CyberSins, Chapter 2
Getting in was easy; it always was. Once he flashed his badge he was allowed free roaming of the entire complex; attempting to block out a hunter was usually the worst thing any company could ever think of doing, since it was undefendable in court. A hacker you could get away with, a 'Serial Number Sam' you could get away with.halting an investigation was something no lawyer would touch.
He didn't know what to expect when he stood before the doorway leading into basement level twenty-six. Inside would more than likely be a bit of tissue in a bunch of little vats with wires hooked up to it, just as the hacker had been teasing with earlier. He shuddered. The projection was so beautiful, but the body was nothing worth saving. It happened all the time. Regardless, he punched in the code on the keypad he'd been giving and stepped in, taking a deep breath.
He couldn't believe it.
Settled into the niche of the metal capsule was a beautiful figure, eyes closed in rest but the face flickering with traces of pain and discomfort. Various limbs occasionally twitched and shuddered, muscles convulsing minutely without the brain's ability to control them.
After the initial shock, Zelgadis stepped forward and opened the glass panel, trying to ignore the pounding of his heart as he lifted the nude figure from the cradle gently, pulling it forward enough so that he could disconnect it from the mainframe. He removed the input plugs from the wrists and ankles first, wincing as he did so - it seemed like it should hurt horribly, though the limp body resting against his made no indication one way or another. The hunter's hands traveled down the spine, feeling the occasional irregular lump in the cold skin caused by the wires running beneath, and he grasped the plug in the small of the back securely, gingerly tugging it out. How had they managed to imbed six inches of input plugs into his back without damaging any major organs?
Then he understood; Xelloss was incredibly fast because, as beautiful as he was, nothing beneath the skin was human. He had most of a brain, maybe one lung and part of a heart, but nothing else. He didn't eat, he didn't drink.he was just skin pulled over wires into a pretty package. There were no organs or tendons to damage, so the input plugs could be as long as they body's dimensions allowed - the science of making these hybrids had come a long way, especially for a science that was illegal.
His hands moved up to the plug in the base of the neck. This was it; he had seventeen minutes to get the body back to the projection before the connection was severed permanently. Could these things get ripped? He'd seen it happen in humans often enough, when a jealous lover or old enemy unplugged the corporeal from the circumference before the projection returned. Taking a deep breath, he pushed all other thoughts aside as he prepared to remove the plug, but he paused.
Looking at the beautiful face, he leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to the cold lips, nuzzling softly before sighing. There was no way this creature would let himself be touched in the real world if he wouldn't even allow his projection to be held; this was probably the closest he'd ever come to kissing the hacker. Metal fingertips traced the closed eyes, then he sighed and slid the six inches of metal spike out of the base of the skull.
***************************
"What do you mean there's no hook up like this?!" Zelgadis was on the verge of hysterics.
Amelia was tending to Xelloss's vital signs as Lina sat next to a terrified Zelgadis, shuffling through various wires and metal bits in search of a plug that would fit. "It's just this simple, okay?" Lina sighed, testing a plug by shoving it roughly into the base of the unconscious hacker's skull causing Amelia to shudder and Gourry to come quite close to throwing up. She threw it aside when it didn't fit and continued, "These are deep sockets. I just don't know if we have anything here that can fit it. I'll have to rig something up, that's all."
"Three minutes left," Amelia reminded them nervously. "We've got to get something to connect him back to his projection or he's lost."
He hadn't anticipated this. He hadn't even thought of it. Once he got the body back here, everything should have been fine; it didn't cross his mind that these specially-designed cables would be practically impossible to find. His whole body was numb; he was trying to save the hacker, but by bringing him here he'd only killed him faster. It was unbearable.
"Two minutes," Amelia announced shakily, looking over to Gourry.
"Working on it, alright?" Lina retorted through gritted teeth. She hooked up a wire to the lockout file's input port and attached the longest plug she could find to it, then cracked off the base and stripped the wire. She hadn't become the best guardian-in-training in her class for nothing; she could protect any file thrown at her, but she could also access any file as well. Just because the file was locked inside a body didn't make much of a difference. Grabbing a screwdriver, she jammed it into the newly-stripped wire to give it support, then nodded to the two men. "Right, hold him down, boys. This should do it."
"Th.thirty seconds."
Gourry and Zelgadis grabbed on, the blonde holding the legs and the hunter gripping the shoulders and arms. Lina took a deep breath, then rammed the makeshift plug into the base of the skull as hard as she could, shoving it all the way in with the screwdriver until the plug's tip hit the connection port. Xelloss's body shuddered and jerked, then the hacker thrashed wildly in a fit of seizures and suddenly went limp.
Confused, the four exchanged glances and Amelia looked to the monitoring system, shaking her head. "I.I don't think it worked. Nothing's changed; he heart rate hasn't gone up a bit, or his blood pressure. Guys."
Zelgadis growled. "He doesn't have enough heart to register a change in beat. There's not enough blood to show any pressure at all on the monitor. He's in there somewhere."
"Zel, c'mon," Lina sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know how you felt for him, I know you were trying to save him, but -"
"What? How do you know?" Zelgadis looked at her incredulously, and she chuckled.
"Because you didn't delete the files from your lockout session," she mumbled, cheeks blushing red.
Amelia and Gourry watched the two suspiciously, then came to the realization - and truth - of what was being said when Zelgadis's face flushed as well. "You didn't have a right to look at those files. They're restricted to trainees, you know."
