Chapter 35 - Is This Peace?
"They're retreating!"
"Thank the heavens."
"Haha! They didn't get my mooch!"
Goompas swung open the door to his office haphazardly, not expecting to see anyone in there. He found Sherrie kneeling in the middle of the room, stacking folders together. She glared over at him, he just reaching up and scratching the back of his head. She opened his mouth to lash out at him when the ring of a phone entered into the office. She left Goompas' office as the phone on her desk began to ring, quickly answering it. Goompas stood there in silence, her voice immediately dropping slightly, barely speaking as she gave her entire attention to the person on the other side of the line. After a few minutes, she came back into the his office, the shadow of a smile on her lips.
"What it is, Sherrie?" Goompas' curiosity easily heard in his voice.
"Sir, that was the Captain of the police force here in Washington. He says the Mavericks are retreating." Just as she finished that sentence, the phone rang again. She held up her hand and ran back to it.
"Eh.. Huh?" He followed her out of his office, staring down at her phone, each line blinking to show that someone was calling in.
Sherrie quickly switched between the lines, being as courteous as she could with each caller, giving each one a bit of time to explain why they were calling. Goompas averted his gaze to her face, perking a brow as the shadowed smile from early grew into a full-toothed smile. She glanced up at him as she finally got off the line.
"Sir. We have reports from military units in New New York, Los Angeles, Baghdad, Kyoto, everywhere. The Mavericks have ceased their assaults."
"Are you sure?" He was confused at this turn of events.
"Positive. The ranking generals allocated around the world just called in to confirm it to us."
"I wonder what made them retreat.. It couldn't have been the announcement of the Wandering Souls, could it?" Sherrie only shrugged.
The two of them went back into Goompas' office. He fell into his chair, sighing lightly. He sets his head into his hands, a violent throbbing began to form at his temples. Sherrie finished collecting the folders, carrying them to her desk, sorting them into their respective slots for people to pick up. She came back into his office when she was done.
"Can I get you anything, sir?" He only shook his head. "Sir.. What are you going to do about Cicero?"
"I don't have a way to convince him to stay in office, so there really isn't a point in trying to keep him at my side."
Sherrie turned her head, the sound of footsteps resonating in the wooden hallway. Cicero stopped right outside of Goompas' office, Goompas himself lifting his head from his hands. In Cicero's hands was a box full of his personal effects. Goompas frowned unevenly, making it look more like a painful grimace.
"I heard the phone ringing, a lot, so I came to see what it was about."
"The Maverick attacks have ceased, Cicero." Sherrie smiled widely.
"Really? Fantastic. Now we won't need the Replo-"
"No, Cicero. They have ceased for now. None of the Maverick squads that attacked were reported being destroyed. They are still out there. For some reason, they just retreated. And we have no explanation as to why."
"Ah.. So you're going ahead with the Reploid Program." He cast his eyes to the floor, showing his disappointment.
"Cicero.. The Reploid Era has come about again. For all we know, even the Legendary Maverick Sigma is back. We can't take any chances. And our weaponry isn't powerful enough to destroy the Mavericks, as proven already." Goompas spread his arms out in front of him.
"I have to agree with you.. But if only you put more money into developing better weaponry, instead of resorting straight to Reploids."
"Umm.. Goompas did. He invested in the top scientists to create new weapons, but none of the weapons could penetrate even the brittlest Titanium X Alloy, that Reploids are made of." Sherrie crossed her arms behind her back, glancing back and forth between the two of them.
"Ah.. Dammit.." Cicero grit his teeth slightly, closing his eyes.
"Stay in office, Cicero. I need you by my side, you're the only person I can trust to assist me in this era." Goompas stared at Cicero, silence following for a few minutes.
"... Okay. I'll stay. But from now on, you let me in on the Reploid Program. I want to help, since I can't stop you from doing it." Cicero set the box of his things down at his feet.
"Thank you, Cicero.."
Faern wiped the back of a hand across his forehead, clearing away the droplets of perspiration that had formed from the quick work on Proto Quick. Claude stood a few feet from him, sighing heavily.
'He's a brilliant young man, almost like his younger brother..'
"Well.. Since the excitement seems to have died down, I'm going to go recharge again.. Unless you need me for something, Dr. Faern?" Shift's soft voice came from a back portion of the lab, where the silver Reploid was leaning against the wall.
