"So what brings you out here, little hunter?" Dynamo said, smiling under his helmet at the angry Azure reploid. "Looking for something, perhaps?"
"Leave the human be, Dynamo!" X said to Dynamo, her voice lined with steel to match her buster. "Then we'll talk!"
"On the contrary. We're going to be talking plenty, I think." Dynamo said. "Unless you don't care for said human's life!"
He lifted his prisoner a little higher, her feet now hanging in the air helplessly.
"Grrr..." X growled in frustration. 'Damn him...I can't try to attack him now, so long as he has that human with him! What the hell am I supposed to do?'
"Oh, dear. You look rather angry. Tell you what. I'll just ask a few questions. If you answer them well enough, I'll let my pet here go. Don't answer them, and all the world's doctors won't save little miss mother here. Gotcha?"
"I'm listening."
"Question 1," Dynamo said, as if reading of lines from an ancient quiz show. "Are you a Maverick Hunter?"
"Yes." X said through clenched teeth as she wondered why he even had to ask. 'He KNOWS I'm a hunter, of all things...I've fought him more times than I care to remember! Don't tell me his memory is going!'
Dynamo smiled. He was enjoying this little game. "Question 2: Why would you be wandering out here looking for Zero, then? I was *expecting* someone else, you know..."
"You bastard...you were the one who contaminated his anti-virus, weren't you?" X said.
"Umm...well...yes, I WAS... gosh, you found that out so quickly?" Dynamo said, looking abashed. "But lets not forget who's really in control of the situation here. I'll let that one pass because you answered my question anyway."
"Here's the clincher, Hunter. Where is Mega Man X?" Dynamo said, deadly serious.
"Wha? I'm ri-" X stopped in mid-sentence, her mind suddenly catching up. 'Haha! I forgot...no one knows I'm really X now! He thinks I'm somebody else!'
"Why do you want to find m-Mister X?" X sighed, noticing that Dynamo seemed to miss his near slip-up. Not that he was happy with the answer.
Dynamo frowned. Unbeknownst to X, one of his arms began to reach behind his back. "EEEEERRR! Strike one! Let's not let that reach three, missy, or blood will fly."
"Damn." X thought furiously. 'I can't give him any false location, or he's likely to go and hunt me down there. I can't say I am X, there's no telling how he'd react to that. That leaves me with...a place he can't enter. Aw damn.'
"X is back at the base...he said he was going to talk with Commander Signas." 'Oh please, don't go crazy on me now!' X looked at Dynamo's prisoner, long unconscious. 'Once again, someone else's life is in my hands... I can't afford to slip up now!'
"Oh, good." Dynamo said. "In that case, you have a new job."
Dynamo's once-hidden hand whipped out, throwing a dark black box at X's head. She caught it just in time, rolling over backwards to a kneeling position to do so. She looked at it in confusion.
"Give this to X, or I'll kill a lot more people than just this one little lady. Tell him it's the key to finding his friend."
Dynamo turned away. "That's all. Well...almost." He grinned, and spun around in a circle, using the extra momentum to send his prisoner flying.
"Bye." Dynamo waved. His form melted into blue energy and vanished just as the airborne woman's form landed with a thud.
X ran up to the injured parent. "Damn it...Dynamo's really getting on my nerves now! He's making this fight personal, and he knows it!" She checked for a pulse, breathed a sigh of relief when she found it. Heaving her up on her shoulders, she walked over to find the child. To her surprise, she was already awake.
"Mommy!" Tima tried standing, but failed. "Is she alright?!"
"You're mother's going to be alright." X said, a depressed feeling in her gut as she crouched down. 'I hope.'
"Come on...we need to get to a hospital. Can you make it?" X asked.
"I'll try..." The girl staggered up, shaking a little. "I'll try if it'll help Mommy."
X smiled. 'What a kid.' "Alright then, Tima. Let's go."
'***'
X arrived back at Hunter Base with a sigh. Who would have known it was Dynamo, of all people...
"Was he just toying with me back during the Earth Crisis? Has he always been so...ruthless, and I've never noticed?"
