"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." -Confucius
Cain labs had received a call just before midnight from an elderly man whose mechanaloid had malfunctioned. It didn't sound like a maverick case, but nonetheless X was dispatched with a warning to be careful. Turns out, the mechanaloid truly wasn't maverick; one of its wires had just shorted out and made it malfunction. It took X less than ten minutes to find and fix the problem. He stayed for another hour conversing with the owner, but left soon after that when the old man showed signs of exhaustion.
He was on his way home when he was nearly knocked over by somebody walking suddenly out of a bar. X steadied the man that had stumbled out and kept them both from falling over. The man was bent over so X didn't get a good look at his face.
"My apologiez," the man hiccupped and turned to look up at X, dull green eyes recognizing a familiar emerald after a few moments of thought. "X? Wad you doin here?" the man said, placing emphasis on the "here" as he swayed.
X blinked once, then twice as his optics recognized the human in front of him and relayed the information back to him.
"Tony?!" X asked in disbelief.
"Theeeee one and only. I'm gonna be Tony Stark. Tony Stark. Yah hear? You can be my second in command if you want, but I'm gonna be Tony Stark," the now identified Tony slurred. "I'm a gonna be a rich inventor. Rich, rich, rich."
"You are underage," X stated, completely bewildered that his friend was drunk.
"I'm not underage; I hacked the internet. I can be anything."
X was suddenly very concerned with the welfare of his friend. "Let's get you home. Where's your house?"
"SomeWHEEEERRRE over the rainbow! SomeWHEEREEE . . . I don't remember. Cats and dogs and somethin about scarecrows and tin people," Tony said.
"Your house, Tony. Where is it?" X asked.
"My house? It got picked up in that toooornado, don't you remember? It went up, up, up, up, and weeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
X sighed. He wasn't going to get anything out of his friend.
"I really liked that part where the donkey started dancing."
"Uh," X was completely at loss as to what to say.
"And then navy macffy, mikfeee, nany . . . this old lady made it snow and it was sooooo pretty."
"Um, tell me more about this donkey?" X urged, hoping to keep him distracted while he took him to Cain's house. He didn't know where Tony lived and he needed to get off the streets before he got caught and arrested. Cain was out on a trip anyways, so he shouldn't mind too much. Luckily, the house wasn't too far from here.
"The donkey? It was wearing clothes and makeup and it looked so pretty."
X nodded along, not entirely sure what was going on.
"Do you think pigs can fly, X? I think pigs can fly. So should the rest of the world. It would make life so much easier," Tony slurred.
"Why are you drunk, Tony?"
"It's better than trying to jump of a bridge. I did that once, but a police man tackled me. Broke my arm too. How dare he," Tony exclaimed. X suddenly grew extremely concerned for his friend's welfare. Tony had tried to commit suicide?!
It was thirty minutes before X had finally managed to get Tony to Cain's house and through the door. Immediately, X dragged the teen to the couch and made him sit down.
"A spoon full of sugAR makes the mediceen go down. The mediceen go dowwwwwwwwwn. The mediceen go DOWN!" Tony slurred sang. "What was the name of his other leg?"
X blinked at Tony as he forced the teen to lay down and covered him with a blanket.
"What?" As far as X knew, Tony's last two statements weren't even related.
"What was the name of his other leg?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"We need to get you to watch Mary Poppins," Tony stated. "And Wizard of Oz and Nanny Mcphee."
X bent over to push Tony down when the drunk teen tried to sit up.
"You need to lay down," X stated. Tony patted X's head.
"You're hair's soft. I'm a gonna ask Light how he makes hair like that," Tony slurred as he curled up on the couch.
"Uh huh, go to sleep Tony," X ordered. Within moments, the drunk teen was snoring on Cain's couch, blissfully unaware of the concern radiating off of his android friend.
Tony woke up with a massive headache and the need to empty all contents of his stomach. A person, who he barely recognized as X in his deliria, guided him to a foreign bathroom where he promptly let loose the pressure in his gut and halfway missed the rim of the toilet seat making a mess not only out of himself, but of area as well. The person, X – his head was so fuzzy he had to remind himself who it was that he saw earlier −, rubbed his back comfortingly but otherwise made no other action.