"No, but thank you Shift. You have provided me with enough help for today. I thank you greatly for your services, neither of us would probably be alive if you hadn't arrived when you did."
"No need to thank me, Faern, we're both fighting for the same goal here. I'm just doing my part to keep my people alive as long as possible. So, thank you."
Shift turned away from Faern and made his way toward the Recharge Pods that he and Lizzy had used earlier. He climbed back up inside of the one he used earlier, closing his eyes and letting the energies from the pod pulsate through him.
'Why did he thank me? He saved my life.. I didn't do anything to save his.. Reploids are weirder than I thought..'
Faern turned his attention back to Claude, Proto Quick, and Proto Burn. Burn was leaning against the edge of the lab table that Proto Quick had been on only minutes before. Claude had his arms crossed across his chest, standing next to Quick, a smile on his lips. Proto Quick began to tap his foot, his eyes moving between the three people with their attention on him.
"I think you made me faster than I was before, doc!" And with that, Quick increased the speed of his tapping foot.
The clattering of metal against concrete reverberated around the entire building, continuing on even after he stopped. Burn shook his head, de-igniting the flames from his fingers and resting his hand on Quick's shoulder.
"I told you, Master Claude, that Dr. Faern would make Quick better than ever."
"I should have had faith in your wisdom, Burn, I'm extremely sorry for not believing you." Burn laughed at that.
"Master Claude, he is a roboticist and my brother is a robot, it was impossible for him to resist." Faern smiled softly, nodding in agreement.
'It's amazing.. Robert created these two? I'll have to ask him how he did it, how HE made such lively and enthusiastic robots.. Maybe the poor man is lonely. This entire situation is heart-breaking, and that old fool started these chain of events that will send the whole world into turmoil.'
Blues pushed himself away from the wall where he had been leaning. He walked over to the computer and slid down into the seat, the monitor still illuminated with Shift's data. He pulled the seat up close to the keyboard and lightly tapped a key, the data changing to a different Hunter's. He read through it, moving through the database rather quickly.
Mega Man glanced over at his brother and made his way to the computer as well. He leaned in over the chair, reading through the data of the Hunters that Blues stopped on. He perked a brow at the current Hunter.
"Rimshot?" He snorted.
"Heh.. Rimshot is apparently a Light bot." Mega Man stopped laughing immediately, "What?"
"That's what it says. Do you think the old man got another one built?"
"Impossible.. He only had those two last projects.."
"Did he have any kids? Did the old man have a wife?"
"Father never had any kids, except for us of course. I don't think there was a love life."
"Coincidence then?"
"Most likely.. And look at his specs, he's powerful." Blues grinned, "He's got a buster even I can admire, but a name I abhor."
Mega Man smirked widely as Blues tapped the key again, skipping over a few of the lower-class Hunters. They began to ascend into a system of groups called 'Units.' Blues stopped tapping the key at 'Elite Unit 17,' on a blue Reploid.
"Well, well.. If you'd look at that. Mega Man got older."
"Wow.. It's like looking through some really ugly water." Blues laughed slightly, "Are you sure that's not a mirror you're looking through?"
"Haha.." Mega Man reached down and tapped the key twice, stopping on a familiar looking red Reploid, "Guess it wasn't just me Light was trying to enhance."
"Pfft, this.. 'Proto-X' has nothing on me. No one can be a better me, 'cause I'm the only one arrogant enough to pull it off."
"Oh, so that 'X' guy could pull me off better?" Blues grinned over at his brother, "Well, he's got the ugliness down pat."
"Oh, you're horrible." Mega Man gave him a dirty scowl, taking over and changing the datafile.
"Hey, I'm glad you two are on here. I need you to do something for me once I make a phone call. Is that alright with you two, since you're already looking through the Hunter database?" Faern asked as he walked up behind them.
"Sure thing, doc," Blues said, giving a thumbs up.
"Take your time," Mega Man said, smiling over at Faern, before turning back to the computer screen.
Faern walked past the two of them and stopped next to the end of the computer's base, reaching for the white phone hanging on the wall. He lifted it from the receiver and dialed a rather long number, locking the phone between his ear and shoulder as he wiped oil from his hands, waiting for someone to pick up on the other end. He didn't have to wait long.
