Chapter 2
Summary: Waking up can be hard to do sometimes, but what if you're not even in your own body when you do?
Author's Note: I started working on this shortly before posting the first chapter. I was somewhat glad that I did decide to do this story, because I liked how I managed to write the opening chapter. Thanks go out to the three who bothered to post reviews to this fic!
Disclaimer: Do I really gotta do this? Nope!
Tron Bonne: Aw, I got dragged back out from my series to do a disclaimer? sigh
MacGreen: Shut up and do it, or I'll keep having Trigger kick your ass. threatens her with copies of both Legends games
Tron Bonne: mutters I hate that author... Fine! He doesn't own any of Capcom's characters in this or any other fic that he's written, got it? Damnit all! I don't want to do this again. I quit being your muse! storms off
MacGreen: watches her go off Ya know, if I'd known it was that easy, I might've taken it easier on her in my old fics. Ah well. She'll get over it if she ever wants Trigger in the torture room again. whistles and lets ya read the fic now
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Boot sequence in progress.
Microfusion Generator online.
Body temperature at 98.5 degrees fahrenheit.
System Operations at 45 percent.
System integration sequence at 52 percent
Virus scanners online.
Motor control at 60 percent.
Voice synthesizer connected. Adapting to current vocal patterns.
Boot finished, initializing synchronization.
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Lifesaver smiled a little as he watched the internal control mind begin the boot up process for the young human's new body. It was nice to see that it was coming along nicely, without any major errors. The boy wouldn't be able to move for a while, even if synchronization was high enough to allow it. He would need to learn from his new 'voice' that was now implanted in his system. It was the voice of his own body, no less, one that would eventually come down to what humans might consider a third voice. He'd heard that humans had long ago believed that they could have two voices- one of the body, and one of the mind. This boy would now have another voice of the body, though this one was far more logical and could be proven to exist.
"We will need to input the boy's voice, so he can speak when he awakes soon. Are there any data files on his speech record?" the medical reploid asked, to which the doctor who had been working with him shook his head. Lifesaver mentally groaned- the creation of a voice data file for the synthesizer in the boy's new throat could take a very long time to create, otherwise, as nanites would work to decipher the codes of the boy's voice. He looked to the girl that had been sitting along the side of the room, as if noticing her for the first time, and he smiled a little bit. "I don't suppose you might have any voice samples that we could use, do you miss?" he asked Ayumi. The brown-haired girl looked thoughtful for a split second before standing and nodding slowly.
Ah, a Reploid! Lifesaver thought, and a smile became apparent on his face as he motioned her over to them. "Please, come over and provide the voice data, miss. It will be much better if he manages to wake up and hears nothing different about his own voice. Most patients are disturbed when they no longer have their own voice, after such a procedure." he told her, and the young-looking reploid (who is probably older than both of these reploids in reality) came over. She wondered just how she'd be able to put in the voice samples, and then Lifesaver opened up Arik's throat panel- once his body was completely online, it would be very difficult, not to mention painful to do this sort of thing ever again. He provided a cable that hooked directly into the middle of her friend's throat, and she saw the end that she could hook in as well.
Ayumi smiled softly, though she was a bit disturbed at the sight of her friend being casually opened up as he had been, and took the other end of the cable and hooked it in behind her ear. Upload all voice files pertaining to Arik, she told herself, and she felt herself shudder as a low level shutdown occurred to allow the transfer to take place. She could hear his voice going through her sensors, the sound exactly as she remembered it just last week. She'd replayed it time after time again since then, to make sure that the voice data hadn't been lost due to degradation... and to remind herself just what her friend sounded like. With another shudder, the uplink was finished, and her eyes opened again as she reached up to unhook the cable from behind her ear. Lifesaver undid the hook up with the cable on Arik's end, and he pushed the panel closed carefully. There was a click as it sealed back into place, and then Lifesaver nodded slightly.
A signal was sent from his own wireless uplink to the boy's body, and the nanites inside immediately complied. They sealed all the compartments on the reploid body, and then the nanites hooked directly into the skin and body itself, becoming interconnected in all areas of the body itself. A shudder slid through the young man that lay on the table as senses became activated in the body. Touch, sight, hearing, taste, and
"Cut the sedatives... He'll need to be able to feel in order to wake up, now." Lifesaver told the doctor, who complied quickly with the order by turning off the machine that provided him with the drugs necessary not only to keep him alive but to keep him from feeling pain as his body had been surgically cut into and dealt with. Few humans ever knew what they looked like while on the table that had seen them changed almost overnight into Reploids. The body had been first. The legs and arms had been dealt with. Even the human's lungs were done away with, exchanged with more efficient capacitors that allowed more even breathing and filters that could keep even the worst pollution out.
