=====Chapter 1: A New Beginning=====
Dateline: May 13, 2147 Tokyo City Ruins
X grunted as he lifted up the chunk of scrap metal and tossed it aside. He paused a few moments to rest and looked around at the other Reploids doing similar work. It had been five months since Gate had been defeated, and Sigma had once more been killed. Since then, things had gotten better, but only slightly. Irregular activity was at the lowest it had been in years, and Sigma hadn't even shown signs of re-appearing since he had been most recently destroyed. Although the Irregular Hunters were very low on force, they'd been able to easily stamp out the few Irregular groups that had tried to cause any organized trouble.
The cities were finally being rebuilt, and the reconstruction was going at an alarmingly fast rate. The humans and Reploids, working together, had managed to repair most of the damage done to the less damaged area without having to completely rebuild their cities. However, not everything had been quite so easy...
X sighed and looked around. This was the remains of Tokyo city, where Irregular Hunter Headquarters was just about the only building intact, and even that was in a state of horrid disrepair. Almost the entire city had been obliterated by attack after attack of Irregulars, and it looked like an ancient ruin, not the city that was once a metropolis. Rubble covered the streets, and buildings that once scraped the sky now sprawled across the ground. The entire city seemed to be under a perpetual miasma...but that was changing.
The Hunters, along with human and Reploid volunteers, were helping to clear the streets of debris, and the city was slowly but surely being rebuilt. The few Hunters left were still strong enough to hold off the few, meager Irregular attacks, and it seemed like the world would finally enter a new age.
"What's this?" Zero asked, "Is the mighty X tired?"
X looked up at his smiling friend. "Nah, just taking a break." He stood up and yawned. "Well, maybe a bit tired. How's it going on your end?"
Zero was in charge of the duty that suited him most: security. He had his work cut out for him, seeing as he had only twenty-six Hunters who were up to it; the rest were too badly in need of repairs, and there weren't enough resources to get them up to combat condition.
"Surprisingly well. In fact, there hasn't been any real attacked for almost three weeks now. Oh, sure, we chase off the occasional Irregular, but other than that, it's been easier than I can ever remember."
X grinned. "Maybe you could help us, then? We're rather low on help, y'know," he gestured towards the streets which, while now navigable if one didn't object to some fairly strenuous climbing, were still crowded with debris and rubble.
"Ah, no thanks," Zero said carefully, "I mean, we do need to keep up security and all."
X laughed for a bit, then sighed regretfully. "Sad, isn't it?" he asked.
"What?" Zero blinked a few times; X's mood had recently alternated between bouts of joy and depression, although Zero hadn't been around most of the time to realize how frequent or drastic those mood swings were.
"This used to be one of the world's great cities, one of the economic and political centers of the entire world. For a while it even had the highest population on the planet. But now... well, just look at it. The entire thing is in ruins, and the only things inhabiting it are us, the clean-up crews, and a few thousand refugees. In less than a century it went from metropolis to ghost town...Zero, is it our fault? I mean, aren't we at least partly to blame for all the trouble that's been caused?"
"Nah," Zero said, lightly hitting X on the shoulder, "You just think too much. Without us Hunters, the Irregulars would still be running around blowing stuff up."
"Well, I guess you're right," X said. He grinned slyly "Y'know, it looks like you're not busy with defense right now, and we do need extra help."
"Oh my, would you just look at the time," Zero feigned an expression of regret. "I'd absolutely love to stay around and help you, but I'm back on duty about now."
The two shared a laugh at that.
---------------
The sun was setting over the ruins of Tokyo, and the work had stopped for the most part; humans were resting, while Reploids were recharging their energy supplies. It was under that setting sun that the shifts for the security team changed; due to how few there were, each team had to work in twelve-hour shifts.
X was drifting around the area outside the city's perimeter where the now almost permanent-seeming camp had been set up. Countless tents were sprawled across the area, varying in size, color, and state of maintenance. Some of them housed refugees, other volunteer workers, although those two terms often applied to the same people. It was almost a makeshift town that had been set up, with a cleared-out area in the center of the encampment serving as a sort of common ground. They had managed to set up some lamp posts--although they actually housed fluorescent lights, not lamps--at various areas in the campsite, so the darkness didn't cause too much of a problem.
Aside from the main collection of tents, there was also the meager Irregular Hunter encampment, located about fifty feet from the rest of the camp. It was made of assorted salvaged things from the Hunter Base, including lean-tos, emergency shelters, and the like. It lacked defensive capability, but had enough computers, radios, and communications equipment to keep the populace of the Tokyo area relatively up-to-date on modern events. Most of the time said events were depressing or dull; primarily reports on the state of the world. X didn't spend much time listening to it.
Nor was he listening to it now. Instead he was sitting on one of the 'couches' in the Hunter encampment; which was a normal couch in all respects except that it was made from metal and lacked all form of cushioning. The normal ones in the actual Hunter Headquarters were of at least moderate quality, but the ones currently in use had been emergency supplies.
