Once again, Kimiko was wandering the halls of the MHHQ, this time heading
for one of the combat training rooms.
It had been several days since the incident at the terminal. Gatstar hadn't been able to find anything wrong with her, and the strange series of events hadn't repeated themselves. For the remainder of her visits to the terminal rooms, Zero or X had always been on watch, and for the first one after the incident, there had also been a single guard assigned to watch over her.
But, nothing had gone wrong. By the end of the next day, she had finished her sessions with the learning terminal, and now knew as much as any other fresh reploid- perhaps a bit more, all things considered.
It was a bit unusual, Kimiko considered, as she continued along the first floor hall, but since the incident she had been able to occasionally grasp bits of memory from before. Nothing large, and the memories were somewhat fragmented, but she could often remember things like visits to zoos, a trip into a national park, a few select moments of school.
Most importantly, though, she could remember that she HAD been smaller once, had looked like a child. The reasons why she had, however, were still well beyond her.
Either way, she was now well into the regular classes for Maverick Hunter trainees, and was heading to her third 'special session' with X.
With a soft hiss, the door to the room opened, and she stepped in.
The small cleaning robot waited a few more seconds. Once the program had finished downloading, the robot resumed its normal functions as a small purge-program removed itself and the original of the download from the robot's memory.
Boron nodded to himself, and grinned slightly. Mission accomplished. The program was in place, and would be a very nasty surprise for anyone who-
"What's so funny?"
Thoughts interrupted, Boron shook his head and looked up at the Lieutenant. "Hmm?"
Ochre stared down at the smaller, yellow reploid. "I said, what's so funny? You were grinning."
"Oh, just an old joke I remembered. You probably wouldn't get it- you kinda had to be there."
"Ah. Anyways, thanks for taking over while Verde's busy."
"Don't mention it. The old bugger needed some time off anyways. I figure I'm doing a favor to anyone who he woulda grumped at otherwise."
Ocher 'The Ogre' nodded. Verdegris had always been a bit of a crotchety old man, although he was very good with the janitorial duties.
"Oh, there you are. Are you ready? This is going to be a little more difficult than the previous times using this." X gestured to the control panel he had been operating. "Last time was practice on moving targets that 'shoot' back, so now it's a little bit of a step up. I'm going to put you through an actual training simul- There are going to be a number of opponents, and I'm going to grade you on how well you get through the course. Just in case something goes wrong, I'm going to stay in here with you."
Kimiko nodded, and ran the standard short diagnostic she always did before a training session. They were recommended, and she wasn't about to take any chances.
"Also," continued X, returning his attention to the control panel, "If you think you need a breather, just give me a shout- I'll pause the simul and give you a short wait. It'll bring your grade down, but don't worry- you're not expected to blow through the whole thing in one go on your first try. Are you ready?"
Kimiko nodded. "Hai. I am ready."
X nodded, picked up his helmet from where it had been resting by his feet, and put it on. He activated the helmet's comm.
"Beginning simulation in three.."
"two.."
"one."
"Gotcha." Stated Boron, triumphantly.
Ocher shook his head. He should have known anyone volunteering for janitor duty would be a tad loopy about getting the job done. Heaving a faintly mechanical sigh, he turned and headed for the hangar. Might as well do a tune-up of his personal landchaser.
The training room seemed to twitch, and then twisted into something else.
Looking around, Kimiko realized this was supposed to be some sort of an old factory, and she was standing in the entrance. There appeared to be a lot of sand around, and the pile of slag nearby seemed to have been made by a landchaser crashing into something. One last glance behind at what seemed to be an area of desert with a mostly-covered road, and she stepped forward, walking carefully in through the large orange gates.
Kimiko immediately set her buster to charging, ready to fire at anything as she walked along the rocky surface. Before too long, she came to a section of metal. Examining the area before her, she saw a small raised section of floor and a lowered ceiling, creating a sort of doorway. She cautiously stepped forwards.
