"Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone."-Anthony Burgess

January 3rd: The new reploids have been running off the assembly line for several weeks. It's amazing how easily they have been able to adapt to even the most difficult jobs. It still is a bit odd to see them working side by side with humans, but everyone seems to be happy to accept them. (From the Journal of Doctor Cain)

It had been a little over a month since X had started school. He had discovered that he practically knew nothing about English and grammar and had been taking extra tutoring lessons with after school to catch up. So far he didn't think that anyone other than Doctor Cain and Agent Carson whom he hadn't seen ever since he left her on the balcony, knew that X and Xavier were one and the same.

Things seemed to be looking up. Tensions in reploids working in Cain labs who had been worried about the world's acceptance towards their kind, disappeared when reploid manufacturing started at full tilt and the general populace was happy to accept them. Even Fredrick had relaxed considerably when the reploid manufacturing began and X had begun to see less and less of the reploid who had apparently gotten a job at a mailing industry and was, as he put it, self-sufficient.

X remained with Doctor Cain. Carson's worries had long since slipped from his mind somewhere in the months' time. At first, he had given her warnings some thought, but all other pondering had been shot down over time as X became even more convinced that Doctor Cain was trustworthy.

Unfortunately, though, there had been several reploid disappearances throughout the area. There had been no sign of the reploids since then and it had placed many into a state of worry. However, constant reassurances that the missing reploids probably just got too busy to report in convinced them otherwise.

X's friends only became more insistent on his devotion and attention to the group and their bonds only grew stronger. X was officially welcomed into the small band of outcasts and had spent a lot of time with them over the last month, much of it, at the library.

Nicole had insisted that X should join them more often and soon X was accompanying Sam, Mark, and Tony in the evenings, rescuing Nicole from the foul pit that was her family. When they first introduced X to Nicole's family, to say X was upset was an understatement, especially considering he had witnessed her getting a beer bottle thrown at her as she ran out the door in fear and her father figure spat out words that X knew for a fact were banned in several countries.

For the first time in X's life, he had no problem arming his X-buster and pointing it at somebody.

However, that would have blown his cover and he wasn't quite ready for that. That and it would shatter whatever trust the world had in reploids and it would be harming a human something he told himself he would try his best not to do.

It was because of this growing bond between them that X found himself walking home, next to them, late at night, after watching a ten o'clock movie. It was Sam that convinced the others to cut through the construction site in order to half their travel time and get home sooner. The night was freezing given that it was early January and they, excluding X, found it rather unbearable and wanted to get home faster. X found the temperature enjoyable because it meant that he didn't have to worry about overheating.

Just as they were passing beneath the skeleton of some sort of bridge between the two unfinished buildings deep in a rather large construction site (X found the size to be alarming and wondered why the crew didn't just finish one part at a time), X's scanners picked up somebody nearby and his systems instantly went into high alert. Why his scanners didn't pick the life source up sooner, he didn't know. And that concerned him.

"Hold up guys, there's somebody nearby!" X warned. There was a soft rustle behind him and X's eyes widened. When did the life source get behind him?

"That's right reploid," a voice behind him hissed. X began to turn around, but something connected with the base of his neck and his vision went black as his entire body went into a forced shut down.

Sam whirled around to face the green suited man behind them. Her eyes widened as she watched X fall to the ground with a heavy thud, the back of his neck sparking as a small piece of metal stuck out of it.

She didn't recognize the attacker. His features were partially hidden by a green bandana and a pair of sunglasses. The man had a rifle in his hand, which he slung on his back. She guessed that it was only used for stunning; either that or it only had one shot. He wore a dark green vest and pants and there was an odd emerald like badge on his chest. There was a pistol hanging in a holster from the man's belt. Sam recognized the device to be an energy gun. Energy guns were rarely allowed to be handled outside of the military or police. Before, it was only allowed in the military, but ever since reploids began manufacturing, there was an increase in police armed with energy or even rarer plasma guns, just to reassure the population that wasn't too sure of having robots walking among them. However, energy guns were still far too dangerous to be allowed in modern households. Ever since the United Countries declared world peace and unity twenty years ago there had been no need for citizens to arm themselves with that kind of weaponry. If a bullet wound from an energy gun didn't kill you, it would take far longer to heal then a gun with metal bullets. The energy shot burned and completely destroyed any cell it came into contact with. The body would have to work around thousands of dead cells to even begin healing.

