story dome, exactly a tenth of a kilometer in diameter, and created out of durasteel, one of the hardest metals of which mass-production is feasible, and a metal whose heat dispersion properties make concentrated laser fire (such as from orbit-deployed X-ray lasers), nearly useless. The building is painted a cheery green and blue to match in better with its peaceful surroundings, but no amount of paint could hide the heavy weapons mounts located within the walls of Headquarters. After Repliforce equipment had become more available to the Hunters themselves, Headquarters' frightening defenses had been upgraded again. It should be noted it's been years since any Maverick attacked Headquarters. Zero had once put it, "He may be Maverick, but Sigma's not crazy."
Yet, the upper levels of Headquarters was really a shell. The financial offices that tracked appropriations, many of the living quarters, and even many of the individual Unit common rooms, were located in this upper area. All important things, true, but the Hunters could continue to fight without them.
Which is why a single bundled shaft carries air and a few elevator cars to the real Headquarters, buried under almost twenty meters of rock, dirt, and durasteel. Here lie the medical bays, most of the training equipment, the Hunter armories, and strategic command center (aka war room). This area is only five stories deep, but each story sprawls out from beneath the dome (sloping down to retain some additional protection). The Hunters dug this area out, through heavy lava rock and risking cave-ins, for a possibility no one likes to talk about. The dome was designed to take tactical nuclear warheads and retain its integrity. Headquarters was designed to retain full battle-support capabilities for up to three months even after TWO direct attacks by Final Weapon (the most powerful system the Hunters could get schematics on to calculate what they needed to survive against).
Twenty-eight minutes before Zero was attacked by a recreation of the original four-foot high Blue Bomber, Signas, acting under authority from X, Senior Unit leader, and Dr. Cain, outgoing head of Cain Labs and the Maverick Hunters, reactivated the master computer-controller for the Maverick Hunters holographic training facilities.
The quarantine bay for the Hunters medical facility is small (as are the facilities, at least compared to living quarters or the armories, most Hunter casualties are also fatalities). It's main purpose is to study new forms of the Virus in the hopes that someday, a true, long-range anti-virus will be found. Right now, four Reploids have waited for almost a week, comatose and unseeing and unhearing. Alia, Laser Wolf, Jazz, and Bebop had fallen in battle against Sigma in a fight that saved the lives of fifty Hunter cadets by delaying the leader of Mavericks and alerting the rest of the Hunters to the problem.
However, their minds seemed to have been lost as completely as Sigma. No response, even directly applied to the sensory pathways, had provoked a response, and only low levels of activity had been detected. Lifesaver and other medical officers had repaired the physical damage as best they could, which had taken much of the week. Between Wolf's hardened armor and massive multiple redundancies, Alia's extremely delicate, yet numerous pathways, and Jazz and Bebop basically being understood only in the dimmest sense of the word, the work had been long and arduous. Meanwhile, damage to the simulator complex was repaired, and now Signas was going through the last few stages of reactivating the system.
Damage reports and battle analysis had indicated that all four had activated the systems that had been deactivated to allow for about equal levels of ability in the simulator. Since the simulator hadn't been deactivated, it had instead adapted, including ALL their systems into the battle functions of the master computer. With the systems off-line, it was thought that since everything was being routed to a dead end before it touched the circuits, there could be no response. Hopefully, bringing the simulator up would throw them out of the loop and back into their own bodies. If this didn't work, it was very likely that none of the four would ever come back.
Twenty-seven minutes before Mega-clone was sent off-line, Signas took a deep breath, and flipped the final row of safeties off. The holographic matrices were warmed and ready. The last thing was to cut in the response circuits that determined damage as it was dealt to Hunters in the simulator. When these went on, either the four would awaken, or the Hunters would have four late-technology Reploid shells to unload. Signas hesitated for a moment and stabbed down on the button.
