Chapter 8 - Whispers in Shadow
2010, Mizuno Residence, 3:16 PM
My repair function was operational, but progress was still slow. I still couldn't become human yet, but my arm was getting better. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for tracking our foes.
True to Amy's word, most of the processor was fried, and what little I had pieced together so far, even with the probe's help, was virtually worthless. What we had gotten out of it was audio only, and the voice was obviously disguised.
One passage though, was interesting, as it was just after trashing Commander Yammark. The 'voice' was ranting.
"So… it's been confirmed then. It is X. Mijinion, step up production on those mavericks. I three times as many as you've been producing stepping off the assembly lines. If he's here, we'll need a lot more than what we have currently to overwhelm him."
Mijinion's voice answered back. "Of course, it shall be done."
The voice returned. "Good. On to other business. As it is obvious that X knows we're here, begin tracking him. I want him hunted down immediately. Who… ah. Yes. You. Come here. I want you to hunt him down. Don't let him know you're there just yet. I want to plan this strike carefully. He must not know where we are until it's too late. We were supposed to have as much time as we needed to conquer this infantile world, but now we'll have to step up the plans. Go mijinion."
"Yes, My L…"
"Do NOT call me that!"
"I… apologize… I didn't mean…"
The voice hmmphed, and continued. "Of course you didn't. You weren't thinking. You're supposed to be the most powerfull reploid of all with that core, but even with all that processor speed, I think faster than you!"
That was all we got, aside from Mijinion whimpering before it degenerated into static. We still had no idea what was going on, but I knew they were after me now. Which meant I needed to be human as fast as possible to throw them off.
Assuming they didn't already know.
Which would be very, very bad. One way or another, this had to be settled fast. But how…
I sighed and put the thing down. Just staring at the processor wasn't going to do me any good. It was too fragmented to get anything more out of it.
A noise on the stairs clued me in to someone coming down. It was Amy, and she looked a little depressed. After some initial hesitation, I decided that we knew each other well enough (as X anyways) for me to show some concern. "What's wrong Amy?"
She sighed. "It's nothing… well, not anything important."
I smiled a little. "I've got nothing but time at the moment. The processor has nothing left to give us."
She sighed and sat down next to me at the work bench. "Is there… something wrong with me?"
I would like to make it clear that I know nothing about women, and everything I know I learned from a red reploid who shall remain nameless, that was slapped in the face more often than not.
That being said, even I know this is a trick question. "Um… no… nothing I know of. What's wrong?" I had a sudden sinking feeling in my gut.
"It's… this guy… he said he understood when I left during dinner the other night, but… he won't return my calls. Is it me?"
Well, this is a new and interesting situation. Okay. What do I do now?
I gulped. This would have to be handled delicately. "Um… no. It's not you."
"How do you know?"
Okay, bad move. "Well, I mean, he said he understood, right? So, if it's not you, it's him." Smooth. Blame yourself for this. Real smooth.
Amy frowned. "Maybe… he didn't seem like the type to just blow me off though."
"Maybe something came up?" I shrugged helplessly. This, as predicted, was not going well.
"How could something just 'come up' like that?"
"Like something 'came up' during dinner you mean?"
That made her pause. "I guess you're right. I worry too easily I guess. But I wonder what happened?"
I didn't say anything; I just let the conversation turn to other matters. One close shave a day is my limit.
Well, unless Sigma's in town.
2010, Halo Apartments, 5:14 AM
I woke with a start.
I'd had the dream again. I'd been having it more and more frequently in the three weeks since I'd left Amy's house for my apartment. I'd made up a story about a friend being ill, and left it at that. We'd had several dates since then, though, and they'd all gone really well.
But the dream…
Lately… it had been changing lately. It might be my newly human subconscious, but…
Alia was always there… always screaming. Always being tortured. But now I was no longer helpless. I stood there, watching it happen, standing there, unable to move.
And then, it changed again. Still unable to move, it was no longer mavericks torturing her to death.
Now it was the scouts.
