Ch.22 - Reawakening

Zero and the other three had shut down the training program to take a break and gone back to the main room to check in on X, Alia, and Light. Zero had to constantly check himself to keep from reaching for his saber.

"Damnit I feel wrong without it," he muttered irritably under his breath. "That constant dependence on it makes it a weakness though. Even though I don't use it constantly I don't feel right unless I have it with me. Then again, it does help power part of my systems when it's socketed." He punched the wall in frustration, unintentionally gaining Zenton's attention. The crystal armored human turned Reploid dropped back a bit.

"Yo, what's up?" He asked Zero.

"Besides feeling completely wrong without my saber? Not much really. Kinda wonderin where Crystal is too. I looked in our room on the way here, and she wasn't in there. I'm guessing she's in the main room though."

"Good point, and Alia never did make it down to the training room, either. Wonder what they might've gotten into."

"Not sure myself, but chances are that Dr. Light's in on it too, so I'm not too worried. If they're not in the main room and Light isn't sure where they are either, then I'm going to be worried."

"And knowing you, more than likely pissed off too." Zenton grinned. Zero could only grin back.

"Yes, I just might be."

Zero continued to exchange light banter with Zenton as the group continued towards the main room, when suddenly he met with the back of Toronto who had stopped suddenly.

"What the hell didja do that for Tor?" Zero asked irritably. He quickly peeked around the corner, only to be astonished at what he saw.

Dr. Light could do nothing to help the girls as they picked up the unconcious Roll and carried her between them to the lift. As they boarded it, Light was strangely silent.

"What's going on, Doc?" Crystal asked. "Usually we can't get you to be quiet, but you haven't said two words since she collapsed other than to tell us her name."

"I'm wondering in all honesty if perhaps I thawed her out a bit too soon. Or perhaps not soon enough. Her system seems to be somewhat off-balance."

"I've got a thought," Alia interrupted. "I remember you mentioned Doc that us Reploids are intended for all intents and purposes to be as human as robotically possible, yes?"

"Well, yes, that's true." Light stated. "I fail to see where this is going though."

"It's possible that perhaps you succeeded even better than you thought with Roll. It's quite likely that she's just disoriented from the long hibernation. I know X and the others, myself included, are all slightly dizzy for a few moments when we first wake back up from a recharge cycle. Maybe she's just severely disoriented. After all, you've had her in hibernation being tested for how long? Like a hundred and fifty, possibly two hundred years or more?"

"You might just be on to something there Alia. If you two think you're up to it, try and keep her from becoming too confused when she wakes back up. The last thing I need is for her to get hysteric. Imagine X with no control and you've got a good idea of what she can do. It would be better if I can get X concious again real fast before she wakes up. She'll appreciate seeing at least one familiar face, and perhaps, it will keep her from being quite so disoriented. That's why I'm going to leave her in you two's hands. If I concentrate all my capabilities on upgrading X I can finish in the next few minutes."

"We got ya covered, Doc. Take care of X, now." Crystal told him without a moment's hesitation. As she looked over at Alia, the girl between them groaned lightly, a barely audible sound even in the silence of the lift. "Something tells me he'd better hurry." She said to Alia, receiving a nod from concious one of the two blonde Reploids.

X felt himself coming back to reality once again, his internal clock telling him that it was much earlier than he'd expected to be awake again. As he jumped out of the capsule he noticed that something seemed to be off, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He seemed lighter somehow. He brought his hands forward for a moment, just to make sure that he wasn't dreaming. As they came into sight, he could feel his breath catch, despite the fact that he didn't need to breathe in the first place.

"So...small. What happened? Dr. Light?" He called out into the main room.

"Yes, X?"

"What's going on? Why are my hands so small?" He finally looked down at the rest of himself. "Where the hell is my armor?"

"I figured you would probably appreciate being able to go without it when you want or need to." Light answered simply. X could merely stare down for a moment, contemplating why exactly he would need the ability to put his armor away.

"Alia," he finally said to himself as it dawned on him. A wide grin split his features. Then he remember something. "Oh, man, now I gotta find a way to get this damned hair to stay down!" He quickly reached up with his hands and began trying to smooth it all back down. Only to be walked in on by Toronto and the others. "Well, shit." He muttered before Zero poked his head around from behind the team behemoth.