She stepped out of the Lift Tube to command proper, to find Signas and Alia waiting. X sighed.
"I take it...you didn't find him." Signas stated, noting X's long face. X nodded.
"I found his saber. That and Dynamo."
"The mercenary? What's he doing?" Alia asked. Her face seemed...disappointed, somehow. 'She's holding something back...' X thought as he replied.
"He's got Zero, he's got some new attitude going, and he's got his sight set on me somehow." X gave a small hollow chuckle. "Luckily, he couldn't link me with the X he knows, otherwise there'd have been a lot of trouble."
Signas sat back, thinking hard. "That mercenary has always been trouble. Did he give you any information we can use?"
"Not really. Not unless...oh, that's right! I forgot!" X gasped, pulling out the black box Dynamo had given her. In the rush to get to the hospital and get back here, she had completely forgotten about it. "He gave me this. He said it was the key to finding Zero, somehow."
"He gave you that? X, did you think about how big a security breach that could be?" Signas asked. "No...no I didn't." X fumbled with it a bit. "Hey...I think this thing opens up..." X said, as she began prying at one end.
"Careful, X." Alia said. "Are you sure it will open that way?"
"No." X said, just before the box shattered in his grip, sending a shower of small silver objects all over. X looked at them in confusion as she began gathering them all up and placing them on a desk.
"What are these?" Signas asked. "They look like..."
"three-dimensional..."
"...puzzle pieces." X finished. "I should have known he'd give me something weird. What use are puzzle pieces?! What does he expect me to do, stay in my room and put this together when Zero's in danger?!"
"I can't see why he'd give you something like this...I was expecting a bomb, a virus, or some other underhanded tactic, not...these things." Signas admitted. Alia nodded.
"The key to finding Zero..." X glared at the tiny puzzle pieces. "I guess he DOES think I'm going to spend my time putting this toy together. But why would he? Is it actually the key I need, or is it a diversion?! Oh, this is so frustrating!"
"That's all he gave you? No other hints?"
"Nothing." X said, holding one of the strange silvery objects in her hand. "Just this."
"Then that puzzle is all we have to work on." Signas said. "I'll have some people keep a eye out for Dynamo in case he re-appears. In the mean time, you and Alia work on the puzzle."
"Right." X said. "Let's go find some open space to put this thingy together on."
He gathered up all of the parts, put them in what was left of the box, and walked out. "I'll be in my quarters."
"Hey, wait up!" Alia said, running after her. "You really...are X, aren't you?"
"Yeah," X said. "Same one. The real one."
"Why didn't you tell us this?!" Alia said, angrily. "We're your friends, shouldn't we know of things like this? How many other people know about this?!"
"One. I'm sorry about deceiving you and Signas, Alia. I didn't mean to cause trouble...It was something I decided to do a long time ago. Before I ever became a hunter... well, almost anyway."
"What?! You mean you were a hunter like this before? How come no one knew of you?!"
"Alia...have you ever felt anything for someone else, cared for someone else without them knowing?"
Alia blinked. 'Oh, X...' "Yes..."
"That's what happened to me. It was just as the Maverick wars started...I met someone whom I cared for, someone kind and lost like me. When the war began in earnest, I knew I'd probably be the death of us both if I didn't do something to keep my feelings under control. That's why I switched. To hid myself and my feelings. He never knew...never figured it out..." X stopped walking, her eyes filled with tears.
"E-e...X...I had no idea..." Alia barely could keep up with the relevations. "Where is he now?"
X swallowed. "I don't know. Only Dynamo does now." Her form shook as she fought back the tears. "Only Dynamo..."
Suddenly, impossibly, it all clicked for Alia. "Don't worry X. We'll find Zero somehow. I promise." Alia hung her head. 'Even if it means you'll never know...'
"Thanks, Alia. I'm sure we will."
'***'
I swear I am evil. Writing such deep situations...and leaving me to figure a way of writing them out later! Evil!
As you probably have noticed (heh), I finally figured out how to change the story's name to 'X no Himitsu'. Sorry if that caused any confusion. At the same time, I went back and re-edited the first chapter so that it looks nice and neat. Yay!