And it went on. And on. And on. Until finally, when I could take no more, Amy herself, with a dagger of ice, slit her throat. And Alia's lifeless eyes staring right into my soul.
Why?
Why did you let them kill me?
Didn't you love me?
Why didn't you stop them, X?
Do you still love me?
Tell me you do X.
Show me you do.
Show me…
Show me.
SHOW ME!
And then I wake up. I wake up cold and sweating, holding my head, rocking back and forth, my mind swearing to show her that I love her. And then I recover, and latch on to something, anything, that will take my mind away from it.
Like the attacks. Or lack there of.
Three weeks and no attacks. It was starting to get to me. I'd even been out as X a few times, and whoever was supposed to be tracking me didn't show, not even when scanning for frequencies. I was getting more and more paranoid by the day.
Something wasn't adding up, and I wasn't sure what it was. In desperate need of something to do until normal people were up and around, I got up and started pacing to think about it.
It had to do with the file we'd picked out of Mijinion's processor. Something about it was strange, but I couldn't tell what. It wasn't that something seemed false about it, so much as it seemed that there was something I was missing… something…
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Maverick Signature Detected!
Maverick Signature Detected!
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Well, so much for figuring it out.
Switching into my armor, I teleported out, right for the signal.
2010, Cherry Hill Temple, 5:23 AM
Used to rising before dawn, I knew instinctively that something was extremely wrong. Of course, Chad would have known something was wrong with this picture…
'This' was the main shrine, that always had the Sacred Fire burning within it. Except that wasn't the case now. The entire room was encased in a thin blue sheen. The flame itself frozen like a picture perfect sculpture, except that the ice glowed with a sickly purple glow.
I started to back out slowly. I needed to call the girls. I didn't quite make it as I felt the ice close over the doorway, making a barrier behind me.
Then, the purple flame of ice exploded, showering her with razor sharp shards. Risking a glance up, I saw a large bipedal… buffalo? It was standing behind the iced over altar, fist extended.
"Huh huh. I was told to hunt down the human girl who lives here." It leered at her. "I's gonna like it when you bleed girl."
Then, it waved its hand, and sent a long spike at mer. I jumped out of the way, grasping my henshin rod as I did. "Mars Star Power!"
Just as I finished the transformation, I had to dodge out of the way of a charge, but missed my footing on the ice and went sprawling. Damn heels.
The thing just grinned. "Huh huh."
It charged at me again, the sharp purple ice building up in front of it as it went, when a large burst of blue energy slammed into its side, sending him off course. Being used to the ice, he didn't go too far, or even fall over before he stopped, but he did miss me by a mile to do so. I got back up.
My 'savior' was the 'reploid', X. I nodded to him in thanks, but left my concentration on the thing that had attacked me. I didn't like X all that much, but he was certainly better company than the buffalo. The buffalo looked mad as he formed and tossed two of the ice spikes at him.
X jumped and twisted landing by me. He didn't budge an inch when he came down. "Blizzard Buffalo couldn't do that before. That's Frost Walrus's trick."
I raised my arms up. "So? Burning Mandala!"
The rings of fire spun off my arms and started smashing into him, driving him back a bit. X stood next to me, firing off a few shots with that blaster of his.
Then, we both dived in opposite directions as he charged in between us, coming down hard. Blizzard Buffalo himself slammed into the wall, but, amazingly enough, he didn't go through it.
Over to the side I saw X fire his blaster at one of the wooden beams in the ceiling. It didn't even crack the ice.
"Huh huh." I looked back up then to see the buffalo man standing over me, fist raised.
Oh… I didn't finish the thought, because the next thing I knew, I was being hurled to the side. X had pushed me out of the way. The blow cracked his armor and sent him hurtling across the room. As he flew back though, he let loose a large energy blast from his cannon, stunning Blizzard Buffalo as he smirked.
I growled. As I'd said before, I didn't like X much, but I was learning to trust him. And whether I'm happy with them or not, you do not attack one of my allies and get away with it. I noticed one point in the ice glowing more fiercely than the rest, and took aim.
