Three hundred seven... three hundred eight.... three hundred nine.... three hundred ten...
X kept his eyes plastered to the large hardcover books, which remained dormant on the shelf. He directed his index finger across the seemingly endless row of literature and maintained a steady count in his mind; for him, this was the easiest way to get things done. Mental seemed to work out better than vocal.
He continued his count as he whispered softly to himself in his occupied brain. Three hundred twenty one, three hundred twenty two, three hundred twenty three, three hundred twenty four, three hundred twent-"
Without warning, the large door of the Hunter library was kicked open. The loud clash of steel against the cold metal wall thoroughly interrupted X's mind count of the books, which had now all gone lopsided on their designated surface. He swerved around to see the hulking body of ex-general Wiedl, walking with a spring in his step.
"X! How nice to see you here!" the bulky soldier boomed with a jubilant tone in his voice. "Looks like you're doin' your normal duties. That's always good. Dr. Cain has always been great at getting people to work hard for the common cause of the Hunters. Labor builds character, X, you always remember that. If anyone tells you otherwise, you give them a good smack in their hollow heads..."
X lifted his hand to prevent Wiedl from resuming his consistent droning. "I get the point, Wiedl. Could you just tell me whatever it is you need? I need to restart my library inventory, because thanks to you, I totally lost count of the books."
The ex-general formed a look of guilt and directed his eyes to the padded floor. "Sorry, X. I get a little worked up sometimes when I'm really anxious for something to happen." He looked back up to X's face and clapped his hands, with a large grin on his face once again. "It's the anticipation! It gets me worked up! Just the thought... a war! Another war! So many possibilities... maybe the doctor will even let me fight... amazing... I could just imagine..."
"All's forgiven, Wiedl. Please just tell me what you need, before I puke all over these fine pieces of literature." said X, with a mix of acceptance and frustration in his voice.
Wiedl nodded. "Yessir. I'm starting my research on proper battle techniques, and I figured that I could find some good resources here." He cracked his knuckles in eager preparation. "Gotta be ready for anything! Never know when you'll get called into action. And with everything going on around here, I figured this would be a great opprotunity to catch up on my reading."
Though he wasn't quite interested in supporting Wiedl's drunken fantasy, X decided to play along for little while. He rummaged through the lopsided books, removed a thin one from the far back of the shelf, and handed it to the ex-general. "There ya go," he offered.
Wiedl studied the book with a puzzled glance. "Err.... X, are you sure this is the right book?" he quered. "It's entitled 'The Art and Beauty of Breastplates'...."
Without warning, the azure-plated soldier snatched the book from Wiedl's pliant arms and tossed it across the room. He then fired a large plasma shot it its direction, incinerating it instantly. The charred pieces of parchment loitered the cold stone floor.
X patted Wiedl's shoulder, with a nervous smile on his face. "Let's forget this little incident ever happened. M'kay?" he asked shakily. Again he directed his attention to the pieces of literature behind him, with a befuddled Wiedl scratching his head in an attempt to thoroughly understand what had just happened. After some minor scrambling, X recovered another book, one much thicker than the former. He handed it to Wiedl and patted his shoulder once again. "Here's a good one. It has some nice information on various battle techs, and well as some weaponry data. Some parts may get a little linear, but it's worth every cent. Not that you're paying for it, of course."
Wiedl glanced at the dusty hardcover book and skimmed through some of its pages. He gave X a nod of gratitude. "Thanks a great deal, X. This book looks like a damn good resource." He closed the book's sturdy pages and glanced around the room. "I just have one more question. Have you seen Zero around lately? I haven't talked to him in days, and there's something important I need to show him."
X flashed a nervous glance as he responded. "Uh, Zero? No, I haven't seen him around either. Last time I saw him, he was on the 8th floor. But that was a while ago. No idea where he could be now."
Wiedl shrugged. "Well, I trust you X. I'll keep my eyes peeled." He headed towards the door, waving his hand as a sign of goodbye. "Thanks for your help, X. Best be going to see the doctor now. He gets pissy whenever anyone's late."
"True. Well, good luck with your research thingy. Glad I could be of help," X hastily said. With that, the large steel door of the library was loudly slammed shut, teetering the library books even moreso than before. Outside, X could hear Wiedl's clammering feet banging against the stairs. They faded into total silence in a matter of seconds.
X rested his head against the library door and listened for any more noise, but only heard total silence. He stepped back and took in a deep breath. A few moments later, X heard a small creaking noise coming from the rear of the area. A silent, frightened whisper could be heard: "He gone, X?"
The Hunter turned to the voice and responded. "Yeah, he's long gone. You can come on out now, Zero. He won't be bothering you for the time being."
The crimson reploid leaped out of a nearby crate in the back of the room, trying to maintain his composure after his clumsy landing. He released a large sigh of relief. "Whew! Glad I'm outta there. Smelled a lot like cat piss." He brushed himself off and walked over to X. He gave him a pat on the back. "Thanks for the help, X. I knew this would be a perfect place to hide from Wiedl."
X shrugged. "Whatever. Just be wary of Cain's lab and the 8th floor. He might be lurking around there," he gloomily stated.
Zero smirked and rushed to the door. "Well, looks like I'm headed for the nearest bathroom. I know he won't be hanging around there. Good luck with the bookkeeping work Cain gave ya!"
X waved him off. "See ya."
And with that, The Crimson Slayer sped out the door and prattled his way up the steps, not bothering to close the door behind him. A monotone silence followed.
