"One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody's listening."-Franklin P. Jones

X was working on a programming code for a mailing droid when Doctor Cain came down the stairs to the lab at around seven in the morning.

"What time did you get home?" Doctor Cain asked.

"About five in the morning," X answered. He remained focused on his task and typed a few more lines into the computer.

"Five?! I'm guessing you had fun then?" Doctor Cain asked as he pulled a chair over to sit next to the android.

"Yeah, I might have made some new friends."

"Human?"

"Um, yeah?" X stated giving Doctor Cain a weird look. As far as he knew, he, Fredrick, and a few others were the only human like machines out there. Nearly all of the ones he did know spent all of their time in Cain Labs. He and Fredrick were the only ones that left Cain labs regularly and that was only because they stayed at Doctor Cain's house. The house had three floors. X's and Fredrick's were on the top floor. Doctor Cain slept on the first floor, right next to the kitchen, stairs, bathroom, and dining room. The living room was located next to the dining room and across from the stairs. The basement was completely a lab, but it did have a washing and drying machine set up in a random corner.

Doctor Cain shrugged at X's look. "Who knows? Perhaps somebody else had developed an android. Or perhaps one of your friends was an alien. I didn't know for sure. But what on earth were they doing staying up till five in the morning?!" Cain exclaimed.

"Something called an anime marathon that they dragged me into," X answered.

"Anime? Huh. Did you enjoy it?"

"It was just like watching a tv show."

Doctor Cain nodded. "So how many of them were there?"

"Four," X said.

"Do they know?" X knew Cain was asking about his mechanical nature.

"No. I avoided telling them anything that would lead to that," X responded.

"How come?"

X sighed. "Something Dad said to me. That and all of the pressure we're already facing with only the very fact that I exist."

Doctor Cain made an "o" with his mouth and didn't press any further. "How old are they?"

"About fifteen."

"They go to a school?"

"Yeah."

"Which one?"


"Arcadia High."

"Do you wanna enroll?"

X stopped his work and turned to Doctor Cain. "Enroll?"

"Yeah, you know, go to school?"

"Doctor Cain, I'm a robot. The pod has already schooled me on everything there is to know for a kid my age. Erh well the age I appear; I look about fifteen or sixteen."

"So? You'll be a straight A student," Doctor Cain reasoned. X stared at him. "Oh come on, it'll be a great socializing activity."

"But I have work here to get done," X argued.

"I can guarantee you that Doctor Light did not build you to be a constant worker. He designed you to be human. That means doing human things; going to school, socializing. He wanted you to live your life as you wanted to. Don't worry about the lab. I managed just fine before you came. Besides, the reploid designs are complete. I just have to convince people that they're worth it to manufacture," Doctor Cain reasoned. "So, are you going to let me enroll you?"

X thought about it. "Yeah. You can enroll me. I'll go to high school."

Doctor Cain smiled and clapped his hands together.

"Wonderful! I will go do just that before this old mind forgets!" Doctor Cain said, getting up from his chair. "And X?"

"Yeah?"

"I completed the mailing droids programming last night. It's under file 371. You can look over it if you want."

There was a thud as X's head made contact with the desk he was sitting at and a loud groan filled the air. Doctor Cain chuckled.

"Don't forget. We need to be down at the mall in a couple of hours!" Doctor Cain added as he climbed up the stairs.

"Yeah I know," X moaned, but his voice was muffled by the desk he was speaking into.

6 hours later

Working at an information booth for six hours wasn't exactly X's definition of fun. However, it was necessary, especially when Fredrick started getting nervous at all of the attention he was getting. Ever since he had discovered that the world wasn't quite so accepting towards his kind, he became paranoid that somebody would figure out that he wasn't human right away. In X's opinion, it really only made the situation worse, but he supposed that Fred could pass of as an extremely shy and nervous human.

X on the other hand had no problem speaking to humans. He core programming was to communicate and intermingle with humans. It felt natural to him. Sometimes, though, he still got a bit nervous, but after the world had exterminated his elder brother years ago just for being robotic, who wouldn't? In fact, there really was no reason why X was intermingling at all; except for the fact that like a human, his sanity would be greatly impacted by a lack of social activity.

