Another Kind of Nightmare
A Megaman X fanfiction by Black Mantle
Those Eyes in the DarkThe next morning, E, Katie, Dr. Cain and Arm parted ways at the subway station; the latter pair headed to the city hall, while the first pair headed downtown.
"So, where are we going?"
"Somewhere fun, I was thinking of visiting the botanical gardens; there's so little green on the surface, and I've wanted to see it ever since we got here."
"Yeah, there's been little time for such things since we arrived."
Katie didn't like the downtrodden tone of her boyfriend. "Hold it; we're here for a day off, and not to worry about legal matters."
E didn't try to argue, he just nodded in sheepish agreement.
"Good. After the garden, there's a restaurant I heard about; I've already called ahead and made reservations. Then afterwards we could go out to a movie, they're playing some movies that they found and restored. I haven't seen a movie since Sigma's onslaught."
"Sounds like you've been planning this for a while."
"For a couple months now; after all the work we've put in you never know when a free day will come, so you have to be ready to grab it and take it for all it's worth."
"That's something we haven't been doing, up until a few years ago, we all pretty much thought that it all couldn't be taken from us; even when fighting the Mavericks, it never really sunk in. How I wish I could have those years back and take it for all it was worth."
"You're moping again. Stop being such a 'Gloomy Gus' and try and enjoy this day."
"Sorry, I'll try to lighten up."
Katie decided not to bother doting on E for his 'try to lighten up' comment, and instead would wait until they got there; then she'd make him enjoy himself until she killed him.
E stayed silent for most of the trip, instead of talking with his girlfriend, he was looking around the subway car at everyone. Most people were preoccupied with their own daily chores; kids going to school, adults going to work or running errands. But amongst them, E was sure there were prying eyes gazing on him, just as he was gazing back. 5 days ago, he revealed his origin as one of Wily's robots, and he was certain that tidbit of news had reached halfway around the globe by now; at the very least those morons in Arcadia had heard and would probably try to discredit him, assuming they just didn't demonize him and try to burn him at the stake.
He sat uncomfortably for the rest of the ride, certain that there was a conspiracy closing in on him.
The Lorelei Garden was easily the most beautiful thing in the city, a building made of white stone at the bottom and a dome roof made of steel girders and clear glass that formed a meshwork of triangles and interconnecting rings that headed into the carved out sky. Embedded in the white stone were large circular grates that allowed air to pass from inside the dome to the outside, which was the inside of a giant cavern. And at the crossover points of the thicker steel beams of the dome were large bright yellow lights that shone like mini-suns, illuminating the large swath of green contained by the cage. From outside, all you could see of the contents was the bright lights and a mass of green leaves from the trees that grew high up, soaking as much of the radiant life blood as they could. Greedy things trees are, growing large to harness light at the cost of other life around it, digging its roots deep to stake its claim to the land, and breathing in carbon dioxide in enormous amounts to expel oxygen. Oh sure, there are environmentalists who praise the tree for forming oxygen, but when you're not looking, they'll use up that oxygen for their own purposes too.
The trees seemed to coerce with the proprietor of the gardens, a woman named Lorelei, to keep people from looking in at the pretty flowers; forcing people to pay to enter. But the humans didn't seem to mind though; it took money to run the place, and it was a necessity to have the green garden to produce life giving oxygen for the people living underground. That was also why they were allowed to consume large amounts of electricity, even at times when power was scarce. Of course, reploids didn't need oxygen, but they needed energy in some form or another; just another example of human needs overriding reploid needs.
Katie and E went to the main doors where they were greeted with a ticket booth. Katie paid the cover and the pair was admitted into the building.
The inside of the structure was almost totally open; the white stone structure opened into the garden, and formed a stone walkway that encircled the green area in the middle. E and Katie walked around the circle, passing a few paths that led in, just admiring the view from the outside before taking the plunge and going in deeper.
On the outer terrace, E noticed that there were a few small outdoor restaurants set up. "Are we eating at one of these?"