With a surge of power, Alia and Wolf's systems began to respond, once again, to the world around them. After a moment, they opened their eyes with alarm. There was a memory gap there, and they couldn't quite bridge it. The four were tied down with restraints, due to the possibility of being infected, and the two thrashed for a moment before quieting as internal diagnostics reported the massive amounts of damage their bodies had incurred repaired. Lifesaver sent word up to Signas, "These two are clean, release them?"
Signas quickly confirmed the order, and asked, "How are our kittens doing?"
Lifesaver laughed nervously, "Would you believe I don't know? All I know is they haven't moved much or opened their eyes." Lifesaver quickly explained before Signas could answer a lot of questions, "Blame Light's enhancements as usual. Frankly, it's a good thing we didn't know about the Virus in the first Uprising. I've read the medical logs, and after X got his complete set of armor, we couldn't read a thing past one centimeter into his skin, anywhere. Hell, once X got that nifty fireball maneuver, sensors stopped working within five meters of X." Signas shuddered at the thought. Under current rules, X would have been killed merely for having managed to become a more effective weapon against the Mavericks.
"We really have to change these regulations, Lifesaver. Anyway, what can you read on them?" Signas said wearily. Resetting the simulator had taken a great deal of time and effort, and the training commander was worn out.
Lifesaver had it worse over the previous week. He had the most experience with Jazz and Bebop's systems, both before and after their upgrade, and had been assigned to doing the repair work. Both looked like high-velocity shrapnel had riddled their systems, they were covered in plasma burns, and Bebop's servos had nearly burned out. Lifesaver paused, something about that last piece sounded familiar. Unfortunately, all the team could do was try and remove damage, provide some raw materials, and pump energy into the auto-repair systems at an enhanced rate, as well as repair some of the cosmetic and obvious circuit damage. Most of the interior stuff they had been unable to access, since they didn't have the codes to remove Light's armor enhancements. Without those, the two were effectively locked tight, and the medical team could only work through existing tears in their outer armor. At least there were a lot of them, so access was easy, thought the doctor with grim humor.
Lifesaver stared at their readings in disgust, "I don't think they've been infected. Their data signatures from their neural networks is almost the same as the last medical scan so far. Luckily, they were in here for tests so often we have excellent base line readings. Unfortunately, all those tests didn't get us any closer to doing deep scans of their interior, so it's possible the Virus is waiting there. Unless you have a big drill and you're willing to gouge out half their fusion shielding, you could tell what's going on in their centers." Signas groaned in frustration. Lifesaver mused, "Actually, come to think of it, if we could confirm one as clean, that one would be able to scan the other. We've detected a weak tightbeam link. It seems to be active when they're reasonably close to each other."
Signas grinned, "Swapping gossip?" he theorized.
Lifesaver said, "Actually, they're probably swapping upgrade information. They explained a bit of what happened last time, and their systems swapped notes then as while. It makes their circuits nightmares to traces for Maverick nanos, since they'll wake up and we have to retrace their circuit paths, since they've gone through a complete redesign in the night." Signas was quiet, probably in amazement, and Lifesaver continued, "I think Light programmed in an urge to improve, and the ability to do so. I checked the records, X tends to do the same thing, and make moderate jumps in efficiency of his systems. Considering the number of templates he's gotten from Dr. Light's armor, give that boy long enough and he'll build his own air-dash boots into himself."
Lifesaver was impressed again as he thought of the potential that idea represented. Light really did know what he was doing, but sometimes Lifesaver wished Light could have been clairvoyant as well and anticipate the Virus. Ah well, something for future generations to do, mused the medical Reploid.
Lifesaver was startled from his thoughts by a low, urgent beeping alarm on the console. Activity was on the rise within the two sleeper's brains. The energy quickly passed the threshold required for activation. Lifesaver said, "They seem to be waking up okay, but they sustained greater physical trauma than the other two did, and we don't know if the repairs were done correctly. Of course, their weapons are deactivated, and they're restrained, so we'll see what happens." On the monitors, the two pairs of eyes opened, pools of darkness with amber rims, but servomotors quickly adjusted their pupil apertures, thinning the pupils to mere slits. Awareness came slowly for a moment, as the somewhat disjointed final memories fell into place.