"I hope she's a better trainee than a surgeon," came a wobbly response, and they looked down to see Xelloss trying to push up from his prostrate position weakly. "Dammit.what the hell did she use to connect? Do I even want to know?"
Lina looked peeved, and she slapped the ingrate on the shoulder.sending him back down with a grunt. "I used a screwdriver, if you must know. I figured you were as screwy as you could get, so it couldn't hurt." She leaned back with a grin, looking pleased with herself.
"A..screwdriver?" Xelloss looked like he was going to be sick, but he chuckled and sighed. "You know, that would be a lot funnier if it wasn't my head we were talking about."
"That's not the funny part."
"Oh?" The hacker looked over at Lina who was currently wielding a pair of pliers and a frightening grin.
"Nah, the funny part's gonna be getting that thing out. Hold him down, boys."
**********************************
For three days Zelgadis watched the hacker carefully. He seemed to be recovering, but it was hard to tell. Without any kind of vital signs of body chemistry to check - at least, that they knew how to check - it was impossible to tell how Xelloss was coming along. When questioned, he would always answer that he was doing fine, but the hunter couldn't shake the feeling that it was a lie.
On the fourth day, Xelloss finally approached him...and none too shyly. Zelgadis was at work on a new case, having dismissed the Xelloss case as closed (without details, of course), when he felt a tug. Someone was ripping him! He could feel the slight pull, the sensation of someone unplugging his body from the circumference, and he rushed back, his mind connecting with his body suddenly as he gasped back into consciousness. Xelloss extracted the final plug from his headset with a grin, just as he returned.
Beyond furious, Zelgadis grabbed the hacker by the collar of his grey tank top, growling dangerously. "What the hell were you trying to do?!"
Shrugging himself free, the hacker smirked. "Well I had to get your attention somehow, didn't I?" Before Zelgadis could reply, Xelloss continued. "Look, I have to get out of here."
"Why?" came the cautious reply.
"Because.I need to buy some.stuff," he finished lamely, shooting a glare that dared Zelgadis to question further. Not that it mattered.
"Explain."
"Yeah, explain. And while you're at it, explain where the extra dissipation chemicals fluttered off to, too," Lina added, making her presence known as she took up her usual station by the doorway.
Xelloss cast a glare back at her over his shoulder, and then shook his head, suddenly grinning. "Why am I even asking you people? I don't have to ask any of you for permission to go anywhere, anyway."
"You do if you intend to go anywhere out side of this complex," Lina pointed out helpfully. "Unless you somehow know the maps, that is. This place is a maze."
Chuckling, the hacker tapped his temple mysteriously. "Got them all up here, little guardian. Don't think I'm bluffing, either. Your superiors were all too happy to feed them to me." Seeing that they had misunderstood his reply, he clarified, "No, they didn't 'give' them to me per your literal sense. Honestly, you people have no sense of drama. I mean they were all but handing them out, considering the pitiful security measures they have up."
Zelgadis filed this bit of information in the back of his mind as he pulled off the VR glasses, then nodded. "Fine. But if you'll just tell me what you need, I might be able to find it for you here."
"I need food," he said simply, shrugging.
"Food?" Lina eyed him suspiciously before looking to Zelgadis. "I thought you said he didn't eat.?"
"I thought he didn't. There's nothing in there for him to digest it with. At least, I don't think there is."
"How kind of you to speak of me as though I'm not standing right here," Xelloss remarked bitterly, then shook his head. "I have a little bit of tissue, okay? It's got to be kept alive somehow. I just need the right chemical mix - sort of like those things you fleshies drink when you're working out. Protein shakes, kind of thing."
Lina's eyebrows rose as she looked over at Zelgadis yet again. "Did he just call me a fleshie? What the hell is a fleshie? Do I need to hit him?"
Again the grin crossed the hunter's face at the ancient term and he chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I'll explain later. Alright, so what do you need? Apparently you've already gotten some of what you need. You didn't have to steal it, you know."
"Well, no, but that certainly is a lot more fun."
"Right. So if you know the way out, get going. I assume you've already got funds stashed everywhere. What's stopping you?"
Xelloss looked uncomfortable for a moment, but he finally shrugged. "I need some clothes."
It was barely a whisper, and both of them had to struggle to hear it. Lina snorted. "You're wearing clothes right now, moron."
Frustrated, Xelloss held up his hands in front of her face, the import sockets in his wrists and the faint lines caused by the wires beneath his skin clearly visible thanks to the sleeveless tank top. "Yeah, I'll do just wonderful out there in the natural world walking around with these in plain sight, won't I?"
She blinked as she stared into the black holes, then shuddered and stuck out her tongue. "That is so disgusting. Point made and taken. I'll get you something to wear right away," she muttered, heading out the door top speed.
The hacker was grinning at her discomfort, but Zelgadis could see the smile didn't go all the way to the eyes. Climbing out of the chair, he laid a hand on Xelloss's shoulder, causing him to jump. "She's not used to seeing that. Don't take it so personally."
"I try not to take anything personally." He shrugged off the hand and turned to face him. "But she didn't seem to mind when she was digging around with the pliers, did she?"
"She's just a sadist at heart, is all." After a moment of silence, he remarked, "You know you don't really need a shirt. No one would have noticed. Those that did notice wouldn't have known what you are."
