No... not again! Please not again!
Fire erupted from the apartment in a flash. A young teenage boy struggled to get flaming debris off of himself. He turned to search for his family, but the searing heat and thick black smoke was quickly overpowering him. Hopefully they managed to get out.
'How could this have happened?'
This was singlehandedly the worst day of his entire existence.
Blood streamed from a jagged gash on his face, effectively blinding his right eye. It didn't help that he was sweating profusely which stung his wounds. The smoke made hard to see, and even harder to breathe.
He looked wildly around him until he caught sight of a small shadow of a figure. A relieved smile split his face and he lurched towards it, "y-you're okay!"
He might have happily thrown his arms around the figure if it weren't for the barrel of a blaster suddenly inches away from his face. His movements stilled and his smile froze on his face before melting into pure horror.
"No. Please! Don't do it! You can't be affected as well?" The boy pleaded. The Medabot only stared him down coldly. It didn't move its blaster any nearer or farther, but the boy felt the hairs on his neck rise. His instincts screamed at him to move.
He immediately lunged to the side before he felt the heat of a laser singe the side of his face. He clutched at the burn and dragged himself towards the door of his family's apartment.
If he could just get out...
He started to cry when he caught his Medabot - once his close friend - advancing towards him with murderous intent. It was blackened and red paint was peeling off in flakes, but it seemed unaffected by the fire. It was a nightmarish specter.
It wanted to kill him...
...
Beep - beep....
BEEP - BEEP - BEEP
With a startled shout, Ex tumbled to the floor in a heap of sweaty, tangled sheets. Stunned by the impact, he laid there for a moment before slowly picking himself up. His alarm kept blaring in loud squawks and he quickly got annoyed when he somehow forgot how to turn the thing off.
He was tempted with the thought of throwing it against the wall with all his strength, but figured it would be a waste. Besides, Isis would just get mad at him... She tended to care a little too much.
He eventually remembered where the switch was and quickly turned it off. Ex was relieved that he could hear himself think again. "Long time since I had that one. I thought I was going for a record here. What triggered that?" He breathed out a shaky sigh.
Ex turned on the lights inside his room, threw the sheets carelessly back on his bed, and walked into his tiny bathroom. Everything was on the snug side since the Organization didn't invest in the comfort of their operatives, but Ex didn't care for that mess. The only thing he ever did in that room was sleep.
He washed his face and looked into the mirror; his face was dripping and he had dark circles under his eyes. He looked even more miserable than usual.
'There's the 3 hour sleep schedule. Thank you, Isis,' he thought grimly as he dried his face.
The lingering effects of sleep (or lack of) was affecting his movements and making them slightly stiff and numb. Ex groaned in relief as he stretched his muscles and heard his bones pop.
He threw on a clean uniform and trudged outside his room. He was headed for nowhere in particular - perhaps he should check his list of duties; explore the city for vulnerable spots - that sort of thing. Anything to get busy and forget the nightmare.
He already had too many reminders.
"Alright, just a little more to the left."
Ki did as instructed, inching his blaster several degrees left. He fired and watched the blast rip through the air towards the holographic target. The shot barreled through the head and the target dissipated into bits of data.
He felt a little triumph as he turned back to Flame for review. Flame tipped his head to one side, "that was better. It seems like you're really getting into this."
"It's only natural - our purpose is to fight, yes?"
Flame slowly nodded, "pretty much." He then chuckled, "nice head shot, by the way. You seem to be getting scarily good at those."
"You did say that head shots are everything," Ki replied in good nature.
"That's one of the fastest ways to take down a Medabot," Flame agreed, "and speaking of takedowns, you need to practice your hand-to-hand combat: two weeks in and you still suck."
Ki's optics narrowed in a sort of scowl and got into a defensive stance.
As much as he hated to admit it, Ki reluctantly (and silently) agreed that sparring was not his forte. He was rather awkward and didn't make sound calls all the time. Flame didn't go easy on him; more than once Ki found himself flipped over against a wall. However, Flame did suggest the lack of a human partner may have accounted for this. After all, there wasn't anyone to direct him.
He was on his own.
"Ready?"
Ki nodded.
"Alright then: here I come!"
Flame suddenly lunged at Ki. His arm was winding back for a right hook. If it connected, Ki knew it would do considerable damage to his helm.
Ki backpedaled enough for the swing to miss - he felt the wind from the would-be blow. Rather unbalanced, Flame took an unsteady step forward. He saw Ki's fist begin to wind up for a retaliatory strike.
Amateur mistake.
Flame ducked backwards to the ground to dodge the punch. He then transferred his weight to his hands and kicked upwards towards Ki's chest. The kick met its target with a solid clang and Ki went tumbling to the floor a few feet away.
Flame wasted no time getting back to his feet. He rushed towards Ki before he had a chance to get up. Flame used his knee to pin Ki beneath him. 'Which one? Make him tap out or just aim at him?'
In the end, Flame opted with just punching him out. Might as well get him used to the pain, he thought. Flame cocked his fist back, then drove it across Ki's helm once.
The impact of the blow - as well as a sudden explosion of pain and damage reports - startled Ki. He stared off towards the side for a moment before heavy indignation, frustration, and anger welled up inside him.
Flame had eased off and let Ki stand up. He noted with unease the hint of fury in Ki's optics, "hey, you okay? I know getting punched in the face isn't fun, especially if you're helpless, but what I like to do is - WOAH!"
Ki suddenly flew at him. Flame jumped back and Ki's roundhouse punch just missed. "Hey! Watch it! You don't just attack out of the blue in a spar! Are you even listening to me?" Flame ground out in frustration as Ki showed no signs of rationality.
Getting mad during sparring? Normal. Suddenly flipping out at the drop of the hat - especially without showing any signs of aggression whatsoever - wasn't. All this over a punch?