Zero walked into the small room which X inhabited. "Hey, got some news." His voice sounded absolutely depressed.
X groaned. "What is it now?" He was really not in the mood for any more bad news.
"Read it," Zero said, tossing him a folded up piece of paper.
X sighed and unfolded it, then got down to reading it, bracing himself for some suitably depressing report. The message written on the paper read:
"To X and Zero,
Heya! It's me, Alia! How're you two doing? I'm just writing to tell you that me, Signas, and Douglas have finished delivering our report to the UWN, and they've agreed to send aid with rebuilding the city and Headquarters! Isn't that great? It was pretty hard to convince them to give us any extra help, but it turns out that Signas had some connections and was able to pull some strings. Anyways, we'll be back in about two weeks. Try and stay alive until we all get back, OK?
-Alia
P.S. Oh, and I've got a bit of a surprise for you when we get back. It'll be a real shocker!"
Zero was grinning when X looked up from the paper. "Fooled you, huh?"
X laughed. "I... I don't believe you! You had me thinking that it was more bad news!"
Zero chuckled, "That was sort of the plan. Personally, I'm glad that we'll be getting them back. It just hasn't been like normal without those three around. So," he said, almost as an afterthought, "how's work going?"
"Slowly," X grumbled, "It seems that whenever we clear one street or building out, there's another one right next to it"
"That would be because there is. Besides, look at it this way: at least we're not fighting off Irregulars again. Or are the buildings too ferocious for you to handle?"
"Ha. Ha. Very funny, Zero. Now if you'll excuse me, I want to get some rest. Tomorrow's just going to be more of the same."
"Yep. Well, I'll be seeing you," and with that, Zero turned and left.
========================================
And so chapter 1 comes to a close. Yay. This is just sort of an afterword or something similar. Basically, it's where I explain junk that may not have been clear in the story. Obviously, this story takes place after the incidents in MMX6. The ending of said game that is used for this story is the one in which Zero talks about "X's mercy". Don't bother trying to argue with me about that. It won't change anything.
Well, chapter 1 was pretty uneventful. It was, obviously, nothing more than an introduction and served little purpose other than setting the stage. Chapter 2 is going to be more of the same, unfortunately, but there will be more plot development. So, what's Alia's big secret? Well, I think I'll just be evil and make you read chapter 2 to find out. Muwahaha!
Dateline: May 13, 2147 Tokyo City Ruins
X grunted as he lifted up the chunk of scrap metal and tossed it aside. He paused a few moments to rest and looked around at the other Reploids doing similar work. It had been five months since Gate had been defeated, and Sigma had once more been killed. Since then, things had gotten better, but only slightly. Irregular activity was at the lowest it had been in years, and Sigma hadn't even shown signs of re-appearing since he had been most recently destroyed. Although the Irregular Hunters were very low on force, they'd been able to easily stamp out the few Irregular groups that had tried to cause any organized trouble.
The cities were finally being rebuilt, and the reconstruction was going at an alarmingly fast rate. The humans and Reploids, working together, had managed to repair most of the damage done to the less damaged area without having to completely rebuild their cities. However, not everything had been quite so easy...
X sighed and looked around. This was the remains of Tokyo city, where Irregular Hunter Headquarters was just about the only building intact, and even that was in a state of horrid disrepair. Almost the entire city had been obliterated by attack after attack of Irregulars, and it looked like an ancient ruin, not the city that was once a metropolis. Rubble covered the streets, and buildings that once scraped the sky now sprawled across the ground. The entire city seemed to be under a perpetual miasma...but that was changing.
The Hunters, along with human and Reploid volunteers, were helping to clear the streets of debris, and the city was slowly but surely being rebuilt. The few Hunters left were still strong enough to hold off the few, meager Irregular attacks, and it seemed like the world would finally enter a new age.
"What's this?" Zero asked, "Is the mighty X tired?"
X looked up at his smiling friend. "Nah, just taking a break." He stood up and yawned. "Well, maybe a bit tired. How's it going on your end?"
Zero was in charge of the duty that suited him most: security. He had his work cut out for him, seeing as he had only twenty-six Hunters who were up to it; the rest were too badly in need of repairs, and there weren't enough resources to get them up to combat condition.
"Surprisingly well. In fact, there hasn't been any real attacked for almost three weeks now. Oh, sure, we chase off the occasional Irregular, but other than that, it's been easier than I can ever remember."
X grinned. "Maybe you could help us, then? We're rather low on help, y'know," he gestured towards the streets which, while now navigable if one didn't object to some fairly strenuous climbing, were still crowded with debris and rubble.
"Ah, no thanks," Zero said carefully, "I mean, we do need to keep up security and all."
X laughed for a bit, then sighed regretfully. "Sad, isn't it?" he asked.
