A/N: I'd love to tell you otherwise, but the only reason I can post this chapter is because I'd already written it some months ago. I've got a midterm on Wednesday, essay due next week, the usual college crap. Chapter 4's the same, so I'll be posting it along with this one, but chappy 5's in limbo for the time being.

Sunrise
Chapter 3: What May Come, Will Come

X moaned to himself as he stiffly trudged down the halls of the registration center, his feet scraping the floor beneath him. The sounds that followed either grated heavily on his nerves or had no real effect on him at all, depending on what hit the metallic surface: either his armor or the padding that lined the bottom of his boots. He barely noticed, but what the noise did to him it did ten fold to the others who he happened to pass by. Some held their ears, some asked him to stop (and some of those did so in a none too friendly fashion), all gave him various stares. Yet, he was oblivious to any of it.

It had been two days since Forte's awakening, but he thought of it more in terms of the number of attacks that had occurred since then, which was twice that. Some things were more beneficial the more of it you got; others tended to stick with the idea that the less you got of it, the better it was. This Maverick hit-and-run business was definitely among the little things that were welcome only in small amounts, as the most recent brawl had proven.

They weren't visible, but beneath the azure Hunter's armor and jump suit was a rather large slit that had had to be stitched together running the length of his back and over a dozen bumps and bruises of various sizes, all courtesy of a particularly huge maverick with a horrid obsession with sabers that was just plain disturbing. Actually, the little sores didn't bother X that much; rather, it was the foot-and-a-half long cut that was causing him the most pain. Reploids generally healed at an amazing pace faster than humans did, but an injury as bad as X's wasn't uncommon to take at least a day to close up. That meant a day of standing and walking while stiff as a rod, lying on his back or his stomach while he slept, and worst of all, sitting straight, something he did next to never. At least Ketsu had given him a sedative for the pain, but it still had yet to kick in as his systems were preoccupied with his healing process.

And to think I believed I was a decent Hunter only a few days ago, he thought gloomily. The fact that he had had to be saved by Zero yet again despite all his efforts only served to hack off more of his already pathetic ego. Of late, especially in the last five hours, he found himself constantly questioning his abilities as a Hunter and/or wondering just why most still had it in their minds that he was one of the best things mankind had ever seen since peanut butter was invented. He allowed a soft chuckle at a thought that suddenly crossed his mind, but it was interrupted by a wild commotion just ahead of him. X blinked, totally taken off-guard by the energetic little thing that rushed up to him.

He was short, and it stood out like a sore thumb, first off. Whereas most others like him were taller than the average human by at least a foot, he seemed to have been created with the rules in reverse. And he looked young, almost too young. In his human attire, X guessed, he could have easily passed for a 14-year-old. His slim armor was yellow and white save two areas: a star-shaped crystal of orange set at the base of two small projections which swept back from the center front of his helm over the ear pieces, curving up sharply at the ends to form twin antennae. A huge grin graced his features, two hazel eyes glistening as he ran up to X and grabbed his hand, forcing him to shake hands with him before X even knew what hit him.

"Oh wow, Megaman X!" he exclaimed happily, vigorously shaking the hand he held captive. "I can't believe it! THE Megaman X! Oh I'm so honored to meetcha!"

X coughed nervously and finally managed to gently pry his hand away from the other reploid. "Please, just call me X. And... uh... Who are you?"

"Oh okay, X." The little ball of energy seemed to calm down somewhat. He stood back a bit, standing himself proudly. "I'm Delta, the new tech here at this base. I came here almost a week ago now."

"Huh." X blinked. Cain had called for another tech? When had that happened? He certainly wasn't aware of it.

Delta blinked as well. "You didn't know? You mean they didn't tell you? Of all people? I have my license and registration form, if you want to see it. Just let me go back to my room and-"

"No no, that's fine!" X offered hurriedly. The kid was cute and all, but a little much on the hyper side. Who knew what he'd start off on if X let him go through with that. "If you're in this building, you must be registered. Honestly, I'm in a bit of a rush right now so, if you'll excuse me." He waved politely as he started to trot off, ignoring his back's painful protests as he went. Before he had even rounded the corner, Delta had given him at least three different farewells in addition to a salute, which was required out of respect for higher ranking Hunters, X agreed, but still... Thank the gods it didn't occur to him until after the blue Hunter was well out of range that he had been nearly limping before they'd met, but seemed fine after.