Ki had definitely been beaten before, but the rage was something new.
"Dude, relax! Getting punched is normal. You don't need to be trying to kill me!" Flame grunted as he fended Ki off. The rookie was putting him on the defensive. Defensive wasn't Flame's preferred style.
'Y'know what? I should just lock him in here until he calms down or shuts down,' Flame thought, retreating towards the entrance.
As expected, Ki mindlessly charged after him.
Flame, being as trained as a fighting machine can get, was the quicker one. He used the controls on a nearby concole to activate the locks on the doors. Ki slammed into the doors just as they closed. He stood up and silently glared at Flame.
Flame deflated with relief and sagged against the console.
"What on earth happened in there?" Some nearby Medabots had seen everything and rushed to Flame's aid.
Flame shook his head. "I have absolutely no clue," he sighed, "one minute it was a normal session, and the next he just went nuts... Note: don't punch him in the face, you'll be on his hit list."
"Maybe he should be taken to the repair department. We can't have renegade 'Bots running around," one of them suggested.
Flame nodded absently; he was too busy studying his former training partner. Ki was still staring at him through the transparent doors. Flame thanked his lucky stars that the doors were stronger than they appeared.
But... did Ki always have red optics? Flame tried racking his memory. Ki was normally supposed to have blue ones, yet they switched to red when he attacked.
Huh.
"You sure you're okay, though?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Flame stood up unsteadily, "I'm taking Isis to him, she should know what's up. Just don't open those doors."
The woman in question was finishing organizing her notes. She smiled when she was finally done; truth was, she hated paperwork as much as Ex, but the difference between the two of them was that she was the responsible one.
She stretched her arms and felt the bones in her back pop and she sighed. Her peaceful moment was then disturbed by an unwanted visitor. The surprise, however, was not Ex. She stared dumbfounded at the red Medabot who burst into the lab.
"Isis, Ki went nuts on me in sparring! Tried to tear my head off! It was like he turned into some raging monster!"
Isis' mind went blank. Ki flew into a homicidal rage? That probably wasn't a good sign.
She wordlessly went to her computer and keyed in some sort of code. Error messages popped up and she hissed in frustration. "His CPU isn't letting me shut him down."
Flame said nothing.
"I'll just have to look at him myself. Where did you leave him?" Isis asked. She felt the beginnings of a migraine coming on.
"Back in one of the sparring rooms. I manage to lock him in there," Flame replied quietly. He was quite disturbed - Medabots weren't supposed to disobey Medafighters. It was just an unheard of.
"Very well, take me to him. I'll check him out and see what went wrong."
"Thanks, doc."
"Don't call me that."
They quickly navigated the halls to the training room. Ki was still in place, glaring. Isis stopped in front of the doors, "well that's not creepy or anything. What happened to you?"
Ki didn't respond.
"He won't do anything, he won't move, optics are a different color..."
"Hey, red isn't a bad color. I mean, it's not evil or anything," Flame mumbled.
"Red eyes, take warning." Isis smiled slightly, then frowned, "I need to get him out of there so that I can run tests on him. He wasn't meant to act like this."
"I don't think anyone was meant to act like that," Flame replied pointedly.
Isis bristled, "it wasn't my fault. Now go away so that he'll calm down. Your presence is probably the reason he's being aggressive."
"Oh, so it's my fault, huh?" Flame huffed, then proceeded to walk out of the room. Ki stared after him until he disappeared, then swiveled his head back towards Isis. She tucked a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear. 'What a mess,' she thought.
"Well, aren't you a puzzle? What sort of things were going through your processor, I wonder," Isis mumered.
Ki didn't respond.
"...I'm going to let you out now. This may not be a good idea, but - whatever happens - your programming should be strong enough to prevent you from killing me, I hope... I am no threat." She emphasized her last statement.
She made sure that the entrance to the training hall was firmly shut; she wasn't about to threaten the base with an unhinged Medabot. Then, she pressed in the code to unlock the doors keeping Ki captive.
A few seconds passed, but he still didn't move. Then he started to tremble slightly before his optics blinked out and his body went slack. It landed on the ground with a crash.
Isis blinked. Of all the predictable outcomes - including one ending with her death - this wasn't one of them. It was almost anticlimactic. She tapped the shell with her foot to make sure he wouldn't suddenly attack her. No response. She tried to keep her breathing steady as she managed to pick up Ki's body.
Ki would have a lot of explaining to do when he woke up. Isis knew that in turn, she'd have to explain herself to Shadow.
"Can I go one day without something happening?" She growled.
(Edited: 12/08/18)
Okay, first off: long time no see, my readers!
I ended up having to do a lengthy hiatus due to a combination of massive writer's block and circumstances. I managed to finally find a job (though some of the customers are annoying and either creep me out or ruin my day altogether. Good ones are unfortunately few. T_T).
Anyway, an explosion of ideas came to me not too long ago and I needed to write down as much as I could before it went away again.
And speaking of writing, battle scenes are not my forte. I tried my best at it from what I knew (I take karate and I'm aware of basic stances and offense/defense) and from what I watch in your basic shounen anime (I also rewatched a chunk of Medabots. I really don't want to rewatch Spirits, but I think I must since this story takes place after the entire anime. *sigh* Curse you, 13-year-old me).
I think I did much better than my attempt a few years ago in my other fic. I think doing martial arts helps since I was able to simulate some punches and see how the characters would dodge, block, or take 'em. It also looked hilarious to see me punching myself in slow motion if anyone caught me.
Anyway, this is turning into a long note as I have so much to say, but I'm inflating the word count enough as it is. I apologize if this chapter was a bit short, but I'll try to work at it.
-Winterbornbree