Days 30-34
The timber-felling industrial robot, "Cutman", designed for cutting and removal of trees and branches. Today, you'll give your first step towards a new era.
-Activation Sequence Initiated-
"Mm? What?" said the humanoid reploid with scissor like appearance after waking up from what it seemed several years without properly functioning.
"Welcome, Cutman, how are you feeling?"
I granted you a more highly-resistant body, capable of withstanding the most unpredictable type of severe weather in forests. I also gave you two retractable blades in your arms and some handy boomerangs to facilitate your clearcutting work. Not to mention that pair of scissors on your head to always cut above the rest.
"Heh, cool!" stated the happy teenage reploid, grateful of his father's efforts in making him the way he was.
Current time (Natural Reserve)
Praised as one of the few most recognized natural ecosystems in the planet, the Nature Reserve of Delta city possessed over 10,000 yards of lush green areas well-maintained; all thanks to the fully-operational artificial climate system, measured throughout the glass dome's main computer room. It is in this largely man-protected biosphere that the young Cutman showed his robotic progress as its top forest ranger within the reserve's elite.
So far, most of the cases they were ought to solve involved Light's reploid specialty in clearcutting; rescue missions within the park's limits, and ecosystems preservation. Each and every one of these tasks were carried under the reliable Cutman's leadership due to his impressive nimble skills (almost light-footed) and appreciable knowledge pertaining to the biology conservation.
"This should be the one" spoke Cutman forthrightly after acknowledging a certain issue that was voiced out by many of the park's visitors. It was an old sick rubber tree that was decaying near a dirt road heavily traveled by people and explorers who wanted to do some hiking in the mountain area.
"What do you think, sir Cutman?" asked a young humanoid reploid who had been working under his lead for so long by now. His own interest and curiosity for the well preservation of natural ecosystems only showed how meaningful it was for him to learn more new things about nature.
"It'll be better to cut it down before someone gets hurt" replied the teenage ranger while dusting off his hands, then he looked up to the old tree once more with reminiscence since the two shared a long story together from the opening of the natural park.
"This old guy has been in the reserve for too long, more than any of its other tree fellows. It pains me to do this, but I'll have to accelerate its retirement and have it replaced with a synthetic one" he continued informing his team as he extended a pair of curved blades from his forearms.
"You guys might wanna step back a little" he finally advised them before approaching the tree with both arms crossed like an 'x' in front of his chest. And just like a swift wind through the leaves, Cutman's sharp-edged blades pierced through the thick wood with a perfect transversal cut that made the felled tree fall far from the path.
"Impressive cut, sir" stated the older reploid, genuinely impressed by Cutman's unique cutting abilities.
"Heh!" smiled the happy reploid while giving his team a friendly two finger salute. Such were the days within the reserve, always pleasant, untroubled, even good-humoredly, thanks to Cutman's upbeat personality and bright attitude at work. Speaking of it, his human higher ups in the computer room were just contacting him now; probably for another problem in the reserve that needed his attention.
Transmission call
"This is Cutman, reporting in"
"Copied that, Cutman. We require your immediate assistance in the far East area; more specifically, in the Flowers Vase, where the reserve's maintenance technicians and search team were deployed hours ago. But we haven't received any response from them yet".
"Got it, I'll look into that. Cutman out".
Transmission over
"Guys! Something just came up. I'll leave the rest to you" he quickly told his team before jumping into the dense foliage to his right. As expected, he was going to cut the path to the Flower Vase by taking a shortcut.
"Remember to fill a replacement form when you're done" stated the teen as he left them on their own.
"Yes, sir!" they replied in unison while their esteemed leader disappeared within the reserve's long-stretched forest.
Hunters Base
The day started like any other for our fellow hunters. The sun was shining in the clear skies and weather was pleasantly warm for everybody's standards. Still, it wasn't something Zero would give too much of his attention now based on his current position.
Regardless of how comfortable the situation might be at the moment, there was no telling when the alarms would set off and they'd be urged to get into action quickly. With that in mind, he needed to make sure that all the members of his team were present in the facility; and so far, only X and Axl were apparently missing, since it seemed that no one had seen either of them so far.