That done and over with, X decided to keep himself moving quickly lest he risk running into another chatter box before he got to his bunk. Luckily for him, the rather large apartment complex that made up the barracks was just outside the back of the registration center, so he didn't have too much farther to go. Unluckily for him, there was no way he could have known beforehand what had happened while he was out.

Typing in his code, X pressed his forehead against the wall and stalled a moment before sliding the door open. He pushed himself away, gritting his teeth against the stinging ache that followed, and turned to enter. It never crossed his mind that there might be someone in his room when he'd lived alone for the past few months, so when he saw a strange reploid lying there in a bed across from his that he had never seen before, he stopped dead in his tracks, mouth slightly open. It took a moment for him to realize just who it was. "Forte? What are you doing here?"

The reploid stared up at him and blinked once, then rolled lazily over on his side facing X. "I'm your new roommate," he yawned. Apparently, he'd just been napping when X came in. "They were supposed to email you about it and let you know yesterday. Didn't you get it?"

"I haven't checked mine lately," X sighed, beginning to feel drowsy, and called off his armor. Finally, he thought, relieved. Drugs are taking effect. Afterwards, he laid himself carefully down on his bed, on his stomach so at least he didn't have to worry about the wound stretching itself out while he had his own nap. "I don't care right now. I just wanna go to sleeeeeep." For emphasis, he turned his head slightly to the side and threw an arm over his face.

A small smile spread over Forte's lips. "Tired much?"

"No, hurt."

The smile disappeared, taken over by something that could have been curiosity or maybe concern. "What happened?"

"Got cut down my back and had to have it sewn up."

"Ow."

With that last word came silence. For X, it was a sweet, blissful silence. Only five minutes afterward saw him in a quiet slumber. In complete agreement, Forte soon found himself asleep again as well.

--------------------

It was a little after five in the afternoon when the alarm rang out for the second time that day, knocking Zero out of his concentration. Irritatedly, he glanced up at the speaker system and briefly considered taking a shot at it, but he ignored that urge for the moment to listen to the announcement that blared from the little gray box.

"This is an emergency. Commanders of units 0 and 5 are to report to General Ryot immediately. Members of units 0 and..."

Groaning, Zero took off running towards the briefing room. He never even heard the rest of the speaker's words - he didn't really need to anyway. Finding the building he was looking for was a snap. Just inside the doors, it opened up to a large auditorium with rows and rows of chairs all in perfect lines facing the front of the room, a holographic projector, and a podium.

At the podium stood none other than General Ryot. He was, by far, the youngest leader in his physical appearance. He had the looks of a 20-someodd-year-old; soft, hazel eyes that glistened brightly in almost any light; and thick armor painted in blue, brown and white colors. He spoke so kindly in casual conversation that you couldn't imagine him ever out on a battle field, but rather indoors reading through historic books or discussing famous works of art. Many found it difficult that this Hunter could be intimidating at all to his enemy, if not for his enormous size - the reploid was just three inches shy of being 8 feet tall. But no, he was quite the opposite. He fought with a white beam saber using a fighting practice that he had developed himself - something rare among the Hunters, yet he didn't force his styles on his soldiers. He was skilled in many types of defense and combat and let his soldiers choose the ways that they felt the most comfortable with, but it wasn't his weapon of choice that made him the one in a million he was.

It wasn't long after Zero had become a Hunter before he came to the conclusion that the huge reploid offered more than just his intense training programs. He once witnessed an occasion when one rookie Hunter had become so frustrated with himself when he couldn't seem to perfect a particular move, he had thrown his weapon down in disgust and actually fell to his knees in tears. While the rest of the soldiers either ignored his cries or stared at him blankly, adding to his humiliation, the general silently stepped over to his trainee, knelt beside him and put an arm about his shoulders. He didn't shout out insults or order him to try again; instead, he whispered words of encouragement and kept the much smaller Reploid in his embrace until he had calmed himself, picked up his saber, and got up to try again. Zero found it very much out of place and odd, to say the least, but it was to his amazement that, when Ryot had corrected the Hunter's stance, he executed the move perfectly.