Bright light and pain, searing through me... A cloud of darkness being released, devouring all that was in its path, seeping into me... need to attack now, in final moments. thoughts ran through the two's minds in quick disjointed succession. They would quickly get things sorted, but as with many Hunters, reaction often comes before action.
Signas was approximately a kilometer away in the simulator section as the Metool trots. Much of this distance was solid granite, laid down by the volcano, and almost entirely consisting of a single fused piece of earth. The rest was heavily armored. Signas, and many others swore he heard the primal screams that seemed to have crawled out of the depths of time to be unleashed on Headquarters.
Sparks flew from the two's arms as the servomotors were pushed far beyond design specifications. The restraints, however, were pushed completely beyond their specifications, and gave way with a terrible screeching sound as the two ripped through the upper set of restraints, to get into a sitting up position. Nervously, several of the guards and medical staff readied their weapons, but were snarled at in response. With a quick few swipes of their claws, the metal holding their legs in place was cut to pieces. The two used their jets to move into a crouching position, as they surveyed the area nervously.
Alia and Wolf, still slightly disoriented, looked at the two in surprise. They had a pounding blank spot in their memory, but it looked like these two recalled the fight in hideous detail. They had gone to battle Sigma, the fight had started, and then everything seemed to have been blanked out. Apparently as an act of mercy. If Alia had suddenly run into the two like this on the street, she would have confidently said it was a different pair of Reploids. They lacked their usual easy-going air, and looked as if every additional breath was only due to the continued intervention of a higher power. An aura of utter desperation seemed to surround them, and even their armor seemed slightly darker than usual, Jazz's grey running more toward's black, and Bebop's medium green was quickly approaching the color of forest at twilight.
"Weapons glitch?" Wolf asked. He had noticed it too. Dr. Light had an odd sense of humor, and partly as a psychological tool, the blueprints for the variable weapon systems built into his creations could shift the basic colors schemes of those robots to match the defeated foe that the various weapons had been taken from. Let it not be said that Light's sense of humor wasn't occasionally ghoulish
Alia shrugged. Compared to the way the two were reacting, a minor problem with coloration wasn't really a problem. "Jazz, Bebop, it's us, you're safe!" Jazz shook her head, occasionally poking the wall with a claw. Alia said, "Sigma got beaten, you won, well I think you won. Anyway, just calm down for a second." Laser Wolf nodded, and moved over to one of the medical officers and whispered urgently. Suddenly, he stopped, and punched a wall. A resounding clang rang out as the mighty warrior's knuckles hit the unyielding durasteel. "See, no ripple!" said Alia.
The two relaxed a bit, and their systems seemed to have calmed down as their coloration stopped shifting. No one moved for a few seconds, afraid of spooking the two again. The two twitched several times, nearly sending the easily spooked medical staff running away. Finally, first Jazz, and then Bebop sat down on the bed, sighing quietly, Bebop moving over to Jazz's bed to sit by his companion. Bebop and Jazz started to speak and then looked at one another. Bebop seemed to have won whatever communication passed, as he was the one to speak, "Sorry. The last thing I know, we were losing, and I, well, we thought we were going to wake up and get infected or something."
"Well, we've been out for a week, Bebop, I think something would have happened to us before then," said Alia lightly.
Jazz whispered, "I don't think she remembers the fight at all, or at least the end. Or else she's blocking it."
"If she's blocking it, good for her," whispered Bebop, "I don't want to remember what happened," both shuddered slightly, "Talk about painful memories."
"We'll talk later," mouthed Jazz as the medical staff moved in with scanners. Bebop said, "I guess you're right. Everything seems okay. Did we get everyone out?"