Which meant that if the man in front of her legally owned that gun, he would have to be part of the police force or military. But then, why did he shoot Xavier?

"Who are you and what do you mean reploid?! Xavier isn't a reploid!" Sam explained. Mark moved to stand protectively next to Sam and in front of Nicole. He didn't trust the man and allowed Tony to step forward to check on X. Mark's job was to look intimidating and Sam did the talking. After all she sounded far more demanding and enforcing than any one of them combined. For a few seconds, Tony seemed to panic as he ran his hands over X's wrist and neck, typical spots where one would check for a pulse.

"Sam, there's no pulse," Tony said weakly as he looked up at her. Mark reached behind him to grasp Nicole's hand to keep her from freaking out. However, she appeared far calmer than he'd expected.

"You killed him?!" Sam exclaimed whirling on him in a fit of anger. While she hadn't known Xavier for nearly as long as she had the others, a friend was still a friend. And she liked Xavier. There was something about him that made her feel safe despite his small size and weight.

The man laughed. It was a twisted sort of laugh, one that caused chills to run down your spine. Nicole shuddered, reminded if only for a moment of her own household.

"I'm surprised . I would have thought that since your family is an active supporter of the Emerald Spears, they would know better than to allow a robot to deceive them."

Sam's first reaction was to be weirded out as she found it rather creepy that the man knew who she was. But then her eyes widened in shock as the rest of the man's words sunk in. "No, that's impossible. Xavier can't be a robot. He has emotions."

"Reploids were built to deceive my lady. Tell me, have you ever ranted about robots before?" the man asked. Sam froze.

"That day. At the mall. . . I insulted robots and he. . . he looked . . ."

"Hurt," Tony finished as he looked up at Sam. Sam shook her head.

"No . . . Xavier is a robot?" Sam whispered, hurt. Why didn't he tell them?

"Oh yes my dear, complete with a titanium frame and an I.C. chip. Shall I finish him off now?" the man asked. He pulled the energy gun from its holster and pointed it at X's head.

"NO!" Nicole shouted from behind Mark. The others turned to look at her.

"X-Xavier never meant us any harm. He just wanted to be like us!" Nicole said. The man laughed.

"Megaman never meant us any harm either, but his kind damn near wiped the entire planet out so he was destroyed. The same thing shall happen to this hunk of junk," the man said, kicking X's head and reaiming the gun. A soft groan emanated from X and Tony backed away from the reploid, startled. The man looked down at X in shock.

"What the hell? That's impossible! He should have been out for another hour at least!" the man screamed.


As soon as X's primary systems were forced offline, a secondary set snapped into action, scanning and assessing the damage and what in Light's name had caused it. This system immediately forced thousands of microscopic nanites within X's body to wake up and fix. It then began constructing a quick blue print of an upgrade that would prevent the problem from ever happening again. Its bearer had been offlined in a hostile situation. That was a big no no. X needed to be up and running five minutes ago. The X-Factor was screaming at the nanites to hurry up, because at any second X's attacker would finish him off and that was not something the X-factor was willing to accept. While X's soul was the boss of everything that happened in his body while he was conscious, the X-Factor took control after he had been offlined. After all, Doctor Light had placed a threat analyzer in the system so that it would know when things were dire. And boy were things dire. Offlined, with no armor on whatsoever, with a hostile in the area? The X-Factor imagined that it couldn't possibly get any worse.

So of course X reawoke a few minutes later with his systems screaming at him and his nanites scrambling to set up a defensive shield that would prevent the electromagnetic discharge that had knocked him out earlier from ever knocking him out again.

It was a quick fix, his systems told him, but it was necessary. They would make him a more permanent one later, but right now, X had to get his metallic rear end in gear and get out of that nasty little situation he'd gotten himself into.