That and X had felt a responsibility to repay Doctor Cain for taking care of him in the last few months. In a way Doctor Cain was just as much a father to him as Doctor Light had been. He supposed it was because X had known Doctor Cain for much longer than he had Doctor Light.

Which was why he was explaining to an older gentleman how a mailing droid worked. To X it really was quite simple, far less advanced than anything he was made out of, and even though the man before him had clearly been born into the age of robotics, he didn't seem to have even the slightest clue as to how the hunk of metal, plastic, and wires before him even worked. X hoped that the man's faulty memory wasn't the result of some terrible accident as a child and it was just old age.

He had to repeat to the old man what the disk like device at the bottom of the mechanaloid was for the fifth time before he regretted ever being hopeful.

"Ah, my apology's. You see, when I was young'r me mum say Pap acidently dropped me down a laund'y shaf'. I hit my head prehtty har' und Mum say I wern't ever da same agayn. You see young'r, me mum was a fine wohman."

X nodded, ever so grateful that Doctor Light had given him the ability to interpret the way people spoke.

"On me fifteenth birdday, some men in black uneeforms came and say somin' 'bout me mum committin' murd'r or somin' like tha'. They took mum and lef'. Me dad never came back either but I see his face on TV. He were migh'y beat up. Migh'y beat up. Missin' half his throa' and all. Nev'r came back dough. Nah' in all long time. He was me pap so he shouda come back cuz he lov'd me. Wonder wah' happened to him. He gonna show up eventahly dough."

X suddenly wished he didn't understand a word the man was saying and forced out a nod. His smile had near completely disappeared and his face was strained in order to keep the little smile he had left intact.

"Me mum were a fine wohman indeedy." The man left and X breathed a huge sigh of relief and sat on the ground.

"Nooooooooo, that was not okay. Not okay. Nooooooooo."

"Uh X-erh Xavier? Are you okay?" Fredrick asked as he watched X's face contort to a look of pure horror, nearly slipping up and saying X's real name.

"No. I am not okay," X moaned. He ran a hand through his hair.

"Uh X?" Fredrick inquired, trying to get more out of the android.

X shuddered as Doctor Cain walked up to their booth.

"How's it going Fredrick? Where's Xavier?" the old scientist asked. Fredrick shrugged and then looked down at X who was hidden from Doctor Cain's view by the booth. Doctor Cain leaned over the booth to look at the android. "X?"

"That man's momkilled his dad and he still thinks his dad's coming back for him. And they think we're the ones that have issues," X hissed looking up at Doctor Cain. Fredrick's eyes widened and his mouth made an "o".

Doctor Cain sighed. "I never said humans were perfect. You make a good point there though. We were being highly hypocritical when we banished your kind from ever being developed. This isn't related but I think we should call it good for today. You two can stay here for a while longer though if you put away the stuff on the booth. I still have another meeting to go to."

X nodded, relieved. He felt no need to meet somebody else like that.


Fredrick glanced at X amused. The android had been muttering about humans, stereotypes, and the inability to forgive and forget for a while now as they pushed the carts full of the booth items through the vacant roadways behind the mall and to the truck. After a while he stopped muttering and sighed before starting a rant of a different, but related subject.

"That man had to have been seventy or eighty. His mom would have been arrested like sixty years ago. Nobody just outright told him that his dad was dead? And what's with this deal of him getting dropped down a laundry shaft. Who 'accidentally' drops a young child down a laundry shaft? That doesn't sound accidental. It sounds intended. This is child abuse and murder. His mom gets sent to prison. But all it takes is for one of us to mess up and all of us get executed. Biased much? Why do the humans get more chances? What's the difference between me and some human in this building?" X ranted.

"Solar powered core, internal cooling system, a processor, adaptable optics, a few thousand wires, and a titanium skeleton to start," Fredrick listed, counting off on his fingers. X glared at the younger robot. "Not to mention enhanced titanium armor and a buster."

"I meant spiritually," X grumbled.

"Spiritually? Geez Xavier, you're getting deep." X glared at Fredrick again who chuckled lightly. The younger robot then sighed. "But you're right. Humans are very biased and it scares me. I don't want to mess up and convict you and the others too. There isn't very many of us. I know Doctor Cain is trying to get our type on assembly lines, but what'll happen when something bad happens? What if they decide to execute all of us? They did that to your predecessor. What do we do when the robots that come off the assembly line, if they do come and they probably will, what do we do when they go crazy?"