His heart had to go as well, though that was in and of itself an easy process. There had been artificial heart technology for over two centuries, and adapting a human's heart to that of a microfusion generator had been simple. A reploid's reactor functioned much like a heart, after all, and it was simple enough to emulate a human's heart in turn. A new stomach had been 'installed', able to process the basic molecules in a human's everyday food supply easily. Fats, sugars, carbohydrates- they were all used to provide fuel for the microfusion reactor and to enable the nanites to be recharged. The nervous system itself, that which sensed feeling from touch and pain, as well as pleasure, was created as a result of the nanites in the boy's new body, just under the skin and within the 'bloodstream' that allowed his energy and coolant fluids to flow along his system.
The nanites were interconnected, a network of senses that was easily comparable to a human's nervous system. It was an unusual network compared to what reploids often used. It was delicate- a severing of only a few nanites could easily knock out an entire section of the human's senses as a result. It wasn't as comprehensive as a normal reploid's system, but that was simply because of a lack of nanites. Once the reactor was online and completely stable, they'd be able to reinforce the nervous system with even more nanites.
The arms and legs had been the last to arrive. They'd been without any skin or nanites attached, unfortunately, and resembled a robot's features from almost a hundred years ago. It had taken time to fix those limbs to look more like what the originals had been, sculpted back down to the somewhat-thin arms and legs that the boy had had, though slightly elongated to fit the new body and his slightly newer look. The legs and arms had then been attached and diagnostics run upon them to make sure that everything was compatible. It wasn't like he required a buster or some sort of special abilties, after all, and that helped when determining that everything was running smoothly to the reploid control mind that had been installed along the base of the boy's spine.
That was what made everything work. The control mind connected along the boy's spine, not only strengthening it but providing additional mental power to allow full access by the human brain to the features of the body. No human's mind had been able to directly link with any machine without augmentation, after all. This boy was no exception, either. The control mind was in charge of the minor details that was most often dealt with by a human's subconscious, such as repairing small cuts and such, stopping bloodflow, etc. Even the subconscious human mind couldn't directly link with the system without synchronization, even after a connection was established through nanomachines. Through the reploid control mind, all the basic functions of the body was simulated and dealt with, without the need for a human or reploid to actually issue the order to deal with the problems at hand.
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Vocal processors engaged.
Synthesizer online.
Video feed online.
Audio online.
Sensory network calibration in progress...
Establishing Primary Link...
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It had been pleasantly warm for a while, and not too unbearably cold, either. The sensations had melded together to keep him comfortable, but a nagging feeling was making him feel more cold than warm. How had that happened? It wasn't as dark now, either, and that strange light had gone, too. "What is going on here?" Arik asked himself, trying to feel warmer. There was a sound now. A steady sound, one that began to provide warmth all over. It was a soothing sound that he hadn't missed before. He hadn't thought about sounds before now. Is that my heart? It did sound like it. Strange though... why hadn't I heard it before now? The warmth comforted him, relaxation coursing through him. But then he felt even more.
Heavy. The darkness that had been around him seemed to be getting heavy, pressing against him on all sides as if to smother him. Breathing had become a little more difficult. Wait, breathing? He didn't remember having to do that, either, a few minutes ago. That strange voice had actually gone on a little while ago... something about a boot sequence. Of course, he wasn't too sure what that meant, but right now he had to escape from this oppressive darkness. As Arik struggled, the darkness became a little lighter. Soon, there was enough light to see, and he could hear his own voice as he groaned slowly. The darkness slid away as he found himself spreading slowly, for some reason feeling as if he was expanding somehow.
And then there was light, outside light... light that he hadn't seen inside of him, but was now just outside of his sight. He groaned again, and he felt something kinda funny in his throat as he did so. Weird, he told himself, as his eyes slowly moved to open. His hands at his side he attempted to move, so he could rub his head- there was a pain there that would not allow him to not feel it. The brightness expanded as he attempted to sit up, but again his body refused to let him move any more than a few inches at a time, and never upwards at this point.