X groaned and ordered his systems to shut up and stop screaming at him. Why did Doctor Light build him with such a defensive little system in him? The X-Factor, he concluded, was annoying when it was placed in a situation it didn't like. But, he had to admit, it sure was useful.

He forced his arms into motion and pushed himself to his feet, nearly ignoring a man's shouts beside him as he tried to sort through all the status reports the X-Factor had rather rudely shoved in his face.

"That's impossible? What the hell are you? You're a reploid right? This worked on all the other reploids we've dismantled!"

Now that made X refocus on the matter at hand, something the X-Factor was very pleased with him doing. Its boss was finally assessing the situation.

"You're responsible for the missing reploids?" X growled. The man nodded.

"Well not just me, but the Emerald Spears! We live to free our world from the evil clutches of robot kind!" the man shouted.

"We haven't done anything!" X shouted.

"You reploids haven't, not yet, but you soon will! The robot masters were the same way after all!"

"We're different! You can segregate us because of something a completely different species did in the past!" X exclaimed. This wasn't reasonable! But then, he realized, the Emerald Spears were a terrorist group. They didn't have to be reasonable.

"You're all robots. You're not a different species!"

"Robot masters weren't designed from human interaction and replication like reploids were. They don't have the same emotional processing systems and they don't have the same empathy units. It's harder for them to be human because they weren't designed like that! Reploids are designed with the ability to think, act, and feel just like a human!"

"Why does that matter? And what are you? Like I said, that worked on all the other repoids. You spoke as if you weren't a reploid. Now I'll ask again reploid, what are you?" the now identified terrorist growled. X blinked as the anger in him dissipated as he was faced with a new challenge, trying to admit what he was in front of a group of people he had been hiding from for the past couple of months.

"I, uh . . ." he started. He heard a shuffle behind him and turned to see Tony looking at him as he got to his feet with his mouth open in awe and amazement.

"You're not a reploid are you?" Tony asked. X solemnly shook his head. Tony grinned. "Holy crap dude! This is so cool!"

"Tony, what-?" Sam started. Tony turned to her.

"Don't you get it?" At Sam's confused stare, he continued. "Remember when we met X in that gas station and Nicole had that really weird look on her face and she overfilled her cup?"

"Um yeah?" Sam said.

"We're all dumbasses! Nicole figured it out way before us, and it's so simple. He didn't even try to hide it!"

X sighed. He really hadn't. After all, he'd used a name that started with the same letter and his father's last name. . . And kept on wearing blue.

"Am I right?" Tony said, looking back at X.

"You're right," he said. Sam looked at him for elaboration. "I didn't try to hide it from you guys, I just didn't release any extra information to you. After your rant at the mall, I . . . was unsure of your reaction. So I didn't say anything."

"See?!" Tony exclaimed.

"Tony, just get to it already, you're not making any sense," Sam grumbled.

"Xavier Light. Oh come on! Xavier isn't a reploid! He's an-!" Tony was cut off as the realization hit Sam full force.

"Android," she muttered, her eyes widening. Frustration filled her as she realized that a robot had been posing as her friend all this time.

"As much as I'd had to break this rather pitiful little revelation up, an android? Seriously? But that would mean this hunk of junk over here is . . . Doctor Light's last creation," the terrorist stated as the realization hit him as well. A soft glow emanated from X as his blue armor materialized around him.

"Surprise," X stated as he spread his arms out wide. The man raised his gun and immediately began firing energy blasts at the android who covered his face with his arms and rolled out of the way.

"What are you doing?!" X shouted. "You're going to get somebody hurt!"

"You're a menace and a threat to society! You started this whole mess by just existing! Maybe if I take you out of the equation, reploids won't be able to advance enough to be a problem!" The man continued to fire at X, whose armor seemed to be relatively unfazed by the blasts except for a few scorch marks and dents.

"That doesn't make any sense!" X exclaimed. There was nothing more Doctor Cain could use from X's systems to advance reploid kind. X was just some sort of massive code that Cain had yet to crack. A code that was useless without the solution.

Realizing that just shooting wasn't working, the man switched targets, firing at the shorter auburn haired one in the front.

