I'm back. Sorry for the delay. I got sucked into a game addiction again. Zoids, Fire emblem, and a few small freeware games.
I don't own megaman.
Well I finally got some crude language in here. Who knew all I had to do was make a character that said nothing but. A decent amount of swearing as well, I did warn you. If I get too many protest I will go back and change it but I would rather not.
A blaster from the past C8)
Rock was using the assorted tools from Doc's workshop to reinstall his transfer device. X was still sitting silently where he had been for the last six hours; digesting the information Rock had told him. Rock had told X almost everything about his first few adventures, everything relevant at least.
"How did this all happen without anything about it surviving the wars?" X was surprised at how much Rock had done. "I mean all Cain, or anyone, has been able to find is some vague references to a blue warrior that might not even be you. The child's books say more about you than the few files we have found."
Rock flinched as the crude micro welder slipped and sent a spark across his systems. "In all likeliness they had been removed so that I wouldn't be remembered. A hero that is remembered but has not been around for so long when he was needed causes a good deal of resentment when and if he returns."
Rock twisted another wire into place and welded it, Doc hadn't been very careful about removing it and many of the wires had worked lose. "I'm wondering why you aren't asking about our brothers."
X slapped his head and sighed, "this is getting confusing. You're saying that because Light made me and made you and all these other robots we are related. How dose that work, we aren't even built on the same pattern and those others you described don't sound any closer. Not to mention almost all of us had been built at diffract times."
Rock welded the last wire and tossed aside the microreader before closing his chest cavity. "Its just a mater of him being our father, an emotional response added by upbringing around humans. But he made me, with a little help from Willy, and he made you. Besides that, you would have liked Protoman. He was a lot like Zero."
X groaned and pressed his hands against his ears, "I didn't need to know that. This world couldn't deal with another person anything like Zero. I know for certain I couldn't. Do you know if Protoman is still around somewhere, or any of those others you mentioned?"
Rock stood up and stretched his arms over his had to check his mobility before sitting down again and diverting a bit more power to his auto-repair systems. "No I have no idea at all. They might be but it strikes me as unlikely that they all survived unless they found or made themselves stasis pods." Rock watched his stats report as his body finished installing his transfer device. His heath had been gradually increasing as he told X his story.
X was starting to doubt the story Rock was feeding him and it showed on his face. "Where would they find stasis pods? They are more than a little rare, even in your time."
Rock stood up again and started for the door, only for X to block him. "I want to know where your base is and why I cant go there. Is it because you actually have something that would be dangerous to me or is it that you don't want to show me something that could stop reploids from going maverick?"
Rock frowned at X, not having expected this reaction so soon. "There is nothing that can stop a reploid from going Maverick except the reploid. There are many things at the lab that would be dangerous to anyone in anybody's hands, even those meaning to do good."
Rock stepped around X and out the door; in the outer room Doc was snoring in a chair with a data pad in one hand and a peace of Rock's power network in the other. Rock went out into the halls and started his usual walking without direction. He considered going back to the compound but it would be pointless to even try until his trans device stabilized again.
He found himself in the main lobby of the hunter head quarters, and looking out at the city. After a while he walked back and followed his map to where the command center was. He entered the room and found himself in a large room full of reploids and commuter terminals and wall screens. As he walked across the floor towards the large table map in the center work slowed as everyone turned to watch him.
He stopped at the table and looked down at the many dots on its surface. "Can I help you sir?" he turned and looked for the voice, only to have to look downward to find the very short reploid that was addressing him.
"Where is Zero?" he couldn't believe reploids would be made so young looking as this boy beside him. He was like a small child with blue hair and wearing a finely made uniform.
"Commander Zero is on a solo search and rescue. He told me not to divulge his location to you if you came asking. I'm sorry sir. Is there anything else I can help you with?" the little reploid smiled at Rock.
"No. That is fine." Rock turned and left, he stopped beside the door and looked back, meeting every eye he could. "Shouldn't you all be working?"
Everyone gave a start and hurried back to the tasks they had forgotten while watching him. He felt a bit of a rush at so many people staring at him, not in wonder or joy, he was well sick of that. But they actually seemed startled and confused by him, he could guess about some of the stories floating around already.