Zero walked forward from his place behind Tor, expecting this a lot more than the others had. He flashed out of his armor as he walked, brining himself closer to X's unarmored height.

"Well," he stated. "It looks like you get to play with the rest of us now without having to worry about denting your armor." Zero grinned wildly for a moment before he started to laugh. "We really need to do something about your hair though." X could only join him in laughter as the lift suddenly came back up through the floor, bringing Alia, Crystal and another blonde reploid with three different colored streaks in her hair being held up between the two of them. Zero could hear X gasp beside him.

"No way," he stammered. "There's no way. Doc, tell me you didn't put her in hibernation too! And why did you wake her up now? You didn't need to wake her yet!" X rushed forward between the two girls, quickly picking up the unconcious one.

"Yes, X, I did. I believe we will need more help than we have right now. The Mavericks are increasing in power, we have no choice but to add another fighter of yours and Zero's caliber to the roster. If I could've, I'd have left her asleep until you could secure peace, but since Sigma seems unwilling to allow that any time in the near future, I figure it best to wake her up now, while we're all here and can help her readjust to her new body, and the ever slightly changed world that we exist in now." Though everyone could see the irritation on X's face, they could also see genuine concern for this girl that no one but X and Light truly knew.

As X took her to one of the chairs and sat her down, he stood up straight, though he continued to look down at the floor. Alia quickly moved to his side, hoping her presence would calm him down. It seemed to have the desired effect as his head finally came back up, his hand moving to find hers.

"All right, Doc," he calmly said. "You win. Besides, this is why you hurried my upgrade, isn't it? So that she would have someone familiar to see when she woke up the rest of the way. I'm assuming she's just suffering from hibernation disorientation."

"Damn, that's a mouth full," Zenton muttered from behind X. X merely turned and grinned at him. "What's with the stripes in her hair anyway?"

"That...that's something that she apparently decided to make a permanent part of herself. I had a similar marking at one time as well."

"Had?"

"I've been rebuilt a few times now. Unfortunately, the part of me that I had marked has been one of the unfortunate areas that had to be rebuilt. I've yet to get around to remarking it." X grinned as a thought came to him. "I can just mark it under my armor now though. As long as I can avoid getting blown to scrap again, I should be able to keep it this time."

"That still doesn't help much. So you had one too, but what's it for? Or am I being just a bit too nosy for my own good?"

"Even I have to admit, X. I'm just as curious as Zenton is," Zero commented from his place against the wall next to Crystal's seat.

"It's a symbol that the three of us agreed to keep forever."

"The three of you?" Toronto rumbled.

"Yes, the three of us. Roll, myself, and Protoman." X replied, never taking his eyes off of the stripes in Roll's hair. "We swore that we'd never be seperated if we could avoid it, and if we were, that we would never forget each other. We decided to use the three stripes, one red, one blue, and one pink, and we each marked ourselves somewhere. A bit of a robotic tattoo I guess you might say. She apparently decided to take a different approach to it after I was put into hibernation. Hell, I wasn't even aware that she was put into hibernation."

"I wasn't even aware that you had a sister, X." Alia commented from behind him.

"My apologies, X," Dr. Light interrupted once more. "That was mostly my fault. After I put you in storage, I figured you'd appreciate some familiar company in the future. I guess I hadn't counted on your typical capability to make friends so easily. Besides, if I hadn't agreed to change her into a full Reploid, she threatened to pull the plug on my system. She always was a bit temperamental at times." X and the others all began to laugh.

"Beware the red hair!" Zero intoned from his corner, quickly earning him a slap in the side from Crystal. "Ow, see, I have proof! My girlfriend's so violent!" He whined, his face looking appropriately tragic to match the phrasing. The others all lost it even further, even Crystal nearly toppling out of her chair from laughing so hard. After they all quieted down, they could hear Roll groaning a bit more.

"She seems to be coming out of it finally," X said, moving down to where his face was level with Roll's.

"Where the hell am I?" Roll thought as the world seemed to finally swim into focus. As she looked forward she could see a pair of green eyes and unruly black hair start to unblur. She blinked a couple more times, taking a moment to make sure that her mind wasn't playing tricks on her. "Mega?" She finally asked.