"We had breakfast only a little while ago and you're already thinking of lunch?" Katie half pouted in a semi-disturbed semi-sarcastic tone. "These are just coffee shops, they don't serve anything more than bagels and finger sandwiches; we're going somewhere else."
"Oh."
After 10 minutes, the pair had walked halfway around the outer circle, looking at the passing foliage. At this point, Katie was tired of simply passing by and took the first path leading in to the center; E, of course, followed behind.
Now the flora was on both sides; after passing the trees at the outside, Katie and E were between bushes, shrubbery, and very leafy plants. Here there was very little color other than green; although there were pale yellows and browns blended in with the green leaves, there were no reds or pinks or violets of the pretty flowers that grew all over the planet's surface, before it was reduced to a desert. Hints of those colors could be seen ahead as the bushes gave way to flower beds, but it was nice here; being with plants that would easily be found on a person's front lawn made a person feel a bit like they were home. However, this was a feeling that E could not appreciate, he never lived in a house that had a lawn; his entire life was spent underground, with only some faint memories of his former life when he would never had cared about such things.
"Isn't it lovely?"
"They look nice."
"'Nice'? Can't you be a little more enthusiastic? It's not like we get see this everyday."
(Uh oh.) E had to think fast.
"I'll save the 'lovely' comments for the flowers, not the ferns and bushes."
"That's so sweet." Katie's tone changed quite quickly. "Or at least it would be if you actually meant it."
(I am so busted.)
Katie looked straight into E's eyes and with a scowl on her face, half yelled and half whispered at him. "Now you listen here, I came here for a good time, and I expect you to have a good time too; and if you don't, I'll make sure you never have a good time again. Got it?"
"They look lovely."
Katie was taking her time walking through the structure; there was so much to take in, and she didn't want to waste it with a quick jaunt right to the pretty flowers that she was ultimately waiting for. Eventually, she and E were on the cusp of the flower beds at the center of the garden, that made the gardens the great attraction that they were. Like icing on a cake, the green leaves and stalks and brown branches where covered in a blanket of colored patches; a swath of purple here, a splash of yellow there, as if a rainbow with no sense of direction criss-crossed the Earth every which way.
"Aren't they gorgeous?"
E had not seen anything this pretty in a long time. "They're beautiful."
Katie was glad that E was finally getting into it, not caring whether he actually was interested or just getting better at faking it. She knelt down to get a close look at the patch of daisies below her. "Look at how delicate they are."
Katie reached out and touched the small white petals; despite the limited sense of touch of her metal fingers, she could still feel the soft fuzzy petals.
"Oh yeah, you can definitely tell the difference."
"What?"
"Real flowers, fake ones are made out of plastic or felt, but neither feels quite like real flowers."
"I never paid much attention to flowers, real or fake; I suppose you didn't like the bouquet I got you last Valentine's?"
"They were lovely, fake lovely but lovely." Katie turned back to the real flowers in front of her. "I think they sell seeds here, maybe I should try growing something."
"Maybe I should've just rebuilt your old body instead of building a new one."
"Huh?"
"You used to have green thumbs, remember?"
"Oh you. Let's find the roses; I've never seen a real rose before."
E thought it was pretty sad that she never saw real roses before. He had seen real roses, but that was back in the old days, when Elecman would never had cared about real flowers; so for all intensive purposes, E never saw a real rose either.
"Oh wow." Katie found the rose bushes. "They are so beautiful."
E followed closely behind, and moved to Katie's right side, joining her in appreciating the flowers. He recalled deeply buried in his memory a picture of a pink rose; it was only a glance, and Elecman certainly didn't bother to stop and smell the roses, so the image was very grainy and small. Now seeing a real rose up close, combined with the emotions of a reploid, E felt an emptiness; how could he have gone so long without taking the time to really study something as beautiful as a rose.
"I've never seen real roses, have you?"
"A long time ago, but I don't remember it; I think it was pink."
"How'd it smell?"
"No idea, no aromanometer."
"Right."