He was now walking down the hall towards X's office to see if he was there already. He walked in the newly repaired door and found that X wasn't there yet, however he did find Roll. She was sitting in X's chair and had her hands behind her head looking nearly asleep. She wants in her armor for once, having opted to wear high-heeled boots with a freighting short miniskirt and a tube-top, everything was in the same nearly black red.
Rocks dropped into the other chair and lean backed in much the same way she was except he kept his across his chest. "I can't say I approve of your new stile, too provocative." He meets her glare with his own before relenting, "where what you want but I don't have to like it."
She closed her eyes again and leaned further back, something Rock could never do without falling over. "I came over to see if you wanted to now where Kitt ran off to hide. I tried following you but you don't hold still long enough and I didn't want to bug you while you where being chewed on by X."
He frowned for a moment and tried once again to lean further back in his chair, and once more went down. After righting himself and the chair he looked at her as she smiled at his mishap. "And why exactly do you want me to find the fox?" he did want to find Kitt but he knew Roll would have a motive and he doubted it was going to be harmless.
Her smile shifted into something more like a hungry wolf, "well I was hoping you would run off and get beaten down again. I even fixed you armor up and replaced your spent recover chips." She pulled a small square chip from her own belt and tossed it to him.
He caught it and checked to see that it was the gray energy cell containing a small boost for his auto-repair systems. It was, if only a weaker one and he slid it into his mouth. It slid under his tongue and entered the slot made for it and he felt his systems flare into a burst of energy that restored almost ten percent of his health.
He spat out the spent chip, he never liked eating the chip itself even if he could and that it would be used towards restoring missing materials. Roll shook her head at him and smacked her palm down on the chip, crushing it into dust and leaving a slight palm indentation in the desk.
"So do you want to know where she is or what?" Roll dusted off her hands and made a face at the dent in X's desk.
Rock shrugged and leaned back again, not enough to fall thought. "Yeah why not. It would give me something to do for a while." Even before he had finished speaking a text message contain coordinates arrived on his COM.
"Good. Don't let her run, she is fast." And with that Roll transferred away, not even bothering to stand up from her chair. Rock grinned at the thought of her suddenly landing on her ass somewhere but shook it away as he stood up and checked the condition of his trans device. It was functional enough that he would have to worry about appearing with a leg in the wrong place.
He called his armor and found that Roll had done a very nice job cleaning it; she even touched up the paint and polished it to a shine. He flexed his arms and bent his knees, finding that she had also done some slight adjustments to his joints. He shook his head at how much she had changed and entered the coordinates into his trans device.
X opened the door to his office just in time to see shiny blue armor disappear into bright light. Went over to his desk and dropped the stack of folders there and pulled out a small data pad that had a simple list of coordinates on it. Currently the numbers where jumping around but even before a second had passed they had settled down, telling X that Rock was somewhere in the southern hemisphere.
Rock appeared as usual in his flash of light, however he was a good way up off the ground. In a long learned reflex his hand flew from his side to his belt and then snapped down below his feet. The small red cube unfolded and his feet stamped down on the floating platform hard enough to send it dangerously close to the ground. He waited until the spinning propeller was inches from the ground and stepped off, catching the cube as it started to fold and shot upward.
He looked around and was surprised to find he was standing in a vast rippling plain that wouldn't have existed here in his time. He shook his head as yet something else reminded him how long he had been gone. He started walking while looking around for where Kitt could be hiding; there wasn't anything to hide in or under. Even the stunted grasses and occasional shrub wouldn't have hid a small animal.
He continued walking, observing how several antelope like creatures watched him from a short way off. Just because there was no where to hide didn't mean there where no animals here, far from it. He saw more animals here than he had expected after reading the many reports of careless use of bio and chemical weapons in the now long past wars.
He heard something that sounded out of place with the wind in the grass and the sounds of the small herbivores scurrying away from him. He turned slowly, tracking it back to where it was coming from. He spotted a small shallow in the side of a gentle rise; it was almost invisible under a slanted moss covered stone. He could hear the wind as it whistled over the hole and sent a gentle whisper of sound into the air.
