Chapter 11 - A Rest Finally Worth Taking
Goompas reclined in his leather chair, setting his feet up on to the round wooden desk before him. He reached out and grabbed a manilla folder from atop the mahogany desk, flipping the crammed 'Confidential' folder open. He scanned the first page, reading over the notes Doctor Raijouta had placed along the names of the Reploids to be built into the Wandering Souls team.
'Dynamo..'
The leader of the newly formed squad. He was a mercenary back during the days of the Sigma Wars. He was never displayed as a Maverick, only as a Mercenary that refused to lose to X nor Zero, always fighting them. He refused to lose to them, so he would flee until the next fight. Hopefully, this new Dynamo would not be so cowardice and stay around until the end of the battle.
'Forte..'
A relic made long ago by the famed, yet mad, Doctor Albert Wily back the 20XX century. He had been built with one purpose, and one purpose alone; to battle Rock and to win. He never did succeed at his task, and was eventually destroyed by another of Wily's robots. The one and only red Maverick Hunter; Zero.
'Storm Eagle..'
One of the first groups of Hunters turned into Mavericks by Sigma. He was once close friends with Zero, before the Virus turned him into a blood thirsty killer of all human-kind. He was eventually destroyed by X, by his parts were collected by ex-partner Zero and returned to Dr. Cain. He didn't want his old teammate to go down like that.
'Flame Stag..'
Another form Maverick under Sigma's ruling. Flame Stag was influenced during the Second Wave of the Sigma Virus. During his corruption, Zero was stolen by the X-Hunters and placed into three sections, each section given to one of the X-Hunters. Agile was given the head, Serges was given the chest, and Violin was given the legs. X had to not only fight his way through the three X-Hunters, but he also had to destroy the Mavericks. Flame Stag was one of them, his lair built within a volcano.
'And Slash Beast..'
The last re-constructed member of the new Wandering Souls group. Slash Beast was a brutal Hunter, always taking out the opposition with ferociousness and deadly skill, leaving the bodies in shreds. He was just as skilled with the claws on his hands as he was with his deadly kicks, which were much more deadly due to the claws on his feet as well. Slash Beast went Maverick during the Repliforce era, taking control of a hover-train as his base. X was in for the hardest fight of his life when he took on Slash Beast, but in the end he won. The remains of this deadly Maverick were retrieved by the Maverick Hunters, not wanting this foul beast to be unleashed again.
"I hope you picked out the right team, Raijouta.."
Goompas flipped closed the manilla folder, tossing it back on to his mahogany desk. He reached for a light blue folder, flipping it open. He glanced at the schematics of Andehshun's Reploid; Paragon. He set his left hand to the side of his head, resting the folder in his lap. He curled his dark locks about the singular finger, flipping to the internal schematics. He smirked slightly, nodding his head.
"Andehshun designed this Reploid well.. A Schematic Analyzer to assist in collecting new armors for battle.. And a Stasis Web idea in case he was ever infected with a virus.."
'I remember those ideas from somewhere else.. I just can't remember where..'
Goompas closed the folder and tossed it up on to the desk, his shaded eyes glancing toward the clock set in the direct center of the large desk. It flashed the digital numbers at him repeatedly; 11:46. He groaned and sat up, yawning loudly. He touched the intercom on his desk and spoke tiredly, "Sherrie.. Can you get me a large cup of coffee?" And the reply came shortly, "Of course, Mr. President." Goompas released the button and sat back in his chair, waiting for the cup of java that would refresh him enough to keep him awake at least another four hours.
Shoryu stumbled into Sebastian's laboratory, a Joe helping him along, trying to stop the leaking fuel from his arm. Sebastian turned to look at his returned Maverick, sighing heavily. He pointed to the table Elcazor had been laid on while being built. Shoryu pushed himself up on to the table with his free arm, while Sebastian shooed away the Joe.
"You got yourself damaged already?" Sebastian cocked a brow, restraining himself efficiently from getting angry. Shoryu stared at the ceiling, "I went and fought the Hunters."
"Did you kill any of them?" Sebastian asked, sarcasm ringing through his forth. Shoryu snarled sharply, "I took out three before I was wounded, and then took out another. The fifth one; Anode, has always been too powerful to take on while handicapped."
"Excuses for your failure."
Sebastian shut down Shoryu's systems as the Maverick reached his good hand to grab the doctor's throat and throttle him. The arm went limp and fell over Shoryu's chest. Sebastian slowly set about repairing his first real Maverick Reploid, sighing lightly with each passing minute.
Piro and Panic stumbled into the Hunter Base, those two being the worst off from the fight, due to the direct shots of voltage to their systems. Panic dropped to his knees at the doorway, AX helping him up as he walked past. Panic stumbled toward the door, his hair sparking from the voltage still running through him, his right hand gripping at the center of his chest, where his power core was.
"I'm running low on energy.. And fast.."
"We all are, Panic. We've been active for too long. 32's missions are getting more and more atrocious," AX commented, lifting Panic a little more, helping him walk.
Piro opened the hatch to the basement area of the base, he entered and was followed by AX and Panic, then Lizzy, and Anode brought up the rear, glancing behind him to make sure there was no one following them into the base. As Anode slid underneath the hatch and it shut behind him, a figure strode forward from the shadows, a dark purple rapier ignited in his right hand.