I extended an arm, and fire extended up and down from my grip. I reached forward with the other arm and a thin line of fire appeared where I grabbed, reaching up and down to connect to the ends of the construct, completing the bow. Pulling back, I willed the fire up, forming a long, thin arrow. "Mars… Flame… Sniper!"
With Blizzard Buffalo distracted, my arrow flew true, burning through the ice and negative energy alike, until it struck that point. Nothing happened for a moment or two as time seemed to stand still. Then, slowly but surely, all of the ice started melting, until there was nothing left but a lifeless husk.
Then, the walls started melting, returning to their previous wooden state, but I shuddered at the thought of the purification rituals that would now be required. X got up then, holding a hand over where the fist had impacted, and started walking towards me, when the doors burst open, revealing the rest of the scouts waiting breathlessly. Serena came rushing in, reminding me more of the Serena of old, rather than the slightly reserved woman I now knew. "Rei, Rei! Are you alright?"
Amy on the other hand, rushed at X, noticing what I hadn't at first. The area underneath his hand was sparking slightly. When she batted his hand away I hissed.
There was a hole clean through him. He waved Amy away. "I'll be fine. Worse than it looks, really. It'll only take me a couple of days to heal. Came out worse than this the first time I fought him…"
I shuddered a little at the thought of that hole in me. Completely natural since it was aimed at me in the first place. Chances are, I wouldn't have lived.
I looked up, and smiled a little at him, and received a small nod in return.
Maybe he isn't too bad a guy after all…
Okay, this was a really fast update, comparatively.
Well, we're about on the final third of this fic. I figure that there are maybe five chapters left, probably one or two regular chapters, then several chapters of final battle.
Reviews:
Burenda: Well, there was a scene with Tux boy riding the land chaser originally, but I cut it from the final draft of this chapter. It just wasn't too interesting. I think we'll have to save it for… the sequel!
Yes, there will be a sequel to this, but it'll have to wait until after command mission, so I get the Mega fever back again. So stay tuned. Right now, the tentative title is Hunter Moon S: Steel Dawn. Fwee!
2010, Mizuno Residence, 3:16 PM
My repair function was operational, but progress was still slow. I still couldn't become human yet, but my arm was getting better. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for tracking our foes.
True to Amy's word, most of the processor was fried, and what little I had pieced together so far, even with the probe's help, was virtually worthless. What we had gotten out of it was audio only, and the voice was obviously disguised.
One passage though, was interesting, as it was just after trashing Commander Yammark. The 'voice' was ranting.
"So… it's been confirmed then. It is X. Mijinion, step up production on those mavericks. I three times as many as you've been producing stepping off the assembly lines. If he's here, we'll need a lot more than what we have currently to overwhelm him."
Mijinion's voice answered back. "Of course, it shall be done."
The voice returned. "Good. On to other business. As it is obvious that X knows we're here, begin tracking him. I want him hunted down immediately. Who… ah. Yes. You. Come here. I want you to hunt him down. Don't let him know you're there just yet. I want to plan this strike carefully. He must not know where we are until it's too late. We were supposed to have as much time as we needed to conquer this infantile world, but now we'll have to step up the plans. Go mijinion."
"Yes, My L…"
"Do NOT call me that!"
"I… apologize… I didn't mean…"
The voice hmmphed, and continued. "Of course you didn't. You weren't thinking. You're supposed to be the most powerfull reploid of all with that core, but even with all that processor speed, I think faster than you!"
That was all we got, aside from Mijinion whimpering before it degenerated into static. We still had no idea what was going on, but I knew they were after me now. Which meant I needed to be human as fast as possible to throw them off.
Assuming they didn't already know.
Which would be very, very bad. One way or another, this had to be settled fast. But how…
I sighed and put the thing down. Just staring at the processor wasn't going to do me any good. It was too fragmented to get anything more out of it.
A noise on the stairs clued me in to someone coming down. It was Amy, and she looked a little depressed. After some initial hesitation, I decided that we knew each other well enough (as X anyways) for me to show some concern. "What's wrong Amy?"