"Yep, in the flesh. Well, as much in the flesh as I'll ever be." A suddenly grinning X replied. Roll fell forward from the chair pulling X into a hug fierce enough to rival Crystal's infamous welcome back glomps, tears flowing from her eyes.

"I've...missed you..so much." She said in between sobs.

"Hey now, come on, you were asleep the whole time, weren't you? It couldn't be that bad." X replied, smoothing Roll's hair, hoping it would have the same effect to calm her down that it always seemed to have on Alia.

"It wasn't the hibernation that did it, it was the days before I went into my capsule, after we put you in yours," She seemed to calm down the more she talked, though X still looked like he might have had better luck trying to escape a black hole than getting out of Roll's arms. "It got so lonely, what with you being the only one to come back from that last battle, and Protoman disappearing. It was horrible, Dr. Light and I were the only ones left in the lab after that. Once we completed putting you in the capsule, we started working on mine, but it still took too long."

"It's alright, Roll, you're here with me now. Me and my friends are here, you don't have to worry about being alone anymore." As X mentioned the others, Roll finally seemed to look around her, taking in all of the seven people surrounding her and X. Crystal and Alia were both forced to wipe a few tears away, and even Zero looked a little misty. He had a huge grin on his face, but he wasn't completely without compassion. Zenton and Toronto both waved from the seats they had taken at the single table, and Signas merely stood where he was up near the main screen, using the smaller monitors to check something.

"How many people are there here?" She asked, bewildered to see what appeared to be only one other Reploid and a whole mess of humans. "Are they all Reploids?"

"Not quite all of us are," X replied. "All but one of us at the moment, and the lucky lone human would be the little lady with the long red hair over there. And probably the only reason she hasn't been converted is because her and the guy with the equally long blonde hair over there are expecting."

"Converted? I thought Reploids had to be built? Dr. Light's the only one smart enough to create such a process." Roll began to mutter weakly.

"And so I did my dear." Light commented, his face appearing on the main monitor. "I created the process, and in doing so, created the first batch of converted Reploids. All in this room but X, Signas, and Alia were converted by me personally. And if I have my way about it, I'll be the only one doing coversions for a long time to come. I don't think I could trust anyone else to do it right." As Light continued to speak, Roll looked as if she was about to burst into tears again.

"Doc, I think we might want to give her a little while to get used to everyone before we go confusing her as to what all is going on outside of the base," Zero commented swiftly from his corner over near Crystal. Roll was still looking at the screen and trying to keep from bursting into tears.

"So you've been alive all this time, Dr. Light?" She asked quietly.

"Not quite, Roll. What you see and hear now is merely a program that has my knowledge, and is designed to look, act, and think like I did, albeit at a much faster rate thanks to my computer technology. So the program that you remember helping you finish building your capsule was merely the prototype compared to what I am now. As I watched the world over the years, I looked for holes and problems in my programming, and corrected them. That's the only difference you'll find between me now, and how I was back then." Light commented quickly, his computerized voice somehow conveying what seemed to be an almost loving tone to the obviously less stable of his two 'children'.

"Alright. I guess that works." Roll slowly stood up, finally releasing her hold on X, who was quickly helped to his feet by Alia, who proceeded to put him in a slightly less firm hug. Roll began to move around a little, obviously trying to get used to her somewhat new body. "Yeesh, I'm beginning to wonder if I should've had you make me a new body back then instead of having the capsule take care of most of it, Dr. Light. I've been asleep for so long, I can barely remember how it used to feel to move around, let alone getting used to this new body."

"That's quite alright my dear, this will work out better for you in the end. Since you can barely remember how it used to be, then you'll barely have anything left to readjust to. Just be aware that this body is much stronger than your old one. As you're standing now, your strength is above what Mega's used to be in his armor. In your armor, your strength is nearly double what it is now." Light told her, trying to quickly impress upon her how much of an upgrade she'd really gotten.

"Good grief," Zero could be heard muttering from his corner.

"What now, Z?" X looked over at him.