The attack was unexpected and Tony's reactions weren't fast enough to dodge. He cried out as pain exploded in his leg and he fell to the ground.

"Tony!" the group cried out as both Sam and Mark both reached out to their friend to catch him as he fell. Nicole whimpered in fear from behind. She'd faced guns before, but nobody she was close to had ever gotten hurt. And her father hadn't been armed with an energy gun. Normal guns didn't kill as easy . . . right?

X stepped forward, face filled with concern. But the terrorist whirled on him still pointing the gun at his friends.

"Don't move! If you move, I'll shoot!" he warns. X freezes.

"What the hell?!" Sam screamed turning to face the man in cold fury. "Why did you do that?!"

"Because I didn't bring the equipment to fight a 'roid. This dumb bot seems to care about you, so I figured targeting you would be easier," he explained. He turned to X, still keeping his gun trained on the four.

"Disarm your weapon!" he ordered. X blinked and held his hands up.

"It's not even activated!" he protested. The man growled at him.

"But you can activate it within seconds! Disarm your weapon!" he argued. His finger tightened on the trigger and X raised his left hand in a sort of 'calm down' gesture and left his right one fall to his side, limp.

There was a pop and a hiss as his lower right arm, armor and all, dislocated from the rest of his arm and fell to the ground with a clang. The man looked at him shocked.

"You can take off your arm just like that?" he asked. X sighed.

"Look, I don't know why it does that either, but yes. Maybe it's for easier maintenance?" he said. The man grinned at him and turned to the group again.

"Well I'd hate to end the life of the daughter of such loyal supporters, but I can't let anybody find out who's been doing all this so in short, goodbye," the man stated.

"NO!" X shouted. But the man didn't seem to hear him. He raised his gun which had fallen slightly in his earlier shock and pointed it at the group still frozen in fear. Sam closed her eyes when she saw the man's finger tighten around the trigger and waited for the inevitable high pitched noise of an energy gun firing and the searing pain that followed.

It came, but it was much louder and lower than what she had expected. A voice cried out in pain, but it didn't come from her. Nor did it come from any of her friends. She'd known them for years; she would know.


X stared on in horror as the man raised his gun back up and aimed it at his friends. There's no other way that this can be solved without violence. Nothing I say can make him stop. It's a good thing he bought the act and I prepared for this, he thought as he raised his left hand. My only hope is that I can do this without killing him. There was a brief flash of blue light as his arm, everything from his elbow to his hand, glowed and morphed into a round and rather large cannon. The famous Mega Buster. Except, this wasn't a Mega buster. No, this was an upgraded version, the X Buster. Of course Doctor Light named every substantial weapon or system in him after his name. 'Cause why not? He'd named his robotic twins Rock and Roll after all. Besides, he built the most impressive technology for his time; he was allowed to be a little corny right?

He aimed, trying to keep his arm steady without the use of his other hand and prayed that the little training he'd gotten in the pod would pay off and the fact that he didn't have a second hand to steady it wouldn't hinder him too badly. He felt the internal components in his buster heating up and priming before they let lose a devastating shot. And then, just as the Emerald Spears member tightened his finger on the trigger, X fired. A large 'pow' following with it. His arm jerked backwards as the energy shot out from the tip of the cannon at a ferocious speed. It was the first time he had fired his buster since he had been woken up by Doctor Cain. And while deep down he hoped it was going to be his last, he had a feeling that wasn't going to be the case.

The man cried out in pain as the large energy blast impacted with his hand and his gun clattered to the ground, damaged where it was closest to where the blast hit. X winced. He had aimed only for the man's gun, but it appeared that his aiming was a bit off. He grimaced as the man wailed at him.

"Monster! You took out my arm!" he screamed, turning on X who still held his buster out in front of him. The man gulped when he saw that the internal components to the buster were still glowing and that the outer rim of the gun was smoking very faintly as the internal components were hot enough to vaporize even the particles in the air. That meant that the robot in front of him could fire at any moment, the weapon was already prepped. There would be no delay this time.

