She didn't like this, no, not one bit. Wakeman rushed around her typing things into the computer as the other people cleared out of the room. The small man walked to the door and looked her over one last time before shutting it behind him. XJ9 didn't know what to make of the man, but she did know was that he had done something to upset the nice lady. She should've been angry, but instead found herself extremely nervous. Wakeman was rushing around, and the code she was running made the servos in her right arm shift about.
It made her arm feel more burdensome, while something in her head clicked. Walls of words came over her eyes, and while her brain raced to absorbed all of the information, she found herself quite confused. Suddenly the wall of text ended, and the wires popped off from her body. Her arm pulsed with energy as wires buzzed, and she held it tight with her other arm. It hurt, and she found herself with tears already filling her eyes.
"Alright XJ9, I've turned off the safety lock in your right arm. Well, to specify, I've only turned off the safety on one of your weapons."
She could feel the tears ready to run over, and with no uncomfortable wires to hold her in place anymore, she slid down to sit on the ground. The lady continued to type away on her computer for some reason, and she watched her sadly from the floor.
"You now have access to your basic gun form; it's a relatively simple design so that it shouldn't be that hard to transform."
A few little tears escaped her eyes, and she sniffled unhappily.
"I know this will be a struggle for you since we haven't tried to form anything yet, but considering how well you've been progressing, I believe you can do it."
Her body was stiff from the trip she took, there were too many people at once when she woke, the little man had made her uneasy, and now her arm hurt and she to take a stupid test.
"I hope you can do it. A lot is riding on this, but try not to be nervous. I'm sure you'll be fine, but to be safe, let's do a quick trial run and try to form the gun, huh?"
More tears ran down her cheeks, and she could feel the woman's eyes on her. The typing stopped, and she stared down at the ground. The lady's footsteps were the only sound in the room beside her quiet sniffles. She looked up at the woman when her feet came into her ground view.
The lady stood only a little above her eye level but still looked down at her with concern. She sniffled a little more and tried to raise her arms to pull the woman closer. Her right arm shook, and it felt like something was rattling around in there, so she cried as she quickly put her arms down. The lady must've understood her, though, as a second later, Wakeman pulled her close into a hug and gently rubbed her head. Despite how upset she was, she found herself smiling at the woman as she tucked her head into the woman's neck as she had done before when being carried.
She liked this; it was far better than being stared at by the tiny angry man. She made a note to add him to the list of things she didn't like. Sadly, it didn't last much longer, as the woman's device buzzed, and she pulled back to look at it. A look of worry fell on her face as she let out a sigh and stepped back. She shoved the device back in the pocket and looked back at her.
"It looks like they're ready for you."
She tilted her head at the woman, and the lady gave her a tired smile as she stepped away and went to turn off her computer. XJ9 stood up and followed the woman from the computer to the right out the door. The halls were like the room was a somewhat blinding white because of the lights with bare walls and floors. The only difference being that it was, well, a hall and stretched far away out of her sight. Considering how long the hall was and the many doors that lined it, XJ9 decided that whoever's house it was, it was huge.
Wakeman stopped and pushed a button, causing a short series of dings before the two metal doors slide open. She stepped inside, and XJ9 cautiously followed her into the tiny room. It was a strange room that was for sure, as a second later, the two doors shut behind them, and they started to descend. It felt off to be moving down and to be moving, not by herself. Her mind's identifier searched for what exactly she was in. She made a note to herself to create a weird list later and put an 'elevator' on the top. What kind of room moved on its own?
One final loud ding snapped her out of the train of thought, and the doors slid open. She quickly stepped out of the tiny room and waited for the lady. The woman just chuckled at her and continued to lead the way. She didn't know how Wakeman wasn't lost yet; everything looked practically the same to her, the walls were a bit bluer, but everything else was the same. Except for that door with the guards standing in front of it, no that was new. As they approached them, she could hear a snippet of their conversation as they whispered to each other.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, he was in the hospital for months with a set of broken ribs."
"God, ya think that'll happen with this one too?"
Noticing them coming closer, one of the guards quickly wrapped up the conversation.
"Hopefully not, this one at least looks like a kid instead of god dang tank."
