Lordy, how X loathed waking up early in the morning.
"X, my friend, I try to be reasonable you. You know that..." the blonde-haired Zero said to his best comrade. "But, for Chrissakes, man, staying up until 4 A.M watching a 10-hour-long marathon of Seinfeld was not a smart move."
The half-conscious X didn't bother responding to Zero's nagging, since most of it he could only precieve as random jarble anyway. Instead, he tried to focus most of his energy on one thing - not falling dead asleep. It wasn't quite as easy as he had thought earlier, as he found himself slumping his shoulders over quite a bit before barely stopping himself from crashing limply to the ground.
"I don't understand what makes you so infatuated with that show," Zero continued. "I've never really gotten the gist of the jokes. Stupid 20th century comedy... doesn't relate to my everyday life. 'Show about Nothing' my ass."
Again, X didn't have the energy to respond. Soon enough, he began to feel his eyelids slip slowly downwards - the powerful drowziness he possessed made them feel as if they weighed over 500 pounds. Once again, that slumpy-fall-over feeling hit him again, but he managed to stop himself just before giving the padded flooring below him a giant bear hug.
"Why does my room have to be stationed right next to yours?" Zero complained. "I couldn't get a lick of sleep with that damned laugh track ringing in my ears. You wouldn't believe how much gauze I had to shove in 'em. And of course, you locked the friggin' door, so I couldn't get in there and put my feet both in your damn telly and straight up your wa-zoo."
Great. Now his vision was getting all blurred up. He was beginning to daydream... the room was transforming into a giant cosmic swirl of color and flashes...
"What happened to that common sense you usually have?" Zero asked. "You got that little memo Cain sent out, right? It clearly stated that Vile's combat analysis routine would begin at 0:500 hours sharp, and that we'd need to report to the training gym by that time. How could you think you could get an hour of sleep and have enough energy for the combat? You've upset me, my friend."
But that was all he would hear; in one big swooping action, the poor azure Hunter arched his backover as far as it could go and let his entire body collapse into one giant heap on the soft padded floor. Almost immediately, he fell into a state of deep, undisturbed sleep.
Zero let out a partially remorseful sigh. "Jeez, X, somehow I could just tell that this was going to happen to you sooner or later..." Shrugging, the Crimson Hunter picked up X's limp body and placed it to the side of the room, against the wall to Zero's left. As he walked back to the middle of the room, a voice sounded from a booth above him:
"Zero, what exactly just happened with X? He seems to have taken a bit of a spill. Is he feeling alright?"
The Hunter smirked. "Yeah, he'll be fine, Cain. He just stayed up pretty damned late last night, that's all. I figure he'll be back to his old self after a few hours."
Dr. Cain, surveying Zero from a small booth encased in glass attatched to the left side of the training gym, sighed a bit. "Oh, I see..." he responded. "Very well, then, I guess we can leave him at rest for a little while. I'll have a chat with him later over such matters - he should know better than to stay up late during times like these." He direction his attention to the short orange/gold figure seated silently over to Zero's right. "Well, Vile? Are you almost ready for the training session?"
The reincarnated (or, in Maverick terminology, "bastardized") form of Vile took a moment to continue his apparent 'metitation' he had been practicing since sunrise before looking upto meet Cain's location; he had remained totally still, legs crossed in traditional fashion and head bowed downwards, for quite a long time. "Yes, doctor... I suppose I'm ready," he replied silently as he slowly lifted himself off the ground and rose to meet his new training partner, Zero.
"Alright then, that's good to know," Cain said over the mic. "Now, Vile, I completely understand that you've gained something of a pacifistic nature since your return, and actual hand-to-hand combat may not be something you're willing to do. Therefore, I've decided to have Zero here only do some very minor battle-style maneuvers (Don't think I can't hear you cursing at me, Zero), and if you become ready for it, we'll go into more advanced battle styles. Are the two of you ready?"
Both nodded in unison.
Cain smiled. "Excellent. Let's get this show on the road, eh?"
"Well, Stingray? Do ya see anything?"
An anxious Dark Necrobat, otherwise known as 'Juju', stood beside his Maverick comrade and monitored every subtle motion he made. Jet Stingray himself, his eyes still glued to all actions happening from his view in the tiny door keyhole. Remaining true to the spywork assigned to him by his superiors, Stingray had been checking almost every door keyhole to a random shop all over town, searching for the elusive escaped 'Maverick', Vile. Of course, Dark Necrobat and Spike Rosered had been doing their duties as well, but even with their combined efforts, they still failed to locate their target. The work was extremely uncomfortable, as well - due to the surprisingly humid spring weather, the three had gotten rather uncomfortable in their heavily concealing disguises.