"Hello, this is White House Communications Security, please state your name and reason for calling."
"Hello, this is Doctor Christopher Faern, I need to get patched into the White House."
"I'm sorry sir, but we don't allow just any doctor to ca-"
"You're not getting the point. This is urgent information that the President needs to hear."
"I'm sor-"
"Patch me through, it's about the Reploid retreat!"
"Fine, fine, but I'm not getting fired for this."
"Oh, don't worry, you'll probably get a promotion."
"Whatever.."
All three of them glanced in the direction of Sherrie's desk as the phone on it began to ring. She made her way out of Goompas' office and answered it. Goompas and Cicero exchanged looks, Cicero setting his box of personal effects down on one of the chairs in Goompas' office. Sherrie came to the doorway, with a perplexed look on her face.
"Umm.. Goompas, sir, there is a Doctor Christopher Faern on line two. He wants to talk to you about the.. Uhh.. Reploid retreats. Head of Security said that he said it was urgent information you'd really like to hear." Cicero perked a brow at Goompas.
"Patch him through to my phone, I'll put him on speaker." Sherrie went back to her desk and spoke a few words, before tapping two keys on her phone base. The phone in Goompas' office rang and Goompas sett it to speaker phone.
"President Goompas here, this is who again?" The man on the other end sighed.
"This is Doctor Christopher Faern. You're probably wondering who I and what I know. And also, how I know it."
"Sounds like a good place to start, doctor." Goompas and Cicero both crossed their arms at the same time.
"Please, call me Faern. Anyways.. I was a colleague of Robert Sebastian. I've worked alongside him on many projects. The reason for the sudden retreats by the Reploids is because of me."
"And what did you do that made him call them off?"
"I didn't die when he attacked my house, and lab. That was the deal. If I lived through his attack, he'd call the Reploids off for two months."
"Why two months?"
"I guess he figures that two months is long enough for me to build a force strong enough to defeat the thousands of Reploids he'll be able to create in that time. Which is why I'm calling you. I know about the Reploid Program you started."
"The whole world knows, Dr. Fearn. I announced it," Cicero spoke, which seemed to startle the good doctor.
"Damn speaker phones.. Well, considering that for most of the day, I've been trying not to die, I wouldn't have seen that announcement."
"Then how did you know about the program? " Goompas uncrossed his arms and leaned over his desk.
"I was there when Robert made the suggestion to start the program in case of an emergency." Cicero furrowed his brows, slitting his lips.
"I wasn't even in office then." Goompas said, shaking his head, "I'm surprised the President before you even told you about it. I thought it would be like all the other confidential programs, forgotten between Presidents."
"Hmm.. Alright, Faern, so we have two months to create a fleet of Reploids strong enough to fight.. How many Mavericks?"
"At least as many as Sigma had during one year of war." Sherrie gasped sharply, "Yes, that many."
"Alright.. I'll tell the Head of Security to give you a direct patch to my phone, keep in touch, Faern. I wish to speak to you again on this matter."
"Of course, sir." Goompas stopped short of closing the call, "Oh, and call me Goompas, Faern."
"Alright, Goompas."
Goompas clicked the speaker phone off after hearing the phone click off on the other hand. He sat down on the edge of his desk, crossing his arms over his chest, looking at both Sherrie and Cicero. Sherrie wrung her hands, staring down at the floor, biting her bottom lip. Cicero shook his head and returned the stare.
"Well.. Two months it is then."
"We need to go talk to Raijouta."
Dynamo stood tall outside the White House, the sun sparkling across his black and grey armor. He was yelling out orders to the other members of the Wandering Souls; the group he was in command of. A couple of large trucks eased their way down the road, going opposite directions. The other four members of the group were following along behind the trucks, two behind each truck. Storm Eagle and Slash Beast were working together to collect as many of the Reploid bodies as they could, Storm flinging them into the back of the truck. Forte and Flame Stag were working apart, collecting as many of the bodies as they could, before tossing them in. Stag was even melting Reploids together to make them easier to carry. Dynamo smiled widely, nodding at their progress.
'It's good to be back in charge of Reploids again.. And without Sigma breathing down my neck all the time. I always made more mistakes with this bald head practically resting on my shoulder.'