"Leave the human be, Dynamo!" X said to Dynamo, her voice lined with steel to match her buster. "Then we'll talk!"
"On the contrary. We're going to be talking plenty, I think." Dynamo said. "Unless you don't care for said human's life!"
He lifted his prisoner a little higher, her feet now hanging in the air helplessly.
"Grrr..." X growled in frustration. 'Damn him...I can't try to attack him now, so long as he has that human with him! What the hell am I supposed to do?'
"Oh, dear. You look rather angry. Tell you what. I'll just ask a few questions. If you answer them well enough, I'll let my pet here go. Don't answer them, and all the world's doctors won't save little miss mother here. Gotcha?"
"I'm listening."
"Question 1," Dynamo said, as if reading of lines from an ancient quiz show. "Are you a Maverick Hunter?"
"Yes." X said through clenched teeth as she wondered why he even had to ask. 'He KNOWS I'm a hunter, of all things...I've fought him more times than I care to remember! Don't tell me his memory is going!'
Dynamo smiled. He was enjoying this little game. "Question 2: Why would you be wandering out here looking for Zero, then? I was *expecting* someone else, you know..."
"You bastard...you were the one who contaminated his anti-virus, weren't you?" X said.
"Umm...well...yes, I WAS... gosh, you found that out so quickly?" Dynamo said, looking abashed. "But lets not forget who's really in control of the situation here. I'll let that one pass because you answered my question anyway."
"Here's the clincher, Hunter. Where is Mega Man X?" Dynamo said, deadly serious.
"Wha? I'm ri-" X stopped in mid-sentence, her mind suddenly catching up. 'Haha! I forgot...no one knows I'm really X now! He thinks I'm somebody else!'
"Why do you want to find m-Mister X?" X sighed, noticing that Dynamo seemed to miss his near slip-up. Not that he was happy with the answer.
Dynamo frowned. Unbeknownst to X, one of his arms began to reach behind his back. "EEEEERRR! Strike one! Let's not let that reach three, missy, or blood will fly."
"Damn." X thought furiously. 'I can't give him any false location, or he's likely to go and hunt me down there. I can't say I am X, there's no telling how he'd react to that. That leaves me with...a place he can't enter. Aw damn.'
"X is back at the base...he said he was going to talk with Commander Signas." 'Oh please, don't go crazy on me now!' X looked at Dynamo's prisoner, long unconscious. 'Once again, someone else's life is in my hands... I can't afford to slip up now!'
"Oh, good." Dynamo said. "In that case, you have a new job."
Dynamo's once-hidden hand whipped out, throwing a dark black box at X's head. She caught it just in time, rolling over backwards to a kneeling position to do so. She looked at it in confusion.
"Give this to X, or I'll kill a lot more people than just this one little lady. Tell him it's the key to finding his friend."
Dynamo turned away. "That's all. Well...almost." He grinned, and spun around in a circle, using the extra momentum to send his prisoner flying.
"Bye." Dynamo waved. His form melted into blue energy and vanished just as the airborne woman's form landed with a thud.
X ran up to the injured parent. "Damn it...Dynamo's really getting on my nerves now! He's making this fight personal, and he knows it!" She checked for a pulse, breathed a sigh of relief when she found it. Heaving her up on her shoulders, she walked over to find the child. To her surprise, she was already awake.
"Mommy!" Tima tried standing, but failed. "Is she alright?!"
"You're mother's going to be alright." X said, a depressed feeling in her gut as she crouched down. 'I hope.'
"Come on...we need to get to a hospital. Can you make it?" X asked.
"I'll try..." The girl staggered up, shaking a little. "I'll try if it'll help Mommy."
X smiled. 'What a kid.' "Alright then, Tima. Let's go."
'***'
X arrived back at Hunter Base with a sigh. Who would have known it was Dynamo, of all people...
"Was he just toying with me back during the Earth Crisis? Has he always been so...ruthless, and I've never noticed?"
She stepped out of the Lift Tube to command proper, to find Signas and Alia waiting. X sighed.