Rock approached the shallow and ducked down to look inside, finding that it continued on back into the rise and slowly dropped downward. He shrugged once and slid his feet into the hole and let go of the stone, sliding roughly down along with a shower of loose dirt. He landed at the bottom and stood slowly, having to stay crouched to avoid hitting his head.
He took two steps while looking around before something tackled him with a scream. Something was jammed against his neck and the world faded out around Rock as whatever attack it was disrupted his systems and sent him into shutdown.
Rock came online with a jolt, only to find he was bound in several layers of cable and rope. He looked around and saw that he was still in the small underground room he had found earlier except it was now lit with a few grass torches. He flexed his arms and chest, trying to snap the bonds holding him but they where tight and made of many layers.
Rock looked around some more, finding that his helmet and buster had been taken from him and piled far away from him. He tried opening his COM to call either X or perhaps Rush but he couldn't find a signal. Something was putting out a very powerful dampening field. The dampening field also canceled out his chances of transferring away. He was stuck here.
After a long wait he heard something slide down the tunnel and into the room. He twisted his head around and saw Kitt in her red and white armor. It was shaped smoothly and without much in the way of protection but it was clear that it was made for speed and causing accurate damage. She can in and sat down near the center of the room with a small box clasped in her hands.
Rock studied her as she had her back to him while doing something in the box. Her hair and fur was already starting to grow out as short red hair was all over her head and he could see light fuzz coming on her neck. It wouldn't be long until it was as if she hadn't been shaved. He was rather regretful that he had called the medics if her fur was growing out already. No wonder she was pissed at him, it did raise the question of why she didn't kill him after knocking him out.
"Stop staring at me or ill tear out your eyes." She must have known he was awake again but she still didn't turn around to look at him. "Why are you in my den anyhow? Didn't you cause me enough embarrassment or pain?"
Rock heard something in her voice, something she was trying to hide from him. "I came to find you and take you back. Apparently Zero doesn't want to use a member of his team. And since you didn't 'retire' me you aren't facing any repercussions, except perhaps smashing a wall."
She didn't answer for a long time, working with what she had in the box. Rock flexed his arms again, this time trying to shift the many layers of cable and rope. The rope and cable was merely bits and peaces that had been found somewhere and braided together to make a decent length, however it was surprisingly well made.
"I can't go back." Her shoulders shook and Rock wondered what she was working on so hard. "Because of you and that pink bitch I'm the laughing stock of the Hunters. I couldn't go back there and be laughed at every time someone thought I wouldn't see."
Rock blinked as he released her shoulders where shaking from crying. He really wished his COM were working now, so he could call someone who might know what to do. "Surely they would laugh at you for being ambushed by a more powerful enemy while in your own headquarters."
Rock grunted as his neck and shoulders where slammed against the ceiling. Kitt had once again grabbed him and picked him from his feet, or back in this instance, faster than he could follow. "That is why I would be laughed at! She caught me off guard in my own territory."
Her face was flushed with anger under the growing fur while tears still trailed down her face from her tired eyes. "I am going to have to disappear now so that I don't run onto anyone. And I still have to avoid mavericks and take them out if I find them. I have become a renegade hunter." She slammed him against the ceiling again, sending dust raining down around her. "All thanks to you." She dropped him and went back to her box, having to walk bent almost double under the low roof.
Rock rolled back onto his back and watched her back as she continued to work. "What is responsible for the jamming field?"
She turned at studded his face for a moment before turning back to her box. "The biomechanical trees emit a large level of power that acts as a scrabbling field. And my den is almost right on top of a loadstone deposit. Everything is scrambled in here; I found it before when my training squadron was searching the area for am elusive maverick. It makes a nice like place to hide until I find someplace better."
Rock flexed again, knowing it was pointless but having not much else to do. "What are you plaining to do to me? Destroying me is an option but if you do that you will likely be hunted for it. Not to mention I don't stay dead." Rock hated being killed but it made an incredible bluff, especially when he came back again to fight whoever managed to do him in.
Kitt stopped what she was doing and slowly turned around with a smile that made Rock wish she would just kill him. She climbed to her knees and came towards him swaying her hips and flickering her tail. It was very erotic even with her short fur but it was nothing compared to the smile on her face.
