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Chapter 3: Two dogs fighting over a bone.
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It was the beginning of the next week when Cain shuffled his way down the corridors of the labs, yawning from his early start this morning. The entire team had been very busy in scanning, training, and educating X, who seemed more human every passing day. A bit on the childishly curious and naïve side, but he was a far cry from the blank-faced robot a mere few days ago. For some reason, Miss Maquin was oddly pushy about the entire project, but he posted it down as excitement, and turned his thoughts to other things.

He moved towards a small lounge to finally heed the call of his disgruntled stomach, opening the door and being rather surprised to see X there, contently scanning a data-book as he sat at a metal table. The robot's vast thirst for knowledge was finally being filled with lectures on world subjects, like history, economics, social sciences, and X absorbed it all with such efficiency he seemed almost delighted in learning such things. Almost thankfully, X wasn't so 'outgoing' in exploring anymore, knowing that someone would guide him soon enough. But because the doctors, busy as they were, could not keep up with his vast curiosity, he had already caused a few mishaps that had issued the immediate policy that X would not be left unattended with any fascinating objects nearby. Or simply, never be let out of anyone's sight, ever.

"Good morning, X."
X looked up from his data-book and smiled, "Good morning, Cain."
Cain gently eased himself into a chair opposite X at the metal table, "Don't need to be so formal, you know."
"I know. But I think it's more sincere if I say the whole phrase." X informed.
"Fair enough. So, what's that you're poking your nose into?" Cain asked, arching his eyebrows quizzically at the book X was holding.
"Oh, after I learned about Najan history, Doctor Rossi gave me 'extra reading' for me to complete in my own time," X held up the data-book, "This one focuses on the 2007 economic collapse after the Iluysian/Najan war."
"Ah, yes, 'remember learning that in school. Always enjoyed history too." Cain recalled wistfully.
"I find it interesting, especially since the economy and damage was rebuilt by a revolution in robotics, originally started by Doctor de Verne. Only four years after that, Doctor Light and Doctor Wily created the first bioroid, codenamed 'Protoman'. Three years later, they created Rock and Roll."
Cain perked an eyebrow at X's fascination, giving a shrewd look, "Ah, but you interested in the ol' economic collapse, or what lead to the creation of Mega Man?"
X's eyes widened in surprise, as if he'd never considered that. His brow furrowed as he digested the question, "…I never thought of that," he admitted honestly, "But I guess, I want to know about the original Mega Man. Even though I have a vastly different design he is still my…precursor in a sense. I also want to learn about Doctor Light."
"Why such curiosity?" Cain asked.
"All robots have a creator, and all humans have a father. Everyone knows the person who created him or her. But I do not know anything about Doctor Light. Like why he created me, and what purpose did he intend for me? And what happened to him?"
"Perfectly understandable, I do suppose," Cain nodded sagely, "It doesn't bother you, does it?"
"While I'm curious, I'm not upset by not knowing that." X replied frankly.
Cain gave a somewhat troubled frown, but he waved it off as he decided to drop the subject for now, "Just were is that young lad Tryne? I thought you had some sort of physical tests this morning."
"I had a small routine check at 0647 hours, and led me here for some food. He read the newspad, then seemed to get upset and excused himself."
"Really?" Cain inquired, before snatching up the holo-newspad and scanning the headline.

[Deadly accident in Light Industries; two scientists died after an experimental robot malfunctioned and caused an explosion, killing both instantly. While the accident is under investigation, CEO of Light Industries assures there is no lack in safety and will personally investigate the cause. However, some authorities are suspicious upon how much a small generator malfunctioned in such a violent way, especially with limits on the size and power of generators…]

"Well, that's odd. I never heard of that. Hm…might have rattled him a bit, that's all. Might be best not to ask him about it for now."
"Okay."
"Righto, then," Cain acknowledged, getting up from the table, "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll get some coffee."
"Of course." X smiled cordially.

