'Comm chatter' (because for some reason FFN doesn't like the symbols I was using XD )
Ch. 18
Burning Embers
X, Zenton and Toronto searched through the warped machinery and burnt metal that was the remains of the firefield. Every spot they passed that still was superheated was quickly cooled down with either a blast of ice from X or a sheet of magic from Zenton. No one spoke as they continued to search through the remains, the occasional piece of a Maverick visible. Zenton finally couldn't take it anymore.
'Damnit Doc, what is the point in us being here anymore? We can't find any of Zero, much as I hate to admit it, and I'm scanning with both my magic and my eyes.' Zen burst out across the comms.
'Yes, Zenton,' Dr. Light calmly replied. 'We're still recieving intermittent signals from Zero.'
'Whatta ya mean intermittent? Either you are or you're not.' Zenton replied in frustration.
'There's still a lot of residual interference from the inferno. Until it all dies down, a lot of my above ground sensors are useless in that area. What signals we are still getting from Zero are what we're picking up between patches of interference. If I could give you anything better than that to go on I would.'
'Fine, we'll keep searching.' Zenton replied before cutting off the channel.
As he continued to walk he kicked at a random pile of rubble, knocking a the plasma burnt remains of Flame Stag's head out.
"Well at least he took them out with him when he went." He muttered rather audibly.
"He's not dead," X said without bothering to turn his head.
"And just what makes you sure o great Blue Wonder?" Zenton replied irritably.
"Because though he may have at one point been the man you know as Seero, he is now Zero. And Zero is the one of very few Reploids who could match me for raw power, and the only one who could pass me for skill. And that was before Dr. Light enhanced his abilities. Now I sincerely doubt I could truly match him." X replied, still not bothering to turn his head.
"So what? He's not here now is he?" Zenton reacted hotly. Before he could get another word out X had changed into his Falcon Armor, turned, dashed back to Zenton and had him held up in the air by the front of his armor, where X shouldn't have been able to get a grip. The fact that X had Zenton in the air was alone a variation on anything Zenton or Toronto had ever seen. Especially as X's arm was nearly vertical over his head.
"You will see. An entire army of Mavericks can't defeat Zero. They'd be hard-pressed to defeat me, and I know Zero can beat me." X's voice had taken on a sudden cold tone. His normally bright blue eyes had taken a much darker coloration, a purplish hue that was quickly fading to a much brighter red. "Now I'm only going to suggest this once, and after that I get really irritated. There is a bad side to me. I'm not all fun and games. Just as there didn't used to be a fun side to me, there didn't used to be a way to truly piss me off, save for threatening the entire human race. And now there is one sure fire way to piss me off. Speak ill of my friends or threaten them, and I tend to get a rather short fuse quickly. Even as a Maverick I became known for an extremely volatile temper. Now if Dr. Light says there are still signals from Zero, then there is still hope that he is out here." X suddenly dropped Zenton to the ground unceremoniously. "Before you give up that hope, I sincerely hope you've checked every possibility." X began to walk toward the point in the field where he was sure he'd seen the plasma trail originate.
Toronto came over and picked up a still somewhat shaken Zenton.
"Perhaps," he rumbled as he brushed of Zenton's armor. "It would be best to keep our spirits somewhat high until Dr. Light gives us reason to do otherwise, no? If what I've just seen is any indication, he just showed at least a twenty five percent increase over his usual strength boundaries. And he appeared to have no trouble lifting you. And I'll be the first to admit that you're not exactly light when you're wearing your armor."
"That's not what's got me so shaken Tor." Zenton replied in an unsteady voice.
"Then what may I ask is the problem, because you're not usually prone to being this shaken just from a threat."
"It's actually two things. The first is that not only did he lift me, but he lifted me one handed by an area of my armor that he shouldn't have been able to even get a grip."
"Actually I'll have to argue on that matter since he made his own grips." Toronto said pointedly. Zenton looked down at his armor and realized that indeed X had done so, his grip having punched holes in the snow white chest plate of Zenton's armor.
"Damn, didn't realize that he'd done that. I suspect that Dr. Light can fix that easily enough. But that all isn't even what really did it Tor. It was his eyes. There was something entirely different about them that just sent chills down my spine. I've only seen that happen with someone's eyes once before."
"Oh?"
"And it was Seero. The day of the landslide. He wasn't able to get to Crystal because of the tunnel being blocked. He was slowed down from digging through by a rock that logically it should've taken three people to move. Or just maybe you. I saw nothing but sheer madness there, but a madness that was under such tight control that it shouldn't have existed."