"Maybe it's not for my sake that I need to cover them," Xelloss retorted dryly, pushing away the hunter's hand as it reached out to touch him once more. "Why are you always touching me?" he shot out, glaring at the hunter. "What are you, some kind of pervert?"
The hand withdrew immediately, and Zelgadis took a step back awkwardly. Of course, it had never really crossed his mind that the most obvious reason for the repeated rejection was that the hacker simply didn't 'swing that way.' "S.sorry," he muttered embarrassedly, covering his hurt with a clumsy cough.
"No problem," Xelloss nodded, eyeing him warily. Then he chuckled. "But they did do a pretty good job with me, huh? They said they wanted me to pass for an average human, and so here I am. Could've been worse, regardless." Zelgadis looked up at him, eyebrows raised, and the hacker poked him in the chest. "It's easy to forget, isn't it?"
"Forget what?" Zelgadis replied, totally confused at this point.
"It's easy to forget that I'm a lump of wires. Unless you're into that sort of thing," Xelloss smirked, hiding his pain with that impossible grin.
It took Zelgadis a moment to realize what the hacker was saying, but when he did he couldn't help but laugh, shaking his head incredulously. "You're saying you won't let me touch you because you're a hybrid?"
"No," Xelloss said pointedly, "I'm saying I won't let you touch me because you keep forgetting I'm a hybrid. I'm sure if you remembered, you'd come back to your senses."
Zelgadis smiled, reaching out again to brush the cold cheek with his fingertips. "Are you implying that I'm not capable of remembering something for more than five minutes, or are you actually thinking that I care?"
Xelloss blinked at the strange reply, but before he could make a comeback of his own he found the hunter's lips pressed against his in an insistent but gentle kiss. The purple eyes slid closed as a shiver ran through him and he leaned against the hunter, returning the kiss tentatively just as Lina returned with a long-sleeved shirt, Amelia in tow.
"Digital hell! You guys, get a room!" she shrieked as her cheeks flushed red, and she threw the shirt at them.
"Z..Zel.?" was all Amelia could stammer in disbelief as Lina drug her from the room.
The two separated abruptly and exchanged the embarrassed coughs of people who'd been caught in a thoroughly embarrassing situation. Xelloss picked up the shirt that had been thrown at him and he slipped it on over the tank top, turning up the collar to cover the port in the back of his neck despite the fact that his hair covered it anyway.
"Right. I need to pick up the other chemicals. I'll.I'll be back later," he mumbled before disappearing out the door.
****************************
Back in her room, Amelia sat huddled on her bed against the wall. She hadn't wanted to believe what Lina said earlier about Zelgadis's relationship to the hybrid. His blush wasn't necessarily an affirmative; it was just embarrassment at what Lina was suggesting. But how could he have been kissing that thing? Maybe it had infected his brain while it was being interrogated in the lockout files. That would explain why Zelgadis closed the case without turning the hacker in! Of course!
Wait.
Were they even capable of that? They were supposed to be really amazing at running around the circumference really fast, but were they able to actually infect a totally human brain like a virus or something? She paused, but didn't dwell on it long. Of course he had. Besides, all the volumes upon volumes of books she had on hybrids were old; it was possible that they had new technology and they could do that sort of thing.
She had to save her Zelgadis.
***************************
Zelgadis, Lina and Gourry had followed Xelloss from the moment he returned, arms full. They were currently tracking him through the corridors, much to the hacker's annoyance, and he finally turned, exasperated.
"If you're going to follow me, at least take a couple of these bags. They're not light, you know."
Gourry fiddled and then smiled. "We thought machines were really strong."
Xelloss's eyebrows raised, and Lina bonked the faithful security guard upside the head. "He's not a machine, Gourry. He's just a bunch of wires and stuff-"
"Hey, wait just a minute -" Xelloss balked.
"-it's not like he's a superhuman or anything. I mean, there's not an ounce of muscle on him. I'm sure he's strong and all in the circumference, but here he's practically nothing," she went on, not missing a beat.
"Can I protest.?" he crept in weakly.
"Just look at him, all skin and bones, really not much more than that if you strip away all the metal bits, and-"
"Lina," Zelgadis cut in, clamping a hand over her mouth, "as thick as Gourry is, I'm sure he's got the point by now."
Xelloss's eyebrow twitched irritably. "I know I certainly have." He shoved a bag into each of their arms, relieving himself completely of his burden, and nodded. "So if you're going to follow me, you're going to make yourselves useful. I need somewhere to call a kitchen. Preferably one with a fully-functional medilab."
*****************************
"Don't tell me you're actually going to drink that," Lina sputtered, making a face. "Wouldn't a cocktail like that melt your insides out?"
Xelloss didn't look up from the table where he continued to mix the volatile chemicals carefully, constantly measuring and adding bits drop by drop. He sighed, pushing Gourry aside to get to another part of the table and shook his head. "Of course not. I don't have anything much besides bits of wires and metal, as you so delicately put it."
Muttering something about people who held grudges, she folded her arms and nudged the silent Zelgadis with her toe, bringing him out of his reverie of lengthy stares at the hacker.
"Huh?"
"If you were having to take that stuff, how would you do it?"
Zelgadis blinked at her stupidly, taking a second glance at the jar of chemicals, then he smirked. "I don't think I would."
"Pin-pom! Right answer!" Lina exclaimed with a punch to his shoulder - resulting in a resounding *bong* and a yelp from the girl.
