Reploid Half Chapter 4: Like a surgeon?, a mega man fanfic

Chapter 4

Summary: When backed into a corner, you have two options. Kiss your ass goodbye, or fight back.

Author's Note: Well now, it seems that everyone that I've received reviews from so far have been so focused on Ayumi's death that they've missed two rather important things that are happening in the background. Hopefully, I'll be addressing those things in this chapter to bring everyone back up to date. Did I shock everyone with the way that I had Ayumi go maverick? Personally, I think it was a good way to go, if I managed to surprise you guys with that. Also, I apologize for the length of time that has gone unchecked between this and the last chapter. I've been busy with real life, as well as with Star Ocean 3 and Suikoden 4. Not to mention the other Mega Man games... hehe.

Disclaimer: Uh-uh. No way. Read the previous two chapters for my disclaimer, or go to my Bio. I'm tired of typing this thing in when the not-so-lazy can easily click a link, click my screen name, and read the damn thing. Capcom, if you're reading this, get over to my Bio for the disclaimer. As far as I can tell, that's all I need. And read my Terra series, too. Mega Man Legends 3 must be made!

Three days later

"You're free to go now, Arik. All your systems seem to have synchronized as well as can be expected... Almost set a few records, too." Lifesaver said to me, and I grinned slowly. I could finally leave! I was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a pair jeans on that made me at least feel like I was human again, at least in appearance. Not that many reploids looked much different, really, but then again, most reploids didn't have actual ears, and had large audio receptors on the side of their heads instead. Like Lifesaver had. Like... Ayumi had had.

My grin faded as I remembered Ayumi, and I simply nodded slowly. There wasn't anything left. I couldn't go to my family for help- most of them didn't like reploids, and I was more than half a reploid now. Their home probably wasn't even constructed to support a reploid body in many ways, I figured... "You'll be able to stay in the shelter here for a while, if you need to, but I certainly hope that won't be necessary for long, Arik. In with the few belongings we found of yours, you'll find a disk with some information for you. Job leads, system capabilities and specifications if you don't already know them... Things like that." the medical reploid commented, and I nodded again. I already had a good idea as to where I could go to find a place to stay, to work...

"But will they take me?" I muttered, speaking softly aloud. And would I be able to keep my mind on the job that I would get, if I do get it? I looked up and saw Lifesaver watching me, as if he may have heard me. When I saw the curiosity in his eyes, I shrugged slowly. "Would the Maverick Hunters allow me to join, do you think?" I asked him, and he chuckled softly before shrugging slowly. I wondered what that might have meant... Did he think that I might not be allowed to join? An interesting thought came to mind. What if there's only two sections on the application for joining, one for humans and one for reploids?

"That information is in the disk as well. The hunters are sponsoring a recruitment drive, and there's supposed to be a a joint recruitment center for the hunters and the repliforce going on for the next few days. Since Sigma was defeated by X last week, both are trying to build up their forces and implement Dr. Cain's newest directives... well, I think the repliforce is only taking reploids for their forces. You'd be a gray area. Your best bet would be with the hunters. I think Commander Zero is supposed to be there with Repliforce's Colonel tomorrow." Lifesaver told me, and I shrugged in response to that. Though I knew of them, I wasn't particularly impressed by what the other people in the world called 'heroes'.

"Personally? I'd rather meet Commander X." I mentioned, and we both laughed. Zero was great, but he had a reputation among humans of being a hothead, so to speak. Ah well. Least I can do is head on over there today, I thought to myself, and I smiled slightly. I heard the heavy footsteps of Lifesaver as he walked away, and I sighed as I closed my eyes. This would be so much easier if someone was still around to help... I told myself, a heavy sigh escaping me now as I opened my eyes and started walking towards the hallway. Pick up my stuff at the front desk, and then get to the recruitment drive, I considered. But, where is it being held?

The pink-armored reploid sighed as she went over the comatose remains of a maverick reploid that had been brought in the other day. Alia shook her head at the reploid before smiling a little bit- strange. How had this reploid fought off the sigma virus for as long as it has? Maverick though it had gone, it was not completely taken over... The Doppler anti-virus program had been a placebo... hadn't it? All known scans of it had found the program to be defective, or at the least, nearly useless against it. But somehow, this one still wasn't fully infected.