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Ayumi smiled as she saw the fluttering of her friend's eyes as he seemed to try to open them. It seemed that whatever the two had done had actually done the job! She could tell that he was trying to move, despite the fact that the covers on his body hid most of his movements still. She came closer and pressed a hand on her friend's chest, lightly pressing a somewhat cold hand against where his microfusion reactor was to be found in the same place his heart would have been, and the steady power coursing through her friend's body was quite noticable. And warm, no less, which made her smile a little. The small powerplant didn't give off much heat, and no radiation, thanks to advances made in the last few years since Reploids had been constructed.
A groan could be heard, a vocal sound that changed in octaves for a second before settling on one that was eerily familiar to the young female reploid. The eyelids slid open as her friend attempted to see, and it was rather obvious that he was having some difficulty in doing so. His left arm moved, a strange sight as it barely lifted up from the side of the bed before falling to rest. The startled blink that the boy gave was something that the doctor and Lifesaver were genuinely surprised to see- a motor response that unusual had already been picked up by his system? A wonderful thing... a human that can adapt so well. If only Reploids could be like that sometimes, Lifesaver thought to himself even as he smiled slightly. This was his eighth patient, but only the third that had come out so well from the induced coma that he had been in.
The doctor was surprised at the way that the boy's systems took up defense against intrusion, programmed instructions setting up the firewalls and other defenses that were required these days- that nasty maverick virus could very easily take over a new reploid's mind before they could become fully activated, after all. The human was safe, though. No cyborgs had ever had to deal with a maverick virus, because that virus was design specifically to work on reploids and nothing else. He'd never seen a human adapt to his systems like this. In fact, though he'd done this surgery twice now, the first one had been a woman who had preferred death. She had been an elderly woman, and her request was granted by her family. This boy, though... didn't seem to have such restriction or wishes, yet.
And the three watched as the boy's eyes looked about slowly. He didn't seem to be too much worse for wear. Lifesaver knew that someone would have to speak up soon, so as to tell him what had happened not only to him, but to all of Dopplertown in general. His parents, too, was a topic that would have to come up as well. Finally, he took it on himself to spak to the boy, with a heavy generator. Ayumi glanced at Lifesaver and shook her head, which surprised the doctor but made him smile after a moment. If the two were friends, then that should help things significantly, he thought to himself, stepping back a little so the shorter reploid could come into the boy's line of sight. And the moment she did, the boy's eyes immediately locked onto her as if he managed to recognize the girl.
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Oh... My body aches... Arik thought to himself as his eyes opened. The light was very bright, but my eyes adjusted quickly as I attempted to move my left hand to shield my eyes. But there was no movement! The blink that I'd felt coming made itself known to all as I did so, eyes squinting now as I somehow managed to lift himself up somewhat with applied force in the back of his mind. Somewhere in my body, I felt a kind of click, and my body finally began to respond as his back lifted slowly from the bed that I had been resting on. It is cold in here, I decided, and was unable to stop a shiver that ran along my back, even though I couldn't move my arms at all yet. My eyes stopped on Ayumi- is it really her? Am I just imagining things? She looks kind of different... I asked myself mentally. There was such a haze in my mind, so little I could actually think as a result. The pressure was rather constant, but it did seem to be lessening with each passing moment.
I opened my mouth to speak, but what came out was the sound of passing air. A cough escaped me as I found my throat to be completely dry, without any moisture. I heard some sort of movement, and then I felt a somewhat warm hand on my back. I couldn't move my head from side to side yet... is there something wrong with my neck? Maybe there's some sort of collar holding my neck in place. Finally, someone began to talk, and I put all my thoughts into attempting to hear the voice. It was so subdued, the volume of the voice low, but I could barely hear her as I attempted to listen a bit closer to what was being said. I heard Ayumi's voice, and after a moment or two I was able to hear her much easier as I trained my ears to focus on what she was saying.