"Then I would suggest we listen to him and continue searching." Tor suggested before turning to follow X. Zenton followed moments later.
Crystal typed furiously at her keyboard, looking for any way to fine tune the sensors to punch through the residual interference. As she typed she muttered constantly under her breath. After a short time she collapsed forward on to the keys, Alia gently removing a hypodermic spray from her neck.
"I'm going assume that you had a logical reason for sedating her?" Dr. Light asked from the main screen where he had been concentrating on his own tuning of sensors.
"Of course Dr. Light. I may be a communications specialist but I was also trained as a medic. And though I may be a Reploid I am still female. Her stress level was getting dangerously high. Any more and there was a chance that she could cause herself or the child harm. As it was she didn't even feel me move her hair to get to her neck. And that's saying something as much hair as she has."
"Good, glad to see I'm not the only one here who can understand such matters. I was starting to consider training you for here in a few months or so."
"Don't worry sir, I did all of my studying. I know what's involved with the birth process and how to take care of it. I may not be LifeSaver, but then, I never liked him much anyway." Alia commented as she set Crystal on her back on the floor so that she wouldn't fall out of the chair or anything while she was sleeping.
"Of course, him turning out to be Sigma probably didn't help that matter much either, now did it?" Dr. Light asked amusedly.
"I'll have to admit, no, that certainly didn't help," Alia replied as she reseated herself at her station. "Has the interference cleared out any?"
"I'm afraid not, but I've come to another conclusion that has me somewhat worried."
"Nice to know that even you aren't infallible."
"My dear, I'm far from infallible. I'm a program that was created by a human to emulate a human. Of course I'm highly intelligent, just as I was in life, but even that does not keep me from the occasional mistake. After all, I created X and in the process brought about the downfall of the human race."
"I'd have to argue that point Doc." Alia commented.
"I'd love to know how you see things. Perhaps my conclusions on this matter are wrong as well."
"It's actually rather simple sir. If you hadn't created X then someone else would've eventually taken the designs for Mega Man and taken them to create the first Reploid, in the process creating an inferior emotional program and making the current variety of Reploids even more prone to becoming Mavericks than they already are. As things stand, there are those of us in Reploid society, much like human beings, who understand what it is to defend that which you love. And because of your programming we have the ability to love, and to know how it feels to do so, and to know what we are truly defending. If it wasn't for that, then we wouldn't have Reploids like Zero and X who are willing to give everything they have to defend what they know is true. Even Zero, who despised the way human beings treated us Reploids, was willing to give his life to defend them. Now why do you think he did that? I think he did it because even with his hatred of how we were acted towards, he knew that the reason humans did so is because they were scared of the physical superiority that our robotic bodies give us. The humans that I could get to talk to me told me that such reasoning was why many human beings hated Reploids. We could do things that they could not. And at the same time, there were Reploids who hated human beings for pretty much the same reasons. Humans could do what we could not do with our robotic bodies." Alia lectured as she typed, trying to clear out the static much as Crystal had been trying to do.
"I see, I think. Please, if you have more to say, do so." Dr. Light commented, obviously fascinated by such a point of view on the entire human-Reploid co-existance possiblities.
"Well sir, near as I can put it, the humans hate us for what seem to be one of several reasons, of course with variations from individual to individual."
"Until of course you put them all in a group at which point they're all happy to unite into one view. Usually the most illogical." Dr. Light quipped.
"Agreed, sir. Even Reploids are prone to such actions I must admit. As for the humans, some hate us for our robotic bodies, and our capabilites to go beyond what they can do physically. Others hate us for our seemingly infinite lifespan, though without repairs that one is easily nullified. Self-regenerative capabilites though can make that a factor under any circumstance. Then there is the Maverick Virus. That made more humans hate us than ever before. Those few who began going Maverick originally were only a small percentage of Reploids total. But what they did was cause destruction alone that mobs of humans would have hard times replicating. And that factor scared humans as well. The sheer destructive capabilities of some Reploids inspire more fear of us than anything else."
"I'm to assume then that X and Zero were never particularly well liked among humans as they are without a doubt two of the most powerful Reploids in existance."
"Well, since X could hide all visible means of his armament, since he only uses the X-busters, he could pass for an armored civilian Reploid. Zero was another story. With no means of truly hiding the saber without leaving it at base, which mind you was never going to happen with Zero, he was constantly looked at by humans as a war machine. And since X took out Sigma most of the times that he attacked, he was seen as humanity's protector. It's hard to say what the response would've been to Zero defeating X when he..." Alia stopped as she choked back a lump in her throat. "When X went Maverick Zero was the only one capable of stopping him. No one else we sent in after him was even a match. We sent in multiple squads to try and take him out, anything to avoid having to send Zero, or even alert him of what was going on. But he knew. Somehow he knew that X had been turned. And he teleported out before we could even do anything to stop him. By the time those squads could've even gotten close enough to try and harm X, Zero had already taken that shot that was intended for the building. After that...I could only wish that we'd had the chance to find out how humanity would've taken that blow."