She sighed. "It's nothing… well, not anything important."
I smiled a little. "I've got nothing but time at the moment. The processor has nothing left to give us."
She sighed and sat down next to me at the work bench. "Is there… something wrong with me?"
I would like to make it clear that I know nothing about women, and everything I know I learned from a red reploid who shall remain nameless, that was slapped in the face more often than not.
That being said, even I know this is a trick question. "Um… no… nothing I know of. What's wrong?" I had a sudden sinking feeling in my gut.
"It's… this guy… he said he understood when I left during dinner the other night, but… he won't return my calls. Is it me?"
Well, this is a new and interesting situation. Okay. What do I do now?
I gulped. This would have to be handled delicately. "Um… no. It's not you."
"How do you know?"
Okay, bad move. "Well, I mean, he said he understood, right? So, if it's not you, it's him." Smooth. Blame yourself for this. Real smooth.
Amy frowned. "Maybe… he didn't seem like the type to just blow me off though."
"Maybe something came up?" I shrugged helplessly. This, as predicted, was not going well.
"How could something just 'come up' like that?"
"Like something 'came up' during dinner you mean?"
That made her pause. "I guess you're right. I worry too easily I guess. But I wonder what happened?"
I didn't say anything; I just let the conversation turn to other matters. One close shave a day is my limit.
Well, unless Sigma's in town.
2010, Halo Apartments, 5:14 AM
I woke with a start.
I'd had the dream again. I'd been having it more and more frequently in the three weeks since I'd left Amy's house for my apartment. I'd made up a story about a friend being ill, and left it at that. We'd had several dates since then, though, and they'd all gone really well.
But the dream…
Lately… it had been changing lately. It might be my newly human subconscious, but…
Alia was always there… always screaming. Always being tortured. But now I was no longer helpless. I stood there, watching it happen, standing there, unable to move.
And then, it changed again. Still unable to move, it was no longer mavericks torturing her to death.
Now it was the scouts.
And it went on. And on. And on. Until finally, when I could take no more, Amy herself, with a dagger of ice, slit her throat. And Alia's lifeless eyes staring right into my soul.
Why?
Why did you let them kill me?
Didn't you love me?
Why didn't you stop them, X?
Do you still love me?
Tell me you do X.
Show me you do.
Show me…
Show me.
SHOW ME!
And then I wake up. I wake up cold and sweating, holding my head, rocking back and forth, my mind swearing to show her that I love her. And then I recover, and latch on to something, anything, that will take my mind away from it.
Like the attacks. Or lack there of.
Three weeks and no attacks. It was starting to get to me. I'd even been out as X a few times, and whoever was supposed to be tracking me didn't show, not even when scanning for frequencies. I was getting more and more paranoid by the day.
Something wasn't adding up, and I wasn't sure what it was. In desperate need of something to do until normal people were up and around, I got up and started pacing to think about it.
It had to do with the file we'd picked out of Mijinion's processor. Something about it was strange, but I couldn't tell what. It wasn't that something seemed false about it, so much as it seemed that there was something I was missing… something…
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Maverick Signature Detected!
Maverick Signature Detected!
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Well, so much for figuring it out.
Switching into my armor, I teleported out, right for the signal.
2010, Cherry Hill Temple, 5:23 AM
Used to rising before dawn, I knew instinctively that something was extremely wrong. Of course, Chad would have known something was wrong with this picture…
'This' was the main shrine, that always had the Sacred Fire burning within it. Except that wasn't the case now. The entire room was encased in a thin blue sheen. The flame itself frozen like a picture perfect sculpture, except that the ice glowed with a sickly purple glow.
I started to back out slowly. I needed to call the girls. I didn't quite make it as I felt the ice close over the doorway, making a barrier behind me.
Then, the purple flame of ice exploded, showering her with razor sharp shards. Risking a glance up, I saw a large bipedal… buffalo? It was standing behind the iced over altar, fist extended.
"Huh huh. I was told to hunt down the human girl who lives here." It leered at her. "I's gonna like it when you bleed girl."