"Well now... just what keeps you intact, hm?" she asked the defunct reploid. It was kept on minimal life support, and had been physically dissected to keep the body from being controlled by the virus. Limbs had been disconnected, and were off in a pile. They'd been tested for the virus and had been positively identified as being infected. With a small chuckle, Alia continued to check the reploid. The memory bank was intact and somehow, parts of her matrices were still intact as well. The personality matrix was 64 percent fragmented, and the other matrix was fragmented and infected as well. The neural net of the reploid was practically gone... there was a possibility that the latest anti-Sigma virus program could help. The older ones had slowed the degradation of the reploid's matrices.

She'd been forced into a situation that no other existing reploids had been able to work with. A maverick reploid had been captured, and was now in their custody. Alia sighed as she continued to feed energy into the reploid body. She hadn't been told where it had come from; just that it had been stopped during its rampage shortly after X had managed to defeat Sigma. Again! She gave a moment to think about the first reploid in existence... the one whose design allowed even her existence to be. She'd heard that X hated fighting, hated ever having to destroy ones who had been spawned from his design, even if they were attempting to kill the humans who had designed them all and given them life.

With a shake, she brought herself out of her little reverie, forcing herself back to her job. Now, she had to try and do what she could with a limbless reploid existing on minimal life support. With a message sent out to the new mechanic over in the repair department, she'd have to wait for Douglas to make it over before she could do much more.

Ah, it was a nice, bright day out today, I thought with a smile as I walked out of the hospital. It's too bad that everything that my family had owned was flattened by the destruction of the city... the electric bug would've been nice to drive right now. I thought to myself, remembering the electric car that I had bought that was based upon a design that had been made back in the mid-1900s. With a shrug, I headed along the street and found myself watching the few other pedestrians who were out walking as well. There weren't any reploids, but humans out around here. That made me frown a little, as my footsteps continued along the sidewalk. I wasn't exactly a reploid, and thanks to my clothes, I wasn't being mistaken for one, either. I passed by a pair of kids who were walking quietly in the opposite direction, and I sighed softly.

How many others could have the same problem I do now, I wondered. How could it be possible that I am the only one to have survived from even my own neighborhood... I knew that others had survived. The survivors probably left town to live somewhere 'safer', I concluded, as I accessed the information on the small drive that held it.. When I'd gotten the disc, I set it into the rather small bay that had been installed on my arm. Like an old USB port, I told myself- my parents liked antiques, and we had had ancient systems at our home. 286s, 386s, 486s and the somewhat better ones called Pentiums. We'd even had a Lightech computer, in mint condition, before we'd had it put away into storage. I don't even remember where it was, but it's probably gone now, I thought. I moved to lean against a pile of bricks, for this was part of the original city that once stood here before Doppler Town had been constructed.

I closed my eyes, letting the information fill my mind. I scanned through the documents until I came to the one with the information on where the recruiting drive was, and then I nodded as I saw it. A place had already been cleared out... some sort of old school auditorium or something, according to the layout. It wasn't the school that I had attended, but one that was a rival. How many of their students had been caught too? With a sigh, I set the information aside and pulled the drive from my arm before setting it into a coat pocket and headed towards the school. Fortunately, I kept a grid map of the area in mind, and cross-referenced the information to provide me the fastest route there other than a straight line.

I began walking again, moving at a quick pace. It was nice, not truly feeling a sense of weariness save for in my mind... for my legs just kept going at the same rate they usually do, instead of slowing down. I put myself on a sort of autopilot, enjoying the ride as I walked towards the auditorium where the information I was given had told me that the drive was at. I wouldn't even bother with Repliforce, if they didn't take humans. But the Maverick Hunters, I knew, did hire humans. One of my uncles had worked for the Maverick Hunters back when Sigma had been running it, before he went maverick. He'd been reassigned from the HQ before Sigma went maverick, but had been killed on the island when a group of mavericks took it over in the second half of Sigma's uprising only a year or two ago.

I did slow, however, as my mind wandered back to Ayumi. God, was there anything I could've done to save her? I couldn't help but to ask myself this as I continued to walk towards the school, though my mind was troubled enough to cause my walking speed to decrease by half. Unbidden, the scene that had been recorded flashed up and my face went red as I clenched my fists. I had attacked her... punched her in the head, four times. Kicked her before that, too! How could I call myself her friend? No friend attacks their friend, not for any reason. She may have gone maverick, but did that give me any real reason to attack her like that? My body shuddered as I forced myself to close the memory, my eyes returning to being able to see outwardly as I continued on my way, taking a left turn on the sidewalk. The auditorium was straight along this road, according to the map.