Wolf said, "Yes, apparently everyone seemed to have been cured, and has been repaired and admitted. Ajax is credited with the final blow, and assigned to the Unit. Once you two get cleared, we're supposed to be admitted to the Ninth. Lancer is at Dr. Cain's retirement party, or he would be here now." Wolf continued summarizing recent events the two had missed out on as a series of scanners traced over the two for hints of the active Maverick Virus. The two had been dosed with one of the counter-agents during their sleep, but that only worked against 'sleeper' versions. Nothing had proven fully effective against the active Virus. It always regrew, and its first step was always to convince a Reploid that the First Law was meaningless. Thus, infected robots had to be destroyed.
The two who were doing the readings looked at their scanners and grimaced. The two swapped out scanners to another pair held off to the side and quickly ran over the two again. "Lifesaver, would you come here please?" one asked over his radio. The two under the Maverickscope looked at the readings. There really weren't any. It seemed the scanner couldn't make up its mind.
"How do you get an 'inconclusive' Maverick reading?" Jazz asked in disgust, "Couldn't we get Alia to scan me. I'm fairly certain she knows enough about basic scanner technology to get an actual negative readout." The medical officer glared at her.
It took ten minutes for Lifesaver to get to the quarantine area. For those still keeping track, that puts us at approximately five minutes before Mega-clone's death. As such, many of the remaining Hunters have been distracted by the fact that Isoc was just announced head of the organization. Most of the Hunters will probably still be distracted for a few minutes as they look up Isoc in Cain Labs' employee directory.
The medical officer reached the room to discover that Bebop and Jazz had gone to their old standby to pass large amounts of time with little to do. Lifesaver was used to this after having dealt with the cats' cabin fever for several months, but he wondered where they had gotten the frisbee from so quickly. "You know, most Reploids just go into a wait-state. You're buffing the scratches off these walls," Lifesaver ordered. The two shrugged, and tossed the frisbee back to Alia, who had made a quick run to the two's quarters, as her systems and dash thrusters made her much faster to get there than Lifesaver's primarily civilian design could get from the main medical bay to the quarantine area.
Lifesaver took the scanner irritably. It wasn't like doing a virus scan was that difficult. Except the scanner beam could reach varying levels of depth, and it looked like nanomachines within the auto-repair system were confusing the scanner. Lifesaver nodded, "Okay, you two. Warp off the super-equipment. The Virus detector can't penetrate your systems."
Bebop held up a hand and asked, "Are you going to be scanning our circuits as part of this?" Lifesaver thought about the question. Though Maverick Virus particles were the easiest thing to detect, some Reploids went Maverick because of mistreatment by humans, or circuit errors. Typically, the overly-violent behavior could be tracked by comparing the base line set for each Reploid's neural matrix to current conditions.
It had taken a bit of careful experimentation, but it was discovered that Jazz and Bebop's original thought matrices had been overloaded with the additional control circuitry for the jet pack and their enhanced weapon systems were tied in by unsuspecting auto-repair systems during their long imprisonment. Neither Reploid had very much going on in their heads during their rebuilding period, and so the auto-repair systems had not adjusted their neural nets to handle the increased dataflow, as everything had been within parameters, and the simple auto-repair systems hadn't realized what would happen. Jazz and Bebop's personalities began to destabilize almost immediately upon activation, and as attempts at stop-gaps, the damage had been plugged in within code left over from their support units. Despite the emergency repairs, the two would have eventually had their minds randomized as their neural nets fell apart.
Dr. Light, apparently, had done some simulations upon the end result for the two, and added in additional neural circuitry as part of their enhanced armor, stabilizing their systems, but even Dr. Light couldn't replace the lost damage, leaving them with somewhat feline mannerisms and appearance. That said, while they could remove their armor, and thereby disengage most of their weapon, flight and dash capabilities, they also had the option to warp off their enhanced systems, leaving them like the suit of armor of a knight. It was useful for maintenance and repair work, but it carried a greater price than X hanging his Force armor off to the side. Without the enhanced systems, their neural nets began to overload again. The damage for perhaps a half hour was repairable, but even a minute or two would be sufficient to show degradation patterns that would alert the scanner to possible Maverick activity.