Katie took a whiff of the air to smell the delicate scent. "Ooo, that's nice. It lives up to everything I've heard."
E took a good whiff of the roses, it had been a long time since he smelled anything like that; it was nothing like the variety of simulated scents called perfumes that E encountered, usually when Katie herself would wear them on occasion. The scent was as mild and delicate as the roses themselves, they didn't offend the senses and attracted all around with a feeling of mild sensuality and warmth; it was pure love made into a smell, or perhaps a very subtle lust. There was little doubt why the rose was so often associated with love and the day to commemorate romance, St. Valentine's day; it's scent matched perfectly with the fine shapes of the overlapping petals and the red, pink and white colors. But just as roses have their thorns, the scent came with a stinging consequence; or perhaps a freeloader from another flower nearby.
Achoo!
"You alright?"
"Yeah." E twitched his nose like a rabbit to try and shake out the disturbance in his olfactory sensors. "It's just a bit of pollen."
Katie giggled a bit. "You look kind of cute wiggling your nose like that."
E reached up and pinched his nose, rubbing it forcefully to further cleanse himself of the miniscule particles. "I wonder if their pollinating cycle is out of whack, there are no seasons down here to tell them when the right time is, just endless cycles of light and dark."
Katie sighed. "It's sad, really; they want to be outside, not cooped up in this glass bubble."
E really didn't see in the plants what Katie was talking about, but he certainly felt it in himself and the people. All around, everyone was also tired of being cooped up inside the underground city, they wanted to go out into the sun and long rolling green fields; something which would not be found on the surface, only death was there. Everyone was caged up, and worse, everyone knew why. E knew what it was like to be in a glass bubble, and he could feel another bubble closing around him.
Katie and E left the garden after another hour, and half an hour later than that, Katie and E walked into the restaurant, a rather classy place without being an exclusive fine dining experience reserved for the cultural elite.
They were met at the entrance by a waitress. "Hello, welcome to the Café Jupiter."
The waitress looked up at the large reploid standing by the skunk, a picture of whom she recently saw in a news article regarding the debate over bill B-154; she wasn't sure of the specifics as it wasn't the main story, but she knew there was something important in there. At first she hesitated, but her professional demeanour won out and continued to address her customer. "Can I get you a table?"
"Hi, I have a reservation; the name's 'Katie'."
While Katie didn't pay much attention to the woman's stall, E did.
The woman quickly checked the register. "Ah yes, table for 2 for E and Katie. Follow me."
The pair followed the waitress to a table by a wall under a picture of a sunset over a long destroyed city. E looked at it for a moment and tried to identify it; the large bridge was certainly familiar, but the name escaped him. Once they were seated, the waitress left, telling them she'd be back with their meal shortly.
"Aren't we supposed to order first?"
"I already ordered when I made the reservation."
"I see." E was a little perturbed that Katie had already ordered for him, instead of letting him choose something, but he also admired how she had planned this day out. He remembered that the last thing on her schedule was a movie; E had little doubt that she had already selected the movie they were going to, and bought the tickets.
"So, what did you order?"
"I went for something a little exotic; I heard that this restaurant was able to make spicy food, so I ordered some curry."
"Curry? I've heard of it."
"Yeah, I hope it'll be good. Imagine my surprise when I ordered and found out there are hundreds of kinds of curry; I didn't know which one to order."
E smirked; the thought of Katie just picking some food at random while she had the whole day planned seemed like an oddity. He didn't have much time to think about it when the waitress returned carrying sets of cutlery, glasses and a pitcher full of a clear liquid; she laid out the items in front of the diners.
"I'll be back in a few minutes." The waitress left and returned to the kitchen.
E took the pitcher and poured some into the two glasses; although it looked like water, it wasn't, as reploids didn't drink water. Instead, it was a type of lubricant to help reploids "eat" solid substances, and as a coolant for consuming hot food, and curry was supposed to be a hot food indeed.
It didn't take long for the waitress to return. "Here you go."
She laid two large plates on the table; on each was a bowl with a steaming hot concoction inside. "Enjoy your meal, I'll be back to check on you in a bit."