Xelloss chuckled and shook his head. "I feel so safe when I'm surrounded by mature, intelligent people such as you." He added a few more drops of liquid, turning the mixture into a thick, swirling, gray syrup, and grinned to himself. "That was sarcasm, by the way. I wasn't sure if you picked up on it. Right." He carried the concoction over to the medilab's chair and sat the beaker on the table beside it, but paused before removing the long- sleeved shirt. "You guys can leave now, you know. I really am perfectly capable of feeding myself."
Gourry didn't take the hint, but Lina did and she drug him out by his long blond hair muttering something about getting a snack. Zelgadis remained. He crossed the room to where Xelloss was climbing into the chair and stopped beside him, unsure of what to say or do. The hacker watched him for a full minute, then finally broke the silence.
"Let me guess; you want to watch in the interest of the scientific community, right?"
"Actually, I wanted to watch because it gives me a reason to look at you," the hunter countered smoothly, stuffing his hands into his pockets with a shrug.
Xelloss stared at him, jaw slack, then rolled his eyes. "I suppose you make passes like this on all the electronic appliances around here. The toaster's probably already filed for a sexual harassment lawsuit against you," he mumbled as he fumbled in one of the bags of items he'd bought. Finally producing an unnaturally-long hypodermic needle and a length of tubing, he attached the two and hooked them up to the injection pump before leaning back in the chair. "If you're going to stand there, be a dear and pour the solution into the tank for me."
Numbly, Zelgadis nodded and carefully added the mixture to the vat where medicine would normally go for intravenous introduction. When he looked back up, the syringe was already slid neatly into a previously-unnoticed port in the hacker's right forearm just beneath the elbow. Zelgadis couldn't help it; it had to be said.
"Exactly how many ports do you have hidden on you?"
Choking on a snort of laughter, Xelloss hit the switch to start the pumps. "Like I'd tell you that! It's personal."
"Fair enough; you ask me something personal, then you have to answer my question."
"No way, I'm not falling into that kind of trap." Xelloss tapped the syringe to make sure it was flowing properly, then leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "I miss the circumference."
The change in topic was expected, but sudden, and Zelgadis made no move to return to the previous subject. "Lina's working on fixing a set of plugs for you, you know."
"How very sweet of her."
"You don't appreciate it?"
Xelloss paused a moment in thought, then smiled faintly. "Yes, I do, actually." He then continued in his most robotic voice, "I am simply not programmed to express appreciation."
"Liar."
"I'm not; I'm just alternatively-aligned to the legitimacy of particular items of subject matter."
"Liar."
"Damn you and your one-word answers."
"They're my specialty," Zelgadis chuckled, leaning in to touch the hybrid once more, leaning against the framework of the chair. His fingers traced lightly beneath the closed violent eyes but pulled back as the hacker winced, shying away slightly.
"Knock it off. I'm eating," he muttered halfheartedly.
Another chuckle, and Zelgadis's hands traced down to the lips idly. "That's not much of an excuse in your condition."
Sighing, Xelloss looked up at the figure above him, and reaching up with his left arm he traced the seams where metal connected to skin across the hunter's face contemplatively. "You know, this really wasn't what I was expecting. Your projection is so different. Why did you change it?"
"You think if I can change to look like anything, I'd keep these stupid metal slabs all over me?"
"I don't know; I find them rather fetching." Xelloss grinned at the hunter's discomfort, then nudged him. "So why do you have them? Some kind of an accident, or maybe an idea for a new fashion trend gone bad?"
"I had some machinery blow up on me."
"It must have been one hell of a big piece of machinery."
He shrugged and continued to trace the lines of the beautiful face idly until the purple eyes closed once more in relaxation. "It was actually the main encasement for the company's motherboard. So yes, it was one hell of a big piece of machinery."
Silence pervaded the room for a few minutes, broken only by the occasional hiss of machinery. Finally Xelloss smiled secretly and tilted his head, his voice mildly sleepy.
"When you screw up, you really screw up, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do." The fingers continued to memorize the patterns of the cold skin; the delicate features, the lack of any kind of lines. Leaning down, he kissed the half-asleep hybrid very softly, little more than brushing their lips together. "Do you know what this means?"
Sighing contentedly, Xelloss was all put purring, having simply resigned himself to the light touches. "Mm?"
"It means that I answered a personal question for you." Zelgadis smirked mischievously. "Now it's your turn."
***************************
Amelia was typing furiously at her terminal, screening through piles upon piles of data and cross-references. She had been working all through the night, not sleeping an instant until she'd found what she was looking for, but now she was exhausted and completely out of ideas for places to look. Regardless, she had to get rid of the hybrid; it was simply bad news - dangerous beyond belief.
And then it hit her.
The hackers had been made by Promenade Enterprises, had it not? So did it not make sense that they would want their property back? True, Zelgadis had already set the case as being closed, but that didn't mean that they were dumb enough to think he was gone for good, otherwise an autopsy report would have come out and there would have been questions and such. They'd be so much happier if the hybrid were back in their hands, under their control. Then it'd be put back to work and some other hunter could catch him and put him away for good. Maybe even she could do it! That would prove that she could be a better hunter than a guardian!
A grin crossed her face as she pulled up the keyboard once more. All it would take was an e-mail to their headquarters, and then they'd be all too happy to tell her what to do. Everything would fall directly into place.