Cain moved over to the vending machine upon the wall, selecting his preferences and watching as the machine combined them together into a coffee mug, which it presented to Doctor Cain with a small musical chime. The old man picked it up and gave a cautious sip, giving a small choked wheeze afterwards, "Egad, this coffee is strong!"
"Strong?" X echoed in confusion.
"Well, naturally," Tryne stated as he moved into the room, quiet posture marred by obvious fatigue with rings under his eyes, "You're in a robotic's lab – we've become insomniacs by caffeine nature."
"Ah, yes, my mistake," Cain drawled sarcastically with a grin, transporting his coffee to the table and sitting back down, "I'm sure you'll all die young from heart failure."
"Mm, more likely I'll die from over-clocking my brain. Or the crap food they serve here. I'm doomed, really." Tryne mused dismally, creating his own coffee, albeit much more strong.
X watched him silently, not saying anything as he absorbed the information on Tryne's strange behaviour and tried to access what they were talking about. He intently watched Tryne plop down next to Cain, throwing back his chin and practically swallowing all his coffee in one breath, slamming the mug onto the table with relish, "Where would I be without this holy liquid?" he sighed contentedly.
"Asleep on the floor?" Cain offered wryly, and the younger doctor gave a disgruntled snort.
"More like I'd failed college and be serving chips right about now," he looked up, and saw X, "And it seems we're confusing the heck out of poor X here."
"Sorry about that X! We're crazy old coots." Cain sang merrily.
"Speak for yourself." Tryne muttered.
"I'm curious on what this 'coffee' substance is." X explained, eyeing the coffee mugs closely.
"Let me field this one," Tryne smiled smugly, "See, X, this stuff called coffee, mixed in with a few flavourings like milk and sugar, is something we doctors drink a lot. Because it has a wonderful chemical called 'caffeine', which helps the human body stay awake longer than normal. And we doctors have to do a lot of work in a day, so coffee is the way we keep ourselves conscious long enough to fulfil those blasted deadlines." Tryne explained most cheerily, almost enjoying himself in explaining the wonder drink he adored so much.
X easily absorbed this information, "So…this 'caffeine' allows your body to sustain itself longer without sleep, in order to complete a large workload. Right?"
"Exactly!"
"But if the human body goes without sleep, doesn't it experience functionality problems?"
Tryne frowned a bit at that, almost sulkily, "Yes, caffeine has its drawbacks, and it's not only the fact it only got a limited effect, but it doesn't do my body a great amount of good."
"Then would the solution to this problem be to consume less caffeine?"
"Sadly, no. Like I said, I need coffee to get my work done. For example, this mug now allows me to keep working on the 'X project' – speaking of which, we gotta get going."

-

Tryne stepped up to the podium in a large conference room, facing eight executives of Light Industries, sitting around a replicated oak wood table and adorned with the same diplomatic freshness of their power suits. It wasn't unlike any other time Tryne had to give a report on a high-profile project he was working on, but seeing as these meetings were largely for deciding how profitable the project would be, he felt uneasy. In any case, he cleared his throat and nodded respectfully to them all. Miss Maquin coolly leaned back in her chair, "Do begin, Doctor."
Tryne nodded, "R-right, thank you ma'am. Over the past week, we've been analysing X's neural matrix, schematic structure, and his behaviour. It's been quite difficult, due to the amazing complexity of this robot, and new, revolutionary designs we've never fathomed before. Although some of X's core programming we might not be able to understand for the next few years, we do now mostly understand how he works."

The lights dimmed, and a headshot of X's face appeared on the large hologram screen at the head of the room, as well as a computer chip, "X's red crystal is not just for decoration; it's made of the glass-like substance crystanium, almost strong as a diamond. Underneath it is X's CPU – even though it's over a hundred years old, it's still as fast as the best super-computers today. Due to the fact X has free will and can develop in any way possible, it would be restricting to place a large number of programs inside his head – even the Three Laws of Robotics. The programs that he has that allow him to learn, make decisions, and emotions, were very simple at first. Actually, he seemed almost like a normal robot. However, his neural matrix can actually re-write itself to add in new data, experiences, and changes, depending on what happens to him. Everything that occurs shapes his mind and thusly how he acts. He can have outside influences. That's why his programming was so sparse then – because nothing much has happened to him yet. What X is, is a blank slate. All his programming is only a base from him to learn from."