"The unknown and unappreciated powerhouse taking out humanity's defender gone bad? Judging humans from what I've seen, not to mention what I know of them from my lifetime, there would've been an extremely mixed view on that one. Some would've hated Zero even more for taking out X, and would've refused to believe that X had gone bad. Others would've seen the point and realized that Zero was just defending them as X would've done. And still others would've distrusted both halves of the story and continued to hate all Reploids." Dr. Light's voice sounded through the rooms panels.
"That may be. Reploids on the other hand hate humans mostly for their ability to live." Alia continued as the static began to finally decrease. "Such as couples in love. All humans are capable of physically expressing such a feeling to their mate. Very few Reploids were given such an ability. Those of us who do have the appropriate equipment for such functions are very careful to keep such information between ourselves, the medical examiners, and the walls. Those of us who were blessed with such a function are usually hated for it if the fact becomes known to other Reploids."
"Just curious dear, but if it were possible, who was your creator?"
"Dr. Cain was. His Reploids were the only ones taken for Maverick Hunter training, save for certain exceptions to the rules."
"I'm assuming from the way you speak then that the only Reploids to have such functions were created by him?"
"I'm not sure exactly how you came to that conclusion sir, but near as I have been able to tell, yes, that is the case sir."
"I was able to come to that conclusion for two reasons. I knew that Cain had integrated that system into his Reploids, as I had suggested it to him at several points."
"I was not aware that the two of you had spoke."
"We did on several occasions. And he based his Reploid designs off of mine. And he was very careful to do so very well. And part of the reason I included that particular system into the design of my Reploids is for the reason you just mentioned. I knew that if I gave them the ability to think and feel then I would in turn be giving them the ability to love. How I was able to foresee that such an emotion would lead to the need for that system, I'm not even sure. It was probably one of my moments of incredible foresight. I wish I could've had more of those. Those who copied Cain's designs probably didn't see the need for that particular system on a reploid, especially those designed to fight. So they in process helped to bring this all about."
"Yes, sir. Continuing on. Another reason Reploids hate humans is their ability to age. The only death we know is that of a violent end. Any and all Reploid deaths have been of violent action. We cannot die in peace, just as we seem incapable of living in peace."
"I see. I may perhaps see what I can do to solve this problem."
"If I might add sir, the moment we can end this war, the problem may be solved already."
"Oh? How so?" Dr. Light queried, once more interested, still looking for a way to take up more time as the static still covered around half of the field.
"Well, sir, for one thing you have her." Alia said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at Crystal's sleeping form. "Though she may have gotten pregnant before Zero was converted, he is nonetheless the father of a child, and he is a Reploid. The fact that we can have children would be looked at as making us more human, and to the humans, that makes us more acceptable." Alia's features creased momentarily. "Is that an ability we actually have Dr. Light? I know we have the appropriate system and everything, but if I might be a bit crude, I've never known a female Reploid to have her time of the month."
"Actually dear, at this exact moment in time, no, you don't have the capability to do so." As Dr. Light spoke, Alia's look became rather depressed. "But, that is only because I made it so the system remained dormant until a future time when I could find out how to determine the effectiveness of the systems. And also, I have to admit, the first female Reploid is still in storage."
"She is? But, I thought Dr. Cain created the first female Reploid?" Alia was thoroughly confused now.
"Oh my heavens no child. He had to have something to base it off of. In all honesty, the only time Cain seemed to get women was when they were drunk and he was sober enough to take advantage of it." Alia immediately burst out laughing. "I gave him the schematics for creating female Reploids just as I gave him the schematics for male Reploids based off of X, other than Zero of course."
"If I might sir, is it possible to get a look at her?"
"Another time perhaps, we have several things to take care of right now. First off, it's time to start scanning the firefield on a more advanced level. Now that the static is mostly gone, I can use the rest of my sensors. Several minutes passed as he and Alia both worked furiously to clear out the last of the static.
"Sir...I'm getting one hell of an anomaly. I'm reading Zero at two different places."
"Actually child, I'm afraid that it might possibly not be an anomaly. I can think of one possible way that Zero could've survived that blast without frying the suit and in the process himself, and there may have been repercussions from it."