"I was aiming for your gun," X muttered ashamedly. Sam and the others opened their eyes to see the man who had been trying to kill them, cradling his hand and staring at X in anger. X shot him! Sam realized. X can hurtpeople?!

"You took out my entire hand you faulty bot! Where the hell are your three laws?! And I thought you disarmed your weapon?!" the man screamed, his previous fear covered up and replaced with anger.

"I disarmed my right one," he said. "But I didn't trust you enough to disarm both and you seemed convinced that I only had one."

"And your three laws?!" he demanded. X hesitated.

"I . . . don't have any. . . Doctor Light thought that it restricted my free will." Sam resisted the urge to gasp. No three laws?! Was Doctor Light insane?! There was no way civilization would accept something that could potentially be so dangerous! The three laws prevented robots from harming or disobeying humans. Without the three laws, they would be allowed to do whatever they pleased. Even if it meant wiping out all of humanity.

"You don't have any?!" the man hissed. The group of friends watched the discussion with amazement. "I should have destroyed you when I had the chance earlier! You're too dangerous to be kept alive!"

"Look, it's not my fault that I wasn't programmed with them."

"Well, reprogram them in you then!"

"I can't. Not that I would want to. I'd rather not spend my days serving people like you. But I can't get reprogrammed. It was the way I was built. I'm completely immune to viruses. Nothing inside of me can be altered by an outside force."

"Argh! I suppose you're going to kill me now aren't you?" the man asked. X blinked at him.

"Why would I kill you?" he asked, completely puzzled.

"Because you're a robot! All robots are evil and do not deserve to exist!"

"Where is all of this coming from?! What evidence do you have to back this up?!" X yelled angrily. The blatant prejudice infuriated him. There was nothing that the man had said that defended his claims. It pissed X off.

"Evidence? Perhaps it's because robots have taken thousands of lives in the past!"

"And yet you humans have taken billions upon billions of themyourselves! Alright fine, we've killed a few people, but that doesn't justify the extermination of an entire race! Not to mention that most of the lives we took, we didn't take willingly! We can't change our programming! That's one of the many things that keeps us apart from you humans. We can't change. We would if we could. But we can't. And alright, we're defensive over our existence. But look at it from our perspective. We're being hated and destroyed by the very thing that created us! Don't you'd think that would validate some sort of hurt, anger, and confusion?!" X paused in his rant as the humans before him looked on in shock. "We don't want to be different. We want to fit in. We don't want to live in fear just because of something that happened a hundred years ago. And you know what? It wasn't even our fault. The robot masters were reprogrammed by Wily, a human. If Wily hadn't been ordering them around, they wouldn't have laid a single finger on any human! You say we're monsters, but we're no more monsters than our creators! And our creators are human!"

Sam blinked as she slowly came to realize what sort of mindset her and her parents had. It was prejudice. Pure and simple. Because while the surface of her mind was still following her parent's teachings, deep down inside, she knew X was right. He was right. Mankind had used robots as a sort of punching bag. A scapegoat to take all their anger for what Wily had done out on. And they had exterminated them. Megaman, the world's robotic hero, had been executed because of it, the other robot masters disappearing soon after.

And yet Doctor Light still hadn't given up. Here was his last creation, standing before her, slightly banged up because he was trying to save her life. And here she was being an ungrateful little snob and hating him for trying to be her friend.

X was her friend, she realized. He had not done anything to harm any of them in the past few weeks. Nicole trusted him and Nicole barely trusted anybody. She had known X was a robot for weeks now and yet she still trusted him. Not to mention that X was far more human that any robot she had ever heard of. Her parent's claim that robots didn't have any emotions was incorrect. Sam could still recall the hidden hurt on X's face that day at the mall.

I'd better start living up to my promise to never leave those I view as friends alone then, she thought determinedly as she got to her feet, leaving Tony under Mark's care.

"What does it matter if we created you?! You have betrayed your creators! You deserve to be destroyed!" The man picked up the gun and raised it with his uninjured hand, only to get it kicked out of his hand by an attacker from the side. He looked in shock to see Sam, glaring at him with her foot still lifted from when she used it to disarm the man.