Though all of the commanders cared for their Hunters greatly, only a few were willing or had the time to offer such emotional support. Zero was sure he wouldn't need that kind of fatherly care any time soon, but he was glad to have it at all nonetheless. He regarded Ryot with a smile and a nod as he stepped up beside the other commander.

At first glance, Dokanru's slender frame made him seem as though battle were not one of his strong points, but the reality was quite the opposite. When he had first applied for the job, his placement exam sent him straight into advanced training with an A ranking. Incredibly, he had acquired this with only a razor-edged boomerang, a plasma machete, and a cannon that he rarely used. His armor was colored a dark blue hue with gold highlights around his neck, wrists and ankles.

As Zero approached, Dokanru offered a grin and a nod. "G'day mate," the Australian Hunter greeted with a lazy salute. "'ow's it goin for ya?"

"Good enough," Zero said, returning the gesture. "What's happening now? Must be worse, seeing as you called two of us this time."

Ryot nodded, turning to a holographic representation of the city and it's surrounding areas. "Indeed it is, but no one's really attacking us yet," he sighed grimly, then pressed a few buttons at the edge of the table. In response, a number of red blips popped up within the hologram about a foot away from the base. "Take a look and keep in mind that this has only happened within the last few hours. They're gathering at this spot, about five miles from our location, but satellite images are only showing us the remains of what used to be a small town, suggesting an underground base. We haven't located an entry point yet, and it's just concerning me more."

"Bastahds," Dokanru cursed none too quietly. "They're makin 'emselves an ahmey, they are. Y'suppose 'ey've found a leadah?"

"That's the worst case scenario." Ryot flipped through several maps before finally coming to the one he was looking for. The hologram now displayed the same area, but the Maverick blips were fewer than before. "This was what it looked like yesterday afternoon. As you'll notice, there is hardly enough activity for us to even send an investigation into it." He returned the visual back to the previous map. "But now... Yes, I'd say there's enough reason to assume that the Mavericks have found something of a coordinator. They've been there for about an hour now, and there's still more gathering. I'd like you two to get your unit members together and check it out. The scouts we've sent earlier today reported heavy turret fire guarding the outer buildings, and they couldn't get within fifty feet. You'll have to stay on your toes, understood?"

Both Hunters nodded, then turned and headed back out the door side-by-side when they were dismissed. Quietly, Zero listened to Dokanru release a string of interesting vocabulary under his breath as they reached a speaker at the end of the hall and sent an announcement throughout the compound, calling their units in for instructions before they teleported out to meet the threat. Under any other situation, he would have laughed at the commander's hilarious creativity with his words, but they had other things to worry about.

Heaving a deep sigh, Zero awaited for his soldiers to arrive, sensing something ominous in the air so suddenly. He did not have a good feeling about this.

--------------------

In the training center, Forte crept silently around a bush, searching the area thoroughly before he rushed across the way and ducked behind an ancient stone wall. He cursed mentally, rather peeved with his situation. They had started at opposite ends of the arena, but despite twenty minutes gone by of intense searching there was still no sign of his opponent. Where the hell is he? he thought to himself as he made another scan of the layout. Instead of simply darting to the next shield he could find, he pressed his back against the wall and waited. He strained his hearing for the slightest sound, even closed his eyes as he did if it would help, but even ears as keen as his found nothing. After a moment, he opted to look around again. That was when he heard it, the snap of a twig in the forest just a few feet in front of him.

The black reploid froze, kept his eyes shut, and listened. There came a silence afterwards, then a rustling sound, as though something were moving through the bushes. With some surprise, he realized the noises were coming from an area of space that had, moments before, been almost directly behind him, and they were slowly but surely creeping toward him.

That little shit, he thought, genuinely impressed. Here I've been looking for him all this time and he's right in front of me. Smiling, he allowed himself to sink down into the tall grasses at his feet. Only then did he open his eyes again as he started to drag himself on his stomach back over to the bush he had used as cover before. Alright, he wants to play that way, does he?

Using his elbows to pull himself along, Forte kept his ears trained on the sounds of the other reploid no more than fifteen feet from his position. He kept crawling along, gradually closing in on the other, following him this way and that until he had found a trail of bent grass blades. A victorious grin spread across his face. Now that his path was already pressed for him, he wouldn't have to worry so much about giving himself away, in turn allowing him to sneak up just that much closer to his opponent.