A pair of clothes was placed beside him and a cup of incredibly strong tea was shoved in his hands, X said something and left, closing the bathroom door beside him. Tony spent multiple moments looking at the tea in his hands and the clothes on the floor before determining that he was supposed to drink the tea and put on the clothes not the other way around. He should probably clean himself up a bit too.
It probably took him an hour to work through his massive headache enough to complete all three of the tasks given. He had fallen asleep for a moment after finishing the tea and X, knocking and coming to check on the teen who hadn't made a sound for the last twenty minutes, came to wake him up, saying something along the lines of Tony really needing to finish up and the cleaning droid needing to get in there pronto because apparently, it stunk.
When Tony finally managed to get out of the air offending bathroom, he was guided, gently but with no room for resistance, back to the couch, where more tea was placed in front of him and X, who Tony had designated as his mother hen at this point, bounced back between whatever chore he was doing and checking on Tony's health.
It was around noon when Tony regained enough brain power to realize that he had no idea where he was and how he got there.
"X?" Tony asked, his voice harsh. The android walked into the room and gave Tony a questioning glance. "This is probably going to sound really weird, but where am I?"
"My house, and by default, Cain's house."
Tony let the information process before continuing. "And why didn't you just take me home?"
X gave him an exasperated look. "I asked, but you were clearly smashed and you insisted that your house was, and I quote, over the rainbow after having been picked up by a tornado."
"Ah," Tony stated. "So I was quoting movie lines the entire time."
"From what I looked up, yes, you were quoting really old movie lines the entire time."
"I don't remember anything," Tony stated.
"You were pretty drunk. You could hardly even stand."
The two of them were silent for a moment.
"Thanks," Tony said. X nodded.
"Not a problem, but seriously, you're underage. I mentioned that to you earlier but the drunk you insisted that as a hacker, you could be anything."
Tony snorted. "Sounds like something I would say."
X was silent for a moment in thought before speaking.
"Tony, not all of what you said was movie quotes."
Tony raised an eyebrow in gesture for his friend to continue.
"You may have mentioned that you were suicidal," X stated. Tony winced. "Tony, I know this probably isn't the best time to ask you, when you're recovering and all, but I need to know."
"Oh god, I talked about that? Christ, that was years ago. I don't talk about that with anybody."
Tony looked up at X and blinked when he saw the android's horrified face. He sent an apologetic look in the android's direction. "Sorry, I was being a bit of a jerk there. I didn't realize how much this was scaring you. I'm not suicidal anymore. That was . . . eight-nine? years ago? Yeah something like that."
X's face morphed into a unique combination of both confusion and horror, causing Tony to chuckle a little bit.
"Relax. That was before I had something to poor all my frustration into," Tony stared at his hands for a moment and decided that it was probably for the best that he told X everything. "I'm not an only child like everybody thinks, though, it's better for me and well a lot of people if they continue to think that way. I had an old brother, well I still do, but he's no longer a part of my life. Hopefully. My parents saw him as a perfect child and they had me just about nine years after my older brother. Big age gap," Tony paused. "When I was younger, I always knew there was something different about my older brother. At first, I just thought it was normal, but my first week of kindergarten, I had figured out that the level of yelling and anger that radiated from my brother was just . . . not normal. When I turned seven things got more violent, he started beating me, calling me names, . . . this was all when my parents weren't home. And he made sure that I knew that he "loved me", that this was "for my own good" and that I better not tell mom and dad or else the beating tomorrow would be worse. He made me wear long sleeved clothes, just to hide the marks."
Tony leaned back against the couch. "As a child, I believed him. And then, just before I turned eight, he started telling me how I could make it all stop, just as I had begged him to during the beating. He described this nice big tall bridge nearby and that I could just jump off of it and I wouldn't feel any more pain. I told him that that would kill me. He responded with a "but it would get rid of the pain right?" . . . He started beating me more whenever my parents weren't looking. And then finally I had enough. But I guess an eight year old walking down the side of a highway is a little bit suspicious."