"Eh, nothing much yet, Necky..." Jet responded solemnly. "Keep your patience... you'll get a turn."
Necrobat sighed. He was costumed in a rather awkward military-esque guise, with a heavy pack mounted on his back, a camaflouge uniform, and a large green army helmet placed on his head. "Could you please hurry up, Stingy? This costume is so damned itchy... I can't stand it anymore..."
"Oh, and don't you think I could be in a bit of pain myself?" Stingray snapped. He was dressed as a normal everyday policeman, with a fake bayonet in his belt, a blueish button-down shirt sporting an artificial badge, and a regulation 'copper' hat on his head. "You know how damn tight these pants are? I thank Methuzula that I'm not a human, or my sweat glands would be working full time right about now."
"Oh yeah, Stingy? At least you don't have to carry around this frickin' backpack..."
"Oh, c'mon, Dark. All that's in the thing is a water bottle you emptied on the way here."
"Well, it was a pretty big water bottle, ya know!"
"Yeah, whatever..."
"Move, Stingray! I wanna see!"
"Quiet! I think the cat in there is on to something..."
"No! It's my turn! MOVE!!!"
"Hmm... let me think about that... no!"
"Would you two SHUT UP!" intervened Spike Rosered, who had been standing on the other side of Stingray for the majority of the time without saying a word. He was beginning to lose his patience, just like the others. "Listen, Stingray, you're obviously NOT going to see anything living in that shop besides that cat, because if you had a brain, you'd realize that it's five in the morning, and that the damned store is closed. ALL of the stores in this god-forsaken town are closed, as a matter of fact. And another thing is, Vile isn't ANYWHERE around here. I mean, logically, why the hell would he be? There probably aren't many terrible things he did around here in the past, anyways... I know exactly where he probably would head off to..." His voice trailed off.
Stingray glared at his ally. "What're you complaining about, Reddy? At least you get to wear a lighter and less incriminating getup than we have to." Rosered was disguised in one of the more awkward costumes of the three: a samurai warrior. Not only did he have a completely dark-black outfit with a large Japanese symbol on each side of his torso, but he possessed a plastic katana on his left, and throwing stars on his right. Even more awkward was his head gear, in which he wore a halfed black face mask to cover only his mouth and an out-of-place red bandana covering the rose on his head. It became hard for people to tell if he was a samurai or just a plain ninja.
"Whatever..." Rosered snapped back at him, fumbling with the plastic katana at his side. "It's not as much as the heat the costume itself attracts, but the commentary I keep getting on it. Do you realize how many people have walked by here and called us a stupid ripoff of the Village People, or something like that?! It boggles the mind, I tell you, destroys the pride of the Mavericks! Why did Agile have to hire those pathetically stupid reploids to develop our so-called 'real life' human disguises that we would remain incognito in? They should've taken more time to do this, rather than shipping us out here so damned quickly. The system just doesn't do shit, I say." He turned his gaze to Necrobat. "And you, Necky. I thought I had heard you promise us pure Terencse City-style hot dogs. Well, Mister Batty, I hope you can see some hot dog vendors around here, 'cause I sure as hell don't!"
"Jeez! Chill, Seany," Nerco rebuttaled. "I didn't realize we'd start our spywork at 4 AM. I thought we were gonna do our job moreso in the afternoon or evening, or something like that. So I'm just about as upset as you are, my friend." He focused his attention back to Stingray. "Now, Jetty, just when the hell-diddly-el are you going to be done with that? I still wanna peek!"
"No! I'm seriously onto something this time!" he almost shouted. "I think I can almost make out Barbara Walters in there... umm... oh wait, it's just an old dishrag."
"Fine then! Let's just head off to the next store. I think it's a GAP or something."
"I hate GAP."
"Why so?"
"Because they capture humans, kill them, chop off all their limbs, encase them in a thick sheet of plastic, dress them in GAP clothes, shove a pole up their butts, and display them for all to see. It's mass murder, I tells ya. Inhumane."
"...uh, Stinger, you do realize that those are just artificial mannequins, correct?"
"...well, I... uhh..."
"And you also realize that we, as Mavericks, capture and torture at least one human almost every ten seconds?"
"Uh... well, yeah, I would say so... maybe not every ten, but..."
"Then I rest my case, friend. You have nothing at all to be bitching about."
"...ohh... okay, I guess."
This was more than Rosered could take, and he expressed it well with a loud, irritated grunting noise. That's it... he said mentally. This is going nowhere... If I don't take things into my own hands soon, things could get pretty damned ugly around here...
