Yep, you guessed it, I don't own Zero and friends...Capcom does, the lucky
bastards...
Ch. 2 A Friend Returns
"You mean to tell me that that was X? But I thought I killed him."
"I see that you're already beginning to absorb some of Zero's thought's and attitudes."
"You can tell already, huh? That's nice. At least I know I'm not losing my mind now. I started thinking like that a little while back and I swore I was about to go nuts. I thought you said that I would keep my own identity."
"I did. You are actually absorbing Zero's thoughts as your own so that you begin to think of Zero's memories as your own."
"You're beginning to make my head hurt."
"Let's just say that you are becoming Zero but you will still be yourself."
"Okay. That works. That isn't quite as bad as all that talk about memories. You'll make my head hurt with that stuff."
"We will have to see what we can do to rearrange things in this situation."
As the two talked a blue beam seemed to come down through the ceiling. Mega Man X appeared out of the hazy light, wearing his third set of armor. "So Zero, you thought you could run did you? I think you need to learn to watch your rear a little better. If I hadn't had to wait for the computer to lock onto you I would have been right on your butt. As it is though, this will work well enough. Hello, Light. I hope you've been well."
"Tolerable, X. Things do get a little boring when you're nothing but a computer program with only Pong to play for several hundred years."
"Good. I would have hated to put an end to your fun." With that X suddenly held a blue energy saber in his hand. As he dashed towards the console he failed to notice that Zero moved with more speed than he did. A look of surprise crossed his face as the saber flew out of his hand to clatter to the ground.
"Now you're the one who should look before he does anything X," Zero put his sword up and stood back so he could see X more fully. He realized with a slight start that X was actually a good deal shorter than he himself was. "That armor seems to be getting in your way X. Why don't you try using your ultimate suit against me. It might make it a bit more of a challenge before I dismantle you again."
X's face and eyes shone with the rage that was building up at Zero's every word. "You. will. DIE TRAITOR!! aaaAAAAGH!" as X screamed he turned back into the beam of light for a moment. When he returned to a solid shape he stood in shining black armor with gold trim. "You think that you can defeat me? You don't stand a chance any more, fool."
"That's what you think, X."
The two charged. X fired off several shots while he was charging. Although X had changed into his ultimate armor he was still no match for Light's improved Zero. The two ran into each other and began to grapple for the advantage. The energy built around the two during their tango of death. The air was beginning to crackle when Zero heard Light's voice in his earpiece. "Throw him against the nearest wall. I have a bit of a surprise for Sigma's newest find."
Zero used X's own strength and promptly threw him across the room. As X hit the wall a field of some sort seemed to extend from it. X screamed and then fell into unconsciousness.
"What on earth was that, Doc?"
"It's a neuralizer field. It can render a Reploid completely comatose. Some may take a little longer than others, but it works eventually. It causes severe pain in the meantime."
"Sounds like my kind of weapon. Will it work on me?"
"No."
"Even better."
"Please bring X to the table. I think it's about time I did something about this Sigma Virus." Zero walked over and picked X up easily. He carried him to the table that had slid up while Light had been talking. As he set X down beams came over the table. "I will be busy for a while so why don't you go visit your human friends?"
"Okay, but just one question for you."
"Fire away, dear boy."
"Why was that so easy?"
"I'd say that Sigma didn't use X's old parts, I'd say he just used what he found of him, and then put the rest back together with his own parts. There was enough of X to give him all of his abilities, but not enough to give him back his full strength. That is one of my problems. I'll need to rebuild him to bring him back up to par."
"Okay, that's all I needed to know."
Seero, as he was still known in his human (at least human-looking) form, was walking through what they considered to be the main street of their underground camp. Things certainly looked a little run down after the battle with the Mavericks. He wasn't entirely sure if there was anybody here anymore.
"Hello! Anybody still here?" Seero knew he couldn't use his visor to scan for anything in this form so he was forced to resort to using his 'normal' eyes. He did realize that he still could look at things with a certain zooming capability, although it had its limits. He picked up a bit of movement from the corner of one of the buildings. As he drew closer he realized that it was one of the other human explorers, Zenton.
"Seero? Is that you, bro?"
"Number one, yes, it's me. Number two, when are you going to quit calling me that?"