X sighed and pondered the question. "Do we have much of a choice? I suppose if we were cowards, we would go and hide and leave the world to its destruction. But is that any better than the way they executed my predecessor? We would have practically signed of their death certificates. They would be defenseless against our kind. We can blend into almost any human environment. We're stronger, faster, quick witted. . . With that in mind, I would probably fight for humanity. Not because they have really done anything for me as a whole, but because it's the right thing to do and morally, I could never sit by and watch a massacre happen. That and I promised my father I would protect this world."

The two were silent for a while as they started stacking objects into the truck. Then Fredrick spoke up. "Spiritually Xavier, you're more human than any human I've ever met. Even Doctor Cain. And that's saying something. There really is no difference between you and a human other than your design and composition. Doctor Cain confessed the other day that he forgot you were an android whenever he talked to you or watched the way you interacted with the world. You have a better chance than I do at blending in. My 'human like' programming is faulty, Xavier. It's the same way for every replicated android built since me. As human as we seem, we're not perfect. There's a slight mechanical nature to the way we do things that we just can't hide. But Xavier, you're programming is flawless. Not only can nobody decipher it, but it makes you more human than any A.I. before you. If anybody is the least likely to get executed like your predecessors did, it would be you."

They were silent as they finished and closed all of the doors to the truck.

"But Xavier?"

X turned to look at the younger robot.

"Promise me something? If I go crazy and start killing people, would you be the one to pull the trigger? I'm terrified to die by human hands. That and I want to be sure that if I do go crazy, I want to die knowing there's somebody I trust looking out for the world and taking care of it."

X nodded grimly. "Yeah, I promise."

"Thanks X," Fredrick sighed relieved as he gave a small smile. X chose to ignore the slip up with his code name. Fredrick then looked up at the sky. "Do you think there's a heaven up there for beings like us?"

X looked up to the sky as well as he pondered the question. "I don't see why not. If what you said is true, then there's not much of a difference between us and mankind. If there isn't a heaven up there for us, then it would seem that even the gods are biased and hate even something that mankind built."

"If there is, I would like to go there someday. And I hope that it's linked to the human's heaven. I want to meet your dad, Xavier. He built you and I want to thank him for it. You make living in a world where it seems everyone would hate you for the slightest mistake a lot easier. You're my big brother. I also want to meet your predecessor and all of your older brothers and sisters. That and if I do go crazy. I can tell you sorry when you come up there too."

"I'm sure there's a heaven up there for us Fredrick," X reassured him giving the reploid a smile. Fredrick grinned right back at him.

With the booth items all put away, there was no reason for X to stay outside, so he began making his way back to the mall. He stopped though, when he realized that Fredrick wasn't following him.

"Hey Fredrick! Are you coming?" X asked. Fredrick turned to face him and shook his head.

"Nah, I think . . . I think that's enough human interaction for me today. There's so many of them and I'm terrified that they'll find out I'm not human. I . . . I don't know how you do it, Xavier. You're so calm around them and yet they're the ones that killed your older siblings."

"That's exactly how I do it, Fredrick."

"Huh?"

"They're not the ones that killed by brothers and sisters. The ones that did are long since gone," X explained with a smile. Fredrick sighed.

"You must be immune to the threat of possible dangers."

"I'm not immune Fredrick. It's just the way I am. Live a little Fred! You can't do much cooped up in Cain labs all the time like the others."

Fred smiled but shook his head. "I don't think I'm ready just yet. Have fun for me, would you, X?"

"Yeah, but really Fredrick. It's fine. It's not like we would be walking past a whole bunch of metal scanners. Who's going to find out?"

Fredrick shook his head again and X sighed, continuing his path back to the mall.


X glanced around at the crowded mall stores in disinterest. He had no need for clothes, food, or shoes. Granted, his wardrobe probably need something other than blue or green in it, but that was a task for a later date. He glanced down at his black Cain Labs shirt. The Labs' logo was near the top and on the right side. This was the only shirt that wasn't blue or green.

Besides, he didn't have much when it came to money. He couldn't afford much of what was in any of the stores. How a pair of poor durability, but high comfort jeans came to equal forty five dollars was beyond him.