"You guys, this is it. I'm outta here," he announced suddenly.
His comrades shot him a look of puzzlement. "You're... leaving?" Jet questioned. "Isn't that against orders?"
"Well, screw orders," Spike snapped back. "I can't take these lousy conditions anymore. Waking up early in the morning... walking aimlessly from door to door, knocking on people's doors and peeking through their keyholes... y'know, if we had just traveled straight to where we thought Vile would be, we could've had him encased in a little baggy by now. Well, no more, damnit!" In a showing of obvious rebellion, the mutant reploid stripped himself of his regulation plastic katana and throwing stars, letting them fall to the ground. Then, holding up his right hand, he let fly a large vine which wrapped itself around a large pole near a small building across from them. Then, in classic Spider-Man style, he jumped up and swung himself gracefully to the top of the building, landing perfectly.
"You two best keep your walkie-talkies on!" Spike called to his comrades from above; they had all been given walkie-talkie devices in case they needed to contact one another when in any kind of danger. "Lord knows if I'm going to survive this little burst of adrenaline, considering where I'm headed."
"Where exactly are you headed?" Necro asked his partner.
Spike chuckled. "Necky, it doesn't take a friggin' rocket scientist to figure it out. But I'll tell ya this: follow me, and I'll gouge both of your eyes out. Ya hear, fellahs?"
The two nodded vigorously. With that, the Amazing Rose-Man shot another vine out and kept swinging on, jumping from building to building, until he was finally out of sight.
Stingray looked a bit befuddled. "Err... now, where is he going again?"
A look of concern on his face, Nercobat stared down the street in the direction which Spike was headed just a moment ago. Realizing exactly where his friend was going, a look of shock spread across his face. "Aww, jeez..."
"What? What is it?" Jet questioned, before seeing exactly what his partner had seen. It was painfully obvious to both of them now.
"Maverick Hunter Headquarters..." Nerco mumbled.
Sleep... need sleep... aw Jebus...
For some unattainable reason, sleep was not greeting X's eyes at the door. He remained totally dormant sitting against that side wall, his eyes heavy, and almost completely shut... from the outside looking in, it would seem as if he were asleep, and sleeping quite well at that. But, alas - he wouldn't sleep, rather, he couldn't sleep. His unconsciousness had only lasted for a few measly minutes - something had been keeping him up, something before him...
In his half-sleepiness, he could barely comprehend what exactly was happening at the moment... a lot of noise, he would certainly merit that, of course... undistinguised noise, sadly. Lord, if there was anything he hated more than waking up early, it was half-sleepiness - being heaped up in a hopeless lull, dreary, unable to actually fall into a pit of sleep, just barely understanding the world around you. Yes... he almost loathed it.
During the constant rambling and thumping noises he could hear, he was finally able to make out a familiar voice; a scolding voice, one that he could easily recognize a mile away:
"Alright, Vile, just take it easy. Nobody's pressuring ya to punch anybody... Zero, put the saber away, I told you to set aside before, didn't I?... no, Zero, don't use that kind of attack on Vile, you know how he feels about that kind of thing... amazing that you could dodge that so well, Vile, but could you please NOT stand in front of the doors? People are trying to get on with their lives... Zero! Where in Lord's name did you get a B.B. gun, for cryin' out loud?!... aww, jeez, you scorched ANOTHER piece of armor... I'm only one man, I can't fix up EVERYTHING for you!..."
The rambling continued incessantly, and X could tell that Cain and Zero were obviously not on good terms at the time. Not like they ever were, anyways.
X returned to his dormancy, and his seemingly eternal struggle to get some sleep. Ho boy, he imagined himself in Zero's position, getting snarled at by Papa Cain about his little inadequacies... funny when happening to a friend, but not so when happening to himself. As he continued this thought, he began to slowly drift deeper and deeper into the darkness...
What the Hunter didn't realize was that, very soon, things in his life and in every Hunter's life would really begin to change. A change he wouldn't exactly enjoy.
"Ohhh, I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay, I work all night and I sleep all day!"
Rosered sang a merry tune to himself as he swung from building to building with ease, trying to appear as graceful as possible. Though he knew that jumping around on city structures and singing noisily could possibly irritate the humans that called the town their home, he honestly didn't give a flying fatoot. He just wanted to have a little fun - he wasn't allowed to on a regular basis.
"I'm so pretttyyy... I'm so pretttyyyy..."
This kind of loud singing continued to escape from Mr. Spike's vocal cords until, at long last, he perched himself on the seemingly final building. There, standing majestically in front of him before the elongated city streets, was none other than...