E looked at the dish, and instantly noticed the color of the dish. "You know you're at a fancy place when they use so much coloring that it actually looks like real food."
Katie was more interested in tasting the spicy meal. She impaled a piece of fake meat with her fork and pulled it out, waiting for a few drops of sauce to return to the bowl before taking it to her mouth. "Oo… This is hot."
She almost instinctively went for her glass. Taking a big gulp, she washed it around her mouth before swallowing; but it did little to appease the fiery god ravaging her tongue.
"That doesn't help."
E grinned. "Just remember, you ordered this."
"Your turn."
E dipped his fork into the morass and pulled out a vegetable, which looked like a pepper, and quickly popped it into his mouth. The sauce hit him first, tingling all over his mouth with a melange of spices, and the chemical burning that comes with it; it was even worse with each bite of the pepper, each chew spread the chemicals of the food and it felt like small doses of acid were sprayed around the inside of his mouth. Underneath the burning was a potpourri of flavours, a mixture that E had never tasted before; but with the burning heat, he didn't have time to discern any of them as he picked up the glass and took a healthy gulp. However, the drink failed to give the refreshment he needed, as some of the burning was still there; but now the taste was gone.
"Do humans really eat this stuff?"
"It pretty popular from what hear."
"With who, masochists?"
Despite the inferno in their mouths, E and Katie tried to eat the rest of the dish; trying everything from swallowing it fast to eating select bits of it to get it right. By the time they were done, E and Katie were getting used to the excessively spicy dish and were able to actually taste it.
"So that's how it works; after you eat enough of the stuff, it burns out all the sensors in your mouth."
"Maybe I should have ordered the mild curry."
E considered if he should counter with a snide remark like "Ya think? I was hoping that you got the 'nuclear' curry.", but decided that her suffering the same mouth searing torture was punishment enough. Besides, he already scored a few yellow flags back in the garden, there was no point going for getting thrown out of the game.
"Well, I'm sure it'll be better next time."
Katie felt a bit better with that, knowing that lunch wasn't a total disaster.
The waitress came back to take the dirty dishes back to the kitchen, promising desert would follow.
"At least dessert will be a lot better."
"What did you order? And don't take this the wrong way, but I hope it's ice cream, plain ordinary normal cold ice cream."
Katie rolled her eyes back in an "Oh brother" look; it wasn't ice cream, but even she was wishing that the frigid treat was on its way. "Don't worry, I got something normal."
The waitress returned with new plates and cutlery, and one large plate with a round brown mass on it. When she laid it on the table, E could see a large number was painted on it using a simulated icing. As she turned and departed, E studied the number "7" scribed in red and white icing.
"Happy Birthday. I know it was a few days ago, but we've been so bogged down lately."
"I almost thought you forgot."
Katie was stunned that E could even think that. "What? How could you even think that?"
"Because with all that's going on, I almost forgot."
"It has been pretty hectic with everything going on, hasn't it? It's sort of like having your birthday on the same day as Christmas or something. I had a friend whose birthday was a week before Christmas; he went crazy, I wonder if there's a connection."
While Katie was talking, E was cutting into the cake, creating two small pieces and putting them on his and Katie's plates.
"This looks good." E cut into the spongy mass with his fork, then consumed it. "Mmm, chocolate, dark chocolate…"
Katie also ate some of the treat. "Delicious."
"This birthday is starting to shape up. Did you get me a present?"
"It's back at the house. You'll get it later."
E faked a childish pout. "But I want it now."
"Now, now, now; little children who wine don't get their presents."
E held up the partially eaten cake, still showing the number on it. "But I'm only 7, remember."
After leaving the restaurant, E and Katie made for a nearby movie theatre; a relatively small multiplex that had 8 screens and less than 100 seats per. At the main door outside the theatre, Katie and E were looking over the titles of the movies.
"'The London Path', I've heard about this one." Katie squeezed E's arm, and pointed at the sign. "It's about a divorced man who goes to London and meets his ex-wife after her second divorce."