Forte painstakingly made his way along the trail, stopping whenever he heard the other pause before he went ahead. In no time, he was staring right at the blue reploid he had been hunting. X was staring off ahead of himself, looking around for the black Hunter in clear confusion, but the position he was in was just too perfect. Even though this was supposed to be a training simulation, there was no way Forte could have not done what he was about to do.

He moved so slowly that it were almost as though he were not moving at all, but in a matter of minutes he had gathered his feet underneath him. With one small command, he activated his cannon, then began to waddle just a bit closer. To his advantage, X had not heard him, nor had he moved since Forte laid eyes on him. X was waiting for him to make the first move, it seemed, but then he began to crawl off again, leaving the other to creep awkwardly after him. When X stopped to listen again, it was his downfall.

Without warning, Forte suddenly leapt onto the back of the azure Hunter, screaming something terrible. In his startlement, X yelped loudly and tried to roll away, but by that time the black reploid was already on his back, his cannon pressed lightly to the rear of his helmet.

Sitting proudly atop his catch, Forte smirked. "Got ya."

"Damnit!" X slammed a fist down into the dirt with an aggravated cry.

The next thing either of them knew, they were rendered unconscious by a powerful force only to awaken moments later. With the game ended, the simulation had shut itself down, sending them back to their own bodies and the real world.

"I reiterate," X sighed as he disconnected himself from the computer. "Damnit!"

Beside him on a separate table, Forte began laughing uncontrollably, earning him a dirty scowl from the other. He quickly laid himself back down to avoid a stray flying bolt flung at him in response. He could only calm himself to ask, "This just isn't your day, is it?" before going back into a fit of snickering.

"Obviously." Groaning, X pushed himself off his table. He glanced over at Forte, who was still at it. Thoughts of revenge floated through his mind, each one more intriguing than the last, but they were rudely interrupted by the beeping of an incoming announcement. His mood didn't permit such distractions, but he listened to it half-heartedly anyway. It had something to do with units 0 and 5, nothing that concerned him, but Forte seemed vexed by it - he quieted immediately after making a loud, irritated sound and hopped back to his feet.

"What's with this?" he groaned, pacing around a little. "I think by now I've done more than prove that I'm a good fighter, but they're still not giving me any missions. I don't get it. I've been here two days, there have been several attacks during that time, and I haven't been allowed to participate in any of them. Why won't they let me help out?"

The azure Hunter's scowl faded, seeing his friend in such aggravation, and he allowed a small sigh. Forte had a point. He had done exceptionally well in the simulations he had been assigned to take, defeating anything that stood in his way from the little Metools up to the armored tanks with twin missile cannons. He was doing so well that Ryot bumped him up from computer generated enemy targets to sessions with some of the higher ranking Hunters where he was currently in a neck-and-neck competition with X. By then there was no doubt in anyone's mind of his skills - he'd even been given a rank B status and had been enlisted in along side X in the 17th unit. Yet, for some unknown reason, Ketsu had insisted that Forte be kept within the premises, restricted to computer simulation training and exercises. It was... strange, to say the least.

He was so wrapped in his thoughts that he was unaware of the stare Forte was giving him from across the room. "HEY, answer me!" he shouted suddenly, waving an arm in front of X and effectively startling him from his ponderings.

"What?" The slightly smaller Hunter blinked a few times. "Sorry, I didn't hear you."

Forte groaned his irritation, but closed his eyes to calm himself. "Look, maybe we should go talk to Ketsu about this. He keeps putting me off and putting me off and if he's not doing that he's advising me to stick with my training until he can 'figure something out,' whatever that means. I've got a feeling that if he sees the two of us there, he'll at least give me a better explanation."

"Perhaps," X agreed quietly. "But if we're going to go, we'd best do it now, before he starts getting patients to attend."

"Sounds good to me. Let's go."

--------------------

Data, most of it damaged beyond hope of repair, littered the computer screen to which Ketsu had intently fixed himself. He was angry, he was violated, and he was sorely wishing Forte's old body had been a maverick so he could take its head off. Of late, he had discovered some of Forte's memory files had been tampered with, as though someone other than himself had accessed them in order to attempt repairs or some such mischief. It had started as a gut feeling that he almost ignored, but he had installed a tracking program that would alert him each time the computer was turned on of any actions that had been performed the last time the machine was started up.