"Maverick Hunter Headquarters!" Spike announced. "So I guess this be it, eh? I was expecting something a bit more refined. Nice, though, that they don't have any of those damned mini-buildings like we have to deal with. This is more straightforward, and easy to get around in, I would imagine..."
Choosing not to waste too much time, Spike drew out a miniature set of binoculars, whic he had packed with him in case he would so happen to need it. Putting them over his eyes, he adjusted his gaze to the front door of the large building. Not a soul in front; they must've all been busy with training, or still asleep. For another vital safety precaution, he checked over at the very top of the building, which happened to be flat on the left and right sides with a wide triangle-shaped structure in the middle. Nobody in sight once again, and apparently, no signs of any rooftop security systems. Perfect... he thought. It feels as if they were waiting for me to drop by...
Without any hesitation, the mutant Maverick repocketed his trusty binoculars. Putting out one hand, he let fly another long and thorny vine, which wrapped itself around a long pole potruding from the side of the building. He then proceeded to bend his knees and propell himself into the sky, clinging onto the vine all the way and finally landing majestically on the roof of the edifice, still on his feet. Glancing over to his right, he could clearly see that the triangular object he had seen was indeed glass; windows. He would be able to look over everything happening without much effort at all. He smirked devilishly at this.
Let's see... first window... he mentally noted. It was the window on the far right, which could be used to view the main lobby. Rosered peered through it, mentally noting everything he saw. Hmm... well, we've got a human male scrambling around with his hands on his buttocks, a reploid trying to shove his fists in his mouth, and a young girl having some kind of a wrestling match with a television set. No sign of X, Zero, or Vile, though...
Disillusioned with his current findings, the stealth spy silently crept to where the second window was, second to the right. Apparently, as far as Spike could see, it was a medical ward of some kind. Alright, lesee... what we've got now isn't really anything at all... just some distressed Hunter (a large one, at that) seemingly counting all of the tiles on the ground. We've also got some greased-up brunette fellah trying to get him outta there... hmm, pretty interesting, but not exactly what I'm looking for.
With that, he scrambled over to the third window. This window in particular was a wee bit different than all of the others, however, since part of the window had been opened previously. In an attempt to remain undetected by those inside the room, he placed himself behind the unopened part and slightly peeked into the area by placing his head in front of the opened area. Once again he mentally noted everything he saw.
Window numero tres... the training room, an obvious necessity. Let's take a peek... well, now here's something worth staring at. We've got some reploids apparently doing some battling in the middle, with a man in a booth above them. Yes... that's Dr. Cain, I believe, and that red reploid to the left is Zero, most likely. But that other orange reploid... I can't really tell who that...
Suddenly, Rosered let out a silent gasp when he realized who it was he was staring at... it was so obvious! The helmet, the orange/golden armor, the lack of height...
Vile! he proclaimed mentally. Yesss! I knew it! I friggin' knew it! Of course he would be here! Aw, jeeziz... from the looks of it, he's training with Zero. Bit of an awkward exercise... but, nonetheless, this is strange. If Vile's training here, does that mean he's re-enlisting asa Hunter? Aww, jebus, that is NOT good... if he gives away our location, and hunts us down, they'll destroy us for sure... and what about the others, like Sigma? He'll be traumatized...
Unfortunately, during his mental pondering, Rosered failed to notice that his ninja bandana, the one that had previously been tied tightly to the top of his head, was beginning to loosen up. Soon enough, it unwrapped itself completely and fell through the window, the air resistance causing it to fall gracefully like a feather. He madly attempted to regain the scarlet piece of cloth - but alas, it had fallen.
Damnit! he cursed. No! The bandana... what if somebody sees it?! Aww jeez, please don't tell me I just let the cat out of the bag...
X felt it. A soft, obviously foreign piece of cloth, had landed on his shoulder, jolting him awake.
He opened his eyes. Zero and Vile were still running through their battle procedures, under the supervision of Cain. He chose not to pay mind to that, though - he pulled the garment gently off of his shoulder, carefully observing it while holding onto it with his left hand. It didn't seem to be out of the ordinary in any particular way; it was red, wrinkled and matted, with two ends of it curled into coneish-type shapes. Somebody had tied it recently - it was a bandana, perhaps. It wasn't easy to tell for sure what it was... but where it came from, X wanted to know.