There was a sudden grinding sound as some sort of a robot attatched to the ceiling ratcheted down it's lower half, blocking off the doorway entirely. Kimiko waited a moment, but it did not fire at her. Apparently it was only there to block off the path. Loosing her blue supershot, she followed up with a peppering of normal plasma 'bullets'. The blocker-robot exploded, easily reduced to scrap. She started her buster charging again, once more walking. She hopped easily through the doorway.
Immediately she saw it. It was a small, purplish robot with what seemed to be a large screwdriver attatched to its nose. It hopped towards her and she reflexively fired her supershot, vaporising it. She was already charging again when a second one hopped down from a raised floor area in front of her, and that one was also quickly annihilated. This was followed by another doorway and blocker robot, which was easily dealt with. In accordance with both the rules of combat and common sense, she kept her buster charging. Another two Scrivers and one last barrier robot went down before she reached the larger, open-walled main area of the factory. Keeping alert, she idly noted the huge leg-pieces lined up on a rack off to one side.
As Kimiko made a dash-jump off the first short fall, a small helicopter- robot dived at her, and she again reflexively vaporized it. The second one missed her just as badly as she missed it, and she landed in some sort of an open-ended orange box. To Kimiko's surprise, when she tried to step out of the box, her feet stayed firmly attatched to the floor. There was a soft whine, and a pair of metallic pincers materialized on the floor, then knocked her down as they slid along a strange, magnetic floor. Getting back up, Kimiko ran out of the box, hopping up to stand on top of it, where she wouldn't be trapped.
She stood there for a moment, watching pair after pair of metal claws form, and then slide away along the floor. She checked her Simulated Internal Operations Energy, wincing at the reading of 86%. She would have to be more careful. Waiting until a set of claws had just departed and she had a full Buster charge, Kimiko hopped down, dashing to another box and hopping atop of that as well. Another helicopter-drone dove at her, and she was forced to jump back as she fired, landing just barely on the edge of the orange construct. As she built up another charge, she watched a pair of claws get a body added to it.
Apparently this thing was a construction line for the flying hover-robots.
And how many, exactly, had she just allowed to slide past her?
With an uneasy feeling, Kimiko ran and dash-jumped to the last box, to be faced with a small batch of the flying drones. En masse, they all dove at her.
Frantically, she laid down a flurry of panicked Buster shots in front of her, slagging the unfortunate hoverdrones. As she paused to catch her breath, another high-pitched whine caught her attention just before yet another drone popped up in front of her. Distracted, she was unable to dodge as the drone crashed into her before pulling up to hover just below the ceiling.
Getting up, Kimiko let loose a few small shots, scrapping the drone. Then she got an idea. Building a charge in her buster, she jumped down to one side of the box and fired into it, melting the constructive machinery.
X frowned. Kimiko wasn't doing as well as he had on the real thing. On the other hand, he had been hopped up on rage and more experienced when he'd gone into the red herring base at the beginning of the Second Maverick Uprising. Hopefully, she'd do better with the rest of the simul.
Kimiko grimaced as she ran forward, charging her buster. So far, she had gone slow, and every time she'd paused to look around, something had caught her unawares. Obviously, a more aggressive strategy was in order.
klink
Kimiko blinked. Where had that claw come from?
The claw swung her out over a small pit filled with sparking scrap metal, and attempted to drop her into the middle of it.
As Kimiko fell, she saw she could just barely reach the wall if she stretched, and do a wall-grab to avoid landing on the dangerous junk. Much to her surprise, she was pulled short as she suffered a sharp pain on the back of her head.
X just stared. He couldn't believe it. Instead of the claw dropping Kimiko, and the green reploid catching onto the wall over the scrap-pit, her long braid had gotten caught on the claw, leaving her dangling from the machine over a dangerous pit of sharp electrified objects.