"As soon as I figure out another word to call you that you won't threaten to kill me for."
"Are there any of those left?"
"I think I missed a few back there somewhere."
"If you find them let me know. Have you found anyone else around here?"
"Not a soul. It's as if they all vanished into thin air."
Seero was beginning to have his own ideas. "Dr. Light. Are you there?"
"Yes, Seero?"
"Is it okay if I let anyone else in on who I am?"
"It is if you would trust them with your life. Either that or get used to wearing your armor constantly."
"Thank you."
Seero turned and looked at Zenton.
"I think I know what happened to them. They were taken by Mavericks."
"Mavericks? What's a Maverick?"
"The robots that we've been fighting. They're called Mavericks. I recently stumbled upon an old lab in one of the caves. I discovered a great deal there. I'm a robot now, but I'm not a Maverick."
"That's a good thing to know. I was getting a little jumpy knowing that we're just humans and we're up against robots. But you don't look like a robot."
"That's because I'm in my human form at the moment. I'm a little bigger in my robot form. Let's go see what we can uncover in the lab." Seero took Zenton with him and walked back to the entrance to the lab. The door opened immediately for him.
"That was a pretty neat trick there, Seero." Zenton seemed to be a little overwhelmed.
"Ah, Seero. There you are. I take it that this is the person whom you were talking to earlier." Light's face came up on the screen.
"Yes, Doctor. This is Zenton. He's one of the other human explorers. He and I must have gotten lucky. We were both out exploring when the Mavericks attacked. Are there any sort of weapons you can give him? Something like mine?"
"I don't have any more suits, but I can turn him into a robot like you."
"That would probably be a good idea. Is it okay with you, Zenton?"
"Fly that one by me again. I didn't catch it the first time around."
"Dr. Light is offering to turn you into a robot like me."
"You mean human-looking? Sure. I could go for that. Is it safe though?" . "I'm here aren't I? Do I look any different to you?"
"Not really. A little bigger and definitely not as out of shape, but not too much different."
"You said what?!?" Seero asked as he turned to face Zenton. Light chuckled a little as the two began to banter back and forth.
"Okay, you two, that's enough for now," Light interrupted them a few minutes later. "Zenton?"
"I guess it would be okay, wouldn't it?" Zenton replied, turning to face Seero. "I mean you look just the same as you did before. But you said something about another form that you had. What did you mean by that?"
"Hold on a moment and I'll show you." Zero thought for less than a second and was encased in his armor. He now had to look down at his friend. "This is what I was talking about. Would you be able to make another one in time, Doc?"
"It would take me a few days, but yes I would be able to make another one in time. Most of the time would be deciding what his armor would look like."
"You mean he'll be able to customize his? Why didn't I get to do that?"
"I already had your armor made. It's kind of hard to unmake armor. Most of what I'll be doing is seeing what he wants it to look like and taking away needless additions that'll do nothing but get in the way. But I will need to turn him into a robot first."
"Okay. What he's saying in other words, Zen, is that he's going to turn you into a robot first and then you two will decide what your armor will look like. In the meantime I'll look for other survivors while you're off in la-la land.
Zenton questioned Seero a little while longer and then accepted what was going to happen.
"Okay. See you when I come around Seero."
Zero walked toward the front door of the lab and took his saber out and took up a position facing the door.
"What on earth are you doing, Zero? I thought you said you were going to go look for the other survivors." Dr. Light was once again speaking through the earpiece.
"I changed my mind. I'm standing guard and since you probably have some sort of system that can alert me if there is someone coming down the corridor outside I thought I'd take a little while and sift through my memories that don't belong to me."
"That is probably a good idea, Zero. X can probably answer any questions you have."
"I take it you figured out the virus and corrected it then."
"I have."
"What about reassembling him?"
"I've got that done enough to make him battle capable, but I think I'll keep X physically comatose for a while. You can communicate with him the same way you are with me right now."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Zero stood and began to wander through his memories. His mind first wandered back to his first self-destruction.
"You really should have seen what was visible through Vile's helmet when he realized what you were doing. His face tried to twist five zillion different directions at once. It was very funny."
"I'm glad you're back online, X. I was beginning to get a bit worried there. I got all the right memories but for some odd reason I couldn't find the right people."