Following some positive remarks that were running around the base, all regarding to a mysterious prominent cadet's display in the training room, led Zero into the main command center to see for himself who was the hunter at the center of everybody's attention, who, to his luck, turned out to be Axl no less.
As the shooting practice progressed, Zero took note of the young rookie's performance closer, and it wasn't as average as he previously thought it was. Of all the base hunters specialized in weapons usage, Axl was surely the fastest and most efficient when it came to those trigger-happy fingers of his and his impulsiveness to jump into the fray instead of choosing to remain hidden on the sidelines all the time for an advantage point.
"Ha! Best score of the day!" he claimed to himself proudly once the training practice ended and the results for both the time and enemies destroyed was shown on the screen, which earned him some happy claps from the motivated cadets watching him from above in the command center.
"I would have preferred you had reported first before coming here to practice on your own" stated Zero composedly from the main room in order for Axl to hear him thanks to the high-tech speaker system installed within the training room.
"Oh, Zero! Didn't see you up there before!" replied the young rookie contentedly while waving at his superior with one arm.
"Yes, I'm also glad to see you too, Axl. You wouldn't happen to know where X is right now?" he asked both curious and solemnly, hoping that he would at least know the blue bomber's whereabouts.
"Him? Last time I saw him, he was with the twins. They were talking something about how reploids become mavericks, or so I heard" he told him.
Back to where X was, more specifically, inside the lab run by the two little brothers, the said experts on the subject were all set and prepared to give him a full intel, through some virtual representations, on everything he needed to know regarding the functioning of reploids and mavericks in general.
"Are you ready, X?" asked Middy from his workstation.
"Yes" he nodded as he stayed in the center of the room, where it was stationed a circle shaped platform that served as the main holographic projector for all types of simulations both twins could easily manipulate at their will from their respective seats.
The lights were turned off, and soon the only source of illumination came from the projector itself. From it, it emerged a real-life size humanoid reploid, made out of computerized data, for X to see it up close.
"By now, I'm sure you already know most of what we, as reploids, are. Am I right?" asked Middy to X, whose attention was entirely focused in the holographic projection.
"Yes" he nodded, and both brothers continued adjusting and reshaping the virtual model from the projector with ease.
"Then it's safe to assume that you're aware of the many dangers a perfectly functioning reploid could experience, either due to malfunctions in their programming or even going haywire by their own will" continued Techno with the explanation as the hologram changed accordingly to his statements.
"Is that what causes someone to go maverick?" asked X to both brothers. Then, Middy turned the hologram into a reploid's thought processor.
"There have been a lot of studies, research and tests regarding maverick behavior. And all of them bring out two main causes for this to happen: The first one being an error or flaw in their thought circuit, which could result in the display of some sort of erratic behavior. Other cases include a dissident type of acting, and thus more inclined to pursue their goals through violence" he answered him in detail.
"Another cause of this faulty programming is more than likely to be related to a computer virus, often labeled as the Maverick Virus. And last but not least, there's also the few instances where reploids decide, on their own volition, to break the law and cause havoc uncontrollably. These 'free-willed' mavericks are considered to be highly dangerous and more than often enough, their names tend to come up frequently in the Hunters' database" added Techno to the explanation.
After hearing this, X felt a deep urge to contradict the twins' statements. In his mind, he couldn't perceive as possible (even remotely) that his own kind would dare to oppose humanity at such high scale. Granted, the last two maverick attacks he impeded showed him that some reploids were capable of causing that much destruction. But his brothers, the people from the base and the HQ, and most of the citizens in Delta City were nothing alike. Did that mean they could turn into enemies at any second? The mere thought of it seemed too unsettling for him.
"Is there…no way to revert someone from being a maverick? At least for those whose programming has been affected?" asked X to both brothers as they turned off the projector and put the lights of their lab back on. The two small reploids exchanged a worried look on their faces, mixed with revolted feelings.
"Well…there have been some attempts to do so, though with unfortunate results…" replied Middy to him as he scratched the back of his head uncomfortably because of the topic they were discussing.
"Unfortunate results?" repeated the blue reploid confused by what he meant by that.
"Tampering with the thought circuit of a reploid is a delicate process that not a lot of people are even allowed to perform. Afterall, you're basically resetting and reprogramming a conscious being" said Techno, explaining this fact to X as he-and his twin brother-approached him after leaving their workstations.