"I hate repair bays." came the gruff voice. A rather unhappy hunter had made this comment as he walked out from one such place on the base, an annoying burr in his repaired arm easily audible (to him) as he began walking away. The red-tinted Dragoon sighed as he attempted to work the kinks out on his own, despite the fact that he knew about it. It would take a day for his internal auto repair system to establish a full link and bring the arm to its full operational status. Suddenly, a warning alarm came into his mind, an increasing amount of annoyance coming to the fore as he looked behind him, back to the doorway. "What is... oh!" Magma's voice went from annoyed to surprised, and he backed up a little as he saw... the doorway that he'd just walked out of. But then he saw someone beside it.

The Dragoon found himself face to door before he looked down. The reploid was shorter than he was, he saw. It wasn't someone he knew personally, though they'd met on a few occassions before. Mostly in practice, however, and never anything else. Skirmishes between their units had found that they'd practically tied in operational capacity... but only when the reploid before him had not been upgraded. "Hello. Magma Dragoon, isn't it?" came the voice from the young looking reploid. The blue armor gave him away. As it had for the reploid's older siblings, who had not been heard of in many years. With a slight smile, the person whose voice had been heard stepped away from where he'd been leaning against the wall, and green eyes found their way to meet Dragoon's gaze.

"Commander X!" Dragoon exclaimed, surprised to see the famous hunter right in front of him. He had to admit, the old phrase that spoke of someone being taller on TV came to mind and was appropriate. For such a famous maverick hunter, the reploid looked all of a 17 year old human in a reploid's armor. The blue armored figure nodded in front of him, and the reploid who had been the basis of all designs of reploids after him shrugged slightly. Obviously, he didn't care for recognition, the dragon-like reploid thought.

"Come with me, won't you? We have to discuss your new assignment, Dragoon." the reploid said. X smiled a little- he'd like this, according to what he'd heard about this particular unit commander. A chance to work on his own for a while, in an environment that he could enjoy, no less. There was a possible maverick outbreak near a volcano that was in the same chain as the one that Flame Stag had holed himself up in. And since a full out assault on a place where mobility would be very difficult to come by, this would be perfect for a single melee specialist reploid. Dragoon smiled a little in his mind as he was given the details of the assignment, but it wasn't just because of that. He wanted to fight the best, one-on-one. But he knew that Zero might, but X wouldn't. It was known in the HQ that X didn't become a hunter because he wanted to be, but because someone had to be.

And that's why I want to fight him, Dragoon thought as he went over the details of the volcano slowly from what had been given him. A reploid who is the best at what he does, whether or not he wants to fight. If he doesn't want to fight, that just goes to show you how powerful the reploid truly was. At 100 percentbattle capacity, his reflexes honed in the strength of a fight. He saluted X, smiling, and X returned the same salute as the Dragoon walked away. X sighed softly as he walked away as well, unknowing that Dragoon's thoughts had turned against him. If only he could be like that on his missions... but no. X had wanted peace and only peace, ever. A life away and outside of fighting. With a sigh, the blue reploid found himself walking back towards his quarters as the Dragoon headed to the target range.

Two very different reploids- one built to be what he wanted to be, the other built to keep other reploids in check. One wanted never to fight while the other lives for it. And X would never know until it was too late just how much the other wanted to fight.

"Alright Zero, looks like you're about back up to full operational status again." came the voice of the head technician. The blonde-haired hunter grinned slightly as he nodded to the technician before checking his own internal systems. All green, he thought, including his reactor source. There'd been a nasty glitch in it ever since he'd been resurrected, but thanks to time, auto-repair systems, and millimeter by millimeter searching of his power core for imperfections, it had finally been fixed up. With a jump, the red hunter that even mavericks had come to fear found himself in the air before landing on his feet.

"Thanks Doc. I'll be headin' out. Let X know I'm going over to the Repliforce base to talk with the Colonel, okay?" he told the reploid, and the nod was all that was needed before the long-haired hunter disappeared into a beam of light. With a shake of his head, the medical reploid chuckled softly to himself and then looked to the ceiling. Doc? Close, but not quite. This particular 'doc,' as he'd just been called, knew better about Zero. Though he had very little that he could do internally for the maverick hunter he'd just repaired, Zero's mind was all too easy to read in some regards... especially these days.