There was a resounding silence that penetrated the air after Tony had finished. X was sitting, in a nearby chair, with his eyes closed and his hands pressed firmly together in front of him.
"Uh, X?" Tony asked after the android had not spoken for several moments. X's eyes opened, revealing hardened emerald orbs. Tony blinked. In the months he'd known X, he had never seen the android so pissed off except maybe for that time Nicole had a beer bottle thrown at her.
"What. The. HELL," X growled out. "Did your parents ever find out what was going on?"
Tony nodded. "Police man took me to the hospital after breaking my arm. They asked for my name, I told them. Then they asked me to pull off my shirt. . . I refused at first and it took a lot of coaxing by the nurse to convince me to do so. My parents came in the room just about that moment, so they were there to see the marks. My mom instantly kneeled in front of me and asked who did it. Took her a while to get the answer from me. Dad went home and picked up my brother. When he saw me without my shirt on, he instantly lunged for me and started screaming at me. Kind of sealed the deal right then and there for him. My brother was smart, but sometimes he had his moments when his anger clouded his brain. He was arrested and taken away and I haven't seen him since. I heard he was nearly released a few years ago, but then he attacked a police guard in a fit of anger and they decided that maybe the therapy wasn't working as well as it seemed."
"Jesus Christ Tony," X sighed, rubbing his hand against his forehead. Tony smiled.
"Damn, if I knew that that was going to make you curse, I would have told you my sob story earlier."
"What the hell is wrong with your brother?!" X exclaimed. Tony shrugged.
"He is a really really REALLY angry child."
X snorted. "No joke . . . are you okay though?"
"Me? I'm fine now. That was years ago. Sometimes I have nightmares about it and looking at the scars gives me flashbacks sometimes, but—"
"Hold up, scars?! I thought you said they were beatings?!"
"He may or may not have pulled a knife on me a few times."
"If he comes back into your life, you let me know and I'll live at your house as a bodyguard, armor and all. I kick his butt if he so much as touches your shoulder."
Tony laughed. "Wow, I never thought I'd see the day that X threatens to harm somebody. Protective much?"
"I'm being serious Tony."
"I know, but this is my way of coping with it. It brings back so many bad memories when I talk about it that joking around every once in a while is the only way I can get through a full sentence without panicking. It's okay now though, seriously. I pore all of my brain power into my studies so that I don't have to think about it too much."
X frowned. "Have you ever considered seeing somebody about this?! I've been told I'm good with words sometimes, but I'm no therapist."
"I did see somebody, the first few years, but I wasn't very cooperative at first because I was still scared of my brother and when I did talk, it didn't really help much."
X groaned into his hands.
"Seriously X, I'm fine now though," Tony insisted.
"I had to carry you to my house from a bar, Tony!"
Tony shrugged. "Yeah, that's all my dad's fault."
X gave him an exasperated look.
"Because the therapist wasn't working, my dad gave me alcohol to try and get rid of the bad memories. I got hooked on the stuff. My parents don't know I still drink."
X cursed again. "You're underage."
Tony sighed. "I know."
"There's a reason the law says no drinking till you're twenty one."
"I know."
X breathed in deeply and exhaled. The two of them were silent for a moment before X spoke up again.
"How often do you get flashbacks of your brother?"
"Not very often and it's not bad. I can usually pull myself out of it as soon as it starts. Spending so much time with friends has really helped too, even if Nicole's dad makes me remember more than I'd like."
"Then why drink?"
"It's an addiction at this point. I don't really need it. But I . . . I need it at the same time. Does that make sense?"
"Based on what the pod crammed in my head on human psychology and health, yeah, it does. However, that doesn't mean that this can continue," X paused. "The next time you feel like drinking or anything the least bit negative or self-destructive, you call me or knock on my door or just let me know and we'll go get a shit ton of ice cream or binge watch anime or I don't know, raid a candy store. Anything as long it's not harmful."
"Eating a crap load of junk food and sitting on my butt watching tv is harmful."
X gave a halfhearted glare in Tony's direction. "Tony."
"What?"
"Promise."
Tony sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, I promise."