"Furthermore," Tryne continued, "We can't breach his final layers of programming. He's got a few dozen, but the last three or so are insane. They're so obscenely complex and multifaceted that we or not even the computers can make any sense out of it. We think that maybe there might be some security coding woven in there, but his very core programming…we might not fully now how he works for the next few years."

"Inside X's CPU is Read-Only Memory, codes detailing personal information that cannot be changed once he's activated. We've dubbed it 'DNA data', due to the fact this is critical data for the robot to function and it would be needed if X had to be re-activated. It holds his personality traits, identification, logs on his schematics, so forth. A profile of him, if you will."

"As for his personality, he does not have a pre-programmed personality like the old robots one hundred years ago. There are no strict boundaries on how he acts – rather, he has personality traits…much like a human being. We can inherit traits like hot-headedness or docility, and that affects our behaviour, but our personality is not set. Our own experiences can change our personality and outlook on life. It's the same with X. As he got more experience, his personality grew into someone rather kind and good-natured."

"Moving on to his body schematics," Tryne continued, as an image of X's body appeared on the screen, "X works much alike to the original Mega Man in basic design, but there are major differences. His design is so efficient he is only 1'6 meters tall and weighs only 56 kilograms. However his armour is strong enough to deflect a powerful attack, even by his own mark-17 buster cannon, much higher than our cutting-edge model of mark-13."

"First thing is, that to give greater efficiency in moving energy around the body, energy from his internal fusion reactor is infused into a thick liquid, a circulatory fluid or blood, if you will. This is pumped through the body with a Regularity Pulse Pump – sort of like a heart."

"He also has Respiratory Intake Units, a pair of lungs, that helps cool down the body with air and allows his systems to release heat."

"He is powered on what we call a Organic Input Fusion Generator. With our current robot systems, robots can eat special foods for a quick energy boost to be burned up in the reactor. X is a bit different…he has a special separation device that removes all nutrients from the food – a stomach if you will. Waste gets burnt into the reactor, but amino acids, proteins, basic minerals, and water are separated and put to use. Water for fuel, vital fluids and lubricants, the rest so his body can regenerate itself."

"Those materials fuel a nano-machine store for self-repair for injuries and fight against disease – things like poisons, toxins, and rusts I believe."

"He also does not need a capsule to sleep. His systems can undergo an independent system maintenance dormancy period – sleep, in other words. Using a capsule will lessen the hours he needs to sleep, but without one he only needs five to seven hours, depending."

"That is a summary on what we've discovered so far about X." Tryne finished, followed by some applause.
"Thank you, Tryne." Miss Maquin nodded, and Tryne stepped off the podium.
"Can we see this robot? Just for a moment?" one of the executives asked.
"I'm sure that's alright. Tryne?"
"We figured you might want to meet him, so he's waiting right outside. I'll go get him," Tryne walked over to the door and stepped out for a moment, returning with X faithfully following him inside.
X gave a greeting smile and bowed, "Hello. Nice to meet you all."
Some of the executives were quite surprised on the sincereness of the gesture, although one or two held their scepticism. One raised a wry eyebrow, "How are you this morning, X?"
"I'm quite good, today, thank you." X replied politely.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I had another physical test this morning, it was somewhat boring…" X explained somewhat poutishly, but then brightened, "But I was reading a history book on Najan history by myself in the lounge after that, so that's okay."
Miss Maquin eyebrows rose at the word 'by myself', before discreetly giving Tryne a rather vengeful glare. Tryne felt sweat beading under his collar, and was glad everyone was too busy talking to X to notice.
"And what other things do you like doing?"
"I'm really good at chess," X said proudly, "I beat Cain all the time, and he's been playing it for years. Monopoly is fun too. And I listen to the radio a lot, too. I really like the song 'Neverwinter' by Roe Stan, but his other song 'Road to Everywhere' sucked."
The executives held back laughs, "Why's that?"
"Because he whines so much in that one. I don't know what went wrong with his voice, but I don't like it."
"Where did you hear the word 'sucked'?" one executive asked curiously.
X paused for a moment to think, "Um, Doctor Dane said that the salad they served on Monday sucked. It means something is bad or unlikable, right?"
There was an amused grin, "Right."
"Is everyone done?" Miss Maquin pressed. After she received affirmative answers, she continued, "Alright, we'll discuss the analysis findings in a few hours. Everyone, dismissed. Tryne…stay behind for a moment, please."
Tryne swallowed thickly. The others soon left the room and he was left with Miss Maquin, who regarded with a deceptive level stare.
"Doctor Tryne," the woman spoke solidly, her voice a purr teasing on a growl, "You left X unattended. You know the policy."
"Yes ma'am." Tryne replied, quite determined in keeping his eyes anywhere else but the desk in front of him.
"I do not care if X accidentally wrecks another computer with maple syrup. I do care, however, if X gets hurt in any shape or form. Nor allow any attention to be drawn to him. Do you understand? This is not some pet project Tryne."
"Yes ma'am." Was the quiet answer.
"You also know about our new project. With this 'summary of your findings' presented to the board, our project will be underway very soon. It won't be ruined by any one, understand?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Anyone. I believe two of your fellow scientists didn't take me seriously."
Tryne didn't reply.
"You are dismissed."
The scientist quickly pivoted on his feet and made for the door as fast as he could without seeming to run for his life, to escape the horribly tense room.

