"Stop squirming, you little…!" X growled, trying to hold onto the Met/spider.
He'd seen the one the rookie had brought in, but hadn't thought much of it. Just an experiment that had somehow wandered off and gotten broken. It hadn't seemed to do anything useful, anyway.
But then he'd spotted another one wandering around downtown, and decided to capture it for study. It had put up a good fight, zigging, zagging and even running under his feet, but he'd finally caught it.
Now it seemed bound and determined to escape, despite his firm grip. X growled, tightening his hands on it and determinedly carrying it down to the lab.
"Lifesaver!" he called. "Can you look at this for me?" The medic frowned, looking up from some reports he was writing.
"What is that thing?" He walked over, examining the AI minutely. "Huh, strange looking. Where did you get it?" X slammed it down onto a table and pinned it there.
"I don't know what it is, and I found it downtown. We found a broken one last week in the HQ… stop that!" He snapped at the drone, which beeped sadly. "Can you turn it off or something?"
"Just a moment." Lifesaver opened a panel on the Met/spider. It took a few moments of exploration, but he finally disabled its movement functions. "There. It's still functional, but it won't give us any trouble. Let me see…" Lifesaver started to try and figure out the machines innards… then jumped back with a yelp as it started smoking. "What the-?"
The miniature explosion that followed didn't damage anything besides the probe, but that was utterly demolished. X and Lifesaver both looked at the wreckage, and X's expression turned grim.
"I'm going to find out what the hell's going on." He didn't like this in the least, littlest bit.
X watched the scouting team assemble.
With the process to get through the dimensions perfected, it was time to go farther than they had before. He wanted a bit more information on this world before everyone went through, though.
The tests with animals had proven that the void had no effect on sanity. The animals couldn't tell them exactly what they had seen, but X suspected he was correct… it was simply too alien to be comprehended, and the mind filtered it out. They wouldn't be experiencing the void for more than a second in any case.
X smiled ruefully as he looked at one particular member of the scouting mission. They'd convinced Colonel to paint his armor in the brighter colors favored by most Reploids, but nothing could convince him to take off his hat. X considered the effect ghastly, but Colonel seemed to find it tolerable. But the way he stood and walked almost screamed "military experience!" If he could have, X would have pulled him from the mission, but Colonel wanted to come.
Repliforce had been disbanded after the third Maverick war, the last war, but a solid core had clung onto their identity like grim death. Colonel had been their leader, and had noticed that despite its official disbanding, the Maverick Hunters were still a functional organization. He had appealed to them and been accepted as a subunit… nominally, he was under X and Zero's command. In actuality, they made respectful requests of Colonel. Repliforce had a long and proud history, so it was better to not antagonize the survivors' sensibilities. There were barely twenty left, in any case.
X's gaze shifted to Colonel's sister, and his smile warmed. Iris had changed her paint job to lime green, and discarded her usual beret. She would fit in well as a civilian Reploid, and from what little training Wraith had been able to give, she had some talent for undercover operations.
The only other scout who gave him concern was Dynamo. Not really a member of the Hunters or Repliforce, he was a mercenary who had chanced upon the information about what Gate had been up to before he joined the Hunters to work on his project. With that knowledge in hand, he'd blackmailed his way into Hunter HQ. X personally couldn't stand him, but he would probably be good as a spy. Wraith had enjoyed teaching him.
"Alright, heads up!" Speaking of Wraith, the short, slim Reploid clapped his hands. His armor had been pure white, but now it was black, except for a few touches of red. An oval crystal of blue was set in his chest, and he wore no helmet, only a headband of black metal. His hair was soft white, falling around his shoulders and framing a very delicate face with large, soulful eyes. He had been a Maverick Hunter with the most perilous of jobs… a spy set into the Mavericks. Only X had been aware of his identity and position before Sigma had left. After that, he had returned to HQ. X could only imagine the courage and daring it had taken for the young Hunter to go into the lair of the beast. The penalties for spying were… well, very ancient and usually involved thumbscrews. Or their high tech equivalent.
Wraith had been an excellent spy, though. His mobile face could assume any expression at need, and his eyes seemed designed to radiate sincerity. Right now he was looking the scouts over with a hard expression that would have done any drill master proud.
"Ready to go, sir!" He turned to X and snapped off a crisp salute. As the only available spy in the unit, he'd been teaching the group the rudiments of his craft for the past month. His opinion of their capabilities was low, but he'd given everyone a grudging pass for a mission in what was basically friendly territory. X returned the salute, then nodded at the rest of the team of ten.