Dynamo crossed his arms, sighing with content. He let his eyes close, the red visor turning off to deplete the waste of energy usage. Dynamo tried to think back to the days when he was a bounty hunter, up to the day where Sigma hired him to destroy Eurasia. He shook his head and reopened his eyes, the red visor activating immediately.
Paragon stared at the five members of the Wandering Soul from his position near the front entrance, a few yards away from the leader, Dynamo. He heard and easily recognized the small voice in his ear.
"Hello, Paragon. I'm going to run a field test on your Schematic Analyzer alright?"
"Whatever you say.."
"Alright then! It seems that Dynamo isn't doing anything right now, so lets test the analyzer on him first."
Paragon turned his eyes toward the towering leader of the group, wondering how his armor was supposed to fit on him, but shrugged. He raised his right arm, pointing it at Dynamo. His visor activated immediately at his command, shimmering to a dull blue. To Paragon, Dynamo's body shimmered with a small silverish glow, as a blue light swept up and down his form, from head to toe. As the blue dull faded away, so did the silver shimmer.
"Haha! Success! The Schematic Analyzer works."
"I thought you knew it did.."
"Uh.. Of course I knew, we were testing to see if the fifth way would work correctly. Now, access the file and activate it."
"In public?"
"Yes."
'Whatever you say..'
Paragon checked through his files, but didn't find any file that pertained to Dynamo by name. A sigh escaped through his lips, catching Andehshun's attention.
"Ah, sorry, Paragon. The file named is ECA.exe. We couldn't name it DynamoA.exe due to conflict with one of Wily's Robot Master armors we have waiting for you when you get back."
Paragon shrugged again, searching through his files once more. He easily came upon the file, activating it without hesitation. A dull grey glow immediately covered his body, his armor shifting and replacing itself, reforming to look like an exactly copy of Dynamo's armor. He looked down at himself, then over at Dynamo, who was staring at him confused.
"Did it work?" Paragon smirked slightly, watching Dynamo scratch the back of his head, "Yes, and it's confusing Dynamo."
"Alright, you can return to normal now." Paragon nodded, "Okay."
A soft red glow surrounded Paragon's body, his armor shifting back to its normal look, the glow fading to show off his normal armor. He stretched out slightly, as Dynamo blinked a few times, confused at this transformation back to normal.
'The Wandering Souls need to get an explanation as to why I might start looking like them.. I'll have to secretly get the others..'
He glanced around the road, a shimmer of light from the alley catching his attention from the corner of his eye. It was gone by the time he turned to look at it. He thinner his lips beneath the silver facemask over his face, shaking his head. He switched into his Guts Armor almost instantaneously, the glow appearing and disappearing quicker than the first time. He reached down and gripped the body of a Reploid, throwing it like a shotput into the back of the truck that Forte and Stag were following. Dynamo went to assist Storm and Slash at the other truck.
Andehshun set his hands down on the keyboard, staring at the screen. Words lined both sides of the screen, with a wide-screen type projection in the middle of the monitor. The projection in the middle was of whatever Paragon was looking at. He smiled to himself, nodding with satisfaction.
'Satoshi, you would be so proud of your Reploid.. He's become the greatest creation that this era will ever see.'
He slid off the stool in front of the computer, clicking off the monitor. He walked over to the door and set his hand on the scanner on the wall beside the door. After it had completed its scan of his hand, the door slid open, revealing the room to be part of the main lab under the White House. His own personal room. He stepped out of the room and made his way to where Stabler and Malone was, to help them complete the Reploid on their table.
Goompas and Cicero made their way down to the laboratory underneath the White House. The scientists scrambled about to make it seem like they were doing something, most of which weren't doing anything but playing cards or relaxing. Dr. Raijouta shuffled over toward the two of them, straightening out his lab coat.
"What can I do for you, Goompas, Cicero?"
"We have some interesting news." Cicero slipped his hands from his pockets as he spoke.
"Gather the rest of the scientists, everyone needs to hear this." Raijouta nodded his head and shuffled back into the middle of the lab, calling all of the scientists together.
Goompas and Cicero made their way down to the middle of the giant lab, Raijouta having gathered all of the scientists in a half circle for where the two of them should stand. He even made sure that there was a giant screen behind them, in case they needed to show them anything.
"Alright. Earlier, we got a phone call from a Doctor Christopher Faern concerning the happenings involving the Reploids attacking the city and why they retreated without reason," Cicero began.
