Chapter Two - Infiltration and Doubt...

Maverick Hunter Headquarters is, without a doubt, one of the most secure facilities in the world. Protective shields allow only registered hunters to beam in, a multitude of scanners are used to detect even the faintest trace of the Maverick Virus, and the largest force of armed reploids mean total destruction to any maverick that would try to infiltrate the base. -Promotional brochure 'MHHQ and the Maverick Hunters'

I landed a few hundred yards away from MHHQ, it wouldn't do to try to warp past their defenses. I hid my helmet in some bushes and walked to the main entrance. Inside the lobby I encountered a security guard that looked like he had one too many shifts where nothing happened.

He looked up at me, sighed, and said, "welcome to MHHQ. What is the nature of your visit," he droned. It was easy to tell he didn't appreciate being placed on guard duty.

"I'm here to become a hunter."

This caused him to perk up. "Really? Well that's good to hear. We've been slow in recruiting new members recently. So what's your weapon of choice?"

"Buster," I lied quickly. I hadn't used my buster in years, but hopefully it still worked as well as the day I had been activated.

The guard grinned at me. "A traditionalist eh? Well every little bit helps." He reached behind his desk and handed me some form. "now if you could fill these out as best you can. I'll get someone to come see you. If you want, Interviewing Room number one is open for use. It's down the hall, first door on your right."

I took the papers and a pen and headed for the room. I was going to have to be really careful from here on out, any slip-up could clue the hunters in on who I really was. Entering the room I quickly surveyed my surroundings. Two chairs, a table, and one window. Looked like they weren't too terribly concerned with aesthetics when they built this room. I sat down and stared at the first box on the form; 'name.' I tried to think of a fake name I could use for a while before I heard someone say, "hi! Are you the new recruit?"

'That voice.' I looked up and saw who was talking to me. My eyes went wide. Standing in the doorway was none other then Mega Man X. My mouth opened slightly as I knew that I was in serious trouble. 'Oh god, he'll know it's me, he's going to figure it out.' There was no way I was going to get away with this.

He sat down and looked at me. He didn't know yet. "Hey, don't do that, I'm nothing special. How about you though, what's your name?"

I couldn't think. "Vuh…vuh…" I managed to stutter out, knowing that that was too much.

X looked at me quizzically. "Vava?"

"Uh, yeah, Vava," I hastily replied. What a transparent effort it seemed to me.

"Vava huh? Well, ok then. I'll write that down. So, how's your day been?"

"Fine," I said, haltingly. Maybe he wouldn't find out. So far he seemed to genuinely believe that I was a legitimate recruit.

"That's good, I've been having it pretty hectic lately."

Now I was getting interested. It looked as if X was going to open up to me. If I played my cards right, I could get him to trust me and get in close. Then I could strike when his guard was down. "Really? What's been troubling you?"

X appeared lost in thought for a second, but then he looked at me and said, "never mind that. I'm taking up your time. Let's move on shall we? Let's see what you've written so far."

I handed him the papers that the security guard had given me. "Well, I hadn't actually started when you showed up."

"Oh that's alright, we'll just fill this thing in as we go. So tell me, have you had any previous experience with any sort of law enforcement outside of the hunters?"

I had to think fast. "Yeah, I was part of the Neo-Tokyo volunteer police force a couple of years back. I haven't done much since, but I've kept in practice with my weapons."

X wrote something down on the form. "Ok, now, say you see a human and a reploid involved in a heated argument. It's just words at the moment but you're worried it could escalate into violence, what's your first response?"

Ah, the situational questions. This would be easy, they obviously hadn't changed much with recruitment since I was a hunter. "I would intervene and get the story from both parties involved. Based on that I would try to suggest reasonable alternatives for venting anger to each party."

"Ok, a reploid has committed a crime and is attempting to escape from you. How do you stop him?"

Loaded question. "Assuming we were able to track his warp signature you mean?"

X looked relatively surprised that I had answered the way I did. "Very good, most rookies don't usually think about tracking warp signatures. Well, I could ask you the rest of these questions, but you certainly seem like the man for the job. It won't be official for another day or so, but welcome aboard!"

I wanted to show him just how much of a 'rookie' I really was, but I knew that I was getting closer to him this way. 'Just swallow your pride Vile. You're on a roll, don't want to let your temper ruin it.' "Well thanks. This is great. I really appreciate your accepting me. Any chance I could see where I'm going to be bunking?"

"Sure, in fact, I'll give you the grand tour of the place. Follow me."

We both stood up and walked out of the room. I let X lead me through the building as I studied everything I could. Things hadn't changed much, to my relief. I noticed a few new rooms and a couple of bad paint jobs, but all in all, very much the same HQ that I had deserted years ago.

After a couple of hours of walking, I was quickly loosing interest in what X was saying. "Hey, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but is there a place we could take a break and get something to eat or something. I need to sit down for a little bit."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't even notice how long we've been walking. Sometimes I get so carried away with what I'm doing I just totally space out. The cafeteria isn't too far away, we'll stop there."

I nodded and followed him on our way to MHHQ's cafeteria. Having a cafeteria in a place where 95% of the occupants were reploids would seem like an unnecessary waste of space and resources to most. However, for some inexplicable reason, it did the hunters good to have a place where they could talk with one another and 'break bread with one another,' so to speak. Something to do with moral that I never understood, although, truth be told, I was never one for social interactions, even when I was a greenhorn.