He was hoping for a computer or technology store, but he hadn't stumbled upon one yet. He had stumbled upon a confectioner's store though and was tempted to drop in just because of the tantalizing smell, but had decided against it. The store was too crowded and from the chocolates and other delicacies displayed in the store window, it was expensive too. X resolved to bug Doctor Cain about getting him and the others some later.

X let out a shout of joy, alarming a few of the people around him when a tech store appeared from around the corner. He ignored the odd looks and increased his pace.

Strolling into the store, he noticed a few things immediately. One of them was that it wasn't nearly impressive as Cain Labs. Granted, Cain Labs was a technological and scientific industry that specialized in making advanced machinery. The store also didn't have nearly as many items as he would have preferred. X would have filled the entire walls with goods, but his store rating would have probably dropped due to poor appearance. Another thing that he noticed was that while it was lacking in a few brands, it seemed to have nearly everything a computer geek at least could want.

He glanced down at the information for a windows laptop and nearly laughed out loud. A thousand gigabytes of space? He'd seen more on his flash drive. Granted, his flash drive was from Cain Labs and it was probably the most spacious one they had. X had all of his research on it, so he kept it on him at all times.

He glanced around. High speed cables, flash drives, cameras, speakers, recording devices, headsets; the list went on, but nothing really caught his interest. He was really just seeing what was available to the public in the ways of computer sciences. As a member of Cain Labs and technological wonder, he had been given an advanced laptop and anything he might need for free which included his own lab and a flash drive.

As he was inspecting a camera, there was a shout and a few familiar voices invaded his auditory receptors. He looked up from where he was standing in the back of the store and confirmed his suspicions.


"TONY! Why do you have to be such a nerd?!" Sam groaned as she and Mark were dragged into the tech store. Nicole followed loyally behind.

"BECAUSE I JUST AM AND SO ARE YOU SO JUST BE QUIET!" Tony shouted, causing the store manager to glare at him.

"WELL I'M NOT THIS NERDY AND WHY ARE WE SHOUTING!" Sam exclaimed.

"I DON'T KNOW BUT SHUT UP BEFORE WE GET KICKED OUT!"

Sam laughed and looked around the store muttering something about a techno geek. Her eyes widened when she recognized a brown haired teen at the back of the store.

"Hey Xavier!" Sam shouted and pretended to be completely oblivious to the glare Tony was giving her for speaking so loud. She waved to the green eyed teen who casually waved back.

Curious as to why 'Xavier' was in a tech store, the four went over to his location to find him looking at a camera. He seemed to be judging its worth.

"Heya Xavier, whatch ya doin' here?" Sam asked while Tony got distracted by a gaming system and wandered off. X shrugged.

"Just looking I guess. Don't really need anything here. There's nothing here that even compares in quality to the stuff at Cain Labs," X explained, but then immediately, internally winced at his mistake. He may have revealed too much information.

"Cain Labs?!" Tony asked excitedly, overhearing X. The teen's words had spiked an interest in Tony and he came right back over like a moth attracted to light. Tony glanced at X's shirt. "WAIT YOU WORK AT CAIN LABS! I THOUGHT YOU WERE HOMESCHOOLED!"

"Keep it down, Tony," Mark commented.

"Sure Dad," Tony sarcastically responded.

"Not really," X covered, trying not to be too quick as to give away his nervousness. "My guardian works there and I help them out with community service projects. I just finished one here a little bit ago." Which wasn't a lie. Tony nodded enthusiastically.

"That's wicked dude!" Tony said. He then became like an excited puppy. "Have you seen X?!"

"X?" Nicole asked. Tony turned around to explain to her.

"Yeah. Doctor Cain found this old android built by Doctor Light a hundred years ago in an underground lab. Apparently even though the android is a hundred years out of date, he's far more advanced than anything this world has ever seen!"

Nicole made an "o" with her mouth and Tony turned around to look at X again.

"So have you seen him?" the excited teen asked again. X internally panicked. This was the one conversation he wanted to avoid.

"Uh, yeah, I see him around every so often," X answered.

"What's he like?"

"Well, he's . . . interesting. He kind of acts a lot like a human would to certain things, but he avoids the public most of the time because of the attention he's been getting."

"Man, what I would give to meet him in person," Tony said blissfully. You already have, X's internal voice whispered.