As the claw swung back over the ground on the starting side of the pit, Kimiko managed to put her feet down. With the claw at its lowest point, she reached up and unhooked her spiked braid-ornament from the claw. Before the machine could act to grab her again, she dash-jumped over the pit, landing safely on the other side. She frowned as she paused for a moment. She would have to remember in the future to watch out for that kind of thing.
Kimiko ran forward into a large room containing only a ladder going up. With a couple of careful wall-jumps, she was able to reach the short ladder, climbing up into an odd shaft. Looking up, she saw a strange helicopter-robot, different from the previous ones, fly away upwards. Kimiko took a moment to try and puzzle it out, but was interrupted as the walls began to shake. With a start, she realized that she seemed to be in some sort of garbage compactor- the walls were closing in! Quickly as she could, Kimiko hopped up one wall, grabbing onto it with the claws that sprouted from her wrist for just such a purpose.
Short on time, Kimiko drew up an unusual innovation- rather than jumping up one wall, she made a long series of rebounding dash-jumps, spiraling up the closing shaft. Just before the walls closed completely, she reached a small section where there was enough space for her. Looking up, she saw the small helicopter robot fly upwards and away, deeper into the factory.
X sighed in relief. For a moment, he had been afraid he would have to stop the simul- Kimiko had just barely avoided an unhappy end for the simul with her interesting tactic. X noted the method of climbing away for later use- it was an innovation he hadn't seen before, and seemed to be very effective.
Kimiko ran forwards, climbing yet another ladder. She noted, with some surprise, what seemed to be a huge purple robot midway through construction in the background. As she ran down the corridor past that and another one, she had to make several short hops to avoid piles of wiring and parts. Then one final dash-jump off a short drop and over one last pile of circuit boards, and-
-she found herself falling down a long shaft. With a yelp of surprise, Kimiko reached out and latched onto the wall, gripping-claws once again extending. Again she spiral-dash-rebounded up the shaft until she was safely standing on top of it again. Peering back down the shaft, she saw a gate of some sort down at the bottom of a long drop. Kimiko looked around. Other than back the way she came, down was the only way to go.
Without any sort of prelude, Kimiko turned and jumped, falling straight down the middle of the shaft. She noted that the gate at the bottom opened to let her through, then closed even as she fell into the room below. Buster fully charged, she waited, looking around. She was standing on a girder, one of a large set composing scaffolding that spanned the walls of the large underground room.
Suddenly, something fell from above. Kimiko turned and drew a bead, stopping just short of firing.
X saluted her and hopped off to one corner of the room. "Good luck!" He called out.
Kimiko looked around again, confused. "Nan da? Luck with what?"
Suddenly, a huge shadow fell. It was soon followed by one of the enormous purple robots that Kimiko had seen being constructed. It was easily fifty feet high, with a huge round body and a horn-finned head. Not bothering to take time to gape, Kimiko let fly with the level 3 charged shot, following up with a salvo of small plasma shot.
To her dismay, all of the shots dissipated harmlessly across the robot's rotund torso and strange arms. In a surprisingly swift motion, the gigantic robot- 'Mechaniroid', her memory served up without prompting- swung one of its arms at her. Leaping over the long chain of connected metal spheres Kimiko let loose another volley of shots at potential weak spots- shoulders, waist, the yellow lumps on its torso, and even one or two at the arms where the spheres linked up. These shots, too, dissipated against what was obviously a titanitefloalloy, or perhaps some other sort of plasma-resistant, skin.
Kimiko quickly began running around the walls of the room, jumping from girder to girder, managing to stay out from in front of the huge robot, as she tried to figure out what else she could do, since the plasma shots didn't seem to be working.
Obviously, shooting it isn't going to work- it's plasma-resistant, and plasma's all that I have. I can't knock it over- it's too massive. And I certainly can't punch it out or anything, I'm not strong enough..
Then it hit her. Or rather, it hit the girder behind her. The huge robot pulled up its arm, removing the large spiked ball from the metal surface. Kimiko frowned in concentration. The other arm swung around, aimed straight for her. Kimiko jumped and clung to the wall, then, just before the huge ball could hit her, she made a long, dashing jump, landing atop the robot's head, holding onto both of the horn-like projections atop it.