Then, it waved its hand, and sent a long spike at mer. I jumped out of the way, grasping my henshin rod as I did. "Mars Star Power!"
Just as I finished the transformation, I had to dodge out of the way of a charge, but missed my footing on the ice and went sprawling. Damn heels.
The thing just grinned. "Huh huh."
It charged at me again, the sharp purple ice building up in front of it as it went, when a large burst of blue energy slammed into its side, sending him off course. Being used to the ice, he didn't go too far, or even fall over before he stopped, but he did miss me by a mile to do so. I got back up.
My 'savior' was the 'reploid', X. I nodded to him in thanks, but left my concentration on the thing that had attacked me. I didn't like X all that much, but he was certainly better company than the buffalo. The buffalo looked mad as he formed and tossed two of the ice spikes at him.
X jumped and twisted landing by me. He didn't budge an inch when he came down. "Blizzard Buffalo couldn't do that before. That's Frost Walrus's trick."
I raised my arms up. "So? Burning Mandala!"
The rings of fire spun off my arms and started smashing into him, driving him back a bit. X stood next to me, firing off a few shots with that blaster of his.
Then, we both dived in opposite directions as he charged in between us, coming down hard. Blizzard Buffalo himself slammed into the wall, but, amazingly enough, he didn't go through it.
Over to the side I saw X fire his blaster at one of the wooden beams in the ceiling. It didn't even crack the ice.
"Huh huh." I looked back up then to see the buffalo man standing over me, fist raised.
Oh… I didn't finish the thought, because the next thing I knew, I was being hurled to the side. X had pushed me out of the way. The blow cracked his armor and sent him hurtling across the room. As he flew back though, he let loose a large energy blast from his cannon, stunning Blizzard Buffalo as he smirked.
I growled. As I'd said before, I didn't like X much, but I was learning to trust him. And whether I'm happy with them or not, you do not attack one of my allies and get away with it. I noticed one point in the ice glowing more fiercely than the rest, and took aim.
I extended an arm, and fire extended up and down from my grip. I reached forward with the other arm and a thin line of fire appeared where I grabbed, reaching up and down to connect to the ends of the construct, completing the bow. Pulling back, I willed the fire up, forming a long, thin arrow. "Mars… Flame… Sniper!"
With Blizzard Buffalo distracted, my arrow flew true, burning through the ice and negative energy alike, until it struck that point. Nothing happened for a moment or two as time seemed to stand still. Then, slowly but surely, all of the ice started melting, until there was nothing left but a lifeless husk.
Then, the walls started melting, returning to their previous wooden state, but I shuddered at the thought of the purification rituals that would now be required. X got up then, holding a hand over where the fist had impacted, and started walking towards me, when the doors burst open, revealing the rest of the scouts waiting breathlessly. Serena came rushing in, reminding me more of the Serena of old, rather than the slightly reserved woman I now knew. "Rei, Rei! Are you alright?"
Amy on the other hand, rushed at X, noticing what I hadn't at first. The area underneath his hand was sparking slightly. When she batted his hand away I hissed.
There was a hole clean through him. He waved Amy away. "I'll be fine. Worse than it looks, really. It'll only take me a couple of days to heal. Came out worse than this the first time I fought him…"
I shuddered a little at the thought of that hole in me. Completely natural since it was aimed at me in the first place. Chances are, I wouldn't have lived.
I looked up, and smiled a little at him, and received a small nod in return.
Maybe he isn't too bad a guy after all…
Okay, this was a really fast update, comparatively.
Well, we're about on the final third of this fic. I figure that there are maybe five chapters left, probably one or two regular chapters, then several chapters of final battle.
Reviews:
Burenda: Well, there was a scene with Tux boy riding the land chaser originally, but I cut it from the final draft of this chapter. It just wasn't too interesting. I think we'll have to save it for… the sequel!
Yes, there will be a sequel to this, but it'll have to wait until after command mission, so I get the Mega fever back again. So stay tuned. Right now, the tentative title is Hunter Moon S: Steel Dawn. Fwee!