"I just got to thinking, if we're that strong without our armor, just how damned heavy is this suit of mine? I know it shouldn't be that heavy, but it sure felt like it when I fried it." Zero replied, thinking back to the first time he had released the suit's power limits.

"I don't know, but I'm going to bet that frying a good deal of the circuitry, and probably frying a little bit of your own body's circuits probably combined to make it seem a lot heavier than it actually was, because I didn't have too many problems holding you up after that." X responded, quickly resolving to ask Light some time soon as to whether or not his armor could be fried like that now since he was no longer directly connected to it all the time.

Roll had walked over to where Zero and Crystal were. As she neared them she slowed down for a moment, and seemed to almost get too shy to get near them. She finally managed to work up the nerve to get a little closer though, and began to smile very widely.

"Hi, I'm Roll," She said cheerfully. "Who're you two?" Zero chuckled a bit from his corner, and Crystal spun her seat to face Roll.

"I'm Crystal, and this big blonde oaf here is my boyfriend. Everyone calls him Zero, I usually just call him whatever I damned well please though." Crystal pointed over at the Crimson Wonder, who had yet to leave his spot leaning against the wall. He began to pout a bit.

"I'm not a big oaf. I have more brains than that. And besides, I can turn into a mighty warrior to protect humanity, so that automatically takes me out of the oaf category." He began to grin as his smartass attitude started to show itself a bit more. Roll couldn't help but giggle as the couple began to fire jokes back and forth.

"If it's not too much trouble," Roll queried as she looked at Zero, " could I see what you look like in your armor? I wouldn't ask, but I'd hate to have to try and memorize who's who out in the middle of a battlefield."

"Completely understandable," Zero replied, quickly moving away from the wall to stand up straight and shift into his armor. He looked down at himself and realized just how much taller he really did get when he changed. "You don't realize how big your hands are when you're like this until you stop and look at them compared to a normal human being's head." He commented abstractedly. Roll could only stare for a moment as she now had to look up even further to see Zero's face.

"You get tall, don't you?" She asked, earning a giggle from Crystal.

"No arguments there," Zero replied, grinning again before he changed back out of his armor. "Still not big enough to match Toronto though. I'm gonna hate to see what he looks like once he gets some armor. He might as well be a damned building as it is."

"I'm not quite that big." Roll jumped forwared with a quick yelp as Toronto spoke from right behind her. He'd apparently gotten up and decided to come over while she'd been talking to Zero.

"Hey, X!" Zero yelled, gaining the Blue Bomber's attention. "I just realized something."

"What's that?" X asked.

"Now that you can change out of your armor, that makes you even shorter!"

"That's it, come here!" Both X and Zero suddenly changed into their armor and began flying around the room, X trying to catch Zero, and Zero staying just a step ahead of him, teleporting when necessary. As he finally stopped up on the roof for a moment, X couldn't help but stop and laugh as Zero's hair once more fell down below his head. "You know, you really should try doing that to one of your opponents some time. Every time I see you with your hair hanging upside down like that I can't help but stop and laugh."

"Pfft, you have a sense of humor, most Mavericks don't, in case you don't remember. Besides, something tells me that Sigma probably wouldn't take too kindly to one of them laughing. Well, other than the usual psychotic 'Look at me I'm evil!' laugh that they're all so fond of." Zero replied, dropping down and flipping himself over in mid-flight.

"Please don't remind me. I got so damn tired of hearing that while I was stuck with them." X's chagrined response was accompanied by him slapping his forehead and shifting out of his armor at the same time. "Ouch. That's gonna take some getting used to. No helmet in the way anymore."

"Maybe I should keep an eye on you for a few days till you get used to not having the armor. Might have to keep you from hurting yourself." Zero laughed as he jested with the Blue Bomber.

"Yeah yeah, spare me, Crimson Wonder." X replied. When he finally took a seat, he looked up to find Roll giving him an odd look. "What's the matter, Sis?"

"Where's your mark?" She replied quizzically. X's face became somewhat flush with embarrasment.

"It's umm...kinda gotten blown off a few times."

"How'd you manage that?"

"Well, I've been scrapped a couple times. Zero still has me beat though, I think he's been killed three or four times now. We just put him back together and turn him back on, and he usually runs better than new."