"So do you think you can get me in there one day?! I'd love to check that place out. I hear there's some insane tech there," Tony asked. X scratched the back of his head.

"I'm not too sure I'd be able to get you in. I'd have to talk to one of the higher ups and even then our access would be limited," X said. Actually, it wouldn't be that hard considering he knew that Doctor Cain wouldn't have a problem with it and Doctor Cain was the owner and founder of Cain Labs.

"Ah man. Well one could only hope," Tony sighed.

"Isn't Cain Labs trying to get the government to mass produce robots?" Sam asked a dark expression on her face.

"Yeah? Why?" X asked. Sam sighed.

"It's nothing. I guess my family doesn't have a very high opinion of robots."

"How come?" X asked.

"Don't ask. Everyone in her family is really sensitive about the topic," Mark stated.

"It's fine. If he's going to be around a lot now, he should probably know," Sam said. "My family has always hated robots since my great grandparents were killed by a few of Doctor Light's robots that went crazy a hundred years ago. Nothing good will come of robots. There's gonna be a virus that breaks out and infects all of the robots, turning them crazy and causing them to kill people. And you know what? X is going to be just as much of an idiot as his predecessor was and he's going to fight these robots. And in the end, he'll go crazy too," Sam ranted. "He'll think he's all high and mighty cause he's an android and he'll fight the crazies. He may be stronger and faster than us humans, but he's nothing but a pile of bolts and wires when you come down to it. His feelings are artificial no matter how human he is. They're not genuine feelings, they're fake. X isn't a quantum leap above anything. He's just a computer that was programmed to respond to things differently. There's nothing human like about him. He's probably just some arrogant snobbish know it all who wants to be a hero."

"Blunt much Sam?" Tony asked.

To say X wasn't hurt would be a lie. X was very hurt. He did not speak for the next few minutes and struggled to hide his pain from the four. Sam however noticed his silence and sighed.

"Look Xavier, if you want to believe that X is human, that's fine. But I was raised to despise robots," Sam said.

"What? Uh, no. I'm not . . . it's not about that," X sputtered. Sam gave him an 'oh really look'. X glanced at his watch in a nervous attempt to find an excuse to get away. It was nearing nine o'clock. He should probably head back home anyways. "Oh, hey. I've gotta leave. Doc– erh- my guardian doesn't want me to stay up too late." Then X remembered Arcadia High and realized mentioning that might cover up his nervousness more. "And by the way. I was just enrolled into Arcadia High earlier today. My guardian's been pretty busy lately and I haven't been able to learn much from him. The work load isn't going to clear up anytime soon, so I guess I'll see you at Arcadia high sometime soon."

All four looked extremely happy at that news.

"That's great!" Tony said. The other three nodded in confirmation. X internally sighed in relief at their acceptance.

After talking a little bit more, he waved goodbye to the group of friends with a smile, but as he walked through the emptying hallways, he struggled to maintain the positive aura.

Sam's words echoed in his head along with his father's.

His feelings are artificial no matter how human he is.

That's why I'm afraid that mankind is not quite ready to accept you.

They're not genuine feelings, they're fake.

They might very well view your limitless evolutionary potential as something to be feared. The name X also carries connotations of danger.

X isn't a quantum leap above anything. He's just a computer that was programed to respond to things differently. There's nothing human like about him.

No, he could never reveal his true nature to his friends. It wasn't even a good idea for him to be in school. But he had already promised Doctor Cain that he would go. Perhaps a few months wouldn't hurt. But after that, he would have to leave.

X was silent as Doctor Cain drove them back to his house, Fredrick singing a random tune in the back. X noticed Doctor Cain giving him a few concerned glances, but he ignored them.

If not to be human, what was I built for? X thought. Ever since I was awakened, no even before that, people were telling me that I was designed to be human and communicate like a human would. If Sam was right and robots mean nothing but danger, why am I here? What was Doctor Light's purpose?

He felt his eyes grow hot and heavy and he turned to face the window. He hadn't even been aware that he had the ability to cry, but this revealed a new part of him that he wasn't sure he liked. It seemed that he was weaker than what everyone else had made him out to be.