"I'd appreciate if you'd stop hurting my friends," Sam hissed. "Because I made a promise to never leave them alone, so there's no way I'm going to let Xavier face you by himself. He's too soft to do much more damage anyways."

"WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING IT?!" the man screamed at her.

"It, has a name and whether it is X or Xavier, human or robot, I don't care," Sam growled giving the man a rather harsh welcoming to her fist. The man fell down with a thud, his sunglasses falling nearby. Sam turned to X and spoke before he had a chance to. "Put your arm on. It's really creepy seeing only half your arm."

X grinned at her as his buster reverted back into his normal hand and he picked up his fallen right one, putting it back into place with a series of clicks. Sam looked back down at the Emerald Spears member as he groaned and turned to face up at her.

"I should have shot you first," the terrorist muttered. "What's with this blatant defense of a robot? Your family knows good and well what those things can do!"

"Just because they can, doesn't mean they will. Xavier is right. Humans are just as, if not more, dangerous than robots," Sam bent down so that she was staring into the man's now exposed hazel eyes. "Besides, the Emerald Spears is a terrorist group. We're not supposed to give them what they want."

"A terrorist group that your parents support," the man argued. Sam shrugged.

"I never said I agreed with their choices. Besides, they only support the destruction of robots. Once I tell them that you have been attacking humans too, I'm sure they'll reconsider their choices," Sam said. "And since Xavier over here seems to be so good at politics and convincing people, heck, I might even get them to convert to robot supporters. I can see the beginnings of a con artist in him."

"I do not manipulate people like that," X grumbled.

"Hush up," Sam ordered. "Now I'm going to call the police and you're going to sit there nice and pretty." She pulled her rarely used cell phone out of her pocket and backed away from the man who dared not move with X having both of his weapons and him being completely disarmed. Lifting it to her ear, she spoke.

"Dial police," she said and was silent for a few more moments before she spoke again. "Yeah we've got an Emerald Spears member here. He shot my friend and nearly killed me and a few others. Could you come pick him up?"

The man glared at her, but then stared nervously at X who had moved slightly closer. Neither one of X's busters were activated, but the threat still stood. X's reaction time was far faster and more accurate than the human. At this point there was nothing the man could do.

However, he did know that he would much rather take a risk then get taken in by the police. If he ran, his chances were just about none and the robot might kill him, but he didn't care.

With that in mind, the man got to his feet and bolted, a split second later, X took off after him. He couldn't let the man get away, not when the man might harm Sam and the others later to get to him.

The man apparently knew his way better than X and had managed to squeeze through a pair of beams X wasn't expecting. The android was forced to shoot to the side and struggle through a maze of half completed cement blocks, wooden platforms, and beams. He would have done fine and caught up to the terrorist if he hadn't caught his foot on something and came crashing, rather pitifully, to the ground. Pulling, himself up and spitting out a few leaves, he tried to make up for lost time. The mistake prevented X from catching up to the man, as he was unaccustomed to traveling at high speeds through a maze of obstacles.

The runaway's luck disappeared when he hit the road. In a burst of speed, X managed to catch up and knock the man over, a bit irritated with himself for allowing the man to get so far. He kneeled on the man to keep him down and prevent him from repeating the action. It wasn't long before the police's hover cars and one ambulance, pulled to a halt in front of the duo, the bright lights causing X's optics to scramble to adjust.

Both human and reploid police officers tumbled out of their vehicles, a bit shocked as to who was currently apprehending the Emerald Spears member. The hesitation was brief though and they quickly took over for the android who informed them that there was a human that had been shot with an energy gun in the leg further in the construction site. With that being said, a first responders quickly guided a floating stretcher in the direction X pointed them to, a field doctor following behind.

A second doctor stayed behind to treat the Emerald Spears member's hand. X grimaced at the sight. While his blast wasn't strong enough to take out the man's entire hand, it might as well have been. Just about all of the man's fingers had been rendered useless; the thumb had been spared as it had been on the other side of the gun, which had taken whatever was left of the attack. What was still left of the man's fingers would have to be amputated and replaced with metal, robotic ones. X would have chuckled at the irony if he hadn't been feeling so downright awful about the ordeal.