"You make me sound like a crash dummy, X. Pick me up and put me back together, yeesh." Zero responded indignantly from where he'd moved over in his corner near Crystal again.

"Well, that's basically the idea."

"Maybe, but couldn't you have at least found a slightly more decent way to put it?"

"Nah, I think it sounds good the way I phrased it."

"That's it, now it's your turn, get over here!" Zero and X once again began to chase each other around the room. Crystal could only laugh, Alia and Roll joining her over at her seat.

"You know, you could probably power the base just off the energy those two use chasing each other around." Roll commented between giggles.

"Nah, we'd probably blow the base up more than likely. Besides, I think it's some obscure way of getting in training outside of the schedule. This happens on average at least once every half hour outside of the training room. In the training room it's even worse. It's more like every thirty seconds. I pity the person who decides to take those two on at one time though. Once they turn on something at the same time, it's uncanny to watch them move. Alia and X can put on a show like no other, even catch Zero off-guard most of the time, but watching X and Zero go after one target is insane. You can't even watch them part of the time, all you end up seeing is an after-image." Crystal's tone became more serious as she told Roll of Zero and X's teamwork.

"You're kidding me. How long have they known each other now?"

"I'm not even sure. Technically, this incarnation of Zero isn't the original, but his mind has melded with that of the original, so it's essentially the same, and apparently the body design hasn't changed any either, even when he was human. But anyway, overall, I think they've known each other for close to a hundred and fifty, maybe two hundred years. I'm not sure of the actual total, but I know it's somewhere in that range." Crystal looked over to see the shock evident on Roll's face.

"Have I really been in hibernation that long?" Roll almost silently asked. "But why? Why was I allowed to stay asleep so long?"

"It's because of your systems, Roll. Light told me that the tests on your body's systems took a lot longer than X's. Because of a couple extra systems that had to be in place." Alia told her, taking a place on the other side from Crystal. "And it's a good thing he did set it to test you for so long. From Light's told us, if he hadn't done all those tests, the results would've been less than great, to say the least."

"I see. Well then, I guess there's no help for it now." Roll still seemed to be somewhat saddened by the fact of how much time she'd missed. She looked up to the main monitor. "Exactly what all have I missed, Doc?"

"Well," Dr. Light said. "Quite a bit actually, but that's okay, I'm sure between me and the others we can get you filled in rather quickly."

Several hours later, after letting Roll in on recent history and giving her some time to rest from it all, Zero had finally decided to drag her down to the training room, after retrieving his saber from Dr. Light. The room shifted to a grassy hillside as Zero took his place across from Roll.

"Be warned, Roll, I have no intentions of going any easier on you just because you just woke up. While I won't kill you in training, I don't have any choice but to be rough on everyone, meaning if Dr. Light can repair it, more than likely, I'm gonna try for it. The Mavericks have been increasing in power here lately, and I can't take a chance on anyone being trained poorly enough to be beaten." Zero said, pulling out his saber and igniting it, though he did turn down the power output. After all, as long as they thought he was going all out, then they'd go all out as well, making them fight to their max potential. And max potential was what Zero needed to see out of all of them lately.

"Don't worry about me. Dr. Light told you that my fighting capability is just as great as Mega's." Roll said from across him. She dashed in, attempting to catch Zero off guard with speed. As her punch swung through an after-image she could do nothing but stand when she suddenly felt a swift wind whip around her as Zero dodged to the side and around to end up behind her.

"You may have X's power, but what you don't have is his battle experience. And that's what I intend to give you a crash course in." Before Roll could turn around Zero was already bringing his gargantuan foot around for a roundhouse. Roll ducked under it, counting on the momentum to keep him moving long enough for her to stand back up. Zero spun faster all of a sudden, bringing an elbow down on Roll's exposed mid-section. The ground exploded under them as Roll slammed down, her breath smashed out of her lungs. She quickly rolled backwards and flipped up to her feet.

"Well now," Dr. Light said to everyone else's hearing in the control booth. "It appears that she isn't quite a match for X's power. However, she is just slightly faster."