X shook his helmeted head in a frustrated manner as he turned back to the thick volumes of writing, now almost laying totally on their backs with only the tip leaning against the book beside them. X sighed as he began to rearrange them, being cautious to keep their order intact. After some scrambling, he restarted his mental inventory once again.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...
...hey, isn't that a Playboy?
"Vital systems stable, power signature at normal status, CPU fully functional. In simpler terms, he's A-OK."
M-24 lowered his notepad and took a seat next to Agile, whom had been called in as a temp. Serges had taken a much needed break, and would be out of comission for the next few days. This was much to Agile's dislike - though excited about the supervision of Vile's rebirth at first, he soon realized that it required a great deal of labor, which had become rather tedious in the past few days.
The head mechanic, M-24, kept a close eye on all that occured during the construction. The technicians had been on their toes since Sigma's memo, which had aided the rebuilding a great deal. Vile's comatose body was sprawled over the laboratory table, still undergoing various tests. But it wasn't long before his glorious rebirth, which brought hope and motivation to all fighting for the Maverick cause.
Agile glanced at the monitor above him, which clearly displayed the inner skeleton of his lifeless superior. All of that technical whoo-hah was just jargon to the Admiral - he was mostly involved with battling strategies and attacks, and had no care for it. He was the only Maverick other than M-24, Serges, and Sigma who knew what a "wire" was, so he was an obvious choice for the job. And he didn't like this a whole lot.
M-24 laid back against his seat and yawned. "Damn, this is tiring. I can't be watching them 'round the clock. It's like they're little infants or something," he stated.
Agile did the same as his comrade and leaned back against his chair, lifting his hooked feet upwards. "We shouldn't worry about it too much, 24. Vile should be revived any day now. Then we can just sit back and let him do all the dirty work for us." He giggled with fiendish delight. "Maybe we could even have some fun with him, like have him attack senior citizens or get him to go annihilate a local K-Mart or something."
M-24 shook his head. "I don't think we should fool around with him. We're only allowed to follow Master Sigma's orders. If he caught us wasting Vile's energy, he'll have our asses on a silver platter for sure."
The purple-clad swordsman blew a rasberry and shrugged it off. "Aww, screw him. He won't be supervising us. We can get away with whatever we want! And there's nothing that stupid chrome-dome can do abou - GACK!"
A metallic hand wrapped its fingers around Agile's feeble neck. Though he struggled, they were purely in vain; the mysterious figure lifted his body easily and hurled him across the room into a stack of crates nearby. It triggered a loud crashing noise, and Agile lay totally unconscious and motionless on the charred wood. Everyone in the room shockingly glanced to Agile's body, and then to the mysterious figure. It proved to me none other than Master Sigma himself.
The Maverick Lord brushed his hands together. "Looks like everything is in order. What a shame it had to come to this, however. But I just can't tolerate such extreme ignorance." He took a seat next to M-24, still frozen in shock. Sigma looked to him and smiled.
"Excellent work, M-24. It brightens my day to see those half-wits attentive and focused on their work," he stated. "Tell me. How much longer do you think the process will take before Vile can be reactivated?"
M-24, apparently still recovering from the shock, fumbled with his notes and turned to a sheet of paper with a great deal of technical language printed on it. "Yes, Master Sigma. The process should probably take at least 2 days. We still have to run some final tests, but after that, everything should be set. That is, if we keep our work at this rate."
Sigma nodded his head and smiled once again. "Fantastic. Everything is playing out perfectly."
There was a short pause until Sigma spoke up again. "You know, I've been thinking," he began, "we need to do something about his name. Just having the name 'Vile' isn't satisfactory. We need to add something to it. Give it some mmph. Some pizzaz. Something cutting edge. Y'know what I mean, 24?"
M-24 nodded in agreement. "I know what you're getting at, Master Sigma. I have an idea for it, actually. Why not use sometihing from the Greek alphabet? You can never go wrong with Greek letters. Their names always sound very 'cutting-edge'. I've got one: how about 'GammatronVile?'"
His leader shook his head. "No, that won't work out. It's way too Power Rangers. Got any others?"
The mechanic looked through his notes again. "Alright, here are some... 'BetaVile', 'AlphatechVile', 'DeltaVile', 'MeGustaComerQuesoVile'...."
"That's all crap!" Sigma shouted. "None of that bullplop is fit for the title." He crossed his arms and scowled. "Fine then. Tell me, what is the last letter of the Greek alphabet?"
M-24 thought for a minute before responding. "I believe it's 'Omega'..."
Sigma beamed. "Yes! That's perfectly fitting! 'OmegaVile'! Omega can signify the end! The end of the Hunters, the end of the human race... yes, I'm such a genius...."
M-24 shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I guess that's a good title. I'll write it down." He hastily wrote the name down before crossing out all of his previous attempts at names. "Well, that's that. His title is officialy decided."
Sigma lifted his bulky battle body from Agile's former seat and proceeded to the doorway. "Make sure they don't slack off, 24. I'm counting on you to keep them in order."
M-24 nodded and saluted. "Yessir."
"Oh... one more thing," Sigma stated. "Don't worry about Agile. I figure he'll wake up in a few minutes. Or maybe hours."
The reploid Master walked out of the room, leaving M-24 to his free thoughts. After some silence, he could hear the muffled mumbling of Admiral Agile, gradually waking up from his unconsciousness.
"....goddamn nail crates..."