"Okay, now we're at an impasse," said Lifesaver dejectedly. He couldn't scan them with the armor on, but the system would almost certainly test positive for Maverick activity without Light's enhancements. Lifesaver said, "Let's try with just the armor off, shall we?" Jazz and Bebop blushed at that, and Lifesaver grimaced, "Right, we had to cut you out of those t-shirts and shorts. You know, Jazz, aren't you a little old for a Hello Kitty shirt?" Alia giggled and Jazz blushed deeper.
After grabbing some plastic-like hospital gowns kept mainly for this situation, the two warped out of their armor, letting the teleported heavy armors remain standing off to the side as shells of their former selves. A few medical personnel quickly scanned the shells themselves, in case a sleeper set of nanos had hidden themselves on the armor's surface. But the scan came up green.
The real question was the two themselves. Wolf had never seen them without armor on, meeting them during the simulation, and was shocked at how tiny they seemed. Their boots and dash thruster assemblies added several centimeters to their height, and now the two resembled typical citizens of Japan of the 20XX years (discounting the elongated claws on each hand and their eyes), which meant they were short, probably shorter than X was, though Wolf had never seen the Blue Bomber outside his armor. Still, they were about each five and a half feet, and resembled teenagers. Wolf, despite seeing them recently perform the feat, had trouble believing the rather scrawny arms both presented to be scanned had ripped apart durasteel housings rated to 3000 N of pressure. Mind you, Wolf could perform similar feats without ripping himself to shreds, but he was almost three feet taller, equipped with much heavier armor and servos, as well as highly advanced weapon systems. A lot of this integration meant that Wolf couldn't remove his armor without the aid of a welding torch, but Wolf wore his armor with pride, knowing he was of one of the few circuit designs trusted enough to be built as a war machine, rather than be converted from an industrial design.
Still, it was a bit of disparity to see the two who had cold-bloodedly blasted their way through the simulator rolling their eyes and shifting from one foot to the other like impatient children in a moderately annoying ordeal. Alia seemed to notice that Wolf's smirk was about to crack into laughter, and whispered, "If you laugh, they're not going to be rather appreciative. They usually aren't in a hurry to get into that armor anyway, and this is more how they see themselves." Wolf nodded. The two had to remain calm to ensure the best chance of the scanner not getting a false positive, and sudden irrational jolts of irritation did little to assist that.
Lifesaver slammed the scanner a few times against the bed after it gave a few inconclusive beeps. The machine's lights went out and came back on, but the situation seemed little improved, judging by the doctor's expression. Lifesaver stared at the two in defeat and said, "You two aren't making this easy, you know? For some reason, you two are literally covered in old nano machines. It looks like the Virus crawled into your armor and died." Alia winced at the imagery, but Bebop and Jazz remained impassive.
Lifesaver looked around, and then slammed a button on the wall near the door. One of the many counter-measures installed in the bay, a series of high powered sprinklers in the ceiling pounded everything in the room with water. Luckily, most of the equipment was built with an eye for this countermeasure. Jazz warned Lifesaver, "You know, the only reason I'm not going to file a complaint is the fact these gowns aren't fabric, and I don't want to push my luck at my next checkup." Bebop nodded in irritated agreement.
Washed off a bit, Lifesaver scanned them again, and breathed in relief. "Well, there's no sign of active Maverick Virus nanos." The two exchanged high-fives, and several people broke out into relieved smiles. Lifesaver frowned as he examined the scanner more closely, "Don't break out the drinks yet, guys: small problem here. You're not infected, but you've got some very bizarre circuit activity that wasn't on your previous scans, near your core circuitry. I have NO idea what that is."
Bebop and Jazz ran through some self-diagnostics, but Lifesaver interrupted them, "And I don't care what your systems report to you, you're not technically considered a reliable source right now. Sorry, guys. We're going to need someone to look at these." Lifesaver gave a nervous grin, "Get comfortable, you're probably going to have to stay for an hour or two, considering that most of the technical staff that's better than I at deciphering circuit patterns is at the party."