The police waited until Sam and the others had been guided out of the site and checked over for injuries. Deeming all but Tony, who was rushed to the hospital, to be okay, they allowed them to wander. Sam though, was the first to be released and she walked up to X who was sitting and holding his head on his hands on a fallen log on the side of the road, watching the chaos in front of him with a guilt stricken face.

She sat beside him and was about to speak but the android beat her to it.

"I'm sorry," he said. Sam turned to him.

"For what?"

"For not telling you guys and lying to you. . . . and for everything that's happened tonight," he answered, his voice shaking. Sam shrugged.

"It's alright. We get it. I'm still a little upset that you lied to us for so long, but it makes sense. If somebody walked up to me and told me that they were a robot, I probably would have walked away right then and there. And I if was somebody like Tony, I would have fawned over you. I get it, you didn't want the attention. Besides, you saved our lives tonight."

"But I was the one that put you in danger," X argued.

"To be honest X, I don't think any of us care. Nor do we regret ever being your friend. And Tony? Forget him. He's the happiest kid in the whole wide world right now, just because he discovered he's friends with the X. Before, he would have gladly shot himself in the leg just to get a chance to talk to you. Now that he knows who you are, well, you just made his day."

X smiled at the thought as Nicole and Mark were both released and they walked over to join X.

"What happened to your face?" Mark asked. X blinked. His face? He brought a gloved hand up to it and the sensors on it picked up a powdery like substance that rubbed off when he brushed up against it. Dirt.

X's face went red as he recalled the brief moment in his memory in which his face connected with the ground.

"You fell, didn't you?" Sam asked, nearly bursting with mirth. X huffed and glared at her briefly.

"I'm not used to chasing people," he grumbled.

"But you have better eyesight than us and you still fell," Mark argued. X frowned.

". . .It's dark out . . ," X countered. There was a brief moment of silence before Sam could no longer hold in her laughter. Mark and Nicole joined soon after.

"You have better senses than us and you fell! You got beat by a human!" she howled. X grumbled to himself and went red as a couple of police officers turned to look back at them in confusion.

"Keep it down would you?" X pleaded. Sam ignored him.

"Your face is redder than my dad's Ferrari and that's saying something!" Sam teased. X continued to grumble and buried his face in his hands. "Oh come on. We're only playing X."

"I know," X replied, but still refused to show his face. Sam laughed and gave him a good pat on the shoulder. They sat in silence for a bit before a police man walked up to them.

"We can take you all home now," he said and then turned to X. "Do you have some way of getting back to Cain labs without getting targeted again? We don't know if there's more out there."

X nodded. "Yeah, I can teleport there."

After a few brief goodbyes to Sam and the others, X disappeared in a flash of blue, the signature whistle of a teleportation sounding as he did.

With a sigh of relief and exhaustion, X materialized back in Cain labs, right behind Doctor Cain, who appeared to be working overtime.

"You teleported back?" the scientist asked, not bothering to turn around as he already knew it was X.

"Yeah, I ran into some trouble," X stated. Doctor Cain frowned in confusion.

"Trouble?" The old man turned around to see X in his armor, complete with several dozen scorch marks and dents. "Trouble?! X! Those are the marks of an energy gun!"

"Yeah, I ran into an Emerald Spears member," X explained. Cain's eyes narrowed in thought.

"Emerald Spears, eh?"

"Yep. . . it turns out that they were the ones responsible for the missing reploids."

Cain paused and stroked his beard in thought. He then looked back at X.

"What happened to your face?" the scientist asked.

Once again, X recalled his chase through the construction site and his face turned an alarming shade of red.

Author's Note: I think I went what to fast with converting to the Sam is a robot believer bit. I don't like it, but I looked at the word count and how far I was away from getting to the real good plot and decided that moving a bit fast for a minor character was okay. It didn't bother my editor so I'm assuming it's not as bad as I see it. Then again, she's not involved in the franchise so she doesn't have the same feels. So yes, I understand that it was entirely too fast. If it bugs you people too much, I can add another chapter between that might help, but that will require a whole bunch of moving around chapters at this point.