Still focused on her, the robot left its one arm embedded in the wall, and swung the other in a long arc. Up, over, and.
Kimiko again dash-jumped out of the way, not quite fast enough this time. The descending mace-arm clipped her feet, sending her tumbling to a rough landing on one of the girders. The Mechaniroid, however, wasn't so lucky. It stood still for a moment, the mashed remains of its head spitting sparks past the spiked ball embedded there, before it's legs collapsed out from under it, and it fell, dragging its one arm out of the wall, and landing with a ground-shaking boom.
X hopped along the girders to stand next to Kimiko, and looked over the edge of the scaffolding, peering down at the nonfunctional Mechaniroid.
"Wow." He said, as Kimiko got up. "You know, I don't think anyone's ever tried doing that, before? Good job!"
Kimiko grinned. "Arigatoo, Ecksu."
"So," began X, turning to her, "What does your SIOE read at?"
"Um. Eighty percent."
X nodded, noting it down. "That's good for a first time. On your next try, you'll probably make it without taking any damage, if you remember what not to do. Ready to try again?"
Kimiko nodded. "Ready."
"Okay. Computer? Reset program."
Nothing happened. Kimiko looked expectantly at X.
X frowned. "Computer, reset program."
Worried, X girder-hopped to what should have been the right spot. However, when he reached for the control panel, it wasn't there.
"Computer! Control panel!" X barked.
"I'm sorry." Said a disturbingly soft, male voice. "I can't let you do that, Jim."
Then the room flickered and twisted..
Uh-oh. Now what's going on?
You'll see. You'll see.
Oh, and by the way, REVIEW, PEOPLE!!!
Sheesh. No new reviews since chapter 4? I mean, really!
Okay, until next time, Ja ne!
"Look, it's Mr. Clean!" "Uh, that's Sigma." "Awww, craaaaaap..." -You don't wanna know
It had been several days since the incident at the terminal. Gatstar hadn't been able to find anything wrong with her, and the strange series of events hadn't repeated themselves. For the remainder of her visits to the terminal rooms, Zero or X had always been on watch, and for the first one after the incident, there had also been a single guard assigned to watch over her.
But, nothing had gone wrong. By the end of the next day, she had finished her sessions with the learning terminal, and now knew as much as any other fresh reploid- perhaps a bit more, all things considered.
It was a bit unusual, Kimiko considered, as she continued along the first floor hall, but since the incident she had been able to occasionally grasp bits of memory from before. Nothing large, and the memories were somewhat fragmented, but she could often remember things like visits to zoos, a trip into a national park, a few select moments of school.
Most importantly, though, she could remember that she HAD been smaller once, had looked like a child. The reasons why she had, however, were still well beyond her.
Either way, she was now well into the regular classes for Maverick Hunter trainees, and was heading to her third 'special session' with X.
With a soft hiss, the door to the room opened, and she stepped in.
The small cleaning robot waited a few more seconds. Once the program had finished downloading, the robot resumed its normal functions as a small purge-program removed itself and the original of the download from the robot's memory.
Boron nodded to himself, and grinned slightly. Mission accomplished. The program was in place, and would be a very nasty surprise for anyone who-
"What's so funny?"
Thoughts interrupted, Boron shook his head and looked up at the Lieutenant. "Hmm?"
Ochre stared down at the smaller, yellow reploid. "I said, what's so funny? You were grinning."
"Oh, just an old joke I remembered. You probably wouldn't get it- you kinda had to be there."
"Ah. Anyways, thanks for taking over while Verde's busy."
"Don't mention it. The old bugger needed some time off anyways. I figure I'm doing a favor to anyone who he woulda grumped at otherwise."
Ocher 'The Ogre' nodded. Verdegris had always been a bit of a crotchety old man, although he was very good with the janitorial duties.