She had to save her Zelgadis.
Getting in was easy; it always was. Once he flashed his badge he was allowed free roaming of the entire complex; attempting to block out a hunter was usually the worst thing any company could ever think of doing, since it was undefendable in court. A hacker you could get away with, a 'Serial Number Sam' you could get away with.halting an investigation was something no lawyer would touch.
He didn't know what to expect when he stood before the doorway leading into basement level twenty-six. Inside would more than likely be a bit of tissue in a bunch of little vats with wires hooked up to it, just as the hacker had been teasing with earlier. He shuddered. The projection was so beautiful, but the body was nothing worth saving. It happened all the time. Regardless, he punched in the code on the keypad he'd been giving and stepped in, taking a deep breath.
He couldn't believe it.
Settled into the niche of the metal capsule was a beautiful figure, eyes closed in rest but the face flickering with traces of pain and discomfort. Various limbs occasionally twitched and shuddered, muscles convulsing minutely without the brain's ability to control them.
After the initial shock, Zelgadis stepped forward and opened the glass panel, trying to ignore the pounding of his heart as he lifted the nude figure from the cradle gently, pulling it forward enough so that he could disconnect it from the mainframe. He removed the input plugs from the wrists and ankles first, wincing as he did so - it seemed like it should hurt horribly, though the limp body resting against his made no indication one way or another. The hunter's hands traveled down the spine, feeling the occasional irregular lump in the cold skin caused by the wires running beneath, and he grasped the plug in the small of the back securely, gingerly tugging it out. How had they managed to imbed six inches of input plugs into his back without damaging any major organs?
Then he understood; Xelloss was incredibly fast because, as beautiful as he was, nothing beneath the skin was human. He had most of a brain, maybe one lung and part of a heart, but nothing else. He didn't eat, he didn't drink.he was just skin pulled over wires into a pretty package. There were no organs or tendons to damage, so the input plugs could be as long as they body's dimensions allowed - the science of making these hybrids had come a long way, especially for a science that was illegal.
His hands moved up to the plug in the base of the neck. This was it; he had seventeen minutes to get the body back to the projection before the connection was severed permanently. Could these things get ripped? He'd seen it happen in humans often enough, when a jealous lover or old enemy unplugged the corporeal from the circumference before the projection returned. Taking a deep breath, he pushed all other thoughts aside as he prepared to remove the plug, but he paused.
Looking at the beautiful face, he leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to the cold lips, nuzzling softly before sighing. There was no way this creature would let himself be touched in the real world if he wouldn't even allow his projection to be held; this was probably the closest he'd ever come to kissing the hacker. Metal fingertips traced the closed eyes, then he sighed and slid the six inches of metal spike out of the base of the skull.
***************************
"What do you mean there's no hook up like this?!" Zelgadis was on the verge of hysterics.
Amelia was tending to Xelloss's vital signs as Lina sat next to a terrified Zelgadis, shuffling through various wires and metal bits in search of a plug that would fit. "It's just this simple, okay?" Lina sighed, testing a plug by shoving it roughly into the base of the unconscious hacker's skull causing Amelia to shudder and Gourry to come quite close to throwing up. She threw it aside when it didn't fit and continued, "These are deep sockets. I just don't know if we have anything here that can fit it. I'll have to rig something up, that's all."
"Three minutes left," Amelia reminded them nervously. "We've got to get something to connect him back to his projection or he's lost."
He hadn't anticipated this. He hadn't even thought of it. Once he got the body back here, everything should have been fine; it didn't cross his mind that these specially-designed cables would be practically impossible to find. His whole body was numb; he was trying to save the hacker, but by bringing him here he'd only killed him faster. It was unbearable.
"Two minutes," Amelia announced shakily, looking over to Gourry.
"Working on it, alright?" Lina retorted through gritted teeth. She hooked up a wire to the lockout file's input port and attached the longest plug she could find to it, then cracked off the base and stripped the wire. She hadn't become the best guardian-in-training in her class for nothing; she could protect any file thrown at her, but she could also access any file as well. Just because the file was locked inside a body didn't make much of a difference. Grabbing a screwdriver, she jammed it into the newly-stripped wire to give it support, then nodded to the two men. "Right, hold him down, boys. This should do it."
"Th.thirty seconds."
Gourry and Zelgadis grabbed on, the blonde holding the legs and the hunter gripping the shoulders and arms. Lina took a deep breath, then rammed the makeshift plug into the base of the skull as hard as she could, shoving it all the way in with the screwdriver until the plug's tip hit the connection port. Xelloss's body shuddered and jerked, then the hacker thrashed wildly in a fit of seizures and suddenly went limp.
Confused, the four exchanged glances and Amelia looked to the monitoring system, shaking her head. "I.I don't think it worked. Nothing's changed; he heart rate hasn't gone up a bit, or his blood pressure. Guys."
Zelgadis growled. "He doesn't have enough heart to register a change in beat. There's not enough blood to show any pressure at all on the monitor. He's in there somewhere."
"Zel, c'mon," Lina sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know how you felt for him, I know you were trying to save him, but -"
"What? How do you know?" Zelgadis looked at her incredulously, and she chuckled.
"Because you didn't delete the files from your lockout session," she mumbled, cheeks blushing red.
Amelia and Gourry watched the two suspiciously, then came to the realization - and truth - of what was being said when Zelgadis's face flushed as well. "You didn't have a right to look at those files. They're restricted to trainees, you know."