"And he told us that Doctor Robert Sebastian promised us a two month period of cease fire for him, which includes us now, to create a force of Reploids capable of withstanding his force of Mavericks. Now, the only problem is that Faern believes that Sebastian is going to be able to create a force as large as Sigma could have during one assault with the Hunters."
"Which means, we either have to find a way to create Reploids faster, or we're boned."
"I think we should find a way to build them faster," Andehshun spoke up from the side.
"I agree with Dr. Grathnoc, but the problem is, we have no available factories that could be created quickly and efficiently into a factory capable of spouting out a rapid number of Reploids." Goompas rubbed his temple lightly.
"So, the decision is up to you." Cicero glanced over at Goompas before continuing, "If you can somehow get a factory up and running with enough time left in this two month period to be able to form an army of Reploids capable of standing against Sebastian's Mavericks, then by all means, go for it. But if you don't think you can.. Well, we don't have a solution either."
"We'll get one going," Andehshun once again spoke, and many other of the scientists shouted their agreement, "You give us a base of operations and we'll give you a factory."
"That's great news. We may yet survive this after all." Goompas strained a smile through his headache, "Continue creating Reploids here until the factory is built. Also, make sure to build the non-generic Reploids here, we want them perfect, and not mass-produced."
Faern replaced the phone back upon the hook and sighed, rubbing his middle and thumb against the insides of his eyes, against his nose. He lifted his head and turned back around. He walked back over to Blues and Mega Man, stopping next to the chair.
"Alright you two, you want to hear about the project I have for you?"
"Sure," Blues stopped browsing and gave Faern his attention, Mega Man did the same.
"Alright. Since you're already looking through the files on Hunters, I'd like for you to pick out a group of Hunters for us to revive first. Make sure you pick good ones, we don't want to bring back weak Hunters. We need the best first."
Mega Man glanced down at Blues, he caught his gaze and returned it. The two both grinned and nodded, returning their attention to Faern. Mega Man lifted his right hand and gave a big thumbs up.
"You picked the best for the job, boss!" Faern laughed heartily, "Alright, don't let me down."
"Wow.. Look at his hair." Blues laughed, covering his mouth, "Not only is it blue, but it's way too spiky for his own good."
"And why would you name someone a number?" Mega Man shook his head in disappointment.
"And why the number 2!" They both laughed at that, shaking their heads and recovering themselves.
"Well, he does have some pretty nifty specs. And he's got high defense."
"Alright, 2 goes on the list. Next up is.. Uh... Aram?"
"He's horny." Mega Man snorted, covering his mouth and nose quickly.
"That was the worst pun I've ever heard. But you're right, he's got horns. Anyways.. He's got a multi-functional buster and a saber. Plus, he's blue."
"When did you like blue? You're red. You love red." Mega Man perked a brow at his older brother.
"Doesn't matter. Aram goes down on the list." Mega Man just shook his head, tapping the key, "And next up is.. Grid Cain."
"Well, he's sure got a big sword. Probably overcompen-"
"Bad, Blues. Stop right there."
"What'd I do!" Blues made a mock face of innocence.
"That saber is bigger than you are. Do you want it rammed up your rectum?" Blues grimaced, trembling a little, "Exactly."
"Alright, so do we put him in down knowing he's capable of destroying everything? Or do we keep him off the list in fear of the giant saber?"
"I don't know. He's got the speed, the power, and the defense. He's also got multiple armors he can use. We should probably add him to the list."
"Okay then, add him to it." Mega Man clicked the key to change to the next Hunter we have is.. Oh look, a duo."
"A duo?" Blues looked up from the notepad beside the computer, "This Magnor and Rok. They work together on everything."
"Eh, he's too green and he's got a wonky helmet. And the little hovering ball needs to shave the horn off so we can use him at the football games."
"You're a horrible, horrible person."
"Yeah, well, I'm not here to be liked."
"Well, if we add these two down, how many does that put us at?" Mega Man looked a the notepad as Blues lifted it, counting all the names.
"We're at twelve." Blues glanced up at Mega Man, who nodded, "That's perfect."
"Alright, twelve projects for Faern to deal with while we do nothing."
"Sorry to ruin your dreams of laziness, but we were built as lab assistants first, Blues. We're stuck helping him."
"DAMMIT!"