"I'm guessing someone has already checked the movie listings before coming here."
"Oh don't be so mean. C'mon."
Katie pulled E into the theatre and into the ticket line.
The reploids entered the theatre, its lights were still on so that everyone could see and not trip over the seats. E and Katie found a pair of seats for themselves near the middle of the sub-200 seat theatre. E retracted his pylons to fit in the seat, while Katie had to sit on the edge in order to squeeze her tail between the seatback and her back.
"They definitely don't make these seats for reploids."
"You're just complaining that you don't have a human shape. How about I give you a detachable tail?"
"I like my tail just fine."
Katie might have been satisfied with her position, but there were those that did not find it acceptable.
"Excuse me." A male voice came behind Katie, one that certainly didn't sound very friendly. "Would you please move your… tail?"
"Oh, sorry; it has a mind of its own sometimes."
Katie started to move around to reorient her tail. While watching her, E heard the man in back whisper a comment that Katie was too busy to notice.
"Stupid reploids."
Over the course of the day, E was starting to calm down and enjoy himself; only to have it ruined by two thoughtless words whispered under someone's voice.
When Katie finished with her tail, she turned back. "Sorry about that."
(Don't bother saying 'sorry' to that jerk.)
E looked at Katie's new position with her legs, torso and tail twisted out of any normal position. "Comfy?"
"Not bad, I'll manage."
(Once again, we have to adapt to live in a human world.)
"I don't love you, Frank; I haven't loved you in four years."
"But then you seem to have trouble loving anyone. You ran off with Scott, and less than a year later, you didn't love him anymore either."
"How dare you suggest that this was my fault; it was your wandering eye, locked on every little tart on the street except me."
"You were always so bossy, you tried to take total control, nothing I did was ever good enough for you."
"Maybe if you actually tried, I might have still loved you; but you were just a snivelling little rat."
E was more or less enjoying the movie, but he couldn't help but be a critic, occasionally whispering comments to his mustelid girlfriend. "These guys are way overacting."
"Oh hush, they're being dramatic."
"Drama queens would be my guess."
A 'shhh' from somewhere around ended the conversation there.
(I'm going to have to install some kind of internal comm. system; perhaps a text message system, something nice and quiet.)
Later, E and Katie were walking out of the theatre, talking about the film.
"I thought movies were supposed to have a happy ending."
"Now what would be the thrill if every movie had a happy ending; the bad guys go to jail or are killed, the hero gets the girl and they live happily ever after. There have to be good guys who lose or the good guys who win have no glory."
"If you're going to have a romantic movie, it should have actual romance in it."
"You thought Frank and Margaret would get back together."
"Actually, from what I was hearing about that Scott guy; I thought he and Frank had a shot."
Katie laughed. "So homosexuality is the answer."
"Of course; and Margaret had 'Butch' written all over her."
"Well too bad, life doesn't always end in rolling fields of grass and a kiss amongst the flowers."
"Still, with all that's going on, I'd prefer a happy ending."
"Yeah, happy endings are something we're short on right now." Katie thought about all that was happening that they were trying to ignore; but the point for coming here was to ignore it, so she tried to get back to the topics of movies.
"Remind me never to take you to see 'Casablanca'."
"'If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it; maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.'"
"You've seen it?"
"No, but that's got to be the most famous line in movie history. Why does the world torture people so much?"
Again, Katie didn't like the dark tone this conversation was taking, so she decided to cut it off right away and get completely off the topic of movie endings, good or bad. "Well, I'm spent, shall we go home?"
"Sure, I'm feeling a bit tired myself."
They went home. While walking back to the subway station, E was trying to put the images of prying eyes out of his mind and a world that was caving in around him. If only he had looked in one particular corner of the garden, the restaurant, or the movie theatre, he might have seen one set of dark eyes that focused directly on him, following him throughout the day.
To Be Continued
This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Capcom and are used without permission. Pheromone "Katie" Skunk is © Black Mantle.