Ch. 2 A Friend Returns
"You mean to tell me that that was X? But I thought I killed him."
"I see that you're already beginning to absorb some of Zero's thought's and attitudes."
"You can tell already, huh? That's nice. At least I know I'm not losing my mind now. I started thinking like that a little while back and I swore I was about to go nuts. I thought you said that I would keep my own identity."
"I did. You are actually absorbing Zero's thoughts as your own so that you begin to think of Zero's memories as your own."
"You're beginning to make my head hurt."
"Let's just say that you are becoming Zero but you will still be yourself."
"Okay. That works. That isn't quite as bad as all that talk about memories. You'll make my head hurt with that stuff."
"We will have to see what we can do to rearrange things in this situation."
As the two talked a blue beam seemed to come down through the ceiling. Mega Man X appeared out of the hazy light, wearing his third set of armor. "So Zero, you thought you could run did you? I think you need to learn to watch your rear a little better. If I hadn't had to wait for the computer to lock onto you I would have been right on your butt. As it is though, this will work well enough. Hello, Light. I hope you've been well."
"Tolerable, X. Things do get a little boring when you're nothing but a computer program with only Pong to play for several hundred years."
"Good. I would have hated to put an end to your fun." With that X suddenly held a blue energy saber in his hand. As he dashed towards the console he failed to notice that Zero moved with more speed than he did. A look of surprise crossed his face as the saber flew out of his hand to clatter to the ground.
"Now you're the one who should look before he does anything X," Zero put his sword up and stood back so he could see X more fully. He realized with a slight start that X was actually a good deal shorter than he himself was. "That armor seems to be getting in your way X. Why don't you try using your ultimate suit against me. It might make it a bit more of a challenge before I dismantle you again."
X's face and eyes shone with the rage that was building up at Zero's every word. "You. will. DIE TRAITOR!! aaaAAAAGH!" as X screamed he turned back into the beam of light for a moment. When he returned to a solid shape he stood in shining black armor with gold trim. "You think that you can defeat me? You don't stand a chance any more, fool."
"That's what you think, X."
The two charged. X fired off several shots while he was charging. Although X had changed into his ultimate armor he was still no match for Light's improved Zero. The two ran into each other and began to grapple for the advantage. The energy built around the two during their tango of death. The air was beginning to crackle when Zero heard Light's voice in his earpiece. "Throw him against the nearest wall. I have a bit of a surprise for Sigma's newest find."
Zero used X's own strength and promptly threw him across the room. As X hit the wall a field of some sort seemed to extend from it. X screamed and then fell into unconsciousness.
"What on earth was that, Doc?"
"It's a neuralizer field. It can render a Reploid completely comatose. Some may take a little longer than others, but it works eventually. It causes severe pain in the meantime."
"Sounds like my kind of weapon. Will it work on me?"
"No."
"Even better."
"Please bring X to the table. I think it's about time I did something about this Sigma Virus." Zero walked over and picked X up easily. He carried him to the table that had slid up while Light had been talking. As he set X down beams came over the table. "I will be busy for a while so why don't you go visit your human friends?"
"Okay, but just one question for you."
"Fire away, dear boy."
"Why was that so easy?"
"I'd say that Sigma didn't use X's old parts, I'd say he just used what he found of him, and then put the rest back together with his own parts. There was enough of X to give him all of his abilities, but not enough to give him back his full strength. That is one of my problems. I'll need to rebuild him to bring him back up to par."
"Okay, that's all I needed to know."
Seero, as he was still known in his human (at least human-looking) form, was walking through what they considered to be the main street of their underground camp. Things certainly looked a little run down after the battle with the Mavericks. He wasn't entirely sure if there was anybody here anymore.
"Hello! Anybody still here?" Seero knew he couldn't use his visor to scan for anything in this form so he was forced to resort to using his 'normal' eyes. He did realize that he still could look at things with a certain zooming capability, although it had its limits. He picked up a bit of movement from the corner of one of the buildings. As he drew closer he realized that it was one of the other human explorers, Zenton.
"Seero? Is that you, bro?"
"Number one, yes, it's me. Number two, when are you going to quit calling me that?"