"Gimme a break... Seeing the Colonel?" he asked quietly before smiling softly. "Seeing the Colonel's sister, ya mean." Zero had a few problems still- he couldn't lie worth a damn, and so he left it to others to cover for him. Other than his body structure itself, the damned reploid couldn't misguide a single person, human or reploid. Ever. With a grin, the reploid shook his head before heading out to answer a summons that had been sent to him a while ago from Alia. Douglas sent her a message, telling the female blonde-haired reploid that he was on his way. He'd been somewhat interested in the maverick that had been caught and dissected, but unable to do anything about his curiosity until now. Should be interesting, he told himself, and with a grin he packed up a crate with systems that Alia had described and said that he would need to bring.

"Hey, are you looking for that auditorium?" I heard a voice, and I looked to my right as a reploid came running up. It was a yellow one, kinda, well, fat and short. I watched as the reploid ran but then fell over, rolling for a foot or two before it managed to get back up onto its feet. Looks like a fat male reploid, I thought, as I walked over to the reploid to make sure he was alright. Not even a dent or scraped paint on the reploid's yellow-painted exterior.

"Are you alright?" I asked the reploid, and he nodded as he dusted himself off. The reploid wasn't wearing clothes... which was unusual, but fine, really. Just some sort of armor.

"Yeah, I'm fine... well, are you lookin' for that recruitment drive?" he asked, and I nodded slowly. Most everyone headed this direction seemed to be going into the auditorium, I'd seen. Humans and reploids alike, no less... and, I have to admit, a few were of the female variety of both kinds. Unfortunately, my mind couldn't just stay on those particular thoughts. Made me remember Ayumi...

"Yep, that's exactly where I'm headed." I replied, and the reploid smiled broadly. I couldn't help but to chuckle a little bit. The guy's smile was contagious! How the hell did anyone manage to program something like that? It was a marvel, but I didn't really care about how it had been done. The fact that it had made the person who had managed it something of a genius, in my mind.

"Well then, let's go. I'm called Double. What's your name?" he asked, and I shrugged as we started walking down the street down to the audiorium. No real harm in talking to this guy... he didn't seem too harmless, afterall. Definitely not maverick. A maverick would have to be suicidal to come to a place where they were recruiting for the types of people to huin them down, after all.

"I'm Arik." I told him, and I grinned a little. "Lookin' to work for the Hunters? Or Repliforce?" I asked him, and he flashed a little grin in return to me at the name of the Repliforce. I figured that meant he was looking to work for the repliforce... but if what I'd heard about them was true, then they'd probably force the guy to get a restructuring of his basic body in order to fit 'regulations'.

"Repliforce? Nah, they'd probably want to remake me so I fit their own standards, ya know? I ain't gonna fit in with them, so maybe I'll have better luck with the hunters instead, eh?" he replied, and I nodded in agreement. Whoever had created the little tubby reploid had a sense of humor... probably never intended the guy to even join either the Hunters or the Repliforce. He seemed like a good enough guy, even if he was clumsy. How did a Reploid become clumsy at all? I should ask Lifesaver, I thought to myself, and I shrugged a little as I looked over towards the auditorium.

"Doesn't it seem unusual that there'd be a recruitment drive in this city, so soon after that uprising took place?" I asked, and Double shrugged as he looked up at me. It probably would have made more sense if they'd held it in another city that wasn't so close to here, I considered as he started walking to the auditorium, and I followed after the little yellow reploid.

"Nah. All the mavericks have been flushed from here, ya know. The news said that X and Zero did a real thorough job." the yellow guy answered, and I shrugged slightly. Probably just my fears. Double seemed to pick up on this, and I saw the look on his face. I could easily figure out that he was going to ask me a question, and after a second I was pretty sure as to what the question itself would be. "Did you lose a friend in the uprising?" he asked quietly after that short moment of consideration, and I slowly nodded. I was mostly a reploid now... if it wasn't for the fact that I was still susceptible to going insane from the teleportation processes, anyway, I couldn't really be detected as being even somewhat human.

"Yeah... she went maverick, too." I told Double, looking away from the reploid for a second. Was that a grin I saw flash on his face? I turned to look at him again, and the grin I thought I had seen was gone. "Had to stop her, too. The Hunters arrived too late." I finished, and started walking faster as I felt my body grow heavy and sluggish. Ayumi, I told myself, and I sighed softly as I looked to the ground. Dammit. If only this had been avoided... if that damned beetle hadn't attacked! But no, it was no one's fault but my own, truly.