"X, what's wrong?" Doctor Cain asked, sensing the android's dismay. Fredrick fell silent when he realized that X was in distress. He had realized that the android was quiet, but he had thought nothing of it until Doctor Cain spoke up.

X was very tempted to say that nothing was wrong, but that would have been lying and after everything the archeologist/scientist had done for X, he didn't deserve being lied to. "I don't know Doctor Cain. I ran into the four again and one of them, Sam, mentioned a few things that've been making me doubt myself I suppose."

"If I may ask, what did she say?"

"Well, she," X hesitated, processor scrambling to put the right words together in its distressed state. "She doesn't know that I'm X. None of them do and we . . .we met in the mall by some crazy stroke of luck and well, the subject was brought up when Tony saw my shirt. He basically asked if I'd seen X and what he was like and what not. Naturally, I didn't tell them the truth, but I didn't really lie either. Sam . . . she mentioned that her great grandparents were killed by some of my older siblings and her family has hated robots since. She . . . expressed her distaste for them and voiced her opinions on X . . . me."

"And?" Doctor Cain prodded. The news really wasn't all too shocking. Many people had been killed when had unleashed the program altered robot masters onto innocent cities. After a while, the world had truly hated the robot masters. It really wasn't very surprising to find that one family's hate had carried on through a few generations.

"Doctor Cain . . . are my feelings artificial?" X asked, turning to the old human. Doctor Cain tensed slightly and thought about it for a moment.

"If we are speaking in terms of organic or inorganic then yes, but if you really think about it, then the answer is no, scientifically speaking, and that's only if we're taking about the composition and chemical makeup of your head. That's not taking into account the fact that you're more human than any robot ever created before and you're a quantum leap above anything this world has ever produced in the way of technology. X, if we just think about the way that a human's head works and the way that your head works, it's really the same thing. It's just electricity and compounds and chemicals all working together to record things and react to different situations. They're both the same. They do the same thing, granted, your brain is quite a bit smaller and more efficient than a humans, but that's not the point."

"So no X, you're feelings are not artificial. Because spiritually, you're your own person and your feelings are felt just like every human on this planet. You react to things differently than other people around you because you're you. Just like how a murderer would laugh when the cat gets thrown out the window while a cat lover would cry," Doctor Cain explained. X slowly turned to stare at the doctor for his last statement. "My apologies that was a really bad example. Can I start over?"

"No Doc, you ruined it," Fredrick deadpanned. Doctor Cain shrugged.

"The point is X. You're different and that's what makes you special. You weren't built to be a copy of some random person Doctor Light found on the street. He built you to be special, to have your own feelings, and live your own life," Doctor Cain concluded. "Now as for this Sam person, let's hope her dislike for robots doesn't cause her to hate you too because she will find out. Women always find out." X and Fredrick just stared at Doctor Cain oddly as the scientist drove the car into the driveway and then turned engine off.

It was when he was laying down on his bed in Doctor Cain's house that he realized that both Fredrick and Sam had predicted the coming of a virus that would turn all of the soon to be reploids crazy.

Author's Note: No, updates won't be near this fast, but I've already had this chapter written for a while (3-4 months) and the amount of feedback I had gotten just within the last day shocked me. I decided to reward you all. I do have the next few chapters written, but after that, nothing much. I am working on it, but I've got thousands of other projects and school. Expect updates to be once a month on average. 5 thousand is a lot of words. And yeah, I know there is a lot of fluff and unrelated plot filler in the beginning. Just deal with it? There's a reason for a good portion of it that probably won't come into play for a really long time. There rest is just . . . to be honest I don't have an excuse for a lot of it, but most of it is just to give the story more flavor and make it different.

When will I actually get into the real plot?. . . outside of what I've posted, I'm just now finishing up with chapter 9 and I've only barely started tapping into the Megaman X game plot 's a little bit more I need to get done before I really start breaking into the plot, but it will probably be really close by chapter 12. First boss should be around 15 or 16 but that's a rough guess and I haven't really planned those chapters. I should probably do that. Most of what I have planned is beyond the first and second games so I'm probably going to keep on winging it until then. Winging it as in I have somethings planned but the rest of it I just stare at the screen till its like four hours past my bed time and then write in a tired sleepy state that makes everything I put down either completely crazy or actually legit. . . . that is admittingly how I've written most of this so far, so excuse anything weird.