The instant he booted up his system, the message popped onscreen, just as it had for the last three days, but this time the programs opened, the tasks performed, none of it was anything he had done. Someone was accessing his user name and searching his information without his permission.

Before he could lift up the nearby phone receiver to report the intrusions, there was a knock at the door. He turned to the interruption, and if looks could kill, the door would have self-destructed. The medic growled softly to himself, but he took a deep, calming breath, minimized the status window, and asked his visitors to enter. It might have done him some good if X had come by himself - he and the azure reploid got along quite well and had enjoyed many a chat - but oh no. Forte stepped into the room just behind him, and his mood dipped back down. There was no doubt in his mind what they wanted and that Forte had put them up to it.

Even if he wanted to, Ketsu couldn't have managed a smile to save himself. "Look, I know you're here to talk about getting your status improved, but now's not a good time for that."

Puzzled, X regarded him with a questioning gaze. "Why not?"

"Someone's been hacking into my computer. I just found out today."

Even Forte had his reaction to that news, and it was just what Ketsu had predicted. "Hacking into your computer? Who'd do that?"

"No clue, but I've got a good idea who it might be."

"Who?" asked X.

It was then that the doctor turned in his chair, fully facing Forte with an accusing stare. Nothing was said; nothing needed to be said, and the black Hunter was not happy at all with the situation he suddenly found himself in.

"How in the hell did you come to the conclusion that I did it?" he demanded angrily, shooting the medic an icy glare that was returned to him ten-fold.

"Well it was your data that was tampered with, Forte, and you do know in whose systems to start searching for it. Why don't you tell me?"

"Oh, is that all? Just because I-"

"Guys, knock it off!" X suddenly yelled, just loud enough to gain the spotlight. He stomped over in between the two, at least silencing them for the moment. "Need I remind you that arguing will get you no where?... Now, come on. I've been with Forte in training for most of his short time here. There's no way it could be him."

Indignantly, the black reploid huffed and turned away from the scene; the medic sighed, pressing two fingers to his forehead in a slightly apologetic bow, but not a word was spoken from either for an extensive time. Admitting to his fault, Ketsu was the one to end the silence.

"Alright, I was being rash," he said, his voice calm again. "I'm sorry for that, but when you consider that he's the only one other than me, Cain, Ryot, Zero, and yourself who know about those files... Well, I can narrow that one down real fast for you. Cain's the only one who knows my password other than Ryot, and I trust them enough not to wonder if they've been pirating my data. It doesn't seem likely to me that either Zero or you would hack into my computer, which leaves only one other option."

A second odd silence dominated, and both Hunters stared at each other quietly, defiance and accusation flying between them until X again set up a barrier in the middle of the battlefield. "That still doesn't mean that he did it," he pointed out softly. "Now would you please just calm down? We can get a scan done of your system to tell us exactly what's been done and from where it was done and you know it, so please?"

A gruff sigh was heard; Ketsu nodded, frustrated. "I know... I know... This just pisses me off."

"I don't doubt it," X said sympathetically. "I'd be angry too." He turned to Forte then; the black reploid was staring blankly at his feet. "Hey, you alright with this? He apologized and everything..."

Forte said nothing, only nodded in response. After a moment, he turned back to the medic, hostilities forgotten and replaced with a curious suspicion. "Why would anyone be hacking for my files anyway?"

The medic sighed, glancing to the side for a moment before he responded. "Well, you're new here, that much is obvious, but it's not like we've never had a rookie in this organization before. Most likely, they're trying to find out more about you. There's nothing public about your records yet; we haven't had time to finish everything for that level of viewing. Other than that..." Trailing off, Ketsu furrowed his brows in thought, as if considering another option. "Unless there's a spy among us, but I don't even want to think that, what with the hell we're getting from the Mavericks and all."

X sighed, returning his gaze to the darker Hunter, but Forte's features betrayed no emotion, nor did he seem inclined to further the subject. In the next minute, he turned slowly and left the room, only telling them that he would be in training the rest of the day.