"Oh, there you are. Are you ready? This is going to be a little more difficult than the previous times using this." X gestured to the control panel he had been operating. "Last time was practice on moving targets that 'shoot' back, so now it's a little bit of a step up. I'm going to put you through an actual training simul- There are going to be a number of opponents, and I'm going to grade you on how well you get through the course. Just in case something goes wrong, I'm going to stay in here with you."
Kimiko nodded, and ran the standard short diagnostic she always did before a training session. They were recommended, and she wasn't about to take any chances.
"Also," continued X, returning his attention to the control panel, "If you think you need a breather, just give me a shout- I'll pause the simul and give you a short wait. It'll bring your grade down, but don't worry- you're not expected to blow through the whole thing in one go on your first try. Are you ready?"
Kimiko nodded. "Hai. I am ready."
X nodded, picked up his helmet from where it had been resting by his feet, and put it on. He activated the helmet's comm.
"Beginning simulation in three.."
"two.."
"one."
"Gotcha." Stated Boron, triumphantly.
Ocher shook his head. He should have known anyone volunteering for janitor duty would be a tad loopy about getting the job done. Heaving a faintly mechanical sigh, he turned and headed for the hangar. Might as well do a tune-up of his personal landchaser.
The training room seemed to twitch, and then twisted into something else.
Looking around, Kimiko realized this was supposed to be some sort of an old factory, and she was standing in the entrance. There appeared to be a lot of sand around, and the pile of slag nearby seemed to have been made by a landchaser crashing into something. One last glance behind at what seemed to be an area of desert with a mostly-covered road, and she stepped forward, walking carefully in through the large orange gates.
Kimiko immediately set her buster to charging, ready to fire at anything as she walked along the rocky surface. Before too long, she came to a section of metal. Examining the area before her, she saw a small raised section of floor and a lowered ceiling, creating a sort of doorway. She cautiously stepped forwards.
There was a sudden grinding sound as some sort of a robot attatched to the ceiling ratcheted down it's lower half, blocking off the doorway entirely. Kimiko waited a moment, but it did not fire at her. Apparently it was only there to block off the path. Loosing her blue supershot, she followed up with a peppering of normal plasma 'bullets'. The blocker-robot exploded, easily reduced to scrap. She started her buster charging again, once more walking. She hopped easily through the doorway.
Immediately she saw it. It was a small, purplish robot with what seemed to be a large screwdriver attatched to its nose. It hopped towards her and she reflexively fired her supershot, vaporising it. She was already charging again when a second one hopped down from a raised floor area in front of her, and that one was also quickly annihilated. This was followed by another doorway and blocker robot, which was easily dealt with. In accordance with both the rules of combat and common sense, she kept her buster charging. Another two Scrivers and one last barrier robot went down before she reached the larger, open-walled main area of the factory. Keeping alert, she idly noted the huge leg-pieces lined up on a rack off to one side.
As Kimiko made a dash-jump off the first short fall, a small helicopter- robot dived at her, and she again reflexively vaporized it. The second one missed her just as badly as she missed it, and she landed in some sort of an open-ended orange box. To Kimiko's surprise, when she tried to step out of the box, her feet stayed firmly attatched to the floor. There was a soft whine, and a pair of metallic pincers materialized on the floor, then knocked her down as they slid along a strange, magnetic floor. Getting back up, Kimiko ran out of the box, hopping up to stand on top of it, where she wouldn't be trapped.
She stood there for a moment, watching pair after pair of metal claws form, and then slide away along the floor. She checked her Simulated Internal Operations Energy, wincing at the reading of 86%. She would have to be more careful. Waiting until a set of claws had just departed and she had a full Buster charge, Kimiko hopped down, dashing to another box and hopping atop of that as well. Another helicopter-drone dove at her, and she was forced to jump back as she fired, landing just barely on the edge of the orange construct. As she built up another charge, she watched a pair of claws get a body added to it.