X lead the way back towards the final building that Zero had contacted while Zenton and Toronto had followed him at a slight distance. Of course since it was the only building left standing it was easy to find.
'X, Zenton, Toronto, come in.' Alia's clear voice called out over the comm.
'Go ahead Alia.' X replied.
'Go to the other side of that building and go about a quarter of a mile into the woods. And be prepared. We're getting a signal from Zero, but there's a problem.'
'A problem?'
'Yes. We're not just getting one signal from him. We're somehow getting two.'
'How's that possible?' X asked. 'There's only one of him.'
'I'm not entirely sure how it's possible but it's occuring right now on our sensors well enough. Two identical signals, both reading as Zero.'
'All right then, we'll see what's going on then I suppose.'
'Be careful X. There's no telling what exactly is going on up there.'
'Don't worry about me Alia. Be worried for whoever is trying to imitate Zero.' X replied calmly.
"Well then," Zenton commented as they continued to walk. "Looks like you were right X. I apologize."
"It's actually I who should be apologizing. But occasionally I can get uptight when I'm as worried as I was."
"I thought worry was a human emotion." Toronto intoned quizzically.
"Well I'm designed to be as human as robotically possible." X quipped. "Wouldn't be much of an attempt at humanity if I couldn't be worried now would it?" X turned his head to face the two and grinned widely. "Now what say we give Zero a welcome and this imposter a fireworks show, ne?"
"Sounds good to me. Tor, hope you can keep up with jets." Zenton said as both he and X leaned forward and kicked in their boosters. Toronto merely moved from his sluggish walk that had been keeping his massive frame at speed with their light jog up to a run, straining his cybernetic muscles to their limit, but managing to keep up with the two smaller fighters.
"Seems to me as if perhaps you two could use an upgrade to those boosters." Toronto's amused rumble sounded between his breaths.
"Perhaps, but at least we don't wear ourselves out doing things this way. Besides, it takes you a while to get all that bulk up to speed." Zenton continued to poke at his brother, grinning broadly as he did so.
"It's also very hard to get me to stop." Tor also grinned.
Suddenly X dropped and skidded to a stop. Zenton did so less than half second later, with Toronto beginning to slide and far surpassing the two for skid distance. As he stopped he dropped to the ground to hide behind the foliage. Or at least hide as much of himself as he could. Zenton and X and both snuck up behind him and peered over the bush as well.
What they saw would best be described as Zero fighting himself in a three dimensional mirror. One Zero would swing from one side as the other did so, countering each other on every stroke. Both would jump back at the same time and fire at the same spot, canceling each other's blast, immediately jumping back in with the saber. As they watched, Zenton and Toronto fought with their senses, trying to spot anything that would allow them to tell the difference. X's quicker sight was able to pick up on a detail that neither of the other two were fast enough to spot.
"Watch the eyes," X told them. "The real Zero's will only be either blue or red, depending on how mad he is at this doppleganger. The other one's eyes are doing something else. The red is almost more sliding behind the eyes. Creates a mixture effect."
"Great, now my only question X, is how the hell are the two of us supposed to be able to tell that difference? I can't even spot their eyes at this distance."
"Sorry. Sometimes I forget how advanced I've actually become with the upgrades Dr. Light gives me."
"Must be nice, we don't get anything like that."
"Well, he mostly uses experimental stuff on me."
"In other words, half of the stuff you've got that's so advanced may or may not work?"
"Pretty much. Keep your eyes on them. The one to our right at this moment is the imposter."
"Alright then. On 3 we go and blast the shit out of him." Zenton said, charging up a what looked to be a ball of lightning just over his hand.
"1"
"2"
"3!!"
X and Zenton both burst over the bushes only to see the two copies of Zero suddenly go to hit each other with their fists and merge into one. As both stopped they watched as Zero merely stood there for a moment, glowing with overused energy for several moments before he collapsed forward.
"Which one is he?" Zenton asked as he rushed forward.
"No way of knowing till he wakes up, " X said as he picked up and shouldered the unconcious Reploid. "We'll just have to take him home and see what happens when he wakes up."
"Right then," Zenton said before all three teleported back out.
Author's Notes:
My apologies to everyone who was waiting for an update on this story. My home internet connection is currently not connected and being such I've been forced to use a friend's connection. While it's not too bad for everything else, I had no way to get my story onto a disk of any sort to get over here. Fortunately I was able to get my computer here for a night or two and I am able to update occasionally via this process. So it may be a little while till I can update again, but when I do, it should be another long chapter. So till I can get the comp over here or get my home connection back. ;)
Also, sorry for all the talking and semi-philosophical stuff. Creations of too much time to think perhaps. XDDD