"I was thinking maybe I could take you with me. After all it isn't often you meet a cute little drone. I was thinking I could do a little reprogramming and have myself a nice little man servant." She leaned over his bund body and slowly ran her lips up along his jaw. "After all I wager you would like it even if I didn't program you for it."
Rock's logic was over powered by rage at her mention of reprogramming. He moved every muscle in his body, not hearing the damage reports as they where pressed past there limits. The ropes began to fray and the cabled tore into his skin before with a series of snaps many of them broke and flipped away. A few lashed across Kitt's armor as she jumped back and Rock surged to his feet, swatting away the last of the restraints.
"NOBODY REPROGRAMES ME!" Rock screamed and dived at the surprised Kitt. She went down as Rock tackled her and watched with wide eyes as he pulled back a fist. The fist began to fall, ready to drive into her face and out the other side.
Kitt closed her eyes and screamed but after a moment she opened her eyes to find Rock's fist trembling mere inches from her face, it was held back, barely, by two other pairs of hands. She looked past the fist and saw Rock still glaring at her and leaning into the punch, still trying to drive it into her face. "Kitt. Move. Now!" she slid out from under Rock's knees and slid back away from him and the two hunters holding his fist.
She watched as Rock slowly turned towards her away, the hands of X and Zero only slowing him. She could see the strain on their faces as Rock took a step towards her, dragging them both along with him. "Kitt. Outside now!" she nodded at her commander's command and darted for the hole leading outside.
She just popped from the hole when a pair of large hands griped her arms and pulled her up. She tried pulling away from the reploid but he kept a firm grip on her arm as he stepped clear of the den entrance. She looked at him and saw a massively tall reploid in thick gray armor that had several artillery cannons rising over his shoulders. His face was wide and smiling under the dark visor covering his eyes, "good to see you Kitt. I don't know why you're trying to run away from us."
"Gray." She looked around and saw a few other reploids from the 0 squad. "No." she bared her face in Grays armor, trying to hide her baldness.
"Aw come on it ant like it aint growing back." She tried pulling in deeper to Gray's armor but he easily pulled her away from him so he could look at her. "Look at me I'm bald already and it isn't going to grow back." He reached up and pulled of his helmet to show the ring of brown hair around his head and his surprisingly gentle eyes with their laugh lines.
"Yeah we don't care about your hair. We just want to see that walk. Oww." She looked over at who had been talking and saw a thin repliod with even thinner green armor and a helmet with small-feathered wings sweaping back from his ears. He was leaning on a metal staff and rubbing his arm where the girl beside him had hit him.
"Your not helping Wayra." She was much like him except for her armor being white and holding a shorter staff under her arm. They both had short wings protruding from their backs and deep reflective green eyes.
"What you want me to act all noble? Then she will think we are just blowing smoke. Besides, I do watch her walk more than her hair." He purposely drooled as he ran his eyes over Kitt's legs. "Oww! Sora, Stop hitting me!"
Kitt smiled for a moment before trying to hide her face against Gray's armor again. These where her closest friends and they often worked on missions together and got them done above the average success rate.
Before anything else could happen the hole into her den exploded with smoke and X and commander Zero came flying out covered in dust. A moment latter Rock smashed out of the hole with a scream, his armor was covered in dust and his hair was full of dirt. He stood there panting heavily as the dust settled around him.
His face was torn and scratched from stones and his hands had been striped of their thin layer of skin to revile the metal below. Nobody moved as he stood there and burned holes into the ground with his eyes. Finally commander Zero found his feet and helped X back to his. Kitt found herself taking her position behind Zero and readied her own plasma daggers. She didn't even have to look to know that her friends took her own as well.
"Kitt." She turned to commander X and saw him holding his hand where his fingers had been bent over backwards. "What did you say to him?"
"I don't know. He is just a drone, how could I say anything that would get him mad. Drones don't have emotions." She saw Rock still hadn't moved and didn't show any signs of doing so.
"You sure are a dumb one aren't you foxy." Kitt spun around and found Roll in her pink armor approaching them. Kitt felt a flare of anger and flung her first plasma danger at her. Roll steped aside and caught the handle as it passed where her head had been a moment before.