"I hope she's a better trainee than a surgeon," came a wobbly response, and they looked down to see Xelloss trying to push up from his prostrate position weakly. "Dammit.what the hell did she use to connect? Do I even want to know?"
Lina looked peeved, and she slapped the ingrate on the shoulder.sending him back down with a grunt. "I used a screwdriver, if you must know. I figured you were as screwy as you could get, so it couldn't hurt." She leaned back with a grin, looking pleased with herself.
"A..screwdriver?" Xelloss looked like he was going to be sick, but he chuckled and sighed. "You know, that would be a lot funnier if it wasn't my head we were talking about."
"That's not the funny part."
"Oh?" The hacker looked over at Lina who was currently wielding a pair of pliers and a frightening grin.
"Nah, the funny part's gonna be getting that thing out. Hold him down, boys."
**********************************
For three days Zelgadis watched the hacker carefully. He seemed to be recovering, but it was hard to tell. Without any kind of vital signs of body chemistry to check - at least, that they knew how to check - it was impossible to tell how Xelloss was coming along. When questioned, he would always answer that he was doing fine, but the hunter couldn't shake the feeling that it was a lie.
On the fourth day, Xelloss finally approached him...and none too shyly. Zelgadis was at work on a new case, having dismissed the Xelloss case as closed (without details, of course), when he felt a tug. Someone was ripping him! He could feel the slight pull, the sensation of someone unplugging his body from the circumference, and he rushed back, his mind connecting with his body suddenly as he gasped back into consciousness. Xelloss extracted the final plug from his headset with a grin, just as he returned.
Beyond furious, Zelgadis grabbed the hacker by the collar of his grey tank top, growling dangerously. "What the hell were you trying to do?!"
Shrugging himself free, the hacker smirked. "Well I had to get your attention somehow, didn't I?" Before Zelgadis could reply, Xelloss continued. "Look, I have to get out of here."
"Why?" came the cautious reply.
"Because.I need to buy some.stuff," he finished lamely, shooting a glare that dared Zelgadis to question further. Not that it mattered.
"Explain."
"Yeah, explain. And while you're at it, explain where the extra dissipation chemicals fluttered off to, too," Lina added, making her presence known as she took up her usual station by the doorway.
Xelloss cast a glare back at her over his shoulder, and then shook his head, suddenly grinning. "Why am I even asking you people? I don't have to ask any of you for permission to go anywhere, anyway."
"You do if you intend to go anywhere out side of this complex," Lina pointed out helpfully. "Unless you somehow know the maps, that is. This place is a maze."
Chuckling, the hacker tapped his temple mysteriously. "Got them all up here, little guardian. Don't think I'm bluffing, either. Your superiors were all too happy to feed them to me." Seeing that they had misunderstood his reply, he clarified, "No, they didn't 'give' them to me per your literal sense. Honestly, you people have no sense of drama. I mean they were all but handing them out, considering the pitiful security measures they have up."
Zelgadis filed this bit of information in the back of his mind as he pulled off the VR glasses, then nodded. "Fine. But if you'll just tell me what you need, I might be able to find it for you here."
"I need food," he said simply, shrugging.
"Food?" Lina eyed him suspiciously before looking to Zelgadis. "I thought you said he didn't eat.?"
"I thought he didn't. There's nothing in there for him to digest it with. At least, I don't think there is."
"How kind of you to speak of me as though I'm not standing right here," Xelloss remarked bitterly, then shook his head. "I have a little bit of tissue, okay? It's got to be kept alive somehow. I just need the right chemical mix - sort of like those things you fleshies drink when you're working out. Protein shakes, kind of thing."
Lina's eyebrows rose as she looked over at Zelgadis yet again. "Did he just call me a fleshie? What the hell is a fleshie? Do I need to hit him?"
Again the grin crossed the hunter's face at the ancient term and he chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I'll explain later. Alright, so what do you need? Apparently you've already gotten some of what you need. You didn't have to steal it, you know."
"Well, no, but that certainly is a lot more fun."
"Right. So if you know the way out, get going. I assume you've already got funds stashed everywhere. What's stopping you?"
Xelloss looked uncomfortable for a moment, but he finally shrugged. "I need some clothes."
It was barely a whisper, and both of them had to struggle to hear it. Lina snorted. "You're wearing clothes right now, moron."
Frustrated, Xelloss held up his hands in front of her face, the import sockets in his wrists and the faint lines caused by the wires beneath his skin clearly visible thanks to the sleeveless tank top. "Yeah, I'll do just wonderful out there in the natural world walking around with these in plain sight, won't I?"
She blinked as she stared into the black holes, then shuddered and stuck out her tongue. "That is so disgusting. Point made and taken. I'll get you something to wear right away," she muttered, heading out the door top speed.
The hacker was grinning at her discomfort, but Zelgadis could see the smile didn't go all the way to the eyes. Climbing out of the chair, he laid a hand on Xelloss's shoulder, causing him to jump. "She's not used to seeing that. Don't take it so personally."
"I try not to take anything personally." He shrugged off the hand and turned to face him. "But she didn't seem to mind when she was digging around with the pliers, did she?"
"She's just a sadist at heart, is all." After a moment of silence, he remarked, "You know you don't really need a shirt. No one would have noticed. Those that did notice wouldn't have known what you are."