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The ball made a loud smacking noise as it was bounced upon the floor, followed by the running of nimble feet as a blue figure darted across the court. A robot drone vectored in on the orange ball, trying to snatch the ball away before the blue figure weaved away, running up with a final jump. The ball sailed through the air in an effortless arc, rolling upon the rim. Three pairs of eyes watched anxiously as the ball circled on the rim, before finally wavering off and falling out of the hoop.
X's expression moved into an annoyed pout, "Nuts."
"Close though." Cain remarked.
The drone X was playing against puttered forward and picked up the basketball from the ground, droning monotonously, "Score 10-7."
"You're getting better at this, X. Don't worry about it." Tryne assured, before taking a sip of soda.
X retrieved the ball and smiled, "Thanks for making this robot for me, Doctor Tryne. I couldn't practice without it."
"No problem."

X started bouncing the ball again, the two scientists sitting at a small table off the court. It was an indoor basket-ball court on the ground-floor of Light Industries, so that scientists could get active and have recreation during their breaks. X was beginning to grow bored of the same labs he was always confined to, so Tryne suggested that X play basketball in the provided courts. X was happy, the scientists were happy, and so was Miss Maquin.

The drone was activated for another round, and the humans watched as X again tried to move the ball towards the hoop, X ready to launch the ball. However, the robot drone moved with a sudden burst of speed, smacking against X's head.

"Ouch, that was rough! What happened?" Cain remarked sharply, quickly standing to the fallen X.
"I…it must have been a small motory glitch." Tryne replied quietly.
"You alright, X?" Cain asked. A pause, and the question was re-asked in a more insistent tone, "X? X, what's the matter?"
X was lying prone on the ground, and didn't reply. Cain began to shake the blue robot's shoulder, and it had no effect, "I think he's gone into stasis! But how did – " he lifted his head to the droid that was levitating nearby, a furrow appearing on his brow. A small arm was now extended under the droid, with a small device that looked something like a tazer.
"Tryne, what's that odd appliance on the – "

"Gas!" Tryne yelped, as small metal canisters were suddenly flung into the room, spewing out light pink gas that rapidly blanketed the entire room.
Cain stood wobbly, already feeling the effects of the gas as his vision began to blur, and could barely realize his calls for the younger scientist were his own. Tryne had vanished in the pink smoke, not heeding his calls.

Blearily, Cain finally saw a group of people dressed in black, faces masked by goggles and gas filters. As they quickly advanced, and their military-esque apparel came into view, Cain raised his cane as threateningly as he could.

The men ignored him, one stooping down to reach X. With a loud cry, Cain brought the cane down upon his head with unexpected force, "Y'leave 'im alone! I'll…let go 'ff me!"
He wrestled with them with all his fading strength, landing a few vicious blows, but there was a sharp prick on his neck before all his senses all slowly faded away.