"I'm... sorry to hear that, Arik." I heard the reploid say, and then he sighed softly. "I shouldn't have asked. I think everyone lost someone here." he said, and I nodded slowly in agreement. He was probably right. And I'd lost even more than what the reploid knew, I told myself, even as we found ourselves nearing the auditorium finally. The sounds of yelling and angry voices snapped me out of my thoughts as I looked up, and I'm pretty sure Double did the same as well. Human protestors, I thought to myself. Why would humans be protesting a recruitment drive for the hunters and the repliforce? These organizations were their only chances of survival against the maverick threat, after all.

"Shit. It's the anti-tech groupies." Double said, shaking his head as he tried to make himself scarce by hurrying into the auditorium. I smirked as I walked forward as well, and then past the yelling groupies who were carrying picket signs made out of wood and cardboard. Some things never change, and I smiled a little as I walked past them. In appearance, I was more human than any reploid, after all, that the anti-techies would ever think. They went naturalist, and I was force to go techie. Besides, their attention was held back by human and reploid police officers who were attempting to keep the peace, so to speak, in this public place.

Past them I went, and into the auditorium which was being guarded by a fair number of repliforce members. I remembered the TV report from after I was awakened, attached to my new body. Most of the Maverick Hunters had been mentally disabled during their recharge cycles, I told myself. Hence, the reason for the recruitment drive. Obviously. Of course they'd start here, too. After all, many people lost their loved ones and friends in Gravity Beetle's attack, and the entire city had been destroyed. I looked towards the skyline, that once held skyscrapers and tall buildings...

And now there was nothing but sky instead. It was almost a little unnerving, I considered, before I turned around to continue into the auditorium, where I'd look up the Hunter's registration booth. There was already a long line of people, including Double ahead of me as well. A few seemed to be a little wet, or dirty... a possible result of passing by the 'groupies' outside, I realized. With a glance to the ceiling in exasperation, I shook my head before closing my eyes. This procedure could take quite a while.

The door slid aside and in walked someone with heavy footsteps. The person entering the room winced at the bright lights before his optics could adjust, and he set down his heavy burden after a moment before walking over to the table with someone upon it and someone looking into that someone from beside it. There were a bundle of parts... no, wait. Arms and legs, he determined, as his optics determined the digits of the hands and the surface of feet on the limbs. There were scanners, parts, and power cables snaking into the body that was on the table. The reploid on the table looked to be deactivated, but thanks to the message he'd received from the woman who was looking into the body on the table, he knew better than that.

"So, what's the verdict?" he asked, his voice hopeful as he looked to the old shell of one of the first generation reploids, of which very precious few had survived the previous uprisings. The blonde woman looked up from the person on the table with a look of surprise as she noticed the one who had entered the room. She hadn't heard his entrance or detected him at all! The green armored reploid chuckled softly before shrugging a little as he walked over, linking his scanning systems with the ones in the lab. A short whistle was given as the diagnostics came to him, and he smiled slightly. "Well, well... a 16 data recovery, and the virus is at a standstill? Congrats, Alia. That means you've managed a new record, but we probably won't be able to get much more recovered than that. Not without deleting the whole thing entirely, or wiping out this reploid's processor cores.

"Oh, shut up Douglas." she replied, a growl low in her throat as she frowned at him. "I know that! But if we had someone to create a few new anti-virus programs, we might be able to recover more. All I can do now is send in program after program in order to fend off the damned thing and claim some of her processes back." she informed her colleague, and Douglas nodded, walking over to the deactivated body of the reploid. Entirely on life support, he found. Not even enough energy being fed to allow the reploid to even blink an eye. Quietly, Alia looked back to the female reploid on the table before closing her eyes and speaking to the other again, quietly. "I think we can try to recover her, at this point. Her mind will be fragmented, of course, but we can partition it. As for the virus, we can just as easily bypass it in order to retain most of her memories."

Douglas shook his head at Alia's words. "Even if we did, she'll need a whole new body. And the matrices will need to have power supplied at full strength if we're going to even try this. The virus always has a chance to break through the anti-virus programs, too. Damned thing evolves to defeat each one, after all. And besides, even if she does survive the procedure, she'll never be able to go back to living a normal, standard life. At least talk with Dr. Cain to see if we should even attempt it!" he told Ilia, to which she shook her head as she placed a hand on the reploid's head.