Apparently this thing was a construction line for the flying hover-robots.
And how many, exactly, had she just allowed to slide past her?
With an uneasy feeling, Kimiko ran and dash-jumped to the last box, to be faced with a small batch of the flying drones. En masse, they all dove at her.
Frantically, she laid down a flurry of panicked Buster shots in front of her, slagging the unfortunate hoverdrones. As she paused to catch her breath, another high-pitched whine caught her attention just before yet another drone popped up in front of her. Distracted, she was unable to dodge as the drone crashed into her before pulling up to hover just below the ceiling.
Getting up, Kimiko let loose a few small shots, scrapping the drone. Then she got an idea. Building a charge in her buster, she jumped down to one side of the box and fired into it, melting the constructive machinery.
X frowned. Kimiko wasn't doing as well as he had on the real thing. On the other hand, he had been hopped up on rage and more experienced when he'd gone into the red herring base at the beginning of the Second Maverick Uprising. Hopefully, she'd do better with the rest of the simul.
Kimiko grimaced as she ran forward, charging her buster. So far, she had gone slow, and every time she'd paused to look around, something had caught her unawares. Obviously, a more aggressive strategy was in order.
klink
Kimiko blinked. Where had that claw come from?
The claw swung her out over a small pit filled with sparking scrap metal, and attempted to drop her into the middle of it.
As Kimiko fell, she saw she could just barely reach the wall if she stretched, and do a wall-grab to avoid landing on the dangerous junk. Much to her surprise, she was pulled short as she suffered a sharp pain on the back of her head.
X just stared. He couldn't believe it. Instead of the claw dropping Kimiko, and the green reploid catching onto the wall over the scrap-pit, her long braid had gotten caught on the claw, leaving her dangling from the machine over a dangerous pit of sharp electrified objects.
As the claw swung back over the ground on the starting side of the pit, Kimiko managed to put her feet down. With the claw at its lowest point, she reached up and unhooked her spiked braid-ornament from the claw. Before the machine could act to grab her again, she dash-jumped over the pit, landing safely on the other side. She frowned as she paused for a moment. She would have to remember in the future to watch out for that kind of thing.
Kimiko ran forward into a large room containing only a ladder going up. With a couple of careful wall-jumps, she was able to reach the short ladder, climbing up into an odd shaft. Looking up, she saw a strange helicopter-robot, different from the previous ones, fly away upwards. Kimiko took a moment to try and puzzle it out, but was interrupted as the walls began to shake. With a start, she realized that she seemed to be in some sort of garbage compactor- the walls were closing in! Quickly as she could, Kimiko hopped up one wall, grabbing onto it with the claws that sprouted from her wrist for just such a purpose.
Short on time, Kimiko drew up an unusual innovation- rather than jumping up one wall, she made a long series of rebounding dash-jumps, spiraling up the closing shaft. Just before the walls closed completely, she reached a small section where there was enough space for her. Looking up, she saw the small helicopter robot fly upwards and away, deeper into the factory.
X sighed in relief. For a moment, he had been afraid he would have to stop the simul- Kimiko had just barely avoided an unhappy end for the simul with her interesting tactic. X noted the method of climbing away for later use- it was an innovation he hadn't seen before, and seemed to be very effective.
Kimiko ran forwards, climbing yet another ladder. She noted, with some surprise, what seemed to be a huge purple robot midway through construction in the background. As she ran down the corridor past that and another one, she had to make several short hops to avoid piles of wiring and parts. Then one final dash-jump off a short drop and over one last pile of circuit boards, and-
-she found herself falling down a long shaft. With a yelp of surprise, Kimiko reached out and latched onto the wall, gripping-claws once again extending. Again she spiral-dash-rebounded up the shaft until she was safely standing on top of it again. Peering back down the shaft, she saw a gate of some sort down at the bottom of a long drop. Kimiko looked around. Other than back the way she came, down was the only way to go.