Bebop grabbed Jazz's hand before she started spewing invective. Bebop said calmly, "All right. Thanks for not shooting us out of hand at least." Bebop had meant it at least partly as a joke, but both stiffened when Lifesaver didn't respond except by looking grim. Plus or minus two seconds, Rock's systems were going into auto-stasis as the Reploids realized what kind of threat was hanging over their head.
"I'll tell Signas what's up, so he can tell X all of you are reactivated. Alia, Wolf, there's some paperwork I need you to fill out so we can get your weaponry reactivated," the doctor gestured at the door, and the two teammates followed. Jazz and Bebop waved for them to go. The other medical staff seemed ready to hang around, until Lifesaver coughed at them. The others discretely left the room leaving the two around.
It only took a few seconds for Jazz to finally lose control of her temper, slamming her fist down on the bed they were on. Bebop winced at the sound; that had left a definite dent. Jazz ignored it, absolutely beside herself with impotent fury that left her trembling as energy was flushed along her circuit pathways, screaming for release. Bebop sighed, and quickly wrapped his arms around Jazz. Physical contact was enough to break down the last remnants of her control, and the amber eyed Reploid seemed to crumple, tears being shed from her eyes.
"How can you be so calm?" Jazz demanded. There was every possibility that Lifesaver would come back into the room with a blaster pointed at them and firing. While it was likely the two could probably make an escape from Headquarters, it could mean years and years with a death warrant on their head, all because of some new circuit. It wasn't like they picked whatever the next optimization was going to be.
"We've been through worse, really, and recently at that, remember?" Bebop said. Jazz paid closer attention to Bebop's voice and realized what was causing the inhuman calmness. Bebop had deactivated a few leads to his vocal synthesizer, leaving some of the harmonics out, and everything, no matter how Bebop wanted to say it, came out in a monotone. Jazz felt a bit of moisture on her back and then looked around to see that Bebop had been working his claws into the tough material until it had torn, letting water trickle onto Jazz's synthetic flesh. Bebop gave a nervous laugh and worked his claws loose.
"Sorry, I've been a bit of a jerk," apologized Jazz before her arms surrounded her boyfriend. She hadn't really stopped to think about what Bebop wanted or needed before going off on an angry spiel, and that was especially dangerous in this situation. "Damn Father for loading me up with emotion chips," she whispered, and she felt Bebop give a slight nervous chuckle.
"In thy own image, I guess," whispered Bebop, though this wasn't the best place to discuss certain Germanic robot designers. Bebop asked hesitantly in a low tone, hopefully one that couldn't be picked up by any microphones, "You remember everything from the last bits of the battle?" Jazz's eyes lost their focus and she shuddered. Bebop lowered his head until it rested on top of hers, as she was leaning into him.
"I don't want to. I'll say it was unexpected though to have that turned against Sigma, but I wish I hadn't needed to be awake for the experience," Jazz finished with another sudden whisper, "You think that's the new pathway?" Jazz thought back. Sigma had jolted her with a bit of energy, since he wanted her conscious for the ultimate defeat. The darkness that had followed next... Jazz shuddered thinking about it.
"One way to find out. As much as I hate to let go of you right now, we're going to need to warp in our armor for us to test this," Bebop said. The two let go, and shifted back into their armor. Jazz stared at the smoky grey alloys, capable of taking almost any blast, with utter disgust. It had saved her mind once, but right now it seemed that Dr. Light's gift was nothing but trouble, putting them into a situation where the Hunters may have to kill them.
"Are we even going to be able to activate this?" Jazz asked suddenly, and loudly, "I'm not quite sure how it worked the first time." Jazz thought over the events and said, "Come to think of it, I'm more worried if we can turn it off." Bebop nodded solemnly.
Before the two could try anything, X and Zero slammed the door open to the quarantine bay. Both of the Reploids with Death hanging over their heads stared at the cargo in the two Hunters' hands in astonishment. "Rock?" said Bebop, looking at his older brother in astonishment and terror. Jazz was amazed. She had been sure Rock was dead. Father's old enemy at last defeated, but here was a ghost from all their pasts, and it looked like something had mauled him. As far as Jazz had known, Rock was unstoppable, but had some enemy in the past finally been to much for him, cutting him open so brutally?