"Arik? I'm glad you're okay now. Do you know who I am?" she asked me, and I wished I could have nodded. She moved around in front of me, to where I could actually see her again, and I saw a smile on her face. I always did like her smile, on the few occassions that she actually did so. When I felt some movement in my neck, I was surprised to see my glance from her eyes fall down towards her chest, and then back to her eyes again. Damn, what was I thinking? Did that accident turn me into a pervert, I asked myself, embarassment welling up inside of me. I could feel my face redden a bit as I heard startled reactions from the other two that I had seen. A doctor and a reploid of some sort... a medical reploid, most likely. Ayumi smiled brightly, as if she didn't care that I had just looked to her chest, and I had to wonder why that would be. She'd always been rather defensive about her body. Especially at school, when she'd first moved here, I remembered.
The memory of that made me smile a little bit. I could feel the change in my face as I smiled, and the reploid and doctor seemed to gasp for some reason. The medical reploid was soon over next to me with a glass of water, and I smiled to the man in appreciation as he gave the glass to Ayumi. I'd seen this done in the school cafeteria before... Well, the one time anyone tried, she'd been doused with the contents by the girl who had decided to be nasty to her. But not even a single drop of water fell from the glass as she took it from him, and then she came around to my side. She began to help support my back, keeping me sitting up straight as I felt the cool glass against my lips. I parted my lips, and I couldn't help but to think how strange it was that the merest action took so much effort. The glass was lifted and I felt the water slide down past my lips and into my throat.
That was an odd sensation... why was it like I couldn't feel the coldness of the water once it was in my throat? I felt pressure, of the slightest amount, but other than that? Nothing at all! I swallowed, and the water was down the hatch. Finally, I could feel like I could speak. "Th.. thank..." I stammered, and then I could swear I felt another click before I managed to speak for real. "Thank you, Ayumi." I said, and groaned slightly as I shuddered again. I was practically naked, it seemed, and it was pretty cold in here. And the sheet that had been covering me was set to the side... a lot of good it'll do me there, I realized, and I smiled again as I heard the two doctors talk in the background.
"Um... Why can't I seem to move much?" I asked slowly, unable to lift my arms or look down any further than I had been able to so far. There was this pulsing in the back of my head that made me groan again. More pressure? Damn, was I in some sort of compactor or something? It sure seemed like it... there was a lot of pressure from all sides, throughout my body. I waited for an answer, even as Ayumi gave me a hug. I could feel the pressure from her arms, how she pressed against my body... and I felt her warmth as well, causing me to blush slightly just before she released me and stepped back as the doctors came into sight.
"My name is Lifesaver... yes, I realize how redundant that is to be named, but as the first of Lifesaver-brand reploids, I got stuck with it." the medical reploid said, and I attempted to nod again... only to fail miserably. "Anyway... Arik, was it?" he asked, and I nodded to the reploid that I didn't know. "I'm afraid that... well, most of your body was crushed during the rail accident. If it wasn't for your young friend here, you likely would have died before our response teams could arrive in time. We had to replace about 80 of your body as a result. Effectively... you're a cyborg now. Almost a reploid, but not quite..." he said, and I felt my strength that I'd managed to eke out after the last few moments of being awake slide from my grasp.
I'm not even human anymore?! How did it happen... wait, that was easy to remember. Lifesaver reminded me. That rail accident... the cars had fallen off of the track. Weightlessness for a few seconds. Then I felt pain... It was really bad. I could swear I heard something break other than the cars and the people that had been beneath me on the train. Uncontrollably, I shuddered slowly as I lay back down on the bed, the shaking not stopping as my body just did what it felt like doing. I couldn't control myself. My eyes closed and I saw nothing but blackness. Save for a green light somewhere before me... What was that light? It was glowing softly, as if it was simply waiting for something, perhaps. I heard the others, Lifesaver and the other doctor talking even as Ayumi's voice was much closer.
This is weird, I told myself, even as I felt... was that even a feeling? Like a sound, really, some sort of pulsing that came from... well, not from me, but then there was an accepting sort of tone, almost like a short shrill whistle that caught my attention completely. What the hell was that? I asked myself, but of course there was no one to answer me. Hell, I'm not even human. Who knows, maybe there's a reploid voice that I expected in my head? I told myself, and though I couldn't feel it, I managed a smile that the others would probably see, were they actually watching me. That light grew stronger from the soft pulsing color that I'd been watching. It seemed to stop pulsing, for some reason, after a moment longer...