"I don't have to tell you how important a mission this is," he said, then grinned. "So I won't. You all know what you have to do… we're counting on you to do it. Gate?" Gate nodded, and gestured to his own assistants, who started to power up the generator. One by one, each scout walked into the swirling energy, and vanished.
X could only watch, and hope they would be alright…
Colonel glanced around with a small frown. He and Iris were standing in a filthy alley. The disgusting things on the ground were not as disturbing, in his opinion, as what was smeared on one wall. It looked like blood.
The scouts had been sent in pairs to various locations, culled from the data taken from the various probes sent through the portals. He and Iris had been sent to the city that held Maverick Hunter HQ.
"Oh, uck!" Iris grimaced, raising one foot up to get a look at what was smeared on the bottom of it. "Could they have picked a more rancid place to put us?"
"Likely not. But that wasn't the priority." Colonel started out, idly touching the hilt of his saber and trying to remind himself not to act ex-military. Wraith's coaching on how to shed his habitual posture hadn't really helped much. The spy had finally given up in disgust.
Then Iris gasped, and Colonel turned to look at her inquiringly.
"Look, brother! Stars!" It was night, and the alley was dark. Colonel tilted his head back to look into the heavens. He'd never had an unobstructed view of the stars before. When he had been created, the Great Maelstrom had blocked out half the sky.
"Stars…" He touched her shoulder, and for a moment they shared their wonder. Then Colonel shook himself out of his reverie, and gently poked his sister. "Come on. We need to get to work." Their assignment was to get general history on this world and do a casual reconnoiter of Hunter HQ. Since they weren't getting any sensitive information, it was considered a very low risk assignment.
"Libraries won't be open this late," Iris said reasonably. "Should we go to a bar?" Colonel frowned, but… they could pump some of the patrons for information. And if all else failed, it would at least give them local color.
"Very well." As Iris' eyes lit up, he waved a finger at her. "But no getting drunk."
"Party pooper!" She laughed, linking her arm with his. Things were going well.
In a nearby bar, though, someone else wasn't having such a good time.
"God, I miss her." Zero sighed, looking into his drink. He'd come to the bar hoping to hook up, but he just couldn't get images of Iris out of his head, probably because of the girl he had spotted at the bar.
She looked so much like Iris, it hurt. Her hair was pulled back in exactly the same ponytail, and despite the green armor, the resemblance only seemed to get stronger every time he looked. And the guy she was sitting with was a dead ringer for Colonel.
Of course, he couldn't really be Colonel. Zero had seen him explode, completely beyond repair. And Iris had suffered a full system failure. So maybe these two were from the same production line… Reploids were supposed to be individual, but it wouldn't be the first time someone had followed the original designs too slavishly.
The Colonel look-alike finally walked away to get drinks, and Zero decided to introduce himself. He couldn't stand just watching her anymore.
"Hi," he said with a smile as he took a seat beside her. "Mind if I sit here?" Her eyes briefly widened as she looked at him, but that was the normal reaction he got. The warm smile she gave him after made his heart clench.
"No, that's perfectly fine. You're Zero?" She smiled prettily. "I'm Lily."
"Lily…" Zero felt briefly heartsick. Lily, Iris… even the names were so similar. "That's a pretty name. Would you like a drink?"
"My brother's already getting me one," she said with a small laugh. "But you can buy us the next round, if you want."
"Your brother?" He glanced up as the Colonel look-alike came back, carrying too glasses.
"Mmm hmm. This is my brother, Major." Zero blinked… a second related name? It was slightly peculiar. "We were thinking of joining the Maverick Hunters… do you have tours?" Lily said innocently.
"Oh, sure! If you're interested, we have a recruitment office…" He passed several minutes giving them the lowdown on how the Hunters operated for new recruits.
"And what about Repliforce? Are they recruiting?" Lily asked, smiling at him. Zero stared at her, then swallowed heavily.
"Repliforce? They were destroyed years ago…" Both of them stiffened at his words, and Major set his drink down carefully.
"How… I…" Lily blinked, and moistened her lips. "I'm sorry, my creator mentioned them and I had the impression they were current… what happened?" His confusion and shock were obviously genuine. Zero could only assume they had been very sheltered, or maybe newly made, to have not heard about Repliforce.
"They all went Maverick… it's kind of a long story," he said, gulping his drink. "I'd rather not talk about it." Especially not to a girl who looked just like Iris.
In fact, why was he telling them about how to join the Hunters? It was a bit masochistic, really…
"Um… I better get going back to the HQ," he said, standing up. This was just bringing back too many memories. "See you around." Lily smiled again, and waved.
"At the recruitment!"