"As soon as I figure out another word to call you that you won't threaten to kill me for."
"Are there any of those left?"
"I think I missed a few back there somewhere."
"If you find them let me know. Have you found anyone else around here?"
"Not a soul. It's as if they all vanished into thin air."
Seero was beginning to have his own ideas. "Dr. Light. Are you there?"
"Yes, Seero?"
"Is it okay if I let anyone else in on who I am?"
"It is if you would trust them with your life. Either that or get used to wearing your armor constantly."
"Thank you."
Seero turned and looked at Zenton.
"I think I know what happened to them. They were taken by Mavericks."
"Mavericks? What's a Maverick?"
"The robots that we've been fighting. They're called Mavericks. I recently stumbled upon an old lab in one of the caves. I discovered a great deal there. I'm a robot now, but I'm not a Maverick."
"That's a good thing to know. I was getting a little jumpy knowing that we're just humans and we're up against robots. But you don't look like a robot."
"That's because I'm in my human form at the moment. I'm a little bigger in my robot form. Let's go see what we can uncover in the lab." Seero took Zenton with him and walked back to the entrance to the lab. The door opened immediately for him.
"That was a pretty neat trick there, Seero." Zenton seemed to be a little overwhelmed.
"Ah, Seero. There you are. I take it that this is the person whom you were talking to earlier." Light's face came up on the screen.
"Yes, Doctor. This is Zenton. He's one of the other human explorers. He and I must have gotten lucky. We were both out exploring when the Mavericks attacked. Are there any sort of weapons you can give him? Something like mine?"
"I don't have any more suits, but I can turn him into a robot like you."
"That would probably be a good idea. Is it okay with you, Zenton?"
"Fly that one by me again. I didn't catch it the first time around."
"Dr. Light is offering to turn you into a robot like me."
"You mean human-looking? Sure. I could go for that. Is it safe though?" . "I'm here aren't I? Do I look any different to you?"
"Not really. A little bigger and definitely not as out of shape, but not too much different."
"You said what?!?" Seero asked as he turned to face Zenton. Light chuckled a little as the two began to banter back and forth.
"Okay, you two, that's enough for now," Light interrupted them a few minutes later. "Zenton?"
"I guess it would be okay, wouldn't it?" Zenton replied, turning to face Seero. "I mean you look just the same as you did before. But you said something about another form that you had. What did you mean by that?"
"Hold on a moment and I'll show you." Zero thought for less than a second and was encased in his armor. He now had to look down at his friend. "This is what I was talking about. Would you be able to make another one in time, Doc?"
"It would take me a few days, but yes I would be able to make another one in time. Most of the time would be deciding what his armor would look like."
"You mean he'll be able to customize his? Why didn't I get to do that?"
"I already had your armor made. It's kind of hard to unmake armor. Most of what I'll be doing is seeing what he wants it to look like and taking away needless additions that'll do nothing but get in the way. But I will need to turn him into a robot first."
"Okay. What he's saying in other words, Zen, is that he's going to turn you into a robot first and then you two will decide what your armor will look like. In the meantime I'll look for other survivors while you're off in la-la land.
Zenton questioned Seero a little while longer and then accepted what was going to happen.
"Okay. See you when I come around Seero."
Zero walked toward the front door of the lab and took his saber out and took up a position facing the door.
"What on earth are you doing, Zero? I thought you said you were going to go look for the other survivors." Dr. Light was once again speaking through the earpiece.
"I changed my mind. I'm standing guard and since you probably have some sort of system that can alert me if there is someone coming down the corridor outside I thought I'd take a little while and sift through my memories that don't belong to me."
"That is probably a good idea, Zero. X can probably answer any questions you have."
"I take it you figured out the virus and corrected it then."
"I have."
"What about reassembling him?"
"I've got that done enough to make him battle capable, but I think I'll keep X physically comatose for a while. You can communicate with him the same way you are with me right now."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Zero stood and began to wander through his memories. His mind first wandered back to his first self-destruction.
"You really should have seen what was visible through Vile's helmet when he realized what you were doing. His face tried to twist five zillion different directions at once. It was very funny."
"I'm glad you're back online, X. I was beginning to get a bit worried there. I got all the right memories but for some odd reason I couldn't find the right people."