Without any sort of prelude, Kimiko turned and jumped, falling straight down the middle of the shaft. She noted that the gate at the bottom opened to let her through, then closed even as she fell into the room below. Buster fully charged, she waited, looking around. She was standing on a girder, one of a large set composing scaffolding that spanned the walls of the large underground room.
Suddenly, something fell from above. Kimiko turned and drew a bead, stopping just short of firing.
X saluted her and hopped off to one corner of the room. "Good luck!" He called out.
Kimiko looked around again, confused. "Nan da? Luck with what?"
Suddenly, a huge shadow fell. It was soon followed by one of the enormous purple robots that Kimiko had seen being constructed. It was easily fifty feet high, with a huge round body and a horn-finned head. Not bothering to take time to gape, Kimiko let fly with the level 3 charged shot, following up with a salvo of small plasma shot.
To her dismay, all of the shots dissipated harmlessly across the robot's rotund torso and strange arms. In a surprisingly swift motion, the gigantic robot- 'Mechaniroid', her memory served up without prompting- swung one of its arms at her. Leaping over the long chain of connected metal spheres Kimiko let loose another volley of shots at potential weak spots- shoulders, waist, the yellow lumps on its torso, and even one or two at the arms where the spheres linked up. These shots, too, dissipated against what was obviously a titanitefloalloy, or perhaps some other sort of plasma-resistant, skin.
Kimiko quickly began running around the walls of the room, jumping from girder to girder, managing to stay out from in front of the huge robot, as she tried to figure out what else she could do, since the plasma shots didn't seem to be working.
Obviously, shooting it isn't going to work- it's plasma-resistant, and plasma's all that I have. I can't knock it over- it's too massive. And I certainly can't punch it out or anything, I'm not strong enough..
Then it hit her. Or rather, it hit the girder behind her. The huge robot pulled up its arm, removing the large spiked ball from the metal surface. Kimiko frowned in concentration. The other arm swung around, aimed straight for her. Kimiko jumped and clung to the wall, then, just before the huge ball could hit her, she made a long, dashing jump, landing atop the robot's head, holding onto both of the horn-like projections atop it.
Still focused on her, the robot left its one arm embedded in the wall, and swung the other in a long arc. Up, over, and.
Kimiko again dash-jumped out of the way, not quite fast enough this time. The descending mace-arm clipped her feet, sending her tumbling to a rough landing on one of the girders. The Mechaniroid, however, wasn't so lucky. It stood still for a moment, the mashed remains of its head spitting sparks past the spiked ball embedded there, before it's legs collapsed out from under it, and it fell, dragging its one arm out of the wall, and landing with a ground-shaking boom.
X hopped along the girders to stand next to Kimiko, and looked over the edge of the scaffolding, peering down at the nonfunctional Mechaniroid.
"Wow." He said, as Kimiko got up. "You know, I don't think anyone's ever tried doing that, before? Good job!"
Kimiko grinned. "Arigatoo, Ecksu."
"So," began X, turning to her, "What does your SIOE read at?"
"Um. Eighty percent."
X nodded, noting it down. "That's good for a first time. On your next try, you'll probably make it without taking any damage, if you remember what not to do. Ready to try again?"
Kimiko nodded. "Ready."
"Okay. Computer? Reset program."
Nothing happened. Kimiko looked expectantly at X.
X frowned. "Computer, reset program."
Worried, X girder-hopped to what should have been the right spot. However, when he reached for the control panel, it wasn't there.
"Computer! Control panel!" X barked.
"I'm sorry." Said a disturbingly soft, male voice. "I can't let you do that, Jim."
Then the room flickered and twisted..
Uh-oh. Now what's going on?
You'll see. You'll see.
Oh, and by the way, REVIEW, PEOPLE!!!
Sheesh. No new reviews since chapter 4? I mean, really!
Okay, until next time, Ja ne!
"Look, it's Mr. Clean!" "Uh, that's Sigma." "Awww, craaaaaap..." -You don't wanna know