The two quickly set the robot, whose front was stained with soot and leaked coolant, on a bed in the area. Medical personnel crowded around, stabilizing the robot's damage to try and preserve it. The two hovered in the air, the doctors looked up once as their shadows moved across some of the overhead lights, but upon realizing who it was, decided not to comment. After all, this was a family affair.
Jazz and Bebop, confused as all get out, stared as a man, no Reploid, their sensors corrected; walked into the room, looking at Rock with paternal concern. Isoc glared at the two hovering like vultures over Mega Man. Had they no shame? Then Isoc's eyes rested upon Jazz's arm, spotting the wrist-mounted aperture that launched her missiles.
Dr. Light hadn't mounted any of his troops with wrist-mounted weapons, and when Cain deciphered the blueprints, most Reploids had been built along similar lines. Instead, the busters, cannons, etc., were mounted within the wrist section, instead of on top of it. There was a tiny delay while it was available, and the firing arc wasn't as good, but it was better protected. Jazz had missile weaponry, however, as her primary tool of destruction, and the matter generators were built into her upper arms, leaving only the launch port exposed. If damaged, Jazz could clear it rather easily even in the field, and she had the better field of fire as a result. Still, though the techniques involved were rather simple, most Reploids were still built along 'traditional' lines.
"You're the ancients!" Isoc said with delight and surprise. He looked almost three times as old as the two put together, but their systems had been sketched out before the factory that built Isoc had been more than a twinkle in a developer's eye. The whole family is in here today, with Rock. I wonder what the Doctor would think of that? Isoc wondered.
He kept his thoughts to himself, knowing the questions people had wouldn't be answered for a while. For now, the various Reploids held a death vigil for Mega Man, either out of assuming it was the original, or needing to know what had driven the hero berserk. Once again the quarantine bay was silent, as Reploids fought to save the original Blue Bomber's life.
To be continued...
Author's notes: An Interlude again, and more technically one, since there was very little action. Still, sweet, sweet WAFFiness. (not a lot)
This started off as the next plot point, after Jazz and Bebop had reawakened and seen what was going on. Instead, I thought Jazz and Bebop needed some together time. They haven't had a lot of chance to actually have a relationship 'on-camera', since I skipped their first few months together, and then they were poked and prodded all the time to figure out more about Light's latest toys. So, I figured they needed to at least hug each other once. Hopefully things won't turn out so the only situations they'll be in where they can show emotional attachment are also not situations of massive emotional stress. I'm not that evil. Though, it should be noted Zero's horoscope came true ('rise up to meet challenges'). Let's hope SOMETHING good will come from this.
Other thing of note is I got to put forward my theory on why X is so rarely wearing his armor in cut scenes when he's just hanging around HQ (they can't do Virus scans through it, and it makes the Hunters twitch). Still, Light's weapons were meant originally for war, not everyday use, and of course Light set the capsules to researching without taking in the possibility of someone being able to totally analyze all their abilities as a good thing. (It seems like a reasonable security feature that Light's toys can't be analyzed. Otherwise, all the Hunters would have air-dash thrusters, hyper cannons, and Power enhancement chips). So, besides all of the nifty protective abilities, Jazz and Bebop need to keep their suits on, or they'll start using the kitty door. :) So, they're viewed with suspicion. Hopefully they can earn some credit in the other's eyes.
Let's see, what have I forgotten?
Oh, yes! Next time:
Everyone's awake! Aila and Wolf have been reinstated and should start training shortly, but Isoc probably won't be happy when he finds out what sonny-boy is doing in the same room as possible Mavericks. We'll see the results of all those directory searches to figure out exactly where Isoc came from in the first place. We'll see if Mega-clone survives, and if the Hunters can start to untangle the various plot strands. If things don't get to confusing, I'll throw in another untraceable Iris-gram to keep Zero down in the dumps. :)