A peculiar urge to look upwards struck the wayward Hunter like a lightning bolt from Zeus himself; he couldn't help but comply to it. He gazed upward to where the dim morning sun shone through the windows and filled the room - but there was something in the way. A dark, shadowy figure, was standing there, his eyes squarely on Vile and the others. But when the figure saw X, the azure Hunter could almost feel the sudden fright that surged through him, and upon that fear the figure quickly dashed from the scene, his silhouette traveling frantically within the windows next to him. X gazed at this spectacle in awe, his mouth agape with shock.
Oh no... no... he panicked mentally. They... whoever that was... they saw... they saw Vile here... oh Jebus, he's getting away!
Suddenly, an emergency instinct that had remained dormant within X's intricate systems abruptly awoke. The distressed warrior immediately got his legs into action, leaping upwards from his seat against hte far wall amd making a made dash for the door, ignoring the shocked yells coming from Zero and the others. He didn't really care where he was headed; everything before him seemed like a blur. But he knew one thing - he had to get to the main entrance of the building, and fast.
Finally, escaping the emassed blur he was encased in, he reached the building's lobby, and ran straight for the exit, leaping over chairs, couches, and fellow Hunters. Bursting through the door and letting the cool morning air rush through him tyrannically, he manage to catch a glimpse of the mysterious man in black running off like a madman.
"HEY!" X screamed at him, dashing in his direction. "YOU BASTARD, GET BACK HERE! I'M-A-KILL-YOUUUUUU!" Frantically, he switched his right hand to his X-Buster, charged up, and fired some random shots at the stranger. He didn't care where he shot, he just wanted that man stopped, and fast...
"Jeez, Sting! How long have we been walking now?" Necrobat whined.
Stingray checked his watch. "Only about 10 minutes now, Necky. Jeez, you need to learn to be patience..."
Necro shook his head. "Ain't gonna happen, bub. Patience is a load of crock..."
Suddenly, a familiar voice rang through their ears. "RUN!"
Necro looked to his pocket. The walkie-talkies!
"That's Spike!" Necro announced, pulling out the device and putting his mouth to the reciever. "Hey, Spike! What's going down...?"
"SHUT UP AND RUN!" he screamed back to him. "NO TIME FOR EXPLANATIONS! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! RUN BACK TO THE BASE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! RUN ALL THE WAY OUT OF THIS ROTTEN STINKIN' TOWN! RU- AWW, DAMNIT! HE NIPPED MY SHOULDER, THE DIRTY ROTTEN SUNNUVA..."
Hearing their partner's desperate moans of agony, the two glanced at eachother with equal confusion. Each sighing, they turned tail and began running back to the desert, to where the fortress was. They'd meet up with Spike soon enough... if luck was with them.
X could see the figure struggling; he had been hit, no doubt. But still, X had lost his chance of catching up to him eons ago - the man had already reached the horizon, and X was quite a ways back from there.
"YEAH, YOU'D BETTAH RUN, YOU COTTON-PICKIN' BASTERD!" X cried madly. "BUT NEXT TIME, I'M-A-KILL-YOU! YOU HEAR DAT, SUCKA? IIIIM AAAA KEEEEL YEWWWW!"
"X! What in the name of Green Gables are you doing?" voiced a familiar figure behind him: a distressed Zero. "One moment I see you snoozing away ij the gym, the next moment I see you running out here, screaming like a friggin' madman! What gives?"
"HAYSAW!" X shouted vulgarly at his friend.
Zero sighed. "Jebus, X, please don't make me go thorugh this again..."
"HaaaaaaySAW!" X repeated more loudly.
"What? A hay saw?" Zero asked. "First you ask for an ice saw, and now it's a friggin' hay saw? What the hell's wrong with you...?"
"THEY SAW!" X finally burst out. "Somebody... I don't know who it was... but... they saw... Vile... in the gym... through the window on the roof... he knows about it..." He was breathing heavily now.
"Alright buddy, calm down..." Zero consoled, putting a hand on X's shoulder. "C'mon... you were half asleep. Maybe you were just hallucinating, like you always do..."
"NO! Not true!" X shouted, pulling out the red bandana that had fallen on him earlier. "Look at THIS! This was his! He dropped it, and it landed on my shoulder while I was asleep! When I got a glimpse of him, he immediately turned tail and ran off frantically, so I KNEW he was up to no good. I almost got 'em, too! So close!... I was so close..."
"Okay, that's enough fresh air for you, my friend," Zero interrupted, leading his friend back to the building. "Seems to me that you REALLY need to get some sleep. If this kinda thing is really bothering you that much, then I suggest taking up the matter with Cain. Now c'mon, we're going back to the Headquarters. What you need is a cup of Joe and a rest, my friend. Lord knows we all do..."