--

"You said what?!" Miss Maquin shrieked, eyes ablaze in fury.
The security chief seemed somewhat unfazed by her reaction, "We have just become aware that X, Doctor Tryne, and Doctor Cain are missing from basket-ball court #3. All security cameras have been tampered with, and no alarms have been deactivated. We believe a mole might be within this building that allowed this to occur."
"Do you have any idea how or when they left?" Miss Maquin demanded.
"No. It seems that the digital masking they used on our cameras were only temporary, as our security net would have detected it soon enough in any case. We only realized something went wrong when we saw the empty court filled with smoke."
"Smoke?"
"Type-88; a suppressant smoke used in covert operations. This was the work of professionals, ma'am."
"Anything else?"
A small swallow of hesitation, "The…the files that contained X's analysis…they're gone, ma'am."
"…Gone?" she echoed blankly.
"They've been corrupted beyond repair. We've lost almost all the data – the remaining is only a few test scores."
Miss Maquin's face curled up in fury like burning paper, letting out a loud shriek of fury as her fist planted itself into her replicated wood desk, cracking a hefty crack. After a long moment she withdrew her hand, flexing it, before straightening up like nothing happened. She gave the disturbed security chief a level glare, "Is Operation B in effect?"
"Yes ma'am, we're receiving the signal loud and clear without problems." He reported frankly.
"Get your best forces and track it down. Get it back!"
"Understood."

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"Doctor Cain. Wake up, please."

There was a long moment of patient silence as Cain's eyes cracked open, lazily blinking his eyes against the bright lights of the room. It was a light and dull gray, seeping blandness into the air under the harsh white lights, eliminating all shadow from the room. After curiously asking himself where his was, memories of the events that happened before slowly oozed into his brain, quickly snapping him awake.

The man sitting across from him, eyes masked by a visor, smiled sardonically, "Nice to have you with us."
"Who are you?" Cain demanded boldly, now completely awake, "Where have you taken X?"
"Fair questions, Doctor, but they're quite irrelevant to you now. No one knows what happened to you, where you are, or how to find you. To them, you vanished off the face of the earth – a rather serious situation. I therefore recommended you comply." The man informed evenly.
A dark look had settled into the lines of Cain's face, "So I co-operate with a bunch of thugs. How so very charming. Fine. What the hell do you want?"
The man ignored the sharp edge to the question, "We're quite interested in how you acquired that robot called 'X'. We know you certainly didn't make it, nor did Light Industries. So, where did you find X?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"That answer is irrelevant. For your own safety, where did you find it?"
Cain hesitated, "…In an abandoned lab in the middle of the desert. I took X out of there to be studied and educated, and haven't been back since."
"You're trying to hide something, Doctor," the man noted, "What else did you find in the lab?"
"Nothing but rubble and a few broken supplies." Was the clipped reply.
"We don't believe so. We know Doctor Light created X, and you have proof of this because you took a recording from the abandoned lab. You wouldn't so have happened to retrieve this from a computer, would you? We know you have the means to transfer and read data from century old computers, you being an archeologist."
Cain didn't immediately reply. Whoever informed these people certainly told a lot, and they certainly knew a lot about him. He could feel himself being wedged into a conversational corner, and decided to go for broke sooner rather than later.
"You know I'm not going to just hand over that information without a fight," Cain glowered, "So what happens if I don't?"
The man seemed mildly amused, "You're going for the direct tack, are you?"
"Just answer the bloody question."
"Sir, like I said, you are in a fragile situation. You are aging – it's not uncommon for people your age to have a small…accident. You were recently cured of a bad case of flu, which might be why you went to a desert in the first place – perhaps the harsh desert was too much on your weakened body."
Cain lanced the other man with an offended glare, "I'm only 57, you rat. And Light Industries would testify that I – "
"You can't count on them to save you," the man interrupted smoothly, "If they told the truth, they'd have to admit your kidnapping – and that would tarnish their reputation. They'd go along with the lie. But we haven't talked about X, yet."
"What about X?" Cain asked quickly.
"Heh. Even though X is a remarkable machine, he is still a robot – programmable, able to be manipulated. We can easily erase his memory and make him forget all about you. So you either happen upon an unfortunate fate, or…you can help us study X and prepare to duplicate his design."
"You mean exploit him!"
"Is that any different to what Light Industries is trying to do? Do you think they merely helped you study X from sheer curiosity? They have their own plans for X, no different from ours. Except they see X as their property – he's a product of Light. Light Industries and ourselves are no different."
"You stole X, unless you forgot." Cain reminded snappily.
"How is that worse than exploiting your trust and planning to snatch X from under your nose?"
Cain didn't reply.
"…You're a bit over-whelmed. Fine. You get a while to think this over. But maybe you should consider what's best for X."
"Like you care." Cain snapped darkly.
"Guards? Escort Cain to his cell, please."

