"Sir! Zero is attacking the base!"

"Secure the entrances. We don't want to give him everything at once."

The dark suits relayed Wily's orders with machine efficiency. Hannah wondered if they were reploids.

"Bill, Ben? Secure the hostage."

Hannah decided that she was fed up playing the helpless femme. She ignited her beam saber and swung wildly. Bill and Ben drew their swords to parry, but folded steel melts at around 1,700 degrees Celsius, while a saber's beam is half the temperature of the sun. Do the math.

"Well, crap. Should have taken that away from her," Wily shrugged, leaning back and putting up his holographic feet while the dark suits watched Hannah vaporize some more ninja blades. The green ninjas were clearly uncertain how to deal with something other than tangible weaponry. They threw nets, tried to tie her with ropes, but she cut through them all. By that time Zero had arrived, his own beam saber slicing through heavy reinforced doors as if they were rice paper.

"Zero!"
"Hannah! You're kicking some ninja ass!" he praised with a thumbs-up. She squee'd. If you don't know what a squee is, it's a cross between a squeak and a high-pitched "Eee!" It can either be very annoying or incredibly attractive, depending on your type. Zero had no type, in fact, he didn't even have a blood type, so it was all the same to him. At the sight of him the green ninjas fled.

"He's almost as bad as Chuck Norris!"

"Never mock the Norris!"

With that out of the way, all that remained were the dark suits and their ghostly boss.

"Hey, Dad," Zero dripped with sarcasm, "Didn't expect you to be here as well as in my dreams."

Wily leered at him.

"So, you know me, my son."

"He's not your son, you freak!" Hannah piped up and was ignored.

"Yeah. I found this label on the neck of my armour that read "XL, dry-clean only" and "Made in Wily Labs."

"About time you found it. How's life with the Maverick Hunters?"

"Cut the BS, Wily, I want this goddamn voice out of my head!"

"Huh?" Hannah blurted. Wily chuckled.

"When I built Zero I included a warning indicator. Now understand, his core programming made him narcissistic and proud, but I set his threat gauge well below average."

"Every single time," Zero snarled, "That I see a reploid who I know is inferior, that blasted thing goes off, shouting "Danger!" in every language from binary to Eskimo."

"And it grinded on your ego, Zero, for your most basic programming to be fearful while your spirit was not. The voice in your head was a coward, but your true self was not. That's why you killed every single robot in my lab… that's why you went after the old model Megaman and everything sentient that Light built!"

"I couldn't stand it. The Maverick Virus made me so powerful, but this damn voice in my head, Hannah, Danger! Danger Will Robinson! Danger!" he was laughing hysterically, then screeched, "EVERYTHING I SAW MADDENED ME!"

"We're making excellent progress this session, Zero, that'll be three hundred dollars per hour," Wily snickered. Zero gave him the finger.

"There's one robot that never set off the indicator… X. He's the only friend I have in the world… and this bastard wants me to destroy him! He wants me to kill the only one that I can look at and be sane!"

"So that's why you're a loner," Hannah breathed, "He programmed you to be a sociopath!"

"Get that damn voice out of my head, Wily!"

"I can't, Zero. It's a part of who you are. It drove you to become more powerful than anything. And I know you've tried to get rid of it…"

"Yeah. It was like performing brain surgery with a hacksaw and a spoon."

"But you can't get rid of it, ever. You will hate every robot you see, Zero, because there will always be some part of you that says you're not good enough… and now, I'm going to relieve you of it."

"Buh?" Hannah spluttered, "After all this talk of never removing it?"

But Zero was grim.

"He's talking about the Zero Virus, Hannah. When I lost control last time… it's not because the Virus can control my mind, Hannah. The Virus… turns off that warning indicator."

"Like an addiction!" she gasped.

"And when that indicator goes off, my little human female," Wily jeered, "There is nothing restraining the powerful pride I programmed!"

"I become myself," Zero said dryly, "I stop fighting against the coward in my mind, and embrace power instead."

"Two edges of the same sword," Hannah wondered, "He's mad with it and without it!"

Wily steepled his fingers.

"Admit it, Zero! I am a genius."

"You're a sadist. And you're too cowardly to visit your madness upon humanity. You have to manipulate robots, your own creations, to feel like you're worth something!"

"Oh, but of course. Humans are mass produced. Your race is unique. Thus is my genius unique, reserved especially for you and your kindred."

The dark suits stood. They took off their Ray Bans.