"Maybe it's not for my sake that I need to cover them," Xelloss retorted dryly, pushing away the hunter's hand as it reached out to touch him once more. "Why are you always touching me?" he shot out, glaring at the hunter. "What are you, some kind of pervert?"
The hand withdrew immediately, and Zelgadis took a step back awkwardly. Of course, it had never really crossed his mind that the most obvious reason for the repeated rejection was that the hacker simply didn't 'swing that way.' "S.sorry," he muttered embarrassedly, covering his hurt with a clumsy cough.
"No problem," Xelloss nodded, eyeing him warily. Then he chuckled. "But they did do a pretty good job with me, huh? They said they wanted me to pass for an average human, and so here I am. Could've been worse, regardless." Zelgadis looked up at him, eyebrows raised, and the hacker poked him in the chest. "It's easy to forget, isn't it?"
"Forget what?" Zelgadis replied, totally confused at this point.
"It's easy to forget that I'm a lump of wires. Unless you're into that sort of thing," Xelloss smirked, hiding his pain with that impossible grin.
It took Zelgadis a moment to realize what the hacker was saying, but when he did he couldn't help but laugh, shaking his head incredulously. "You're saying you won't let me touch you because you're a hybrid?"
"No," Xelloss said pointedly, "I'm saying I won't let you touch me because you keep forgetting I'm a hybrid. I'm sure if you remembered, you'd come back to your senses."
Zelgadis smiled, reaching out again to brush the cold cheek with his fingertips. "Are you implying that I'm not capable of remembering something for more than five minutes, or are you actually thinking that I care?"
Xelloss blinked at the strange reply, but before he could make a comeback of his own he found the hunter's lips pressed against his in an insistent but gentle kiss. The purple eyes slid closed as a shiver ran through him and he leaned against the hunter, returning the kiss tentatively just as Lina returned with a long-sleeved shirt, Amelia in tow.
"Digital hell! You guys, get a room!" she shrieked as her cheeks flushed red, and she threw the shirt at them.
"Z..Zel.?" was all Amelia could stammer in disbelief as Lina drug her from the room.
The two separated abruptly and exchanged the embarrassed coughs of people who'd been caught in a thoroughly embarrassing situation. Xelloss picked up the shirt that had been thrown at him and he slipped it on over the tank top, turning up the collar to cover the port in the back of his neck despite the fact that his hair covered it anyway.
"Right. I need to pick up the other chemicals. I'll.I'll be back later," he mumbled before disappearing out the door.
****************************
Back in her room, Amelia sat huddled on her bed against the wall. She hadn't wanted to believe what Lina said earlier about Zelgadis's relationship to the hybrid. His blush wasn't necessarily an affirmative; it was just embarrassment at what Lina was suggesting. But how could he have been kissing that thing? Maybe it had infected his brain while it was being interrogated in the lockout files. That would explain why Zelgadis closed the case without turning the hacker in! Of course!
Wait.
Were they even capable of that? They were supposed to be really amazing at running around the circumference really fast, but were they able to actually infect a totally human brain like a virus or something? She paused, but didn't dwell on it long. Of course he had. Besides, all the volumes upon volumes of books she had on hybrids were old; it was possible that they had new technology and they could do that sort of thing.
She had to save her Zelgadis.
***************************
Zelgadis, Lina and Gourry had followed Xelloss from the moment he returned, arms full. They were currently tracking him through the corridors, much to the hacker's annoyance, and he finally turned, exasperated.
"If you're going to follow me, at least take a couple of these bags. They're not light, you know."
Gourry fiddled and then smiled. "We thought machines were really strong."
Xelloss's eyebrows raised, and Lina bonked the faithful security guard upside the head. "He's not a machine, Gourry. He's just a bunch of wires and stuff-"
"Hey, wait just a minute -" Xelloss balked.
"-it's not like he's a superhuman or anything. I mean, there's not an ounce of muscle on him. I'm sure he's strong and all in the circumference, but here he's practically nothing," she went on, not missing a beat.
"Can I protest.?" he crept in weakly.
"Just look at him, all skin and bones, really not much more than that if you strip away all the metal bits, and-"
"Lina," Zelgadis cut in, clamping a hand over her mouth, "as thick as Gourry is, I'm sure he's got the point by now."
Xelloss's eyebrow twitched irritably. "I know I certainly have." He shoved a bag into each of their arms, relieving himself completely of his burden, and nodded. "So if you're going to follow me, you're going to make yourselves useful. I need somewhere to call a kitchen. Preferably one with a fully-functional medilab."
*****************************
"Don't tell me you're actually going to drink that," Lina sputtered, making a face. "Wouldn't a cocktail like that melt your insides out?"
Xelloss didn't look up from the table where he continued to mix the volatile chemicals carefully, constantly measuring and adding bits drop by drop. He sighed, pushing Gourry aside to get to another part of the table and shook his head. "Of course not. I don't have anything much besides bits of wires and metal, as you so delicately put it."
Muttering something about people who held grudges, she folded her arms and nudged the silent Zelgadis with her toe, bringing him out of his reverie of lengthy stares at the hacker.
"Huh?"
"If you were having to take that stuff, how would you do it?"
Zelgadis blinked at her stupidly, taking a second glance at the jar of chemicals, then he smirked. "I don't think I would."
"Pin-pom! Right answer!" Lina exclaimed with a punch to his shoulder - resulting in a resounding *bong* and a yelp from the girl.