X and I stood in line and ordered the day's special, some stew-like mixture of vegetables and meat that didn't look particularly appetizing, and sat down at a free table. Remarkably, what ever it was, it was delicious and the two of us quickly dug into our bowls. Midway through the meal, X decided to speak up. "So, what made you want to join the hunters Vava?"

Luckily I had been spending most of the time we had spent touring HQ formulating a cover story for myself that I was mildly sure wouldn't get uncovered by anything less then a really nosy person taking a really close look at the records. "Well, when I was with the Neo-Tokyo volunteer police force, I came to fully understand the threat to humanity and reploid-kind that the mavericks posed. Of course, we never got the funding or the training to really take a stand against anything more then the occasional reploid who just needed to vent a little steam. I just felt like I could be doing more by signing myself up with the big dogs."

X nodded as I told my story. "Well that's great, I'm glad you want to make a difference. Too many people in the world get complacent and refuse to admit that things don't stay the same. But humans aren't the only ones guilty of that. Other reploids get too set in their ways as well. Some believe that we should remain subservient to humans and then others want to rule over them."

"Well that begs the question X, which side are you on?"

X seemed to look into the distance as he answered my question. "Neither, I share the beliefs of my creator, Dr. Light; the belief that humans and reploids can coexist in peace, and that's why I fight. Like my brother before me, I fight for everlasting peace."

I was surprised. This was hardly the X I knew so long ago, the one who could barely level his buster at an enemy without some look of doubt causing him to seize up. He had resolve, determination, purpose. He had grown and evolved into something different. I decided to probe this line of revelations further. "Everlasting peace? Isn't that a bit of a lofty goal? Universal peace between reploids and humanity would be exceedingly hard to achieve, even for one such as you."

X chuckled a bit as he looked at his food. "Well, I have to admit, I have been called an incurable optimist by lots of people."

"That you have X my boy. But come now, aren't you going to introduce me to your new buddy?"

That voice! I turned around to see who had joined in on our conversation. My eyes bulged, I froze up, and nearly cried out in panic as I registered who was standing before me.

"Axl! What's up? I was just showing our new recruit around the place and we decided to take a break and get something to eat." X then stood and walked to our sides. "Vava? Meet Axl, he's the commander of the 6th unit, mag-weapon users."

Axl grinned, looked me in the eye and said, "pleased to meet you…Vava. Hope you like being a hunter. X? If I could talk to you over here for a sec?"

"Oh yeah, sure. Excuse me Vava, I'll be back in a sec."

As the two of them walked to an unoccupied corner, I considered fleeing. I had no way of knowing what Axl was going to do now that he knew I was here. He may have been Sigma's spy, but exposing me would have earned him major brownie points with the hunters. Good for him and his mission, fatal for me. I could see X's expression darken as he and Axl talked and I knew that Axl was going to expose me.

X walked back over and began to speak. "Vava? Look, I'm really sorry about this but I'm afraid some urgent business has come up. I'm going to leave you with Axl, is that okay?"

Not knowing what else to do I simply nodded my head.

X gave a sympathetic smile, "sorry again, maybe we can pick up later? If that's okay with you?"

"Sure…yeah, I would like that. See ya."

X made his way to the exit and left. Then Axl turned and sat down directly across from me. His expression had changed from the slightly energetic, happy-go-lucky face he had had in X's presence, to one that was decidedly more sinister. "I'm pretty sure this wasn't what Sigma meant when he gave you leave to act on your own, 'Vava.'"

My expression also darkened. If he hadn't told X about me when he had the perfect opportunity, I was willing to bet that he wouldn't try to unless I totally defied Sigma's orders. "Sigma's only order to me was to prepare myself for what was to come. Seeing as how he didn't see fit to tell me what his plan was, I resolved myself to doing recon of the Hunters, X in particular, and the best way was to infiltrate their ranks."

Axl leaned back a little. "A cunning move. Just remember who your lot is cast with. Remember when I helped kill you. I was one of the good guys then. Just think of what I'll do now that I'm not." Still grinning, he got up and left. Just as he was about to exit the cafeteria, however, he turned and looked at me. He was now the cheery faced hunter again. "By the way, the simulation room would be a great place to get some extra training in. You should check it out. Later dude." And with that, he left the room.

I sat staring at the exit he had taken, wondering if maybe there would be a surge of hunters that would barge in and destroy me if I so much as blinked. I knew I couldn't trust Axl as long as I was here and that I would have to be careful lest he suddenly decide I was no longer worth the trouble to keep quiet about. Then my thoughts shifted to X. He had grown, evolved if the word was appropriate. Could Sigma have been right all those years ago, when he said that X had the potential to advance the reploid race? Had I misjudged X all this time simply because he didn't meet my ideals of what potential was?

I needed time away from all these doubts I was having. I resolved to head over to the simulation room and practice my buster work. Looking down at the table I noticed that I still had food left in my bowl. I was about to throw the contents away in the nearest trash bin, when I noticed that X's bowl was empty. 'Wasteful,' I thought. I sat back down and finished the food, and then bused my tray. I left the cafeteria and headed for the simulation room, stopping momentarily to ask directions. I hate to admit it, but back in my day we didn't have a simulation room. 'Simulated fights for simulated soldiers? Heh, this better be good.'

End Chapter 2

Author's Note: Well, there's the first update. Took me a while to come up with the title for this story but I think it suits Vile. As always, I would appreciate any constructive criticism you all could give me. With that said, I'm off to write some more.