Every one of them had Zero's bright green eyes, unnatural, shining.

The Maverick Hunter took a step back. His warning indicator was going off.

"Them!"

"As usual, son, the threat is right under your nose, and you're too wrapped up in your personal vendetta to see it."

Red glowing ghosts stepped out of the dark suits, who slumped in their chairs. They were silhouettes of Zero, down to his wild ponytail. Faced with so many ghosts, one his creator, the rest his demons, Zero grabbed Hannah and dashed, heat blazing from the exhausts under his boots.

"I'm not going back. I'm not going back. I'm stronger than that."

"Zero!" Hannah cried, "They're catching up!"

His demons were gliding above the ground, casting a hellish glow along the corridor leading outside. Though he was at maximum speed, with Hannah sailing behind him like a flag in the breeze, it wasn't fast enough.

"Alia! Teleport!"

For the first time, her voice was welcome.

"Locking onto signal!"

888

"What do you mean you couldn't lock onto him?"

"We lost his signal in a huge energy surge! If you were a reploid, we would have lost you both to the Zero Virus you said was following you!"

"The Virus got him? No! Send me back, I can find him!"

"That's my job," said X, limping into the command centre. Alia and Hannah gaped. Medically speaking, he was burnt over 90 of his body. Signas swiveled in his chair, booming, "You look like hell!"

"You should see the other guy."

"Go to Lifesaver."

"Not the giant Panadol again…"

"He's better than a recovery pod, so quit whining."

"Bah. Kitten hates the vet."

"You're not a kitten," all three said at once. X hissed at them and went away. Signas turned to the human.

"We'll teleport you back home."

"That's okay. Can I use your phone?"

Alia handed Hannah her headset and dialed home.

"Dad? Yeah, I got kidnapped by green ninjas, who took me to Capcom's base where Doctor Wily infected Zero with the Virus all over again, and now I'm here in Maverick Hunter HQ. No, I can't be home by dinner. I know cows can't milk themselves; is it really that difficult to find someone else who can? I should be back by next week or so. Cancel physical therapy. Okay, love you, bye."

Alia raised an eyebrow.

"Your father is accustomed to this?"

"Our house was partially destroyed by Magma Dragoon."

"Oh, yes. Capcom reimbursed you, didn't they?"

Hannah snorted.

"Doctor Wily isn't terribly interested in one house in Pennsylvania. He's got the world in his sights, and he'll be using Zero now."

"You wanted to see me?"

Hannah squee'd and hugged him.

"You survived!"

Zero patted her blonde head. Alia and Signas did a double-take. Zero waved them off.

"The energy surge you picked up was my virus buffer kicking into action. Lifesaver installed the thing after the last war, ya know, I haven't been a total bum."

"That's good," Alia said, then lifted her headset from Hannah. It was beeping.

"Incoming message?"

Gate's smug grin appeared huge on the widescreen monitor. Signas gasped.

"It's you!"

"How are you gentlemen!"

"Oh, God, not that again," Zero groaned, and shook his fist at the rogue scientist, "What do you want?"

"I've hijacked the ice cream truck that passes by Maverick Hunter HQ at 3 o'clock every afternoon."
Zero went livid, shaking his fist even more.

"YOU CAN'T HAVE MY ICE CREAM BAR!"

"I will have your ice cream bar, and eat it, too, unless you bring your delicious DNA… I mean, unless you attack my headquarters in an effort to stymie my plans."

"Damn you, Gate, and the video signal you rode in on!"

"Ta ta…"

Before he switched off, Gate looked at Alia and purred.

"You're wearing your hair down, darling. Is it our special night?"

While she blushed, Signas and Zero both felt their bowels lurch in disgust, although neither possessed said bowels. Hannah was in a giggle fit.

"Oh gods, reploid romance is so corny."

"Hey! We try," Gate pouted, "We don't have the equipment, so we rely on clichés and sob stories!"

"Grow a bit router, you hack," Hannah stuck her tongue out, and Gate vanished with a very put-out look on his face. Zero and Signas were about dying with laughter. It hadn't occurred to them that computer innuendo could be so effective on reploids. Alia sunk into her chair, smiling.

"He looked at me," she sighed, "I'll never tie up my hair again."

Restored to health, X returned to the command centre.

"I heard the news. So, uh, do we know where his base is?" he asked. The hopeful look on his face was squashed by Alia's frown.

"We need data from all eight Investigators to locate his whereabouts."

X flung his hands into the air.

"Whatever happened to Googling someone?"