Two men appeared through the door, clamping their large hands onto Cain's shoulders before they rudely hefted him up, and escorted him from the room. Cain gave a defiant wrestle against his escort, but it did little use. Instead, he snapped, "A technology industry has holding cells?"
"That's none of your business." Rumbled one of the guards.
"My foot it isn't."
As they moved through the identical white corridors of the lab facility, Cain saw up ahead another prisoner being moved along by his own set of guards.
"Tryne!" Cain gawked, "Are you alright?"
"Mostly." Tryne replied dully as they approached.
"Where are they taking you?" Cain demanded, ignoring the ugly glare his escort was giving him.
"I don't know. Don't worry, I'll be fine." Tryne reassured quietly.
"If they interrogate you, don't tell them anything!" Cain cried, as he was wrestled away, "Don't help them!"
Tryne only stared apathetically, "I won't."
The two scientists were finally led away down the corridors, becoming lost in the massive facility.

--

X lay quietly on the table, basked in a bright glow from the fluorescent lights throughout the scanning lab, surrounded by an array of testing and analysis equipment blithely churning away. The lab was a light dull grey just like the rest of the facility, the entire complex giving the mood of bland clinicalness. Wires and sensors were being placed all over his body, until the funny tickling sensation finally brought him back to consciousness.
The current scientist standing over him reared back in surprise, watching in numb horror as the robot that was formerly in stasis was now looking at his surroundings with a surge of panic. X reflexively tried to sit up, suddenly becoming aware of thick restraints over his arms and legs.
"Doctor McCarran, the subject has activated!" was the cry of alarm.
"Who are you? Where am I?" X asked anxiously, unknowing why a sense of dread was now forming deep within his chassis.
"What??" McCarran growled, sailing across the lab, "Impossible. Was there some sort of power spike?"
"I have no idea, sir…"
"What are you doing?" X asked again.
"A test. Now stay still." McCarran ordered, and X rather meekly shut up. After all, he'd done these tests before and nothing bad happened – on the other hand, he was never tied to a table whilst doing so.
A sudden thought came to mind, "Where's Cain?"
"Who?" said the first scientist.
"Doctor Cain. Where is he?"
"He's busy." McCarran said.
"Doing what? He's usually always here for my tests. What are you doing anyway? I thought I'd done all my tests." X said bemusedly.
"We, uh…have to do some more tests." Said the first scientist feebly.
"Huh?"
"For the love of Primus, shut up, will you?" McCarran snapped, "Damn it all, he should have retrieved that data instead of ruining it all, to spare us this."
"But I just want to know – "
McCarran reached over to a small tray of equipment and tore a strip off a roll, before applying it over X's mouth. The industrial sealing tape dutifully sealed X's mouth shut, much to his muffled protest.
"We can't waste any more time. If we use another EMP pulse to shut him down, then it'll ruin the test results, and we've got to get started before Light Industries catches on. Doctor Sonora, Start prepping for the test."
"You mean the internal examination?"
"Yes."
"We might have to remove some parts, sir. Shouldn't we put the robot in stasis?"
"Robots have reflex reactions – they don't feel pain. It probably went through this before at Light Industries."
Sonora didn't give X another glance, "Yes sir."

Activating a holo-panel, the scientist activated a large mechanism above the table, an ominous half dome that was sectioned into twelve slices. A section opened, and a probe extended out of the dome and hovered over X's chest. At the command, the probe searched for the activation site for the chest cavity before touching it, X's chest giving a tiny hiss as the cavity opened. Craning his neck forward, X watched in nothing short of pure horror as he caught a glimpse of his insides working away inside him. McCarran pulled down another tool from the dome, probing along X's mechanisms and Sonora pulled down the scanner.