Panic activated the coding to his door, the door leaping open. AX helped him into his room as Lizzy, Piro, and Anode walked to their corresponding rooms. AX lifted Panic up by his shoulders, setting him into the pod. AX nodded lightly as Panic bent down and activated the code himself. The paneling slid closed in front of him, casting a blue sheen over his yellow armor. AX exited Panic's chambers as the lights dimmed and the pod activated.
Piro stepped into his room, closing his eyes and leaning heavily against the metal door. He undid the visor around his face and tossed it to the floor by his pod. He pushed away from the wall and stepped up inside the silver pod, activating it with a simple voice command, "Sleeping time." The paneling slid down from the top and latched into the bottom, activating and sending Piro into a slumber as he shut down.
Lizzy stepped into her room and angrily threw her destroyed baton across the room, the cylinder slamming into the wall and embedding itself there. He drew her teeth together and ground them together, setting her hands to the sides of her head, restraining herself from bellowing out in anger. He slowly relaxed and stepped into her black recharge pod, the crimson paneling displaying intricate patterns across her green armor. She shut down and the system began to recharge her core.
AX and Anode met in 32's lab, noting his absence. As well as Enzan's presence, sleeping or otherwise. Anode pointed to the screen displaying X's schematics, smirking slightly. AX walked over and leaned over the computer, staring at X's designs, all the flaws removed. He shook his head, "32 removed the flaws by making X's design incorporate the Light Armor from the get-go." Anode nodded softly, undoing his helmet and setting it into the crook of his arm, "That means X is going to be powerful upon reactivation, meaning we won't have as much work to do."
AX smirked clicked off the monitors to the computer. He rounded about and followed Anode out of the small laboratory. Anode and AX split paths at the first intersection; Anode going to the left and AX to the right. AX opened his door with a quick tap of three buttons and stepped into his room. He smiled lightly at the Light Pod set up on the right side of the room. He walked over to it, the paneling disappeared and Light's hologram appeared before him.
"Welcome back, Alpha-X." Came the hearty greeting from the old doctor, "It's good to see you too, father."
Anode slit his lips into a small line, standing in front of his door. He looked up and then to the ground, pondering for a moment whether he would really need to recharge. He shrugged off his wait and entered his room, disappearing into the darkness within. The sounds of a pod activated and the swish of closing panel was heard.
"Were you successful on your mission?" Dr. Light asked, his hologram rarely ever moving anything but the lips.
"My mission was semi-successful. I was on convoy, returning a human teenager to his place of work. It turned out, that it was Black Ops Agent Shift undercover." Dr. Light nodded his head, "Ah."
"Anode and Fidget were successful in helping Lizzy and her group in defeating the Maverick disturbance. It was two D-1000s in a partially populated area," AX went on, "Fidget didn't return with us, and is still out there somewhere."
Dr. Light's face would have shown its concern if it were able to do so, but it only nodded slowly. AX smiled slightly, laughing a little, "But knowing Fidget, he's probably in more trouble now than he will be when he gets back."
Dr. Light laughed softly, AX smirking from across the room. He waved goodnight to Dr. Light, "Goodnight Father. I will see you tomorrow, then?" Dr. Light's hologram disappeared behind the paneling, but his voice came through clearly, "Of course my son. I will always be here."
AX stepped up into the pod, deactivating his systems. The azure panels slid down around the circular formation of the pod, closing AX up inside of it. After a second, the lights in the room dimmed out and the pod activated, shining a blue light around the small space, recharging AX's energy core.
O's body toppled to the floor, smoke streaming from the center of his small chest, billowing upward toward the darkened sky. Fidget breathed heavily, blinking for a few moments before pulling himself together. He kept the gun out, just incase O wasn't really out for the count. Bleu stepped away from O's fallen form and stood beside Orichalcon, holding her hand over her mouth as Fidget stepped toward the body.
"Why did.. Why'd you shoot him, Fidget!" Orichalcon gasped out, keeping Bleu close and away from Fidget.
"That was O.. O.. The Reploid that Bread Man built. He went Maverick days before the humans turned against us and started to shut us down. You guys didn't recognize him?" Fidget shouted out slightly, gazing up at the two of them.
A sudden movement from O's body made Fidget jerk and let off a trio of shots straight into the Reploid's face and chest, the explosion sending Fidget toppling over backward. He sat up and shook his head, wiping the grime from his face. Bleu and Orichalcon glanced back and forth between one another and stepped forward toward the scorched mark on the flooring. Fidget pulled himself to his feet and stood in front of the two frightened Reploids, smirking slightly.
"You guys wouldn't happen to have a base somewhere around here that has a recharge pod now would you?" Bleu nodded softly, pointing back the direction they had come, "Yes, Fidget. We have on-FIDGET?"
Fidget went toppling forward, slamming into Orichalcon's chest, his energy core almost completely depleted from energy discharge. Orichalcon hefted their commander up on to his shoulder and carried him back toward the base they had with O.
Goompas checked the clock again, as he had five minutes ago. It glared back at him with its neon glow; 1:27. Goompas groaned out loud, catching the attention of Sherrie just outside the door. She came rushing into the room and smirked slightly at the President, "Sir. You can go to bed now. I'll take over the folders for you, and then when I take my break, I'll get Cicero to take over when he gets in later on today."
Goompas nodded lightly and slid out of his chair, walking toward the door on the left side of the room. He pushed open the door and toppled into the room and on to his leather futon-type bed. He threw his shades on to the floor and ripped off his tie, tossing it on to the floor. He grabbed his pillow and curled up with it.
'Hopefully.. The vice president will be capable of taking care of all those files.. Cicero better do a good job.. Or I'll bludgeon him.'