"Arik?" I heard... but not through my ears. No, this had a more internal sound to it. I tried looking around slowly, but I could see nothing but the darkness inside and that green light. "I know you can hear me. Try to relax, I know you can." came the same strange voice. But it was familiar. Ayumi? I wondered, and there was a short pause before there was any more that was said. I couldn't help that I was feeling cold, that I just couldn't stop shaking. "We'll get you something to wear to keep you warm, Arik. And yes, this is Ayumi. I'm glad you can hear me now." she said, and then suddenly she appeared in front of me, somehow. That green light had actually been her? Yes, it was really her... or some sort of internal representation, anyway. It was her outline, and a few 'scans' later she appeared in 3D, wearing what seemed to be a light green suit that was certainly skin-tight, if not revealing.
Ayumi... what's going on? How can I possibly see you like this? I asked her, and she smiled a little bit. "We have more in common now than ever... we're connected right now, through a networking option that our bodies have, Arik. There's no need to be afraid now. We just want to help." she told me, and I was stunned. I... I'm really not a human anymore, am I? I asked in my mind, not quite asking her, though she did nod almost sadly at my query. I sighed softly, and winced slightly as I felt the pressure start up again. What is going on here? I asked myself, though she heard me as well. She took a moment to think, and then I saw some sort of screen appear in front of her as she did something to pull up what looked to be a diagnostic check of some sort.
"Your new body is attempting to complete the connections to your mind, Arik. Until that takes place, you'll feel a bit of discomfort like you have been feeling as of late." she informed me, and then showing me the data. I saw it and somehow knew it was correct... but how did she pull it up like that? She seemed to smile and turned off the screen that she had made, and I suddenly had a screen full of data in front of me as well. "Just think about it, and you can do whatever you want to with your new systems, Arik. It should take a few more days for your systems to fully integrate with you though, so take it easy. If you need to talk with me, just try and call out to me like this." she told me, and I nodded slowly as I saw her address flash before my eyes. It took only a moment to memorize and store the information away, and then she smiled and left, vanshing completely after a moment.
My eyes opened after that, and I gasped a little as I saw Ayumi staying rather close to me, her hand on mine as our network disconnected from one another. "I hope this integration will hurry up... I don't want to deal with this pain much longer." I said quietly, smiling a little as I stared up towards the ceiling now. I saw the other two that had been in the room in front of me, and then I felt a plastic mask of some sort placed over my nose and mouth. Sleep soon followed as I recognized the gas somewhere in the back of my mind as that which was used to knock out patients in preparation for surgery. Oh great, what now?
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Ayumi was smiling as she stepped away from her friend, the two doctors now giving the young man some respite from the pain that he had obviously felt for a moment there. She'd actually managed a link with him! Of course, it was somewhat forced, and not exactly easy on her end to see anything, but speaking had been simple enough. And he'd calmed down a bit, too. Of course, he hadn't been told the important information yet, either. That his parents were gone, and that he would need to find some way to pay the hospital for the new body. "How long will it be before he should start trying to use his new systems?" she asked Lifesaver, andthe white reploid turned around and shrugged slowly.
"Tomorrow, maybe. Perhaps longer, depending on how he feels about this. Not to mention that the body is practically on loan, and only half paid off right now. I have no idea how he'll get more money outside of a full-time job." the medical reploid replied, smiling a little. There was certainly the chance that he'd offer to be studied for the sake of the process he'd just been through, but that didn't pay a whole lot- maybe 1/4 again what remained after draining his parent's bank account and his own meager savings. They had not done it yet- they required the boy's signature, first. Of course, that required motor control on his part, and obviously that was something that the boy had no access to as of yet.
The young-looking reploid nodded slowly, the smile on her face never faltering. "Well, that's good. I want to be able to talk with him again soon, though. Let me know when he begins learning?" she asked, to which Lifesaver nodded. She sent him the address at which to reach her, basically her 'phone number,' to use an archaic term. She soon skipped out from the room and then walked down the hallway to the elevator. She had several things to do now, she realized. The two doctors watched the happy reploid wander out of sight, and the older reploid laughed softly to himself as he shook his head. Youth, he told himself, and then both of them went back to working on the boy's systems to help align the nervous system so that the new body could more easily synchronize with Arik's synapses.