"She doesn't really have that kinda time, and neither does Cain. We both know that. And besides, if we manage this, then at least she'll have a chance to live again, as herself... even if her past will be a very difficult subject to bring up. Unless she has backups of her memories someplace else, that is." the pink armored reploid told him, and she heard his exasperated sigh. She couldn't help but to crack a small smiled as she swept some of the female reploid's hair back somewhat, even if it had covered the area that had been seemingly scraped off of her mind. How that had happened... well, according to the report she'd received from her old friend Lifesaver, it had been when someone named Arik attacked the maverick before he'd arrived to knock her out.

"Oh, great. So we're left to make the decision, are we? Just perfect." he said, more than enough sarcasm in his voice to make Alia chuckle a little. He grinned slightly before looking to their patient, the diagnostics showing that the virus was beginning to assert itself again. "Better add in another patch of anti virus programs now." he said, and Alia nodded as she set the next drive into the head port on the reploid's neck, and then triggered the button to turn the system on, bringing the drive to life as the last batch of anti-virus programs were sent in. "So we have about five minutes or so before this treatment fails... we'd better get everything ready." he said aloud, and Alia grinned as she motioned over to the machine that she had activated already.

"Been there, done that. We might be able to save another 3 percent of her matrices before it's too late, and the virus begins to take over again. By the time we've got everything set up, she'll be at the critical state. Let's get to work." she said, even as Douglas nodded and came around to the top of the female reploid's skull. Alia looked away as she saw him reach towards the girl's hair, and there was nothing more she could do than to shudder as she heard that sickening sound of flesh being ripped out, hair and syntheflesh and integration patterns with the nervous system. The reploid on the table, though mostly deactivated, gave a slight jump, almost imperceptibly so, before lying still again.

"I hate that..." Douglas muttered to himself, even though he was certain that Alia had heard him say it. He didn't mind- he just hated the fact that they had to rip into another reploid's skull, where the first generation reploid's main matrices were stored, fish out both of the delicate matrices that were kept there and along the spine... and have to do some sort of transfer to another body of sorts. It was a delicate surgery that could take far too long to finish because of the nature of the fix. He sent a message to the staff of the repair department that he had business to take care of for the hunters elsewhere. This had only worked for reploids once or twice before, and the success rate was only 22 percent. "You know, if this works, I'll get us both dinner sometime." he commented, and Alia shook her head slowly at that little joke before turning around to bring herself to try and help the reploid who specialized in repair.

"What in the world..." came a voice that the two couldn't hear, for he was in a different room of the headquarters, though not too far away from the action that the two were bringing to bear on the limbless reploid on the table. He'd heard about the maverick that had been captured from Dopplertown at around the time he had been inside Sigma's newest fortress, but only now had he the time to see what was being done. They'd dissected the maverick! Unbelievable! The one watching the procedure then played back their conversation between one another and then nodded, the shock on his face dissolving into understanding as he learned just what they were doing.

"Ah..." and he shook his head slowly. X had never really had the chance to see anything like this happen before, and he winced as he watched what was going on on his screen. The security cameras were in place and working perfectly, but the blue prototype knew that he'd have to have a word with these two new recruits before long to determine what exactly they were doing with the maverick, and how he should respond. "Better than destroying them." he told himself as he crossed his arms, standing there as he watched that room more than the rest. He'd been ordered to relax by Dr. Cain after arriving back at the HQ, but since the chief of the security room was a human and had called in sick, X found himself here to take over for a while before the next shift would arrive to take over. Besides, after an uprising like that, Sigma probably wouldn't show for a while!

The commander of the 17th unit sighed as he sat in the chair, watching over the consoles. The transfer of procedures and such hadn't occurred yet, and so the navigators that had been in training in Repliforce and were now in the Hunters were stuck only directing individual units rather than several at once. He wasn't exactly in possession of the fastest processors, nor was he made for combat. Perhaps doing this might be fine for now, he thought, even as a small smile graced his face just in time to disappear as he felt a small boiling in his stomach when he glanced to the screen that had Alia and Douglas in it. Only one word came to mind as he saw the work they were doing, and he couldn't help but to wonder why Dr. Cain had ever wanted to do that sort of thing. "Ew."

