Author's Note: Megaman, Rockman or any other properties are of Capcom, not mine. As always, read and review.

Chapter 4: Investigation, Part 1

Location: Cain Labs

"A break-in, you say?" said Zero as he walks down a hallway with Dr. Plum, one of the leading robotics scientists and director of Cain Labs.

"The guards saw a middle-aged reploid suddenly downloading a blueprint to the Final Weapon...and he didn't even bother trying to cover his tracks." replied Plum.

"Hmmm...The Final Weapon...now that brings back memories..." thought Zero and looks at Plum. "And you have the reploid in for questioning?"

"Yes...The only thing he says is he doesn't remember. He was delivering a package and suddenly he felt weird...sort of a blackout. He found himself outside by a flagpole, then we detain him immediately when the cameras recorded what he was doing while inside." Plum then looks down. "It has been like that ever for the past few hours and we're not getting anywhere."

As they are walking towards the interrogation room, 2 reploid investigators are questioning the reploid, who has an angry expression on his face.

Investigator 1 sighed. "Ok, let's try this again...What were you doing in the archive room?"

"I told you! I don't remember anything! I was delivering a package to you guys and suddenly I'm outside, no package, and being detained in this room." The reploid replied.

Investigator 2 looked at him. "So you remember nothing?"

The reploid pounds his hands on the table. "Damnit! How many times do I have say this? I don't know! I don't remember!"

Zero and Plum walk into the room and Investigator 1 walks over to them.

"Well?" asked Plum.

Investigator 1 raises his arms in a "I give up" gesture. "Not a thing...Same response in the last few hours."

Zero looks at the middle-aged reploid closely. "Perhaps his system was hacked into?"

"Perhaps..." said Plum as he steps in to look at the reploid. "Maybe that's why he won't remember anything. We should run some diagnostics and see if there is anything wrong with him...Some workers say he was acting strange..."

Zero finishes looking, then turns to Plum. "Looks all right now...But you're right, we should have this guy looked into."

The old reploid had a annoyed look on his face. "Can I go now?"

"Not yet...We have to run some tests first, then it depends on if you can go or not." Plum replied and the old reploid grumbles and sulks in the chair.

1 hour later, the old reploid was about to leave and Plum gives the results on a disk to Zero as he leaves the lab and heads back to Maverick Hunter HQ.

Location: Maverick Hunter HQ

"Here it is!" Zero gave Alia the disk with the results as the hunters gather around her and the computer starts booting up.

"Any answers from the suspect?" Signas asked.

"Nothing...according to the investigators, he kept replied that he didn't know." Zero replied and he crossed his arms as the computer goes online and a image of a reploid in green and white with a blue jewel in the center and on his helmet appeared.

"Good afternoon, Alia-san!" the image greeted.

"Good afternoon, Middy!" replied Alia.

"What do you want to do, today, Alia-san?" asked Middy.

"You can stop the honorifics now." Alia said.

Middy sighed. "I was just being formal."

"Anyway..." Alia said in a annoyed tone. "Boot this up will you?" Alia slips the disk in the disk drive and Middy activates the program, which shows the DNA program of the reploid in a 3D image.

A reploid's DNA program contains several programs that allow the reploid to live and make his or her own decisions. The programs are represented to look like a bunch of little red blots of ink." Middy explained and the image window zooms out and another window comes out showing the picture of a white ball. "This what a DNA Soul looks like, zoomed in. It's actually quite small! What you just saw was the inside of the soul. To get to the point, there was something in the DNA Soul which influenced his ability to make his decisions." The first window zoomed in again as the second window zooms out showing the same picture but purple blots were seen with the red blots.

"It's as I thought...a virus...at least what's left of it." said Zero as he looks on.

"I wonder how did the old reploid have it in his system in the first place." X wondered.

"The old reploid said during the testing that he didn't think anything was wrong with him. He was fit as a fiddle, according to him." Zero replied.

"Perhaps he was hacked on his way to the lab?" questioned Douglas.

"..." Zero's eyes were fixed on the screen.

"That's the only lead into the investigation?" Axl asked with his hands behind his head. "It's better than nothing."

"What now?" Alia asked Signas.

"This is the only piece of evidence we have. Something tells me...we have not heard the last of this hacker. He or she may strike again." Signas said as he looks at everyone in this room.

"So how do we keep on alert?" Axl asked.

"...I'm working on that." Signas turned his back and the hunters file out of the room.

"Middy, shut the program!" commanded Alia.

"Gotcha!" Middy responded and shut down the program.

Meanwhile, Zero was in the training room running his usual exercises. But that still doesn't take his mind off of what happened today. After his exercises, he just stood there in the middle of the room, looking down on the floor. "A virus invaded that reploid's body and took control of his mind...Mavericks these days, become maverick, because their hatred against humans. Humans would break into reploids' homes and inject viral programs into their systems and activate the virus with just a voice-activated password or just a stroke of a keyboard. What X said about reploids and humans living together in peace...is it just a dream?

X and Axl are in the lounge area with X laying on the couch watching the news about the archive theft at Cain Labs and Axl sitting on the floor, shining his gun.

"I hate sitting around doing nothing. When are we going to get some action around here?" Axl complained.

"When there's a Maverick outbreak so big, the police can't handle it." X replied.

Axl lays on the ground, thrashing about. "Come on Mavericks, blow up a building, induce a riot, something...this is ridiculous!"

X then looks on with a sweatdrop on his face. "It doesn't work like that...I think."

Axl stops thrashing about and sighs.

X then had an idea. "Why don't you train with Zero? You can shoot the training mechanoids all you like."

Axl then looked up. "No thanks, it's too easy...it's not like the old days. I feel like we're in retirement."

"It's just that the Maverick outbreaks aren't that big these days..." X said.

"Except that Borock incident..." Axl pointed out.

X pondered this. "Where is Borock these days? Ever since the incident, there was not a single peep out of him."

As if right on cue, the PA system came on. "Mavericks Hunters assemble to the briefing room immediately, repeat all Maverick Hunters assemble immediately to the briefing room."

Axl suddenly got up and dashes out of the room. "Cool!"

X sweatdropped and sighed. "After 100 years, you'd think his personality would alter a bit."

"He's Axl...Better a trigger-happy hunter than a lazy one" Zero said as he walked by the doorway.

"True..." X said as he walked out of the room.