Xelloss chuckled and shook his head. "I feel so safe when I'm surrounded by mature, intelligent people such as you." He added a few more drops of liquid, turning the mixture into a thick, swirling, gray syrup, and grinned to himself. "That was sarcasm, by the way. I wasn't sure if you picked up on it. Right." He carried the concoction over to the medilab's chair and sat the beaker on the table beside it, but paused before removing the long- sleeved shirt. "You guys can leave now, you know. I really am perfectly capable of feeding myself."
Gourry didn't take the hint, but Lina did and she drug him out by his long blond hair muttering something about getting a snack. Zelgadis remained. He crossed the room to where Xelloss was climbing into the chair and stopped beside him, unsure of what to say or do. The hacker watched him for a full minute, then finally broke the silence.
"Let me guess; you want to watch in the interest of the scientific community, right?"
"Actually, I wanted to watch because it gives me a reason to look at you," the hunter countered smoothly, stuffing his hands into his pockets with a shrug.
Xelloss stared at him, jaw slack, then rolled his eyes. "I suppose you make passes like this on all the electronic appliances around here. The toaster's probably already filed for a sexual harassment lawsuit against you," he mumbled as he fumbled in one of the bags of items he'd bought. Finally producing an unnaturally-long hypodermic needle and a length of tubing, he attached the two and hooked them up to the injection pump before leaning back in the chair. "If you're going to stand there, be a dear and pour the solution into the tank for me."
Numbly, Zelgadis nodded and carefully added the mixture to the vat where medicine would normally go for intravenous introduction. When he looked back up, the syringe was already slid neatly into a previously-unnoticed port in the hacker's right forearm just beneath the elbow. Zelgadis couldn't help it; it had to be said.
"Exactly how many ports do you have hidden on you?"
Choking on a snort of laughter, Xelloss hit the switch to start the pumps. "Like I'd tell you that! It's personal."
"Fair enough; you ask me something personal, then you have to answer my question."
"No way, I'm not falling into that kind of trap." Xelloss tapped the syringe to make sure it was flowing properly, then leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "I miss the circumference."
The change in topic was expected, but sudden, and Zelgadis made no move to return to the previous subject. "Lina's working on fixing a set of plugs for you, you know."
"How very sweet of her."
"You don't appreciate it?"
Xelloss paused a moment in thought, then smiled faintly. "Yes, I do, actually." He then continued in his most robotic voice, "I am simply not programmed to express appreciation."
"Liar."
"I'm not; I'm just alternatively-aligned to the legitimacy of particular items of subject matter."
"Liar."
"Damn you and your one-word answers."
"They're my specialty," Zelgadis chuckled, leaning in to touch the hybrid once more, leaning against the framework of the chair. His fingers traced lightly beneath the closed violent eyes but pulled back as the hacker winced, shying away slightly.
"Knock it off. I'm eating," he muttered halfheartedly.
Another chuckle, and Zelgadis's hands traced down to the lips idly. "That's not much of an excuse in your condition."
Sighing, Xelloss looked up at the figure above him, and reaching up with his left arm he traced the seams where metal connected to skin across the hunter's face contemplatively. "You know, this really wasn't what I was expecting. Your projection is so different. Why did you change it?"
"You think if I can change to look like anything, I'd keep these stupid metal slabs all over me?"
"I don't know; I find them rather fetching." Xelloss grinned at the hunter's discomfort, then nudged him. "So why do you have them? Some kind of an accident, or maybe an idea for a new fashion trend gone bad?"
"I had some machinery blow up on me."
"It must have been one hell of a big piece of machinery."
He shrugged and continued to trace the lines of the beautiful face idly until the purple eyes closed once more in relaxation. "It was actually the main encasement for the company's motherboard. So yes, it was one hell of a big piece of machinery."
Silence pervaded the room for a few minutes, broken only by the occasional hiss of machinery. Finally Xelloss smiled secretly and tilted his head, his voice mildly sleepy.
"When you screw up, you really screw up, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do." The fingers continued to memorize the patterns of the cold skin; the delicate features, the lack of any kind of lines. Leaning down, he kissed the half-asleep hybrid very softly, little more than brushing their lips together. "Do you know what this means?"
Sighing contentedly, Xelloss was all put purring, having simply resigned himself to the light touches. "Mm?"
"It means that I answered a personal question for you." Zelgadis smirked mischievously. "Now it's your turn."
***************************
Amelia was typing furiously at her terminal, screening through piles upon piles of data and cross-references. She had been working all through the night, not sleeping an instant until she'd found what she was looking for, but now she was exhausted and completely out of ideas for places to look. Regardless, she had to get rid of the hybrid; it was simply bad news - dangerous beyond belief.
And then it hit her.
The hackers had been made by Promenade Enterprises, had it not? So did it not make sense that they would want their property back? True, Zelgadis had already set the case as being closed, but that didn't mean that they were dumb enough to think he was gone for good, otherwise an autopsy report would have come out and there would have been questions and such. They'd be so much happier if the hybrid were back in their hands, under their control. Then it'd be put back to work and some other hunter could catch him and put him away for good. Maybe even she could do it! That would prove that she could be a better hunter than a guardian!
A grin crossed her face as she pulled up the keyboard once more. All it would take was an e-mail to their headquarters, and then they'd be all too happy to tell her what to do. Everything would fall directly into place.
She had to save her Zelgadis.