"I take it...you didn't find him." Signas stated, noting X's long face. X nodded.
"I found his saber. That and Dynamo."
"The mercenary? What's he doing?" Alia asked. Her face seemed...disappointed, somehow. 'She's holding something back...' X thought as he replied.
"He's got Zero, he's got some new attitude going, and he's got his sight set on me somehow." X gave a small hollow chuckle. "Luckily, he couldn't link me with the X he knows, otherwise there'd have been a lot of trouble."
Signas sat back, thinking hard. "That mercenary has always been trouble. Did he give you any information we can use?"
"Not really. Not unless...oh, that's right! I forgot!" X gasped, pulling out the black box Dynamo had given her. In the rush to get to the hospital and get back here, she had completely forgotten about it. "He gave me this. He said it was the key to finding Zero, somehow."
"He gave you that? X, did you think about how big a security breach that could be?" Signas asked. "No...no I didn't." X fumbled with it a bit. "Hey...I think this thing opens up..." X said, as she began prying at one end.
"Careful, X." Alia said. "Are you sure it will open that way?"
"No." X said, just before the box shattered in his grip, sending a shower of small silver objects all over. X looked at them in confusion as she began gathering them all up and placing them on a desk.
"What are these?" Signas asked. "They look like..."
"three-dimensional..."
"...puzzle pieces." X finished. "I should have known he'd give me something weird. What use are puzzle pieces?! What does he expect me to do, stay in my room and put this together when Zero's in danger?!"
"I can't see why he'd give you something like this...I was expecting a bomb, a virus, or some other underhanded tactic, not...these things." Signas admitted. Alia nodded.
"The key to finding Zero..." X glared at the tiny puzzle pieces. "I guess he DOES think I'm going to spend my time putting this toy together. But why would he? Is it actually the key I need, or is it a diversion?! Oh, this is so frustrating!"
"That's all he gave you? No other hints?"
"Nothing." X said, holding one of the strange silvery objects in her hand. "Just this."
"Then that puzzle is all we have to work on." Signas said. "I'll have some people keep a eye out for Dynamo in case he re-appears. In the mean time, you and Alia work on the puzzle."
"Right." X said. "Let's go find some open space to put this thingy together on."
He gathered up all of the parts, put them in what was left of the box, and walked out. "I'll be in my quarters."
"Hey, wait up!" Alia said, running after her. "You really...are X, aren't you?"
"Yeah," X said. "Same one. The real one."
"Why didn't you tell us this?!" Alia said, angrily. "We're your friends, shouldn't we know of things like this? How many other people know about this?!"
"One. I'm sorry about deceiving you and Signas, Alia. I didn't mean to cause trouble...It was something I decided to do a long time ago. Before I ever became a hunter... well, almost anyway."
"What?! You mean you were a hunter like this before? How come no one knew of you?!"
"Alia...have you ever felt anything for someone else, cared for someone else without them knowing?"
Alia blinked. 'Oh, X...' "Yes..."
"That's what happened to me. It was just as the Maverick wars started...I met someone whom I cared for, someone kind and lost like me. When the war began in earnest, I knew I'd probably be the death of us both if I didn't do something to keep my feelings under control. That's why I switched. To hid myself and my feelings. He never knew...never figured it out..." X stopped walking, her eyes filled with tears.
"E-e...X...I had no idea..." Alia barely could keep up with the relevations. "Where is he now?"
X swallowed. "I don't know. Only Dynamo does now." Her form shook as she fought back the tears. "Only Dynamo..."
Suddenly, impossibly, it all clicked for Alia. "Don't worry X. We'll find Zero somehow. I promise." Alia hung her head. 'Even if it means you'll never know...'
"Thanks, Alia. I'm sure we will."
'***'
I swear I am evil. Writing such deep situations...and leaving me to figure a way of writing them out later! Evil!
As you probably have noticed (heh), I finally figured out how to change the story's name to 'X no Himitsu'. Sorry if that caused any confusion. At the same time, I went back and re-edited the first chapter so that it looks nice and neat. Yay!