"She's still no match for Zero's speed." X noted.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, X." Zenton said from behind him. "The only reason I think is because she's still a little stiff from being in hibernation. It may not seem like it, even to her, but being in what amounts to cold storage for that long has to have an effect on your body's capability to move. After she's been up and moving around for a few days is when I'd really stake my bets on her true capabilities. And I'm fairly sure he's had to kick in the speed boost a couple times now. All you have to do is watch the air around him for a moment and you can tell. The moment he kicks in that booster the air around him does a heat haze effect."

As they talked they watched Zero and Roll get into a fierce hand-to-hand exchange. Zero came out the victor once again though, as Roll was soon thrown across the arena, only to bounce off the wall and come straight back at him. Zero brought an arm up and Roll could do nothing but watch as it morphed into a Z-Buster. Her attempts to dodge the blast mid-air forced her to take the shot in the side, quickly bringing her down to ground level.

"Well then, I'd say that's enough for now." Zero said calmly. "Much better than I expected from someone who's basically right out of the hibernation capsule." He grinned as Roll came to her feet gasping for breath and leveled a Buster at him.

"I'd say we're not done yet." She commented before letting the level three blast loose. Zero quickly pulled out his saber and deflected the shot into the ceiling. The explosion threw the room into an eerie plasma-lit brightness.

"Alright then. You wanna keep going, that's up to you. Just remember though, from here on out, whenever you wanna be done, just let me know."

"Fine by me," came Roll's reply as she once again launched herself at Zero. Zero re-socketed the saber and once more began dodging the lightning fast punches.

"This is weird. She's already faster than X. She doesn't seem to pack quite as much of a punch as he does, but she hits a bit more often. I'm gonna have to watch myself fighting her. She's nearly my equal when it comes to speed, and that's with my systems getting the extra boost from the saber. I'm gonna hate to see what she's like when she truly awakens." Zero thought to himself as he finally saw an opening and uppercutted the pink Reploid towards the ceiling again. Roll twisted in mid-air, firing a level two blast at the Crimson Wonder before he had an opportunity to jump and follow through on the uppercut. He dashed forward, the blast exploding just behind his feet as he went to the spot where Roll was bound to land and pulled the saber back out, igniting it nearly before it had left the socket.

Roll could only watch as she fell towards what would have been death by impalement. The saber dissipated not a moment too soon to save her from needing major repairs. As Zero caught her on the handle, he waited a moment for her to fall off the side.

"I believe that's the match."

"Indeed," Roll replied as she strained to catch her breath. "They weren't kidding when they said you're the best, were they?"

"I don't know if I'm the best, but the only ones who've been able to beat me so far are X and Sigma. And I have no intentions of ever losing to Sigma again." Zero's face was a mask of determination as he thought on the matter for a moment. "Actually, I don't think Sigma counts anyway. He's not even actually a Reploid, he's just a virus that can only thrive on Reploid systems. All he does is keep building more powerful bodies and possessing them, all in an attempt to defeat me and X."

Zero held out an oversized hand to help Roll to her feet, which she gladly accepted. As the two walked back to the control room, the others all walked out to meet them.

"That was great out there, Roll." X commented as he walked up to her.

"Yeah, that was probably the closest run for his money I've seen any one of us give Zero for quite some time now." Alia said from behind X.

"I didn't do all that good." Roll replied, somewhat embarassed at all the praise. She looked at the floor and absently started digging a trail in the floor with her boot tip.

"Actually, Roll, they're not kidding." Zero said from behind her, causing her to look up in surprise. "The only person who's managed to give me that much of a challenge is X, and the main reason he does that is because he can switch tactics and armors faster than I can move.Which gives me an idea now that I think about it. Doc was right about something though, you're basically an almost perfect match for X. You're a slight bit faster than he is, but you don't hit quite as hard as he can. That's just physical strength though. Your aim is about on par with his from when we first fought Sigma, and your instincts are nearly as good too, despite not having the experience to draw on that he does. All in all, I'm rather surprised to be honest. I expected to have you laid out on the floor within thirty seconds or less. You obviously outdid my expectations. And you're still not even really recovered from your hibernation time. Given a few days to recover from that, you should end up just as good as the rest of us."

Roll could only smile happily as Zero told her just how well she'd really done.