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Elsewhere
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It had been over a week since the maverick uprising had begun. Commander X had managed to destroy several of the mavericks and restored power to the remaining parts of Dopplertown that had not been laid to waste. Volt Catfish was gone, as was Tunnel Rhyno. Toxic Seahorse was gone as well, making it mostly safe for humans and reploids to return to what few jobs remained available to them during this crisis. The power plant, the mines, and the sewage treatment center all were now free from maverick control, though they were being swept by the remaining hunters for any mechaniloids that may have been missed. Zero was in charge of the clean-up duty- ever since his ressurection, Dr. Cain had ordered that he keep out of direct battle until such time that his operating capacity could be returned to full strength.
Since the beginning of the uprising, new units had been formed from the newest recruitment class of reploids and humans. The 17th unit and the 0 unit remained, and the 14th was re-formed as well, led by an irregular named Magma Dragoon. The young reploid showed promise... and a knack for battle that had allowed him to set himself up as a Class A hunter who led his newly trained units on training exercises. It was the Dragoon who was at the sewage treatment plant now, his small squad of five reploids following him as they walked carefully about. They'd met with only minor resistance so far, a few missile launching and cannon firing mechaniloids that were easily dealt with by the Dragoon's flame attacks.
"So easy... is this all that Commander X left us with?" he asked aloud, groaning slightly afterwards. How he yearned for a fight against an actual maverick. He'd never had the chance, not yet, to defeat a maverick who had been in charge of a small mechaniloid army. Not like Commander X was doing, at least. He received an affirmative from the scouter reploid, and he couldn't help but to sigh slowly. "Alright, 14th... continue ahead, and watch yourselves. Spread out and comb the area. If you find any decent mechaniloids or some maverick reploid, check with me immediately. Do not attack or pursue, simply keep watch over it. We don't want this place trashed." he told his troops, who silently followed the order as they hefted their varying weapons.
They soon disappeared and Dragoon looked to his clawed feet. Stylized after the mythic dragons in a more humanoid form, he was a daunting figure in red that stood taller than even Zero was. Strangely, he looked about the right size despite his appearance. His fists clenched at his side and he just shook for a moment. He hated places like this- dark, damp, and cool. The first he could deal with, but the last two he hated. "Why couldn't I go to Tunnel Rhyno's mines? At least there I'd be comfortable!" he asked himself, and sighed as a light glowed on his arm for a second.
"If you're comfortable, you might become lax." came the self-assured female voice from the comlink, and Dragoon just groaned softly. It was that navigator that had been assigned to his unit for this mission. Why had HQ ordered navigators to help the newest units? Didn't the higher ups trust the units who were out and about, risking their lives to make life easier for humans and reploids?! Obviously not... and besides, there was something about this particular reploid who had come from the Northwest American branch of the Maverick Hunters. A new generation reploid who had been training for her position, the profile he pulled up told him. At least she knew what she was doing, he realized, and then finally came to the decision to respond to the woman.
"Alia, do you have to reply the obvious to me?" he asked the navigator, a sigh escaping him as the dragoon shook his head. After a second, he grinned and commented, "You don't need to answer that, either." At least having a navigator allowed for an interesting diversion on missions such as this, he had to concede. An old style Metall strayed into his sight, and with an almost easy point of his gauntleted right hand, burned the thing to ash with a powerful strike from his flame cannon. "Didn't see that mechaniloid comin', did ya Alia?" he asked after a second as he watched the smoke rise from the barrel of his cannon, which was set underneath his hand. He played with the smoke, his fingers displacing it as he grinned a little.
"Oh, I saw it, Dragoon. I just thought you could handle a tiny threat like that without my watching out for you... kinda like the missile that's been fired at your back, and is going to hit you in five seconds?" came Alia's voice, the sound of smug indifference easily apparent as the Dragoon turned quickly, his flame cannon raised and then fired at the missile that he immediately locked onto. The missile keeped coming in, darting straight into the fire... and blew up just before impacting the Dragoon, the explosion knocking the unit commander back merely a foot from his original position. A small darkened streak found its way onto his chest, and the Dragoon smiled as he found the missile launching Mechaniloid attempting to move away... slowly, as if it had no care in the world.
"Good call, Alia..." he muttered, and then hunched over as his jaws moved away from one another. The burning furnace within him exploded, forcing the flames of his making through his strengthened throat and mouth, and then expelled in a burst of superheated plasma as the launched fire made a bee-line for the mechaniloid. At the merest touch of the intense temperature, the mechaniloid simply disintigrated, and the burst died down as the Dragoon closed his jaws, a slight grin apparant in his voice, if not on his metal face. "Ah... tasty." Magma commented, patting his metal chest lightly and listening to the sound of metal upon metal, rather like a drum before he laughed to himself. "Now, that kinda information I can use!"