"Kitt, stand down." Kitt turned and saw commander Zero had fixed her with a glare over his shoulder with one eye while keeping the other on Rock. "What did you say before he tried putting a fist in the ground with your face in the way."
Kitt blushed and didn't look him in the eye. She wasn't used to being chastised by her commander. "I told him I was thinking of keeping him around as a little pleasure boy."
Roll started laughing and didn't stop even when Kitt called her dagger back, making it fly from Roll's hand. After her laughter faded she grinned at Zero, "Maybe I should do that to you. What do you think Zero? I could make it fun for both of us." X groaned and clamped his hands over his ears to avoid this thought.
"Why would that upset Rocky over there? I would pay for that to happen." Wayra fluttered in the air on his wings near his sister. He just managed to avoid his sister's fist as she swept past him. "I mean come on most guys I know would go for that." This time Sora's fist connected with the back of his helmet and spun him in the air once.
"Willy." Everyone turned to stare at Rock where he stood when he spoke that name calmly but with an astounding level of resentment. He said it like it was the worst curse in the world, it was clear he wasn't aware of them around him anymore.
"Wow. Swings for the other team huh?" Wayra crashed to the ground as Roll's charged shot smashed him from the air.
"You stupid fox. You threatened to reprogram him didn't you." Roll had her busters glowing with full charges, and both where pointed at Kitt.
"Wait what's this about? Why would a threat of reprograming piss of Rock?" Zero had his saber out, not activated yet, but was having one heck of a time keeping an eye on both Roll and the still enraged Rock.
Roll growled at Kitt then walked towards Rock, pushing X out of her way. She let her hands fold away and lifted her face guard up; she gently placed a hand on Rock's shoulder. She grimaced as he smashed his fist into her stomach and sent her tumbling away. She pulled herself up to her feet and shook her head, "get out of here."
"What is going on? Why has he blown a gasket and furthermore why hasn't he tried attacking us since he came out of my den?" Kitt didn't trust Roll, but that was to be expected after what Roll had done to her.
Roll turned on her, her eyes matching Rocks for a moment of pure rage before she smothered it. "You told him you where going to reprogram him you bitch. If I know one thing that could send him over the edge it's that! Willy tried reprogramming him and Rock managed to resist while every other robot couldn't. It kind of messed him up about the subject, it would you too."
Nobody saw Zero's puzzled face at the mention of Willy, nor that X had given up trying to calm everyone down and was now simply watching the show. Kitt marched up to Roll, "reploids can't be reprogrammed. And how is a drone getting mad? Drones have NO emotions."
Kitt fell to the ground with a red welt starting to rise across her face from Roll's slap. "Rock is not a drone and neither am I. If you think we aren't just as capable as you we could settle this with a fight anytime you want."
Wayra was leaning against Gray's arm to stay upright; Roll's blast had hit him hard. But not hard enough to stop his next comment, "alright I will mix the jellow while you two put on your thongs." Wayra fell over as Gray stepped away from him.
"Team. Withdraw to HQ." Zero had managed to push away the strange name of Willy and decided to act like the hunter he was. "Commander X and I can handle this from here. Move it or I will put you all on swamp diving detail. And Gray, keep Kitt close, I don't want to have to go hunting her again."
The four reploids nodded and disappeared into flashes of light, leaving Zero and X with the robot siblings. Zero turned to Roll as she was staring at him in a way he found rather disconcerting. "Now how do we calm him down?" He tried to ignore her flickering eyelashes and the slight pink blush on her cheeks.
"Oh he just has to let his logical side work past the rage, it could take a while. But 'we' could go and have nice walk while we wait." She batted her eyes at him and he indivertibly took a step back. He was used to chasing girls and being chased but this was a first for having one give him the full force press and be a hell of a lot older than him.
X was laughing at Zero as it looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Zero never had trouble talking to women, "what are you laughing at? Get your sister to stop hitting on me." X could only laugh harder as Roll latched onto Zero's arm and he tried pulling away only to realize she was just as strong as Rock.
Bad chapter. I might try fixing it but I don't know right now, I need to work on some of my other fics.
And for the record. Kitt is a tease, not a slut.
Oh and Wayra means wind while Sora stands for sky. It thought a pair of flying twins needed interesting names.
Later