McCarran made an interested tone, "Fascinating. Look what's been done with his generator!"
"Mff!" X yelped when he poked something.
"Hm?" Sonora blinked.
McCarran didn't look up, "Just a reflexive reaction. Hmm…can't see this particular device…we might have to remove some of this. Warm up the cutting laser."
X stared in terror as a large laser above began to warm up, emitting a shrieking hum as it burned white-hot, locking-on to co-ordinates in X's chest. The scientists didn't seem to notice X's struggles with his bonds.

There was a long shudder through-out the room, and the lights suddenly snapped off, the emergency lights lighting the room in a deep red. The laser, poised ominously above X's chest, gave a long whine before it abruptly shut off.

"What!? What happened!? Where's the power gone??" McCarran growled.
Sonora looked around in panic, "Perhaps a power failure – eek!"
X gave a jerk of massive effort, ripped his right arm free of his bonds. He snatched the laser, and redirected it to his other metal bonds.
"Wh-what is he doing!?" Sonora shrieked in confusion, horrified at the robot's behavior.
"Quick, call security!" McCarran barked, before making a lunge for X. X quickly rolled off the table under his arms, falling on his backside for a moment before jumping up and bolting out the door, running as fast as his terrified body could take him.
McCarran seethed, "Call security, dammit!"
"I can't! I can't contact them! All the lines are down!" Sonora cried.
"Then sound the alarm!"
"…It's not working! The whole security system is refusing commands!"
"What!? That's impossible, we've got a state-of-the-art defense grid! What in Primus is going on…!?"
"I-I don't…"
"Come on, we've got to find him!"

--

Mere moments ago, Cain was sulkily sitting in a small holding cell, slouched on a small chair at the back of the room. He blinked sleepily when he thought he felt a small vibration before apathetically dismissing it, just as a large explosion ripped through the immediate area.

Now, he was crouched on the floor, warily clasping his head as the room around him rumbled and cracked from the explosion, sending fine dust into the air. There was a beeping noise outside the re-enforced metal door, and with a muffled bang it snapped off its hinges with a burst of force, slamming onto the ground.

Cain suspiciously watched the black-suited troops as they moved inside, "Well, hello to you too."
"Doctor Cain, it's nice to see you're alive and well." One of them said.
"Yes, I agree. Who are you?"
"We're a security team from Light Industries to rescue you," was the frank reply, "We assumed you'd be in the holding cells, but unfortunately, we can't find X or Tryne."
"What!?" Cain gasped, snapping to his feet, "Then bloody well find out!"
"We will. For now, please come with us."
"Where to now?"
"X is lost within the facility. We're going to find him."

--

"Well, this sucks." Tryne declared to himself, sitting in an empty and half-lit lab. After the explosions, most of the lights had toned down to green emergency lighting, all machinery and systems shut down, the entire lab dark and eerily silent.

Tryne looked up and cast an eye at the security light up on the ceiling – it wasn't going off, nor were the other alarms. Considering those explosions, the entire underground lab should be on alert, not just sitting in dark silence. Unless those explosions somehow disabled the security centre…

A sudden shuffle outside the door made him jerk to attention, as a dark-suited operative slowly opened the door. Tryne dived under a table, barely missing the operative's searchlight as it swept the room as he slowly entered the room, searching the area for any personnel that had yet to be neutralized. Crouching under the table, Tryne reached into the pocket of his lab coat and got out a small stun gun, peering under the table to watch the man's feet slowly come towards him. The man certainly wasn't a member of this lab, and after the explosions it was wise to take precautions. Once he was in range Tryne pressed the gun to his leg, wincing as the man shuddered and hit the floor with a solid thump.

After a long pause to check the man was really unconscious, Tryne crawled out his hiding place and rolled the man over. He frowned; some sort of military fatigues and apparently armed with guns currently set to stun, as well as –

Tryne's eyes widened.

On the man's left breast was the symbol of the Light Industries Security Unit, and Tryne felt like he was going to be quite violently sick. Snapping out of his stupor, he quickly searched the man until he produced a small palm computer. Switching it on, he stared in horror at the screen as he finally realized how this man got here – a single glowing blue dot was slowly moving along across the screen.

"Maquin, you bitch. I never thought you'd sink that low."

Grabbing the man's weapons and keycards, and shedding his own lab coat, Tryne stood up and fled the lab, following the directions on the palm computer.