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And somewhere else
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Back in HQ, Alia sighed softly. She'd passed all her tests with flying colors, and look at her now. Training with yesterday's reploids who thought they were tougher than Sigma and four times as powerful. Especially that Dragoon, she considered, as she sat back in her chair. He wasn't quite as bad in some ways. But in others, he was the worst. He was always training, sparring with teammates and others, trying to reach the same level as the famed Zero and X. He had nearly reached that plateau, too. But he was still able to have fun. She'd seen him playing some ancient game system one time, something called an arcade game. The title was half worn out, but the game still worked well, even if the graphics in it were horrendous. Dragoon had called it Street Fighter 2... or something like that. It had a long subtitle, one that was longer than the normal title itself, she remembered.
"Oh, cheer up!" came a voice from nearby, and Alia turned to the voice with the english accent. It was that transfer reploid from England, she recognized, and Alia grinned slightly before shaking her head slowly. "Come on, Alia... at least you're not working as a Repliforce navigator. They navigate with the unit they're working with." the voice said, and Alia grinned slightly. That would at least be interesting, to be working above the scenes rather than behind them, she told herself, even as the other reploid continued. "At least I'd enjoy that part of a mission. My brother would never allow it, though."
"Oh, come on, Iris. The Colonel can't keep his 'little' sister from growing up or from doing whatever she wants, can he?" was Alia's response, which got a little giggle from her fellow navigator. The Repliforce was one of those postings that most navigators wanted to work in. They had many more freedoms than the Maverick Hunter navigators had... but, at least here we're kept safe from exposure to enemy attack, she conceded in her mind. The brown haired reploid, Iris, just grinned a little before shrugging and looking distraught. Alia couldn't help but to shake her head slowly. The Colonel was a reploid that was Iris' counterpart, and they were practically activated at the same time. At least Colonel came over to visit her every once in a while... Alia sighed inwardly, wishing that she'd had some reploid from her generation of models that she could consider family.
"I just hope that I'll get a more important posting sometime." Alia commented, and Iris nodded slightly. Thanks to how the global government had set up the economy, the only reploids making much money were the ones who worked in repair shops or in the Repliforce. The Maverick Hunters were an entirely seperate entity from the Repliforce, and were paid directly out of the defense budget of every country they operated in. Only those who had higher positions received better pay an better living conditions. It was their dream that they would at least be able to get their own room sometime, rather than having to bunk in a room with a roommate. At least then, there would be something that reploids enjoyed and many humans took for granted- privacy!
"Better get back to work." Iris commented as she saw a flash of blue walk past their consoles. Alia nodded, catching a look at the one who passed by their work stations. She seemed to pale as she recognized almost immediately who it had been, and she snuck a glance over her shoulder to try and see him better. It was him! She turned back to her console with a smile and a thought. Maybe working here wouldn't be so bad... as long as she could work with HIM sometime. It was enough to make her forget about she had been complaining about earlier with Iris. Little did she know that a pair of optics were trained on her for a second as well as the blue-armored figure walked out of sight, down another hallway.
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Back at the Hospital
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It was some time later when I finally came to, and with a groan that escaped me, I raise a hand to my brow before I realized what I had attempted to do. But I couldn't raise my right arm! I opened my eyes, and found myself barely restrained at my arms and legs as I gave an experimental tug with them, going from right arm to left, and then the same with my legs. "Hmm... looks like I've got some control now." I told myself, and then immediately winced as I heard how rough my voice sounded. Lack of moisture, I told myself... But then there was some strange voice in my head that started telling me otherwise. "Voice synthesizer coming online." was what was said to me, and I blinked as I shook my head slowly. Oh, I see. How badly was I injured? I wondered, realizing that they must have replaced almost my entire body in order to save me. "Answer to query unknown. Probability of 78 percent body replacement is 95 percent." came the voice again. It didn't really have a tone that I could mistake as any other than my own!