"The reploid's personality and conscience is altered permanently once it's erased its free will and thought capacity. If successful in the end, you could reintegrate a former maverick into the society like a complete, different functioning reploid. In the worst-case scenario…you'll just end up making a soulless reploid, devoid of a will and thought of its own" continued Middy.
It was at this moment that X considered he no longer needed to know more about the mavericks, and he could have very well stated that-just like he could have thanked them both for the time and effort they employed in explaining him everything-. But when the alarms suddenly went on throughout the base, they quickly forgot about that and prepare themselves for the upcoming mission coming from the HQ.
All hunters were present in the command center as both the navigators and technicians from the base were working cooperatively in order to respond to the current threat that was unfolding within the city's limits. Among these numerous reploids, were the noticeable figures of Alia, Layer and Palette, as well as Middy's and Techno's, all from the 17th division, who were already in position and gathering the information needed in their systems.
"Status of the report coming in: it has been classified as a maverick outbreak level 5" stated a female humanoid reploid by the name of Irene from the 8th division.
"Affirmative. The level of danger has reached its highest point and is increasing progressively" added a young male humanoid reploid of light cyan hair-named Crys-from the 12th division.
"Copied, initiating search protocol and map display" responded Alia from her station while working alongside several others navigator reploids that were besides her.
"Well, whadda you know?" stated a male reploid voice close to X, Zero and Axl as it approached them.
"It's been quite long since the last time we had an emergency call like this one" added the blue shark-lookalike robot with pointed fangs and long stretched arms. His name was Sharkman, also a member from the 8th division, and its leader to be precise. He was accompanied by two humanoid reploids from his division as well.
"Heh, is it usual for the members of this base to be excited for big maverick attacks?" commented Zero sarcastically.
"Hah! Take the comment as you like. All I know is that if it is a marine area, the Armada division will be the one deployed by orders of General" he replied proudly.
"The outbreak point has been confirmed! It's from the Natural Reserve!" said Alia, informing all hunters in the command center, which got an immediate reaction from X the moment he listened those words.
"Th-that's Cutman's worksite!" cried the shocked blue reploid with widened eyes. His sudden outburst didn't go unnoticed by those around him.
"A-acknowledged. Initiating enemy units' analysis" responded Layer a little surprised by X's response, but quickly returned to her tasks.
"You ok?" asked Axl worried about him after noticing he was somewhat absent minded.
The teenage reploid wasn't aware of it, but X's fears were more than justified. After listening to Middy and Techno's explanation regarding the deadly mavericks and the virus affecting them, the least he wanted to do was to raise his buster against a beloved brother, or his family for that matter.
"Orders from the HQ are just arriving. It has been decided that the 17th division is deployed to contain the threat" stated Alia from her workstation, then looked towards Zero who nodded in response.
"All right, prepare yourselves. We'll be leaving in the next few minutes" he informed to X and Axl as he left the command center in a bit of a rush.
"O-oh, yeah!" he replied and quickly started to following him. But then abruptly came to a halt before leaving the main room once he noticed that X wasn't moving at all.
"You coming, X?" asked Axl a little unsure at first. Still, when X heard his name being called, he rapidly returned to reality and turned towards him.
"Y-yes!" replied the blue reploid and prepare himself for what it would be his first real mission as a maverick hunter.
Following the statement from my previous chapter, yeah :/ I can't say much more than an apology to you, guys and girls. While I wanted to make one stage per chapter, I began to notice that, as I write the story in my head, more ideas, side-stories, backstories, and extra characters came to exist (such as the known figures of Irene and Sharkman from the megaman franchise; 'Crys doesn't count since he's a creation of mine').
Not to mention my work's demands (boy, work can take so much time from me when it comes to sitting and writing x_x) Because of the latter, and because I didn't want you to think that I abandoned this fic for good 'which I must certainly won't do', I decided to give you these small leads for the next part 'that I'm currently working on' ;)
All I ask is that you continue to be more patient as I get my job done before returning to the story again. And it will be till the next update for the invaded Natural Reserve and my first OC maverick battle. See you soon, and take care yourselves!