He watched, though. As he had when the first reploid had been built by Dr. Cain. As he had when Dr. Cain created Sigma, before he became the Maverick Virus. X felt pity for the limbless female reploid on the table that the two hunters had begun working upon, because he knew of her generation of reploids better than he knew of any others that had been created since. He even knew the model that she had begun her life as, even though she'd obviously modified herself since the day of her creation. They were trying to save her from corruption by the maverick virus- according to the statistics that he'd managed to have the computer in the room send him, there was a good chance that her core processes would be salvaged. The first matrix, the primary, was only about 48 percent contaminated by the virus.

Looks like they were going to try a modified save of what had happened with Zero, he realized, and the seemingly young reploid shook his head slowly. That had been a fluke. The way that those two were working, it would likely take a miracle. It took a moment for X to decide what to do, and he sighed as he pulled up his left arm, sending a command to his communicator that would link him with whoever he needed to speak with. At this very moment, that was someone who needed to know what was going on here. Should these two reploids pull off the miracle, Cain would have questions for them...

"Dr. Cain?" the advanced robot asked, and he smiled as he heard an answer from the foremost archaeologist-turned-Reploid creator. The man that he thought of as his father, almost more so than his own creator Dr. Light, had answered. "We've got a situation down here in the repair wing. Meet me at room 3E, will you?" he asked of the man who had activated him, and there was an affirmative answer before the link was shut down. X smiled still as he left the room, heading down towards the surgery room that the reploids were working in, and he couldn't help but to pull up dossiers on the two. Douglas was new, a recruit as of a month or two ago who'd been out on leave the day that Doppler had attacked the HQ. Alia had been on base but awake during the attack, and was one of the few who'd managed to survive unscathed by the mechaniloids that had been used and let in by Mac, the maintenance officer of the base at the time.

X sighed as he remembered Mac. They'd nearly been friends, but then he went maverick. How had he hidden the signs of the virus so well, until that point? "Damn, Mac... you just had to do it, didn't you?" he muttered under his breath. X couldn't help but to wish that he could've done something to help his friend to regain his senses before Zero had destroyed him, but what was done was done. Sometimes... sometimes, I wish I'd never been activated, he told himself, a slouch in his shoulders forcing X to look to the ground for a moment before winding up outside the room that Alia and Douglas were using to work their magic on the otherwise dead reploid inside with them. If I hadn't been activated, reploids would never have been born into the world... and we wouldn't have to suffer as plague carriers like this.

Author's Note: Yeah... a little short, maybe? Anyway, this turn of events should be of very little surprise to most people who are reading this fic. I'm attempting to stay close to the storyline of the series, though I have to admit that Alia, Douglas, and Lifesaver shouldn't be anywhere near MHHQ at the time of X3 or X4. Then again, who says that they were built after the events of X4, except for maybe Signas? The way I see this might be a bit different from what you guys think, but I hope that you don't mind if I say that Ayumi probably ain't dead. In fact, I've been warned that I may even be flamed because she might survive the virus! But then, I personally think that if Erico can do it (read his fics!), then I can too. Besides, it's not like I'm simply resurrecting someone. That just takes the fun out of everything.

Oh, yes. I even added X and Zero to this, didn't I? Hehe, what do you think about their personalities so far? I'm still working them out right now, which is why I haven't allowed them much 'screen-time.' Besides, being busy enough to get far in Star Ocean 3 and beat Suikoden 4... well, I've finished Suikoden 4 within a week, and Star Ocean 3 should be done within a little while as well, hopefully.

Responses:

Delta X- Hey, no problem about the praise or anything. I'm glad you found the last chapter better than the first, and I hope you like this one as much as well.

Annonymous Reviewers- (You know who you are) Thanks for the reviews!

Lady Pamie- Thanks for reviewing... what, two or three times now for the same chapter? Heh, no need to post a review every time you change your name. I do hope you decide on a name soon, though!

Zaisha- No, to answer your question. I'm usually a lot nicer to my original characters, but I didn't want people to thing I was going to pull a Gary Stu out of this one.

Jazzerman: Thanks for the review. I do try to write well, most of the time. I did check out your MM/Sonic crossover. Seems to be pretty good… I don't remember if I reviewed it yet, though. I'll be sure to double-check a little later.

Chaos Emerald Guardian: Don't worry about a thing, as I do plan on continuing this story until it's finished. I have a long way to go as a result. Hehe.