It was then that I realized that there must be something else inside of me, something very unusual. That isn't me. I don't talk that way, I told myself, and I certainly wasn't all that surprised when I heard a response. "Correct. This system is designated R01-Beta, also called Roy. This system provides the link between host's human brain and electronic systems. An archaic way of saying what I this system is the term of middleman.' Once this system is fully integrated with host, response time will achieve near 100 percent efficiency." I could hardly beleive this- I'm hearing another voice, in my head! "Correct. Once system is integrated with host mind, system 'voice' shall not be required, and will be shut down to achieve maximum efficiency between body and mind."
"Oh, I see you are awake. How is our patient today, hm...?" I heard the medical reploid's voice, and I looked over towards the reploid as he came closer. He was smiling a little, and I couldn't help but to wonder if he ever dealt with more than one voice in his mind on a normal basis... probably not. I chuckled a little and shrugged, giving a tug on the restraints, which seemed to grow tighter in much the same manner as that one puzzle toy I'd played with back in grade school. I felt a slight pulsing feeling, like from when Ayumi had 'talked' into my mind, and I shrugged as I felt myself shiver. The same tone played in my mind, and then I felt the man take some information from me as he touched my right wrist, where a human would possibly have a heartbeat.
"I've been better, I think. At least I don't have a headache... unless that other voice in my head could be considered one." I replied with a grin as I poked a little fun at the 'middleman' system that had gone silent. The reploid nodded, and smiled slightly at the small humor that I had forced into the conversation. Huh... not much for comedy, I thought to myself, as I forced myself to sigh and just lay back on the bed again. I could feel his query to the middleman system, and though I couldn't catch the entire amount of information provided, I figured that it wouldn't take long before I was told anyway.
"Indeed... I'm happy to report that you should be learning how to utilize the Roy system for the next day or two, until your synchronization ratios have risen another 2 percent. Then we can actually test your motor controls and see about getting you to learn to walk again." he told me, and I nodded slightly once more as I closed my eyes. That tone took place again as he logged out of my system, and I winced slightly. Obviously, he saw this and grinned slightly. "Don't worry, the system will inform you how to change the sound volume of that as well. That was one of the first things that reploids learned to deal with quickly... I remember having a headache from that tone for an hour before it got around to informing me how to change it. At least you have aspirin that can help with your headache!" he said, and I couldn't help but to smile as he laughed shortly.
Strike that, I thought to myself. Seems he has a sense of humor after all, I considered, even as I watched him walk away. "Hey... um, doc? What's your name?" I asked, and the reploid turned around as he smiled slightly. Something funny, I wondered, as my eyes tracked his movement, and he seemed to just stand there for a moment before shrugging slightly.
"My name's Lifesaver." he told me, and I nodded slightly as I made sure to remember the name. "I'll send a nurse up here with some food for you. You don't, however, get to feed yourself, so be prepared to wear a bib, kid." he told me, and the audible groan that escaped my thr... "Voice synthesizer." came the internal voice, and I rolled my eyes. That I can't be corrected on, I told the system, to which it didn't reply but I couldn't help the satisfaction that I felt, despite the dread of being fed by some nurse that I didn't know. Fed like a baby... things can't get much worse than that. Well, not for an ego, I amended, knowing that the system would likely have attempted to correct me on that as well. Lifesaver grinned as he saw my roll my eyes, and I watched him walk out again. I bet he knew exactly what was going on, too.
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Author's Note: Hehe. I couldn't help myself. I had to at least give some cameos in here, and I think that I made them realistic and yet integrated with the storyline of the games. What do you guys think? I don't think I've ever seen a characterization of Magma Dragoon before, and he's one of my favorite reploids, so... Well, this should be decent, at least. I hope so anyway. I know the main story is progressing slowly, but I'm trying to provide a focus on the character's development so I'm sorry that this isn't quite as action-packed as you readers might wish it was. Anyway, please leave a review!
Responses:
Delta X- I did review your fic... three times, I think, in total. I like what you did there, but fortunately I can claim creative license of a sort. I'm not going the route of transferring souls, like you did, from human to machine. Still, I hope you update more, because I like what you've done so far.
Iniora Nackatori (sp?)- Sorry if I butchered your name. What did you mean by "choppy sentences?" If you could give me an example, I would appreciate it! I'm my own worst critic, most of the time, and constructive criticism is always something that I try to work with.
Guest- Thanks for the praise. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter just as much as the first.
FarlandHunter- Thanks for coming to review this! And you're welcome to the advice, even if I can't remember what the advice was that I gave to you. Sorry!