"Good." X relaxed his body easing into the chair and Tony blinked. He wasn't aware that X had been so tense and it was a shock at how much the android relaxed as soon as the problem was resolved. For brief moment, Tony was struck with awe at how human like Doctor Light had made him.
Tony smiled and leaned into the couch. He was glad he met X. The android was still learning and he didn't handle every situation perfectly, but for not even being a year old, he was pretty damn good at it. Not to mention that the android seemed to be fiercely determined to protect every one he held dear. And that included Tony.
"Hey X?" The android looked up at him. "Thanks."
X's face softened and he smiled. "No problem."
Cain knew something was wrong. He had spent months on Sigma's programming so of course he knew that the "rage flashes" as he liked to call them were not a part of Sigma's original programming. They had started ever since Sigma had returned from his fight with Zero and Cain feared the worse.
Sigma was infected with the maverick virus. He was just about sure of it now. But there was nothing he could do. Scratch that. There was something he could do, but he refused to do it. He refused to admit that his most prized invention had fallen victim to a mere virus. He refused to allow his plan, of which Sigma was such a critical part to, to collapse when he was so close to achieving victory.
And yet, he could not ignore the fact of the matter that somehow the coding within Sigma's programming that told him to study X and eventually disable the android in order to study it more closely turned into a study X so that you can kill him later.
Cain wondered for a moment if this maverick virus was really just a negative enhancement of the robot's most desired wishes. It influenced the now maverick to achieve their previously sane selves' wishes by force without any concern for the welfare of others around it. And for reploids, prejudice seemed to be a theme.
He could only hope that maybe it wasn't the virus at all and simply continuously explaining to the reploid about X's worth and the need for the android to remain alive would prevent any future instances.
Author's Note: I'm sorry this took so long and I'm sorry it's not the right length, but honestly, I'm really tired of staring at this chapter. I wrote the first half of this before the whole deal with my friend happened and for the longest of times, I really did not want to deal with it. It got too personal. I rewrote just about all of it later on, when the friend issue wasn't so fresh in my head, and decided that yeah, I still wanted to talk about this, but I made it less sensitive for me to write.
Long story short, SAT, friend issues, AP tests, and finals with track meets mixed in with all of that. In that order, one after the other. As soon as I got done with one thing, I started to deal with another, so I apologize for the wait. Now that it's summer, it should be easier for me to write, but there's really no guarantee.
I'm sorry for any errors or inconsistencies, but because it was summer when I finished this, I could not give it to my editor. She lost her phone so I have no way of contacting her.
My turtle's sick or something now too. Which is really upsetting because I've had her since I was five (I know its a girl because she lays eggs in the fall). But her nose is really red and swollen. She eats fine, hungry all the time, so it's probably not an illness and she just got hurt or something. Part of me wonders if it's stress, because there's a crap load of guppies in her tank because she hasn't been eating them so what started with five, is now 200. I'm worried if she's overwhelmed by too many tank companions, but I seriously have no place to put these guppies other than flushing them down the toilet, but my sister would kill me if I did that. She likes the guppies a little bit too much. It's a fifty gallon tank so the guppies aren't too bad, but it's still a concern and she does still chase them around the tank, she's just slow and they're smart. Which is ironic because I named my turtle Speedy . . . . don't ask, I was five.
Long story short, does anybody know what the swollen red nose means? It's not swollen too badly, but it still makes me worry. I feed her everyday and I give her shrimp and lettuce to go along with the food pellets and she eats all of that. Not to mention, she has the guppies to snack on. Plus, I just cleaned her tank. And she has a rock to perch on (she does yoga when she thinks I'm not watching) and a cave to hide in (she knocks it over all the time though. It makes me mad) and a light to sunbath in. And a filter.
I let her outside on the lawn when it's warm enough. We don't treat our lawn so there's no chemicals and she likes that. She always hisses at me when I go to take her back inside. She doesn't do that when I take her from her tank. I watch her when she's outside too to make sure she doesn't eat anything she's not supposed to. I've had her for twelve years and this is the first time she's appeared to be even remotely not looking well, so I'm concerned. I don't pick her up very often, only that once a week occurrence in the summer when I take her outside or if I'm cleaning her tank and need to move her.