They both shut up and stood at perfect attention then. Not saying a word as Wakeman punched a code into a keypad on the wall. Xj9 could feel the guards' eyes on her, and she looked over both of them. The guard who had talked about the tank was tall and muscular. He stared back at her with a stern look, but she could sense some tension in him. This was the exact opposite of the other guard, an intriguing young woman who didn't even try to hide her staring. She was dressed up in the same uniform as him, lacking the badges though, and seemed to have taken off the heat. Her long black hair flowed down onto her shoulders, but stuck up on the top of her meaning she must have had the cap on some time that day.
They stared back at each other until the door opened, and as it closed behind her, she could hear the lady whisper, "Cool." The room they enter was huge and blank except for a giant viewing window spread out across the wall to the right of her. The tiny angry man sat in a tall chair, and the same soldiers rushed around him. He yelled something that she couldn't hear, and all of the men like cards fell into place. A second later, he pushed another button, and his voice echoed out into the room.
"XJ9 listen up; you only get one shot at this."
A panel on the floor on the far side of the room slide open, and the target rose up from the ground. It was the same size as an archery target, so rather large, but it was still quite far off.
"All you gotta do is hit that target, got it?"
Hit it? Her mind quickly raced and brought up the definition. Hit, to bring one's hand or a tool or weapon into contact with someone or something forcefully and rapidly. That was it; that was all she had to do? She scratched her head in confusion at it all. If all she had to do was hit it, why was the woman so nervous? Granted, it'd take her a second or two to walk across the room and punch the thing but still. Wakeman took a deep breath and looked her dead in the eyes with seriousness.
"XJ9, form your gun."
Gun? What-Oh. It suddenly clicked in her head that the hitting part wouldn't be done with her fist but rather the weapon part of that definition.
"XJ9, form your gun."
The order finally seemed to click something in the very back of her brain, and it made her servos and wires tingle. The tingle spread from her head down to her right arm, since it so painful stiff the tingle made it shake. The rattling thing in her arm from earlier rattled around harder and faster as her mind searched and found the only gun's layouts in her body that were unlocked to it. A small panel slid open just like the floor's had, but out of it rose pieces of metal that slowly and painful shaped themselves.
As the weapon started to take shape, she felt like herself was coming undone. Her cooling systems were pounding like her arm, and she felt like she couldn't catch her breath, even though she didn't have to breathe in the first place. By the time the gun had finally become complete, she felt ready to pass out. She was so tired and out of it, and it was growing worse by the second as the weapon began to pull more energy out of her to make the charged shots.
"Very good, XJ9. Now, focus on the target."
She was so tired, but hearing the little bit of pride in the woman's voice made something inside her swell with happiness. So she raised her arm and looked through the little scope without thinking about it. Suddenly, the center of the target was all she could see. Her eyes zoomed in on it, and calibrations for the distance quickly appeared across her eyes. She automatically adjusted herself to them and gripped her hand around the trigger. All she had to do was hit the center of it, and all she had was one shot at doing it.
She double-checked the calibrations and the adjustments she had made. Her finger nervously twitched on the trigger as she could everyone's eyes on her, and as the energy shot was growing hotter as it continued to pound away in her arm. She checked it all one last time before her finger stopped twitching as it pulled the trigger. It all happened so fast that she couldn't believe it. The ball of energy shot up and out of her at such a fast rate that it took a second for everything to catch up. The knockback shook her whole body, and it felt like it nearly pulled her arm out of its socket. The way the energy had ripped out of her, too, also added another layer of stiffness and pain.
That one shot had utterly exhausted her, yet that wasn't the problem. No, the actual problem was far worse. She stared at the ground for a second and hoped she was wrong. She had to be wrong; she had to be. The second that the trigger was pulled, her arm had shaken, and the result was well...She had to be wrong. Please let her be wrong. She slowly looked up from the ground to the target and felt her hope be utterly crushed. She was right; the sudden shake from her strained arm had caused her to miss the center of the target. The shot had hit exactly five inches to the right of the center mark; she had missed.
Author's Note- Hey, I'm sorry I haven't gotten around to posting on this story. I've been busier than I ever imagined I'd be, and it's taken its toll on this fanfic. To make up for my absence, I made this chapter longer than the normal ones.
Along with college work, I've been doing another project involving Mlaatr. I'm now an animator on MlaatrReanimated, and we'll be reanimating the full first episode of the series! Look it up if you haven't!
Thank you all for reading and for sticking with this story so far! Please leave a review if you can, it helps me want to write more!