"What?" Zero blinked a few times; X's mood had recently alternated between bouts of joy and depression, although Zero hadn't been around most of the time to realize how frequent or drastic those mood swings were.
"This used to be one of the world's great cities, one of the economic and political centers of the entire world. For a while it even had the highest population on the planet. But now... well, just look at it. The entire thing is in ruins, and the only things inhabiting it are us, the clean-up crews, and a few thousand refugees. In less than a century it went from metropolis to ghost town...Zero, is it our fault? I mean, aren't we at least partly to blame for all the trouble that's been caused?"
"Nah," Zero said, lightly hitting X on the shoulder, "You just think too much. Without us Hunters, the Irregulars would still be running around blowing stuff up."
"Well, I guess you're right," X said. He grinned slyly "Y'know, it looks like you're not busy with defense right now, and we do need extra help."
"Oh my, would you just look at the time," Zero feigned an expression of regret. "I'd absolutely love to stay around and help you, but I'm back on duty about now."
The two shared a laugh at that.
---------------
The sun was setting over the ruins of Tokyo, and the work had stopped for the most part; humans were resting, while Reploids were recharging their energy supplies. It was under that setting sun that the shifts for the security team changed; due to how few there were, each team had to work in twelve-hour shifts.
X was drifting around the area outside the city's perimeter where the now almost permanent-seeming camp had been set up. Countless tents were sprawled across the area, varying in size, color, and state of maintenance. Some of them housed refugees, other volunteer workers, although those two terms often applied to the same people. It was almost a makeshift town that had been set up, with a cleared-out area in the center of the encampment serving as a sort of common ground. They had managed to set up some lamp posts--although they actually housed fluorescent lights, not lamps--at various areas in the campsite, so the darkness didn't cause too much of a problem.
Aside from the main collection of tents, there was also the meager Irregular Hunter encampment, located about fifty feet from the rest of the camp. It was made of assorted salvaged things from the Hunter Base, including lean-tos, emergency shelters, and the like. It lacked defensive capability, but had enough computers, radios, and communications equipment to keep the populace of the Tokyo area relatively up-to-date on modern events. Most of the time said events were depressing or dull; primarily reports on the state of the world. X didn't spend much time listening to it.
Nor was he listening to it now. Instead he was sitting on one of the 'couches' in the Hunter encampment; which was a normal couch in all respects except that it was made from metal and lacked all form of cushioning. The normal ones in the actual Hunter Headquarters were of at least moderate quality, but the ones currently in use had been emergency supplies.
Zero walked into the small room which X inhabited. "Hey, got some news." His voice sounded absolutely depressed.
X groaned. "What is it now?" He was really not in the mood for any more bad news.
"Read it," Zero said, tossing him a folded up piece of paper.
X sighed and unfolded it, then got down to reading it, bracing himself for some suitably depressing report. The message written on the paper read:
"To X and Zero,
Heya! It's me, Alia! How're you two doing? I'm just writing to tell you that me, Signas, and Douglas have finished delivering our report to the UWN, and they've agreed to send aid with rebuilding the city and Headquarters! Isn't that great? It was pretty hard to convince them to give us any extra help, but it turns out that Signas had some connections and was able to pull some strings. Anyways, we'll be back in about two weeks. Try and stay alive until we all get back, OK?
-Alia
P.S. Oh, and I've got a bit of a surprise for you when we get back. It'll be a real shocker!"
Zero was grinning when X looked up from the paper. "Fooled you, huh?"
X laughed. "I... I don't believe you! You had me thinking that it was more bad news!"
Zero chuckled, "That was sort of the plan. Personally, I'm glad that we'll be getting them back. It just hasn't been like normal without those three around. So," he said, almost as an afterthought, "how's work going?"
"Slowly," X grumbled, "It seems that whenever we clear one street or building out, there's another one right next to it"
"That would be because there is. Besides, look at it this way: at least we're not fighting off Irregulars again. Or are the buildings too ferocious for you to handle?"
"Ha. Ha. Very funny, Zero. Now if you'll excuse me, I want to get some rest. Tomorrow's just going to be more of the same."
"Yep. Well, I'll be seeing you," and with that, Zero turned and left.
========================================
And so chapter 1 comes to a close. Yay. This is just sort of an afterword or something similar. Basically, it's where I explain junk that may not have been clear in the story. Obviously, this story takes place after the incidents in MMX6. The ending of said game that is used for this story is the one in which Zero talks about "X's mercy". Don't bother trying to argue with me about that. It won't change anything.
Well, chapter 1 was pretty uneventful. It was, obviously, nothing more than an introduction and served little purpose other than setting the stage. Chapter 2 is going to be more of the same, unfortunately, but there will be more plot development. So, what's Alia's big secret? Well, I think I'll just be evil and make you read chapter 2 to find out. Muwahaha!